Goodbye Green Mountain State!

We got Fiona's violin upgraded. Wow. She grew a lot this year. I'm sort of embarrassed how tiny the old violin was. How did that happen?

I have no tea kettle and no way to contain water to boil, so here I sit with gas station coffee. The first of many, I am sure.

The girls have just woken up, so I am frantically trying to squeeze in precious writing and computer time. However, the pantry and refrigerator beckon. I have to clean those out! I have to shower before the movers get here and hope I can dry the towel outside quickly. We're debating about staying in a hotel tonight after all.

We'll be traveling through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and on into Texas. Once we get to Louisiana, just north of New Orleans, we'll travel into Houston on Highway 10...which is the route we took when we left Texas to live in Florida. Sort of cool.

I was hoping to get an Atlas for the kids to look at on our trip, but I'm not sure there will be time. The kids, by the way, are very excited and really looking forward to the trip down there. Please hope with me that nothing precious like Fuzzy (Sophia's lovey) accidentally gets packed. Maybe she'll let me put him in the car now. If you don't tell the movers not to pack something, they'll pack it! Imagine that. So we did have to rescue a screwdriver and expensive work shoes.

I could at least double this entry on all the things I will miss in Vermont and how much I have come to love this place (you know, except for those dark winters). I don't think I need to, however. I think it is evident from day one of my blog. Not the least of what I'll miss are just things related to the girls. The birth center where they were born, how the weather was outside afterwards when we cuddled up together afterwards (Fiona was born in February and there was a thaw then, but we got snow later! Sophia was born mid October, just after foliage season), and all the things we did together: hiking outside at the Montshire Museum of Science, smelling lilacs at the Shelburne Museum, creemees from many, many country stores (Warren has a great one, by the way, but I'm not 100% sure they have creemees), picking strawberries and just spending our days in the summer laying outside on a blanket and reading and napping.

Thank you, Vermont!