And so it really begins...

Well, we are on our way. Sitting in Auckland right now and still wondering when everything will seem "real". I keep thinking "When we fly home, I can watch this movie" or I find myself thinking and trying to plan our vacation. Trying to figure out what we should do, and how long we have to do it... And then I realize... We aren't actually on vacation, we are moving, so the end of our "trip" is in two years, not two weeks or two months. It is so strange!

I can't even sum up how I'm feeling in words. Everyone asks "Are you excited?" and I don't really know what to say... There are so many emotions and not one of them is really in the forefront. I'm excited, scared, worried, happy, sad, nervous... It probably depends on the precise time that you ask me! I suppose the overwhelming emotion prior to leaving Calgary was a bit sad. I mean, I've never left Calgary before, and by that I mean, I've never left my parents and family before. So that presents it's own unique set of challenges for me. Luckily, the world is a smaller place due to technology like Facetime and Skype, and I am so very thankful for that. We also had to say a "so long for now" to the dog. It had us both a misty eyed (me more so, but that's par for the course). He knew something was up when we left for the airport, didn't really want to go in his crate, and gave us the puppy dog eyes (see previous posts for photo evidence).

And then there's my family. Tuesday night was rough. I was, to put it nicely, a wreck. We had a big hug session in the drizzle on Stephen Avenue after the "last supper" so to speak. I did a bit better at the airport, but it was definitely tough. It helps that Meghan, my sistah, has plans in the works to come visit in October (hooray! yahoo! yippee!) and Mom and Dad are already talking about February or March. And we should have the pupperton by December. So, that helps.

Anyways, looking forward to getting to our apartment in Brisbane, then we can relax just a little, until we have to start our home search, get our drivers licenses, figure out how to purchase the car that we have arranged, await our air and sea shipments and so on. Should be fun, especially since Alan's starting work pretty much next week. And I am going to learn tap dancing. Haha!

Hooroo for now!

It's the Final Countdown

We've both been humming or whistling this song over the last two days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyggY_R3jU8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We are out of our house and in a hotel until we leave on Wednesday. Our sea container has been packed and our air shipment should be shipping out any day now. I thought it might feel more real once we got to this point, but it still doesn't. I can't really explain why either. It's all just a little surreal.

It does feel a bit like the ball that started to slowly roll down a hill in February, is now more like some sort of missile. There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything we need to do and see all the people we'd like to see. We're into the "lasts" too. Last Friday in Calgary. Last day of work. Last time driving our car. Last sleep in our house. It all makes me a bit emotional (of course!) so I keep telling myself it's only the "last" for a little while. Which helps a little, I suppose.

My last day at work was on Wednesday. It was, let's just say, emotional. No offense to anyone else, but I think I have the best group of coworkers out there. Their generosity and support over the last little while has been amazing. I really hope that when we come back in 2 years, I'll be able to work with them again because they really are the best.

My cake... Thanks Lexi!

The dog has totally picked up on the fact that things are changing, even before they came to pack the house. So the poor guy is a little out of sorts. He climbed into one of our empty suitcases as we were trying to cram all of our stuff into them and he just lay down and looked at us, as if to say "this one is just right for me". It broke my heart a little.

Doesn't it break your heart a little too?

However, we heard back that his rabies blood test came back, and he's good to go (in 4 more months), so now begins more paperwork in order to get his AQIS import permit, and arrange his stay in quarantine. Sigh. Poor little dude.

Anyways, just thought I should update all my faithful readers, or at the very least my only reader. (Hi Mom!) That being said, if you want to leave a comment, go ahead. I would love to know that there are people reading my ramblings, and now that I'm gainlessly unemployed, I have lots of time to respond!

A few of the many boxes destined to float, fly or go in storage. And the dog, who is sad.

Consternation

con·ster·na·tion/ˌkänstərˈnāSHən/

Noun:

Feelings of anxiety or dismay, typically at something unexpected

3 weeks away now. What WHAT? We've been knocking things off the to-do list pretty quickly these days. Cars are sold, house is rented, visas are approved, plane tickets are booked, temporary accommodation in Brisbane has been arranged. There are a few items outstanding on our list... Permanent accommodation in Brisbane is one of them, as well as a car (although we are working on that). We also need to pick up some convertors in order to run our kitchen appliances and other small electrical items. I still need to send in my nursing registration and get the ball rolling on that.

So, obviously I'm turning into an emotional basket case again. Grrrrreat. I was doing okay up until now, but now that we have a confirmed departure date (not "sometime in June or July") and it's only 3 weeks away, it's causing a wee bit of consternation.

A big source of this consternation? The dog.

If you know us, you probably know Jasper. Our fur baby. We had a hell of a time deciding what to do about him. Is it fair to put him on such a long flight if it's only for two years? What if it ends up being longer than two years? Are we being responsible dog owners if we leave him? Or if we bring him for that matter? Will he eat something poisonous and die? This was pretty representative of our thought process...

It always seemed as though anytime we talked about our options to leave him behind he would turn on the sad puppy dog eyes a la Puss in Boots.

Sad face...

See! The resemblance is actually quite uncanny I think...

Plus we were wrestling with the fact that we signed on to take care of this funny little creature for ~14 years, and we've only had him for 2 years. We couldn't fathom leaving him for 2 more years. The other thing is how do you ask someone else to look after him for 2 years and then just expect them to give him back at the end. That's not exactly fair either. And I want to give big kudos to Alan's sister who was willing to look after him for us. Thanks K!

Of course, now that we've decided to bring him, anytime I look at him I see this...

Money! (Google images even found me a dog that looks like Jasper)

It is not cheap to take a pet to Australia. That's all I will say about that. So hopefully he doesn't eat something poisonous or get attacked by a snake upon arriving in Oz. Because if I'm an emotional basket case now, I can't imagine what I'll be like then!

Jasper gets to stay in Calgary for what is predicted to be a lovely, hot summer and then he can fly down for his 1 month stay in a 5 star pet resort in Sydney, with private accommodation and it's all-inclusive! Oh who am I kidding... He heads for his month in quarantine before joining us in Brisbane at the end of November. Just in time for their hot, humid summer... Poor guy!

Photo courtesy of As I See It Photography

3 more weeks!