Happy Anniversary

Do you know where and what you were doing October 3rd, 2007? I do. This time one year ago, this time one year ago, DH and I were embarking on the third greatest adventure of our lives. Number one of course was marriage, number two was raising kids. Number three? Moving 600 miles away from where we had lived all our lives. And so it was that one year ago today we found ourselves, vehicles packed with stuff that couldn't go on the moving truck, driving separately to Tennessee.

Over all, it has been wonderful. The downside has been leaving our youngest in Michigan. We had been preparing her for several years that this was what we were going to do. It's not like we woke up on October 2nd and said, let's move out of state tomorrow. We also left behind most of my siblings (brother jumped the ship several years ago) and assorted cousins.

On the upside, we get to enjoy the company of oldest quite a bit, since she moved here about 3 months before we did on our recommendation. It has been a great move for her both financially and emotionally. She is preparing for her graduation from Tennessee Tech in the spring. There is no where else she would have been able to get a quality education and live on her own. Rents are very affordable in the college area.

We get to live in a small town on a nice lot of approximately 20,000 sq feet (half an acre) which is surrounded by trees and great neighbors. Just about all our neighbors have lived either in Michigan or some other Northern place, so we are on common ground on how nice it is here.

We have already enjoyed one fall and one winter and spring here. Summer was something else. Summer started in May and for the most part we had about 3 months of 90+ degree weather. In September, temps finally started to take a downward turn and pretty much kept to the 80's. Even now, in early October, we are enjoying nights in the low 50's with highs in the low to mid-70's. This is what we Northerner's call Indian summer. Last year this type of weather held until mid November.

The building process was sort of enjoyable. Our builder is a great guy who worried about spending every penny of our money as if it were his own. What more could you ask. He didn't mind us coming daily (after work crews were gone mostly) for that progress check. Of course, doing that cost us a few dollars, as that was when we made some changes, but it was so worth it to see the progress on our construction. He even had the concrete people rip out the garage floor because it bubbled and had it re-poured. I think he's the next best thing to having my brother-in-law, the builder, here.

So happy anniversary to us on our new adventure!