Wisconsin Week

What a week!

The Good Stuff:

- I made it safely to Wisconsin, and the weather is wonderful for moving.  Dry and in the 40s during the day.  Sweatshirt weather.
- Do you know how many activity points you earn for carrying boxes for the equivalent of six hours a day?  43
- I have three days remaining here, and if feels like we still have way too much to do.  My mom did a great job packing boxes, and she's been a whirling dervish of activity since I've been here.  She made a plan, and she's been working the plan, and it's coming together.  She's had laryngitis the whole time I've been here, but I think it's from exhaustion.  I'm afraid she's going to wind up in the hospital before this move is done, but I hope not.  I'm still hauling out boxes she's been packing for the last several months, and we haul back empty boxes for her to pack more stuff.  (They have way too much stuff.)  Most of the upstairs is cleaned out -- both upstairs bedrooms are empty and clean and both upstairs bathrooms are cleaned.  Mom's finishing up the kitchen and laundry room.  The living room is basically done, but we are staging empty boxes in there and will be staging packed boxes there as of tomorrow morning.  My 17-year old niece and her boyfriend are supposed to help tomorrow, and I asked Dad to have them carry stuff up from the basement and stage it in the living room for me to haul to the trailer when I get done emptying this load here at the new house.  We have about half the basement cleaned out.  About half the garage is done too.  Things are fitting nicely into the new house -- it's about 600 sq ft larger and has a better layout.  (But they still have too much stuff -- yes there is a theme here.)
- My aunt (Mom's sister) flew in from CA to help this week, and she has been awesome.  She has gotten my 95-year-old grandmother settled into her new room, kept her occupied so Mom could work on the move, AND she's done grocery shopping and cooking for us all week.  Do you know how awesome that is?  Is you don't, you have to believe me when I tell you it's made the week pleasant.
- I got to see my 10 year old niece's basketball game on Friday night
- I got to hang out with my sister for a little while on Friday night
- I have a new total body work out to market.  All you need are some stairs, a dolly, and several boxes of varying weight.  Load them on the dolly, back up the the stairs, brace your legs, stick your butt out behind you for ballast, grip the handle on the dolly, and pull until it rolls up one step.  Stabilize, step up one step.  Repeat.  No expensive gym needed.

The Not So Good:

- There's an awful lot of work to do yet.  I still don't know if I can get it all done before I have to leave on Thursday morning
- My knees are in pain, but they aren't as bad tonight as they have been the last few days
- Lis (my aunt) leaves for home on Tuesday morning.  What are we going to do without her?  She's spoiled us this week.
- My dad's hip is bothering him (he's been doing a great job this week, too -- the stairs are killing both of us, so we try to balance each other out a little).  I kidded with him today about having to come back next month for a hip replacement operation, and he said, "Maybe.  I should have had it done while I was still working when I had really good insurance." (But he'd already had the two knee operations and disabilities that went with that, and he didn't feel right hitting them up for a third one.  I understand where he's coming from on that score.)

For the Next Week:

- Get as much done as possible to move everything out of Mom and Dad's old house and get it to the new house (or wherever else it needs to go) by Wednesday evening
- Head for home on Thursday morning
- Meet Tammy and the munchkin for lunch
- Have a safe trip home