I had wanted to tell most of my doctoral students at the same time and had invited them to lunch. They knew something was up. I shared what happened with the executive education training and how everything unfolded. They were all incredibly supportive – despite the various ways my short-term departure would affect each of them – with one of them saying “You’re going to write a book about this! It will be like ‘Eat, Pray, Love – but with kids!”

There are more service people coming in and out of the house to do repairs and improvements before the final house inspection. Matt, being the more gregarious of the two of us, is always friendly and engages them in conversation. Invariably, due to the ‘for sale’ sign in front of the house, they will ask where we are moving. For some reason, Matt then answers in a loud booming voice, “We’re moving to a mobile home.” An awkward silence ensues as I’m sure the service person envisions a trailer and the sorry set of circumstances that must have led to our family having to sell our house. Finally Matt breaks the silence by announcing “We’re moving onto a sailboat!” I can almost hear the person audibly breathe a sigh of relief. I still can’t figure out if he does this intentionally or not – but it is always amusing to overhear.