Another damn blog

Okay, this is truly the last new blog, come over and see me!

http://pullingstakes.blogspot.com/

Moved!

We made it. It looks like a forest full of trees shat out packing paper all over the house, but all our stuff is here. Somewhere. The move went about as well as it could have gone, I guess. Mitch had to work, so it was all me. And the kids. And the dog. And the five movers, three of which appeared to have had intestinal issues. Which Grace broadcast about out the upstairs window to the neighbor kids after the movers left.

I took a poll last night at dinner about what everyone liked the best about living here and missed the most about Whidbey Island.

Loved:

Mitch- Seven minutes to his office, even in traffic
Me- Costco, Target, and Trader Joe's all within 5 miles
Jack- Everything
Henry- New room is twice as big as his old room, now he doesn't have to clean up his Legos
Olivia- The neighborhood playground
Grace- The kids that she has made friends with by shouting out the upstairs windows
Seamus- (guessing, here) Three walks a day with Jack, nearest dog neighbor is another Wheaten Terrier, but obviously not as cute as he is

Misses:

Mitch- the isolation and chickens
Kate- the natural beauty and my friends
Jack- nothing!
Henry- his buddies
Olivia- the chickens
Grace- her fairy garden (tears while telling us this)
Seamus- eating chicken poop, chasing chickens, rabbits, and deer

Will post pics if I ever find my USB thingie for the camera.

Jack

Breaking bread with the Neanderthals at the Museum of History.
Standing in the bread line at the Roosevelt Memorial.

He's graduating from middle school next week. Mitch took him to DC for a week for a little educational vacation/graduation present/state dept. job interview. The state dept. did not hire Jack when they discovered his sarcastic tongue. We also got him one of those new-fangled gizmos that you can get the internets on and play music. I don't know how they get those tiny cassettes inside there, but he seemed pretty happy. I disguised the gift, however. I cut a hole inside a large copy of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and put the gizmo inside the hole, so he thought all he would be getting was a crappy book for maintaining perfect grades for the past three years. I know, I'm awesome like that. And it was a good use for that lame-ass book, I might add. And not to badmouth the school or anything (here is where you go, oh, she's about to badmouth the school, isn't she? And you would be right), but maintaining perfect grades while being completely bored and unchallenged is a pretty big feat, if you ask me. We'll see how he does next year in a big high school with actual AP classes (instead of being stuck in high school remedial math because they didn't know what to do with him in middle school math-oops, I did it again...). I'm pretty sure he can do it, because we have a lot of other crappy books around here to hide expensive electronic toys in for incentive. I've got my eye on Nietzsche next.

In the beginning...(or the middle, or whatever)

A new blog and a new name, but a very boring layout. I will work on that later. We're very busy packing out right now. The house is sold, school is almost over, and we have a new place to live, at least for the time being.

Everything is up in the air. Mitch has been offered a job as a Foreign Service Specialist with the State Department. This will mean probably 2 years in DC, and then we'd move the family and dog around the world while he builds/upgrades embassies. We just finished getting medical clearances for worldwide travel for the whole family (a process that involved my little drama queen Grace to both faint and throw up during her blood draw). Next up, FBI security clearances, then we have to really make up our minds and commit to going for it.

We found a house to rent right near Mitch's new project in the Kirkland/Bellevue area until we sort it all out. The kids are all thrilled. I was careful to point out all the wonderful things city life has to offer-a beautiful, big library, an outdoor community pool, theater/music camp, shops (hello, Trader Joe's and Target, did you miss me?), and big state park near our rental house. It wasn't until I mentioned that we were ten minutes to Bellevue Square Mall that I secured the girls over to the dark side with the rest of us, though.

There's a lot I'm going to miss about Whidbey Island; the great friends we've made, the gardens I worked so hard on, the beaches, and the woods around our house that the kids loved exploring in. Leaving is bittersweet, but I have learned that while I may be somewhat of a country girl, I'm not a small-town girl. I don't regret a minute we spent here (okay, well there were a few minutes in there I could have totally done without), but I'm happy to be moving on.