Turning the Page

Ever since I wrote my last post back in March (yep, my last post was back in March), I have been anticipating the new chapter that I was about to embark upon, and now it's here.

The house in St. Louis is sold, all of our belongings have been transported (in a pod/container) to our new hometown of Reeds Spring (in the Branson, MO area). And while I anticipated that I would have some challenges to face, they have manifested themselves in ways quite differently than what I expected. In case you didn't know, I'm a planner. I planned this move pretty well, or so I had thought. I began packing in the spring, trying to go through things and purge the items we no longer needed. We started looking for houses early, in order to find just the right one, one that would make everyone happy. And I spent time organizing all of the things my daughter would need for her move to college. I thought I had everything orchestrated out pretty well. Okay, maybe not so much.

Even with me starting to pack and go things back in March, I still got to a point where I was just throwing stuff in boxes. This is what was heard quite regularly that last week. Children: "Mom, which box do you want me to pack this in?" Me: "JUST PUT IT IN A BOX!" And at the end, as those last few boxes were getting packed, I was packing with the plan that we would only be "homeless" for a few days, but that didn't work out so well either. As it turned out, that perfect house, the one we painstakingly found after searching for months, the one we were supposed to close on once we arrived in Branson, ended up slipping through our fingers, leaving us without a home.

So, on Wednesday of last week, we packed the last few items on the container, signed the papers to sell our current house, and drove in a caravan of cars to Branson. Then, we got up bright and early on Thursday, drove to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to move my daughter into her dorm at the University of Arkansas. On Friday morning, we took our daughter and her roommate to breakfast before we headed back to Branson to regroup, and start looking for a home all over again. The good news in all of this is that the whole reason we moved to Branson is because we own two businesses in Branson: two zoos. And at one of the properties, we have a makeshift two bedroom "apartment," and when I say apartment, that's kind of a stretch; so at least we aren't truly homeless.

And here I sit, in my makeshift office, in our makeshift apartment, with the zoo just outside the door, eagerly anticipating the calm after the storm. And yes, I know we'll get everything sorted out, and that this chaos is only temporary, but I sure wish I had a Magic 8 ball right about now, and could see how all of this is going to shake out. Stay tuned ... as I detail my adventures of an Irish Girl living in the Ozarks.

Hey, at least the new neighbor is pretty cute ...

Oh, and if you're ever in the Branson/Springfield area ... please check out our two zoos: Branson's Wild World, and Wild Valley Adventure Park

Cheers!