i want to remember this week. this night. we are inside of 48 hours of our closing appointment to purchase a home in austin. just a mere 8 months after relocating to austin. 8 months after our son was born. what a change the past 8 months has held!
i remember the sea of emotions we went through in the transition from fredericksburg to austin, the last few feelings of sheer excitement of what the future held - we were so anxious to get into the apartment here that we moved one week earlier than originally planned. we imposed on ellie's birthday (i don't really think she minded) to utilize family who were already in town for the birthday party. we all caravanned i believe at least twice that weekend from the 'burg to austin to drop off loads of stuff, and then all of us (the 4 who live here, both sets of grandparents, and an aunt; that makes 9 and a dog) worked to unpack and get settled in a little bit. but we were so anxious to be here!
the next week, i believe, we went door to door and invited our neighbors, via a cup of cookies and a tag with time/date, to hang out one sunday evening behind our building in the green space. we met our first few neighbors. ross, who lives next door to us, has become a friend of eric's - in fact, eric's over there now spending one last evening as neighbors. i love that eric had the heart and desire to spend time building that relationship over the past few months, and then took the time out of doing things (like packing) to spend with a person. my husband rocks.
we also met jetty, an older single woman, who lives on the other side of our building, and closes on a house of her own next week. and although she's slightly crazy (who's not, really?) she always says "hi" when we run into her in the parking lot, and always tries to talk to ellie. she was the one who talked me into trying the HEB in buda "because it's nicer" (it's not) and she's now buying a house in kyle to get "a little more out of the city." she told us we should do the same. ha ha!
i hope and pray that we are as vigilant from the start to meet our neighbors on our new street. eric got to meet our next door neighbors (kind of) last week. when we were walking through our house once more just for fun, our realtor's kids watched a movie in her suburban - and thus killed her battery. with not a set of spark plugs between the two of us, eric headed over and rang the doorbell. grandma was babysitting the kids, and didn't interact much except to loan a pair of sparkplugs, but the contact was made. and a funny story to go along, "remember that time we came to borrow spark plugs...yeah, great first impression..."
there's an older-ish man across the street (i think that's what i saw), and i hope we can assist him in meeting some of those homeowner needs that become less easy as you age - perhaps helping with the yard, or little odds and ends around the house. who knows...
on a lighter note, i want to remember tonight. i've been packing all that i can fit into any box we have left. we're seriously running short. dang, moving takes lots of boxes! but i digress...
i planned our menu this week knowing that i'd already packed up much of the kitchen, but kept out the essentials for 3 home-cooked meals still. monday night was taco salad - no problems. tuesday night was homemade pizza; i forgot to buy pepperoni, so it was just sausage and cheese; no real problem, just no variety.
tonight, though, was the grand finale. chicken tenders (tyson, frozen, heated in the oven) with fresh green beans and homemade mashed sweet potatoes. so i get ready to peel the potatoes. oh, wait. all THREE of my peelers are in a box somewhere. a big one. unaccessible. so i peeled with a knife (careful not to cut off any fingers). then i realized, thank goodness before cooking them, i also didn't have a masher or my hand mixer. so the potatoes were cut into teeny tiny pieces to facilitate faster, more thorough cooking. mashed with a fork, slightly lumpy, but overall ok. the green beans got steamed with a cereal bowl over the pot because all the lids to my pots/pans are packed. with the peelers. oops.
and finally, i decided that since no more cooking will happen in this apartment, i didn't need my spices - into a box they went. including all FOUR bottles (2 unopened) of liquid smoke. i only use it for baked beans. goodness, that's a lot of liquid smoke - we could make all our food for the next year and a half taste like mesquite BBQ. maybe something to try...
i realize this post is long, and with no pictures to entice anyone to read further, so i promise pictures with the next post. of the house? of the kids? of our new neighborhood park/playground? who knows...stay tuned!
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