"Christmas is in 4 months tomorrow"

I last posted about the beginning of our trip to visit Raleigh back in late March. That quickly turned into the story of how I resigned from my teaching job. I had good intentions of continuing my story about our trip down south, but as writing goes, I feel further inclined to write about something else. 

I will though, give you brief synopsis of our trip...

*It is an 8 hour drive and we made it in 10 with an 8 month old baby - huge success!
*No offense to those that live in West Virginia, but gosh it was a depressing drive. Virginia was much nicer. 
*We visited a lot of parks, museums, and local venues. There is a TON to do!
*It was 75 and sunny - it was amazing.
*I may or may not have had three break downs - full fledged crying, perhaps an, "I don't want to move," once or twice, etc. It was quite an emotional week - especially with having resigned from my job 2 seconds into our trip - something that I was not mentally prepared for.
*It was beautiful.

So onto something different.

This morning Ryan and I were lounging around the house watching Dean play (yes, we didn't go to church - it has been a rough summer for us. Teaching Sunday School to 4-6 year olds for 5 weeks with our own 11 month old in the same room may have put us over the edge for a while), when Ryan said nonchalantly, "Christmas is in 4 months tomorrow."

WHAT!

"Stop it, you can't be serious," was my obvious reply. Was I full of excitement - obviously. I love Christmas. Was I also shocked that he was stating this fun little fact when the high today was close to 90 degrees and I can't even begin to think of snow and cold yet? Of course.

But then he followed up with this gem...

"And we will be living in North Carolina in about 9 weeks."

I'm sorry, let me stop and have a panic attack. 

Ryan told me last week that I needed to, "seriously start packing." So I've only packed about 10 boxes - big deal. But wait, what? We're putting our house on the market in two weeks? Oh for the love of everything. 

Let me just tell you what "packing" looks like with a one year old - "Dean, don't touch that." "Dean, NO!" "Dean, you cannot eat that." "Dean, stop climbing on that." All. Day. Long.

So I haven't physically packed many boxes. In my mind I know where everything is supposed to go. I know exactly which kitchen items I want to put in storage, the ones that I want to get rid of, and the ones that will be making the move with us. It's simply a technicality that I haven't actually put them into boxes. 

Ryan did tell me that he is taking a vacation day on Friday to "get the house ready to be shown," so I suppose I actually should pack a few more boxes this week. He also asked me if I wanted any help from outside sources - family members - and I instantly began to sweat and panic. 

No offense what-so-ever to any of our family, but the stress of moving is enough for me to handle, I do not think I can handle being asked what I want done with this and that, and am I keeping this cute bowl? Or is it going in this pile? I very much like to do projects like this on my own. Some may say I like to be in control...I wouldn't deny that. Is that a flaw? Perhaps. But I am incredibly efficient and awesome at organization. So I'll take doing this on my own. I will most likely complain every day about it to Ryan, but it'll get done.

So here is to promising to pack more boxes this week. And no, I won't use my excuse of, "I didn't pack anything today because I forgot to put the boxes together before Dean took a nap." 

Ha! That's right, I've actually used that one.

xoxo,
Beth