Author: Samantha Gratton

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

Despite leaving my school days behind with a toss of my hair and seldom a look back, I’ve found myself plopped down in the middle of a university surrounded by students. August is often a crazy month in our lives, so it seems, and this year has followed suit. Between work and home and just plain life we are struggling to keep up. Do I always sound exhausted by Thursdays? I hope not. But this week (and quite possibly, this month) is a big and busy one for us. Here’s the three for the week…

1. My sister made it all the way to NC. We got to show her around Raleigh and love on her little dogs. Not to mention, a few other pets which were here as well but locked up in their respective cages. My puppy fever persists however. So much cuteness in a four-legged creature! I’ve dropped plenty of “hints” so we’ll see how many months years it takes to get one of our own.

2. We are both worker bees this month. As I mentioned, for me, working at a university has really ramped up. I keep being told this is the craziest week of the year and I’m not arguing. There’s some definite stress and it’s not much quieter for the hubby. He’s working hard on a building move for our church and prepping all sorts of equipment. By the end of the day we are just wiped. But we don’t have too much time to sit still because…

3. We are moving to downtown Raleigh! On Monday, the place is ours and we’ll load up our stuff once more. We are renting a tiny little house near friends and inside the city we’ve come to love. Once we get all settled in, I’m sure there will be photos and stories to follow!

Song: The City Has Known Us

Samantha Gratton

“Collected all here, in boxes and bags, directions where to go”
This City Has Known Us (Earth) by Asthmaboy

A long-time favorite, Asthmaboy, released a new album this past week, and I have had it practically on repeat ever since. Sometimes the lyrics don’t all line up or rhyme but you can still find a phrase that relates or a hear a story unfold. Not to mention, with beautiful music throughout, it’s worth a listen. In this month of moving, this phrase hit home.

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

This might not be too wordy, but it’s here nonetheless. It’s been a long week between coming back from vacation, a pile of files waiting for me at work and looking out into the next month of things to do. I’m a bit tired and this month’s just getting started. Pray that I make it through. Here’s some of the tops from the past week.

1. My mom did indeed get married last weekend. Here’s a snapshot of the pre-wedding prayer with her friends.

2. The first thing we did upon landing in Raleigh was eat at La Farm Bakery. Best French bakery ever. And even better when we were celebrating the new engagement of friends who had just returned from their trip to Hawaii. The fact remains, this is home. White chocolate baguettes just happen to sweeten the deal.

3. We had a finance talk this week. I know, this isn’t really something to blog home about, but it’s a really great thing (even if not always a fun one). We feel about ready to put a little money away for when we’re old and grey (I have no plans to dye my hair as of yet), and it’s good to get that going now. It was a new year’s resolution of ours to get something saved away this year, and I feel it’s a bit of a milestone to be putting that in motion. May I look back in 50 years and appreciate my young self.

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

This has been an incredibly full week, it might even bring me to tears. So many people and thoughts and memories and moments—I couldn’t possibly fit it into a Thursday Three. I’m afraid though if I don’t say something, I’ll never manage to figure out what to say at all. After almost a week in our former home state, here’s the three.

1. Living in the moment sometimes means no photos. We’ve seen so many people that I’m tempted to just name everyone off. It has been wonderful to see people, to eat with them, do life with them. I want to breathe in every moment we have together and store up all the memories for a rainy day. And of all of those sweet memories, I might have two photos from the week because I didn’t want to break the moment for a photo. Call me crazy, but it was almost as if I have been holding my breath the whole time, not wanting it all to end, even if for a quick snapshot.

2. Hello, it’s been a year, goodbye. Most of our visits have basically consisted of these three phrases during our minutes or hours we have with friends, and it hardly seems to be enough. How do you explain everything that’s happened over the past year since we started this crazy adventure? How do you even begin to understand what the year has been like for them? Do you go straight for the direct questions or small talk your way there? Our time with friends has felt so fleeting, making it hard to have time to get to everything, much less process it.

3. We aren’t moving back any time soon. We’ve gotten this question a lot, whether or not we’d consider moving back to Iowa. I can’t say it’s altogether off the table, but we just don’t feel led to do that right now. We’ve loved our time here to visit. It hasn’t always been relaxing, but it has been rejuvenating as we were able to tap into friendships and hobbies that were almost forgotten. But Des Moines doesn’t have any holes with our name on it. It’s moved on, as it should. While bittersweet, it’s true. Our home is somewhere else now. 

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

It’s that time of the week. The time when you look around and say, “hey! I’ve almost made it to the end!” This week feels especially that way because in a matter of 20-some odd hours we will be IN IOWA. After work tomorrow we will head straight to the airport. I am super excited and also a bit overwhelmed by it all. Am I packed? No. Am I blogging? Why yes, it appears I am. This whole trip managed to sneak up on me. Lately it seems like we’ve had to take one day at a time and it might be that way through September or October. Here we go!

1. We went apartment hunting—for my sister. That’s right, folks. One of my little sisters is heading to the East Coast in a matter of weeks so we went to check out a few places for her. Official details are still being sorted out, but it’s really happening! She’ll be living about 85 miles east of us and even closer to the beach (lucky girl).

And the winner is…

2. We had a few visitors throughout the week.The hubby’s parents came for a day and half to check out where we live and we had some couch surfers who stayed a night after playing a gig as a folk duo. It was fun to host a bit and show off the place that we live in and love. I think we’ll try to host more couch surfers in the future. It’s fun to hear stories from others as they travel around and also to hear what they want in a place when it’s time to put down new roots.

3. We tackled a closet. Quite the accomplishment if you ask me. It was beyond time to go through some boxes that were never unpacked so we spent Saturday night going down memory lane and found a few good photos and some items we didn’t even know we had in the first place. I can’t wait to donate some of these things we no longer need and clear some space. It’s amazing how much a person can acquire in life yet go on thinking you still need more stuff. Here’s a look at the mess we created.

Alright. Time to pack! IOWA TIME!

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

Sometimes, you just need a break from the bad days and frustrations. Today managed to squeeze its way in and be that break. Nothing particularly awesome happened today, but it was just a good day. That is surely something to be glad about, so I will take it for all that it is. 

1. Startups = crazy + awesome Over the weekend we got to go see the final pitches for 14 startups that participated in Triangle Startup Weekend. Teams put together a business (mostly online tools and apps) and had 56 hours to put it together and present it to a team of judges and potential investors. It was interesting, exciting and just a good reminder to keep your imagination alive.

2. Dressing up like cows is always worth it for the free meal.  The hubby and I dressed up for Chik-fil-A day and walked away with full bellies and a bit of laughter over which customers managed to look the most like bovine. Since I was forbidden to post actual photos of our attire, here’s proof of our level of commitment.

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3. I realized how jam packed the next 30 days will be. We have people coming to visit, a couple of trips to take, packing and planning to do and a move to make, all in the middle of a busy month at work for both of us. So, although this past weekend/week was supposed to be a time for us to dive into all of that, I’m glad we didn’t. We kicked back a bit and did a few things that needed to be done. Any time with my husband is time well spent and I am grateful to have him in my life.