Breezy days in Georgia...hiding from Sandy

First off I have to apologize for the awful grammar in my last post...there literally was a huge cockroach coming down the wall of Starbucks towards me and I was completely distracted and terrified as a result.

While all of our friends and family up north prepare for hurricane Sandy to make landfall tomorrow, we have experienced our first real fall day in Georgia. Just the other day Mike and I were joking because he was telling me that the high on Friday would be 84 and that same afternoon Courtenay and I pulled out the horses' sheets for the weekend...it did in fact go from 84 on Friday to 64 today with a low of 39 tonight. We really can't complain about the weather so far but we are keeping everyone up north and on the coast in our prayers as this crazy storm comes in, please stay safe!
In an effort to "explore" Macon we ventured out to Tobesofkee park today for a walk around the lake and to take in some of the fall colors...the park employees looked at us like we were crazy, apparently it was too cold today for the rest of Macon to go outside! After our small adventure we went out to the barn to tuck all of the ponies in with their blankets and then headed off for grocery shopping...and I actually knew someone at the store, maybe we are starting to settle in a little bit here.
This past week at work finally started to feel like I was part of the college and part of the routine. I have now taken over the HPE (gym credit) classes and the lessons with our walk/trot team members. I also made my first blonde mistake this week by sending Mike's resume to the dean of the college instead of mine, thankfully everyone down here is so super sweet that we ended up having a conversation about Mike going into the police force. Thank you southern hospitality! Spence and Lou have also been settling in, in fact it seems like they have lived here all their lives. Lou pony was happy for a grooming visit on Sunday and will be moving soon to be closer to Mike and I here in Macon...I am quite ready to be able to see him more often. Spence has been trying his best to fill in Lou's absence and has been spectacular under saddle this week. He even dealt with children on bicycles the other day without so much as a blink of the eye. I really am so lucky to have such great horses and people in my life that have allowed me to get to this point in my life.

Loving fall in Georgia

Today Mike and I were able to experience our first "normal" Saturday together...slept in, made breakfast, got to ride Spence and now we are off to run errands and relax. Speaking of Spence, he has been such a trooper about everything! He hopped right off the trailer and aside from screaming every time I was out of sight, he settled right into routine...even undersaddle he acted like he had been at Wesleyan his whole life including handling people driving by, people playing tennis and people fishing right by the ring. Lou has been enjoying his retirement at the McCurdy household while I look for a retirement barn closer to us down here, but he also hopped right off the trailer and let Mike lead him around to his new field before taking a nice trot around. Mike was amazing and went up to meet the horse trailer with Lou for me as it was my first day of work when the horses arrived. Our shipper, Athena with the Horse Jitney, was amazing! Both horses were completely relaxed when they arrived and she even gave Lou a box stall for the overnight portion of the trip, which was a blessing as he arrived totally sound from the trip; which anyone who knows Lou at this point in his life knows is amazing!
So far work has been going great, just going through the shadowing phases of everything but I'm so ready to jump in and hit the ground running. The horses are great but it is strange only have 14 horses, including Spence, in a college barn but it really seems to work for the program right now. So far all of the team members have been super sweet and welcoming so I'm super excited about the two day show at Lander University next weekend.
On another note the weather has been amazing! And the apartment is lovely as it lends itself to leaving windows open...however, we just saw a HUGE cockroach(at Starbucks outside..not at our apartment) so maybe the windows won't be staying open all the time.

Settling in...well trying to

So I promised to update everyone once internet and such were hooked up in our apartment...well Mike and I couldn't handle no internet and no furniture so we're sitting in Starbucks now. The drive down yesterday went well and the puppies traveled like champs, they literally slept the entire 8 hours from Virginia Tech. Aside from one escape artist attempt by Chloe last night, the unpacking of the cars went quickly and the apartment is really starting to feel like home. The first venture out of the apartment on the other hand was a test in driving through active construction zones without knocking out half of the barrels and discovering which grocery stores will never be visited again.
Today we are just waiting on all of our big furniture to arrive in the moving pod and figuring out timing arrangements for the ponies' arrival. Thanks to a lot of help from the Whitings Neck staff and a wonderfully patient shipper, Lou and Spence hopped on the trailer and headed out of West Virginia around 1. Athena called me about an hour in to the trip and said that both of them were settling into the drive well and she is hoping to be able to deliver Lou pony tonight and Spence in the morning.
Well its back to unpacking for us. Tomorrow is the big first day of work and hopefully being fully unpacked.

Badger, along with the rest of us, has fallen in love with the guest room and its awesome window.

Almost there...yet so far away

First off I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who has loved and supported both myself and Mike over the past year and another huge thank you to everyone who has continued with the support during this transitional time into our new chapter in life, it truly means the world to us. It seems like goodbyes can be the toughest thing to do yet they often remind us of how lucky we are to have so many wonderful people in our lives to say goodbye to or rather "see you soon." Each and every person that has come into my life over the past year has changed me in some way and I hope for the better and I just can't imagine any of them not remaining in my life in some way. Which means the challenge of keep up the blog and stay in touch has officially begun:)
On to other news, the moving pod left on Friday afternoon so all of the heavy lifting type moving is over for the moment. My endless amounts of clothes have been packed up or separated into donation piles and all of Mike and I's odds and ends have been placed in piles to be loaded up tomorrow. After teaching my final lessons tomorrow we will load up the cars and dogs and head down to Blacksburg for the night...thank goodness again for awesome friends who are willing to put us up for the night...then Monday morning we head down to Georgia to pick up the apartment keys. The ponies will be staying in West Virginia until Tuesday and then will head down to Georgia to settle in by Wednesday while I start my first day of work...not sure if I've mentioned that I'm pretty sure I will spontaneously combust at any moment from stress. The moving pod will arrive on Thursday so hopefully we will be all settled in by the weekend for a belated birthday for Mike and our 1 year anniversary on the 21st. Once things settle down and we get the internet up and running I will be sure to update everyone on how things went and get our new contact info out for everyone. Fingers crossed everything goes well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTg1n95--KE

I absolutely love this song and my mother sent it to me today saying it reminded her of Mike and I which made it that much more special. Thanks Mom!

Betsy's trying to bail out

So as I promised there is never a dull day, especially not with an upcoming life change. Last night good ol' Betsy the Blue Explorer decided that my visiting Keri to say goodbye just wasn't exciting enough for the night and needed to shred one of her front tires. Thank goodness Mike came to the rescue...on the side of route 11 at 10:45 at night ( ummm and it was freezing! Come on Georgia weather!). So now it will be off to buy new tires on Thursday because we just have oodles of extra time and money right now:)
Somehow I made it through today with jumping camp on very little sleep and gave Janet one last lesson this evening. It was so nice to see the progress she has made with her mare...they even jumped their first crossrail together, its amazing what a year can do for your confidence! Not only did I make it through the day but for some reason I am still awake after packing up half of my clothes, pictures and books. I was also reminded of how awful I am at packing and that I would really rather look through all of the old pictures and books than pack them up. But the packing pod that Mike ordered for the move arrives tomorrow so its crunch time on the packing. Wish us luck!

And so it begins...

Today while officially announcing Mike and I's engagement and our upcoming move to Georgia, I began to think about how many people I truly hope to not loose touch with and then I also remembered that at times I can be awful at finding time in all the craziness to keep in touch and be up to date on everything. So I am going to make it a point to up date this blog on our adventure as often as possible for anyone who may be curious as to what we are up to, I will of course also make it a point to improve myself at keeping in touch with everyone on a personal basis and hope to get lots of updates on how everyone is doing!
I feel as though I should start from the beginning and then everyone will be up to speed...So Mike and I met during our sophomore year in college while being set up on a blind date for military ball at Virginia Tech. The night went great and we began what would be a very long and spotty love story which eventually led us to Baltimore just over a year ago where we had our first "official" date as we call it. A couple months went by and Mike moved down to West Virginia with me and then this past week we went back to Baltimore and relived our first date all over again...complete with a trip to the aquarium, sushi at "our" place and a walk around Inner Harbor with coffee in hand...at the end of the date we sat on the docks overlooking the harbor and Mike proposed:)
So along with our love story, Mike has been super supportive of my career and goals in the equestrian world and when I was offered a job as the assistant coach to Wesleyan College's equestrian team he never hesitated in telling me to take it. Along with that job comes a huge move to Macon, Georgia! That means our family of two dogs, two horses and Mike and I are packing up and moving down south in just over a week...like I said let the adventure begin. So far we have found an apartment and booked a moving pod for all of our furniture and non-essentials. Next I need to confirm shipping for the horses and start packing...ugh.

I'll let ya know how we survive the rest of the trip and any fun stories that pop up...as ya'll know we are never without some sort of entertainment in this family. Any tips on moving are always welcome!!