Keeping Up With The Jacksons: 2015

My First Series: Moving

By Unknown Wednesday, June 17, 2015 family, moving, New Jersey, series

If you read my blog, know me personally, are friends with me on Facebook or really just know me in any capacity, you most likely know that our time in Savannah is almost over. Later this summer, we are planning to move up the East Coast to NJ. Where exactly is still to be determined, but we have a general idea. This moving across the US (is it across the US if you're going up?) isn't easy, especially when you aren't familiar with the area. Yes, I've lived in NJ, but it wasn't in the same area and I was kid. Also, times have changed and so has that particular area. What I saw as kid is definitely not the same as I see as an adult. Life was so much simpler back then.

But it got me thinking about the blog and sharing this with all of you. I thought it might be fun, and maybe to a few interesting, to see how the entire moving process is going to go for us. How it has consumed our lives and how at times, it can be very stressful. Maybe you'll find a little nugget of advice that can make your next move a little less stressful. So let's dive in and see what kind of posts this series is going to be about.

Planning: Take a peek at the very beginning stages of our move. How we landed on where we were going to decide to live, and what we thought we needed to find out before we moved.

Research, Research, Research: Oh the hours of research of every possible thing you could think you would need to know about moving and what we would need to know once we got there. How came up with a very different budget than we have in the South, how we decided on booking a moving company to do the driving, how tried finding several different cities, and more. The research was, and quite frankly still, endless.

House Hunting: A two-parter that shows how we spent even more countless hours of house hunting 780 miles away, and what we used to help us locate the cities we wanted to look in, followed by a post on the trip TJ and I made to NJ to see some of the houses we looked at online and if they lived up the pictures and expectations we had.

Packing: How did we pack? Where did we find boxes? How do we keep organized? And of course, I'll share a few tips along the way to help you pack.

Planning the Actual Moving Trip: How did we decide where to stop, when to stop, and for how long? Also, you'll get a sneak peek at what we're planning for the soon-to-be 10 year old in our house while we're on the road.

Time to Hit the Road: See how the trip went for us. See where we stopped, how our surprises went, as wells our meal plan, entertainment and sanity-saving ideas for the road with two kids and two dogs. This will most likely be spread out over more than one post.

Making our New Home, Home: Unpacking: New House Tour Time as well as finding out how my packing system worked and how the moving company treated our belongings.

Getting Settled: Finally, getting acquainted in our new town, seeing what it has to offer and getting to know new people, and tips you can try if you're moving far away.

*As the posts get published, the titles in bold wll become clickable links. If you're already see clickable links, welcome to the series and click on through to see the different posts.

I hope you'll join me throughout the series and see how our move goes. Do you have any moving tips or advice? Maybe it's something I can put into practice. I'd love to hear it!

Someone's A College Graduate!

By Unknown Friday, June 12, 2015 family, SCAD, TJ

The past 4 years have flown by. It feels like just yesterday when we moved to Savannah, but 4 years have gone by and the time has come to celebrate such a major accomplishment, TJ's graduation.

TJ started at SCAD in September 2011 and from the beginning has always done well. He started his SCAD journey majoring in Illustration. The career field is fairly large making the job opportunities easier to find. However, it didn't take long for TJ to realize where his true passion lied. It was during his second quarter at SCAD when he took a Desktop Audio class as one of his electives. He loved every second of it. I could see it every time he talked about the class.

Somehow the subject of his major came up. You could tell he really wanted to change it. His major concern, though, was how the small job field is. It would be very hard to find a job doing what he loved. To me, that didn't matter. He was happy doing this type of work. I told he has the chance to go to his dream school to major in his dream job. We would figure the rest out later. I would support whatever he decided to do. So, he went for it. He officially changed his major to Sound Design and he never looked back.

Throughout the 4 years, most of his classes cam very easy to him. There were a few that were tough, but honestly, they were classes that didn't really have anything to do with his major. He excelled in every class involved with his major. He engrossed himself in the classes and the work. He worked long hours on student projects to deliver the directors his best possible work. People appreciated him for that and continued to work with him, and the end result for him, gave him some great portfolio pieces.

TJ's last quarter at SCAD began in January and he finished in March. Aside from him no longer going to school everyday, it hadn't felt too different...yet. It felt more like summer or winter break. The planning for our next step really kicked up though. And then graduation started creeping up. We finalized plans, coordinated details about who was coming down, the works.

My mom came down the night before graduation, while his mom, sister, dad and stepmom were all coming down that morning. TJ was limited on tickets, especially for the first ceremony, the commencement part, so it was my mom, the kids and I who attended the first one. TJ worked the night before and was exhausted but I think the excitement of the day and spending time with 1,400 graduates kept him going.

We headed down to watch the ceremony. Like every graduation, there was a valedictorian speech, the president spoke, they honored some people who contributed a lot to SCAD (forgive for not remembering their names), and they had a guest speaker. The guest speaker was none other than John Lasseter, the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios and has animated, directed and produced movies like Frozen, Cars, Planes, A Bug's Life and Toy Story, where he won a Special Achievement Award. He also received an Academy Award for his short Tin Toy. I could go on and on about all the movies that you, I and your kids have watched that he has been a part of.

His speech was incredible and had the entire audience captivated, and one point in tears when he shared a story about a young boy wanting to leave his old Woody doll at Disney World, after receiving a new one, so he could "play with Buzz Lightyear for Infinity and Beyond." Disney World wrote a letter to Lasseter telling him the story and also sent the doll, thinking he would like to keep the doll as a momento. And of course, he brought it to share with the audience.

The speech was spectactular and inspiring. After he spoke, the commencement was beginning to wrap up with the conferrment of degrees and the moving of the tassels. And no sooner did Paula Wallace congratulate the class of 2015, did she end with "Geronimo" and a band came from behind the stage playing. As everyone is watching the band, some cloth drops from ceiling, followed by what Jordyn has lovingly called, "Floating Dancers." They danced and wrapped themselves in the cloth. It was amazing to see them.

And no celebration is complete without confetti. Lots and lots of confetti. Confetti so thick you could barely see the graduates and the performers. Jordyn was in complete awe of the performance. I think we all were but she couldn't stop talking about it.

After Ceremony #1, as we called it, we met with TJ for a few pictures and grabbed a quick bite to eat before he had to be back for the second one, the presentation of degrees.

Because of how quickly he had to back, he missed seeing his family before the second one began, but we met with everyone and headed inside to watch TJ walk across that stage. The second ceremony was straight to the point. It was all about presenting the degrees. They wasted no time getting started. TJ's major is part of the School of Entertainment Arts, which was the 3rd school to be called. He was the 4th row from the back of all the graduates, so we knew were going to be waiting a while. Jordyn actually fell asleep, and we had to wake her right before TJ walked. She so desperately wanted to cheer for him.

Finally TJ's time to walk across the stage came. Sadly, the picture below is all I got. My camera died at the end of the first ceremony, so my cell phone was all I had and when you sit far away, you don't get much. But TJ's cheering crowd of 8 were as loud as we could be, showing so much pride for our favorite graduate.

After the second ceremony was over, we met outside with TJ, so he could see his family. While he may not say, I know he was so appreciative of them making the trip down to see him. It was a big deal and he loved having those he loved most being there for him.

After pictures galore, TJ's family had to head back home, and TJ was exhausted. My mom took him to dinner and then we went home to relax and just spend some together. While this post has turned extremely wordy, words can not express how proud of him I am. He has worked incredibly hard to get to this point and I can not wait to see where the future takes him, and to go with him wherever that may be.

Congratulations TJ! You deserve this! I love you!