Brief Update

I'm blogging from work again, so this is going to be brief. But I wanted to fill everyone in on our life as of late.

First of all, we made a frantic trip back to Atlanta the week of the 20th to pack all of our stuff. I can't even imagine what we would have done without the help of our amazing friends. A HUGE thank you to Gina, Brian, Julie, Todd, Alison, Steven, Christy, Gary, Rob, Devon and Danielle for helping us pack and load all of our crap in the 27 foot moving van Saturday. Even though we sold our sectional, ottoman and dining room table and 8 chairs, we still barely fit everything in the van. And another thank you to Danielle for volunteering to clean our dirty house from top to bottom after we left - heaven knows how late we would have been pulling out Sunday if I'd had to clean. We were late enough getting in as it was. And thank you to Mimi and Pawpaw for lunch Saturday, what a treat! Whew I hope I didn't miss anyone!

Monday night, with the help of my parents, brother Curtis, his friend Beau and Lana and Eddie, we unloaded into a storage unit here in MS - again barely squeezing it all in. I mean where did all of this junk come from? I thought I cleaned out before we moved the last time??!!

Friday the 28th (I think) Jeff took a solo trip to ATL to close on the house. I had to give him POA because I can't take time off from work just yet. He came back on Saturday with a big smile and small check in his pocket. It definitely wasn't as much as we'd hoped to make off of the house, but we're not complaining in this market. We were lucky the loan went through at all, evidentally the guy had a LOT of money in collections he had to pay off at the closing table, which explains why he had no cash to put down. We also found out he's looked at 200+ houses before deciding on ours, so that made us feel pretty good about the sale.

I guess you've all heard by now that Citibank bought Wachovia today, which means an uncertain job future for Jeff right now. Please keep us in our prayers as we navigate these difficult times - although I am very aware that an uncertain job future if very minor in comparison to what so many other Americans are facing right now. This doesn't mean he's going to lose his job, at least not yet, but his banking future has definitely become much murkier. I have to admit that as much as I miss our GA friends, I've been counting my blessings everyday that we're in MS and not GA right now. Today we both have jobs, we have a (free) roof over our heads and a wonderful family to come home to everyday. We are truly blessed.

I still can't believe....

Our house appraised for at least 249,900 and we're going to close end of this month. I've said all along that God's had His hand in this move, and the news we received on the appraisal today proves my point. The appraiser can't tell us what the exact value came back as, but my agent spoke to him and he said we have nothing to worry about, and that he went ahead and sent everything to the bank. The comps in our area are pretty low, I'm talking 230's even, so I was shocked we got all that we did. Did I mention before that I can't believe it appraised! I've been on pins and needles since the appraisal Monday. Last week was the inspection, but I guess the guy was okay with everything because we haven't heard any fallout from that.

I'm writing from work, so have to make this brief, but this is our official notice that we will be coming into town next weekend (20 and 21), so if anyone is available to help us move we'd be greatly obliged. I'll send out an evite tomorrow to get a headcount - we'll have food and hopefully make it as fun as packing can be. We will be pulling in late Friday night, and will probably spend most of Sat. morning/early afternoon boxing up stuff, then moving all the furniture later that afternoon when it cools off a bit. I hope we can get most everything out Saturday so we can clean and patch walls Sunday before we leave.

Thanks for all of your prayers, love and support during this crazy, chaotic time. You guys are amazing!

We're Here

But we don't have Internet at my parents, so this will be a short post. We also have misplaced our camera, so no pictures.

We ended up heading to MS a day later than intended, but it worked out perfectly because we got to sign the contract on the house as we were pulling out. It took us a little over 7.5 hours to get here - we had to stop several times to check on/resecure the load on the truck. I wish I'd had my camera - we started the trip with the entire back end covered in visquine - in case it rained, but by the time we pulled in there were literally just shreds hanging off. It was pretty funny looking, but since it didn't rain it didn't really matter.

Both Allie and Bailey made the trip like champs. I was really amazed at Bailey - he didn't make a peep the entire trip. I gave him a sedative from the vet, but everytime I checked on him he was awake. I guess he was just really happy we didn't leave him behind.

My parents made the room over the garage very cozy for us, but we're definitely looking forward to getting into our own place once our house in ATL sells.

Please say a prayer for us, as we both start our new jobs tomorrow. The nice thing is we'll both be working downtown, so we may get to carpool some.

That's all for now! And it's pretty nasty outside right now due to Gustavo, but not as bad as we'd anticipated. I don't think the wind gusts have bene over 25mph thus far.