A little praise and worship over Sunday breakfast.

Okay, so this one is mostly for the grandparents.

Not quite according to plan.

Around the beginning of November 2011, Tim and I discussed how we were going to handle the logistics of our big move from Houston back to Fort Worth.  We decided that since classes wouldn't start until the third week of January, we would ease through Christmas and New Year's and move sometime around the first week of January.  Then we decided a week later to take our house off the market and offer it as a lease.  Our realtor warned us that we needed to be ready to move out by January 1st since most people who would be interested in a house like ours would want to get moved in as soon as possible after the holidays, and they would need to register their kids for school.  Made perfect sense to me.  We decided to move on December 31st.  (The fact that the folks leasing our house have no kids and are not moving in until February 1st now makes me weep with irony.)

Anyway, right after I was offered a great job at a hospital in downtown Fort Worth, I called the education department to find out when I could expect to start orientation.  "January 3rd," was the nice lady's answer.  Gulp.  That was cutting it close, but all the more reason to move on December 31st.  I would unpack and organize in the evenings when I got home from work.  I scheduled an appointment with the employee health department for December 27th for a new hire physical and a drug test.  All standard stuff for nurses, but it meant I had to make a special trip to Fort Worth the week before we moved.  Just me.  Up to Fort Worth in the morning, then back down to Houston in the afternoon.  An expensive drive for just one appointment, but I decided it was worth it to start on the 3rd.  I wouldn't miss a paycheck, and I wouldn't have to worry about paying for childcare since Tim wouldn't be in class or starting his new job yet.  I had everything in place.  All I had to do was finish packing.

It was 3pm on Thursday, December 29th when things started to fall apart.  I got a call from employee health saying that all my tests came back fine, but could I please fax over a medical release from my orthopedist stating that my previous issues with my back would not hinder me in my job duties as a nurse?  She was asking for the impossible.  I consider myself a resourceful person, but there was no way for me to get a copy of a 15 year old medical record from a retired doctor who lives 800 miles away in 24 hours, especially right before a holiday weekend.  Nor can I get an appointment with a physician the day before everyone's flexible spending benefits expire.  I conspired with my new boss to find a walk-in clinic in Fort Worth that would see me on Monday, but alas, both the employee health and human resources departments would be closed on Monday for the holiday, so there would be no one there to take my paperwork and clear me to start work on Tuesday morning.  I acknowledged defeat and decided I was glad for the two weeks off.

At this point our reasons for moving on December 31st had evaporated.  No one needed our house on January 1st, and I wasn't starting work until January 16th.  Oh, and we had to turn right around and come back to Houston to be at church on January 1st for Tim's last Sunday at NEHBC (I know what you're wondering, but it had already been announced in a letter to the parents of the kids in the youth group, that's why.)  I kept packing.

Saturday morning dawned cool and foggy.  I had packed the last box about six hours before I snapped this picture.

I made a Starbucks run, then got the kids up and fed just as the movers arrived at 7:45am.

A job I thought would take maybe an hour and a half took three hours instead.  We did our best to keep ourselves entertained.

Finally we made it all the way to our new (to us) townhouse right across the street from the SWBTS campus.

Dash supervised the unloading.  He and Evey both ran fevers all day long.  I'm still not sure why, but that didn't stop Evey from making half a dozen new friends while we waited.  I really hope we didn't pass along some dreaded disease.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the new washer and dryer slid into place.  I measured before hand, but at that point I felt like nothing was going as planned. 

Here they are back in the car Sunday after church.  Note the pile of stuff in the car behind them.  That's everything we left at the house on Saturday.

We were a bewildered bunch on Sunday evening when we stopped at a Chili's in Corsicana for dinner.  Dash's facial expression pretty much sums it up.

Evey was the only one of us with any enthusiasm left.  She had already made plans to meet up with her new friends the next day.

With all that, we are still very excited and grateful to be here at SWBTS again.  God has provided for us mightily.  We are making new friends and spending time with old ones.  We are getting to know a new set of neighbors and a new church family.  The kids are adjusting and the adults aren't doing to badly either.  To God be the glory.