Busy Busy Busy and a Wedding with CoCo

     The past few weeks have been a tornado of activity (more than my usual whirlwind!) and there is more to come through this week and on into next week until I get my house officially on the market.
     Two weeks ago my sister/cousin Cindy (that's how I refer to her as she is my first cousin, but more like my sister) came and spent a week.  It was jam packed with lots of fun things like lunches and dinners and shopping and touristy things (the zoo, of course).  She also helped me pack up all my Barbies.  We had so much fun looking at all the clothes that we used to play with.  I'm not getting rid of any of those things - they will go in storage for now.
     We didn't get any photos taken during that entire week!  So I'll post a photo of us from way back when - we were cuter then, anyway :-)

Me with Cindy in 1963

Me with Cindy last summer

     Monday of last week, my sister/friend Beth (see what I did there) came over and helped me paint the basement.  I was sooooo done with painting, but both Cindy and Beth convinced me that with the rest of the house newly painted, the basement would look really dirty and dingy without new paint.  So Beth, bless her heart, said she would come over and we WOULD get it painted.  And of course, it does look tons better - I had no doubt of that - I just didn't want to do it.  So a huge thanks goes to sweet friend Beth.  She is the one who will come over in a week or so to help stage the house.
     Tuesday and Wednesday were spent getting ready for the wedding which CoCo and I attended in Delaware on Saturday.  CoCo and I both got haircuts and pedicures - no color on her toenails.  Then Thursday about noon we headed to our little Colorado Springs airport to check in for the flights to Baltimore/Washington.  There was some confusion at the check in counter as to whether or not CoCo (already paid for) needed a special tag on her carrier.  I have a huge complaint to the airlines:  if she is considered one of my carry ons and she has to stay confined in her carrier and under the seat in front of me I should not have to pay $125 each way for her to fly!  There was a man getting on the same flight with a baby and he didn't have to pay for her or keep her under the seat in front of him!  OK, my ranting is done for now.
     This was a learning experience for both CoCo and me as we figured out how to maneuver our way through the airports and through security (which was a breeze now that I have permanent TSA precheck).  I have always said that mothers should have more than 2 arms and I remembered that while carrying CoCo around and juggling my backpack, purse, her carrier and suitcase.  I took her out once we were in the airport and carried her.  She was much happier then.  If she could just stay in my lap on the plane she'd be perfectly happy.  But actually, I just heard a few whimpers out of her at the beginning of the flights.
     She was so good at the wedding - as long as she was in my arms!  I wasn't sure how she'd do with lots of people around, but there were no problems.  I am very encouraged that she will be just fine on our long flight to France and the new circumstances to come.
      The wedding was so much fun!  The bride and groom, the minister, the matron of honor and the best man were all at college with me 45 years ago.  There were 12 of us there who had all been at York Christian Junior College all those years ago.  I started a YC facebook page about 6 years ago and we all somehow found each other and started having mini reunions.  Darra and Gary realized that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and we all came to witness the amazingly wonderful event.  Most of us were all at the Baker's house sometime Thursday night and the laughter and talking and sharing and reminiscing were non-stop all weekend til the last of us left on Monday.
We are already planning our next reunion.

The happy York bunch (and CoCo)  Bride and Groom are in the middle

     So that lovely event took me away, quite happily, from all the house stuff.   But now I'm back at it.  I got back late Monday night and had a new stove and fridge delivered Tuesday morning.  The stove was installed with no problems but the fridge was another matter.  In trying to disconnect the waterline that goes into the ice maker of my old fridge they found that the cut-off valve didn't work and so they left the old fridge and I now have the new fridge sitting in my breakfast area.  They told me I would have to call a plumber to install a new valve before they could come back to install the fridge - all because of an icemaker!
     This afternoon a plumber came and installed a completely new line that doesn't go into the basement but connects to the cold water line under the kitchen sink.  He said it should have been installed that way to begin with and he's probably right, but man, is that ice maker costing me a lot of money!!  In the meantime, the dumpster got delivered so now I can start getting rid of all the junk which has accumulated over the past 40 years on the side of the house, the garage, the shed, etc.  So my days of working on the house are not over yet.  Home Depot will come back over on Friday to install my new fridge and the horrendously expensive ice maker. 
     I am afraid to say that I have nothing on my calendar for tomorrow!  Will that jinx everything?  Although I think we're supposed to get snow in the next couple of days so that may make the clean-up effort a little difficult.  Oyvay!
     And also through the past weeks I have paid the deposit on my cottage (that was also a learning experience!), downloaded all the forms that have to be filled out for my interview at the consulate in LA (not sure yet when that will be), had funds transferred so I can buy the medical insurance required for my stay in France, checked on leasing a car for when I first arrive and making some decisions regarding the flight segments from here to Toulouse.
     I'm tired just reading my blog post!  I shall try to get back into the habit of writing my posts every Sunday.  You have all been such a wonderful encouragement to me over the past year.  While not everything  has gone according to plan, it has certainly moved along and I can often hear my daddy's voice telling me: "It's just around the next bend!"
     Thank you all for staying with me on this journey.  There will always be more to come.  Eventually there will be no more talk of this house, but hopefully talk of the next one - the one in France!  Merci, mes amis!