A New Adventure

Life is always changing.  Some changes are bigger than others, and sometimes when one thing changes, another follows.  So to keep a record and keep friends and family up-to-date with our newest adventure, this blog has changed as well.  I want to keep some privacy; so previous posts from years ago are gone and I won't be referring to my kids by their names.  They will be known as Big E (what our biker neighbor calls him) and Miss A (what I sometimes call her).  Another change is that now I need to blog regularly.  I'm going to really try keep on top of it.  But if I get lazy again and forget to post, I won't be offended if one of you readers makes a comment on the lack of posts.  :)

We have had so many things to do to prepare to move to Doha, Qatar.  Steve has had to have background checks and his diploma notarized, authenticated, and have an apostille stamp put in them.  After the apostille stamp they have to go to the US Secretary of State to be authenticated, then to the Qatari Embassy to be legalized.  A new development is that he has to have OSU send a statement that says none of his classes were taken online.  What makes this process difficult for us is that we don't live in Ohio and can't just run over there to get this done.  So we recruited help from a friend who still lives here. (Thanks, friend!) Now we're to the point that we have to hire someone to take the documents to the US State Department so they can certify it before it goes to the Qatari embassy.  Basically, we're paying for someone to stand in line for 3-4 hours to hand over some documents.  I'm glad the school Steve will work for will help with our move and settling in.  The staff has already been so helpful in answering our questions and making sure we're on the right track and getting things done.  That makes up for all this paper chasing.

Steve was offered the job the first of February, and a day has not gone by that I haven't thought about this move.  But it didn't seem real until a week ago when we went through the house to decide what to keep, what to store, and what to sell (and how much to sell it for).  Okay, actually, Steve went through the house last Saturday and made a list of what he thought we should sell and how much to ask for it.  I was so overwhelmed with the prospect of pricing everything that he took over the job.  And I'm glad he did; he was very efficient and it helped me not feel as much anxiety.  Putting our house up for sale didn't make it as real as having a garage sale and watching almost my entire kitchen walk away piece by piece.  Now I'm sitting on the couch and my living room seems bare.  The table is gone; the desk is gone.  And this is when I feel the adventure part of it starts.  We had dinner on the floor today because we only have two folding chairs which we kept to make not having much left more bearable.  Secretly, I'm hoping sitting on the floor will help Big E share the booster seat with Miss A.

The sale went well.  People were friendly, and I didn't have too many problems.  I ran it by myself on Friday while Steve was at work.  My visiting teacher watched Big E and Miss A in the morning.  We were planning on closing the sale during Steve's lunch break, but it didn't happen.  And so Big E and Miss A happily played outside while I worked or waited.  Only one person that I know of tried to cheat.  She wanted two baby blankets, one priced for $1 and the other for $ .50.  What she did was take the smaller blanket (for $ .50) and wad it up in the larger blanket so I wasn't supposed to see it and said with a thick accent, "One dollar."  I unfolded the two blankets and responded, "$1.25."  She looked at me, then at the younger girl she was with and put the blankets back on the table.  I don't mind the haggling; I know that's part of a garage sale, but trying to haggle and be dishonest is a completely different story.  I would have given her both for a dollar had she been honest about it, but I wasn't going to let her get away with that.  Steve ran the sale on Saturday and we are both so glad to be done with it.  Another plus of having a garage sale, other than getting rid of a lot of stuff, is that we might have a potential buyer for our house!  She came on Friday and asked how much we're listing it for and asked it  I would mind showing her the inside.  So I did; and she said she'd call her realtor this week.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.