Let's Do It

Tone Loc is so much better than Vanilla Ice but this post has nothing to do with that

Yin and Yang by Eleanor Vindman, age 6.

On January 1, 2023, I ordered a dumpster and a storage pod to be delivered to my house. I was determined to sell our house in Virginia and move far away. Alex had travel scheduled every week of January, but I worked tirelessly to get our house ready to list. If you want to be humbled, have a realtor come over and point out all the things you should do in order to sell your house.

My hard work paid off because we had five showings our first day on the market and by 10:30 that evening, we had five offers. I still have a hard time believing that happened; after years of deliberation, discussions, and dreaming it happened so quickly. It helped take the sting out of the veterinary bills and scare we had when our puppy — taking advantage of the chaos that occurred while our house was in the “preparation” stage — climbed on top of the kitchen table and ate our older dog’s arthritis medication…and pieces of the bottle that it was in.

We were able to close on our house and drive to our new home a month later which was also the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the war in Ukraine. At one point we stopped so Alex could do a cable news segment from a random hotel lobby. My grandmother immediately called me to say Alex looked “rough” and I explained after a week of packing, movers, cleaning, and leaving our home of nearly eight years, looking “rough” was the best we could hope to achieve.

This gang looked far better than their human family members.

A really awesome part of our move was how Alex had delayed all travel and in-person engagements in 2022 as he finished his doctoral work so *every single week* of the first half of 2023 included some travel. My military spouse experience came in handy! Our house was filled with boxes and he was opening and digging through them to find the cold weather clothing he needed for a trip to the University of Alberta in early March.

We were all very excited for our daughter to begin her new school but if you’ve never had a middle school girl move midyear, be thankful. It is not for the faint of heart. There were a lot of tears and a lot of doubts. Was this my Dog Catches Car moment? Was the thing that I dreamed of for so long a colossal mistake? Would LG ever find a replacement for the brand new dishwasher that leaked and caused a minor kitchen flood on our second day in the house?

Friends, there were a lot of setbacks:

• About six weeks after moving and the day we were leaving for a trip we had planned for over a year, we lost electricity in half the house and in an unrelated incident the shower in our bathroom completely stopped draining.

• Our puppy began limping which led to the discovery he needed bilateral shoulder surgery.

• Our older dog, captivated by the siren song of iguanas lounging in the sun, located every vulnerability in our fence and escaped numerous times including one three-day adventure that resulted in her finding refuge at the home of Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. What can I say, she likes what she likes.

• A water pipe break and lengthy repair process that led to so much stress for me that I experienced a significant hair loss episode from which I am still recovering.

• Being scammed by a fence company we hired to repair the aforementioned vulnerabilities of our fence.

But, Friends, the good more than outweighed the bad!

• An amazing new educational experience and opportunity for our daughter who is now thriving!

• Near constant sun that is a major mood booster!

• Much more outdoor activity as a family and a more active lifestyle in general which led to me losing nearly forty pounds over the course of a year.

• Far more anonymity in our daily lives.

• Living close to dear friends who are basically family.

• Knowing we worked hard, we took a step of faith, we kept moving forward through the bad days, and realized our dream of having a new beginning.

You’ll notice the bad things are very exact and tangible, while the good things are more vague and some years are like that but the good is still there! I strongly encourage you to look for the good and celebrate it, but also acknowledge the struggles because they make the good that much better. I once heard someone say we’re either going through something, recovering from something, or about to go through something. Maybe I’m overthinking it, but it often feels like I experience that cycle on a weekly (daily?) basis.

We all know this year will be a challenging make or break year for American democracy, but none of us knows the other challenges that will occur other than there are sure to be many. As the late great Pat Summit said, “It is what it is. But, it will be what you make it.”

Let’s do this, 2024!

Keep moving forward!

Rachel