So long Blacksburg

Well, tonight is my last night at our house in Blacksburg. Still seems a little surreal even while I sit amongst a house full of boxes. There was no going away party or any big event for leaving. My family actually left 2 people at a time. Blythe and Ethan left last Thursday and my mom took them to meet up with Grams and Peep and they spent 5 fun-filled days in Cashiers, NC. Pretty sure Grams and Peep will probably be sleeping 12 hours a day for a while to recoup! Then Braden and Brynn (and Juni and Bogie) left on Monday. Brynn went to my mom's and Juni and Bogie went to my brother's and then Braden went on in to work in Raleigh. So I was here alone. It was SO quiet! But I had no time to enjoy the peace since I was running around like a maniac doing all of the last minute stuff. I swear I felt like those last minute things would never end.

Today the movers came to pack all our stuff and my dad came up to help me with the last 2 days. Yep, that's right...I said movers came to PACK all our stuff. We've never had that done before and it's AWESOME! Thank goodness for NC State and a good moving package! Tomorrow they will be here to load the truck and we close on our house here in Blacksburg in the late afternoon. Then I will drive away leaving lots of memories.

Memories of learning I was pregnant for the first time (and the second time and the third time) and telling Braden each time after I found out.
Memories of figuring out how to hang cabinets and build a sandbox and tile a countertop.
Memories of going to t-ball games and Blythe's first swim meet
Memories of bringing our 3 beautiful children into this world at a small, but great hospital by an awesome doctor I will certainly miss!
Memories of our kids playing outside with the neighbors playing basketball or drawing with chalk
Memories of Braden organizing an impromptu neighborhood water balloon fight
Memories of walking at lunchtime with Amy or meeting at the gym for Zumba
Memories of dropping my kids off at daycare for the very first time and crying hysterically as soon as I got in the car to drive away
Memories of Blythe and Ashley meeting and becoming instant friends at the age of 1 and a half
Memories of Hokie football games and Hokie swim meets
Memories of snow. Lots of snow.
Memories of rocking on our front porch
Memories of drinking a glass of wine while sitting on our back deck and listening to music
Memories of hanging out on the deck for hours while Blythe sat in her exersaucer (ah, that was relaxing!)
Memories of playing upstairs before bed and throwing a ball for Ethan so he could hit it with his soft Hokie baseball bat
Memories of watching Blythe and Ethan jump off of Ethan's bed and onto his bean bag while acting like crazy animals
Memories of putting together the biggest doll house known to man before Christmas
Memories of taking the kids to see Santa at the mall (who looked a lot like Santa, but not nearly as jolly as he should have been)
Memories of looking at the clock in the morning on the way to daycare, realizing it took 2 hours to get all kids up and dressed and fed before school, but feeling pretty proud that I did it all by myself
Memories of teaching Blythe and Ethan (and Ashley and Luke) how to drive the jeep around the neighborhood
Memories of taking Blythe to see a high school play of Beauty and the Beast while I was 9 months pregnant and she wanted to sit on my lap (or lack thereof) for most of it
Memories of rocking Brynn to sleep in the glider in her room (that I wish I had had for the first 2!)
Memories of Braden surprising me on our 7 year anniversary with a night at a local hotel and a fantastic dinner!

I could go on and on. But the memories are coming with me. It's hard to forget a place where all 3 of your kids were born. Even if my kids won't really remember this place.

I'm ready for the next chapter now. Here we come Raleigh and hopefully we will be there for a LONG time.

So long Blacksburg.

If you're happy and you know it....

What you don't want to see when you are on vacation

...is a picture text message from your next door neighbor of the house you are closing on in 13 days that looks like this:

Um, yes, that is a car in our flower bed. 1 inch from our house. Barely fitting in the space between a tree and our front porch. Sitting on top of our very best lilac bush and crushing a few solar lights and some sprinkler heads. And that is our neighbor from the house across the street in the driver's seat.

How did this happen (I'm sure you are wondering)? Well, apparently she was about to leave to go to the airport and her car wouldn't start. She needed to jump start it, but wanted to move it a bit out of her garage. So she put it in neutral and (with no one in the car), pushed it out of her garage. I'm not exactly sure how she thought the car would stop considering her driveway is sloped down hill (towards our house). It rolled down her driveway, missed her mailbox, rolled across the street, missed the tree in front of our house, ran over some bushes and came to a stop 1 inch from our house.

So...not the text I would really love to get while on vacation, but obviously could have been a whole lot worse. The bad thing is that the buyers for our house are back in the country and wanted to come at 6pm today so the guy could show his family the house. Which was bad enough since I wasn't prepared and it looks like a house that has been ransacked while packing for vacation. Now it looks like a ransacked house with a car that's been driven through the front yard.

Never a dull moment my friends...

Virginia Beach - Day 1

Yes, we have SO much to do at home before we move in 2 weeks, but long, long ago (several months ago), we planned a mini-vacation (3 days off of work) to Virginia Beach. Paid for with Marriott points, so the lodging part is free (food and gas ins another story). We're actually only staying at a hotel for 2 nights and then 2 nights with our friends Tommy and Angie.

After a 5 and half hour drive (with stops), we made it to Virginia Beach. Staying at a hotel on the beach certainly has it's perks (namely the beach)...and a pool, a playground on the beach, and the awesome Virginia Beach boardwalk. But staying in a hotel room with our 3 kids, early bedtimes, and nap times (for Brynn) is a bit of a challenge. But the hotel is nice and Brynn napped yesterday in the car, so when we got here we were ready to party! We started at the pool, which Brynn was totally digging despite the massive amounts of pool water she drank. We then moved on to the pirate ship-themed playground right on the beach. That was a huge hit! Then after that we made it down to the ocean. Blythe and Ethan had a blast! Brynn wasn't quite sure what to think of the giant sandbox. I don't think she liked it as much as Blythe or Ethan did on their first trips to the beach. She likes the seagulls though. And Ethan is pretty much in heaven. There must be a lot of training going on at the air force base as their are jets flying around all the time.

A quick trip up to the room to throw all 3 kids in the tub and change clothes and we were off to stroll the boardwalk and find a place to eat. We found a place where we were able to get some decent seafood and then strolled back to the hotel (was after 8...so was getting pretty late ).

It's difficult to take pictures when it's just the 5 of us, but we managed to get a few decent ones:

Puddle Jumper...how I love thee

It's a little big for Brynn (she can't get Cheetos in her mouth while wearing because her hand can't reach her mouth), but I've had her start wearing Ethan's puddle jumper and now pool visits are SO much easier (especially when it's just me and the 3 kiddos). Now I don't have to chase Brynn around every second. In the baby pool, she can fall in and get back up. In the big pool, she likes to be close to me anyway but is really enjoying learning how to float in this thing and understands that this magic green monster will give her independence at the pool.

Ethan no longer needs it. That's right, he's been swimming like a crazy man. He can't really swim very far (about 5 yards max), but he can play in the 2.5 foot area and he can even jump off the diving board and swim to the side. I'd get a video, but I have to hold Brynn while Ethan jumps off and I have to sit right on the side in case I need to stick my leg out for him to grab onto because he usually forgets to breathe after he jumps off and comes back up to the surface.

The day I've been dreading

Yesterday was the day I've been dreading for the past 5 and a half months. The day we had to say goodbye to Amy, Ashley, and Luke as they drove away to Indiana.

The day before, the movers were at their house loading up the truck. I headed over there to help Amy some and to get a sneak peek on what I can expect when we move (apparently I can expect them to give me an order for lunch (as opposed to asking for lunch), drinking a case of Gatorade, and spending strangely long amounts of time in the bathroom with the fan on). So anyway, after everything was loaded on the truck, Amy, Ashley, and Luke spent the night at our house. Side note - Mike had to leave the day before to start his job and her other 2 boys are staying in Blacksburg for another couple of weeks because their baseball team made the World Series.

The kids had been looking forward to a sleepover at our house. It was clear they still didn't get that Ashley and Luke were moving away and they wouldn't see them for a long while and that everything was changing. But I remember moving away from my best friend when I was 5 and I wasn't sad, so it brings comfort that the kids won't really be sad about it.

In the morning Luke asked if it was a school day. Amy told him, "No, we're moving to Indiana today. Tomorrow you start your new school and you get to go on a field trip and ride a bus." And Ethan was immediately very jealous. He asked if he would get to ride a bus when he starts at his new school. So I said, "maybe", knowing he won't because in North Carolina the law actually states that the kids CAN'T leave the day care center until they are 4 to go on field trips.

When it was time to go, they loaded into their packed van. Luke asked, "where are we going?" And when Amy replied, "Indiana", he said "why?". So....very clear that they don't get it. But Amy and I both cried while hugging each other's kids and then hugging each other and saying goodbye. Blythe was already back inside because you know, Curious George was on and she didn't want to miss the end (so important and all). They both reacted when they saw me crying and asked what was wrong.

Amy said when they got almost to their house in Indiana Luke said, "I miss Ethan. Mom, do you miss Mary?". When Braden called this morning to talk to the kids, Ethan told him "Yesterday Luke was here but then he left. And Luke's mom cried. And then Mommy cried."

So change is sad. But I've already set up my computer with "Southwest Ding" software since Southwest flies to Raleigh (yay!) and Indianapolis. So now I will know right away when great deals come available. And our walking and talking routine will continue as soon as we both find the time to actually start working out again and this heat gives us a bit of a break.