The Path South

Anticipating my fourth trip to Georgia via vehicle was more intimidating than the first three. The first trip was in 1995, the trip was not to Georgia, but through Georgia. On our way to Florida, my college roommates and I made some unexpected detours through Atlanta. Having survived, I count that as a trip. The second trip began on 4/22/1999, two days after the shootings at Columbine (I was a student teacher then and remained with the class for a couple days after.) I was going south to meet Erik in order to cross the border into Alabama to elope. The third trip was four months later, I was three months pregnant, my aunt was the primary driver-- as I was sleeping most of the trip-- and I was moving from Michigan for the first time. We lived in Savanna for a little more than a year before we made the trek north to Maryland. The third and fourth trips had some similarities: Lori was with us again, I was with child(ren)(one in womb-service trip 3 and 3 in seats trip 4), we took the same painful trip through Ohio, and both trips were made in the hottest possible time to move to Georgia. July. Hot. Humid.

Ah, now we'll only explore the most recent of these trips. Thankfully, the trip was completely uneventful. The cars were great, the travelling arrangements were livable and the kids were absolutely wonderful. See, when traveling with children, I operate on a couple rules: 1) stop every two hours unless the youngest two are sleeping to head off meltdowns; 2) I do not drive with the little ones past 10pm. Protecting these two rules, I believe, got us sanely through to West Virgina the first day and all the way to our new house during daylight the second day!

The kids reacted with, shall I say, relief to see the house. Basically the little ones could not have really cared a bit if it was not for the fact that they were able to get out of their seats. Wes was appropriately excited. I must say, Erik and I were as excited as Wes since we didn't even look at this house before buying it. We were considering the house next to it, but I can safely say we are quite pleased with our decision. Lori was just as excited since I had promised she could decorate the guest room however she wanted. I had to exercise executive priviledge over some of the decisions but am very happy with how it turned out.

It has been an adventure in home ownership, that's for certain. From installing blinds and fans in nearly every room to overseeing the laying of sod and obtaining countless estimates on landscaping, the past six weeks have gone by in barely a blink. I've started trying to salvage the grass in the front of the house as well as planting some ornamental grass and trying to find some scrumptious perennials I've had my eye on, all in the effort to win the yard of the month placard. I anticipate it will be next summer when I will have this shiny award. I need to have it. So I will spend all of my spare time crafting a worthy landscape.

The kids were in to the whole better the yard movement at first. Now that we've actually got some neighbors with kids, they've left me for more exciting social oportunities. When I go to pull weeds, it usually revolves around when one of the kids has a friend over to play with, and is almost always a solo venture. I have had tons of fun with the 3-in-1 lawnmower and the awesome weed puller I've acquired since moving here. Erik had his first experience with the mower last weekend. He did a fine job, so I'll let him do it again sometime. It has been a pleasure having a yard large enough to take care of and actually work up a sweat maintaining it.