Time is flying. I am here at Don's work. He is busy loading all of our possessions onto the transfer truck so we will be a while. Luckily everything is already on pallets and shrinkwrapped but he still has to secure everything. I am not much help since I can't drive a forklift and I am wearing heels. So I get to play on the internet until he is done.

Last night was a relaxing evening. After the long day on Sunday we were both up for doing just about nothing. After an hour of sitting around the house with nothing to do we decided to go to blockbuster and rent some movies. Matt bought a new dvd player and we hooked it up for him and moved Emily's furniture into the den for her after a nice thorough vaccuum. Then we set in for an evening of Movie watching. We rented Night at the Museum, Fletch, V for Vendeta, and Kung Fu Hustle. Last night we watched Night and the Museum and it was quite adorable. It's been a while since I have seen a light family movie and I do love Ben Stiller. The CGI of course was amazing. Loved the dinosaur!

I am getting excited to start my new job. My boss emailed me yesterday wanting my opinion on the new software we are going to get to run our lease programming. Though I'm sure it was more of a gesture than anything, it was nice to be included. The new company I am going with is a brand new start up. I am the first employee and am looking forward to getting the office up and running the way I want it. As we grow, I will be functioning in an admin role, training new staff that we bring on and supervising the office. This is a great role for me to step into with the experience and foundation I already have. It will definitely push me to the next level but it is a step I am prepared for and qualified to make. And the pay increase is nice! Don and I are both making the jump in our careers to the middle management level at the same time so we both have a lot to look forward to.

I think I'll go check on Don and see how things are going with getting the truck loaded. Hopefully it won't be too much longer.

Our stuff is gone! What a crazy week. Due to the scheduling of the Revchem Transfer Truck, we had to have all of our stuff out of the house and down to the Revchem Warehouse this Sunday, in order to get it on the truck when it comes Wednesday, in order get it down to California so that it will be there when we arrive, in order to get it to our new house in time to move in before our new jobs start. That was a lot of conditional statements in one sentance! So this weekend, we got the rest of the stuff boxed up and took several vanloads to the warehouse where Don is building pallets and shrink wrapping our entire life. We could not have done it without the help of some dear friends. Thank you so much to Matty J., Nathan, Ed, Steve W., Steve C., Emily O., Michael, Matt S. and Emily R. The special heroes award for the day goes to Matt S. and Emily R. who put in a whole 9 hours to see us through start to finish! To all who helped us we cannot express how much we appreciated not only your brute labor, but also your friendship and support for us in this move and changes we are going through. We could NOT have done it without you. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

We worked so hard this weekend and it was quite a push at the end, but I am so glad to be done with it. Now we can relax. We don't leave until Tuesday, May 29th so we now have about 9 days to clean the house and visit friends before we leave. And that includes a three day weekend!

The house is very empty. Emily and Matt will have to rearrange a few things but first we will be sure to get everything vacuumed out and dusted. All of our furniture is gone with our possessions and we are sleeping on an air mattress for the next week. It is quite a switch from our super delux pillowtop $1400 bed! Last night we got it all inflated and the sheets and blankets put on it, and Cordy didn't even try to get in bed with us! She went straight to her own bed and looked at us with an expression like, 'you guys are sleeping on that thing?!' Luckily, I have my prescription for a sleeping aid and due to the fact that Don had his wisdom tooth out on Tuesday, he is on Vikadin (when he is not driving, operating machinery, or doing heavy lifting which right now leaves only about 8 hours a night) so we both slept like a baby.

And to Reply to some of your comments, Keely, congratulations on your adoption and expanding family! It was so great to hear from you and you have my best wishes and prayers as your new daughter arrives! Cora, thanks for the pictures of Mera! What an adorable little girl. She is growing so fast. Kristy, congratulations on making it through the semester! I can't wait until you guys come to visit me in California! Camille, I can't wait to see you too! Good luck with all the interviews! Jenny, yes, we definitely want to see you before we go. I think we are hoping to do something at the house this weekend where we get everyone together. We will be a little short on furniture but will make up for it in company! If you guys aren't going to be around for the three day weekend then so far we have a few free nights still this week.

Operation Move to LA is underway. This weekend Don and I got some major headway on our packing. I concentrated mostly on cleaning and packing at home, taking some important time out to visit with friends and celebrate the anticipated birth of Jenny and Kevin's new baby boy at her baby shower. A much needed break and happy occasion! Then it was back to the house for marathon packing. I have finished most of the downstairs kitchen, living room and office area. Though I have most of the office supplies packed, it will take me a while to go through the filing as I want to take this opportunity to shred all the files that I won't be needing or wanting in the future. After I finish that then I will start on the upstairs bedroom, bathroom and guest bedroom. Primarily we are talking clothes, toiletries and bedding. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Don had the less desirable task this weekend of cleaning of organizing the office cleanout. They are moving out of the office. Some stuff we are taking with us to LA for his home office. Other people claimed other stuff and some left over stuff he's not quite sure what to do with yet. A mystery we will have to solve in the next 7 days or so. The office cleanout was yesterday. Today Chris came down and he and Don loaded up the company van and took 50 of our already packed boxes (yes, I said fifty) to the warehouse to build some pallets so that they can haul them down to Cali for us. Kind of a crazy process. I hope everything makes it all right!

Well, I better get back to the packing process. More later...

Well, hello everyone. Thank you for visiting my blog and taking an interest in my life! As I enter into an amazing period of change and transition in my life I will look to this blog as a place to share and reflect on my experiences and to maintain and build connections with people important to me who are both near and far away. If you are reading this you count as one of those important people! Thank you for being in my life and for all of your support! Please come back to check in on me and feel free and encouraged to post comments from time to time so I don't feel like I'm out here just talking to myself!

As I said, my life has changed drastically in the last couple of weeks. Out of the blue, Don was given a very sudden and unexpected job offer a couple of weeks ago. It all sounded great... management position, double the salary, good benefits but the kicker was it was in L.A. What a change! We had been planning on buying a house in Tacoma at the end of the year and wondering how we were ever going to afford to have kids?! Well, the whole "double the salary" thing really caught our interest so we flew down there to check it out and all signs pointed to "Yes." Don worked out a great offer with his company, I found a job myself making quite a bit more than I'm making now in the same line of work, and after much driving around and stressful searching we found the house rental of our dreams that was willing to wait for our move in date 4 weeks out.

Since then we have been packing, running around to doctors appointments, making arrangements to relocate Don's film company to Cali, and visiting with lots of friends that we won't get to see for a long time after we move. There is so much to do and it has been a bit of a blessing being so busy that I don't have time to really let the anxiety of it all sink in. Ever since I went to my doctor and got a prescription for sleeping pills to help me sleep through the night again, things have been much better! For a while there I was so sleep deprived from the excitement and anxiety of it all that I wasn't even sure I was safe to be on the road driving. When I went to see my doctor, I couldn't even remember that the nurse had taken my blood pressure five minutes earlier! Things are much better now - amazing what a big difference a few solid hours of shut eye makes!

Again, in all it is a big exciting adventure. I'm sure I will be posting much in the days ahead so come back to check on me. Blessings to everyone.