What If Wednesday, The Quick Move Edition

As I am knee deep in the very last hours of helping my longtime client/friend with her impending move to Hawaii (she leaves at o' dark thirty tomorrow morning), I certainly have moving on the brain.
So my 'what if' for today shall reflect that and a little bit of my own fastest ever move back when I was a kid.

Today's question:  What if you had to move out of your house in 3 hours?  What would you take with you?  What would you leave behind?  How would the time crunch affect your choices?

My inspiration for today's question is obviously all about moving and how that's been on my mind for like, oh forever now.  And watching my friend get to her big dream of moving to Hawaii has been super crazy and fun.  Moving over water is quite different from a land move!  Oh, the choices that must be made!  The craziness of it all reminds me of the time when I was 4 and we moved out of a rental house in 3 hours flat.  It was a small house and we were in trouble!  Many friends helped us out.  But the thing I remember most about that move is that it was such a wonder that it never felt like we had left anything really important behind.

So tell me all about your moving experiences- real or imagined!  What 'moves' you in deciding what stays or goes when you have to/decide to move?

Abstract Motion, Blurred Meadow stock photo found at freedigitalphotos.net

Bullets In The Moment

Sometimes it seems like it's easier to blog when there's not so much that I could blog about, you know what I mean?

There's quite a bit going on around here.

It's not so much that I feel overwhelmed.  It's just that I'm not sure how to break it down into digestible pieces, rather than yammer on in a not so interesting way.

For today, let's go with the bullet points...

o  I have discovered that there is yet another layer of stuff that I am ready to have out of my life that is still currently residing in my house.  I am in the process of purging more things again, even though I am probably the least pack-rattish of any of my friends. 

o  I have spent many hours with my little chihuahua doing more kinds of training than I have ever done with any other dog that I've ever had.  It turns out that although he is still quite typically 'toy dog' shy with strangers and we can't seem to change that about him, he has an extreme ability to learn tricks very quickly.  Although I wish that more than just our closest friends could see what a happy go lucky little guy we have, I have decided that it is not any more likely that I will ever truly change my dogs personality than changing my own innate self, so we are going to concentrate on his strengths.  Since he loves attention when he is 'performing' and almost completely forgets his shyness, we will soon start agility training!

o   On the way back from our July 4th trip to Yellowstone, my suv's A/C went out as we were traveling over 100 miles of eastern Oregon desert and it was 100 degrees out.  Now a month after having it repaired for $900, it is out again.  Did I mention that we are leaving on Friday to go back down to Palm Springs?  Yeah, another desert.  If this car is not careful, it will find itself in the pile of things that I don't need in my life anymore!

o  Here in Seattle, this summer has honestly been the nicest, warmest, sunniest summer of my life.  I wish it would never end.  I am trimming back all of my trees and shrubs as much as I can to maximize the light later on this Fall.

o  I have become very interested in the idea of people deciding to live where they like to vacation.  Why do so many of us spend so much time convincing ourselves that we couldn't do that? 

o  I love that my husband is easily the most easy-going person that I have ever known.  I used to find this a tad annoying and now I don't even know why I was ever annoyed by that!

What about you?  What's up in your life these days?  
Sometimes the fun is in the details!

Patience? Luck?

So now that we have done our fair share of celebrating around here regarding my husbands newly acquired A.C.A.S. status, of course I have set to thinking about what that could mean for us.  And of course  I am thinking that anyone in their right mind looking for an actuary should be beating down our door just now.

"Opened Door With Bright Light" by ponsulak found at: freedigitalphotos.net

Never mind that it doesn't work that way.  I won't be convinced.

But seriously, something has clicked inside me and I can feel what everyone said about how things would certainly change for us once my husband was able to meet this first of his two main goals.  (The second being to become a fellow in the Society of Actuaries.  Give it another couple of years for that one.) 

I feel doors opening and opportunities knocking.  I actually can't remember feeling this 'open' to new possibilities. 

And yes, it absolutely feels downright weird and wrong to be feeling so hopeful while witnessing so many people that we are close to still struggling mightily just to get by.  That is absolutely not lost on me.

"Breaking Rope" by scottchan found at freedigitalphotos.net

Over the weekend, my husband and I sat down and went over our budget and future plans because that's what we always do when anything is changed up in our lives and because that's just how we roll.  I think being raised in poverty either makes you never able to deal with finances or makes you super careful.  We are certainly the latter.

My plans to start flight lessons will happen soon.  Not just yet, as we never count chickens before they hatch and Fall weather in Seattle is not a great time to start that sort of thing.  However, I can actually envision being able to tuck my two small dogs into the back seat of an airplane rather than the car and get down to sunny Palm Springs in half the time it takes to drive...

With that said, I will admit that I am hoping that my feelings of something else big coming are about us moving to a warmer weather place.  No, I don't have any solid evidence for my feelings.  I'm just really hoping.  It is hard to be patient sometimes.

"Business Art" by digitalart found at: freedigitalphotos.net

The other day I mentioned to a checker that I believed in the old adage that 'the harder you work, the luckier you get' and I couldn't believe that he was so quick to say that he didn't think he could agree.  I didn't know whether he was saying that because he felt that lots of people work hard and don't get anywhere or because he felt that people who are fortunate don't work hard to get where they are.  I didn't ask because I was afraid of the answer and how it might make me feel. 

Being bold usually pays off and I should have been willing to chance what that moment might have lead to.....

Have you had moments in life when you knew that things were changing in a nearly tangible way?  How do you feel about hard work and what it leads to?   How much control does anyone really have over life direction?

Sharpie Marker Mystery

Why is it that when I use a black Sharpie to hide a tiny bleach spot on a pair of black cotton pants, I have to reapply the marker after every washing because the Sharpie marker always washes out? 

'Black Marker Pen' by Stuart Miles, found at freedigitalphotos.net

But then when I get a tiny little bit of black Sharpie marker on my pink cotton t-shirt it won't come out no matter how many times or how many ways I wash it?!?!