Just Checking In....

First, this house is a madhouse.

Second, I am not nearly as mad (mad hatter style, not mad hulk style) as I thought it would be at this point, and I think most of that is a direct effect of our previous few (uh.... 7?) months. I am not glad that they happened, but they prepared me for this move. I have been pretty calm and collected through most of this (besides the beginning of our garage sale, with people showing up a good 45 minutes early and rifling through our baby clothes before I even took them out of the storage bin. NOT IMPRESSED, EARLY BIRDS! Quite a few of my family members can attest to my not-calmness and maybe-a-tad-bit-crazyness. Sorry guys. Thanks for being troopers!). Yesterday was hard only because we had had a break the night before, getting out of this house to spend some quality time with some friends that we will miss dearly. It was like our garage sale, where we baked outside in 99 degree heat for 8 hours, and we grew used to the heat after a while, but when we came and ate lunch in the AC, it was SO HARD going back out into the heat. And now that we've had a break from the constant go-go-go, it's been hard to go back under.

Third- our movers come tomorrow. Our house does not look like we are moving, aside from the gaping holes that some furniture left after we sold it in the sale. We don't pack anything, so it's not too bad. I am just trying to get things organized, so when they get thrown into boxes by men who do not care whether it is grouped into different categories, it will make just a little sense when I pull it all out in a few months. I'm impressed with the work that Paul and I (and our parents, who were here to help last week) have gotten done in a relatively short amount of time. We have most of our suitcases packed (pretty sure we will have about 7... yahoo!). I am mourning the loss of my washer and dryer, as we are leaving it here (I don't think ANY house in England would be able to house those suckers. They are huge!), and cringing as I think of the teeny tiny washers that will be undoubtedly waiting for me on the other side. We are cooking steaks, hamburgers, fresh rolls, and two different types of roasted veggies for LUNCH today because it will be the last time that we are in a REAL kitchen for quite some time. I might even make some ice cream for the road just because I can. And I woke up this morning with a little frown, only because I know that this would be the last morning that I wake up for a 'normal' morning in this house. With everything that we've done to this house, not to mention that huge yard, I've grown more attached than I thought I would. It was a blank canvas when we walked in, and we've made it our own. Though we will still own it for the next three years at least, there will be strangers here, painting over our colorful walls, erasing Alex's chalk marking off of the pantry door, and probably taking down my very colorful and very lopsided home-made curtains. It will no longer be our home. But that's ok. We will hopefully get settled in not too long into our new home in England, and then after that, hopefully make our way to somewhere in the States and settle in. Moving every three years is wearing on me.

Fourth- I can only assume that our hotel will have Wi-Fi, but if not, this is it until we get tucked into our army barracks in England (yep.).

Till then!