the move, etc.

so there's been some crazy rearranging of lives happening lately -- mostly maren's life, but it's rubbed off on erica & i, naturally.
after christmas, maren decided she was ready for a change. there were several options of what kind of change, but it quickly boiled down to her favorite idea of moving to california. she has family over there and has wanted to live there eventually, so what better time than now?

here's the three of us for the last couch-shot of our year as roomates.







maren had been planning a little visit already, so it turned into being a good time to scope out the job scene, get a feel for the lay of the land, etc.
the plan was to go hang out for a few days, come back and spend a couple weeks packing up, then move out there for good.





upon returning from her visit (wednesday) she informs us there's been a change of plan. her mom had booked a flight to come help her drive out with her stuff on friday. yes, that's right, leaving her only 1 1/2 days to pack.

i'm sure there's no way to convey the magnitude of what that meant without knowing maren and without realizing how much of maren there is. not that she's a large person, by no means. she's just got a LOT of stuff!

her plan included shipping boxes to california instead of lugging them in a truck or something (her last job she just quit was with fedex) and then leaving some things that she'd return for later in the summer.
sounds like a feasible plan, until taking into account that fedex doesn't come to this particular location to pick up boxes so they'll have to be carted over to the nearest location.

there are 17 boxes.
they're still under my carport.
maren's going to ship the labels at which point i'll do the carting.








i won't go into any more graphic details of all that was involved in the moving and the cleaning and the organizing that ensued, but let's just say that it was monumental. thankfully, erica & i had thursday & friday snow days so we could help. i don't know how she would have done it otherwise.



after one last breakfast together and a lot of stuffing of items into nooks & crannies of maren's car, it's back to just the two of us.








the effects of this epic move are two-fold:

#1 i got in such a cleaning/organizing mode that i went through every room in my house sorting things for our yard sale (to be hosted later in the spring -- anyone and everyone can come throw their stuff in -- it's a free-for-all!), making piles of things for the trash, and organizing things that just needed to be re-compiled and made tidy.
i got so driven and focused with it that i made nick feel like he was so much flotsam in my one-track minded goal of scouring the entire house bare.
we had a good heart-to-heart about it last night and practiced out communication skills.

#2 i am now roomate-less. a delightful place to be in if i were independently wealthy.
this point is just one among many of the things to consider regarding the future of my house. the real estate market is reportedly bad these days or else i would just love to sell it before june (for unannounced reasons).
the maddening thing about it is there's no way of knowing if it will sell.
oh, for one of those shiny fortune-telling balls.

you're thinking, 'why would you want to sell your perfectly cute little house??' to which i would reply, you're right, it's the cutest of all... but there are several contributing factors.
it would be nice to not have to worry about finding renters and maintaining the property and all after we get married.
it would also be nice to have a little boost in income.
and nick & i don't really want to live there after we're married. it's not all that suitable for various reasons (no shower (just a tub), loft-ceiling bedroom with a 2 foot swath of upright walking space, etc.)

i go through seasons of extreme anxiety about the whole situation to be followed by seasons of drifting in blissful empty-headed ignoring it all. neither extreme is preferable, of course. if only i could find that tenuous balance of staying present with the dilemma while continually bringing my worries before the lord, trusting in his faithful lovingkindness.
that would be nice.

so there's the skinny.
let me know if you're in the market for a house!