We made it...

So, yesterday I tried to blog from my phone. I was thinking that it would be a technology breakthrough for me, but it didn't work. When I realized that it wasn't going to work, I copied and pasted the post I had been working on (while driving through Chicago) into an email and sent it to myself. This also did not work for some unknown reason. To most people, this would probably be a sign not to pursue further the posting of said blog post. However, I am determined to give you some of the "highlights" from our trip (plus I emailed my dad that there would be move coverage on the blog). Hence, here we go again...

We didn't get a chance to leave our house until after 5 PM. At that point, we had to go and retrieve Sophie from the groomer. She smelled good and had little leopard-patterned bows in her hair. We fed her a "special bumper" (bumper with 1/4 of a sedative pill) so she would be calm for the trip. It totally worked. She was awesome.

We had some trouble finding the Comfort Suites hotel where we had reservations. This was mainly my fault, because I missed the exit (I was having fun looking at Indianapolis). Once we finally found it and started the check-in process, the lady at the front desk indicated that dogs were not allowed. I said, "Sure they are. You say so on your website." At this point, her computer system must have told her that she was dealing with an Elite Diamond member, because all of a sudden it was totally OK to have a dog and Sophie was the cutest thing ever. (Which she is.)

The hotel room was awesome. It was a brand new hotel. Sophie was not pleased though. She could not settle down and barked at the tiniest noice in the hallway (she was protecting us). We finally had to give her some more special medicine to catch some shut-eye, since we had five more hours to go in the morning.

Five hours - hahahahaha. Driving through Chicago and beyond proved not to be a laughing matter. It took forever!!! At one point, we had to take a break and magically stumbled across a Panera in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice surprise (but not nice enough to balance the painful 10 miles/hour drive).

Anyway, we finally made it to Wisconsin and started the moving in process. I think one of the reasons I love to move, is because I get to create a new home. Going to Target to get the new dishpan, toilet brushes, and doormats is so thrilling. Putting everything in it's proper place and figuring out the best way to organize everything in the kitchen is totally exciting to me.

We capped our busy day off with some custard at Kopp's. We sat outside and it was slightly chilly. In July.

Hello Wisconsin!

Moving Day

This is our last day in Nashville (at least as residents). The movers are loading up the truck as I type. As always when the Greens move, it's been raining cats and dogs. Fortunately, the skies are now clear and we hope that we'll be out of here in a couple of hours.

We have been trying really hard to move as little "stuff" as possible. A lot has gone to Goodwill (btw, check out itsdeductible.com - very cool). We have also given stuff to friends and thrown out stuff that nobody in the right mind would want. We're still at 300+ lines on the mover's inventory. Crazy! Hopefully, we can get rid of even more before the next move.

The kitchen is the main culprit. I keep thinking I'm going to get into cooking more and I may need that 5th pan, if I'm cooking a lot at once... Like on Thanksgiving. I do plan to cook more in our new home. Mostly, because I'm going to be home more and I like to eat home-cooked food. I can honestly say, I'd rather eat a good meal at home than at a restaurant.

Anyway, I'm really hungry. I may need to go make myself a peanutbutter sandwich. That's about all we have left to eat. And Bumpers. We cannot live without Bumpers. We're really hoping our new grocery store will have Bumpers. If not, we may have to order them online.

Bye bye Nashville!

Patriotic Sophie

Sophie's groomer likes to observe the various US holidays when deciding what bow to put in her hair. Here is Sophie on July 4th:

Happy Workaholics Day...?

Yesterday, I made an unusual stop on the world wide web at 123greetings.com to find a birthday card for my lil' sis' (who happens to be born on July 4th). I expected to see a bunch of July 4th greeting cards, but the first one that showed up was a card with a puppy wearing a tie snoozing on top of a pile of papers with the caption "I'm Dreaming About You!."

Yes indeed, July 5th is "Workaholics Day." Apparently, this is the one day during the year that workaholics are supposed to take a break and smell the roses (or sleep). So it is conveniently located right next to a major holiday when most people are pretty OK with taking time off.

Does anybody else think this is totally insane??

Anyway, my two cents is that accusations of workaholism are unproportionately doled out to people in the corporate world. How often have you heard someone call a missionary a "workaholic" even if they work day and night? I think there is a fine line between passion and unhealthy behavior. I prefer to stay on the passion side of that line... However, sometimes it requires reminders from loved ones. Perhaps that is what this day is about? Reminding people to take a break and enjoy some other aspects of life. (And giving the greeting card industry one more opportunity to sell cards.)

So, what does workaholics day entail for me? Let's see:

• Go to the gym and pump some iron


• Purge the linen closet


• Purge the guest bathroom


• Purge the guest bedroom closet


• Purge the hallway closets


• Take high-quality purged stuff to Goodwill


• Re-pack baby clothes and toys into nice (Swedish) Container Store boxes:

• Cook salmon for the family


• Watch a movie and relax (see, I can do it!)

I can't wait to start my day!