Loading Day

Today is THE day... the day we load up our worldly belongings and put them on a trailer. We're beginning to say goodbye to North Carolina.

Sunday was a surprisingly emotional day for me. I honestly didn't see it coming, but I wept at church. It all started during the very last song before the service ended (gee thanks, Stephen!). It was a very powerful song, and I just started to be overwhelmed and sad that we are leaving this amazing church community. I have never been part of such a Jesus-seeking, down-to-earth, people-loving community of people before. It's powerful stuff. We had decided at the start of the service to seek out the pastors to say goodbye, but at the end of the service when my emotions were so raw, I sort of just wanted to run out of the building and not come back. I knew that I'd be a mess saying goodbye, and indeed I was. Fortunately, everyone was very gracious and sweet with my tears.

Now we're just tired and ready to have this over with. Westin has woken up at 5am the past 3 mornings... not sure what that's about, but we haven't enjoyed it. Oh well. Maybe it was a good thing today, as it got us up and at 'em earlier than we would have thought (hence, blogging at 7am while he's down for his first nap and before I get heavy into the crazy day ahead).

My next post will most likely be from Texas!

Goodbye, North Carolina. We have loved you, and we will miss you.

Packing

It's Sunday morning and we are t-i-r-e-d (it doesn't help that Westin decided to wake up at 5:30am this morning - what the heck???). We've been neck deep in packing since Tuesday morning. Fortunately, we got off to a great start when 3 angels named Christine, Becky, and Pat graced our home and spent 3 hours kicking some serious packing butt. They helped a TON, and they got me motivated to continue on. Then, yesterday (Saturday) my dear friend Stephanie came over and we knocked out a whole bunch more. She is a workhorse which is so good for me! So really, all that's left is the garage (Jeremy's job), Westin's room (my job) and some last minute things. We are very pleased with the position we're in. The moving trailer gets here Tuesday morning. We hope to start loading shortly after lunch on Tuesday.

(AND WE HOPE TO HAVE LOTS OF HELP, FOR THOSE LOCAL FRIENDS WHO ARE READING THIS!) :-)

Westin did his best to help us pack, as you can tell from the pictures below.

Uh-oh

This was the sight Jeremy and I beheld as we entered Westin's room after his nap 2 days ago:


That's the first time he's ever stood up in his crib (that we know of, I guess!). We're in for it now, huh?

Texas bound

Man, oh man have we been busy.

Lots to be grateful for:
- We sold our house, and are closing October 6th.
- Jeremy got an RN position at Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, TX and starts October 12.
- We sold a car and bought another one in a week's time, and were able to get an older but very nice SUV that we paid cash for.
- We have a healthy baby growing inside me that is due March 14th.
- Westin is 9 months old and is the most precious thing.
- We got to spend a week in Oregon with Jeremy's family.
- We'll get to spend a week and a half in Texas with my family before Jeremy starts his job.
- We had a going-away party given in our honor last weekend with a lot of our church friends that was very sweet.

Now it's all about packing. Yuck. My least favorite part of moving.

I haven't spent a lot of time dwelling on the fact that we're moving away from a place we'd grown to love over the past 6 years. There are so many memories here... of friends, of adventures, of milestones, of growth. I'm sure when I allow myself to really stop and feel all of it there will be some tears, but not right now. I'm all business at the moment.

We're out of here on September 23rd. That's a mere 8 days away. I better go pack......