The time has come, for real this time

I hope this is all we need.

Our house will be ready on Monday!!  Nick is leaving either tomorrow morning or Sunday morning, depending on the hurricane.  We have spent the first part of the day putting together everything we have deemed necessary for the next couple weeks until the Army decides when they want to come bring us our stuff.  We were hoping to be able to utilize the bed of Nick's truck and pack as much as we could, but the oncoming storm is getting in the way of our plans.

Sunday morning I'll be heading up to my grandparents house in South Carolina so that I can spend some time with them again and Monday morning, when I make the big drive, it'll save me a few hours.  I've never driven somewhere by myself that lasted more than a couple hours and I'm a little nervous.  It probably wouldn't be so bad, but the radio doesn't work in my car and my and Juno's conversations normally don't last very long.  So if it you are bored at any point on Monday, feel free to give me a ring!

Juno's new favorite: Snoop Dog

I've had a rough couple of days coping with the realizations that I knew were coming.  With an exception to the fact that we don't know when our things will be moved, it seems like everything is beginning to come together.

And the Winner is...

Number Two!!

I know a lot of you were thinking we would go for the real house with the big backyard, but the neighborhood was actually a little bit sketchy.  As soon as we walked into the townhouse, we knew it was the one.  It is just the right size, has a lot of character, and is in the adorable Cardinal Forest neighborhood.  We really see ourselves here for the long-haul.

Entry

Living Room

Living Room

Kitchen

Stairwell

Dining Room - color will change :)

Master

Bathroom

Now, this whole renting process has been a little bit of a headache.  We are used to Athens where they don't care if you have a job or can pay your bills.  We have been approved and now have to go through the process of signing the lease and negotiating any terms...

"Yes, BUT..." has been the theme of our life lately.   Decisions keep being made without any real developments in this whole experience. The newest developments are that the townhouse probably wont be ready for us to move in before Nick starts work in six days AND the Army Corps wont be able to move our stuff when we need them to.  So most likely Nick will move up there and start work and I will head up with the pup when the townhouse is ready.  We will then sleep on an air mattress and eat God-knows-what until our stuff gets there.  Keep us in your thoughts as we try desperately to hold on to our last bits of sanity.  We're excited about the house, though. ;)

House Hunters, Clueless Renters Edition

As Nick mentioned yesterday, we narrowed down our search of a house in Northern Virginia (or NOVA, as the cool kids say, I guess) to three lucky contenders.  We picked one, put an application in for it, and are now waiting.  Until we get the official "yes" or "no", we are going to keep you guys guessing!

So, was it Number 1: The most expensive, but newer construction and super spacious townhouse?

Number 2: The smallest and farthest away, but with a lot of character and least expensive?

Or, Number 3: The mid-priced house with the huge yard??

Once we have our approval, I will post the interior photos we took. Can't wait to see what you guys think! :)

The Home Search

Kim and I have been running around in the Northern Virginia area today trying to find a place to live. It has been stressful, but I think it has been successful. This trip has really made us feel better about the move. The area has so much of what we were looking for in an area - a feeling of community, a downtown area, water, recreation, history... It seems to be the perfect combination of some of our other favorite towns - A bit of Denver, a piece of Santa Barbara, and some of our hometown Athens, wrapped into a single package. It does help that the weather today was nearly perfect to make the place seem even better.

Kim is coming up with a better post about our experience with a "House Hunters" theme. It just happened to work out that, just like the format of the show, we had three house options, and ultimately had to select only one. Of course, you had the large, expensive one with all the additional amenities, the middle priced one that met most of the requirements, and the cheap one with the bad location. More to come soon...

A Good Farewell

As our first official blog post we thought that it was fitting to mention our farewell party that Carol and Bill threw for us.  Thank you to all of our family and friends who were there (physically and in spirit).  We are so lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support, which is what we are going to miss most of all.  There were so many people and I wish there had been enough time to spend with all of them at the same time. We are constantly reminded of how lucky we are to have family that live so close. Rarely can a family live in such close proximity and not want to hurt each other after only a few visits. Imagine 6 kids living within at most an hour of each other. It is really a blessing for all of us. As we embark on this new adventure, we take that love and support with us. We love you all, and thank you.

We have a couple more days left, then we are finally heading to Virginia to find somewhere to live!  Keep your fingers crossed for us that we are lucky once again in finding a place that 1) has everything we're looking for, 2) is affordable and 3) is adorable.  Too much to ask? ;-) Also, we need plenty of room for visitors. We can send you the link to the booking agent for our guest room. Prices may vary.

Also, as the first post, we thought it best to explain the name of the blog. Juno, as you might guess, is our dog. She is a bad bad dog. Okay, not really, but she has tendencies. She is a work-in-progress. As a Catahoula Leopard, she is stubborn, hard-headed (literally and figuratively), protective, and reactive. I'm sure you will see many a post about our follies with her, and the progress we make as we work through her issues. I digress. The name of this blog comes from our niece, Josey. There is a book called Bella is a Bad Bad Dog that was given to Josey by Kate (Nick's sister). After one of those "bad dog" moments between Juno and Josey, she began substituting the name Bella with Juno. And there you have it.. Juno is a Bad Bad Dog.