After months and months of anticipation and wondering, we finally have a moving date set for the first week of September and I'll start work in Scottsdale on the 10th. For the longest times it has seemed so far away, and each day Scott or I say "Let's just move now", but now it is here and it's so real. I'm having mixed feelings about it. I am so beyond excited, but there is also a piece of my heart that is breaking when I think about leaving Price and all of our friends here. I'm so excited to meet new people and make new friends but sometimes reality sets in and I wonder if I'll ever see my Price friends again. I had a little breakdown the day I found out our moving date, just for that reason. Obviously I wouldn't let that stop me from moving forward because I know there are still thousands of people for me to meet in my life but it just makes me so sad. Sweet Scott said "This is the moment you've been waiting for for 4 years." Yeah, that's true. But I never thought I'd grow such an attachment to this place or to the people here.
One of Scott's Institute teachers always had a saying that he would tell new students... "You only cry twice in Price, once when you move here, and once when you leave." I guess that's true if you consider I cried most of the first year we lived here and probably the whole month before we leave.
I hate goodbyes and we had to say our first a week ago. Do you remember me talking about our landlords/friends/surrogate parents that live next door? Well Jeanne, the wife, moved back to South Carolina last week. Grady, the husband, will move back when he's able to retire in the next couple of years. These 2 have been a huge blessing in our lives, from plenty of dinners, to letting us live in their rental with our dog. Numerous priceless gifts they've given us to help us in our time in Price. Saying goodbye was super hard and what was supposed to be a quick 5 minute goodbye (so we could get on the road to SLC) turned into an hour and a half of chitchat putting off the moment. I hate crying in front of people so the whole time I was willing myself not to cry. I realized that in the 4 years we've lived here (and in the 3 years we've lived next door to them), I've never taken a picture of them, so I did, and here it is. Great people.
I'll miss the summer nights sitting with them and our other neighbors (that are 85), eating pie, enjoying the cool night and discussing anything and everything you can think of. I hope to have other friendships as great as the ones I've had here. When I moved here, I never thought I'd be crying as I left.
