Well, no lazing around in January for us this year. Mike's thought long and hard about all that needs done in order for us to move in July/August, we have decided we need to get the house on the market in February rather than leave it until the visa comes in. This isn't a worry to us at all. Even if the visa doesn't ever arrive, we don't want to stay here and would probably go back to Glasgow.

Mike spoke to an estate agent yesterday and he confirmed that he sold an identical house to ours (the only other house the same as ours to be sold since we all bought off plan) just along the road in the Autumn for around 10k more than we thought which is great news. He also felt that February/March is the best time to get up for sale. Mike's going to call another few ea's today to get more quotes on fees so he can negociate Your Move down a bit - it all helps.

So, with that decision made, we need to go full steam ahead on getting the house ready for sale. I'm kind of limited in what I can do during the day as I have the kids to look after, but I am best placed for deciding what needs done as I'm here all day and I "see" mor than Mike. I'm going to do an inspection today and make a list. Then, in true Project Manager style, Mike's going to make us a plan to ensure it's all done by the end of the month.

There's nothing major to be done rally. It's mostly painting and cleaning. The garden needs a bit of tidying up and the garage needs a major clear out, but we've been slowly clearing the house out all of last year so thankfully we're a good way into getting sorted. We've got the kids rooms done, except maybe a couple of bits of paint touch up, the spare room/playroom is all ready too, will just need tidied up and aired a bit as the cats sleep in there. Our room needs painted, as does the shower room and possibly the bathroom. Downstairs, the lounge needs a little painting and the skitings all need glossed. We're still undecided as to whether or not the kitchen floor and stair carpets need replacing. Our gut feel is to leave them alone. We'll see.

Going to have to ask Wullie across the road to move his mess from outside so the house looks its very best while we're selling. It's parked in front of his house, but it's so close to ours and it blocks the view of our front garen and makes the whole street look untidy. I'm sure he won't mind, but that's a conversation I'll ask Mike to have - I'm a wimp ;-)

Our brain's are in shock right now I think. Where on earth do we start? We're hoping to move our entire world to Australia in around 6 months and OMG there's such a huge list of things to be done. Thank goodness I'm married to a project manager, that's all I will say.

My other task for today is to book our medicals and xrays. Spoke to Nicola yesterday (my policewoman friend) and she's going to collect me the forms we need for our pccs.

I can't really put my finger on how this feels. It's wildly exciting, but terrifying too, and we're realyl starting to feel the impact of how it's going to feel to leave our families behind. That said, in some weird way, the closer it comes, the more I'm sure that it's the right thing to do and the less I worry about family as I have seen with friends, that often relationships get stronger as people HAVE to talk to each other. Time will tell I guess. We're still very worried about Mike's Mum and Dad, they still don't understand why we want to go, and are heartbroken and not able to get past that and try to accept it. My Mum and Dad are also heartbroken but are putting a VERY brave face on it. They understand why we're going and they support us 100%. I think it's hardest for my Mum in some ways because she's trying ssooooo hard to support us and not allow selfish feelings get in the way. I think she's brilliant. There's nothing else we can really do for Jim and Moira right now. We still can't realyl talk to them about the move as it's too raw, they're just going to have to deal with it in their own way. It's hard, we want to involve them in everything, but how can we do that when we can see each word is breaking their hearts. So hard.

My back is still very sore today, got more pain killers from my GP yesterday.  However, I do feel that the pain is less.  Fingers crossed it's healing quickly.  I can tell you, I've been VERY careful going down the stairs this week