moving, moving everywhere

so, we close on our house mid-April, we move to our new house sometime in May, and then I move to Austin.

I was thinking just a second ago about the things I'm excited about moving to Austin for and one thing stuck out in my head like a firecracker: WASSAILFEST. I'm such a country mouse.

eh?

Spring Break is over, and it flew by.  We went to Arkansas to fish but had far less luck than last time, as there had been mega storms recently.

There were several highlights of the week, mainly my father in law being doped up on painkillers from a very recent shoulder operation and the quote, "Theresa, take this sandwich" to which Theresa replied, "What sandwich, dad?" because he was not, in fact, holding a sandwich, nor was there any sort of sandwich nearby.

I actually had to force myself to relax - every time a thought of school popped up I pushed it away with thoughts of trout and how cool the water that I was wading in was.  I have 5 weeks of school and a thesis left and then I am done with schooling for a very, very long time.  I can't wait. 

I've started packing for moving and I came across a box of high school/college stuff...old love letters and graduation cards, which I mostly tossed, except for the one from my first boyfriend where he tried to use the word "quixotic" in a sentence about me and graduation cards from my grandpa who died recently.  Not recently, but, well, recently.  I made the mistake of opening a journal from the last part of my relationship with THE ex-boyfriend and I relished in the sentence "I have the feeling our relationship is dying..."  I threw that journal away, it was mostly about him and made me very sad because things were ending.  Reading all the highlights from my junior and senior year put me in kind of a funk, and then I pulled out my hubs's Christmas present to me a few years ago of all the Emails we've ever sent to each other starting with one back in March of 2002.  I sat and read the whole thing.  It's not one of those lovely dovey chronicles of puke but every bit of our first awkward moments, through the tumultuous time of me being in Spain and then London and then his job training.  It made me smile all the way down to our toes, especially the last quote in the book that I added to an  Email - "Things do not change, we change" (Aristotle).  

I've been thinking a lot about that today, people changing. Expectations and motivations and everything in between, which brings me back to being done with school in that I'm hardly going to know what to do with myself when I don't have schoolwork plus SAMT meetings, theses, or anything scholastically related to be obligated to.  To be honest I'm really looking forward to it, to doing all the scrapbooking/sewing/sending letters to my friends/baking/cooking/painting/maybe finally taking that pottery throwing/photography/creative writing/gardening class that I've been thinking about for the last almost decade.  Phew.

spring break: day 2

I am still exhausted from yesterday's events - the St. Pat's parade on Greenville in Dallas. I had a really good time with good friends, good beer, good food, good jello shots, good shameless schmoozing for beads, etc. etc.  Maybe it's because we watched Rendition last night after the festivities, but I came to the realization that all of that waking up early, buying tacos, buying beer, putting on sunscreen, standing around for 3 hours and having to stand in line for sketchy bathrooms was just waaaaaay too much work to put in for a sunburn and a mild hangover.

Maybe this is me growing up again, realigning my priorities, as per usual when the seasons change. But, when you realize that you and your husband can put this kind of effort in and keep making excuses for not going to/finding the right church, there's something a little off-kilter.

Note to self: no matter how hungry you are, do not freaking eat the meat you gave up a few months ago.  I had a big yummy piece of barbecued chicken and a couple pieces of sausage yesterday because I was *so* terrifically hungry after the parade...and my entire system is giving me hell for it today in the form of stenchified poots. Blegh.

In awesomer news, I got a music therapy internship in Austin for 6 months starting in June, which puts me in line to graduate in December and also a boost for my resumé because it is at a psychiatric facility.

And, we got a new tent today on a sort of impulse-buy...April and May cannot get here fast enough¡

high on sugar...and the weather.

i could kick my barista's butt for suggesting the new sweet tea - it's black with sugar brewed into it which, thanks to the coupling of that and the cranberry orange muffin has sent me over the edge of a sugar mountain so that now i'm like, free floating all tweaked out like through my day.  

Jesus take the wheel..

...and my papers and projects and everything related to school, buying/renovating a house, possibly graduating soon, being a fantastic wife, feeling crampy and barfey for the last two days and/or getting an internship.  

Please?

the week before spring break: chaotic.

There is nothing quite like waking up at 6am to get to class early the day after daylight savings (read: extra painful) AND after going to bed at 11:30pm, only to get to class and have your professor not show up! Gah!

This past weekend in Austin was awesome. The internship interview went really well, and I got the chance for some one on one time with a girlfriend who I feel like even though we've known each other for 7 years, I know her better after this weekend. The baby shower was also a huge hit but did I take any pictures? Of course not! I was too busy being one of three hostesses with the mostesses.

Now we're back to Dallas and I think the hubs and I have finally figured out a game plan for our kitchen renovations. Hopefully we'll hear back from the electrician soon. The most interesting part of all this has been trying to figure out our collective style, to come up with a kitchen that works AND is aesthetically pleasing to both of us. We've pretty much settled on the types of cabinets we want and that we would like to put an island in. We go round and round about the floors (one type of floor in the kitch and the rest hardwood or hardwood all over or cork maybe but definitely NOT tile etc. etc. etc.). I'm excited about having a piano in the house, and really about painting everything. This is so typical boys vs. girls thinking but the hubs is really into the hardware and the behind the scenes stuff (AC etc.) and when he asks me what I think about what we should do to this room or that I start talking paint colors and hardware from Anthropologie *drool* Go figure, eh? Also on our list is fixing the fence so our dog can't get out...the last person who owned him mentioned that he is an escape artist...so, we can't have chain-link fences and he could easily clear a 4-ft fence if he needed to. Decisions, decisions.

morning swim

I know I'm not exactly saying anything new when I say that I love Austin. ESPECIALLY in March. Unfortunately, my Spring Break does not coincide with SXSW, or else I'd finagle a way to be down here this coming week. Anyway, in keeping with my tri workouts, I had to swim today, and the friends we're staying with don't go to Lifetime any more so they said I should go to the local outdoor pool...heated, of course. After many twists and wrong turns I finally made it to the community pool, where the girl standing guard straight up told me I was crazy for swimming in this cold of weather. She uncovered a couple lanes for me and I got about halfway through when I looked over to my left, the darker water where the lanes were still covered up.

And, I FREAKED out. I think it has a lot to do with growing up swimming in lakes and rivers where dark water = cold and scary. Anyway, I tried to relax but think that all the stress coursing through my body made me nauseous when I got out of the pool. But hey, at least I'm sticking to my routine :)

Back to loving Austin, I woke up at about 6:30 to swim and turned on 107.1 KGSR...there is nothing better than waking up to that radio station. I've decided that Kyle and I need to work on some sort of 10-year plan to get back to Austin.

bzzzzt!

going through a house inspection is totally overwhelming!  The good news is that aside from some electrical work, everything else is mostly good!  Just little things here and there.  The next step is getting the electrician out there, then talking to contractors about work.  I can't help but feel this like, urgency to get everything done and at the same time an overwhelming sense of peace.  

Wacky.

cross your fingers for a clean bill of health

inspection day is tomorrow - I'm really excited and nervous about this.  Excited for obvious reasons, and nervous because I'm really allergic to mold, and don't want there to be any bad stuff.  The foundation looks pretty solid...no huge cracks in the wall or anything like that.

We've been talking about redoing our kitch first thing when we close, which has sent us into a rightful tizz about appliances and flooring options.  There's so much to think about!  Everyone's general advice is that redoing a house is super stressful.  We're heeding the warnings and vowing to keep communication lines open and be realistic about our budget.  I can't wait to get in that house and start fixing it up!  April 22nd can and can't get here fast enough ;)

not only a house but...

cars in snow!

Jake in snow :)

!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUR OFFER WENT THROUGH!!  WE HAVE A HOUSE!

the master bathroom that will soon be expanded...

and our fabulously retro kitch :)

garden party, anyone?

It was built in 1959...1632 sq. ft.  The cool thing about this is that the last people who put an offer in on the house put a higher offer than our original one and it got rejected.  Also, we put in an offer, got it countered, then we countered, and totally expected another counter but they accepted it and it was a little under our target price - so we're like, supposed to have this house!

We close April 22nd God willing - we've got all that inspection stuff to get through this next week.

confirmation

Today we went and checked out house #2, were only mildly impressed, then went back to house #1 that we originally put an offer in on.  As we walked around, I said, "Man...I hate to be all impulsive about this, but I really like this house better.  Like, a lot better."  My hubs did too, which was totally awesome :)  I had forgotten how great the closet space is, how little the guest bathroom needs updating, and the oodles of charm.  And, in reference to my other post about the coincidences and such, this trip seemed to be more of a confirmation that this house is the righgt one for us.  The seller countered our offer and we countered right back, but the process is going super slowly because she had a BABY on Saturday night! What timing!

Keep all of us in your thoughts and prayers the next couple days!

spinning away

I have totally slacked on tri training this week, which sucks because last week I hit all of my sessions.  I made it to swimming on Monday and Wednesday but didn't run or do any short bike rides at all.  I know!  Terrible!  However, now that we're into March and into the training schedule timeframe, I'm going to have to be more dedicated about this.

This morning I went to a spin class at 9am and actually got clipped in in under 15 minutes (an unbelievable first for me) and ended up going a whole 12 miles!  The sprint tri is 13 miles, and the training guide has long training rides going up all the way to 3 hours - I guess to build up endurance.  I'm feeling a more pressing need to get my bike worked on and a helmet because I want to start doing this stuff outside/work on transitions, and get down to Austin to figure out where the track is going to be as well as do some riding on the illustrious Hwy. 360.

In other biking news, Lance Armstrong was at the Richardson Bike Mart recently, doing a birthday ride with Mr. Hoyt.  That would've been so ridiculously amazing to be there - what a treat!  That's part of the reason I'm looking forward to living here...the Mart has rides on Saturdays and real spin classes.

Anyway, hopefully next week will be better.  I can't stop this stuff - it's addicting, and I have to stay in this new jeans size ;)

peace like a river

Kelli pointed out to me that "peace like a river" is a funny concept, because sometimes rivers are totally peaceful, but sometimes they are totally not.

Growing up I was taught every bend and twist of the Guadalupe River from my dad's motel to Gruene.  I still know that river the way I know my own body, still know the curves and bends, which side you want to be on to prevent capsizing or scraping your ace on the riverbottom.  My favorite time of year was the end of season, when the river authority would release water from Canyon Dam at much higher levels (3,000 - 5,000 CFS) than typical tourist days (around 250 CFS, depending on how much or little rain had been received that year). On those high river days, there weren't many rapids and you could fly down from Canyon Lake to Gruene in about 4 hours, which would normally take 8.  On the lower-CFS days, though, it seemed that the river struggled to get downstream.  It was those days that made me severely nervous about Hueco Springs.  For a video click here.

There's a rock in the middle of the river, which I was always strongly cautioned to stay away from at the risk of being sucked in the undercurrent and smashed against the rock, or worse, held underwater in that crazy washing machine-like chaos until spit up long after I had ceased breathing.

So, when I think about "peace like a river" I can't help but picture the calm and treacherous bends of the Guadalupe, and right now in my life seems to really reflect that picture.  Besides all the stuff that's going on in school (see previous post), today we put a bid in on a house that would require significant upgrading, but we really love the location and the prospect of updating a house.  Not five minutes ago, the hubs called me into the living room to look at a house that is the exact square footage, in the same price range and had been recently updated.  We're going to try to go look at that house either today or tomorrow.

I know that no matter what, we'll have a house probably by May and that we'll be in the place we're supposed to be.  I just think it's funny because I had no reservations about buying the fixer-upper, but was still praying that if we were supposed to be somewhere else, that God would make that available.  Coincidence?  Don't really know that yet.