Nathan's Graduation Dinner

Nathan's Emergency Medicine Residency graduation dinner was Sat. June 20th at The Capitol Club. It was a nice dinner followed by a ceremony in which each resident was presented with their completion certificate. Nathan's parents came up for celebrate with Nathan, and they also brought our kids back up to Jackson from the coast.

At Tami & Stephen's house (they kept Noah & Ava)

We have a picture with the 3 of us when Nathan graduated from med school in Kansas City in 2005 when Noah was only 4 months old (I wish I could post it next to this pic but it's saved on the other computer which is in storage)

Proud Parents & Nathan
We could not have gotten through this whole process without the help and support of Nonnie & Pop Pop. Thanks for everything! We love you!

The Gills with the Sumralls- we are all moving back down to the coast

Dr. & the Mrs.

Last Days in Flowood

We closed on our house Friday, June 19th! Thought we needed a family pic in front of the "sold" sign. We will miss you Wedgewood Court!!!!

Nathan's FINAL day of residency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! It seemed like this day would never come! I am SO SO PROUD of my wonderful husband for the sacrifices he's made to get through medical school and an emergency medicine residency. We love you so much Nathan and know you will make an amazing doctor!

Movin' on Out

Dear Noah & Ava,
I thought you might like to see what Mommy & Daddy were doing yesterday. I loaded the pictures backwards but you can still get the idea.

Here's Daddy closing the storage unit

Here's the movers unloading the truck into the Storage Center
Here's half of our stuff!

Here's Mr. George unloading the truck

Here's Mr. Harry packing boxes in the kitchen

I hope you have a better idea now of what the movers did at our house! It is empty now and being cleaned today. Hope you are having fun at Mimi & Grandpa's house! We love you and miss you both. See you soon!

Love, Mommy & Daddy

Goodbye Tour- Day 3

Friday night Jayme & I met at Chick-fil-A with the kids for a farewell dinner. Noah played in the play area 95% of the time and the girls were unusually quiet and just well-behaved all around. Poor little Landrum was just exhausted but I'm so glad she was such a trooper! Jayme & I had a great talk & good visit. I will really miss living so close to such a good friend and just cannot stand that we won't be here when the next baby comes. Jayme- you are going to have to update the blog more often so I can keep up from far away! :) We'll miss you friend...

Goodbye Tour- Day 2

Friday we met Caroline and her sweet children Mary Caroline & Attison at The Play Place. There was hardly anyone there and the kids had a great time, which meant Caroline & I got to catch up a lot! I barely heard a peep from Ava except for when she needed help with the dress-up heels (I know what she's getting for her birthday!) or when she delivered a magnificent "babble" concert on the piano. Noah, bless his heart, started moving all the furniture and toys from one of the "stores" to another saying he was the mover. He literally moved everything out of one of the rooms. But he was moving it to Mary Caroline's "store" so she could sell it. It was cute to watch them pretend and I guess it was good for Noah to act out what we've been telling him about. He is really having a hard time with this move. Last night all on his own he prayed, "Dear Jesus, please help me be okay about this move, Dear Jesus, Amen". Pray for my buddy if you think about it- I know he'll be okay but it's still hard on him.

Attison

so proud of herself and having a great time


Attison & Noah

I guess I couldn't ever catch Mary Caroline for a picture. We had a great time Caroline and we will miss you!

Picnic Dinner at the Rez

Last Wednesday night we grabbed some food and took it out to the reservoir for an impromptu picnic dinner. We took our chairs and even a small one for Noah and parked Ava in the stroller and enjoyed looking out at the water. I really wish we had done this more often while we were so close. But maybe in a few months, we'll just have to picnic on the beach! Anyway, we had a very relaxing time for awhile... until Noah wanted to play tag which we totally obliged to get the kids worn out. We headed home and popped in the Winnie the Pooh movie and watched it for the first time all together. That was my favorite movie as a child, and I still remembered most, if not all, of the words to the songs. Noah loved it and cracked up through most of it. Ava sat pretty still too. Who knows, maybe we can try the movie theatre again soon with both of them.

My handsome boys


Can you believe Ava is darker than Nathan? Look at those little brown legs...

Terrible photography, but I thought it was a cute little fam

All snuggled up during Winnie the Pooh

Love her.

Goodbye Tour- Day 1

This past week was the week I set aside to do some final get-togethers for awhile with some friends before our move. Our first stop was in Clinton. We met Mandy, Drew & LC at the park for a picnic lunch. Melissa, Kate & John were there also. Who knew what fun it would turn into for the kids? Just about the time we decided it was way too hot to spend another second outside, a huge fire engine pulls up and parks right next to us. The nice firemen let the kids hop on in the truck. Noah was on cloud nine. One of the firemen asked him if he wanted to be a fireman and Noah replied, "Nah, I think I am going to be something different when I grow up". It was hilarious the tone of voice he used and all the firemen laughed and told him that was a good idea. Very soon three more fire trucks pulled up one at time- the guys were meeting for some kind of training. The kids would jump up and down and scream "yay!" every time another one came. Of course, Noah talked to the firemen from every truck and told them not to worry that "we will keep an eye on your fire truck for you while you're gone".

Noah "driving" the fire truck

Ava got to check it out too

Can you feel their excitement? haha!

Cousins

We have a list of things to do before we leave Jackson. Noah wanted to go the Ag Museum one more time to see if they have any new train "wayouts". So here we are at the General Store with Lydia drinking glass bottle cokes...


here we are at Jellystone...

isn't Lydia cute?

cousins snuggling on the couch getting ready for bed... they love each other so much

7 years

...ago today I married my best friend and we are living happily ever after...

I love you Nathan! Happy Anniversary!

13 Days...

We've had a contract on our house since May 14th (only 16 days after listing it with an agent)... and now we close in 13 days (on June 19th). I've never really pondered the phrase "close on our house" before. I've been doing a lot of thinking about it the past few weeks. Not only are we closing the deal on the sale of our home, we are closing off another phase of our lives. Nathan and I have looked forward to this point for so many years and I cannot believe it is finally here. It's like our future up to this point was somewhat "planned" due to Nathan's medical school and residency. Now we're on our own...

I've had several "breakdowns" or crying spurts or whatever you want to call it, with the most recent being just this past week when we had to take all the pictures off the walls. We packed them up and sent them to the coast with Nonnie so they would be "safe" at her house. I didn't want to risk putting them in storage. The house just doesn't seem the same...

There is a song in Bolt, one of Noah's movies, that sings "There is no home like the one you've got 'cause that home belongs to you". This is our first house. Not only is this our first house, but we also built it. We chose the floor plan, the lot, the flooring, the hardware, the paint colors, the fixtures, etc. It's a nice house. Definitely several steps up from where we first lived together in Kansas City. It's our house and I am going to miss it soooooo much.

I know it's not the actual structure that I'll miss but the memories we've made here....

~Noah introducing himself to all our new neighbors
~Noah learning to ride his bike around the circle
~our friends and neighbors that we love to sit outside and talk with
~Noah moving from a crib to his big boy bed (toddler bed) that he called his "bo-bo bed"
~learning we were expecting a new baby
~bringing home our sweet baby Ava from the hospital changing us forever from a family of 3 to a family of 4
~watching her learn to crawl, walk, run, dance & love on her big brother... here in the only house she's ever known
~so many more...

It's just hard. To leave what you have grown to know and love and move on to the unknown. Sure, we're moving back closer to home, but it will still be different. New city. New church. New neighbors. New friends. New schools. New job. As of now, we are only moving into storage. We don't have a house yet and don't even know if we are ready to buy- we may be renting for awhile, who knows? Transition is tough. Nathan and I moved 4 times in our first 4 years of marriage so I've been through it several times and know what to expect. But it doesn't make it any easier. But I do know that we still keep in touch with several of the friends we have made at our different locales, and we are better for it. So, I'll just have to keep the positive in the forefront of my mind...

But still, there's only 9 more nights to rock my baby in her only room before bedtime and
only 9 more nights to read my buddy his bible story book before saying his prayers & scratching his back before we shake their little world up. I know, kids are resilient and tougher than we think, but it's hard for me to be strong and keep my eyes dry when Noah is asking questions about the move all the time. He even got pretty upset when we took the pictures down...

We have a summer ahead of us packed with fun from a trip to Michigan & Ohio to a trip to Seagrove Beach. We are happy and healthy and Nathan has a job waiting for him. We are beyond blessed. So thankful for the sale of our house in the Lord's perfect timing (did I mention that Nathan graduates the day after we close on June 20th?) So glad we have family and friends to help us through this next step in our lives. I'll be fine. I just need to process my emotions while I am going through them. It helps. Next time, I'll post a ramble warning before you start reading...