Home is where the heart is

      We made the decision a little over a year ago to move back home. Many factors went into making this big change……being closer to family, a better high school for our son, a good youth group for our kids. Most people would think we were crazy. Shoot….at times…..we did too!!! We had not sold our home, my husband did not have a job to go to and our son was starting his senior year. We did a lot of praying and decided this was where God was leading us! So as the beginning of school grew closer, we knew the kids and I needed to go ahead and make the move. We did not want our son to move in the middle of his senior year. So we did it! The kids and I made the move to Alabama. Carmel planned to stay behind with his job until he found one in Al. Since we had so many unknowns, the kids and I moved in with my parents. Let me just stop and tell you how blessed I am to have parents that will let their daughter move in with her three loud and crazy kids along with a lot of our junk. We figured it would only be for a couple months……at the most! Well……those couple of months turned into 6 months.  

       We have been apart many times during our marriage due to his job but this time apart had to be one of the hardest. While we were apart, our dog was hit and killed(it was exactly a year ago tonight), my son was involved in 2 wrecks(one sent him to the hospital), our son was told he couldn't play his last year of football(the only sport he wanted to play) due to zoning issues(we finally got it fixed but he had to miss his first game). We began to ask ourselves, "Did we make the right decision? Maybe our move was not what God had planned for our family." After the 6 month mark, Carmel was finally put on orders in Al. It was good to finally have him back with us!  Several months later the job became official! After finally seeing the orders, we started to make plans to house/land hunt and get our stuff moved. I was really just wanting my Select Comfort bed!!!!!!!!

     When we first started making plans to move back to Al and settle down, we envisioned building our dream home on 40 acres of land somewhere. After a couple of months of looking and realizing the cost and distance of driving, we decided to put or dreams on hold for a bit. We started looking for a home closer to town. After another month of looking, we decided to……….

 build a house in a neighborhood. Although I really wish it was on land, I am so excited about the house!!!! We have moved 4 times in the past 10 years. Since we always had to move quickly and consider resale, we never built a home. This is a first for me. We I am loving the fact that we I was able to pick out everything. Every house we have lived in there was always something(or a few things) I did not like. When we lived in Florida, we fell in love with the open concept. Our floor plan is open! We love to entertain so this type of plan works well for us! I am sure I will be sharing more as we go through this process over the next several months.

So you may be wondering what we are doing in the meantime. Are you still going to live with your parents for the next 6 months? 

The answer is no. 

They kicked us out!!!! 

I am kidding they didn't actually kick us out but they sure were eager to help us move our stuff out!! Besides we did not want to overstay our welcome!! We decided to move into an apartment for the next 6 months while the house is being built. 

Finally after almost a year and a half, our plans are moving forward. On Halloween day(didn't think that one through), the truck was loaded with all our stuff from the house in Ga.

 This is always a happy and sad sight! I am happy to be embarking on yet another new adventure. I am sad because we all have to say goodbye to our friends and leave the house where memories were made. I can look into an empty room and remember details of our lives that had been forgotten. I always try not to stay too long in one spot or I might just change my mind about leaving. I will let you in on a secret. Before we left each house, I always had my moment of tears……in a room…..all alone! I think it helped me get in the car and drive away. 

Since we were leaving on Halloween day, the girls were worried about where they were going to trick or treat. Our realtor brought us these cupcakes just in case they were not able to go.

We really did not pick a great day to move. After the movers left, we stuck around packing up the misc things onto a trailer. We kept having trick or treaters coming to our door or asking if we were participating. Truth be told…..I really was not planning to be there that late. As for the girls, they threw on a costume from our stash and went with the neighbors.

Ella was a Southern Belle and Laney was a hot dog. 

 To sum up the next few weeks, it went a little something like this…..

clean the apartment

move in

travel back to Ga to clean the house & paint

move more stuff into the apartment

deep clean the rooms we stayed in at my parents

move more stuff into the apartment

At one time our stuff was scattered in 6 different places.

As soon as we thought we were getting settled, my in laws were in a bad accident. We travelled to SC for them and Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, we travelled back to Al for the Parker reunion(details to come). Stayed 2 nights in our apartment only to turn around again and come back to SC to help take care of my in laws.

Now you can see why I chose Home is Where the Heart is as the title of this post. Our hearts have been all over the place this last year!