Monday, April 6, 2015

The Big Move

I realize I've left you all hanging for a while.

Last time I mentioned the possibility of us moving was back in December. Oops. A lot has happened since then.

But to summarize, John got offered the job, we accepted, and we're moving to Johnson City, TN soon after baby is born.

BAM.

And I really do mean soon after baby is born. Baby is due in mid-May and we're picking up and moving in mid-June. Call us crazy, but we've actually got quite a few things making the move way easy for us. First, his new job will pay for most of our moving expenses, so we're hiring packers and movers. So lovely! Also, we're moving to his family's hometown, so we'll have lots of family members around to help with the big transition. And finally, baby will be around a month old and I hear newborn babies are still pretty sleepy at that point. We're hoping this'll make our 8-hour cross-state move a bit easier than moving, say, a squirmy, don't-want-to-be-in-this-car-seat-for-more-than-five-minutes 1-year-old. Like really hoping. But also, I kinda have no idea what I'm talking about. Wish us luck!

We were a little stressed about finding a place to live, but quickly decided renting for another year was our best bet, and that took quite a bit of pressure off. As it turns out, renting is best for us right now, mostly because if John doesn't like his job, we basically need to leave town. His employer makes him sign a non-compete clause that basically says if you stop working for us, you cannot work within a 20-mile (or something like that) radius of the hospital. Mostly it's to prevent docs from stealing patients and moving them to their new practice, which John would never do, but it's par for the course for pediatric hospitalist contracts, so we just deal. We deal by renting an apartment in the area until John's sure he wants to work there long term or he wants out and we easily pick up and move to another city, without having to sell a house and such. Win-win-win.

Once we made that decision, it was time to apartment hunt. But me being in the 3rd trimester made that extra challenging because we didn't want to travel 8-hours away to Johnson City to find one. So, we did the next best thing and looked at a bajillion pictures of places to rent on Craigslist. Our plan was to rent a house, but then John stumbled upon this gorgeous and way affordable apartment complex...


... and we were pretty much sold.

Lucky for us, my sister-in-law and bro-in-law, who live in Johnson City, are awesome people and offered to spend an afternoon going on a tour of the place for us, just so we could be sure it was as lovely as it looked online. They gave us their stamp of approval and we called the office the next day and booked an apartment.

*Insert easy button here.*

Gosh, I love it when all the details easily fall into place.

So we still have lots left to do before the big move, mostly arranging all those little details like having the electricity and internet turned on, stuff like that. Oh yeah, and delivering a baby and learning how to be parents. No big. But we've got this, I think.

It's crazy to think that all of this is going to happen in the next 2 months. Insane, really. I don't really know what we were thinking.

Actually, I do. I know we sound insane for doing 3 big life changes -- baby, move, and new job -- all within about 1 month of each other, but it's just all felt so right. And why not just get it all done at one time? We'll have one super intense adjustment period for, hopefully, just a few months, and then life will be awesome in our new city. We'll be living very close relatives (which we've never done before, btw), John will be rocking out at his new job, I'll be spreading the good news of the Creighton Model to East TN, and we'll both be loving our new role as parents to our cute little bundle of joy/poop/vomit/crying/cuteness.

Here's to our new adventures!


16 comments:

  1. This seriously pains my heart! I'm going to miss you so much you have no idea! I mean NO IDEA! We just work so well together. Or at least I work with well with you! I mean you put up with me and my crying snot face for 9 full days and you still work with me outside of that! MEM lost a great FCP :( and I'm so sad! I actually have 3 clients that need a FCP if you are interested for Skype after the baby is born. :)

    The apartment is gorgeous! Love it!

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    1. Awww, Sew!! I'm definitely going to miss working with you. DEFINITELY! And you make it sound like you were a puddle of tears throughout the whole training. It was one night for like one hour, and the last night at that... before our big test! Totally normal to be emotional at that point! So happy we've been able to go on this CrMS journey together. And yes, please send Skype clients to me!! I'll need 'em, especially after EP2.

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  2. Congrats to John on the job!!!

    "And finally, baby will be around a month old and I hear newborn babies are still pretty sleepy at that point. We're hoping this'll make our 8-hour cross-state move a bit easier than moving, say, a squirmy, don't-want-to-be-in-this-car-seat-for-more-than-five-minutes 1-year-old."

    Heh. Yes, traveling with a newborn is pretty easy. We went to Pittsburgh (4 hours) at 4 weeks and she did great. Not so much at 4 months.
    And yes, I'm moving 30! hours away with a squirming 1-year-old in two months. And we don't have a place yet. So I've got you beat on the crazy ;-)

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    1. Oh my word!! 30 hours??? Maybe you do have me beat. :P Kidding! I knew you guys were moving soon too. We're moving buddies! If you need to unload about how stressful the process is at any point, don't hesitate to email. :) Glad to hear my little newborn nugget likely won't be an issue in the car. Phew!!

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  3. The new place looks gorgeous! I'm so glad that part is going smoothly.

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    1. Thanks, Stephanie! Hopefully we can make it look just as gorgeous with all our own furniture. Model apartments are always so pretty!

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  4. Wow. the apartment looks fabulous.. You will rock the new mom, moving & transitioning thing..

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  5. You are so right - traveling with the newborn will be so much better than anytime later! And the adjustment period will go by quickly and then you'll have it all done at once. I'm so excited for you guys!

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    1. So glad to hear that! Hoping our newborn likes the carseat and lives up to the normal, sleepy newborn reputation. :)

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  6. Sounds like you got this...all nicely planned. Good luck to you and yes, I've also heard that traveling with a newborn is better than a squirmy one year old. One of my closest girlfriends moved soon after giving birth and it all worked out...she was super tired but she got through it and so will you! BTW: Love the apartment. So modern.

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    1. I'm a planner, what can I say? :) I'm a little worried that I may still be a bit sore to travel that long, but if baby is cooperating, then it prob won't be that bad. And thanks! We love the apartment too. :) At least from pictures, anyway. We'll see once we arrive. :)

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  7. It is a lot of stuff and a lot of stress all at once, but I think it sounds like it will also be a lot of wonderfulness! It's really nice that you're already somewhat familiar with the area. My biggest frustration when I moved West a couple of years ago was that in the middle of the stress, I just wanted to know where stuff was without having to get completely lost. I just wanted it to be easy to get to a grocery store! Plus, it'll be so awesome to have family in the area with the little one!

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    1. John definitely knows his way around our new city, so that'll be a plus. And since we've visited there a few times, I'm starting to know where are few things are too. But I totally get what you're saying about having to find your way around a new city. Thank goodness for smart phones!! I rely heavily on the maps apps until a few months after moving, that's for sure.

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  8. So exciting - congratulations!! I would love to hear more about your plans to share the Creighton model with people in your new community. My friend is going through the Creighton class and while I was trained in STM, I occasionally consider studying a different method to see if it might be better aligned with my body signs. A different friend suggested I consider becoming an NFP instructor (likely, if ever, WAY down the road) as a mechanism for finding something fufilling to do with my time and perhaps, another source of income. ANYwhoo, sorry for all the rambling, but I'd be interested in hearing more of your journey with this.

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    1. Good idea! I should do an update post on how my CrMS adventures are going anyway. As for bringing it to a place that has no CrMS presence whatsoever... I'm nervous! I can write about what my plans are, but they may not work. Eek!! If you're interested in learning Creighton, let me know! I can teach ya long distance or connect you with a practitioner near you. And if you like the system, I'd definitely recommend learning to teach it. Fulfilling is a great way to describe the work us practitioners do. :)

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