It’s the end of the week! The last day we are here, the last full day anyway, the time to finish the very last minute projects and pack up to go. Today I need to keep up with the kids - finish laundry, pack, pack what we are leaving here (YAY for leaving stuff!), get cash, fill up the car, print my map (or not), and pick out clothes for the week.

You know, the little things.

I’m sad about leaving but trying to not be too sad. It helps to be excited about everything that is coming up - seeing my Grandma for a few days, hanging out with my best friend before moving, swimming in hotels, arriving in Texas with a house ready for us. And of course being with Chris again. He left Rhode Island today and is stopping in Virginia before continuing on. He has a long few days ahead of him since he has to drive down the coast, pack up the storage units and then drive some more. He jumps right into work a few days after getting there too. But I know he’s excited about a lot of things so hopefully that excitement will help him on the drive!

Have you seen this time lapse video? LA to NY in four minutes. Very cool. Too bad it couldn’t really happen, I’d have to only drive for two minutes.

Hard to believe the day is almost over! I am steadily getting ready to go though the countdown really hasn’t started. We have a few more quirks that need to be worked out. But I’ve finished a lot on my list!

photo credit: jgodsey

• Clean out closet and move other things in
• Move one dresser out and the bed to another room ~ Changed: the dresser will stay and the bed will get moved after I leave
• Move my things in boxes to the garage
• Stay caught up with laundry ~ so far so good!
• Finish at least half of the tasks list on my phone
• Rent truck for Chris to drive our things over
• Finish travel budget
• Publish craft podcast
• Read Real Simple ~ my Mom accidentally took this with her!

I love crossing things off of lists. I cleaned up my notebook earlier and took pleasure in realizing it’s almost out of pages - I already have a replacement and I get excited knowing I get to use it soon! Of course since I put all my craft supplies away I have an itch to do something. We’ve been cooking out a lot so playing outside with the kids helps but I really want to embroider. I already have an address for where we will be living but don’t want to buy anything online on the off chance it falls through. Plus it’s not technically ours for another week or so, I’d hate to have mail show up and get tossed or sent back!

And so back to the list! I need to finish laundry before bed.

It’s Monday and time for Monday Motivation - inspired by my friend Tricia over at Time Saver VA, she’s a virtual assistant.

photo credit: Eleaf

It’s late Monday, but technically still the day. This week is the start of a very busy one for me. We are leaving here on Saturday, we have to pack, do laundry, clean out the van and do a mini travel budget. We have to still carry on during the week with regular meals and playing outside, as well as keeping the house clean and moving my brother and his kids in. The majority of his things are over here, we just need to rearrange some rooms and figure where things will go.

And so I will have done by Thursday:

• Clean out closet and move other things in
• Move one dresser out and the bed to another room
• Move my things in boxes to the garage
• Stay caught up with laundry
• Finish at least half of the tasks list on my phone
• Rent truck for Chris to drive our things over
• Finish travel budget
• Publish craft podcast
• Read Real Simple

Friday will be all the last minute things and then we drive away on Saturday!

Texas!

Chris and I on graduation day

Yes, I am as surprised as you. I guess I was hoping for Washington so much, I didn’t think there would be a problem going back! So Chris calls and says we can go here, here, Texas, or here. And none of those “here” locations were what I wanted. It threw my day for a loop and I spent it researching each location. We didn’t have to take Texas, but it was the best for us.

So I will end my stay with my Dad and move on to hotter areas! We leave in a couple of weeks - stopping to see a pregnant friend and then stopping to stay a day back home with Grandma. I’m already thinking we may stay for two days back home because who knows when we will get to see her again. It is interesting to note that from Grandma to my Mom and from Grandma to our new place in TX is the same distance. One just goes west and the other goes south. That makes me feel closer.

I’ve been looking up schools for the kids (one sounds great, one is just eh), utility companies (in Texas you can pick your electric company!) and faxing paperwork to the housing office. We should have a house ready and waiting for us when we arrive - hopefully anyway as we are moving ourselves. I can’t imagine staying in a hotel and paying for the uhaul (or whatever company we end up going with!) for days over what they say it should take us to move. I’m calling this week to get the house business finished up!

Crafting has been few and far between the past couple of weeks. I am still doing the craft podcast and if you have any ideas, suggestions, want to be a guest, anything like that then leave me a comment! I have a lot of show ideas and am not against recording now when the mood hits you.

I did get a new craft book and start a new project!

Yesterday was my 30th birthday. I managed to stay offline for most of it - that felt good. I do have my new BlackBerry so I wasn’t completely disconnected! I had a really good day.

The highlight wasn’t crafting, it wasn’t reading or going somewhere. The highlight was my nap. For some reason in the middle of the afternoon I was exhausted. All the kids were laying down so I did too. I figure hey a twenty minute nap might be good! Two hours later I wake up to find all the kids woke up before me. I bundled them into the car and we went to get dinner supplies. Okay really we went to get cake mix because I wanted cupcakes. Once we got to the store I decided to make chili. Yum!

So I could show you that I shopped for cake mix

and then a picture of the yummy cupcake!

But that would be kind of mean wouldn’t it.

I still have a lot left if you want to stop by. I was going to make 30 but only ended up with 28. I could have made 29, but I don’t think 30. Ah well. We didn’t have candles though the kids wanted to get numbers.

My brother got me a bluetooth headset - he said he doesn’t want me having to grab the phone when I’m on the drive to Texas (a post about Texas soon) -

and I won AirDrives kids earphones from A Mom’s Review contest - and they arrived yesterday! Fun timing.

My Mom sent me a beautiful horse pin

and a book This Life She’s Chosen - signed by the author!

My Dad is looking for a phone cradle - never having heard of what that is, my brother explained it is a holder for your phone that (his did this anyway) attached to the vent. So it just sits there while you drive! Very cool.

Both of my brothers have this weekend off so I think we will have a cookout. The weather has been nice here, sure we have some rain, but overall good.

I’ve been lucky, I’ve always had great birthdays. Today I am 30 and a day (technically not until the middle of the afternoon) and it is just as good as yesterday.