Sunday, July 11, 2010

Happy Trails!!!

Life has a crazy way of throwing a curve ball when you least expect it. This is certainly the case for us right now as we have exactly 2 1/2 weeks to pack up an entire house, host a moving sale and get it all to Maryland from North Carolina!! Not to mention this emotional rollercoaster I am on now as a result! There are so many positives to moving such as:
1. I will be back with my family and where no matter where I have lived I have always referred to as "home". When I was little, I thought all that "home is where the heart is" stuff was just some sappy crap some sissy made up to put on cute plaques to make a couple of bucks. I thought home is where your stuff is,,,,,,DUH......now I am realizing just what that means and that sissy was actually right and probably got rich as well in the process!
2. I get to be there for my nephew and he will know who I am and not have to "get used" to me everytime he sees me, I will watch him grow up and my kids and him will be tight whether they like it or not. I fully expect that i get asked for him to spend the night or them to spend the night after family functions like we all did when we were kids. And Chad and Holly.....hope you don't have any plans for halloween because I already have plans for the three of them to go trick or treating together and of course Kenzie if she is available ;).
3. Chip is taking a really good job!! This is what got all of this started in the first place. I am so proud of him! He will be working for the university of maryland making a good salary and will get to finish school for free as well as our children will get to go to any university of md school for free as well!! Having two girls, we have always figured one could get married and one could go to college due to the expense of each.....well look out men, both girls can be on the "market" when they are 40 years old!! :)
4. All you can eat crabs!!! -enough said there!

So as you can see there are lots of things to be excited about. However, people have such an impact on your life and I have met so many wonderful people down here!
1. My neighborhood people!! I absolutely love my neighborhood and will truly miss the "farm crew". I will miss our fun fridays which was the perfect end to many long work weeks, I will miss scrapping nights....which by the way never did any crafty stuff until here...huge thanks for that!! I will miss walking and bunco even though I didn't get to too many of them, I will miss yard sale-ing, and so many other things. There has not been anywhere else that I have lived that I made so many wonderful friends in the neighborhood and had so much fun on so many levels! Where else can you drink a beer, watch a chick flick, then bust out some scrap book pages, while watching the kids play, drink some more and then wake up first thing in the morning and go to yard sales!! LOL. However, I will be down for visits, and will attend any functions going on at that time, plus there is facebook and email and the phone!! Hoping I can get down for the southern xmas show and we can do that again....hmmmm...pencil that in ladies!! :)
2. My work- yeah I know, at times, it is so frustrating, but I have met some really great people there also, and I have learned a ton!!!
3. Of course we go to one family but leave another, that is always the hard part of marrying someone from another state....though I will say it makes the whole "whose house do we go to first and when on holidays a whole lot easier" hee hee. They have been so supportive and I know they will really miss the girls. Though it will make our visits down "extra special" just like our time in Maryland has been the past 7 years.

So as the Johannes family starts a new chapter, I assure everyone that the book will not close, we will be down to visit whether you like it or not, we will bug everyone to have fun friday when we come down or hang out, we will be down for certain holidays and we will always be just an email, text, call, or facebook post away. It is so bittersweet as I look forward to memories to come, look back at memories made, look forward to the people I left once before and sadly back at the ones I will leave behind. Happy Trails to everyone and we WILL meet again!! Love you all!!