Well, we are here! We pulled in close to 3pm Saturday, got our keys and had the guys from Two Men & a Truck unload us. My family came out and hung around for a couple hours before making the 80 mile trip back to their house in Mansfield.

The weather here is beautiful and we have already met a few of our neighbors and talked with them a little bit. Stan lives up above us and is originally from Cleveland, retired and single; Andy & his family live across the breezeway, but only for another month as their house burned down and they’ll be moving when their new house is ready.

Today we are going to go by IKEA to get some necessities, and then down to Mansfield to do some laundry as our washer and dryer won’t be delivered until Wednesday.

Emotionally, everything hit as we drove across the last few miles of Oklahoma but once we got into the Metro area, I felt like I was at home again. For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in West Texas & spent 1996-2001 here in DFW.

I start my new job at Lake Pointe on Tuesday! And I uploaded some pictures of our going away party. You can tell which ones were taken earlier in the night because I look awake, but by 10pm, I started looking exhausted, as did Chris. You can see them here.

Play time is over now…must start being productive!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen – lend me your eyes….

Welp, we got off to a late start leaving. I THOUGHT we had gotten rid of so much, but yet we still managed to fill up the 16′ truck & Rodeo completely, with Chris’ dad taking the leftovers to be picked up at a later date.

The drive through Kansas and Oklahoma has been mildly uneventful. Just imagine what life is like, crusing down I-35 going no faster than 57mph. That’s right folks…With all the weight we are hauling, our little truck (we named it “Meat” – long story) couldn’t make it up to even 60. So…if you have never enjoyed the KS Turnpike at 55mph, you have simply NOT LIVED!

We left the metro around 6:30pm and it is now, according to the official Holiday Inn time, 2:32am. So…8 hours to OKC! In all honesty, it flew by so fast and we are going to sleep in until about 9am tomorrow. Oh, also after getting everything loaded, I decided there was no WAY we are unloading all our stuff ourselves tomorrow. So, thanks to Robert at 2 Men & a Truck, all our belongings will be professionally carried in by a moving team and we will sit in lawn chairs with umbrella drinks and watch them sweat. As for Chris, he’s asleep – our cats are sniffing around the room and I’m about to go beat up our extremely loud neighbors (all in love and kindness of course.)

Thank you for your prayers…

Much love,
Chris & Anne

It is a glaringly early 4:50am (We woke up at 4:30). The plan was to finish packing last night, but our going away shindig lasted about an hour and a half later than planned and we didn’t get home until shortly after 10:30pm. It was AMAZING and we were blown away by how many people from the last four years came to send us off. Thank you all SOOO MUCH. I will post pictures later.

Anyway, we were just mentally, emotionally & physically exhausted after getting home, so we went to bed and woke up early to tie up loose ends. It is gonna be one long day…some minor packing, loading up everything, and making the 350 mile drive to Oklahoma City to stay the night.

Please pray (and ask your friends to pray!):
-SAFETY as we travel
-ENERGY as we move
-PATIENCE as we deal with each other and our cats on less than 4 hours of sleep
-SURPRISES in our day to remind us God is with us (hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask!)

Thanks much…

Chris & Anne

I think yesterday, it hit me that we are leaving tomorrow. It feels like the four years and 5 months I have spent in Kansas City have gone by so fast. Of course, it seemed like I’ve been here forever not knowing when an end would be in sight, but now it feels like I moved here, blinked, and now I’m moving back to Texas.

There have been so many people I’ve tried to say goodbye to in the last three days. Coffee twice on Monday, dinner with some close friends on Tuesday, and yesterday, lunch with a friend, coffee (well, I had water) with another friend right after that, then a long Italian dinner from great wine, to great pasta, to a great dessert with another wonderful friend. Tonight is our going away party and from what the RSVP list says it’s going to be a rough night – lots of friends, old & new, young & old…oy vey. And there are so many people I want to get to spend time with alone and there just aren’t enough hours left…As much as Kansas is cold & boring, the relationships I have here have meant more to me than anyone could ever know.

I still have a little packing to do, and I’m not sure when I might be online next….at the latest, Friday night at the hotel in Oklahoma City.

Goodbye, Kansas.

The top five non-relational things I will miss about Kansas City:

5. Snow (it’s pretty to look at anyway, and yummy to eat)
4. No traffic problems
3. The colors of autumn
2. Trees, hills & other nature type things
1. The Country Club Cafe (Also known as the location for our going away party, Thursday from 7-9pm. I hope you can come!)

Now that I am done grieving, the top five non-relational things I look forward to in Dallas:

5. Warm weather
4. A variety of good eateries, markets, galleries, clubs, bands, cafes, shopping….
3. Dallas Museum of Art & the Aquarium (I know that’s technically two)
2. IKEA
1. Sundance Square in Fort Worth

(If I went into relational things, there wouldn’t be enough time in the world to read all I need to write…)