After much prodding, I’m finally updating the blog.  Things have just been too busy around here to find the time.  We move out of our apartment in Maryland in about a week and, unfortunately, we really haven’t started packing yet.  Over the last few weeks we’ve had to find a place to live in Atlanta, prepare for the move, sign all the contracts and pay the deposits on the new place, close out our stuff here, and figure out a time line for the move.  Thankfully, that all seems completed, so now we can focus on finishing our last week here before moving on.  Andy has one more week of his rotation and tons of work to do in that time, so he will be incredibly busy this week.  I’ve been working hard, while trying to get a handle on the packing situation (at least conceptualizing where things will go).  We’ve moved around so much by now, it seems like old hat so we aren’t stressing too much…. yet.

We couldn’t be more excited about our new townhouse in Atlanta, though.  After many evenings of looking at house, condo, and townhouse listings we narrowed our search down, in large part to our amazing realtor, Karen Smyth.  She has been so helpful to us throughout the whole process and never treated us as second-class clients because we’re renters.  She’s knowledgeable, thorough, and working with her has been a really great experience.  I couldn’t recommend her any more highly (if anyone knows someone in need of a realtor in Atlanta, I have the best one!).  Finally, we’ll have enough space to actually have “our things” back, enough space to let the cats run around, and enough space for our expanding family.  We’ll be able to have visitors again and entertain, two things we always used to do all the time but haven’t been able to in recent years.  We love the neighborhood (it’ll be nice to be in an area safe enough for me to feel comfortable running errands alone!) and we love that we’ll still be within driving distance of many of our closest friends.  We’re excited to start our time in Atlanta and actually be there for at least a year.  After looking over all the places we’ve lived in the last 7 years, Andy and I realized we’ve never been anywhere longer than 18 months (which was a really sad discovery), so staying in one place for a year is really exciting for us.

But before we can move, we have to get through this week, pack our stuff, drive to Nashville and spend a few days there, catching up with friends, packing up all of our stuff from the upstairs and the basement of Andy’s parents’ house, and attending a baby shower being thrown for us (which we’re vey much looking forward to).  I’m right about 24 weeks pregnant now, just around the corner from the third trimester.  I’m quite noticeably pregnant and it seems that the morning sickness has finally gone away.  Even my maternity clothes barely fit these days because all the weight I’ve gained has concentrated itself in front of me.  But, I’ll take it since I don’t look fat or pregnant from the back, at least.  I’m starting to get a little uncomfortable; it’s weird not being able to do things that used to be so easy, like bending over, or getting up off the ground unaided, or sleeping comfortably through the night.

And so our time in Maryland is coming to a close and I can’t say we’ll miss it all that much.  While there were some things we liked about the DC area (especially seeing Greg), Maryland is definitely not the place for us.  We’re excited to give Atlanta a try next!