Moving in Motion

Crunch time is upon us. Sometime during the next two to three weeks, Melanie and I will be moving back to Utah. We’re not entirely certain of our moving date, as crazy as that sounds. Melanie’s dad has insisted on coming out to help us, but he has some work obligations, the dates of which aren’t quite set in stone themselves. Since his dates continue to fluctuate a bit, so does our moving date. As this point, we are quite confident that three weeks from today will be the absolute latest day of departure for us. Possibly, it will be two or three days earlier. But it’s unlikely to fall outside of that timeframe. Soon enough, it will be a reality that our time living in Florida is forever a memory. It’s mind-boggling to me. And heart-boggling, too.

Some good news to report, all of which relates at least somewhat to our preparing to move:

• Edison finished out his school year. He’s done with second grade. Holy moly. He got straight A’s during his most recent semester. Melanie and I have been incredibly impressed with how well Edison’s done with school, especially with his transition from virtual school. Eddie is already mourning the loss of his schoolmates. Poor kid. I myself was in second grade when a good friend announced he was moving. I remember bawling about it on the spot and embracing this kid, right there in the middle of class. I wrote about it in my journal that day, noting what I was going to miss about this person, the things that he would do and say. It’s amazing how emotionally sophisticated children can be. I worry about Eddie during this time of transition. He’s such a sensitive (and anxious) soul. He’s not the kind of kid that will take kindly to change, let alone major upheavals like moving across the country. Thank goodness we’re moving toward family rather than away from them. Hopefully, this will be the last major move of Melanie’s and my life. That’s my goal right now, anyway. Yes, we might move around within the general Salt Lake City area, but hopefully that’s it. Sigh. Okay, sorry, I’ve kind of dampened the “good news” aspect of this, haven’t I? Let’s move on (no pun intended)…
• Melanie received some wonderful news yesterday. As a part of applying for teaching jobs in Utah, she had to have a background check. She was originally told that, due to reasons having to do with us currently living outside of Utah, her background check might not clear until the middle of July. That has prevented Melanie from taking some necessary steps in applying for jobs. But her background check has now cleared! This is terrific news and will be extremely beneficial to us! Melanie can now officially apply for teaching positions with Utah school districts! What’s more, we’ve now learned that she needn’t go through the more complicated “alternative licensure program” in order to be licensed again to teach in Utah. Because she previously had a license, she can simply renew or reactivate that license, and it’s apparently a much, much simpler process. We are stoked!
• Melanie and I have decided to get rid of several big items before we move. The couches we bought early on in our Tallahassee life are in quite crappy condition now. They were cheap, so I guess that’s how it goes. We’re also leaving behind a kitchen table and chairs, a big dresser and mirror, our computer desk, our minivan, and perhaps more. Don’t worry, though. Melanie has kept herself busy acquiring new pieces of furniture for us to transport across the country. She’s picked up a few freebies from friends that fortuitously happen to be fleeing Florida about the same time we are. Two semi-close sets of friends have departed Tallahassee within the last couple of days, and we know a couple of other people who will be leaving within the next year or so. I guess that’s how it goes in a college town, but this really does seem like a time of change in the circles in which we run. I guess that makes it as good a time as any for us to leave.

And that’s my update for now. Who knows how many opportunities I’ll get to write over the next month. I like to chronicle major events as they happen, but it’s hard to do so precisely because they are major events and so require more of my time. We’ll see what happens.