Goodbye Ohio!

The day has finally arrived. I am packing and getting all the last minute things together this morning and when Scott gets home we will be heading out to D.C. This still does not feel like it is actually happening right now. I do not feel like I am going to be sleeping somewhere new tonight. I also do not feel remotely ready. 

Even as I sit here and type this there is so much I need to do that I have not done. But I needed to eat breakfast, so I figured, "I can type while I do that!" Nope. I read some news stories and watched a couple videos and now that my cereal is gone I am typing this. This does not bode well for my day.

My sweet Belle knows we are packing and does not want us to leave without her. Even after we made her get out of the bag I'd turn around and she would be right back in. I had to close it to keep her out. Little does she know....

We went through everything in the basement in an attempt to organize for a future pack out. The dogs, who have previously refused to go into the basement because they were afraid of it or something, came down the stairs and watched us move everything around just to make sure they were not missing something. 

Although my time in Ohio was a lot shorter than I anticipated it has actually been really great. I am so thankful for the people I met while we were here. 

I am thankful for the friends we made at Ontario Christian Church who took us into their lives even though they barely knew us. It made such a difference to feel like someone cared about us in a town where we knew no one and invited us over on holidays. It makes me realize I should have done the same when I was at a church where I knew everyone. I never understood how difficult it was for new people to get acquainted and become part of a group. I feel so blessed for everyone who reached out to us and I hope to do the same for others!

Zephyr and I outside of Grandpa's Cheesebarn!

I am also thankful for Grandpa's Cheesebarn and all the people I met there. I feel so blessed to have been able to keep working there even after they found out I was leaving in a couple months! The atmosphere was welcoming and the people I worked with were kind and fun to be around. I actually looked forward to going to work (and not just because I love cheese. Although I do love cheese, that should not be understated).

Although my time in Ohio was much shorter than I anticipated I am thankful for it. Now I look forward to new adventures, new people, and a plethora of other things I will soon be thankful for!

Tune in next time for reports from Washington, D.C.! (Haha, I know, that was so cheesy. Did I mention I love cheese? I really don't think I can say that enough).

Back Home Again...in Ohio...

Back from Canada! It was a good trip, but I was ready to return. Not necessarily to Ohio but I was ready to move on to the next phase in the my life and I knew it wasn't going to happen while I was in Canada.

First, the conference. It was really nice. I was finally speaking on a topic I was passionate about (and therefore I know the most about - literally. There is not a person living who knows more on the subject of the history of the Chinese in Colorado than me. Sounds cool, but really, its a niche. Like most history. Anyway...) and I loved it. I probably obsessed over my presentation a little more than was necessary because it went really well. The rest of my panel were all professors of Asian History (who were also Chinese) but my presentation did not stand out as amateur among theirs. It was awesome.

This actually felt like a nice goodbye to my time in academia. I will never stop loving history, the study or the research of it, but I won't be writing it again for some time. I think graduation would have been a nice ceremony to go to, but it would have been short with my name being called, a little walk, and thats it. I am glad I chose this experience over graduation. I look forward to when I might attend conferences in the future - and maybe I will even catch one while I am overseas. Who knows what might happen.

<Once I figure out how to upload pictures I will post some of the conference, Seattle, and Vancouver - they were all awesome>

Now that I am home I feel a little odd. It reminds me of when we were waiting to hear about the FAA position for Scott. We knew a big change was coming, but out lives were kind of suspended as we waited for it. In that case, we didn't even know the date until about a month before. At least I had two and half months to prepare for this. But now that its only two months left I still feel like I have so much to do and yet nothing I can do until I get more information.

I am currently waiting on a packet that will contain my salary offer as well as other important paperwork about moving and so on. I was hoping the packet would come last week and now I am hoping it will come this week. Something tells me I may be hoping the same thing next week. Once this packet with the salary offer comes I feel like this will finally all be real. But perhaps not. Maybe it won't be real until I am sitting in a room, dressed in a suit I just bought with heels that hurt my feet, being welcomed into a new job and lifestyle with an overwhelming about of information thrown at me. Yes, that seems most likely.

And now, I must get to the Cheesebarn. The cheese is not going to slice itself.