My First

Okay, so this is my first time using this blog. We'll see how it goes, I guess. I'm not used to writing about my life (it's usually pretty boring) or writing about anything for that matter. I'm mainly doing this to keep friends and family updated on our lives immediately before and during our service in Mauritania. I think it will be interesting to look back and how I've changed throughout this journey.

So the last couple weeks have been crazy. We gave our two cats up to their foster family the first weekend of May. That was a heartbreaking experience but they are with an incredibly loving family. It's funny, when I was a little girl, my sister left her two cats for my parents to take care, I think when she hitchhiked across the US but I could be wrong (I've always envied her for that). I became so attached to them that my sister ended up giving me the girl cat. Well, from what I've heard, the little girl in the family that has our cats now just loves my little girl cat, Snowball. Karma anyone? But the cats sound like they're adjusting quite well, so that's one less worry I have about this adventure.

My last day of work was one week ago today. I am so happy to be out of there. I learned a lot in my time there but enough was enough. A chemist is definitely not what I want to be for the rest of my life. Sometimes I don't think I'll ever know what I want to do for the rest of my life. It's potentially a very long time. I did make a great friend there that's turned out to be more like family so that's definitely a plus.

We had our going away party this past weekend and it turns out I am going to miss a lot of people! I think the party went well but I got a tad emotional towards the end. Thank you to everyone that came! It was great seeing all of you before we go! It meant a lot to both of us. The reality of being away from so many people that I care so much about for over two years really started to sink in that night, and the following couple days too. Fortunately, having to move out of our apartment by the end of this week has kept me very, very busy! The excitement is creeping back in and pushing the "oh, I'm going to miss everyone so much" feelings to the back burner for a little bit. I mean, I'm going to be LIVING IN AFRICA!!! Wooohooo!!!! The time is almost here.

We're having a garage sale on June 6th and 7th to get rid of as much stuff as we can. Some of which was surprisingly hard to part with. We're having it at an incredibly generous family's home. I don't know if they realize what an amazingly huge favor they're doing for us by letting us have it there. I'm hoping it goes smoothly since this is my first garage sale. There's not too much besides our books that we care to store away. Our apartment looks so bare now.

I'm going to visit my sister in Colorado before staging, which will take place in Atlanta, GA. I can't wait! I'm going out on June 12th after making the final round of visiting family & friends in Ohio. I haven't been out to Colorado in probably 7 or 8 years. The mountains have never stopped calling me. Unfortunately, Brian won't be coming with me. He'll be in Philadelphia visiting his dad and brother. I'll have enough fun for the both of us though.