The blur that was September

So, after getting notice that our move was back on, we had to get that dreadful list back out and start tackling it again. 

Thankfully, our days at work were numbered.  Scot declared his last day as September 14th and mine was on the 20th (annoyingly, I was still putting in a gazillion hours right up until my last day).   To preserve our sanity and actually be able to cross things off our list, the girls would keep going to school/daycare right up until the last possible minute - the 28th. ;-)

We made phone calls, we sorted, we organized, we debated, we worried, we got excited, we took the cats to the vet for the umpteenth time, we said goodbyes, etc., etc.  Our airline tickets were purchased by the military for October 1st - it was surreal to finally again have a departure date.  We went to WI over Labor Day weekend to see my family.  We also made last minute plans to make a roadtrip to IL to see Grandpa Chuck & Grandma Sandy over the 3rd weekend in September.  We drove down both of our vehicles and had a wonderful visit (I'll try to log a separate post for that)...and then while Julie & I drove the girls back up to Minnesota, Scot headed west to St. Louis to drop off our Honda Pilot at the vehicle shipping port (yes, somehow St. Louis is the closest drop-off from MN) and he flew home after that.  Sigh.  He got home just in time to watch the end of the dreadful Packers/Seahawks game with me.  You may have seen that controversial ending once or twice...

After getting back from Illinois, it was "go" time.  I'm not sure I've ever been more mentally or physically exhausted - those 6 days were pretty grueling.  Our stuff basically had to fit into one of 6 categories: trash, charity, suitcases, UAB - unaccompanied baggage (plane cargo shipment), HHG - household goods (boat cargo shipment), and NTS (non-temporary storage).  The kicker was that we learned sometime in mid September this gem of news - that because Scot's orders didn't start until Oct. 1st, they couldn't make any moving arrangements before then.  Thank you, Government.  We had to prep everything so specifically because we won't be in MN when the movers actually come to our house.  However, we are so, so lucky to have Julie taking care of this now in our absence, but what a burden it will be for her. Anyway...somehow we got it all done by 10:30 pm on the eve of our departure.  And we still managed to do some fun things that week (lunch at the Happy Gnome, dinner with the Listons at Chino Latino, birthday pizza & cake for me on the 29th, a few motorcycle rides, etc. etc.)  I even "celebrated" my birthday by running a 10K that morning in Golden Valley.  I haven't had a lot of time to run this summer (mostly because of work - blah), but had upped my mileage to about 5 miles for a few runs so I crossed my fingers that I would finish 6.2.  I did it and I met my goal of finishing under an hour - just barely at 59:38 :-) 

So that was September.  October has been much better so far.