Everything's A Changing...

"They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom." ~Confucius

Well, if Confucius had it right, my life should be fireworks and puppy dogs and giggles and pure sunshine mixed together with a Master's degree from Harvard.

My life has been full of constant changes, many of them in the last five years, and I just capped it off with a big move halfway across the country for my family and I. We are now on day seven of being gone from our old home town and on day five in our new town. We're still living in a hotel, our dogs are still at the kennel and we hope (hope) to have a place to rent squared away in the next two days. It has been a longgggggg seven days.

We left our Omaha home on Monday...

... drove through Iowa and Illinois...

... Indiana and Kentucky...

... West Virginia and then Virginia...

... and we reached North Carolina at night (so no pic). Georgia and I were in my car...

... my husband and the dogs were following us in his car.

Georgia has virtually lived in her car seat and has grown to hate it so much more, but with everything she's gone through in the last week, she has been amazing. Yes, we've had more than our fair share of toddler tantrums, but she is taking all of this change in stride. She is my little trooper. And my husband and I have survived more than our fair share of stress so far. I've decided that if a marriage can handle a major move like this, then I don't think there's anything that can crack it. Although we will all be living in a small, two bedroom rental for at least the next six months, so I might change my theory sometime in the near future to "surviving six months in a super small rental."

So in one week, we have gone from this:

Omaha, Nebraska


... to this:

New Bern, North Carolina

Today is my last day before I start my new job. Remember, I haven't worked since the beginning of February, so this will be interesting. I will miss so much I feel I have gained in the last five months - time with my family, dinners at home, days with my daughter - but I will also be happy to regain some of the things I miss about working. I go into this with very mixed emotions.

But that said, today was (as much as it could be) Georgia's day. After another breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the aquarium.

Georgia loves aquariums! We had a great one at the Omaha zoo, and I'm glad we have one now about 35 minutes away.

So that's where we spent some time today, and Georgia just ran circles around the place.

It's the happiest I've seen here in a week, and you can't imagine how much that warmed my heart. Of course, she ran and ran and ran until we made it to the gift shop where she promptly parked herself amongst the stuffed animals.

Aw, my darling hasn't been changed too much by the move.

I'm sure while much in our lives has changed, it won't be long before we find our rhythm and return to some new "normal." After all, the only thing that never changes in life is change, right? I just hope that calm returns and hangs around for a while - I could use it... and I think my husband could too.