Decisions

I'm a thinker.. A researcher..  If I don't know something, I research the life out of it.  I like to know.  To know without a shadow of a doubt...  Moving overseas (with my family) has had its share of decisions.  Where to go, what to bring, what to leave behind, what to store, what to sell...  It's been overwhelming at times and last week was one of those times.

Last weekend our neighborhood association sponsored our annual garage sale.  There is always a huge turnout and it's a great time to sell things you don't want/need and make a little cash too.  I was keen to wait until the end of July to have our final sale, but after thinking about it, A and I decided we should bite the bullet and do it now.  I had two weeks from decision to sale.  This meant that every object (nearly) in the house needed to be attached to a decision.  Every piece of clothing, toys, books, personal items, furniture..everything.

I went big.  We are all sleeping on air mattresses.  Well, to be fair, I'm on the couch for the third night.  Our air mattress isn't as solid as our bed and I feel like I'm flopping around a lot.  I sold dressers, beds, kitchen items, blankets, lamps, clothing, tools, and tons of organizing bins.  Everything sold or was donated afterwards.  Of course, the day before the sale, I got a phone call for a showing on the house.. and then another showing the morning of the sale.  I went ahead with the sale and the showings, which meant I was a tad c-r-a-z-y.. 

It worked, it all came together.

We went out of state for a few days this week to visit family (more on that in the next post), which was excellent and much needed time away.  The morning after we arrived back, A woke up to an e-mail we'd been waiting for; our housing had been assigned.  And there's another (big) decision to be made.  I had to mostly ignore it for a day because I just could even think about another decision.

A is working at a place in Doha called Education City.  There's housing, different schools and universities, a sports complex, park, kid's areas, pool etc.  EC is about 30 minutes from downtown Doha.  We'd been under the impression that we'd be living in EC in an apartment (my guess was 3-4 bedrooms).  The e-mail informed us that we were part of a lottery to live in EC and had been given a 2 br apartment.  We could take the apartment OR choose to live in a new highrise apartment/hotel residence downtown.  This would be a 3 br apartment.  So, we either take the smaller place and small commute or the larger place with a longer commute.  The school will be providing transportation if we live downtown, which is a perk.  There's a lot to do downtown, which is a perk.  EC is a family friendly area, which is a perk.  There seems to be a ready-made community in EC, which is a perk... 

Ok, so we need to make an educated decision about where to live based on... how many bedrooms we would have and how long the commute is??  I can't really research the life out of this one. 

Thoughts to consider: 
*I home school and need space for materials.
*We will have visitors.
*We will have a car.
*I like being downtown.
*We like living in a close community.
*We are coming from a 4br house with a lot of space.
*We have two little, energetic children.
*The downtown residence also has a pool, exercise room, restaurant, etc built in.

So.. what would you choose?