The journey begins...

Twelve hundred miles. Six million, three hundred and thirty-six thousand feet. Seventy-six million, thirty-two thousand inches...

I'll spare you from going through the metric system as well. However, in a few short months, that's how far my husband and I (plus our furbabies, M and J) will be packing up our lives and moving--from sunny, hot (surface of the sun), lovable Gainesville, FL, to what I imagine will be the frozen tundra known as Lansing, MI.

I guess you need the background. Hubby (herein known as Dr. Bugs, due to his degree in entomology) is from western MI, and moved here to do his PhD at the fabulous University of Florida. I moved here from West Palm Beach, FL, to do my undergrad and subsequent grad work. We met at church, fell in love, and ended up hitched. Happy love story, hooray!

Now hubby has a PhD, and is in the wonderful land of postdoctoral work. Enter Michigan State Unviersity (Go Green!), where a certain professor has a certain liking to my husband, and my husband's current boss/professor. Negotiations ensue. And that, ladies and gents, is how we will be moving to Lansing, MI in September 2011, for at least 2 years.

And thus it begins. The apartment hunting, job hunting, packing up our lives, and figuring out how to get all our crap cross-country. Job hunting is particularly stressful, as I really enjoy my position here at UF doing advising, and well...the job market in MI sucks. But that is a different post.

This weekend we will be going up to MI to look for housing, hang out at MSU, meet the church (a sister church to our own), and generally get to know the area, while visiting the in-laws. It's not real yet, but once we sign that lease, I think it will hit me like a ton of bricks.

So stay tuned. I promise photo posts. I promise to update as regularly as possible. It may be a bumpy ride, so please fasten your seat belts, keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and hold on tight!

Saturday begins the 19 hour drive. 1140 minutes. 68,400 seconds...

(thank God we are stopping at the 12 hour mark, and flying back!)