Tuesday, July 7

Here's the latest...

Okay, for those of you keeping score here's the latest on the 'haps' at the house.

We've been packing and sorting for a while now but not with the intensity you would expect of a family getting ready to move out of the state. Why? Well, quite simply, since the military has contracted a moving company to move our stuff, we just don't feel the burden of having to get everything done by any deadline. We've gone through old clothes and had a couple of garage sales. We've sorted stuff that we still have that we don't want and Babe has a plan to donate that stuff to charity. In short, we've done just about all we can think to do. The big exception to that is the laundry. However, I'm not allowed to do the laundry, so I don't feel any pressure about that. I can tell you that I'm planning to pack my uniforms tomorrow and load my seabag into my car. Since that's going on a trailer, I will have everything I need when we get there. We'll probably pack our suitcases this weekend and have them out of the way when the movers show up on Tuesday. That will give us clothes for the rest of 'vacation' and to get settled in with when we get there. We need to put aside a couple weeks worth of clothes so we're not too limited when we go shopping for housing, churches, etc...

We've been 'pre-approved' for funding for a house. Now we just need to find a house. We tried to get the kids registered for school where we're looking to buy, but the school district says we need to actually be in the district physically before we move. I guess they don't understand the military up there, but I'm going to call the school liaison and see if she can help us out.

I'm glad we were pre-approved before I took the car into the dealer. Now that I have a new computer in the vehicle I should be good for at least another 90K miles, right? That's what I'm hoping at least... especially since it's not even paid off yet. Ugh!

I did manage to get reservations at a nice steak house that we've talked about visiting pretty much since we got married. Since it's our anniversary and our last night in town, we figured we were pretty much out of excuses. Looking forward to dinner at Donovan's but I'm pretty much not looking forward to the next morning. I'm sure there will be tears all around and I anticipate that even I will have a knot in my throat... very different to the last time I left CA.

We had a nice send-off picnic with friends from church last night. Thanks to those of you who put that together for us.

My Honey is out with her friend for their quasi-weekly coffee talk and I'm listening to the "Fairy Oddparents" in the other room. The kids had their first official swim lesson today and did really well. Now that we're leaving the beach scene, we figure it's time they learn how to swim. We'll probably take skiing lessons as a family the week before we come back home after I retire. That's just how we roll.

Have a great week!