I get by with a little help from my friends.
Yesterday it was Jen, Jules and Ethan keeping L & E busy so I could get the super-hot, high-priority stuff done. Today it was my mom.
She came in to town a day before Market started (on her anniversary) to help me with the kids so I could get ready to go to Portland tomorrow. Since I didn’t have enough laundry done to pack properly until later in the afternoon, she ended up herding the kids so that I could make final preparations for a virtual baby shower I’m hosting next weekend.
I’m sending cookies to everyone, I’ve set up a blog with a few “games,” and Michelle and I have been trying to figure out how we can do a multi-person chat with the capability to upload pictures.
Since neither of us is super into chatting, it doesn’t surprise me that we didn’t find anything. But, you know, that’s usually the way it is for me. I generally have an idea of what I want to do and I can figure out ways to do the tasks individually, but no one has integrated them (for free). I’m obviously SO ahead of technology.
Anyway after much research, Michelle, AJ and I had a nice little chat in a private room that I was able to set up through Chatzy. Naturally AJ asked about boobs or sexy laydeez or something and we both ignored him.
It was only later that I realized the significance of his comments. Neither of us had any idea that it was Michelle’s very first time in a chat room! It just wouldn’t be right if someone wasn’t inappropriate, you know?
Ahhh, the inappropriate chat room. It reminded me of those days of the Wild West Internet and the first time I discovered chat…in 1996.
I was a computer lab monitor on Wed. nights (it got me out of Chapter) and I basically spent the four hours watching hilarious conversations unfold and trying not to laugh out loud; SO much more interesting than Chapter.
But I digress.
When the kids BOTH went down for naps, Mom helped me clear out the paper version of Heidi Chronicles. She and Dad have offered to let us store some of our stuff with them and obviously I can’t part with the Chronicles, so I sent it home with her for safekeeping.
It kind of felt like I was one of those 30-something kids who moves back in with their parents after things didn’t turn out the way they had planned. I’m sure M & D thought they were getting rid of all of this stuff the first time they moved it out of their place. Poor Pat and Larry.
It was strange to be packing things up knowing that I was doing it because we’re leaving the country, but I was so into the project that wasn’t really thinking about it. It didn’t sink in until I was driving to meet Mom for dinner and I realized that I have to sell my car.
It’s going to be difficult to get rid of my “reminder” items.
It’s not so much that I’m m attached to that car. It’s more that the car is a triggers a lot of memories for me. Every day when I open up the door to the garage and se my car, it makes me happy. It was the first new car I ever had. It reminds me of how Aaron worked really hard wheeling and dealing to make sure that we were getting the very best price on it. And how we left the dealership without it. And how I cried on the way home thinking I wasn’t going to get the car, not realizing that it was a strategic maneuver on Aaron’s part.
It also reminds me of the time we hit a deer and I thought it was going to get up and chase us down to do more damage to the car. (Maybe I’d had a little to drink that night.)
And it was the car that brought both of our kiddos home from the hospital. (Awwwwwwww….)
I know it will be ok, it’s just going to sting a bit.
And then when mom and I were talking at dinner and she was telling me how excited she is for us, I just got butterflies in my stomach. Up until then, it had been like I was watching myself as though I was another person. When it really hit me, I wanted to put my hands over my ears and hum as she was talking - I can only comprehend a little at a time right now. When I start thinking about the big picture, it’s just too overwhelming.
A big part of me is really excited about the adventure that awaits us. Both Aaron and I have always wanted to live abroad. - it will be such an amazing experience. But I honestly never expected it to happen – at least not to me.
And then there’s the day-in-day-out part of me thinking about how isolated we’ll be at first. And how we’ll live in this teeny tiny flat where I can’t hide out anywhere to get some space. And how I’ll have to figure out where to shop for groceries - and figure out the metric system.
That part of me (particularly the metric part) is scared shitless.
But I don’t think being scared is a bad thing. I think that anyone who’s going to play 52 Card Pick-Up with their life should be a little nervous about it.
Anyway, here’s to the Chronicles Family’s Big Adventure.
