Michigan Getaway

*I just realized after typing the title, that it could be interpreted that I want the state of Michigan to get away from me. Instead, it's supposed to mean that I had a get-away in Michigan. But I'm leaving the title, cause I think it's funny. I really do hate coming up with titles for my posts.*

So, this past weekend, I was able to go up to Michigan for my friend, Kellie's, wedding shower. I'm less than 4 hours away, and I was very happy to be close enough to go.

I had a great time of catching up with my girls, and talking wedding stuff with Kellie. She lives in Indiana now, and I think I might go there for her next shower in a couple of weeks. I really feel I need to take advantage of living so close to my friends, because in LA, we won't be close to anyone!!

Here's me with Kellie,on the left, and her sister Jenny, in the middle. I was in Jenny's wedding in Michigan back in July.
The future bride!

I knew that I knew that guy from somewhere!

Many of my readers know who Jesse and Joanna are. Joanna is the niece of my pastor in Albuquerque, and she just got married to Jesse last month, who is the interim pastor at another church in Albuquerque. Well, the day before the movers came to pack up our stuff in ABQ, we had J & J over for dinner. During the conversation, it came up that Jesse had gone to Summit around (possibly at) the same time that Grant did - the summer of 97. Grant had always said that Jesse looked familiar to him, and when this whole Summit thing came up, he was convinced that they did, in fact, attend the same week of the summer, and that's why he recognized him.

Well, it just so happened that Grant's mom had the video that was made during the week that Grant went to Summit. So of course he had to ask her to send it to us!

Within the first minute of the video we saw him. After watching it some more, we came across this shot... (Jesse's in the blue, Grant's next to him in the white {probably Florida State} t-shirt.)



Now, you'll have to ignore the guy behind them who's trying to hog the spotlight, but there they are, shoulder to shoulder, back in 1997. So Grant did indeed recognize Jesse. How random is that?

I'm on a roll...

Three posts in a row...that has to be a new record for me!

Anyways, I just wanted to say that after living in Albuquerque for over 3 years, I really became accustomed to the drought conditions. Really, I mean, having about 340 days (actually, it's probably more than that) out of the year that are sunny is not too shabby!

It has now been raining in Dayton for at least 13 hours - straight (that I can tell)! Poor little Watley barely wants to go outside. And when he does, it's so pathetic...he kind of scrunches up his body, hangs his head really low, does his business, then sprints back to the house to be let in.

We were having some really beautiful weather here. Grant it, I could only admire the outside through the windows of my office building, but it was still beautiful. I knew it wouldn't last.

I just noticed that I really like to use exclamation marks!!

New Blogs!

I just wanted to take a minute and give a shout out (I love giving those) to a couple of new blogs. Megan (There's Treasure Everywhere) is a new blogger (we've been working on her for a while to get one started), who is almost about to have her first baby - her due date is in less than a week! Megan and her husband, Andy, moved from Albuquerque about a month after Grant and I did, which means that the church (and Albuquerque, for that matter) lost 2 of the coolest couples, EVER! Our prayers are with them as they move into this new phase of their lives.

The next blog is not new at all, but it's new for us. It's our neighbors, Jesse and Catie, along with their 2 cuties Tori and AJ. As soon as we mentioned that we knew someone in Albuquerque that had a Detroit Tigers cornhole set, Jesse immediately knew who it was (Bob!). Jesse and Catie were supposed to be moving to LA when Jesse graduates this coming March, which would've been awesome, because we'd be there a year after they got there. But, Jesse applied to get out of the Air Force, and he got it, which is great news! So now they have the big decision to figure out where Jesse should apply for a job. Our prayers are with y'all, too!

Busy, Busy!

Well, it's been another busy week here in Dayton! Let's see...

Tuesday: I went to work. My parents came into town late that night.

Wednesday: I went to work, but my parents met me for lunch in Yellow Springs. We found a totally cool restaurant (The Sunrise Cafe), with great food. I had the Greek gyro, and it was delicious! Later that night, I had a Tastefully Simple party at my house.

Thursday: I went to work, but had a 2-hour lunch, in which my parents and Grant came to meet me in Yellow Springs. We were able to walk around the town, go in all sorts of cute little shops, and then take a drive in the country to look at fall colors. We got our first snow that day! Grant and I were not very thrilled with that at all, but my mom was loving it. Later that night, we went to the newly opened Cheesecake Factory, to celebrate my dad's birthday, which was October 9.

Friday: I went to work (are you seeing a trend here? No time off work...but I won't go there right now), but was able to get off at 3 in the afternoon. I had been working on making a purse. I won't go into all the details, because it would take way too long, but I'd been dying to make a ribbon purse. I got all my materials in before my parents came (I ordered the green ribbon and fabric for the lining on ebay), and I wanted my mom to help me with the sewing part, since I do NOT sew. Well, to make a long story short, my little sewing machine that I already had (Pinky got A & C one just like mine), didn't want to do the job. So, I went to a store that sold used sewing machines, got a fantastic deal on a 3-year old machine, and prayed that it worked. And it did! I was able to completely finish my purse in one night. It's not the best craftsmanship in the world, but it was my first try, so I can't be too hard on myself. I want HONEST opinions about the purse, though, since I am thinking about making more of these for gifts. I've been trying to upload the other picture I have of it, with a view of the lining, but blogspot is being weird right now. Does anyone else have uploading problems with them?

Saturday: We took my parents to the 2nd Street Market, which was a lot of fun! There were all sorts of booths set up, with food, drinks, and doo-dads galore. When we were done there, we took a drive through the Oregon District, which is an old neighborhood, with very cool, very old, very unique houses. Then, it was off to the airport so that my parents could fly back to Pensacola. I'm so glad they were able to make it up here, and that my mom was able to see some beautiful fall colors, which was the main reason she wanted to come here this time of year.

Another great weekend

Well, like I said, we were planning on going pumpkin picking this weekend with our neighbors. We did, but I have to say, I wasn't that impressed with the patch. Maybe it was because it was the last weekend they were having this thing, but the pumpkin patch was pretty pathetic.
We had fun, anyway, and we each found our own, perfect pumpkin. Mine had a little dimple in it, that I like to call it's belly button.

After the pumpkins, we each went our own way, and Grant and I decided to walk around Yellow Springs (this is where I work, and also where the dairy farm is that we got our pumpkins from).
Yellow Springs is our own little Santa Fe - kinda quirky, with alot of hippies, and other types of "unusual" people. But we loved Santa Fe, and so far, we love Yellow Springs.

Later that night, we had another front yard campfire, where we had Grant's made-from-scratch pumpkin pie (which was fantastic!), and Daiquiri's (one of our neighbors) homemade apple cider.

You just can't make this stuff up

So apparently, the person who was so interested in our house, well, he got arrested. Seriously. I'm thinking his jail time will conflict with putting an offer on the house. Go figure!

The Latest

I had my second ever book club meeting tonight. This time, it was really cool, because the author of the book that we picked to read was in town. The book was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a historical fiction book about Dracula. I know, it sounds really dark and evil, but it's actually a great book! It's long, though - 642 pages. But if I can get through it, anyone can. Actually, I still have about 40 pages to go, but I plan on finishing it tonight or tomorrow. The book is already in the works to be turned into a movie, which would be really amazing to see it on screen. In the book, they visit at least seven European countries. I know there's more, but that's all I could think of right away. I would seriously work for free on the set of that movie, just to be able to travel to all those countries. It was exciting to meet the author and ask her questions and have her sign my copy of her fantastic piece of work! Really, the research that she put into the book is incredible. It took her 10 years to write it! If you like history, then you will like this book, whether you're interested in Dracula or not.

When I got home, I was telling Grant all about the experience at the bookstore. Then, the phone rang, and we realized it was our realtor. I knew it had to be something, because we JUST talked to him, and we normally only talk to him about once a week, at the most. Well, it was indeed good news! Someone is seriously interested in the house, and will be making us an offer in the next day or so!! We've been waiting for this to happen for so long, I can't even believe it's happening! Now, it doesn't mean it will go through, but this is definitely progress. You can believe there will be some serious praying going on in our little family within the next few days. Specifically, for the price. We've already lowered the price $20,000 than we originally put it up for (which was already reasonably priced). So, we're pretty much non-negotiable in that area, since it's way lower than most of the houses in our neighborhood.

So, if you all could keep us in your prayers, we'd greatly appreciate it!

A Jolly Good Weekend

On Friday night our neighbors, Logan and Leslie, had a few of us from the "hood" over for a weinee roast over their fire pit in the front yard. We must've been having a good time getting to know our neighbors better, because we ended up staying there until about 11 pm. Watley was repeatedly teased for his Florida State sweatshirt, but he definitely needed it on that night. For us, it was pretty cold. If it gets too much colder than that, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But I know it will, so I better just get used to it.

Saturday, Grant and I went to the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Waynesville. Most of our entertainment came from just watching some of the people that were attending it, completely dressed up in their medieval garb. Why people even own medieval garb, I'll never know. But they do, and they were out in full force at the Ren Fest. We saw booths that sold medieval weapons, elf ears (I already have my own God-given elf ears, thank you very much), fairy wings, chain maille bikinis, and so much more! We even watched a real-life joust, and saw a medieval wedding.

Then Sunday, we attended church (we decided on Covenant OPC for those who are wondering), came home, had some gourmet bleu cheese burgers, thanks to Grant, and took a nap. All in all, a fantastic weekend! Next weekend, we're planning to go pumpkin picking, so more to come on that.

It's a mystery!

I completely forgot to blog about something that I told myself I was going to blog about over a month ago. As we were leaving Pinky and SixBit's house our last Sunday in Albuquerque, Grant and I noticed something a little different about our car. Our license plate was encompassed by a holder that read, "Chuck Norris Fears My Guns." Most of my readers automatically get this joke. The whole Chuck Norris fascination that's going on in this country (and was especially popular within our little group from church) is the first part of the joke. The second is about Grant's huge "guns" - his muscles, another popular thing to talk about in our group. So, someone was clever enough to put the 2 jokes together, and made an awesome licence plate holder. Now, an obvious guess would be Cody and Erika, but they have denied this, and, knowing Cody, I'm guessing the conversation went something like this:

Grant: "Cody, did you make this license plate holder and put it on our car without us knowing?"

Cody: "What are you talking about? You have a license plate?"

Grant: "C'mon, Cody, just 'fess up. It's a good joke, and we really do like it!"

Cody: "What are you talking about? I don't even know what your car looks like!"

...etc. For those of you who don't know, Cody is a terrible liar, and often goes off the deep end to exaggerate his point of uninvolvement.

So, "whoever" made us this license plate holder, we thank you, because we really do like it. It makes me smile every time I walk behind the car and see it.

Tag, I'm It!

I just realized that I was "tagged" by Pinky earlier this week, so since I have nothing better to blog about, I thought I'd post MY three-themed Meme.

Three things I am doing right now: Trying to wake up (it's 7:30 on a Saturday), typing, and thinking of a third thing that I'm doing right now and not coming up with anything.

Three nicknames: Kiwi, Kell, Kel-Bel

Three people that make me laugh: Grant, Summer, and Pinky (but she totally brings it on herself!)

Three things on my floor: A book, a blanket, and an empty plastic bag that I need to throw away.

Three things I can do: Make my 4th toe point straight up with all the other pointing down (it totally freaks Grant out), spend money, take decent pictures (totally amateur, of course. I want to take a class someday).

Three things that I love: (these are things, not people) The beach, the mountains, the mall.

Unfortunately, I'm supposed to tag 3 people, so here goes, even though I know they won't do this - Jasmine, Haley, and Cheri.

I didn't realize I was so popular!

Sorry about not updating my blog recently (like you're one to talk, Pinks!), but things have been pretty busy here lately. By the way, I just got out of bed, I don't have my contacts in, and I can't find my glasses anywhere, so I'm squinting, and hoping there aren't too many spelling errors, because I truly am blind as a bat.

Well, let's see...last week, I started a job the same day Grant started his refresher courses at AFIT. I guess I should explain the job part, though...

I had been looking for a job that would be part-time, but wasn't having any luck, so I went to Express Personnel, the temp agency which has never let me down in the past, after my lunch with Susan from school (see below). It was around 4:30 in the afternoon, so there wasn't any time for me to test my keyboarding and other skills, so I just dropped off my resume, and arranged to come back at 9 am on that Friday (this was on a Wednesday).

On Thursday evening, I got a call from Express, saying that an opening had come up, and they wanted to get the ball rolling, so he asked me some questions to see if I would be interested. He explained that it would me an administrative assistant position for 2 months with amazing pay (for me, anyway). Why would I not be interested? I emphatically said yes, and he said he would submit my resume and we would take it from there.

Friday, at 9 am, I arrive at Express, and he comes walking up to the front and tells me that I have an interview at the place he was telling me about at 10:30. So I would quickly have to do some testing, go home and change, and then go to Yellow Springs (which is about 20 minutes from my house) for my interview. The interview went amazing, and they basically told me I had the job. Jeff from Express called me later that afternoon to confirm that I did indeed get the job, and that I would start on Tuesday, since Monday was a holiday.

So that Tuesday, like I said, Grant and I both had "first-days." The job turns out to not be that great - but it's great pay, and we need the money, since we have not sold the house yet, unfortunately, so it's really not that bad at all. In the 2 months that I will be working (although, it looks like it could go longer), we will have enough money to pay for the mortgage and then some, so this is a definite answer to prayer. I guess our other prayer would be that we sell the house within the time that I'm working.

Also, for the first time in my life, I have joined a book club. It's with the AFIT Spouses Association. The only problem with that is, I just bought the book last week, and the discussion about it was last night, and the book is over 500 pages, and I started work the same week I started reading it. Needless to say, I didn't finish by last night, but that was another reason I've been busy...staying up late, waking up early, all to read this book (which I will finish. I only have about 75 pages left). I'm excited about the book club, because I've never been a reader, but I've always wanted to be. This will force me to actually read the books that I pick up.

I have also started going to an aerobics class that meets from 5:30-6:30 in the evening on Mondays and Wednesdays. I was going to a different excercise class that was from 6:45-7:45 in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but now that I'm working, I can't really do that.

I've also joined the Cooking Club with the Spouse Association, and the first gathering for that will be next week. Myself and 2 of my neighbors have really been getting involved with all these clubs and get-togethers, but we seem to be the only new people coming to anything.

Grant has been busy with homework and studying for classes that he doesn't get graded for. However, he needs to spend all this time as preparation for his "real" classes that start next month.

I'm sorry I haven't been updating. I really miss all of you and I've been meaning to call most of you. I've talked to Summer and Edie already, but Megan, I've been meaning to call you, too. I will plan on calling you tonight. You all will find that I'm the worst person to call people. I haven't even called my own sister yet, and we've been here for a month! You all are in my thoughts daily, and I hope everyone is doing well.

Catching up

In the 3 weeks that we've been in Ohio, I've already met up with an old friend from college, and my best friend, Kellie and her fiance. This section of the country is filled with people who went to PCC, so it's not surprising that I'm able to see people that I haven't seen in years!

A girl that I knew since my freshman year is from Xenia, which is maybe 20 minutes away from here. She was in town for a wedding, and gave me a call, and we met for lunch. Even though we weren't the greatest of friends in college, it was great meeting with her, and talking about old times and filling each other in on what we know about our fellow PCCers.
And then there's my closest friend, Kellie. She lives in Indiana now, which is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from here. She asked if her and her fiance, Pat, could come for the weekend, and I insisted that they did! It was a short visit, but now that we're so close, I'm sure there will be plenty of visits between now and the time that Grant and I have to leave.

This is a picture of Kellie and I at the new shopping center in town, The Greene. They just recently opened, so they have all sorts of entertainment, including this guy, who is either extremely tall, or walking on stilts.
Watley enjoyed Pat and Kellie's visit, as well, since he made a new best friend out of the trip.

Phase 6: Home, New Home

So, the last phase of our trip was obviously coming here to Dayton.

We were so tired from our week-long excursion, that we were definitely ready to get there and start getting settled in.

When we arrived, we checked in at our luxurious $38/night hotel. Since we had Watley with us, we had to book a smoking room. Since this was a very classy establishment, the sheets, comfortors, and towels came equipped with several cigarrette burns. The door to the bathroom had a hole in it, apparently where someone put their fist through it. Very classy, I tell you.

Well, we checked in, and immediately when on a search to find our new abode. We wanted to make sure we knew where we were going, because we didn't have a whole lot of time to waste in the morning, since the housing office opened at 8, and the movers were arriving at 8:30. We were having trouble finding our street (the neighborhood is pretty big), and we just happened to find the house of one of Grant's co-workers from Albuquerque who also came for AFIT, but arrived a few months earlier. They had already scouted out our street for us, so we stopped to visit for a while, and they pointed us in the right direction.

We found the house, and started peeking through the windows, trying to get some sense of what we would be living in. At that time, our neighbor was playing frisbee in his backyard, and figured out that we were the newbies, so we talked to him for a while.

The next day we got our keys, met the movers, and we started moving in. Overall, it was a pretty good move. Only our dresser got a little damaged. I'm not happy about it, but I'm not surprised about it, either.

Now, we're pretty much all settled in. Watley's finally getting adjusted, and even making new dog friends! It seems like we're in a good community here, and we've already made some friends. Mrs. J was right, we definitely fit in knowing how to play Euchre - these people up here love it! I'm so glad she taught us how to play.

Thanks, Mrs. J!

Now I might have a new addiction, just like Mrs. J. I haven't started a blog for Watley yet, but I did enter him in the cutest pet photo contest with the following picture, taken when he was a puppy.


Now tell me, how can he not win?!

By the way, the winner gets $1,000!! Watley might actually be good for something after all.

Phase 5: Des Moines, Iowa

The last leg of our trip involved us going to Des Moines to visit friends that we met in Albuquerque, Jenn and Andy. Jenn and I worked at Coca Cola together, and quickly became friends. Several months later, they moved to Des Moines, where Andy was originally from. I was so glad to be able to see them and spend time with them, even if it was just a short visit.

We went to a trendy Italian restaurant in downtown Des Moines, called Centro. The food was excellent!
After our nice dinner, we decided to visit the Iowa State Fair, where mullets and missing teeth were a dime a dozen. Andy and Jenn told us about how every year, the fair awards prizes to the biggest pig, biggest cow, etc. So, we were on a search to find them.
And here it is...Iowa's biggest boar, Waldo. I will give a prize to anyone who can get within 50 pounds of his weight (excluding the few of you who have access to my Ringo account!!).
This is Tom, the second biggest boar. I know, it's a terrible angle to take a picture from, but Tom wasn't exactly cooperating with me.
And this is Blacky, the biggest bull. Again, a prize if you can get within 50 pounds of his enormous weight!

We saw some amazing things, that I'm sure will forever be burned into our memory. We had a great time visiting great friends.

Phase 4: Omaha

The next stop on our trip was Omaha, Nebraska. Grant's dad has been temporarily living in Omaha for about 2 1/2 years now because of a contracting job. We were so happy to be able to spend some time with him. One of the things we did while we were there, was go to the Durham Western Heritage Museum. There was an "Engineer It" exhibit at the museum, where you could build bridges, make boats, make paper airplanes, etc., all to encourage children to become engineers.

This is a picture of Grant making a very intricate paper airplane (there were 35 steps in the instructions!), and getting a little help from his dad.
One of the things I like about Omaha, is the Old Market section, which would be like Old Town in Albuquerque. It's very quaint, and definitely has the old town feel. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the camera with me when we went to Old Market, so I'm stealing this picture I found off the web.
This is the entrance of the Western Heritage Museum. It's an old train station, and it's beautiful inside! Very Art Deco. When we were leaving the museum, we realized that a wedding and reception had been going on. What a beautiful location for a wedding!
Grant's dad's birthday was about a week before we arrived in Omaha. Although, does there really need to be an excuse for ice cream cake? I think not!
His dad lives about 5 minutes away from Standing Bear Lake. So, we took the remote-control sailboat out for a test run. Grant now wants to be a sailor.

Phase 3: South Dakota (Custer State Park/Badlands Nat'l Park)

Well, when I upload my pictures onto my blog, it rearranges them in a different order, so I'll just talk about each one as they appear.

We camped out at Custer State Park for the 2 nights while we were in South Dakota. The park was very beautiful, with dozens of lakes, and a beautiful, scenic road (Needles Highway) that cut straight through the park.

Here is Grant with Watley at one of the lakes. It was Watley's first time swimming! He didn't like it very much at all.
We were also able to visit Badlands National Park. If we had never lived in the Southwest, and seen the Painted Desert, we probably would've been more in awe of it. But, it was very similar to the Painted Desert, which we've been to a couple of times.
When you're driving along I-90, approaching Mitchell, South Dakota, you see about a million signs advertising the Corn Palace. So, we felt obligated to see it. Funny thing was, when you take the exit, there's no signs telling you which way to go. I didn't know what to expect. I was imagining a great palace in the middle of a corn field made out of nothing but corn. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed to find that it was in the middle of town, and not at all made out of corn, but only decorated with corn. We found out that the domes on top are made out of styrofoam.
Okay, back to Custer State Park. Our campsite was near Sylvan Lake, so we walked to the lake close to sunset and got some incredible pictures!
And this picture is especially for Mrs. J, who refers to Watley as "Deery Lou," and compares him to a deer. As soon as I saw him drinking the lake water, I grabbed the camera with Mrs. J in mind. "As the deer panteth for the water...."

We immensely enjoyed our time in South Dakota. There's so much beauty and variety, it reminded me of our long lost state of New Mexico!

Phase 2: South Dakota (Crazy Horse/Sturgis/Mt. Rushmore)

After leaving Colorado, we headed up through Wyoming and into southwestern South Dakota.

When we got into the Black Hills region of South Dakota, we went straight to the Crazyhorse monument. They charged an entrance fee to get in, but thanks to Grant's Air Force sticker on the windshield, they waived the fee, since he is active duty! We didn't get any closer than the picture shows to the monument, but we went in the museum. They allowed Watley in, which we appreciated, since we found out ahead of time that pets are not allowed at Mt. Rushmore.
We were in this region of South Dakota during Sturgis Bike Week (the 2nd biggest motorcycle gathering in the country) - which doesn't take place exclusively in Sturgis, South Dakota, but the entire southwestern section of the state. This is just a sampling of the thousands of motorcycles we saw during our 2 night stay in the area. I got a kick out of all the big, burly, biker dudes sipping on their Starbucks Frappucino's and Latte's.
I'm glad that our stay in the area overlapped with Sturgis, because it only made our stay more memorable. Although, we were pretty sick of motorcycles by the time we left!

Here is the ever-popular Mt. Rushmore. Grant was attempting to make it look like I was one of the people on the monument.
Backing up a little bit, while we were driving through Wyoming, I saw a sign for a town that said "Population: 1." I asked Grant over the walkie-talkie if he saw the sign. He said not only did he not see it, but he didn't believe me. I convinced him to turn around, and when he saw that I was right, we decided to take a picture of the sign, for fear that no one else would believe us.

Phase 1: Rocky Mountain National Park

Well, it's time for Phase 1 of our semi-cross country trip.

Our first day, we headed off for Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. When we got there, we went straight to our campsite to set our tent up for the night. When we checked in at the campsite, the ranger told us that there had been some recent bear sightings in the area, and I immediately feared for Watley's life! Lucky for him, we didn't see any bears that night.

The next morning, we ate breakfast, packed up our camping gear, and took off for a drive around the park. We heard about Bear Lake, so we decided to go there first. It was smaller than we thought it would be, but very beautiful!Then, we drove along Trail Ridge Road. We saw some incredible scenery, and at some points, were actually above the timber line (over 11,500 feet)!

We also stopped to take some pictures of Long's Peak, which, I believe, is the highest point in Colorado.

It's really a beautiful park, and if you haven't visited it yet, we highly recommend it!

Greetings From Omaha

We are here in Omaha, visiting Grant's dad (who is here for some contract work). We've had a great trip so far - driven about 1,500 miles, seen 3 national parks, a few memorials, and a few thousand motorcycles (we happened to be in southwestern South Dakota during the Sturgis Bike Week).

Details will be coming soon, once we get settled in our new home. I'll break our trip up into phases, so it won't be so overwhelming (or boring) to read.

We already miss our Albuquerque home very, very much. Although I have to say, the move STILL has not settled in. I think right now, we're thinking that we're just on a vacation seeing the country, and we'll be back "home" in a few days. Well, we will be "home" in a few days, it's just that it will be a different home.

Boxes!

Jorge and Castro did an okay job of packing us up. The reason I say "okay" is because after they thought they were done, I realized that they had missed a whole closet, and some other things that they "thought" were staying here. So, they had to pack up a couple more boxes. I think they were just ready to go home.

Anyways, look at what they've done to our house!

And so it begins...

Right now as I'm typing this, Jorge and Castro are in the process of getting all our stuff packed up (nice and neatly, I hope!). This is the beginning of the end of our stay in the great ABQ.

These last couple days have been pretty busy, to say the least, what with getting things organized for our trip, making camping reservations, hanging out with our friends one last time, cleaning, praying that our house sells soon, etc.

This whole moving thing still has not really set in with me yet. I'm sure once the house is empty tomorrow afternoon, I'll finally catch on that this is actually happening. But for the time being, I'm living in sweet denial.