Here we go again!

Another year has come and is almost gone! This year for me has felt extra long. Like double the normal year. As in true fashion though, I’m back for another year recap post!

January: Fairly quiet. James’s birthday we stayed up until midnight and I believe we went to a buffet for his birthday dinner (his choice!) We also discussed our moving plans. Our anniversary, went to our normal spot, the hibachi place in town. Bear’s birthday. My boy is growing up!

February: Well this month was a bit interesting! We took a quickie trip to Augusta, GA area. James had meetings with two Massey branches (one in Augusta, GA and one in Columbia, SC). We met with both, asked questions, all the fun stuff. We also planned to view some houses while visiting with a realtor. We picked a branch (even though we didn’t make that part official right away). We looked at SEVERAL houses on Friday and just couldn’t agree on one. Saturday we went to two open houses and found the place we wanted to live! It was across the GA/SC line in Graniteville, SC. A growing community, Highland Hills. Right off of the main highway. The house layout was similar to ours in Florida. We actually told our realtor, that it was the one. My birthday (boring as always).

March: Our sights on moving were dying fast. Opendoor was NOT what we thought and they weren’t going to give us enough for the house. So we were scrambling to find a realtor and buyer. Found a realtor and his attempts were bad. We had no showings with him. We definitely didn’t stick with him long. Although, selling in our neighborhood was HARD. There was another house on the market for about eight months when we put our house up. Our excitement was going away and it was looking like we would be stuck. Atlas’s birthday was also this month. He’s growing into such a great dog! He barks, a lot and at stupid stuff, but we are working on it!

April: We fired our realtor and decided to go with the company trying to sell the house down the street. Before we even signed anything red flags shot up! Yep, nope. Strangely, someone from another company that I had spoken to in March called to see if we were still looking to move. We decided to give them a shot. And what do you know! They found us a buyer! Now of course, this buyer to me was insane. They could barely afford our house and we actually would have to pay quite a bit to get out. BUT, we wanted out. The job was still available for James. While the house we looked at and wanted wasn’t available anymore, there was a brand new build, same floorplan. So we jumped on it. Thus begins the frantic packing and getting things straight because we had LESS THAN A MONTH before we were moving. Yeah, we don’t like to take our time with anything apparently! James told his boss (who was now furious – funny since he knew it was coming and didn’t give a shit the previous year when James told him).

May: Moving month! Boy was it busy. Between getting money together, booking a hotel (that allowed dogs in Augusta), planning on everything it was insane. Coordinating selling a house and buying another at the same time was almost too much, but we pulled it off. So we did things a bit differently than normal. First, we paid for movers in Florida and Graniteville (this was literally the BEST decision we made!) The crazy part was the day we were leaving the Florida house. The truck was late getting there, then they had a problem with their system, we had movers at the house to load the truck, the notary at the house so we could sell the Florida house, AND we had a friend on facetime with us while she walked the South Carolina house with our realtor and the builder. WHEW. It was literally insane. We were exhausted. Seriously. Normally I cry when we move. I’m sad and I’m missing it before we leave. But I wasn’t here. I was a little sad and teared up a bit, but I was way more excited to be OUT OF THERE!
The next day we signed the paperwork for the new house (with a few minor bumps), and we were officially homeowners again AND the first to move in on our street! Technically the neighbors moved in the same day.

June: It was hot, but not nearly as bad as Florida. We got a fence built by someone in the neighborhood, and literally were just loving the location. It’s not close to major cities, but not far either. We are about fifteen minutes to grocery shopping and a bookstore! The neighborhood is quiet and friendly. We love it. My sister and her husband came to visit and he thankfully installed our fans in all of the spare rooms.

July: Another hot month, and work just wasn’t going well for James. He was getting frustrated with their constant changes and lack of work some days and other days it was like they were trying to kill them. He was getting tired quickly of it. We explored more.

August: Ah, another hot month, but was cooling down slightly. We decided to have a house warming party in September, but I quickly made him not invite his managers. They weren’t welcome in our house. He did invite a co-worker and his family (more on them later). We also went to DragonCon for the day in Atlanta! Holyblondecheerleaderbatman! I met Jared Padalecki!! We also met Nathan Fillion and Kristin Kreuk. I wasn’t going to get Jared’s autograph, but James talked me into it. It was pretty cool! DragonCon is definitely a massive event.

September: A very busy beginning of the month for us, and end of the month! So the first weekend of the month we drove to Florida to go to Fanboy Expo. Because…David Boreanaz was signing there and I wanted to meet him so bad! We also got to meet, AJ Buckley (and got to chat with him on Friday night). We also met John Francis Daley (from Bones), and TJ Thyme (from Bones). I have to say, TJ was so far the BEST. It was a quick trip to Florida, but seriously it was amazing.
Now onto the following weekend. The weekend of our semi housewarming party. More like a gathering at our new house. Got to meet his co-workers wife (she was pretty cool, and their kids – who are super cute). The party went well!
James also found another job. A much much smaller company but they seemed to be better than Massey, so he put in notice.
Then at the end of the month a huge hurricane hit the area. Nothing anyone expected! Many areas lost power for days, trees down, it was crazy. Josh and Ali lost power and it was still hot out, so we told them to pack some stuff and bring themselves and the kids here. We thankfully got super lucky and didn’t lose power. Another friend, Meredith from about an hour and a half away also lost power, so we told her to get herself and her teenager in the car and head over! Our house was FULL. People were sleeping in every room of the house (but we were so glad we were able to provide a place for showers and such). It was a pretty good weekend! Ali and the kids stayed that week so they wouldn’t be sleeping in a hot, dark house.

October: Whew, yet another semi busy month! We ended up having people here for another weekend and James made his famous fried rice with steak, chicken and shrimp! Yeah he went all out! It was good weekend! Ali, Josh and the kids came back for Halloween so they could trick or treat in our community. We got a few trick or treaters so that was good!

November: Ah, almost to the end of the year! We went to a Yule festival and that was a lot of fun! Met our friend Meredith there along with Josh, Ali and the kids! It was really good to just get out of the house and actually have cooler weather. James got rear ended, but he’s okay. Car is mostly fine, just some cracks in the bumper that will be fixed after the first of the year. Thanksgiving was also very quiet for us. We just spent it with ourselves which we enjoyed.

December: That brings us to NOW. December. The final month of the year. And while it’s still early (way earlier than I normally do this), I figured I would pop it out so it can go in my newsletter as well! We plan to have a pretty relaxing and chill month. We are going to have Josh and Ali’s kids here this weekend (so they can have a kid free weekend). Meredith is coming to help out and to get some more of that awesome fried rice! And I was going to send this out last week, but unfortunately, James and I BOTH got strep throat. So last week kinda sucked. We spent the week tied to the house (unless we had to go out). Thankfully today, we are both feeling better and both off to work. But wow, what a week. We never get that sick for that long.

All in all, it’s been a pretty good year. A very long year, but a good one. I still can’t believe we moved in a month. It’s also hard to believe that we started looking in February and moved by May. It feels like we’ve been here longer than six months. I’m thankful we were able to move and finally get out of Florida. It’s an okay place to visit for us, just not a place we want to ever live in again. And besides conventions and cruising, we have no reason to ever go back. South Carolina has been good to us so far, and we are excited to see what the future holds here!