the final countdown

T.J. is already a couple months in to his final year of residency! Can I get a thank God, hallelujah?! It is insane to me that this season, that has felt endless at times, is actually coming to an end. I am so incredibly proud of my hard-working, smartie-pants husband who has officially stepped into the role of chief resident and is killing it. When I stop and think about what his typical day looks like, I am overwhelmed and totally in awe of his skills and knowledge.  I mean it's not Grey's Anatomy (thank goodness) but he is amazing and my real life Dr.McDreamy!

Okay... enough about T.J. This is my blog after all. And while I am definitely excited that residency, and all the fun it entails, is wrapping up, I am more focused on what that means for our time in the Pacific Northwest because in less than a year we will be leaving, moving, PCSing in Army terms. **Disclaimer: because it's the Army, though, nothing's 100% until we get our orders and even then those can change. But in all likelihood we will be packing up and heading out next summer. To where, you ask? We don't know yet. It's wherever the Army sends us but we'll get an idea probably around December and hopefully we'll know for sure where our new home will be by February.

And I have already entered into a sort of frantic state where I want to start purging and organizing and making lists of all the things to do before we move. One year goes by in the blink of eye- just look at our one year old son if you don't believe me! There is so much I need to do and squeeze in to this short remaining time. And yet in the same breath I'm already checking out and pulling back and letting go. How plugged in do I want to be this year, knowing how much harder it makes leaving? It's a delicate balance of being present, "all in," and also looking towards and preparing for the next season.

Before moving to Washington I had a bucket list as long as my arm of places and sites to see. Now I'm scrambling to find any room in our schedule to check off a few more in the time remaining. When we sat down to plan out our calendar for the year, between work obligations, conferences, and a couple very important weddings, the year suddenly evaporated. So we're prioritizing and picking our top must-sees. For T.J. that's Bend, Oregon and for me it's Crater Lake. I'm hoping we'll magically be able to find a free week to do a road trip and visit both.  And in the mean time, we'll make the most of any and all weekends that T.J. is not on call and we're actually in town to soak in as much of this corner of the country while we still call it home.

Speaking of home...We'll be selling our house, our first home that we shared as husband and wife, the one we brought our son home to from the hospital. It is well loved but knowing that we'll be wiping our hands of it in a year has made me a little lax on the upkeep lately. Paint needs to be touched up, carpets deep-cleaned, clutter de-cluttered. There's stuff we haven't touched in four years that I refuse to move with us and that needs to be tossed or sold or donated (like T.J.'s futon that he's stubbornly held on to since undergrad- anyone want it?). There's a lot that will need to be taken care of, repaired and spruced up before we go to sell but in the same breath I am definitely slacking in my housekeeping duties. My attitude has shifted to the "oh well, whatever, we're moving in a year anyway."

Uh... yeah... not sure I can get away with that for the rest of the year so can we just hire a housekeeper already please? Then I can spend my time doing important things like taking more family walks to the water. Because even though I am feeling quite excited about moving, and anxious about squeezing all the fun and memories out of these remaining months, I know that it's these little day to day things, that make up our life here, that I am going to miss the most. And since it's already starting to feel like fall, which is basically winter, which is right before Spring... let the countdown begin!