A Year Ago Today...

On this day, one year ago, life was changing big-time in the Newson house. We had spent weeks and weeks packing our Maryland apartment into neat and tidy boxes, saying goodbye to many friends, getting ready to transition to a life of job-hunting in Colorado...

And on this day, our moving truck arrived. We had spent the morning and afternoon tying up loose ends, like turning in our Comcast cable equipment, putting our computer/TV stuff away, getting the last of the laundry done and clothing packed into suitcases, and spending hours deep-cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms. That night, a small army of men from church came to help take boxes and furniture down three flights of stairs and up the ramp into the moving truck, while Jesse meticulously stacked it (in the dark, with a small flashlight in his teeth). The work was done in a couple short hours. The truck was expertly packed in less foot allowance than we had paid for, getting us a decent refund once we arrived in Colorado. Squeezing it all in was no small feat: The mattresses stood vertically against the stack and were tied to the walls to hold in anything that felt like it might want to shift out of place. But it held, for a half-way-across-the-country trip.

We stayed up soooo long that night, already exhausted. With all the boxes and furniture gone, the carpet had some issues we tried to take care of with our hand-held steamer. But it was too much work. We did our best with some of the bigger spots, but eventually gave in, and hoped the majority would come up with the carpet cleaning the management would do after we vacated. We didn't get all our deposit back, but we didn't owe them anything, either. So maybe the effort was worth it, in the end.

After the cleaning was all done, we slept all together on the floor of the master bedroom, cozy with our suitcases and missing our box fan to provide white noise to ease us into sleep as we anticipated the long drive in the morning. We turned on the fan in the shower portion of the bathroom, and the substitute was sufficient, through a couple mostly-closed doors.

Far too early the next morning, we woke up, did a quick run-through of the apartment, gathering up the last of our things (scrubbers, cleaning solutions, vacuum, toilet paper, blankets, pillows, trash...), stuffed everything we could into our van, and maneuvered a few extra things into the moving truck. With everyone VERY cozy in the van, we dropped off our keys at management, and said goodbye to our hometown of the last six years. It was a misty, gray morning, the clouds hovering low. The beginning of our drive was so familiar- heading north on I-83 towards Pennsylvania. We drove that way every month or so to visit with our friends who moved to the York area a few years earlier. It wasn't until we passed York completely and started heading West that it really felt like a big deal.

It's hard to believe that a year ago today, I had an 18 month old who was just starting to say a lot of words (and I never wrote it down, so I could really remember what it was like!). It's hard to believe that it's been a solid year since I've seen all the dear friends I left behind. It's hard to believe that I've been doing laundry at my in-law's house for an entire year, and have survived it! Or that when we first got to Colorado, Alex would call everyone "Brea" after Aunt Breanne (easiest name for him to say, I guess!), and he could easily run underneath the bar counter, and now he can definitely not run under it, unless he wants a head wound, and can easily reach anything on top of that counter without any help at all. It's hard to believe it's been a (more than!) a year that we've managed just fine without a job to support us. It's hard to believe we've spent a year crammed into the same condo that just Jesse and I lived in as newlyweds, and that we haven't gone insane (yet), and that we even think that if Jesse got a job near enough, we'd go on living here at least 6 more months before house-hunting, to save more money.

It's been quite a year. I wish I had documented it better. But here are some pictures from that last month:

Last visit with our good friends, the Rectors.

Jacob and Melinda at work scrubbing the sidewalk chalk off our apartment's balcony.

A beautiful scene of clouds near sunset, shortly before we moved, as seen from our balcony.

One of the prettier sunsets we've seen in Maryland, seen shortly before we moved, looking from the kids' bedroom window (which was the only one facing west aside from teeny bathroom windows).

The cake I made for Melinda's "open-house" styled birthday/goodbye party.

Some of her guests who were at her party, while Melinda blows out her candles.  Is it just me, or is Melinda much better suited with short hair?  She looks completely different here!  And look, there was stuff still on our walls!  It still felt like home at that point.

Jacob and Alex and I took a small outing with our friends Brittney, Jacob and Adam to Valley View Farms, a big nursery near our house.

Jacob *still* talks about this straw maze- it's awesome because of the tunnel entrance, of course!

Look at Alex with that overly long hair!  Yup, he was still my baby.

Jacob still fits that coat right now.  But Alex can fit in it, too.

That is a BIG pumpkin!!  Hopefully it makes up for not having much of a Halloween celebration amidst all the moving last year?

Our den/playroom became the storage room for already-packed boxes.  We thought we had a pretty good blockade going, for safety, but Alex proved us wrong.  Remember, he's 18 months old here.  And sitting higher than I stand tall, on boxes stacked at least 6 high.

I'm not sure how he wriggled his way back into that corner.  But he found a nice hiding spot...

...And there's the hiding spot.  Smaller than it looks, even here.

Scenery not far from our Maryland home, driving the first day.

More autumn scenery.

Melinda and Alex in the van, driving the first day.  Alex is thrilled because we turned his forward-facing for the first time, and stuck him in the back seat.  He could see everything!  And Melinda, in the captain chair, could hand snacks and drinks back for me.  It was a good arrangement.

Alex is squinting, and Jacob's mid-blink, but oh well.  A picture of them in the back seat, surrounded by a mountain of bags and pillows.  And obviously Jacob snacked on an Oreo-type cookie or something, with the dark mustache-like ring around his lips.

Melinda's pointing ahead of us, eagerly, at the "mountain" we're approaching.  Okay, I'll give her credit, it was a *little* bit of a mountain.  ;)  And it was pretty, with the low-lying clouds and all the autumn colors.

 Now that I've showed all the pictures, I want to add that today I mentioned to Jacob how it was this day last year that our moving truck arrived.  He moaned loudly and exclaimed that he wished we had never moved.  When I asked him why, it was because he thought our old apartment was "cool" (he's probably remembering the balcony they loved).  When I explained we could have a cool house after daddy gets a job, he asked, "With a garage?!??"  Yes, I told him.  "And a tennis court?!?"  No, probably not.  "Awwwwww!!"  Daddy chimes in, "Jacob, if we still lived in Maryland, you would have to go to Kindergarten all day long!"  Jacob got the wide-eyed, silent look of a deer caught in headlights.  I think he's glad for half-day Kindergarten. ;)

And we're glad to be in Colorado!  It seems crazy that there was a gigantic snow storm blowing in this time last year, that prevented us from arriving on our 2nd day of driving (as was our goal).  It's been cold and windy the last couple days, but we're looking at mid/upper 60's and sunny during the day all the way through at least Halloween, and we've only had one small frost that I've seen so far.  The mountains are starting to get some visible snow on the high peaks, but I'll be happy if the arrival of winter delays a bit for us this year.  Jacob, though, was whining tonight about wishing it would snow so we could go sledding.  Boy, am I not ready for that.  I haven't even managed to figure out if I need to buy anyone new boots/mittens/etc. yet.  I should get on that soon....

Thanks for reading!