Counting Down

Megan has this cute countdown app on her phone keeping track of the days we have left in Allen, so I thought it would be a good idea to have my own countdown app...you know, just to make sure I don't run out of time to do the things I most want to do.  I hate leaving a place with regrets.  In order to avoid that, I have multiple lists of people I want to catch, places I want to see, and restaurants I want to go to before I leave this place, and I've put this cute picture on my phone to remind me how many days I have left to do all that stuff...

Isn't it so pretty and peaceful and calm?  Yep, it totally is.  It's also a little deceiving.  Because when I look at that pretty countdown picture it can very easily lull me into a false sense of security that I've actually got 29 days and 23 hours to wander around in this house and do whatever I want to do and take bubble baths and read books and write blog posts.  

Except in reality, I don't.  On Saturday, May 14th, a handful of people are coming to pack this whole house (except for perishables, liquids, and hazardous materials) into a million boxes.  That's just 9 days and 21 hours from now!  And apparently it will take the packing people two full days, and since they don't work on Sundays (which is good cuz we don't either) they'll be back on Monday morning to finish. I'm not exactly sure what Saturday night and Sunday are going to look like around here, but I'm trying not to be too worried about that right now.  Beds and showers are really all we need, right?  

And then on Tuesday, May 17th, another handful of people will be here to load all those boxes into the giant moving truck in our front yard and haul it off to Alabama where it will be waiting for us when we arrive on June 3.  Craig will actually be there on May 27th to close on the house and receive the truck.  

My goal in the next 9 days is to touch every single thing in this house before we leave and decide if it's coming with us or not.  I know that's kind of weird and tedious, but I've become a little obsessive about not bringing stuff with us that we don't need or want.  It's a little bit about simplifying and decluttering, but it's a little more about eliminating things that make me feel guilty when I look at them.  I'm not sure how so many things have ended up living in this house just because we've felt some weird sense of obligation to the people who gave them to us.  From now on, if no one here loves it and no one here uses it, it doesn't get to live here.  

I also need to get rid of a few of the things that I know are not going to work in the new house.  Like our giant white kitchen table.  I kind of love that thing, and it's been with us since the kids were little, but the breakfast area in the new house is round and this table is square and bulky.  So it's staying here with someone else.  So is my giant black desk.  And the big brown leather couch upstairs in the playroom.  And the van.  

And I have 9 days and 21 hours to do all of that stuff.  And also take all the stuff off of all my bulletin boards.  And Savannah's.  And take everything off the walls.  And clean out the freezer, refrigerator and pantry.  And give away all those liquids, perishables, and hazardous materials that can't move with us.  And forward our mail to Birmingham.  And pack separate bags for the 17 days that the kids and I will be in a hotel until they finish school.  And the window people still have to come and replace 9 windows on this house, and someone is coming to fix the disposal this week, I think.  And there's a funeral tomorrow morning, and a band field trip that I'm chaperoning in the afternoon.  

Um, I think I might need a Diet DP before this day is over.  And one every day for the next 9 days...

But then after that...when May 14th is over and May 17th is over and when we close on this house on May 18th...THEN the 17 days of long visits with friends and breathing in all of Dallas one last time can begin.  

Only 12 or 13 more Diet DP days until then...I can probably do it.