I’m willing to take the risk of showing a tiny peek of my house from the outside, because I am so excited about our beautiful FLAG!  There are flags everywhere in Old Town, and the old brick buildings with all the flags makes it feel so colonial and charming.

Every morning I get up and walk the dogs, and I’m truly waiting for someone to reach out and pinch me because this neighborhood just seems too good to be true.  Maybe part of it is that we HATED our neighborhood in Charlotte soooo much.  Either way, I am in heaven.

One of our biggest gripes about our Charlotte house was that we were literally trapped in the suburbs.  You couldn’t walk anywhere, and even walking within the neighborhood itself was dangerous because there were no sidewalks.  Our number one priority for moving was a safe, walkable neighborhood.

One of the tools I used when we were looking at potential homes was the awesome website Walkscore, which calculates the “walkability” of an address based on all of the surrounding schools, shops, restaurants, libraries, etc.  Our current house has a walkscore of 92, or as they call it “A Walker’s Paradise!”  By comparison, our old address has a walkscore of 17 and the description, “Heavily Car-Dependent.”  I’ll take the paradise, please!

One of our goals for our new life in Virginia is to drive as little as possible, and rely on our feet or the Metro for most of our transportation.  Last night was our first opportunity to test out our most recent purchase – a tiny foldable shopping cart!

With so much shopping and several grocery stores less than a mile away, it only makes sense to walk there – it’s so much safer, and we get all sorts of bonus incidental exercise!  Last night we took the cart out for its inaugural stroll…

To another Whole Foods!  I am definitely making up for lost time having not had Whole Foods all last year.

Our grocery strategy here is to go to Whole Foods once a week for one push cart load of bulk items and essentials like Almond milk, canned goods, etc.  Once a month I’ll go to Trader Joe’s and stock up on frozen fruit, rice cakes, and other TJ favorites.  And then twice a week we’re hoping to hit up the Wednesday and Saturday farmer’s markets!  The bulk aisle in WF is small, so I may also look into a few other drive-able options.

Since our kitchen is smaller here, we don’t want to have quite as much excess pantry stuff that we had before.  Our little cart is a good way to ensure we’re only getting what we need, and what we can fit.

With our cart all filled up with goods, we headed back for a nice walk home.

And after a delicious dinner, we all camped out on our new comfy couch.  LOVE those wide cushions!  It feels like a giant bed.

I am sure you were all so sick of hearing me gripe and complain about our Charlotte living situation, so prepare yourselves to hear me oooh and ahh with excitement about our new digs from now on.  :)

Walking to a Farmer’s Market this afternoon – can’t wait to finally have some fresh, local produce.

How important is your neighborhood to you?  Am I the only one that thinks walkability is a BIG deal?

Green Bean Pasta Salad with Chickpeas

Ingredients:

• 1 pound green beans
• 2 servings pasta (I used brown rice fussili to make it gluten-free!)
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 handful fresh basil
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp ume plum vinegar

To Prepare:

Start by getting a big pot of water boiling on the stove.  While you wait, you can trim the green beans – remove the stems on each end, and cut them in half so that they aren’t quite so long.

When the water is ready, plunge the green beans into the boiling water for about 4 minutes, or until al dente. 

Then strain out using a skimmer or slotted spoon.  Do NOT drain the entire pot, because you are going to reuse the boiling water!

Transfer beans to a colander and rinse with cold water (to stop them from over-cooking). 

Now let your water come back to a boil. 

Time to cook the pasta!  I used a brown rice fusilli pasta that is gluten-free!

Cook your pasta of choice to the package directions.  Meanwhile, mince a handful of fresh basil and set to the side.

While the pasta cooks, you can also go ahead and make the dressing – combine 1 tablespoon each of grapeseed oil, white balsamic vinegar, and ume plum vinegar.  If you don’t have ume plum vinegar I recommend #1:  that you get some ume plum vineger.  And #2: that you substitute with either soy sauce or apple cider vinegar (plus extra salt).  Whisk together!

Once the pasta is al dente, toss the green beans back into the boiling water to reheat, and then immediately drain the entire pot into your colander.  Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking!

Open a can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and rinse to remove all the excess goo and salt.  If you are a superstar, you can also use dried beans that have been soaked!

Add the pasta, green beans, chickpeas, and basil to a large bowl.

Pour the entire mixture of dressing over the bowl, and then toss to combine.

The result is a delicious, protein packed gluten-free pasta salad.  Delicious!

So often pasta salads are way too pasta-heavy, and the dressing are usually heavily oil or mayonnaise based.  I like having something lighter and loaded up with veggies and beans as an alternative!

This dish is also totally versatile – works great as both a main dish or side salad, and tastes good eaten warm right away, or after cooling down in the refrigerator. 

The first of many new recipes to come from my new kitchen!  As always, enjoy.  :)

After we dropped her off, we took advantage of the fact that we were already out driving around and stopped to get some home organization stuff that we needed.  We had zero success at Target, a lot of success at the Container Store, and then headed to this giant Whole Foods up in Arlington because we were staaaaarving. 

Even though it was only 10am, we had been up since 5 with no food, so lunch sounded like a good idea.  Pretty sure we were the first ones through the hot bar for the day!

I have been wanting to try their vegan chocolate pudding since the first time I went there back in July.  This stuff was AMAZING!  I’m going to try to recreate it here at home after my next trip to the grocery store.

Delicious early morning lunch at Whole Foods, while still wearing my pajamas and last night’s makeup.  :) 

Afterwards, we headed home to assemble and use all of our new organizational purchases!  Our kitchen is absolutely adorable, but it is a LOT smaller than our old one, so it’s taking a little adjusting.  We knew we need a little more storage and counter space, and we got this fabulous rolling car to put on the side wall.

The top is the coffee maker and radio station…

And on the bottom, I finally have a place for setting out some of my favorite serving bowls and pieces.  Also a good spot for the fruit basket.  (And a few extra copies of Better Homes and Gardens of course!)

And on the wall by the door, we hung a few of our shelves, and adorable spice containers. 

These are just progress pictures – final kitchen tour is coming as soon as we get the rest of the pieces in place!  We still have this wall under the window where we’d like to put a small eat-in table, but we haven’t found the right one quite yet.

Outside, the patio is coming along.  One side has chaise loungers (that are typically occupied by dogs, not people). 

And the other side has our comfy sitting chairs.  I absolutely LOVE this outdoor space – it is so quiet and peaceful.  Perfect for reading, blogging, or dining outside.

This side of the living room is starting to look like people actually live here…

While the other side remains a disorganized mess.  We also don’t have TV yet – horrors!  MUST have TV service by the Survivor premiere next week.

Upstairs, our office / guest room is starting to come together too!

Since we don’t have a dining room here in our new house, we came up with a creative solution to be able to still use our (expensive) beautiful dining room table.  We sold our desks and turned it into a double-work station – I LOVE it!  I want to go get a big piece of glass cut to protect the top, but in the meantime we’re just using a lame tablecloth. 

On the other side of the room, we got this fabulous chaise couch!  Indy wanted to make sure he modeled how comfortable all our couches are.  :) 

We are looking forward to hopefully having many visitors here in our new fun city, so we wanted to make sure we had a nice spot for people to stay.  We actually got this mini-sectional at IKEA, not typically known for comfortable couches, but this one is pretty great.  Watch how it works.  Two little loops sticking out of the bottom of the cushions…

Pull them straight out to bring out the drawer…

Angle up to pop up the cushion…

Viola!  A full sized bed!  Very cool.  It’s perfect for this room because pulled out it doesn’t really take up any additional space, unlike a traditional pull out couch that comes into the middle of the room. 

So now we are FINALLY all caught up – wooohooooo!  Hoping to make a lot of progress today so that I can show you some finalized pictures.  Also reaaaally need to find my camera charger.  :(  Headed to the grocery store this afternoon so that I will have a delicious home-cooked meal to share with you tonight – yay! 

Rather than spend another full day trapped inside among the mess and boxes, we thought we’d treat ourselves to a break and head out to the city to show my mom all of the wonderful reasons we wanted to move here. 

It’s pretty amazing to pass things like this when you are simply walking to meet a friend for lunch…

We took the Metro from our house up to the mall, and then walked up past the Capitol to meet Blake for lunch in Capitol Hill.  The original plan was to try Good Stuff Eatery – a burger joint owned by Spike from Top Chef!  But sadly they were closed on Sundays, boooo.  So we went down to Barrack’s Row and went to a fun little Mediterranean place instead.

A lovely afternoon lunch eating outside with the most PERFECT fall weather!  I am so excited that after ten years of living very far apart, Blake and I are now about 7 miles from each other.  :)  He is my very best boy friend!

After a fun day out in the city, we headed back home for a monumental event – my first home cooked meal in my new kitchen.

New kitchens always take a bit of an adjustment, especially when half of it is still in boxes, but I can already tell I am going to love it.

My new Front Burner!  :)

It wasn’t exactly a complex or fancy meal, but it was a nice break from all the eating out we’ve done.  There are so many wonderful places to eat out here, so we are setting a rule that we can only eat out once a week!  Delicious spinach salad with grapes, strawberries, apples, and olives – topped with my perfect sauteed tofu! 

We didn’t eat until after 9pm – hence the dark kitchen photos.

Soooo nice to eat a home cooked meal again.  The first of many to come!

And now it’s getting late, and I’m off to attempt meal number two!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing Labor Day weekend.  :)

We explored the adorable streets of Old Town and with every passing block I was reminded more and more of why we moved here. 

We headed up a few blocks to King Street, where we suddenly stumbled across the most amazing farmer’s market on the plaza of the Old Town City Hall!  There were soooo many vendors and people out already at 7am on a Saturday – my kind of place.  Too bad we had our dogs with us so we couldn’t venture in (they are not so good in crowds), but we are already marking our calendars to head there next weekend.

On our way back to the house, I stopped inside this cute place called Firehook Bakery to pick up some breakfast.  I grabbed a few different croissants and muffins to take back to the house – yum!

After some quick breakfast fuel, we were back at it unloading the truck, and ready to face the dreaded 400 pound dining room table.  Since my hands were killing me from carrying so many other boxes and pieces of furniture, I came up with the clever idea to wear our biking gloves to protect our sore hands. 

The table slowly but surely made its way inside.  I had to stop to take breaks about every 20 feet, just to get it in the door!

After the disaster with the box spring yesterday, I was not giving up so easily on the table.  A few bruises and welts later, we had SUCCESS and got it to the second floor!

Meanwhile, the dogs are loving their private backyard patio.  The gorgeous cool weather this weekend was absolutely perfect for moving in and relaxing out back!

This is the scary reality of what the moving process can do an otherwise normal girl. 

Many boxes and trips later, we were all moved in and piled high to the sky!  My kitchen is scaring me.

Could these two get any cuter?

Once the truck was unloaded, we wanted to take advantage of the few hours we had before it needed to be returned.  Acting on a blog reader tip (thank you, Lindsay!) we headed to the Crate and Barrel outlet that is less than a mile from our house!  It was totally meant to be because we walked in the door and found a couch that we loved within the first minute.  Love at first sight!

Getting it in the door was another story.  You guys, I know I’ve talked about moving being draining and exhausting, but this couch pushed me over the limit.  I declared that there WILL be movers when we leave this place after we got it inside!

But it was totally worth the pain, because…check out our living room so far!  I am so excited – it’s all coming together really well.  I LOVE the new couch – it has super deep cushions, which is exactly what I wanted.

Indy gave it the lazy dog seal of approval.

At that point it was time for a lunch break.  While Casey and I moved the couch, my mom ran around the corner to a cute little gourmet food mart and picked up some delicious avocado sandwiches – YUM.

Even though we had already had a busy day, we pushed on and headed to every mover’s paradise – IKEA!  Believe it or not, we needed a second couch, since we are making our office into a combination guest room.  Three hours later, I left a lot poorer and with a huge load of goods.

Kitchen shelves, trashcans, spice jars, coffee tables, light bulbs, a few things for my friend Blake, and a giant pullout couch!

We had a close call with the boxes almost not fitting into the car, but we arranged and rearranged several times and made it work. 

Unfortunately when we brought the stuff into the house, Blake slipped and fell down the steps and twisted his ankle.  :(  Indy did his best to comfort him!

We stayed up until way too late assembling furniture and trying to sort our way through the boxes.  By tomorrow I should have some really good and organized photos for you guys!  Slowly but surely.  It’s still a mess, but it already feels like home.   :)

Happy holiday weekend!

Thursday night, Casey and I wanted to get the entire truck packed up, so we spent our last night in the house sleeping straight on the rock hard floor, with just a pillow and blankets.  I barely slept a wink, and when the alarm went off at 5am I was already so anxious about the move.  We spent about an hour getting every last little thing into the cars and truck, and then said our final goodbyes to our big blue house on Brynmar.

My mom and I cleaned every nook and cranny so that the house would look fabulous when we left.

Casey headed out first since he wanted to get a head start, so I waved goodbye in the darkness of the morning. 

The funny part is that just seconds after I took this picture, I heard a horrible SCRAPE sound, to discover that our moving truck actually bottomed out at the bottom of our driveway.  About ten minutes of panic and the threat of having to UNLOAD the entire truck later, Casey announced that he had an idea.  He gunned the truck out of it’s stuck position in the ditch of our driveway, and then built a bridge out of a rolled up rug and some wood planks, to propel the truck over the dip where the driveway meets the street.  It was HORRIBLE and I was holding my breath, but it worked!  He is a genius.  I waved him on and he headed north!

Back inside, I said goodbye to my kitchen.  So many great cooking memories in this house.

Recognize this image?

Thank god for my mom, I never could have managed the cleaning and the dogs without her. 

We wanted to give Casey a good lead, so the two of us decided to take the dogs for one last walk around the old hood.  They were VERY excited and incredibly anxious.  The empty house made them so nervous!

One mile later, we piled into the car and headed toward our new home!  The dogs were not totally convinced that this was a good thing.

Before long, we took our first break for some much needed coffee.  At this point I had been running on three days of hard-core physical exertion and VERY little sleep.

One of the things I was most nervous about for this trip was physically getting the dogs there.  When we moved from OH to NC I drove them in the back of our Honda, which was NOT a pleasant experience.  I was crossing my fingers that the combination of more space in the SUV plus cushy dog beds would be a better scenario.  They were a little anxious at first…

And did a bit of bouncing off the walls…

But within about ten minutes they had calmed down and were happy to snooze in the backseat. 

Meanwhile, I had mom behind me following the caravan.  It was so helpful to have her to help with the dogs at the gas stations and stops.

I stopped to let them out after about 4 hours, and found this fun grassy area where I actually ran them for a bit to burn off some energy.  The other folks pumping their gas thought we were insane.

Before I knew it, Virginia welcomed me!  MY NEW HOME STATE!!

Unfortunately, Virginia also made me sleepy.  Or perhaps that was the 36 hours with almost zero sleep catching up to me.  Either way, I got a disgusting sugar-free energy drink out of sheer desperation.

My mom tried to get away with eating a Snickers ice cream bar and NOT have it documented on the internet.  Doesn’t she know me?

A little over six hours of driving later, I pulled into Old Town, Alexandria and immediately remembered how much I LOVE IT here!  It is seriously the cutest neighborhood I’ve ever seen.  And here’s what you’ve actually been waiting for this whole time – pictures of our NEW HOUSE!

I only have a few for now, but trust me there are many many more to come.  Starting with the main side of our beautiful, updated kitchen.

Bright, sunny living room with a working wood-burning fireplace…

Big master bedroom, which we are actually going to use as an office and guest room combo…

My personal favorite room – the most amazing bathroom EVER!  Check out that soaking tub and the double headed shower…

And the third floor loft room, which will be used as our bedroom…

After I ran around and took pictures, we got to unloading.  It was a nightmare.  My muscles and energy were just so dead from moving everything INto the truck, and I had so little left to give for the move out.  One of our biggest obstacles was this box spring, which we tried to get to the third floor. 

About two hours of attempting and one sawing incident later, we determined that the box spring was NOT going to make it up the steps.  I had a minor breakdown and then decided that it was just a bed, and life would go on.  The box spring now lives in a dumpster and our mattress is on the floor – sad.  We ended up unloading a little over half the truck before declaring ourselves too tired to continue, and left the rest for the morning.   

Casey ran to the store to get snacks and dinner, and while my food itself is undocumented, I can assure you that the majority of it was eating about half of this huge baguette smeared with jelly.  Delicious, indeed.

That’s it for day one!  Much more to show you tomorrow – things are starting to come together!  But for now, I really need a good night’s sleep.

Thank you so much to everyone for all the warm wishes and happy thoughts!  It’s so fun to share it with you guys.  Can’t wait to unpack my kitchen and COOK again!

Matt’s blog is all about helping people run marathons and ultramarathons on a vegetarian diet – VERY cool.  You guys are in for a real treat today, because he wrote a special guest post just for Front Burner readers!  And it’s on a topic that I know a lot of you are interested in, because I get emails about it ALL the time.  So without further adieu…

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5 Warning Signs You Aren’t Getting Enough Protein

A guest post from Matt Frazier, writer of the No Meat Athlete blog.

Where do you get your protein?

If you’re a vegetarian, especially an athletic one, you’ve likely heard that question dozens of times. We hear it so often it becomes a joke. But the question is a valid one: So many people who try out a vegetarian or vegan diet can’t make it last. After the initial energy gains, an imbalance in their diet (usually a protein or iron deficiency) catches up with them, and everything goes downhill. Their bodies crave meat again, they obey their cravings, and that’s the end of it.

What I did wasn’t perfect either

When I became vegetarian, I felt incredible. And I ran better than ever, qualifying for the Boston Marathon and running my first 50-mile ultramarathon, thanks largely to a lighter frame and more energy that allowed me to train and recover like I never had before. But with this energy and these accomplishments came the idea that my diet, by virtue of being plant-based, was exempt from traditional sports nutrition rules. I concluded that we don’t need nearly as much protein as the people in charge would have us believe. This belief caused me to let my diet slip, loading up on carbohydrates and slacking on the effort I once made to include protein in every meal. And—surprise, surprise—my performance suffered. And not just in running, but in my day-to-day activities. Fortunately, I recognized what was happening and addressed the problem. But had I been a new vegetarian when this happened, it might have led me to conclude that "a vegetarian diet doesn’t work for endurance sports," and I never would have made gotten all the benefits of such a clean diet. In case you’re that new vegetarian, here are five signs that (just once!) you need to listen to the critics when they say you need more protein.

1. You’re tired when you shouldn’t be.

Most vegetarians will tell you they have more energy now than when they used to eat meat. If you experience less energy, not enough protein might be the cause. I’m not talking about feeling groggy when you wake up. I mean wanting to take a nap in the middle of the day or evening when you never used to. And it doesn’t have to be just physical—a mental lack of motivation is also sometimes associated with protein deficiency.

2. You’re weak when you lift weights, run, do yoga, or do any other strenuous activity.

When you don’t get enough protein, your muscles aren’t able to repair themselves after a workout. In such a case, strenuous exercise can actually be counterproductive—you aren’t able to rebuild what you tear down, and you actually become weaker.

3. You’re flabby where you used to be muscular.

It’s not just the performance of your muscles that declines when you’re protein-deficient: Their appearance and size does, too. Why? If your body can’t find enough protein in your diet to sustain itself, it takes it from wherever it can find it. And wouldn’t you know it, your muscles, not your body fat, are where the protein is. Bottom line: If you don’t give your body enough protein, it’ll cannibalize its own tissue to get what it needs.

4. You’re getting injured and not recovering quickly.

Slowed recovery doesn’t just apply to rebuilding muscles after a tough workout—when you’re injured and protein deficient, your body will take longer to heal. Again, it’s pretty logical. Protein is necessary to build new tissue, so if it’s not available, your body can’t rebuild itself.

5. Your hair is falling out.

Seems like a weird sign of protein deficiency, doesn’t it? What’s going on here is that when you’re not getting much protein, your body goes into conservation mode. Among other things, it stops spending valuable protein on the production of things like hair and nails. The result: Hair in your shower, broken, brittle nails, and other pleasantries.

What to Do About It

So while the protein question is fair, there are plenty of good answers to it for vegetarians and vegans. Here’s what to do if you think you’re not getting enough. To figure out how much protein you should be getting each day, take your body weight in pounds and multiply by 0.4. That’ll get you slightly more than the U.S. recommended daily allowance. And as an athlete, you may find you need to up that number. There are plenty of fine non-animal sources of protein, even if you’re not down with eating soy at every meal. My favorite sources are beans of all kinds, but you’ll also find a good amount of protein in nuts, grains and seeds like quinoa, and even vegetables like spinach and broccoli. (Vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke has a great list of vegan protein sources on his website.)

Supplementing is another option. I find that starting the day with a smoothie with protein powder helps me ensure I get enough. Hemp protein is my favorite, but pea, rice, and soy protein powders are all viable vegan options. Finally, make sure you’re getting all the essential amino acids. If you rely too heavily on a single protein source, it’s likely you won’t be getting all the amino acids you need. On my website, I have page dedicated to helping people go vegetarian, which includes a chart of the amino acids in vegetarian foods.

So the next time someone asks you the protein question, don’t just blow them off. They have a point; protein should be a concern for vegetarians and vegans. But it’s absolutely not something you can’t overcome if you’re committed to experiencing all that this diet has to offer.

Many many thanks to Matt!  You guys make sure you check out his blog – I guarantee he has a lot more to teach you. 

Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in my new home – wheeeeeeeeeee!

Despite all the craziness of this move, I’ve been trying to keep this blog fun and positive.  And while most of it has been fun and exciting, there have been a few hiccups too. 

Last week I had a minor meltdown when I realized that we were NOT going to sell a car (as we originally planned), and we were now dealing with the situation of having 2 cars, 1 moving truck, and 2 dogs to drive – all with just two people.  I was also starting to get veeeery nervous about it being just the two of us on the other end in DC, trying to unload our truck and manage the dogs at the same time.  So I did what any almost 30-year old would do – I called my mom.

And in case you didn’t already know, I actually have the BEST MOM EVER, because she scrambled to find dog-sitters and take two days off work so that she could fly to our rescue.  She’s HERE!

After a morning of packing and loading,  we were starving by the time we picked her up, so we headed to our favorite (and only) vegan spot – Luna’s Living Kitchen.  I couldn’t resist getting my favorite quinoa burger yet again. 

My mom got a delicious zucchini pasta dish – doesn’t that look good?

She got to the house and was greeted by two very excited grand-doggies!  They haven’t seen her since Christmas!

I put her to work right away, and she was nice enough to scrub our ENTIRE kitchen top to bottom!  I really don’t know what we would do if she hadn’t come.

While mom cleaned, Casey and I disassembled and carried out all the big furniture.  This dining room table weighs close to 400 pounds, and might be the death of me tomorrow.

The dogs acted pathetic in their corralled off kitchen spot. 

And after hours and hours and hours of hard work…it was EMPTY!

My life, in a truck.

So excited for our next big adventure!!  Love this guy.  :)

And love my MOM!  I am so grateful and excited that she can be here to help us get moved and settled.

See you from VIRGINIA!

When we moved to Charlotte, I had a horrible transition.  I spent the entire first day we lived here in tears.  My little sister and Casey were my saving graces, and assured me that we would okay, despite my hysteria.  That night we went out for Chinese takeout after a long day of moving, and this little gem was my fortune.  Sarah pinned up in the fridge, gave me a big hug, and it has remained there ever since. 

Well I’d say we definitely turned around.  :)  It has been the craziest and most exciting year of my life.  I have said to Casey many times that I know years and years down the road, we will look back on our time in Charlotte and think “that was the year that it all happened, and everything changed.”  Ahhh better stop before I get teary again.

Onto less emotional topics – breakfast.  You are correct if you think you are looking at a disposable coffee cup full of oats and almond milk.

The ONLY thing edible that remains unpacked in our house is a tub of oats, raisins, almonds, a bag of frozen blueberries, and a tiny bit of Almond Breeze.

Eaten with a fork, because the spoons needed to be packed.  When in Rome…

I made lots of big progress in the moving van this morning!  See that huge pile on the left?  I moved it ALL myself!  My muscles are going to be burning tomorrow.  Casey will be done working by lunchtime, and then we’ll be able to do the rest of the big stuff together.

Who needs movers when you have muscles, right?  (I look like a crazy person.)

The poor pups are getting really worried and sad about the state of the house, so I thought it might be fun for them to see what was happening outside.  I coaxed them into the moving truck and showed them how to walk up the big ramp.

Huey considered jumping off the edge, but then realized the ramp was a much better way to go for his old bones.

Indy was really scared of the ramp, but he was willing to follow after his big brother headed down first…

With the big adventure over, we all headed back inside.

And now it’s back to work for a bit until a mid-day break to head to the airport!

Almost there!!

We moved to Charlotte in an absolutely stuffed 24 foot truck.  We have since made ten million trips to Goodwill, and sold almost $2,000 worth of stuff on Craigslist.  To call it a downsize would be an understatement.  Even so, will my entire life really fit in here?

I spent the ENTIRE morning and afternoon lugging box after box after box out to the moving truck.  Poor Casey tried to take today off, but got stuck working most of the morning.  He felt terrible.  :(  Lucky for me, about halfway through the day he was able to stop working and help load the truck, which made everything go much more quickly and easily. 

Look – we have EMPTY rooms!

I have declared this bathroom off limits.  It has been cleaned and can no longer be used!

Even our box spring is already in the truck – from here on out we’re sleeping on a mattress on the floor. 

After HOURS of lugging millions of heavy boxes to the truck, my legs and back were aching for a break.  I honestly don’t know the last time I’ve felt this exhausted.  I am so glad we decided to get the truck a day early – I don’t think I could do back to back loading and unloading days!

Finally it was quitting time, and I jumped in the shower to get ready for a fun final dinner out with friends.  Casey and I met Diana, Michelle, and Ben at a cute little Mexican restaurant.

As soon as I sat down I went headfirst into the basket of chips.

I ordered the vegetarian fajitas, which came out on not one, but TWO huge plates.  This plate was just the toppings!

With the hot sizzling plate of fajitas veggies on the side.  Check out that steam!

After dinner, we headed over to TCBY for our big farewell outing with all of our Charlotte friends.  I don’t like doing giant group dinners because you never end up being able to talk to everyone there.  Instead, I planned to just do a casual fro-yo meet up so that we could all mingle. 

I ended up with a mixture of peanut butter, chocolate, and vanilla yogurt topped with a few mini Reeses Pieces, cookie dough balls, and chocolate sprinkles.  Go big or go home.

But the gathering was not really about fro-yo, it was about FRIENDS.  I cant even explain to you how much I will miss the wonderful people I’ve met here in Charlotte.  In addition to my awesome culinary school friends, and coworkers on the farm, I’ve made this strong circle of blogging and blog-reading friends that I am so so sad to leave.

Jen and Caitlin

Anne, Jen, Lori, and Brittany (and Clyde!)…

Me and Diana…

Diana and Kelly…

The whole crew together!

Even though it was our decision to leave Charlotte, and I am SO excited about our next big adventure, it doesn’t change the fact that I am very sad to say goodbye.  I put on a brave face and hugged everyone goodbye with a smile, and then sobbed my entire car ride home.

But I will be back in December for Thunder Road, and it is so easy to keep in touch with friends through blogs and Twitter.  Thank you Charlotte friends for giving me an amazing year.

Tomorrow is BIG.  Tomorrow is it.  The truck rolls out at 6am Friday morning, so tomorrow is the last chance to get everything packed, moved, and cleaned!  Lucky for me I have a VERY special helper on the way!  Details tomorrow…