Two cars, one garage...WOW!

At long last I have an opporunity to blog again. There have been many things I wanted to blog about over the last two weeks, but I just have not had the time in worrying about and finishing the semester. As of right now I am done with all of my finals and projects; however, I just found out about a grade that I am very irritated about, so I can't totally close the book on this semester yet. Let's just say if things don't change in the next 24 hours in regard to my grade in my methods class, hell WILL be raised.

So, on to better things. Since Dad moved out at the end of October, we have slowly been reorganizing and cleaning out the house. Not only is it in anticipation for a possible relocation should things not work out, but just something we have needed to do for a long time. As I blogged last month, the first major project was moving mom's stuff out of the living room and into dad's old room and reorganizing the living room, something that was started the very day Dad officially moved out. It has been nice since then to actually have a fully functioning living room again that we feel comfortable inviting guests to and which we enjoy spending time in! Katie has been the main force behind the various other projects, which include the massive cleaning and reorganization of the basement and the cleaning and reorganization of the garage. The basement is still a work in progress, but Katie has done quite a bit of work down there with some help from me in moving heavier things as needed and taking out garbage and recycling. Last week we celebrated the completion of her garage project. Again, Katie did most of the work while I helped move the heavier things and figure out how to position things to make them all fit. In the end, we were finally able to do something that hasn't been done here in over 20 years: store two cars in our two car garage. WOW! While it may seem like an insignificant feat, it was pretty exciting when we not only fit both cars in, but fit them with the lawn mower and several other things still inside the garage. Of course my car is not one of the 2 cars inside, but it was still exciting because I didn't think we'd be able to fit 2 cars and the lawn mower. Guess the garage is bigger than we all thought! Now, if we could just get some more gravel so the driveway is a bit easier to maneuver for Katie's side of the garage. Right now it's a bunch of muddy ruts.

It has been interesting these last two months or so in the amount of stuff we have thrown out or put out to be recycled. I'm sure the garbage and recycling people are wondering where all this stuff is coming from! It was like Dad was the plug in the dam: as soon as he left, the floodgates opened and things have just been put into motion and the flood of garbage has been (and continues to be) emptied out of the house. Granted, there are still some major issues to be addressed here as we have several appliances which could go at any day (fridge, oven, dryer, furnace) and some repair issues (our tub has a crack in it, we still need a screen door for the back, and we have mice getting in some holes that need to be plugged!), but they don't seem so daunting. I just wish May would hurry up and get here so I can graduate and get a job. While money doesn't solve everything, I can't think of a better solution for most of our current major problems!

On a side note, today, December 12th, is the day I entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in 2001. Hard to believe it's been seven years since then! The only reason I've really been thinking about it is because my cousin Cameron just entered the MTC Wednesday, so essentially the same week I did since new arrivals only come in to the MTC on Wednesdays. He is headed for Taiwan, but will be at the MTC in Provo, Utah for about 3 months learning Mandarin Chinese. For our extended family, he is the first close relative outside my immediate family to go on a mission, so this is exciting!

Notes on pictures: 1. Mom's car on the right and Katie's car on the left in the garage. I took it at night since that's the only time they've both been in the garage lately! 2. The garage empty so you can see how the rest of the stuff actually fits... 3. My brother Andy and me at the MTC in Provo, Utah the day I officially began my mission seven years ago today. I had no idea what was ahead of me in that picture...NO idea.