Moving...

This past week has been an interesting one. Last Thursday (5/13) Craig got a message from his friend Justin regarding a programming position at his company in Oregon that they have had a problem trying to fill. He said that they have a few remote programmers that work out of Southern California but they would prefer to find someone local and if Craig would be willing to move, he would more thank likely have the position. Craig was immediately excited about this opportunity and I was naturally hesitant about such a drastic change. Leave my friends? My family? I don't know anyone in Oregon! What the heck is IN Oregon?! But in the end I decided that Craig should take this opportunity. I wouldn't want to be the person holding him back (could you imagine the guilt?!) and I think it will do good things for our relationship. The pros definitely out weigh the cons, I mean really - no sales tax (compare to nearly 10% in CA), cost of living is much less, the houses in OR are way larger and on much more land, a new culture, new people, and I hear it's just beautiful there. Craig has always wanted to move to a more "urban" environment and he also loves the beauty of green landscapes and Portland fits in with both. In the past we've talked about moving to another state, I was always joking about it but if California is falling apart at the seams then why not move to a place that has it's sh*t together (well, more so than CA)?

So when is all of this going to take place? Well, I intend on working as long as I can where I am at. The "extra" money will come in handy and as it is now there isn't too much of a shortage of work for me to do. It's been slow but I feel there will be enough work to last until the move. Plus if my boss agrees to it I could do some remote working to wrap anything up or on an as needed basis in the future. Craig put in his two-weeks at his current job earlier today (5/21) and then he'll drive to Portland to begin working and looking for a place to live and then we'll arrange a moving truck and coordinate how we'll get everything up to OR. With that said we have no idea when we'll actually be moving but I estimate around the end of June and early July. 
I am hoping to have a farewell party on the Friday night of our moving weekend so for now just keep your Friday nights toward the end of June, early July open. :-)  We will need some volunteers on the following Saturday morning to help us load the moving truck, everything is packed (as it is currently stored in the garage at the condo) but I think a few extra helpers for the heavy stuff would be nice to help us get the truck loaded up faster so we can start our seventeen-hour drive to Portland sooner. That should be an interesting drive with two dogs.

The past week has been bittersweet. Thinking about missing my friends and family immensely has brought me to tears a few times, the thought of being in a foreign place and not knowing anyone but my husband has made me nervous, but the excitement for things to come has made me optimistic and I can't wait to get this adventure started!

Much love to all of our friends and family, we will miss you!! 

P.S.
You will visit us in Portland, won't you?

Slacking Off

So, I have this tendency to slack off on finishing projects (is this even news to anyone?). Its caused me to have way too many unfinished projects lying around, leaving areas of the house messy and taking up storage space. I spend money I shouldn't be spending on new projects because I get bored with the "old" (even though I really want to finish the old projects) or I'm spending more money on various things to finish the old projects without actually working on them more than a day or so. I have several years of scrap booking projects that I should finish before I forget what was going on in the pictures. I think that is the most important of the projects I'd like to complete (at least up until the end of 2009 - so that would mean I have 3 1/2 to 4 years of pictures to get into books, plus a few vacations). I also bought a various amount of beading supplies because I wanted to make this ring that a co-worker of mine wore (her friend made it for her). $35 in beads, another $40-60 in tools, and various donated supplies from my Mom later...it sits in a craft box waiting for me to have the patience to figure out how to make the thing. One of the wives of Craig's co-workers made me a little diagram of how to make the ring, I tried and realized I didn't have the correct beads for part of it. Got frustrated and quit. I will go back to it again, but I think I need to clear my head of ALL of the other projects I have running through it, sort of a "start fresh" sort of thing. Yet another project - a few years ago I made 3 pieces of art out of laminate flooring samples I got from work -they turned out really nice and my sister in law requested I make her one. I have everything I need for it except a tube of liquid nails and this simple thing is the only reason why this project has sat in my to-do for over a year.
I guess the whole purpose of this post is to get me thinking about which projects I have and which order to complete them in. This sort of goes along with my 101 Things in 1001 Days list too, if I can get these projects complete it will take care of about 5 items on that list. I am determined to finish these projects THIS year (at least that is my frame of mind at this moment in time). Now the question is: Which project do I take on first?
I am thinking of taking on the scrapbooks first as that project is the most far behind but it is definitely an overwhelming one to take on. The reason I want to do this one first is because Craig and I have been discussing a trip to Ireland and I know without a doubt there will be much to scrap-about. I wouldn't want to get even further behind after the potential trip so if I can get caught up before hand, then I'd be more apt to get that vacation book knocked out in a jiffy upon our return!! At the same time I could work on the art project for my sister in law - the glue takes a day or so to set-up and I would have to have the laminate pieces weighted down to the foam-core as it dries. It took me a good week to get the first 3 pieces done because of this. Just need to hit up the home improvement store now.

My goal in the next two weeks: At least begin the art project (hopefully finish it) and get to the next port on my cruise scrapbook (baby steps). I'll try to update.