Coming Down to the Wire

So the boxes are starting to fill up the open spaces in the old house as I start to fill up the boxes. The cabinets and closets are slowly starting to be free of stuff, as are the drawers and hampers (yes, I'm finally catching up on some laundry that I've been putting off...) . It is a quick move, but the stuff int he boxes will be inaccessible for a week or so, so every box begs the question -What can I put in here that I won't need for the next two weeks or so? Fortunately we have lots of stuff that falls into that category (which them begs the questions of whether we need it at all, but that's Tom's questions and that's why I pack while he's at work!). So, the boxes are slowly filling up the empty spaces and things are progressing.

Found out something exciting today. Well, exciting for me isn't like I won the lottery or found a long lost friend or anything. We have trash pick up at the new place TWO times per week! At both of our houses in Texas and our current house we have one day a week trash pick up. Growing up we had two day a week, so I assumed that was the norm, but guess not. I signed up for a company that does two day a week, plus recycling on a third day (and in the Spring and Summer yard waste on yet another day). So, basically any day of the week you can drive by our house and see trash out front. Hmmm...that doesn't sound so appealing now. Anyway, imagine a family of five plus two cats trying to fit into one of those big garbage cans each week. Tom is a creative packer, but we grew out of the single can years ago and have adopted a second can. Where we are now that's fine, irritating that trash has to sit for a whole week, but we have dealt with it. Now, we get TWO days, and so we'll be able to get rid of all of our trash each week! Very exciting for me!

Also, I found out yesterday that Max's bus to his current school won't take an hour to get there. Max is in a very cool school - he's in a Spanish partial immersion program and loves it. We are moving outside the boundaries of the school but because he's in this special magnet program he can stay at the school as long as he's in the county. Don't know if you realize this, but Fairfax County is huge. It encompasses 395 square miles, which is about 253,000 acres of land. We are at the far eastern side of this, so getting across the county takes a long, long time. So, while it's not tough tot stay within the boundaries of the county to keep Max at the school, we were worried that the bus would take forever to get to the school. Yes, they bus the magnet kids to school as well as the neighborhood kids. They bus them from Vienna, McLean, and Fairfax. They come from 10, 15, 20 miles away (around here it takes a long time to get anywhere, so it's more like driving in Houston's rush hour for most of the day!). Tom and I assumed that the bus would either run out there in the morning, and Max would have to get on at like 7am, or that it would go out in the afternoon, and he'd get home after 4:30 or so. Well, the new bus picks him up at the local elementary five minutes after the bus picks him up now. In the afternoon, the bus will drop him off at 3:45, which is well after the bus should arrive, but for some reason never does (His current bus gets him home - generally late - between 3:45 and 4 almost every day). So, we were thrilled to hear this. He can ride the bus to and from school and not spend hours on it, and we don't need to drive him all the way in to school either! Another good piece of news about the new place.

So, the time ticks away and there are still boxes to pack. We have movers coming on Wednesday to move all the boxes and furniture, so I need to continue on my quest to find things to put into boxes. The kitchen, the boys rooms, my clothes and assorted stuff, and the media room are mostly packed. After today's rounds of laundry I'll get the kids clothes all packed up as well as Tom's clothes. Then, my office is about half done, so that needs to be finished up as well. On Tuesday we hope to disassemble furniture so that the movers don't have to do it on Wednesday. We are right on schedule to do this, and so we are in great shape.