Last Week in Charleston
Last Week in Charleston || August 5-12, 2016
We’re back! And by back, I mean back on the blog, back on the internet, and getting back to “normal”, whatever that is! We are now 1000 miles North of where we were in our last post, so obviously I have some catching up to do. Over the next week we’ll go over the events of this month, not just to keep you informed but also so that I can remember all about our crazy August of 2016! So with that, I give you our first update of the week leading up to our move: The highs, the lows, and the low-quality phone pictures. Enjoy!
Friday, August 5 | We had our last game night and potluck dinner together with friends from Curtis’ class. Several of his friends are also moving to NY so we could potentially continue these, but it was our last night as a big group. The theme for this potluck was Chinese food and everyone made their best dish. In the past we’ve had a couple cheesecake nights where we all make a cheesecake and have a competition for the best one. Any guesses on who wins? The answer is everyone. Everyone wins, because we have like 8 cheesecakes to sample, with plenty of leftovers to share. 😉 Charlotte also enjoys these game nights because it means she gets to run around with other puppies. It makes me so happy that she has friends wherever we go!
Saturday, August 6 | We spent the weekend preparing for the move! We turned our “puzzle room” into the staging room and filled it with boxes of things ready to go. We loved that you could fit everything we owned (besides furniture) into this one small room. One of my favorite parts of moving is getting rid of things to lighten the load. We donated a lot of things, and sold our first table & chairs to a young couple on base. Curtis went in to study for his final for a couple hours because even in the midst of preparing to move, he still had to actually finish school! Of course, he also had other goals aside from moving and finishing well, and they had to do with Pokemon… 🙂
Sunday, August 7 | More packing, more studying, and starting to deep clean our house. We had our last Sunday at our church in Summerville. God always blesses us by leading us to a church where we are able to plug in, build relationships, and grow in new ways even in our short time there. A pastor & his wife prayed over us before we left. Of course they are used to seeing military families come and go like we are, and we like how they see us as “missionaries in this country, funded by the Navy.” 🙂
Monday, August 8 | Curtis’ last day of studying before his big exam! He was still home by 6. 🙂 Our Pod arrived and we began filling it. We do like using Pods during our cross country moves — they make it easier for us to go and see our family and not have to drive a big moving truck — but of course no company is perfect and every move has to come with its little frustrations. For instance, they could never seem to grasp that we were living on a military base and that they had to enter a certain gate especially for trucks with us escorting them on, no matter how much we stressed this to them. They also had no idea where the gate was, even though I gave thorough directions (even to the manager of the company…one of those instances where I wanted to say “ever heard of Google Maps?”) But all that aside, we’re still glad we used them again, and all our stuff ended up in the right place so we can’t complain!
Tuesday, August 9 | Curtis passed his final exam — time to celebrate!! We had a friend over to help move the few heavier pieces of furniture and just about finished packing the Pod. Again, it brings us a satisfied feeling to know we could fit all our belongings in a 16′ x 8′ container. That evening, Curtis’ class had their “Comp Party” at the Isle of Palms beach. We brought Charlotte along and called it our last beach trip for a while. It was sunny and not too crowded, and we ate pizza and played games. The beach is great, but we couldn’t wait to be back in the mountains. 😉 That evening, we slept on our futon mattress in our mostly-empty house, drinking wine straight from the bottle and eating individually packaged pies – one of those real-life moments that happens when you’re moving. 🙂
Wednesday, August 10 | Curtis had the day off, so what do we do? Get up before sunrise and go on our last Charleston adventure, of course! Almost 8 months ago, we attempted to walk across the Ravenel Bridge to watch our first SC sunrise, and failed at that because we had Charlotte with us and dogs aren’t allowed on the bridge. Then we kept putting it off, and realized that it was now or never! As we drove to the bridge, it started raining. We still pushed on, for the sake of an adventure! We parked on the Mt. Pleasant side and the rain eased up a bit. We walked up ¾ of a mile till we were at the base of one of the suspensions and stood there, taking in the view. In our minds, we were expecting to see the sunrise to the East over the ocean, but as it turned out the sun was rising more in the Northeast…whoops! A romantic idea that kind of flopped, but because of a rain shower approaching us, we still saw a beautiful and unique view: the pink sunrise light reflecting on the heavy rain shower, and sending pink and purple hues all around the sky. We made our way back as the rain picked up again, and were soaked by the time we made it back to our car. Our last Charleston bucket list item, completed. 🙂
We went out for breakfast at a place in North Charleston — we thought of going to Charleston, but none of the places had up close reserved parking, which was a necessity now in the rain! After that, we picked up a rug doctor from Walmart and went home to continue our major deep-clean. Ok, I’m making it sound way worse than it was. The way it works on the base is you can either pay and have them clean, or clean it all yourself. Of course we chose to do it ourselves, but I had heard of some who were charged absurd prices for missing something. So I made it my mission to clean every baseboard, every blind, every window track, basically every little detail of our huge house! Curtis went to go return the favor and help a friend move his things, then he cleaned the carpets upstairs.
That evening, we had our last Bible study with our small group from church. This was the first time we had been involved with something like this, and we really enjoyed it – from the mealtime fellowship to the study to the humor, we always looked forward to hanging out with this group and will miss them a lot! They prayed over us and wished us well on our way. We were so blessed to be a part of this group!
And finally, we spent our last night in our house together.
Thursday, August 11 | Last full day in SC! It was so hard to grasp, because we literally had things going on right up until the hour before we left. Because of that, it was hard to process, but the overwhelming feelings we had were very positive. We were at peace with our decision, content with all we had seen and done, and filled with gratitude for the people we met and all the work that God did in our lives.
Our Pod was picked up and taken away, set to arrive in NY a few days before us. Curtis had grad practice and was able to work out a few logistical military moving things. A dear friend of mine watched Charlotte for us so we could finish up our deep clean with a good mopping of the entire downstairs and few final touches to our now spotless home. Then we camped out on the driveway and waited for our “home inspection” to begin. It was hot and oh so humid, but I can’t even remember that feeling anymore. 😉 We had the sweetest young woman come to walk through and check us out – she walked into the house and immediately noticed how clean it smelled. “Is that Fabuloso?” 🙂 Honestly after that, I think she was just looking to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind, and continually complimented our cleaning abilities. I can’t believe I stressed so much. We went back to the office and got all signed out. Hurray! We’re homeless!!
We picked up Charlotte and went out for our last dinner in SC — Lola in North Charleston, for our last true Southern flavored meal. Then we went back to our neighborhood where our dear friends opened their home to us, making our last night completely stress-free. (Well, maybe not for Charlotte, who had no idea what was going on!) Of course, there were many things that weren’t sorted out — like where are we going to live in NY?! But during this season, we have both been contemplating what it means to live in the moment – to know that God has it all figured out, and instead of constantly looking forward to or worrying about “the next thing”, we should try to enjoy each day we’re given.
And that’s what I love so much about our last week in South Carolina – despite having so much to do, like studying, packing, cleaning, and preparing for our road trip/move, we still managed to have fun and really enjoyed our last week in the South, humidity and all.
