All Things Anne

I’m back. Really! Did you miss me? You did? Good. I like to be missed.

We totally had fun…or had total fun…something like that. I missed y’all, but I still had fun.

The Lord really provides…Dad’s car broke down when he hit the 6th deer, so he’d been driving Ben’s pickup until Ben turns 18 (a few weeks; October 5th is his birthday). After that, he didn’t know what he’d do. Mom and Dad looked into buying another car, but hadn’t yet. Well, on our trip, somebody GAVE us a car!! It works great–Dad drove it home! I think it doesn’t have a/c, though, but I think that can be fixed. God is so good!

On Saturday last week, we left home at 11:15 P.M., and got to Grammoo’s house (in Oregon) at 2 P.M. Sunday. There was a time change in there…we had to go back an hour to Pacific time. We brought Duke (the dog), but had to leave Pi, my cat. Looks like she did pretty good on her own, though…but she was very happy to see me! (And I was very happy to see her!)

Monday, we got up, ate breakfast, and the boys started cleaning the shed at 8 A.M. while the girls cleaned the breakfast mess. After the boys cleaned the shed, they started on one wall of the shop/garage. Then came the real hard part–toss or keep. Papa (that’s what we call Dad’s dad) sat there and supervised as the boys made rows of stuff for the garage sale they’re going to have. They did a little more than half the shop.
Meanwhile, the girls and I were cleaning out the two attics. Beth cleaned out one, and I cleaned out the other. The twins took all the stuff outside, for Grammoo to sort through. Stuff went into three piles: keep, sell, burn. Fortunately the “keep” turned out to be smaller than the “sell”. All that stuff was sorted in one day.
The boys, all of ‘em (even Rase and Jay) slept in a tent outside, and the rest of us slept inside: Mom, Dad, Em, Kate, and Tess in Grammoo and Papa’s room, Abby at the top of the stairs, and Beth and I in Dad’s old office. I overheard Grammoo, when I was on the phone with Uncle David before we left, said she almost wished SHE could sleep in the tent because it looked like fun!

Tuesday, same thing–got up, ate breakfast, started cleaning again at 8. The boys did the barn, taking all the hay out and spilling it in the field, while us girls, Dad, and Mom finished the shop. Uncle David and Steven, my cousin, came (on Uncle David’s motorcycle) when we’d almost finished the garage and barn, and Beth and I were cleaning up all the stuff that was taken out of the shed. While the boys were finishing the barn, the rest of us started on yard work–Dad and Uncle David pruned the rhododendron (no, I didn’t know how to spell that; I Googled it) and tulip trees; Aunt Fran and Cody showed up while they were doing this. Mom and Aunt Fran cleaned out the birdbath (there was a ton of pine needles in amongst the agates); I raked pinecones out of the landscaping in the front; and the girls played with Cody.
We finished everything but Papa’s closets that day.

Wednesday, we slept in, and after breakfast, Grammoo, and I cleaned out Papa’s closets, and the twins brought everything outside for Papa, Mom, and Aunt Fran to sort. All “keep” stuff went in the cleaned-out shed; all the burn stuff went in an overflowing garbage can, and all the sell stuff went into the shop for the sale.

Thursday, we went out on the town, so to speak. Mom and the kids Eric and under went “resale-shopping”, while Dad, Ben, Joe, and I went to the Guitar Center and had a great time. Then we went to Uncle Steve and Aunt Barbara’s house with Papa, Uncle David, Aunt Fran, Steven, and Cody. (Steven is…15 or so, and Cody’s 11.) We had a great time…it’s been a LONG time since we’ve seen them! They had one of the CUTEST kittens (I couldn’t say THE cutest, because I know two other equally cute cats) named Boots. S/he LOVED all of us (especially me)! S/he wasn’t allowed in the yard, but kept coming because of all the kids. Uncle Steve squirted her with water whenever she got in the yard or the flowers.

Friday, we went to the Guitar Center again. 1. because we hadn’t gotten to look around as much; Dad hadn’t even made it to the Pro Audio room! (the room where all the amps and speakers and stuff were) A very helpful man from the piano section had monopolized a bunch of our time, and so did a very talkative bass player. But they were both very interesting. And 2. Dad wanted to show Mom all the cool stuff he’d tried out. So we went again. Then we got a U-Haul trailer to haul all our junk, then went to Grandpa’s for dinner: BLT’s, chicken salad sandwiches (with lots of dill) and “tube steaks”, as Dad calls hot dogs–were very good! On the BLT’s were his garden tomatoes…they were SOOO good!

Saturday, we were GOING to go to Uncle David’s for a taco fest, but instead we decided to go to our friends instead. (They used to go to the same church we and Uncle David’s family did, and they helped us move here.) We had hamburgers and hot dogs, and tons of chips (at least five kinds). It was great to see them again…the last time we’d seen them was the first time we’d gone back to Oregon, in…2001.
That night, we went back to Grammoo and Papa’s, loaded our stuff, and headed home at 10 P.M.

Sunday, we got home at 4:40 P.M. It took longer to get home then it did to go there, because 1. we lost an hour (changing back to Mountain time), and 2. we stopped more frequently. We weren’t in any hurry, so we could go more leisurely.

So that’s our trip!