It's Just Life

  • Home
  • About
  • Comments for a Cause
  • Tea and Teapots
  • Books
  • Travel
  • Writing
  • Recipes
  • Products
April 19, 2012

Storage Units and Birthday Bashes

20 Comments/ 2232/ 0

It’s official.  We are some of “those people” who are renting a storage unit!  Yikes.  How did we get there?  Quite simply put—we got there because Chris’s dad’s house in Ohio has sold and we don’t have time to UHaul our treasures across the country right now.  Whew.  We had an exhausting but productive weekend and I wanted to share a bit of our adventures.

Chris and I went and secured said storage unit on Saturday morning.  Great owner and great conversation.  I quipped to her that I bet she could tell us some interesting stories and she laughed and agreed and shared a couple!!!  The best one was about a client who pays cash, wants no bills sent his home address and is always ahead in paying.  Funny thing–he comes in as a man and leaves as a woman…….and not a pretty woman according to her.  I commented that the lighting is not too great in those units so I am sure that is the problem.

So the day of moving and loading and sorting began and with some great help from the local church we got all the furniture we had intended to take moved to the unit easy peasy.  Chris and I made quite a few trips later in two cars with fishing gear, duck decoys, books and other assorted treasures to be sorted out later.  Chris’s sister Colleen and her husband and daughter along with Carlton came over to help get the stuff out of the basement and finish packing up the rest of the house for the auction and by the end of the day we had made huge progress. The May 5th estate auction date looked much more realistic!   The garage is filled once again and I am amazed at how much stuff we have taken out of the house–one huge garage sale, 3 rolls offs and a garage filled for the estate sale.  The house seems to be sitting up a little bit  higher now.

Of course since we are not going to be there for Carlton’s birthday on the 20th we had to celebrate with him early and a trip to Olive Garden complete with gift cards and an Ohio State watch made for the perfect night.   He was so happy!   And I was happy that he was happy!

Sunday we finished moving all the stuff, packed up what we could that was left in the house, stripped the beds and enjoyed a fabulous dinner with the mom of the best man in our wedding who recently lost her husband.   She is a very perky 90 year old and it was a great way to leave town and enjoy the the last night in Lima.  We headed to Detroit and stayed in the hotel in the airport and got a good night of sleep before I headed back to Iowa and Chris to China.

Our journey is coming to an end.  The house will be someone else’s and with it come a lot of emotions and feelings.  While we ate breakfast at Ike’s I got a little misty eyed thinking of how many times Dad took us there to eat and Chris had to remind me that it was I that was supposed to be strong for him!   It has been a very long year and as we near the end of this part of our journey I am grateful for the love and support of so many along the way—including my bloggy friends.  From the bottom of my heart–thank you.

Share:
Tags:
birthday celebration Down Syndrome moving packing up storage units transitions
← Previous Wordless Wednesday
Next → What Is Different About My Blog Today???

Related Articles

  • A Tiny Little Bunny

  • A Bright Spot in a Pandemic

  • A Honeymoon Preview

  • The End of the Journey

  • Happy Birthday, Mr. Diamond!

20 Comments

Leave a comment
  1. Virginia
    April 19, 2012 at 08:36 am

    Wow, you packed a lot of work and emotion into a weekend! Transitions are always hard and a few tears always help with the healing! Love you!

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 08:42 am

      Thanks!!! We are indeed getting to the end of this journey. It is kind of bittersweet as we will no longer be going to Lima for visits but will just shift to Ada instead. It’s all good and time. Love you back!

      Reply
  2. TBM
    April 19, 2012 at 08:57 am

    I do miss the Olive Garden. I was thinking earlier that I wanted some Italian food…dang now I really want their bread sticks and salad. I hope you enjoyed for me.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 09:21 am

      Oh man–if I had known I would have swiped a breadstick and sent it to you!!! Next time!!! You may have to soften it up a bit by the time it gets to you but hey—-it will be worth it, right?

      Reply
      1. TBM
        April 19, 2012 at 09:24 am

        Considering it took me a month to get my xmas cards that they opened I might be able to use it as a bookend.

        Reply
    2. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 09:25 am

      Either that or a billy club to fight off unwarranted advances as you are out walking!

      Reply
      1. TBM
        April 19, 2012 at 09:28 am

        LOL…it happens more in the pubs 😉

        Reply
        1. Beth Ann
          April 19, 2012 at 10:39 am

          LOL I bet!

          Reply
  3. poemsandponderings
    April 19, 2012 at 10:21 am

    Please don’t let that beautiful furniture end up on “Storage Wars” (Ohio).lol
    And Happy Birthday to Carlton

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 10:23 am

      Oh I promise it won’t!!! My friend Ann has about 5 old tv’s she wondered if she could stow there and then we could later default on the unit and see if they would dispose of them since she can’t get rid of them!!! 🙂

      Reply
  4. Kathryn McCullough
    April 19, 2012 at 04:25 pm

    Oh, Beth Ann, you must be exhausted! Some of the furniture in the storage unit is gorgeous. So glad Carlton enjoyed the watch. I love the Olive Garden! Take care of yourself. Hope you can get some rest.
    Hugs,
    Kathy

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 05:53 pm

      A lot of it was stuff that was in the family and Chris’s dad refinished it. Future homes for teapots. 🙂

      Reply
  5. pattisj
    April 19, 2012 at 07:17 pm

    Pretty furniture! That will play a lovely supportive role for your teapots!

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 10:05 pm

      Yes indeed they will!!!! One of these days when we get them together!

      Reply
  6. benzeknees
    April 19, 2012 at 07:52 pm

    I am so afraid of my kids having to go through the horrible job of going through my things after I’m gone, I’ve become a bit of a non-hoarder. Every time we move I get rid of more & more stuff & I’m finding I don’t miss any of it at all. Glad you were able to get so much done in such a short time, it’s nice when everyone helps out.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 19, 2012 at 10:06 pm

      Being a non hoarder is a good thing!!! We have accumulated a lot more “stuff” since our move back to the US and it is time to whittle it down again….just gotta do it!

      Reply
  7. Helen Brown
    April 19, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    I loved the pictures of Carlton and I could tell how happy he was. Blessings to your family for loving and taking such good care of him. I can only imagine how tired all of you were when the furniture was moved,

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 20, 2012 at 07:22 am

      We were tired but it was a good kind of tired and like I said, we had help moving the furniture from a couple guys from the church or Chris’s back would have been out again!

      Reply
  8. Susi K (@BocaFrau)
    April 20, 2012 at 07:28 am

    It must have been an emotional weekend. It’s never easy to have to sell something that has so many memories attached to it. I remember when we left Germany and my mom and I were packing up our house, a house my parents had built with their own two hands… we cried buckets. But I’m sure it’s a bit of a relief to, to get everything in order and moving forward.

    Reply
    1. Beth Ann
      April 20, 2012 at 07:44 am

      It was emotional but I think that the hard part will really be the auction when the actual “things” are being sold to strangers, you know? But it is all part of the process and definitely time to move on.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

  • Subscribe To Rss Feed
  • 2,256 Followers
  • 2,272 Fans
  • Followers
  • 1 Followers
  • Subscribers
  • Subscribers
  • Follow It's Just Life

Comments For A Cause

  • Honoring My Mom with Comments for a Cause

  • Comments for a Cause – The Love of Books

  • Comments for a Cause – A Bit of Nostalgia

  • Comments for a Cause for the New Year

  • Comments for A Cause – Sharing Where Needs are Great

  • Comments for a Cause – Supporting First Responders

  • Comments for a Cause Goes Pink

  • Comments for a Cause: #IowaStrong

  • Comments for a Cause – Sharing With the Community

  • Comments for a Cause – Fill the Bus

  • Taking Care of Yourself and Others- Comments for a Cause

  • Comments for a Cause – Transylvania Tomorrow

  • Comments for a Cause – COVID – 19 Solidarity Response

  • Comments for a Cause – Helping North Carolina Babies

  • Comments for a Cause Goes International

Check Out My Past Posts

April 2021
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« Mar    

Text

Follow

Pinterest

Visit Beth Ann's profile on Pinterest.

Beth's bookshelf: read

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users
5 of 5 stars
The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users
by Guy Kawasaki
As always Guy Kawasaki has a great book with great information about all things social media. I highlighted tons of places in this book and it is definitely one that I will come back to time and time again to help me in all of the socia...
Old Girls in Low Cotton
3 of 5 stars
Old Girls in Low Cotton
by Helen Childress
This short book was one that looked like it would be a fun read. I honestly did not enjoy it all that much---it was a lot of characters bickering and while some of the writing was witty and funny it was not that kind of book that made m...
The Good Girl
5 of 5 stars
The Good Girl
by Mary Kubica
I loved this book! It had my interest from the very first page and was my "airplane" book on a recent trip. Author Mary Kubica created believable and interesting characters that the reader learned to identify with and care about. Mi...
All the Light We Cannot See
4 of 5 stars
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr
This is quite a book! I had it recommended to me by several people and while I thought it might be a little dark and depressing it made me have a better understanding of what life in this time period was like. The strength of the huma...
An Abundance of Katherines
5 of 5 stars
An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
Another great book by John Green. I have become a huge fan of John Green since my reading of A Fault in our Stars and this book was another that did not disappoint me at all. It was a story of a child prodigy, a lot of anagrams, and a b...

goodreads.com

Professional Reader
Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Copyright © 2015 It's Just Life, All Rights Reserved.

  • Media Kit, Advertising and Disclosure