The Last Night at Home

I wasn't planning on blogging tonight but I just cannot bring myself to go to sleep. Knowing that it is only a matter of hours until I leave my wonderful home is haunting me. I put Nathy to bed and told him that we would be starting our trip tomorrow. He started crying and asked me if we could come back to our house when our holiday was over. :-(

We have just spent an awesome evening with our most amazing friends. Some awesome photos (and some not so awesome, thanks Jac) bought back some wonderful memories. We are a very very blessed family to have such a wonderful network of people.

We were commenting a few nights ago how sad it is that we let life get in the way of having such wonderful experiences with our friends. When did we stop going out on school nights, when did dinner parties become all too hard, when did we need to be home in time to put the kids to bed so they weren't grouchy the next day and when did it become OK not to see people for 4 years? (Peter & Trisha :-)

I am going to try and live life slightly differently, using this trip as a good starting point. It is like that email that always does the rounds.

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."

Neil's new saying is that "Life is not a dress rehearsal People." Why do we always take the people we care about the most for granted. Why do we let our so called busy lives get in the way of creating beautiful memories.

Plenty of time to sleep when we are dead. Lets give this life thing a damn good crack. Bring on the next adventure. xoxo

2 More Sleeps

Uplift day has been and gone and I am now sitting here in my empty dining room in my camp chair with my coffee resting on the camp table!!

Thankfully Nathan's eye is healing nicely and he is able to open it almost 95%. He is in good spirits and coping with it as well as a 4 year old can. We are seeing a lot of change in his personality and thing that the move and accident are all taking a toll on him. I hope that he is able to settle down when we are on the road.

Our wonderful friends Denise, Brendon and James bought dinner over for us tonight and we have polished of a lovely bottle of red.

We managed to scam dinner on Wednesday night too. An awesome roast with Chris, Pete and Lachie. Chris even gave us a doggy bag of baby food for the Princess.

What are we doing leaving all these wonderful friends????????

Tomorrow is our "send off" which Neil insisted on having. I would have been more than happy to slip away quietly and can just see myself spending most of tomorrow arvo in tears. I have managed to find a few photos and start a photo wall which I am hoping friends will be adding to tomorrow.

Neil ended up having to get a specially engineered tow hitch for the van as the Patrol is so high. The blokes said they had never engineered something so extreme for towing a van!! Then we hook the van up and realise that the back of the car is a fair bit lower than the front due to the weight!! Neil had to go and get some new airbag suspension thingies which he assures me were essential, along with the other $30,000 worth of "stuff".

We still haven't packed the van. I think we are too damn scared that it isn't all going to fit and we have no idea what to do with it if it doesn't... I am thinking that the local dump master is going to get a work out!!

My next post will actually see us on the road, wish us luck. xoxo

Moving Day

OK, so I didn't think it could get any worse but yesterday it did.

I got a phone call from Neil saying that Nathan's kinder teacher had rung and he had fallen over and cut his face. Didn't sound too bad from the description so I headed to the kinder to be greeted by a HUGE black eye, oozy blood and one very very very sad little boy.

Put Nath into the car and headed straight for Maroondah Hospital. 6 hours later, one general anesthetic and 3 stitches later we were at home. Not a bad way to spend the day before our house was being moved!!

Anyway, a desperate phone call to Mum at about 3pm saw her on the plane at 5pm and here by about 7.30... how awesome. Spent the night packing boxes, cleaning the coffee machine, pulling legs off tables, hoses off washing machines and the list goes on... In bed by 11pm and up again at 6am to get more organised before the removalists arrived at 7.30.

Anyway, today was AWESOME. The blokes were awesome and just knew what to do and were really really lovely about it... They were here for hours and even had to go and get another truck because we filled 2 shipping containers and still needed more. Lucky we were only quoted for 1 1/2!!

The lovely Laura came by this morning at about 9 and took the boys off to playgroup, then for cookies and a milkshake. They came home, had some lunch and headed off to the park.. Thankyou Laura, you are amazing.

I am sitting here typing on my lounge room floor. We have the picnic table set up in the dining room and I am just about to pull the mattress out of the TVan so we can go to bed. It has been a HUGE day.. xoxo

One week to go....

It is really happening, exactly 1 week to go until we hit the road.

Yesterday we had an awesome day with some great friends. Timmy, Andrew, Dennis, Jono and Danni (plus Ben and bump) all came over to give us a hand tackling Neil's shed and other bits and pieces. We had finally realised that there was SO much left to do and only about 72 hours in which to do it. Anyone crazy enough to offer help was taken up on it..

There were trees being cut down, Christmas lights being taken down, pirate ships being dismantled, computers being packed, not to mention trips to Bunnings and a heck of a lot of crap being shoved into boxes.....

We are about 90% there I would say. Today we are going to start loading things onto the verge ready for bulk rubbish this week. Might have to sneak a few more boxes out there from Neil's shed!! (shh, it will be our secret :-)

Will blog again on Tuesday since I will be sitting here in an empty house. xoxo

The Countdown is On

Well, it is now 2 and a half weeks until lift off. Anything that could go wrong is going wrong but we are slowly getting there.....

Neil put his car in to have the cruise control fitted on Friday. At about 4.30 I got a phone call to say the car was completely undriveable. It was going to be towed to a diesel mechanic as everytime the car was started it would rev it's guts out and they were concerned it would blow the engine up!!

Finally picked that up yesterday, but wait it gets better......

We had a new tent / annex made for the van and went to the local park to make sure it fitted the van. Lucky we did because the zips are on the wrong way....

Then we realised that we only have 2 car seat anchor points in Neil's car and I spent today trying to find a company to install a 3rd one!!

All small things but just time consuming. Time, a luxury we don't have yet but will as of the 1st of August.... Bring it on......