Jeff & Beth website

The weather website says that we got out of CT just before another 6-12" snow fall - with wind this time.  Weather is much warmer and drier here in Chapel Hill.  A recap of events from so far:

The truck arrived on Sunday morning early, but the extra crew that was to help load the truck turned out to be a bit of a problem.  One of the guys got to the house and then decided that he couldn't do the work that day.  So his partner took him home and then went to the moving company to get a replacement.  They got back around 8:30 and then started to get to work moving things out of the house and onto the truck.

The truck would not fit into the driveway (they tried) so there was a bit more walking, but stuff was moving out of the house at a pretty good pace.  We bought lunch for everyone and things were going pretty smoothly.  Then the two extra workers announced that they had to leave at 3:00 for another appointment.  There was some "discussion" and they stayed a little while longer, but then had to leave.  

That left just the two guys that travel with the truck, and it took them until after 7:00 to finish loading.  My car went on the truck, and then we moved Andrew's car in the road to shine the headlights for them to see.  Beth and Alli left before they were done to head out to Newtown to have dinner with our good friends, the Johnsons (Bob & Kathy).  Andrew and I stayed until the truck left and made sure the house was clean.  Put the keys on the counter and closed the door for the last time.  A little sad.

Dinner was nice, and then we headed to a Residence Inn in Scranton.  It was really nice and we got a good nights sleep after our very long and tiring Sunday.

Monday morning started with a little last minute problems with the closing, but after a few phone calls, everything seemed to be settled, and we started the drive to Chapel Hill.  Traffic was fine until we got close to Washington DC, and then it was slow, stop and go until we got all the way to Fredricksburg.  Lost quite a bit of time on that stretch.

Then we stopped for dinner.  Ann & Doug had sent a Cracker Barrel gift card for just this occasion, so we stopped at one just outside Richmond for dinner.  Good food and nice to get out of the car for a while.  The rest of the drive was fine and we arrived at the Austin's new house around midnight.  Unloaded the car a bit and took over a few rooms in the house and went to bed.

Tuesday we let the kids sleep in a little, and then we went out for lunch at Bojangles (great southern fried chicken).  We then drove all around our old neighborhoods, and stopped at Duke and went into the basketball stadium to look around.  Students are already camped out in line for the February 11 game with UNC.

We picked up a friend, Miriam, from our old church, Holy Trinity, and went to the cafeteria in Chapel Hill that the kids liked to eat at and had a wonderful dinner and caught up with her.  She looks great.  The Austins were in Michigan visiting family, and they arrived back at their house around midnight.  We talked for a little while, but everyone was tired and we all went to bed.

Wednesday morning the FedEx truck arrived with a package that had the checks from the sale of our Branden Way house.  So we headed out for some grocery shopping and put the money in the bank (yea!).  We got to spend the afternoon with Gin and Paul and Kathy (our Winterberry Ridge neighbors) and shared stories of our families.  Still hard to believe that our little kids are all grown up (well mostly all grown up).

New Year's Eve dinner will be with the Austins and Shaffers - sounds like a Mexican feast.

More later, but right now I think we will be driving to Atlanta on Friday.

Posted by Jeff at 05:35 PM | Permalink

A little before 8am, a big blue truck pulled up in front of the house and the work began.  We have tried to put all the stuff we'll need for the next few days out of the way.  There are four guys, each in different rooms with paper and boxes and tape.  Right now it is raining really hard, but it looks like it will stop in a little while, and they will load up the truck tomorrow, when it is supposed to be really nice here (rumor that it will go up to 60).  They seem like getting it done by tomorrow will be no problem, so it looks like we'll be out on time for the closing on Monday.  Updates later in the day (9:00 now).

(3:00 update)

The upstairs is completely packed.  Boxes everywhere, but we still have beds.  The main floor is all packed except for a few more things from the walls and tables being boxed right now.  The basement still has some work to do, but it probably three quarters done.  Some work to do in the garage, and I will need to get a couple of things out of the shed.  The Accord will go right on the truck.  I figure they will be done by dinnertime pretty easily, and then they are planning to show up around 6:30 tomorrow.

Then the plan seems to be to load the truck - they figure to be done between 2 and 4.  We'll then do the last of the cleaning and head out to Newtown to say goodbye to the Johnsons.  We have a hotel for Sunday night in Scranton, and then Monday we'll head down to Chapel Hill.  Right now it looks like the movers will deliver our stuff on Saturday or Sunday, so we'll have a chance to see friends in NC for a couple of days.  I think we'll head down to our new house on Friday.

More later.

(6:00 update)

The packers have gone for the evening, and everything is packed, except for a few small things.  They'll be back in the morning and we'll have the coffee on for them.  Weather says a chance of rain but temperatures in the mid 60s (Atlanta-like!).  House is darker than usual (lamps are packed) and feels a little like it isn't our house anymore.  So we're going to go out for dinner and then maybe see a movie.  Long day tomorrow, then a long drive.  Next step of the adventure.

Posted by Jeff at 09:12 AM | Permalink

Here are some pictures from the morning.  Nice quiet time and the snow outside was really pretty.  Lots of Christmases here, and next year will be very different.  Finished the day with a wonderful feast at Evan's with great food and the three families. 

Posted by Jeff at 10:44 AM | Permalink

With lots of new material, St. Paul's (our church in Storrs) did a Christmas show called Imagine Christmas.  It was outstanding, and Evan did a really amazing job with lights, fog and snow.  The cast did seven shows over two days, in and around some awful snowy weather.  Here are some pictures of the cast and the activities between shows (such as playing in the snow).

St. Paul's and all our friends there are so hard to leave.  We will always have them in our hearts, but we will surely miss them.  Sniff...

Posted by Jeff at 07:16 PM | Permalink

Alli had an amazing last day of school.  She had finished her engineering final on Monday, but still had English and Geometry left to go.  Her teachers were being so wonderful and had offered to come in on Wednesday or Friday to let Alli finish then, and we thought that was what she was going to do.  But after the assembly where she sang with the women's chorus, she went to her math class and took the first part of her final.  Then she went to English and took the final there.  Then she stayed after school and took the last two parts of the math final - another three hours!  What an amazing day.

Then we met up with three of her buddies at Friendly's for a dinner of good food, giggling and some strange dance about llamas, bunnies and cockroaches.  I think you had to be there.

Here are some pics.

Pictures from Imagine Christmas will be posted soon (really).

Posted by Jeff at 12:36 PM | Permalink

Today, the papers were signed and executed, lots of lawyers got paid, and desperate bankers have a new client (us!) and we are now the owners of a new house in Georgia.  I am in awe about how much God watched over us in all this, especially in how the timing for many of the steps just seemed to fall into place.

We still own the house here in CT until the end of December, so I guess that makes us real estate moguls?  The  movers will come after Christmas to fill up their truck with all our stuff.  We're hoping they will be able to deliver it just after New Years and give us a couple of days in Chapel Hill with our friends there.

The hard part now is the good byes and "lasts."  After the big Thanksgiving feast, we were surprised by Beth's "breakfast club" and the OPIM department at school had a wonderful dinner at one of the nice Italian places close to us.  Alli's puppet team also had a dessert party for her, and she now has a beautiful prayer blanket.

My last "class" is my MBA final on Friday from 1-3:00.  Then I'll grade it (and finish my undergrad class) and will be done with my professoring at UConn.  Sniff.  Then I start filling boxes with some books, and give others to students.  Lots of paper recycling, and I hope to convert a bunch of papers to electronic files (that will be easy to move).

More later.

Posted by Jeff at 08:17 PM | Permalink