We're Movin' Y'all: November 2010

....but now we're back. Turns out that moving across the country is a bit time consuming and blogging ended up taking a backseat while we got things up and running here. Much has happened, here's a brief re-cap:

The BIG yellow truck (with Prius in tow).

Getting out of 54 Fair Ave was a nightmare. Tons of work and no help from our friendly landlord (will leave that story off the blog). Luckily Bret's parents were able to help us with packing, Mark watched Lucy for us, the Mosebrooks watched Lucy for us, the Grahams let us stay at their house for five nights, Yamel's sister and Tavo helped clean, Sasha helped us pack and brought us food. It was no easy task and we could have never gotten out of there without the help of a LOT of friends and family. Thank you all.

Lucy flew across the country successfully. Wyatt and I flew across the country with an unexpected and very unwanted overnight stay in Minneapolis. At that point, after ten days of packing and dealing with hundreds of details, logistics, goodbyes....I was so frayed that I nearly lost my mind. Let's just say that no one in the Minneapolis airport wants to see me again - we flew to RDU first class the next day.

Bret and Ton at the Giants game in Atlanta.

Bret and Tom had the longest haul. They drove our massive moving truck across the country in just under six days. They saw the southern states and planned their days around what time the Giants would be on TV that night. Luck had it that an old friend of ours who moved to Atlanta a few years back had tickets to spare to Game 3 of the NLDS, so they took a detour to Atlanta and watched in person as the Giants prevailed. (iPhone video confirms that the tomahawk chop really is totally lame.)

They pulled up to the yellow house the next day and finally we were all together again. It was a huge relief for us all. We unpacked the yellow truck in a couple of hours and then headed back to my parents for dinner and more baseball. Tom flew out the next day and we can't thank him enough for his gift of time and companionship that he gave to Bret.

So...we are in the yellow house and we totally love it. It took some time to get up unpacked and situated. We had to buy some furniture, make some curtains, hang pictures, struggle with the wireless network, etc. but now we are in and living.

Lucy has a yard to run in out back. Wyatt has made friends with some other kids in the neighborhood (and us with their parents). With all of the space we feel like we are living in a palace. And please, come visit! Because we have a REAL guestroom. It has beds! And a dresser! We have actually had a number of guests stay with us already - the Sibleys for several nights (much fun that included a trip to the NC state fair) and my college friend Shannon called me out of the blue and said she could come for the night. We had fun catching up and hanging out. We were so happy to have the good company.

Halloween was a lot of fun. We carved pumpkins and our neighborhood put on a little festival that Wyatt enjoyed greatly.

Wyatt started in a preschool this week, going two half-days per week for now. The teachers were all very excited about him after his first day and he talked about how much fun he had, so we are feeling good about it. The preschool is a co-op, so soon we will begin our "jobs" there where we hope to meet some of the other parents and the children that Wyatt will surely come home talking about.

We are well into our job search - we both have some strong leads but out of fear of jinxing, I will leave out the details for now until contracts are signed.

So, we are here and happy. Of course we are happy, because we've pretty much been on vacation for a month now. The return to work is crucial of course, but it will be hard. We have been blessed to have this time with each other, with Wyatt and Lucy, my parents. My parents have been a huge help to us - watching Wyatt and Lucy when needed, helping around our house, pointing us in the right direction as we try to learn our way around.

I will try to update more regularly. See pictures below of the house and other activities. We miss so many of you and are grateful for your support and friendship.