Thursday, October 29, 2009
Since graduation we have had some major life changes. First at the end of July we moved to Washington State again! We decided to make the move mainly because James has more business contacts here in the Portland area. We ended up leaving Austin a day late, had to rent an extra trailer, left a driveway full of our belongings, 4 long days of driving 12-ish hours a day, blowing a trailer tire and having to wait two hours on the side of the road to get it fixed, convincing Lucy that the U-haul wasn't that scary and just flat out drugging Fandango, we finally made it to Oregon/Washington! We truly love Austin and miss it but we are excited for all the great outdoor activities that are here too. If we ever get rich we have decided to winter in Austin and summer in the Pacific Northwest! Unfortunately Nicole decided to stay behind in Austin. She has been working as a salon receptionist, living with a roommate that she found on Craigslist, playing soccer and hanging out with her boyfriend and their dog. And yet she is still bored! We miss her terribly but skype her daily...sometimes hourly... I hate that she is so far away from us and sometimes dream of kidnapping her and bringing her home.
BTW, that is James driving the U-haul pulling a trailer in front of me. I drove the suburban pulling another trailer. All were stuffed beyond capacity! (Sorry about all the bugs on the windshield ~ yuck!!)
We rented a house in the same town we lived in 5 years ago (Camas, WA) and have been trying to settle back into life in the PNW.
First things first ~ I begged/hounded James until he built me a garden box. So far we have had lettuce, radishes, chives, and arugula. The carrots, peas, cabbage and onions have not matured but we are still hopeful!
We took Emma, Brandt and Chelsea to Canon Beach, OR to spend the day and eat good clam chowder (this is what I had to replace Tex-Mex with). Jordan decided to spend the day with his buddies jumping off 30 foot cliffs instead of the beach. I would take a rainy beach over heights any day!
To our good fortune, Chelsea turned down her other school offers and chose to go to college in Seattle at UW. Yay us!! James took her up there for orientation and spent two days getting to know the college a little. Then we both got to move her up to her dorm. This was actually quite traumatic for us! (It was different when Nicole went to college because she went to a school
right in town so it didn't seem like such a big transition for me.) Seattle is about 3 hours away, with a train that runs back and forth easily, so at least we will get to see her on holidays.
Chelsea took a suburban full of stuff plus her bike to school. After seeing her room she has decided that half her stuff needs to come back home =) I think that she has been so brave moving to a strange city and not knowing a soul there. Yes, I realize that college kids do this all the time, but I don't even like to go to the grocery store by myself! She has been diving right in and attending lots of freshman orientation activities. Chelsea took up yoga, is trying out for intramural soccer, has been going to football games, riding the city bus and signed up to be a
tour guide at her dorms haunted house this week. Yes she is amazing!!
At the beginning of October we got to fly back to Austin for ACL (Austin City Limits). We spent three days attending the music festival hearing 130 bands with only one day of sunshine and beautiful grass. Day two it poured and day three we just stood in muck! But it was still so worth it. We also got to spend time with Nicole, eat out with Grandma Harris, eat at several of our favorite places and enjoyed staying with Angela, Bryan, Gus and Bella.
We also got to take the kids to the pumpkin patch.
I love the fall here so much!! I love the fall air, the gorgeous colors and the incredible harvest! I feel like I am on vacation. (I know, I know, in a few months when I am suffering through the rain, there will be no vacation-y feelings.) But keep your fingers crossed that I will remember to blog through it all this time =)
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