They're gone..... :-(

Well, it is the day after Thanksgiving and my parents just left to go to Virginia and then home. Wow! It really feels lonely and it has only been about 1 minute. The reality of being in Georgia...12 hours from my family....is really setting in right now. I have been up mostly since 1:30 not able to sleep...thinking of what it is going to be like without them being around. I feel awful!

Mom said that she has had a lot of years with her kids around and everyone together. I feel like we totally screwed that up now. I used to not understand why Carolyn wanted to move, but I do love it here. If I could just move my family here, I'd be completely happy. Every time I hear how much Zach misses Ashton or my kids ask when they are going to see their cousins again, my heart splits in two. I feel so awful that we are now so far apart. I never thought I would be the one to move away. I never WANTED to move away...and here I am...away and there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is hold on to the fact that I will see Carolyn and Jim in December, Risa in January and Mom and Dad again in February or March. What am I going to do without them stopping over just to say hi. Or being able to go to their house with the kids after church. Or having holidays at their house. Get the kids together to play. See the work Eric has done on the houses. Spend birthdays celebrating with the whole family. I am going to miss all that. I don't know how to handle it.

I guess I just have to deal with it. I guess I just have to go on with life...be a mom to my kids, a wife to my husband. I guess I just have to talk to them when I can on the phone, video chat on the computer, send emails and letters, and cherish the times we will be able to spend together. They say, "You don't know what you have until it's gone." I don't agree...I have always known that I have the most wonderful family in the world...but now that I am so far away, I suffer from the ache of emptiness, from them not being right here, so much more. I miss you all and wish we could all be together again. I love you all and am SO thankful that I can call you family.

I'm officially a Georgia Peach!!!

Well, it's official! I am a Georgia peach. How? you ask. Today, I went to the DMV and surrendered my Michigan driver's license (really, they took it and wouldn't give it back!) and got a new Georgia one. Trav and I both went (he took some time off this morning) and we took the boys. It was a fiasco of sorts.

First, getting ready and out the door took a lot longer than either of us expected. Hey, if I was going to get my picture taken for my license, I was going to look as good as I could. So, I took a shower, did my hair and actually did my makeup!!! Woah, I know! I didn't just have to get me ready....no...I had to get the boys ready too! Finally, at about 11:30, we all climbed into the car with documents galore in hand (hmmm...marriage license, MI driver's licenses, mortgage bill, birth certificates and social security cards!). Unfortunately, we forgot to grab the directions to get to the office. We headed out toward AAA to get our insurance transferred, but found out we didn't need to go there, we could do it all over the phone. So, we needed to get to the DMV. We stopped at a DUI place to get directions and about 20 minutes later were headed to the office.

Got to DMV at 12:25 and Trav stood in line in the 30 degree cold while the boys and I stayed in the car until he was about to enter the building (they only allow 5 people in at a time so everyone else has to wait outside! 8) ) We got in there and eventually got checked in...and almost as soon as I got checked in, I was called up. Of course, I get up there, the guy sees I don't have my form filled out and tells me to go sit and finish it. Ok..whatever. I get back up there and some lady comes to talk to him, Keegan is screaming at this point, Braden is putting his hand in the candy machine and I am tired of waiting! About a year later (well...it seemed that long), another lady took the guy's place...(who am I to delay his break???? Ughhh...) and got things going. When that was done, off to wait to have our pics taken.

Decided to take my coat off to get my pic taken....BIG mistake. Thought I took a decent pic, UNTIL I got it back! My smile is good, but it shows my double chin (Can we say motivation to diet???!!!) AND my shirt is almost off my right shoulder showing my bra strap and the string of my scapular. UGGHHHHH....I can NEVER take a good pic. Oh well, it is now 1:30 and I just don't care anymore!!! We get in the car and head home. At least we are official, eh?

Oh, and we aren't done...we still have to get our tags, titles and license plates. I sure hope that that is not as big of an adventure!