Wow. What’s that saying? Something about how life isn’t the destination, it’s the journey, I think. Well, if that’s the case, my life can be summed up as one crazy ass ride these last few months. Tonight is the first time in weeks that I’ve been able to sit down at the computer and digest what’s happened, and even still, I’m doing it surrounded by haphazardly packed boxes that may never be purged of their contents (“Honey, I need a towel.” “Oh, they are in the black garbage bag sticking out from under the box full of CDs and socks…give me a sec and I’ll dig one out for you.”) and walls that appear to have been painted by the freaking Easter Bunny (Seriously. My Kitchen has one yellow, one purple, one orange and one green wall. We are in for one hell of a painting challenge.)

Our life has completely changed. We are homeowners (yay!) in a part of the country that couldn’t be more different than where we moved from. Instead of having 4 Starbucks, a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe’s within 2 miles of our place, we have 2 Home Depots, 2 Walmarts and a Tractor Supply store. As we pulled into our neighborhood we noticed the Nissan Xterra in front of us had two goats riding in the back. And we learned that we are NOT to buy or even SPEAK of ATVs on Sundays. For real. A sign placed atop the ATVs at the Tractor Supply store reads:

“In accordance with Texas State Law, we are prevented from discussing the features and pricing or selling of ATVs on any SUNDAY.

We ask that you return during our operating hours Monday through Saturday if you have an interest in this product.”

Let me tell you that all this sign does is make me want to march in there every Sunday and ask a shitton of questions about ATVs. And when someone slips up and engages in conversation with me about them I will tell them I am with Dateline, doing an in-depth investigation on petty law violations, and that I have them on hidden camera and that the footage will be shown to the CEO of Tractor Supply. Good times…

But despite losing out on a little of our once somewhat urban, fast paced, corporate lifestyle, it’s been nice moving into a house big enough for everyone to enjoy in a neighborhood that seems to be full of really nice families. I’ve already been invited to Malibu Sundays by some of the women across the street from me. Apparently they get together every Sunday evening to indulge in some Malibu Rum libations. Now, that’s a community meeting I can really get behind. And another big trade off for us has been that I get my husband’s nights back. He worked the night shift for the last 4 years and it is so nice to be back on a normal schedule again.

Of course, getting here was total and utter madness, complete with several fights/screaming matches daily between me and Scott. Luckily, we were in separate vehicles most of the time so that we couldn’t do any bodily harm to each other, however our cell phones took a beating (can’t count how many times I slammed it shut). It didn’t help that half the time I was screaming over the yelps of Kendall from the back seat. He HATES riding in the car now and seems to begin wailing at just the mere sight of his infant car seat. Ahh…that’s enough for a whole other entry.

Anyway, I really have so much more to write about, but I’m so exhausted and can’t get my thoughts together. I feel like I’m rambling. I will just leave you all with a funny story about Hailey (our nearly 4 year old niece that is currently living with us). We didn’t get out of VA until 4 in the morning after a full day of packing. Hailey crashed in an empty room around 11 pm and we put her in the Jeep asleep when we left. We made it a whopping hour outside of DC before we had to stop for some sleep. We all piled into one hotel room with two double beds (all of us being me, Scott, my sister, Scott’s brother, Hailey, Kendall, two large dogs and a cat). Hailey woke up just as we were all dozing off and asked, “Hey, where’s my bathroom?” Scott explained, “We all have to share the bathroom here, Hailey. ” “But, Aunt Jill said I get my OWN bathroom,” she pouted. “What? I never said you get your own bathroom at the hotel,” I sleepily muttered. Scott notices she starts to cry. “What’s wrong?” he asks. She doesn’t say anything. Then I come out of my sleepy haze and it hits me. “Hailey, do you think this is our new house?” She nods yes. Hahahahahahahahahaha!! “Oh, honey! NO. This is a hotel! We are moving to a MUCH bigger house than this.” And with that reassurance, she passes out.

Okay. I’ll be back soon with more. Just wanted to let you all know we are alive (although we did nearly die when I accidentally cut off a semi coming out of Cracker Barrel in Tennessee).

Kendall is 9 weeks 4 days old