Destin 2009

We all had a really great time together in Destin!!!

I think the family needed a big, relaxing break and I hope that the in-laws had exactly that! Craig's grandfather and grandmother are not in the best of health, so his mom and dad have been really taking on the burden of home health care and hospital visits. I'm hoping that this trip was, at the very least, a chance for them to unwind a little bit.

I think Craig's main goal of the trip was to eat as much fresh seafood as humanly possible since we live in a land-locked state about to move to another land-locked state! We ate at quite a few restaurants, found a great seafood market and cooked in one night, went outlet mall shopping (my MIL is one hell of a shopper, that I can say definitively), and just hung out together. This was the first time Craig had seen his brother in over a year, so they had a boys' night one night, too. I heard them creeping in at 3:30 (!) a.m.

The inlaws left on Friday and arrived today back in the UK. We will be going over there in August to attend T and S's wedding. I wasn't originally planning on going, but now that I am jobless (oh yeah, also resigned from my school when we returned from Destin), I'm heading off to London with Craig. We will be there for two weeks. I'm excited--I haven't been back to London since Christmas 2007.

As far as Ohio is concerned, things are chugging along. We will be going there in a couple of weeks for a long weekend to check it all out--explore the city and look around at neighborhoods. Craig's new boss has offered to take us out to dinner and meet his family to welcome us to the city. I thought that was a really nice gesture and hopefully bodes well for the relationships/work environment in the office. His current bosses are not the come-over-to-our-house-for-hot-dogs type of people.

For me, I am doing much better than my other post. I think that the anxiety of thinking about resigning from my job was worse than the actual doing of it. Craig's parents and I went to the school, cleaned out my classroom, and turned in my resignation letter the second day we returned from Destin. I had myself a little cry the night before and the actual day of I was fine.

As of this moment, I am not looking for jobs in Ohio yet. I will wait until we are up there and are settling in, then I will look for a job.

It may be a situation where I take temp jobs or an office job or something at a mall for a little while until teaching jobs start to open up. If I do that, this will be the first time EVER I have actually researched a school before accepting a job there. My first teaching job was offered to me after my first job interview; the second was in London and conducted by phone; the third was a whirlwind of activity wherein I applied, interviewed, accepted, quit the other job, started the new job in a matter of a week. It just may be nice to take a back seat and figure some things out!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Well, we made it!!

Craig's family landed (almost) on schedule, had about two hours downtime, then off to my parents' house we went (who, I forgot to mention, were flying back from San Diego that day as well).

We set off at 4(!!!) in the morning to drive down to Destin. It took us 14 hours to get there due to two traffic jams that we ran into, but Craig's niece took it like a champ!! Actually, they all did. Jet-lagged and all.

More on the trip later, complete with pictures.

But, the big news of the week was that Craig got a promotion at work!! HOORAY!!! The job is in Cincinnati, so we will be moving pretty soon. He doesn't have his start date yet, but it's coming.

As for me, I really have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am super excited for Craig because (1)it IS a promotion and he will be a manager now and (2) he really, really wanted this job. **For those of you who know me in real life, please don't publish anything on Facebook--my work doesn't know yet and Craig's co-workers don't know yet and I have a few of our work friends on there.

Purely from a selfish point of view, this move is not a good thing for me. I LOVE (really love) my job and there was a really cool job opportunity that just became available that is something I have been looking for since I graduated from college. I was so excited to apply for that job, but now, obviously, I can't. On the other hand, I would have to leave my job (at least for a little bit) if I got pregnant.

Plus, even though we are three hours away from my parents and sister/nephews, this is the closest I've lived to them in 15 years. With my parents' health issues and our trying to have a baby, I was really looking forward to having them close for (hopefully) a grandchild/niece/nephew/cousins. I know that's sounding selfish considering Craig's parents are all the way in the UK.

Another thing, I struggled really hard to make close girl friends here and now that I have them, I am going to leave them. Yes, yes, I can always keep in touch with them, but that's not the same as organizing a girls' night is it? Granted, many of them are now pregnant and things would change anyway. Plus, in Cincinnati, I will be closer to two of my best friends from college so I will get to see them more that I do here.

But, Craig and I have both wanted to explore the US. Living in a small town where we are is really not what Craig signed up for when he made the move to the US, so I KNEW this was coming and I was wholeheartedly in agreement. What I didn't figure on was how comfortable (for the most part) I would feel here.

One of the things I will not miss about the small town is the closemindedness and judgements that people have here. That has been one of the pitfalls of this place. So, I will be interested in moving "North" since that is not a part of the country my little ol' Southern heart has ever experienced (well, other than the three years in England). :)

Ultimately, I know this move is a good thing, so I will come around to being as excited as Craig is. I think going to the city and looking around and exploring it will help.