The cars are in the garage!!!

The snow threatened all weekend. The boys are anticipating no school tomorrow. According to the weather man we may get up to 10 inches. Haven't seen anything yet. The roads were clear when we went to the store, Trevor and I, to stock up on groceries, just in case.

$349 later at Winco, I felt we had enough to get through a couple more days of the boys being home. The dog and cats also were replenished with fresh bags of food, just in case. Checking out was a pain though. A few days ago I was at Winco and my debit card didn't work. Luckily the bank was still open so I just ran over and got cash out and came back and paid for my groceries. I was told I had a new card coming in the mail. Winco doesn't take credit cards. It is one of the ways it saves money and has lower food prices.

The new card arrived today in the mail, but not until after I borrowed Tom's debit card and found his was also obsolete. I had to drive all the way home to get a check, and found the new card in the mail box waiting. The new card refused activation though, when I tried to pay for my groceries with it, the second time around. I ended up writing a check in the end. I am getting tired of all these updates from Bank America. It is making my life difficult. The money is in the bank, yet I can't seem to access it easily. My old cards were not expired. It is a little frustrating to say the least, if not a little embarrassing.

Nice thing about having babies and being over 40 is that you realize a little embarrassment is survivable. After delivering my children at the hospital, with family and strange nurses and doctors around, I realized everything else that could possibly embarrass me is an improvement
to having my legs spread and everyone seeing everything below the waist.

Today, one of my dearest friends, who is a great organizer and someone who can tell me the truth, always, came over. She had her car in at the shop and had me pick her up and come to my house while she waited for the repairs. We live close to her mechanic's shop. It was a three hour job, supposedly.

Tom has been wanting me to tackle the garage. I get so bogged down by everything that needs to be done, I never finish one project. She kept me focused on the garage. We sorted and boxed. The boys were home for the three day weekend. Trevor owed me work time for driving him to basketball games and fronting him the entrance fees and snack bar money. Riley helped because Tom was home and he knew better than to balk at the work. Besides he knew I would reward with treats later if I was made happy.

The boys carried boxes and things up and down the stairs as needed. We donated a huge box of linens and bedding, plus another two boxes of books, and some kitchen things that I didn't need or want. We stuck them in the Taurus, but once the garage was cleared out, we wanted to try out the new space and see how the cars fit. I decided with the weather that I should take the jeep with the 4WD, just in case. We transferred the boxes.

There was also room for Trevor to come with us to the grocery store by taking the Jeep. There was no room in the Taurus for a third passenger with the boxes. My girlfriend swept out the garage. The Taurus is now parked inside, out of the snow. We had to shovel the day's accumulation off the car before we parked it inside so the snow melt would not make a mess on the floor. We used a broom to sweep the car clean of snow.

There was plenty of room for both vehicles. When I got back from the store loaded down with groceries, I backed in and was able to open the trunk having closed the big door against the weather, and have the boys help me unload the groceries.

Riley and Trevor were both pleased with the treats I had purchased as a thank you for all their help. It was pretty funny though how often they would disappear for stretches of time to avoid the carry and haul.

I am thrilled at the progress. We are not done. I still have to set up shelves on the wall for the tools and set up the work bench properly. It wont be long before the third car can also be parked in the garage. The roof box needs hooks on the wall so it can be hung up out of the way.

I do need to insulate the ceiling of the garage as it was quite pleasant working out there, even with the snowy weather, since the heated man cave above seems to be heating the garage also. It took the edge off the chilly air.

I am so excited as to our progress. Even the basement has made progress. Next week I have the opportunity to pick up some shelves at a good price. I can unpack the boxes of "keep" items once the shelves are in place. I feel so close to being on vacation with the thought of those last boxes being unpacked.

I can no longer say my book collection is huge anymore. I have seriously weeded out the detrious. I kept my favorite children's books, which will need to find a good home on the incoming shelves. Tom wanted to keep much of his reference books from college. I kept many momentous from my Dad's collection and some history books. The boys didn't care about many of their reading books. I took license and tossed in the donate box. I recommend checking out Goodwill if you need good books for your second grader to middle school reader. Many of the books I don't even think were opened, the bindings were unbent.

I still have boxes to sort and toss, but the volume is declining rapidly. My girlfriend worked hard keeping my boys and me focused on the task at hand today. The end result was amazing.