Goodbye Party

A week before I left, Stacy hosted my goodbye party. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was actually going through with this. I mean all my stuff had been in Virginia for a week now but I was still firmly in Idaho. And if you have a goodbye party than you really should leave. The morning before my goodbye party I had my hair colored and cut one last time by the best stylist - Marbella (my friend Yesenia's, younger sister).

Now for the party. Stacy did a fabulous job of organizing this wonderful get together with a lot of my wonderful friends. We had a potluck BBQ and wow, there was so much amazing food. I love BBQ's, especially when there are Costco hamburgers (yum, yum, yum!)

Photo time. Judy is Stacy's Aunt and such a creative and fun lady.

I could go on and on and on for how amazing Paul and Barb are. I just love them. It's really that simple. Barb has been the main person who has encouraged me day in and day out for the last 4 months. She has made it a point to text me throughout the day and I even got to spend a week with her in DC in October (those posts are coming soon) and I am even more excited that Paul and Barb are coming back in March!

If you received my Christmas card than this photo looks familiar. These are some of my amazing friends I made at MAF. (L-R: Becky, Kathie, Alissa, Me, Danielle, Barb, Paul, Jackie & Tracey)

And after that lovely photo they tried to attack group hug me!

The LaFee's. Chelsea and I have been through so much over the years and while we lost touch for awhile, over 2014 we worked hard getting our friendship back on track. This family means a lot to me.

I met Heidi through a friend at MAF and Heidi's mom was one of the babysitters I managed. Heidi and I attended Eagle Christian together and while we never really got to hang out to much, I was still super excited that she was able to make it to the party.

Rach! I love this girl. We have been friends since our Payless days.

Yesenia and Lionel. Another amazing couple. Yesenia is my partner in our annual bake-a-thon and Lionel always makes fun of me with my weird eating habits and random personal issues. They are also the ones who copied the cars I bought. I got a Trailblazer so they got a Trailblazer. I got a Honda and so they got a Honda. They bought a Ford Edge and now I want a Ford Edge :)

Liah loved Miss Jackie! Showing off their blue tongues from the slushy machine.

And cute little Allison Trempert showing off her blue tongue.

Taryn. This girl is amazing! She is fun and always so upbeat and positive and has been super encourage to me from a distance.

Danielle and Allison - Danielle is so cute and always happy and little Allison just loved me.

Richard and Susan. They are like parents to me. I have known them since I was 5 and they have been with me through so much. They are truly a Godly couple that I look up to.

No party is complete without a selfie! Little did Casey and I know that he would be my main source of advice on my car issues (of course there is a blog post about Bumblebee as well).

The Haveman family. Another special and amazing family. Li and I have been best of friends all our life, she is the reason I moved to Boise. I am super excited to see her and her oldest daughter this spring in DC!! 

The Coburn Family. Another amazing family that I have had the pleasure to watch grow. When Karla and I first started working together in 2006 she was a single mom. And when Karla and I were both laid off from Lithia, she was a month away from marrying Brent and now they have four adorable and very active children.

Stacy and Jackson chillin in the backyard!

Alissa and I. We are so opposite. She is super smart and I like to read picture books. She loves cheese, I think cheese is the devil. She likes weird indie movies and I like mainstream chick flicks. But we both love Target, Starbucks, sarcasm and we worked so well together and through our co-worker relationship became very close friends.

Kathie and I. I wish I could explain Kathie in a neat little box, but I can't. But what I can tell you is Kathie is authentic and trustworthy and honest. Kathie is someone you can trust with everything and you know that she will never judge you. She loves you and she helps you understand yourself more.

I felt so special that my cousin Ashley and her daughter Liah drove up from Nevada to attend my goodbye party. Saying goodbye to them was so hard.

Once inside Liah took pictures of the guests wearing her beautiful bow headband.

Becky photo bombing!

 

Ah, dear sweet Ri and Jackson. I love this girl!

Julie and Becky and they both were our first house guests in DC!

Jackie and Tracey some of the creative people behind the scenes and MAF and such fun girls to hang with!

A huge thank you to Stacy and Robert for not only hosting my goodbye party but for also letting me crash at their home for 2 weeks. Stacy and I have been the best of friends for the last 10 years, so many stories to tell - oh who am I kidding they have already been told on this blog!

Corinne is so amazing. Her and her son, Jake helped me so much with packing and moving out of my apartment.

 I love this little girl so much!

Yes, there was a slushy machine at the party! One was for the adults (red) and one was for the kids (blue).

This blog post took a lot to write (emotionally and physically - this is a long post). It reminds me again of all that I left behind in Idaho to pursue my dream of living on the east coast. But what I also realize is that while I am not hanging out with my friends everyday, we have made some adjustments with Skype, texting, phone calls and visits. My friends are my friends no matter the distance.

Last Days at MAF

There are sometimes posts that I don't want to write and this is one of them. I love MAF. I love the people and I loved majority of my job (yes even the childcare). But over the summer there were a lot of tears shed. It started in June when I posted my job. Below is all the paperwork that goes into just getting a job posted.

It's crazy that this is the only picture I have from family conference this year. God totally got me when Alissa and I got dirty looks throughout Wal-Mart with buying all these chips, because I totally judged someone just a few days prior to this shopping adventure, who had soda stacked sky high in her cart. I titled this photo, What? We just like chips!" :)

Another behind the scenes look into HR, Personnel Change Notices (PCN's) - surprisingly Lithia's and MAF's were very similar. I wrote my own PCN to terminate me from MAF :(

All smiles going to my goodbye luncheon (Jessica, Alissa and Becky).

My goodbye lunch with all my HR peeps. After this lunch the tears started and didn't stop until hours later, when I was at Stacy's. There are many stories I could say about this group and many of them, that I have told on this blog for the last 4 years. But some of these people have truly been my strength for the last 4 months. I have grown closer than I could imagine to a few of them and two have even visited me. I am so beyond blessed to have had the pleasure and honor to work at MAF. MAF will always be with me.

Left side: Hilda, Mike, Zach, Bonni, Debbi, Paul, Barb,
Right side: Alissa, Mere, Becky, Bev, Jessica, Pauline, Kay, Carol, Gene

Hanging with Friends

In July a group of us went paddle boarding and kayaking. There were a few people in the group that had never gone paddle boarding before but everyone tried it. It was so much fun! I totally stink at paddle boarding - I more like to just sit on the the board and talk...yeah, I know I should totally just kayak. But I did stand on the paddle board for maybe 10ish minutes one time.

With only a week and half left before I was going to to move out of my apartment I should have been packing. But instead I went paddle boarding!

Then had breakfast at the Pancake house.

Then had fro yo with this adorable little boy (Finn) and his wonderful mom, my friend, Cristi!

Then had pizza with this little boy (Jackson) and friends in Nampa!

Miriam, Taryn, Jackson, Ri and Mere

This is a random blog post but that's what happen when you don't blog for 4 months. A week before I left Idaho, my dear friend Lisa made me pansit and egg rolls. Pansit is a Filipino dish that Lisa makes amazingly well. I honestly don't know the last time she made it for me. But there is one time that I remember when we lived together and I was helping Lisa make pansit and all I really remember is here telling to to chop the vegetables into smaller pieces.

Ri made cupcakes and brought ice cream...yum, yum, yum!

I also spent a lot of time with my best friend Ri and her adorable babe!

Another night I had the pleasure of having dinner with one of the most amazing and thoughtful people I know. Kathie is simply wonderful. She just makes you want to open up and tell her everything that you have never told anyone else.

I love and miss all my friends so much.

Moving Day!!!

Before I can blog about the east coast I need to go back to 4 months ago when I stopped blogging and catch up on my final months in Idaho.

 As I started packing I had to take progress photos of what I was actually doing, because I was a super slacker packer for awhile.

I used a crazy amount of bubble wrap and plastic wrap to pack all my belongings.

Random, but a few years ago, Ri gave me this frog that when you add water you have your prince charming. As I was packing I dropped the container and the frog broke in half. So, I added water and the frog disappeared and there was my prince charming :)

I should back up and explain that my original plan was to have Anthony fly to Boise and together we would drive a Budget truck while towing my car to DC. However, at the beginning of July, Anthony got a job offered and they needed him to start at the end of July. Yay for him having a job. But now how was I going to get my stuff across the country? After a mild freak out, Karen told me to look into the moving cubes and so I did. The next day I scheduled to have 2 moving cubes delivered to my apartment on Thursday, July 24.

I asked everyone I knew to help me load the cubes and boy was I blessed. Corinne and Jake came over early and helped me wrap all my furniture and than we started to load stuff into the cubes. Others started arriving around 5pm and by 6pm the cubes were loaded and locked. Wow! I was so thankful to everyone that helped. Since I had so many people help some of them even started cleaning my apartment. All in all I had 16 people help me (Casey & Lisa (and their kids), Ron,  Doug, Corrinne & Jake, Ri & Jackson, Twaan, Cristi & Finn, Craig, Danielle & Allison, Roy & Sue, Yesenia, Kathie and Becky. Barb brought over the most giant bag of M&M's ever! After everything was loaded and most everyone left a few friends stayed behind and we had a great couple of hours girl talk. I have the bestest friends ever! 

They look small...

 

But everything fit with room to spare! 

 

And this is where all my stuff went, to my new home in Alexandria, Virginia (more on that in later posts...)

It took the cubes about a week to get to Virginia and then on a hot day in August, Anthony unloaded both cubes by himself into our new home. 

Throughout this entire move I have been blessed by so many wonderful and amazing people and as I start the blogging back I truly hope that I can honor everyone that truly supported, loved and cared for me, because without the all of you I could not have done this.

Back Soon!

I am mailing out my Christmas cards tomorrow and like in years past I have put my blog on my Christmas cards. However, unlike in years past my blog has been private for majority of 2014. But in my journey to stay connected with all things Idaho, while falling more in love with DC each day, I am going to make this blog public again.

It is hard to believe that I have been away from Idaho for almost 4 months. While the task of blogging does haunt me (because I have well over 30 pending posts), I am hoping to start catching up soon. So, if you are checking in on my blog, don't give up hope that I will never post again. Please continue to check for new posts and I promise that at the latest I will start blogging again in January 2015 (hopefully sooner). 

Much love, Mere!