Virtual Cacophony: It's a Big, Big, Big Day!

A couple weeks back, Shaggy packed up his beloved, now somewhat vintage bike, and headed to Vegas to join in the huge relay race they run from Baker to Vegas. There were something like 170 teams from all over the world. Crazy, once-in-a-lifetime sort of stuff. Or so he kept telling me as he was making plans to leave me alone with 5 little beasties yet again. He put a lot of time and money into getting that bike road worthy after its extended nonfunctional stay in our garage. Turns out that was a really good idea. He kept telling me that he felt impressed to get it running again. I just chalked it up to him wanting to go to Vegas with the boys. Even though it was far from a vacation. That's a long way on a motorcycle. And his leg of the race was at 2 am.

Yeah, I think I'll hold out for a different type of getaway. Whenever my turn comes around.

On his way back home, he had to pull over on the side of the highway so he could participate in a job interview over the phone. That's a first. But, as he said, at least it gave him something to think about the rest of the drive.

He had been home about 45 minutes, and his boss called and asked if he was sitting down. At long last, he had been approved for a job transfer. He figured it was connected to the job interview on the side of the road. Which would have been ok. It was a prestigious position which would have given him the connections to land just about any location in the future. BUT (and this is a big one) it would have requrired him to travel something like half the time. I don't know that my sanity could survive that. I think God must have known that, as well. Turns out it was a different transfer altogether, one that he'd put in for several weeks before. Funny how all these years that he's been applying for transfers and even new jobs altogether and there has been absolutely nothing that's come through. And it wasn't because he was overly picky. He's put in for Montana, Wisconsin, Italy, Virginia, Indiana, Colorado, Maryland, Wyoming, Hawaii, Utah, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Brazil. And now, suddenly, he had two positions vying to get him. I don't believe that it was coincidence that this one just happened to decide first. Everything about this transfer falls into place like it is being orchestrated by a higher power. Which I absolutely believe. Every other job possibility or transfer that we set our hearts on, only took a few months for us to be able to see why it wouldn't have been a good thing for our family. We believed that someday the right thing would come through.

And now it has. And sometimes we look at eacher other and remark how this was always so much more fun to talk about when it was only hypothetical. We are so grateful. And we are unbelievably excited at the new adventures that await us. But we are also completely overwhelmed with everything that must get done in such a short amount of time. Get the house ready to sell. Sell it, preferably for more that it's actually worth. Go through everything we've accumulated over the past 8 years and purge in a major way. (I actually love that part of it. I relish tossing things into the garbage can and filling up the van repeatedly with things to take to Goodwill. I think it's therapeautic for me, knowing that I will never have to clean, pick up, or find storage space for those things ever again. Seriously, I love it!) Research schools. And neighborhoods. Choose a new insurance. Set all the doc appointments that will be needed to finish any unfinished business and get the kids squared away for a new set of school requirements. Finish all the projects that I have promised to do and haven't done yet. Keep up with the craziness of May and the end of the year activities. Finish up my duties as the unofficial, vonuteer photographer for Annie. Make sure the kids get the chance to spend extra time with their friends to ease the sorrow of their parting. Keep the house clean all the time. Find someone to take care of the kids so Shaggy and I can go find a place to live. Coordinate with the moving company. Write talks to give in church. Support Shaggy so he could go take a big test to see if he might possibly be management material at some point in his future career.

Crazy stressful. And baby B has decided it's time to experiment with climbing out of her crib. And test her power to insist that mama gives her lots of undivided attention. And then, of course, there's the family reunion in Utah that we committed to attending this summer. Since we have bailed on all of them during the last 3 or 4 years. Oh, and I need to figure out how we can drive from one coast to the other with 5 kids and 2 dogs without killing each other.

Did I say two dogs? Why yes, I did. Because naturally, this would be the time that Shaggy finds his elusive perfect second dog. Or as close to perfect as he's likely to get. Most of the kids don't like this dog. And he's sick. But I can't really blame him for being neglected. More on Ruger later.

But for now, I should get on with the rest of the story of our big, big, big day. Love that quote from Effie.

~~I told Shaggy~~ Shaggy and I decided that we shouldn't just blurt this big news out the kids. How many times, really, do you get the chance to tell your family that the long awaited transfer has come through, that our fervent prayers have been answered, that we are uprooting our family and moving 2700 miles away? Not very often. So we wanted it to be fun and memorable.

So we waited. We had a ton of stuff going on that week in the evenings. And the kids were testing in school. And somebody had a party on Friday. And a track meet on Saturday. So we had to wait an agonizing 5 days to tell them. I don't know how parents manage to keep secrets from their children. This was so stinking hard for us to do. We had to force ourselves to not talk about it at all when they were around. Which was virtually all the time. I found myself missing the old days when free time began at 8 because the kids were all in bed by then. We messed up a couple of times and had to stumble around mumbling deceptive information so we didn't spill the beans. Turns out we're pretty good liars. I'm not sure if I should be proud of that.

I bought some fortune cookies from the grocery store and replaced the fortunes with clues about our move. I dipped them in chocolate and sprinkes to make them extra fancy and to explain why they weren't still in the wrappers. Then we grabbed some Chinese carryout and headed to the park for a picnic dinner,

This is the kids mulling over the somewhat strange fortunes before they really caught on to the big announcement.

K connected the dots first. She's a very clever girl.

Then they had to go back and re-read all the clues because their mean parents refused to tell them where they were moving, but instead made them decode the fortunes. Which they eventually did with a few mental nudges from us.

S, starting to mull over the implications of this dramatic announcement.

And the fact that she would have to leave her BFF's. Poor girl, she was in tears soon after this shot. I suppose I should have expected that reaction. But I didn't. I had grand visions of smiling, excited children, chomping at the bit to get started on a grand new adventure. Talking about moving has been such a common occurence ove the years. But, K & S have been riding an emotional roller coaster of sorts, since the day they found out we're moving. But I think they're mostly in the excited camp now. Although I do expect some bouts of sadness to return.

J has said how exciting moving will be. And also that he doesn't want to leave his friends from our neighborhood. I think his great challenge (and therefore mine, as well) will come after we move, when he has to adjust to so very many new things at once. I so, so, so hope that he doesn't regress too much as far as his anxiety is concerned.

R is just excited. She doesn't care one bit about any of it. And B, of course, only needs to go where Mama goes.