Recovering

Hi, my name is Carolin and I am a recovering pack-rat. Never ever meant to be one, swore I wasn't one - but somehow, someway over the past 10 years or so it's crept up on me.

If you've been following along for a while you will know that I was on a 'go organize' streak for a while and we did get lots of things cleaned up, thrown out, given away or hauled off to goodwill. It's looking so much better around here but there's still a lot to do.

A year or so ago Brian & I bought a brand new bedroom set and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that it's the first brand new bedroom set I've had as an adult. We didn't have enough money at time though to buy the matching bedside tables so we were still using some that were way older than me and were technically sofa end tables. I swear the drawer (at least on my side) had not been opened since we moved here 9 years ago because it was packed and I just never got around to cleaning it out. We recently bought the matching end tables for our bedroom set! Woohoo! They were delivered yesterday which necessitated the old ones being cleaned off and out. So that's what us old peeps did tonight, we cleaned out the drawers and goodness - what a trip down memory lane it was!

Here's a list in no certain order:

• An address list from the church we attended when we first started dating.


• An address list from the church we attended after we were married.


• An address list from my first corporate job.

Of course each list brought about a conversation about old friends and acquaintences which was fun!

• A notebook from when Ryan was a baby - or at least started right before he was born. It has lists of the shower presents received from all the showers that were given for us and checkmarks showing where I'd marked them off as I dutifully wrote the thank you notes. The notebook included a page that had a list for Brian of who to call when I had Ryan - now why I thought he wouldn't know who to call is really puzzling me and may just keep me awake tonight. To top it all off, the notebook also includes every feeding Ryan had from the time I had him and then going on out until I realized that yes, he would eat - that's all he did! And that there really was no reason to worry about him gaining weight. He still eats a lot, not sure how he stays so skinny! Sheesh, that child was eating every 1 to 2 hours.


• A pencil that had erasers on each end, and no lead. Now where did I get that and why in the world would I keep it?


• The realtor flyer for our house in Frisco, TX from when we bought it which also has the floor plan on the reverse side. That made me sad, I loved that house & the Texas sized kitchen.

A weird assortment of books:

• "Prayers of a Loving Mother"
• "A Heart Like Jesus"
• "You Can Negotiate Anything" - which I'm pretty sure belongs to a friend of mine in Texas. I need to email, apologize profusely & get that book returned to it's rightful owner. I'm fairly certain I never read it.
• "How I got Millionaire Mentality" - This one is REALLY throwing me. I'm not a saver, not good w/ finances and why or how this ended up on my side of the bed is just something I'll never ever figure out.
• "40 Days of Purpose" - now this one needs to be read again because something must not have stuck.
• "The Dream and the Nightmare - The Sixties' Legacy to the Underclass" ... again, some book worm must have been sneaking books in my nightstand for the last 10 years because that is not even close to being a Carolin kinda book. I think Brian ran out of room on his side and snuck it in mine!
• "Now, Discover Your Strengths" with a side note of "The revolutionary program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths ...". I'm thinking I never read this one either. Obviously. But must have been in 'corporate mode' when it was purchased.

I won't even go into the various books that were stacked on top of our respective nightstands, but I'm fairly certain that the software that lists books you might be interested in on Amazon probably goes haywire when Brian and I log in. That topic deserves its own blog post.

And then, to really make me smile ... I found Ryan's mouthpiece from when he was a little tyke and played flag football. The one from this picture.

For now at least, the new side tables do not have anything in them and the trash can is full. The mouthpiece may or may not be in the trash - it may cause a tear or two when I do. And the books, any takers on any of them? I'm more than happy to share :-)

G'night - I'm tired!