Now it's Official

Tiger has bought our plane tickets and Lily and I are leaving with him on the 30th, 8 a.m.

This makes me want to eat a lot of ice cream and take a nap. Wake me up when we're in Manhattan.

The dogs are gone, which is both weird, sad, and a relief. The first thing that Lily did when we got home from our 3-week trip to Minnesota (around dinner time) was to run over to her little table and chair in the breakfast nook, her body language saying, Whew! This is mine--just my size. Then she called out cheerily, "Bailey, Elisa, where are you?" This both warmed and broke my heart. I told her, "They're not here, honey." Her guess as to their whereabouts was the grocery store. I chuckled and left it at that.

The real job now is to decide what to get rid of, what to sell, what to give away, what to (hopefully, if they agree) ship to mom and dad's, and what to leave for the movers to pack up and send to a storage unit in New Jersey until we find an apartment. My stomach just leapt up into my throat at that sentence. OhGodohGodohGod. We're doing it; we're leaving: we're moving.

The realtor came today and made me realize just how shabby our house is; how ugly and terrible our furniture is; how little I relish deep-cleaning or yard-work, and how cash-poor we are for things like new carpeting, yard guys, and the simple and general face-lift things this place needs like a coat of paint. I have a feeling that this place will sell, though. I hope I am right.

I know it is immature and tacky, but I don't want most of the neighbors to find out until we are gone and the For Sale sign is up. I hate good-byes, especially among the people whom I don't actually know or remember their names.

I spent most of the day with Amber and the kids. My heart sank to realize that they will be leaving for the beach on Sunday and will get back the day we leave. We have a dinner planned for Friday night. This will be our good-bye. I suppose it is best to get all the good-byes knocked-out one-by-one.

Amber told her four-year-old daughter, Lily's self-proclaimed Best Friend, that we were moving away and she wouldn't be able to play with Lily anymore. She asked her daughter if this made her sad. Her daughter said that it did make her sad, but maybe another family would move in who had children she could be friends with. I am glad of this. I will pray for that, just for her.