good, bad, happy, sad

I think life has never been quite as much as a roller coaster as it has been this last week. The move is falling into place more easily than I could ever have hoped, with very little effort (other than the crazed work schedule before the house went on the market) on our part. I'm not quite ready to talk about this house, don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I will say we aren't having to keep the house super tidy these days, which has been a big relief, particularly since I've been spending a lot of time on the couch or in bed over the past five days.
But on the New York end we are set, having very very luckily landed a 2 bedroom plus and office apartment a mere three blocks from Will's building on campus. We've seen the outside of the building, which is a very pretty "pre war" as the craigslist ads say, and is next to an old school fire station (which could be interesting, but we are up high so hopefully wont be too bad). The spot is a block from the library and sits right between two big parks so really, we couldn't have asked for more. Except maybe to see the inside. At the moment we only have a floor plan, which is not so bad when you're married to an architect who can scale little pieces of paper to match your furniture. This has allowed us to figure out, at least in theory, which of the things we have will fit and what we'll need to acquire. Now we are busy debating what the different rooms will be used for. Should we, for instance, give the largest room to the kids? Which would mean that we would need to switch down from a queen to a full size bed (Which I just realized that we have in our basement) or should we take the large room and put our desks in there and give the kids each a room. Or have them share and turn the study into a playroom/schoolroom. Decisions, decisions...I've been spending a lot of time with those little bits of paper, I tell ya.

So this is all good. Very, very good. And much stress has been relieved. But that means, of course, that we now have time to dwell a little more on what leaving means. Evie will not get on the school bus with her brother for the first day of school, spontaneous evening playdates won't just happen in our yard, kids running around putting on a "play" while parents drink a beer on the mudroom steps. Briton will not get to join the student council or the crossing guard as a fourth grader as he had planned. Friends, these friends, will not be a quick stroll up a quiet street away. Change is always hard, even when it's a good change.

And so, between rearranging little yellow squares of paper, dreaming up all the interesting things we can do with a new space, trying to decide how many boxes we need to pick up, adding to my stack of cool educational books and hearing my kids talk excitedly about all the things we will do in New York (and a lot of sleeping, because man this bug had got me good) I'm feeling a little heartbroken to leave my life behind. All part of moving, I know. But sad, never the less.

Still, under the sad, I'm getting excited. Now back to my yellow squares. Any brilliant idea about space configuration?