Moving Picnic

The living room is empty. When I brought the dogs back from daycare, there was another level of confusion. They stared at the empty room. Then they laid on the edge of it most of the day. They were pretty tired, but after I did some more work around the house, I took them with me on my run just to make sure. Really trying to keep them tired and keep them in familiar environments to minimize their stress levels. I myself am obviously not confused, and haven't really been hit by the sadness. In denial maybe? But the longer I was in the house walking from room to room, preparing for the next phase of packers/movers (long term storage), it became more weird. Dave left this afternoon to go fly and expected to get home at about 9. So I decided to turn the living room into something less empty.  A picnic!

A blanket, red Solo cups, Big Bold Red Yellowtail (not only do we like that one, but we let the packers pack all of our wine bottle openers yesterday...obviously we are still moving rookies. the Big Bold Red is a screw top:)), and popcorn.  Ok I planned (microwave) popcorn, but Dave brought a light Arby's meal home.  Even better. Family picnic by candlelight complete. I think we might move the spare mattress upstairs tonight :)

How do you cope with big moves? How do you turn the weirdness into fun? ♥

Marriage Spices

A little over 4 years ago, Dave and I bought our first house.  Today, our stuff is being packed up to move to England. My emotions are running wild. 

And my olfactory receptors have been stimulated. Wait, what? While going through our kitchen, the packers mentioned that they actually can ship spices. Really? While I hate throwing away condiments and spices, I had already felt at ease knowing we were going to give them to some friends this time. And there is just something about spices being in storage for 5-6 weeks that makes me ok with getting fresh ones when we arrive. 

So I was doing a little inventory and found these in a box of Penzeys Spices my aunt gave me for my wedding shower.  We used up a lot of the spices but these were tucked away at the bottom and I forgot about them. I think these did the marriage good. I LOVE that guy a lot. Great 4 years.  

So the spices are staying here. But these little spice marriage charms might go with us. Hey, in the grand scheme of things we are still a newly married people, and I think we could both use the Rosemary for our memory improvement, anyway. 

Things my husband says: "I harass you so much not only because you are my wife, but because you're my best friend." (today).  Oh, thanks. See, marriage going strong :) 

Saturday- Ignoring the need for move prep. One more bonfire:

Day 1- Move Prep:

Day 2- Actual Boxes; some shown below. 68 total. We may have to build a fort out of the boxes and live there because I don't think we'll be living in a place big enough for our 68 boxes of stuff + furniture:

Dave, myself & the dogs did not get packed into the boxes, so we're good.  We're still a family unit. A few people reminded me of that today ♥  So if we can avoid getting packed into the storage boxes on Thursday, we're clear sailing. 

Mattress Moving Moments

We have 3 Queen mattresses. The oldest is Dave's $500 clearance mattress from college. It ranks 2nd in comfort. It's not bad at all. The next is a "luxurious" pillowtop Spring Air mattress we bought from Rooms to Go when I lived in Georgia. Spring Air went bankrupt or something. That makes sense because it completely sucked after about 1.5 years and it killed my back (somewhere between the time I bought it and then, they went out of business. Warranty no good). It definitely ranks 3rd in comfort.  Let me put it this way....I was not looking forward to coming home to my bed after my deployment because my little twin deployment bed was more comfortable. When I got home, we went big. We went for the Tempurpedic. It is still glorious to this day.

Well Hotel Clark is also going out of business when we move to England. We won't have that much space. I am happy to say that both downstairs queens were utilized at the same time on two different occassions while we lived here, so it was worth it to have both of them :) And for a few nights, I guess the Spring Air wasn't too bad, so our guests said.

Needless to say, Spring Air is getting the boot. Today I scheduled to have it picked up as a bulk item in tomorrow's trash pick-up. But I thought why not put it out on the curb this evening and tomorrow morning and see if anyone takes it?

So began the adventure of Dave & I trying to get the massive pillowtop out of the bedroom, up the stairs and out the door. So. Awkward. I don't know how movers do it. I am guessing they are much, much stronger than me, and thus aren't laughing their asses off as they repeatedly drop heavy pieces of furniture. This crappy mattress doesn't even have handles.  Ellie was going nuts running up and down the stairs. She gets excited when she doesn't know what is going on. Teddy is watching patiently on the landing.  Probably nervous. I'm cracking up. And Dave is shaking his head. I wish someone was taping the whole thing.

Friends....Pivot. PIVOT. 

Once we got it out the propped-open storm door, we rolled it like a tire to the curb. As we approached the curb,  Ellie came strolling out behind us. Both pups generally know to not run out the door even if it's open, but I don't think she could handle missing out on all the fun. We were causing quite the ruckus. 

We threw it down on the sidewalk, she hopped up and made herself at home. I don't think she understood why we were throwing away this perfectly good bed. Ellie, it was in the basement the whole time. We should have chilled out there for a while, but the Tigers are on :)

I love her! Ha! 

Why is this so great to me? Because in the midst of many moving moments that are not fun, this one was fun.  And funny.  I needed a good laugh ♥

Tornado of Change

So I knew that I get cranky when I don't run, but now I've also figured out I get stressed when I don't write. Self-diagnosing.

Although I can barely process all the emotions I am experiencing right now. There is a lot going on at once as we get closer to moving (to England. No big deal. Tiny life change. RIGHT?). I keep feeling like I'm looking at myself from the outside and analyzing how life's events (that we asked for) are just wreaking havoc on my feelings.  Really trying to just make myself laugh it off.  Why not. At least half of my emotion is excitement.  Maybe 60%.

One example...missing the dogs. This went to an extreme. We always miss them when we travel without them, but I could not WAIT to pick them up from the kennel after our last trip to Michigan. I thought to myself that it's probably just because there is so much going on and they are comforting. When I told Dave I missed them SO much this time, he said "It's probably just because of all the big changes going on right now." Yup. He gets me. We both love our puppies. I just want to cuddle with them all the time right now! The poor things don't know they are about to be moved halfway around the world and I'm using them as one of my primary means of emotional support.  Well, they have the luxury of not knowing.  Or do they? I think they will start noticing soon.

As I cuddled on the couch with Dave and the puppies the other night, watching the Tigers and drinking some wine, I wondered how the heck we were going to get to England in any kind of smooth manner. So many details to figure out still with approximately 4 weeks left.  Of course, most of those are dog details.  It's amazing that we sold our house already, but closing is a little earlier than expected so we think we'll be living in our friend's basement for a little bit. Extra friend time!? Positive. Dave's orders aren't final. We don't have plane tickets or even travel dates, let alone final plans for the dogs.  Newest development for them is that we might just fly them to Paris to save thousands of dollars (thanks England. we're off to a good start, you and I).

And then it just occured to me...all you need is love.  The 4 of us will get over there somehow and that is all that matters.  I'm going to bawl my eyes out when we walk out of this house for the last time, but I'll cherish the memories and we'll be off on another adventure together.  

And on that note- no, leaving the dogs here is not an option.  I know it's somewhat of an innocent question when people ask, but I almost cringe.

They are a part of the family.  They are a constant among all the change. When we come back from visiting friends and family far away, they are here.  When Dave is gone, they are here.  When I am gone, they are here for Dave.  Plus, they have it super good living with us. And they are so much fun.  How can we just leave them here? I would miss them terribly in England and I don't need sadness getting in the way of my fun :) Plus, they would miss out on roaming the English countryside.  That seems unfair to them.

Ok, maybe one reason to leave them here would be that England is the one country in the world that makes it extremely expensive to get them in.....frustrating, yes.  Showstopper, no.  They can make it difficult but they can't stop me.

Packaged deal

And no, you can't take one but not the other. 

Also, while on leave, there were some very important developments in the category of future Clark babies. The first thing is that we picked favorite names for both genders. 16 hour car ride, fun little activity for people in their late twenties. When we told Dave's grandparents about the names, other concerns in this department arose. Specifically, his Grandpa was concerned about us having a child in England, because this could possibly jeapordize his or her opportunity of running for president in the United States.  Naturally, this is a concern. Our kid will be awesome. Dave's brother also asked this question. Well, I've done some more research since and determined that our child would still be considered a natural-born citizen so all would be good. He or she will still be one fine presidential candidate. Everybody- sigh of relief, I know. Another huge concern we're getting: make babies soon so that they have little British accents. Come on people! Think about the timing. We'd really have to have a baby RIGHT NOW for that to work :)  But I agree, that would be kind of neat.

It was really comforting to talk to family & friends about England, our plans for where we want to live, work/school opportunities for me, possible children. Even though we will be so far away, it made me feel closer.  A lot of friends and family checking in on us and I'm so grateful.  We have people signing up to visit and we are really excited about that, too.

I kind of wish we could fast forward 4 weeks, when the tornado of change will just drop us in England. I know that will be another phase of change getting settled, but that seems more fun. I guess life isn't that easy, though. We must face all of the little details & various emotions that go with big moves.  Just like everyone else.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Sing it, Kelly. Except that I'm not alone. But I like her passion.