It's interesting how much stuff you accumulate after a lifetime (at least for me) of living in one house.  Packing up the house in Marietta was quite a lot of work.  I was back and forth to Georgia for a couple weeks after Christmas to help mom with bagging, boxing, straightening, trashing, goodwill-ing, and everything else that's called for when you're getting ready to sell (including crying, laughing, complaining... we're really good whiners).  We spent one day going all through the "Erin Box" which contained most of everything in paper form from my childhood: report cards, artwork, a few random pictures, writing logs from elementary school (lots of juicy secrets were recorded), dance recital programs (some of which were from shows I wasn't even  in... don't know what mom was thinking there), and of course lockets of hair from my toddler days (which look blonde in comparison to my hair now).  We really got a lot done though, and if you go to the Kennesaw Goodwill on 41 you'll find half the store filled with random crap from the Sutton house.

In other news, I'm out of a job.  The big pants called Thursday before Christmas and declared the closing of the store... they wanted me to stay for 2 months after the other manager left for maternity leave and run the store by myself... but the idea of running a store by myself with the stresses and crowds that come with big close-out sales did not sound remotely appealing... so I told them that the other manager's last day would be mine, too.  That conversation was Friday before Christmas, and the store closed 2 weeks later.  So now I'm unemployed, working on my portfolio, and hopefully will get to taking around my resume this next week.  I would love an interior design related job, but I'm thinking that's going to be tough to nail with the economy the way it is right now... but I'm going to try so that I can say that I did.

I think a road trip is incredibly overdue.  Dad mentioned to me that he'd like to have Sadie out in AZ to go driving and exploring, since she has more clearance than the PT's... the thought of Dad and Mom taking Sadie off-roading through the desert is wonderfully funny... like Dukes of Hazard  in the wild west... but I don't think he's actually planning on doing anything that extreme.  Anyway, maybe this next month I'll have everything set for my cross-country trek, complete with an "Arizona or Bust" sign.  Who wants to go with?

It's storming here in Birmingham, and it should get worse before the morning. When it storms at night like this, Elaine gets nervous being in her loft bed. Maybe she's scared the roof will rip off and she'll get swept away... I sure hope that doesn't actually happen...

I don't think the whole moving ordeal will fully hit me until I return to Marietta and find my family isn't there. I'm so excited for mom, dad, Katie, and Tom and the adventures that they're about to experience in Phoenix and Dallas. I can't wait to see what God has in store for my family, and I trust that He will do amazing things in their lives. Still, it is difficult letting go of the familiar.

I went through the pictures on one of dad's computers a couple weeks before we started the packing process, making sure there weren't any pictures I wanted to get copies of before the computer got hauled off. I love this picture. I think maybe dad used it for Katie and Tom's wedding slideshow. Katie looks absolutely adorable, and I love how Jessye is hugging me tight and holding my hands. I, on the other hand, look rather like a potato.