House hunting

Last weekend we went house hunting! No, Rob and I aren't buying a house right now, heck we don't even know what state we'll be living in in the next 5 years. By 'we' I mean me, my mother-in-law and her husband. Rob was busy running and studying, or he might have gone too.

Long story short, Ann and John (the in-laws), met and got married in Rob's home state of Michigan in 2007. A few years ago they bought a second home in Savannah. Soon after, Ann was offered a great job at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and they moved from the Midwest to the South. Then they decided to move out of their Atlanta apartment and live in their Savannah house full time, so Ann started a new job in Savannah. Turns out she missed her old job in Atlanta, and they missed her a lot too. She is going to have her old job back starting in October, but they decided not to go the apartment living route this time. Which brings us to last weekend, when I went house hunting with them in the NE Atlanta area.

We looked at about 10 homes that day, and they were all lovely homes I only dream of living in some day, but I really got to see what a stressful process finding the right house can be. Ann was all ready with her self made spreadsheets so she could rate different things about each of the homes. I teased her a little that "Christmas Tree" was one of her categories on the chart (as in where you could put the tree in the house), but I realized she had a point. A few weeks ago, something on TV got me thinking about the holidays and I looked around our apartment and thought wow, even with more space than we had in Boston we still don't have a good place to put a Christmas tree!

After seeing each house Ann would ask us for our 'overall wow factor' rating from 1-5. Lucky for us, well I should say them, our wow factor ratings went higher and higher as the day progressed. The first few homes were 2-3's, and then we had a few 4.5's in the middle, and the second to last house we saw was the first and last to get 5's across the board. It was the only house we saw that had a dog in the backyard for us to visit with, and though Rob will say I gave it a 5 because I fell in love with the dog, I promise you that was not the case! It was the perfect house for them- very open 1st floor, super fun basement I know us 'kids' will enjoy and of all the homes it had the most character/uniqueness to it.

Sunday they put an offer on the house, Monday they reached an agreement with the seller, and the closing date is set for October 15th! Living in the same state as them made us feel close to them already, but in reality 4 hours isn't close-close. Now they will be 20 minutes away, that's close! I'm lucky to have a mother-in-law that I would rather have living 20 minutes away than 4 hours, because I know that isn't always the case! Yay for having more family in Atlanta, and cheers to the Pekarek's on their new home :)


Ann and John at their wedding in May 2007

New week, new name

This week was mostly dedicated to officially changing my name and becoming a Georgia resident. Anyone who has gotten married knows what a hassle it can be to change your name. Changing it at the same time you are converting all of your Massachusetts things to Georgia things only makes it even more of a pain.

Even though we got married over a month ago, in my mind my last name is still Eddy. People love calling me Mrs. Porter *wink wink smile* and I love it too, but inside I'm thinking yeah kind of, not really..someday. To me my name is whatever my drivers license and credit cards say my name is. I have not been signing my name as Jessica Porter either, because I haven't had any proof in my wallet to back up that name. Well, 2 days ago I got my official temporary Georgia drivers license! The permanent plastic one comes in the mail in a couple of weeks.

At the Department of Driver Services while waiting for my number to be called, I realized that hey I'm going to have to sign my new name on my ID and it has been months since I practiced. So I signed Porter a bunch of times all over the inside of my check book and decided I was ready. One of my least favorite letters to write in cursive is the letter r, so I had to get over that. When the time came to actually sign the screen with my signature that would be printed on my ID, I was so scared and preoccupied with the questions the DDS worker kept asking me (Tell me again why your lease you signed on August 13th says Jessica Eddy when you were married before that on July 31st, why doesn't it say Porter there, hmmm??!) that my signature got a little messed up. Not the Porter part, but the Jessica part. I showed Rob my ID and he said it looks like my first name is Dustin.

After that fiasco I went to the Social Security Office and applied for a new SS card with my new name on it. Then I went to the county tax commissioner's office to get my GA registration and license plate, which was more of a zoo than the DDS. I was convinced they were going to send me away for missing some piece of paperwork or something after waiting for 25 minutes, but luckily that didn't happen, and now both me and my car are official Georgia residents.

I'm still waiting for the name change to go through on all of my credit cards and bank accounts. Next up will be changing the passport so that I am all set for the New Years Caribbean Cruise!!



Thought I'd throw in this picture to celebrate NFL games starting this week. How appropriate that my team is playing the Atlanta Falcons...go Steelers, kill Matty Ryan.

ATL-CHI-SAV-ATL

It has been a whirlwind of a week, but things are feeling a little more back to normal now. For starters, I'm back in Atlanta. The short notice 10 day trip I took seemed to throw me off balance a bit. Especially when you consider I had only lived in Atlanta for all of 12 days before I flew out of town. It was almost like my time in Atlanta had been an extended stay or vacation, not a permanent move. After being in Chicago for only a couple of days, Rob called and told me he ate at California Pizza Kitchen and was looking at microwaves in Target (yes, we have a microwave now...Rob lasted one day without me at home to cook for him before he bought one ;) It took me 10 minutes into the conversation before I realized I was envisioning him at the CPK in Boston, and the Target in Watertown.

Grandma Bobinette passed away the day after I wrote my blog entry about it, very early on September 1st. I had a feeling when we said goodbye to her that evening at the hospital that that really might be the final goodbye. I don't know if we were ready for it. I don't think you can ever be really ready for a death. But after spending her final days by her side in her hospital room, I think we had accepted what was coming, and felt comfort knowing she was surrounded by her loved ones at the end. My mom planned a very nice memorial service for her the Friday after her passing, followed by a lunch at her long time favorite restaurant The Wellington, where we toasted to her with bloody marys. She will be loved, missed, and remembered always.

My time in Chicago wasn't all sad though. My Dad's mom, Grandma Doris, lives there too. It was nice to spend quality time with her, and explore her old house and all of her many many photo albums, some dating back to when I was first born. Lisa and I realized we had not been to Grandma's house since new years Y2K...when we were all freaking out and preparing for the worst, and were mildly disappointed when not even a single light went out at midnight.

From Chicago I flew to Savannah to spend Labor Day weekend at the in-law's house, along with Rob, Rob's bro Tom, gf Linnea, step-bro Justin and wife Hilary. And Bailey their labradoodle who turned 5 yrs old today! They have a beautiful home, and it's always fun spending time there with everyone. It was the usual Labor Day weekend, full of college football, the pool, too much food, and walking around downtown Savannah. The only disappointing thing was that up until last week I had it in my head that Savannah was a 2 hour drive from Atlanta....nope, it's 4 hours. I realized I had no reason for assuming it was a 2 hour drive, other than the fact that both cities are in Georgia. Again I must remind myself, you're not in Massachusetts anymore! Georgia is much bigger.

Grandma Bobinette

This isn't going to be a fun or funny post, just a life post. My sister Lisa and I have been in Chicago since Saturday supporting our mom and our grandma, because grandma is dying. She hasn't been in great health for quite some time, but Friday blood vessels in grandma's brain burst and caused bleeding on her brain. Essentially she had a stroke. She has lived 88 beautiful years, but no matter how old one gets or how their health has declined over the years, it is never easy to watch someone you love die or have to say goodbye to them.

Since we got here, each day has been almost a repeat of the day before it. We suit up in our plastic blue gowns before entering her hospital room and say hello to her to see what, if any, response we will get. We talk to the doctors, watch the nurses take her blood pressure, hold her hand, tell funny grandma stories, get each other coffee, sit around the room and talk, and wait. Yesterday she was the most alert we had seen her. When we arrived in her room in the morning and said hello she opened her eyes and made eye contact with us for a few minutes. She even grunted and moved her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, but cannot speak. Besides those short but meaningful connections yesterday, she remains in a deep sleep. At least she is resting peacefully.

And now we wait, which may be the hardest part- the waiting and the unknown. But it has also given us time to process and accept this difficult process of saying goodbye to our loved one. We love you grandma xoxo

First day of school

All day today I have felt like a nervous/excited mom who just sent her kid off to their first day of school. No I don't have a kid, I don't even have a dog (a subject that has come up a lot recently, but that is for another post at another time), but today was Rob's first day of grad classes at Georgia State!

I am so proud of him for taking on this new chapter and challenge. Moving to a new city was just the beginning. Besides getting use to a new office setting, he will be working full time and taking classes Monday nights. This semester it is statistics and economics- sadly I don't think I will be much help with either of those subjects. Instead, I'll just have to find other ways to support him through what I'm sure will be a somewhat stressful first semester of business school. So tonight I unpacked more of his boxes, and did some of his laundry.

Now I'm anxiously awaiting his return home from class. I thought he would have been home by now, so I'm feeling even more like the nervous mom wondering how the big first day went and why the school bus is running so late. Oooh and I hear him coming in the door now!

Operation Microwave

The real title of this post should be "Operation How long can we live without a microwave," but that would have been too long of a title.

On a positive note, we are all moved in! Yay!! We are proud, happy, new Atlanta residents and enjoying it so far. The move went much smoother than I had expected. I'm not quite sure what I thought might go wrong, but just the idea of us transporting all of our possessions in a Budget truck and my Saturn Vue from Boston to Atlanta- 1145 miles- sounds like enough of an opportunity for things to go wrong. We are not fully unpacked, or organized enough to take pictures of the new place and post them online for all to see, but we are getting there.

Rob moved in on Saturday the 14th (which I was happy about, because we originally told the apartment complex our move in date would be Friday August the 13th- way too risky), and I arrived on Monday. It wasn't until Tuesday evening that it hit me. I was finishing up unpacking the kitchen stuff, when I looked around and stared at the stove, and the lack of anything significant above the stove besides a small light/fan switch. Then I scanned the counters with no luck. We had no microwave, and didn't realize it until 3 days after move in!

I'll admit, we're doing fine so far without one. It's almost like I wish I wouldn't have realized we were missing one though. How amazing would it have been to go without a microwave for a whole month before realizing it? Then I might have been able to convince myself we really don't need one. The real reason I'm kicking myself is because we HAD one, a nice one, but for the past year we didn't need it at our 15 Euston Rd apartment, so we put it in the basement at the Cape house. And there it sits, 1145 miles away from our kitchen.

So far we've only missed the microwave for re-heating some left-overs (which Rob ended up eating cold) and for cooking bbq teriyaki chicken from Trader Joes which takes 4 times longer to cook on the stove. My mom's solution to all of this is to take our microwavable goods to the super nice communal kitchen that is attached to the main office and lounge area of the apartment complex. It really is a short walk from my apartment to that kitchen, but lets be honest, I am going to have to be pretty hungry or desperate before I start walking down the path, through the swimming pool area, up the steps and past the pool table room to do my cooking!

Married and Moving

Our wedding day was as wonderful as I had hoped it would be, and then some. The honeymoon was the best vacation I have been on- someday we will return to Maui I'm sure, because it was that great of a place. Pictures and more detailed recaps will be posted eventually, but for now I leave you with this.

To everyone I know getting married in the next year or two- I do not recommend coming home from your honeymoon after 13 hours of traveling and packing up your entire apartment within 24 hours. It was not the best way to end the honeymoon, but it did bring us back to the real world pretty quick.

Going back to work the same day your spouse and father-in-law load up the u-haul truck though, I might recommend that. When I left the apartment yesterday there was stuff everywhere- EVERYWHERE! And when I get home tonight, I am told there will be an aero-bed and a small pile of things in the corner. Safe journey to my husband today as he starts the long drive south to Atlanta! I'll see ya at our new place on Monday.