All My Bags are Packed...

... I'm ready to go...

 

I think.

 

Wow, what a day.  Today I watched and participated in packing a trailer that is going to take me and the girls to Colorado tomorrow to begin our life there.  It is still hard to grasp that this is happening; I kept telling myself that "this will be real when..."... but it still hasn't hit me yet that this is real, and I'm not sure when it will.  Maybe the kids' first day of daycare this next week?  Maybe my first day at my new job?

 

I have so much to write about... So. Much.  However, it's been an emotional and busy and overwhelming and exciting and all sorts of things couple of weeks and so I'm doing my best to keep on task and on target and to get us out the door... I finally feel ready, but it is so hard to leave... so hard to say goodbye.  There are people I was really hoping to see last night or today and it simply didn't happen.  On the other hand, there were people I didn't expect to see today that I got to see so that was really wonderful.

 

By this time tomorrow, we will hopefully be snuggled into our beds in our hotel in Colorado, if not almost there.  We have a long drive tomorrow but we are determined to make it the entire distance so we're fresh and able to move in right away Monday morning.  I'm not thinking about the fact that the kids will be strapped in their car seats for a very long day tomorrow... there isn't much way around it, so it needs to happen, and we'll ply them with movies and fruit snacks and hope they nap more than normal.  (Why, oh why, didn't I take five minutes to pull out my sewing machine and stitch Raven's paci clip shut or buy a clip to clip her sheep to her car seat?)

 

I am so thankful for the family and friends I have in my life... this week my friend C flew out to Denver with me to help me find daycare and an apartment (Success!!!), my parents and friend Ang are here to help me move out to CO, and out of the blue, our friend Jane stopped by today and helped us load up the trailer for over an hour... completely unannounced, but what a blessing!  We also had offers for help from another friend and it was a good feeling to be able to tell her that we were okay that way.  It seemed we made quick work of what needed to be done.

 

For those that don't know, a 6' x 12' trailer holds A LOT OF STUFF.  So much so that I spent a bit of time just trying to figure out what else to take.  We ended up taking an end table and an extra dresser that weren't part of the original plan, and I am excited to be able to bring my sewing machine and some other fun stuff as well.  Our apartment will be well stocked, at the very least.

 

Yes... an apartment... we are moving into an apartment until our house in Pella sells and we're able to buy another in Colorado.  My new company provides relocation which includes moving of household goods, however, we weren't sure how long we'd have to store the goods so we opted to leave the majority of our stuff here until an undetermined future date.  Even though we didn't like to, we lowered the price of our house a good chunk again this weekend and it is almost as low as we were hoping to ever have to go, so this is a good lesson for us in a number of ways, one of which is accepting that we may not make much money on this house, if any at all, and it serves as a reminder that this move and all of these changes wasn't about money to begin with.  We both agree that it's more important to sell our house soon instead of holding onto it wishing for a higher price for a longer amount of time.  So we'll see.

 

I think the kids are doing okay but after a long couple of weeks that were out of the ordinary for them, they were both very clingy today, especially tonight at bedtime (though it was later than normal).  Julia near broke my heart when she cried and cried that she wanted to sleep in her bed and not with me... she is seemingly okay with the idea of moving to Colorado but I'm not sure she is handling the leaving of some things behind, one of those things being the lower part of her bunkbed set.  She seems to understand that Papa packed her "Princess bed" in the trailer tonight and that she'll see it again in Colorado, but that didn't keep her from wanting to sleep in her own spot one more night.  I guess I can't blame her... I'm sure going to miss the king-size bed for the next while here...!!!

 

Anyway... that is what I know for now... a lot of randomness, I guess.  We are moving into our apartment on Monday and should have internet sometime Monday afternoon.

 

lots of hugs to you all!

erin