Goodbye, South Carolina

Yesterday, Carl and I arrived at my parents' house in Tennessee for our final week here in the states before we officially move. It's been a little while since I have been able to update this, mostly because once I left Washington, everything became about as hectic as it's ever been. If we thought we were stressed before, we had no idea what the past week or so had in store for us! By the grace of God, however, we made it through, and made it here, and are now relaxing as much as we can.

I went back to work for Fort Jackson for about a week and a half. I was so excited to get back and see all my friends and co-workers there. Unfortunately, I also had to have some minor surgery in the same timeframe, which kind of cut into the time I had with the co-workers. I ended up only working about 4 half-days there, but it was great to see everyone and I got some things taken care of that I needed. Carl took care of me on the day of my surgery in Columbia, but for the most part had to be in Charleston with the movers. His mom had been able to visit for a week as well, which was great. I am glad she got to come out and see us one more time before we go. She also was a huge help to Carl during that week, with cleaning and organizing. I am sure it wasn't really the most fun way to spend her vacation, but she was a trooper! She was rewarded by a couple visits to the beach (and a jellyfish sting... yikes).

Anyway, yesterday was probably one of the most stressful days of our lives as we had the final few things to handle before saying good-bye to South Carolina. We had to take Churro, Noel and Scout to the vet one last time for their health certificate exams, then dealt with what seemed to be a hurricane as we loaded the truck with our last few things, headed to the port to drop off our car to be shipped out, and then had to race to Columbia to get the vet records certified by the state so the animals can enter Germany with us. We seriously thought we were not going to make it, and basically had to beg the lady at the USDA to wait an extra hour for us to get there. (Extra word of advice: when you are shipping your car, make sure to arrive with less than a quarter of a tank of gas, so you don't have to pay someone to siphon it for you). It all worked out, somehow. We were both absolutely panic-stricken and stressed to the max until we had that last bit of paperwork in-hand. Then we drove the rest of the way to Cookeville and have been enjoying the lovely hospitality ever since.

This morning, we all woke up early and headed over to Lowe's to buy some supplies. Mom and dad went to the lake with friends (we were invited but declined) and we stayed back and built a cute little turtle pond in their yard for Myrtle and Jack to live in while we go to Germany. It's not the best-looking pond, but so far the turtles really seem to like it!

Tomorrow my parents are throwing a going-away party for us. My mom made the cutest little German flags and got red, black and yellow balloons to hang everywhere. We'll try to post pictures of that soon too.

So, good-bye South Carolina and good-bye being "The Intern," although I have been reminded that "once an Intern, always an Intern."