August -- Sweet Home Alabama

August was a really big month for us because...

WE MOVED!!!

Packing up

Taking down decorations on walls makes your house feel so empty and blah.  We LOVED everything about our house in Pennsylvania it was sad to see it so bare.

One thing that was not sad, was that this time around we had movers come and pack us.  It was wonderful!  But as wonderful as it was to have someone pack you, it was surprisingly hard as well. We were completely forbidden to help the movers and we weren't allowed to touch anything.  If we packed it ourselves in then it wasn't insured.

So, this is what we did the majority of the day when we had the movers:

And this is what the awesome movers did:

While the movers packed the house, Hannah had one last play date with her friend, Emily, from up the street. This was a little heart breaking to see.  When we moved to our house, Emily's family had just moved into another house up the street.  These 2 girls have been gal pals the entire 4 years.

Here's a picture of the girls just after we moved to PA.  They were about 20 months old.  (Hannah is on the left).

And here's a picture of their last time together (Hannah is on the right).  I can't believe how big they have grown.

The day that we drove out of Pennsylvania, we had finalized an offer for the sale of our house!  It felt really nice to have that last little detail completed.

The Drive down South

We split the trip up into 2 driving days.  Our first day, we stopped at the Flight 93 memorial in Pennsylvania because they had finished constructing the visitors center.

The memorial had a big impact on Hannah.  She will occasionally ask us to tell her more about the "planes crashing."  I remember thinking about 15 years ago that there will come a time when I will have to tell my children about the September 11th attacks, but I didn't think it would be when she is 5 years old.  I thought it would be in the high school years.

This memorial is one of my favorite memorials of all time.  I put it up there with Pearl Harbor.  There is a very heroic, and reverent feeling there.

The Flight 93 memorial was a slight detour from our main drive so we took some back roads in West Virginia to get back on the main path.  It was an interesting drive, and there were some times where they scenery was beautiful!

We stayed the night at Uncle D's house that night which was a lot of fun.  Hannah LOVES going there.

The next day we got back in the car and headed more south.  This time though, we didn't do any sight seeing.  We just wanted to get to Alabama.

We were not surprised that this was the welcome sign upon entering the State of Alabama.

"Where the skies are so blue." Yes, it's true at times, but not always.  We get some pretty serious gray skies here when the storms come through.

I grew up singing the "Sweet Home Alabama" song by Lynyrd Skynryd.  It's an awesome song, and I sang it so many times.  Never in a million years would I have thought that the Lynyrd Skynyrd song would be about one of the State's I'd live in.  NEVER!  Now, when I hear the song I do feel like it is Sweet Home Alabama.


The Hotel

After about 8 hours of driving the second day, we finally arrived.  Hannah thoroughly enjoyed the hotel.  She loved the fact that it had a pool and a restaurant in it.

Truth be told, Nathan and I were happy there was a pool at the hotel because this is what the temperature was when we arrived.  HOT! HOT! HOT!

First day of work

Hannah and I dropped Nathan off for his first day of work.  Hannah was really sad when we had to turn him over to the University.  She had lots of crocodile tears.

Of all the Universities we have been to (for school or work), this one is by far my favorite campus.  I love the architecture of the buildings, and the history behind them.  Many of these buildings survived some of the fires during the civil war.

Swimming

As soon as we got into our apartment Hannah begged to go swimming!  There wasn't much argument from me because the weather was hot and muggy, and a dip in the pool was very refreshing.

School

A few days after we arrived, Hannah started school, but before she started we got to meet her teacher.  She was a little nervous and shy, and the look on her face says it all.

First day of school.

There was a HUGE screw up with the bus schedule, so we had to drive her to school and drop her off. It bothered me much more than it bothered Hannah, though she was disappointed she didn't get to ride the bus her first day.  Hannah has been saying for about 4 years that she wants to ride the bus to school, and the first day she gets to she can't.  What bothered me about it was I felt robbed of a memory.  Everything about how I pictured Hannah's first day of school in my head did not happen. That's life for you.

Feeling a little gypped, I decided to go to breakfast all by myself, which I enjoyed.  And while I ate I watched some of the Olympics on a TV they had at the restaurant.

Despite the trouble with the bus in the morning, Hannah got to ride it home from school.  Yay!

Living out of suitcases

Our first week in Alabama was interesting because we were living in our apartment without our belongings as they were still on the moving truck.  So we had to sleep on air mattresses, and sit on the floor and use a stack of packaged paper towels for our table.

Since there weren't many toys/games for Hannah to play with when she got home from school, we would often head to the library for entertainment.  

When our belongings arrived at the end of the week we were all very happy to have our furniture back, even though it meant we had to unpack it all.

The movers were wonderful.  They treated our belongings with care and respect in the entire process. Out of all the things we moved, we only had one thing break: a $25 picture frame.  Nothing got lost. Nothing got stolen.  Nothing got seriously damaged.  These movers were wonderful and we are so grateful for their service.

Everything about this place we love! There is one part that I don't care too much for, and that is the bugs!  There are some pretty big and nasty bugs here.  Yuck.  But, that's part of the package of living in the south.  I guess I'll have to get used to it.

Despite the bugs, we are settling in and making Alabama our sweet home.