Bridal Shower

My dear friends threw me a bridal shower while I was in Houston getting my stuff moved.

These are the only two pictures I found I had.  I'm sure there are more out there somewhere.

Dr. Brown, Belinda's mom, who I worked for a bit while I was in high school, took the panoramic picture of the group: Me, Carrie, Linda, Claudia, Kathryn, Jenn, Belinda, Shu, and Jane.

 Shu and Belinda.  I've been friends with Belinda since kindergarten and Shu since middle school.  I realized everyone in attendance I had known for over 20 years.  I think the best part was having all my dear friends in the same place at the same time.

I felt very special and so thankful and blessed for the friends I have in my life.  It was a lovely evening.

Moving

I was fortunate enough to land not only a permanent job with the forest service, but a position in which the government would pay for me to move.  The previous December (2015) when my brother was home and packing up his stuff to move into his new house, I got inspired to clean out a lot of my stuff at the same time.  Definitely a current Kate looking out for a future Kate moment.  I still felt like I had a lot of stuff.

I decided to take advantage of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and flew home to Houston.  I spent the afternoon getting our marriage license, getting a quote for flowers, and a few other wedding things.  Friday was devoted to packing, sorting, packing, trips to the Goodwill Donation Center, and packing.

Saturday, we took two trips with both my parents vehicles to the local U-Haul.

 I opted on a box.  While a cross-country drive would have been fun, I simply didn't have the time to spend and didn't have the courage to drive one of those trucks.  So, I rented a box and paid U-Haul to drive it for me.  Quite the nice set-up, although I will NEVER use U-Haul again.  It was a terrible experience to be told in another post.

 We got the box loaded, put the lock on it, and we were done.  Looking at the space remaining in the box, I decided I didn't have that much stuff.  I did leave a few things in Houston, but nothing I couldn't easily bring with me in a big suitcase the next time I visit.