We're off to Mayberry.....well some of us are!

Darrin left this evening for Mt. Airy, NC. He accepted the management job with Belk. He starts tomorrow. We're so thankful that his parents live just ten minutes away in Pilot Mountain, NC. He will be staying with them until the boys and I join him sometime after the first of the year. There is no way we could have the house ready to put on the market before then. We have a few minor things to do (paint, etc.) before we put it up for sale. Then, we've even contemplated waiting until the end of the school year and moving up there in June. That way the boys wouldn't have to transfer to a new school mid-year. But, that' s long time for us to be separated from daddy! We miss him already and he's only been gone a few hours.

He took all of his work/dress clothes, his 10+ pairs of dress shoes, his 50+ ties, etc. Our closet now looks so terribly empty! His drawer in the bathroom vanity...empty! His shelf in the shower.....empty! I hate that!! I don't want them to be empty. I know this is a necessity and when looking at the big picture it makes sense, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Plus, this home that we've lived in for the past 3 1/2 years no longer seems like "home.

Payton missed him tonight when it was his bedtime. It has always been daddy that carried him to bed and tucked him in. I, with my bad back, can't possibly do it. I offered to walk him to bed but that just wasn't the same he said. How heartbreaking. Tonight while getting ready for bed, he told me he wants to go to school tomorrow, come home and move "up with daddy."

We plan to go up and see him every other weekend or so, but to a child, that's a long time. It will be a good day when we all join daddy in Mayberry.