2,920

If you had told me 2,920 days ago that I'd be living in Tennessee, I would have looked at you funny.  For one reason, I had only lived in Maryland my whole life.  For another, it was Steve's and my wedding day.  The day we became man and wife after we exchanged vows.  Though it may sound corny, my favorite part of my vows is that I'll lodge where he lodges.  The very idea of always living with my best friend -- day after day -- sounds pretty sweet.  

So, TODAY, we celebrate 2,920 days of marriage, which is also known as eight years.  I am amazed at how the guy I had a crush on became a great friend, asked me into a courtship, asked me to marry him (!), and has loved/is loving me with a real and very patient love.  I truly have the best husband I could ever want.  (I love you, Stevie!)



Also, you are a wonderful -- albeit, very silly at times -- father to our sons.


(A serious pose ... looking off into the distance.)
 

Our two boys.  Noah loves him SO much.  Drew loves his big brother unless Noah is stopping him from getting into trouble.

Sweet Prayers, A Dragonfly, & Outside

I forgot to add my most favorite memory of moving.  We had planned to leave at 3 AM, but Drew wasn't sleeping well in his Pack 'n' Play.  Plus, Steve and I weren't sleeping well either.  (It had nothing to do with the accommodations, Wendy!  Thanks for putting us up!)  After a few minutes of hemming and hawing, we decided to leave early.

As we drove in the dark and I felt like Virginia would never end, Noah sat up.  I thought he had been sleeping, but he informed me, "Mom, I've been praying."


Me:  "Oh?"
Noah:  "Yeah.  I was thanking God for sending us to Tennessee and for us having a safe trip so far and not running out of gas and that we have a house there.  With a backyard!"
Me:  "That's great, sweetheart."  (And that's all I could say or else I would have started bawling due to feeling emotional with the driving-away-from-MD part combined with having slept about an hour and a half.)
Noah:  "Yeah, we should pray right now and thank God for more stuff, Momma."

So we did.  I could go on about how he made me cry with his words and his heart, but -- really -- the thing that has impressed me over and over in thinking about his prayer is how he was thankful.  There was no honey-do list for God; it was gratefulness for God's work and how he has richly provided for us.  I hope to be continually reminded of this and think the same way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for the dragonfly, I think this one has misguidedly found a soulmate in my car's antenna.  I've seen it perched there at least three times.  Yes, I know, it's weird ... but the dragonfly is also really beautiful.
 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Noah is loving that our garage is still full with boxes waiting to be broken down.  It means he has a lot of room to play with his remote-controlled cars.


We've really been enjoying our backyard and playing out there.   I think we've gone outside to play at least once every day.
 

So, We Moved!

This month has been busy, and we're only two thirds of the way through it.  Let's start with the month in review.

We did lots and lots of packing.  We tried to get everything in the kitchen.


And that pile kept growing.


Drew turned 11 months old.


Noah celebrated his last day of first grade.  We said goodbye (for now) to his favorite first grade teacher and his best friend KJ.


On June 10th, we had TONS of help from great friends -- and some of their friends -- in moving our stuff into the truck.  We loaded the truck within an hour.


Kyle, who is Steve's sister Katie's boyfriend, and Katie drove the truck to Knoxville for us.  We could not have done this move without all of this help from family and friends.  We are grateful to God for how he blessed us in this way.  Noah did a great job of helping, too!


That afternoon, we said, "See ya later" to our house in Maryland.  (After all, we're just renting it to another family.)  We lived there for sixteen days shy of eight years of our marriage.  We've brought two babies home from the hospital to that house.  It's time to make some new memories.


Early June 11th (very early ... 1 AM to be exact), we left for Tennessee.  The drive wasn't bad.  Steve drove his car, and I followed behind in my car with the boys asleep and a box with rattling lamps at my side.  I could hardly wait for three things: (1) the sun to rise, (2) to see the Tennessee sign, and (3) to finally get to our new house.  (Don't worry.  I was watching the road with both hands on the steering wheel.)


Here's our new house with the big rental truck in front. We were surprised by how many people came out to help us unload the truck.  I think we had 10 - 14 people show up!!!  Mind you, we only knew two of them and had met just one of the two.  This is one of the many reasons I love having a church family! 


Some of Steve's family were kind enough to help us move in and unpack.  After a lot of hard work on Monday, we were ready for something different.  So, on Tuesday, we decided to do some sight seeing in the morning and playing in the afternoon.  Our first stop was the World's Fair Park.  We went up into the Sunsphere, which was pretty cool.


Here are two views from the Sunsphere.  Steve's new office on campus in the taller brick building.


This one shows the tallest buildings in Knoxville.  It is a city, but it is not huge by any stretch.

Noah and his aunt Karina posed for a picture with a statue of Sergei Rachmaninoff (explanation of this man's statue is about 3/4 of the way down the page).

Later that day, we went to Zuma Fun Center.  We were mainly interested in go karts and miniature golf.  Though, because they were running a special for an all-day pass that was less expensive total AND included a bunch of tokens, we were all like a bunch of kids.  Seriously, you should have seen us at the rewards section afterward.  We had so much fun ... which is why I only have two pictures from our time there.

Here's one of Kyle (L) and Steve (R) racing.  I am proud to report that Steve passed Kyle shortly after this picture and kept the lead until the finish!  

And here's Katie racing after them.

After our family left, we've been setting up utilities, running errands (mostly to the Super Walmart), playing outside, and getting used to this whole thing.  It's a great adventure so far.