Maw and Paw go to West Virginia

Tomorrow is officially our 1 week anniversary of Maw and Paw Roberts in our new little house in West Virginia. The house is quite small which I knew it would be. I love that it is small. I love that it still has some of the character of being probably almost 100 years old.

The old hardwood floors have many stories to tell with each little nick and paint splatter and the old crystal glass doorknobs still have a skeleton key lock.

We brought very little with us and almost no furniture except for a bed. It still feels like camping, but with a house. We went almost four days without hot water. Cold showers really are cold.  

We are more than a week since we left Woodland Hills and it's time to do laundry so without a washer or dryer yet my duty was to set out today and somehow wash and dry the dirty undies. Using my handy dandy phone navigator and after also inquiring with a new local friend as to where the closest laundromat was I was instructed to a location not far away. Of course it was on a one-way street and so after the first two passes not finding the business I slowed way down for the third pass. Obviously the laudromat was as extinct as the dinosaur. Ok.....so there must be another one. Plug into the navigator once again and follow it's directions to the next location which actually has a sign on the building, but empty insides and a "For Rent" sign in the window. Now the trusty navigator has no other options to send me to other than across the street from the "For Rent" sign and is obviously a Dry Cleaners and not a laundromat.

Back to the house with the dirty undies and back to our urban campout. David being a handy hubby, rigged up clothes line for me in the basement while I handwashed a weeks worth of undies in the 1920's era bathtub. They are now stretched out hanging to dry on a maze of line that wraps in three different directions. Our Maw and Paw suite is now complete!

My one solace has been the addition of cable TV which was installed 2 days ago. It has helped me to connect with the world and feel as if life is semi-normal again. That is, until Paw wants to watch tv. Then for some reason any option of watching a show that both Maw and Paw would enjoy seems to be excessively optomistic on my part. Some things don't change even 2000 miles away. Sigh*

Moving "Boxes"

We have a trailer. We got it mostly so we could tote around our ATV 4 wheeler. It's been a great trailer but to haul anything else was pretty difficult because the sides were only about 1 foot high. Great if you just have a 4 wheeler but not so good for hauling "stuff". 

He decided he need a "box".

David has been working really hard with our buddy Carlos and now we have a full "box" trailer ready to haul a bunch of "stuff" to West Virginia. He is really proud of his work. I am too! It is an awesome new "box"! 

Good job Sweet Hubby!! 

Enumclaw, Girls and a Sweet Hubby

I took a trip to Seattle (technically Enumclaw, but no one knows where that is when I say it) last week to visit my family. I had planned for this trip to be a “David and Shelli” trip but as the day to leave got closer and closer my sweet hubby with his duty minded responsibility troll kept popping up. In the end he realized that he just couldn’t keep ignoring that darned troll and knew that he would have to stay behind. Dang-it!! So I did what I usually do in these situations when I find myself alone and in need of a buddy, I called my next best friends, my two daughters. Being the awesome, full of fun and ready to jump at a chance for an adventure on a days notice, we all jumped in the car including our newest girl chum Kenley.

What we didn’t do was tell the woman who taught me how to have wonderful girl dates with daughters. We decided that it would be much more fun to surprise Grandma with a visit from her new little great-grandchild. And…it was.

We laughed and chatted and ate our must have road trip food (corn nuts, twizzlers, and Mt. Dew). Kari played her ukulele much to the delight of Kenley who watched in fascination until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer and fell fast asleep. All in all it was a great bonding time. One that may be our last for a long time so it was even more sweet. I have two pretty incredible women that I call my daughters.

I knew also that this trip would be a great testing moment to see how sweet hubby manages on his own without me. When the big move to West Virginia comes he will be out there for most of the time without me as I will stay behind to get Evan finished up with school. I did try to make things as easy as possible for him. I filled the fridge and freezer with easy “man meals”, I had all his clothes washed and ready to wear, and had the kitchen put in order.

Periodically I would text him a message or a photo. The first part of the week I would get the usual sweet hubby messages in return. Then later on after I sent him a photo his reply was “Next time, can you be in the photo?” He misses me…. The next day was our trip back home. His text was “I’m anxious to be with my better half.” When I got home he had actually made the bed and cleaned up both the bedroom and the kitchen so I would have a nice welcome home. Sweet hubby never makes the bed. Sweet hubby missed me bad! I love that he missed me. I love the cute messages saying he missed me. I love that he cleaned up in anticipation of my return. I love him!!

This next year is going to be really hard to be apart for so long. I remember dating long distance and getting on the plane to fly back and forth from Salt Lake to Seattle. I remember crying big tears every time I had to be separated from him. I hope that May comes realllllly fast this year.