Monday night....we loaded/packed/crammed as much as we could into our two small cars...remembering to leave room for ourselves and our overnight baggage. We came to realize that more should have gone into the moving cubes than was sent...but it was too late...cant change the past...so we fit whatever we could, and stored the rest at my parents house. (with what we'd previously decided to store, as well.) somehow in spite of leaving things behind...we managed to pack our tent and sleeping bags...which is interesting..considering that in the two years we've been married..and the two years we dated before that...we've never gone camping either together or apart. I think the tent has been used about twice in its lifetime. We owe it a camping trip here in texas, I suppose.

Tuesday morning... found more things to pack and/or leave behind. Crammed more stuff into holes and tiny gaps than michael thought possible. Said goodbyes to my family...and began our drive. I in my car, michael in his car. I carried my music and one lonely houseplant to keep company. Michael had himself and some music. The weather was great most of the day. Clouded up and showered a little beginning in alabama. As we entered mississippi the rains came down fairly hard..but by then we were on slower roads anyhow. I did take a few interesting pictures through the rainy windshield, but those are on my phone and I dont have a way to get those on the computer as of yet. We detoured up to the columbus area to visit family for a day before our move. Had diner with michael's parents and then fell into bed quite sleepy (and ill-adjusted to central time.)

Wednesday morning... was rather laid-back. We went to a local coffee shop for a little while (for a phone interview which I will write about later,) drank lattes, and made facebook updates. Afterward we spent most of the day hopping around looking for people michael grew up with or worked with when he was in caledonia...to tell them “hi” and “bye” before the big move continued. Our last and very important visit was with michaels grandmother. From there, we continued down to brandon (outside of jackson.) the drive to brandon is when I really began taking the random on-road photos. When we arrived in brandon we met up with mark...who joined us for the rest of the trip...and stayed with paula (sis-in-law) and the kids.

Thursday morning... early, though not as early as we maybe should have...greeted by morning coffee: mike, mark, and I loaded into the two cars again. this time with mike and I in one car...mark driving the other. It was nice to have a traveling companion again. Two days of lonely car rides and a houseplant to keep me company was getting to me. On our way, we made a previously arranged stop, though a little later than planned... in rayville, LA to see my friend Deanna, we figured out that it may have been 11 years since we'd seen one another! Far too long...but we caught up a bit over breakfast at McDs. Good times. Still the same two girls..trying our best to do whatever God leads us to....we're both just a little older now. We vowed to meet again on another trip along i-20....now that it will be a regular holiday route for us. Upon leaving mcDs at 10am...mike and I realized that we would be hard-pressed to make it to SWBTS by our 3:30 housing appointment...knowing that the office closes at 4pm...but we pressed on (leaving mark very far behind us in the following car)...and traffic cooperated. I believe it was 3:37 when we sat down to sign lease papers. Praise the Lord! We received our keys, paid our rent, and opened the door of our new home. With the help of a few new neighbors, we unloaded what we had with us and soon decided to treat ourselves to our new favorite restaurant....vallartas mexican seafood. (amazing..amazing...amazing...and right across the street!) (they automatically serve water with lime slices...just the way I always order it!) I couldn't begin to describe how completely at home and happy I felt that night as we finished up our meal in our new city. i also found a grocery store and found my way back home afterward.

Friday morning...we awoke slowly and I began to sort some of our things out. I remembered that we would by now have a mailbox loaded with mail...and also realized that I had no idea where our box would be located. I wandered around our complex and found where our po box should be...but looking at the box labels, couldn't figure out which one would be ours. Our apartment is #204. our parking space is 18-b, and the post office boxes are labeled 1-A through 12-L and 1-M through12-Z.... not 204. not 18. I walked back into our apartment with a very confused look on my face and asked michael to come help me test our keys in all the boxes. Ours turned out to be 11-k. Makes perfect sense.....right? Now we've called uhaul about getting some hand trucks, i've paid a couple of bills, looked through the new Ikea book, and we're waiting to hear from the packing cube company about our delivery. I think my brain is still in eastern time...it feels like lunchtime should already by here..but its not yet 11am.

still to come.... getting our furniture from storage cubes. figuring out where everything goes. replacing bookcases which we didn't move with us. (ikea trip! yay!) possibly finding a couch and a microwave too.