A whole lot of shaking going on!
AGAIN, I have been MIA for weeks. Trust me, I would have loved to have a day to sit and muse.
As I shared here, Matt moved into a new home and Katie moved out of her college apartment.
I laugh at people who think their “parenting” somehow ends when their kid turns 18. Trust me, that is when the REAL work begins. In my case it means helping kids maneuver through life…i.e. move, sell. buy, marry, give birth…in other words, any time they need help, Mom is here to help. The years of “rearing them up” are over, but their lives get crazy and complicated and they still need guidance and a strong back!
Soooooo, what I have I been up to?
The house Matt bought was the home of his aunt’s sister…she passed away in March. So imagine you walk out of your home and die…and everything you own is in that house. Yep…and not only is it a big house, it was PACKED FULL! No one was able to really begin sorting and packing and moving her stuff out until after Matt closed so the week before Katie moved, I was at Matt’s new house sorting and packing!
After a few days of doing that, we loaded up a 16’ moving truck with all of Katie’s belongings and her cat, Simon, hooked her car up to the back, and drove 21 hours to her new home in Delaware.
I made an instagram post about this trip…one of the hashtags was #budgetrentalssmelllikeass…enough said about that issue.
The truck did not have cruise control. I never thought of that feature as being a “must have” on a vehicle. I was wrong.
I will NEVER complain about the condition of Arkansas highways again after driving through Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
NEVER book a motel in a city if you have no idea where their “bad side of town” is….there is a good chance the hotel will be smack dab in the middle of it.
When driving a 16’ box truck towing a vehicle DO NOT get yourself in a tight spot…only get gas where 18 wheelers get gas!
All that being said, we were extremely fortunate to find parking right in front of her apartment. Fortunate as well that she has a friend who had moved to Wilmington the week prior and was available to help unload the truck. We were able to get everything moved into her little apartment the evening we pulled into town.
Then the REAL work began.
The apartment was advertised as 700 square feet…I can assure you it is not! “Tiny living” is a real challenge, even for a recent college graduate who has few possessions. Unfortunately, that is all that is really affordable if you are looking for a safe neighborhood close to downtown in an older Northeastern city.
You have to be very judicious about possessions, you learn to be very organized and you make the most of all the space available.
So for two days we unpacked, purged, built shelving, and arranged and rearranged furniture and “stuff.” It was a challenge but in the end she has a precious “home” that is perfect for her and Simon!
The kitchen was the biggest challenge. Katie loves to cook and she buys in bulk and stores everything in mason jars. Since the kitchen only had two upper cabinets, we spend the better part of one day just building shelves to hold her storage jars, dishes and spices. (All the photos are from my Iphone, and again, I am not a travel blogger!)
The living room wasn’t as big of a challenge since it wasn’t much smaller than her college apartment!
The pen and ink drawings are of the old train depot and old post office in Fayetteville…a little token of her college town.
She finally ordered pillow covers for her throw pillows. She learned from her mama…keep the big stuff neutral and infuse color in the decor…pillows, rugs, art, etc. The pillows she ordered are bright and fun and full of color!
Two days of driving, two days of moving/building/staging/purging and then the fun begins….
NEW YORK CITY BABY!!!!!
Yep, I finally got to take my baby to New York City! We took a train from Wilmington, Delaware to Penn Station in New York City, walked 10 blocks to our hotel and spent 3 1/2 glorious days in New York City!!!
Okay, glorious is a stretch….it rained the first day and they were experiencing their first big “heat wave” of the summer….weather-wise, not so glorious.
So what did we do in the rain and the heat? AS MUCH AS WE COULD!
We saw two Broadway plays….
It was the one thing I regretted not doing when Matt and I went to NYC.
We did the whole “Rockefeller Center” thing…bought a sweatshirt in the NBC shop, went to the Top of the Rock and had coffee in the plaza.
We ate a pastrami sandwich and a HUGE slice of cheesecake in a sweet little cafe off Time Square….
We rode bikes around Central Park….keep in mind it was pushing 100 degrees so we were pretty melted. That being said, when Matt and I road around Central Park two years ago, I had to walk 1/2 the way…I was just soooo out of shape! After losing 20+ pounds and biking for the last year, I was able to ride around the entire park without stopping at all! Yay, me!!!
We ate dinner in Bryant park, took the night bus tour across the Manhattan bridge to Brooklyn, walked across the Brooklyn bridge in the rain, visited the 9-11 memorial, took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We took the extended tour of Ellis Island. We spent a morning in the Museum of Natural History (really should have spend ALL day there), took a bus tour of Harlem, saw Grant’s tomb, visited the Federal Hall where Washington was inaugurated and the little church across from the 9-11 memorial where he prayed after his inauguration. We took a water taxi up the west side of Manhattan. We visited the church were Alexander Hamilton is buried and of course, St. Peter’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue….
Which reminds me…how many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb….
Even in the most reverent places my mind goes places. But seriously, it is BEAUTIFUL cathedral!
I know we did much more…but basically we saw as much of NYC as we could in a few short days.
Then I flew home from Laguardia and Katie returned to her new little apartment in Wilmington.
My baby has officially “left the nest.”
And while I would love to sit and “muse” about this next chapter in my life, I really didn’t have much time to dwell. I had work to do at the apartments, a pile of projects in my garage, and a son who needed help with his yard and garage at his new house.
Man I need a vacation!
Maybe in the pile of projects in my garage I will have a makeover to share next week.
Until then….
