Home is....

I've been wanting to share a HUGE announcement with all of you for quite some time now, but I'm a firm believer in making sure that details are 100% official before I begin spreading the word like the Town Crier announced the arrival of the 2nd royal baby... (I loved that guy, by the way!)

 So... Here it goes... Our family is picking up everything, and moving to New York... 

In a month!!!

Mike was offered a great opportunity with his company here in Pennsylvania, to manage a job out of state for the next couple of years, and it was an offer we really just couldn't refuse. So over the next couple of weeks, we are literally packing up our entire house, putting it on the market, and heading north.

Naturally, I have crazy mixed feelings about all of this.

I am excited about our new house, thrilled that I will be within driving distance of my family and friends in Maine for awhile, and psyched about the area where we will be living....

But, I am anxious about the changes and fearful of the unknown. I am sad for Mike and I, and our kids, to have to leave our wonderful family and friends here, and to leave everything that is familiar to us, especially to go somewhere where we will literally know no one.

And... Even though I'm aware of the fact that a house is just a dwelling, and that a home is wherever loved ones are together,  my heart still aches over having to say goodbye to our first family home.

I keep hearing the saying, "you don't know what you've got till it's gone" on repeat in my head when I think about leaving this place. We purchased our house 7.5 years ago, before we were even engaged. It is where Mike and I finally planted our roots together, after several moves, and this is where we started our little family.

A true fixer upper, we have put so much work into this house over the last several years, in an effort to make it our own. 

I have cursed and complained about so many things in this quirky little old place, but at the end of the day, it is where we owned our first dog together, (our beloved basset hound, Homer, who we sadly had to put down last summer, far too early), and it is the house that I have brought both of my babies home to... Where I have rocked them to sleep and tucked them in at night, where we have sat around the dinner table together night after night, where M&E have reached many of their first milestones, and where we have celebrated holidays and birthdays together with our family and close friends... And now, just when we've finally made this house look so closely to how we wanted it to all along, it is time to say goodbye.

The whole thing is bittersweet really, but I know that God has big plans for us, so I am putting my faith in him and his timing, and I know that everything will work out just as it is supposed to. It helps that I find comfort in knowing, that for all of the new and exciting things that are about to be thrown our way, we will endure them together, as a family. We have many wonderful memories here, but I feel confident that we will continue to make beautiful memories in New York as well... This is just a new chapter for us.

So, my apologies for slacking on blog posts and for keeping things somewhat secretive, but it has been a bit hectic around here lately, as you can probably imagine.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, I'm hoping to share some glimpses of our current home, as we prepare to say goodbye to it, and of course plan on sharing pieces of our new home as well, once we get there and get settled.

By all means, if any of you have any tips on moving, particularly with children, feel free to send them my way. I need all of the help I can get. We are hiring movers, but preparing a house to be put on the market with 2 kids running around is no joke, so I see a lot of Venti iced lattes coming my way over the next several weeks.

I'll plan on continuing to blog as much as I can through all of this, when I can actually make the time to sit down at my computer and write... it actually feels kind of therapeutic when I do, but if I seem a bit absent at times, at least now you will understand why.

As always, thank you for following along, and thank you for all of your support of this little creative space of mine.

-J