Home In Every Sense of the Word!

We moved our stuff to FL. Left Greenwood at like 8pm Thursday and got a hotel in Georgia at midnight. Arrived in PCB Friday late and we unloaded until we couldn't move any more that night. Finished unloading the next morning and afternoon. Dropped the truck off and set up beds and shower curtains so we could have somewhere to sleep and shower. Went to church on Sunday, planning on only going to the first hour, but Luke was asked to teach a lesson second hour and so we just had to stay. we packed our car again that night and head off to Hilton Head, SC for a 7 week job. We got there in teh early morning and Luke started the next morning at work. Luke and I did not want to be apart so we went and lasted a week there.
  
Hilton Head Island is not what we anticipated it would be because we are used to Panama City Beach. 2 VERY DIFFERENT BEACHES. HH is upper scale ritzy shopping eating drinking golfing for older crowd, we hardly saw any children when on the beach and around it and if we did they were with their grandparents. There were even signs that warned you where to walk, and not to be boisterous. :( Very pretty, foresty beach, like camping in the forest with the ocean right there. And like only one public access to the beach. All others were gated, security guarded, private expensive club access. The beach had maybe 10 feet of actual playing soft sand far from the beach, followed by very hard packed sand that was firm as a road so people rode their bikes down the beach. The water was dark and not too pretty. We were staying in an extended stay about 20 minutes from the beach without a car and surrounded by busy highway with no sidewalks to walk anywhere. It was cold so the hotel pool was freezing and tiny. The people were rough language and smoking. We were staying in a one bedroom place with kitchenette that was not fully equipped to make anything and their stupid pans kept burning everything. How do you burn quesadillas? Come on! Grace was on the floor and Kate was in the pack and play. The thought of them starting to call that place home, which they would after 7 weeks, just made me sad. That is long enough for them to forget that we had a home in FL with all of our stuff and half as long as we stayed in Greenwood for. Long enough to get adjusted to a ward and new friends, just to uproot them again and adjust again in FL. We decided to divide and conquer, me and Luke. Even though we didn't want to be apart, we can already feel it is better this way, for the girls, and for me and my work, and not going stir crazy with nothing to do and boxes of stuff at home to put away. For Luke, it is the hardest I am sure.

PCBeach, by contrast, has made me fall in love all over again. It is so gorgeous here and there so many fun things to do. Our home, that we decided to come back and save from deed in lieu of foreclosure, although smaller, is perfect for us. We forgot how much we loved this place. We bought it after all! It was our first home and we did a lot of remodeling to it and plan to do more. Garage is going to be turned into half office and half garage so we can still have a tool/work area and bikes. We need an office so we can dedicate more official, organized time to our business which we are excited about recent growth. PCB sand is like beautiful golden powdered sugar that just envelopes your feet warmly and then falls right off when you step out. The water is beautiful, transparent, turquoise with the waves crashing over and turning white as it makes one of the most beautiful sounds I can't get enough of. All of front beach, middle beach, and back beach roads are full of fun things to do that encourage you to have a blast. There is shopping, piers, volleyball nets, all kinds of beach/touristy shops and restaurants, kiddie circus rides, kid train ride, snorkeling, scuba diving, island boat rides, recreation park/area and even a Target + shopping area that I can ride my bike to for supplies (I don't any other wheels still). It is more developed than when we first lived here 3 1/2 year ago which is nice but still a small town. The palm trees in our front yard and neighborhood have grown so much and it is so beautiful. The sidewalks and neighbors are family friendly and there are two awesome pools that we have rights to with our HOA. We have two sets of snowbird grandparents that are our neighbors and they are so excited we are back. They love the girls. Can you just here the happiness dripping from my words. We finally found a place we actually want to be and stay and love even if we don't have a job yet. (Luke is interviewing in Bay county, close to home, in May and then if he doesn't get that job then he will probably get the available job in Washington County where we used to work, hour commute.) Our friends in our awesome branch are still here and are excited to have us back. It feels good to have a HOME again, in every sense of the word. It feels like home here.

You can come visit us. We would love it. You would love PCB I am telling you.

P.S. So many posts to catch up on and pictures instead of all this boring text, next! :)