Couple of major updates that shouldn’t be totally ignored:
Daniel had his defense and passed!
We went on an awesome camp/backpack trip out to the coast on the Olympic Peninsula in celebration and it worked out perfectly.
Daniel just needs one final person on his committee (the less than friendly guy) to sign off on his dissertation and he is completely done.
Last week it felt like every day was another “ka-thunk” as we ratcheted our way to the top of a roller coaster that will last the entire month (and spill over a little on both ends). I even had all the feelings of starting a roller coaster: the anticipation, trepidation, and a little of the knot in the stomach. I am convinced that this will be fun, aren’t I??
Wednesday morning was the pause at the top, a moment of normalcy before the plunge. I went for one last time to babysit/help out with the family I have been with for a year. I folded laundry and managed minor squabbles and then I said goodbye, and then we headed for the airport less than 3 hours later. We came down to Waco to find a house and for my first sighting of the place we will be calling home. We flew into Dallas and found that it was hotter at midnight than Seattle has gotten all year. We also found that the guy at the car rental counter was nicer than all of Seattle put together. He told us stories about his kids. Seattlites need to know you for months before admitting they had kids. We made it to Waco and started looking around at houses the next morning. Waco, as a city, is a little of kilter, literally. Check out a map. Do we pick one set of roads as our “north” or do we always have to say NW, SE, etc.? The jury is still out from the residents that we talked to.
We saw some interesting houses. One had a railing separating off 1/4 of the living room. No step, nothing, just a railing. One had pineapple wallpaper in the kitchen. One had bright pink tile in the bathroom. And one was fantastic. It is a beautiful home with a nice kitchen and the most amazing backyard with place for a garden already set aside. The back yard has huge old trees and slopes down toward a creek bed (but being 103 at the time, I’m only guessing that water occasionally passes by on occasion). We are really excited and a little awed at the fact that we will be moving from a 1 br apartment in Seattle to a 3 br place in Waco with only a $150/mo increase in rent. I have no idea what we will do with ourselves and with our rather limited furniture in a place like that.
One loop-de-loop on the trip was that a girl who had just got her license and has a car with bad brakes T-boned our rental car. Everyone is fine. Her clunker might not be any prettier and the rental’s passenger door was dented in exactly the right place for it to not open anymore. But we spent 4+ hours dealing with that stuff. (btw. You should make sure that the credit card used to make the reservation is the one you present at the pick-up counter. It will save you a LOT of grief.) Thankfully, we got the call that we got the house 5 minutes before the accident so we really did have an afternoon to kill.
We are back now, briefly. I will be leaving on Tuesday to go on a girl’s adventure in/around Yellowstone with my mom, aunt, and grandma. We are staying in a rustic cabin for a while and then ending the trip with a day at a hot springs and spa. It should be great. I’ll be back on the 14th. Meanwhile, Daniel is going to a conference and will be getting back the 16th. We load the truck and will be leaving Seattle on the 19th. An epic road trip will follow and we will start to unpack and then fly back to CO for Megan and Greg’s WEDDING!!
And every once in a while, I just might throw my hands up in the air and scream.
Last week it felt like every day was another “ka-thunk” as we ratcheted our way to the top of a roller coaster that will last the entire month (and spill over a little on both ends). I even had all the feelings of starting a roller coaster: the anticipation, trepidation, and a little of the knot in the stomach. I am convinced that this will be fun, aren’t I??
Wednesday morning was the pause at the top, a moment of normalcy before the plunge. I went for one last time to babysit/help out with the family I have been with for a year. I folded laundry and managed minor squabbles and then I said goodbye, and then we headed for the airport less than 3 hours later. We came down to Waco to find a house and for my first sighting of the place we will be calling home. We flew into Dallas and found that it was hotter at midnight than Seattle has gotten all year. We also found that the guy at the car rental counter was nicer than all of Seattle put together. He told us stories about his kids. Seattlites need to know you for months before admitting they had kids. We made it to Waco and started looking around at houses the next morning. Waco, as a city, is a little of kilter, literally. Check out a map. Do we pick one set of roads as our “north” or do we always have to say NW, SE, etc.? The jury is still out from the residents that we talked to.
We saw some interesting houses. One had a railing separating off 1/4 of the living room. No step, nothing, just a railing. One had pineapple wallpaper in the kitchen. One had bright pink tile in the bathroom. And one was fantastic. It is a beautiful home with a nice kitchen and the most amazing backyard with place for a garden already set aside. The back yard has huge old trees and slopes down toward a creek bed (but being 103 at the time, I’m only guessing that water occasionally passes by on occasion). We are really excited and a little awed at the fact that we will be moving from a 1 br apartment in Seattle to a 3 br place in Waco with only a $150/mo increase in rent. I have no idea what we will do with ourselves and with our rather limited furniture in a place like that.
One loop-de-loop on the trip was that a girl who had just got her license and has a car with bad brakes T-boned our rental car. Everyone is fine. Her clunker might not be any prettier and the rental’s passenger door was dented in exactly the right place for it to not open anymore. But we spent 4+ hours dealing with that stuff. (btw. You should make sure that the credit card used to make the reservation is the one you present at the pick-up counter. It will save you a LOT of grief.) Thankfully, we got the call that we got the house 5 minutes before the accident so we really did have an afternoon to kill.
We are back now, briefly. I will be leaving on Tuesday to go on a girl’s adventure in/around Yellowstone with my mom, aunt, and grandma. We are staying in a rustic cabin for a while and then ending the trip with a day at a hot springs and spa. It should be great. I’ll be back on the 14th. Meanwhile, Daniel is going to a conference and will be getting back the 16th. We load the truck and will be leaving Seattle on the 19th. An epic road trip will follow and we will start to unpack and then fly back to CO for Megan and Greg’s WEDDING!!
And every once in a while, I just might throw my hands up in the air and scream.
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