Our family is more or less settled. It is wonderful being settled. It is so wonderful, it is almost unnerving, because we’ve been in such a transient stage in our lives for so long. Now it’s weird knowing there is some permanence. It feels almost fragile, as if it can burst. It is a great lesson for us to learn to live in the moment, and live it right and beautifully, without fear that the moment will leave us because it is only bound to happen anyway.

I remember what it was like to be pregnant, for example, and taking my prenatal vitamins everyday. I thought I could hold onto that feeling forever — being filled up from the inside out, being able to hold life and love inside my own small body. But even then, that was impermanent. And look at what came out of that impermanent state: a beautiful, loving little child. One we cannot set eyes on without smiling in our hearts. In our eyes. So this is a lesson for me to keep on remembering: even when we want to hold still to the moment, the moment will leave and maybe it may even flourish and blossom into something even more beautiful.

Let the beauty come, then.

We have been packing a lot. Of course, since our move is less than two weeks away now. I’ve been meaning to take pictures of the chaos that continues to reign in our home, but it’s been hard because we’ve been very busy preparing for our new home (home insurance, changing addresses, getting things updated, inspections, interviewing tenants, etc.). There are boxes everywhere, and it is driving me nuts. Our place is completely dusty, and it makes my allergies really, really horrible. I can hardly breathe half the time. It’s getting out of control.

On the flip side, though, Dave and I have been finding things that we haven’t seen in years, and apparently have missed. Such as, going through our closets to sort out what to donate and what to keep. It was like going shopping for new clothes. Some of these clothes we haven’t seen in years yet still like, that have been tucked away in the back of the closet for a while. So now they’re back in front of the closet and we’re like, “WOOHOO a whole new set of wardrobe!” Kinda lame, huh? But yeah, it works for us. As a result, we’ve managed to load up 4 full giant garbage bags of old clothes. I can’t believe we’ve been accumulating that much crap in the last 5 years. Geez.

I can’t wait till this move is over. I really hate moving. I like things in their places and in order.

(What the heck is Symbol LS2208?)

Now that we have our new home just around the corner (February 26th is the move-in date!), I have been frantically and methodically window searching for furniture that would go with the house (can you tell this is going to be one expensive transition in our lives?). One of the things we have in mind is that we would like to get rid of our office furniture in favor of something more “neutral” that can be universally used. Because we’ll be turning the downstairs den area into an office / reading space, we don’t want it to look too professional or uptight. We want it to look warm and cozy, so that it could also be a small library where we hold our books. So, the search goes on. This will be interesting, to say the least.

It just might be it. I’m not sure, but we find out on the 18th. In the meantime, we’re all walking around like anxious, walking zombies. Just biding time, I think. Waiting for that moment where stereotypically, we can bring out the special-occasion cigar and celebrate. No, we’re not having a baby. Heh. But it sort of feels like we are conceiving something special, hopefully. There is hope.

I will reveal more when the time comes. I hope I hope I hope!!

One of my buddies is going through law school right now, and she’s highly stressed out about all the exams and all the material she has to know. One of the big tests she had to take was the LSAT, and when she was preparing for it, she did a lot of LSAT preppring for it. It vaguely, and nightmarishly, reminded me of when I was studying for the SATs in high school. And then the GREs in college. Yuck galore! However, if it’s something as serious as a test like this, you better darn well know your material!

I’ve been thinking about going back to school soon too. I’m wondering if I would have to take the GREs again. I don’t think I would have to, since I already have my Master’s degree. But you never know. I’m sure in its place, there will be harder and worse tests to prep for. Oh boy I can’t wait.

A few months ago, we treated ourselves with some brand new laptops. We weren’t sure what we wanted, but we knew we wanted updates from our old tablet PCs. We were considering a few different brands, including the Acer Aspire, but ended up going with the faithful HP brand. We’ve trusted it, and what can I say, we’re happy so far!

And now, we have four sets of laptops. Umm, what does one do with four sets of laptops, anyway?

We have been busy with so many things happening. The latest big news is that we are currently looking for a house to buy. A home to live in. It’s sooo exciting, as I’ve never been a home owner before (though Dave is and has been). This will be our first home that we buy together. It will be our first “our” home. A new home to raise our new family. It’s so exciting, and sooo overwhelming, and sooo scary, and soo stressful. But all in good ways, I hope.

We’re also thinking about getting some new furniture when we finally make the big move. We are moving at the end of February. So at that time, we’re going to purchase a new television (probably a flat screen or something) set, and maybe even one of those plasma mounts if the new house doesn’t already include a built-in entertainment shelving unit. Some of the newer homes we’ve seen actually have those! We’re also thinking of getting a new bedroom set and selling our old one here. If our new master bedroom is big enough, we would loooove to have a king size bed. That would be so exciting.

We’re looking at some more homes tomorrow. Probably won’t make any offers until after the new year, but we’ll see!