Just RK

This is everything that won't fit in our apartment... except for the sofa part of the sectional, which is at Jody's. Last night we needed a fan, as being on the second/top floor of our building is sure proving to be a toasty existence. There is central air here, but it seems to be a tad inefficient, to say the least. So we made our first trip to the storage unit. (We weren't at the "moving in" there, since we were unloading the other truck at the apartment.) M jumped in and walked on boxes and random other items to get to where the fan was hiding. Successful trip, and we're enjoying the breezy outcome.

Alright...continuing on... Sunday the 18th, we got up, very stiff from a night on the floor, and began the last leg of the house-prepping journey. We loaded our suitcases and such into the cabs of the trucks, using every last space. We boxed up the last few items that we needed, cleaning supplies, etc. M and Braska left about 9 am to head on. Mom and I figured we'd be along in about an hour. Close to 2.5 hours later, we finally were ready to jump up in our trucks and take off. We formed our two-part caravan and took to the interstate. The trip went well overall, though I don't plan to trade in my car for a moving truck for everyday driving in city traffic. No thanks. M got to the apartment office and signed the lease then he and Braska went to hang out in an empty apartment. My sister Rachel came over to keep them company a bit since we were so late in coming. (She was just showing off her fancy new Acura and all it's fun toys...that's always a good way to pass

I'm a big fan of So You Think You Can Dance on Fox. Last night we were watching it on the DVR and when this young man appeared, I stopped and said, "No way!" Both M and I stopped what we were doing and watched...here's what we saw. After it was over, we we grinning, talking about how great his speech was and all kinds of what I call "geeky" DS stuff (therapies, diagnoses, characteristics, etc). Then we both said that the blogs would go wild in no time. This is just the kind of thing that we like to see, so why not post it?!? This morning, there are entries on a few forums I watch, and Meredith is the first blog on my reader to post on it. I'm sure more will follow. But all blogging silliness aside, this guy is really neat. He is a neat guy, DS or not, but I personally believe that at least part of it is because he IS who is IS and has learned to be more than ok with that. That's all we want really. Go Brett!!

I feel like I should write so much, but I'm just not finding the time anymore. I'm so sad that my daily blogging has turned into bi-weekly almost. So for now, pics and captions will have to suffice. In case you've missed it somehow, here's what started this chaos of the past few weeks. It culminated in a two-part move, beginning Saturday 5/17 with the load up. We had a great turnout of guys (and Susan!) so the work went fairly quickly overall. It took some time to work out the jigsaw puzzle of fitting all our big things in with few little things to go in the gaps. But the guys did a great job. Since there were so many hands available, and since we had a bit of a truck issue (it was too small!) we decided at the last minute to get a second truck and go ahead and load while there were people there to help. The first pic there shows both, the second zooms in on the right side of the first. Ridiculous...two trucks. And since there were plenty of hands, Mat

Moving is no fun. Packing and unpacking is not enjoyable work. Leaving a life and a place we loved for a place we don't really know is scary. Missing friends and coworkers we liked so much is painful. Giving up something I'd dreamed about and never thought I'd actually have in my backyard is really hard. (I love this pic, just had to share...so clear and blue.) Why did we do it? Why would we up-end our whole life? What could possibly cause us to do such a thing? Nuff said.

The funeral has been arranged, and little Maria Sue Chapman's life will be celebrated tomorrow morning. This was posted on DownSyn , and it's so perfectly matched...the song written by this precious girl's father a few years ago. Never did he expect, I'm sure, to have his own song meant to minister to others parallel his own life so closely. I also found SCC's blog today, with some other videos on it of the family and all. I love seeing that he's as cool a guy and dad as I thought he'd be from being a big fan for close to 20 years now. Enjoy this one especially...

I want to put up pics and stories and update all of you who have been so great about supporting us through this crazy fast move. But I'm so darn tired. I'm trying to balance working, keeping Braska somewhat entertained (which is seriously getting harder), and finding time in there to actually unpack and organize this place since I'm here now. So far, it's not left alot of time for blogging. Sad, I know. For now, here's a couple pics. This is where we are now. We moved in Sunday afternoon. Monday morning I was up at 5:30 am ready to get to work, at least for the few hours I had before it was time to head out again. This was my view out the sliding door when I opened the vertical blinds. Not bad, really. It was so peaceful. Then a couple hours later when the sun had risen, view from the little deck. It's actually pretty quiet and peaceful, at least the little bit I've been here. That is, with the constant low interstate noise of I-70 just 1/4 mile or

I just listened to a voice mail from my dad this morning telling me very sad news about my favorite musician, Steven Curtis Chapman . Apparently his youngest daughter, Maria, who was 5, was killed in their driveway yesterday when she was hit accidentally by the vehicle being driven by her older brother. Here's a full article with picture of the little girl and her dad. Here's a blog that's been set up in memory of her and for comments of condolences. SCC had adopted his youngest three daughters, and he has been active with promoting adoption and providing grants through his foundation for many years. I've seen him in concert many times, and since adopting his first daughter several years ago, there has always been a large part of the show dedicating to information about children waiting to be adopted all over the world. He is such a passionate person, artist, performer, husband, and father. And I can imagine from watching him beam about his little girls how truly dev

I'm exhausted. Here's how it went. (Pictures will come soon.) Saturday night we slept on the floor. Or we attempted to sleep on the floor. Not much sleep was had. Sunday morning we got up and slowly got finished with the last few things. M and Braska headed out around 9 while it took Mom and I til after 11 to get things finished. We jumped in our respective trucks and off went the convoy. We had crews to unload at both the storage unit and our apartment. It was all done very quickly and efficiently, with only one part of the sectional not making the corners to get into the apartment. Monday morning we went to Children's to meet up with Jen and Sophie and spent the day with them, distracting, fetching, and driving to be sure the day went smoothly for them as much as possible. They were both awfully brave and real champs. We drove back to Champaign and I'm crashing at their place. Today was all about errands...two therapy appointments for Braska, taking cable bo

This morning we loaded the U-Haul. We had a great group of people, mostly guys admittedly, who came out to help. It was very obvious very quickly that we weren't going to get much more than half our stuff into the truck. I made some calls, found another truck....this time Budget and IN TOWN, even if almost twice the price of the first...so off I went to pick up my second moving truck in two days. And soon after returning to the house, it was loaded too. One will go to the storage unit and one will go to the apartment. Not a bad deal. I now sit on the floor in an almost completely empty house. We still have our internet and wireless router hooked up so we're not all the way stranded. M and I will be sleeping on the floor tonight though, as we forgot to hold out the air mattress. Oops. Braska has her Pack N Play and Mom has the mattress to a bed we're not taking. The garage has alot of stuff in it that is not going. At present I'm planning to return for a yard sale...that

That's my sanity. Hanging there. Trying to keep it together for another couple days. For all my positivity, I'm losing it little by little. Why?? Read on. Today we got the call as to where to go pick up our moving truck tomorrow. There's about 6 U-Haul places in our mini-metro and county. But no. It's in Normal, IL. That's where the truck is. Close to an hour away. I thought I was going to keel over. After fuming a little, I called them back, they gave us the ok to go get it today, not charging for having it the extra time. So off we went. Of course the truck is much smaller than we thought it would be. Yes, it's the one I reserved, but their measuring tape and mine are a bit different. We're not at all sure it will go in one trip. Should be interesting. Nothing I can do about it now. I did call the local places to see if anyone had a smaller truck that we could load AS WELL. Like take two moving trucks to our new place/storage. Good times. But no, no truck

All you blogger friends, I'm so sorry I'm not keeping up with your latest posts. Don't think I've deserted you! My Reader is filling up, but I'll get there sometime. For now, it's still crazy packing/cleaning/repairing all around the house. We're making headway, but we've still got a LONG way to go and about 48 hours til we load the truck. Prayers are very much appreciated...for us to get done what we need to on time, and for the house to sell quickly. And for safety through all this work, loading, driving, and unloading. Thanks for keeping up with us... hopefully we'll be able to relax at least for a moment next week.

Today is a better day. I don't feel quite so overwhelmed. Andrea is here this morning (twin newborns in tow!) to play with Braska and help while she's napping. You rock, girlfriend! I've switched our utilities and such over to the 2-bdrm apartment from the 1-bdrm that we originally had arranged. That went smoothly, which is a blessing. We did confirm approval for the 2-bdrm unit, and I'll get to see it tomorrow when I make a trip down. I've started on my list of to-do from the realtors, and we have friends who have stepped up and will be helping us take care of this stuff. Really, we have so many great friends who will sacrificially give of their time, money, and support... we are going to miss them alot! There is really something to be said for those that have what I call the "Sure! mentality." It means that when you ask for help or if they can assist you with something, their answer is always "Sure!!" It's not, "I don't know, we ma

#23 Pack kitchen I'm working on it. I'm slowing down. I'm ready to be done. I'm starting to actually think we're not gonna make the deadline. We met with our realtors on Friday evening. We got our list of to-do before we put it on the market, which will be mid-next week. The problem is that several of these to-do items are pretty time consuming, and even though I'm usually good for a challenge, I'm thinking this one might be out of reach. They also recommended that we move everything on Saturday, not just the "most" I was planning on. I was figuring to stay here for a while with some of our furniture to stage with, but they provide their own staging furniture, so they said to just do it all in one trip. That means we need to get Braska's therapies transferred to the new system in StC so we don't have too big a gap in services. It also means that we need to find people to care for the pool, which we need to get open and ready to impress this

#4 Get boxes. Check. #5 Start packing. Check. #6 Find apartment. Check. #7 Reserve moving truck. Check. Since we confirmed the move was going to happen on Monday, it's been a busy time, to say the least. We've accomplished alot, though, I think. Our friends just moved last weekend, so we're taking their boxes as they unpack them. (We'll be over for another batch very soon, J!) We have an apartment reserved. (Thanks to my sister Rachel for the footwork. She browsed several options in the complex we chose and chose one that will work well for us.) Got the call this morning that it's all final with credit and such. Having great credit rocks!! We also have a storage locker/garage thingie (also thanks to R and P) so we'll be able to put all our things that won't fit in our 600 sq ft apartment somewhere. And it's close to us, so that's handy. (Still thinking how weird it will be to go from 1500 sq ft to 600 sq ft....should be fun!) We're packing up, an

...I'm asking for a few minutes of your time. If you don't have those minutes now, mark this page as a favorite (you too, Reader addicts) and come back very soon. I've been introduced to these videos via other blogs or emails recently, and even though I often pass right by opportunities like this, I'm glad, in this case, I did not. I simply cannot tell you how much these songs mean to me, and to have such beautiful images to go along with them... they are indelibly etched in my mind, and I'm glad they are. Make sure it's quiet for a moment, pay attention to only one thing for just this moment. Listen to the lyrics. Enjoy the visual creativity. Lyrics--Casting Crowns/Who Am I Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth Would care to know my name Would care to feel my hurt Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star Would choose to light the way For my ever wandering heart BRIDGE Not because of who I am But because of what You've done Not because of what I've

Thanks to all of you for your nice comments about our upcoming move. (And yeah, you too, JRS...even you. :o) And I apologize for not getting all my personalized comments up for the last few posts. Things have been a *bit* busy. Got a few good things coming up in posting land...don't touch that dial. In the meantime--It's not too late for Round 8 below...feel free to jump in and share! Or enjoy browsing some of my favorite sites linked in this one .

It's big news time--We're moving to St. Louis. Well, actually St. Charles, just NW of St. Louis. It's where I lived before we got married 7 1/2 years ago and I moved to Champaign. It's where M got a new job, just finalized yesterday after a whirlwind process that only began late last week. It's a bittersweet time, as we will miss Champaign a whole lot. This is the longest I've lived anywhere in my life, and that's something. It's been very good to us, and sometimes it's been a little cruel to us, but that's life in this world. All in all, I will think on my time here very fondly. We are excited about being close to family, close to friends in that area, close to Braska's doctors, eliminating the trips down for appointments and such, trading a 3 hour drive for about 30 minutes to downtown. The new job is very good, and it seems like it will be an easy transition for M to slide right into. He starts in 2 weeks, so the chaos will be overwhelming

The Random Questions process ~Choose one or all of the questions to answer. ~Either respond with a comment to this post with your answer or put up a post on your own blog for a full response. ~Don't forget to include any funny or interesting story to illustrate your answer in action. ~Be sure to leave a comment on this post to let us know where to find your post so we can come check it out! Round 8--Quirks --We all have our funny little things about us, so let it out! Tell about what makes you weird! Or maybe you just call it a "specific preference." :o) What quirks do you have in the following categories? (Or tell on someone else if you want!) 1. Home (cleaning, order, furniture, yard, etc.) 2. Personal (get-ready routine, clothes/shoes, hate feet?) 3. Relational (high-maintenance proof, personal space, parental/spousal habits, etc) 4. Food (ways you eat, ways that annoy you about how others eat, can't mix foods, etc) ___________________________________ 1. Home--

This week I've received tags for an award from two blog friends and for a meme from another. I can't tell you how fun it is for me to see my name on those lists when I'm reading all your blogs. I always have to run in to tell M, "I got picked!" as he rolls his eyes at me. First the award... honestly, I don't know what it means literally, but it says that it has to do with "creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language." The one that means the most to me is the "contributes to the blogging community," because that's my hope. I want to be a positive spot, fun and light, yet real and honest, and, of course, a great advocate for our wonderful Down syndrome poonchins. (That's a term of endearment in our fam.) I am humbled to accept this award from both Melissa at Banana Migraine and Meredith at Cornish Adoption Journey . Let me just tell you how special it feels to be th