Education

In the middle of this moving madness, I have to get the kids ready for school.

Unfortunately for Ginger, she misses the September school deadline by just a few months. She is a very mature girl for her age, and has been ready to start school for the last 2 years now. With Dutch school coming up, and her readiness, I felt it very important to find her a good preschool. Turns out Plano is an expensive place to put your kid in preschool. When Winter was in preschool in Boise, I paid $90 for 3 days a week (3 hours). In Plano, I'll end up paying $280 for 5 days a week (3 hours). But that $280 will be totally worth it for Ginger! I'll just work a little extra to make up for the cost.

Ginger's preschool is part of the Plano school district. It's fairly far away from my in-law's house, and after driving over there, I considered finding a closer one. Luckily I decided to go in anyways, just to talk to the administration. Turns out Ginger can be picked up by the bus at the Elementary school, and dropped off at the preschool. Sure, they make me pay extra, but that extra is still less than it would be for me to drive her myself in the suburban. Plus I don't have spend an extra hour in the car every day. I'm also extra excited about Ginger getting to ride the bus, since the older kids have been able to do that for the past 3 years. Plano ISD doesn't have school buses, because everybody lives in such close proximity to the school anyways.

Winter and Sterling's transition should be fairly smooth. Andrews Elementary is a wonderful school (Winter attended there our first 3 months in Texas in 2007) The supply lists are scaring me though, because as an educated woman, I'm not sure what several items are. I'm starting to understand why some people choose to purchase their supplies in a packet, through the PTA.

Home into a house

We are turning our home into a house. Our little slice of heaven, into a property with 20 acres. If I was the weepy type, I'd get teary eyed from the idea of leaving all of this behind. WHAT were we thinking?

I just have take a step back, and look at exactly what we were thinking

• Joe has been ready to switch up his job/career for the past 5 years
• Texas is too hot
• I've wanted to move back to Holland for a while
• This house has a LOT of maintenance, so much so, that sometimes we couldn't enjoy our little heaven, because we had too much work to keep it marginally kept up

These past few days have been insane. Since we got the updated repair list, we hired Joe's friend Luis to come help with repairs yesterday. They fixed drywall
Joe tore the rotted wood from the chicken coop and workshop, and replaced it with brand new siding.Simulaneously we also had to get ready for this morning's moving sale. That meant hauling all of the excess "crap" out of the house and workshop. I'd say the sale was a success, and it was total madness the first 2 hours. We had anticipated early birds, so we'd locked the gate at the end of the driveway. Good thing too, by 7.50am we had 4 trucks lined up. In the midst of the madness, the money was just flying into my pockets. My kids would hand me a 20 and tell me they need a 5 for change. Or buyers would give me money and say stuff like: that's $100 for the lawnmower plus this, that, and the other. I just had to take their word on it.

As with any other sale, despite of all the sales, we have a lot of leftovers. Most of that is going to Goodwill, but some of it needs to be sold on Ebay (what a pain!), or craigslist. I'm sure glad we started this selling process early!

The animals are the other thing that we started early with.

Cattle: sold, last week, still on our property

Chickens:Sold, today. Except.... one chicken was sneaky. Last night we caught all of them while they were sleeping, and we got all of them from the chicken coop. This afternoon, I went to the workshop, only to see a straggler chicken walking out of the bushes. Now I'm trying to decide whether we'll sell it too, or maybe have her as a ceremonial go-away dinner
Cat(s): Adopted. I'm not sure if it was fate, or just dumb luck, but one of our 2 cats disappeared just a few days ago. So now we only have 1 cat to adopt out: Patches. Patches is our longest surviving cat here at the ranch. We've had him for almost 2 years, which greatly surpasses any amount of time other cats have survived here.

Dog:Still up for adoption. We haven't actually put him on Craigslist yet, but we are confident someone will want to adopt him, especially being a good herd/guard dog. The day that Justin goes, will truly be a sad day for me. I'm not a dog person, but I love Justin. He's just such a good dog! He's obedient, friendly, protective, beautiful, and sweet. I'll miss him a lot!
Ducks: staying in the lake, with the house.

So Here I sit, in my usual spot, looking out a great sunset, and realizing it's one of the last few precious sunsets I'll experience at the farm.

Melt away

I can feel the stress melt away. The buyers are only giving us an additional 3 (relatively easy/cheap) repair items, which their bank requires.

One of those items is very silly, and the buyer agrees. The bank wants us to strip off peeling paint, replace rotten wood, and paint to match the....... suspense...... chicken coop! The buyers think it's so silly, they even offered to come up the day before closing and do it themselves.

We also have to replace the siding on the shop, fill in some dirt around the foundation, and of course do the rest of the items on the list. Tomorrow, Joe's buddy Luis will come and help to knock some of this stuff out. So now I'm feeling super confident that everything will work out, and that we'll close on August 31st.

Earlier today, with my diminished confidence in a positive outcome to the house sale, I still went down to Plano to register the kids for school. I even joked with the Leonard school that we might come back after all (if the sale fell through). Plano schools are very strict when it comes down to their proof of residence. Since we'll be living with the in-laws, and won't have a rental contract, Joe's parents have to sign a notarized form stating we'll live with them. Then they have to come in person, and show the school their driver's license. I guess the school district is afraid people will sneak into the school while living out of boundaries.

Now that the house thing is solidifying, I really need to spend some time finding a good preschool for Ginger. I'm worried that she'll get to the Dutch school, and be very behind all the other kids. Children in Holland start school on their 4th birthday. They'll attend preschool 1 or 2 years, depending on when their birthday is. So Ginger would have already been in school for 1.5 school years by the time we get there. Preschool in Plano is very expensive, but since we'll be living in Plano, I'll be able to work extra days with grandma to make up for it.

Flashing lights

I'm an upstanding citizen.

At least when it comes to my driving record.

Until today, I'd only been pulled over by the cops once. It's a pretty cool story....

It was only a few days after I got my driver's license, when my Dutch friend Marcia Streuper allowed me to drive her car. It was a very exciting occasion, since all I had was a bike. So we hopped in the car. It was dark outside, so I turned the light knob to the right. I can vividly remember where I was driving by BYU campus, in a 30 mile speedzone, when a cop turned on his lights behind me. I checked my speed gauge, and then the speed limit sign at the side of the road, and knew I wasn't breaking any laws. So I kept going. I don't know why I thought flashing lights were not a sign for me to stop. Did the cop just turn them on for fun? Would he turn them back off once he realized I wasn't speeding? Of course the answer is no, but I guess I was clueless. It wasn't until he turned his sirens on that I decided it was time to pull over.

So he pulled me over, and asked for my license and registration. Now you would think that since I had just gotten my license, I would proudly have it on me at all times of the day. Another clueless moment I guess, because I totally didn't have my license. The cop informed me that he pulled me over for not having my headlights on. I was confused. I remembered turning the know to the right. Well... turns out the first switch just controlled the parking lights (why would they design the lights like that? like you would ever only need parking brakes??)

So I explained my confusion about the lights. I also explained that the reason I hadn't pulled over, was that I had just moved from Holland, and the rules were different there (really?!?).

Right about this time I started bawling. Not to try to get the cop to take it easy on me, but because I was freaking out. What if he had to take me to jail? I don't know if it was my blond hair, or the tears, or my stupidity, but he let me off with a warning. Thinking back to that, I'm amazed he let me go that easily. I didn't stop, I had no license, and my lights were off.

Forward 11 years. I was on my way back from some girl time in Bonham, when a car was kind of riding my tail for a minute. I was expecting them to pass me, but then the flashing lights came on. In my wiser state, I immediately pulled over. Then I remembered the tips my father-in-law gave me about being pulled over at night.

• turn on your cabin light
• get out your license
• roll down your window
• put you hands on the steering wheel
• greet the cop in a friendly manner

Those things all help the cops to feel safer. The cop who asked for my license and registration was obviously new. He seemed very timid/scared, and didn't immediately tell me why he pulled me over. Even though the adrenaline was rushing (because of those dumb lights), I was quite confident in my innocence. My first instinct was that one of my rear lights was out. That was pretty close, it was actually the license plate light. After checking my spotless driving record, I again came away with a verbal warning.

So that's my complete record of pull-over history. Twice in 11 years of driving- not too shabby.

Adjustments

We make adjustments as the furniture slowly disappearsFor a while the stress of selling was gone. I wasn't a nervous wreck anymore, we had a solid buyer who loved the house. The stress is back. They still like the house, but after the home inspection they are freaking out. First of all the inspector was over the top, and pointed out

every. single. little. thing

that wasn't brand new. Also, this house was built 15 years ago, in a county where code regulation is different than urban areas. So some things are done differently than might be current code. At this point the buyer has a lot of concerns, but hasn't made any demands as to what he wants us to fix yet. We still have a good hope that the sale will go through, with the aid of some negotiating, but there's still a chance they could decide to pull out.

And then where would I be?
In an empty house!

So today I can't find the gumption to keep packing. All I want to do is make time fly by faster, so I can stop worrying about what might happen.

10 years

10 years fly by fast, when you're having a good time. I can't believe it's been that long since Joe and I tied the knot. To celebrate, I planned a surprise weekend for Joe. I've never done anything like that. In the end I think it was more exciting for me to have the surprise, than for Joe.
We've lived in Texas for 3 years (we arrived here on August 16, 2007), and have never gone anywhere south of Dallas. When I was researching what to do, I found some caves close to San Antonio. From there I planned the weekend. We drove down to Austin Friday night, and spent the night at Joe's cousin Billy (and family) house. They gave us the star treatment, including fresh roses and chocolates on our pillows!After a good late night chat, we got up early to head to the cave. The Natural Bridge Caverns have a LOT of commercial tours. Not my cup of tea at all. Walking down a concrete path has never been my idea of a fun activity. 2 tour guides took Joe, me, and 3 other people on an "Adventure tour" deep into the cave. First we were lowered by a wench into a 22" well shaft, 160 feet deep into the ground.Once to the bottom, we actually landed at the commercial part, but from there we passed the end of the "sidewalk" onto the rocks. The guides kept stopping every few feet to tell us all about rock formations, and other information. It took a long time to make it through the 5 different "rooms" of the cave.At one point we did a "repel", which I think was built into the tour, just so they could say that. The decline was barely 45 degrees, so it was more of a safety precaution.In the end we had 15 minutes of complete darkness. What a weird experience! My eyes started kind of hurting, almost like the pupils were trying their hardest to let some light into my eyes.
The 4 hour tour turned into a 6 hour tour. Joe and I both think that the guides would rather stay inside the cave, than get out and do their regular job.Something funny/annoying happened to me. The tour instructions said to wear hiking boots. So I pulled out my fancy Columbia snow hiking boots that my friend Challis gave me a few years ago. It hadn't been 15 minutes after I put them on, that I noticed this
I wonder if Columbia would have sent me new boots if I had showed them this picture?? Luckily they had some ducktape, so I could be the ghetto fabuloustest person there.

We made our way to San Antonio and to the Bed and Breakfast. That night we headed to the riverwalk. What a fun treasure! We stopped an had dinner at an Irish pub right next to the water. It reminded me of the old days of sitting at a "terrasje" in Holland. Just sitting there and watching people.Later at night we went to a piano bar. That was the first time I'd ever done that, and really enjoyed it. The musicians were amazing! It seemed like they could all play at least 3 instruments. People would just request a song, and they would know how to play it. really amazing!
Sunday morning we hit the historical site of the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. There's some real history there. (although I found myself comparing it to European historical sights, and it didn't quite measure up...)Some funny things we saw on the way:sometimes my GPS isn't the smartest. I had set the preference to "fastest route". Instead I think it did "most use of freeways", or should I say "use as many of the freeways in the town, while making a spiral out of town"

Chase a Chicken

I made a big mistake today.

2 stray dogs were sitting on our driveway. I wanted Justin to chase them off, so I whistled for him. By the time he came, the other dogs already came up to me to say hi. They were very friendly. So when Justin came to see what I wanted, he thought those dogs were friends. If a strange dog comes on our property, Justin chases them off. But when our friends' dogs come over, Justin plays with them...

At first I didn't really mind. But that quickly changed when they decided it would be fun to chase chickens. Of course once they started running, Justin got into the mood and joined in the fun. So I jumped off the couch, grabbed a piece of re-bar, and started chasing the dogs, trying to scare them off. I managed to get them all the way off the driveway. Right about the time they were gone, I discovered my feet were covered with thorns and prickly things. I also noticed for the first time that it was 105 degrees outside, and that my body was drenched in sweat. It took a considerable amount of effort to make it back up the driveway.

Of course they came back. All my loud screaming, chasing, and craziness was for nothing. But the difference between this time and last, was that I just didn't care enough to chase them off again. I did yell at them, but they didn't seem to care at all. I was also ready to bring in bullet reinforcements. After consulting with Joe on the phone, I loaded my pistol with a pellet bullet. Unfortunately there was only 1 bullet. Turns out I'm not a very good shot. Those dumb dogs just looked at me when I shot at them. They didn't even flinch at the loud noise. At one point I even considered tying them up to keep them from chasing, but they just got away each time. I wasn't ready to shoot/kill the dogs, so today I had to rely on Joe to fix my problem. When he came home, he ran them off with the car, and they didn't come back again. So much for being self-sufficient...