Almost The End

Five days from now we will be high-tailing it out of Boston and heading back south.  Going home.  Well "home" for me, but literally home for Brian since he was born and raised in Knoxville.  But it is like going home for me, since throughout my childhood as an Army brat Grandmother and Granddaddy's house in Knoxville always felt like "home base" for our family, and especially since I knew that Mom and Dad (Gran and Pawpaw that is) always planned on retiring there.  But I never expected that I would end up living there too, but since God arranged a "hometown" boy for me to fall in love with and marry, it turns out I am.

On Wednesday morning the family will be getting up early and going to pick up a moving truck and car trailer.  We've hired some strong men to load our belongings, and while that's going on the kids and I are going to hop on the T for our last ride and head to the airport.  We are flying out of Boston around 1pm, connecting through Charlotte, and landing in Knoxville at 5:11pm where I expect we will be greeted by two overjoyed sets of grandparents.  The kids and I will be spending the first night at my parents brand-new lake house, which I just can't wait to see.

After the truck is loaded, Brian has the unenviable job to drive the moving truck and car trailer 960 miles and 14+ hours to our new diggs in Knoxville.  Though last year at this time he promised he would never be driving a moving truck again, money talks and it was a way cheaper option then hiring movers to do the whole thing.  Brian has said that he will stop and sleep at a hotel this time (instead of the 2 hours of sleep he got in the truck at a rest area last year), but I'm not going to be surprised if he pulls a stunt like that again just to get the drive over.  The truck will get unloaded Thursday or Friday at some point, Brian is going to go into work on Friday (Aug 1st) to do some orientation, then Saturday will hit the road again (with Granddad?) to make a one-day round trip to Winston-Salem to pick up all our stuff in storage.  After that he'll have the next week off and then report for his real first day of work on August 11th.

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This whole last month has been a bittersweet series of "lasts" for Boston.  Today was our last trip to the Aquarium, last weekend was our last trip downtown as a family for a meal at Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market, last Sunday was our last church service with our whole family (B has call on Saturday so will be at home sleeping this coming Sunday morning).  And, of course, we've been savoring our final visits with the good friends God has blessed us with this year.

Some of our special small group church friends...

And our good friend I. (and her family).

There's still packing to be done, though we have growing piles of boxes around the apartment and crowding our halls already.  There are lots more good-byes to say and two final call shifts for Brian and then we'll be done.  DONE DONE DONE with nine years of med school, residency and fellowship.  Brian and I can scarcely believe it - our whole married life we have been working towards this point in time and we have just a few more days until we've crossed the finish line.  Hooray and thank goodness!  Knoxville, here we come!