It’s finally true! After all of this time, I am really leaving - leaving my home, leaving my family - again! Ugh! I have been really busy today packing and cleaning and getting everything ready. And apparently, that has been good, because, when I took the dog outside and decided to relax in the lawn chair for just a minute, I immediately started bawling. Ugh. So I popped back up and got back to busy as quickly as I possibly could. And there is plenty to do. Even if I get myself and the kids and the dog all completely ready, there is plenty of housecleaning that I could be doing - between all the kids and the 100lb. dog, we’ve really trashed this place! I even have the coffee ready for in the morning, and I had that ready by noon! It felt strange to be setting up tomorrow’s coffee so early, but, I want to try to make tomorrow morning as smooth as possible.

I want to get as much ready as I possibly can, because we have a really sad vehicle situation and it is going to be stressful. We didn’t have the money to buy the trailer hitch because the damn thing cost $300!! Can you believe that?! So that means that all of Mark’s tools are actually in the vehicle with us! You don’t realize when you have a truck toolbox, just how dependent you really are on it! So we’ve got all of Mark’s tools (two of which are big thingy’s), five people, one 100lb. dog, all of the people’s stuff, all of the dog’s stuff, and Mark’s tools - in ONE MINIVAN!!! Dear God!! I do hope some of you will pray for us!

I just keep reminding myself of the time my mother, father, brothers and I took a trip from Richardson, TX to Colorado - in a Pinto!!! The middle ’seat’ in the back wasn’t even a seat! It was a hump! And my brothers and I had to take turns sitting on the hump! And you know what? We survived - and lived to tell the tale! So I keep thinking of that and reminding myself that it is just twelve hours that we have to live through.

And anyway, I guess all of the chaos and frustration of it will keep my mind off the sadness…
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