Ahhhhh, Retirement is Great!

I am loving my new status of unemployed but have accomplished nothing which feels wonderful.  We are going to Germany on Sunday and will be gone for 2 weeks.  Hopefully I will find us housing then it's back home for 3 weeks then the permanent move will transpire.  I'm still so excited and just relieved to be on a path now.

I had all these plans on cleaning house this week but nope haven't started yet.  I'm still getting up every morning (just an hour later than I used to), doing my makeup routine then getting online for hours upon hours on end.  There is still a lot of "stuff" that I have to research, calls to make and general blog searching that I must attend to every day.  Seriously, I am working at least part of the day on moving stuff but no real stitching until after dinner every night just like before.  Dang it and I have cooked every night.  I'm trying to use all the food in the freezer and pantry stuff before we move.   Mark's loved it because home cooking every night and at least one dessert every other night so he feels very pampered.  We turned my car into the dealership last Thursday so I'm stuck at home without a vehicle now.  It just didn't make sense to keep it parked in a garage, make lease payments plus taxes and insurance while we are gone.  I actually pushed to do it because the payment is due the first of every month so before June's was due, I wanted it done.  I'm just a nervous Nellie because even though we can live without my salary, we never had to and I draw my last paycheck this Friday.  I just have adjust my budgeting a little bit and getting rid of the car gave me a head start on doing that.

Okay now for fun stuff again.  We went home to Arkansas on Friday for the weekend and what a great time we had seeing everyone.  We hadn't been home since Christmas 2010 so we had a lot of catching up to do with all the family and friends.  My folks threw a drop in party on Saturday evening and it was wonderful!  My parents are so proud and supportive of our adventure that they wanted all of loved ones to wish us well.  There were probably 40 or so people that came and oh my gosh, did we have lots of Food!  Of course, like all southerner's my momma and daddy worry about running out of food so they went way overboard.  Everything was delicious and we laughed ourselves silly.  We stayed with Mark's folks and had a chance to visit in depth with them about our move.  Mark still hadn't told them until Friday night....that man!  I think they expected something like that was in the works but Mark just never talked about it with them because why????  He's a man!  So strange but again I just love them and know I'll never ever be able to change that family!

Now stitchy news:  I finished Pumpkin Farm, Gathering Basket and Sweet Thoughts Of You.  I have no picture of Sweet Thoughts because I framed it along with a lock of my baby hair and gave it to my parents when we were home.  I chose not to use the perforated paper to stitch on but instead used an older piece of 14 count fabby that I had in my stash.  It really turned out nicely and maybe I can convince my momma to take a picture and send it to me so I can show it to you guys.  I also started La-D-Da's Old Crow on the plane home.  I'm using the called for fabby which is a rich chocolate brown and looks nothing like the fabric on the chart.  Go figure but I love, love this brown but  just wish I had bought more of it.  Me thinks I might have to make another stash run when we get home the end of June.  Oh wait....budget, budget...oh screw it, I can feed him beanie, wienies a few times.  LOL!

I'm gearing up for the move by stocking up on "girl" movies to watch and added the Downtown Abbey to my collection last week.  I got seasons 1 and 2 because so many of my stitchy and prim pals said they were excellent.  I also put the Hatfields and McCoys on the DVR because I loved that mini series but I've got to figure out how to get them off dvr and onto my dvd.  We have a dvd recorder if I can just figure out how to turn the crazy thing on.  Anyway H&Mc may have become my favorite show of all times because of all the prims I could see in the homes.  I just sat there enthralled or at least enthralled until they started shooting then I'd look away and Mark would tell me when to turn around again.  It's funny how that stuff makes me so queasy now when I grew up on all the Nightmare on Elm Streets and Jason movies and still love all the crime shows on tv but couldn't watch the shootings on H&Mc.....maybe because that really did happen and those people really did die like that. 

Anyhoo, I'm off not for a little more research time and then head upstairs to my stitchy chair for at least an hour of quality stitching time this afternoon.  I'm exhausting Clarice because I'm home all day and she's  not getting all her catnaps in during the day so maybe if I take a break this afternoon she can get a little shuteye.  The things we do for our kids!