Soul Sister

Andie and Donnie (and Mal) in Sept.

Said goodbye to my sis today, not for good, just until this summer. Like I said yesterday, she comes every year for Fiesta, so this Fiesta was a little bittersweet. We had a really good time living it up at Fiesta, so much so that we stayed in on Saturday night to watch a movie.

I love every moment with her. I love her laugh. I love her patience. I love her wisdom. I love her peace. She is wise beyond her years and I will truly miss her when we move.

I can only say I am the lucky one. She has a quiet grace that makes everybody at ease. She is stronger than she knows and she fights for what she believes in. I really do cherish her.

I told her today that when we see her this summer, we need to be sure to book her next visit at Christmas. As long as there is another trip in the works, I won't be too sad.

I love you beyond words, Andie. Safe travels home.

2013 FIESTA Week!

Go Spurs Go!

Well things started moving as soon as the week started. We were given a closing date, which was April 26th. So since we had a definite date, we worked on the house slowly but surely. The closing was on Friday, but we had planned some fun Fiesta events, so we needed to have our work done earlier. Tuesday night ended up being the last night we spent in our house as a family because on Wednesday we went to NIOSA and then the Spurs game. We had a blast! We went to NIOSA (Night in Old San Antonio) early and it wasn't very crowded which was nice. Then we headed out to the game. It's been forever since we've been to a game, and it was a playoff game against the Lakers so we enjoyed ourselves a lot. And the Spurs won! Thursday was a long day of work, with the students ready for their long weekend and burnt out from all of the testing that happened last week.

NIOSA!!

Andie is an awesome saleswoman.

 But my sister Andie got into town on Thursday afternoon, and it was time for some much needed relaxation town. We had a bunch of errands to run, but finally we checked into a hotel downtown and geared up for a night at NIOSA. It is tradition for us to work at my friend's booth, Steer on a Stick. It started when she was living with us 3 years ago, and she's come every year ever since. :) It makes me laugh because she is a vegetarian, but does such a good job selling the "meat popsicles" as one patron referred to it. :) We worked until 9:30 then headed back to Soho, which has also become tradition. We got back to our hotel and I promptly fell into an exhausted sleep.

Paul's bed at Grammy's

 I had to get up early and meet Donnie and Paul for breakfast before we had to go sign closing papers. While I was having fun with my sister, Donnie had moved us out of our house. He had worked most of the day on Wednesday, and Thursday evening to clear out our remaining items. He moved them all into  his parents house, and just like he had set up our house 6 years ago, he cleared it our. It seemed like a fitting full circle. We managed to downsize our five bedroom home of six years into a room full of boxes. Some of the boxes will stay packed and stored, but most of our stuff is still in active use. Looking at it all was overwhelming and on Wednesday and Thursday we felt a little bit like hoarders digging through piles of stuff.

So anyway, closing went relatively smoothly, but because it was a holiday, we'll have to wait for our check until Monday. It's funny how years ago, we may have made quite a bit in our house investment, but we'll walk away with less than $3,000. But it is money we can save and use this summer or when we get settled in China. From there, we headed back downtown to pick up Andie and go for some train rides! (Paul and his trains...:)

Another night of NIOSA!

After a super fun train ride, we went to Chuy's for some awesome Mexican food and unfortunately lost all chances for a nap. :) From there, we dropped Paul off and headed back downtown for another night of NIOSA and Gartenfest!

NIOSA was packed by the time we got there, so we visited the Irish Corner, and then the German Hall, but once our tickets were used up, we booked it to Beethoven Maennorchor.

The Riverwalk!

It was crowded there too, but we enjoyed a table right in front of the Spurs game. It was a blowout, so we headed back to the hotel. Again, I fell asleep super fast, and woke up early to start the day.

The day has been lazy, we cashed the furniture check from the people who bought our house. It was a relief to be able to finally do that. We've been holding on to their check for a month now. Then we came back home to Ron and Angie's and have been napping/being lazy for a while now. :) We did try to make some order of our stuff, so that we were less like hoarders.

I am literally taking one day at a time, so it still hasn't processed that somebody else is living in our house, and that we are never going back. Donnie did take me by so that I could say goodbye, but it's not hit me yet. I am looking forward to getting into a routine that can allow us to be more healthy and productive.

We also sent off all of our Chinese paperwork. The biggest pain of all that was trying to get those physicals done. Our health is good, but it took a total of 10 hours to get it all in order and most of that time was spent sitting in a doctor's office doing nothing. Hopefully it arrives there safely, but I'm thinking there will be some sort of problem. That's just the way life is going right now. :)

Just 30 work days left....

A few more Fiesta pics...

Nothing goes according to plan...

Fam at the soccer game

Well, since my last post not a whole lot has changed except frustrating delays. We were supposed to close on our house and move out on April 15, as of today, the closing date has not been rescheduled. So we postponed our move, and have slowed down on our packing. It is so unnerving to have a plan and a vision about how things should go, and then it doesn't. But we are trying to take it in stride and enjoy the springtime and not let it be too much of a hassle.

 So last weekend we were all pretty sick. That was the weekend we were supposed to move, so it actually worked out for the best that we could rest. We were supposed to run a ten mile race, but since I had a chest infection, we opted for a soccer game instead. They just brought a soccer team to San Antonio, so it was their first game at the new stadium. It was no Sounders game, but they had a cookout before the game and we arrived early to play a little soccer and soak in the atmosphere. Paul had a blast chasing after his soccer ball and even though he was sick he managed to wear himself out running around with Donnie. He was suitably tired when the game started, so he sat nicely through most of the game. We ran into some friends and sat with them for the end of the game and went home to sleep.

 Then the week was spent working, going to the doctor's office, and getting blood drawn. Turns out I had bronchitis, so we went to the clinic to get some medicine, and our physicals. They told us to come back next week when we were healthier, and also directed us to a lab to get our blood work done. Crazy that in order to get invited to work in China you have to have a blood screening and health screening. Do they only want healthy people? Or is there some kind of file that they will keep with all our personal information? Who knows, but I will continue to jump through the hoops to get to where we need to go. The days feel like they are slipping through my fingers and I don't want to leave things till the last minute, but what can you do when plans keep falling through?



This weekend has been fun, its the beginning of Fiesta in San Antonio. Fiesta is a super fun, weeklong, citywide party. It kicks off with several events, one of which is called Oyster Bake. Donnie's friend Kevin is the lead singer of Candlebox, and they were going to play the event, so they arrived on Friday. We all gathered at a friend of Donnie's house for a BBQ, and then headed out for an awesome night out. :)

Me and Kevin

Candlebox at Oyster Bake

It took the whole day to recover, but we made it out to Oyster Bake to see Candlebox and soak in the atmosphere of Fiesta. It gets super crowded when the sun sets, so we left pretty much after their show, and headed over to Tucker's for some delicious food. We said our goodbyes, hopefully Kevin and his family will meet us in Hawaii this summer, but if not our paths will cross sometime in the future.

And in the style that nothing goes our way, the apartment we rented for the week of Fiesta suddenly became "unavailable." This leaves us in our house for another week, and that might not be such a bad thing, but we are super disappointed. Let's hope this week goes better than last...

Stuff

So it's been another crazy emotional week, and it's only Wednesday. It's weird how I can block things out of my mind, and suddenly they are right in front of me. For example, we are moving out this weekend, and somehow I thought I was ready. We sold everything, so how are there still piles of things everywhere? We cleaned out and closed up the front room, and we will do the same for the other guest room tomorrow. I can't help but reflect on all the amazing times we've had as a family in this house.

It is the house that Donnie prepared for us to move into when we were first married. It is where we hosted innumerable pool parties, birthday parties and the unforgettable Dontoberfest. It is the house we grew into with a dog and baby. It is where friends and family have stayed, laughed and shared memories with. It has held the first Christmas for Paul, his one and only bedroom, and all that Paul knows as home.

So I know it's just stuff. That we all will have, then get rid of so much stuff in our lifetimes, but I just want to remember the meaning of it all before I let it go. Hold things one last time before I never see it again. The memories will last forever, I know this, but downsizing my belongings has been harder than I imagined. This too shall pass, and I look forward to next week when this transition is over. :)

Empty rooms and Echoes

Yummy. Paul was ready before the rest of us.

This week was one of the biggest weeks in our transition. Last Sunday was Easter, and we celebrated at Donnie's parents house. It was fun; Angie made a fabulous dinner, and we had an Easter egg hunt, then cascarones. I tried not to think that this was the last Easter together for a few years, so the day was quite enjoyable. A few of the neighbors came over and we all enjoyed the delicious food while the kids played with Paul's trains.

Egg hunting!

This week at work was stressful, our state tests for our grade level started, so there was two straight days of testing. Those days are exhausting in a different kind of way, you spend all your time walking and monitoring, which seems like it would be easier than testing. It is definitely not. By the time Friday rolled around, the family was getting sick. Donnie first, then me and Paul followed suit.

Cascarones! Paul loved them!

The week had been full of people coming over and buying items that were listed on Craigslist, so by Friday there were only our tables left to sell. One of Donnie's friends bought the coffee tables, and we started to gather all of the miscellaneous items around the house for a garage sale. I haven't had a garage sale since I was a kid, so I've never actually been in charge of one. So needless to say, I was a little unprepared for the amount of work needed.

We went to bed early on Friday night, to wake up early on Saturday morning to set up. Donnie's parents were kind enough to watch Paul so we could focus on selling, and that's exactly what we did.

The Sale.

It started off slowly, but we had enough business for a few hours to sell off most of what we had. It's funny that most of the stuff we sold was to our neighbors, some of which we'd never met. There are some really friendly people in our neighborhood, too bad we're leaving.

Goodbye, glassware.

After a sleepless night with a sick Paul, Donnie did most of the work for the second day of the sale, and as of now, it is done. We made roughly $1400, which is more than I ever remember making as a kid, but maybe my parents didn't ever tell us the full amount. ;)

Slowly emptying our house.

Now the room that was my favorite, the one next to the kitchen is completely empty, and Paul's room is organized into a set of piles. His furniture sold during the week. We are making the best of it; Paul is enjoying the extra room to ride his bike and listen to his voice echo.

Looking forward, we have one week to move out of the house we started a family in. Last night, when I was laying awake with Paul, I thought about how many nights I had spent in his room, sleepless ones,  nursing him and rocking him. Crazy that we won't be in our home in just a few days.

The thing is, my home is with Donnie and Paul. Wherever we are. So I will always cherish the memories we have in this home, but I know we will have so many more in our next home.

On a lighter note, we did sneak in some time to go to the Valero Texas Open. One of Donnie's friend gave him VIP tickets, so we enjoyed free food, beverages and seats there. We even walked around and saw some famous golfers tee off. Another thing off the San Antonio Bucket List. :)

The view from our seats, 18th green.