Showing posts with label Purging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Purging. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2016

ANOTHER GOODBYE

Back in 1984, right before I met Dave, he bought a brand new 1984 Dodge Conversion Van, mainly for the long fishing trips to Canada that he took every June. After we married, it became an ideal family vacation vehicle and we made many a long trips with the kids, in comfort. Traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota, National Parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capital Reef, Mesa Verde and all over Colorado, there were a lot of family memories that were made during those 17 years.

Back in the day with it's swivel Captain's chairs and tables it was pretty stylish but over time, age and the elements began to take its toll and it was affectionately named, "The War Wagon". In 1985, Dave's Dad fell asleep behind the wheel on one of their long haul fishing trips to Canada and took out a highway exit sign. Besides ripping off the passenger side view mirror and doing major damage to the body and ruining a canoe, they were fortunate that it wasn't much worse. Afterwards, the van could never hold the paint job and it would flake off and rust. The War Wagon did more than just go on family vacations, it hauled kids to Awana meetings, Wednesday night Youth Group and Youth trips back when Dave and I were Youth leaders. There came a day however when we traded it in and bought a brand new FORD Conversion Van to carry on where the War Wagon had left off. (Unfortunately any War Wagon pictures I have are already in Montana).

The new FORD van was pretty cool with its built in TV and VHS player, "party lights" in the roof and the bench seat which folded down into a bed; it was even more comfortable than the War Wagon. It immediately assumed the same role and before long was nicknamed, "The Mothership" by Charlie because of all the kids I was always transporting. The Mothership had a good run for a few years but as our children grew up, began driving, the van got used less and less. Still, there were a lot of great memories as well. Banff, Jasper, Grand Canyon and the Southwest, Colorado and Sioux Narrows, Ontario vacations, family camp outs with our best friends, all fun times.

Campout with the Roseland Family outside of Austin,2001

A Colorado family vacation! 2001

Yellowstone 2004

Laura's Graduation trip to the Southwest in 2006

One of the most memorable moments ever was on our 2007 trip of Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff and Jasper when Dave took a drink of chocolate milk that had soured and spewed it out the window, covering the side of the van! Charlie and I laughed ourselves silly!

Aly and Ashley's first trip to the Motlong's cabin in Sioux Narrows, Ontario.

Jacey used to call it the "Gigi Van". Here she is tuckered out on the 2009 Yellowstone vacation.

After the 2009 Yellowstone vacation, we stopped in Cody, WY where we took possession of our custom made coffee table made by our friend Rich Holstein from reclaimed wood out of the Old Faithful Inn.

Since buying the Mountainview Hideaway in 2012 and all of the kids are now grown, "The Mothership" has been relegated to April trips to Montana where I have loaded it to overflowing bringing up some of our stuff.

We also let Charlie drive it up to the Mountainview Hideaway with friends over their Spring Break.

All of this is leading up to today. One last look...

Dave and I believe that we are called to be good stewards of the blessings God has generously given us; whether it is our finances, our abilities, our time or our possessions, they all come from Him. We made the decision a couple of months ago that we would donate "The Mothership" for someone else to use. Our church, Cross Timbers Community Church is in partnership with different ministries which made it easier for us to decide, whom to consider. My prayer is that The Mothership continue to be used as a tool to further the Kingdom just as it did all those years ago when it was the official youth group taxi. We've had a good run and now it's time to pay it forward...

Friday, September 30, 2016

ANOTHER U HAUL MOVE

I can hardly believe it but we have survived the last U Haul move and we still like each other! Seriously, moving across the country is very stressful in and of itself but throw in purging and down-sizing thirty years of marriage and it gets a little crazy! Dave once again created a loading diagram for the truck and realized that unlike our April trip, we needed to upgrade from a 20 foot truck to a 26 foot one. Midst all of the packing and protecting furniture, I condensed down my every day household items into three categories: Take to Montana, Donate and Trash. Whatever is left and is going to Montana HAS to fit in the car when we make the final drive in November.


Dismantling the log bed and emptying out our bedroom!

Taking apart the roll top computer desk and setting up the computer on a card table, our decorating style is beginning to resemble "Poor college student"!

Dave quickly determined that, while there were some differences in the way the two different sized trucks handled, it wasn't that much more difficult driving the larger truck. The truck held everything we had planned to take and with room left over, we were able to fit in those items we had been uncertain about.


We left at 3:50 AM on Saturday September 3rd. Dave wanted to make it to Buffalo, Wyoming that first day. To say I was less than thrilled to be on the road for 22 hours would be the understatement of all time, especially when we lost our air conditioning coming through Texas and the floorboard on the passenger side got so hot that it melted my deodorant in my overnight bag! I was miserable! There was also the stress of mountain passes to navigate. As we descended Raton Pass crossing over from New Mexico to Colorado, we pulled over to check the load and discovered that the brakes were smoking! I wondered what that burning smell was!!?


We checked into our room and were in bed by 1 AM and slept for a few hours and were back on the road at 6 AM, bound for Montana! The outside temperatures were much more pleasant and even though we had rain off and on, the second day was better than the first. I convinced Dave to stop at the state line for a picture.

About an hour south of Billings we had an idiot light come on in the dashboard panel. With no manual in the glove box to determine what it meant, I began looking up U Haul businesses in Billings hoping we would make it there. Of course worst case scenarios start playing our in your head thinking of ALL the stuff we had loaded up in the truck and what a nightmare it would be to transload everything into another truck! I managed to view the digital manual on my smart phone and determined that the light was an indicator that it needed an oil change. Dodged a bullet!

The Mission Mountains north of Missoula welcoming us home...

After a brief stop in Polson for some groceries, we pulled into the Mountainview Hideaway before dark, thankful to be out of that truck. Unloading would commence at day break!

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

THE NEVER-ENDING GOODBYE

The never ending goodbye, this is how a down-sizing, retiring, cross country move feels like to me. I am thankful that we have had a lot of time to purge and pack rather than a lot of people who have had to just throw stuff into boxes and move in two weeks. We've been allowed time to really go through our stuff with a critical eye and have true evaluation but I still find myself reluctant to part with some things playing the "what if I need these?" scenario in my brain. Dave and I have both agreed we will undergo a second purge once we begin opening boxes at the house. Myself personally, I know I will undergo yet another purge once my creative studio is remodeled next Spring.


The purging began right after Christmas when I was evaluating and then organizing and packing up the Christmas decor. On a side note, I'm actually considering decorating the house for Christmas in September. Dave will be coming back to Texas after two weeks but I will be up there an extra week. Once he retires and we make the final drive, we will arrive just a couple of days before Thanksgiving and it would be nice to have everything done except for getting our tree. I don't anticipate that everything will be unboxed and set up in September but I can see myself needing a break from the tediousness of it all. Christmas is such fun for me and I would love to surprise Dave!


I FINALLY finished purging and packing the kitchen. It was overwhelming for many reasons; guessing what you can live without for the next four months, what you can donate when you make the final drive and what you use regularly but has to fit into the car so you don't look like the Clampett's truck in "The Beverly Hillbillies" with belongings attached all over it! It took me a while but I finally finished it yesterday. I purged pantry items and canned goods as well, then scrubbed down the shelving.


The pantry before, a hot mess! Knowing that I was having to purge through it, I had just crammed stuff inside there after the last couple of trips to the grocery store.



I plan to write down all the information on the pantry door from measuring kids and grandkids over the years and transfer it to butcher paper, then hang it on the inside of the closet door up at the house.



I have dwindled down our serving ware to some inexpensive plastic stuff along with paper plates and bowls.




Purging the canned goods was easier because I've not been restocking them the way I usually do, knowing that I was needing to dwindle my supply.



I have to admit, I am glad to have finally put the kitchen project behind me. Today I will start on my stuff in the bathroom and then my closet...I'm glad I am off of work this week!

Friday, February 12, 2016

PAINTING, PURGING AND PACKING

With only two months left until our first U Haul truckload, we've been in overdrive down here. We painted the Master Bathroom last month and now we are in the midst of purging, sorting and packing. There are boxes and plastic containers piling up and the house is in such a state of disarray but it's only going to get worse before it gets better. We are planning on taking ALL of Dave's Colorado milk bottle collection and "go-withs" as well as the shelves and bookcases he has everything displayed upon. I am looking forward to a time where all of his stuff can be contained in ONE room, his hobby room. With well over five hundred bottles out and on display, it is a lot of work for him to properly prepare everything for a 3 day drive. Better him than me since I have enough on my own plate to prepare!


Once the bottles and shelves are down, we can spackle and repaint the living room. There is another wall with nearly the same amount of milk bottles displayed.


This past month we ordered some new lamps as well. I wanted something different, yet still rustic for the Master Bedroom. I really liked these when I saw them on Black Forest Decor but Bed, Bath & Beyond carried them as well so overall, we saved more than a hundred dollars!


We unpackaged the lamps and put these out on our night stands to see how nicely they would go with our log bedroom set and I am very pleased!


The matching floor lamp is currently out in the living room and I can't wait to see it up in the bedroom!


The plan is to put the floor lamp in this corner in the Master bedroom.


Dave has had his heart set on a log floor lamp ever since we got the table lamps that are out in the family room...


This one, in the lighter Aspen wood will go nicely in the living room in between the two rocking chairs. We've decided against table lamps but we need another light source along with the overhead light.



I purged the curio cabinet which holds my Pink Glass Depressionware pieces; setting aside those pieces that I want to pass on to our daughters. I catalogued those pieces and wrote up a brief summary of the different designs along with their estimated values. Once that was finished, I spent a couple of hours reconfiguring where everything should go, photographing it and then labeling which shelf it went on. I'm anticipating that it will go quicker when I recreate the display once it's up there!



For some reason, packing up the Pink Glassware made me a little sad...


I started packing up the china cabinet yesterday but ran out of bubble wrap near the end. I am putting the china cabinet up in the craft studio once it's finished and I am pretty certain, I will keep special things that were my mother's up in the hutch portion. While wrapping things up, I labeled all of those things too so they can be separated and set off to the side until they are ready to be displayed.



I feel like the clock is ticking...

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

GET IT TOGETHER

I love organization! I get a thrill from looking at organizational products, planning a project and the thrill of completing something that ultimately, makes my life better. I also love our movie collection. Over the years we have transitioned from VHS tapes to DVD's and then eventually to Blu-Rays. I have accused Dave of being a "Blu-Ray Snob" but even I have to admit, the clarity of some of our movies can't be beat! I was discouraged every time I opened the doors to our movie cabinet and looking at the picture below, you can see why! All our Blu Rays were stored in the bottom with our TV Series' and Documentaries while regular DVD's were in the top section. My Type A personality just couldn't handle this any longer!



I looked on PINTEREST for some ideas; have I said that I also LOVE Pinterest? Electronic hoarding without the guilt and clutter, but I digress! After seeing some options that were on there, I got a general idea of what I wanted to do and what types of products were out there. I found these sleeves on Amazon, they come 25 to a pack and cost less than a dollar per sleeve. Each sleeve holds 2 DVD's or Blu-Rays and you can insert the liner notes from the old plastic cases so you can see what you have and it looks very neat and tidy.



I had an enormous stack of empty disc cases which I threw into the recycling bin. Not all of our movies were transferred to the sleeves, we have some nice boxed sets or metal specialty cases (Harry Potter series, Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, Band of Brothers, etc) that I decided to leave as is. Once the DVD's had been transferred, I purchased 6 photo storage boxes from Hobby Lobby at only $2.00 a piece (on sale) and divided our movies in between them. All Westerns, whether DVD or Blu Ray were alphabetized together as were our Christmas movies and everything else was appropriately organized, including those boxed sets or specialty cases. I took a disorganized, hot mess and transformed it into a well-organized thing of deep, personal satisfaction! Can you believe that there are 300 movies in these boxes?



All of our Boxed TV Series and Documentaries are stored neatly now in the bottom of our cabinet. If I can only convince Dave to discard his old VHS tapes from all the Stanley Cup 1999 playoff games when our Dallas Stars won the Cup... One step at a time!