Getting my life in order!

The past few weeks have been difficult with moving my mother out of her home of 52 years and getting her settled in with us. Then, she fell and broke her hip last week and has been hospitalized and is now in a rest home receiving physical therapy.

I'm not sure that I've really recovered from our own move last fall and then I had to move her. I really don't want to touch or lift a box for a long time! At least I've finally gotten around to buying and putting together a new computer desk! Since we moved in, I had to sit on the floor while using the computer. Now, I can actually sit in a comfortable chair and read posts, update my photos and generally surf the Internet again. The weather here in Chicago has been horrible and I'm hoping that the weather will turn warm so I can be outside and can start working on our new lawn.

Reflections

It’s that time of year again when we reflect upon the past year and look forward (usually) to the coming year. I guess that’s the case this year. For me personally, 2007 was not a good year and I’m hoping that ‘08 is a better year for me and for civilization in general.

My move into the new house totally consumed my year. Before we could even think about moving, we had to get our old house ready to be sold. That involved painting (Lisa’s area of expertise), changing light fixtures, refinishing wood floors, installing new carpeting and the like. Somewhere, I have the cost of doing all of this, but I really don’t want to know right now. I’m well aware of the physical cost of doing all of this.

Going through the trauma of selling a house in this real estate market is horrible. Although she probably meant well, all I could hear from our real estate agent was that we needed to reduce the price of the house or we needed to give in on this request or we needed to do something else. Fortunately, our house sold early in the process — maybe because we did follow our agent’s instructions — so that stress was lessened.

The actual move was the worst part. All of the family members we counted on to help were not around when we needed to move in lae September. I personally think Michael going to Iraq was a bit extreme, but neither he nor Jessica were around to help, especially since they have a lot of their stuff still at the house. We rented three PODS and two U-Haul trucks and still did not have enough to contain all of our stuff. We were still moving out of our house at 5:00 a.m. the morning of our closing! I still don’t know how we managed the strength to do it.

Moving into the new house was a little better, but I absolutely hate just putting stuff into the basement or the garage before sorting it out. That’s what we did and the basement is still in shambles! It’s going to take many months to get it straightened out. Mom is moving in with us in mid-February (another story!) so her stuff will also be in the basement.

Now Lisa and I are trying to begin the improvements. Actually, Lisa is excited about painting and decorating. We bought a new Dewalt miter saw in November which counted as my Christmas present. We want to install chair rails and crown moulding throughout the house.

In October, we lost two family members. My dad’s brother, Lowell Cornelius, passed away from cancer. I attended his funeral and was able to reconnect with many of my cousins. Hopefully we can get together under better circumstances. Earler in the month, my beautiful Papillon, Mozart, was taken from me by a coyote. I did find his remains so I do hav some closure, but it has taken me a long time to recover from it. Strange how a pet impacts your life!

In 2008, Mom moves in with us so that will be an adjustment for all of us. We look forward to Michael safely returning from Iraq later in ‘08. Christine is making noise about moving to Seattle and attending art school.

So ‘08 will be a challenge, but hopefully not to the extent that 2007 was a challenge.

I hope everyone has a good year.

Getting up to date

It's been quite a while since I'm made an entry into this space. There have been quite a few things going on in my life -- some good and one bad -- and I just haven't had the time nor the energy to post.

Late in September, we moved into our brand new house in Elgin. It was really tough to leave our old house after living there for just over 13 years. It was tough on the family, especially Kevin who has not known any other home. He was excited about the move until it came to the moment when he said goodbye to his room for the last time. I was fighting tears myself as I watched him deal with this change. The night we actually moved, we were up until 4:00 a.m. packing everything. We ended up using three PODS, two rental trucks plus a number of trips between the old house and my in-laws to just move our stuff.It was completely exhausting.

On Friday, September 28, we closed on our new house and began the unpacking process. It took about 3+ weeks to move boxes and furniture from the garage and to have any semblance of a "home." Even now, six weeks after the move, I don't feel entirely comfortable in this house. It will come with time, but I don't feel that sense of "intimacy" (for a lack of a better word) with the house.

The real bad news happened the evening of October 9th. My little dog, Mozart, was captured and killed by a coyote while on his leash. To make a long story short, he was outside along with two other dogs, before they went to bed. While I was bringing one of the dogs in, a coyote sneaked up in the dark and grabbed him. Of course, I did not know this at the time. I stayed home from work the next day looking for him. Finally, around 3:00 p.m., I literally stumbled upon his remains. There was literally nothing left of him but blood, fur, bones and tissue. The fur did give me enough to identify him. The only good thing about this is that I have closure, but I am saddened beyond words about this. Even though we still have three other dogs, there is a discernible void in my life right now.

Mozart's legacy is the fence that has just been built. We had planned on building a fence, but held off because of the cost. After what happened to Mozart and hearing other coyote "incidents" in our new neighborhood, we decided to press forward with the fence. It's too late for him, but this will save our remaining dogs. Even with our other dogs, Mozart was my dog, my companion and my friend. For those who are interested, I created a Flickr set dedicated to him. He was a beautiful little dog and I miss him greatly.

Now with Thanksgiving and the holiday season approaching, things will hopefully slow down so we can settle happily into this house.

Where are all the Cicadas?

Rumor has it that the Chicago area has become infested with Cicadas.

You wouldn't know it where I live.

I back up to Poplar Creek Forest Preserve in northwest Cook County and I fully expected to be inundated with Cicadas. But there is nothing yet. I thought I heard some last weekend, but nothing ever became of it. Even with the nice warm weather we've enjoyed this week, I still hear more birds than Cicadas.

I'm not complaining. I'm just curious why they haven't reached us yet.