Sweet Life With Mary

Or, still trying to cope with jet lag.

Mary and I are at my parents house, the house I grew up in…

Would love to say more…

But I got to go back to sleep…

We are in Des Moines, Iowa!  Finally, after weeks of packing, cleaning, moving stuff to storage in Colorado, we set out Saturday afternoon for Kearny, Nebraska for the first leg of the trip.  Jack was towing a trailer behind our Volvo station wagon and I was driving our second car with Mary in tow.  Both cars and the trailer were stuffed to the gills.  It took a lot longer than anticipated getting them loaded.

Anyway, we made it here.

And then, Mary and I are leaving for Manila Tuesday morning!  Yep, we are going on an extended vacation with my parents while Jack gets us settled in Iowa.  We will be gone for 3 months. 

This blog will be a way for Jack to share in our experiences in the Philippines.  So, watch out for what Mary thinks of balut, how she copes with the heat (or how I do, for that matter) and the pollution and the traffic and how she enjoys her Lolo and Mama Mer and her cousins.

Mary did not like it much.  But, Jack and I did.

We had kept most of the baby stuff as we were thinking we might have another child after Mary.  Mary is now almost six and the chance of that happening has gone down to 5% (I can still hope, can’t I? Actually, it is probably, down to zero, but I refuse to face that reality…)

But, since we are moving yet again and this time to a different state, it is time to get rid of them.  Of course, we are saving a lot of Mary’s baby clothes and other keepsakes but the car seats (infant and toddler), playpens, crib, three different kinds of strollers, baby swings, all other baby “gear” had to go.

If it was left up to me, I would have just given them all away.  But Jack said we should be able to sell them off thru Craigslist.

Have you all heard of craigslist.org?  In our area, it is a free service where one can post classified ads.  I posted the items, added in images (up to 4, easier to sell stuff when people can look at what you are offering), and waited for Jack to tell me that he had sold something.  We divvied up the work on this— I did the posting and Jack fielded the calls and arrangements for people to come look and buy.

Instead of having to cart off these items to Goodwill, we got a few bucks for them (about $300).  Took about a week to sell off most of them.  Today, there’s only a wooden bassinet frame left to park in front of our driveway with a “Free” sign. 

Mary did not care for Craigslist.  She was not happy about seeing her baby stuff go.  She wanted to save them all for HER babies!

There’s the packing.

And then, there’s the cleaning.

And more packing.

Then, cleaning.

Oh, and selling stuff on Craigslist.

Also, finding “gold”, which, in our case, is a long-lost TV remote controller.  And Mary’s recorder, which was her sister’s and so reminds Mary of her sister and is very precious to her.

Had to operate on the couch for them…

Have I told you yet about the packing?  And the cleaning?….

Time to share what’s been happening behind the scenes.  Mary, Jack and I are pulling up stakes in Colorado and moving to Iowa. 

When Jack and I got married in July of 2001, we decided on Colorado to be close to Jack’s daughter.  As she had graduated from college last May and has since moved to Los Angeles, we feel that we no longer need to be in Colorado, either.  Time to experience a different place.

Why we chose Iowa?  Again, for family.  My mother-in-law lives there, as well Jack’s sister and her extensive family.  It is time for Mary to experience having a grandma and cousins close by.

Planned last day in Louisville?  A week from Friday.  By Saturday, April 26, we are on the road and on the way!

I guess, I spoke too soon.  Monday, we got treated to snow that melted the same afternoon— that was not too bad.  But, today!!! Today, we woke up to about two inches of snow and snow expected to fall till noon.   Quite depressing.

I don’t even want to take pictures anymore.

It’s probably because I have more time to appreciate it, more opportunity to participate in it, more awareness to revel in it— I am loving Spring in Colorado!

True, there’s still snow up in the mountains…

And the other day, I had to drive about 6 miles to the Storage place and during that drive I went through— HAIL, then, RAIN, then, SUNNY, then HAIL AND RAIN pouring down in buckets!  On the drive back to my house, it was SNOW and RAIN mix, then, SWIRLING SNOW and yet SUNNY enough to cast shadows.   A half hour later, it was all done— ground was wet for a couple of hours, the sun dried it all up and it was like, it never happened.  Like Jack said, I had “some weather.”

It is still quite chilly in the mornings and I have a hard time convincing Mary to wear a thick jacket for when I drop her off to school.  On the pick-up at noon, the teacher makes them wear their jackets (and I’m sure Mary does not give her a hard time) but as soon as she sees me, the jacket comes off, along with her backpack, and she prances around, revelling in the cool spring air. 

I’m not the only one who loves spring around here…

Amidst all the boxes all packed ready for moving, Mary finds a good spot to rock her baby.

Out of a bunch of grapes that she had for breakfast, Mary “adopted” this little grape as her baby, she wanted to keep it and take care of it. I warned her that it will become a raisin in a week.

She plans to keep it in the refrigerator with a warning.

The Travel Channel has a series called “Food Paradise” and one of their episodes featured the Top Ten Factory Tours in the country (open and free to the public which included Hersheys PA and Krispy Kreme).   I did not see the complete episode but I happened to catch the tail end of the segment about one in Denver, Colorado — Hammond’s Candies!

The gift shop was no Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory but it had enough candy.

You won’t find factory prices in here…

The tour started with a 5-minute video and then, consisted mostly of going down this corridor.

Looking through the glass windows.

At the factory workers, handling very hot candy made out of corn syrup, sugar and water.

They did bring out samples off the factory line, in the end.

Mary enjoyed the orange-flavored sweet.

The tour was interesting and worth driving down to Denver on a beautiful Friday afternoon— once! If I have out-of-twon visitors looking for things to do around Denver, I would probably mention this, for the novelty, especially if they have kids. 

See that twig amidst the garage clutter? 

That’s Mary’s stick.

Which I’m glad I did not let her bring into the house about two weeks ago when she first picked it up on the way to the neighborhood Mickey D’s.  Otherwise, I would already have broken into little pieces and thrown out with the trash. 

After all, it is JUST a stick, isn’t it?

When we were getting into the car this morning on our way to school, Mary saw it laying there.  Once in the car, she proceeded to tell me how much it meant to her. “I don’t know why but it’s just so precious— it’s so cute!”

Cute? This stick? 

I totally respect other people’s feelings even if I don’t understand them sometimes so I just told her that it might be difficult to pack it when we move— we might not be able to take it with us. 

“No, we have to take it!!!”

When I got back from dropping her off, I regaled Jack with the incident as I found it amusing.  To my surprise, he told me about how HE had found a stick when he was 10, kept it for a long time, and had even taken with him to college.  And he even named it— Sting!  He still misses Sting, he says, ever since one college roommate, unknowingly, burned it…

Mary may not take after Jack in looks, but she sure takes after him in other ways.