Farewell Texas....

We are down to the final countdown......48 hours left in TX. For me and Olivia actually. For Kyle and Sam, the last 24. They are heading out in the car, along with the small Uhaul tomorrow. Olivia and I are flying out Wednesday afternoon. My mom is flying from San Antonio and laying over in DFW to connect on the same flight. She's staying for a few days to help out as we get settled into our new, albeit temporarily-permanent setting.

So, where are we going you ask??? Last weekend we had yet another fun filled, but unproductive weekend in Miami. Olivia survived her first house hunting trip. Funny enough, the first house we went to had a 'renter' family in it that happened to be home. (mom, newborn and 4yr old girl were home). Olivia made immediate friends with the 4yr old girl, and I immediately made friends with the mom. Turns out they just moved here from Tallahassee and the little girl goes to the same pre-school we are signing Olivia up for this fall. It was even the kid's birthday that weekend and the mom invited us back to meet other families/kids from the preschool. We were seeing houses during that time, so didn't make it, but am excited that we met someone already. We found a few houses we liked (again) and made yet another offer. Our 3rd to be exact.......Can anyone guess what the outcome might be at this point?? (I wouldn't know as no one leaves comments!! :) )

Well.......the process is at least getting expedited by this point. It only took 36 hours this time to find out they didn't accept our offer. We even got a 'pencil' appraisal to make sure we were in line. Turns out these people ALSO refinanced in 2006 and are now gloriously upside down on their house!!!! WTF!!!

Here's the good news.,,,my brilliant sister remembered that her college roommate actually owns a vacation condo on Miami Beach and has offered it to DeeDee from time to time to vacation. She called Rachel. Rachel agreed to let us rent it somewhat indefinitely. Lane's now soon to be living on the beach. We haven't even seen it. But, she's a cardiologist and he's a plastic surgeon in West Palm, so it can't be all that bad, right? It's 1600 sq ft, 2 bed/2 bath, all hardwood floors with balconies overlooking the intercoastal. And, they will allow Sam. She's meeting us there Thursday with the keys. It's furnished, it's affordable and for the time being, we have a place to forward our mail. Life is good!! I cannot tell you how excited I am to get 'settled'. There are many, many worse things that could've happened to someone in need of temporary housing. Thank you DeeDee and thank you Rachel. All those weekends of coming to Texas Lutheran and 'studying' really are paying off!!

So, that's where we'll be. Come visit.

I have more to update about our last weekend here. It was a lot of fun. And, sad. I don't really know how to tell friends 'good-bye'. I'm awful at it. But, more on that later.

Pictures coming from last weekend as well.

Adios Texas......

The Work Stuff.....

Don’t worry…..I have updates too on the housing crisis!! Isn’t that what it’s still called these days? And, although it still applies to us, the ‘crisis’ is slowly becoming and ‘adventure’ and I’m pretty damn excited about it!! More on that later…..

First, my apologies to Mom & Dad, because they will be learning this first in the blog and not by me in a phone call. I just forgot Mom when I talked to you last night – honestly. I get to go to a certain country that resides in between Florida and the Bahamas. Don’t want to say the name because of the whole ‘Big Brother’ thing. The whole publicness of blogging still weirds me out. If that doesn’t give it away, it’s a country that many Americans don’t visit on a usual basis (mom – it’s not Haiti – don’t worry!). As a matter of fact, I’m writing this blog as I head back from the Bahamas and I think I’m flying over it right now!! Just looked out the window – pretty funny. Again for my parents – I will be going in a completely compliant nature and following ALL necessary protocol. And, it’s not until September. I’ll make sure to post pictures after that crazy adventure. Can you tell yet that as a 36 yr old woman, I still have parents that care deeply about me and sometimes forget that they raised me well and I’ll be ok – really!?! :)

So, in between all the craziness of dealing with the move, I’ve had a few good travels lately. I feel like I can’t even remember it all since I haven’t posted about ‘the job’ in awhile. Here are the countries I’ve been to so far – Dominican Republic (3 times now in Santo Domingo), St Thomas, St Kitts, San Juan, Bermuda, Bahamas and the Grand Caymans. In the next month I get to go to Punta Cana (DR), Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama and possibly Belize. Of the ones I’ve been to, I’d recommend St Thomas, Bermuda and the Grand Caymans. The other ones (Santo Domingo excluded as it’s a major city, not ‘beach’ area), just ‘ok’ for different reasons. I’ve heard amazing things about Punta Cana, so I’m really anxious to see that one. Think a golf vacation might be in the future with that one! My biggest disappointment was with Bermuda. Not in the island, but in the trip. When I first heard this was the territory for ‘the job’, I was most excited about Bermuda. I’ve always wanted to go and have just heard amazing things about it. Well, guess what. They got 6 inches of rain in the 36 hour period I was there. 6 inches!!! It was nuts. So, another trip has to be in the works to get the full affect of the island. Here’s the funny part about the Bermudas though – they really do wear ‘Bermuda’ shorts! As business attire. Not the women, just the men. Our customer picked us up in royal blue shorts, a yellow short sleeved shirt, tie, yellow knee high socks and dress shoes. Completely normal. I had never met him before, so when he first walked up, I thought he was the valet guy or something. Then, we went to the financial district and it’s everywhere!! Sometimes, they even add a suit jacket with it. It’s really cool to see. And, very colorful. Not NYC black/dark attire.

This past week, I also had a milestone. I gave my first presentation/speech in Spanish. I’m starting to dust up on it a bit. The only country I have that speaks Spanish is the Dominican…..oh yeah – and Miami!! It’s slowly coming back. I really need to get the Rosetta Stone to expedite the process (ahem...Drew??....if you're reading this??). We had an awards dinner for one of our customers. Everyone, and I mean everyone (including our team of 6 from the states), spoke Spanish. Since I was in their country, I felt like out of respect, I needed to make the attempt. I was able to pull off some of it by memory and read my notes for the rest of it. They didn’t care – it was the effort that mattered, so I felt good about it.

Here are some pictures from the past few trips. As soon as I hit 'publish' on this blob, I'm off to the airport for my LAST trip to Dallas. I know I will be back many, many times.....just don't know when. Very surreal. I will post soon with the details of the move next week and of Olivia's 1st trip to Miami last weekend. It was a hoot!! I absolutely love my kid's sense of adventure!!

The view from my room last night in the Bahamas. We got in really late Tues night and when I woke up Wednesday morning, this HUGE cruise ship was coming right by. It looked much bigger....I swear.

Another view from the top of the hotel. It was the only beach resort I've ever seen where there is not a SOLE at the beach or the pool. I really don't know where the people where....the place seem occupied!!

It wasn't until I went onto the balcony that I realized you could see The Atlantis from our hotel. The monster that it is....and the rudest service.....EVER!!

Despite the rude serive, a few people in our group had never been there, so of course, we had to go check it out. It's pretty amazing even if the service stinks!! These pictures below are from the aquarium there. Apparently the Gianormous fish below (not the creepy eels) live to be beyond 100 years.

Might be hard to tell...but these kids are all playing with drums. It was pretty neat. They were all in the middle of this street/shopping center.

This above and below...Bermuda...and the rain!! See?? Not an ounce of sun in sight.....for miles! Above is the 'owner's qtr's of the hotel we stayed at. Doesn't that look like a great place to live??

Harry - our customer. I didn't want him to know I was taking a picture of his 'outfit'. Isn't it cute and funny at the same time? Can you even remotely going to work like this? Would those socks even be comfortable by the day's end??

I don't know this man's name. He's a 'live' folklore on Bermuda. Apprently he retired over 10 years ago. Ever since, he decided to stand on the corner of the main 'roundabout' and wave to every car as it passes by. He stands there Mon-Fri, rain or shine (obviously!), from 6-9am or something like that. He even has a bronze statue made of him on the island and you can buy a keepsake figurine of him. Doesn't this usually happen after your dead? Very cheerful mate, I must say!! God Bless 'em!

The Move.....Part 1.

Here's what it looks like when the movers come to load up your life belongings on a truck....only wish we could envision what it looks like when they unload, unpack and set up shop somewhere in, oh say,,,,,'Miami'?? We are doing some 'temporary' and 'permanent' house hunting this weekend in Miami. Trying it for the first time with an almost-4 yr old. We'll see how that goes.

As of right now, here's plan G - look this weekend in Miami. Rent beach condo for 4-6 weeks, moving in the week of 27 July. This will at least get us into the same city together and in the same city where we need to live. Looking at real estate will be much cheaper that way. And, school starts the end of August, so need to be there to figure out where Olivia will go and get her settled into some activities to meet other little people. Renting a vacation condo will at least prevent us from having to unpack our stuff twice and there could be WAY worse things than having to look at the ocean every day when you wake up, right??

Here's the move.....say 'bye-bye' to 1304 Crowley Rd......It was not just a good house, but a great house!! Here is the view I found the first time we walked into the house when it was For Sale. I knew in an instant that this was the house we were looking for. This is me standing at the sink in the kitchen. I could cook and look at this....everyday. Very peaceful and relaxing. Even more relaxing if I was enjoying a nice glass of wine at the same time.

My sweet girl's room before, in the middle and after......





The 'crate' they built for the deer, and a few other things. Below is this truck that showed up. It had everything in it these two men needed to build on-the-fly crates. They built it for the deer, two painting and a glass table.

The 53' trailer they filled up....couldn't fit everything in it!! At the end of the first day, they had to call in a small truck to finish up the job. How does that happen?? They estimated 320 boxes and we only filled up 280. I guess we have way more furniture than they estimated. And a car. In the trailer.
Olivia found her old baby chair (rocker?) they were packing in the truck and decided it made a nice chair to supervise in!

The two 'toys' going to Miami....Kyle's Harley and his Dad's Mercedes convertible.

Early in the morning.....these guys had NO idea what was coming their way. And...105f temps!! Not fun, I tell you.






The view from the bedroom window.....i will miss this!

The 'company' car going in the backend. Amazing how they fit it all (or most of it!) in there. All done. That's a wrap.

In Loving Memory.....

Jake 'Rebel Rouser' Lane '00 - '09. Our sweet, sweet dog. A few months ago, Jake was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The good news is we knew he had a short time left, so we'd spoiled him as much as possible lately. It was tough making the final decision, but knew he couldn't go on any longer. Kyle and I actually had to leave the 4th of July party to take him to the vet, as we knew he couldn't make it through the night. We have great friends and ironcially enough, it worked out well. All the kids gave him giant hugs and kisses and he was spoiled up until the very end.....I had gone upstairs to change out of my bathing suit to go to the vet. When I came downstairs, all my girlfriends had sheepish grins on their face....they decided that Jake needed his 'last meal' and proceeded to feed him brisket, sausage, chips, cake.....all the good, yummy foods one would enjoy at a 4th of July BBQ!! It was pretty funny and Jake was pretty damn happy!

We miss him dearly and Sam is quite lost without his buddy, but fortunately, there is a lot going on to keep us occupied! We are packed up and homeless......

I'll update more tomorrow. In the lovely town of Omaha tonight...jealous, aren't you? Will upload the pics and post tomorrow night with our latest. (If anyone's even reading this......)

The Last Weekend.....

We had a fabulous weekend! We started by driving down to San Antonio on Thursday to hang out with my family for the last time before moving. We made it down in time to go to the neighborhood pool and swim for a bit. Kaitlyn and Josh are getting really good at swimming and Kyle even taught Josh how to do a flip off the board. Josh is so itty-bitty and has no fear, so he was flying through the air! That night, all 8 of us went to the Ringling Brothers circus. We had a great time! It's kind of circus-meets Cirque De Soliel- meets High School Musical! Less about the animals now that PETA got involved I guess, but still really cool.

Olivia decided to stay an extra night with my parents, so Kyle and I drove back to Dallas and got to go out on Kenneth's boat for the first time. It was just Kenneth, Lili and Kyle and I, so quite relaxing. Lili warned us that the fish bite in this particular lake and unfortunately, Kyle can now vouch for it!! We stayed at the lake until after 11pm and when we got to our car, realized we had a flat tire! And, as luck would have it (we just bought the Tahoe on Wed), they could not get the spare down. Somehow, after about 45 min of messing with it, this guy appeared out of nowhere that happened to have an air compressor on his truck and gave us enough air to get us on the road. Where he came from, I still have no idea??

The next day, DeeDee and all 3 kids drove up to our house for the 4th of July festivities. I wish I could find a way to do a slide show on this thing, but until then, here are some pictures from the last Lane party!!

The 3 Muskateers......I think they really are siblings, not just cousins!!

Hmmm.....If Only She Could See Herself!

This is probably not fair. But, it's hilarious and I had to share. Olivia will probably kill me when she is older and realized I posted this to the internet. Her friend, Katie, outgrew these shoes and brought them over tonight when she came to go swimming. I don't think anyone ever assumed they would be the perfect compliment to bathing suit attire and stair dancing/singing?? Do you notice how these shoes even light up? Is this legal for a 3 year old?? I have to throw out the caveat that my daughter has not had sleep in about 5 days between the circus in SA, staying up with the cousins for 4 nights in a row, the 4th of July, the waterpark and a host of other things causing sleep deprivation (for all of us!).

(Does anyone know how to rotate videos? Can't seem to figure that one out)

When all else fails.....Blog!!!

There is so much I need to be doing right now.......the movers are coming in 36 hours and the house has quickly come undone. It has been immaculate for months, given it was on the market to be sold. Now, there is shit everywhere! (Slight exaggeration and sorry for the language, mom!) But, seriously, how do you pack when you don't know where you're going? And, you don't know how long it will be until you get access to your stuff again? Technically, we can store it for 60 days. We know that's not happening. (right?) And, what do you pack for an almost-four year old when you don't know where she'll be playing on a daily basis? The 'pre' movers are coming tomorrow to take apart the washer/dryer and pack a few big things.

So, I took today off to try and figure out what we will need for whatever 'temporary' living arrangements we find ourselves in for now. So, rather than pack it all into suitcases, I went to Target and bought out their supply of tubs.....x-small, small, med, large.....you name it, I have it here. And, they are all labeled.....Olivia' books, Olivia's bath toys, Kristin shoes, makeup, Toys, Important papers, etc. Because in the middle of all this, after this week, I will be on two week-long business trips, out of the country, with a long weekend stay in Miami in the middle. So, organization is key.

But, somehow moving will be fine. It's actually the easiest part in all this. Movers come, pack you up, drive it 1200 miles to Miami and unpack it at some point into some kind of building with 4 walls, a roof, A/C, and living space. The hardest part is WHERE? Here's my venting on the current housing situation and advice to all.......live within your means and make sure the government is aware of the impact on their regulatory decisions. Our problem is two fold - maybe more, but I can't think straight right now. First part - people got greedy in Miami with the housing boom. Instead of the normal 3-5% annual market increase, Miami experienced a 3-5% increase monthly. Yes, monthly. Imagine the value of your home going up 40% in a year. Many, many people in FL realized this and refinanced to take advantage of this. Case in point. We thought we were in great shape with the last house we made an offer on. The couple is in their 60's. Two kids in college. Lived there 20+ years. One would think the house is almost paid off, or as close to it as you could get. Right?? Nope. They refinanced two years ago to get the additional equity out so they could buy two homes on top of the one in Miami. Correct - TWO! One as a vacation home, the other as a retirement home. Obviously in retirement, you need both. So, now they owe more than the house is worth. Second problem - I don't care if you are a republican, democrat, libertarian or dictator reading this.....recent changes in govt regulation are screwing up and making a bad situation - impossible! I know it needs to be corrected. But, it's completely gone the other way. Now, you can't buy a house because the appraisal industry has gone to hell. Mr. President made some move that allowed for a 3rd party to get involved in the appraisal industry. They now take up to a 40% cut off the top. So, the good appraisers have left the business. Those left aren't making any money or 'newbies' have come in and don't know how to appraise and are completely confused with the short sales and foreclosures as comparisons. And, your mortgage lender can't pick the appraiser anymore. It's a lottery. We found out that the guy doing the last one on the house we're trying to buy did it wrong. He used three different calculations for price per sq foot on four different houses. And, none of them were correct. They think he made a $70k error. So, now we wait to see if the 2nd lottery pick is any better as they have orderd another one.

I am completely rambling now....but, I feel better. And, I now have 35 hours until the movers come and a lot that still needs to be packed. Maybe I'll open one of the leftover Coronas from our 4th of July party and get to packing......

The next post will have pretty pictures and an update from the weekend. Thanks for listening!!