Four days and counting...

Wow. This is hard. 


I have been trying to stay positive over the past couple of weeks, but exhaustion/emotion is getting the better of me. The day that our lift left we just laid low and tried to tie up some loose ends. No matter how much we clean out of the house, there seems to be more and more stuff to get rid of. I find myself unable to spend more than an hour at a time there, or else I have a meltdown. TPH has been a real trouper about being stuck with the clean up and clearing out. At this point we're hiring a crew to clean and finish up.


He spent most of the day over there while I took some kids for shoes, repacked 16 pieces of luggage and chased my little terrorist around with much help from Uncle S. Toilet Turnout for today: 2 pancakes (repeatedly dipped and licked), a lone baby carrot, and a few balls. Oh, and don't forget the screw that holds the screen door closed. Sounds crazy, but it sure beats yesterday's Nintendo DS and Bubby's cordless phone.


We also turned over the car to it's new owner today, as well as said goodbye to our two dogs. Only someone who has had a dog can really understand just how hard that can be. BAW wants to guest post about that, and I'm too emotional, so we'll let him. It was a hard day.  


The kids seem ok. A little out of sorts, but ok. We are heading off to my sister and brother-in-law in SI tomorrow. We are renting 2 SUVs and both driving down, and hoping that cuts it with all our luggage. It'll be a good send-off, we'll get to have a nice restful shabbos before we head off for our much dreaded anticipated flight. 


Tonight too was hard saying goodbye to all my chaburah friends. They gave me a beautiful card that made me cry as well as a gift certificate to a restaurant in RBS. Can't wait to use it and think of everyone. Just wish I could Skype and be at the chaburah every week. 


Wish us luck, my guess is that this is going to get harder before it gets easier.

Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away...

The lift has sailed! Well, it has definitely driven away, I would guess it hasn't quite set sail yet...

It was a thoroughly exhausting day, and we are barely awake. It started last night when, after just falling asleep after 2am, Demon Child Little Red decided to wake up screaming in our room, and didn't fall asleep until after 4am. We were all up for The Big Day at 6am. It was not, I repeat, NOT a good night.

Woke up feeling nauseous and yucky, only to jump out of bed, wake up A to dump Little with her, and hop off to "the house". We figured that by getting there at 7:30am we'd have a couple hours to finish packing and wrapping before the scheduled 9am arrival of the truck. Imagine our excitement when we pulled onto the street, and there it was, in all of it's 40 ft. glory, looming in front of our house! Panic was more like it.

The truth was that it did go smoothly. It was intense, but the movers were actually fantastic; professional, nice, courteous and hard working. We have SO MUCH stuff that wrapping it took quite some time. Imagine wrapping everything you own in Saran Wrap. No, not some special moving type of saran wrap, but actual saran wrap. It's weird, and awkward.

But it's DONE!! There is a calm that has suddenly descended. It may just be a comatose state that we are in due to no sleep in the past week, but I am going to be generous and call it a calm. We are relaxed at Bubby's, with food, and comfy beds, life is good!

Adios Stuff, do us a favor and drop to the deep abyss of the ocean so we don't have to look at you even one more time. Enough is enough already.

Perspective

Well, here we are "Erev Lift".


Honestly, I don't know how it snuck up us so fast, but we're here. Thee day was very calm, surprisingly. Little kids were at Bubby's most of the day, and me and BAW were at the house all day with A and A, who were great helpers. 


The whole day has been tinged with something. A good friend in town who is also moving tomorrow had a terrible tragedy in her family; her mother in law passed away today, and the levaya (funeral) is tomorrow, on her moving day. All day I have been thinking of her and her husband. The are a wonderful couple, and we shared our going away party with them, as well as many great times over the past few years. We have been "moving buddies", telling each other about our impending moves before we told anyone else, comparing notes on everything from the chaos of packing to silly details. Thinking of them and what they are going through has really put things into perspective for me. I can't complain anymore about this move. It's coming, we are ready, and that's it. 


May Hashem comfort them and help them through this difficult time. 

3 days till lift off..

I'm a little bit at a standstill. Literally. As in, my feet are no longer working.


Today has been the hardest day so far. It's the Friday before the Monday arrival of our container, and we are all reaching every limit we have: physical limits, emotional limits, limited numbers of suitcases, limited food, limited patience. We are at the end.


Last night we spent the very last night in our house, and I'll miss my bed :(. It'll be close to 2 months before I sleep in it again. This is the tough part, when we are literally homeless. Thank G-d for parents and grandparents who will take the very best care of us during the limbo stage, but it is still going to be hard living out of suitcases no matter where we are.


Speaking of suitcases, we are allowed 24 pieces when we travel. Can you imagine??? My goal is not more than 12 or 15, but even that is CRAZY. There is no room to put anything; there are suitcases everywhere!!!!!


Not much else to report. Peace out. Shabbat Shalom. Hey.

Thank Yous and Goodbyes

I am terrible with goodbyes. If it were up to me, I would just leave under the cover of night so as not to have to deal with the emotions that come with saying goodbye.


During the last couple of moves, the hardest for me has always been the goodbyes to the caretakers (babysitters, gananot, teachers) of my kids. How can you adequately thank someone who has loved your child as her own? Who has taken your place for the better part of each day in teaching, caring, nurturing, and loving your child? What words or gifts can possibly express the gratitude that we have for these people in our lives?


The truth is that there are none. No words, no gifts, nothing comes close.


This time, I am in a special quandary. This time, some of my closet friends are also our babysitters and teachers. This time, I can technically "kill two birds with one stone" when I say goodbye, but am not sure how to even approach these goodbyes. We leave R and with R we'll leave a little piece of ourselves and our children with these wonderful people. 


Thank you all so much for everything you've done for us and our kids.

What Matters

4 days until we pack the lift. 


You would imagine the scenario to be kids hanging from the non-existent chandeliers, dogs barking and running through the house and babies crying. 


In truth, it's surprisingly quiet this am. I was up at 7am even though I didn't fall asleep until after 2am, and by 7:45 was on the scale with my suitcases, weighing away....Big kids got up and out with BAW to Yeshiva. Little Red is in for the only calm 2 hours of the day his nap, and #4 and #5 are at school/camp respectively. 


Packed the last kitchen box today, and we are officially in "camping mode". Paper and plastic only (all crunchy granola/save the earth people try moving trans-atlantic with 6 kids, and THEN judge me). It's incredibly empty and potentially depressing. But that just hasn't hit me yet. I think I'm just so excited/anxious/can't wait to get there, that I am not hitting the depressed stage. The kids are over the moon at moving in with Bubby and Zaidy for the last few days, and it will be the perfect send-off for all of us!


Some guy just stopped by and saw my baby carrier/carseat  in the garage, and without a thought, Eli gave it to him. I wish I could be more like that. For me, everything is an emotional decision ("But I wanted that baby carrier! It was B's! And S's! And N's!"). For him it's a no-brainer ("It's old.") Men just think more clearly. 


The guy who stopped by is an older Israeli guy who has been living here for some time now. He took Eli through the garage and pointed to things and said, "See this? And this? This is garbage. This is c**p! These things don't matter. You don't need these things! What matters? Take your wife and kids, kiss them, talk to them. These things matter!"


Indeed..

121

I just packed box 121. 


These next few posts will not be witty, they will not be entertaining. We will be lucky if they will just...be.


The only way to describe what's going on over here is sheer chaos.  The kids are bored, but being good sports. The Wii is still up and the weather is beautiful, so they alternate between playing on the Wii or computer and playing outside. Little Red has been better with sibs home to occupy him, and willing aunts and uncles to watch him in the afternoon, BH.


We are tired, but in good spirits. I played hooky from my Teacher Work Day, but really had finished everything up yesterday, so I'm not feeling too guilty. There are last minute catastrophes to deal with, but we're taking them all in stride: a lift date that was almost moved up, a lift date without a crew, etc... but we've worked hard today to get in all the paperwork and to find a local crew. The pieces are coming together, although the complete puzzle still has some major holes :/ 


The amount of physical, emotional energy that goes into something like this is really quite astounding. My sister in law (who is also making aliyah this summer) called me and said she almost called her doctor to do some tests because she is always tired. I am the same way. It's all around exhausting. I'll finish one room and there will be 10 rooms left...but enough kvetching. I hate blogs with too much kvetching. After a good quiet cry into some clean laundry in the laundry room, I went out to get some Iced Coffee and am feeling re-energized. 


We'll get there, we always do :)