This is me:



So much to do, so little time. That's the way I've been feeling lately. My phone has rung so much today, I'm going to start answering it, "Hello, Taco Bell." That ought to throw folks, considering we don't even have a Taco Bell in Peace River!

On the weekend, we saw more friends than we saw all summer. Tell ya, when you move, you suddenly have friends you didn't know about... Waving cheerfully, watching you leave. Just kidding. It's truly hard to believe how many people we wish we didn't have to leave behind here. Sigh. And they all fed us full of sugar to show their love.

Sugar = Love.

I guess it's not a new concept.

Our furniture started walking out the door last weekend, as we slowly began selling it off. Now, we only have a few pieces that aren't gone or spoken for--Jason's actually on a furniture delivery as we speak! We are only one week from "The Great Loading Day," so we are not doing school this week (except whatever worksheets Jude decides to do for fun--because, yes, he really does love math!) and are focusing on packing and taking care of last-minute details. There only seem to be about a million of those.

As I told Jason tonight, "I'm starting to freak out." Freak out that we won't be able to get everything done in time, freak out that we really are leaving one of our favourite places on earth behind, freaking out for fear of the unknown, and freaking out that we'll be living in the United States--a place I have only lukewarm feelings about.

Anyway, at least we'll get to enjoy a winter without forty below for once. (Even the year I went to India from October to February, I somehow managed to get home for the worst part of the winter. That year, Alberta freakishly did not get snow until December 31st. And yes, "freak" is my word of the day.)

The kids' beds all left last Sunday and Monday, and they have had a total blast "camping out" on their bedroom floor in sleeping bags. Jason and I don't have to camp out, only because our mattress is so terrible that I refuse to inflict it on anyone else--it goes straight to the dumpster. Yay! Something else to look forward to--a new, good mattress, for the first time in our marriage! We are still using the caved-in gem my aunt gave us out of our need when we first got married--it was headed for the dumpster then. No wonder I have back problems. (We won't mention my appalling lack of physical activity in the last couple of years. Yay! Something else to look forward to! Dry, level roads, slightly warmish weather, and children finally old enough to make going for a walk not a complete torture. Okay, the kids still can't walk fast enough for Mommy to get any exercise, so I am seriously going to have to work on planning that into my day. Sigh.)

The guy who is taking our dining room table has kindly let us keep it until we move, since he's just a single guy in an apartment. Very sweet of him.

My house is a jumble of boxes and stuff-to-be-packed. It looks kind of like Wal-Mart on Boxing Day around here. Except the stuff doesn't have any tags on it. And some of it is actually better quality.

Last Saturday, I took the kids with me on a drive out to Fairview to pick up new roof racks for our van. On the way, I thought I'd see what the answer was to the question I kept getting asked: "Are the kids excited?"

"Hey, guys! Are you excited to be moving?" I yelled above Junior's Playtime Songs, glancing in the rear-view mirror.

" Yah!!!!" came an unhesitating, unified roar from the back. I was a bit taken aback.

"Really? Why?"

Jude volunteered first: "'Cause there'll be lots of hotels to stay at, with lots of swimming pools..."

Ah. At which point I clarified that we would not be on holidays... this is where we would be living now. Thankfully, that didn't seem to dampen his (or the other two kids') spirits any.

It's kind of weird to be packing a suitcase for the next couple of months (while we stay with my Mom and Mike), and then living out of that while you pack all the rest of your clothes in boxes... and you're still in your own house! It is also trickier than I thought to try and pack light, while still being able to function for the next couple of months. I guess I'll soon find out how I did at that.

One more thing: I got a webcam a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't even got to use it yet. Not as a communications tool, anyway. I don't know enough people on Skype, yet, apparently. And I don't feel like downloading every little messenger program out there and bogging down my computer. I'm too stubborn. And I think my computer is already slow enough.

However. Here is the real me. As seen by my computer for several hours a day.



Aren't you suddenly glad that most of the time I just type? :-)