The Countdown Begins!

Enjoying my oj and a few minutes of peace before household duties call....
I have known this move was coming for several weeks now but, in typical me fashion, I of course wait until the last possible moments to kick it into high gear! (those who know me well are nodding their heads in agreement.) So this past week has been really intense preparation for the big move. You wouldn't think it would be that difficult. The Army is sending us movers that will actually PACK our house for us before they move everything out. So you would think that I could just relax because they will take care of it all for me. Not that simple, I'm afraid. It seems that our humble little house has turned into a magnet for STUFF. And by stuff I mean a whole bunch of useless crap! Our 2nd (yes 2nd) dumpster is virtually full. They say that as long as they can throw a tarp over it and haul it out of here that we can fill it as high as we think we can. Oh I plan to take full advantage of that. The kids actually fight over whose turn it is to run out to the dumpster to throw something away. It's like it has become part of our family. How sad is that? We have made so many trips to the Salvation Army to donate over the last couple weeks that the kids are starting to think that is their new home. And the volunteers there are asking me what time I start my shift. And God bless my dad, he has been here on and off trying to help me navigate through the black hole that is our basement. And also the other black hole, the garage. So over the next several days we will continue on our mad mission to get this house ready for the movers to pack us up and move us out. I am pretty much hoping to have our belongings "pack ready" by the end of Thursday (This does not count several disaster areas that belong to my husband, those are completely his responsibility. I'm good, but not that good.)
Because after this Thursday starts what I have lovingly started to refer to as "the crazy weekend". Friday evening is the rehearsal for the girls dance recital and after that I need to tend to a Tastefully Simple party. Saturday is hair and makeup appointments for the girls to get ready for their dance recital Saturday night. They are in a total of 4 dances, 1 of them being a duet which is so precious it brings tears to my eyes! They actually look like they like each other when they do the dance, and it is about 3 minutes of them not fighting! Then Sunday is our big combo bday party for the girls. We expect lots of family and friends, and to the kids extreme delight, we have rented a bounce house. Last check of the weather forecast there was a 30% chance of rain that day. Every day I go to check the forecast a vein starts throbbing in my forehead....
Then a week from tomorrow the movers come! After they move everything out on Tuesday, the next week or so should be a breeze while we wait for school to finish. The stress of cleaning will be over. The only posessions we will have to worry about will be a couch, a couple of tray tables, an air mattress and some clothing. We will need to find things to do to keep us occupied like going to the park and out to play with friends. Not so bad! Our belongings are supposed to arrive in NC before we do, so hopefully JM will get a good jump on setting some things up for us. I am hoping by the end of July to be totally unpacked and settled in the new house. I am sure by August and September I am going to be so big and hot (by that I mean sweaty!) that I am not going to want to deal with any more unpacking! We are very excited that our niece Kasey will be spending a good portion of the summer with us. She has found a dance studio where she can take classes and we all love having her around. So we are looking forward to a fun summer! Probably the next time I post will be when we are in a virtually empty house!