Last Canadian winter for us!

A New Year......a New Chapter in life

The house is officially sold. All subjects removed. Deposit paid.
Our lawyer in Ecuador contacted us between Christmas and New Years. Paperwork is on its way to the Consulate. Three months from now we will be in Cuenca, barring any paperwork delay.
I have started listing things on Craigs list. I look around here at all the stuff that has to be disposed of or stored away and it's hard to keep the panic at bay. Are we crazy? Is this insane ?My emotions are  a roller coaster.....excitement.....panic......anticipation of the unknown.....fear of the unknown....
Doug seems to be very calm about it all. He has no doubt that this is the right thing for us to do.  We started this dream together and now we will see where it goes. I am very lucky to have found my soul mate as my life partner. Let the adventure begin!

The time is nigh..................

Here we come...ready or not!

We sold our lovely home this weekend. Things are falling into place so easily. The new homeowners won't take possession until March 25th and we didn't want to leave untill the end of March....how great is that!??!

I have 3 more shifts to work. Finished on Dec 23rd.
I have slowly but surely been selling off things that we don't need for the next 3 months.  Now it's time to get serious.
Time to empty the pantry and freezer. I will have to get creative with cooking what's on hand. I see lots of soups and cassaeroles in our
We had a go at trying to empty some of the booze cabinet Friday night. I am way to old for that! 3 drinks and I was out for the count.

I sure won't miss this cold weather. It's been colder then normal for several weeks now. That's okay....let it snow. One last white winter and we are done!

Official Retirement Date

My 60th birthday gift to myself was to set a retirement date and give notice at work.
December 23rd will be my last day of work.
Wow....that's less then two months away!

We went to the Ecuadorian Consulate on Friday and got some of our paperwork taken care of.

Met with a couple of realtors on the weekend and will be meeting with them again tomorrow to decide how and when we are going to market the house.

It seems so surreal.......... we really ARE doing this!

In three days I start living life after 60!

60? Me? When did that happen? I just turned 40......
Guess what folks.....life is what is happening now. Don't let it pass you by.

What a beautiful fall day in our lovely British Columbia! Nicer than most of the summer we had.

We are starting to get ourselves ready for the move to Cuenca.

Made contact with the attorney we have chosen in Ecuador, and got a list of the paperwork we need.
Police reports done. Apostille for Marriage license done.  Contact with Ecudorian banks done. First garage sale done.
Going to the Ecuadorian consulate next week for documents to be stamped or what ever it is that needs done.
House goes on the market soon. Hard to know how long the sale will take, so it's hard to know when to put it on the market......I say now, but Doug says after Christmas. He has visions of being homeless before we are ready to leave. I say cut the strings and fly!
We are shooting for late March or early April.
I am quitting work at the end of the year. YIPPPPPEEEEEEE!!!!!
That will give me the time to start selling our wordly possessions. I have been putting things on Craig's list and have sold some of the things we don't need. Funny how things become just that....things.
My thoughts on keeping stuff changes daily. Part of me says get rid of everything except our clothes (and a lot of them should stay behind....32 pairs of shoes? what am I....a catapillar?!?). Another part of me is wanting to put a few things into bins for storage for a while. How does a person decide?

So much stuff!

The past two weeks have been spents going thru the "stuff" that we have accumulated.
Next week end we will have our first "Pre-Moving" garage sale. How is it that we have so much stuff?!!? We have to get rid of the "stuff" before we can start getting rid of the things............
Things I once thought I could never be without are now just so much excess baggage...........can hardly wait to be shed of it all!

We are going to do this............

Going to work every morning at 5 a.m., is getting harded and harder to do. I thought that with the end in sight I could breeze thru another year of work.........

I think I have "short timers" desease.

When are we going? Are we still going? Can we go now? My sweet husband is tired of my whining questions.

Patience he says...... we are going.