And so it begins.

At the risk of tempting fate...

We're under contract on a house in Leland, NC. It's new construction, due to be completed around August. It's quite lovely.

And the sale of our house proceeds- they just did the survey this week.

We ordered a POD to start packing stuff.

Chris just emptied the first bookshelf- the start of the packing stuff.

And, I spent the whole last week telling people at work.  Some of them were really hard... I shed more than a few tears.  My goal was to leave sad, not angry and burned out, and I think I have that nailed.

One of the things I find so amazing is all the support I'm getting from people. So many well-wishes, so many "happy for you's". I guess I've been in this weird place of both thinking that people are going to be upset that I'm leaving, and also thinking that makes me pretty full of myself. Why should they care? And also, of course they will care. 

There's a party planned. I'm both excited and uncomfortable being the center of that attention.

There are fewer and fewer weekends between now and the move.  A lot to do, still. I'm feeling a little disorganized.

All change is hard, even good change. And this is good change. The closer we get, the better I feel about the move. Yes there is a lot of work to do, and yes there are still myriad ways things can go wrong. But in the end, I have to take my own therapy-advice: is this a problem, or a worry? Solve the problems. Shelve the worries.

And embrace the excitement.  That's where I'm going to focus. All this change and stress is transitional and temporary. In the end, things will work out just the way they're supposed to.  I have faith.

Gathering no moss.

Things are rolling along here. We just had a week and a half of whirlwind travel: Ithaca to DFW via Detroit, a couple of days with the kids there, then a road trip (thanks Cam) to Little Rock to spend a couple of days with the kids there, then back to Ithaca (via Atlanta and Detroit) to pick up the dog at his boarder and then a road trip to NC, where we spent two days driving between North Topsail Beach and Leland (about an hour each way) where we looked at houses and then BACK to Ithaca.

WHEW. I'm exhausted. And also, excited. 

We looked at some really nice houses under construction with late summer/early fall completion dates.  As I type this, we're pre-approved for a mortgage and are waiting for the house we want to go on the market, scheduled to be tomorrow, so we can make an offer. Crossing our fingers that they asking price will be within our budget!  We're working with a very nice real estate agent who will let us know as soon as she knows the asking price. 

And.... tomorrow, I will also start telling people that I'm leaving my job.  I made a list of the people I need to tell in person, individually- there are a lot of them. When you've been someplace as long as I have, you make a lot of connections. I guess I was surprised by just how many people might actually care that I'll be leaving. And it makes me even more determined to be intentional in making new connections once we move.

I don't know if this post has a theme, other than that time marches on and we're moving closer to moving. One step at a time, day by day.  It's exciting. And, a little scary.

Catching up is hard to do.

Hi. It's me. Been a while.

A lot has happened and, also, hasn't. I mean, things are really pretty much the same. I work. I sleep (often badly). I work again.  The house selling process is in a quiet phase as we wait for the buyers to get more information.  Feels like a case of "hurry up and wait".  I went back to the office in person to see some clients last weekend and that was great- so I'll keep doing that for now.  

I've been talking with a real estate agent in the Wilmington area. We're planning to meet up with her when we go down to NC in a few weeks (after we visit the kids).  We're excited to be at that place- it's still early, but we're at least taking some next steps.  There are some model homes for new developments we're hoping to see. New construction might be nice. 

We've also started to branch out with telling local friends.  We had some good friends over for dinner to celebrate our birthdays (oh, right, we had birthdays) and shared the news. It definitely feels like it's coming when we're having those conversations.

I've started to think about next steps in prepping to leave my job. It's feeling like it's time to start talking about it. So, after spring break, I'm going to start telling people. 

All of this makes it feel like it's right around the corner. And at the same time, it feels like it's still so far away.

I'm grinding my teeth a lot. My hygienist and therapist both guess it's stress related. I'm sure it is. I'm going to try a mouth guard to see if that helps.  My hygienist said she thinks it will miraculously go away in June. I'm hoping she's right. I also hope I have teeth left and not just little nubs by the time we actually get to NC.

I'm hoping that soon I'll have a lot more to say besides "still here, still waiting for the next chapter to start".