Closing Up Shop in Dallas

{Cowboy Red River Date, 2014}

{Brunettes}

This is our last weekend as Dallas residents for a while.  It's very surreal, Adam and I have decided.  We've been on this road for over 20 months--that's more than 2/3 of our marriage.  And now, here we go!  We've been doing a lot of "lasts" lately, and it's kind of exhausting, but fun because I get to see people  and do all the things I love!

Last night, Adam and I went dancing at Cowboy Red River, where we met four years ago.  We relived the moment we met, danced quite a bit, and then laughed because we left at 10:30 p.m.  When we went four years ago, we were just arriving at that time.  My, how things have changed.

We spent most of today packing, but we did get a run in out in the beautiful weather.  Adam's helping me train for a 5k in Disney World this fall.  There's definitely lots of fun benefits to being in a new state.

And speaking of a new state, packing to move 15 hours away is a whole different ballgame than packing to move two miles down the road, like we did five months ago.  I found myself at Home Depot at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night very puzzled, and stuffing large and extra large moving boxes into my little Jetta.  It was hard work.  I realized that I would need a place to pack lamps and other oddly shaped stuff.  (Last time, we had six cars take loads like that over.  Not this time!)

The nice thing about moving so recently is that we only unpacked what we really needed.  I'm not sure what that says about all the things in the boxes we haven't seen in a while, but I guess I'll just have to deal with that later.  Ha.

Today Lyndsy and SMoo came over to help us pack.  They were so helpful, I can't even take it all in, actually.  I have hit the point where I have made so many decisions that I can't make any more.  I told Lyndsy I needed direction and needed to know what to do.  She graciously talked me through packing my clothes and how to do it.  And then she basically did it.  SMoo boxed up all my shoes very meticulously, making a Tetris game of fitting all of them in to one box, and then packed all the hangers for my clothes.  Next they packed up my bathroom and made a great dent in getting the kitchen boxed up.

Lyndsy arrived with a cooler full of  snacks and adult beverages.  SMoo came bearing Sonic drinks and peanut butter pretzels.  The power of showing up is completely amazing, but when you add snacks... man...it takes it to another level!

Adam kept saying how helpful the girls were and how appreciative he was that we wouldn't need to be packing all this ourselves.  As I sit and look around our place, I am surrounded by boxes.  There's nowhere else for them to go, so they're just in the middle of things.  It's a little disconcerting, especially for Rye, but it's only for four days, so we will make do.

We ordered pizza and had quite the feast for dinner with all the snacks & goodies the girls brought.  Bryan and Claire stopped by after dinner, so all the brunettes could be together again.  We enjoyed catching up and hanging out.

For the first time, really, it hit me that we are moving so soon.  I have so many emotions as I process this--excitement for what's to come, sadness for what we leave behind, gratitude for so many people who love us and are willing to celebrate this next step and help us.   (We've got Adam's dad coming down to help us move, meals brought over, people taking us out to eat, packing help, and even unpacking help with my parents and family coming to visit.)

I cried about moving for the first time today, and then again when I said "See you later" to the girls.  That's definitely been the worst part.  Tomorrow is Adam's last day at the fire station.  It will be really a sad day for him.  We snuggled on the bed tonight with Rye dog and talked through some of this, but it's just really difficult to leave this world we know so well.  We're taking it a day at a time and doing the best we can.  I made a playlist of hymns and other praise music on my phone and have been listening to that tonight.  I don't have words to pray or things to say, so I'm grateful for the music tonight, especially.    :-)

Four more days and the moving truck will be loaded up, and then one night spent at my parent's house (they offered us beds since ours will be packed, so you better believe we took them!).  It's getting real!  Here we go...