racheljoi.com

Almost exact­ly one year ago, we decid­ed we were going to move west. We love Kansas City, but we’ve been here for five years, and it’s time for a new adven­ture. We want moun­tains and a more tem­per­ate cli­mate and more oppor­tu­ni­ties for out­door activ­i­ties. We told my hus­band’s employ­er that we were leav­ing, that it would be great if he could stay with the com­pa­ny, but we were leav­ing in a few months. The com­pa­ny came through and asked us to move to Salt Lake City! It was­n’t ini­tial­ly on our radar, but the more we learned about it, the more excit­ed we became. It sounds like most every­thing we’re look­ing for in a new city. We thought we would move in June, then July, then on and on until now it’s final­ly going to hap­pen in Octo­ber. We found a two-bed­room apart­ment that is close to his work and not far from any­thing. The dogs will have a lit­tle bit of grass on our patio, but they’ll have to get used to not hav­ing a dog door.

Our house goes on the mar­ket at the end of the week, and I’ve been play­ing con­trac­tor, find­ing a roofer, land­scap­er, foun­da­tion per­son, painter, and car­pet clean­er. We had a mas­sive garage sale last week­end, then donat­ed a bunch and took a lot to the dump. We got rid of thou­sands of pounds of stuff over the week­end, and there’s more to go. It’s a relief to have less “stuff,” to be down­siz­ing and get­ting rid of things we once con­sid­ered impor­tant. It’s also brought my hus­band and me clos­er togeth­er. We’ve been work­ing hard to get things ready, stay­ing up late, get­ting up ear­ly, pack­ing, clean­ing, car­ry­ing box­es (and beds, and fur­ni­ture). It’s been a good les­son in patience and team­work. We have two more days of push, and then we just main­tain things while the house is on the mar­ket. Just two more days.

That’s what’s going on here. Still lots of clean­ing to do, plus a cou­ple trips to var­i­ous places. I did­n’t think mov­ing would be this stress­ful. It’ll get done though. And soon!