What are you doing?

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

By: Amy

Written Sunday, July 13, 2014 on my bed in my bedroom in the house we’ve owned for the last 10 years at 12:30 pm. 

Short Answer:  Moving to Ireland August 26^th to March 24^th.

Long Answer:  Selling off the things on our life holding us down and taking a dream off the shelf and doing it. 

The house sold and we close July 31^st.  That in itself was an undertaking 1-year in the making.  There were repairs and other prep work required to get the house ready to be put on the market.  Questions of whether this repair/improvement or that repair/improvement would be best have dogged us for a long time.  We (and I say we, but we all know that Ker’s been doing the bulk of the work because I worked so much!) have ate, slept and breathed this house for a long time to get it ready.

I’ve felt the most good about getting rid of the piles, stacks, shelves, and bunches of the various and sundry STUFF that has accumulated over the last 10 years of living in this house.  Those of you who have been over in the last 2 years can remember just how full this house always felt.  No matter how clean I got it, the house still felt cluttered and untidy.  That’s a direct result of having too much stuff.  Click this link to see a virtual tour of the house after we had de-cluttered a little.

A purging of this severity has definitely showed me what has been needlessly holding us down.  We don’t need all that STUFF.  We don’t need to spend time maintaining and cleaning all the STUFF in our life.  I don’t know why we kept (or bought!) most of it around.  Inertia?  Laziness?  Anyway, asking the question of whether or not we need to keep this or that object has clarified what exactly we want in our life—what’s worth carting around, protecting and saving.  If you haven’t done it in a while, I suggest going through every room in your living space and doing a purge.  I’ve never felt so light.

My beloved car—EAB—sold while I was in New Jersey.  I say beloved, but I think I’m the only one who loved him—he gave everyone else in the house motion sickness.  I didn’t get a picture of the car with me leaning on it but Ker took this one. 

I wished I’d had time to do that before I left for the East Coast.  It’s weird being without EAB.  He’s the first car I’ve had that I’ve paid off, the car that went on the RV road trip, the only car I have ever PAID OFF, and generally, the guy I’ve spent the most time in over the last 6.5 years.  Even though he is just a thing/object, I miss him.  Also, I’m driving Ker’s rigs, which I’m not real fond off.  Not liking his trucks really hasn’t been an issue because I’ve always had my own car and have taken the “his car—his problem” attitude.  I’m a little surprised that I’m feeling this way.  But, it’s a mild sort of irritant and when you stack it up against the rest, it’s kinda petty, so in the spirit of getting rid of the stuff holding us down, I’m over it.

To give you a glimpse of all the moving parts necessary let’s take a look at this week’s to-do list.  Before Friday I’d like to:

·            Finalize Abby and Colleen’s enrollment into an online virtual school.  We have chosen the Oregon Connections Academy.  It seems like it will be a good fit for them.  The current thought is that they will be attending Irish Public School for the socialization piece, but we do not want them to lose any momentum in their current academic trajectory.  But, this is just the current thinking.  We may end up just doing the online school and having them join other programs/teams/classes to socialize them.  But, who knows!

·            Oversee the final repairs requested by the buyers of the house.  Not gonna say much more on that issue in this blog entry—it deserves one of it’s own.

·            Decide on health care now that I’m on a Leave of Absence from North Clackamas and taking a couple of terms off from Portland Community College.  Do we take international coverage?  What about Devan?  If we take international, he won’t have coverage.  Those are just some of the concerns.

·            Pick up Abby’s new glasses.  We have been trying to get every medical issue resolved in the family before my health care runs out at the end of August.  So, there are multiple doctors, dentists, orthodontists, and optometrists appointments that need to be resolved before we leave. Ker’s even got to get his knee fixed before we go.  And since I’m tattling—I was supposed to go in for the obligatory mammogram/ultrasound last summer and put it off.  This week, I promise I’ll make an appt (I say this and we all know that has a 50/50 chance of actually happening, right?).

·            See friends and family that we’re leaving behind.  That sounds so simple, but we are a very social family and have made deep and lasting relationships with our family and those friends who have become family.  These people who keep me sane, stable and happy.  The thought of leaving them is the most terrifying feeling of this experience.

·            Get the RV—Reggie—ready to be moved into.  This means a good deep clean and some repairs.   We are moving into him from July 29^th to August 26^th.  Then he gets sold.  My dad’s gonna do us the favor of selling him while we are gone.

·            Schedule the annual kids trip.  I’m thinking Sunriver, but who knows.

·            Schedule a meeting with the tax guy.  Why are taxes in two countries so freaking crazy?!?

·            Figure out our phone situation.  This means researching the best way of making sure our numbers and devices are saved for when we get back.  Abby is the only one on our plan that is still under the contract so at this point, Devan will take her iPhone and the rest of us will drop off the AT&T plan till we get back.  Kerry has “unlocked” my iPhone and his iPhone, so we will be taking them with us and using them in Ireland.

·            Pick up my parents, Diane and Val from the airport and make sure there is a wheel chair for Mom in every airport.  I’m glad they are coming back, I miss them.

·            Install Skype on all friends and family computers. 

·            Come up with a “How To” sheet for Skype for all the users here in the states.

·            Find a temporary home for Roger my boat, and Kerry’s boat—the Ire. 

·            Schedule a time for Julie to come in and meet the kittens.  Julie—a lifesaver!!! –has volunteered to watch them for us for the time we are in Ireland. 

·            Get Maddie’s arthritis medications and make sure they are transferable to the vet in Forest Grove.  My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew are caring for my elderly dogs—Maddie and Riley.  It would be less hassle to have all the dog’s meds and food local to my sister rather than here in Portland.  Also, my dad has volunteered to pick up dog food and meds to help out.  Grateful doesn’t even cover it.

·            Finalize, print and distribute bottle and pop can-drive flyers for the fundraiser for the National Brain Tumor Society.  Pick up donated cans and bottles Saturday morning.

·            Get a gift for a very special 40^th bday.  Chris Reichman is coming to town and we get to celebrate his bday with him by a party and a boating trip.  It’s gonna be fun.

·            Repack up and take all my work stuff to the storage unit. 

·            Memorize storage unit.

·            Begin to figure out what clothes to take to Ireland.

·            Stay sane J

I’ll let you know how each of these plays out.