December

December was by far the biggest month of change the Mills family had seen in our two years of existence...

During the first couple of weeks, I worked hard to make sure I had everything packed up in my classrooms and that everything was prepared for whoever my principals chose to fill my spot. I quickly realized how attached I had become to my students after having many of them for multiple years.

Finally, it was almost moving day and I was lucky enough to have Daniel come home to help me with the final details and supervising the movers. It was so nice to not have to pack up anything and just watch someone else do it. If you know me, you know I'm not good at packing. I get very overwhelmed and tend to shut down. So, having someone else do it for me, was soooooooo nice!

Here's a picture of us in front of the moving truck.

As you can tell, Andy was more than a little confused as to what was going on!

The next day, we started our journey north with a quick trip to Nashville to see my parents and meet Daniel's dad to pass off Andy. Since we would be living with another family (and their three cats) until we found a place to call our own, Andy had an extended vacation with his Evansville grandparents. To say he was spoiled when he returned to us might be an understatement, but we were/are so grateful that they were willing to take care of him.

A week later, we celebrated our first Virginia Christmas! How do you celebrate Christmas when your closest family is still 13 hours away? Skype of course. Christmas morning we woke up early to unwrap presents with my family over the computer. Although kind of bizarre, it was definitely nice to see everyone's face.

Just a picture to capture a memory.

A week after Christmas, the change kept on coming when we got 2 belated Christmas surprises. First, what we thought had just been a simple kidney infection turned out to be Baby Mills! To say we were shocked would be an understatement, but we were excited all the same.

Second, I got a job as a long term substitute. Turns out I was right, if I really wanted things to happen, I just needed to take the plunge and make the move to D.C.!

Like I said, December was definitely a month of change!

Rewind to November...

I will be the first to admit, I am wayyyyy behind in my blogging! This poor thing has not been updated since Daniel's first couple of weeks of being up here, but I will attempt to make up for lost time.

November:

During the last week of October, I received two phone calls for interviews for school systems in Virginia. Daniel and I had already decided that I would remain in Birmingham until one of two things happened: 1.) The house sold or 2.) I got a job in D.C. Needless to say, having two interviews so early on in my search made me very happy!

I decided to take a whole week off work so I could enjoy some time with my husband, go on my interviews, and complete the last of the necessary paperwork for my Virginia state teaching license (a test).

At first, it seemed like it would be a very laid back week, little did I know the surprises that awaited me. First, one evening the water pipe under our sink in Birmingham disconnecting causing a flood throughout the entire first floor of the house. Thank goodness Rod was living with us otherwise who knows how long the water would have run! Then, there was the test, or should I say tests. On the registration website, you are able to sign up for both sections of the test and since I would only be in town for a week, I decided I would sign up for both. STUPID MISTAKE! It ended up being 8 hours of pure torture!

At the end of the month, Daniel came home for a short vacation/helping get things fixed around the house. We decided that, whether or not I had a job lined up by the end of the semester, I would come up to NoVa and live with Daniel. Also around that time, I found out that I passed both of the test on the first try (which is apparently not the norm), so things seemed to be falling into place.

After Thanksgiving, I officially handed in my resignation to Jefferson County. It was so hard to think of leaving all my friends and my students, but I knew the decision I was making was with my family's best interest at heart, which somehow made it a lot easier to do.

Greetings from D.C.

I have been given permission to add my own thoughts to the blog, and so I will take a break from my regularly scheduled...completely full schedule...to tell you guys a bit about my side of the story.

My name is Daniel, as most of you hopefully know by now. I, up until very recently, lived in Birmingham with my lovely wife...but I was given the chance of a lifetime to work with NASA in Washington, DC! While this has afforded me the opportunity to live my dream, it did have some (temporary) downsides: the main one being I have to leave my wife and dog and most of my friends to live in a city where I knew single-digit people. I've always considered myself a personable person, so I figured that it wouldn't take too long to carve out a niche, and I did pretty much the same thing within the last decade going from Indiana to Birmingham, but it is still a bit nerve-wracking nonetheless. Leaving behind the Buymore for John Casey and Sarah Walker, as I was humorously reminded (ad nauseum), I gave my notice at Best Buy to join even bigger geeks, of the rocket scientist variety. Literally, my first day in the elevator, someone was making a joke about a nebula. I didn't get it, but I laughed out loud. When they looked at me, I said "Sorry, I just can't believe that I work at a place that can make nebula jokes work! You've made me so proud." (Side Note: Don't say that to astrophysicists. They think you're being condescending!)

Where was I? Oh, yeah, heading to DC...so, I packed as much of my most prized possessions I could into a Hyundai Sonata, which is to say 8 12-packs of LiveWire, 2 packs of Starburst Jelly Beans, 1 32" TV, 2 Game Consoles+Games, the Watchmen graphic novel, my bible, my Rock Band instruments, my (real) guitar, my laptop and some clothes! The first stop was Evansville, IN, my very first home sweet home. It just so happened that not only was one of my step-brothers having a birthday party, it was Fall Festival week, which meant everyone and their mother was going to be downtown that night eating fried foods and getting ripped off by carnies. I hadn't been in 7 years (planned, mind you), but I figured why not, so I took my mother and we joined the masses. I limited my fried food intake to some Fried Cookie Dough (delicious, of course) and added some apple cider and peanut butter fudge. Breakfast of champions! Early the next morning, with all of my belongings transferred to a more suitable vehicle, I left Evansville with my dad and started the journey eastward. Other than the GPS taking us through a midday festival in backwoods West Virginia and a warm reunion with a Slurpee machine, the trip was pretty uneventful. No, but seriously...why are there not 7elevens all over the South?! Slurpees are delicious, and they're even better when it's warm out, so why haven't the powers at be joined them?

Pardon my tangent. Again. So, we made it to DC. I'm staying with what could only be described as a friend of a friend of a friend. Well, more succinctly, choir members of a minister of music that also went to Seminary with my dad. I like the first one better. Semantics. I've got my own room, with a closet and drawers, so my elaborate packing plan of plastic things under the bed was all for naught. Can't say I'm complaining, though, because now I can actually SEE my clothes before I put them on! The people that I'm living with are fantastic. Mike and Margee have been very helpful both with making sure I have everything I need, but also are easy to get along with and we have a lot of shared interests, which is probably even better! The first weekend was spent getting acclimated, helping my friends move into their new townhouse, and setting up my room. My dad and I jumped in with the choir at the church (it helps to know the minister of music, I guess!) and then went downtown to drive around. Can I just say that this city is incredible? Yes, I've been here before, but it's a whole different world when you're not there with a timetable. I don't have to see everything all at once. That helps.

Monday, my first actual day of work, was a federal holiday. Gotta love it! We walked to the metro station, rode the bus back, and then rode my bike to get the timing of all 3 routes. When people say "It's just like riding a bike" they must mean that after years of not doing it, you're going to look like an idiot the first time, because I definitely fell to one side at one point in that maiden voyage. If I wasn't laughing, I may have cried a little.

I don't want to get too into what I do at work, because if I told you, I'd have to kill you. Not really. But really. It's more like I have been writing this blog on and off for a while, and I'd rather give you guys this much without boring you with my day-to-day routine. Plus, Katie's already been here to visit me since then, so I'd rather us do an entry about that! (hint hint)

Okay, thanks for reading this, both of you! You can always call me...I know you know my number.
Daniel

Us at Two Years

For a while, it has seemed like the only pictures I have of Daniel and I are ones from our engagement or from our wedding. So, I have been saying I want to get some new professionally done pictures..

Finally, over Labor Day weekend, Daniel and I had the opportunity to meet up with a friend of mine from high school, Tara, and she took some fantastic pictures of us.

Here's a sneak peek (the rest are on Facebook):

Meeting Realtors

All this week, Daniel and I have been doing little things to get him ready to leave for DC in a couple weeks. We bought him some new shoes, shirts, pants, socks, got his hair cut, and yesterday the biggest adventure of them all... MEETING RELATORS!

Relator #1:

Now here is an interesting character. He was a rather hefty man who took us to his desk that was very messy and took notes about what we were saying, but spelled nothing correctly. Not our names or address (That we spelled out several times for him)... NOTHING! If he had anything to do with it Dan and Katy Miller would be selling their house in Crosser Rove.

Relator #2:

LOVE HER! She was very helpful, organized, and as a retired teacher, I could relate to her. She explained her action plan and what she could do for us and asked us if what all we expected from her. She said she'd come by next week to help us "set the stage" to help sell the house faster and discuss what kind of listing price we should go with. Oh yeah, and she got to know us! That was nice, too.


We'll see what happens. Both are coming by next week, but I'm pretty sure KatIE MillS has made her decision! After all, I'm the one staying behind ;)

Welcome to Our Lives!

After years of blog stalking friends, I finally caved and I'm starting my own blog!

The past couple of months have been crazy around here for the Mills family...


April: We finally moved into a house! You guys have no idea how stir crazy I was getting in that tiny apartment. Andy's energy was too much for such a confined space. Andy has LOVED having a backyard.


May: Daniel graduated from UAB with a Master's in Computer Science with a certificate in Computer Forensics and the job hunt was officially on. (So very proud of him and his smartness!)


June: I started my Master's in Special Education with a certificate in Gifted Education. Boy was my first class an eye opener/exciting. I forgot how much I enjoy learning about kids... even through the academic side.

July: We celebrated our 2 year anniversary and Daniel applies for his dream job with thoughts of "You never know until you try!"


August: I started my third year teaching (Wow! You have no idea how fast that seems to have flown by) and dream job comes knocking with an interview.


September: And the dream job is now an official first job for Daniel! He got the job at NASA and we're off to D.C.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have said this to Daniel, it seems NASA likes to hire people who already have chaotic lives (Right, Kelly?) But we're super excited for this adventure that awaits us in a new city. I created this blog as a way of not only documenting our new adventure for my own purposes, but to allow all our loved ones to know what's going on in our lives.. so, if you want to know, this is the place to come for the latest updates! :)