Melrose Mom-ing

Boxing up our lives.  
They are fast, they are efficient and they are brutal. 

I can’t take any medication with me in the crates so all my prescriptions (and wow do I have a lot) have to be squeezed into the suitcases. 
By the time we left the house they were starting on the big items and some rooms were already cleared.  As much as this has not been good for my stress levels, I am genuinely impressed with these blokes. 
Hand luggage is also done:
 

One packed car ready for Saturday. 
The suitcases themselves are crazy and we will need to buy new clothes, but in the words of Elsa I have chosen to let it go.
We’ve also attempted to pre-book some viewings for potential 12-month rental properties.  
The kids have their last days at Reception and nursery respectively tomorrow….
It’s all suddenly very, very real.  

Is more trouble than I could have imagined. 
We are taking most of our belongings to Massachusetts but there are some things we can’t take – the sofa for instance (we broke it 😱🤣) Also bedding etc. 
So we rented a van. Which is fine. Except it’s a manual – so I can’t drive it. Jo hasn’t driven a manual in over two years. 
And it has opinions on gears. It flashes a display at you to tell you if it thinks you’re wrong. 
Which has led to several hilarious rants from the hus-creature so far on the merits of “vehicles that expect you to peel grapes for them. If it has opinions, it should just do it itself”
(Expletives redacted for our more sensitive readers 🤣😂) 
Also, you have to register a van to take to  Ardley in advance – but you need the licence plate for the permit. Which takes 2-3 working days to process. 
Now, I’ll say something in defence of our local council – when we phoned up to explain why we needed to go today they sorted it out over the phone, no fuss no muss (and not a single cuss 😝) but it made me understand just why fly tipping can happen. 

We’ve had the final night in our own beds in our own house. 
Tonight the Family Shields is all tucked up in a hotel. 
It went about as well as feared. 
#1 Son has issues sleeping in a low down unfamiliar bed. 
The Tiny Tyrant refused to sleep in the provided travel cot so we tried her in the second kiddie bed:

First she climbed out. Then she fell out. 
I tried to “snuggle sleep” her into submission. That worked for all of 25 minutes. After being transferred to the cot she woke and screeched. So the upshot is, poor Jo-face is now trying to sleep in said kiddie bed and I’m curled up with the Tiny Tyrant who is now happily asleep while I blog under the covers. 
It is 21:30 and I am going to plug my phone in to charge and try and sleep. 

Today was our last Sunday in the U.K. for the foreseeable. 
The countdown is real and scary now. 
It’s also exhilarating. 
Yesterday the hus-creature and I celebrated (a tad early but meh) ten years of wedded bliss. Our actual anniversary is Wednesday but that’s “van and tip run day” so it just wasn’t going to happen!
Thanks to the wonder of Red Letter Days vouchers we went to Kouzu in London and it was amazing! I luffs the husband creature. 
Today was our going away bash and it was wonderful to see so many of our family and friends in one place!
I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would like with each person but I am grateful to everyone for coming 💗💗💗
We will be eating leftovers for days though!
And we have given away many electronic gadgets and I am now learning just how much we relied on the joy and wonder that is a microwave… and hoover!

Single figures now. 

Plans are now coming together swiftly. 
The cat knows something is up. The Tiny Tyrant knows something is up (and is demon spawn hellbeast toddler as a result)
#1 Son has been having a tough week at school, and has started being sad about “missing his house”. Breaks my heart, but this is for the best. 
He’s getting his own little graduation ceremony next Friday to make up for missing the main one, hopefully it’ll help. 
New things achieved:

• Cleared out medicine cabinet. 
• Cleared out cupboards. 
• Thrown away expired items. 
• Donated relevant non-expired items to local homelessness shelter. 
• Completed the last crochet projects intended as gifts. 
• Dyed up the last of my yarn for a new project. 

Slowly but surely we are getting there. 

We’ve also seen a house that would be perfect, but we aren’t allowed to indicate an interest before Monday due to strange and bizarre realtor rules. 
Cross fingers for us, as the house is gorgeous, it backs onto a wood (so there is space for the kidlets to run around) and the  closest Elementary School looks amazing…

Well, give or take, given today is mostly over. 
Today we have:

• Purchased a new mattress – turns out American mattresses are bigger than British ones so our cunning plan to replace stateside would not work. 
• Purchased new pillows and cover protectors for same – new bedding won’t matter if it’s too big because YAY bigger duvets. And the nice salesman gave us a discount because of large purchases. 
• Arranged delivery of new mattress, and more importantly, paid for the removal of the old one! I don’t have to throw my back out (more) trying to get the bastarding thing down the stairs!
• Picked up new glasses and sunglasses – I can SEE!
• Organised the medicine cabinet. I have sorted my makeup (and thrown a lot away), the actual medicines, and organised the drawers so we now know what we actually have.  And man does the Tiny Tyrant have a LOT of hair bows!!!! I will be dropping a bag of toiletries to thelocal homelessness shelter tomorrow. 

So all in all, productive day was productive.  
I mean, seriously how many does she need?

The Tiny Tyrant usually wakes up before 07:00 anyway. 
But still, it feels weird. 
Tomorrow is the true start of SAHM-dom. and I am more than a little apprehensive. 
But, I got a great send off: 

Drank far too many Bellinis, and sobbed all over my lovely boss. Who I will miss a lot. 
In fact, I’m going to miss everyone. 
This is the start of a new chapter and I’m going to embrace it wholeheartedly, and hopefully people will stay in touch. 
I haven’t been brave enough to open my card yet…. 

One day left. 
I have to admit, it doesn’t feel quite how I expected it to. I’ve been there so long, it’s part of my identity, now that is changing in a fundamental way. 
It’s going to be amazing, and I’ll have opportunities to watch the kidlets grow, but I’m apprehensive. 

I had confirmation that my childcare vouchers had been cancelled, and we received Tiny’s last UK nursery invoice (less than £60 to pay after voucher deductions) so again, more solid proof. 
I have a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach and still no leaving speech…

Half a week left as a working parent.  Blimey. I’m sure I will be able to do lots of excellent things with my free time.  Just think of all the crocheting/knitting I’ll have time to do…

Things that we have achieved since the last update (not necessarily in any order of importance):

• Plane tickets are now booked – we have a block of four seats (window-aisle, window-aisle) so each child has their own seat and can be caged in by a parent.  No immediate neighbors to annoy.  We are close to the toilets (where there are diaper-changing facilities) which is vital for both feral small people.
• House sale has stalled a bit – don’t pay peanuts for conveyancers – total monkeys and no organ grinders!
• All outgrown baby things (apart from a few genuinely sentimental items) are now in new homes.  Feels great to have the space back and to pay generosity forward.
• I have frogged at least one WIP that was distressing me and thus have one less unfinished project on the guilt pile.
• Started saying proper goodbyes – tears are definitely being shed.  Not so good for my mental state but a necessary evil.
• Going-Away-Party plans are progressing.

There are other things, but mostly on the small pile.  Oh and I can’t look at dogs to adopt because I’m not in the USA yet… boo