progress

I've got a rental agreement in my hot little inbox.

I'm just beginning to emotionally believe that this "living with the parents" chapter of our lives is ending.  Consequently, I'm finally motivated to pack up in earnest.  For how much I abhor packing, I sure seem to have to do it a lot.  By the end of May my goal was to pack up most of our books (I started!), break down the Captain's crib/toddler bed (done), and sweep the house for our belongings that have migrated outside of our designated space. (Done, but will need done again.  And again....)  We also packed up our toys, which might seem premature, but there are lots of toys that live at Grandma's house, and they boys haven't complained once.
This week I hope to finish packing books, pack up all of our dishes and pantry belongings, and pack up my craft closet.  After that we'll be moving into a higher gear.

We've had an abundance of wrenches thrown in our gears and have yet to be able to find a plausible move date.  I will regardless have a wedding right before and right after the move.  When July 8 rolls around, I expect to disappear in a heap of crashing and nesting.  I am looking forward to it and fully expect to relish it to bits.

Saturday, as I prepared to dash out the door for a day of house-hunting, I decided to check the online classifieds one last time to see if anything new had come up since the night before.  I already had a list of more than 25 houses to look at (and we came nowhere near getting to all of them) so I'm not sure why I felt compelled to consider adding more.  But there was one new listing that morning, and when we stopped by that house, we liked it enough to call the number, and the owner sounded excited to hear from us and drove right over to show us through the house.  We stayed for almost 2 hours and our search went no further.  (Which is good, the whole process was beginning to make us both uber-ornery).

(the back yard)

Assuming things go as planned (which I try to never assume with too much emotional investment), we'll have a house in a lovely neighborhood on a quiet street (we didn't see a single car drive by while we were there) with almost 1/2 acre, 3 fruit trees, grape vines, berries, rhubarb(!), and a large garden plot (that already has some volunteer pumpkins growing in it).  Along with flower beds full of the sort of loveliness you don't regularly find in Utah yards(double peonies, lots of clematis, columbines, and a whole row of irises).  The house has never been rented before and there are no other rentals in the neighborhood.  The neighbor over the back fence gives away gobs of garden produce and eggs from their chickens.  It's ridiculously close to Mr Renn's work and Sir O's preschool.  It seems like a pretty marvelous fit.  I've had more than one vision of myself making and canning jam in the kitchen.  It's not perfect, but it's certainly more than adequate.

So on the one hand, I have so much to do in the month of June that I need time to slow down.  On the other hand, I am so excited at the prospect of mid-July that it can't come fast enough.   Somewhere between the two is my stop-and-go reality and my emotional whiplash.  My plate is very full, but it's full of good things.  Now, back to work.