One Week

Out of necessity (read: $$$), the process of moving is on the fast track - I'm leaving in one week.

Seven days to temporarily say goodbye to Austin and everything in it. Seven days to pack up my life, to put everything in boxes and bags, load it in the truck, and drive it 17 hours away, to our little house in a little town where the only store is a Wal-Mart and everyone drives Pontiacs.

(By the way, if anyone has a good answer for the Pontiac mystery, I'd love to hear it. I just cannot figure out for me why Pontiacs are SO popular in the midwest and so unpopular in Texas. These are the things that keep me up at night.)

Aaron is driving down next week, we'll pack stuff up, say our goodbyes, hopefully get one last night's sleep, and drive back. It's going to be tough on him, all the driving, but the end result is us all being together.

In the meantime, I'm packing down here and Aaron is getting our house set up there. We're renting a little fixer-upper in downtown Grinnell. It doesn't sound too bad from what he's said on the phone, but I have a feeling he's sugar coating things a little bit. It's 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, beige carpet, screened front porch, nice back yard, peeling white painted exterior, 1 car garage... your basic little old Iowa house. We're going so start saving up a "fixing fund," so that we can repaint the exterior, rip up the carpet, install central AC/heat, etc.

I am so nervous about moving into a house I've never seen. I trust Aaron completely, but his standards of houses and apartments are considerably lower than mine. So when he says "It's nice," I have to wonder exactly how nice it is.

But I don't have time to waste on being nervous. I have to do so much in the next week, I know it's going to fly by. I have to transfer the lease to my dad's name, call about giving away my porter job, try and get Declan in to see the doctor, pack all of our stuff, and say goodbye to everybody. The first two sound quick and easy but they take up a lot of space in my brain because I'm nervous about them.

Luckily, Declan is going through a wonderful, angelic phase of his life right now. He's all smiles and giggles; he brightens my day and makes things easy on me. He'll be five months tomorrow and is learning so much every day - yesterday he sat up all by himself for almost a minute before tipping over!