Guest Post: Moving by my Mom

Today is the day! We are leaving Alexandria, Virginia and driving to North Carolina. We will be closing on our house and moving in. Over the next week or two I have some super special guest bloggers that are filling in for me while Ryan and I reorganize our lives. Give them some love! Our first blogger is a first timer on this blog and someone incredibly awesome.... my mom! She moved from NJ to NC last year... someone who totally gets it.

After recently moving from our home in New Jersey, where I have lived my whole life, I feel a little more in my element to comment on the whole moving thing.
Besides reading all the hints that everyone gives on PCSing (is that even a word?) I have been able to help Allie with her big move on Friday. No worries to all
you out there... I will be leaving Wednesday afternoon , well before Ryan gets back from school in California. I was young once... I know!

We had spent most of Tuesday cleaning out closets, donating to Goodwill, packing all the treasures that Allie couldn't bear to lose in a move, changing her address,
and generally just keeping the calm... being the mom.

I do have some idea how hard it is to move. When we left New Jersey I left behind a job a loved, a community I loved, friends, family and a home that was finally to the point where we were done fixing up, after 17 years mind you! My husband retired early... after working in IT for 33 years, working 18 hours days, phone calls all hours of the night and weekends too! We have a son who started high school in the fall of 2011 so it was August 2011 or not until June 2015, chances are he would have been dead before we realized that goal for sure! So it was with a blind leap of faith we made the big move, to a neighborhood of retired elderly couples, no family, just a big beautiful log home at the mouth of the Great Smokies in western North Carolina.

I always said that I must have done a lot right in my life with Allie to raise such a beautiful (inside & out) young woman. Allie is a confident and self assured fearless strong woman. I always admired her sense of wonderlust and fearless chances. From standing up in front of an audience and acting, to reading at church, to watching her heart break and mend when Ryan deployed to Iraq in July 2009. And even now watching her hold down the homefront while Ryan was in California in school. I honestly dont know how all the military spouses do it.....YOU ALL ROCK in my book.

My husband, son and I will meet Allie at her new home in North Carolina. We will help paint, pull up rugs, clean and help them settle next week! Ryan is the love of her life who loves her beyond the moon. Obviously I am so proud that after being married for a short time, soon 2 years, they have managed to buy their first home with no help from anyone. They are well on their way to Happily Ever After.....and I am thrilled to watch this happen!