Ginormous Moving Sale

Last week we went to the Ardmoreite building to place a classified ad. We decided that there was no other way to describe the scale of our liquidation other than "Ginormous". The nice lady who was helping us place the ad asked how to spell it, so we did... and that was the beginning of the garage sale to end all garage sales. It was spectabulous, people started showing up as early as 6:15am. I fought several people away from the door with a large machette, which I advertised as being for sale. As we opened the garage door, several people were trampled as the early risers ducked under the opening door in order to get first dibs on all our stuff. As the eyes of the people widened at the sight of all our treasures, we announced, "And that's not all, folks... there's more inside." We opened up the house, which we had turned into a veritable flea market by placing price tags on everything in sight. It was truly a beautiful thing... we just opened up the doors and everyone hauled our stuff away (plus they paid us!).
So, you might say, "Collin, what could you possibly have left after that hujangus garage sale?" The answer: "Not much, folks, not much." The house is empty and devoid of entertainment... we've been reduced to sitting in our fold out green and pink camping chairs playing a no-dvd version of Friends Scene-It (one of the only board games that didn't sell... and which, conveniently, can be yours for only $8). After discovering that Scene-It really isn't much fun without a DVD player and a TV, we decided to start packing: awesome.
Naturally, if you're moving to another country, you very early realize that you can't take all your stuff, so you begin weeding out all the clothes that you don't wear or don't like or don't want anyone else to know about. We did this about three months ago. Therefore, having felt good about the downsizing we had done, we began packing our checked baggage allowance of four suitcases. 30 seconds later, I prophesied that we would need to take an extra bag (understatement of the year). 30 seconds after that, I looked at Candice and said, "Where did all this crap come from!?" Needless to say, we went through several packing phases... the first phase was more of a "I-like-this-alright-but-I-don't-wear-it-very-often-so-I'll-get-rid-of-it" phase... the next phase was a "I-wear-this-a-lot-but-not-as-much-as-this-so-it-can't-go" phase... and the final phase was the "something's-gotta-give-and-even-though-I-love-these-shoes-there's-just-no-way-in-hell-they're-going-to-fit" phase.
We stopped packing before we started crying.
As for the next few days, we are trying to see as many people as possible until our September 3 departure. That's right: September 3rd-- we are flying out one week from today!! Will the Bullards be able to get packed in time? Will Collin's superman boxers make the cut? Who will end up with the Friends Scene-It game? Stay tuned, faithful readers... stay tuned.

Still for sale:
Treadmill - $150
Buffet Table - $75
5 piece bedroom suit with King size 4 poster bed - $800
Moving to Cambridge with your best friend - priceless.

MeMe

Well friends, the past two weeks have been a blur. Collin and I were in St. Louis visiting some amazing friends when we started getting phone calls from my family. My grandmother (MeMe) was in the hospital. We drove home, in a bit of a panic, to be with my family. We soon learned that MeMe had a ruptured valve in her heart... she had several tough weeks in the hospital and then passed away late Thursday night. We had the memorial service this morning, and whew, we are all emotionally and physically worn out. As you say here in Oklahoma, I am 'gall-durn' mad. Mad that my MeMe is gone. Mad that my PaPa will have to re-learn how to live life without this woman he called 'Honey' for 55 years. Mad that my kids won't have MeMe around to take up for them when PaPa and my uncles pick on them. Mad, yes, and mostly just sad. Sad for my mama. Sad for all of us.

In the last week, we had some sweet times together as a family to tell stories and remember MeMe. And, even though I wouldn't have guessed it would have been under these circumstances, these days gave me a chance to spend a lot of time with my family before we move (which is supposedly happening in two weeks---ahhh! But that's for another post). I am thankful for time to connect and be together.

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"Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life." Parker Palmer

"...every time there are losses there are choices to be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame, hatred, depression and resentment, or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper." Henri Nouwen

S.G. has a song I really like... here are the last few lines:

Death can be so inconvenient.

You try to live and love. It comes and interrupts.
And what do I know? What do I know?
I don't know that there are harps in heaven,
Or the process for earning your wings.
I don't know of bright lights at the ends of tunnels,
Or any of those things.
But I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be pretty good.
Oh, I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be very good.

Getting closer

With only three weeks left before we leave for England, we are trying to get everything in order. We're still waiting to get our visas back, which will hopefully happen this week. Another big deal is that we sold our car! We are so pumped to have that out of the way!

But the Mazda somehow seemed like a part of us... it was our first big purchase together and we were a little sad to see it go...

Then we went to Braum's with some friends and saw it in the parking lot, so we thought she must have gone to a nice family. :)