Alley cat for a very long alley

Yes. we're here. how are things? where to begin?

 

B started his new work last monday & I can honestly say he hasn't been this happy going to work in years. No, really - his new partners are so happy that he's here - they sent the world's largest basket from Central Market. We've got cheese, fruit, snacks & vino to last the week.

 

Mags is ms. socialite and has met just about every girl on our street & neighborhood.  She misses her bff and her 1st grade teacher - I've set up her own email so that she can maintain contact with them and my sister - who is a fabulous "listener." She has people hanging with her at summer camp and little girls on the street come knocking a couple of times a week to see if Mags/Ally can come out to play.

 

Ally was doing great with Austin - being home - but since I went back to work last monday - she is adjusting to daycare/summer camp. The last 3 drop offs have been alternately clingy/teary but I saw improvment today already. There's lots to do at this daycare so hopefully the adjustment period will be over soon.

 

As for me, the house still has boxes and last week was my first week back to work - I like change but not flux. Does that make sense? I see the light at the end of the tunnel where the beautiful house is unpacked and organized. And I see the pros of working at home but is working through the pains of setting up my office & catching up on a mountain of backlog. So I am not quite at happy yet - but I am discovering little pleasures. watching tv at lunch time. answering emails on my porch - thanks to wifi & laptop. a greatly reduced commute - only to daycare and back. I know that I am high maintenance when it comes to nesting - especially since now I am home almost daily. I get stuck at "we need" alot. but I am trying - really I am.

 

3 things that are making me smile -

I am completely unpacked and organized in the master & kitchen - 2 places where ZEN starts.

The girls' bunk beds are ordered and they shipped last Friday - so this weekend we could potentially have those suckers up! Which means that I can get their rooms finished - Another happy milestone!

The new couch for the downstairs family room also shipped last Friday although the bookcases are on backorder until november. We can at least stop laying on the floor to watch TV.

 

til later

 

 

To all the moms who come across my space today -

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope you had a lovely day, whether relaxing, rewarding or both. Life's short. Treasure each moment.

 

AL

...listening to now? Rest Stop by Matchbox Twenty streaming on www.pandora.com - introduced to me by my boss and an Awesome discovery. Radio playing my type of music without commercials. what a gimmick.

 

...thinking about now? I was visiting Beast Mom's blog and it made me think of what George Carlin said during one of his standups about parents who try to be super-parents - "The kids who like to read will learn to read. Your job as a parent is to teach them to question what they read." I liked that. Sometimes bitter old men have some gems of wisdom. 

Why? Why is there so much to do? I went to yoga tonight to "find my center" - and to hopefully relieve the stress that I am carrying in my hips, and my shoulders, and my neck & god knows where else.  There's so much stress that I woke yesterday morning and pulled a muscle in my left shoulder/neck that I haven't been able to turn my head to the left since. It's moronic when you have to turn your ENTIRE body just so you can look to the left.  It's days like these that make me wish I have a couple of extra pairs of eyes - on the sides of my face.

 

I've started sending out cancellation letters - to utilities and service providers letting them know we're moving. I've also started looking for utility hookups in Austin. Today I had a breakthrough on the daycare search and I can only hope that my quest for a decent dance studio goes the same way. Mags got her evaluation after her first year in Company and she's somewhere between good and great. They seem to think that she has a lot of natural talent. I'd like to give her a chance to refine and develop additional skills. So if you know of a good dance studio/company in Austin - SHARE.

 

Oh & with such a long to do list looming ahead - all I want to do is watch Taiwanese dramas. SAD. so much pleasure - so little time.

 

This summer we were going to family vacation in puerto rico. Instead I am going to be moving and setting up my new home office over my vacation. Not really a vacation. Plus my mom is coming to "help." Depressed isn't really the word that I'm looking for - more like apprehensive - about the daunting task ahead of me. Closing on our dallas house. pricing and scheduling our moving company. the paperwork on our austin mortgage. closing on that house. the brightest light in the tunnel is the 5 days that we'll be living out of a suitcase in a hotel. The closest one to our house is a HyattPlace I think - But I must have room service. It's the addict in me. So it's probably not going to be the Hyatt place. maybe the westin. that's a little more "service" oriented. After the 5 days of hotel, we (me and the girls) will drive to Austin and make permanent and real our relocation. B will coincidentally be travelling for some lecture work that he is trying out for in Irvine. CA. Double BOO. Then my mom shows up over the weekend and stays the whole rest of the time while I am on "vacation" - unpacking, staging the office, driving back to dallas for ally's dance recital, driving back to austin afterwards, looking for a proper day care, looking for a horseback riding camp, looking for comparable dance studio, and who knows what else. I want a genie in a bottle - wiggle wiggle nose - nothing. BOO HOO!