We have arrived!

We had a pretty uneventful trip out - the dogs slept the whole trip. We spent the night in Lawrence, KS and got here yesterday at about 4:30 PM MT. I'm going to have to get used to typing that. I had a pretty good headache from the altitude last night but felt much better today. The dogs were so happy to be out of the car last night. Patty and TO have really lush grass in their back yard and Milo and Annie couldn't get enough of it. They spent about three hours rolling around in the grass out back. Emilyann and Meredithkay love the dogs.

We got into the house last night and spent the night on the air mattress. Everything was good. The house is a '70s split level. The owners aren't really up on maintaining a house and had a handyman do all of their work. I can see why they couldn't sell it when it was on the market - it would be really easy to fix up because there are really only small cosmetic issues like loose baseboards and yard work. If we decided to buy it and the price was right it would be pretty easy to fix up. It's on a good lot and the rooms and layout are good. I'm tempted to do things to it but will have to keep reminding myself that we're renting :)

Patty and TO are right down the street so that will be really good. We have run errands most of the day today. We went to the huge REI downtown and I got all kinds of stuff for my camping trip. I'm going to pack my backpack when I get home and see what else (if anything) I need. I'm getting really excited, especially now that I feel more ready.

Our cable and internet will get hooked up tomorrow so that will be great - I'll be able to download pictures from the trip and it will feel a little more like home.

It's been a while since I posted since I haven't had internet access at the house. We broke down the office right after my last entry.

My mom stayed in town an extra day last weekend and really helped me get everything packed. I thought we were in really good shape, but all of those odds and ends really add up quickly.

Monday ended up being my last day at work since the movers were dropping off the trailer on Tuesday and wanted me to be home. It worked out well since I really had a lot to do there anyway.

They dropped the trailer off in the driveway - it was normal 18 wheeler size but only 28 feet long so the trucks haul two at a time across the country. Milo was really afraid of the trailer.

I picked up Eric from the airport on Tuesday night. I was SO happy to have him home again. He can't wait to get back to Denver - the humidity is really bad right now and it's totally killing him. He's happy to be home with me and the dogs though.

Wednesday morning the movers came and loaded the trailer. It took them three hours to move everything! We had a late lunch at Cameli's and then went to the closing at 4:00. Everything went really smoothly and we were out by 5:15. The buyer's agent was killing us - she showed up 20 minutes late and then wanted to go over everything she missed three times. So annoying. Eric went skating Wednesday night and Elizabeth and I went on a good walk. I wore my Keen sandles to break them in for the week in the wilderness.

After sleeping on the air mattress Wednesday night, I went and got my hair highlighted Thursday morning followed by lunch with my coworkers since we didn't have time for that before I left. We went to Roasters and it was nice that Eric got to meet everyone. All of the managers came out - I think it was the first time I saw everyone together outside of the office.

We had dinner with Linda, Katie, Jeremy, Lee Anne, Jodi, Stan and Mikaela on Thursday night at Pappasitos. It was really good to see everyone. Eric's mom got us a really nice picnic set for our hikes in the mountains and Stan wrote us a beautiful letter to say goodbye for now. I'm pretty sure he had everyone at the table crying.

Friday morning we worked on cleaning and packing the rest of the house. We had lunch with the guys from Wiretree at Taqueria and went back and tried to get everything left in the car. We ended up having to ship three boxes, but got everything else in. We drove with Matt to Birmingham and met my folks and Elizabeth for dinner at their place. We had a really good time seeing everyone. Elizabeth had to put her cat, Sabine, down on Thursday and I feel so bad for her. This is a really rough week.

It's Saturday morning now and we are about to hit the road for Denver. We need to re-pack the car and then we will be on our way. I will try to take pictures to post in route. :)

I haven't had a chance to write since Monday so here's a recap of my week:

On Tuesday I had an uneventful day at work. I'm concerned about my replacement since he doesn't seem to have a real good idea of things, but he's new so I need to give him some time. After work I picked up Danno and we went up to Alpharetta for dinner with the Windward crew I used to work with. We went to Bucca De Beppo and had a lot of fun. Gale organized everything and Stuart and his wife came along with David and Mark. We had a really good time and I will miss everyone a lot.

Wednesday morning I woke up and got ready for work as usual. When it was time to leave I went to take the trash to the curb and my can was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere and then noticed that the nozel was missing off the hose so obviously we had been vandalized. I called 911 and while I was on the phone with the operator I walked around the side of the house. It was then that I noticed that the air conditioners were gone. I was totally freaked. I had no idea that air conditioning was something that people steal. Apparently this is actually pretty common - the units are stolen and stripped of all their copper which can be sold for about $15 each. They used the trash can to carry the AC units and rolled them right through my front yard. Unbelievable. I spent the rest of the day filing police reports, talking to our insurance company and setting up quotes for new air conditioners. I also went to the dermatoligist and finalized everything with the moving company to arrive next Tuesday.

On Thursday we had new AC units installed to the tune of $3750. While the AC man was here a group of kids stopped and asked him where they could go to sell copper. I was stunned.

My parents came into town and when we were getting ready to go to dinner a neighbor rang the doorbell. He found my trash can and both AC units in a vacant lot down the street. They were hidden and intact. They were stashed until someone could come back and strip them down. So we put them back in the can and wheeled everything into the garage. We now have spares.

Today I took my dad to the dermatoligist because he had what we thought was a spider bite on his ankle. It was swollen and nasty looking so we wanted to get it looked at. Turns out it was infected so we're really happy we went. I got my hair cut and went to lunch with all the girls from Cedartown, or at least the ones who were in town this week. When I got home I had to give the dogs baths and then Dwight came over to groom them one last time. I just found out that while I was gone for lunch my dad backed into my sister's car - she was parked in the street. Instead of going to the Bodies exhibit like they planned, they went to get an estimate for the damage. That really stinks. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be better. My mom has been helping me pack so I can go see them in B'ham Saturday and Sunday.

I think that's all the drama - hopefully the rest of the week will be smooth. Eric comes home on Tuesday night!

Elizabeth and I walked to the zoo yesterday afternoon. The weather had cooled off a lot and gave us a glimpse of fall over the weekend which was wonderful. Unfortunately it had gotten a lot warmer by the time we went for a walk, but it wasn't too bad.

The animals were really active and for the most part they were all out. All ten of the otters were out playing so I was really happy to see them before leaving.

After the zoo we met up with Matt and went to eat and saw Taledega Nights which was funny. I got home around 9 so I pretty much just got ready for bed at that point. I packed up some of the garage before the zoo so I don't feel too bad about my progress there.

We may not be getting the house Eric liked after all - he's not liking the management company right now so unless he gets that straight it looks like we might be doing something else. I guess we'll have it figured out soon...

Jodi, Stan and Mikaela spent the night last night. We had a fun day of packing, watching movies and playing with the dogs. We went to Stone Soup Kitchen this morning and had a really good breakfast. Spencer has his 7th birthday party today so they just left to get over to the party.

We finished packing the kitchen yesterday and now the only major things I have left to do are disassemble furniture and pack the garage. The temperature is only in the 60s today so I think I ought to get that done while it's cool.

I really miss Eric so I'm just trying to keep busy and not think about it. The packing has been good for that so far, but I don't have too much left. Luckily he'll be coming home a week from Tuesday so we're on the downhill side.

We've had a busy couple of days. Eric found us a house to rent in Stapleton, CO so I've got to get him a check in the mail for that. It looks like a really nice house and they've got a skate park and dog park in the neighborhood which will be really cool.

My mom came over on Thursday and we spent most of the day packing. We packed almost everything in the kitchen and I had packed the guest bedroom before she got here. Not much to do now. Probably another day or two of packing and I will be done - I will try to get most of it finished this weekend.

We also had the AC man and roofer come yesterday. The AC cost $140 and the roof repair was free. I put a new light bulb in the crawl space and took Jake the receipts for repairs. We are now officially ready to close. I think we came out of the inspection pretty well with only those few things. I do have to run around and make sure all the windows open, but since we've never had any issues I'm not worried.

Today my mom and I had breakfast at Thumbs Up and then went to the Chocolate Exhibit at Fernbank. Then we went over to the Civic Center to see Bodies The Exhibition. It was really cool, but kind of weird at the same time. I'm glad I went though. After that we went over to Cameli's and got some good pizza and came home and vegged with the doggies.

I don't really have too much time to think about the move at the moment. Of course I'm packing and everything, but I'm not really thinking about it in the larger sense. It's going to be really hard to leave, but I'm really excited about getting out there and starting our lives in CO. I've been talking about starting a business with my mom which could be really great.

Jodi and Mikaela are going to come down to see us tomorrow and I think my mom is going to head home at some point tomorrow so she can spend some time with dad. Hopefully I'll get to see Elizabeth too. My sister is going to come home next week. I'm really glad she's going to get a break so I can see her before we leave. She'll be heading back to Germany the day before Eric flys in so unfortunately they will just miss each other. I exepect her to visit us in Colorado though because she has so many frequent flyer miles (at least I'm hoping).

Things are still going well, but a little crazy. I've been communicating with Eric daily but I really miss him. I'm trying not to think about it too much because I'm sure that will make it worse. I'm almost half way through our time apart so at least that is good. He does seem to really like his new job and is working hard to find a house to rent out there. It sounds like he's having a lot of fun with Patty, TO and the girls - I really wish I was out there.

I cleaned up my laptop today and saved all my work files to the shared drive for my replacement. I tried to send him all the links and contacts I have so he won't be lost. I'm planning on having him set up and handling everything starting next week so we should have at least a little time to settle in. I only have five more working days left - it's going by really fast.

Mom is coming over tomorrow and we'll work on packing. I'm really hoping to get a lot done this weekend so I don't have the panic of the "last weekend" set in next week. I really want things to continue going smoothly.

Last night I went out to the Thai restaurant in East Atlanta with Elizabeth. Matt was out of town also so it was nice to just be the two of us. Tonight I just vegged and watched movies. I know I should be packing but I really needed some down time. I did mow the lawn and pull weeds right after I got home so at least I got a decent workout. Everything I'm doing now I keep thinking about it being one of the last times - I will probably only mow the grass one more time! Closing is two weeks from today. It still doesn't seem real that the house is going to be gone. I really love our house - I just wish we could move it to Denver.

I booked a moving company today. Since we don't know where we're going to live in Denver yet I went with the "cube" system - they will store our stuff for 30 days at no cost. That should give Eric some breathing room to find a house out there. He already called on one he likes from the outside and he's going to go out tomorrow evening with TO to check out some different areas of town.

Eric started his new job today. He was in orientation sessions until 2:00 PM his time so he should be pretty oriented. He got his desk and computer set up which is more than I can say for my first several weeks at Cingular. Of course, that was the fault of my supervisor, not the company so it looks like Eric's new boss is on top of things.

I made some appointments for the house repairs to get done so we'll be ready to close. We still haven't received written confirmation that the buyer is accepting our counter offer for repairs, but we have a verbal. I'm not sure why the written is taking so long. Oh well.

This weekend has been pretty good. Eric ended up driving almost straight through to Denver. The hotels he stopped at were all full so he just took a nap in the car at a rest stop for a few hours. He arrived Saturday morning which I'm sure was quite a surprise to Patty & TO. He's had a really good time since he got there and it sounds like Emilyann is loving it. He put her on the phone when I called last night and she said that she didn't ever want him to leave. How sweet.

We came to an agreement on repairs for the house so we're actully locked in. It seems so unreal for everything to be happening so fast. I met the guy who is buying the house and really liked him - it always makes me feel better when I feel good about the person.

Elizabeth and I hit the road for Birmingham on Friday at about 3:00. It took us about four hours to get there which wasn't good but I'm glad she was with me because we had lots to talk about and it kept me distracted from the traffic. We went to dinner at Bella Restaurant in Birmingham which was fantastic. We went with both of our mothers and they got along really well. I can see a lot of Elizabeth in her mom and I think I'm the same way with mine so that was really cool. My mom and I went back for a late lunch on Saturday - the chicken salad and fruit is amazing.

I found out that my dad was short one person for his yearly fishing expedition so I volunteered to go since I have always wanted to. It will work out really well because we leave September 3rd so we'll have been in Denver for a week and then my dad and I will meet up in Minnesota to leave for fishing. I had to overnight my paperwork to the Canada Immigration center so hopefully everything will come back within a couple weeks. We're going to canoe up through the boundry waters into Canada. I am really excited because I think it will be amazing. I will have to keep a journal while I'm there.

I'm going to go to dinner with Matt & Elizabeth tonight and then keep packing. I ended up packing four boxes during the day on Friday but since we don't have much left out I'm not too worried. A couple boxes a day and I'll be done in no time. I just have to figure out which moving company we will go with so I can get that all lined up.

I am starting this blog to document my crazy life. We are in the process of moving to Denver, Colorado. Eric left this morning and I am off work today so I'm alone in the house with the dogs.

We have been talking about moving to Denver for years now. When Eric's grandfather passed away at the end of June it really kind of kicked us in gear. We don't want to look back with any regrets so we decided to actually do this. Eric put his resume out and had a great job within a couple weeks and the house sold with seven days on the market so I think this is really meant to be.

It's funny how much knowing you are leaving makes you really aware of everything. Even the traffic doesn't seem as bad since I know I'll only have to sit in it for work eight more days. Eric is really bummed about leaving his job, but luckily they all want him to work remotely so he will be able to stay in touch and involved with his company.

I've packed one box today and need to pack some clothes. Elizabeth and I will be leaving in a couple hours to head over to Birmingham to see the folks. It's really cool that our parents live so close together and we can carpool.