Keep only what is useful or beautiful...

"Have nothing in your houses 

that you do not know to be 

useful or believe to be beautiful"

                       William Morris

I got this quote from my mom (actually it was on her facebook page), and it describes PERFECTLY the feelings I've been having and the tactic I used to decide what stays and what goes.  Surely it's because we knew we were moving into such a tiny space, but we were VERY picky with the things we packed.  If you've been reading for a while, you already know we sold most of our furniture and big stuff like that, so that's out of the picture.  But MAN we had a ton of other crap...an entire house full of things that were neither useful nor beautiful.  (Since taking up space does NOT count as 'useful'.)  

For example...when we were in Utah and getting ready for this adventure I decided to go through my clothes and keep ONLY what I really really love.  I ended up with 4 bags...FOUR. BAGS. of clothes to take to good will.  

And I still kept everything I liked.  That means I was lugging around all this junk and looking at it every day, which made me think, "I have nothing to wear".  When the truth is I have LOTS of things to wear...clothes that I LOVE....that make me feel good about myself.  Maybe I just couldn't see them all because they were hiding in all that crap.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE that it's GONE!  Why keep it around? Nobody knows.

As a continuation of our clean out, the day before we left for Idaho, we took another whole trailer load of stuff to Good Will, and in another trip about a month ago, we took a trunk-load of books.  

Now that we're here, and we have plenty of room for everything we need (with room left over), I don't know why we didn't do this earlier.  I wonder why we kept all that stuff around for so long.  More junk = more to organize (and give you a headache), more clothes = more laundry, more dishes = more to wash, more space = more to clean!  Seriously, why keep it?

I really wonder what it is that makes us hold on to stuff.  Does it make us feel better somehow?  Do we not get rid of it because we are lazy or because we really think it is useful or it will someday be?  Whatever the reason, I'm glad we figured out that we don't need all that junk.  We are in a good place.  A place where we really have everything we need and enough of the things that we want that we're happy.  I am so glad to be here, and my challenge is for YOU to try it out.  It's spring time still (at least if feels more like spring here than summer), and even if you think it's too late for spring cleaning, it's not.  So try it out...go through your things and keep only what you know to be useful (that's KNOW and not THINK....if you haven't used it in the last 6 or 12 months, it's not useful...and fooling yourself into thinking it might someday be useful is just that...fooling).  And of course keep everything you believe to be beautiful.  That means if you have decorations that you don't love, get rid of them.  Clothes and dishes too.  Keep only what you really truly LOVE (that's all you really use anyway!  The rest just takes up space!).  Have a yard sale and use the cash to replace the things you didn't love with things you DO love.  Or give it all to Good Will and know that someone will find your ugly useless thing there and it will be just the beautiful thing they need.

Feel free to do this or not, but I promise it will be worth it if you do!  

Pine Tree!

Jeff and I love taking walks...not as much as Jackson and Mahone....they are tied for first in the who loves to take walks the most contest.  Seriously there is something about a good walk, especially in the spring time when the weather starts to get nice.  Our neighborhood is an okay place to walk...we have sidewalks and stuff, but it is FAR from an ideal stroll through nature.

We live on a fairly busy road.  The speed limit is a loose 25 (I say loose because nobody seems to know that), but it is busy enough that we have double lines.  Walking either north or south we hit even busier roads.  Nice for a long walk....not nice if clean air or peace and quiet are things you are seeking on your walk.

I took Jackson on a walk the other day...literally a walk...that is to say he walked (toddled or stumbled are probably better words for it) while I held his hand.  The walk was slow and we stayed just on our street.  While we were walk/toddle/stumbl-ing we walked beneath this pine tree:

which I've done a hundred times before and never noticed.  Maybe because I was in a hurry all the other times.  For some reason it just didn't stick out before.  This time it stuck out.  I smelled the sweet pine, and because I was trying to help Jackson walk, I saw the ground around it all covered in pine needles and my heart jumped a little.

Orem is by no means a "big city"...you might be able to call it a big "town" or just a "city", but it is certainly not the remote, country town I grew up in or the mountains my parents took us camping in every summer....far away from people and cars and traffic.

I am SO excited to get away from that, and to be able to take peaceful, quiet walks with sweet smells of fresh fields and pine trees and good things all around!  I can't wait!!

Yard Sale Success!

We had a yard sale on Friday and Saturday this weekend, which was pushing it a little considering we didn't put much planning into the thing AND we'd been sick all week.  We did it anyway.

Friday was disheartening to say the least.  We called our little 'yard sale' an estate sale partly because we wanted everyone to know that EVERYTHING is for sale, partly because we didn't want to move everything we all of our belongings out into the yard and partly because there was rain in the forecast for Friday.  Word to the wise, don't even TRY to have a yard OR estate sale on a rainy day.  There was almost no one around, though I think we did make twenty five bucks....better than a poke in the eye, as my mom always says.  :)

We got up on Saturday to sunshine (yahoo!).  Jeff's first chore was to get all the tools and stuff out of the shed, which took him about 20 minutes, and I swear by the time he got it all out there, he'd already sold half his stuff (something he half-mocked me for...said he was SUCH a good salesman.  What can I say...guess he is!).

My favorite sale of the day was the sale of the sombrero we bought in Mexico on our honeymoon.  A Mexican guy with the most sparkling 'I want this' eyes asked how much it was...$15.  He carried it around for a while and looked at everything else before finding me again with his $15.  The best was that he went straight to his van where his kids were waiting and put it on for them.  I went to find my camera to capture the moment, but was too late, and only caught him when he had it in his hand again...dang. :)

Some people who make deals at yard sales are funny (and when I say funny I mean on the verge of funny and reeeaaaallly annoying).  A couple came and asked what the price was for 2 yard tools (a rake and some other weird tool).  I said $5 each, to which the man replied..."hah!  I can get these at the tool store for $5 each!"  His wife, "we were just on our way to the tool store for these exact things..."  My thought, "If you can get NEW tools at the tool store for the same price that you can get them at my yard sale, why don't you go to the tool store?!" :)  He offered $4 for both, which I politely declined and he and his wife left...I assume to go get their brand new tools.  He came back 30 minutes later, handed Jeff $10 and said, "okay, $5 each".  Haha!  I don't know why I think that is so funny, but it gives me a tickle in my belly every time I think about it.

The lawn tools were hot items, and like I said, they sold fast.  A lot of people looked at the lawn mower and one guy especially was all about wheelin and dealin with Jeff.  He kept trying to chisel down the already low price.  Finally Jeff cracked and told him he'd give him $10 off the price if he'd mow our lawn.  haha!  No deal.  He took the mower at full price.  Good news and bad news.  The good news is that we got full price...bad news...our lawn still hadn't been mowed at ALL this year, and was way past due.  Seriously, there were places (luckily only in the fenced back yard) where it was like a foot long {blush}.  What can you do?  We ended up paying the neighbor girl to do it.

At the end of the day, we brought in about $2,500...not a bad start for our little truck fund.  We still have a few pretty nice furniture items to sell, and hope to make at least another couple thousand.  We will have another last-ditch yard sale before we move for good - we still have too much STUFF around here.  I am getting excited to be JUNK FREE!  (You know...except for that junk in the trunk.  Can't seem to unload that no matter what I do! :)

Bravery

In the last year or so the word "brave" has taken on new meanings for me.  I used to think that in order to be brave, you had to be a warrior or go up against some huge and well-known adversary.  I certainly didn't think that housewives could ever be able to call themselves brave or that they would ever have to.  My mind has changed now.

A quote comes to mind:

"I've been terrified every moment of my life - and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."
-Georgia O'Keeffe

It's exactly how I feel.  And if I REALLY really think about it, there's nothing to be afraid of.  There's no such thing as monsters, no one is going to come in the night and take my family away, I have everything I could ever need and want.  But still, I feel a little afraid of this new adventure.  I feel lots of things all at once - excited, anxious, afraid, unsure, completely sure, free, and on and on.  And I guess this is where the brave part comes in.  Brave means doing what you're afraid to do...not NOT being afraid, but doing it anyway.  Putting 'one foot' in front of the other, which I'm proud to say we're doing...buying a trailer, selling our stuff.  Those were big steps...fun and scary steps, but we took them.  We are on our way...ready or not.

The funny part is really...there is nothing to be afraid of.  I KNOW that...I just don't FEEL it yet.  I know I will soon.  The more we get things arranged and settled the better I'll feel.  Change always takes a little getting used to, right?  I'm going to say yes...because I'm going to need a little time.  Just a little.

Wanna know the MOST ridiculous part?  The most ridiculous part is that the biggest problem I can't solve in my mind is where we are going to put our dirty clothes in this trailer.  And really?  If that's the biggest thing I have to worry about, I should be counting my blessings.

Chaos

Something I've always known about myself is that I don't do very well with chaos.  I don't know where it came from...it's probably partly something I was born with and something my mom nurtured by keeping a clean and orderly home.  My dad is also organized and likes for things to be orderly.  My parents are tidy people.  They are small town people who avoid crowds at all costs.  I am like them in a lot of ways.

I like for things to be in order.  I like my home to feel peaceful and put-together.  I like it that way because I don't feel peaceful in disarray and disorder.  My husband can attest to that.  I can't remember how it came up, but about a year into our marriage, he told me (in the nicest way...I can't seem to remember how he said it either) that it bothers him that I clean at weird times sometimes - like late at night or as we're heading out the door for church.  It's a joke between us now, and I try not to annoy him too bad...I can always tell when I've chosen the wrong time to clean.  I really don't do it to be annoying or for any reason other than to make me feel better and more peaceful.

Moving is hard for me because of that.  It is really hard for me to relax with boxes and STUFF everywhere.  It's hard for me to feel peaceful when the house looks so taken apart and cluttery and messy.

We decided that this week we would REALLY start sorting our things and selling what we could, so we advertised for an estate sale for today and tomorrow.  We were up late last night getting things ready...bringing things up from the basement that have been tucked pleasantly out of sight in the basement for months.  Things are just how I hate them (strong word I know...).  Pictures are gone from my picture frames, and all my favorite decorations are in the basement...safe out of the reach of yard-salers.  There is stuff for sale all over the counter in the kitchen, in every corner of the living room, and even covering most of the floor there.  It IS progress, I know it is, but it's tough for me to deal with.  And maybe it would be better if it I knew we'd only have to live like this for a day or two, but we will most likely be in this house for another month or so.  That's probably the part I have to get over and then I'll be okay.  It's this chaos...I have to get over it.

{this place was FULL of stuff yesterday...now all the stuff is in my living room}

Ugh.

Yesterday I got an email from the Brave Girls Club...I am on their mailing list and get emails from them every day.  Yesterday's message said something like, "true joy has nothing to do with circumstances".  (I can't find it or I'd include the whole thing.)  That's been on my mind today as I have wondered....could I teach myself to be happy no matter what kind of chaos is going on around me?  Do I even want to?  I mean, do I want to learn to be happy in clutter and mess?  Big questions....no answers yet, but I'll work on it.  I could at least learn to live happily with the way things are until I can start arranging things the way I want them in our new little place.

On the bright side, this morning Jeff took Jackson to get some change for our yard sale.  While he was gone, he got Jackson one of those suckers that looks like a bottle.  When they got home this is what Jackson's sucker had done to him....

...his mouth is still blue. :)

We paid CASH for a house! :)

I don't know WHAT we were thinking, but we decided to go back to Jerome to check out the trailer this morning!  We didn't go to bed until like 11 (including little Jackson), then we turned around and got up at 6 (Jackson usually goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 7:30...poor guy got ripped off!) so we could leave my parent's house by 6:30, so we could drop Jackson off at my sister's house by 7:15ish, so we could stop by my aunt's house and still make it to my grandpa's house by 8.  Whew...exhausting just typing it!  {Side note: as I was typing that, I realized how lucky I am....all these incredible people willing to help us out with whatever they have...and 'what they have' is not by any means overflowing...they are just willing to share whatever they happen to have at the moment.  I love that we will be close to them for a while!}

We got to my grandma and grandpa's house just after 8...record punctuality for us.  My grandparents are in their 70's, but you'd never ever guess it.  Both look young and the running joke in our family is that no one can out work my grandma.  She honestly spends 10 hours a day on her yard in the summertime.  They are both loving, serving, happy, incredible people....everything you'd ever wish for in a grandma and grandpa.  They are night owls and often stay up past midnight, so when we called and asked my grandpa what time he'd want to go, he said 8 was okay, but that he'd have to get up a little earlier than usual.  Love it! :)  When we got there, they were both waiting for us.

{Aren't they cute??}

Grandpa had gotten his truck out (we took his truck since he has a 5th wheel already and thus a 5th wheel hitch...we didn't want to take 2 trips in case we decided to buy it).  I went inside for a minute and Jeff took Mahone to run around the yard for a minute and take care of his business.  My grandparents and I chatted for a minute, then grandpa said, "Well is Jeff going to come in for a prayer?"  I loved that.  The way he said it spoke WAY louder to me than the words.  What I heard was a message loud and clear - that we always pray before we go on trips, and that everyone should without thinking twice.  So we prayed, hugged grandma, and the 3 of us (plus Mahone) were on our way.


The first 45 minutes or so of the trip were pretty boring....just a drive on the desert freeway...and THEN...well...have you ever seen those pieces of tire on the freeway that look like this?

For some reason Jeff, my grandpa and I all thought those pieces were from semi trucks.  I don't know why we would think that.  Turns out they come from any old car (or truck in this case), and they aren't blown out tires like I thought they might be.  Those little shreds of tire are what is left behind when the tread separates from the tire mid-trip.

So there I was dozing off when all of a sudden, I hear a loud noise and the truck all of a sudden pulls to one side.  Grandpa white knuckles it, and pulls over to the side of the road (thanks to a nice trucker who saw what happened and slowed down so we had room to move over).  Freaky.

Jeff and Grandpa got out and I heard Grandpa give his signature, "Well I'll be."  When I got out, I saw what he meant and felt like giving a, "well I'll be" myself.  The tire hadn't blown or popped....the tread had just come clean off, so the tire was now bald, but as inflated as ever.  In case you've never seen something like this up close...let me treat you with a picture.  When a tire loses its tread, it looks

{like this}

{and this}

 Mahone and I stood by nervously while Grandpa and Jeff got under the truck to get the spare tire.  I was relieved when after about 5 minutes, my grandpa decided he'd just try to drive into town instead of staying on the side of the road to change the tire.  24 years ago, Jeff's dad was hit by a car while he was bent down under it trying to get it ready to tow (read more here).  That was going through my mind the whole time we were there on the side of the road, and I watched the oncoming traffic carefully.  In retrospect, I don't know what I would have done if I'd seen an out of control car coming toward us, but in my mind I guess I would go wonder-woman and be able to warn them to get out of the way.  Luckily it didn't come to that.

We were only about 20 miles from the next town, so grandpa took it slow and stayed on the side of the road at a cautious 40 miles per hour.  Once we got to the tire shop, it took them about 30 minutes to pop the new tires on and we were on the road again.

{I have always loved my grandpa's concentrating mouth.  I remember it from when I was a really little kid - I love how his bottom lip sticks out a little.} :)

What is usually a 2 hour drive instead took 3 1/2 hours.  But we arrived in good spirits.  We showed grandpa around the trailer.  The thing he was most worried about were the two little places it looked like there had been leaking in the roof, which we'd seen before.  Then he and Jeff went outside and on the roof and looked all around.  I was bored and starting to feel Jackson's cold coming on (he'd been VERY sick for a few days, and I knew I was getting it), so while Jeff and grandpa called Mark to ask him some questions, I went and laid down in the truck.

This guy Mark was a country boy if I've ever seen one.  In his late forties, weird beard/goatee thing going on on his face and he had like 7 guys in their early twenties just hangin around his property, which was FULL of trucks and tractors and semi's and tires and an enormous shop.  I mean, you almost knew what kind of a guy he was going to be before he ever came out of the house.  One of those guys who a.l.w.a.y.s. has a story to tell.  I imagine him as the guy everyone buys drinks for a the bar just to get him to keep telling his fish stories.

I don't know WHAT he thought he had to tell Jeff and Grandpa, but they talked and tinkered around that trailer for like 3 hours.  I would sit up every once in a while to try to see what they were doing, and they were always in man-stance.  One of them would point at something on the trailer, then they'd all come in close to get a good look, then some talking and some nodding, then they'd back up a few feet (and spread out of course...for their man space), put their hands in their pockets and not say anything for a few minutes.  Then it would start over.  And I swear every time I looked over there was another one of Mark's goonies there to add his two cents.

FINALLY I heard Jeff say something about going to lunch and he and Grandpa came and got in the truck.  Jeff had agreed to buy it, but Mark and his grunts (mostly his grunts we found out later) were going to put smaller tires on it to make it easier to tow.  A relief since the tires that were on it were ENORMOUS and because of them the bottom stair leading into the rv came to my knees. :)

A few Subway sandwiches later we were on our way back to pick up the Kind of the Road.  We settled up with Mark and traded him our money for some paperwork (an ordeal that took at least twice as long as it should have because you know....the stories.)

And long story short, we are now the proud owners of a 1989 King of the Road 5th wheel...home sweet home.  And the joke keeps going that today we paid CASH for a house. :)

Selling

This will just be quick - we started posting things on craigslist today. We are starting with the things that will make the least difference in how our home shows - I started by listing our storage shed and the bistro chairs on the front porch:

In other news, we showed the house again 3 times yesterday and got another offer this morning. It was higher than the first, and luckily the realtor who had sent over the first offer had told us that the buyers LOVED our house. Our realtor called their realtor as soon as we got the second offer and now they are working on their "highest and best" offer. Yahoo! Let the buyers bargain with each other instead of with us...love it.

UPDATE: We just got another call - 2 more showings late this afternoon...

What it's supposed to be...

The best thing I ever heard about blogging came from one of my closest friends. One of my other close friends was talking about a blog post she wanted to do and asked, "Is that too boring or narcissistic?" To which the first friend replied, "It's a blog! It's supposed to be boring and narcissistic!" Hilarious...and true.

I am going to take that to heart today....though I will try to be as un-boring as possible, I can say that this post is a little more for me than it is for you.

First I will say that we are only 3 days into having our home listed and I am already tired of showing it. I mean, it's not bad, but leaving our house with the dog and the baby at the drop of a hat gets old quick. Today, for example, we are at Jeff's mom's house for the afternoon so Jackson can get an uninterrupted nap while someone looks at our house. (The offer we got was at full price, but our realtor thinks we might be able to get a higher offer if we show it a few more times....we're down for that!)

The GOOD thing about having our home listed is that I have all the motivation in the world to keep it looking STELLAR. It feels so good to have everything clean and organized....even the laundry is done. My home looks the way I wish it looked every day. Then to top it off, when people are coming to look at it, I turn all the lights on, and it is extra bright and cheery and looks more like a dream than reality. Then again, I do live a pretty dreamy life.

Today as we were rushing out the door, Jeff was taking a little longer to get something done before we could leave, so I took the chance to take some pictures while we were waiting for him. Because I want you to have an idea of where we're coming from and because I want to remember exactly how our sweet home looks before we start selling everything, I am going to share them. Get ready...there are a LOT.

{Living Room - what you see when you walk in the front door.}

{Master Bedroom}

{Jackson's Room}

{Kitchen}

{Laundry Room}

{Downstairs Bedroom - currently Jeff's little sister who is in college lives here.}

{Bottom of the Stairs....I love this picture}

{Mahone}

Happyness

You know on that movie - The Pursuit of Happyness - when he says, "this it the part of my life I call 'paying taxes'." Well, this is the part of my life that I call FREAKING OUT! ....

Yesterday we listed our house for sale. YESTERDAY. And as I kept getting emails from our realtor about paperwork and where we'd missed initials and all of that, I thought, "I should clean up around here in case we get anyone who wants to look at the house." With the market the way it is, I wasn't really expecting to get any traffic right away. I mean a house down the street was on the market for like 2 years before it finally sold. Needless to say, I was surprised when I got a text this morning asking if we'd be okay with a showing at 6. I was even MORE surprised when our realtor was here today putting a sign in the yard and got another call for a showing...they wanted to come at 6:30. And I knew it was serious...so I got serious.

I spent all day cleaning and de-cluttering. And when I say all day, I mean it.I even started sorting our stuff into piles...to keep/sort and to sell. That I got that far was purely out of necessity...there wasn't even a pathway to get through the basement before I stared. How embarrassing. :) Lucky for me I didn't take 'before' pictures of the basement!

By 5:50, we were ready to leave - every cupboard was ready to be opened in case of inspection, laundry done, baby's room organized (first time in....well...too long), dinner ready to take out the door. We used all the tricks...opened all the blinds and the doors to each room, turned on every light and sprayed air freshener as we walked out the door. We put the baby and the dog in the car and headed to the park for a little picnic as we wondered what the strangers in our house would think of our place...

(Our little picnic of lasagna - who knows HOW I remembered to throw that in the oven in the midst of my cleaning frenzy - salad that we picked up at the grocery store on the way to the park and water...please forgive my looks or lack thereof....that's the hair and makeup I woke up with and by the time this picture was taken it was like 6:30pm :) )

We didn't have to wonder if they liked it for long. I got an email a couple hours later with an OFFER. Who gets an offer on the 2nd day in this kind of market. And this is why I am FREAKING OUT!


I know I just need to give it a couple of days to sink in and I'll be okay again. This just got REALLY real REALLY fast. We have looked at some RV's, but haven't come close to even going to look at them not to mention buying one! We have so much to sell...so much to do before we will be ready to get out of here. And now that I'm writing it out, I guess there's nothing to really be freaked out about...it will work out, I know that. And I know we are doing the right thing for our family and that we both have great parents who would take us in if we didn't have a place to go, but sometimes it seems that emotions don't listen much to logic and hearts feel whatever they want to feel no matter how much sense it does or doesn't make.

And so tonight I am still freaked. out.

On your mark....get set.......uh....

About a year ago we kind of threw around the idea of moving into an rv...I don't know how serious either one of us was, but we thought it would be fun and a chance to see the country while we're young. Well, about a week ago the idea came up again and for some reason things are different this time. I guess timing has a lot to do with most of the decisions we make in life.

We've decided to DO IT and have already listed our house. This week we are doing lots of cleaning and de-cluttering to get the house ready to show and to put things in "to keep", "to sell", and "trash" piles. Our basement is FULL of stuff, so it will be tough to separate it all out, but we can handle it. We plan to keep only the bare necessities, so we don't feel crowded in our trailer (lol). Everything else is going on craigslist or will be sold at a giant yard sale...we don't want to store anything except heirlooms and things that are most important to us.

We have gone back and forth....trying to decide which kind of trailer to get and what we will need to tow it etc etc etc....so many decisions! Granted our decision-making power is limited by our budget, but still - do we go for a motorhome, 5th wheel or trailer? If we go for the trailer or 5th wheel, what do we get to tow it? What size of truck do we even need in order to pull something like that. The questions go on and on... :)

We have a young family - a one-year-old and one on the way, so we are shying away from the motorhome option (I can't imagine how confusing it will be for my little guy to sometimes be able to play in the motorhome and sometimes have to sit in his carseat in the motorhome...I see the tantrums playing out in my head, and I choose not to go there). There are lots of great 5th wheels for sale, but the question is a truck - we'd have to get something with 4 doors (I am anti-hoisting children and/or carseats over one of those seats that barely tips forward enough for me to squeeze one leg in at a time). And so for default's sake, we are looking at buying a Suburban (word on the street - and from my dad - is that the 2500 models with a big block engine - 454+ - will tow no problem...wow I sound like I actually know what I'm talking about. I don't. Only enough to get me what I'm looking for.) To be towed by said Suburban will be a 'travel trailer', which ironically enough seems to be the least roomy of all models (vs 5th wheel or motor home). BUT at least we'll have a car to safely get our family around and I won't lose my mind with car seat hoisting. :)

And so the hunt continues. My dad says to check out the retirement areas in AZ for steals on RV's. We'll check that out. There seem to be lots of listings in Boise, there are hardly any here in Utah, so I think we'll be taking a trip to B-town (code for "Boise") :) to check out the options....as soon as our tax return gets here. :)