Heading South

"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies." ~Author Unknown

Aside from my college years, Michigan has been my home. I was born here, raised here, married here, started a family here. We were pretty settled into our little town, with most of our family only a few minutes from us. We’ve become involved in many different ways here, and made some fabulous friends.

In March, Jason accepted a new job. This is a good thing-a great opportunity for him and for our family. The hitch? The job is in Tennessee. In a very short period of time, he wrapped up a few things here and headed south. In the meantime, I stayed in Michigan, mainly so the kids could finish the school year here. There was also the small task of selling our house and packing everything we own and getting ready for the big move. Oh yeah…There was also Girl Scouts, baseball, gymnastics, a couple of birthday parties, and all of the end-of-the-year events for the kids at school. You might think I was a bit overwhelmed, having to tackle all of these things by myself, but that was not the case. In fact, I was SO busy, I didn’t have TIME to be overwhelmed. My days were very busy, but in the end, everything fell into place. I flew to Tennessee for a weekend and found a house for us, and slowly but surely I packed up the house and managed to pull off an enormous garage sale to pare down the amount of stuff we’d have to take with us. We didn’t end up selling our house, but we did find some renters that we’re happy with. All that was left to do was to say goodbye to EVERYONE we know.

I’m proud to say that I’ve met some of the BEST moms on the planet, here in Michigan. Moms who are raising their kids and taking care of their families and doing a damn good job of it. I’ve had many laughs and tears with these girls, and I’m very sad that I won’t be a part of the girls’ nights we’ve come to love. There is talk of a road trip south and I look forward to spending some time with them in my new town. And of course, when I visit Michigan, seeing them will be a MUST. I love you girlies!!



Between the many goodbyes, and the chaos of the move, I managed to squeeze in a little overnight trip to the west side of the state for a family wedding for these two love birds:


Congrats to the happy couple, Michael and Andrea!

While I was there, little Alayna had an accident. In a totally non-dramatic way, she slipped off of a step and landed wrong on her leg. The next day, she still couldn’t put any weight on it, so we took a trip to the ER. Long story short, Alayna broke her leg. She landed herself in a cast from hip to toe, just in time for summer and our big move. So now I was not just faced with the task of packing, but packing while HOLDING my little girl. You’re jealous, aren’t you? She adjusted very well to her cast and figured out how to crawl and stand and climb quite quickly.



Loading day was the Friday after school ended. We had a TON of help from our family, loading and packing and cleaning and playing with kids. Our plan was to cram all of our belongings into a very large moving truck, my van, my dad’s truck, and a trailer that he would pull. By noon, it was obvious that we needed another truck. This also meant that we would need another DRIVER. Jason’s parents were up for the road trip, and we were happy to have them join us on our adventure. We were set to leave first thing the next morning.







There was only one thing left to do. Loading day was also the day of Jason’s birthday party. It was a great way to spend our last night in Michigan. We got to see many of our friends and family and say our official “goodbyes”.

















On Saturday morning, we woke up VERY early, ready for our journey to begin. I knew it was going to be a LONG day when, after driving 15 minutes to the gas station where were scheduled to meet, Emerson asked if we were in Tennessee yet. SIGH…
So, after filling up the trucks…



And filling up our bellies…



We were ready to hit the road. TENNESSEE OR BUST!



Along the way, the kids took turns riding in the big truck with Daddy.



There was also plenty of napping.





I’ll leave out the part where my air conditioning quit working after 45 minutes and I had to drive in the 90 degree heat the entire trip with all of the windows down. I’ll also leave out the parts where ALL FOUR kids were screaming at once. In the end, we made it. And we were happy to be there.



The first couple of days were crazy, but the kids adjusted quickly.





I think it rained every day the first week we were there, but that didn't slow down these kids.



Schedules were a bit off, due to the time change, but Grey managed to catch a few ZZZ's on the couch amid the chaos.



Jason celebrated his first Father's Day in Tennessee...



And we ALL celebrated the big move with champagne later that night.



I'm not really sure how things would have gone, had we not had the help of ALL of our parents for this move. I'm so happy they were there to get us started on the right foot in Tennessee.

Now, it wasn't ALL work and NO play that first week in our new state. We DID manage to sneak off to Nashville for a fabulous afternoon with the kids. If you haven't been there, put it on your list. SERIOUSLY. There is something for everyone in that town. I can't say enough GOOD about it.

Elvis...



Honky-tonks...



Root beer...





And of course, BOOTS.



There's no doubt we're sad to leave the place we've lived our whole lives, but we're also QUITE excited to have this great new adventure upon us. There's an open invitation to all of our friends and family to make the trip down to this great state of Tennessee. We're embracing this change and we can't wait to share it with you!