The Big Move Begins

So.  It's been a long time.  I'll probably go back and add pictures/outings so we have a nice journal of our time here, but for the time being I'll skip to the present:  we're moving.

And this is the

longest/most stressful/craziest

move

ever.

You see, Phil is doing some training in Oklahoma en route to Alaska.  So he left.  At the end of May, and before Phil took off, the packers came and then the movers came and they loaded up all of our worldly possessions into a few crates (OK there were more than "a few" crates).  All of that stuff is somewhere between here and Alaska.  I shipped the van a couple of weeks ago, so the kids and I are squeezing into the Volvo and our car seat situation may or may not be legal. We couldn't stay in our house any more because they're renovating after The Big Flood (oh yeah and also because we don't have any furniture or, well, anything) so we're house-sitting a friend's house while we're homeless. We'll be here until the girls finish school (why, oh WHY are they in school until late June???).  Then we'll go mooch off of stay with my parents or Phil's parents, or whomever in the Chicago-land area isn't sick of us and doesn't mind me + three kids + a beagle + 2 parakeets.  For a month.  And then.  THEN.  We'll finally board a plane and head up to the last frontier and our new home.

I think I'll be excited about it when we get there.  Right now I'm just trying to cope with single parenting in a house that's not ours with none of our things (read: toys), no cable TV, sketchy internet (my phone is a "hotspot" when it wants to be) and no way to cook (our spices/kitchen supplies got packed and I refuse to buy more right now). The kids are taking turns freaking out about 1) moving away from all of their friends, 2) their daddy is gone for two months, 3) they don't have their stuff.  Also apparently overdosing on chicken nuggets causes extreme irritability in children 8 and under.  I think our current gypsy-squatter lifestyle is starting to wear on them.  It's certainly wearing on me.

But we're going to have fun when we get there.

Right?

Side note: if it weren't for the help of our super-awesome friends here in Virginia and our super-awesome parents I think I would have already run away to Mexico.