From ABQ to D.C./Va. in thirteen parts. This being the first post of three.

Oh wow how things have progressed.  I have had no time to sit down and try to record what's happened in our lives since October.  It has been fast and furious that's for sure.  I'm gonna break it down here in a series of steps and add some pictures that I've taken if they pertain.
1. We put our house on the market and it SOLD to the very first person who looked at it.  How great is that?!  Made us feel pretty good about ourselves as home owners.  We lost a little because of the market but whatevs.  It was worth it to have the peace of mind and not have to worry about it anymore.

Unassisted Baggage - 590lbs o' fun.

2. We packed up all our schiznit in to two separate loads.  One was unassisted baggage (UAB) - this up to but not over 600lbs of living stuff we'd need in our new apartment which is furnished.  We packed up 590lbs.  The second load was everything else in our house (household effects) which is currently being stored somewhere north of D.C. and which is not easily accessible (basically we can't get to it until we're ready to leave for our first post). It was a little difficult to decide what we would need and what we wouldn't.  We definitely could have used some more kitchen items, hangers for clothes, and we could have done without our own towels and maybe our bikes b/c Falls Church is not uber bike friendly and it's cold and rainy here. But other than that we did pretty good on packing. I guess packing is the wrong way to put it since we really didn't 'pack' anything. What a relief it was to have someone else do that for us!  

When someone else packs your stuff it ends up in nice pretty boxes.

3. I resigned from my job.  Sob...it was really hard to say goodbye to all my colleagues!  I was also truly loving my part-time job sharing first grade classroom this year.  
4. I said goodbye to my friends and to Albuquerque.  Sob...I made some really GREAT friends in Albuquerque.  I'm also going to miss the climate there.  I am not used to all the clouds and rain we've been getting here in Falls Church.
5. We said good-bye to Lulu's babysitter, Frances.  If I'd known how great having Lulu in daycare part-time was going to be for her I would have done it a year ago.  What a blessing Frances was to our family!  She truly made a difference in Lulu's little life in just 3 months (and ours too).

Lulu helping out at garage sale.
 "What you're selling this?"

6. We had a garage sale and sold a ton o stuff on craig's list.  Including my car which we sold on the day before we moved.  Crazy how things work out!