After separating, sorting, organizing, packing, traveling thousands of miles, staying with parents for two weeks, living out of suitcases, we're almost home! Our travel trailer was finally finished yesterday. It has new tires and new carpet and all the systems work, most importantly, the air conditioning. We loaded what we've bought into it yesterday and are waiting for the air freight to arrive today to finish the work. Then Bill can finally sit back and breath a sigh of relief in his own space, for a few days, before we head to the coast.
It's all coming back to me - the two years of living and traveling in it. There were many things I enjoyed about that carefree lifestyle, but a few I didn't. It took forever to manuever around the bed to make it, hitting my head on the fan shelf and knocking my shins into the wooden base. I have to relearn how to work efficiently in that small space. I'm afraid we have way too many clothes coming, and I have to remember where I tucked all the food. Thankfully, Brendan doesn't have as many toys, but his clothes and shoes are much bigger now, and may not fit into the space it used to.
BTW - when we were backing the trailer into it's space, a park hostess drove up in a golf cart to welcome us. She said they have Sunday School every week and they're holding vacation bible school mid-July. I was a little preoccupied making sure Bill didn't back into a tree to ask, but it sounds like there might be a lot of children in the park. That would be nice for Brendan. His basketball and football should arrive today, so he can get in some practice before school starts. I always thought he was a natural at sports, but my brothers confirmed it after batting practice with Shawn and b-ball practice with Nate. He's got a good aim, and as Shawn said, "a learning spirit, willing to take instruction to improve." That could be from moving to a different country and having to relearn everthing he thought he knew and not taking anything for granted. What a great quality to have.
Gotta go. I think the movers are here!
Friday, 6 July 2007
Monday, 2 July 2007
It's Raining! It's Pouring!
We must have upset the balance of nature when we move back across the Atlantic. Usually, by this time of year, Texas is hot and dry. The grass has dried, and the landscape is mostly brown. But, since we've been back, it has rained almost every day, with no relief in sight. In England, I always complained about how I missed a good Texas thunderstorm. We've had several in the last two weeks and some great gully-washers!
If we had wanted constant rain, we could have stayed in England, which is having record rain and flood in the Midlands, too!
Thankfully, the rain has kept the temperature down some, relatively, around the high 80's. But when the sun comes out it gets steamy. I had to go buy a few more bras because I was sweating through the ones I had too fast!
The days are moving fast. We've accomplished all we wanted in anticipation of the air shipment arriving - but hasn't come yet. The travel trailer is almost complete. Bill can't wait to move in and have his own space. He's obssessed about it! I have to admit, it's not easy living out of a suitcase and mooching off of our parent's kindness, but it's a nice way to settle back in. It gives us lots of time to reconnect. Brendan is staying at my folk's house this week with his two cousins for Camp P&G (Pawpaw and Gram). They put together a full itinerary of outdoor activities and crafts, just like real camp. We stayed the weekend with my brother and his wife when we took him out. Just while we were there, we had batting practice, played croquet, made super bubble mix and giants wands to create huge bubbles, and the boys set up a shooting gallery and learned the rules of handling a bbgun. (Hey, it's Texas!) Brendan is an amazing shot! We'll pick him up when the trailer is done, so he can help decorate his corner of the camper.
As soon as we settle in, we get to test how well the RVs been overhauled. We're towing it to South Padre Island to spend the week with my parents fishing, hunting for shells, playing on the beach and trying to stay cool. It should help to kickstart our suntans for the trips to Bermuda and Floriday later in July. Our poor white skin is in shock.
For now, we're concentrated on having a fun summer. If Bill will stop obssessing, maybe we will!
If we had wanted constant rain, we could have stayed in England, which is having record rain and flood in the Midlands, too!
Thankfully, the rain has kept the temperature down some, relatively, around the high 80's. But when the sun comes out it gets steamy. I had to go buy a few more bras because I was sweating through the ones I had too fast!
The days are moving fast. We've accomplished all we wanted in anticipation of the air shipment arriving - but hasn't come yet. The travel trailer is almost complete. Bill can't wait to move in and have his own space. He's obssessed about it! I have to admit, it's not easy living out of a suitcase and mooching off of our parent's kindness, but it's a nice way to settle back in. It gives us lots of time to reconnect. Brendan is staying at my folk's house this week with his two cousins for Camp P&G (Pawpaw and Gram). They put together a full itinerary of outdoor activities and crafts, just like real camp. We stayed the weekend with my brother and his wife when we took him out. Just while we were there, we had batting practice, played croquet, made super bubble mix and giants wands to create huge bubbles, and the boys set up a shooting gallery and learned the rules of handling a bbgun. (Hey, it's Texas!) Brendan is an amazing shot! We'll pick him up when the trailer is done, so he can help decorate his corner of the camper.
As soon as we settle in, we get to test how well the RVs been overhauled. We're towing it to South Padre Island to spend the week with my parents fishing, hunting for shells, playing on the beach and trying to stay cool. It should help to kickstart our suntans for the trips to Bermuda and Floriday later in July. Our poor white skin is in shock.
For now, we're concentrated on having a fun summer. If Bill will stop obssessing, maybe we will!
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Moving vs. Dying
There are a lot of similarities between dying and moving to another country. Your closest friends want to spend the last precious moments with you. You're headed to the next exciting phase of your life. And you start giving away a much stuff as possible. Unlike dying though, when someone says a beautiful eulogy, when you move, you get to hear all the nice things people have to say about you while you're still alive and to know what impact you've had in people's lives.
I hate being the center of attention. If life is a play, I'm the one building sets in the back. I like to be involved, and I'm happy to step up to the spotlight in a pinch, but it's not natural to me. But in that quiet way, I've done a lot of things and it was nice to be recognized for them. And I got better at taking the compliments as the process went on.
Special friends started saying goodbye at least a month in advance with dinners out and gifts and speeches. At first, I could only blush and say thanks. Stepping Stones was one of the hardest. The vicar's wife was so lavish with her praise. I thought she surely couldn't be talking about me. I only put together a few crafts and made photocopies. Yet it was nice to hear that I had made a contribution.
By the time we stood up at the last church service to be prayed over, I was much more composed, and pleasantly pleased to realize how many people I had come in contact with in the capacities that I served. I absolutely didn't do any of it for the recognition. I did it for God's glory. But it was nice just the same. And to hear that they'd spoken positively about how we'd impacted village and school life at the governor's meeting and a gathering at the village hall. In a way, it was good to know that we would be missed as much as we would miss them. And that their lasting impressions of those crazy Americans was a good one, not bad.
The vicar's wife told me, "I think Texas must be the friendliest, kindest place on earth, because of you." I'm glad I've represented my God, my country and my state well. And in saying goodbye, that I had the opportunity to tell people how much I cared about them and that they had impacted our lives, too. That's a good way to go. It's sort of like a living eulogy.
It made me wonder, why do we wait until the very end to tell people how much they mean to us?
I hate being the center of attention. If life is a play, I'm the one building sets in the back. I like to be involved, and I'm happy to step up to the spotlight in a pinch, but it's not natural to me. But in that quiet way, I've done a lot of things and it was nice to be recognized for them. And I got better at taking the compliments as the process went on.
Special friends started saying goodbye at least a month in advance with dinners out and gifts and speeches. At first, I could only blush and say thanks. Stepping Stones was one of the hardest. The vicar's wife was so lavish with her praise. I thought she surely couldn't be talking about me. I only put together a few crafts and made photocopies. Yet it was nice to hear that I had made a contribution.
By the time we stood up at the last church service to be prayed over, I was much more composed, and pleasantly pleased to realize how many people I had come in contact with in the capacities that I served. I absolutely didn't do any of it for the recognition. I did it for God's glory. But it was nice just the same. And to hear that they'd spoken positively about how we'd impacted village and school life at the governor's meeting and a gathering at the village hall. In a way, it was good to know that we would be missed as much as we would miss them. And that their lasting impressions of those crazy Americans was a good one, not bad.
The vicar's wife told me, "I think Texas must be the friendliest, kindest place on earth, because of you." I'm glad I've represented my God, my country and my state well. And in saying goodbye, that I had the opportunity to tell people how much I cared about them and that they had impacted our lives, too. That's a good way to go. It's sort of like a living eulogy.
It made me wonder, why do we wait until the very end to tell people how much they mean to us?
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