What a busy week of preparation for our move and finishing things up. We are exhausted and a little homeless and really very much at ease about how things are progressing.

I have spent the week packing our belongings or at least categorizing them in to one of many groups. Sea-shipment, air-shipment, our suitcases, errands to run, storage in the attic, Goodwill, Mom’s house. Elisa worked all week. Imagine organizing every item you own. My brain was overloaded and I feel like I needed to be doing a billion things to get ready when in fact I could only do so much. So I just waited for it to all be taken off my hands so I didn’t have to worry about it any more.

On Wednesday I was able to meet up with my cousins, Morgan and Julia. We met up for afternoon tea at one of my favorite places. They are great, kind, impressive girls and it was so nice to catch up with them. On the way back Julia and I started talking about how my Mom became Mormon. It always makes me feel so grateful to reflect on her joining the Mormon church because of all the good it has brought to my life, especially that Chad and I were able to meet and have been able to share such common standards and goals. Every good thing in my life has come or is appreciated because of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We were surprised to get a huge snowfall for the area, Wednesday evening. The icy roads kept me home from work for a half day. Chad and I got to go out and stroll in the snow. We enjoyed bundling all up and playing in the snow. I cannot remember the last time I had a snowball fight or made a snow angel. We tried to make a snow man but he just wouldn’t stay stuck together. Because of the snow everything got delayed in the area. Including our movers.

Wednesday was a special day not only because of tea and snow but Chad found out that a very odd email invitation was not spam after all. Have you ever gotten an email from a resort saying that you needed to send in your contact information so they could make your reservations? It seemed that we were going to Italy to ski right after Chad started work on Tuesday next. That was half the fun of playing in the snow that night. We were both very disappointed to discover that our understanding of the email was only half true. Chad will get to take an exciting ski and work trip to a small town in Italy for three days. Unfortunately I am excluded from the invitation. There’s some conference going on and it’s just for employees. It was quite a blow in the middle of all the stress with the move. I am not completely depressed about the situation like I was earlier this week. Chad will have a blast! It will be such a great opportunity to meet his coworkers and jump start into this amazing adventure. Hopefully it will all go smoothly while he is out of town those first few days.

The movers did end up coming on Friday and speedily papered and wrapped and boxed everything up. It looked cool to see chair-shaped packages where our furniture used to be. That was the end of living in the house and the beginning of living out of suitcases at my parents. It was amazing and depressing the next day how quickly our belongings disappeared from our house. It was much more pleasing to see it filled up again with Jeff and Lauren’s belongings the rest of the day. We were able to get them all moved in despite the snow. It was fun to see how different the house looked with different things in the rooms and on the walls. I felt very content knowing how pleased Jeff and Lauren are with the house and the yard and the location. They got their puppy and that has made them pretty thrilled too. It is nice to see that this is good for them too.

On Friday I turned my employee badge in to Microsoft. The last day of a job is exciting. My coworkers took me out to lunch. Then after I left the building I felt sad–it was too late to ever go back into the building to check email or see if I had left anything inside. I kind of felt like I didn’t belong at work or at home anymore, if you know what I mean.

Amidst the craziness of this last week at home we have been awaiting results from blood work I got last week. Initially there was a scare because my liver and potassium tests were a concern. After the doctor from a couple weeks ago compared the tests to the week prior she felt safe to advise me that it would most likely work itself out. Elisa’s headaches have gone away. Chad picked up the records just in case there is any concern after we move. It is nice to not have to fret about it these last couple days (while we are uninsured).

Today we were asked to teach a primary class last minute. It was a lot of fun to role play our pre-mortal life and the counsel in heaven. It was especially fun to do this with Chad. Thankfully he came in to manage the 9- and 10-year-olds with me. When we got to the part when a third of the kids broke off to follow Satan, all the kids who were in the third got up and moved to the other side of the room saying, “I don’t want to be over there.” 🙂

Happy New Year’s. That’s the only thing that we did this week–we celebrated New Year’s. Or we slept through New Year’s, depending on how you want to look at it. Elisa was asleep at 10 pm. The fireworks woke her up just enough to say, “That is really loud.” I’m the life of the party.

I turned in my resignation at Microsoft on Tuesday and I didn’t get fired. Chad had really been laboring over what to do and say and when, so this came as a huge relief. The week was pretty uneventful. The few co-workers that I told where we’re going all got jealous. 🙂

Earlier this week we ran into some people I went to high school with. I ended up spending some time catching up with some others I was inspired to get in touch with. Some people are still the same “kids” from high school, others are doing really impressive things. It was fun to catch up.

This Thursday a surveyor came from our moving company. It was the first time this move really felt real. I felt like there were a million things to do all of a sudden, but really they are taking care of pretty much everything. So instead Chad and I are kind of pacing around feeling like we should be really busy when really we just have to wait a lot of things out. This week we found people to take our piano, a desk, Elisa’s phone, our spare bed and our old digital camera! It has been a blessing to have so many things taken off our hands by people that we are really excited are receiving them.