T-7: It’s Happening!

One week from today helpful movers come to pack up our home in California and put 4 bedrooms of stuff into pods where they will sit for the next six months. The inhabitants of this home are going on an adventure! We are building a house in Central Oregon; but that won’t be ready until November (the wood gods willing). So what will we be up to? After the first few weeks of our exploits my husband and dog are moving up to Oregon to live in a hotel. My very responsible hubby has to work…and he wants the dog for company. Secretly, I think he wants alone time after being with us in the same four walls for the past 15 months. But we can go with “work”. We will be apart for two whole months and I will be “sole” parent to our extraverted, opinionated 7 year old who quite frankly outsmarts me more times I care to admit. My husband and I do things independently, but we have never been apart this long. Even when we started dating it was a 4 week break while he went to Italy to get settled until I met up with him. We have lived together from that point on 15 years ago. We both hate talking on the phone, so this could get interesting… I am sure we will be having massive text messages with lots of miscommunications and eye rolls on either side.

Quinn and I will be setting out for an adventure of our lives. Quinn is 7 and finishing up first grade. Even though this year has been unconventional to say the least, we still wanted her to finish up the school year with her mates to formally say goodbye and have some semblance of closure. For the last week of school the four of us will be moving into a hotel room in our current town. We wanted to end the year with a bang, making our time working from home and hybrid-schooling in even closer quarters (read sarcasm).

The next few months of my blog will be dedicated to weekly(ish) posts about our experiences and travels. I suspect entertainment, as we will be staying with both my parents (divorced household) for extended periods of time; taking planes, trains, and automobiles over the western half of the Continental US, from San Diego to Seattle, and Arizona to Colorado with stops in between. I currently have us scheduled for 14 different cities and a variety of accommodations (my project management skills and love of travel coming in mad handy). All the while I will be doing my best to keep the forward momentum of being in ‘year one’ of my own business working part time. Yes I said it, I am only scheduling from Tuesday noon to Thursday at five. (If I put it out there I will be forced to stick to it, right??) On one hand, totally thrilling to have the “time” people talk about, and not waiting until retirement. On the other, I am completely freaked out about not doing my usual; which is say yes to everything and go, go, go. I am actually going to have to practice what I preach.

This move is a massive lifestyle change for our family. We are moving to the country. Our current city is close to 100K residents, with equally massive neighboring suburbs in the CA Bay Area. Our future city is just under 10K residents being the largest town in the county! Over the past two months as this plan has become a reality, the flurry of emotion has at times caught me off guard. We sold our home without it even being on the market. WOW! A massive high. Packing up and getting rid of baby toys, kid books, clothes never worn… sadness. This time packing has been different from my last eight…stuff goes to storage, so what do I really need. Am I ever going to wear those work clothes again, or those high heels?! Uhmm no… I can tell you I have too many clothes and shoes which has brought me great shame…. Being on my own has definitely changed how I will work and not needed the massive variety (at least until those clothes are out of fashion). We bought a pickup truck, and for the time being are a one car family…. what??!!… I drive a pick up… Even more surprising, I totally dig it! Maybe I do have a little country in me… I liked going to Nashville as a teenager, that counts. Side note, I must find a proper belt buckle. We have spent the past few weeks saying goodbye to friends and ‘getting in that Cali experience’. Bittersweet. When a bout of cold feet rears up, I remind myself, nothing is forever. I have made changes before and have been happy along the way. Granted I have never done it as a parent or homeowner, but I am adaptable and resilient if nothing else. My bestfriend came over last weekend and she gave me one of the greatest compliments of my life… she said “you and Andrew are ‘master manifesters’, I have never know anyone who identifies what they want, and actually makes it a reality as you two do.” Thank you and yes! Yes we (and I) do. The doing and not only talking has brought awesome experiences. What was a retirement conversation, became a ‘what are we waiting for’ reality by identifying barriers (real and self imposed) and knocking them off one by one to create the life we want. A tremendous gift (with planning and hard work, as I don’t want to diminish my active part in it, it’s not luck).

Since this will be mostly a personal journey I will not post my blog to LinkedIn after today. I invite you to follow Quinn and I by subscribing to my blog or following me on my Facebook business page or Twitter. All righty friends talk to you post move as the adventure kicks off. Although, I might argue we are well underway with the adventure….