Oh, July.
A month I was both anxiously anticipating and dreading all
at the same time. I HATE MOVING. Have I ever mentioned that? You would think
after living in West Virginia, Florida, California, Utah, and back to Florida
in the last five years (plus two separate moves in Utah and two in Florida)
that I would be an expert and it would be a piece of cake by now, but it’s not
and I’m not.
We got home from our Utah trip, enjoyed the Fourth of July,
and set the dreaded dates for moving. To touch briefly on the 4th,
Brian had the day off and we spent it at the beach at Honeymoon Island with a
picnic lunch and lots of swimming, then headed home to get cleaned up, eat some
Buffalo Wild W
*1\
ings, and catch fireworks at downtown Clearwater overlooking
the ocean. It was pretty much the perfect, all-American day.
The next weekend, we started packing and moving. We enticed
my grandma with Wimbledon to come over and be at the house while Tatum napped
so we could start taking some stuff over to the house. It felt good to start
getting stuff packed up and out of there, especially a lot of boxes that we
never unpacked before in our apartment because we just didn’t have the room. I
was doing a happy dance for our third bedroom and garage at the house!
The next week, we spent most of our time packing and
prepping for the big move on the 14th. I got everything packed up,
we rented a moving truck for the day, and we had so much help from our friends
and family! We had everything packed into the moving truck, driven to our
house, and unloaded inside the house in an hour and a half flat. SUCH GREAT
FRIENDS. It took some time to get the house in order and I’m still adjusting to
a smaller kitchen, but we got unpacked in record time and all set up before I
left for Maryland/West Virginia the next weekend.
Onto that trip… I have the best husband ever. My parents
will tell you that they’re witness to the fact that Tatum and I both are
grumpier before Brian arrives. He always encourages me to visit family a few
days before he flies up so that I’m not bound to his PTO schedule, so Tatum and
I flew up on Saturday the 21st and came home on the 29th.
We’ve been saving all Brian’s PTO for the holidays this year, so he flew up on
a Friday evening (the 27th) and flew home with us on Sunday evening.
Talk about a trooper! He was literally there for less than 48 hours and spent
time with all my parents plus attended the wedding (the main reason for the
trip) with me.
The start of the trip was rough. I specifically booked a
flight that left at 8 PM on Saturday so that Tatum and I could spend the whole
day with Brian and then hopefully she would fall asleep on the plane. We were
supposed to arrive at 10:10 PM. Our flight wound up taking off 45 minutes late,
Tatum didn’t sleep the whole flight, and as we were about to land in Baltimore
1000 ft off the ground, we were suddenly shooting back up to the sky. They
tried to land 3 times but the winds and storm were so bad that they rerouted us
to Philadelphia. Oh, joy. We wound up landing back in Baltimore at 1 AM, got our
bags and were in the car with my dad at 1:45, and Tatum finally fell asleep
once she was in her car seat. Talk about a long day.
Sunday, we were up by 9 am despite the previous late night.
We had a huge breakfast with my dad and stepmom and hung out and played before
heading to West Virginia. We stopped in the middle to have a dinner and girl’s
night with my best friends from college. I love trips home because it’s an
excuse for everyone to get together and we don’t get to very often! My friend
Sam has a little girl who’s a year younger than Tatum and the two of them sat
together and laughed and shared food and it was the cutest thing. Three hours
later (the waitress probably hated us) and we were on the road again headed to
my mom and stepdad’s house.
Growing up, I probably took for granted how much their house
is a child’s paradise. They live in the middle of nowhere, on top of a mountain
surrounded by woods, with a creek at the bottom of the hill, and a personal
petting zoo. When I was growing up we had chickens and horses, but my parents
have expanded that to include goats, sheep, ducks, and a million other things.
When we were there this time, they had baby kittens, ducks, and goats and they
were the cutest things ever. Tatum adores my mom’s house cat and calls him
“ee-shee” for kitty. She spent every minute inside the house looking for or
petting him and he was surprisingly tolerant of her.
Monday was a pretty laid back day of hanging out at their
house and visiting my stepdad’s mom, now warmly referred to as “GG” for
great-grandma. Tuesday, Tatum and I headed to see my two Brittany(ney) friends
and have a playdate with their littles! One has a little boy that’s two weeks
older than Tatum, and the other has a little girl two years older and a little
boy three months younger, so it’s always fun to see them “play” together and
have some girl time to catch up!
Wednesday was the best because I drove to Cumberland to see
my Alysha! It’s always funny to us how we became friends and the circumstances
that led us to be so close. This girl is such a rock to me and no matter how
long we have to go between seeing each other, we always fall right back into
place. It was perfect timing because the day before she had taken her licensing
boards to finally become a physical therapist and she passed! We grabbed lunch
with a friend and spent the day catching up and laughing my guts out, like
usual. Everybody needs an Alysha in their lives, and I’m so grateful for mine.
On Thursdays, my mama leads a bible study group at the local
nursing home where my grandma stayed for a while after she couldn’t live with
us any longer. As if I needed any more reason to love and admire my amazing
mother, she gave me another. I wasn’t planning on dropping by originally, but
we wound up getting all packed up and ready early so I took Tatum in and caught
the end of her class and got to meet a few of her favorite residents. Everyone
loved seeing Tatum and I’m happy that I decided to drop in after all. We
grabbed some lunch with her after and then headed back to my dad’s house in
Columbia.
I usually plan my weeks out better since it’s a two-hour
drive in between my mom’s and dad’s houses but with Brian flying in on Friday
and the airport only being 20 minutes from my dad’s, it made more sense to stay
there Thursday and Friday night. On Friday, my dad was able to work from home
so Tatum got to spend more time with her Poppy and we took walks and played at
all the playgrounds I used to go to when I was little. After I got her in bed,
I picked Brian up from the airport. His plane was delayed an hour also so you
know, that was great… -___-
Saturday was the day of one of my best friends since middle
school, Ardath’s, wedding. We drove back up to West Virginia, hung out with my
mom and stepdad for a bit then headed to the wedding. The ceremony was in
Ardath’s dad’s church where he has been the pastor since we were little. My
other three best friends from high school were there and it was kind of my
favorite day of the entire month getting to watch our best friend marry the
love of her life and celebrate all night. Her reception was held where we used
to have prom together and it gave me all kinds of nostalgia. I think Brian
caught a small glimpse of my life growing up as we sent Ardath and Kenneth off
after a huge circle swaying to Country Roads, singing at the top of our lungs,
with tears in people’s eyes. I’m so grateful for these incredible women that
made me who I am today and the bonds we still share.
Sunday, we had to head back to Maryland and fly out that
evening. We did breakfast with my mom and stepdad, said bye to GG, lunch with
my dad and stepmom, and headed out. Thankfully, our flight home wasn’t delayed
and we were home by 8 PM, got Tatum in bed, and we resumed life as usual.
Trip 3 of 7 for 2018 done, with wedding 3 of 4 in the books.
