The Evendens

I will start way back on August 15th.  My brother and his girlfriend flew in from Colorado to spend some time with the family and to be there for my graduation.  We really had a great long weekend, the best I can remember in awhile.  This was the first that I got to meet Agnieszka (Angie for short - I hope I spelled that right), and I must say that I love her!  She is from Polland and I was amazed by her English and how well she seems to fit with my brother.  She seems to calm him down a bit.  We kind of just hung out for a few days, laying by the pool, doing some shopping and the boys golfed a bit.  Again, it was great.  And Angie loved Bruiser, and he loved her as well, she even taught him to sit in all of 20 min (we have been working on this for oh, 5 months now!). 

Then, that monday was my graduation.  We all headed to Saginaw for the big event.  It was actually really weird.  At first I was kinda sad cause Joe wasn't there but, I had my whole family there and Sarah came too.  The nicest thing about graduation was that they kept it nice and short, it was just about an hour long, and there were less graduates then there was at my high school graduation!  My family cheered real loud when they called my name and they had Joe on the phone so he could hear it too.  They do not do a graduation ceremony in Poland, so it was something new for Angie too.    The hardest part of the whole night though was at the end I had to say my goodbyes to Sarah.  That was hard as she is going through so much right now (check her blog out here), and I haven't had a friend like her before.  I knew it would be hard for both of us, her being there going through so much, and me being in SC all alone wishing for my Sarah.  So, we cried and said goodbye...hard.  Then I had one more day to hang out with my family.

On Wednesday morning we all got up really early and went to breakfast around 7am.  Chris and Angie were leaving that morning as were my mom and I.  It again was hard to say goodbye to my dad, I don't see him tear up very often and it makes me sad!  At that point I was excited to get moving though, and get my feet planted.  I had been so sick of living out of my car and a laundry basket.  So, we all said our goodbyes and my mom, Bruiser and I headed out.  We had decided to drive straight through and try to beat Tropical Storm Fay to SC.  It was a long day to say the least!  It took us 16 hours and we took 4 really short breaks, to eat, get gas and let Bruiser out.  I have to say I was worried about the dog but he was sooo good!  He didn't really make a peep the entire trip!  My mom kept offering to drive, but I was just itching to get there so she drove 2 hours and I drove 14!  We finally got in around midnight and it was really good to see Joe and to see my cats!  I was surprised by how nice our house is, and it was good to just be "home."

My mom and I spent the next few days just hanging out and checking out the area, and setting some things up around the house.  I'm not sure what I would have done without her!  We even went down to the beach one night and experienced the winds of Fay!  On Sunday morning she left and that was really hard.  It hit me that after she left I didn't know anyone and that I'd be spending most of my time alone while Joe was at work.  I've never lived more than an hour or so away from my parents and even though at times we fight like crazy I still knew that this move changed a lot of things.  So, we took her to the airport and I cried like a baby....for most of the day. 

That brings us to this last week...It's been ok, but hard.   Joe is gone all day and up until today we haven't had any cable, internet, and we don't get very good cell service at all here in our house, so my days have been really quiet and lonely.  I'm trying to find things to do to keep myself busy, and more than anything it's shown me the need for me to find a job!  I need to have a reason to get up and leave the house every day.  And I need to meet some people.  Our house is starting to get put together, we even have curtains hung now!  We're still thinking this may be a house that we want to buy, so we're looking into all of our options there.  I've realized that I'm NOT going to die of loneliness like I first thought.  We've had dinner with a few of the people that Joe works with and more than anything, this whole experience is only going to be as good as I make it.  So, we've gone out and bought some needed things for the house and I'm getting things in order.  We also are ordering our crib so I can start getting that all ready too.  We also checked out a church yesterday and liked it.  I'm hoping that I can start to meet some people and do my own thing.  It is true what they say though...there's no place like home!