Moving Preparations

The weather has cooled off slightly, which is lovely.  It's still too hot to do much outside, but we can take walks (or do a quick run) before the sun comes up some days.  I know there are hearty people who aren't bothered by the heat, but I'm not one of them, so I stay out of the sun and heat as much as possible.  A couple of days ago I went for a walk and saw some pretty flowers.  This was a wet monsoon season and the plants are happier than I've seen them for quite awhile.

Above and below are lantana.

Here am I!

The clouds were interesting - and it turns out that a storm was a-brewing!

The sky has the bright blue shade of winter instead of the dutsy brownish blue shade of summer.

Bougainvilleas.

 

I made a couple of goo recipes this past week.
The first was a new one - sweet and sour veggies.
It was pretty easy - throw all the veggies in the pot.  Brown them.  Then add the sauce, allow sauce to 

thicken, serve over rice!

I sprinkled sesame seeds on top for fun.

Healthy and tasty!

I also made a lentil shepherd's pie from a cook book Cindy gave me.  I added too many vegetables, so I should have adjusted the sauce ingredients a bit more and it's a bit dry.  But definitely still tasty!  Since switching to veganism, there have been very few meals that have been a complete disaster.  Even when I make a mistake, it can easily be rectified or the meal can be salvaged.  I have another shepherd's pie recipe I made up that creates a brown sauce, but this one has a nice tomato-based sauce.

I love how the mashed potatoes get all crispy and browned on top!

A couple of weeks ago, Allistair and Stephen got in a fight and Allistair's back toenail got ripped almost off - eek!  I quick took him to the emergency vet, but they said they were FULL and not accepting any clients.  I called 15 or more other emergency vets and regular vets, and none of them were able to see us.  I was sad for all the animals who were really sick or dying without help.  We definitely need to live in a place that has enough vets for the population (yet another reason to move to Minnesota)!  We were eventually able to find a vet that was able to see us the next day, and it's a good thing.  Allistair's bone was showing - ew and ouchie.  He got all cleaned up and got some pain meds and antibiotic, and he was told to wear a cone.  He really hated it (much more than Claude hated it) and rolled around trying to scrape it off.  But he is acting normally now and seems to be healing/healed up. 

Cute lil' sunflower!

Of course, we continue to pack up our house a little bit at a time.  We have just under a month left now until we're planning to be in process of our move.  The cats are less perturbed by the disarray than I expected.  They're still snuggly and cute and silly.  They're enjoying having more boxes around to play in!

Stephen getting ready to pounce:

Stephen drooping:

Most days I've been doing yoga, and usually Allistair "helps" me by lying on the blanket at the end of the yoga mat.  On this day, Claude got there first and Allistair was on the yoga mat itself, leaving no room for me!

Eventually, they readjusted, giving me some room to actually do my yoga.

Notice this bed and bedding, because you won't see it again!  We sold the trundle bed set in my office along with all the bedding, since we won't have a bed that size again.  When we have a new guest room, we're planning to put a queen-sized bed in it.  We were happy to hear that the purchaser runs a group home for recovering addicts, so these beds and this bedding will be put to good use!

One fewer place for the cats (and us!) to nap, though . . . 

I saw this cute little birdie and I've never seen him before!  He's a black-throated grey warbler and he has a beautiful yellow splotch on his cute little face!  I was happy to see someone I have never met before and it always makes me happy to have our yard be a peaceful and welcoming oasis for God's creatures.

Here were the initial boxes that got packed.  

We found this adorable yellow clock amongst our things in the garage and I'm excited to use it in our new kitchen when we have one!  It belonged to my Mother-In-Law Karen.  Thank you, Karen!

I have put fragile items into the large bookcase so that the movers can pack those with their specialty packing materials.  

The plan right now is:

1.  Greg drives up a rental truck full of all the stuff we pack ourselves (books, clothing, bed, couch, chairs, whatever other small furniture and small items we can manage loading) arriving around October 18, which is when our rental house is available.

2.  My dear friend Jen and I drive up a rented van with pretty much just the cats in it.  We drive straight (for 25 hours or so) and enjoy chatting and Harry Potter on audiobook.  We arrive a couple days after Greg gets there.

3.  Greg flies back down to Arizona and organizes the sprucing up and sale of our Chandler house.

4. We search for our new permanent home (and we can pay in cash)!

This is how the box mountain looked yesterday.

The bedroom is still a tidy and cozy zone, mostly undisturbed by the moving chaos.

I am the kind of person who usually gets tense with messiness, but I'm so far okay with the state of things here.  I'm excited about the progress we make each day, and I'm glad to be getting closer to our goal of moving to Minnesota in October.  The messier and more inconvenient things get, the closer we are to leaving!

I packed the books and DVDs from the entertainment center, and as I type this, Greg is boxing up the tech equipment from there so we can sell it.

Can you spot Allistair somewhere in the photo below?

I didn't really think I had a lot of books until I started packing them . . . 

Allistair is an interested and helpful packing companion!

Greg and I piled up the favorite toys on top of Allistair yesterday to see how long he would leave them there.  We didn't actually time it, but it was about 2 minutes.  Longer than we expected!

Greg taking apart the stereo equipment:

Switching topics, I have ordered a few sweaters in joyful anticipation of the chilly and COLD weather I'll be experiencing this winter!  I ordered a bunch from Marshall's first.

This baby blue color is my favorite color in the whole world, and I like the neck on this sweater.  It's not a turtleneck, which I don't particularly like (I called them neck-suckers when I was younger), but it's a bit warmer up there.

This one is a fluffy eyelash one . . . 

with a criss-cross back!

I love this one especially . . . look at that cute ruffled collar!!!

And the pattern is just GOOD.

Well, that's what we're up to here!  More packing to come, and you'll be part of it all!

Thanks for reading.

xo

September Has Arrived!

We got a bit of rain, thunder, and lightning last night - surprising how many short storms we've had this monsoon season!  

The sun always comes back, though!

We've had some heat, too.
 

Recently I discovered a brand of vegan cheese slices that have reasonably good ingredients (they're still high-fat, but they're not animal fat, so they're slightly better . . . and no one was harmed making them!)  I found some gluten-free vegan bread without gums that harm me (Crohn's intestines are persnickety!)

I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich, and I MADE ONE!
(Toasted, not actually grilled)

It was even melty inside!

The cats have been settling into having us both home again pretty much all the time.  We're not planning to go anywhere until the move (early-to-mid October), so they have lots of time with us to be calm and peaceful after our travels this summer.

Yesterday, I had a nice afternoon with my young friend, Hannah.

I picked her up, we got food at local vegan restaurant, the Seed Shack, and then we started packing my closet!  I was wearing this.

top: A New Day (Target)

mask: Etsy

skirt: Rekucci (Amazon)

bag: Scarleton (Amazon)

The packing itself was actually pretty fun, and I enjoyed picking out the things I believe I'll wear over the next three to four months so as to NOT pack those things.  It didn't take as much time as I expected it to take.

Thanks for helping, Hannah!

Greg and I are still waiting for that magical letter from his employer that promises he will still have an income even though he lives in a different state.  We're hoping that gets delivered quickly so we can activate more of our moving stratagems!

I'll keep you informed, of course.