Moving Recaps: Our New Place

Just to review a bit:
The drive across Tenneesse
Our last week in Missouri

Tuesday morning we decided to sleep in a bit.  That way we could miss rush hour traffic, plus get some much needed rest.  Our caravan of the moving truck with the car dolly, my car, and my parent's SUV took off north for our new town.

It was only about 4 hours there.  We picked up the keys from the rental place and arrived at our new house!

The unloading was pretty quick and painless thanks to help from our parents.  Soon the truck was out of our driveway and we were getting things out of boxes and set up.

Here is a little tour of our place.  We have a nice two bedroom duplex.

The outside.

Through the front door into the living room. There is nice crown molding and a chair rail.

Past the living room is the kitchen

Much bigger kitchen with lots of cabinet space.

Laundry is through the double doors and a pantry in the single door.

There is an eat-in kitchen with a door to the back patio.

We have a nice big backyard.

And the back patio (don't mind the recycling - we had a lot of boxes!)

There is even a decent sized storage shed attached to the house.

Hallway (living room on the left, extra bedroom ahead, master bedroom directly behind the camera)

Hall bathroom is off to the right side.

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom/Office

So there it is! Please don't judge me on the clutter.  Those pictures were taken that first week we were there and not everything has a spot yet. Heck, things still don't all have a spot.  I still have two boxes in my kitchen and all my home decor sitting on the ground in the living room.

It is a work in progress right now and when it is all cleaned up and put together I can show you the final project!

Moving Recaps: 10 hr drive

Okay back on to the moving recaps.
Last week I talked about our last week in Missouri.

We left off with the hubby and I staying in southern Illinois with my in-laws.  They were planning on making the long trip with us.  My mother-in-law had been on a trip with her church for the past week up in northeast and had just spent 24 hours on a bus back to Illinois.  Since she really wanted to go with us and we had an extra day to spare, we decided to spend the whole next day there so she would have some time to sleep and relax before heading back out on the road.  It also allowed us to spend some time with the hubby's friends and family.

Then early Monday morning we took off.  That day's drive was about 10 hours to Charlotte, North Carolina where my parents live.


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This is what our journey looked like.  Pretty much we spent a majority of the time driving through Tennessee.

Following behind the truck and going a nice slow speed.

Switching drivers to give everyone a break once in a while.

Playing around to keep ourselves occupied.

Getting excited about all of the Chick-fil-A signs we saw along the way.

And of course stopping there for lunch!

Purposely staying stopped at a green light to get this picture of "Pickel Partners"

Heading into the hills of North Carolina.

And enjoying the beautiful view of our new state.

Overall it wasn't too bad of a drive, but we were glad we decided to break it up like we did.  We got into my parents around dinner time and then crashed early.  After all, we did have a very busy next day to look forward to.

Tomorrow I will finally share pictures of the new place!

I survived my first hurricane

Wow what a weekend!  Before I get back into more details of our move, today I want to share my first hurricane experience that happened this weekend.

Now being from the midwest, I have experienced tornadoes but not hurricanes.  Even in New York and Connecticut, we never had anything close to a hurricane before (although those places did get hit this time around, it isn't common).

So it was our good luck that the first month we live in North Carolina we have to deal with a hurricane!  I'm not going to lie - ever since I first heard there was a hurricane headed my directions, I was a little nervous.  However, since we don't live directly on the coast I was a little unsure of what kind of effect we would get out here.

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Still, even though we don't live on the coast, we really aren't that far away - only about two hours.  Considering Hurricane Irene was supposed to hit landfall directly east of us along the coast, it was a little too close for comfort.

Another factor that was confusing me further was the new channels and the areas they chose to cover.  Our news stations are based out of Raleigh, about an hour west.  I felt like they were only covering weather of those places directly on the coast or in Raleigh.  The coast was supposed to get hammered, but Raleigh would only get some rain and winds.  Being in between the two I wasn't sure what to expect.

With that all in mind I decided to stock up a bit.  I tried to head out to the grocery store early, but by the time I got there it was already swamped!  People were going crazy with carts full of bottled water, bread, spam (yuck!), and flashlights.  I got my small share of some non-perishable items and batteries, just in case our power went out.

Lucky for us we never lost power.  We woke up Saturday morning to loud wind and rain.  It was consistently bad all day long.  A few times our lights flickered and the cable and internet went out for a while, but over all we were fortunate.  There was some water leaking in through windows, but nothing major.

About halfway through the day we heard a loud crash.  We rushed out to our kitchen window to the patio and saw our brand new grill knocked over.  I had careful covered it up and secured it into a corner, but the winds moved it about 5 feet off the patio and into the grass.  I didn't want it to get blown around even more, so we picked it up and moved it into the kitchen.

The extent of the damage didn't look too bad.  The front was dented in a couple different places and the temperature gauge broke off.  Really the biggest pain was that the rain got into the drip pan, so we dragged a disgusting, dripping, greasy grill into the kitchen - or so I thought.  Now the biggest problem is well ... it doesn't work.  I tried to get it going yesterday for dinner and I was sadly disappointed.  Not sure what the problem is yet, but I guess I need to investigate more.

Our neighborhood didn't look too bad.  Maybe it was because we don't have any big trees.  Although our bushes were blown around a bit, they didn't have any damage.  The same can't be said about our neighbors.

Sunday when we went out for church, everything was calm and sunny but you could see the damage.  Lots of trees down and the roads were just covered in leaves and grass and although we didn't lose power, lots of others did.  Here are some photos I found on the City of Wilson facebook page.

Another bummer from the storm, I was supposed to have an interview today but the place closed for the day.  Booo.

Well anyways I guess we are glad to get through it safe and comfortable.  Many people's lives were disrupted and ruined by this storm.  Definitely praying for all those who have been dealing with and are currently still dealing with it.  Let's hope there are no more hurricanes this season!

Tomorrow I will get back into talking about our moving stuff and finally show you our place!

Moving Recaps: The Last Week and Goodbyes

Okay I am finally ready to share all the moving details.  Ready? Okay let's start with the last week in Missouri.

That Saturday our friends planned a fun get-together/ going away party.  We met up with some of our closest friends at one of the best local restaurants in Columbia, Flat Branch.

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We had a great time just chatting and chowing down on some serious good food and drinks!

Afterwards we headed back to our friend's place and played some games, ate some dessert, and had a all-around good time.  Of course followed by a few tears and some goodbyes.

Although we were moving in less than a week, we went back to business as usual on Monday.  Both Nate and myself worked for the next couple days, and packed at night.  I had the company of a few friends helping me pack up my kitchen - and to go get yogoluv, only the best frozen yogurt place ever!

It really was overwhelming how much stuff I still had to pack so a much needed break was nice.  Still, even through the packing I don't think the idea of moving was really setting in.

That Wednesday was my last day of work.  I spent the whole week making sure to wrap things up and that the transition was organized and ready for the next person.  I literally worked hard until the very end.  Well actually until the last hour.  The ladies in my office had a going away party for me with cake and presents.

They gave me a cooler and bag full of snacks and drinks for the road.  Plus a pickle apron, a bracelet, and lots of other goodies.  It was bittersweet to leave.  I loved working there, despite all the frustrations, it was a great job.  However, I just focused on how exciting this new journey was going to be.  It was great to say goodbye to all my colleagues.  

Then later that night our normal Wednesday night bible study got together for a special steak dinner, plenty of laughs, and some pictures!

We spent the rest of the week getting all our stuff in order and ready to move on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up ready to go drop off our cable stuff and to pick up our truck.  Our friends showed up ready to go.  Like champs they got the truck stacked and packed in two hours.  We breaked for some Jimmy John's subs then finished cleaning up.  Lots of hugs and see-you-soon's were tossed around before Nate in the truck and me in my car, took off.

We only had a small 3 hour drive over to his parent's house in southern Illinois, with a short dinner stop at his aunt's along the way.  At his parent's place we rested up that evening and the next day for our long journey to North Carolina.