Leaving Durham

I think it has been so long since I posted because I knew that this was coming, and I knew it would be hard. Leaving Durham after three years (minus two summers) was difficult. It would have been easy if the people there weren't so stinkin' nice. If the pork BBQ didn't melt in my mouth and the beautiful rain storms didn't lull me to sleep. The other day I heard a familiar sound of water swishing and my heart leaped at the thought that I would, once again, fall asleep to the rain. Turned out it was the dishwasher... oh well.

A day doesn't go by that the girls are asking about this NC friend or that. Then there are the days when I'm unpacking and cleaning, the girls are bored to tears watching Frosty the Snowman for the tenth time that day and I think, what I wouldn't give to be able to call Kim or Audrey and have them take the kids for a couple of hours. What about all that Jillian Michaels? My neighbors aren't here to hear me complain about this muscle ache or that one. Now I have elderly neighbors who would consider it boasting that I did 20 minutes of Jillian Michaels without dying... oh well.

The five day trip was good. It was long. The girls thought that they were starving if they were scarfing down snacks every thirty miles. Fast food was tiresome, but the diet sodas were great! The hotels were nice, because they were Marriotts. One night we stayed in Omaha with Nate's friend from college. She's great! Iris is terrified of one of her dogs, but that was a small glitch. We made it here in one piece and got to stay at my dream house for three days before moving into our temporary condo.

Church was good. There seem to be a lot of great people in our ward. Abby and Iris fit right in, and Nathan and I were asked to speak in church this coming Sunday. Our records haven't even arrived yet. But that's okay.

Leaving Durham was hard. It was a repeat of the emotions of leaving Ridgecrest, which I'm still not completely over. Leaving Ridgecrest was a repeat of the emotions of leaving home when I got married. I swear if we do this again, I will not survive. There is that old saying of "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!" Well I firmly believe in this one, "What doesn't kill us just prolongs the inevitable."

So not to leave you with too sour a feeling upon reading this post, I want to share what I saw as Nathan and I left our home for the last time. The home that was empty because of the generous labor of our friends in the Elder's Quorum. The home that was clean because of the generous help of my faithful friends. As Nathan and I drove away... wait I forgot to mention that we attempted to drive away but our car wouldn't start due to a dead battery because we left the hatch open while the trailer was getting loaded, so I knocked on our neighbor Brian and Chrissy's door and asked for a jump. Where was I? Oh yes... as Nathan and I drove away, we saw Brian and Chrissy on their front porch, dimly white by their porch light and the random flickering of the fire flies. They were waving goodbye, slowly arms raised and swaying side to side, and I said goodbye to my southern experience in this old but sweet way.

Goodbye to Durham! But a resounding "See you later" to the many friends we made there.