ABF U-Pack Moving

This is a commercial!

If you ever need to move a small load of stuff from A to B, and don't want the hassle of doing it yourself, this is the way to do it. Guaranteed.

Oh, and did I mention that it will probably also save you lots of moo-lah!

In my present moving scheme of things, I needed to transport several heirloom items (irreplaceable furniture pieces from my parents and grandparents) to a sister in Michigan. I can't take them with me and daughter Amy doesn't want them. But they needed to stay in the family, if you catch my drift.

So I did the research and found out this is the way to go. The only glitch is that YOU do the packing and the unloading on both ends. You leave the driving to them!

A very nice gentleman delivered the 6'x7'x8' ReloCube to my house one week. Here you see him driving the forklift off his truck at the head of our drive. There was no way he could bring his big truck down into the woods, to the house, he said. But no prob! He was a pro at his job and knew exactly what to do.



The next thing I knew, the Relocube was situated near the house off the drive, ready for me to pack. I had almost a week to do it, so Dennis and Mark had plenty of time to find a day that worked to accomplish the deed (with blood, sweat and tears!) in about an hour. The funny thing is that I had fully planned to take pictures of them working but totally forgot until they were all done (for which they were thankful, they said!).

From that point, all I had to do was make sure everything was roped down into place for the 850-mile transport to Michigan.

The good news: I found out last evening from sister Nancy that everything arrived in great shape. No mishaps, nothing damaged.

So, keep this in mind if ever you need to transport something long-distance and do NOT want the hassle of driving the load yourself. It ended up costing approximately half the price of doing it myself in the smallest U-Haul truck. Can't beat that!

Like I said, this is a commercial! ABF U-Pack Moving.

The Michigan Wedding

If any one image tells the story more than the others, for me this one is it.
On my Shutterchance photoblog, this is the photo I used to talk about the balancing act this marriage is now starting.

Lesley and Brian!
Now that your ship has come in, may you stay high and dry most of the time. And if/when you fall in and get wet, may you have fun getting back into the boat without too much floundering.
I guess that's what we can realistically hope for all of us!

Besides all the wedding fun with farm props everywhere (remember to see sister Ruth's post if you want more pics or my wedding album...or BIL Don's post) and seeing family members I hadn't seen in awhile, I totally fell in love with the wee-est of them all...the youngest kids from the 4th generation represented there that day. They stole my heart. You can see them individually in the wedding album but here's a collage I made of 3 of them:

They are our future.
They are the ones who hopefully will learn from us...what NOT to do!
Indeed, God bless them everyone!

* * * * * * * * * *

On the house front, we're still waiting and waiting and waiting. We did just recently lower our asking price, regardless of the fact all realtors have said it was priced right. I hope my hunch is correct that it will happen soon, within the next 2 months? The unknown on timing really takes its emotional toll. I pray for mercy!

And in the meantime, I pack and prepare as though it will all be done within a month!

Pre-Wedding Prep

After a week on Sister Ruth's farm in Michigan, capped off by the August 1 wedding of niece Lesley, I have to catch you up!

First of all, I drove up and back, almost 800 miles each way in 12-hour days, all by myself, and "DID IT!" I drove without fatigue or mishap. I felt protected by the God of the Universe. It was amazing.



Beginning that Monday and for the next 5 days, including Saturday, the day of the wedding, we all worked 8-hour days, almost non-stop. I started out cleaning the above 3 vintage windows...followed by the 18 vintage chairs that had been sitting in the barn for months, all freebies from Free-Cycle. They ended up being placed strategically around the farm in lovely vignettes for the time between the wedding ceremony and the dinner hour.




Then I helped Don build the arbor that was such a romantic gateway to the celebration. It took 4 of us to stabilize it and put it into place. We almost ditched the effort until we got it to work...with celebratory lights to boot!

This is what it looked like the night of the wedding (yes, I'm jumping ahead)!

From that point on, I mainly had a paint brush in hand! I stained the 4 Adirondack chairs Don had made and then Spar-urethaned them...two days' worth of effort.

Sister Nancy then needed me to rip seams from the Mother-of-the-Bride's lovely strapless floor-length dress. Nancy is the real seamstress...taking a size 12 down to a size 6. It was the dress Ruth wanted but the only size available. No problem for Nancy! That's what sisters are for! I was happy I could rip the seams.

Can you imagine sitting out on the front porch to resize a dress?!

Look at that dress! Miss Ele-Gant with the groom, her new son. But I digress again, jumping too far ahead....










Then there were all kinds of odds-n-ends...painting this and that for whatever wherever. All stuff I enjoyed doing. Call me the Painter Queen. It must have been the farmer shorts...putting me in my zone.

Don't tell me I can't handle power tools! Yup. Even the screen door needed to be painted, front and back.


Then the atelier had to be cleaned from head to toe. It was the babysitting room after dinner before the kids went to the farm house to watch their bedtime movie, Wall-E. Can you believe this used to be a chicken coop? Now it's Ruth's studio.

By now, we're finally at the wedding-day stretch, working from 8a till 4p before stopping to get ready for the 6p ceremony. Hundreds of mini-lights still needed to be strung all around the magical tent. Can you imagine what that looked like as it got dark?!

Well, imagine no more because here's Sister Ruth's post for the event. I'll share my own post in a couple of days. But for now, I wanted you to see why I went up early to help get the farm ready. It was such a great memory, to have and hold forever.

For the family (and you who have time), here's my pre-wedding album (you can view it at fast speed in the slideshow). We really did work our tails off...and it was totally worth it!