Packing Day Sunday

Packing Day Sunday has arrived with a cooling breeze and the promise of a warm clear day.  Not that it really matters about the weather, but I am taking that as a good sign, an omen if you like, that today will also go clear and smooth.

Today I will pack the car and all of the clothes that we still have here that are not in boxes down stairs.  The removalist is booked for tomorrow to pick up all the boxes and take them to Melbourne.  

Just sitting here, looking around the house, now Jonathan, Danika and Shaun's home, I can still see things everywhere that belong to us but wont be coming to WA.  Cushions on the couch; quilts thrown over chairs; table runners and place mats that I made; plants that I have had for well over twenty years that have been moved from pillar to post.  These things will not be moved this time. I might look at those as remants, little pieces of me that I am leaving behind.

My friend Miriam, who we are going to see in Victoria on the way West, has always had a lovely garden where ever she has lived.  She is also a very good gardener, green thumb if ever there was such a thing.  When we both lived on the NW Coast, we used to share various little cuttings out of each others gardens.  Pieces of roses, cute little ground covers. I clearly remember one day walking around Mim's garden and she pointed out a small white rose growing on the edge of the garden bed; she said, "There's a little piece of Kathy, I got that from you. I just stuck it in and away it went."

Memory has stuck in my head ever since and I love that idea of a little piece of me, or Mim, or some other friend being with me all the time.  I now do the same with fabric scraps, same idea, different medium :)

In a lot of my quilts, there is a little bit of Sharon,  a tidy smidge of Helen, a cute piece of red from Julie and on it goes. Taking my friends with me wherever I go in something that I have created.  I have left behind quite a few quilts in various homes dotted all over Tasmania. Those quilts are imbued with love and so in another way, I leave behind a little piece of Kathy and a lot of my love. 

I hope that today goes smoothly; I hope and pray that Chris' back continues to improve - yesterday was not a great day but then, yesterday is done now so I will focus on today. 
It is calm and quiet here this morning, no one else is up but Chris, Dizzy and I. The house is quiet and still.  Right behind me on Danika's utensil holder are the immortal words of Churchill;

Keep Calm and Carry On!

I will Winston, I will!

A Quieter House

The house got a lot quieter this morning.  Emily, Farooq and their cat Harriette left to return to Sydney.  Come Friday they will pack their cars up and head to the Nations Capital - Canberra - to begin their new life there. 

The house seems a bit empty.  Although we still have Danika here, her fiance is away also this week so it is just the four of us - plus three dogs! 

Chris' back is still giving him bucket loads of curry.  He still cannot sleep in a bed and is very tired all the time.  9 times out of ten, when I look over at him, his head is down to his chest and he is out to it. I am really hoping and praying for a miracle by next Monday, sooner would be even better of course. 

This week will be chocka block with last minute appointments and a trip down the coast to see Dad before I leave. Dental, podiatry, hair etc - all have to be seen to before I get on that boat on Monday night. When I think about it all, I get a nervy tummy and the butterflies turn into antelopes galloping about.  Everyone assures me that it will all be fine but I am truly at the stage now, that I just want to go and get to Karratha and start our new life there. 

I have minimal packing left, mostly clothes and the last few things that kick around for a final grab.  The lists are still with me, taunting me when I walk past the bench - in a "Don't Forget Me!" kinda way.  At least the packing station aka The Dining Table is in it's unextended state, which is a plus I think.  The last thing to be disconnected and packed will be the  stereo. I cannot live without my music.

I have gone over the box allocation so will need to talk to the removalist about that when he arrives. Hope he is amiable to a few more. Not much but at least two extra boxes. I have a small and tidy pile sitting down in the garage waiting to be squeezed into the car along with the cases etc.  Thank Goodness in a way, that we  aren't taking Dizzy. That will make packing the car a much more tolerable task.

Today I am going to move all our stuff out of our bedroom and put it in the spare bedroom so that Danika can continue to unpack her gear and actually have room to put it somewhere.  In some ways it is a lot easier having them move in but in another it presents other difficulties that need to be accommodated  - working around each others boxes etc.  But then we have had the pleasure of being here together at the same time, so that part was fun. 

So between the care giving to the patient and the waving goodbye; unpacking; cleaning; washing - and there is a small mountain of that ~ it has been an exhausting day.  A wonderful respite comes this afternoon in the form of a hair appointment -bliss - a whole hour or so of nothing! Can't wait.

Little Yellow Gumboots

In amongst all the packing, cleaning up, chucking out etc, I came across this photo of Lilly (AKA Daughter E) again.  A few of you would remember when this photo was taken.  It was not long after the childrens' father and I went in different directions.  The children and I moved to a little house in Bird Street, Burnie, not far from their school. Lil was only about 4 in this photo.  I reckon they are actually her sisters boots :)

I am not entirely sure what the occasion was that prompted this photo, it may have been that she just looked so darned cute in those yellow gumboots.  It may have been her 4th birthday photo. A new Care Bear perhaps? 

We had some great times in that little house; we also had some heart breakers.

What I also remember so well from those months, was the beautiful support that my elder sister, Julie, was to me. At times I was quite overwhelmed with what "singlemotherhood" brought with it on a daily basis. For a 30 year old with three children under 10, at times the circumstances were daunting, scary, lonely and downright unfair - but as I have always said to the kids, "Life is unfair, get used to it!" So practice what you preach is the next cliche that springs to mind :) Buckle up and get down to it.

Julie would often call and say "Kathryn, what are you doing?" And so off we would go on some little jaunt.  One morning we had organised to go nursery shopping, (as in garden variety, not baby variety)  and I dropped Emily off to kindergarten with Danika. When Julie and I returned at lunch time to pick up Emily, the teacher informed me that actually there was no kinder that morning as they had had an excursion earlier in the week and so Emily was in fact the only kid in kinder that morning!  Ooops - she had spent the morning with her big sister in Grade 2! Quite happily apparently.

That sort of common sense, empathic response would not occur now - they would report you to Welfare and put the kid straight into foster care. Okay slight exaggeration but after I got over the enormous embarrassment, and the funny side was realised, I also appreciated the fact that Mrs French could see what sort of emotionally fragile state I was in and a mistake like this was overlooked as a normal stress response, not a "losing her mind" type response. 

Back to the daily grind at present, I have nearly finished all the packing, maybe one box of bits and bobs to go and then the suit cases with clothes etc to take on the boat/plane.

Chris' bad back still prevents him from doing anything much, although we have been to the pool the last two days (finally got him there!) and he thinks it is helping - thank you God!
Even though we have a decent size house, with 7 adults, three dogs and a cat, it is pushed to the seams a bit at the moment - but that's OK, soon we will be two adults and 1 cat less (unfortunately, but they need to go back to Sydney and get themselves ready to move States as well). That will make one of the dogs happier anyway. LOL!

I am to the stage now, where I just want to go. All the planning, preparations, plan changing and frustrations are wearing thin. It seems like we have been on this treadmill of moving for so long and my brain is stuck on rewind a bit.  What to do, what to pack, what to organise, etc etc. So many things to remember!

But then if I look back at the photo of the cutest little girl in her yellow gumboots, clutching her Care Bear in a blue suede dress, then I can remember that we have been through challenging times before and with a fair amount of humour and family love, we got through it then and we will again.

Battling Back Pain

Over the last few days. Chris' back problems have been exacerbated, so much so that he now has three problems areas instead of just the lower back one.  This has been caused by holding his back too stiffly to try to lessen the impact.  Unfortunately the strain of holding himself upright has caused muscle spasms further up his back  and into his shoulders. 

So after three nights of sleeping upright on the sofa and sick to death of being in so much pain, we are off to the doctor again today. Please God may we get some relief for him.

The house is an absolute tip and nightmare! LOL - there is stuff everywhere as Danika unpacks and we pack to make room for her things.  It is a manoeuvre of mammoth proportions as we change beds, move rooms and try to do all this while making sure that we get Chris as comfortable as possible and plan an engagement party.

Danika says in a few years we will look back on this and laugh! I reckon it wont take that long, maybe next week :)

The three ladies in the house have all at some time succumbed to the emotions of it all, which was probably inevitable given the circumstances and what we all have just behind us and just in front us to contend with. 

It is all coming together nicely though, yesterday was the worst as we changed the beds over and that involved taking apart and moving three queen sized beds and taking two big chest of drawers down stairs.  Thank God again for Jonathan, moving that about. 

I slept on Danika and Shaun's bed (which was wonderfully comfortable); Emily and Farooq slept on our bed; Chris slept on the sofa; and Danika and Shaun slept in the sewing room.  Jonathan is the only one who slept in his own bed in his own room ! LOL musical beds :)

Today is another lovely sunny day which bodes well for tonight with the engagement celebrations. It will be a lovely time to catch up with friends and family members who are in from interstate. 

More about that tomorrow....or the next day :)

Progress Update

The last few days I have been satisfyingly efficient. I have completed heaps of jobs and organised other tasks off The List.  Actually there is a new list every day, not so overwhelming that way  :)

The car is now confirmed for pick up from Adelaide on January 17th.  The removalist company representative is coming in the morning to give me a firm quote and bring me more boxes!  I have packed most of the possessions we are taking except for clothes and kitchen ware that we are still using and will use until after Christmas.

I took a car load of donations to the Charity shop this morning, that cleared up a heap of room in the living room.  I have already started another little pile, but this won't get as big as the last one, hopefully. 

The Playroom is mostly packed apart from one last quilt that I am cutting out ready to sew when we get settled in Karratha.  That will be Daughter D's wedding quilt ~ wheee

I have ordered a new chest of drawers from IKEA for our bedroom and some storage units for the WIR; and today I finally got in first for some new lounge chairs on Karratha, Buy, Swap and Sell.  That is one tough cookie to crack.  I have seen heaps of good lounges etc that are going quite reasonably, but by the time I see the ad, another person has already put a bid in or asked for the option on it.  It is a very popular site. 

Chris went to check out the chairs, two leather electric recliners.  Not that I really wanted electric anything, but we did want comfort.  Apparently the couple that were selling the chairs, bought the whole suite but only wanted the sofa.  Hence we got the two chairs, brand new, still in the wrapping, quite reasonably.  We will look out for a comfy sofa when I get there in January. Must have something for our visitors to sit on!

I heard from the HR Team leader at Nickol Bay Hospital today.  She was calling to confirm that she had received all the pre-employment paperwork that I filled out last week.  Another reason she called was to check again my start date: January 28th!

The house is looking empty.  Most of the pictures are off the walls and all of the little things are gone from sidebaords, book  shelves and bench tops. Even the linen is pared down to the bare essentials.  Just enough to tide us over the Christmas period with the family at home.  

I changed my bank details for my pay and also for the salary packaging - two more ticks. I even had time today to vacuum out the car and the garage/downstairs. The little things count as well :)

So even though this is the most  boring post in blogland history, I feel that I have passed a huge milestone over the last few days. I am not as stressed and am sleeping better.  I think a little celebration is in order. I might go visit a friend tomorrow, have a lovely cup of tea and chill. 

So Far, So Good

Today has been a really productive day.  I have finally got the go ahead from Chris' manager to make our bookings myself. So after a good sleep, I felt inspired to get stuck into the days list early. So early in fact that I went to message my BIL (brother in law) at 6.40 re printing.  Good thing, I didn't send it, they are not early risers.

The Spirit of Tassie was the first and easiest to book.  We have a cabin reserved due to set sail on January 13th at 2100. Dizzy's bed for the night will cost the grand sum of $22!  I certainly hope that he will be comfortable and not fret too much.

I am off to buy his pet carrier tomorrow and am going to put it in the sitting room where his little bed usually is.  That way I figure he will get used to the sight of it, if nothing else.  I am getting some spare blankies ready for the trip but giving them to him for a few hours, letting him play and sleep on them and then putting them away.  This is so I have a few spares, in case I need to throw a couple away.

See he loves his blankies

Dizzy went to the Vet this afternoon and he was well behaved, so I am telling myself that that bodes well for the boat and plane expeditions coming up.

I accidentally booked him onto the wrong flights when I did the animal freight booking.  When booking with Qantas pet freight, you have to get clearance from the airline to ensure that they have room on the flight you want before they can accept the booking.  So before I booked our seats, I had to make sure that they could fit Dizzy underneath. It was a nervous wait to hear back via email. When I received the confirmation to go ahead, that was when I realised I had made the reservation on the wrong QF!

After a 30 minute wait on hold, a lovely lady, called Tina, sorted it all out for me. Good to know for an ex Call Centre teacher like me that there are still excellent customer service representatives out there in telephone world.  Thanks Tina from Qantas Pet Freight.

Now Dizzy is sorted, bookings are made, the removalist is on standby for the appointed date and I am starting to feel much more relaxed.

The plan in all it's glory is now starting to come together nicely.  We will take the ferry over to Melbourne; drive just north of Geelong to spend the night with an old friend whom I have known since kindergarten; travel on to Victor Harbour to stay with dear friends, who have settled there recently.  After two days break we will leave the car in Adelaide and catch flights to Karratha. This will save us at least 7 days driving.  Better for us; better for Dizzy.

Now all I have to do, is get this house in some kind of order, pack away each and everything that we may need for our lives in Karratha and arrange to put the rest into storage.