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Carpel Tunnel?

Posted on August 9, 2013 by auburnchick

For the last two or three weeks, I have been experiencing quite a bit of pain in my hand.

The pain runs from the middle of my thumb joint down, along the big bone and around to the front of my hand and the bottom of that thumb bone.

It might surprise you to read that it doesn’t hurt when I knit.

It does, however, hurt when I’m grabbing something like a dish (when I’m washing dishes), putting something in the oven, or driving.

This problem cropped up several years ago, when I my part-time job involved answering the phone.  My left hand used to freeze when I opened it to grip the receiver.  At that time, I went to the doctor and had an x-ray.  The results came back negative for carpel tunnel.

The pain eventually went away until a couple of years ago.  At that time, I purchased a brace at a drug store.

I hated it and didn’t use it for long.

I pulled it out last week to give it another try, but I’ll admit to not doing well.  I try to wear it at night, but I pull it off in my sleep.  The last two nights, I haven’t though.

I don’t know if this thing is going to do any good.

What I believe has caused the problems I’m having is the way I use my left hand when I’m on the computer…

See how I hold my thumb up?  It’s very strange, and I have no idea when I started doing this.

I don’t hold my right thumb like this…just my left.

Rooster and I talked about this last night, and he said he had noticed the strange position of my thumb as well.

I’ve been doing a bit of research on the internet, and I really do think I have some carpel tunnel going on based on the ligaments that I believe are involved.

I’m going to give this a bit of time before visiting the doctor.

I’m keeping my fingers/thumbs crossed that the Lord will heal my hand.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Too Cool For My Own Good

Posted on August 8, 2013 by auburnchick

A couple of weeks ago, when Chicky was still home, a couple of her friends came over and spent the night (they still do this when they are in college).

Chicky mentioned that it was really warm in her room, and I checked the air conditioner.  It was reading out at 84, however, I had it turned down to 78.

Hmmm.

I had also noticed that the unit in the garage was leaking…

This is a problem I’ve experienced in the past, and a simple call to my air conditioning company has usually resulted in the technicians unclogging the pipes and adding a bit of freon.

Well, let me tell you, what occurred was very different this year.

The young man opened up the front cover and immediately noticed a problem.  The evaporator coil was leaking, and it wasn’t going to be a simple fix.

In fact, the cost to replace this part was $2,000 plus labor.

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

We purchased our home nine years ago brand new, so the unit has almost a decade of wear and tear on it.  The technician told me that most units last 10-12 years, and he did not recommend replacing the coil because another expensive part could go out of commission given the age of the unit.

To replace the unit would cost me between $5,000 and $6,000.

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

The Mr. came home around this time, and I gave him the bad news.

He’s the money guy…can run numbers in his head like nobody’s business.

After discussing the issue with the technician, we decided to take the plunge.  After all, the house had not been cooling off properly for several weeks, the leak had been getting worse, and the electric bill last month had exceeded $350.  We normally run between $80 and $125.

All of this occurred on Monday.  We were scheduled to have the unit replaced two days later.  The technicians turned off our air conditioner and provided us with three portable units to minimize some of the discomfort in the interim.

We placed one in the den, one in the master bedroom, and the third one in Rooster’s room.

Boy, were the dogs happy.  They positioned themselves right in front of the units and did not move a whole lot those few days.

Wednesday arrived, and I was eager to begin.  The guys arrived at 8:15 and, for the next seven hours, worked hard to install the new unit.

Although they were young, they knew their stuff.  They talked about ampage and other things I had no knowledge of.

When they were finished installing everything, they showed me each component and explained a few how-to’s.  This was right up my alley…you know how much I love gadgets!

The thermostat is fancy and allows us the option of setting the air temperature to different schedules.

Can I tell you how much I love this feature?!  We usually turn the air down a few degrees at night and then turn it back up in the morning.  We do this to keep our electric bill down; however, some days, we forget to turn it down.  The new thermostat will take care of this for us!

When the guys finished, my air conditioning was purring like a kitten.  It’s almost noiseless and cools like a dream.  The unit in the garage is soooo shiny!!

The outside unit is a boss!

We are quite the happy bunch, let me tell you.

Poor Chicky.  I feel a little badly because she didn’t get to take advantage of the new unit.  She’s very hot-natured and suffered a lot this summer.

Oh well.  Maybe she won’t dread coming home to visit now!

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

A Peachy Hodgepodge

Posted on August 7, 2013 by auburnchick

Hola fellow Hodgepodgers!  I’m enjoyed my last full week of summer vacation before I head back into school for in-service meetings and pre-planning.  Yay.  Me.  [insert sarcasm]  So, let’s just go ahead and get started with the questions that Joyce has crafted for us!

1.  The first week of August is National Simplify Your Life Week…what’s one thing you could do this week to qualify as a participant?

One thing I’d like to do is clean out my linen closet.  In the process, I think I’ll get rid of a lot of extra “stuff” by donating it.  I already thinned out Chicky’s “extra” possessions…stuff she left behind when she went back to school last week.

2.  It’s also National Peach Month…peach pie, peach cobbler, or please pour me a Bellini?  What’s your peach pleasure?

I think I’ll take the Bellini, thank you very much.

3.  Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Agree or disagree…explain.

I would agree.  I think that this quote is about doing things outside of your comfort zone, which can be scary.  To do so means you’re stretching yourself, trying new things, and growing as an individual.  Plus, this keeps life from getting boring!

4.  What’s your favorite household chore?  Yes-you have to name one.

Really, Joyce?  The word chore has such a negative connotation!!!  This is a difficult question for me because I really do not enjoy household chores and wish I had some sort of housekeeper.  However, I just had an illuminating moment (they are rare, so please enjoy this with me), and I’ll go with DIY projects.  I love fixing things around the house.  It makes me feel accomplished and independent.  This is the main lesson I learned from my mom…don’t wait for someone else to do something for you.

5.  Fodors recently listed (what they’ve dubbed) the ten most beautiful sunset spots in America. Click here to read more and see the pretty pictures, but this is their list:

Butterfly Beach in Santa Monica CA, Mount Haleakala in Maui HI, Old Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe NM, Laguna Beach CA, Hopi Point in Grand Canyon AZ, Four Seasons in Miami FL, Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica CA, Gay Head in Martha’s Vineyard MA, Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City UT, and Mallory Square in Key West Florida.

Have you seen the sun set from any of these spots?  If you could choose to watch the sun set this weekend from one spot on the Fodors List, which would you choose?  Where was the prettiest sunset you’ve ever seen?

I lived in Miami for a couple of years and watched many a sunset there…not necessarily from that exact spot but I’ll claim it anyhow.  If I had to choose any places on the list, I’d go with the one in Maui.  I mean, who wouldn’t go for a tropical setting?

6.  What’s your favorite or most used app?  If you don’t use apps how about your favorite or most visited website?

Ohhh…just one?  That’s just not fair!!  Ok…I guess I’ll just have to settle and say that my Goodreads app gets a lot of mileage on my phone.  I try to read every day.  I do teach reading to high school students, and staying current on the latest publications is very important.  On Goodreads, I can log the pages I’ve read, post my own thoughts, which I did quite often when I read through the Harry Potter series, and post my own reviews.  I also enjoy reading others’ reviews.  Last school year, I showed this site to my students, and they had fun looking at the list of books I’d read and seeing which ones from my “read” shelf that they, too, had read.

7.  We’ve recently passed the halfway mark for 2013…write a seven word sentence that sums up your year thus far.

Despite ups and downs, I still trust.

8.  My Random Thought

As I mentioned before, this is my last full week of vacation.  I am enjoying it as much as I can considering that my mind is chewing on various lesson plan ideas.

How am I relaxing?

By taking advantage of the tax free days the state of Florida recently had…

Love Kohl’s!

By hanging out with my fur babies, who have LOVED having me home every day…

Pele

Molly

Gambit

By getting my nails done…

By resting…

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: | 9 Comments »

AuburnChick’s DIY Project – Bifold Closet Doors

Posted on August 6, 2013 by auburnchick

One of the things I do after my babies leave for college each semester is clean their rooms.

Such was the case last Friday.

This time was different, though, because Chicky took many of her belongings…not leaving much behind since she will be staying in Lakeland after she graduates in December.

After two hours of work, I’d accomplished the following…

Now, if you’ll take a look at the second picture, you’ll see Chicky’s bi-fold closet doors.

I’d noticed that I couldn’t close the closet doors completely…that the metal pieces kept ramming into each other…

I got Rooster to try to help me realign the doors because he is six-foot plus, but Rooster quickly gave up out of frustration.  He suggested that I hire someone to fix it for me.

Yeah.  No cigar.

I knew that the problem was that the top screws that pop into the brackets weren’t popping in completely.

I did a little bit of research on the internet, saw some parts up of the closet up close, and figured out what I needed to do.

First, I took the right half of the closet door off of the brackets…

Then, with a pair of pliers, I loosened the bottom screw, which fits into a track that is mounted on the floor.

My plan was to make it tall enough to raise the door higher, thus putting the metal bracket that would meet up with the opposite door’s a bit higher so the doors could close properly.

The next thing I did was stand the door back up, fit the bottom screw into the track, and prepare to fit the top screw into its own bracket…

See that little metal piece?  It has some sort of spring thing, so if you push it down, you can fit the door under the top frame.  The screw thing fits into a circle in the bracket that’s mounted on the frame…

The last step was fitting the screw with the roller/spinning wheel thing into the top track.  All you have to do is push it down, and it pops right into the track!

I can’t say that things worked out correctly the first time.

The doors still wouldn’t close flush.

I took the door off and unscrewed it more.

The second time I tried to fit it in, I’d unscrewed it too much, making the door sit too high, so I couldn’t even pop the top right screw into the round hole!

Would the third time be the charm?

Judge for yourself…

This goes to prove, once again, that you don’t have to hire someone to fix things around the house.

I always say, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

AuburnChick Wants a New Car

Posted on August 5, 2013 by auburnchick

My car has been paid off for almost two years.

Although my family often calls it the Crap Car (we traded in a Durango for this one…a major step down…to save money on gas), it has taken us on many, many trips.

I’ve been to soccer tournaments all over Florida and the Southeast.

I’ve moved children back and forth to college quite a few times.

So far, I’ve accumulated over 161,000 miles.

It’s been a good car, except for the crappy radio, until recently.

A few months ago, the engine had to be nearly rebuilt.  It was cheaper to put more money into this car than buy a new one.

Out of loyalty to this car, and because my finances aren’t exactly overflowing right now, I’ve tried hard not to start drooling over other cars.

That changed last week when I rented a vehicle to drive home from Chicky’s college.

I was fortunate to be teamed up with a Chevy Equinox…

From the moment I sat down in this vehicle, I was in major love.

For a tech-savvy gal like me, the dashboard captured my heart…

It took me fewer than five minutes to figure out how to sync my iPhone with the car.

Oh my!

I tested out the hands-free calling.

Oh my!

The people I called could hear me without any problems, and I could hear them as easily as if they were sitting beside me!

I had only driven a few miles on the interstate when I knew that this was a relationship I wanted to pursue further.

The ride was smooth as alpaca yarn.

Oh my.

The Equinox was so roomy without being too big.  It’s only got one row of back seats, but each seat had enough leg room to accommodate a person of any size.

There were many features I fell in love with.

One thing I love about this vehicle is the rear camera, which displays what’s behind the car as soon as it’s put into reverse…

I had a lot of fun playing with the buttons on the console.  One neat feature is the mph readout, which allows the driver to see what kind of gas mileage one is getting…

Another feature that I really liked when I drove this car was the small mirrors imbedded into the side mirrors.  They allowed me to see things that are typically in my blind spots.  This helped me tremendously as I made the seven-hour trek home.

It was with great reluctance that I returned this vehicle to Budget Car Rental.

Thanks to a much-needed but uber-expensive home repair, my dreams will have to remain just that.

One day, after all of the students loans and credit cards have been paid off, I will own my dream car.

Unless I win the lottery first.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Baby Bear Hat

Posted on August 4, 2013 by auburnchick

Do you remember the baby hats and capris I recently made for a sweet friend of Chicky’s?  She’s got her own little photography business going, and she texted me last week to ask if I could make another hat for her.  She’s getting good at finding patterns.

I sent her out to the store to find the yarn she wanted, and she dropped it off in the wee hours of Friday morning.

I just got around to casting on after spending a couple of days recuperating from my trip to Lakeland.

The pattern is called Baby Bear Hat, and it is free!  You can find it here.

First, the yarn…

Lion Brand Heartland – Sequoia colorway

The picture does not do the yarn justice.  It is a deep brown with flecks of lighter brown.  It’s beautiful and very soft, although as is typical of acrylic yarn, it did not slide that easily through my fingers.  Still, it wasn’t bad to knit with.  The project only required a scant 20 grams of yarn!

I made the newborn size on size 9 needles, despite everyone else who’s knit this using a size 10.5.  My knitting is loose, and the yarn label recommended size 9 needles.  I’d talked to Amber, and she had mentioned that my other hats could have been a tad smaller.  She wasn’t criticizing; I had asked her for honest feedback.  I figured with smaller needles and, thus, a tighter gauge, the size would be better.

I followed the pattern until the decreases.  I always read others’ project notes and had decided, since I do not like to seam, to knit the ears directly onto the hat.  I marked the first stitch on the first decrease round, knit the next eighteen stitches (decreasing according to the pattern), and marked the next stitch.  Then, I finished the round.

I finished knitting the hat according to the instructions and bound off.

To make the ears, I picked up six stitches beginning with the stitch below the one I had marked.  I’d run out of stitches to pick up the first time I tried by starting at the marked stitch and started picking up all over again.

I completed the ears as instructed except for the first decrease on row 4.  I did as someone suggested and knit a SSK, which made that side lean the right way (if you’re a knitting or crocheter, you understand how important this is when shaping).

The result is an adorable little hat!  I cannot wait to see it on Amber’s client!

Filed under: Knitting | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Reasons I Won’t Rent from U-Haul Ever Again

Posted on August 3, 2013 by auburnchick

I promised you a post about an incident that happened en-route to taking Chicky back to school, so here goes.

The Monday before we left, I called to secure a 10′ truck from U-Haul.  My original intent had been to rent from Budget, but a truck was not available, so I had to go with my second choice.   Boy, do I wish the Budget truck had been available because what followed was an unpleasant experience for several reasons.

  • Disorganization – My experience simply securing the truck was fraught with missed calls, missed confirmation emails, and wrong location information.  I was not called back to confirm a time and location to pick up the 10′ truck I’d been promised.  I had to be pro-active to call a second time and was, at that time, given a location and a time of 12pm to pick up the truck.  I was told that an email had been sent out.  The representative never confirmed an email address with me.  Tuesday morning, I received a call very early.  The U-Haul representative seemed confused because he was showing that I was supposed to pick up the truck at 12am.  Really?  I don’t think so.  The rep confirmed the address I was supposed to pick up the truck and mentioned that an email would be sent out.  I never received it.  I checked my spam folder.  Nothing came through.  When Rooster took me to to pick up the truck, I was told that it was, in fact, at a location across town…that this location was what had been recorded in the computer.  We had to drive over fifteen minutes out of our way.  Disorganization abounded.
  • Safety – When I arrived at the correct facility to pick up the truck, I was handed a picture of things to look over and inspected the truck, noting several dings that had not been labeled.  Those were the only things wrong with the truck.  I drove the truck home, and we packed it that evening.  We left by 7am the next morning.


The truck drove fairly well until I hit 70mph, the speed limit on the interstate, and then it began to shake quite noticeably.  I figured I was in for a very long seven-hour drive.We stopped two hours into the trip to pick up furniture that was being held at Chicky’s grandparents’ house.  Good thing because when I got out of the truck, Chicky told me that as she had followed behind me on the highway and later the interstate, she had noticed that my back tires looked loose.We took a closer look at the outside rear tire on the driver’s side and saw this…


This was very bad news.  Grand Pooba had come outside by this time and told me that it looked as though I had been very close to having a blowout.  In fact, you can see in the next picture where there were cracks in the tire…


This was very, very bad.  I called the 800 number for Roadside Assistance, which was printed on the U-Haul brochure I’d been given, and a very nice fellow by the name of Catarino assured me that he would send someone out quickly.  He was one of the bright spots of this entire U-Haul experience.  He called me back an hour later to check that the technician had arrived.  He hadn’t.  Catarino called the technician again and called me back to inform me that he was still a good twenty minutes out.  Meanwhile, Chicky and I waited, extremely annoyed but more frightened at the near blowout I’d almost had.The tire technician finally arrived and pulled off the tire.



You can see from the picture below that the tire’s treads were gone…


He confirmed that I had been very fortunate.  In no time flat (pun intended), he changed the tire.  He was the second bright spot in my day.  I asked him to look over the rest of the tires, and lo and behold…the inner rear tire on the passenger side was completely flat.

This is where I got very angry.  I had driven over two hours on a tire that had nearly blown out and a flat tire.  This is why the truck had been shaking so violently.

The tire technician did not have another tire with him, and it was going to be another hour before he could return to the grandparent’ house.  This was terrible news.

About this time, Catarino called me back to see how things were progressing.  He took his job quite seriously, let me tell you.  That man should get a raise.  I explained the current situation, and he tried hard to find a technician who wasn’t located too far away but was unsuccessful.  To save time, Chicky and I followed the technician back to his shop, which was 30 minutes in the direction we had originally come from.  In effect, we were backtracking….using more fuel and time.  Although he quickly changed out the second tire, by that time, we had been delayed three hours.

I was extremely nervous as I climbed back into the truck to resume the drive.  I had no confidence whatsoever that there wouldn’t be further problems, after all, I’d had issues from the onset of this entire truck experience.

Ten hours after we began our drive that morning (it should have only taken seven hours), and $145 of gas later, we were at Chicky’s rental house.

  • Security of Private Information – Wednesday evening, after unloading the truck, Chicky followed me as I drove the truck to turn it in.  By this time, I was more than ready to let someone else take it off of my hands.  The gentleman, an independent contractor working out of a convenience store, was very kind as he listened to my story.  He apologized on behalf of the U-Haul company (he was the third bright spot in this saga).  When he finished the paperwork, he told me that he had sent it to my email address.  I explained that I had not received any of the previous emails sent out by U-Haul, and it was then that he read the email address in my file.  The address was wrong.  In fact, not one single person had, to that point, read it to confirm it.  What does this matter, you might ask?  Well, for starters, the last four digits of my credit card number were on the documents.  Second, my home address, dates of my trip, and final destination were also documented.  Anyone with evil intent could have used this information in a less than honorable way.

Is it any wonder that after everything detailed above, I would be more than a tiny bit upset about my experience renting from U-Haul?  Is it any wonder that I called Customer Support Thursday afternoon after I’d left Chicky and returned home?  Kristi Dansby was the representative I spoke with, and she was very sweet and patiently listened to all of my concerns.  She’s left the call open as “Unresolved” so a local manager can call me back to discuss the issues.

What it boils down to is that I could have been seriously injured or killed while driving this truck.  Yes, I realize that simply driving on the road is a risk; however, it is very obvious that the truck had not been properly inspected.  I’d like to think that if it had been, it would have stayed parked for a while longer until those tires had been changed.  Tires do not lose that much tread in a two-hour drive.  Tires do not begin to pull away from their rims in a two-hour period of time.  The fact that the truck was difficult to manage early into my drive speaks to the unsafe conditions I was forced to endure BEFORE I had put many miles behind me.

Not only could I have been seriously injured or killed, but others would have been as well.  It’s summertime.  Many people are traveling right now…especially down Interstate 75, which takes you straight to Disney World.

In addition, my sweet Chicky would have been seriously affected.  If not involved in the accident because she followed me in her car the entire way to Lakeland, she would have witnessed a horrible accident and would have had to deal with the emotional ramifications for years to come.

I am very disappointed that something like this happened.  It scares me how close I came to being seriously injured.  All because someone did not inspect that truck carefully.

I plan on returning to the location where I rented this truck and speaking with a supervisor.  It’s a shame that, despite the positive experiences I had with the Catarino, the man at the dropoff location, and Kristi, my overall impression of this huge company is negative.

Kristi offered me a $75 voucher toward any U-Haul goods or services.  I declined.  I don’t want to use U-Haul again.

Can you blame me?

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: | 4 Comments »

How I Know Chicky Loves Me

Posted on August 2, 2013 by auburnchick

Chicky is not very demonstrative with her love.

I have often doubted that she cares for me because we have spent so many years at each others’ throats.

Such is the life between a mother and daughter, it would seem.

However, things have begun to change, I believe, and I’ve begun to recognize the ways in which she shows me that she does, in fact, love me.

    1. All summer, Chicky has been quite mindful of my eating habits and has strongly encouraged me to eat regular meals.  I tend to skip out on eating.  Aside from certain dishes, I really don’t enjoy this task.  I’m usually too busy to eat, and I find it easy to ignore my stomach.  Even though she comes across as angry, I know that Chicky is simply frustrated because she wants me to take better care of myself.  She often took extra time to plan meals that included items I could eat, and her grocery shopping included the ingredients necessary for these meals.
    1. Chicky bragged to Special K, her roomie, about the vegan desserts I had made all summer.  I’ve rarely heard her brag about the stuff I’ve done.  This warmed my heart more than she or anyone can ever know.  To feel like my child approves of me when for so long I’ve felt as though I have not measured up has gone a long way toward healing that hurt in my heart.
    1. The evening we moved Chicky into her new digs (Wednesday night), I set off, very late (she would not let us eat dinner before she had unpacked) to pick up dinner at Chipotle’s.  They closed at ten.  It was 9:30 when I left.  I got lost while chatting on the phone with my friend, Barb, and couldn’t find my way out of a neighborhood.  I hung up, got the GPS going, and got there with ten minutes to spare.  After that, I decided to treat myself to Starbucks…especially after the crazy day I’d had.  Chicky called as I was nearing her place on my return drive.
      Our conversation went like this…”Mama, are you okay?” she asked.”I’m fine,” I said.

      “Did you get there before they closed?” she continued.

      “Oh, so you’re only worried about your food.  I see how it is,” I replied.

      “No, actually, I wanted to make sure you were still alive.  You’ve been gone a long time,” she quipped.

      I think she really was worried.  We’d had a scare with the moving truck earlier that day (I will blog about this tomorrow, I promise).

  1. Later that night, she asked me where I was going to sleep.  I told her, “Right on that Woody (Toy Story) pillow you have on your bed.”  I expected her to tell me I could take my pillow to the couch, but she surprised me by telling me that I could sleep in her bed, albeit using the Spider Man pillow, only if I didn’t cross my side and absolutely did not touch her.  I chuckled as I told her that I would wait until she was sound asleep to snuggle.  Unfortunately, I was so beat that I was probably snoozing long before she succumbed to dreams of three-a-days (for you non-sporties, that’s three practices a day).

I have learned to treasure such moments instead of overlooking them.

Chicky doesn’t say the three words I desperately long to hear and have not heard her speak in a number of years.

She does, however, show through her actions what she cannot say.

Actions speak louder than words.

That’s how the saying goes, isn’t it?

While it is wonderful to hear the words, I take such times as those described above, tuck them away for safekeeping, and pull them out when I begin to doubt…or when we are in the middle of three u-turns in a row and she’s yelling at me to listen to her and turn on the stupid GPS.

My Chicky loves me.

And I love her.

Filed under: children | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Chicky Leaves for Her Final Semester of College

Posted on August 1, 2013 by auburnchick

A little less than twelve hours ago, I left my Chicky for the fourth August in a row.

In just a few short weeks, she will begin her final semester of college.

I will chronicle our journey back to school, as I’ve done each previous year.

As of Tuesday afternoon, my girl still had not packed.

Not.

One.

Thing.

She worked late that day trying to get in a few extra hours and much needed $$.

I’ll admit that I was a bit in a panic, but I knew better than to offer to help.

My Chicky is very much like me…fiercely independent and quite stubborn.

She skipped the championship game of her indoor soccer league (her team lost 3-5…they were missing their key defender 😉 ), but she had to prioritize, and spending two hours at the sports facility ranked pretty much last.

By 11pm, she had accrued this pile…

That’s not even counting the big items.

I know I’ve mentioned this a time or two, but since I like to repeat myself, I will say that Chicky was moving out permanently this go-round.

We started loading the truck around 11:15.  It was incredibly muggy and dark.  I found a utility spotlight, which I hung from the truck’s door (we found the cabin’s light after we had finished…go figure).

Our clothes stuck to our bodies as we made many, many trips…loading up the truck and her car.

When we were finished, her room looked like this…

We will be picking up another mattress set from the Mr.’s parents’ house the next time we can secure a truck (I didn’t drive the rental back because it was too expensive to do so).

Her closet was devoid of the many, many clothes and shoes she had brought home.  She left stuff that she will pick up one day when she’s completely on her own and has a family…items such as stuffed animals and games.

See her many soccer medals?  🙂

She slept on an air mattress her final night at home, and we awoke bright and early on Wednesday morning to begin our long drive.

We stopped two hours into the trip to pick up the dressers that Chicky had gotten at a yard sale when she’d visited the grandparents.  My nephews came over and helped load the furniture into the truck.

We ran into a bit of a snafu with the truck and were delayed nearly three hours before we resumed our journey.  In my efforts to keep this post focused on Chicky, I will be blogging about the incident next time.

We finally arrived in Lakeland ten hours after we’d left home (as opposed to the seven that it should have taken).

The weather was n-a-s-t-y.  There was some serious lightening and flooding going on…

Fortunately, we arrived safe and sound, and Chicky’s roommate gave her the key to the place they will call home for the next two years…

The house has three bedrooms…one for each girl.  Here’s what Chicky’s room and closet looked like before we unloaded…

After the rain stopped, we got down to some serious work.  Thankfully, it went quickly with the assistance of Special K, Chicky’s fabulous roomie, and it wasn’t too long before Chicky’s room had been filled to the brim with her belongings…

The room is quite small; however, I suggested that she try putting the chest of drawers in the closet.  There seemed to be just enough space between the shelves.  To give her a bit of wiggle room, she took out the lowest shelf on the right.  This had the added benefit of giving her a space to hang her dresses and other long items.

She’s most proud of the dresser below.  It’s got a retro feel (I actually remember having furniture that looked very similar).  It’s perfect for the long wall on that side of the room.

The house itself is really adorable.  It’s a little over 1,000 sq. ft.  Although the guest bedrooms are small, as is the guest bathroom, the living room is large and roomy.

It has a beautiful fireplace and mantle…

Here’s another view of the living room.  The items that you see in the corner near the hallway that leads to the guest bedrooms contains items that I brought home with me…empty storage bins and whatnot.

Want to know what the girls plan to put in this corner?

A knight in a suit of armor.

I kid you not.

Apparently, this is an inside joke.

What can I say?  College girls are weird.

But I digress…

As usual.

Anyhoo…all of the living room and eat-in kitchen furniture (seen below) were donated by Special K’s step-mom.  Should out to Ms. M!

The house boasts a quaint eat-in area that has a window that lets light in, brightening up that side of the house…

Have you noticed all of the sunflowers?  That is the theme the girls decided upon during conversations held over the summer.  This theme is carried into the kitchen.  Once again, Ms. M came through and snatched up items throughout the summer whenever she was out and about.

The girls will not lack for items to make coffee in…

Chicky had picked up the French press (on the right) at a yard sale this summer for the fancy price of $2.  She was pleased as punch with her find.

One thing I love about this house is that nearly every room, including the kitchen, has a ceiling fan.  Score!

The only room that doesn’t is the fabulous screened-in porch.  It is, however, equipped with a doggie door (not pictured), which is perfect because Cali will be living with the girls.

Let me show you a few pictures of the outside of the house.

The backyard, seen in the next two pictures, is decent sized and, most importantly, fenced in!

Most of the pictures you see above were taken this morning after Chicky and I had had a good night of rest.

She drove me to a car rental place to secure a vehicle to drive home in because she didn’t exactly jump with joy at my suggestion that I stay with her for…say…the rest of her adult life.

heehee

We loaded up my sweet ride, a Chevrolet Equinox (I will blog about this in a separate post).

After we finished, Chicky and I went inside so I could grab my purse and keys.

The time was drawing near…the time for that final goodbye.

I asked her if she would let me pray with her before we walked outside, and she agreed.

As I prayed, I got choked up…for the first time the entire trip…and she gently encouraged me to keep it together.

I did, I’m proud to say, for I had been determined not to turn into the blubbering fool I’d been the previous three years.

When I finished praying, I looked her in the eye and told her how very proud I am of her…of the woman she’s become…of the choices she has made.

I told her that I would be praying for her every day, and I think I saw her tear up.

It was a special moment that I will never forget.

Special K took a couple of pictures of me with Chicky outside, and I am pleased that the pictures reflect a happy mother and daughter.

And that is what we are.

Although Chicky had gotten extremely annoyed with me during the last two days, and she’d been quite vocal too, we were able to end our summer on a positive note.

Despite the fabulous summer and the fact that we had not strangled each other during the move, I fully expected to have a crying fit.

That is what mamas do when their children move out.

I don’t know why I didn’t break down in tears as I left.

I ruminated about this as I sat in my car and uploaded the photos I’d taken to Facebook.  I must have sat there five or ten minutes, which gave Chicky and Special K time to come back outside and prepare to leave…on a mission to complete some items from their to-do lists.

They followed me out of the neighborhood, where I got this final look of my precious girl from the side mirror…

One final wave, and she was gone.

I passed the sign at Southeastern’s entrance…

I thought about the first year I had taken Chicky to school, and how my heart felt like it had been ripped from my chest.

I can’t even read the post I wrote back then because if I do, I know I’ll start crying as those raw emotions come back to the surface.

What I realized as I left and reflected was that Chicky had not been the only person to mature through her years at college.

I have matured as well.

Our relationship with one another has also matured.

I’ve grown to accept that she is a very capable young woman who may not always make the choices I would (I would have kept the nightstand and TV…*ahem*), but it’s okay.

Chicky is her own person who was created, by God, to lead a life that is not tied to my apron strings.

The summer had prepared me to let her go.

When we had been driving to the rental car place, I’d asked her what her plans for next summer were, and she looked at me and said, “I’m not coming home, remember?”

To which I replied, “No, I was wondering if you’re planning on working, should you secure a teaching job in January.”

She had breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that I had finally “gotten” it.

She’s not coming to “this” home to stay.

She is already home…

In Lakeland…

On her own.

I take comfort in Jeremiah 29:11:  “‘I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'”

God’s hand is evident in my Chicky’s life.

He will direct her ways and lead her into the future He has planned for her.

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