Sadness in the South

Ada and I got back Tuesday night from North Carolina, where my parents and I bid farewell to my BFF, my sister. It was so hard saying goodbye, and when we hugged, I didn't want to ever let her go. I told her I loved her, would miss her and to be smart! She is an awesome person and I know that she will be wise and have a great time. I was still at the hotel sleeping when my parents said their goodbyes, but I can only imagine how hard it was for them to leave their pampered princess 3000 miles away! My mom will have a hard time adjusting to LOTS of time to herself since my Dad works long hours and has a nasty commute and my bro (who is still at home at the ripe old age of 25) isn't often home. Luckily I have enough laundry and grocery shopping to keep us both busy!

My wonderful husband took two days off work to stay home with the bigs while we were gone. He did an awesome job of handling everything. When I got home the house was clean, laundry was folded, and he even did some organizing! I was so proud of him! I was so happy to see them. I have never spent a night away from Jameson and only after I had James did I spend the night away from Abbie, so it was a little hard leaving them in the airport.

I am in love with North Carolina! The architecture, the accents, the food, the trees overgrown with ivy, the way everything is closed on Sunday, the church steeples, the friendliness, the porches and the slower pace of life. If my parents were ready to leave I would move tomorrow. I would be sad about leaving good friends and our church, but I long for those things for my kids. We would miss a lot of Bill's family here and it is important to us both that our kids know and love even the extended relatives, but being able to sit down as a family more than 1 or 2 days a week and have dinner and being able to fish, hunt and explore nature in your backyard are really important to me. Those things are available to us here, it just takes sacrifice (for the family dinners possibly moving so that Bill doesn't have such a long commute and more camping trips and organized outings for nature). No one is ready to leave yet, but each time I go out there my desire to up and leave intensifies. As I had lots of time to ponder moving and living somewhere other than Cali I made a mental list of requirement I have for any state we would move to. My list is as follows:

1. must have state trooper not highway patrol (This may come from watching to much COPS!) silly...I know!
2. car dealerships must use those metal nameplate things that they put on the back of the car (usually opposite the name of the car, and almost always the dealership name is a man's name)
3. must have places named "Bojangles", "Piggly Wiggly"...where else would you find names like that
4. must talk with an accent. I heard they cutest kids talking all southern in walmart (which leads me to the next requirement)
5. must be Walmarts on every corner (I try not to go very often, I am more of a Target girl) but they are everywhere and a true sign you are not in CA
6. must have a battlefield in the state. How cool is that!?! We went to Cowpens in SC, and it was amazing to be out in a field and imagine that a real revolutionary war battle was fought right where you are standing. I was thinking of all kinds of neato things you could do while homeschooling when studying the revolutionary war

So, the trip was good. I am trying to settle my brain of crazy thoughts of moving tomorrow (my mom isn't helping this since she is just as eager to move as I am). I am focusing my thought and prayers on my sister who is 3000 miles from all her family in a strange city with no one she really knows. I pray for her to meet good friends who value her as much as we do and for her to be comforted in her times of loneliness. I love her and miss her tons!!!