Moving On

For those of you who may not know already we are moving back to Knoxville in two weeks. After shrewd negotiations on Erica's part and some monetary concessions, we reached a deal to sell our place to Nashville and are closing March 22nd. We'll be moving the weekend before and have already begun the arduous task of packing boxes and coordinating a moving van, hired help, etc. Erica has secured a new doctor in Knoxville via referral and we signed a lease on a 3 bed, 2 bath house in West Knoxville. This house has a nice fenced in backyard which will allow Sam to run, Lil Moon a place to play and me a yard to mow in the nude (kidding). With this, in conjunction with the baby coming and some intense sales training I have scheduled at the end of the month, it's easy to be overwhelmed. However, I like the pressure and business of it all. I hate waiting around and waiting for things to happen, especially when it concerns life altering changes with my family. Erica's laid, back go with the flow mentality is a nice balance to my "go,go,go" demeanor. She's done a nice job of rubbing off on me as I now only need two drinks and one Xanax to go to sleep at night (down from the previous 6/2 combo). However, before leaving Music City for the town Peyton Manning built we had to dodge one more bullet.

The weather here in Tennessee has been unseasonably warm this Winter. It's not as if we get 12" of snow, but freezing temps and an ice storm are not out of the question during the Winter months. This week it's been in the high 70's, even as high as 83 yesterday. Growing up in the Midwest I know exactly what this means: Tornado weather. While people are running around here in shorts and cutoff sleeve airbrush t-shirts, I'm stockpiling pillows, blankets and scouting a safe spot for the family to hide during the unlikely event of a devastating tornado. Yesterday was supposed to be Armageddon here. I talked to people all day on sales calls that were writing their wills out of napkins and grabbing every last bottled water and flashlight they could find. Around 4pm the storm hit West Nashville with 70MPH wind and golf ball sized hail. But when the storm literally reached our doorstep, it took a sharp turn Northeast and missed us completely. The damage at our place mounted to our two garbage cans being knocked over. If I hadn't known any better, I'd have told you we just had an overly aggressive raccoon in our midst. This is second time in 6-plus years we've dodge a weather bullet. In Spring 2010 a devastating floor crippled Nashville. It was especially harsh to West Nashville and specifically Bellevue, where we live. Everything around us was destroyed, except for our neighborhood, which aside from a few waterlogged patios went unscathed. I'm not a big "faith" person, but it's tough to call our situation blind, dumb luck. We have been very lucky, very fortunate and very happy living in Nashville. But it's time to move on and Erica and I are very excited for the next chapter(s) in our lives.

By the way, here's a 30 week picture of Erica. Enjoy!

- Brennan