Hey Y'all

I left off by sharing with you my delight at the prospect of a Sumter winter, and now I'm back to tell you we've made it to our new home. We've covered a lot of ground - literally and figuratively - in the last month, but first you need to know that the weather doesn't seem as though it will disappoint me in the least (I know you were concerned). We've stopped by the house and, indeed, there are quirks we failed to notice when we looked at it so long ago. I'm not sure I ever recounted the full house hunting story on the blog, but it could be summarized by saying it was a difficult trip without many options and, after being accused of being "too analytical" by our realtor, we followed up on a rental we'd briefly seen. We've spent the interim months laughing about how little we could really remember about the house. It was the details of things like the master bathroom, the size of the bedrooms and storage areas that really escaped us. So it was with great amusement that we went through the empty house tonight. It's going to be fine; that doesn't negate the fact that there's no coat closet, the master bedroom and guest rooms are a little smaller than we remembered and the garage is going to be really full once we get two cars and all our bikes, strollers, mower, etc. in there. Oh well.

On the upside, the kitchen is as good as I remembered, the family room is a nice size and the playset in the backyard will atone for many other shortfalls. The kids are really excited about their rooms and it's going to be home just as soon as we can get our stuff delivered. Wyatt starts school in the morning - we're all excited for that for multiple reasons. And thus the new chapter begins: we are residents of South Carolina, officially another place that I never thought I'd live.