After being North Carolina residents for two years together, the time finally came for us to enjoy our final days here and then head on up to Virginia!
For our last weekend, Shane and I made sure to get to the beach together...
Give me all the crab legs and shrimp!
We went to church in Jacksonville one last time on our last Sunday. This church was far from our house, so it was tough for us to get anywhere near as involved as we were with our church in Houston, but we were sure blessed by our Sunday mornings here.
It technically is a megachurch although nowhere near the scale of the one we came from!
I've said it on this blog a few times before and I'll say it again- Pastor Jason is the BEST of the BEST! Among so much other praise we have for him, his sermons every single week were HILARIOUS but also so extremely relatable, real, and applicable. We have been nothing but impressed by him in all areas- worth the drive!
Shane and I chatted with him one time and I fangirled over his sermons, telling him how we came from one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) baptist church in the US where they can afford to pay for all of the elite in every single area, but I thought he needed to know that he is hands down one of the best pastors I've heard. Every message hilariously resonated and preached the gospel while being endlessly entertaining and engaging as well. I also told him how cute his wife was and she was on my girl crush on his Insta, which had him cracking up🤣
He shared once how challenging it was leading a church that was primarily military because every two/three years he gets an entirely new congregation. On an given Sunday, there can be a deployment or training and 1/4 of his members and volunteers can suddenly be gone, but he said he now looks at that from a positive angle- he sees it as the Marine Corps sending out the hands and feet of Jesus for Catalyst church all over the world, all on the USMC's dime. Love that.
We will definitely be watching his sermons on YouTube from here on out. Phenomenal!
Elizabeth fell asleep on Shane on this last Sunday there though 🤣
We will be praying for Catalyst church from our next duty station for sure and will be eternally grateful for all it did for our faith walk.
And then we had to do our usual Sunday lunch! Even when the guys were deployed, us girls kept up this tradition. We ended it all at Cheddar's- where we went for our first post-church lunch together years ago. So special 💗
Otherwise, our neighbor Tyler popped in to chat with us one last time while the movers were doing their thing in the rest of the house. All the thanks to Tyler for all the times he would come over and help me with the most random tasks (i.e. me locking myself out of our bathroom) when Shane was gone…and for him and Chloe dropping in to chat or to drop off the best smoked pork! We did meet a few incredible people here.
I had my last workout class at Coastal Fitness. It was a small town gym but I was extremely impressed by the quality of classes, instructors, and availability of classes concerning scheduling.
We had the movers come pack on Tuesday and the puppies were surprisingly AMAZING being cooped up in different rooms with me all day. I hope this is telling of what our hotel life will be like!
They loved strolling the red carpet...
The movers came to finish and move our boxes out on Wednesday. They finished at 10PM with a LOT of assistance from Shane and some back up plans since they didn't think all of our stuff would fit...yikes, but they made it work! We just had to leave behind some lawn chairs that were old/rusted anyways and passed down to us from our first neighbors here.
Our pups went to their last day of daycare on that day. They actually hadn't been to daycare since November when I was at my bachelorette party, but it was my weekly saving grace when Shane was deployed! Our daycare has live virtual feeds, they send report cards with pictures, adjectives, and commentary about the dogs' day, and now they even have a daycare valet. We were super spoiled with Pawville here!
What with all of the chaoticness and moving going on at home, and with them not being to daycare for awhile, I think they were a little out of sorts this time per their report cards, but they're always so spot on with their descriptors of them too. It's so cute watching them stick together there.
I begged Shane to let me go pick them up 2 hours earlier than we had to because on the live feed I checked from time to time, I kept seeing them go to the door and look for us and I felt bad with all this moving uncertainty for them 💔#helicopterdogmom. I asked my mom how in the world she could let me go to college back in the day when I can't even let my dogs do a full 12 hours of daycare! SOS
I made a few more trips to Surf City Coffee on the island. It's so small town in there that it cracks me up. All of the tourists and customers who don't know each other are talking together, the workers making you look and taste your coffee to make sure its perfect before you leave, hearing nothing but "darlin'" and other southern sayings being thrown around. A lady hearing we were military and hugging us, asking for our names and saying she would pray for us by name. So cute!
Andrue and Amber brought over dinner on our last night! Lawn chairs in the house with the guys' tats out on display...we're looking super redneck y'all.
Shane left a sweet note for the next family that lives here.
We stopped at the beach one last time on our way out…
…and then we were off to our hotel in Virginia! Luckily, it was only a 5 hour drive. I have to say it was MUCH easier doing a move when we could pack/drive our own cars and throw the "unpackables" in there as opposed to shipping my car and flying across the US. That being said, living out of random boxes and the trunk of our car and then hotel life is... 😝I guess good news/bad news is I can't online shop for awhile since we don't have an address?!
From our first house together, to being the house we brought Cash home to...
...and the house we brought Caylor home to (Sorry CayCay, second puppy problems- we didn't get a good family pic with her until many months later!)
Now for our hotel stay (hopefully short!) and then the unpacking begins...!
On our last night, we were really sentimental and leaving here was actually a lot more bittersweet than I expected it to be! I was a lot sadder than I had anticipated, but it's time and we're so ready for what's next.
I don't do goodbyes anymore (I wouldn't have emotionally survived through Houston goodbyes and also #militarylife) so tried to keep my emotions to a minimum, but we did experience a lot here! It was occasionally rough for me in the day to day but looking back big picture, we had so many amazing and emotional memories. These were all running through my mind like a slideshow on our last night when I couldn't sleep on our air mattress in our otherwise empty house 😐
Besides the daily life we experienced here, it wasn't just newlywed life, postponed weddings, more weddings, our first house, and our puppies, but also deployment, Shane's dad passing away, miscarriage, etc. I truly think I'm going to look back on this time remembering its overall struggles but associating more positive memories with it than I had thought. We are grateful.
We'll catch ya from the most northern state I've lived in for the past 10 years! 😲
The red carpet 😂😂😂 Love those pups! -SB
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