Canada, Niagra Falls, and Punxsutawney Phil Adventure!

I wasn't kidding when I said 2020 and 2021 were my adventure years before settling down in 2022 and beyond. I have so many plans for these two years....Like this one!

In one weekend alone, Mom, Morgan, and I braved the north; like the true north north. We drove from TN to Canada and back just the three of us in 2 days. We.👏 are.👏 insane👏. It was by far the best adventure ever and no work days were missed hallelujah. And we made it back alive! HUGE bonus! ;) 

I drove from Dalton GA Friday night to Knoxville to pick up mom, we immediately drove to Kingsport TN to get Morgan. We spent the night there and hit the road at 5:00am the next morning. 

I planned this trip very strategically, we were to drive 3.5 hour shifts in a rotated schedule. Two people were awake at all times. The back seat passenger was to sleep, the passenger seat was the navigator, and of course the drivers seat was the driver. 

By 5pm that day we had reached the Canadian border (so scary/hostile) and parked at Pelham, Ontario, Canada to see the falls. Let me tell you, how can one question God's existence when you see something so gorgeous made by Him. It was the prettiest thing I have ever seen. Even in the winter!

Morgan was the driver this leg!

Quick calculated 30 minute stops every 3.5 hours for food/bathroom/gas. McDonalds it was since there were no Bojangles north of Knoxville😱, the tragedy.

Me passing into TN from work (daily also).

Us entering into Kentucky.

Then Virginia (yes we pulled this one and WV from google because we didn't catch the pic in time.

Going through the state of nothing but mountains >:( not a fan. #like where was a gas station? Plus 3 tolls. -No thanks-

New York!! Where's the snow?

Windmills/turbines were used to harvest wind power all over New York! So neat!

And finally Canada!!! Wahoo! Rainbow bridge was phenomenal!

And umm let me just say, when we crossed the border and GPS said to turn right in 150km I was like uhhhhhhh wha?? What the heck does that mean?! Also the speed limit was 100km/hr. I was NOT prepared for that. How fast is that? I just went 20mph and hoped for the best 😆. A car full of engineers and highly intelligent people and we were definitely caught off guard. Then we got a text from Verizon saying that no calls or texts can be made in our area 😱 #Canada. 

THEN when we got to the Falls, the parking ticket was $20, pretty steep, then she asked for our Canadian money and we all just about 💩. WHAT?! I thought I had prepared for this trip perfectly but here we are again, of course without Canadian money or realizing they use different currency. Why would anyone want to do anything different than the US?😅 Jk kinda.... Luckily they took US $ and it was only $17! Pretty cool!

We walked across the welcome center and over to the falls and 😍😍. Just look at the branches on the bushes coated in ice!

So so happy! We made it!

Dyar strong💪

Can you imagine going over the edge of this?! Um, no. 

So this trip was smooth sailing up until this point. Next was to drive to Punxsutawney PA to sleep in our car for 4 hours while we wait on the bus to take us to the groundhog ceremony at 4-7am.

So hitting NY, the roads looked like this below:

Then this......

Then this by the time we reached PA and still had 3.5 hours to drive at this point.

Let me say, driving in pitch black for 6 hours straight (no place to switch out), snowing heavily, no snow plows, no locals, not a car in sight, untreated roads, in the curvy moutains, and no where to pull off and no houses or gas stations or restaurants in sight for 6 hours straight with 2 more hours to go, PANIC. I was the driver and tried my best to keep control and about near died trying to keep us safe through all of that. I was at my breaking point and realizing the severity of our situation. I was about to lose it. Our saving grace came when we saw this motel off the road. We didn't even care how sketchy it was, we have never been so relieved in our lives. We literally slid into the parking lot and praised God that there were a few rooms open. All the other hotels (like 2 others) in the area were booked for the weekend events. We accepted our fate that we were going to miss the groundhog ceremony for the account of our lives, and had the best 8 hour sleep ever. My body ached with every muscle from gripping the stirring wheel and trying to gain control of the car after each curve of the road, keeping us from sliding into the ditch for 6 hours. We woke up at 8:30am the next morning knowing we missed the groundhog event an hour and 10 minutes ago but were so happy just to be alive. I honestly don't think we would have made it. There's always next year! So we drove through Punxsutawney on our way out, the roads still a mess but it was day time and sadly headed home. 

We took the Ohio route (an extra 1.5 hours) to avoid the snow storm heading towards WA and pulled into our homes at 11:30pm ready for work the next day. Anything is possible. We were utterly exhausted but so glad for the trip. I enjoyed the quality time with mom and Morgan and am so appreciative they went with me and trusted their lives in my hands. I am so proud of myself for outdoing the locals and making it to safety that night. I have never drove in snow before, it was a miracle! God really protected us that night (and the whole trip). I pray every day thanking Him!

Here's to next time ;).

Love, 

Kayla Raborn

2/8/20

P.S. Also, for the second time ever, I donated 12 inches of my hair to Locks of Love again (2/9/2020)! My hair was 2 feet, 10.5 inches!

I am so blessed to have this opportunity to give a portion of my hair to a child in need! Locks of love is an nonprofit organization that provides hair pieces to children with an incurable illness called alopecia areata. This illness prevents children from ever being able to grow hair. It takes 8-10 people to donate hair to create one hair piece so consider this option if you have long hair! You can send your picture in with your donation too so the little girl who receives her hair piece can know there are a lot of people who are thinking about her and are praying for her! What a unique opportunity! Right now I'm dealing with the feeling of phantom hair again and relearning how to wash my hair properly at this new length haha. You don't know until you have experienced a drastic hair length change! My hair was 34.5 inches long before cutting it, and Jamie did a wonderful job! I hope to donate my hair again in 2 years!  

 

I LOVE my new hair length! So much easier to manage!

Cody had a hair transformation too! ;). What do you think? I like the longer hair but the shorter beard/no beard best. 

First Snow and Closing out Apartment

First snow in 2020 2/8/20 and honestly the first snow like this in like 8 years. We were so lucky to spend it at our new house too! It was so nice to have a yard and our own space. It still seems so surreal. I woke up Saturday morning (wish it was on a work day but 🙆) and there was a heavy snow falling and the ground and roofs COVERED. It was such a gorgeous sight. Cody was in Atlanta for a coaching clinic so he missed out but I sure took advantage of it. I got in my snow gear and took pictures of course and walked around every where! It was about 4 inches and so pretty. 

To be honest, the snow gave me a little PTSD from the PA snow storm I drove through last weekend, but I got past it thanks to my snowboard :).

I had bought this $24 snowboard from Target.com 3 years ago with Christmas money honestly feeling a little silly. How would we ever have enough snow to use this? Weeelllll here we are today, after a lot of patience, I finally got to try it out! I have never snowboarded before but have skied 4-5 times.

I scouted the best slope in my yard and strapped my feet in and gave it a go! The weight limit was 135lbs and I was pushing it, but got it with ease after a few tries.

I was so proud of it. On the first try, I got it! I was able to successfully get down the hill and call myself a snowboarder! I absolutely loved it and snowboarded for like 3 hours. It wore me out and I got so overheated having to lose my jacket and gloves. I think it's safe to say I like skiing better though but I'm glad I got to experience both.

I had a video of my snowboarding from my phone which was propped up on my glove at the bottom of the hill but the file was too big to send over email. #I love technology So head to my instagram to check that out if you want. 

 

The hill on the left side of my house!

I of course had to throw in Sashie because I want a dog so bad and will have our doggie when it snows next!

Hot chocolate break!! So peaceful! Perfect for my word of the year!

My color coordinated attire under all of that winter clothes. 

My view that morning. I was shocked to say the least. 

My view from my office/nursery. 

So gorgeous, I can't get over it! PERFECT Saturday!

..................................

February 19th 2020 Cody and I officially are closing the door on our apartment after 3 years and 50 weeks. 

Hello and goodbye!

 

The day we signed the lease, March 8th 2016 vs the day we finished our final lease, February 19th 2020. Both with equally excited for different reasons all in the same. 

We had so many amazing memories here in our first 4 years of marriage. We were so happy to have a place of our own to decorate just the way we liked. This was our first place! I remember the day Cody called me to tell me he had found the perfect place for us and he couldn't have been more right. We were 5 minutes from my moms house, and 10 minutes from his parents house and 2 minutes away from the interstate, restaurants, gas stations, Walmart, and 30 minutes from my work, and 40-45 from Codys work. I was so giddy and couldn't wait to visit it that weekend. It was the final push to get me through the last semester of college and finals.

 For 1.5 months, we had both the apartment AND house. It was nice using it as a storage place and a place to sleep, shower, and do laundry for a few weeks when our house didn't have hot water or the air system didn't work. It honestly worked out perfectly. 

We are closing the door on this chapter, ready for the next! Now we are just one month shy of our house being complete! We are so close! Pictures of the house will come soon! 

Apartment 104, we are grateful but are excited to never look back. We loved Integra Hills immensely, especially our current amazing upstairs neighbors, pool table and swimming pool. We will miss the amenities greatly such as the awesome gyms, pools, and billiard tables. 

Bye Integra!!

 

P.S.-

But also here's to never living in an apartment EVER again🥂. We loved Integra Hills and the personnel, but the typical apartment living is not for us. No more being woken up by crazy drunken parties above us at 2am EVERY. SINGLE.NIGHT. for 2 years with nothing being done about it. No more apartment flooding twice, damaging precious items and not having the problem fixed. No more walking our garbage 0.5 miles every other day, no more cold cars and scraping the windshield every day in winter being late to work. No more packages being lost, no more not having a yard, no more looking for a parking spot every day no matter the time of day and having to park a mile away carrying groceries because they didn't account for a parking spot per apartment. No more thin carpet that feels like needles, no more limited space, no more MASSIVE gnat infestations every year, no more mold issues, no more waiting on maintenance (which they are normally really great), no more banging on the walls at 7am on Saturday mornings, no more apartment. And that is all normal! For the first time in 10 years, I have a garage to park my car. We are so happy to say the least.

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn 

2/19/20 

Moving and Closing!!!!!

Signed and Closed!

We are officially homeowners after a 2.5 year custom house building process and 4 long years in an apartment!

From idea, to drawing the plans myself, to helping Cody's dad build on the weekends and after work, to moving in (kind of), we are legally done! With another 2 months to finish building and then a house warming party with family to celebrate, we are done!

We signed on Monday January 13th 2020. 

I am so incredibly proud of Cody and I, all of our hard work, patience, and saving after all of these years. We are ready to settle down here for the next 7 years to possibly forever. This will be the house we bring our dog home in, our future kids, and so much happiness. I can see our puppy curling up on the couch with us after a long day, chewing on our shoe, our baby learning to walk his first steps in front of the couch, our daughter getting her first boo boo on our retaining wall, Cody cooking out on the grill while the kids play in the sprinkler, the joy in our kids eyes Christmas morning of what Santa brought under the tree, finding our passion in our home gym. So much hope and so many dreams, love, and memories to come in these four walls. God is so so good.

House Timeline: 

-December 12th 2019: Cody had a significant foot surgery, non-weight bearing for 2 months.
-December 17th 2019: The flooring was installed in our house.
-December 22nd 2019: We got a rental agreement to move into the house before official closing.

-December 24th and 26th 2019: We started moving boxes into the house *I packed and moved almost every single box* *INSERT BACK PAIN

-December 27th 2019: We hired movers to move the furniture in. We were able to stay in the house for our first night!!!

-December 31st 2019: The movers drove more furniture down from my moms house.

-January 12th 2020: We ( I ) feverishly unpacked our last box!

-January 13th 2020: We FINALLY closed on the house! So surreal. Celebrate!

-February 19th 2020: Our apartment lease is up and we will be 100% out of our apartment. Gotta clean clean clean!

-March 7th 2020: We will finish building the house. We've been working hard to get that last 20% built, since, well, we are kind of living in an unfinished house.......

-March 8th 2020: Family housewarming party.

A little trip down memory lane, above, almost 4 years ago, Cody and I got our marriage license vs now signing for our house. Who would have known then :)

Moving out of our apartment:

Cody helped a lot by directing!

Thank you to Morgan, Edgar, and Mom for helping me when I couldn't physically touch another box.

And thank you for Tyler who helped when I was in extreme need for extra hands...twice. He dropped everything and came running to help me unload my car!

 

My Cody💓

The night after every thing I own was placed into this house.

Putting the finishing touches everywhere including my car lol. Ceramic horse cup holder coasters!

After getting all of the boxes and furniture moved in, my body ached so bad. Since I originally planned to have Christmas break to do all of this and be well settled in by December 15th, I had to take time off of work in early January to unpack and get the house in living conditions. I took 3 days off (instead of 5 unfortunately) and took time to just be. I established our home as our own and settled in. These were the best 3 days of my life haha. It was so peaceful to sit on our porch in the morning in God's world and eat my brunch.

I celebrated unpacking the last box the night before signing by the next day after work getting a pedicure. I haven't gotten one in 9 years and I think I have never deserved it more.

Cody and I sat and celebrated with a glass of sparkling cider on New Years Eve.

Here's to the future!💓




Left to finish the house:
-Cabinets
-Put up fence
-Hang bathroom mirrors and such
-Paint
-Leak in sinks

Love, 

Kayla and Cody Raborn

1/25/20