hello and goodbye

In some ways, I can't wait for the next month to fly by and be over!! In others, I wish I could hold onto them for just a while longer.

I never expected to feel remorse about leaving the great state of North Carolina. I kept telling myself not to get too involved, not to make great friends, and to be ready to leave at any point. Of course, that didn't happen.

I'm so excited to make this huge change that moving to Japan will bring. I can't wait to meet my new class and my new coworkers. I really can't wait to experience all the culture that is just waiting to be explored!

But I have to say that I will miss it here. Not that I will miss Fayetteville by any means. I will, however, miss the amazing people I work with (and often play with!!) I will miss several of the families I have had the privilege of getting to know while teaching their children. I will miss several aspects of living in the south. (Though, I won't miss the insects and the humidity!!) I will miss only having a three hour time difference between us and home. For all of you who made my time in NC not only bearable, but amazing, thank you. You, I will miss.

news!

Just found out that we are moving!! I got a first grade teaching position at Misawa Air Base in JAPAN!!!

It seemed like this moment would never come - we have been trying to prepare our families (and ourselves) for this for nearly two years...and it just seems so surreal. Will write more later as we find out more details about the how's, when's, and all the important info!

day 4 (and 5)??

It's been a long couple of days.

Yesterday, we went to see the St. Louis Arch and then left Missouri, excited at the prospect of coming back someday and exploring St. Louis quite a bit more than we were able to on this trip. We drove through Indiana and Illinois, and then stopped in Louisville, KY for...as if you didn't know...some lunch at Spaghetti Factory. It was by far the biggest (and probably nicest) OSF I've ever been to, though the food wasn't nearly as good and we're used to. It was amusing, though, so have the option of iced tea or sweet tea to go with our meal.

We left Louisville and traveled through West Virgina, which took FOREVER; Virginia, which was full of fog and rain; and finally entered North Carolina at around 2 am. We drove down to Spring Lake, which is right outside the base, and crashed at an icky, smoky hotel. Don't stay in Spring Lake if ever you come through here! (Well...if you do come you should stay with us anyway, but you get the picture.)

So after two hours of sleep, we got up this morning and met with a realtor. We were able to look at a few houses and neighborhoods and have pretty much decided on Sanford as our town of choice. Then we recouped at Waffle House (which, I have to say, is just as yummy as I remember it being years and years ago! It was the only thing I really missed about leaving the south as a kid...and Ben loved it too, so I'm pretty sure we'll make it a weekly weekend-breakfast habit) and then it was off to the airport so Ben could fly home in order to finish his last two weeks of work and packing up of the house.

I was able to check in at the base lodge at Fort Bragg (MUCH better than the lame hotel from last night) and am about to eat dinner and then crash for the night.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!

Pictures from the trip, and from around NC, will be coming shortly!

day 3

First, let me tell you that google maps is not accurate when you're planning for long road trips, and it will ALWAYS take you longer than the amount of time it tells you it will.

We saw some interesting things along the road on Day 3.

In Colorado, we saw a man spray painting the grass along the highway to make it look green. In Kansas, we saw Truckhenge, a garden of trucks (and boats as well) in a dry creek bed. It was awesome, and pics will be coming soon! In Missouri, we saw the converging of about 10 highways and freeways all smack dab in the middle of downtown. (The city all lit up was beautiful.)

We tried to go by the Kit Carson County Carousel in Burlington, Colorado, but apparently a bunch of the roads were closed off and it just would have taken too long.

We finally stopped at Andrea's around 1 am (we crossed through another time zone) and got to catch up with her a bit before catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Today is the St. Louis Gateway Arch, Spaghetti Factory in Louisville, crossing through 7 states, and finally, our arrival into North Carolina!

all the craziness

Wow.


I have to let that sink in for a minute. Things have happened so quickly, that I almost feel guilty for spending the time to sit down and write this. I do need a break from all the craziness though, so this is how I'm spending it!

For those of you who haven't heard yet, we are moving to North Carolina. Tomorrow. Wow.

Here's the story if you haven't heard it (if you have, you can skip this next part!) I had an interview on Thursday with three principals of Department of Defense Schools. Prior to the interview, I researched the schools I was interviewing for, and found out that one of them was named after a man who was stationed in Somalia with my dad. It seemed like it was just too much to be coincidence that such a position would have finally arrived. Even better, several other teachers at this school had spouses or other relatives who were there at the same time also. Awesome, huh?

The principal let me know that they had to make their decision that day, and that HR would be getting back to the person they hired sometime within a week or two.

So yesterday (only 2 workdays after the interview) I awoke to a phone call saying that I got the third grade position and would start the next Monday. So here we are two days later, in the midst of frantic packing and planning, and we head out tomorrow! Ben and I finally get to do the cross-country road trip we've been planning for years, only without a lot of the fun stops we had planned to do along the way.

Pictures and road-trip (and house-finding and teaching) stories will soon commence as well!

I never thought I'd say this, but goodbye, California!

worth coming home to

With the utter dizziness of...life, I haven't had time to write any blogs in quite a while. With all the transition having taken place, life has begun to slow down a bit. It's nice to have the time to write and not feel like I'm wasting precious time that could be spent on something important that needs to be done.
As I mentioned, things have been pretty crazy as of late. (As it always is. It's interesting how that always suffices as a "good answer" for when someone asks you how things are going. "Crazy," I say, and they nod their heads, knowing the craziness in their own lives. Why are we a society that can't seem to slow down and just...take a breather?)
Anyway...


We moved again. Actually we've moved two or three times since my last update. We're living in beautiful California now! I'm so excited to have left the drab brownness that is Reno to replace it with the fresh vibrance of green that is Northern California. We live (literally) RIGHT next to a beautiful lake, and less than two miles from another one. It's awesome, because, while the two lakes feed off of each other, they are completely different. One has the stereotypical atmosphere of a lake: calm, serene, and "room-temperature." This lake's temperature follows the weather, so in the summer it's nice and warm; it never gets too frosty to enjoy it. This lake has a laid-back personality to it. The other lake, however, flows like a river and has an aura of determination about it. It's always freezing, but it likes it that way. It dares to be different and it dares you, the enjoyer of lakes, to be different as well. Really, it's nice to be near lakes with personalities, you know? You can go to either, depending on your mood. Or you can just go swimming in the pool. Whatever.
Our apartment is awesome! It's so nice to have our things out again. (We were living with some friends for a while. As great as it was, it's nice to have our own space with our own possessions.) It's amazing how much I missed having MY things. It's like we identify with our "stuff." While, to some, it might seem vain or materialistic, I DO identify with my stuff. The things I own and decorate my home with reflect a little (or a lot) of who I am. The living room and dining room are cozy and country-ish, with wild flowers on the table and comfy couches. The porch has a comfy swing and windchimes that just call to you, "Come, Sit, Relax." The guest room is black and white, with the old falling-apart bookshelf that I proudly fixed, refinished, and painted to match. There are several photos (some of my own) adorning the walls. That room is my creative outlet. It's who I am. Then, the highlight of the place: the bedroom and bathroom. They display my wild side, full of tropical landscapes and bright colors. Some of the pictures are places I've been and some are fantastic places existing only on canvas. It's amazing how "at home" you can feel when you have a place that you can decorate with "your stuff." It just makes it worth coming home to.

in search of boxes

It's been a while. The craziness of moving has, unfortunately, not allowed much time for blogging. But, yes, I'm moving! Moving into my first apartment. Moving in with my first roommate. Moving away from the family (it's really only five minutes away, though, so it's not THAT far away.) I'm excited. It seems like we've been building up to this for months!

Marce is the new roommate. We've been talking about moving in together for what seems like years now, and we're finally going for it! We spent the last several weeks apartment hunting. Now, we just need to move in and decorate!

But first, I gotta' run. Got to get more moving boxes.

Oh, the fun.