Drowning in Boxes, Round 2

Last night Bryan opened the front door to discover that we have a "neighbor" who appreciates the beauty of our flowerbeds:  an armadillo.  God's creature or not, those things are nasty.  I should be the last one to trash-talk the armadillo since my elementary school mascot was an armadillo, but I just don't want them in my yard and especially not that close to the house!  I did what any normal person would do in that situation -- I took pictures.  Classic city girl move.

We have since discovered another spot in a back flowerbed where we suspect the armadillo has been burrowing.  Even worse -- it's by my bedroom window.  I've taken the first step to eradicate this little fella by googling "how to get rid of armadillos in your yard".  Google recommended coyote urine.  Sweet, I'm sure I can pick that up at my local grocery store.

On today's agenda:  moving the rest of our belongings from a 10x15 storage unit in Temple to our new house in College Station.  We are smart enough by now to hire movers so Bryan and Caleb met them at 9am at our storage unit.  Once the guys were loading their moving van, Bryan took Caleb to deliver a baby gift to our friends the Reckos and to see water towers, of course.  Caleb returned home full of facts about the 3 Temple water towers.

While it feels great to have all our stuff in one spot, it was also sad to see the house fill with boxes again and also be faced with my hoarder tendencies.  The low point was when the movers asked where I wanted the box that was labeled "VHS Tapes".  Why, why, why am I saving VHS tapes??

Bryan's parents came up to visit late morning and stayed thru late afternoon.  They were a huge help with watching the boys and keeping them out of harm's way while the movers carried boxes.  I tried out two new Pinterest recipes (Neiman Marcus Chicken Salad and Blueberries & Cream Pie) and deemed them both a success.

While unpacking boxes I discovered the a photo that should probably be included in Webster's next edition under the entry for "IRONY":

I may have an entire box devoted to my 'junk drawer' but gosh darnnit that moving box is labeled with a fancy label maker just to prove that I AM organized!  I am now faced with scenes that look much like this one in every room of the house.

We chose to tackle the boy's playroom first this afternoon.  It was a lot of fun to unpack the rest of their toys, especially since some of them have been in the attic for all of Joshua's life.  There were many toys Caleb had outgrown that Joshua is now ready to play with and it was like Christmas morning for him!  He especially loved the Little People toys like the farm, bus and airplane and was also thrilled to see some Little Einsteins rockets!  Without any prompting or instruction, he did lots of 'cooking' in the toy kitchen from my Mom & Dad's old house.  I love to watch him pretend!

Caleb was most excited to see his box of trains and train tracks.  It was one of the first boxes of toys that I packed since he hadn't played with them much, but he now has a renewed interest after seeing so many trains in College Station.  He was also pumped to see more things to build with, like a Handy Manny clock tower set he got for his 4th birthday from Nellie.  He built an entire city complete with water tower, smoke stack, a massive clock tower and multiple "fences" and then used the wrecking ball to tear it down.  He was very proud of his creation!

We had a mini lesson on gender equality after he started saying that women are not allowed to work inside the gates at the water tower.  I'm not sure where he got that idea but luckily Bryan coached him on that issue :)

And in true monkey see monkey do fashion, Joshua requested that I take his picture too even though his only involvement with this creation was trying to knock it down.

It's been a good, but busy, day at our house and tomorrow is jam packed too.  I better use the quiet evening hours to organize my junk drawer ;)