Let the selling begin

Since the new year Mark and I have been discussing and planning how we're going to get to Japan. We have a lot of stuff to do and organize. Our contract has been signed and sent in, along with documents to start our visa processing.



We recently decided to try to sell our condo instead of just renting it. Renting it hasn't been taken off the table, but we both agreed that we do not want to come back to Texas, and keeping the condo will make that possibility more likely. So we're going to sell as much as can, including the cars and our home.



With that idea in mind, we started talking to Real Estate Agents. Oh. My. Gosh. We have so much to do. Not only do we have to de-clutter, which we are already in the process of doing, we have to move furniture around and re-decorate and re-paint our walls and clean. And not just minor cleaning, but super-duper, deep down, power cleaning. Everything has to sparkle, especially the bathrooms and kitchen. And it has to stay that way for weeks, so that whenever a potential buyer comes around, its ready.

So with all that in mind, we're thinking of having a cleaning/packing party. You come over to help us pack and clean; we'll provide some pizza and drinks, and as a bonus, you get to take a knickknack, or a book, or some other memento of us with you. How's that for a deal?

Japan confirmed

We finally have a date for Japan. Mark's soon-to-be-employer wants him in Japan on April 1st. That leaves us with approximately 10 weeks to get everything ready and move. Eep!

The Week Ahead

I've been staring at this screen for an hour trying to think of something positive to say. Last week was long and hard. Coming back from the holidays with a 6 day work week is never easy and by Thursday I was a mess. I'm hoping this week will not be so bad.



Some of the things I'm looking forward to this week are:

• a new RPG campaign that I am not GMing. Mark has got me into table-top role-playing games and I tried my hand at being the Game Master for a couple of months. But that campaign is now over and someone else in our group is running the next one. I'm looking forward to just being a player again and not worrying about plot lines and monster statistics.
• The next childbirth class. Mark and I signed up for a childbirth class designed for first time parents. We're learning more about anatomy and medical terminology and it is such a relief to get this information in English instead of Japanese. Although Mark is working on translating a lot of the terminology into Japanese so we can communicate better the doctors there.
• Picking out new title for the kitchen. I redid the kitchen floor with stick-on tiles a couple of years ago, but I didn't get them under the over, dishwasher or refrigerator. I just had no way of moving them. So the tiles have slowly been separating and sliding under the appliances. But we're going to re-tile the floor on MLK day and are looking at patterns this week.
• This could be the highlight of the week. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday and we may be able to find out the sex of the baby. I think its a boy. Mark thinks it'll be a girl, but mostly just to contrary. We could find out who's right.