Progress

We are really starting to make progress towards this move! Which is good, because we are at 13 days and counting. We've almost had a few meltdowns between trying to tow Nick's Bronco and getting our packers/movers all set up. Thankfully though, God is good and what could have been major fiascos (us not getting our stuff moved, having to drive 3 cars to Georgia) have turned out alright.

Some of the major things accomplished in the last couple days:

-A moving company has already signed on to move us & is coming to check things out on Thursday
- We met with a property manager and we're taking in all the paperwork tomorrow
- We might actually make money renting our house
- We have bought a trailer for Nick's Bronco (since we'll be moving again in less than a year)
- Nick has started out processing & has his clearing paperwork
- We have packed all of our liquids and candles, since the Army won't move those
- We have booked a hotel en route and have a place to stay the night we get to Georgia
- The housing people in Georgia know we're coming

Recovering

Man, I am SO glad it's the weekend. We are thoroughly enjoying getting some time to relax. Nick really hasn't had to go in to work much since his replacement took over, but between visitors and the chaos of getting ready to move, I'm tired!

We had some more fun times hanging out with Mike but he is on his way back to Germany. Our other friends, the K's, had a little party on Thursday night before he left. I don't know the next time we'll all be able to hang out, so that was definitely a good time.

We found out at the last minute that our old youth pastor and his family were planning on coming into town last night. They were going to stay with us but one of the kids got sick, so they didn't end up coming. As much as we would've loved to see them, the timing was probably not the best, so it all ended up working out. And, we were able to be amazingly productive yesterday too!

Scout got dropped off at the vet in the morning and had quite the day, poor baby. He originally went in to get his teeth cleaned and one of his teeth pulled. He had a gross infected tooth when we first rescued him and they did something with it, but somehow it wasn't totally pulled. So, that was the tooth I wanted pulled.

Well, once they put him under, they saw another tooth that needed to go, so they went for it. He also had something funky going on with his eye this week, so they checked it out & sent him home with some eye drops. They also checked out his ears and he had yet another ear infection, so he came home with some ear drops too.

I'm really glad they were so thorough, but at the end of the day he had 2 teeth pulled, his teeth cleaned, an ear infection and an eye infection and came home with 3 different meds. He's doing really well actually, but I just felt bad that there were so many issues with my poor dog.

The most exciting part of the day though was that Nick got his Bronco working! It's a 1971, and let's just say it's "moody". It has literally been sitting in our garage not working since about March of 2008. He's been tinkering with it on and off ever since, but to no avail. He ended up taking it to the auto center on post and was able to DRIVE IT HOME! Very exciting! We were hoping to get it running before we had to move it (we're going to tow it behind one of our other cars-which has been interesting in and of itself), and so that was huge!

We were also supposed to have an appointment with a property manager, but that got moved to Monday. I feel like we're finally making progress! Only about 2 more weeks to go, CRAZY!

Visitor!

I mentioned before that one of Nick's old roommates was coming to visit. I was wrong though when I said we hadn't seen him since our wedding 3 years ago. I completely forgot that he visited right before Nick deployed 2 years ago. Anyway, he got here on Monday & will be here until Friday. So far, we've BBQ'd and gone to a minor league baseball game.

Mike at the baseball game

Unfortunately, our home team lost, but it was still definitely a good time. Especially because hot dogs & sodas were only $1 each, woo! Tonight we're going out to dinner at one of our favorite brewery restaurants, and then tomorrow Nick's other roommate from college & his wife are having a party. Definitely a great visit so far! Hopefully we'll be able to get a group picture before Mike leaves.

I Think We Like Austin

We spent yet another day in Austin yesterday- that would be 4 times in a week for me. We are definitely trying to take advantage of being this close to such an awesome city while we still have time. It was such an awesome day.

I took Nick to a new Mexican restaurant that Alice introduced me to. I think it's officially our new favorite Mexican restaurant! Mmm. So good! My mouth is watering just thinking about it, and we've already had dinner. Then, we went to a local park and ended up kayaking around the river for 2 hours. It was really fun, although my biceps are a little sore today. It was so relaxing and wonderful though, especially since it's been so hot out! Then afterwards, we took a little dip in the river, which is fed by the spring Alice & I went to. Oh, and I looked it up, and apparently the spring averages about 68 degrees year-round! Ya, I knew it felt FREEZING! Quite a contrast when it's about 100+ outside.

We also had our last Sunday in the nursery today. Kind of weird and sad, but it was really fun, as usual. I think it's even weirder to think that we only have a few more weeks at our church. Anyway though, we (and 2 other adults) had about 15 three year olds and thoroughly enjoyed playing with play-doh, eating snack, singing Bible songs and just playing. Hopefully we'll be able to pick back up with working in the nursery in Georgia.

Nick's friend Mike is coming tomorrow for a few days. We have lots of hanging out, and eating good food planned, as well as a minor league baseball game. Nick shouldn't have to work too much, thankfully, although he's not officially out-processing yet. Should be a fun week ahead!

Ready For the Weekend!

Things seem to be getting busier and busier as we gear up for this move. Unfortunately, that means we haven't gotten all that much accomplished yet as far as the move goes. We still have time, but, like I've mentioned before, I'm ready to check some of the major items off the list. We'll get there. Needless to say, Nick and I are both ready for the weekend! I realized though, that I have severely neglected my blog this week in the busyness.

Nick absolutely loved his cooking class on Sunday! His favorite part was the venison, which was so delicious, he is ready to "go kill some deer". Sounds good to me! And luckily, there are plenty to hunt in Georgia. Hopefully, he'll have a bit more success than he did with turkeys. I got to eat the yummy peach & berry cobbler & a peach salad that he made. Mmmmm!

I also ended up going back to Austin on Tuesday (because I haven't been there enough recently, ha ha) to hang out with the lovely Alice. We ended up eating some Mexican food for lunch and going swimming at a local spring that is 70 degrees year-round. Oh my goodness, 70 has never felt so cold in my life! It took us like 20 minutes to actually get in the water and then we had to keep swimming to keep warm. It was pretty amusing! But, when it's 100 out, the contrast is CRAZY. It felt better later on in the day (we originally got there at about 10:30am) and we did end up getting used to it. It was a crazy feeling though. The weirdest part was when we'd stick our hands out of the water & the outside air felt like a sauna.

Next week, one of Nick's buddies from college is coming to visit! We haven't seen him since our wedding, and he just got back from Iraq. Pretty exciting! Then, I think we'll hopefully get things moving with this move. Fingers crossed!

So Long, Farewell

Well, Nick and I were officially "farewelled" last night at his unit's Hail and Farewell. For all you non-Army folks, a Hail and Farewell is a dinner where they welcome the new people coming in and say goodbye to those leaving the unit. So, since we're leaving soon, we got to stand up in front of everybody and the battalion commander said some stuff about us and we got these:

Roses for me

Battalion Colors for Nick

At the bottom, they put a battalion pin, Nick's rank and a plaque with his name, how long he was in the unit & what his responsibilities were (I cut it out of the picture). Pretty cool! I can't wait to hang it up...although that won't be until we get wherever we're going after Georgia.

Anyway, the actual Hail & Farewell was interesting. It was weird because most of the people we knew well from the unit are already gone. So, although it was a big deal for us, I don't know that it was a big deal for many other people, ha ha. It is definitely time to go though. We've been in this unit for 2.5 years, and it's so completely different than when we got here. We're ready for something just completely new and different. So it's definitely an exciting time for us and we're excited to get going already.

Nick's replacement took over yesterday, woohoo! We can finally start getting the big stuff done for the move. Only about 3.5 more weeks!

Good Times in Austin

We're still trying to make the most of our limited time left in Texas. On Saturday, we visited our favorite BBQ place (oh, I'm going to miss you, Rudy's!) and then went to a comedy club in Austin. We went with a few friends to see John Caparulo, who was soooo funny! He just has this hilariousness about him and just had some really entertaining stories and observations. Definitely a good time!

Then today, we drove back down to Austin so Nick could finally take that cooking class I gave him as an anniversary gift. He's there right now and I'm hanging out at Coffee Bean (yet another Austin perk). I'm excited to see what he learns to cook- should be interesting as this restaurant specializes in wild game. He said he might try to save some food for me too, woohoo!

It's still crazy hot here! We're going on the 3rd week of a heat advisory, ick. It's wreaking havoc on my allergies, which is never fun. I'm so ready to be done with summer!