I'm Back!

So, I finally got the old laptop all set up and have found a moment.

And by 'set up', I mean that I brought it up from the car finally and then plugged it in.

And by 'found a moment', I mean I should be dealing with these boxes but I'm starting to think boxes get a bad wrap.  Is there a specific reason we can't just keep all of our stuff in them?  Seems like a good plan to me.  I mean the first thing people do when they are homeless is turn to boxes.  Why do we need to wait until it gets to that low point?  Why can't we show them respect and make them part of our lives in the good times too?


So, the ride down here was spent texting my 11 year old nephew things that would sound funny when he listened to them on his cell phone via the little robot in his phone.  You know, like fart and other mature things.


 It was also spent with my husband grappling with the fact that unlike the drive he made with the first car on his own, sans children, we were going to have to stop 2939793804 times with our kids.  At our last stop for dinner, I swear I thought he was going to get out of the car and drop to his knees while flailing his fists towards the heavens.  


Soon after that stop, blessedly the children both slept.  At this point we had completed about 5 hours of a 14 hour trip.  We decided to push through as the idea of stopping at a hotel, waking up the girls, dragging crap in and getting settled again seemed like the suckier option.  So instead, we drove straight through and arrived at our new temporary apartment at 4am.  During that time I slept, then woke up in a white hot fear that my husband was going to drift off while driving, about ten times.  Finally around 2am, I decided to stay awake.  I'm so glad I did, because we got to see this:

A billboard advertising two dogs paying tribute to the dogs onboard the Titanic via webcam.

It's nice to see in these harsh economic times that dogs can still find work.

and this

 Random Paul Bunyan statue outside an antique store on the interstate.

Of course, I didn't want to miss out on the big moment when we crossed into Texas!   I set my camera phone up and sat in the car at the ready, trying to see through the dark of night to catch the sign welcoming us to our new state.  This is a huge moment, I thought, and I'm going to capture it.  Years from now, we'll be going through our pictures and say, "Oh, hey!  This is from the night we first entered into Texas!  How cool!".

So I obviously didn't want to mess this moment up!

So here it is!  My attempt to get the sign that welcomed us to the Texas border and our new lives!

                                                                                                                 

  Yep, I screwed it up.  

The picture flashed about half a second after we passed it.  Whatever, we can always find the border sign on the Google machine, so get off my back.


So far life in Texas is grand.  Spring is beautiful here.  I'm trying to push out of my head the fact that it is 80 degrees in April, meaning July and August.....well let's deal with that when we get there.


Amongst the settling in adventures we are having, there is a sadness that settles in often.  We love our city, but there is a major void here knowing we can't drive to any of our friends or family.  It's a sadness mixed with hope that is reminiscent of leaving for college.  Then the next time I felt it, I was graduating from college and starting out new again.  


Those things turned out incredibly well for us, so I am going to just push through until this does too.