moving stuff

We got our closing date for the sale of our hizz-ouse...it should be either April 23 or 24. So yesterday I started packing. Uuuuuugggghhh. I did A LOT, and my body now hates me for packing and carrying eleventy thousand books down from the second floor. Along with several bins of fabric, bins and boxes of sewing paraphenalia, bins and bags of Daughter's clothing (from birth to 3 years, oh my word that's a lot of clothing), and so on.

The house is 1.5 stories, so the second floor is really just one large room plus a half bath. The closet in the bath is empty, the closet in the room is empty, and most of our stuff is downstairs, packed and stacked and ready for a dolly to wheel it out. That's my plan...to have everything packed and stacked well before "moving day" so as to make things move more quickly. We've all had that sucky move where we're scrambling to pack up the last few things when the truck is already there, yeah? IT BLOWS. So I'm trying to avoid that.

Problem is, we are not living there and it is 45 minutes away, so getting out there and having time to do a lot of packing is challenging. Thank God for my parents, who watch the kids so we can get it done. I'll be heading out Friday, I think, to do the kitchen cabinets. Then again over the weekend to do, oh, I don't know...maybe one of the bedrooms. Luckily we've been moving some of our crap out piecemeal as we need it. So it's not going to be a totally hellish move. Just kind of hellish. As moves generally are.

Oh, I am so tired. There is much to do in the next 30 days or so.

And no, we don't have a new house picked out yet. We're going to hang out and save up a few more dollars for a bit, so we can buy more house and make a better downpayment. It's not the ideal situation, staying with my parents (we feel like losers, even though we're not, thank you very much), but we can really sock away some extra dough this way. We're trying to go from a cheap area to a very expensive area by sneaking in - perhaps a foreclosure or something - so our children can have a better life, basically. The schools where both our parents live are #1 in the area, and with a very bright preschooler and a baby who may or may not require services in the future, we really feel we need the best. So we're trying to shoehorn ourselves into a ritzy suburb even though we're not technically on the same financial footing as most of the residents. In a few years it should be so much better...I'll be able to go back to work, probably part-time, and we'll hammer down our debts. But it's going to be tight for the next 5 years or so.

Still, a better life for the kids. That's my focus and my goal. We have to do it for them, they deserve all we can possibly do for them. But wow, it is stressful and exhausting. I've taken to grinding my teeth...during the day. I can't wait for the time when I can start living my life again, rather than scratching and clawing my way through the days. That time will come, right? Please tell me that time will come.