It's a wrap! (Summer 2012 in a nutshell)

This summer, we:

• moved across the country
• apartment hopped three times in one week
• got fleas in apartment 1
• found globs and globs of cat hair and smoke in apartment 2
• got bedbugs in apartment 3
• had to make apartment 3 our new home
• threw away all of our newly purchased craigslist furniture
• threw away our bedspread we got for our wedding and all of our luggage
• spent over $150 at the laundromat in just two days 
• tried and failed the Body For Life diet
• got rid of our craiglist washer and dryer that both stopped working after two weeks
• hung out in camping chairs for two months while the bedbugs slowly died
• kept our clothes in garbage bags and the rest of our stuff in the back of our truck for two months
• experienced more emotional breakdowns than I ever experienced while pregnant or postpartum
• cussed more than I ever have in my entire life
• hung out all day, almost everyday in our two bedroom, furniture-less bed bug recovering apartment with Jack. (Spencer had to take our car to school and work every day)
• realized that life costs a lot of money! We were poor in Logan, but hardly had any expenses. In Logan, we were both on scholarship, we hardly used gas since we were so close to campus, we both had part time jobs, our rent was cheap... real life in Alabama with a husband in grad school is expensive! 
• ran away to Oceanside and Arizona for a week and a half with my family
• realized after we came home that life was going to get better!
• officially moved our stuff in from the truck and unpacked our things!
• bought a couch and a washer and dryer!
• started being social and hanging out with friends!
• bought a second car! (As a result, Jack and I are way more sane, because the walls in our apartment start closing in on us when we are stuck in there all day long)
• had our first visitors! My friend Chelsie and her girls came to visit!
• never have been so clean in my entire life! (A big thank you to bed bugs, cockroaches, and fruit flies for contributing to my OCD)
• got hooked on Downton Abbey, Raising Hope, and crazy couponing!
• took care of a tired, sad, sick baby with a bad, bad case of the hand, mouth, foot virus :( 
• ate our weight in watermelon and these no-bake cookies!!!
• enjoyed the thunderstorms!
• sent Spencer back to school again. 
• FINALLY got Jack in a predictable routine! (Does four days count as a routine?) He eats lots of food, takes good naps, and sleeps through the night for the first time since we have moved!!!... (Knock on wood)
• realized that we don't have to "endure" Alabama after all! It's gonna be good!!!

Spencer and I were talking the other day about what we would tell our naive little selves in May who thought that they were doing such a good job driving across the country with a baby and who also thought that that surprisingly easy drive was going to be the worst and most expensive part of the move. Spencer said that he would tell the Spencer in May to ask more questions before jumping to decisions. I said that I would tell the Annie in May to TURN AROUND!!! DOOON'T DO IT!!!! JUST MOVE IN THE FALL!!! SERIOUSLY TURN AROUND!!! GO BACK TO ZION!!! (hahaha juuust kidding)

What's done is done, and I hope I'm a little more tough and a little more grateful because of it, since it is clear that I am incredibly dramatic and have lived quite a sheltered life. This hardly hard summer was the pretty dang hard for me! If anything, it was a summer we'll never forget and a story that I'm sure our kids will get sick of hearing about about over the years.

Now bring it on, Fall! I am soooo ready for you!