Trying To Get Organized

Today I was really excited to get off work – not because I got to go home, but because I was going shopping (with Mom) for big storage bins – despite the snow. (Ugh. I greatly dislike snow, and I dislike driving in it even more!)

After I finished taking down all my Christmas tree and decorations (it seems to be tradition for me to wait til the week before Valentines to do this…since forever!) and (carefully) smushing them (or, most of them!) into one of my new bins, I got down to the nitty gritty of rearranging my ‘keepsake’ bins…2 20 gallons totes…full of old games, pictures, childhood books and dolls, ticket stubs, saved letters and e-mails…(get the picture?)

I found myself laughing when I pulled out my first license plate…from my first car, with the hole in it from my first car accident that happened the first time I drove the car…the hole is the only damage from the accident – where 3 cars where involved!!

I kept on laughing when I found the bubble envelope with ALL the receipts from when Katie, Rob and I flew to NY for a week. That was an awesome trip! So much crammed into a week, it was crazy! We drove from Buffalo to NY City on less time than we were told we would (it didn’t help any that I drove…)

I also re-discovered Elf Herself books (I didn’t keep the dolls) and tons of my favorite books that I loved as a kid. Like the ‘China Tate’ series that I got one year fro my birthday from all my friends. I had a really awful Sunday before when they all had a ‘meeting’ after church – and told me to stay away! (They were planning who was gonna buy which book and how they’d keep me from buying the books myself with the birthday $$ I’d already received!) And there’s also the Discovery Book about Abraham Lincoln that I read so much it’s taped together (printed in 1974 – before I was born!).

The first Bible I ever got is also packed safely away. I got it from my great-grandma Owen when I was born. I also kept the picture Bible I got from school when I graduated first grade.

The last gift my great-grandma Dodge gave me is in there (a stuffed, flowered turtle), as well as a doll that she made me and several other gifts from her! I remember the first time I tried coffee was the night I slept over at her place when I was maybe 9. I will never drink coffee again!

I also kept the plastic egg that had the little bunny figurine (stored elsewhere) that happens to be the only gift I have ever gotten from my cousin Jeremy one Easter. He got all us cousins one when he came back from Navy boot camp. Of course, silly me dropped it and the ears went fling to odd ends of the basement, but Josh (Jeremy’s younger brother…also a cousin!) found both the ears and Dad super glued them back on when we got home and my bunny was saved!

And then the dolls - oh! the dolls! Teddy bears that Mom made me, a doll Opa bought me on one of his trips, a dog that looked like our old neighbour's dog Winnie...and Kimberly. Apparently, the day my brother was born, he bought Kimberly for me. She came with a bottle that she drank from, and she was tub-safe so she often took baths when I did. The bottle is gone, but Kimberly remains!

Mom's first attempt at a teddy bear - always one of my favorties!!!
The side is ripped, and if I move the limbs around too much the felt rips.

Somewhere in the stack of ticket stubs from movies and concerts I attended there is a little notebook that I ‘inherited’ from my Grandma Hamble. In it is pasted jokes that she kept when she was growing up! (So, now we know where I get that habit from!!!)

At the bottom of the pile was some receipts from when Jenni, Katie and I went to Las Vegas for a week. Such a nice warm week in Vegas in January! I didn’t keep all of them, just the important ones – like my plane stubs and the money claim ticket from when I ‘lost’ 99¢ at the Exalibur (where we stayed). And the package the Erik Bleumon came in! (I unfortunately didn't keep him...his head popped off. Some know that story…I won't relate it here!)

But, now it’s after 10 pm and I have yet to eat supper, and I’m tired. More ‘organizing’ tomorrow!!