• Stocking Stuffers: 7 Unique Pens and Pencils by Mark S. Luckie from 10,000 Words:  I am a sucker for pens and pencils and this post has both.  I was about ready to drop everything and go buy a couple of these, especially the the Sharpie Pencil!
• The Wish List from Small Notebook: The blogger reviews the website, Wish Pot, which allows users to create wish lists to share with friends and family that is not limited to one online store.  Not only does it allow you to share your wish list with others, the blogger suggests it is a good way to track things you want, but are still thinking about.  You can also create gift registries for weddings and babies.
• How to Decorate Your Apartment to Feel Less Temporary and More Like Home from Small Notebook:  This post really spoke to me even though it is quite a few months old.  We've been getting our Christmas decorations out and considering how to actually decorate and organize our house even though we are here temporarily.  I've been wanting to put things on the wall, but don't know what I want to do.  We have these great shelves, but we have to use screws to hang them which means bigger holes in the wall and more take care of when we move again.  Joel suggested we just put up the pictures instead of setting them on the shelves... good idea, but many of the frames are for setting not hanging which means we would need to get new frames.  The blogger also suggested having less furniture that is more comfortable... good idea and we have gotten rid of quite a bit as we made the move to California.  The problem at the moment is that we have a few pieces that have special meaning to us that we don't really use or don't specifically fill our needs, but have hung on to.  I think we need to figure out ways of repurposing them to fit our needs, but I'm not sure how yet.
• How to Build an Impenetrable Snow Fort by Brett & Kate McKay on The Art of Manliness:  This is for all my WI friends and family that are enjoying a nasty blizzard this weekend.  I think this might make the blizzard a bit more fun afterwards.

Weeding is a term used often by library staff.  Weeding refers to getting rid of materials to make room for new materials.  Weeding does not mean throwing stuff in the garbage.  While this is sometimes the case, many times materials find new life through book sales and donations.  For example, the old newspapers from a library I used to work are picked up by a farmer to use as bedding for animals. 

What does this have to do with us, you ask?  Before we moved, we went through almost everything we owned and either deemed it worthy to keep, sell or give away and only a few items were tossed in preparation of putting our house on the market.  Before moving to California we lived on a busy street and we could place things in our front yard with a free or for sale sign and within minutes someone would be picking up our unwanted items.  This spring we bought a third kayak and were unsure about whether or not we wanted to keep one of the older ones.  We finally decided to sell the extra and within ten minutes a man stopped and paid our asking price.  After getting rid of some things and doing a intense cleaning of our house it looked amazing. 

Now that we've moved and trying to find places for the stuff that we did keep we are again realizing we need to do some thinning.  Today we made a trip to Goodwill and last week we were able to give away some our boxes and packing paper on Craigslist.  As we have unpacked and started organizing our stuff and trying to fit it in a smaller space (there are no basements in California), we have weeded things out and asked ourselves what we really need to keep.  Asking ourselves is this really necessary to our life?

Today, I was trying to catch up on my blog reading.  One of the blogs I follow, Small Notebook: for a simple home, discusses simplifying your life and living with less.  The post, Freedom and Opportunity: the Advantages of Owning Less, stood out and has had me thinking all afternoon, thinking more about thinning out and weeding our stuff to be ready for whatever comes next.  Joel and I know we will be in Sacramento until September 1, 2011, but we do not know what comes next.  We could be moving back to Wisconsin or we could be moving somewhere else or we may even stay in Sacramento, but we do not know and we will not know for quite some time.  The author of the post suggests that our stuff holds us back and by owning less we actually free ourselves to opportunities we may not have taken if we were tied to our stuff.    The more I think about this the more truth I see in this statement.  Now that we've sold our house and gotten rid of lots of stuff that we thought we needed, but really did not, it feels freeing like we could get rid of more and it would not matter.  Also, as we looked for a place to live in Sacramento we found ourselves limited by what we owned.  Could we fit all all of our stuff?  We needed a garage or some place to store our kayaks.  We needed space for our large furniture.  We were focused and limited by our stuff.  But we knew what is important--us--that is why we moved, so we could be together. 

I will continue to weed as I unpack and will probably make another trip or two to Goodwill.  I will keep in mind there is a good chance we will be moving again in a year or two and do I really want to keep moving all this stuff again and again.  I am not likely to sell or give away everything, but I will think twice about buying more stuff.

We made it to California a week ago after five days of driving and lots of miles (2165 miles to be exact if Google Maps is to be trusted).  We opted to take the northern route through North Dakota and Montana, a little be longer, but part of the country we had never seen before.  We were able to check four more states off our list--North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho--and take our time.

We left Tomah, WI on Sunday, September 5 and our goal was Fargo, North Dakota.  We made it and we weren't impressed with our cheap Motel 6, I guess we got what we paid for!

On Day 2, we drove across North Dakota, but weren't really sure where we were going to stop for the night. We were leaving it open in case we wanted to spend some time at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, also known as the Badlands of North Dakota.  The weather did not cooperate though.  We made a stop at Trapper's Kettle a restaurant recommended by a friend who is from North Dakota and we would second the recommendation--the burgers were great.  We also stopped at a rest area with a scenic overlook to the park.  All of us needed to get out and stretch our legs.  Not only was it raining and cold, we were also experiencing a head wind in western North Dakota.  So, our normally fuel efficient Subaru Outback was experiencing less then 15 miles per gallon and we only got 150-ish miles on a tank of gas when we normally get nearly 400 miles.  We decided to keep driving and make our goal be Billings, Montana that night instead of exploring North Dakota.Theodore Roosevelt National Park

On Day 3, we decided to take our time and the scenic route through Yellowstone National Park where we made reservations for one night of camping.  Our drive through Yellowstone took a lot longer then anticipated due to road construction.  We arrived at our campsite during daylight which was our goal because we had never set up the tent we were using before.  We hadn't intended on camping on our trip to California until we found out how long it would take the Joel and Molly enjoying a short walk even though it was windy, rainy and cold.moving truck to make it to California.  We had lots of time to kill.  Before we left I was talking with our friend Lance about our plans or lack of plans and how we were thinking about trying to find a small tent for cheap because ours was packed.  We were in luck they were selling one at their garage sale the next day.  We had our other camping gear because we had been sleeping on the floor after our furniture started west.  

Day 4's goal was to reach Idaho Falls, ID.  Our new tent at our campsite in Yellowstone National Park.We were in no rush and took our time driving through the rest of Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park.  Joel had never been to either.  I was a bit bummed because we didn't spend more time in Yellowstone because parking with a trailer was a pain, so I kept asking him if we could come back some day and until we made it to the Tetons he wasn't sold.  I also had forgotten how beautiful the Tetons were.  So, the Rech's will make it back to western Wyoming to see the great mountains, boiling mud pots and scorching water irrupting from the Old Faithful at sunset about 10 to 15 minutes before it irrupted.ground... some day.  We made it to Idaho Falls mid-afternoon with the intention of heading to the Potato Museum and leaving Molly at the hotel.  The hotel ended up having a strict no pets left unattended policy (unlike other Comfort Inns) and it was too hot to leave her in the car--the hottest it had been the whole trip!  So we decided to be vegetables and hang out at the hotel and take turns using the hot tub (because we couldn't let the dog alone in the room).  After some discussion about how we were Joel and I in Grand Teton National Parkfeeling and what we wanted to do the next day, we decided to make our goal be "home".  Sacramento was only twelve hours away and we had been taking it easy the past couple of days.

The morning dawned cool and rainy on Day 5 and of course it was my turn to drive again.  We got going before the Potato Museum opened, but had to stop anyways for a picture with the giant potato out front and really it was on our way.  We made it to Nevada as the clouds started to clear and Joel started to Joel and Molly on the Wyoming and Idaho border.drive.  He drove us all the way through Nevada and California.  We were expecting to be stopped at the border between Nevada and California.  Unlike a lot of other states they do a agricultural check there.  We had anticipated it and even considered not taking our house plants with us to California thinking it might be a pain.  The inspector didn't even ask us about the plants in the back of the car.  He asked about our kayaks which made sense and waved us through when our answers satisfied him.  We made it "home" just before dark which was good because there aren't a lot of lights in the new place and of course our lamps were on a truck somewhere west of the Mississippi River.  Molly loved that she was off leash and free to explore.  Joel and I were happy not to have to drive anymore--we made it!  If you want see more photos of our moving road trip, visit our flickr photo pages--Becky's and Joel's.

Here is a window into what the last two days have been like for us.  Boxes everywhere and now a huge truck in front of the house.

Everything is coming together this week.  Last week we didn't know if or when the movers were coming and our house was still on the market waiting for the perfect people for it.  This week we have an accepted offer on our house and the movers are coming on Wednesday to pack us up. 

We have to be out to California by next Wedensday (at least that is what they are telling us at the moment, it could change) to beat our stuff to our new place.  The cross country drive may have to happen sooner and faster then we planned, but better that then the three or four weeks they were estimating for us last week!  We are leaving La Crosse on Friday to spend sometime with family on our way out of the midwest on Saturday.

A little over three weeks ago we received our first offer on the house.  It was disappointing and discouraging.  It didn't help we were away from La Crosse for a few days and supposed to be camping somewhere where our cell phones couldn't reach us.  Anyways, after things didn't go our way with that offer we opted to drop our price a bit.  Last Thursday morning as I was getting ready for work, it occured to me that we hadn't had any showings with the new price.  Joel and I also were discouraged by the news that the housing market was not improving.  But all that would change with a message from Josh.  Someone wanted to see the house on Thursday and Friday.  Friday's showing went so well we had an ok offer by Friday night.  Saturday we countered and the buyers accepted our terms with a closing date of September 17!  Now we can just wait and hope that the home inspection goes well and everything else falls into place as we leave town for our new home in Sacramento, California.

Hopefully, things will continue to go well this week.  Our next challenge is making sure that everything the movers won't move either is gotten rid of or fits in the car.