All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well I suppose that should be all his bags are packed and he's ready to go. My husband flew out Sunday morning to Michigan on his first ever business trip. Last week was insanely busy because neither of us has ever flown. We had no idea what to expect, how to pack, or what to do at the airport. I spent the greater portion of the week online reading what could and could not be packed. Asking my Facebook buddies for tips on what and how to pack. And buying all the little things we didn't have on hand for him.  And then came the big day that I had to drop him off. 

Photo by: RatRanch

Between learning all we could about airports, flying, and what you take, packing his bags, and last minute shopping for him it was a really stressful week. And this week hasn't been much better. Without my big snuggle bug in my bed I am not sleeping well. And he's not fareing much better. We have been able to talk for a few hours a night on the phone and that is helping.  I decided Sunday when he left that the only way I could get through this was to stay busy. And so I decided to dig out my room.

My husband is a bit of a pack rat.  Scratch that he's a HUGE pack rat. Think "Hoarders".  I have confined his pack rat tendencies to our bedroom at least, but lately we had a path to walk in our room and that was IT.  The closet was full of boxes, the drawers his clothes were supposed to be in were full of junk. Every single shelf or place to put anything, save my 3 drawers, was full of junk. It had really started bothering me. All of his clothes either sat on the desk or shared my drawer space and frankly I was tired of it. 

So I told him that while he was gone I was going to box all of this stuff up into cardboard milk boxes.  And when he gets home we will go through those boxes one at a time and decide what we'll keep, sell, or toss. But what we keep is going into storage (with a few exceptions).  It will NOT be going back in my room. I'm just sick of it.  He agreed so I have spent the last 3 days trying to sort out our closet and room. I'll finally finish tonight with the exception of putting his clothes away. But hey, at least I have drawers to put them in now!   God I didn't realize he had so much CRAP piled into our room. I think we have enough video cards and processors to supply a small country.  Tools, books, random scraps of paper with every conceivable thing jotted down on it, grease rags galore, and tons of shoes.  Of which like 3 pairs are mine.  I'll be so glad once we get through these boxes and I finally have my room back. It's going to be a big job, but sooo worth it.  And from now on, I am just gonna have to insist that when he brings something home, it goes in the place we designate for this stuff. Seriously, enough is enough!

Tomorrow morning I will be picking him up from his job, where he will return after his flight home.  Between now and then I need to clean the rest of the house which I neglected in my efforts to get my room under control. I also completely rearranged our bedroom. I like it better and I only hope that he will as well.  So basically it has been an extremely busy week and we're going to have quite a few more of those while we get through all the boxes that are now stacked under the desk and in every conceivable hole in our room.  Wish us luck!

Here I am, now what are your other two wishes?

I love that line, my daughters friend says it often, and it makes me happy. Whenever I start reading a blog, I always think to myself, who is this person?  And I read the about me, and go back in the archives, and I try to get a sense of who this person is. What their life is like, how they live, what makes them happy, sad, and so on.   So I figure the place to start this blog is by telling you all a little about myself, my life, and what I'll be writing about.

First a little about me.  I'm 38 years old and I have 3 beautiful children.  I have numerous nieces and nephews whom I love to babysit. I have been with my husband for over 20 years and we've been married for 18 years.  I married my first love, and though there have been times when we've argued I couldn't have found a better match for me. I'm all about family, I still have dinner with my siblings, their families, and my parents once a month.  Oh and my parents are divorced, we'll get to that later I'm sure. I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.


I suppose the next thing you should know about me is that I am 130lbs overweight.  My daughter tells me that I should post my weight. That until I can admit it I'll never defeat it. I sure do hope she's wrong about that one because I'm just not ready to post it yet. Even admitting how much overweight I am is a big deal for me.  I hate that I am this out of shape, I hate that I have let myself get to this point. But I am proud of me now.  Right now I am working on this. I have lost 16lbs already, it was more but I had gained some back before I started working on it again. And this time, I am serious. I am GOING to get to my goal weight, and I am going to be a healthier person. It will happen.  And one day, I will admit what I weigh, but it is not this day.

There is no easy way to say this next part, so I'll just jump right into it. My mother has Lung Cancer. As of this point they have no idea if it is stage 3 or 4 or what her prognosis is.  We should find all of that out in February once she has her first scans after chemo. There is a lot that goes with this, so I'll save it for my next post. My mother-in-law also has breast cancer.  These two women are such an encouragement to me in my daily life. Seeing how strong they are, how hard they're fighting.  I take my mother for all of her chemo and I take my mother-in-law some.  But rather than being down and upset about it I find my time with them more precious than ever.  I'm not miserable and I don't want you feeling sorry for me. But I will be talking about this and I want you to know about it.

So that's basically it, I'll be blogging about myself, my family, my weight loss trials, and dealing with two different cancers in my mother and mother-in-law.  And I am sure there will be several random posts thrown in just because I'm a random kinda gal.