Wish us luck! May we have very few things go wrong.

I feel like I’m living among boxes, to the point where I’m thinking they are developing personalities…

The girls are settling into my mother’s house, and I’ll be there tomorrow. It’s hard to be apart, but they didn’t need to see me wandering around the house trying to pack everything.

I’m overwhelmed and freaked out and worried and anxious and relieved and sad and achey and hopeful and a bunch of other mixed-up emotions. I’m so grateful for my wonderful friends who have stood by me and helped me every step of the way. Thank you all!

See you on the flip side…

Our oldest dog, Harley, is being euthanized tomorrow morning at 8:30. This was a heartbreaking decision for me, and a horrible thing to have to tell the girls, especially given everything else going on in our lives.

Harley has multiple cancerous tumors, and due to her age, treatment isn’t a great option. She is also 16, and is starting to show more signs of her old age: she’s getting grouchy, her hearing isn’t reliable, and a few other things. Also, she’s not finding much comfort anywhere – she usually LOVES her crate, but has been leaving it trying to find comfort.

I had put together a list of 3 things Harley likes best, and if she stopped doing those things, I would make the appointment to have her euthanized. She’s long past that point, and since she is clearly in pain, I know I’m making the right choice.

However, since we are moving on Tuesday, this was just something I didn’t want to deal with at this time, or really at any time. Any prayers or vibes or good wishes for her or for me as I go to the vet with her would be gratefully accepted.

We celebrated this historic day with coloring pages and me “encouraging” the girls to watch the swearing in, and as much of the speech and ceremony as possible.

What an amazing nation I live in – a nation that has changed so much in the past century. I am so proud that we elected Barack Obama as our 44th president, and I am optimistic for the next 4 years.

Meanwhile, we celebrated New President Day with more packing! That’s Change, right?

We also celebrated by having guests over for dinner – we had issued a Brussels Sprout Challenge a couple months ago, and we were finally able to serve up the Roasted Brussels Sprouts tonight.

The verdict? Two people who swore “I don’t like brussels sprouts” ate seconds. I win! I’ve converted so many people over to the joy that is Roasted Brussels Sprouts after a childhood of eating refusing to eat mediocre steamed brussels sprouts.

So, let’s believe in change, let’s celebrate change, let’s find joy in unexpected places. Let’s do our best to have hope for the future – hope for the little things (like yummy food) and hope for our futures.

There are a zillion blog entries out there discussing the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Obama. This is just one short one, one little link to Obama. I may also be one of the few liberal Mormons you’ll meet, but I do exist, and I’m sure others do too. The Church will actually have representatives a the Inauguration, and I really like what President Monson said: “We send our best wishes to President-elect Obama and pray for the blessings of a loving Father in Heaven to be upon him and his administration.”

I am one person, mom, attachment-parenting person, writer, blogger, friend, church-goer, dog-owner, sister, aunt, cat-lady, homeschooler, daughter, grand-daughter, geek, person with chronic illnesses who voted for Obama and is thrilled for his inauguration! Watching his speech Sunday warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. All of his speeches seem to have that effect on me, and that’s part of why I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s festivities. I am also looking forward to reading Dreams from My Father when I’m staying at my mother’s house (my step-dad has a copy).

I was also excited to find out that I have a link to President-elect Obama! My step-father started a folk music coffee house the year before I was born. One of the people who came to perform there was Pete Seeger, and we ended up having dinner with him before the concert. So about 20 years ago Pete Seeger had dinner with me, and now he’s performing with Bruce Springsteen in a concert for President-elect Barack Obama!

I remember playing debate bingo when we were watching Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden in the VP debate, and it was far too much fun. If you are thinking of a bingo or drinking game for tomorrow, check out this bingo/drinking game for the Inauguration.

On a more serious note, one of my dearest friends from Austin has written a great post about President-elect Obama’s Inauguration and the comments she has heard from conservatives. Is it OK to show how happy we are? Or do we need to be sensitive to those whose candidate didn’t win? Well, I’m quite happy, and not afraid to say it. I highly recommend reading and pondering Suna’s wonderful entry.

“How are you doing, Rachel?”

“Better than expected.”

“How’s the packing going?”

“Better than expected.”

“How is he cleaning out and sorting going?”

“Better than expected.”

“How are you bearing up under the stress?”

“Better than expected.”

“How are the girls doing with all this change?”

“Better than expected.”

So, life continues better than expected. Tonight we are watching The Princess Bride, eating pumpkin bars, and snuggling with puppies as mounds of boxes loom around us.

Tomorrow will be busy and filled with more packing and sorting, but we’ll have some pictures soon of our boxed-up life!

We have an extra week! Woohoo! The movers are coming on the 27th instead of the 19th! yippeee!

This gives us a bit of extra time so that we can sort through more of our stuff rather than just packing everything. It also gives us more time to actually do the packing! It’s a tiny bit hectic here right now, and anything that can make us feel a bit less overwhelmed is a Good Thing!

I’ve spent a lot of time on the phone with the people who have been supporting me, as well as a lot of time praying and pondering. I am feeling strong – I am taking the steps that need to be taken, and I am doing everything in my power to get things done. I am so, so, so grateful to the many people who have been propping me up lately, I don’t know how I would get anything done without all of you.

Looking at LG’s tower she was building on New Year’s, each block is a bit different, and each block does something unique to support the tower. The myriad of people in my life are like those blocks – everyone is helping me right now, whether it is physically supporting or via email, or IM, or phone, or through prayer/vibes/virtual hugs. I am so blessed to have all of you, and my personal tower would not be as strong without all of you.

THANK YOU!!!

And now I will go back to packing … so many boxes! so much stuff! so much to do!

We have another snowstorm, which is leaving me reading, pondering, and praying about the changes in our lives. So here goes…

I believe, and I have faith that there will be “glory which shall follow after much tribulation.” ² We are in the midst of the tribulation part, working toward the glory. I know that we will be stronger and happier and in a better place after these tribulations. I also know that we will have help from Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, and the many people in our ward, our homeschooling friends, our other friends, and our family.

I knew this would happen eventually, but I kept hoping against hope – we are being evicted, and need to move out on the 19th. This isn’t going to be easy, and I’m not particularly happy about it. It’s a big struggle for the girls, too – so much change!

That said, we have an opportunity to really start fresh, and to clean out our physical, emotional, and spiritual spaces. I am learning to ask for help (it’s much harder than it sounds!), and to literally get down on my knees and thank God for my many blessings, and ask for His help right now. I am so grateful for my wonderful girls, for our pets, and for the wonderful people in our lives. There are so, so, so many hard choices right now. I have been following the guideline “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good,”³ and trying to go in the direction I’m led by the Spirit. It’s very, very, very humbling.

Jesus has taught us that we can learn when we are humble -”Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” ⁴ Well, I think I’m well and humbled at this point! I prayed a lot on Thursday and received a blessing, needing strength and hope and help with a place to live. Much to my surprise, on Friday morning we received an offer from my family for temporary housing and help with storage of our stuff & pets. “Ask, and it shall be given unto you,” ⁵ indeed!

I’ll keep praying and working to get a smallish apartment somewhere reasonably close to where we have been living, but it is nice to know we will have a place to go! A place that is smaller, yet not as remote, and also more walkable will actually be an improvement. Ideally without too many stairs, too. I’ll ask for a car, too, while I’m at it!

The past several months have been so incredibly hard, and I’m so, so, so grateful to my friends, faith, and family. I couldn’t do this alone, and being the Strong One for the girls can be a real challenge. It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders to know that I have help and support from so many directions – it’s not easy, but I can get through.

Just to add a small whine in here – my tailbone injury from a week & a half ago isn’t yet healed. I’m on a second round of steroids to help with the swelling, and I’m still on the extra fun painkillers to keep me semi-functional. Injury + chronic pain + stress = not fun. I know that it will pass, but it’s still Not Fun.

We’ll get through this time, though. We will get through it with some help, and we will be in a better place when we are done. For now, we just need the strength to carry on. “The Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”⁶

¹ D&C 58:4
² D&C 58:3
³ Alma 37:37
⁴ 1 Peter 5:6
⁵ 3rd Nephi 14:7
⁶ 1st Nephi 3:7

I have always thought that we needed a day in which to recover from a weekend. Today is no exception!

Our weekend in thumbnails, a lot of fun and quite a bit of sushi…

Our new universal remote, picked up Friday. It’s so cool to be able to turn on the TV and change channels from the couch! Of course the only one available at the drug store was bigger than the girls’ heads… It’s really unlikely it will get lost now, though! That’s always a positive!

Our friend JadenKale came to visit from Wisconsin, and spent the afternoon with the girls. Then, they went to my mom’s house for the night, and she & I went out to eat. Mmmm… boatload of sushi! Mmmmm…. and yes, we ate the whole thing!

My dear friend S sent us some sculpy sushi beads for Christmas which her kiddos had made – they are so, so, so cool! We have such incredibly awesome friends! We started by making some sushi earrings. It was fun wearing the earrings while eating the sushi!

S and her kiddos also sent us some sushi soap for our bathroom. Our bathroom is also really cool for having a shower curtain, so this is just another step cooler. A sushi bathmat would be great too, someday…

I took JadenKale for a scenic tour of the North Shore of Massachusetts, and we got a great view of the Boston Skyline and some Frostbiters (people who sail in winter). I didn’t take pictures of those, though, sorry.

We ran a couple errands (took another person for their first Trader Joe’s experience!), and by then the sun was setting – this is the first in a series of 4 sunset pictures over a cove down the hill from our house. Sooo pretty!

From the Ministry of Silly Poses – I strike a robot pose with a shiny tin hat from a Christmas Cracker and a tin man shirt from TeeFury, and each of the girls pose with a beautiful, soft scarf from JadenKale. (I got a lovely burgundy one, but no pose because it didn’t fit in with the robot silliness) The scarves are really cool and can end up being used as hats as well as scarves – we’ll need to take a better pic, but that’s what LG is doing in the blue scarf.

Before she left, we had to take good bye pictures. It was sooo hard to say goodbye! I really hope we can see her again soon, but going to “America’s Dairy Land” is an unlikely destination for us, so we’ll have to wait for her to visit us again. Soon, I hope!

This past weekend seemed magical. We were all sad we couldn’t make it to church, but other than that it was perfect.

We had great fun, great food, and a great friend who enjoyed being with all of us – what more could we really want? Other than to have it last a lot longer and include even more sushi, of course! We’re keeping our smiles today as we get back into our usual routine, and hope we can continue to meet in person with the wonderful people we’ve gotten to know online. May all of your days be filled with the magic of friendship!