Moving....Again

 I swear, this is the very first state I've ever lived in where we played "musical houses."  It drives me nuts and annoys me to no end!   My parents were approved for buying a house  once more (after 8 years of having to rent) and we've finally chosen one.  It's actually only 14 miles from our current home, so we wouldn't have to do a lot of the same things we did when we moved 1,600 miles across the country.  But I still hate moving all the same .  Why can't we just get an RV and have it be done with?  I'd prefer a large spaceship :bademoticon: to live in, and we could just park it in the nearest neighborhood to dad's job, but they haven't invented such things yet.  

The family doesn't have that much re-packing to do, considering how unmotivated we were after being kicked out of our last rental only 10 months after moving in.  We did settle a little bit into this house, but for 3 years we've had boxes sitting around in every room and no real curtains were put up except in certain rooms.  Mom has declared  that she refuses to put up custom curtains unless we plan on staying somewhere longer than a few years.  Otherwise, there's no point to it. 

At least with this new house we won't have to answer to anybody if we want to put nails in the wall , or handles on the cupboards in the kitchen, or build a skylight, or put grass in the backyard , or re-paint  something.  It's all one floor too, so there's no need for mom to have to worry about arthritis in her hips or knees when visiting my brother or me.  When we first went to see it, I was astonished  at how much stuff there was in there.  The former owners are an older Mexican  couple that apparently had no idea when to stop when collecting Southwestern and Mexican-style decor on vacation.  Everywhere you looked there were Mexican blankets or Catholic art on the walls, desert-style rugs, silk desert flowers, Mayan and Aztec pottery in the form of various pagan gods, a few paintings of Jesus (I don't mind those), and a whole host of other stuff.  The backyard was completely devoid of grass and had gigantic cactus  and aloe plants scattered about, and tons of African daisies  as well as a few trees.  Now granted, I have an aunt who lives in Vegas and uses Southwestern-style decor in her home too, but even she knows when to stop when it comes to clutter. 

However, the house passed all our tests.  We've found over the years that the houses we live in have to have certain elements for us to live comfortably in them.  One that might make any married couple laugh is the "2-sink" rule.  Mom and dad were always fighting over the sinks in our first few houses because dad wants to brush his teeth, wash his face, and shave in the mornings; and mom likes to put a towel filled with tons of cosmetics in the sink for her own use.  So when I was 9, we moved into a house with two sinks in the master bathroom, and my parents were soooo delighted at this that they swore never to move into another house without two sinks in the master bathroom again.  So far, we've done well finding houses with that.  Mom also likes kitchens with an island counter in the middle.  Don't ask me why , I've done just fine in kitchens without it, but I guess it's a matter of personal preference.  Also, ever since we got Aspen (our Alaskan Malamute, God rest her soul:bademoticon:) back in '97, we've made it our business to get houses with fenced-in backyards for our doggies.  We don't like staking our dogs, or putting them in dog-runs, or using an invisible fence.  We've always thought those three methods were cruel.  Every dog should have a safe yard they can run about in.  This house also comes with a feature mom has been dying to have for years: a room for her sewing :bademoticon:.  We haven't lived in a house with a special room mom could set up a sewing workshop in for 15 years.  She's had to improvise with all our past homes, including our current one.  There's a room off to the side of the entry hall in the new house that she wants to make into her sewing room.  The last owners were using it for an office.  It's technically a guest room with really wide doors.  We also had issues with the placement of our cars  in our current neighborhood.  The Homeowner's Association is really strict and nasty towards anyone who doesn't conform to their idea of neighborhood rules (and you wonder why people have issues with gated communities of any kind).  It appears our current home sits in an area that's not friendly towards families  that have kids over the age of 16, and they make it very hard to park the cars of 2 adult kids nearby in addition to the parents' cars.  So one thing we looked for in our new house was a large garage with an equally large driveway.  The new home is more than accommodating.  It's been a long time since we lived on a cul-de-sac, much less one that was big enough to house parking spaces.  In fact, I haven't lived on one since I was 3 years old.

Our only real beefs  with the new house is the fact that a.) the former owners just lived in it and did minimal maintenance to the place.  So we're gonna have to have some repairs made to the place.  Frankly, I'm amazed this couple hasn't had their roof leak, or blown themselves up  from the neglect they did to their heater and the gas lines.  And b.) we really don't like the setup of the backyard.  It has no grass to speak of, and while such a way of gardening would have been smart in a desert climate, we don't live in one like that.  Plus, Domino  needs grass to walk on.  So mom plans on first having a gardener carefully dig up those gigantic aloe and  cactus plants and sell them to anyone who might want one.  Last thing we need are monstrous plants in our yard that always present a risk of getting poked or scratched.  She also wants to pull up some of the pavement, set up a sprinkler system, and put down sod for our doggy.  She's even considered getting some new trees to add shade to the yard.  I'm interested in some lawn decorations out front.  Thankfully, the front yard is still green, though the garden is begging to be filled with flowers , a decorative flag, and maybe one of those cute, colorful, flower-shaped pinwheels :bademoticon:.  Mom is even interested in putting a flagpole out on the front porch so we can hang up some stars and stripes .  We haven't had one of those in years.  If anybody tells us to take it down, we can tell them to go stuff it . 

Actually, the real reasons mom and dad want to move also have to do with other problems we've had with our current house .  Dad doesn't like the long commute to work, both he and mom don't like the noisy neighbors throwing loud parties  next door, and mom doesn't like how the houses are so close together, that strangers can see  into our back windows if we don't close the shades at night.  Plus there's that parking issue I mentioned earlier.  What's really odd is, I've actually kinda become attached to this house .  I like how big and spacious it is, I like having a large bedroom with a big window I can see out of every day, my brother and I both like having our own little world upstairs, and we like having a park with a lake  within walking distance of the house.  But it's not our call. 

We have some other big things happening in the coming weeks for summer.  Grandma's 90th birthday  is coming up at the end of this month.  (Yep, she's turning 90 years old next Tuesday).  Believe it or not, grandma is the same age as the Queen of England   (they were born the same year, though not the same month; just like me and Lady Gaga).  We, along with several branches of the family, are driving over to her town to hold a big party  this coming weekend, and then driving home to pack. 

We're then gonna move into our new house, and mom insists that we not only put up curtains, but that we unpack as many boxes as possible.  In fact, she's bringing in another dumpster to clean out the garage soon before we go.  It'll be nice having a bigger garage in this new place. 

Then, in July, the parents are doing something many people put on their bucket lists: they are going on a cruise to Alaska.  Can you believe it?   My parents, going on a cruise!  This will be a first for both of them.  Mom's always wanted to go.  She's not much of a Caribbean-type.  She wants to see the glaciers, the humpback whales, the dog-sleds, the rugged mountains, the many towns along the coast, and some other beautiful things up north.  Dad's more than happy to go along with her.  Another couple they are friends with from choir are going along too.  Mom even set it up so that their cabins are right next door to each other.  She actually told me families have their cabins on a completely separate deck from everyone else, and I think many tourists who aren't in families are grateful for that.  (Now if only we could do that for airplanes).  Mom's worried about seasickness , (I get my motion-sickness from her) but our friends from choir have told us that cruise ships move slowly, and you often can barely tell it's moving on the ocean.  Still, I'm gonna get her some ginger candy from that Chinese market I heard about.  For some reason, ginger medicine helps with nausea very well, better than even Dramamine.  Plus, I don't want mom to spend all her time on the ship in the bathroom, throwing up.  I've met people who suffered like that on boats, though usually the vessel in question was traveling through stormy, choppy waters.  I doubt mom and dad will run into any nasty storms (at least, I hope there won't be any) up along the Alaskan coast. 

My brother and I are house- and dog-sitting while they are gone for a week.  (It'll save money as far as dog-care  is concerned).  I've insisted that mom and dad take a ton of pictures  and get postcards of their trip, especially when they ride with the sled dogs.  I also asked dad for an Alaska spoon, seeing as it's the only state I haven't gotten a spoon from, as well as Hawaii.  (I have a spoon collection that I've been putting together since Jr. High).  They will bring back other souvenirs, of course, but still, I was specific as to what I wanted from this trip.  My brother will probably get another t-shirt.  My parents are gonna be gone during my birthday  , so we've decided to combine dad's and my birthdays again.  We've done it before and it worked out ok.  Plus, I'm not really excited about this particular birthday .  I'm gonna be 30 this year.  Please don't get mad, all you +30s out there.  It's a personal matter to me, nothing to do with anyone else turning 30.  It's not the worst kind of birthday to have, but I have my own issues to deal with regarding it.   I sure don't feel 29 at this moment, and I definitely don't look 30.  But still.  I'm not looking forward to it.  

So this summer's gonna be big for several reasons, and while my feelings are mixed about it, there's nothing I can do to stop any of the more negative aspects, so I'm just gonna take it a day at a time.