Whirlwind

Ryan and I took a whirlwind trip to Virginia to buy a house. We found one that suited our needs (more than one bathroom! dishwasher! garage!) and in a good neighborhood with good schools so we put an offer in. We found out this morning our offer was accepted! Yahoo! We're so excited. The house isn't anything fancy but it's just great for us and affordable, which of course is key in our situation since I will be the only bread winner. I keep thinking of how I felt standing on the deck in the backyard, surrounded by humongous trees, breathing in the humidity, listening to the breeze blowing through the leaves and the birds chirping with little mists of rain falling on my nose thinking, man, this is my own little paradise. I felt at home. The humidity sure felt good--kind of like when you get off the airplane in Hawaii and the tropical air hits you. My dried up desert skin was just soaking it all up. And when it rains it's so nice because it's a warm rain when it's humid. I loved it. I dipped my feet in the Atlantic for the first time while we were there. Much warmer than what I'm used to in NorCal and the sand was so soft. Now of course there are less desirable things about VA just like in any city, but if you overlook those things it really is a beautiful place. I love the feeling I get of being in the south (even though technically I don't think VA is considered the south, is it?)--huge magnolia trees everywhere, colonial houses everywhere, southern accents everywhere, and the southern flare you get in restaurants i.e. grits, collard greens, hush puppies, etc. It's so different from West Haven, Utah.

So moving date is set for July 19th as of today. It will be quite the trip but I am looking forward to seeing a little of the U.S. on the way. So all I can think about is moving and the house and all the things we're going to do to it. I wish I had more time in the day to focus on that, but thank goodness I have a job. Without it I don't know what we'd do. I have a feeling though that between the kitchen cabinets Ryan will be making and all the packing and projects I have to do, we are going to have some late nights ahead of us. This all feels a little strange, knowing what Virginia is like and knowing that we'll be leaving our lives here and the adjustment the kids are going to have to make-- strange indeed. But it's strange in a good way. Things have all fallen into place and we are just so extremely thankful. I've said this before, but we know the road ahead is going to be anything but easy, but boy are we grateful for all that's happened. We know who's looking after us.