South.

Wednesday December 9th, 2020. I can not believe that today is the very last full day in our home.

Two things happened this year that were never in my plans; #1, shutting down my gym and #2, selling our home. (No, we haven’t officially sold yet, but one of these days it will no longer be ours.)

Before we even moved to NY we had plans of living in the south. So that’s not news. But moving without still operating my #1 passion, and selling the home that I poured my heart into- is all news…. even to me.

WHAT!? Part of me is like; “wait, how could you ever walk away from all of those years of hard work and the love that you had for the gym and this home!?” But the other knows that this is what is BEST for my family.

We don’t like the winters. We want to raise our kids in the south with ‘Yes mam’ and ‘no sir’s’. And we certainly don’t fit in… in Ithaca anyways. Country music, dirt bikes, tractors, shot guns, and pregnant mama’s on motorcycles just don’t go here. To each their own.

The hardest part of leaving, for me, is leaving this home we built together. (Although, taxes rising every year and all of NY’s BS does make it a little easier.)

I feel like we just moved in, and are still making it our own… and in the selling process it is CLEAR that it is our own… no one seems to like the way we layed it out for our family… I mean what can I say, we like to all be in one room together? There is no privacy in this house.🤷🏼‍♀️

The choice to leave before selling was a hard one. One that we spent two months deciding on. We took two trips to the south in those two months. 1, to figure out if we were going to TN where we fell in love with in February, or AL where my family has property and extended family. During that trip we did over 2500 miles of driving around to different areas in the two states. We made the decision that TN was a better fit for us.

One the second trip we were trying to decided whether to really pull the plug and go-NOW. We decided that if we could find a rental house that suited us, we would go. We traveled around a looked at a few properties before applying to get a lease on a house in a neighborhood. We didn’t know until we got home the next day whether we were accepted or not.

Long story short- We were approved, money sent, lease signed- and starting to plan the packing process within just 2 hours of getting back to NY. Oh- and we only have three weeks to pack our entire house. AND… remember that last blog I wrote… I believe I talked about telling Jared that I was “NOT GOING TO MOVE AT 8/8.5/9 MONTHS PREGNANT!” Well… Here we are. 33 weeks pregnant y’all. Yup-it’s a joy. Luckily Jared is packing almost everything himself while I sit on my comp and work all day. What a saint! AND not to mention the “muscles” of Syd came over and helped lift some stuff…AND we have the muscles of Mama J and Savannah riding down to help lift things back out of the trailers… (oh and our dad’s are going too… but they’re just not as strong and they know it😂.)

Stella- Ultimately the hardest part of leaving our home is leaving our dog Stella “Sissy” who lays to rest out near the gazebo under a cherry tree. We will miss that sweet girl who we always say “Hi Sissy, we miss you” every time we walk out to the gazebo. Jax even remembers her licking his face when he was tiny, every time he sat in his highchair.

Leaving here without our house being sold is definitely nerve wracking. But, so is the thought of having to move with a newborn baby in the house. The other deciding factor was that Jared kept getting contacted to work in the south- but couldn’t unless he lived there because of all of the travel restrictions in NY. After the 5th time- it was a sure sign to us that we should probably really consider doing the move NOW. Also- it really does suck living in “limbo” of what’s next. Feeling like our life is on hold due to the virus and waiting to sell our house to make a move. We want to get back in control, and start making moves. This is a big one.

SO- here we are. Moving to TN tomorrow. Three trucks, three trailers, 5 people going..plus a 4 year old and a big ‘ol tired mama! Hopefully the un-packing will go smoother and faster with many more hands on deck! I’m ready to start nesting and prepping for a little baby… oh wait then there’s x-mas to throw in there👌🤦🏼‍♀️

We always jump in with all 4 of our feet, Jared and I.. for better or worse, it seems like that will never change.

Well, here we go, on to the next chapter of our lives.

“Truth is that we all got stories
Gotta fail on your way to glory
Takes time tryna get it right
But every future has a past
And right now I can hear God laughin’
Guess he must have heard my plans
And my odes, thought it was a joke
Gave me more than I could ask
And I wish I knew back then, oh

There’s no perfect life
You can’t hold back time
But you hold on tight
Hopin’ you might find
Every page you turn
Is a lesson learned
Ain’t we all, ain’t we all just tryna get it right?
These are the chapters of my life”