The Great Green Yonder

People say many things when we tell them we are moving to Ireland. My Mom is one of them. Over the last few months, her favorite question was "Where will you live?", to which we had no direct answer, except, "In Dublin I guess?"

See, I have a theory about the unknown. I think there's probably a law that says things have a way of working themselves out all on their own. In our house, this theory is called the 'Dont Worry, Jon Will Handle It' law. When this law is in effect, all I have to do is pack my bags and go. This law gives me the freedom as a wife to simply trust that my husband has our best interests at heart, and will take the initiative to take care of us in the future. This law also gives him the freedom to make plans he thinks are the optimum choice for us.

Sometimes, this law is seriously stupid. That's why I call it a theory, because theories always look great before real life tests them. In theory, the "Don't Worry" part of the law looks a lot more like me worrying a great deal, nagging a ton, and/or criticizing bad choices. Sometimes the "Jon Will Handle It" part of the law looks more like Jon doesn't know what the heck he's doing, forgot to remember to handle it, and/or handled it the wrong way.

For instance, our last apartment. Jon said it was smaller, but a great deal, and seemed legit. So we went and glanced at it once (in a perfunctory attitude), and told them we'd take it. Well. It was not until we had paid first (out of many) month's contractual rent, got the keys, and took pizza to our spankin' new place, that I realized: no dishwasher, cat-pee carpet, 3yr old boy living right on our heads. More like IN my head after a few months of torturous running back-and-forth across our bedroom/living room ceilings at all hours of the day/night. All things that I would have avoided had I chose our new place myself. The law had failed me! Maybe I should have taken more initiative and made more decisions!

But just by moving there from our old (spacious, clean, upstairs) place, and washing EVERY dish we ever dirtied, we were able to pay off our credit debt and our second car, and start this awesome journey we're on now. These things and more work together for the good of those who love God, says Romans 8:28. So when I trust in Jon to do things like find us a place to live when we move to a new country, Im putting my trust in God to work things out. Thats really what my theory comes down to in the end. Jon will fail, but God will never.

PS Mom!
We found a place to live! They are a retired couple in Clontarf, Ireland, which is 6km from City Centre in Dublin, where Jon will be working. They have graciously offered us a room to stay in for our first week there, to give us a chance to find yet another (hopefully furnished!) apartment to rent.

See? My law is working again. Hopefully he finds a place on the TOP floor this time.

Unknown

Have you ever heard that phrase, "the silence was deafening"? Well its a cliche for a reason: its true.

Before bed I turn on two fans just so I can get to sleep. Its not that I cant stand to be alone with my thoughts; that I actually like. It's that we aren't living a couple blocks from the 85 anymore, but in the mountains where Jon and I did a lot of growing up. The loudest noise I can hear right now is the adorable peeping of about 30 less-than-a-week-old chicks that my Mom hatched from her own chickens out in the barn. I can go right out the front door and see nothing but grass and trees. And one sad yellow tulip among a sea of red tulips. I can go out the back door, and see mountains that sprawl out into the distance. At night, the air is so clean, that I can see more stars than I can count. Where we used to live, I sometimes forgot there were even stars to look for.

But I'm really a cloud gathering for the storm. It's quiet now because the sky is still blue, the air is still warm. But the wind will blow steadily stronger, and I will become lost in the squall. Just one more cloud in a sky of clouds. A faceless stranger in a new world. I know I will eventually turn back to this chapter of our story and exclaim,

"How Brave!"
or maybe "How Reckless!"
or even "What Were We Thinking?" 
Ill have to remind myself then, that right now all I'm thinking is, "Hurry Up!"

God has gifted me these quiet few weeks on purpose. So I embrace this interval. I am thankful for the eye of the storm, but am also thankful for the storm. Among all the red tulips, there is a single yellow one. But it doesn't look lonely anymore. I think it looks satisfied.

Wait, should I be scared?

What did you do today? I spent most of my Saturday in the company of Futurama Season 2, and a roll of duct tape. And all these strangers kept interrupting me! I didn't mind though, they all came with money and a car to haul away things like my dressers, cabinets, and shelves. Thanks Craigslist! I pulled what i could into the front "porch" area. I say "porch" because it's a term that also means "community laundry room/mailbox/carport" area.

Anyway, it's not that Im ashamed of people seeing my living space in such disarray, full of newly unearthed dust bunnies and a really fun cardboard box maze. It's my mostly groundless paranoia that the person on the other end of the computer is actually my secret stalker who is using the opportunity to "buy a couch" to get inside my house and kill me. I say mostly groundless because crap like that happens to people. Especially to those poor fools in the first five minutes of Law & Order.

Am i putting myself in danger by giving my address to someone who could be anyone? Maybe. Will that stop me from making over $200 in two days? Hasn't yet. All it's cost me so far is a bit of stress, and time out of my day to meet perfectly nice people who are probably as equally scared that I'm a serial killer luring innocents into my house with the promise of a cheap lamp. So far so good!

Jon spent his Saturday in Aptos surfing. Lucky bum.

Off to Neverland! I mean Ireland!

We have boxes! That's a major step toward moving, no matter where you're moving to. Trader Joe's flower boxes are legit! Except for all the holes. Whatever, those are for packing the stuff we are getting rid of anyway. We have waaaaay too much stuff by the way. Like more than i even thought we had. Our apartment is only 650sq ft, it's not like we have room to collect much. But today as I sat staring at my mounds of clothes, and piles of useless things like rotisserie ovens and empty baskets, I decided I should open my own thrift store. Nah. Ill just have a garage sale and post stuff on Craigslist. All the boxes beginning to overtake my already-tiny living space have brought this whole moving-to-another-country thing into the forefront of my thoughts.

In December we thought, hey wouldnt it be cool to move far away for awhile? How about Ireland? Sweet idea, let's look into it.
In January we thought, holy crap you got the job!
In February we thought, is this real life?

And it's been a roller coaster of emotions since, bringing me to today: the first day of real packing! With boxes and everything! And I made this blog for friends and family who care to check in on me and Jon during this crazy process of moving to Ireland. So with three weeks left to pack, and like three thousand boxes to fill, I better get to it. Goodbye!