learning to let go

the old lady and her special friend are settling into their new place nicely.  they've got a lot of the necessary furniture in place, with a couch from IKEA coming this weekend.  we had a lot of fun shopping for it, and he's a good sport for letting me make him lay down on it so i could take this:

i mean...we had to make sure he'd fit on it, right?  dude is like twelve feet tall.  and on a whole other trip to IKEA we loaded up the back of the tahoe with their bed, dining table and four chairs.

we've also made at least one costco run, and the bean had a ball being pushed around as if she were still in a stroller.

it's been fun watching the old lady go through all the crap in her room.  she came across all sorts of fun stuff, like this collection of her most favorite childhood movies on VHS.

a trip to the filipino supermarket yielded some treats and the best broom on the planet.

after they put together the dining set, we brought in a costco pizza and shared their first dinner on it.

they've even had us over for a quick swim already.

the bean decided that she liked her sister's bedframe better than her own, so one day while she was at camp the hub and i got to work switching the beds out.  when we pulled off the old lady's mattress we found all sorts of treasures, like this super dusty twilight board game:

and there was a large black duffel bag that made a familiar clinking noise when i picked it up.  i unzipped it and found this:

and when i sent that picture to the old lady, who was at work, she sent me a string of crying/laughing emojis and explained that it was a long-forgotten bag she'd brought home from a party...in high school.  oy vey.

poor mollydog remains super confused at all the commotion, but found a new favorite sleeping spot in the ball of bedding we pulled off of the old lady's bed.

with the bed and bookcase and vanity out of the room, the hub helped me start moving my sewing gear in.  this is my new workspace:

but it's weird.  while almost all of her stuff is gone, she's been living in the new place for a week and a half now, and my stuff is slowly but surely taking over the room...well, it's just weird.  that room is always going to be hers, and while i do like being able to have all of my sewing stuff in one place (with a door i can close if i need to), i miss her.  we see her all the time, and yeah she's only a mile and a half away.  but still...i'm adjusting to not having her here.  this will always be "home," but it's not where she lives anymore.  she's a grown woman now, and gone is the little girl i still remember her being like it was yesterday.

sigh.

time flies when you're having fun. sort of.

good god, it's august already.  yikes!  we have less than six months till the holiday season, folks.  and the teen is squeezing as much fun as possible into her last few weeks of summer vacation.  school starts again on the 24th.  where did the time go?

okay, i'm stoked to see that the idea of a blog baby sale is getting more "yay"s than "boo"s.  hee hee!  i'm working on gathering all the stuff worthy of such an event, and as soon as i can find the freaking cord to download pictures from my camera, we's in business.  not to mention, our internet isn't getting connected till wednesday.  boo.  um, don't ask me how i'm posting this right now.  heh.

in the meantime, a recap of my weekend, via iPhone dump.

the bean is definitely coming out of her shell at last.  at gymnastics this week, she was little miss social butterfly, scooting over to sit next to the other girls, chatting them up ("hi! my name is bean. how are you today?").  she's even getting bolder with trying everything out in the obstacle courses set up for their classes, and *gasp* letting go of the hub's hand when walking across the beam or going for a ride in the rope swing.  if we'd known that all it took was going on vacation...well, maybe we'd have gone sooner.  heh.

we managed to unearth the wii system, hook it up, and play a new favorite game:  just dance.  of course, i'm still an awful dancer, but i sure have a blast playing this against the teen.  even brother wan and his girlfriend had fun with it, and i was particularly stoked to beat the teen during a song that i OWN:

i attended my second phototasting event this weekend, too.  the goal was to go and be their assistant, while maybe picking up a few more tips and tricks here and there - but i ended up getting there about 15 minutes late because of stupid traffic.  wah wah.  i consoled myself with a lovely plate of imported buffalo mozzarella, beautifully sliced prosciutto, and lightly dressed arugula as i attempted to help as much as i could.  

the hub's grampa went in for knee replacement surgery on friday, and we headed to kaiser to visit him a couple of days later.  he's doing quite well and is expected to come home early this week.  he was pleased to see us drop by for a visit, and the hub entertained the bean with various items around the room.

and in the meantime, unpacking and organizing hell continues.  gah!

the end of operation downsize, phase I

phew, we the hub and his folks finally got the thimble completely empty and cleaned out.  they did the majority of the work while i hung out with the bean at the new pad.  heh. 

so yesterday, i scheduled the final walk-through with the apartment manager, who's a super sweet lady, and decided to bring her a little treat. 

not to mention, we were missing a key, and i was hoping that cupcakes would help us avoid a replacement key fee.  heh.

i decided to take a quick look at the empty apartment before i called her up to do business, and as i walked through the sad, lonely rooms, i found myself getting a little sad over our departure.  silly, right?  but despite the close quarters and the noisy neighbors and everything else that comes with apartment living, we had a lot of really good times in here.  last time the place looked like this, operation downsize had just begun.

when she came up, i told her about my weird mixed feelings and she said that just about every tenant she'd ever done a final walk-thru with felt the same way.  i guess i'm not as sappy as i thought.  or i am, but everyone else is too.  haha!  and i was even more surprised to find that the hub had similar feelings - and he hated the thimble even more than i (thought i) did! 

oh!  and i finally got my haircut.  yay!  i'd had to reschedule it from last week, since it was really bad timing with all of the moving and stuff, and i was excited to chop some of my mane off.  when it's long enough to put into a ponytail, it's too long.

before:

and after:

wow, i look tired and old in the supposedly new-and-improved-me shot.  dang.  but my hair looks fabulous, thanks to my dear pal rochelle.  if you're in the san gabriel valley-ish area and need a good cut at a super reasonable price, i HIGHLY recommend her. 

heh.  i haven't plugged rochelle in ages.  but she really is wonderful, and i love her.  she's become a friend in the three years i've been going to her, and she's such a sweetheart as well as a fantastic stylist.  tell her i sent ya.

best part of my day (aside from my sweet new 'do)?  coming home and finding this:

the bean starfishes like no other (thanks to thatgirl for introducing me to that term).