Graduation, Christmas, Leaving home, Finding home, seeing Atlanta, and a new member of the Family!

So those times when I started by saying that the past few weeks were hectic, I'm now starting to discover that those weeks were just the calm before the storm.  I was expecting the normal stress that comes with moving.  But I guess I wasn't very prepared for the feelings I would get when we moved halfway across the country.  

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I have to go way back.

Peter finally graduated!  I was happy to finally see him relieved about passing all of his classes (He said that there were some close calls.  But I don't believe him.  He's such a smarty pants that I knew he was going to pass all of his classes with ease.)  Zach, Lori, and Lisa were able to show up to see him walk and my parents were able to come and see their son in law as well.

The Graduate right before the ceremony!

We tried to get it as clear as we could, but they were moving too fast.  Sorry!

Peter with his friend Erik.  These two spent many nights studying together so they could take this picture together.

Can you see him?

I'm very proud of Peter and all that he has accomplished.  He is such a hard worker and I am grateful he's willing to put all that he learned to practice with Nestle/Purina so that our family can have a good life.  He's such a stud!

Shortly after his graduation, we packed up all that we could carry on our little truck and left Rexburg for good.  I thought I would've been a little more excited to leave Rexburg behind but, if I'm going to be completely honest, it was rather bittersweet for me.  I wasn't too fond of the school but the town wasn't all that bad.  After all, Rexburg was the first place I lived on my own, it was where I made some of my life long friends, it was where I met Peter, and it was where I got my college degree.  I will be grateful for all the great memories Rexburg gave me.

When we hit Utah, we tried not to think about the move and tried to focus on Christmas.  We got there just in time for my big brother's birthday.  To celebrate, he had the good idea of having a gingerbread house contest.  Ours didn't win :(  But it was still a lot of fun to see everyone and enjoy some Christmas festivities.

Of course I had to get some pictures of Lucy and Lil' Mike!

We also had the pleasure of skyping with Thomas!  It was fun to see him and introduce him to his new niece.  It was also pretty cool to hear him speak Vietnamese.  

We sure did miss him this year, but we're proud of what he's doing and can't wait to hear from him on Mother's day!

  I love Christmas!  I love everything about Christmas!   This Christmas we would've spent it with Peter's family, but with the Barnes' all over the place and with us having a tight schedule anyways, we thought it would be best to spend it with my family.  That meant just spending it with just my parents (my siblings spent most of their Christmas with their in-laws). It was different spending it with just my parents, but it made for a nice, calm day.

My parents had to leave Christmas night to go see my brother, Daniel, and his wife, Cassie, who are now in Connecticut.   So just as I was having a Merry Christmas with them, I had to have a sad one as well by saying goodbye to them.  My sister and brother in law were nice enough to stay the night so our Christmas night wouldn't be completely lonely.

The next few days we spent seeing my great grandma, Peter's sister and brother in law, Christie and Tyler, and our friends, Vanessa and Kento.  We didn't get to see them last time we were in Utah for Thanksgiving, so we thought we would swing by and say goodbye to them.  They were pretty sad to see us go, but were excited for us at the same time.

I sure am going to miss my friends out West!

These were some of the first people I met in Rexburg and became some of my best friends for life!

My brother and sister in law, Michael and Cambri, and my sister and brother in law, Emily and Mike, came that Sunday for a last meal together before we headed out on our big road trip.  That was when it really hit me that I won't be able to see my family as much as I use to anymore.  It made me very sad, to put simply, and made it very difficult to say goodbye.  I am missing my family very much and wish we were closer!

After the dinner and everyone left, Peter and I packed up the truck again and got ready for our big road trip!

We woke up early the next morning, cozied up in the truck and hit the open road.  It snowed a lot in Utah but the roads weren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Then we hit Wyoming.  And it was terrible.

We slid all over the roads and had a semi drive us off the road.  With Peter and I both on edge, we somehow made it to Cheyenne where we stayed warm in a hotel for the night.

Being well rested and ready to get out of this inhospitable state, we drove to Omaha, Nebraska, where we had our friends, James and Kayle waiting for us.  We were excited to see them and couldn't wait to get on with our New Year's activities together.

All of us, post-party

Cool looking ice in the river we walked around

In two places at once!

Seeing James and Kayle brought a little comfort to me.  Even though they are four hours away from us, I'm grateful that we have some good friends close by.

On the second of January, we hit the road again and finally made it to Davenport, Iowa- our new home!

I immediately felt overwhelmed, not by homesickness (That came later) but by the uncomfortable feeling of unfamiliarity.  I didn't like that I had to use my GPS just to find the nearest grocery store when just a few days before, I could've gone with my eyes closed.  I wanted to be back where I knew where everyone and everything was.  I wanted to be close to family.  It was (And sometimes still is) just all around overwhelming.

Peter did a good job in helping me adjust to Davenport and I'm really grateful that he didn't have to work right away so that we could spend some time getting situated before he started.
Part of getting situated (at least for me) was getting our new member of the family!

Say hello to Murphy!

I have wanted a dog ever since I was a little girl.  Every Christmas I would ask Santa if he would bring a puppy, and every Christmas he would let me down.  This time, Peter promised that this Christmas, we could finally get a dog.  To say I was excited was an understatement.  Every day, I would go online to local shelters and see what dog listings they had.  When we went to Davenport, I looked up local shelters and we narrowed down which ones we would look at.  We got to a place in Rock Island, Illinois (Just across the river from us) and we stepped in where they were keeping the dogs.  All of them were going crazy except one old looking beagle.  When we approached his cage, his whole body would wag with his tail and wouldn't stop licking Peter's hand.  His foot was a little deformed and he smelled horrible, but I could tell he would be a good fit for our family.  So, just like that, we got him!
We feel he is a bit older than they told us originally, but we love him and his sweet little personality he brings to our home.

After we spent about a week with Murphy, we decided that we didn't want to spend another week in freezing temperatures, so we packed up a bag, and our dog, and drove 13 hours down south to visit Peter's parents.  It had been a while since we had seen them and, seeing as we were a bit closer now than we were before, we wanted to spend some time with them before Peter started work.  It was a fun relaxing week in Atlanta and we loved celebrating Chris's birthday a couple days early.

'K' was for Katie Jo, 'M' was for Madre, 'B' was for Birthday Boy, 'NJ' was for Norma Jill, and 'P' was for Peter

Now we are back and I am sitting here, waiting for Peter to come back from his first day of work to tell me all about it.
Despite the whirlwind of the past three weeks, I am grateful for this opportunity for us.  I can't wait to see what Davenport has in store for us!