September Moving Mayhem

Jamie and I have joked for months that we better have our popcorn popped and ready come September because there was going to be a show to watch with many of our closest family members. Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges!

My in-laws had their sights set on moving to our area from Austin, my parents (and grandmother) were embarking on selling their house in order to buy something half the size across town, and my sister’s family has been navigating the ETS world after leaving Germany (a.k.a. getting out of the Army).

We knew all of these events would really ramp up at the same time in September, and sure enough, it was a life-changing, exhausting month for all of them.

The dust is beginning to settle and everyone is moving a bit faster now at finding their “new normal”. I feel like Jamie and I have been the ones that have routinely had the spotlight on us as we constantly transitioned to new states, new homes, adding new babies, back-to-back deployments, new jobs, etc., so it was funny/interesting to find ourselves in a “quiet” season of our own where we could offer helping hands and our home where necessary to all of our busy relatives.

So how did everything shake out?

Jamie’s parents and younger brother Brendon moved to the area beginning of/mid September and have gotten settled quickly! They’re hoping to build a home about 12 miles from us maybe some time next year. There is a very desirable “live, work, play” community in Huntsville that has tons of restaurants, shopping, etc., so they have been in Heaven exploring this cute area where they’ve decided to live. My MIL has actually been helping keep Jillian once a week for a few hours so that I can run around the corner to a little shop to do blog work. It’s wonderful for all parties! My brother-in-law found a job too and actually starts today!

My parents worked hard to get my grandmother settled in an adorable apartment (after living in a detached apartment at my parents house for 12.5 years), and she is really enjoying having her own little place again. Everyone is happy to see her so happy.

My parents moved into my mom’s dream neighborhood into a simple, cute one-story home, and my parents are thrilled to be in their new home after an insane 2019. Fixing up the (large, overwhelming) house to sell and then having MONTHS of seemingly back-to-back showings was wild for them. They did it though, and Mom says this is the last place they’ll ever buy. 🙂 Bonus: They now only live a mile from us and we are totally thrilled about it. Nobody ever does the “show up unannounced thing”, and we have gotten into a nice rhythm of how often we all see each other, so having them around the corner is going to be awesome.

As for my sister and her fam, they are headed out on their next adventure this month. She hasn’t shared online what’s next for them, so I won’t steal her thunder there, but they are ready and excited to get settled into their new home and rip the Band-Aid off on their new chapter as civilians. Having them live three miles down the road for the last 2.5 months has been a dream. We have done so much together and had such a blast. We love them.

Anyway, just wanted to share a little bit of what’s been going on behind-the-scenes around here since our relatives are frequently in my blog’s “Cast of Characters”. 😊 People have been especially interested in what’s going on with my sister Jennifer (especially my military readers), so when she gives me the green light, I’ll share what I can about their transition.

Hope you’re having a great Monday, and I hope to have more posts this week. It’s the big girls’ fall break, so I’m not sure if that means I’ll have more time to write, or less. We’ll see! Always flyin’ by the seat of our pants around here! Thanks for continually sticking around. ❤️

More: the first few days after closing on our home and starting civilian life