When life gives you cinder blocks. . .

So I am thinking creating a new phrase inspired by this old one:

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

Let me explain.

When we moved here, we were planning to move our satellite with us. I never thought I would even like a satellite dish, but I am so addicted now. I love the children's programming! I love that we get an east coast and west coast feed - so if I miss something, it plays again, later. I most especially love that we do not have to start over each time we move. With the phone, we have to have a new account with a different company every new place we go. BUT with DirecTv, we get to move our already established account with us. Awesome!

The only problem is that since we live on post, we cannot attach anything to the house structure itself. No problem; at Ft. Stewart, we mounted it on a pole. Problem solved. When it was time to move, we were required to dig up the pole and take it away. The pole costs like $125, so David, my frugal husband hauled this long pole in his cute little Volvo all the way from GA to IL. This was no easy task!!

He signs for our new house and we ask for permission to put up a dish. Permission granted. The only catch is that we cannot attach the dish to the house, but we also cannot "dig a hole" in the backyard. A little tough to install a satellite on a pole with no hole, wouldn't you agree?

Our installation guy had a solution. He could use a "sled" and secure it with cinder blocks. Apparently having four large dead spots in the grass is better than a small hole. David agreed, and we were in business.

I decided that these cinder blocks, while they are serving a very important purpose, were not very aesthetically pleasing. So this weekend, the kids and I had a project: make planters!

We started with this:

We ended up with this:


Pardon the lack of pictures of the actual planting process because the flowers, who were having dirt dumped on them, needed my undivided attention to survive!! A special thanks to Michelle who sent the kiddos garden tools. They used them and LOVED them so much!

The kids are loving keeping their new flowers watered!

And I think they are just lovely.

So, when life gives you cinder blocks, make planters with beautiful flowers! Hee-hee!!

Progress Report

I am pleased to report that the unpacking is well underway. The movers were the BEST we have ever had. Unpacking is going so well because they were such great packers. The lamps are all in their own individual boxes! Unprecedented! Details like this are so nice and make the whole process much more bearable.

We are lucky to have "Bay's house" to camp out when we need to get away from the boxes. I swear the whole house has that "box smell." All you military folks will know this smell, I'll bet. Sometimes that smell is overwhelming, and when it is coupled with the inablilty to walk or find anything that you need, it is almost all you can take. So Bay's house is such a blessing! We hope May and Bay won't get tired of us, all of our stuff, and our dogs.

Everything made it in one piece, whew! There are a few small broken things, but so far nothing big. The yard tools were not wrapped with my flag, and the TVs are all present and accounted for, which are huge improvements from the last move, right?

The kids are being troopers, although they are also enjoying having another house with no boxes and 2 granparents a mile away.

"Daddy made it so we could watch TV - yay!!"

Our sweet Stewart is staying at the new house since our Max and Daddy's Abby both like to eat cats. He is sort of too big for his britches right now because I think Stewart may feel that we have gotten him his own house. He is the only one staying there full time. We come to visit, we give him food, water, attention, we clean out his litter box, and we leave. We have gotten him furniture and beds and boxes to play with. You can see why he may be confused about all of this and in for a rude awakening.

Stewart living it up in "his" new house.
Oh yeah, and the fish are at the new house with Stewart. Before the truck arrived with all of our stuff, Stewart was alone in the house with food, water, a litter box, and 2 small fish tanks. Oh what is a cat to do to entertain himself??

Picture it. David goes over to the house to check on Stewart and his fishy friends. He walks into the kitchen and sees a toppled over fish tank and Hannah Montana in the middle of the floor. He sprung into action. He touched her to see if she was still "with us" and she wiggled. He grabbed her and plopped her into Charlie's tank. He called me to get the water conditioner to fix her tank back. He got her all fixed up, and now we are monitoring her closely. Still not sure if she is going to make it. Stewart has been charged with attempted murder, although we have reserved the right to up the charges if Hannah Montana does not make it. He has plead Boredom and Loneliness, but we are not sure if that is a valid defense.

All of the other family members seem to be in good health. I will let you know if H.M. pulls through. . .