Whew! At home in Nashville!

Hey there Everyone!

Well Jason and I are finally here in Nashville! It's a beautiful 85 degrees out and I actually put on shorts and a tee-shirt this morning. The trees are bright green and the skies are blue. We moved into our new apartment last Monday and the moving truck finally arrived on Wednesday morning. It was so nice to finally get my things, its definately helped to make me feel more settled.

Our roadtrip was great - we drove around 3200 miles total. And I think we ate at Cracker Barrel 4 or 5 times. We saw around 9 dead armadillos, one dead beaver and some other things we couldn't quite recognize. The weather was great - it never rained once until we got into Nashville, which made me laugh. The first night in Montana it snowed a couple inches and the next day we went horse back riding with my cousin Tina. Jason got bucked off his horse, but you didn't hear that from me. :-) We saw a Colorado Rockies baseball game in Denver and enjoyed the warm 80 degree weather. Then we were off to Albequerque, New Mexico and stayed with friends of Jason's that he used to play ball with for a couple nights. Friday morning we headed off to Amarillo, Texas and had dinner with the Smiths and Skypala families. And then Saturday we drove out to Little Rock, Arkansas and stayed a beautifully restored Bed & Breakfast. Then our final leg of the trip was on Sunday where we drove through Memphis and I got to see Graceland. We got into Nashville late Sunday evening and crashed out at Uncle Billy & Aunt Bettie Walkers' home. So there you have it, the run-down of our road-trip.

As for this week, we've been really focusing on getting settled and unpacked. I had an interview with Staffmark on Wednesday, and this particular branch specializes in executive team placements. The lady who is schedling my interviews on behalf of Staffmark is Georgia Burton and she and I hit it off right away and she's been lining up interviews for me already! Jason also had his first night back at work on Wednesday and let me tell you, he is so glad to be back home and working with the Mortons here. In his first two nights back at work, he's already made more money than he would make in a week in Seattle. As soon as he walked in the door after work, he said "It's good to be home". Banks is also getting more settled in her new home. Our friend Jeff Batson kept her for us while we were driving over and then after the moving trucks arrived, we drove over to Jeff's and picked her up. I love our new place. It's a lot bigger than mine or Jason's apartments before - its 1250 Square feet! We have plently of space for all our furniture and room for guests too! I can't wait to see our friends and family when they come visit.

I'm actually sitting in the beautiful downtown library across from Jason's work typing in my blog, since I've gotton quite a few requests for updates on how were transitioning. What else can I tell you? Oh yes, Jason's knee surgery is next Wednesday - so be praying! Pray that it goes well and that he recovers fast. He is itching to get out on the field with his friends to play softball again and he's kinda bummed out that he's missing out on the Music City Marathon this weekend (he ran it last year on my birthday). Also pray for me that I can get him home from the hospital ok. I can't tell you how confusing its been to learn the roads out here. There's 4 major freeways that all intersect and even share eachother in some places and then theres another 2 highways (or parkways or pikeways or whatever they call them) that also cross the freeways. I literally have to take 3 freeways just to go 10 minutes away! Let me tell ya, there's a few choice words that have come out of my mouth for trying to learn the streets out here. :-) Where's the good old I5 and 405 when you need them?

I think that's about it for updates. I guess lastly, this weekend we're going to go to church with our friends Jeff & Kristin Hooper - its supposed to be more of a charismatic Baptist service - so a nice cross-between for both Jason and I - I'm really looking forward to it. I'll write another updated once our internet gets going hopefully early next week. And we'll also be ordering Vonage, so we can have unlimited long distance and local calls so we can stay in better touch with everyone. I look foward to hearing from all of you. Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! We love and miss y'all!!

Jason and Kimberly Keith

Almost there...

Well Banks is on her way to the South! This morning Jason and I drove out to the Delta Cargo Facility to send our cat on a flight to Nashville. Let me tell you, it was a really hard thing to do. I thought I was doing pretty good, till I saw her look back at me with sad eyes from inside her little carrier moving down the conveyor belt. And that's when I absolutely lost it. I cried all the way to the car and halfway back to the office. Seriously, all this crying is wearing me out!

This last weekend with Jason's parents was so much fun. Both our families got to hang out quite a bit and get to know each other even more. Plus, Jason and I were completely blessed with Jerry & Sherry bringing up the china that his grandmother (our grandmother :-) ) Evie, gave us as a wedding present. We went to the San Juans and saw Roche Harbor, we ate too much at Salty's on Alki and we watched corny movies my dad picked out till the late hours of the night - of course cause we're Kellys and that's what we do!! :-) Plus it was a treat that Kati was on Spring Break from the Masters Commission, so I could get a little more time with her before I leave.



Oh! And one last thing - it was Jason's mission to get a picture of a Vietnamese restaurant for his sister & brother-in-law, so in their honor, I've also posted that picture for y'all!

11 days to go and counting!

The packing is almost done! Jason and I have been working our tails off boxing everything up. If it wasn't for my sweet dear husband, I would be losing my mind! It's been an emotional time knowing I'll be leaving some friends and family and yet being so excited to start new in Nashville.

7 days left of work to go!! I've just recently hit my 5 year mark with Revenue Science as an Executive Assistant. It's been a long haul and I've learned a lot through working here, but I'm looking forward to the change of scenery. As far as working in Nashville, I haven't found a job just yet, but I'm not really anxious about finding one right away either. I'll be getting some vacation pay from my company which will help us out with our move and also so I can take some time off to be with Jason for a while. He has his knee surgery scheduled for May 3rd, which will be great that I can be home with him the whole week he's recovering. Spending the week on the road together and then the week while he's recovering will be the most time we've had together since our honeymoon - I'm so looking forward to it!!

A main goal of mine once we move is to really focus getting our invitation business up and running. We've decided to call it Finer Points. I'm going to work on building a website, buying some ads online with local wedding websites and building my portfolio. We've also just purchased our first computer! I have been looking at one in particular for some time and it went way down in price & I got a great deal!! I was so excited once we purchased it, that I was doing a little dance while I was at work!

Another exciting thing is that our parents, Jerry & Sherry Keith, are coming into town to see us before we leave! I'm so excited to see them once last time while we're here in Seattle. Then hopefully we'll be able to convince them to visit often or possibly even move to Nashville :-) (we'll see). We've got some fun things planned, brunch at Salty's on Alki, a trip to the San Juans with my parents Tom & Loretta. It should be some good times. They'll be arriving by train later this evening and hopefully Jason & I can pick them up together if he happens to get the night off from work. I'll aim to get some pictures of our weekend with them as well to post.

And finally it appears as though I have two new younger sisters - Kolleen & Katherine, twins and both 11 years old. They're cousins of ours and moved in with my parents just a couple weeks ago. Just when my parents thought they had an empty nest, now they can stay entertained for a few more years :-) (love ya dad...). So as we've been busy packing up to move our own things, my parents also have been busy packing things up and moving stuff around to give the girls each a room of thier own at my parents house.

Well that seems to be all the news for now...I'll try to get some pictures up shortly!