a day late and a turkey short

Here's how we roll.

Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving?  Never happens with my kids.

This year it was Friday.  Today in fact!

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campin' out (we're in!)

In truth, we've been in for an entire week now.

We spent exactly 10 nights at the 'rents house.  Not that they were counting.  Because they knew that when we left...Eddie left.

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the devastation of a town

My hometown made national news today.  Unfortunately.

I grew up in Washington, Illinois and graduated from Washington High School.  So did Phil.  He graduated WAY before me though.  Obviously.

Half of my immediate family still lives there. 

And what appears to have been an EF4 tornado ripped through Washington today. 

I couldn't reach my parents.  There was little to no cell service.

We were headed to their house and I was finally able to reach my sister.  Thankfully, they were all safe and their homes are intact.

Meanwhile, Phil managed to reach our friend Brent, who has helped us so much in the building of our new home.

He has lost his home.

His dad, who lived a block down, also lost his.

But they are safe.

Brent needed a ride to somewhere--anywhere--but by the time we got there, he had already made his way to his sister's home.

This is what we witnessed.

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casa de 'rents

Who says you can't go home again?

(No really...I had to look it up.)

When we closed on the sale of our old house, the new pad was lacking the following luxuries:

Hot water
A bathroom sink (or any sink)

Now we have both.  So I don't have to wash my hands in the toilet.  Because I do have one of those.  Finally.  In the basement.  Surrounded by stud walls and mountainous piles of bric-a-brac.

My parents were gracious enough to invite us into their rat-infested slum of a cracker-box house.  And by invited, I mean that I said, "Um...Mom...would it, um, be okay if, um, Phil and I and Eddie -- you LOVE Eddie -- and, um, the outdoor cat, stay at your house for hopefullynotmorethanaweekorpossiblytwo...?"

So here's where we were forced to reside for the last week and a half.  What a dump.

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yes, we have no pianos

We have no...pianos...today.

Yay!  My computer is hooked up!  I'm currently sitting in the basement between the chest freezer and the furnace.  Only the best for us.

The week started off as pure hell.  On Saturday, I learned that my very good friend from the first grade was succumbing to the effects of the cancer she's been fighting for the last 7 years.  We lost her Monday morning.

I love you Jeannie, and I will miss you terribly.

She had been to the new house a few times over the last several months and saw some of the progress.  I'm so sad there will be no new memories here.

But Jeannie had the biggest and quickest smile of anyone I've ever known.  And she wouldn't want us to dwell.  Goodbye Sweet Friend!

*********

We closed on the sale of our old house Wednesday.  In true Phil and Andi fashion, we did the headless chicken dance right up until the last minute to get the rest of our valuables out.  And by "valuables," I mean all the leftover crap that you have no idea what to do with.

BUT...Tuesday was an experience.  The guys showed up to move the piano.  Have you ever seen an 800-pound grand piano moved down a flight of eight stairs?

You're about to.

But first, a quick funny.  When I called the place to set up the move, he asked me three different times what kind of door I had at the bottom of the stairs.

And I explained three different times that IT'S A DECK.

OUTSIDE.

THERE IS NO DOOR.

(Additionally, there is no spoon.)

He finally got it.

It really instilled me with boatloads of confidence.

Now I'm going to do a picture dump, because they pretty much tell the story without a whole lot of commentary.

Remember this guy?

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the BM

Today was the Big Move.

What did you think I meant?

Oh.  Shat.

We did smaller moves to the new house the last 2 Saturdays.  Today was the big one.  We moved all the big furniture (except the piano and our mattress) and a bazillion boxes.

What's left, you ask?  All that miscellaneous crap that you have no idea what to do with so you just stare at it as you scratch your ass.

We did have a few moments of note.

The morning started out by opening the damaged box UPS left on my front porch yesterday.  It was supposed to contain my bathroom sink.  Here's what I found.

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the garage floor ~and~ philly shoots his hose

Philly painted his garage.  It's nice and white now!

Sexy legs.  Most seriously.

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fish guts

I know you've all been waiting with "baited" breath for the follow up on the grossest post.

Remember Major Carp?

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andi's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea

You know how my blog is called, "delusions of ingenuity"?  Yeah.  There's a reason for that.

Somehow, I managed to successfully paint my current backsplash, as well as my mom's backsplash.  I got the idea from the geniuses at Sawdust & Embryos.   I wanted the look of tile without the commitment.

Kinda like how I want to look like Tricia Helfer without all the hard work it would take to get there.  And stay there.

Now I'm obsessed with hexagon tile.  For a backsplash, a bathroom floor, the exterior of a new car...you name it.

source

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gennie, i got . . .your number

Because you seem to be enjoying the music videos.

And because the lyrics are strangely appropriate.

But wow...what a creeper.

We lose power frequently in our current house.  Often enough that we felt compelled to install a generator at the new house.  After all, we're moving from a well-established subdivision in town to "the country."  We're bound to lose power even more often out there, right?

Plans were made, Gennie was purchased, then we talked to our new neighbors.

Do you lose power out here very often?

Neighbor #1:  No.

Neighbor #2:  No.

{Blink}

Well, I guess we'll have the world's ugliest, most expensive piece of landscaping art.

Remember when I got my driveway poured?  Of course you do.  It was just my last post and it was full of yummy.  Well, they also poured a pad for Gennie.

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the return of shirtless boy {or . . . andi gets a driveway}

You really didn't think it was going to happen, did you?

Neither did I.

OMG, here he is:

source

Just kidding.  But boy, do I miss Chris Farley...

I've barely had time to nurture my own blog, let alone visit all the other blogs I love to see.  If you haven't heard from me in a while, or if I haven't responded to you, it's not because I don't love you.  It's because I'm currently having a love affair with Benjamin Moore primer.  And he'll barely let me out of his sight.

And if you don't believe me about being busy, the following activities occurred last Thursday.  And I'm just now getting around to crowing about them.

Not a whole lot to say here...so on with the pictures...

Okay, one thing to say.  I took this because this is what central Illinois looks like right now.  Farmers bringing in the crops.  Oh, and the forms for my driveway.

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drywall sheetrock wallboard gypsum

Now...say the title of this post like this:

"Gunter Glieben Glauchen Globen."

It's the SheetRock of Ages.

And it's up.  And taped.  And mudded.  And sanded.

Great.  That means I now have about 20 gallons of primer and paint to apply.

It's been a completely boring week though, and the pictures are pretty much just...well...boring drywall.

And that's a total excuse for my being a complete blogging slacker the past week.

 Here's a ceiling shot in the kitchen.  Like all my holes?

Me too.  Lots of can lights.

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