Moments that matter

The past few weeks have been both overwhelming and exciting.

We have begun the process of packing and moving. It is amazing the amount of stuff one can accumulate with the pack rat tendencies that I have. It will be a serious task to get everything organized and packed away carefully for the journey south. Despite the work, I do love how a move forces you to simplify and purge your surroundings of unnecessary things.

Ryan took the boards this past weekend. The whole process of preparing, and taking the test was indeed a wild and laborious experience but I will leave it to him tell that story if he so chooses. I have no doubt that he did well but despite all my confidence we will now wait on edge for the results.

Finding a place to live in Augusta, Georgia is looking to be a little bit more difficult than we first imagined but we have some good choices and our decisions will have to be made in the next week or two. We traveled there over last weekend and spent 2 full days searching for something that would suit our needs for the next year. We drove the 10 hour drive there, spent 2 days driving around Augusta, and then made the trek home. The boys did remarkably well, considering the fact that we seemed to be living in the van for 4 days straight. We had our rough moments and I'm pretty sure I don't want to do it again, but we were blessed with beautiful weather and I already have a good feeling about the city of Augusta. It was so beautiful there. I managed to not take a single picture. I still can't believe it, but we were a little preoccupied and most of the beauty was seen in passing at about 35 miles per hour(average speed) There wasn't a lot of time to take in the sights but I look forward to discovering all that the city has to offer.

As the time for our move draws closer I've felt inclined to think a lot about the memories we have made here in Columbus, Ohio. So many things have happened that when you collect them all together it makes for an amazing 4 years.

-I've had my two children here.

-I've become friends with so many wonderful people, and created close friendships that I'm sure will continue despite the distance that will soon be between us.

-Living away from family is a gentle daily reminder of the importance of family. We've missed our families a lot but our little family has been strengthened as we have had only each other to rely on.

-Ryan has learned how to be a dentist. His schooling here can hardly be summed up in a few sentences so I will just say how proud I am of him for setting and completing(Only 3 more weeks) this goal.

So much of me doesn't want this period in our lives to end, but I know that it's time for us to move on and I am ready. (and excited)

We've had a few moments over the past few weeks that I'd like to remember.

The garbage raider raccoon

We have nightly visitors that raid our garbage cans. It a little scary because you can hear them scampering up our screen door to get inside the garbage can. It was heart pounding on the nights Ryan was gone taking his test. Every time I first heard the noises I had to remind myself that it was just the hungry raccoon and not the scary intruder trying to get into my home through my back door. It doesn't help that he always comes after midnight.

Russell has 2 teeth now and his ability to eat solid food is improving in leaps and bounds. He loves being able to feed himself, I'm just not sure I like the messes!

Here he is looking all grown up drinking cows milk from a sippy cup. I can't believe he's almost a year old.