School Days

Thus far the kids seem to really be enjoying their new schools. Here's a photo from opening day...

Survived Week One

The adjusting, unpacking and learning continues. Things are going well, but the last few days have felt fuzzy and very busy. I've gotten up in the middle of the night unsure as to where I am, etc. It takes a while for your body, mind and spirit to align and realize you are somewhere new.

The kids start school Monday and we were able to see their classrooms and meet the teachers yesterday. It seems like it will be a good year for both of them.

Also, a small change - my first weekend teaching will be Sept 8 and 9 now...so if you were driving in from California, you may want to adjust your plans.


More to come...

Still Settling In...

Here's a photo of the kids in the Allied Van semi. The driver, Ed, let them blow the horn and play around in the cab.

The essentials of life have arrived - cable TV and the internet. We were able to pick up some new furniture for the living room and it won't be here for a week or so. Right now our living room is our TV on an old dining room table, one bean bag and several unopened boxes. The kitchen and bedrooms are more or less unpacked though. I will have a real office at work for the first time since the Canyon Ridge pre-building days back in 1997 - ten years! Since then I have worked at home or, more likey, at Starbucks. I've also shared a community office from time to time, but this one is rather legit with a door and window and all. It will be interesting to see how I work with an office.

I'm scheduled to teach the first time at The Vineyard on the weekend of Sept. 1. They will video stream it at the website which is linked over on the right side of my blog -->

Almost forgot - we sold our mini van back in socal and bought Deb a Chevy HHR this week. It's silver and she looks kinda like a gangster in it.

Landed.

We closed on our house this morning at 9:00 and the movers arrived at 1:30. Spent the day opening boxes and searching for the essential things like sheets, soap and the kids' video game system. We are exhausted but happy to be here. It still doesn't feel very real, and I am have a hunch it will take a while for things to sink in. The kids are about as happy and excited as they have ever been. They each have their own bedroom for the first time and they love playing in the basement and yard.

Tomorrow will be jam packed with everything people do on day two of a move. Off to bed now...

Numb3rs

2,250 - current miles traveled
9 - states visited
35+ - mpg (gotta love the Corolla)
7 - days apart from the kids
2 - days at my parents
2 - days at Deb's parents
120ish - current miles from our new house
95/80 - average temp and humidity on our trip
8/15 - the date our house closes
8/15 - the date our furniture arrives (just found out today - could have been a week later)
4 - pounds gained after a week of farewell dinners and a week of traveling
3 - Number of times I auditioned for Numb3rs the TV show
0 - Number of times I booked Numb3rs the TV show
100% - how annoyed I am by the current numeric formula of this blog...seemed like such a good idea when I started.

Packing Day - Time to Blog

The kids have been shipped off to Kansas City with my mom and dad. The packers are at the house today working hard, while I drink my coffee and write this. This gives me great joy and a little guilt. Our other moves (all eight of them) were all about us and a U-haul, so this one is a little different to say the least. This will be our ninth home in our 12 1/2 years of marriage. That is especially impressive considering we lived in one house for about seven years from 1997-2003. Our ninth house is about 25 miles from our first apartment that we lived in for about five months before moving to Vegas in 1995. I keep thinking of Mr. Bilbo Baggins and his journey "there and back again."

Monday begins our Journey back again. The Allied truck will be loaded in the morning and Deb and I will start the cross country trip in the Corolla, stopping in KC to see mom and dad, and to fetch the kids. We are due to arrive in Cincinnati sometime before August 15, when our house is set to close. I have always enjoyed those rare nomadic moments in life when you leave one home in search of another. There is something very primal and adventuresome about it. It mixes a fear of the unknown, a sentimentailty of the past and and an excitement for the future. It reminds you that you are alive and that life is unpredictable. It is also nice knowing that everything you own fits in a truck and that you can live without it all for a week or two. It makes you want to get rid of everything - until you open the truck and wonder how you managed to survive without Tivo, alarm clocks and your toaster oven.