So, Nate's last day. He leaves tomorrow... But we don't talk about it!!!!
Last weekend was when Nate should have left, but due to classes starting later than we thought, he stayed a week longer. It actually made things better for me, because I had two weeks to run around with Nate as opposed to just one.
Last Thursday, we decided that we would do some GVS- Ginder Volunteer Service! We packed up our house into our two cars and headed for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania got slammed by hurricane leftovers and had some flooding in very unusual areas. Nate's grandparents live miles from a river, but the water table was so high that water seeped into their basement. Their carpet soaked up the water, but none of the furniture had any real damage. Some of Nate's aunts and cousins helped take out the carpet and laid it out to dry, so when we got there, all we had to do was put it back in and arrange the furniture to how it was before. We got that all done on Friday, much to everyone (but Nate)'s surprise. He had spent Thursday evening fixing their coal stove and I designated myself head fire-starter of the Ginder household for the rest of the weekend. Saturday, Nate decided that the back room in the basement had paneling that needed replacement and that there was time for yard work after that. He helped patch the roof up, and we declared that weekend a productive one, indeed!
Sunday we went to Chiques with Nate's grandparents and afterwards ate some delicious hamloaf (a Pennsylvania Dutch special) and potatoes. We said our good-byes and drove for Green Bank, WV. In West Virginia, we tried to get some reading done and find ones that Nate needed for class. We packed up his bags and tried to get some good West Virginia cooking in him, before he left. We were able to see one of Nate's aunts and her baby girl before we left and that was a real treat. He also got to shoot a couple squirrels and decided to sell his Dodge Stratus! Sadness. That car was with us when we were seniors in college! It's been a good car for us, and it even passed inspection in July, so you know it's good! But anyways, we passed it on to Nate's uncle, who will put it to better use than Nate did these summer months.
Nate said good-bye to his parents for the fall, and we headed for Fredericksburg. We stopped in Harrisonburg and did a few last-minute things before we kept going. We arrived at my parents house in a downpour Wednesday evening. Mom made chicken-pot pie and Nate and I planned out our schedule for the next day. We stayed up late watching TV, something we haven't done in months, and went to bed. Nate got up this morning and changed the oil in the focus- first thing this morning! I tried getting a hold of my grandma so we could do some genealogy, but she never answered. We'll have to try it another time. The rest of the day, we tried to find some good brown shoes for Nate to have overseas... and you wouldn't think that would be too hard, but you'd be surprised. The stores always have everything but what you want in stock. So we did some hunting... Found some and ran away! We stopped by the bike shop and said hello/good-bye, and looked at Nate's bike in a box. The box with everything in it, weighed less than 50lbs! A miracle! I took Nate to a park-not just any park, THE PARK- where I was caught by cops trespassing, and was forced to go to court because we had no drugs to show to the officers who were putting us in the Catch-22 ("...Show us were the drugs are and we'll let you go." "We don't have any drugs." "Then you're going to court!"). It was funny to be there for the first time in a long time. It was so muggy and buggy out there, we left after a bit and went to Red Lobster for dinner. We got their early enough we beat the mad rush and had a very enjoyable (expensive!) dinner, all on Grandma and Grandpa Rittenhouse! They gave us some gift cards a while back, and we were more than happy to put them to use, although, we wish they would have been around to join us! We came back to the house and tried to watch tv around our bulging tummies!
Nate just has a few things in the laundry and then... he'll be all ready to leave tomorrow! His plane leaves at 6:40pm, so Mom was willing to take the afternoon off and drive up to the airport with us, to see Nate off. It just seems so unreal. Nate will be leaving for England tomorrow evening! He'll be gone until December! I still can't wrap my mind around it! I think he's pretty excited and quite ready for this adventure. I'm just hoping to get a job while he's gone so I can keep busy. I've applied a few places. We're waiting to hear back. That's as far as I want to think about it. I'm hoping that Nate will actually use this after he gets there, so we all know what to expect from the British! My brain's fried from all the tv. Off to bed for me! -Erin
No comments:
Post a Comment