Long Overdue

Well, as I expected, I've really begun to fall behind on these. Regardless, things are progressing on the move to Italy. The house is under contract, and if all goes well, closing is less than two weeks away. Its a little unnerving knowing that in less than 3 weeks, essentially every piece of property we own will be on a boat in the Atlantic and another family will be enjoying my house as their home. It makes me feel like a preschooler seeing another kid playing with his toy - no, this is my house! What do you mean you're going to paint these walls? They're my walls! No you can't eat your food outside the kitchen - you might ruin my carpet!

Like I said - its kinda wigging me out.

In all reality, the home-selling process has been an extraordinary blessing. And, other than a few shots and some hard-to-deal with federal employees, the staging process for an overseas move has been pretty smooth. That said, ask me about it again next week after the movers come - that's traditionally a low point in the process.

Melissa's aunt and uncle have been kind enough to let the four of us crash at their place for the 3 or 4 weeks after we sell the house. I say "four" to include Nash, who will also stay with us - I only hope he doesn't wreck the place before we get out of the country...and I hope Jerry and Janie aren't reading this...

I also feel a little bad for the beautiful little girl pictured above. Neither she nor Nash have any idea what's about to befall them. For Nash, we're talking repeated trips back and forth to Tennessee, weeks in a strange house, an 8 hour trip in the cargo hold of a military plane, and as many as 4 or 5 weeks in an Italian kennel until we find a place to live. Jeez - I guess that kinda puts my difficulties in perspective.

We'll try to keep the blog as up to date as we can over the next few months. After next Wednesday, we won't have access to our computer until early November, but computers are everywhere - hopefully we'll get a chance to drop a few blogs between now and then!

- pac