Have I really been here almost a month?

Yikes! I can't believe that I am coming up on almost a month here.
So much has happened in the last four weeks. I have done everything from go to the doctors, pick out rings, set up marriage counseling, Celebrated labor day and a birthday, and gone to not one but to football games.
Let's just say that I actually understand a little better the game of football. Doesn't mean that I like the game, but I can say I am willing to watch it now and I understand what a first and down and a deep snapper are.
Not only that, but I have experienced flooding, a huge full moon, and several amazing sunrises and sunsets.
Did I mention I had to drive through my first flood?
I have been spending my days going with Reagan to work every day. I even found time yesterday to just sit down and really write. It's been a while since I have done that.
Now if I could just start walking so that I could fit into my wedding dress we would be doing well.

Welcome To Texas! Have a sinus infection!

I knew it was going to happen. Every time I go somewhere I always get sick. Here in Texas it was no different. I even predicted to Reagan that I would probably get sick with in the first few weeks of being here. And I am. It started on Wednesday. I woke up with a horrible pain in my ear. I looked at my throat and it was pretty red. I took Tylenol and that seemed to help. Yesterday my throat was very sore and I told Reagan I thought I was coming down with something. By last night I knew I had a cold or something.
I didn't set my alarm this morning so Reagan had to wake me up around 9. Yes Alicia is getting lazy. He gave me some DayQuil and told me to just rest. I laid down while he did some accounting for me on the computer, and I promptly feel asleep for two straight hours. My nose is still clogged and I am fighting off another desire to sleep, but I feel a lot better than I did this morning.
Tonight I am going to try some NyQuil and see what happens. We have nothing planned until the evening. Maybe by then I can bring the rest of my stuff over to Nana Wanda's house.

A Full Week in Texas

Wow!
Has it really been a week? I can't believe that just a week and I was coming to the realization that my parents were about ready to leave the next day. Today was completely different.
A lot has happened in the last week. First off Mom and Dad left on Wednesday and I was very much amazed at how well I did. I have been kept so busy that I haven't had the time to even think about what it is that I should be thinking about. Or what people think I should be thinking about.
On Wednesday we spent most of the afternoon at Nana Joyce's house, Aka, the house that Reagan and I are buying, while we waited for the moving van who happened to be two hours late.
That night we went out looking for a car for me. We found a really nice car, but we couldn't do anything about it until the next day because the car lot was closed for the night.
The next day we went back after Reagan and I spent the morning at Reagan's Job interview and then in the afternoon we went to a Jewlers where we picked out our wedding bands. I can't wait until I see what the jewler thought up. They are going to be beautiful!
On Thursday we spent from 3:30 until sometime after 6 getting the car and that night I drove off with a gold Honda Accord.
It has a lot of bells and whistles like a 6 CD changer, auto air, seat heaters and a sun roof. I can also change the channels on the steering wheel.
It's a pretty awesome car.
Then the fun part began. After I got my insurance I started to drive around the city. Let me tell you that it is not easy driving in this city. Of course one of the biggest problems is you have to loop around just so that you can go the opposite side of highway. Ah but maps are wonderful things! Someone left a map in my new car and after I had looked at it for a while everything clicked and started to make a whole lot more sense then what I had that it was in the first place.
On Friday Reagan and I took Brittney and Brianna to Chick fil A and had milkshakes and watched the girls play in the play place.
Saturday We spent the entire afternoon doing our Registry. We now have to go on and fix my mistakes. I am so marrying a child. You should have seen Reagan as I attempted to show and explain to him what certain things were. He was so cute!
Sunday was spent enjoying a very long and much needed nap. I think my body has now gotten used to Central time.
Monday was spent with family, celebrating Labor Day. I had a lot of fun with the girls. By the time we left, I was once again very tired.
Today was a crazy day!
Reagan excepted a job in a near by city so now I am in the process of getting a job in the area because I will have to drive him to work every day. I really hate online applications. They drive me to distraction.
At least we did something fun today. Reagan took me to the mall and we walked around for several hours. At one point I looked out the door and realized that it had been pouring rain. I asked if it was unusual to have rain this time of year and I was told that this was actually the beginning of the rainy season. It's been pouring rain since the afternoon.
Now it is time to finish for the night. I have been writing this in between applications and I'm tired.
Let's hope that tomorrow goes a lot better.

Finally Here!

Well I am finally here. I think the shock of all the traveling and all the other things that have been happening in the last few days has started to wear off.
It's been a really long week and now that it is over sometimes I am still trying to figure whether I am in a dream or if I am actually here.
Traveling through Texas was completely different then what we had actually expected. We were expecting flat and dry. Instead we saw rolling hills and green. Of course the green was because they had rain just a week ago so everything is green from the rain.
You know how in the movies they talk about the big Texas sky. Well, I am here to tell you that it is a real thing. There are parts of the state that as you drive, all of a sudden you look out over the land and all you see is miles and miles and miles of sky and flat land. It's beautiful!
I fell in love with that big open sky quickly.
Okay for all of you who are wondering about the bugs and the heat and all the other nasty little things that are in Texas, I haven't seen any bugs and was told I probably wouldn't because West Texas is too dry. The weather has actually been really cold. It's only been in the 90's this week.
We got lost trying to find the house. It was a little confusing, but I can tell you that I think I can find my way here if I get on the loop.
Yesterday was very busy! First we went to church and I met a whole lot of people. I have a few people that I will remember names, but I can tell you now it is going to take me awhile to remember every ones names.
Then we went to an engagement party for us and I met a whole bunch of other people that I hope I can remember there names too. I also got to meet four of Reagan's little cousins. I was very excited when they actually warmed up to me fast.
Last night I was so tired that I slept all night and when the alarm went off this morning I was amazed that it was time to get up.
Today we are going to go see the house that I am going to be living in for the next 8 months and the house that Reagan and I are buying.

One day closer

I have to say that traveling almost 800 miles in one day can be very exhausting.
The day started out in Ohio where we got up at 6 am, had breakfast and left the hotel just after 7.
When we got to Cincinnati, I had the privilege of taking some awesome pictures of the amazing buildings we passed.
After crossing over the boarder of Kentucky, I promptly curled up in the back of my well backed back seat and fell fast asleep. Not far after that I took my turn driving, but didn't last for long because by the time we stopped for gas and lunch, my contacts where bothering me. On Right one got lost in my eye earlier in the morning so I was having problems with my eyes rejecting them both all day long.
We stopped in Cave City, Kentucky and sent Reagan a text message to let him know where we were in our travels and I realized that some time while I was driving the time changed to Central time.
Although Mom and I talked in Central time, Dad continued in Eastern time.
We had a lot of fun going through places like Louisville, KY and Nashville, TN and Memphis, TN. I got some pictures, but when you are going 70 miles and hour past those points of references, it doesn't always come out well.
Around Six Central time we crossed the Great Mississippi River. It looked rather dry.
We crossed over into Arkansas and I knew that we were very close to Texas.
I am hoping that soon I will be able to put pictures on the blog so that you can see some of what I saw today. We had a lot of fun trying to pronounce the names and we even laughed at some of them. One of the best names was Mouse Tail Landing. Who would have thought of naming a town like that.
Well now we are somewhere outside of Little Rock.
We didn't do so bad in our travels. We only got lost twice. That's pretty good for my family. Thanks To Reagan's dad we have really awesome instructions and it was the readers error and the map makers errors.
Tomorrow we will be in Texas. I hear it is very flat. Whatever the case, I don't care. Tomorrow is leading me to Reagan and that's good enough for me.

The beginnings of a journey

I was actually rather amazed at how much of a good sleep I had last night. I slept pretty much through the entire night without waking up. I really figured I would be up wondering what time it was, but as it was when I woke up around 6:30 this morning I couldn't believe I had slept through the entire night.
This morning was pretty much used to make sure I had everything in the car. I had to wait until mom had the rest of her stuff packed so that I could be sure where I was going to put everything.
Around 10 Mom and I took a walk to the post office and Kinney’s so that I could drop off something at the post office and get my pay stub.
Then at 11 Dad and I went back down to the post office where I said good bye to one of those crazy friends I have made in the last year.
We had our last meal of Spaghetti before Dad took a quick nap and Mom and I made sure we had everything.
I’m telling you, I don’t really think there is anymore room anywhere in this car. Yes I am actually typing this in the car somewhere near Cleveland, Ohio. I love laptops!
Reality kind of hit me while I was holding Isabelle, realizing that the next time I would be seeing her, she would not only be crawling, but she very well might be trying to pull her self up and standing. She will have changed so much when I see her again.
We left just before one after Cliff came home early from work to say goodbye. I tried very hard not to cry.
I squashed into the back of the car and I mean squashed because of all the stuff I have next to me. I feel like I am going to college all over again, except for the fact that we used a van and not a car.
Mom started us off driving, but she only got about 2 hours in when she needed to stop change. Dad wanted to know I would like to drive through Buffalo, but I was afraid we would hit high traffic by then so I went back to my little corner of the car.
Good call. It was way to heavy in the way of traffic for me.
We stopped for supper around 5. It’s a good thing we brought food. We were already making really bad timing and I was feeling suspicious shaking by the car. So when the car light came on and it said low tire pressure I knew it had to be on my side of the car.
We stopped at a gas station where we found the front right tire was a little too flat for comfort. Of course that didn’t make any sense because we just got new tires a couple of days ago. Unfortunately the gas station didn’t have an air pump that was working so we went the other way looking for another gas station and wouldn’t you know we found a service station instead. Dad stopped and asked if he had air and the guy filled up the tire and then discovered the valve on the tire was really lose and letting out a lot of air. If the gas station had had air we might be wondering why our tire was losing air so often. That service station was a blessing.
We aren’t making the grandest of time right now. We are still over a 100 miles from our first stop and it is already 7:30. We had planned on being there around 8. Don’t think that is going to happen. Hopefully we will make better time tomorrow.
The sky was beautiful today. There were wispy clouds floating in the sky. They looked a little like horses tails flying out behind them as they ran.
The sun was a beautiful orangey pink color as it disappeared behind gray blue clouds. I tried to take pictures and put them on the computer, but for some reason the computer doesn’t register the card.
Oh well maybe I can figure your it out tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will be taking my turn driving. Happy times!

Saying Goodbye

Probably the hardest thing to do in life is to say goodbye. I'm pretty sure if I could I would never say goodbye because I hate crying. It's not fun.
I am just taking a quick second out of my final minutes here to let all of my friends know that I am on my way.
I am about ready to embark on a grad new adventure that God is sending my way. I've had a lot of friends I have had to say goodbye to this week. Some I have been fine about, other I have not.
But a Good bye should never be for forever only a word which means "May God bless you as we are apart and until we met again".
So until we met again I say goodbye for now, knowing I will see you all again.