Is this really happening?

This week has been one of the longest, yet quickest, in memory. Let me explain. On Sunday night, we celebrated my husband's new job and packed his truck for the week ahead. That night, the monsoon rains arrived and by the time he left Monday morning at zero-dark-thirty, our street was completely flooded, there were branches down everywhere, and the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was coming down sideways. He did make it safely to Fayetteville though, and enjoyed his first day at the new job, though he did say it was sort of like a first day of school...

(taking a break to make some oatmeal for the girls...always fun being a mommy and a blogger!)

...where everyone else knew each other and he was on the outside looking in. Monday night brought a disaster of sorts when a hotel that I had chosen for him turned out to be in the slums (sorry sweetie!) and he had to spend time driving around town looking for an establishment in a better area. He landed at the Fairfield Inn (shh, don't tell the Holiday Inn Express!) and we got to video conference before bedtime. On Tuesday morning, the girls and I headed up to Fayetteville for our first trip to the city. We started at the Cross Creek mall for lunch, then headed out to Stedman and Wade. We didn't see anything of particular interest out there, so we crossed over to 401N and checked out North Fayetteville and Linden. There we did find a house that we liked and, more importantly, we found a school that rocks! Check it out here! After Linden, we went south through town and breezed through Hope Mills. We didn't have much time, but we gathered that it's a very typical suburban area with quaint neighborhoods and a few chain stores/restaurants. After Hope Mills, we headed back to the city to meet Scott for dinner and ended up getting horribly lost - lesson learned, 401 business is NOT the same as 401 bypass. We turned a 5 minute drive into a 45 minute one by making that error. We finally arrived at the ECS office and got to meet my husband's new boss (who seems like a really upbeat guy!) and see his work area. After the meet and greet, we took him out to dinner (one that included fruits, vegetables, meats that weren't fried...) and then got him settled in a hotel for the rest of the week (again, not a Holiday Inn Express...*they* wanted $139/night which is absolutely NOT in the budget). We left Fayetteville around 9:30 on Tuesday night and ended up getting home right at 11pm.

On Wednesday, I took Katelyn for her first dental appointment at the Cape Fear Community College Dental Hygiene Clinic. She was an awesome girl and very patient as my friend Katherine did her cleaning, and then Katherine's instructor checked her work, and then the dentist gave everything a final once-over. I didn't know if she'd be that patient or not! Here she is sporting her super sunglasses!



All in all, I think it was a good experience for her and for me too, because it was only $15 and you know how I feel about saving money!

We spent Wednesday afternoon negotiating with the future tenants of our house and getting all of the little details hammered out. By the end of the night, we had a lease written and they were ready to sign and send the security deposit (woohoo!!!!). Now WE can go to Fayetteville and rent a house with more ease because our home being officially leased here provides us with extra income. Katelyn and I had a girls' night on Wednesday and enjoyed a "sleepover" in Mommy's room complete with snacks, a movie, and lots of giggling!

Yesterday, I spent the morning straightening up the house and then went to the hotel for the afternoon. Last night, I went to the January Wilmington tweet-up at Outback Steakhouse and had a fabulous time seeing all of my old friends and making some new ones, all while promoting the hotel! There is to be a joint tweetup between people in Raleigh and people in Wilmington either in February or in March, and hopefully all of the Raleigh people will know where they can stay while in town!!! One of the most active bloggers in Wilmington, Bruce Brown, has already written about the event, so I'll let you check out his blog for all of the details and pictures.

Today is going to be another busy day as I wait for my husband to return from Fayetteville and then I will be headed out to Circa tonight to say goodbye to a friend who is leaving the Wilmington area. And then tomorrow, packing and cleaning will resume in earnest. On Monday, we plan to look at another rental house in the Fayetteville area. This house is currently vacant and hopefully, we will have it occupied by the end of next week!

I've spent much too long writing this post between chasing snotty noses, making breakfast, and getting small people out of trouble, so I'm going to wrap it up for now. Hope that you all have a great weekend!

All my love,