honey, what do you think?

After 12 years together, and 10 years of marriage, you'd think there wouldn't be that many surprises left. And it's true, there aren't too many. But there are numerous instances of the same basic differences being played out in a multi-hued kaleidoscope of variations.

Packing and getting ready to downsize is one such variation that is a...hmm...I'm trying to figure out how to work Rorschach test into this sentence but I think I'm becoming much too pretentious and long winded. Moving right along...packing shows me yet again how my wife and I differ in one fundamental characteristic.

I need to think out loud, involve others in my thought process, bounce things off someone etc.

She, being more of the strong, silent type does not.

Which reminds me of yet another mystery of marriage: how come even I know this about her so well, it can still annoy me? I mean really, you'd think I'd be pretty zen about our differences at this point. But if you have been reading this blog for the past few weeks you've learned that I don't necessarily rock the zen.

Anyhow, back to packing. Our differences can be summed up as follows. Upon encountering an item that has some kind of sentimental/practical/monetary value, here's what happens:

(scenario A, I find the item)
Me: "Honey, do you think we should keep this? I kind of like it, and I could see us using it again?"
Her: "Mmmmm (or silence, insert chirping crickets here).

Me: "No, I need to know what you think about it, it' s more yours than mine. I'm kind of worried that if I throw it out we'll find out we really need it."

Her: "Just get rid of it, love, I'm sure it will be fine."

(scenario B, she finds the item)

***************silence except for the following sounds: crinkle of plastic as item is thrown out, screech of packing tape as yet another box is sealed, thud as item lands in our donation bin.

**with apologies to my wife for the gross exaggerations I have made and the artistic licence I have given myself for the sake of coming up with a post.

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For all those who were wondering, we did not manage to sell: the horse, the toddler bike seat, or the bassinet/playpen. Two of those three items have now found a happy home. Any guesses as to what we are still going to end up moving?

a few good things....

Life really hasn't been just one big ball of stress lately. I have in fact had a number of positive things happen, many of which have been a pleasant surprise, including:

• we got two offers on our house within 7 days....even our agent was surprised by this--apparently all our decluttering worked.
• Our older daughter has generally been coping much better than we expected with all the changes in our lives.
• We've found all the necessary paperwork for the house! something I certainly wouldn't have expected to be so easy given the state of said house a few months ago!
  
• I finish work in two days...not a surprise, but definitely a good thing. I've had to restrain myself from skipping through the hallways singing lately, which I suspect would not be appreciated.
• Other than a nasty cold that mainly hit my wife (sorry honey!) we've generally managed to keep sane, stress free, sickness free and even actually had a lot of fun.
• We've sold most of our big items! (with the notable exception of Pinkie Beauty, our beautiful spring horse, perfection in plastic horse form, only $50).
  

Cordaround: not a member of the corduroy family.

So I haven't spoken much about my wonderful wife. I could go on about how she's a marvellous mom, terrific teacher, lovely life partner and give many other alliterative compliments.

Anyway, she is definitely the handy one in this relationship. As discovered during a recent google chat.

When we began prepping our current house for moving, we decided to redo the floors in the basement guest room & in our two girls rooms. Replacing gross (and in one case cat pee covered) carpet with clean new laminate would be a good thing for the value of our house, we blithely agreed--plus laminate was on sale! So she worked very hard last weekend, got all the carpet up & new laminate down, leaving only a few bare inches of wall and a gap between the laminate and the wall. Clearly, what was needed was some wood to replace the ratty old stuff she had torn out. I, being the non handy one in the relationship, was very proud that I knew the correct term for said ratty old wood, and proudly brought it out in a recent google chat. "So," I said, "when are you going to replace the cordaround ?" her chat version of apoplectic giggling alerted me to the fact that something was wrong.

Apparently it is not a close relative of the corduroy family, as I had assumed, but is actually called 'quarter round' to reflect the fact that it is a quarter of an inch thick or something. Sheesh! who knew?