Lots of furniture gone!

We did just a little bit of packing today. We bundled up about five bags of trash and finally finished emptying the last dresser. Both kids have all their clothes packed, and the only things left in their room are the bunkbed and their suitcases. We planned to disassemble the beds today, but that will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

My cousin drove down from the rural part of the state this morning with her adorable son and we loaded up three bookshelves, a stereo, a corkboard, some bookends, and a small box of beverage stuff (drink mixes, tea bags, coffee creamers) for her to take to her school for the breakroom and her classroom. It was so good to see her, even though the visit was brief. She and I were two of the youngest cousins in the family, so even though I didn't grow up in NC, when we did travel home to visit family, she was one of the few cousins I spent any time with when I was a kid. Seeing what a wonderful and accomplished woman she has become reminded me how much we grow --not just physically, but completely-- in such a short space of time.

She took one of these... (BigLots' photo)

...and two of these. (BigLots' photo)

Then a guy from Craigslist showed up and took some bedroom furniture. This stuff was from the late 1960s and very heavy to haul down the stairs. I told the Babaloo that our next furniture will be nothing but beanbags and balsa-wood dressers. 

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

And then my mom made it to town. I had Breugger's Bagels waiting when she got here. We visited for a bit while she caught me up on everything going on in her hometown. Then we loaded five bookshelves onto her truck. One of them was the second tall one like my cousin took this morning. I think she said the two unfinished ones are going to store tools in her shed and the others she might be planning to donate to town hall. I know she'll put them to good use.

Gone.

Gone.

Two of these gone.

She also took some canning supplies of which I had too many, some canned goods for her town's food pantry which needs help more than my town does, and a couple of lamps. One was a ceramic green-and-cream lamp that her brother 'rescued' from Roses' department store when he was young (I think my grandfather and most of my uncles on that side all worked for the company at one point or another) and has been in the family forever. I've super-glued parts of it at least twice during the ten years I've had it, and was terrified it wouldn't make the trip. 

Then my sister and my niece visited for a little bit, and all nine of us went out to dinner at El Rodeo, which is one of my favorite restaurants in town. I was rather surprised when one of my kids ordered my favorite dish, the chicken enchiladas. I ignored the fact I'm allergic to hops and had a Blue Moon, which means I'll sleep well tonight, but also probably snore so the Babaloo won't. 

Then we came back here and said our goodbyes to my mom. There were hugs and tears and more hugs and why doesn't everyone videochat more? and I'm trying really hard to focus on all the things that make me giddy about the move and to convince everyone that there are these things called airplanes that fly from Arizona to RDU.

That's it for now. I think we have two more donation runs to make tomorrow and a load to take to the trash/recycling, and then all that will be left is to finish loading. Oh, yeah. I have to finish packing my suitcase and condense/purge all my toiletries. The point is: it's coming together. I'm starting to think we might actually meet our self-imposed deadline of Monday!