At Last

Ahh, the packing life. These boxes are the physical evidence of hours and hours of hard labor. My mom and I spent weeks packing and on Friday it was time to actually move. We've been gearing up for it for so long that it was actually a relief to be at Moving Day! My house was crazy and I was ready to move just to get away from it!
The night before, we went out to dinner to celebrate our last night in Kentucky. Eating dinner out with a infant and a toddler was an adventure. We're going to miss Kentucky so much, but we're optimistic about the future. I bet they have spagetti in Georgia too!


We spent all day Friday saying goodbye to our friends. Shauna, Sydney and Emily stopped by just before all the helpers got here to pack our truck. It was probably the last time that we'll ever be neighbors because they have their house up for sale. We're going to miss our good neighbors.

Rachel and Avery came to say goodbye to us too.

Tristan and Avery will be good buddies someday. Avery will be almost two by the time we move back. Crazy! Rachel brought us these yummy cookies. She was so sweet to drive from Lexington just to say goodbye.

The Holders came to help us move. We've been so greatful to them. Marshell and Marilyn have watched Maura several times in the last few weeks so I had time to pack. Maura was fascinated by the moving truck. She wanted to walk up and down the ramp, which was so dangerous while all the things were getting moved out, but I let her play there after everyone left.
It was weird to see our lives packed up in a truck. It was really bittersweet. I was so tired of packing and having everything in upheavel that I was anxious to get it all over with, but I still didn't want to leave. We were so blessed to have a lot of people show up to help us move out and we really enjoyed visiting with them before we left. Thanks to everyone who helped. It was really tough to leave the house for the last time, and even tougher to say goodbye to my sisters who are going to miss their niece and nephew so much. We spent the night at my parents and pulled out early the next morning. We had a terrible trip down to Georgia in which Maura didn't sleep a wink, and Tristan cried for the last three hours or so. If car trips don't get any better, we might be stuck in Georgia forever! It took us all of ten hours to travel to our new home. When we got here, we were so blessed and suprised to find it packed full of people! Brent had asked at our new church if a few guys would show up to help him unload the moving van. Well, about 25 people showed up, men, women and children. They not only unloaded the van, they started unpacking our kitchen, bathrooms and set up all the beds. When we walked in, it actually looked like a house, not a box factory. We met all of our new friends and then put a very tired and overwhelmed Maura to bed. We've worked all week to get the house in order and it really is starting to feel like home to us. I think it's going to be a comfortable place to spend the next year of our lives and I'm actually looking forward to it. The next few photos are from our first few days in Georgia. I'll take some more pictures of the house and post them later this week.

We went to our new church on Sunday morning. Getting us all out the door of the crazy house was quite a feat, but our new church doesn't start until 10:00! Yay! We told Maura that we were going to church to worship God and meet new friends. She was really excited to go and she did really well going back to PBJ(Preschool Bible Jam). I think we're really going to like our new church once we get settled in. You can see our house behind Mom and Maura in the picture. It's so cute! Tristan likes the new house, or maybe it's just all the toys I unearthed in the packing process. He's not slept well in three days, though. Maybe he can feel the unrest. He's been sleeping in his crib too, for the first time. We left the bassinet behind in Kentucky. I'm so sad to see my big boy growing up.
Maura loves the new bathtub. I told her it was a really special bathtub in Mommy's bathroom and someday she could go swimming in it. She convinced me to let her try it out last night but she DID NOT like the jets!
What a big boy!! Tristan is 13 weeks old today! I put him in his Exersaucer to see if he was big enough and he did really well for awhile. I think he loved being upright, but he is still unsteady enough to look like a drunken sailor!

This morning, we had the house in enough order to think about having some fun. We got out the swimming pool and let Maura try out her new backyard. Mom and Tristan and I all sat on the porch and enjoyed the cool Georgia morning.(Yea right!) Actually, it wasn't bad with a little breeze blowing.
Check out our covered porch. This was the biggest reason we wanted the house. We're going to really enjoy it! All of Maura's outside toys fit on it and I can just send her out the backdoor to play on them because our yard is fenced!
Maura is loving the porch. She's really enjoying the house and has adapted so well. She asked about our Kentucky house once, and I told her that this is our Georgia house and someday we'll go back to the Kentucky house. She seems to have accepted that. She asked about the cats today too and I just told her that they were on vacation. She accepted that too and we just went on about our business.
One of the reasons I think she's adapted so well is that she has an awesome playroom. We made the dining room into a playroom for her and put all her toys on a rack. We assembled the kitchen that she got for her birthday that's been sitting in our garage since March and she's really enjoying playing with that. Grammy has been lots of fun too!
My handsome soldier man doing dishes for me. We went to base to visit Brent yesterday and check out all the amenities. I don't think we'll go all the time because of the distance, but we'll use the gym and the library on occasion. It'll probably take me the whole year to figure out my way around, but I'm feeling optimistic about our time here. We're really blessed to have such a beautiful home, community and church and we'll enjoy our yearlong adventure in Georgia.