What's going to happen

Life right now is a whirlwind.  I want to take a second to write some things down- to fill you in- and to help me remember later.

Aaron has been working out of town for many weeks now.  Weekends are brief but precious, and while I can't say that life during the week is easy, it has (thankfully) gotten easier.  The kids and I have our routine and, for the most part, things are going well.  We've gotten used to it.  We get up in the mornings and (almost always) get the two oldest to school on time.  The weather is lovely so we try to walk most days.  The littles and I will sometimes have an appointment that we go to, or errands to run, but sometimes we just head home to try getting things done around the house before it's time to pick up Hakan from Kindergarten. 

Afternoons are spent doing a variety of things- working on furniture (still doing that, trying to make as much $ as I can before we go), sorting through things and weeding out what we want to bring and what needs to be gotten rid of, cleaning, doing laundry, and other such humdrum household duties, and sometimes taking a nap.  Every other week I drive carpool so around 2:30 I load the boys into the car to go get Pyper and her friend from school.  After school is more of the same- paint, clean, sort, procrastinate... 

Then it's dinner time.  This has been difficult.  I'm trying to use up things we have in the cupboards and freezer, but I have very little motivation to cook now that Aaron isn't around.  It's weird, but I just don't care to go to all the trouble of cooking a full meal for me and the kids.  I usually do, but I don't want to.  After that we call Daddy to read scriptures and say prayer, then I start the bedtime process.   By this time (or even before), I. am. done.  Pretty much every night I have to try really hard to keep my cool until the kids are in bed, and I'll be honest- it doesn't always happen.  Even after weeks of doing bedtime alone, I still struggle with it.  I am exhausted, my patience is GONE and I just want to clock out.  I don't want to deal with bedtime stories and singing "just one more" bedtime song.  I don't want to fetch water or tuck-in for the eighth time.  I'm too tired to tell them kindly to go back to bed a dozen times or more.  I don't have it in me to say "go to sleep" in a sweet voice when I keep hearing laughing/yelling/playing/screaming/wall thumping every time I leave the room.  But I try.  We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Things are happening, plans are being made, and we have finally reached the month in which (fingers crossed) we will move. 

Our plans have been in a constant state of flux since this whole moving thing came about.  First it was going to be to taking us to the Ann Arbor area of Michigan, then maybe to Atlanta or Denver or possibly even Louisville.  Then there was a distinct possibility that we'd be going to Illinois, just south of Chicago.  Then we thought it might be Illinois for a little while and then on to Michigan.  That plan lasted up until recently when we decided that we'd just go straight to Michigan.  I guess we've come full circle.  So, as things stand at the moment, we'll move out of our rental on Kee Lane, Modesto, California, and head off on a month-long road trip June 1st, slowly making our way towards Michigan. 

Our first stop will be Caldwell, Idaho to see friends we've been missing and play at our old stomping grounds for a few days.  Aaron will be flying in and out on weekends, but still having to go back to Illinois during most of the weeks for work.  The kids and I will then drive to Idaho Falls to see Aaron's grandma and aunt who live there.  We'll spend a few days with them before we drive down to Salt Lake City, Utah to see my younger brothers and their wives.  There will definitely be some fun had in the days we spend there, then the kids and I will be on our own again for the drive down to Coral Pink to see my folks and sister.  We'll be there for the better part of a week before we take off to New Mexico to see my grandparents.  Again, we'll spend a few days goofing around and relaxing before we start on the 3 or 4 day trek to Michigan. 

That's right- we're driving.  I was DETERMINED that we would fly.  I mean, wouldn't 5 or 6 hours on a plane with 4 little kids be better than 38 hours in a car?  Well, that was what I thought.  But then we decided to do this road trip of ours, so flying was out.  Still, I am excited.  We're planning on taking a route from New Mexico that goes right through the heart of Aaron's mission- Omaha, Nebraska.  He hasn't been there since he was a missionary, so it will be kind of neat for all of us to see it together.  We may take an extra day to visit some of the church sites there, like the Winter Quarters temple.

I just got a text from Aaron saying that he has finally, FINALLY gotten his offer letter for his new position.  He "interviewed" for the position back in February, when Rowan was only a couple of days old.  He flew to headquarters in Jackson, MI, chit-chatted with some people and then came home to wait for the contract to be sent to him.  We've been waiting for it until today.  See, without that contract we couldn't plan very far ahead.  We couldn't make any firm decisions or set any dates for anything until we had that letter and knew what the wording was for certain things.  We couldn't get the relocation company to start our moving process until they had an open account to charge for us, which can't happen until the contract goes through.  So even though he's been doing his new job (at his OLD PAY, I might add) for the past 2 1/2 months, he's just now getting the contract for it.  Needless to say, it's been frustrating.

ANYWAY, like I said- things are happening.  Aaron called the relocation people to see if they could get some of the preliminary stuff going even before they had an open account for us.  They were great and contacted a local moving company who then contacted me to schedule a survey of the house.  Today an agent came over to get that taken care of.  He walked around looking at what we have to move and made all kinds of notes and calculations, then he'll send that information back to the relocation people in Michigan who will then set a moving date with us.  We've already given our 30 day notice to the property management company for our house, so come what may, we're out of here May 31st. 

I realize this has been a pretty dry post, full of boring details and void of even a single photo.  But because this blog sometimes serves as a journal for our family, and because some people (mostly my parents) like to know these boring details, I thought I'd put them here.  So now you're all up to speed on our situation.  It may very well change, but hopefully now that we're in the home stretch things will stop changing so very, very often.