The Category 5 Tornado

Yeah, it is bad... very bad. The category 5 tornado has touched down in our home then rolled around and thrashed & rolled some more. Before anyone starts checking the weather channel I need to be perfectly clear that it was NOT an actual tornado. We are in the middle of rotating our house. And I say this with my eyes completely loaded with tears of sadness (not that my house is in shambles but having to use the word "rotating".

It's funny how songs, places, and even words are associated with different times in our lives. I can't hear the song "Jesse's Girl" without smiling and thinking of my awesome friends & memories that I cherish. I can't drive by a boat-filled lake without thinking of wonderful summers spent with my friends & family that were filled with laughter. And I can't hear the word "rotating" without thinking of countless hours spent in my dad's garage trying to clean the garage, but there was a catch; we had received STRICT orders to NOT throw anything away. Due to the rules attached to cleaning the garage, my brothers, sisters, & myself renamed the dreaded chore to "rotating the garage". Does anyone know how hard it is to actually clean something if you are not allowed to throw away 20 years of accumulated trash? If you can't throw things away & actually clean then the chore NEVER ends. In looking back at the other parenting methods that my dad implemented, I realize now that he probably did this on purpose. He probably had us forever cleaning a space that could never really be cleaned to keep us busy. (Yes Dad, if you are reading this be forewarned the waterline story will be blogged someday. And I love you).

Needless to say my memories of sweating like a pig while rotating the garage in the hot June -August summers isn't one of my fondest memories (Yes Dad, I can hear you laughing from HERE). So when I think of rotating my own house, I can feel chills down my spine & my eyes swell with tears. When we first moved into our house only two years ago, our kids were not old enough or capable (although they would have tried) to use the stairs so I moved them into bedrooms downstairs like any other paranoid over-protective parent would. I do realize that MANY homes only have one bedroom downstairs and all the youth bedrooms are upstairs. I also realize that all the children in those homes grew to be happy healthy adults but at the time I couldn't do it. What I found humorous is that when I stated that it was time to make the transition, it was my husband who didn't want them to move upstairs NOW. Now they are totally capable, but he was concerned. It felt really odd being the one who was positive that everything would be fine and and watch him be over-protective. Usually it's him saying "oh, the kids are in the street... it's OK honey, they are fast, they can dodge that car". And me: SUCKING ALL THE OXYGEN out of the two mile radius surrounding me as I gasp when I see anything that could potentially hurt them. (I am over-exaggerating a bit here... well about Corey anyway). I am getting better about this due to Corey, however this definitely proves to me that God does put the people you NEED in your life to become the person that He wants you to be. (No, I don't think that God wants me to constantly look for ALL the DANGERS, I do believe that He wants me to have a little more faith that He will take care of things... despite things from my past).

This is a big move... for us as parents, we have to admit that our babies are growing up and our children are ecstatic about the change; they think they are so BIG now. We have experienced a little attitude from our Evan, who is 2. All it takes is a soft whisper about his new room and he begins to strut around the house and talk about his big boy room. It does bring me joy (and laughter) when someone who is soliciting comes to the door and the kids talk their ear off about their new rooms. I have to draw the line when they want to invite them in so that they can show them. Usually the sales person is grateful for the exit at this point so they don't push for any sales.

We actually began the transition on Christmas eve. Yea we are those parents, we incorporated moving them into their big kid beds with Christmas gifts. Well for all that we put into it... it was a HUGE gift. We didn't exactly throw a mattress down and say Merry Christmas, I built & decorated and my husband drove HOURS to pick up our bargain purchases. So for the BIG DAY we moved everything around as much as possible so that at least two of the rooms were completed.

Now as for the rest of the house, well let's just say it is a work in progress. Let me tell you what the transition (I refuse to call it rotating) actually includes; we moved two bedrooms and the kids bathroom, and playroom upstairs. Then we moved a guest bedroom, bathroom, his office, scrapbook room (15 years worth of supplies), and family room (Corey's video game room) downstairs. The only rooms that remained as they were would be the kitchen, our bedroom, and our bedroom and MY OFFICE was the catch-all room. Sadly, it reminded me of what the garage used to look like, but with prettier walls of course. I couldn't even get to my laptop. However, this did provide motivation. It motivated me to work, clean & organize faster so that I could catch up with all that was happening in your lives. I have missed my blogging friends.

We have definitely made headway in most of the rooms. We still have to paint the guest room, do some work in the closets, move a few more pieces into the attic, CLEAN my office (I need more than just a path, and with each day it is all improving. Consequently, I can say I will not ever rotate my house again. It honestly felt like moving without the boxes, but I am glad that an end is in sight.

On the bright side, I will have two years worth of Tackle-It Tuesday's blogs if I break down each project & take pictures of the progress.