On the Move

The Falvo family is beginning its westward trek. Craig left this morning at 6am with two sedated cats. They're bound for the St. Louis, Mo area tonight and should arrive by 5pm-ish Central. He'll have 3 more legs of the trip before getting into the Seattle area on Tuesday. I promised I wouldn't cry until after he was gone and I kept that promise. No tears until he pulled away. :) It made it just a little worse that it started sprinkling as he left - very fitting and slightly depressing.

Brigid and I are hanging out right now in a messy, mostly packed apartment. It needs to be cleaned, culled, and then packed. Luckily, Craig's mom and aunt came down last weekend and helped us pack up 99% of the apartment. It's just odds and ends at this point. I'm sure it will go quickly in the next day or so. The movers will be here bright and early Monday morning.

I'll be so happy when this whole ordeal is over. It'll be nice to be in a new place - the whole family back together. I leave in 30 days with my brother on our cross-country drive and I'm kind of looking forward to it. :) 34 days until I can see Craig again. Not that I'm counting or anything!

Babies!

I meant to blog this a week ago but as my earlier post indicates, things are a bit crazy now. I'm a little over 13 weeks pregnant! Just when things couldn't get any more insane - right?

I found out on July 9th at like 6 in the morning. I was just 4 weeks along. I woke Craig up with the news and he got a little choked up. It was too cute! We told my immediate family and his the next day as we were driving up to visit his family for his grandfather's 91st birthday that weekend. We also told his grandfather, aunt from Maryland, and family from Chicago. We knew we wouldn't see them in person again so we felt it was worth it. I also told a couple close friends because I had to talk to someone about it! :)

We kept mum through much of August though I did tell my boss a few weeks later. On September 3rd (Week 12), we went into the doctor and saw an informal ultrasound. The OB said she could see a strong heartbeat and that was a good sign. The Bean tried to get away from the sensor and was pretty active. It was amazing! It was so active, in fact, that she couldn't get it pinned down to get a heartbeat. She's fairly confident that she can pick up a heartbeat at the next visit on Oct 1 (16 weeks). Sadly, Craig will be in Washington by then but at least he won't be missing the big ultrasound for gender or anything. He's pretty upset about it but he won't miss anything after that and I know he'll feel better once I'm out with him and he can feel the baby move and all that good stuff. :)

Big changes for the Falvo family!

Listen. The Falvos have become unstuck in time.

I almost don't even know where to begin. We've been stuck in the in-between times for quite a while and, while we've enjoyed those times quite a lot, things are changing. I titled this blog based off a Kurt Vonnegut quote, "Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why." I thought it was a good explanation of how we felt in relation to jobs, the seminary, candidacy, all of it. We were in a cycle of living and waiting and not really feeling settled but it wasn't worth whining because life is a series of those cycles.

Well, I sit months later, cribbing another Vonnegut quote to convey my new feelings. In the book Slaughterhouse-Five the main character becomes unstuck in time and goes on adventures of a sort. Well, our family is now in the same position. Craig has a job and we're mobilizing to move.

The Friday before last, September 4th, Craig and I flew out to Seattle, WA to meet a church congregation that Craig had interviewed with. We spent Friday touring the area, Saturday bowling with the youth and then eating dinner with the senior pastor, his daughter, the associate pastor, and his wife. Sunday was church and then walking around Seattle with the associate minister and his wife. It was amazingly fun, totally exhausted, and completely nerve-wrecking. Craig got the offer on Sunday and we spent the trip home (never ending trip) and the next day talking things over. They wanted him fast and we had to do a lot sight-unseen. There was a lot of excitement and not a few tears.

It's now 7 days later and we have an apartment waiting for us, a mover scheduled, and the apartment packed almost completely up. Craig leaves this coming Saturday morning. The stuff will be picked up either Friday or the following Monday. I move in with a friend Saturday and then follow him out in mid-October.

Scary but very excited. We've had our fair share of breakdowns but are thrilled with the opportunity. We loved the Seattle area, loved the people at the church, and really loved the pastors and families. :)

Craig's never lived this far away from family and this has been a bit hard for him. We're both really happy to be closer to my family (I'll actually have Thanksgiving with my family - it's been 4 years of Thanksgivings elsewhere!) but we're sad to leave close-by friends and family. It's a process of saying goodbye and maintaining contact. This will be a good thing for our family and I think we'll flourish in the new area. Change is hard but worth it.

Travels

Updates, updates. I've been terrible about keeping this blog current though I'm thinking that will soon change. What's been going on in our lives? It feels like nothing and everything all at once.

This past weekend we were up in the Pennsylvania/West Virginia area visiting the Falvo side of the family and attending a wedding reception. Craig's cousin was married in California in July and held a PA reception for all of the east coast people. It was lovely! So much fun to see family and get to congratulate the newlyweds!

Craig and I left Thursday evening at 5:30pm and arrived at his parents' house at 2 in the morning. Big mistake. I thought that we'd be fine - we're up late usually and Craig's done the drive that late countless times before. It wasn't awful but it just wasn't good. The distance seemed to stretch out in front of us with no visuals on the road. It was foggy and dark in the mountains and just ick. hehe Luckily, we had Friday to regroup and relax before the Saturday festivities and the inevitable drive back on Sunday. Sunday's drive, in the bright light of day, was not nearly as bad! :)

As I sit typing this, we're cleaning up from this past weekend and preparing for another trip this weekend. We leave Friday to fly to Seattle for a job interview for Craig. So excited!! Sadly, it's another whirlwind weekend that's going to leave us exhausted and kind of frazzled. We leave our house for the airport at 6am on Friday morning and we won't get back to the house until almost 8am on Monday morning (Labor Day.) We're looking forward to the trip. Neither of us have ever been to the Seattle area and it's sounding like the weekend's going to be packed with fun things to do. However, I'll be glad when I have a weekend at home to put things in order and relax. :)

More updates to follow as things start to happen!