Just 5 pots

Yesterday I was worried about moving all of my plants when it came time to transport them in the car.  This morning, I was looking at my plants and came up with the idea to downsize!  I repotted and moved a lot of my plants into just 5 pots!  I am also throwing away about half of my plants.  Hopefully with 5 pots, it will be easier for us to move them when it comes time.  I am sad to get rid of my bigger plants but we need the room.  I kept the most healthy looking and smallest plants. 

Feeling Accomplished!

My MIL helped us out this afternoon and took Kyle for the afternoon.  Her friend has a golf cart and Kyle loves riding in it.  He sits in my MIL's friend's lap and "honks the horn."  Anyway, after they drove off, Shannon and I went to work in the garage.  We went through the rest of the boxes and threw away anything we no longer need or use.  We actually downsized quite a bit and finished going through the boxes!  We even found some of our plastic drawers, so Shannon cleaned them and we'll move them upstairs to put our clothes in.  For the last 2 years, we've had our clothes piled in neat stacks on the floor.  So having our clothes in plastic drawers will be a nice upgrade for us. 

We feel so accomplished to get our stuff in the garage all organized!  We still have to worry about organizing/packing our stuff we have upstairs (clothes and the things we use on a daily basis).  We still have a ton of stuff upstairs that I want to throw away.

Lastly, we still need to find a place to live!  We're hoping we can find a place that will rent to us!

The dumpster

We rented a dumpster this week.  I've been throwing away old clothes, trash, and cardboard boxes that we had piled up.  Shannon and I have tried to go through our stuff (that's been packed away in the garage) and throwing away anything and everything we don't need, use, or fit in.  Kyle doesn't like us to be in the garage, he starts crying and having a tantrum.  It's not part of "the routine" so when things don't go the way they are supposed to or if we aren't in the right place, he freaks out. 

This week is Spring Break, so Kyle has been home from school.  Next week [while Kyle is in school] we plan on throwing away about 98% of his toys that are scattered all around the floor and continue to go through our stuff we have in the garage.  We just want to downsize as much as possible so we have less to pack and move.  We decided to throw away all of his baby clothes and toddler clothes. 

Today, Shannon and I got through 3 boxes or so.  Shannon had to go watch Kyle so I did another 2 boxes while he was doing that. 

Overall, I am excited that we will soon (hopefully) have our own place.  I am also looking forward to start looking for jobs in a bigger city that we are moving to.

How it turned out...

Yesterday I wrote about my urge to make Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, after getting the idea from watching Desperate Housewives.  Well, I made it this afternoon and it turned out perfect!  I am so surprised that my first time making this cake, it turned out so nice!  I need to get a deeper pan because the one I have is too shallow. 

Here are the results:

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Watch out! I am going to bake again! My first attempt at baking bread turned out pretty well, I was actually really surprised at myself!  Even my husband loved the banana bread I made!  Last night, I decided that I wanted to make pineapple upside-down cake.  I got the idea from watching Desperate Housewives!  I don't think I have ever tasted pineapple upside-down cake but it sure looks good, don't you think?

Unfortunately, my "baking" skills are pretty much like Gabrielle's, rather than Bree's!  So, I am hoping it will turn out!  I am trying to do things that challenge me, and baking seems to do that.  I am trying to find new interests and things that make me happy!

I looked up a few recipes and found one from Betty Crocker that I liked and that looked easy enough for me to follow!  I bought all of the ingredients I need and will be making it tomorrow!  My husband said he would have some if I made it!

I just hope I don't get this reaction to my cake.  By the way, I think her expression is priceless! 

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter!  We didn't do anything to celebrate today.  The last thing I want in the house is candy!  Kyle did receive some plastic eggs with candy in them and he dyed some eggs at school.  He brought home a plastic bucket with his Easter eggs!

Yesterday, we drove out to Winston-Salem and drove around the area!  It's a huge city that Shannon took the wrong freeway (he was supposed to take Business 40 and not Interstate 40).  Anyway, when we took Interstate 40, it brought us to the other side of the city and there's a Wake Forest University campus on that side but it's the Medical Center, not the Law School.  We ended up stopping at Hanes Mall for about 15 to 20 minutes.  I walked around JC Penney with Kyle and he didn't like it.  He took me for a walk instead of the other way around.  He's used to being in a shopping cart while we are in the store and this time he had to walk.  He likes routine and when it doesn't work out the way he wants, he gets nervous and can have a tantrum/freak out.  So I took him outside since he was going to start crying and freaking out.  We tried to comfort him after we got him back in the car but it didn't work.  We drop around a little more and finally found the right exit.  We drove through Wake Forest University and it is so pretty!  The drive is all tree lined, so there's mostly shade on the campus.  We ended up getting out and letting Kyle play on the baseball field.  He would run down the little hill towards the field and slide on his legs to the bottom getting his pants legs wet and covered with grass!  We let him play for about 10 minutes and after that, he completely forgot about being upset.

We saw 3 apartment complexes but two of them are completely out of our price range!  The first one we saw is nice and clean looking and affordable for us.  I wouldn't mind living there.

On our way out of Winston-Salem, we ended up going to Clemmons.  About a year ago, my in-laws found a little community that they really liked and wanted to move to.  This community is right next to a grocery store and a few other stores.  It's the perfect place for us.  It is really affordable, but you have to buy the place, unless you find someone who will rent to you. 

Unfortunately, Section 8/Public Housing is closed to new applications for the county of Winston-Salem, so we can't even apply!

Our Plan, so far

Since I posted our update a few days ago, Shannon and I decided that we're going to visit Winston-Salem, NC and see some apartments.  We don't want to consider staying here in our current city, nor Mooresville (rent is expensive).  He told me to start applying for jobs in Winston-Salem, I retorted with the fact that I have never been there, I have no idea what's out there as I have never been there!  So we're going to go this weekend, to drive around the city and just check out the area. 

We are considering Winston-Salem because it's the same city of where he wants to go to law school, they have really affordable rent, and hopefully there will be more jobs out there.  In the last few days, I have searched online and even applied for a few jobs for both Shannon and myself.  I am using our cell number as our main contact number on applications, cover letters, and resumes.  I ended up looking up apartments and found that rent is pretty affordable.  Besides finding an apartment, our next priority is finding a job for at least one of us and then go from there. After that, we'll worry about getting Kyle registered in the new school district. 

My in-laws are going back and forth about when they want to move out.  My FIL was saying he wants to be out by June 1st.  Just a few days ago, they were saying they are looking to be out by June 30th.  I just hope we can get out of here around the end of May, which is just around the time school ends for Kyle.  Luckily most of our stuff is still packed away in the garage, but we want to go through it and downsize our stuff.  We also have the stuff we use everyday (clothes, toys, etc) that we'll need to pack.