As I head into my final newscasts at WSET and living in Lynchburg, I’ve been thinking about my move here almost 4 years ago. It’s funny how in such little time, so much of your life can evolve.

Before I moved here, I was at an NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, LA. It was a wonderful place to call home. In fact, I wasn’t very interested in leaving when the job offer from ABC 13 came my way. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith though. I’ve been thinking about signs recently and how they always seem to be undeniable every time I move. I was minutes away from signing another contract in Louisiana when I got the call from the news director here in Virginia. Coincidence? Maybe. But I think that was a pretty big sign. 

So, I packed up my little apartment, my two kitties and headed east. My best friend Janelle MacDonald, also a reporter and anchor in Lake Charles, made the drive with me. She had an interview is Louisville in a few days and decided to ride out with me and catch Kentucky on the way back. It made sense at the time because it was very hard to separate the two of us. We were connected at the hip. My furniture was coming on a moving truck. It wasn’t supposed to show up for a couple of weeks (never book on the internet if you are moving that far) so we stayed in motel for a couple of days. Once Janelle left, I had run out of my motel money, so I stayed in my very sad little apartment on an air mattress on the floor.  Several times I called my mother and said, “What have I done?” Not only did I not know anyone, but I was in an apartment without a TV, furniture, just started a new job -- it was tough.

Fast forward 4 years and sometimes I can’t believe what has happened. That sad woman ended up meeting more genuine, good friends than she could have imagined. She met a guy at a Christmas party in those first couple of months who she ended up falling in love with and marrying. She ended up moving from that little apartment to her very own house. She expanded her animal kingdom from 2 cats to 3 cats and a dog. She’s run marathons, done her first triathlon and more importantly been welcomed into a lot of your homes every morning and then again at lunch time.

So, here I am again, packing up a lot more than a little apartment and heading back down South. I’m excited for the next leg, honored to be promoted to this new position and beside myself to live AT THE BEACH. But I’m also a little sad to close the book on this part of my life. The good thing about books is that you can always pick them up and read them again. This was a good one so I’m pretty sure I’m not through with it yet.

While most people will be out enjoying the glorious weekend weather, I will be suffering from the stifling temperatures in my attic. Yes, it’s time to pack up the attic. It’s a chore I’ve kind of put off until last simply because it was stifling all week long by the time I got home from work everyday. I also wanted to share the joy of packing that part of the house with my husband (wink, wink).

Last night we were devising a plan to conquer it all. I suggest getting up bright and early Saturday morning before it gets too hot up there. The husband seems to think we should just do it when we want…and bring things down from the attic and pack on the second floor. To me, this is a wasted effort. We bring things down…then pack? Why not save myself the moving down the stair effort? Plus, as it stands we are running out of room for boxes and fast. We haven’t reached a consensus yet on what steps to take. I’m sure it will be a dicey discussion.

Enjoy YOUR weekend and think about me sweating up in the attic!

As of today, it’s 7 days left in my home – 5 at WSET. This week has been a little bit better as far as building the Myrtle Beach house. I’ve gotten several updates via email from the builder and the realtor – and some really great pictures. I cannot wait for my nice new KITCHEN! 

My mother-in-law has been a God send this week. She has come by and spent her afternoons helping me pack up the house. Our big feat is having the entire kitchen in boxes already. That took the better part of 3 hours. We had a huge stack of boxes awaiting all the items from our life – every single one of them is now full. I need to go on a box run today before we can continue. I think I may take a break from boxing this afternoon to breath.

I’ve also started to say goodbye – and that is making the reality of it all set in. A couple that I’m good friends with left yesterday for vacation and won’t be back before we leave.   I had not shed many tears yet but the facet opened when I gave Holly a hug. Then Turner said, “Don’t worry this isn’t goodbye for good.” To which I replied, “Yeah, but you are the first I’m saying goodbye to. And you won’t live down the street anymore.” Then I almost cried at my last haircut at Volume Salon. I’ve been going to see Randy for almost 4 years now – he knows more about me than a lot of people do. As I started to well up with tears I thought, “Get it together Danner – Randy will think you are nuts if you start bawling in the middle of the salon.” I have a feeling this is only the beginning for Cry Fest ’08.

It’s Friday and I couldn’t be happier to see the weekend. As noted in my previous blog, it’s been a very stressful week. I’m prone to stress migraines but haven’t gotten one this week, which I’m quite thankful for. I’ve received some very encouraging notes from a lot of you – and that continues to make my day. 

One major issue is checked off the “move list.” We ended up hiring a moving company out of Concord this week. I’m not sure if you’ve moved from another state before, but I have once and it was a bit of a nightmare. I hired a company off the internet and my furniture didn’t show up in Lynchburg for weeks. I talked to a friend who owns a moving business about what to do this time around. His advice? Hire a local company. So, we’re working with Moody Moving and Storage and we feel pretty good about it. My husband brought home the first round of boxes last night – so it’s becoming a reality. I’ll recruit some friends to help kick off the process this weekend. 

Construction on the new house continues. My real estate agent tells me everything is going well – the tile is in and now on to the hardwood floors. She is sending some pictures to me today and I’m really excited to see the progress. 

I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but my new station is being built from the ground up. All of the construction at WMBF is finished and those who are there moved into the new home off the 17 Bypass yesterday. I’m looking forward to seeing some pictures on that front as well. 

What I’m really excited about is that there is beautiful weather in the forecast for this weekend. I’m glad I won’t have to spend one of my last weekends stuck inside. I plan on hitting up the Horse and Hound Fest and the Blues Festival at the Sedalia Center. We’ll see you there!

Eleven days – that is really hard to wrap my arms around. I have 11 more days of working at WSET. Add on the weekend and that’s about 14 day in Lynchburg. What is unfortunate is that with packing and cleaning and all the other stuff that goes along with moving, I just know those days are going to fly by.

We’ve had our fair share of issues recently. We are building a house 350 miles away and I suppose the problems we’ve had are expected. Funny thing, (now) I got a picture of our house last week – and it wasn’t the house I thought we were building. Turns out, there was a hiccup with the specs and they put siding up on the front instead of brick! We’ve worked it all out with the builder, but I’ve seriously pulled most of my hair out recently.

Now it’s on to pricing and hiring a moving company. With gas prices the way they are right now, it’s a very expensive process. I’m moving down before our house is finished and before we close on it, so I will live in temporary housing. That leaves my husband alone to finish the moving process because I will already be working. We were hoping to just have the moving company pack the house – but I don’t think we’ll be able to swing the expense after all. That makes the process even more stressful.

It’s hard enough to leave my friends and family, add the rest and I’m a basket case. I just have to remind myself to breathe every once in awhile.

There's a little something that I think it's time to let you all in on.  Today marks the beginning of my last month at WSET.  I'm leaving Good Morning Virginia to take on the co-anchoring the evening news for a television station in Myrtle Beach, SC.  It's been a very trying couple of months trying to sort everything out.  I've thought about blogging about this earlier, but I had to loose ends to tie up first.

First things first:  I didn't expect to be leaving Virginia...ever.  As you know, my husband is from Lynchburg, so after we got married I pretty much thought this is where our ship would be docked.  However, like a lot of you, our small family had some unexpected events transpire -- all of which changed our preverbal "course."  As I was reporting on layoffs and downsizing in our area, my heart was going out to each and every one of those families because we were going through the same thing.  Due to economic pressures, my husbands company let him and a lot of other people go -- which sent our world into what felt like a downward spiral.  We had just gotten married for goodness sake!

I believe through the power of prayer and the drive we both have, we've come out of on top of this bleak situation.  He got a tremendous opportunity with a company based out of Orangeburg, South Carolina at the same time I was offered a job (kind of out of nowhere) working for WMBF, a new station in Myrtle Beach owned by Raycom.  This, too, is a tremendous opportunity for me.  I know God is whispering in our ears that this was the path we need to travel for now -- and sometimes you just can't ignore the signs.

We've been busy selling our home in Lynchburg and traveling to and from the Grand Strand looking for a new place to call home.  Things continue to go our way as we head into the packing up stage.  Now to the hardest part.  The saying goodbye stage. A month goes by too fast.  Between packing, finding insurance and getting a new home up and running (not to mention cleaning out the old) I have a feeling that the next 30 days will certainly be fleeting.  I leave with a heavy heart.  The ABC 13 family and viewers have embraced me and made me feel right at home from day one.  I love driving home from work and seeing the Blue Ridge Mountains, heading off to fish in the Cowpasture and James River on weekends and discovering all the reasons why Virginia is for lovers. I love my friends in the organizations I've been involved with -- from the Junior League to the humane societies to the American Heart Association and the are runners and tri-athletes.

Calling Central Virginia my home has been a pleasure.  I just hope folks down at Myrtle Beach can measure up.  So here's to one more month waking up with you every morning!  The one thing I won't miss?  Getting up at 2:00am!  There's more to come on the move -- keep it here.

Love,

Danner

I'm distracted today.  There have been two EXTREMELY disturbing stories in the headlines in the last week.  As you all know, I love animals -- big or small (okay, not snakes).  I am completely disgusted by the recent animal cruelty cases out of Danville -- disgusted.

The first came last week when the humane society picked up a baby pit-bull who had her ears cut off with a box cutter.  My stomach drops even thinking about it.  The video made me sick and enraged.  Then yesterday another case -- a poodle who had a rubber band wrapped around its back leg and now it might lose that paw.  

I realize that we all have a different feeling about our animals.  They are a part of my family.  My dog is as much like a child to me as my children will be some day.  I have good friends that see a dog as a dog -- which is their business.  I'm sure they think I'm crazy because I allow the dog to sleep in bed with us (yeah, I know).  But these outright acts of violence are horrific.  They have got to stop.

I encourage you to watch for these kinds of things in your own neighborhood.  So often we don't follow our instincts and help those that can not help themselves.  I know, this is a preachy blog today, but these headlines have got to stop.  I applaud the Danville Humane Society in their efforts to prosecute the people who are hurting these animals -- and those who help fund the reward programs.  I can only hope other humane societies put this kind of effort into finding the people who are torturing their animals.

Danner Evans

Wow! What a wild weather day we had Monday. Pounding rain, wind and in some places, a tornado! Growing up in "tornado alley" this was the norm during the Spring. It happened so often, that unfortunately, we often times ignored the warnings and went on with whatever we were doing. Now, I don't take any chances.

It certainly is nice to have the rain. Last year was so dry. This year, everything's green! My only problem is a major leak in my roof, right into the kitchen!

Things continue to roll right along on Good Morning Virginia. You can always tell Spring's here because we're talking about a lot of festivals that are coming up. I think everybody's ready to get outside for a few months! That's one of the things I love about this area. People really take advantage of our beautiful setting and find any excuse to do something outdoors.

An interesting story last week about concerns about Lasik surgery. Some of you may know that I had that done back in the fall. I had a great outcome, but if you're considering it, do a lot of research. Check your doctor's background and be sure to get references. Also, if it's a deal that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You don't want to take any chances with your eyes!

Until next time -- enjoy the Spring and thanks for watching!

Pattie Martin

We did it!  April 5th I married the love of my life on the sandy beach in Islamorada, Florida at sunset.  The whole evening was beautiful -- really.  I've dreamed of my wedding forever and it went beyond my wildest dreams.  It was supposed to rain at some point that day -- and the storm held off until 4:00am.  The scene, flowers and food were heavenly.  AND KU beat UNC that night.  A perfect day.

That's not to say there wasn't a small hitch.  I have nerves of steel -- usually.  I woke up the morning of my wedding and walked around to visit the family, trying to avoid Norwood.  However, around lunch I started to get really, really nervous.  More than nervous -- I was getting so nervous I was SICK!  That lasted most of the afternoon.  I was very thankful for a 7:00pm wedding.  I needed the time to find my zen.

Thank you to all of you who sent cards and emails while I was gone.  Coming back to your kind words made the early Monday morning (my first day back) much easier.  God bless and enjoy the pictures.

Danner Evans