Tuesday, May 27, 2008

back in touch.

Rick and I finally made it out to Verizon and set up new Richmond cell phones.

Here are our new numbers...
Erin's: 804-763-9709

Rick's: 804-763-9658

We hope to see and talk to everybody soon!

We love you all!

Love,
your mobilely-connected richmonders.


Friday, May 23, 2008

new mailing address.

Because the building we are living in doesn't have very secure mailboxes, we set up a P.O. Box.

Here is our new address:

P.O. Box 14542
Richmond, VA 23221

Hope everybody has a wonderful holiday weekend!

Love,
your excited-to-be-back richmonders.

its the journey AND the destination.

Sorry for the delay, but here are our photographs from our drive back. Most of the photographs are taken from the moving car so I apologize for the blurriness and for the gaps in our trips. A lot of our photographs didn't come out.

But with that said, enjoy!

Here is our U-haul, which I immediately decided was a sign that all those that live in Chattanooga should be moving to Richmond! (hint, hint Elizzabeth!)

On Sunday, from Pendleton, Oregon we drove through Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. We stayed at a hotel outside of Cheyanne, Wyoming.

Mountains in northeastern Oregon.



Crossing Oregon-Idaho line.

Mountains in southern Idaho.

Crossing the Idaho-Utah line.

Beautiful Mountains in Utah.




Windmills in Wyoming.

Sunset over Wyoming.


Monday, we drove through Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and stopped right after we passed through Kansas City, Missouri.

Crossing the Wyoming-Colorado line.

The Rocky Mountains.

Tuesday, we drove by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis then through southern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky and stayed right outside Huntington, West Virginia.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Gateway Arch in St. Louis.



Wednesday, we drove through the rest of West Virginia and arrived back in Richmond at about 3pm.


Crossing the West Virginia-Virginia line.

We were so blessed in our smooth and beautiful trip. We had about 20 minutes of rain and about an hour of traffic total throughout the entire 3,000 mile trip. We have absolutely nothing to complain about!

Word of advice, this was definitely more scenic than our trip out there so if you ever have the opportunity to take a cross-country trip this way would definitely be better.

Love,
your fully-exposed-to-america richmonders.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

home again, home again, jig jig jig!

We are safely home in Richmond. We got back yesterday afternoon to surprise our parents but of course my traveling parents were out of town!

But Rick's mom was very happy and surprised as were my parents when we showed up right after they got back.

We got to see most of our Richmond friends last night which was also a lot of fun.

I promise to post pictures and more about our trip as soon as I get my computer back (which is in my car that is in the shop for a much needed oil change.)

We love you all!

Love,
your almost settled richmonders.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

on the road again...

From east to west and back again.

Some people go their entire lives never driving from coast to coast. Rick and I will have done in twice in one year! Pretty nutso!

Because we are technologically savvy and professional bloggers at this point, you all, or should I say ya'll, are privy to the inside, day-by-day of our trip back to the east coast.

We turned in our apartment keys at about 1030am,
said our goodbyes, which were tougher than planned and were on the road by noon.

We donated some of our items to a few friends around portland.... one mattress, one bed set, two small end tables, two televisions, one shelving unit and tons of dishes, utensils, pots, pans and other random kitchen items as well as three lagunitas IPAs.

Needless to say, this did not cut our load down as much as we thought, or maybe we poorly planned the packing, but when it was all said and done, there was absolutely no room for our box spring. Instead of repacking the entire 6 x 10 trailer we opted to leave the box spring behind. Merry Christmas Portland!

Rick is very sick. He only made it about 30 miles outside Portland, before his cough got the best of him, so I took over, which as most of you know is quite shocking as Rick hates being a passenger, he must really be sick right?!

We have a very strict rule of no sleeping for the co-pilot so when Rick's medicine started to make him loopy we decided to call it a day. Unfortunately, that means we did not get as much of the trip under our belt as we had planned, but HEY! better to be safe that sorry.

210 miles later we are staying at a hotel in Pendleton, Oregon and it is only 4:26pm. But hopefully a good nights sleep (much needed after all the heavy lifting from the last two days) will get us amped and ready to make it all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah tomorrow.

So now that Rick and I have had some time to sit down with the map we have been able to schedule a tentative schedule.

The rest of the trip is planned as follows:

Sunday: Salt Lake City, Utah (558 miles)
Monday: Denver, Colorado (536)
Tuesday: Kansas City, Kansas (602)

Wednesday: Louisville, Kentucky (509)
Short detour to see the Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

Thursday: HOME HOME HOME! (563)

This will add 3 states to my list leaving me only 11 more to visit and coming to a total of 2977 miles!

And NOW for your viewing pleasure...
Final photographs of the beautiful Mount Hood as we said goodbye to Portland.




We promise promise promise to be safe and responsible on our way back home. We cannot wait to see everyone back on the east coast.

I will write again when I have the opportunity.

Love,
your reformed-nomadic richmonders.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

goodbye maple room.

Yesterday was my last day teaching the Maple Room kids at Barnes-Miller CDC.

Here is Teacher Caroline and some of our class on the playground yesterday afternoon.



It was tough, emotional day saying goodbye but it is time to move on.

I apologize for my briefness but Rick and I still have tons of packing to do.

Love,
your traveling-fools richmonders.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

much needed closure.

So, we will be pulling out of Portland officially Saturday, May 17. Almost exactly 8 months from the day we first set foot in Portland.

So what if we didn't make it a full year, we accomplished all that God wanted us to, so I guess it doesn't matter how long it took us!

I, personally, am very bittersweet about the move. As you all can guess, I have become VERY attached to my class. Not only have they learned sooo much since I first started, but they have really grown to love me as I have them. Tomorrow is my last day and is going to be a very emotional day.

I have gotten the closure that I have needed. The boy I have previously written about Max, who was claimed to have been ADHD (whereas I thought he was autistic) was officially diagnosed last week. This is really what I needed because I have gone above and beyond my specified role for this child and it ended up really paying off.

Long story short, his doctors have a treatment plan that could offset the slowed brain development and in theory could jumpstart his brain development, eventually leading to no signs of autism.

I realized that Oregon was more for me than building a strong foundation for marriage with Rick. There was a child here who needed my help, insight, and intuition. And he got it. I made a difference, even if it was only one child (well, at least one that I know about!)

Thank you Oregon, it has been fun.
Heelloooo Richmond!

Love,
your on-the-right-path (literally&figuratively) richmonders.

Ps. Our phones don't usually work very well in Richmond. So we will be getting new 804 numbers when we get back. I promise to post and email our numbers when we get them.