Our Serendipitous Journey

Yesterday we got a birthday invite in the mail for our nephew AND a Facebook invite for a Black Family gathering in August. This is the first time I got pretty sad about being gone because we had to RSVP "no" to both. I was pretty bummed that we saw Andy's extended family for the last time a few months ago and I wasn't sure when I would see them again. Andy and I had some time in the morning to be at the house and organize the few things we had left. I brought some furniture to a friend and went to another friend's son's 1-year birthday party and Andy met up with his family for dinner. I met up with them for drinks afterwards and was looking forward to spending a final night out with his family. A few minutes later our aunt, uncle, and a couple cousins walked in. I thought it was so coincidental and great that they were out on the town at the same place as us! Then some more people came and I figured it out. They were having a party for Andy's dad...

I am so grateful for these last 2 weeks of being in town but not focusing on packing and organizing. We have been busy spending time with friends and family and finishing up things we need to do around here to get ourselves ready to leave. Andy's family from Texas was in town so it was great to see them before we go. We also got to spend time with my aunt and cousins on the water over the 4th of July. One thing that we are realizing is that it will be harder to see out of town family unless we coordinate it. That was definitely something we took for granted with so much family being in MN. I've also had time to get back to the house and clean up without feeling too rushed. It's been good to really make sure the house is looking good for the new owner. I've also rechecked the cabinets for things I have forgotten about 5 times. I did that once and found a whole shelf I hadn't packed so I'm a little paranoid that I'll leave something behind now. Sp...

Today is the day we move all of our stuff into pods to get shipped to PA.  We had a pretty crazy storm last night and woke up to no power.  Good thing it's sunny out! 2:00-moving out is pretty much done! We need to bring a few more things a few more places and do one final cleaning.  I have 2 weeks to get that done though.  It's hard to believe the house is empty! Everything will ship to PA early next week so it will be there when we arrive.  We are still without power from that crazy storm last night.  I'm glad I emptied  the fridge and freezer yesterday.  Timing could not have been better for that.  We have been in this house for 7.5 years and NEVER lost power. I guess that's the universe telling us it's time to go.    

I decided to start this blog to keep everyone informed of our happenings. I realized that I kept repeating the same thing to the same people and other people weren't updated on what was going on. I will try to keep everyone up to date here. To back up a bit: Andy and I got the offer to move to the Philadelphia area back in March. We knew it would be an option but we weren't counting on anything until we saw it in writing. There is still an office in MN, but the PA office is where the curtain wall factory will be. This is a great opportunity for Andy to be near where his projects are, mostly in New York. I turned in my resignation at Sky Oaks Elementary in April once we had everything settled. While it's hard to leave the school where I started my career, teaching jobs are everywhere so it's easy for me to relocate in relation to my job. Little did I know that I had to retake ALL of the Praxis, specific to Pennsylvania, and then get a criminal check, FBI finge...