Great friends!

Our family is amazingly lucky to have all these friends that pay attention to our family's move and what is going on in our family whether boy or girl I thought that I wasn't going to see a few of the friends that i really wanted to see. But my good friends that I was in this position with turned out to see me before we actually move.


- Evan Smith

this is crazy!

Sometimes i dont believe that we are leaving the tri-cities and leaving all my friends and memories but this is all a sacrafise for a new city new friends and new memories.


- Evan Smith

Birdie Birdie

Thank God for good friends. The Young's were kind enough to invite us over for dinner last night but we had to call them and say we couldn't leave as the packer was still working... SO... they brought all the food to us. :) During our BBQ dinner a tiny baby bird walks across the patio -- right in front of Mia (our dog). Well if you know the Smith's, you know we can't raise hunting dogs even when we try... so Mia just looks at the bird. (thankfully)

We get the bird on a plate, trying not to touch it so that it can still be taken in by it's parents. We put it down away from us but it didn't look good for this little bird as we went to sleep. I was so hopeful the Mom would come carry it home somehow. Anyway... this morning I go out and he is in the sand and looks dead. I begin to bury him and he is barely alive. parents obviously aren't coming so I carry the bird inside and try to straw feed him some water. I stroked his tiny belly and he stretched out and then died right there. Poor little thing. I want to post a picture but all of our cords are somewhere?? right now! I am typing with the computer on a chair, sitting on the ground as everything is being packed up!

Eric took the kids to the pool and I am 'supervising' the packers. At the end of today all the items we want in Austria will have left. Packers arrive tomorrow to finish the rest and bring it to storage.

I am discombobulated in my home... I don't like this feeling but I do know we are doing the right thing and this is the adventure of our lifetime for our family. Hoping I am not so sad when we get on the plane Tuesday!

Sadly We Leave The Tri-Cities

We are very sad about leaving our friends and loved ones. Although we know a life changing adventure is ahead of us. while I say goodbye and leave last impressions we know we will also be having lots of first impressions on others over the next series of weeks and months.


- Evan Smith

1st Tri Cities Good-Bye

Well we had our 1st Tri-Cities good-bye tonight. We met our good friends, the Seed's, at RoundTable as they are headed out of town on their vacation in the next few days. I think I am going to have Eric design me some sort of kleenex pouch to wear around my neck... lots of tears coming from me right now!

Seems funny to say Goodbye to Lisa as she was the very first person I met here. About 9 years ago we moved here and I took Evan to the neighborhood park. He was only 6 months old, so I was mostly taking myself to the park to see if I could meet some friends! Luckily, Lisa was there and she was so nice and welcoming to me. She invited me to a MOPs group at a local church here. Our family ended up attending that great church (Columbia Community) and I met many Moms who have become dear friends for me. Evan and Brandon are good friends even after a rough start of 1 year old Evan biting 2 year old Brandon at a playdate...thanks Brandon, for hanging in there with Evan! You two are going to tear it up playing soccer together when we get back!

Our house is covered in post-it notes right now.... "Boat", "Storage" and "Air". I am about done with the 1st pass through and now have to go through what I have missed. Packers show up on Tuesday morning.

I am excited, scared, nervous, sad, stressed, joyful and curious all at once. It sure makes me tired..... :)

Out of the mouths of babes...

I accidently said "crap" to the kids today and so followed it with "excuse my french" for which I had to then explain why people say excuse my french. Evan wanted to know if the french swear a lot?! A few mintues later the kids are chatting in the back seat and Julia says "well, I think calculators are stupid anyway" followed by "excuse my french!"

Too funny...

Preparation....

We have been preparing for weeks and one of these "to do" items is learning how to do this blog. I am sitting on the floor in Chicago at 10:15 pm working on this item! I am hoping this blog can look nicer in the future, but if I can figure out at least how to write and post pictures...that is a good start.

We are due back in Washington next week after nice visits with my family and a visit to Kansas City in a few weeks to see Eric's family. When we arrive back home we will hit the ground running as we have 4 days to finish sorting our lives into four piles prior to the movers arriving.

Lots of things to consider, finish up, deal with...but we are checking things off our lists. We won't have a place to live until we get there and look - so pray we find something good the first few days we arrive!

Post it notes everywhere read "Storage", "Boat", "Air" or "Take with Us"! Craziness but fun. The kids are troopers and still seem really excited!

More soon...