One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today we woke up around 4am (I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep at all that night), finished packing, left for the airport around 5am, and flew to Little Rock, Arkansas. We had no idea what was waiting for us there, but we were excited to begin our summer adventure. London was just seven weeks old. I carried her in the Bjorn the whole day, in and out of airports, planes, and bathrooms. I pushed Brooklyn in the stroller through all these places too while Steve tried carrying all our stuff. Finally when we got to Little Rock, I made him pay for a little cart to push it all. It really was a little ridiculous. Then we got in our rental car and drove the almost three hours to Harrison, Arkansas, our home for the summer.

We drove right in to our apartment complex and checked in with the office manager, Barbara. I never will forget Barbara, bless her heart! She gave us the keys to our apartment, so off we went to see where we would be living. There was a whole mix-up with housing a few weeks before we were leaving for AR where we found out we didn't have a place to stay. The people who occupied our apartment before us decided they weren't ready to leave yet and extended their contract. I still don't understand how they were able to do that with us coming and needing to move in right away. Anyway, they put us in a temporary apartment until the one we were supposed to be in was ready. So we walked into this temporary apartment and just about died. It reeked of cigarette smoke. It was in the carpets, the furniture, and walls. It was discusting. And here I was with my two little girls. I didn't want them to have to live there. But we did it. We had no choice but to do it. We quickly got as settled as we could for the night and we all slept very soundly.

Steve's parents drove our car out to AR, and they arrived the next day with all of our stuff. They spent a few days with us and helped us get more settled, as well as explored Harrison with us. Two weeks later we were able to move into our apartment. It was so much better than the first. No cigarette smell, yea! Moving in again was a pain, but we were glad to get out of that first apartment. We washed all of our clothes, and were finally smoke free. My parents came out to visit us then too, and I was glad they saw us in our new apartment.

Arkansas was a big adventure for our family, and we are so glad we went. Steve had a great internship with FedEx Freight. We are glad it worked out for us when it did, because this year FedEx (along with so many other companies) are not only not hiring for full time work, but they are not hiring interns either. We loved the ward out there, and we are so glad we got to meet so many wonderful people there. I have often thought about Arkansas being such a random place to go, and I'm sure most people have never been there nor will ever go there. But it was so great for us. I hope we get to go back someday and visit.