ANOTHER MOVE. WHAT'S NEW?

It is well with my soul.  Being in Texas, that is!

WE ARE OFFICIALLY TEXANS, AGAIN; Austinites?  Though my southern accent has never left me, we've not been Texans in nearly 12 years.   We lived in several different states, our longest stint being Maryland (go Ravens) for almost 7 years.  Both of our children were born in Baltimore, so it will always hold a piece of my heart.  However, we most recently lived in the SF Bay Area for about 7 months.  We were able to orchestrate a move to Austin, thanks to Tim's amazing job!  Facebook has a small office in Austin, and although Tim's team isn't primarily at the Austin office, they let him move because he's THAT awesome at his job.  That's what I believe, anyway, :).

As we've gotten a bit older, our priorities have changed.  While living in Baltimore, happily planning to settle there long-term, we started saying in passing, "Well, maybe we'll move back to Texas one day. And if so, let's definitely move to Austin".   This, of course, was well before Tim's current job was even thought of.  To finally be in Austin living out our long-term plan so soon, is VERY surreal.  We never really thought we'd move back.  Hopping a plane or train once or twice a year to see family became the norm, and we were completely fine with that.  However, while living in SF, our desire shifted from "maybe one day, but probably not" to "we'd be so much closer to family...it's so much cheaper there..let's go now!". haha. The kids LOVE their grandparents, and my own grandfather is 85 and my favorite person in the world.  So, without stating the obvious, it became a mission to get us back to Texas ASAP.   I want the kids to grow up near their grandparents.  Those relationships are typically so special.  So, I kept nudging Tim to broach the topic of moving to the Austin office, instead of back to Baltimore and working out of the DC office as was planned all along.

To make a long very emotional story short, we were given the green light to move to Austin, within 30 days bought a house sight-unseen, and flew in at the end of June to sign our papers.  The kids and I moved ahead of Tim for 5 months, but Tim stayed for the first 2 weeks of July to help us get "settled".  We didn't bring ANYTHING with us aside from 8 suitcases, two carseats and a couple of boxes we shipped with valuables. And we actually survived all of this.  haha!  Tim just moved to Austin for good the week of Thanksgiving.  He lived in an apartment in SF with a roommate and visited us here in Austin once a month for a week at each time.  WE DID IT!  And we're still furnishing our house, btw.  Dude, you MAY think that's cool. IT AIN'T!  It takes MONEY. And PATIENCE.  My personality is to get everything done immediately...whatever I'm doing.  I get an idea, and it has to be fully completed that day.  So, imagine me trying to furnish an entire house.  I've had to color my hair twice as often, ;)

The summary of the past 6 months through pictures:

Moving again....

NEVER AGAIN

Our flight from Oakland to Austin...bye SF BAY!

Our first night in our new house. Our second day in Austin. (air mattress strong)

The final playdate with our CA friends. (out of order here)

Our 1st week in our house was also July 4th weekend, so some of Tim's family visited!

The kids LOVE their Aunts. 

We ain't go no couch to sit on, brah. (first few weeks)

Our first visit to our hometown from Austin.  We DROVE (6 hrs)!  Miracles do happen.

I met up with Tim in Los Angeles (note the palm) for a week in October to visit his brother and family.  Tim flew down from San Francisco, I flew over from Austin. We can do things like this now.  Grammy is so much closer!! Thank you GRAMMY!

At his brother and sis-in-laws house, acting a fool per the usual. 

Paw (my grandfather) and Gramps, the kids grandfather. 

My mom came down for Halloween!  We're taking advantage of every free weekend by seeing family one way or another.  

Babes

Sophia's homeschool group get-together; roasting smores. 

Crazies

Kid-free drive from Austin to Texarkana.  It's the little things that are the big things, for me. 

Thanksgiving

Weekend in Dallas

The kids and Grammy rode the train from Dallas to Texarkana while Tim and I visited his parents in Sherman.  We're a train family, if you haven't gathered from our previous travels, :)

Before we went to Sherman that weekend, we caught his sisters show in Dallas. EPIC!  Check our her band, Colonial Blue.  TRUE TALENT AND INCREDIBLE MUSIC. She writes it ALL.  

Unprofessional family Christmas photo

The temperatures dropped, and so did our sanity.  

 Our first time decorating our yard for Christmas

And this picture is one of the top reasons we moved back to Texas. 

We absolutely adore our new life here.  And we are beyond thankful for the many blessings God has given us.  None of it will ever be lost on me.  I also have to thank my wonderful husband for my amazing life.  Thank you Tim for all of your hard work!

(In case anyone goes back to look at previous posts on here, I did write an entry about our move, but I did not share it with anyone.  So some of the info is redundant. :). )

The great migration continued....

Remember when we moved to California 6 months ago?  Well, we just made another unexpected big move.  But, not back to my beloved Baltimore as originally planned.  I've stopped making plans at this point, because our big plan to go back to Maryland was flipped on it's head. And might I add that I was 2 days away from making an offer on a new home in Maryland, when the powers at be informed us that Austin, TX would be Tim's new jobsite.  (Facebook has an Austin office, so it's just a location transfer).  I'll spare you all of the details of how I had my amazing friend Keri go view a house for me in Maryland to purchase.  It was THAT close.  Thank you, Keri! I love and miss you!

After many debates, conversations, tears, wine, questioning, and many more tears (from me), we are back in our home state of TEXAS.  And it feels goooooood....on the inside. It feels TERRIBLE outside.  From 50 degree nights in San Francisco to 100 degree highs in Austin.  I'm dying. 

THE PLANNING, TRAVEL, AND TRANSITION (as if anyone actually cares... hey mom, I know you do at least)

PLANNING:
When we packed up our Baltimore city life and traipsed across the county via train as if we had the mental stability to do so (what were we thinking), we downsized significantly to fit into a 2 bedroom apartment.  Now we're upsizing in order to stay true to "everything is bigger in Texas". Here's the problem with that: We didn't bring ANYTHING with us, excluding 8 checked bags and 2 carseats that we flew with.  YES WE DID. We gave all of our furniture and kitchenware to our babysitters family.  I now have/get to furnish an entire house and need to win the lottery. It's so fun and so daunting.  Non-shady Craigslist ads here I come!  (I already had to drive right past a house that I was suppose to pick up a desk from...SKETCH). #needmase #oracarrylicense TEXAS!

Did I mention I put in an offer on a house from California, scheduled a 30 day closing, and signed our settlement papers the day after we flew in.  People actually buy houses site-unseen!  We aren't in our right minds.  But, we LOVE the house..thankfully.  Glad I didn't have to turn right back around and sell this joker. I'm getting out of order here. It's kind of a talent....

TRAVEL:
This one is short and simple.  I wrangled the honey badger on our 3.5 flight as he cried and cried until he fell out for the last hour.  Sophia went to sleep beside us.  And tim was nowhere to be seen until we deplaned.  I give myself the MVP of this flight... and a bottle of wine every night thereafter.  Not going into more details to relive that horrible 2.5 hours of my life.  Just know that I greyed a little more....

TRANSITION:
As I mentioned, we flew in on a Monday evening, stayed in a hotel, and signed our house papers on Tuesday.  So that we could stay in our house the first night and not have to hold up in a hotel while tracking down furniture, I bought and shipped all of our beds which met us on our front porch in adorable "assembly required you idiots" boxes. YAAAAY.  But, we had them!
It took Sophia 12 seconds to pick out her own bedroom and settle in with her gigantic stuffed dog that we flew with. (which parent approved that!?).  I was pre-occupied, ok.  Gabriel went right to sleep in his new bed that Tim uncomplainingly suffered through "building".  These kids ADJUST.  They're awesome... and just use to their parents crazy ideas, I suppose.  "here we go again, bro".  "yeah sis, they're nuts..but we have to follow them".  I can hear them now...  I always overly prepare Sophia for the change, so I feel like we just slide right into our new lives.  I've kinda mastered that I think.  It helps that I enjoy change... thank you Army life (and Tim). 


 

 

 

Our very first purchase.  Bought on amazon, shipped to our door and assembled by a very nice man that I was willing to pay to do it.  #priorities

They love their new life!

 

THE BIGGEST CHANGES:
My sweat glands have enlarged, and my hair has gotten bigger #southernhair #teasethatsh*t


More to come on settling in and finishing first grade (Sophia not me, although I NEEDED that refresher year).  For now, I'm off to watch Friday Night Lights (the show) on Netflix.  Makes sense.

-Hales

P.s. it's soooooooooooooooooo hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

11 on 11

We typically don't do the public mushy, romantic crap..but, it's time. :)

Happy ELEVEN year wedding anniversary, Tim!  June 11, 2005 we committed our lives to each other at the ripe old age of 19.  It seems like another lifetime.  We've come oh so far, and I'm pretty proud of those 2 kids.  I love you.

First of all, thank you for loving me when I don't deserve it (which is rare, let's be honest, ;) )

I'd like to take us back to the beginning.  In the beginning things were idealistic.  I pictured our love story playing out like one I saw on TV. And then you're hit with real life (that's annoying);  The Army, an Iraq deployment, a baby in the NICU for a month, navigating uncharted waters of life after the military, law school, infants, death by insane schedules, the stress and crazy that goes along with real estate investments, a move across the country for your dream job, and I could go on....

Love gets hazy at times.  But, we made it and are making it. And, I constantly remind myself of the following:

OUR LIFE HAS BEEN A ROLLERCOASTER. (yes, I just yelled that)  However, it has never been boring.  It has been full of adventure, challenges that have made me a better mom and wife ( I like to think), and accomplishments that I never imagined.  I've lived in paradise and the opposite.  I've had the pleasure of meeting some amazing people and gaining friends from all walks of life. I fully appreciate it all.  I am LUCKY to have the life I live, and I have you to thank for that.  My life is chaotic, trying, adventurous and fun.  As testing as our journey has been at times, I truly believe that I have the coolest life!  I'm beyond thankful every day that you swept that 19 yo clueless small-town girl off her feet and whisked her away to Monterey, California. Thank you, Tim, for all of the wonderful memories we've made so far.

The first 10 years were nuts! This past year we've found our way to a clearer path, and I'm ready for the next years we are given together.

My commitment will always remain the same.  I love you. 

-Hales

We were able to slip away for a few days to the very first place we ever lived as a married couple: Monterey, CA.  I can't describe the overwhelming emotions I felt going back to where we began navigating the world together away from the comfort of our small Texas town.  It gave me "all the feels"!   Not a second was unappreciated nor wasted.  We were able to stay at the Monterey Plaza Hotel, right on the water at Cannery Row; a place we only dreamt of stepping foot in years ago.  It was so special. 

We hiked, rode bikes along the coast and through downtown, ate awesome food, visited our old neighborhood and apartment, used the bathroom at my old College, and soaked in the perfection of Monterey.  I spent my first two years of college at Monterey Peninsula College, and I cried when I rode my bike up to it.  No clue why...my emotions were in overdrive!
OH, and I knocked on apartment #3 at our old complex to see if the woman and her son still lived there from 10 years ago. It was worth a try!  I thought Tim was going to have a heart attack (from embarrassment).
#nostalgia

Tim carving our initials on the tree

 

hiking at Point Lobos., Carmel, CA. and we all know pictures never do beauty the proper justice

 

Do we look cold? Freaking freezing

 

 

Our beloved.  Apartment #6

 

 

 Riding/ bawling through downtown Monterey, wishing we still lived there

 

Side note: Why Monterey?  Tim went into the Army as an Arabic Linguist, and the Defense Language Institute is in Monterey. This is where all military linguists study the specific language they were given. Therefore he was sent there for 2 years to not just learn, but master, Arabic (top of his class and linguist of the year...duh.  haha).  And since we were married, I was able to join him...We totally scored with Monterey! 

11 YEARS ON JUNE 11, 2016

"Nobody said it was easy......Take me back to the start".

-Coldplay

P.S.  Although our love story hasn't exactly played out as I saw on TV those many years ago ( I can't reference a specific romantic comedy that I'm sure gave me the idealistic view of marriage, ha), but I feel like my life is often times a sitcom without the cameras and with the occasional romance and tons of comedy.  So, there's that!  :)   #winning

Show off!

When we decided that Tim would accept the job offer and move to the sunshine state, I repeated in my head "do not succumb to anything it has to offer. do not do it. Baltimore is your home and you will be back".  WHICH IS TRUE.  Our hope is that we will move back after a year on the job here. 

unsuccessfully packing in Baltimore

HOWEVER: Good ole Cali is a complete and utter SHOW-OFF!  I mean,  I already knew that when the mountains meet the ocean it becomes a place of paradise. But, day-um.  It's gorgeous.  And, I suppose I purposely forgot about it's beauty, because I didn't want to give myself any reason to like it.  If you don't fall in love with it, you won't have a reason to stay, right?!  I'm a sensible person (don't ask Tim to comment on that).

From Day 1 here she showed off and made me like her.  Her is Cali.  KINDA RUDE IF YOU ASK ME, ;)

heading to the Golden Gate Bridge

how can you hate this view...can't.

 

 

Going back to my sensible personality (typically that lack there of).....

I dug my heels in, gritted my teeth, and told myself to thank God we have this opportunity to explore a new place. I am lucky!  I totally get that.  I changed my attitude by week 3 and have been trying my hardest to make the most of our time here...even if we did have to downsize to a tiny ass 2 bedroom apartment.  ADVENTURE!

 

 

 

DANG YOU CALIFORNIA. DANG YOU AND YOUR AMAZING LANDSCAPE.

 

 

Fact: I could eat Chow Mein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Fashionably late.... always. But not fashionably. 

This should have been written 2 months ago.  It finally dawned on me.... "bribe the kid with veggie bacon.... duh".  So here I am pounding out our "move story" while Honey Badger chomps away on veggie bacon, Little Bear is playing (probably buying more) games on the iPad in her room and Tim is working. BTW, it's Sunday... but FB didn't hire him for nuttin. However, we are going out soon... speaking of...that babysitter better get here asap! 
Anyway, I'm trying to piece it all back together, because well, I've traveled a lot since our big move, gotten little sleep, drank too much wine, and just completely forgotten many details; probably for the best.  It was baaaaaaad.

I will spare as many details as possible, because nobody actually cares.  But, I need to document.

TRAIN
1. We stayed in a hotel our last 2 nights in Baltimore, since the movers came and took all of our junk.
2. We then took a commuter train from Baltimore to DC where we then loaded onto Amtrak... thank God for sleeper cars.  If you plan to be on a train for longer than 8 hours, do first class... there is no other option!
3.  We spent one night on that train and were dropped off in Chicago.  We spent half the day at Navy Pier where I got frost bite and left my newest hat in a taxi cab.  COOLIO. 
4.  After we walked up and down Navy Pier (on the inside), we hopped a cab back to Penn Station where we loaded onto a different sleeper car to finish the second and last left of the train trip to Texarkana.  Yes, Texarkana has a tiny train station (on the Arkansas side, ewwww.  KIDDING!). But, it is small and gross. 
5.  All is fair in love and train trips:  and why wouldn't Gabriel and I both puke on the train?  I mean, it only makes sense for an already stressful move/trip to become even worse, right?  Only for the Rice's.
In all we spent 2 days and 2 nights on the train.
We made it to our hometown in what felt like millions of tiny pieces.  But, wait, we're not even to our final destination...uggghhhhh.  Everyone ended up getting sick over the course of that week we were in Texarkana; Tim, Sophia, and my mom. 

AUTOMOBILE
We then rented a car and drove 3 hours to visit Tim's parents.  We brought the stomach bug to them too! We felt real awesome about that....
On our final day in Texas, we said goodbye to Tim's family and drove another hour to the airport in Dallas to FINALLY board for San Francisco.

PLANE
My mom went with us, because NOBDOY wants to fly with Honey Badger.  Adults MUST outnumber the children.  It's my only rule when traveling.  Nobody saw Tim the entire flight... that Joker sat about 10 aisles away from us.  I don't blame him..but i was pissed, haha!  We're obviously dumb for putting Gabriel on a 4 hour flight his very first time flying. They did great considering they hate me, their ears popped for 4 hours straight, they were starving the entire time, and were never comfortable... at least that's what it seemed like.  In reality, they both slept for an hour (seemed like 15 minutes) and were overall happy.  It's so much easier traveling with Grammy..thanks mom!

LESSONS:

I learned two extremely important things during this move. 

1. I hate traveling. (although I will be doing it much more now... awesome)
2. Lollipops solve nearly everything.  Let me explain this one a bit: 

A kid barfs on a train?  Lollipop= he's happy
Siblings fight in the car over a movie? Lollipop= I get to listen to music instead
Your kids scream during the descent on a plane? Lollipop=it's suddenly a peaceful landing

You're welcome. 

Pictures coming soon, because well..i ran out of veggie bacon.  GOTTA JET!