As our moving-process continued to move along, things continued to fall into place. Aside from jobs and living, we were so lucky to have so much help with boxes and newspaper/wrapping paper. Holy cow. Other than my move TO Greenville, I have never made a huge move like this. When I moved down, I fit what I could in my tiny little car and it worked. Well, 4+ years later, and now with a miniature family, you can imagine we have more than 1 carload. We ordered the Uhaul and debated how big of a truck we would actually need - especially with the trickiness of hitching my car onto the back (Justin would drive the Uhaul, I would follow while driving his car). I remember buying 5 big rolls of packing tape, thinking it would be enough. Not even close. We made 3 more (separate) trips to the store after running out of tape, ending with a grand total of 12 rolls of packing tape used. Don't even ask me how many boxes we used. Thanks to Jenn & Erin (and Erin's parents!) we were able to pack our lives in the most organized way possible.
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| Cleaning off the fridge.. Wahh. |
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| A gigantic mess. Eventually, 100+ boxes later, everything was labeled by rooms, down to the very last detail. |
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| Hours and hours (and hours) of organizing, packing, encouragement and help from friends |
My party supplies alone, took many more boxes than I'd hoped. Boxes are just so much easier to stack and to stay organized, rather than open laundry baskets or garbage bags. Especially knowing that all of the boxes would be stored between my parents' and my sister's place, I couldn't afford not to be organized. My friends Erin and Jody came over to help me get my motivation crankin' as the heavy packing began. It was so overwhelming, yet they somehow made it far more enjoyable and bearable. Jody came back almost every day to help me pack. What amazing friends I have. And I'm not even talking about "Moving Day" yet! Oh man. How can so much STUFF fit into a small 2-bedroom apartment?!
I've said it 10x now, and I'll keep saying it.. The hardest part about this move has been the "goodbyes". Yeah, it sucks that we're transitioning to a state where it's freezing COLD 5-7 months out of the year, but we will be missing our friends far more than the weather. Our last week in Greenville was - as expected - some the most chaotic series of days I've experienced in my life. Aside from packing like a madwoman, finding time to meet up with people for one-last-time was pretty tricky.
One of our last special times with our long-time friends - Marco & Michelle and Tim & Ali - we spent sharing dinner and memories at M&M's house. We sure have had some of our best and favorite memories with them during our time living in Greenville. To name a few.. Tim & Ali's wedding; Driving through D.C. to New York with T&A for a weekend full of taxicabs, shopping and Starbucks; Roadtrip and renting a beach house in the Outer Banks; Camping outside in a Dunkin Donuts parking lot for free breakfast for a year; The unbelievable flooding and monsoon during our wedding weekend; Freezing our bums off at the Apple Orchard; Baby Ruby; Dutch Blitz & Bachelor/Bachelorette.. Oh man, the list goes on.
After about 10 attempts to take some fun, timed-group-shots, here's a few of my favorites.. We laughed SO hard!!
Another really difficult and emotional experience was our last night at Shepherding Group. I knew it would be hard.. and I knew I would cry.. but little did I know, we would arrive to an incredibly memorable and phenomenally decorated farewell evening - all for Justin and me.
All of our sweet friends spent hours (and days!) creating and decorating with the most amazing decor and cutest color combinations.. I couldn't believe it.
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| Whaaa?! Howw?? Whhee?? How did you guys DO this?! |
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| Absolutely adorable! |
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| I have been wanting a pom-maker for the longest time.. I couldn't believe how much time Erin & Jody put into the garland! SO cute! |
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| The colors were.. Oh my. |
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| Precious lil poms! |
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| So many of our favorite foods -- Including Jody's Cucumber-Tomato Bruschetta. Buh! |
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| So pretty! |
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| Jody hand-made each of these sweet little cards for everyone to share a memory or some encouragement.. |
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| It was so thoughtful.. and they all matched the colors perfectly! |
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| Such a priceless gift! |
We spent the night as a last, regular Shepherding Group night and ended in lots of prayer. It's pretty hard to describe the feeling of having our friends lay their hands on us as they prayed for us. Pretty emotional. We sat in the middle of the living room as our friends prayed for our trip and for our relationships in MN.. for God's provision and faith even in complicated situations.. I cried like a baby. We hugged and enjoyed some delish food and dessert. We were both pretty bummed out that some of our closest friends couldn't make it that night - it definitely stunk that we couldn't have one last farewell. The night was still really special and memorable. We'll never forget it.
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