4th of July!

wow. it's been a full month since i last wrote anything down here. perhaps that's what happens when you live in a hotel without internet access in your room. while being home these few days, i've fully taken advantage of the internet access, staying up way too late pretty much every night. this past wednesday morning, very eager and excited to go to work (a 2 hour corporate university meeting followed by a reception and then i had the rest of the day to go home - sounds like a good work day to me!!!). sadly, the excitement soon died away as my coworkers and i were told that we had just been approved to stay in dallas another 60 days. it was very sad indeed. instead of driving to fayetteville on monday, i will be flying back to dallas tomorrow night. luckily, i was allowed to come home wednesday because I had my move planned for this weekend. and move indeed i have done. wednesday night when i arrived home, i certainly didnt have much energy. i went to the apartment to start packing and brought more stuff to the house. then thursday i went to work from 7-3:30, home for a bit and then again to the apartment to pack - half price smoothies for dinner though were a refreshing end to the evening. friday morning got up and ran a 5K (and actually jogged most of it amazingly - finished in just under 35 minutes which is killer for me - thanks to an almost all downhill race, i was stoked. about 11:30 headed back to the apartment with my 2 roommates whose awesomeness meant we had fully packed the apartment in 2 hours. incredible. came back to the house, tried to unpack some things and organize. although exhausted and not feeling overly social, our house had been invited to dinner at our friend's fiance's parents' house, so we got cleaned up and went there. very good idea. ribs, potato salad, green bean cassarole, watermelon, homemade ice cream and brownies might have been one of the best meals i've eaten in the past 10 weeks. i miss cooking real food. i wish i could work just part time and then cook nice meals for people the rest of the day. we had a lot of fun taking jumping pictures and then went downtown for a short bit to catch the fireworks, which were awesome. this morning i awoke with anxiety - it finally was move day. got up way too early, got dressed, moved some stuff in my bedroom and headed to U-Haul to pick up the van. sweetly enough the Uhaul van we got was brand new - 462 miles on it so far. it was a breeze to drive which was great. the move ended up going well with only a few minor bumps along the way - my 5x10 storange unit was actually 4'x9.75' which was definitely not going to work, so i had to move to a bigger unit - pay more per month. and luckily my friend matt absolutely saved the day by coming to help move the washer and dryer and my massive corner TV piece (which after he and sara amazingly carried into the house, actually had to be taken apart to fit into my room). seriously, as my roommate attests, there's no way we could have finished the move without matt's help. i feel quite a sense of relief to have all the moving done. this is really the first time that i've done a major move without my parents helping - i'm glad they didnt have to help (no need to risk hurting their backs!!!) but i certainly was fully aware of my desperate dependence on God to send people my way to help with this move. finally about 1:30 this afternoon we returned the uhaul then swung back by the house to pick up matt and sarah to go out to lunch (that was the least i could do for them!). we all had a feast at IHOP (i really wanted to take them somewhere nicer to say thanks, but we werent exactly dressed for a 5 star restaurant, and the breakfasts we ate for lunch were amazing!). so we came back and i also made everyone cookies, which i just love doing and although it was a small sign, i hope they know how much i appreciated them for their help. and finally now, 8:30pm, i am SO exhausted! my tv is all setup - vcr and dvd player hooked up correctly and everything, and everything that was going to get stored in or set on the corner piece is done. so really all i have left to do is organize my clothes [which there are tons of, in many different areas]. i fly to dallas tomorrow at 3:30pm and before then i'm gonna try my darnedest to get the clothes organized, do laundry, clean and turn in keys for the old apartment and pack for the week. i am motivated by the thought that hope upon hope, this time next week i will be lounging on the beach in perdido key. okay... my roommate just made some really yummy smelling real food so i need to go investigate that and probably eat a decent supper of my own. hope everyone else had an eventful 4th of july, perhaps a bit more relaxing than mine :)