an apartment full of boxes somewhere in dallas…chris and anne are discussing final moving things, including the new living room furniture they picked out last week.

chris: so, when is our furniture getting delivered?

anne: um…i thought you said we were going to wait until we moved up there to order it…

chris: yeah, i said that, but i thought you’d get it anyway!

anne: (mouth hangs open overdramatically)…i was just being a submissive wife! i’m not going to spend a bunch of money without us being on the same page.

chris: i just assumed that what i say has no meaning!

anne: so you want me to order it?

chris: it would nice to have furniture when we get there.

lesson: wives, don’t be submissive to your husbands. evidently what they say has no meaning…

“why would you move to oklahoma? they gave their land away! how dumb is that?” - wes

…and my favorite:

“so, will your teepee have electricity?” - christy

in my head:

fact: chris and i are moving in just a couple-esque weeks
fact: our boxes are pretty much packed
fact: my calendar has never looked so full with goodbye coffees, lunches, dinners, and christmas parties
fact: i am going to miss a lot of people a lot
fact: cats like scratching boxes and ripping them to shreds
fact: there are a lot of people i can’t wait to meet - and to get to know better
fact: i went to church online today
fact: craig doesn’t do a half bad aussie accent
fact: the above fact may or may not be true :) (i kid)
fact: we need to make about twenty trips to goodwill
fact: it is cold outside, so goodwill will wait
fact: the dallas mavericks played an awesome game last night
fact: when i was in high school, i wanted to be the first woman in the NBA (this was pre-WNBA days)

all of the above thoughts went through my head in the last 120 seconds.

i need a nap.

what’s up with you?

i love time off and away from work. especially after an unusually hectic monday and tuesday, it was nice to relax with chris, my family, and have some alone time as well.

on the flip side, sometimes it’s difficult for me to have that alone time because i end up over thinking. do you ever do that? one thought leads to another, then to another, and another and soon you have all these thoughts piled up in your head.

as we spent time with my family (who live on the fort worth side of things) it reminded me of times past. i lived over that way from the time i was sixteen until i moved to kansas city when i was twenty one. lots of memories. some good. and some i wish i could forget.

on saturday when we were back at our place, we started packing our boxes. all of our decor is now packed away, as well as all of our books. i am so excited about moving! i only have four more weeks at lake pointe, then a couple of weeks off until a new chapter at lifechurch.tv begins.

even though i feel a little overwhelmed with memories of the past screaming at me from behind, and hopes for the future shining so brightly in front of me, this moment right now is the present.

and as quiet as it seems, it’s just as important as the things which have shaped me before, and the things that have yet to come.

painting: jordan isip/my middle name

I’ve been staring at this screen for an hour trying to think of some clever way of announcing this.

I’ve got nothing. So I’ll just say it.

We’re moving to Edmond, Oklahoma on January 3, and I’ll be working at LifeChurch.tv beginning January 7.

I will have the great honor of working alongside the great Bobby Gruenewald. Fetching his Chick-fil-A; scavenging for Diet Cokes, and hopefully taking all that great stuff his brain creates and putting it into action. At the moment, We are still exploring title options…ninja was already taken, so we’re on a quest….Any suggestions? :)

So how’d all this happen?

A few months ago, you couldn’t have paid me a million bucks to move to Oklahoma. I am a city girl. I am a Texas girl. Oklahoma has horseshoeing schools. And red dirt. And Sooners.

But in June, all of that changed. It started as a simple trip to help with some copy writing for YouVersion.

We had no plans on moving. No plans on changing jobs.

But three days later, we knew our lives would never be the same.

We knew we’d end up there.

We just didn’t know when. Or how.

And it all worked out.

And we couldn’t be more excited.

And we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

I think yesterday, it hit me that we are leaving tomorrow. It feels like the four years and 5 months I have spent in Kansas City have gone by so fast. Of course, it seemed like I’ve been here forever not knowing when an end would be in sight, but now it feels like I moved here, blinked, and now I’m moving back to Texas.

There have been so many people I’ve tried to say goodbye to in the last three days. Coffee twice on Monday, dinner with some close friends on Tuesday, and yesterday, lunch with a friend, coffee (well, I had water) with another friend right after that, then a long Italian dinner from great wine, to great pasta, to a great dessert with another wonderful friend. Tonight is our going away party and from what the RSVP list says it’s going to be a rough night - lots of friends, old & new, young & old…oy vey. And there are so many people I want to get to spend time with alone and there just aren’t enough hours left…As much as Kansas is cold & boring, the relationships I have here have meant more to me than anyone could ever know.

I still have a little packing to do, and I’m not sure when I might be online next….at the latest, Friday night at the hotel in Oklahoma City.

Goodbye, Kansas.