Countdown to Moving Day: 5 hours

I am writing this from the hotel next to my (old?) apartment. We picked up and loaded the truck last night, which is a HUGE time savings today. I had originally thought that we'd pick it up this morning and load it in "a few hours". 5 hours later last night and we are not quite finished yet... Luckily my Dad has a better grip on reality than I do and saved us the pain of doing it all this morning!

It feels strange to look around and know that I won't be seeing any of this for a long time. We will be back in the fall to go to a football game or two, but it obviously won't be the same.

My last day of work felt the same way. Very Surreal. I had to force myself to look around and realize that I wouldn't be seeing any of this, or any of these people, ever again. My purse feels too light without all of my work keys and security gate cards.

Hopefully everything will go smoothly today, and I will be able to check in later this week! Not sure about internet access in the new apartment yet, but I know they have an internet cafe in the main building of the complex.

So, anyone know of any knitting groups near Round Lake, IL?

Countdown to Moving Day: 7

I can't believe everything that has happened in the last month. It is strange how even when you want something, and know it will happen eventually, it is still kind of a shock.

Reality is really starting to sink in - we are moving; I am starting a new job. I spent some time over the weekend thinking of everything and everyone I am going to miss in Iowa City. We went downtown for some coffee and drove around a few blocks to see the tornado damage from last week. Not really the way I want to end things here - but what can you do.

Packing is going, well, it's just going. The list of things I have to do in the next week is huge! I realized that in a packing frenzy last night, and put all my knitting in a box and taped it shut. I think it is going to have to be unpacked so I have something to keep me sane these next few nights!

You don't know how much you really have until you try to pack it.

I knew Steve and I are both pack rats and we have a lot of stuff crammed into the apartment. But when actually see it all... The plus side is that we are being generous to the Goodwill and trash piles. Here is a shot of the living room. (unfortunately, all the other rooms look just like it.)





If you look closely, you can see (ahem, some) of my yarn on the left edge of the frame. Notice that we still have approximately 500 pounds of books to pack up. I think those are the worst!

I made up some Post-it notes with "Do Not Pack" written on them, so we don't pack something we still need. Everything is such a mess (see above) that things are starting to blend together. Mollie seemed a little concerned over all this activity, and made it clear that she didn't want to end up in a box.





I almost forgot - during the apartment hunting last weekend my car turned 50,000 miles old.





I love my car so much; I don't want it to get old!
(Yes, I am a dork.)

Guess What!

I finished my socks.
They match perfectly, and I didn't really try.

and...



I GOT THE JOB!!!


I start on May 1st, which is freaking me out slightly. But only because I have to finish (I'm in the middle of everthing) work here, pack up a (messy, crowded) apartment, find a new (not outrageously priced) place to live 200 miles away, haul everything (we are both pack rats) there, get utilities (but not cable and high-speed since it is $$$) hooked up, find my husband a (not crappy) job...

We are going apartment hunting in the north Chicago 'burbs this weekend. Wish us luck!