The Past Few Weeks...

...Have been slightly busy. And we have company staying with us this weekend to top it all off. But that's something to look forward to, in my mind. Finally... Slaves to help us unpack more! :)

We closed on the condo just before we left to fly down to Dallas to spend the weekend with Marshall. Yes, I realize that a vacation is not the most rational thing to do in the middle of moving, but I seriously didn't think we'd have a buyer by then, much less be moving the week afterward, so we booked some ridiculously cheap fares. All in all, it was good to get away and rest for a bit. We had a good 4-days of rest and relaxation except when I was helping Marshall change his tire only an hour after getting into town. I told him that road sucked... :) An iPod back-light makes an excellent flashlight, by the way. But a weekend of disc golf, some social time and catching up on sleep really made the follwoing week easier to bear.

We got home and had to really get crunching on the house. Our condo's buyer closed last Wednesday, and we closed on our house Thursday. It was a little disconcerting that we technically didn't have a place to live for 24 hours, but that's the way things go. But the buyer graciously gave us until the following Sunday to get our stuff out. While at Marshall's house, Rachel and I were convinced that garage floor paint was a good idea, so I invested in the stuff and set out to "get it done Thursday night". Well, if you ever try that endeavor, forget about it. After pouring oil-remover, spray washing the floor 4-5 times, squeegeeing after each time, super scrubbing the entire floor with some sort of solvent, then spray washing another time or two, then finally putting in some floor crack putty, that was the evening. Friday afternoon, we didn't get much done either, so Saturday night was going to be the big push to get everything fully packed and the floor painted. The floor was painted, and we threw down decorative "flakes" on top of it. If you ever have the chance to watch grown men trying to throw down what appears to be sparkles in a manly fashion... well, it can't be done. "Ssssssthparkles," I kept saying as I threw flakes on the floor with a nice lissssthp. The fumes didn't make us any less loopy. Meanwhile, Rachel was packing as fast as a 5-month pregnant woman can, but eventually called it a night.

The next morning came, and I realized that I still had a bunch of packing left to do. So I spent 30 minutes gathering electrical stuff, cords and computers into boxes. Then I was off to get the U-Haul. However, the place wasn't open at the 9:00 opening time I was promised. I attempted not to freak out since I legally had to be out of the condo that afternoon, and called a buddy that I knew had access to a box truck. Fortunately for us, someone finally showed up 20 minutes late looking, shall I say, a tad ragged. So I got a 26-foot truck and had a blast driving that around. We got a few more helping hands than I was expecting and got everything into the truck and several cars. Time to head over to the new house... Let me tell you, driving a 26-foot truck empty is fun, but fully loaded? I have a new-found respect for truck drivers when they drive slowly now. We got everything unloaded and had committed ourselves to going to Todd and, now, Barb Lee's wedding. But first, we figured it would be a good idea to make sure we had somewhere to sleep that night. So we constructed the bed. It was the most unorganized move we've had yet, but I think we've accumulated twice as much stuff since the last move.

This week, we've been knocking out a room or two over a few nights and our house is slowly coming together. I discovered that when you have DSL, it's nice to have a phone line where you're putting the computer. Of course, that was a gross miscalculation on my part, expecting there to be a phone line in every part of the house, like, say, the downstairs. Wireless networking to the rescue. We've overcome a few bugs, but we've been seriously blessed by this home and are grateful for all the help that people provided over the last couple of weeks. If anything, their presence kept us sane. I've been looking forward to the day that I can just come home, feel at home, and sit back and relax without worrying about some task I have to do, and that moment looks to be just over the horizon.

On another note, Rachel went in for her ultrasound yesterday. It appears that we have an active little baby boy! Which might explain Rachel's stomach pains the last several days... I guess he lodged his spine next to her ribcage, so I'm sure that's fun. So next on the list of things to do: names. These have been our ideas so far:

Martin Skor Keesee
Farrell Keesee (say it out loud)
Satchel Keesee (ditto)
Kasey Keesee just seems too goofy.

Rachel has vetoed any of the top 20 names of the last two years. So it appears that I have a challenge in front of me. Hey, I named a ferret and a pomeranian, so how hard could a little boy be? Ah, I know, Intra Keesee. Della Keesee? Feel sorry for my child...