Monday Progress Report: Game Time

It’s game time. We are in the final week before our actual move and it’s about to get real. Things are now happening at such a fast rate that I feel like there should be a daily, rather than weekly, progress report.

Our biggest accomplishments last week were selling my car to Carmax, and getting the dog documents gathered and ready to be shipped off this Tuesday. We also spent A LOT of money on winter clothes. I bought a camel colored wool coat to go with my brown boots, and an ivory colored down-coat mainly for walking the dogs in winter.

It’s supposed to be good for up to -5 degrees Fahrenheit, so I’m hoping that means it will keep this southern girl toasty warm when Aberdeen dips into the 20s (it doesn’t get much colder than that).

Other than coats, I bought tons of leggings and tunic sweatshirts which I believe will replace my current uniform of skinny jeans, cowboy boots, and pocket tees. I did a lot of financial damage, but let me just say that Jonathan spent more on one down-vest than I spent on my entire shopping spree.

But when he put it on, it was like watching a girl try on her wedding dress for the first time; I just knew he had to have it.

I also made several trips to Costco and Target to buy items for our shipment. I counted, and if we use 1 can of Rotel per week, we should have enough to get us through the next 2 years. Mission accomplished.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s going on this week:
Monday: Selling Jonathan’s car and renting a vehicle until Saturday morning. Having good-bye margaritas with my brother and sister in law.

Tuesday: The dogs will get their tapeworm treatment Tuesday afternoon, giving them a 120 hour clock to enter the UK before this treatment is considered invalidated. The current plan is to get them to London by Sunday morning so, barring any volcanic activity, they should get there with a few hours to spare. Once we leave the vet office, I will high tail the paperwork to FedEx to have it overnighted to the USDA office in Austin. I will include a self-addressed pre-paid overnight envelope for it to be returned to us, hopefully by Thursday. But as long as it gets to us by Saturday at noon, it’s all gravy.

Tuesday night we are attending one final Houston event for GE’s annual shin-dig at the Museum of Natural History. It’s my very favorite museum in Houston, and it’s so much fun to get dolled up, drink champagne and have free reign of the exhibits, including the IMAX Theater. I just have to remember to leave one cocktail dress out before packing everything up, otherwise I’d look quite out of place in my skinny jeans, cowboy boots, and pocket tee.

Wednesday: The movers arrive to pack up our sea and air shipments. This should take two days.

Thursday: The movers finish packing us up. We either find an air mattress, book a hotel, or head up to Conroe for two nights.

Friday: Friday will be free to run any last minute errands before leaving on Saturday. I’m sure I’ll take up a significant amount of time breathing into a paper bag.

Saturday:  We’ll drop off our rental car in the morning. The dogs will be picked up at our house at noon, which I’m sure will induce a complete mental breakdown on my part. At this time I will continue breathing into a paper bag and, if that doesn’t work, my last resort will involve Xanax. Our town car will pick us up at 6 pm for our 8:30 PM flight to London. (P.S. How Fresh Prince of Bellaire is it that a town car is taking us to the airport?)

Sunday: We’ll arrive in Aberdeen at 3:45 PM, Lord willing. A pre-arranged taxi will bring us to our temporary housing for the week. We’ll have the night to settle in before our dogs are delivered Monday afternoon. We just found out that flights to Aberdeen don’t carry animals as cargo on the weekends so our pups will be having a slumber party Sunday night at the Animal Reception center at Heathrow Airport.

I’m sure the airport kennel will have utilitarian accommodations, but for the sake of my sanity I’m imagining fun-filled doggie day care with hired help whose sole duty is to rub my dogs’ bellies.  Xanax will be aiding in this illusion. I promise I’m not a druggie but I when I think about my dogs’ journey, I seriously CANNOT HANDLE IT, and so I literally will have to take a chill pill. Judge me if you want- one of the glorious side effects of Xanax is that I don’t really care.

In all seriousness, I’d like to do this drug free. I’ve been working hard on practicing faith and God has been gracious in giving me comfort and peace throughout this stressful time. I stumbled upon this verse recently and knew that it was meant for me:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9.

That one’s going on the bathroom mirror for sure.