This past month has flown by so fast and is almost a blur, but glad for it to be behind us. After finding out in late May that we are moving to Houston later in the year, we knew that we would need to sell our house- the one we've only lived in for 6 months. I know it sounds crazy, but that's the way life is sometimes. Having only been through a government move one other time (less than a year ago), I knew that we had a huge task ahead of us. With Carl in training and me home with the kids, I knew it would be rather difficult to keep our house show ready to sell. My parents graciously offered that the kids and I move into their beach condo along the gulf coast while we tried to get our house sold in Dallas. All of my friends in Dallas said I would be crazy not to accept their invitation. So we made the decision to temporarily move to Florida prior to moving to Houston in Nov/Dec.
I only had about 2 weeks to get everything ready for the movers to come pack up our house. I could only take what fit in my SUV the items I wanted for the next 6 months. Do you have any idea how hard that is??? We also took the suggestion from our realtor and decided on getting a staging company to come into our home and stage furniture. It's going to look better than when we bought it! (doesn't that always seem to be the case?)
The movers showed up at the house and they were wonderful. They were only scheduled to be at the house for 2 days, however they ended up needing 3 full days. In the midst of the movers being at our house, I had a good friend from high school passing through for a wedding and she and her youngest son ended up staying with us- boxes and all. We had a great time visiting, even if it was for less than 24 hours. Ironically, my friend had just found out that she and her family are moving to the area and would have lived about an hour from our home in Dallas.
After the movers finished late Saturday afternoon, the kids and I got settled into our hotel room in a nearby town. But, as luck would have it, Todd suddenly developed a 104 degree fever that evening. I packed the kids up and headed to an after hours pediatric care center. I was so thankful to be able to find a place open and not have to go to the ER. Todd was diagnosed with strep and immediately put on antibiotics. It's amazing how quickly he felt better after his medicine. Sadly, we weren't able to go to church and see our friends for the last time before moving. We're going to miss you guys!!
A couple of days later, after tying up loose ends and getting the handyman and carpet cleaners lined up, the kids and I embarked on our 2-day journey from Dallas to Pensacola. We made it to Pensacola on a Thursday afternoon and I turned right around the next day and hopped a plane to go visit Carl in Georgia. The kids were thrilled to see their grandparents and enjoyed the weekend with them. Carl and I had a wonderful time during our visit and we were able to go to Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island. We enjoyed nice quiet meals without the kids and were able to relax and have quality time together...something we both needed!
Even though the past month has been hectic and crazy, God has been faithful and has watched over our family and protected us. I am thankful for the sweet friends that we made in Dallas and the friends who helped me out during the move- either with childcare or just by hanging out when the movers were there. You guys are amazing!!
We are really going to miss Dallas. We grew to love the area and the friends that we met. I know we will go back to visit someday. Somehow our movers forgot to load our BBQ grill, so we will be going back to pick it up from a friend who is holding onto it for us. We're hoping to visit with all our friends when we head back there!
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| An old tree at Jekyll Island |
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| A view of the St. Simon's lighthouse and coastline |
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| Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island |
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| A tree in the middle of the beach??? |
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| Todd helping the movers |
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| Katelynn exploring the moving truck! |
