The final countdown

Back in the spring, when we had decided for certain to hop on this new-job-bound-for-adventure train, a departure date of a year or so out seemed reasonable. So many months would allow us to be really thoughtful and deliberate about how to sell our things, we could take our sweet time dealing with little house repairs, and we'd have plenty of ways and days to say good-bye to the Texans we love.

 And then, one Sunday afternoon in the middle of April, after an increasingly trying week at work, Jan Michael looked at me and said, 'What if I give my two week notice tomorrow?' Seeing the instant panic in my eyes, and being well aware of the frenzy that was building by the nanosecond, he added, "If I do, and if we could get ourselves ready to leave in 6 weeks or so, I could go to trucking school in WA and we could...spend the summer with family and friends." And I, just being offered the golden ticket, yelled 'SOLD!' at the top of my lungs and dashed off to start chucking things into piles for the thrift store. My husband knows me very well, and that is a great gift :)

Fast forward three months, and our time in WA is nearly over; in a little less than a week we'll hit the road. In the interest of full disclosure, there have been some difficult things to traverse over the last weeks, and there have been days when I've thought, 'Get us out of here now!' And then of course there have been days full of the best, sweetest, our-hearts-are-overflowing things, and I've wished for those days to be repeated again and again. We have a hymn that talks about 'joy and sorrow interwoven, love in all we see' and I know we're both thankful for what we've been able to be a part of here, even the tough stuff.

And now I'll sound like a broken record and say again that summer in the PNW is where it's at; I just love it. I'm certain that summer in a lot of places is where it's at, and we'll know that for ourselves soon enough, but for today: SW WA, exhibits A & B :)