Boxes and Barbeque

Today begins my last week in Seattle. THERE ARE BOXES EVERYWHERE! I dream about bubble wrap and tape dispensers.

We decided to take a little break from the packing and house-buying/selling chaos and have an early "Fake Fourth" with our traditional Independence Day fare: Jay's fantastically delicious BBQ ribs, corn on the cob, and cobbler with cherries from our backyard cherry tree. Delicious!!

But why celebrate the Fourth on the Second? Because by Saturday, all our dishes, pots and pans will also be in BOXES. Surrounded in bubble wrap, sealed up with a tape dispenser.

So for anyone who wants the blow-by-blow update, here it is:
*Sold our house, closed yesterday
*Bought a house in Mallard Lakes in Lexington
*Bought the wrong size dog crate... back to Craigslist again
*Craigslisting the CR-V, too
*Can't find a box tall enough to fit crutches or kiddie teepee in
*Still in physical therapy for the achin' back
*Had farewell dinner with SCS English department last night - sigh
*Making more cherry cobbler for our farewell drop-in Sunday afternoon
*We will leave our home buyers with no more cherries on the tree (fiendish laugh)
* I am only one day behind on the to-do list! Not bad!
* Harper looks forward to painting her new room a "bright-ish yellow-ish green"
* We'll be living with the in-laws for several weeks before moving into our new home -- bet they can't wait to host the 90# labrador retriever!
* We pack up the TV and stereo in a few days -- don't know how I'll cope with 5 days of silence
*Wait... I'll just sing a lot! The fam is sure to love that remedy.
*See everybody in SC real soon! Brew us up some sweet tea!
*Bye bye Seattle. We'll try to take a little of you with us as we open up our coffee shop in Carolina! More news on that in the future!

Top Fives

Top Five Recent Events (in no particular order):
5. Caryn accepts job at Hammond School in Columbia
4. Jay secures pre-approval to buy house in SC
3. Harper learns to do a cartwheel
2. Caryn is able to stand erect after dose of Vicodin
1. Polly sniffs out her new airline approved crate

Top Five Prayers Needed for Upcoming Events:
5. Polly's cross-country transport
4. Need a large vehicle in SC -- lottery?!
3. Harper's security in the move
2. Coffee shop plans!
1. House purchase!!

Freedom of Expression

I am now allowed to post about our dynamic and exciting current state of family affairs! For reasons I'm not allowed to mention, I had to remove my last post... some of you caught it fleetingly... the Kirk Secret Service requested that I put a zip on it until a few more details got wrapped up. Very dramatic, yes.

Perhaps you recall that the house was for sale -- the lovely house sign photo makes its reappearance to the left. I am proud to announce that it is now sold, but Coldwell Banker apparently does not put a "sold" banner out, at least not yet. Contract finalized today. We close in three weeks.

As my husband mentioned on his blog, we now need to find a place to put our stuff. Preferrably, that will be within a half hour commute to the fine academic institution with which I will accept a job on Monday morning. Oh, the Kirk secrets never end, do they?!

Today was my last day at my beloved Seattle Christian. Got an engraved Bible as a parting gift. I can't believe it's over. Very sad...

But the new job will be AWESOME! More next week...

Mission Accomplished

Today, I mailed in my National Board teaching cert application materials. Been working on them for a year. Due March 31st. Whew...

Can now return to normal life. For my family, this means I might just clean the kitchen. I may even get back to grading papers for my students. I'll balance my checkbook and mail late payments.

Maybe even a blog post or two.

Stress and Stuff

I've been too stressed out to write lately. Every time I sit down and read some amusing bloggage and want to post some of my own, all I can think of is to-do lists and a general assortment of gripes. I've decided I'm done with that. What I need more of is random happy thoughts.

1. I gave an exam yesterday where instead of a discussion question I made my students pretend to be aliens and compile a list of "artifacts" from the lit they'd read over the semester (collected through a time machine). They thought I was nuts. When teenagers think you're nuts, you gotta be doin something right.

2. My mom and mom-in-law bought me a new outfit yesterday. New outfits make you feel good.

3. I watched Burn After Reading the other day on DVD. It's a tragicomedy. Not that great, but Brad Pitt was a scream. "Was a scream" is such an 80's thing to say.

4. Twilight was a bunch of silly fluff with some ridiculous scenes, but I paid admission to see it twice. Might go again when it hits the dollar theatres. The "dollar" theatre now costs three dollars.

5. I am one chapter shy of finishing my novel and have already let one friend read it. It might be crap, but I did it (well, almost...)

THE SLUMBER PARTY

Five girls. Four birthday presents. Three movies. Two large pizzas. One bed-shaped cake. Zero sleep.

Then...

Seven trips to the bathroom to vomit. Harper got sick around breakfast time and sent the rest of the morning into a tailspin. The kids ran out of things to do before all the moms showed up, the hubby breezed downstairs and pushed a few of my worst buttons, and then one little girl pushed the rest of them. Meanwhile, more vomit.

Hopefully the pictures will help revive memories of the good times, which seemed to fade soon after sunrise... it really was a cool party. While it was still dark.

Kindle

I got a Kindle for Christmas. It makes me very happy, even when I am not reading it - even when I am just looking at how cute and adorable and hyper-technically cool it is. The Kindle is one reason I don't have time to blog much anymore. The above photo features my Kindle propped up on my brown leather reading chair, by the fire, where I intend to spend as much of my upcoming days and nights as possible. I will put out the fire when winter is over and by summer will move my Kindle Station to the back porch. It transfers nicely to Starbucks as well.

Must go read now...

P.S. I still keep a paperback handy to take to the bathtub. I will not post a photo of that.