Counting Down Until Moving Day

 I have to admit I've been quite overwhelmed by all there is to do to get ready for this move plus trying to stay cool and trying to cover all my bases on address changing and coordinating moves and keys and just all of it.

I was hoping to get in earlier than Wednesday, but there is a strict policy here about going in the apartment before you take ownership, and that's July 7th.  So it will be a little bit of a surprise to me, as much as white walls and a familiar floor plan can be.  At least the carpets and floors will be new, and it should smell fresh and clean.  I'm not sure if I'll have to give up much in the way of space but might even gain a little.  Since Elise had the 3rd bedroom, I won't miss having it.  

Ryan came yesterday and moved down ALL the packed boxes.  I had wanted him to clear a path from the bedroom to the front door to get the recliner out in case I found someone who wanted it.  I can't even pick up a medium-sized box, and he was stacking them up AND taking them down all those stairs.  It does look much better, and I've vacuumed today and spot cleaned a little bit.  I now have boxes open in every room and just drop things in at random.  I shouldn't need more than a few things and will not be cooking at all.  

I picked up some things today at Safeway, and Katherine now has me shopping the sushi section.  She asked for cucumber rolls last time we went, and I tried an avocado one at their house this week.  Yum.  Even better, it has no fish, raw or otherwise in it.  Just a piece of avocado with seaweed-wrapped rice.  I'm not convinced I can give up meat, cheese, and eggs, but it's much easier than I thought.  

I'm not sure I would have tried it unless I had first taken a bite of Katherine's cucumber one.  It's just fresh and light.  Maybe I'll venture out and try some different things.  

Sitting out at dusk is my favorite thing lately.  It's almost too cool to enjoy it, but I start my audio book and work on a puzzle or just stare into space and listen.  

These two look interesting, but I might be too sleepy tonight to start one.  Nothing puts me to sleep faster than to get in bed with an audio book, and nothing is more aggravating than rewinding to find my place when I wake up.

I hear fireworks tonight, but I think we'll have the usual community fireworks display sponsored by the Church on the Ridge tomorrow night.  I can see it all from the balcony, but I'm thinking about taking my foldup chair and sitting across from park and watching closer.  I don't know what the family has planned or if I'll be awake at 9:45 when it starts!  All the fun activities and parade are not going on this year - officially - since we've just opened up socializing.  There is an unofficial parade tomorrow that goes right by the new apartment, so I'll probably go sit on the steps and watch that.  I'm not sure if the girls are going to do that or not.  Every day brings a new surprise.  Sometimes every hour, but I like it that way.  The pool is open too, and the girls have gotten to swim a couple of times since it warmed up.

Thursday we were going to the library, but they met me when I got there with cries for Squishy Slime Balls.  Santa Claus had brought them that set, and the adults in the house had put it up as a nice project for Mimi to do on a summer's day.

I don't like messes, and I knew this would be one, but they were so excited.  They immediately went upstairs and came down with the box, dressed in their "scientist" T-shirts.  Katherine's glasses were for sun protection rather than safety, but we soon had a cloudy day.

We prepared just as directed and covered all surfaces and really started out with good intentions.  See how neat.  Just a drop of paint at a time, blah blah.  I made the wrong choice of background color, and my ice cubes inside didn't even show up.  That's why I had to go first - to iron out the kinks.

Katherine then made hers with plastic sprinkles in pink, and Graysen called hers Galaxy.  They were quite beautiful, but I allowed them to take over more and more of it, and they were so excited and eager to see their creations that pretty soon there were glitter and sequins all over the table and under the table and on us.  

It wasn't too bad though, and they got a ton of fun out of it.  SO much fun.  They're not really balls but just yellowish balloons filled with slime, but it was something different, and we did talk about activators and beakers and things.

I think I would give it 5 stars.

To end the day, I went upstairs and found them with their little office set up.  I was to be the "mean boss," and that was fun.  I couldn't dampen their spirits no matter how hard I worked them.  I've never had a bad boss to model my character on, but I did have one at one time who was a little unreasonable, so I used him.  I had a phone call at one point (Debra from GA!), and my employees got a little rowdy, so I had to fire them for running with a pencil and tripping over my phone charger cord.