Moving is hard, yo

Packing up 6 years of life, 3 floors of apartment space, 2 nervous but snuggly kitties and a huge bucket full of sentimental memories is hard work.

We've said good-bye to my family. My 7 year old niece wouldn't stop with the hugs and made us promise we'll skype. My 71 year old aunt can't hear too much about the details of our new beachside cottage without getting teary-eyed.

We've said good-bye to our friends. Tons showed up to say "see you later" and make promises that they're already planning their left coast vacations. All insisting we stay with them when we come home to visit.

The Pod is 24 hours away from being picked up and beginning its journey across the 2,800 miles. Though strategically selecting what we will be taking and not taking, as well as what we need immediately and what we don't has been challenging.

There are still way too many items in our apartment that need a home .... or a dump, before we can drive off into the sunset on Sunday morning.

But through all of this - I've got Marrv by my side, and watching us go through all of this change, stress, emotionally exhausting good-byes but still coming out with smiles and smooches for one another at the end of the night and first thing in the morning brings me so much joy. We're going to make it through this, we're both excited for what's ahead of us and we're both realizing how strong our relationship and partnership is - going to be a rather amazing journey.

Oh yes...

We got our photos back and they are ah-ma-zing. Our photographer (my dear friend Summer Gibbs) captured every single moment of joy, laughter and love throughout the day. Just looking at them, we instantly feel like we're right back in the middle of it - and that's a very good thing. I couldn't be happier. Now...to get to the recaps, and work on the photo albums (how do you possibly pick 100 photos out of 800 stunning shots!?) --- all while packing up and organizing for a cross-country move? We'll get there...we always do.

In the mean time though, I have to share a few.

And the delay drags on

So remember how I was all "I'm totally recapping but need some time to just breathe and relax"? Yeah, well instead of time to breathe and relax, Marrv and I have decided let's just make this newlywed time as manic as possible by up and moving. Across the country.

Big news to share. In just four weeks from now, Marrv and I are going to bundle up our little kitties in our new car (new used car that is. and that we haven't purchased yet) and drive from our comfortable life in Philadelphia to start a new adventure in a new apartment (yet to be obtained) with two new jobs (these we DO have) in San Diego, CA.

So much is still up in the air - we only just accepted the positions this past weekend. What we do know is that we're leaving the ice scrapers and winter jackets (well we'll take one...you know for when we CHOOSE to find snow in the mountains somewhere) behind.

I'm sure by the time I'm back on here regularly anyone who ever listened/read my rambling posts before will be gone but I do promise to be back. And lord knows I think I just gave myself A LOT to write about on the other side of the whole wedding thing!

Keep our sanity (and bank accounts) in your prayers!

A New Chapter

Sure, most would say that committing out loud in front of family and friends to love, honor, and cherish one another til death do us part is a pretty big "new life chapter" signal. And I do agree. But you know what really brought it home for me? Filling out a little form called SS-5: "Application for a Social Security Card". ie. changing my last name.

I've spent a great deal of time over the past year thinking about this issue. And I went back and forth on what I thought I wanted to do several times. On the one hand, I felt so tied to my birth name - more specifically, the feeling it gave me of connection to my birth family. With both my parents deceased, there was a part of me that felt keeping my name would keep me tied to them. Plus, throw on top of that the feminist argument raging around in my head asking "why does the woman have to make the change?" I don't think I really need to go into too much detail here on that argument, because I'm pretty certain anyone reading this blog has had a similar debate at one point or another and are familiar with where I'd go with that one...

Then of course there's the whole hyphen two name solution. This was actually Andrew's favored solution. But even for as much as we kept coming back to it - it just didn't feel right to me. And when he pressed me to explain why I didn't want to have both, when that seemed the perfect solution to all my wavering...I simply knew that this was one of those "wedding/marriage" aspects that I fell into the traditionalist category.

And that really shocked me. And it still does. I officially changed it and am now known to the US Government (and my work) as Mrs. Marrvelous. And yet, it is still so incredibly strange to me. Seeing my new name on my work email makes me do a double take. I tried to tag a photo on Facebook and typed in my maiden name and when "I" didn't pop up anymore wondered "What the hell! where am I!?" until it dawned on me, oh yeah - that name no longer exists. And all of those tiny moments of confusion continue to hit me with the enormity of this change (at least for me) and each time I'm left wondering again, so why did I change it?

Now after breaking down and telling you how I got teary eyed filling out the social security application...I do want to say that for every moment of sadness I feel when it dawns on me that the old name is out, I have ten moments of happiness thinking about creating this new family with Mr. Marrv. I know my brothers and sister are still just that...whether we share a last name or not. And I love the connection I now have with my parents in law.

So for those of you who have gone this path before me, it becomes more comfortable, right? And am I the only one who instantly feels 10 years older being called a "mrs"?