Amy and Matt Move to Texas

Ben at FIVE weeks old

2011-03-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Eli is now 5 weeks old! Matt and I -- and all our great vistors -- have been learning who he is and how to comfort and guide him.

So far he has spent quality time with both sets of grandparents from NY and from PA and with his uncle Dan and Dan's girlfriend from NY. He'll meet lots more family and friends in PA/NJ when we travel up in May.

For anyone looking to keep up with photos who doesn't already have the link, go to ben.mattchase.com for a Picassa album we're updating all the time.

Yesterday's big news was Ben looking at his mobile. We'd previously wound up his little turtle mobile in the crib but he thoroughly ignored it. Now, though, he calms down from fussiness and focuses very intently on it.

He also yesterday looked at his Texas Alphabet book as I read to him--A is for Alamo. He was into it and we made it through once and a second time through V for Vaquero before he was ready to move on to the next activity.

Ben enjoys having his legs and arms moved for him as he lies on his back, running through a pretend obstacle course. He also enjoys dancing in his parents' arms. So far he's done some latin dancing with Mom to Buena Vista Social club and some freestyle moves to Dad's techno beatboxing.

We drove downtown to introduce Ben to my coworkers. He impressed with just a little fussing, a little calm awake time, and then a deep sleep.

He enjoys being outdoors. You can see him squinting with interest in the light, feeling the breeze on his face, and, it seems, listening to the birds and other outside sounds. Last night he dined al frecso with us and his paternal grandparents, sitting on the table in his bouncy chair.

He's working on his sleeping skills. Last night was the second time he slept for a whole 5 hours at once! He makes up for it with 2.5 hour stints, but we are impressed with his long stretches.

Ben has outgrown his newborn clothes--weeks ago! He's nearly 10 pounds, eating well. He's looking sharp in the lovely clothes friends and family gave him including tons of great hand-me-downs from my coworker's son Wyatt.

Thanks to everyone for all the congratulations, well-wishing, advice, meals, company, cheerleading, and patience as we work on parenting and Ben quickly grows up before our eyes.

Ben at home

2011-02-24T09:43:00.001-08:00

We came home from the hospital on Monday, day 3. Here are just a couple of our first photos at home.

We made commenting on our blog easier yesterday, so if you've tried before and gave up, try again! No google user name required anymore.

Benjamin Arrives!

2011-02-20T14:23:00.000-08:00

We are so happy to share photos of our new baby boy, Benjamin Chase! He arrived in all his glory yesterday:

February 19, 2011, 1:08pm
Weight: 7 pounds 6 ounces
Length: 20 inches

He will soon have a middle name, but that decision is still underway...

He is precious in every way and we are incredibly happy to welcome him into our lives! Enjoy:

The incredible Benjamin.

And here's how the story unfolded:

Amy was very pregnant.

The full moon shone on Friday, February 18, one day after our due date. As Amy's mom and new grandma Jane predicted, labor began! This photo shows that powerful moon from the car outside the movie theater when we realized those pesky aches and pains were actually contractions...

Then lots of pain and patience and decisions happened... until...

Ben was born!

Mom and Dad were both pretty impressive through the whole thing, but Ben was a true champ! After some cuddle time in the delivery room, he and Dad went to the nursery for his full once-over and a bath:

While Matt and Benjamin were in the nursery, a hopsital tour group passed by the nursery windows where they oohed and ahhed over Amy's two adorable men.

This is a Ben face we've enjoyed seeing many times.

Matt is a natural.

Ha!

Amy is recovering from labor very well, but Matt is still taking the lion's share of the diaper change duty. Look at him--he can totally handle it.

Our baby boy passed his first pediatrician's exam with flying colors.

New mom Amy on Ben's birthday evening.

Our first visitors were dear friends Tabitha and Cameron.

Grandparents are currently en route from Florida and Pennsylvania--we can't wait to introduce everyone!

And meanwhile, across the pond in London lives Addison Moulton Moore, Ben's cousin and Amy & Matt's very first niece. Jessica and Jim welcomed their little one to the world just about 4 hours after Ben had joined us. We can't wait to meet her and to watch the little cousin soulmates grow up together.

Love to all our friends and family. Thank you for your support throughout our pregnancy and now in this new family adventure we're beginning!

Amy, getting big.....

2011-01-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of Amy as she grows.......

July 3, 2010 (8 weeks)
Sea Isle City buying Moulton-famous Harvey's Bristol Cream

October 9, 2010 (22 weeks)

October 15, 2010 (23 weeks)
Top of Schitorn Alps, Switzerland

November 9, 2010 (26 weeks)

December 12, 2010 (31 weeks)
Trying out Rocker-Glider chairs @ Babies R Us

December 31, 2010 (34 weeks)
Ready to ring in New Years' 2011!

Halloween, Snow & Nerds

2011-01-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

We thought we'd share a few pictures over Halloween; Matt was a great-looking nerd, with other nerds as well, and Amy was a non-traditionally proportioned Snowman. Er, snowperson.

Dog fostering

2010-06-21T09:27:00.000-07:00

We're booked for a home inspection this evening by Austin Cocker Spaniel Rescue. We're candidates for fostering some cockers! We applied last week and met some of the pups that we might host. Tonight they'll check out our home to make sure we didn't lie on our application about our fenced yard and such.

We've very very excited about having a dog (or two?!) in our lives. We've thought about this for years and are finally taking a step towards commitment. Fostering seems like a great fit for now--see how a dog fits into our lives, see how a cocker spaniel is or isn't the right breed for us, and see how we synch up with a specific dog. If it's all a match, we could adopt. If it's not quite right, we've learned something for ourselves and done a service to the dog community.

So hopefully soon after our July 4 weekend travels we'll have an update to share with photos of our new house guest!

Matt's working the night shift

2010-05-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

This week Matt will be working from 4pm to midnight, filling in as a QA Tester while they ready their software for final delivery. I would like to see an infographic illustrating our schedules and their sad lack of (waking) overlap:

WORK
7am - 8am Amy wakes and heads to work

HOME
9am-2pm Matt wakes and has a nice day at home, at the gym, and running errands
2pm-3pm Matt naps
3pm-4pm Matt wakes and heads to work

WORK
4pm - 6pm Amy & Matt are both working. But in different offices. For different companies.

HOME
6pm-11pm Amy leaves work, eats dinner, goes to the gym, goes to bed

WORK
11pm-12am Poor Matt is sleepy but still at work

HOME
12am-12:30am Matt comes home, kisses his sleeping wife. Amy kisses her hard-working QAing husband and rolls over.

So Matt, I look forward to seeing you in Sleepsville for 6 nice hours! Otherwise, see you Saturday morning!

Treking to the Grocery

2010-04-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

How cute does she look with her little cart? Nice rubber wheels, great turning radius, and a super comfortable squishy handle. Thanks C&P for a great, useful gift!

Cleaning..... the fence

2010-04-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

Man does our fence have some crazy vines growing all over it. And really impressively, too. Wound all over the fence, other branches, and securely in the ground. It was a huge effort, but we think we cleaned out some of the dead stuff. Not sure it looks much better, but it looks different.

Zipline!

2010-04-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

Today we had a super time going zip lining! It was a present from Jess & Jim for Christmas and we decided to cash it in today. The place was outside of Austin about and hour to the Southeast in the little town of Wimberley, TX. The staff at Wimberley Zipline could not have been nicer. I went on the "Flight School" training line first -- it was about 40' long -- and applied too much hand-braking (as a good example of what not to do), but then, when we got up to the real thing, it was a piece of cake and SO fun soaring over the ravines and through the trees!

Once you correctly applied the brakes, coming in for a smooth landing was as easy a walk in a park. (See how perfectly Amy does it in the video.) There was always a team-member there to catch you and the landing was usually uphill so it slowed you down anyways.

All told, we went on eight different lines, most high above trees and the last one right through a whole bunch of them. (We both liked the tree ones a lot.) We had a great time; thanks Jess and Jim!

Rabins and Birthdays!

2010-04-11T17:07:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since our last post, but wanted to report what a nice weekend we had!

First, we had a lovely breakfast with the Rabins who were visiting in town for Bill's family reunion. We went to the South Congress Cafe and had the amazing carrot cake french toast. It's to die for, especially with the pecan puree on the side. Then, the Rabins came to see our home and we took this lovely picture.

Then we went to Hannah Brown's 1st birthday and she was ADORABLE. She was especially cute and ferocious when her personal cake was placed in front of her (see photo). We had a great time with friends of all ages (from 1 up to grandparent-age) including some great cake and cookies, and some fine time outside in the lovely Austin spring air.

Pennsylvanians in TX

2010-02-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Mom and Dad, it was so great to have you hear last month. I did a terrible job of taking photos--I guess I relied on you and your camera, but here are 2! I think we have a few more on our phones, so I'll share those soon.

You might sense a little bit of hesitation posing in front of the Texas star at the Bob Bullock Texas Museum early in the trip:

But look at the cool ease with which Dad adapted. Model shot?

When things don't go as you'd envisioned

2010-02-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

Oh man, it's 9:30am and my stomach hurts from laughing. And/or from the fig brie panini I thought would be such a lovely breakfast in bed for Matt.

We both went to bed early with headaches last night after a stressful day each at work. By 7am this Saturday morning I couldn't stay in bed any longer, and I got up to do last night's dishes, get a load of laundry going, and make some plans for the rest of the weekend. By 8:30 I was looking for breakfast. Having finshed up the milk yesterday, I had be creative.

Finally I found this perfect idea on a food blog I've never encountered before, Sugarlaws. The George Foreman grill was still sitting out on the counter from earlier in the week, and the combination of fig and brie in a panini sounded like a perfect treat for Matt, a real man who loves figs and brie.

I had to gently wake him up to warn him breakfast was coming, and I learned he still had his headache. Already this was not what I'd pictured, but he still thought breakfast in bed sounded nice, so I finished prepping it and served it up. (I hesitated briefly when I saw the sell-by date on our wheel of brie was Jan 5, but it looked fine and it's cheese, right? It's supposed to be aged?)

As I walked in with the tray I could tell he was working to try to enjoy this love-filled morning, sitting up all rumpled in bed. And already my giggles started. The sandwiches looked weird and he couldn't tell what was in them by sight. It wasn't the melty gooey indulgence I'd hoped for. But it was still pretty tasty and he thanked me sincerely. He dug in and kept at it with somewhat forced cheer.

My full-on belly-ache laughing started, though, when he smiled nervously and said, "there's definitely something about this making me a little nauseous." Hahahaha, then he had another bite looking appreciatively at me. "This was a really nice idea." I couldn't stop laughing and my own stomach started feeling off. I still can't tell if it's the heavy load of bread, fig, and old cheese in there or just too much boisterous laughter while eating.

Ah man. Funny stuff.

Best wishes to everyone and sorry, Matt! (Who just emerged from the bathroom and is taking some tums as I type.) Love you lots.

Our Very Own Longhorn

2010-01-31T14:59:00.001-08:00

So when Amy and I first arrived in Austin, we stayed at a Wyndham hotel just off IH-35 for 3 nights until our rental was available. In the room was this great print of a longhorn staring at the camera looking through a rusty barbed-wire fence. We loved it immediately knew we'd love to have it for our home.

Several months later, when we were all moved in to our new home, I asked Amy about the picture. She said that she contacted the hotel, but didn't have any luck. Days later, she surprised me with a print of it in our living room!!! It looked great, just as cool as the original. With more detail on each hair on his fuzzy nose (and nose ring). The print was produced up in Round Rock from a printing company who owns the rights to the photo. The first print had some flakiness to it; some of the dots were coming off. So we had them reprint it on a canvas that produces better colors and contrast. We're very happy to see this guy each day on our wall.

Texas Sky

2010-01-31T13:51:00.000-08:00

Snapped this one outside our front door. Gotta love the Texas weather. (But its 31 today and was 70 on Tuesday. Go figure.)

The Table

2010-01-31T13:49:00.001-08:00

Well, two months earlier than planned, we got our new kitchen from Crate and Barrel! We love it!

The chairs are leftover from Amy's old small table, suede with espresso wood. They complement the table perfectly.

The sides are raw, making a great rustic addition to our Texas home.

Amy's writing a book

2010-01-19T08:58:00.000-08:00

Word has been getting out, so I'll go public here. I'm halfway through writing a book! I was hoping to declare it a between-job accomplishment, but with my Jan 25 start date at HC&B, I'll miss that by a week or so. But it's coming along and feels like a good accomplishment already.

My writing is following the philosophy of the National Novel Writing Month organization which values quantity over quality. While it's going to take me about 2 months instead of 1 month, the program encourages wanna-be writers to get over their hesitations and just get a lot of words on paper. You might write some crap, but at least you'll have taken the plunge. Ideally I'll have a significant collection of material that's close enough to interesting or good that I'll want to work with it later, editing and improving. Or, just as good, I may leave this one behind as pretty bad but as a successful writing of great length. And one day I'll more easily write the real novel I was hoping to write.

The word count goal is 50,000. The border between novel and novella is 40,000, so this is decidedly novel length, albeit short. Novels around 50,000 words long include, according to Wikipedia, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Brave New World, and The Great Gatsby.

So you'll all asking what it's about, right? Well... I'm not revealing that just yet, partially because it's still growing and defining itself and partially because I'm not sure why in the world I'm telling the tale I'm telling. Ha! I am happy with the messages and themes, but the plot is, well, surprising. To me. :)

I'm totally stalling a long novel-writing session by writing here, so I should post and go!

The value of slow

2010-01-07T11:05:00.001-08:00

So far I’ve blogged to share updates and photos with you friends and family living far away, but watch out—I’m getting deep today!

I had a frustrating morning and I decided to take the reigns and try to improve my day by getting productive. Something out of my control went wrong and so I was taking control of what was within reach. I started searching out some new job leads online and opening up new networking opportunities. I wanted to hurry up and get new things brewing, ultimately to get me a job and move on.

However. I stumbled upon a fantastic blog post that has me shifting gears and writing here. It was about the value of slowness, and you should read it! It’s kind of ironic that I found it while reading through my twitter feed, one of the fastest and briefest forms of digital communication we’re using these days. Anyway, it’s about slowing your pace, putting time in context, reflecting more and rushing ahead less. It's about how hard we're always working to speed things up, but that there is also enormous value--in business, in innovation, in relationships, in design... in slowing down. The article builds out the idea much better than I could summarize, so check it out—link at the end of my post.

The article really spoke to me. Partly because I have always enjoyed resisting the tug of the uber-fast-paced world around me: connecting with people who are notably calm or just have an appreciation for the calmer way, engaging in DIY projects that take thirty times as long as paying someone else to get the job done better for me, and pursuing goals and projects that are about long-term focus like walking a marathon or writing a novel.

But I also loved stumbling upon the essay about slowness because it reminded me of a rushed, passing thought I've had over the past few months. Here I am, unemployed. I have a lot of time, and I get a lot done. But. How much time have I spent thinking? Of course I'm thinking all the time while I'm busy with things. There are errands, there is stuff the new house needs, there are lots of great opportunities to cook, work out, explore our new town, help a friend, meet new people, and catch up on communication with old friends.

I'm often pausing to think of what to do with my time and how to keep productive. And sometimes I don’t feel like I’m achieving enough. There are more friends whose faces I see passing by on Facebook and I wish I would make the time, now and long-term, to reconnect with them. I should attend another industry networking event. There is damage to our new home’s hard wood floors that I wish I would make the time to fix. People who are retired know what I’m feeling—there’s never enough time.

Happily, though, I get over that and I also pause to celebrate how I have time now to just relax--in fact, the closer I get to a job, the more inclined I feel to enjoy my time off while I still have it! So while I enjoy getting to the gym and getting lots of housework done, etc etc, I also have indulged in a purer form of "just entertainment," watching movies. I don't feel bad about it because movies are a wonderful way to experience new ideas and perspectives, and I always enjoy the time I put into seeing a smart or well-written or even a silly movie.

I recently watched a great movie, Intimate Strangers. It's very slow, with mostly one setting and essentially only two characters. There is lots of dialogue without much action and with many long pauses. It's French with sub-titles and it's about relationships--marriage, sex, honesty, courage, personal history, and being true to yourself. And there's this scene--actually, maybe several scenes--where you see the one character there in his house--which is the main setting of the whole movie--just sitting there thinking. You can kind of guess what he's thinking about because you saw what just happened with him and the other character talking there in his office earlier in the day. He's reflecting on the same questions and surprises you're reflecting on from that conversation. But there he is, maybe with his dinner or maybe with the TV on in the background, but he's just sitting and thinking.

The other day I felt like I really needed to stop and think something over. It deserved some uninterrupted reflection. I decided to stop what I was doing, maybe the dishes, and I walked over to sit on the couch and begin thinking. It's a funny picture now, especially if you realize I had a hard time focusing my thoughts. I was just sitting there by myself on the sofa in the middle of the day, half spinning my wheels on the topic at hand and half just sitting there empty-headed! I decided I'd go take a bath to help me concentrate. I realized that I needed to kind of do something to physically engage me there in doing nothing... nothing but sitting and thinking. It worked and there, in the bath, I found some insights within myself about that topic that needed reflection.

While I'm unemployed I'm comfortable that I’m doing good things with my time. Especially at the beginning when I was less used to having all this time on my hands, I researched some ways I might volunteer or pursue a bigger goal with my time. But now I've gotten more used to the spaces between productivity, and I think a goal for now is to slow down further. That’s not to say I’m not going to excitedly plan our next travel adventure or not embrace all the tools I can to focus in and get a new job. But meanwhile, I will invest time in some focused thinking or in some meditative back-of-the-brain thinking. Devote time to nothingness. Thinking not just about what I'm currently engaged in or about matters effecting the next few hours or days or even years. Thinking big and taking my time with that.

My dear friend Anoopa, just a few months before she passed away, asked me where I do my best thinking. In the shower? Meditating? For me, it is walking. Clearing my plate to do nothing but put one foot in front of the other and get my blood flowing. I like remembering that about myself and going for a walk when I want to figure something out. But I'd also like to get better at dropping down a notch in any setting. Engaging in deeper, slower thought in the shower, on a drive, sitting on the sofa, or even in a conversation or a work meeting.

And I hope that even after I find a new job and I get ramped up to the same frenzied work pace to which I have always been inclined, that I will remember how to turn a switch and slow it way way down.

There’s always room to speed things up and fit more in. But why? Why keep reducing the time things take, reducing down along that infinite scale—you’re never going to hit zero time invested. Why not fit in a little less and get a little more insightful. Engage a little more deeply. Accept that you can’t achieve a goal of doing it all, and instead, enjoy it more thoroughly. Looking back on my long life from my deathbed, I think I’ll be happy with the way I used my time.

The article is called “Hurry Up and Wait” and I’m going to check out the other essays in GOOD’s “Slow Issue.”.

White Elephant Christmas Tree Ornaments

2010-01-04T10:17:00.000-08:00

To my family, here are the Texan ornaments you selected on Christmas! Your shipments are being packed and shipped today or tomorrow. I didn't reference my list--please let me know if I got anyone wrong. Depending upon the boxes I find, I may do a shipment per town and let you disperse. :)

Welcome to 2010!!!

2010-01-03T15:01:00.001-08:00

Matt and I had a great time ringing in 2010. We decided to attend a party hosted by the Highball, a fancy retro-style... bowling alley. It entailed a 5-course meal followed by DJed dancing and a balloon drop. Well, a planned balloon drop which really didn't work out, but the effort was there.

We decided to go all out when the attire was described as "the 9's." We weren't sure if other people would be as fancy as we were, but we decided we didn't care! My dress was a big hit. :)

Turns out there were lots of other very dressed party guests, including a table full of 20's style flappers... and whatever you call guys from the 20's. This picture is pretty bad, but it's the only one we have to show off the dinner party scene.

Here's Matt showing off the fancy menu, including drinks to match each course.

As it turned out, they didn't do small servings of drinks to keep you under control. This openning cocktail was created specially for the occasion and was not very tasty, we thought. In the spirit of things, though, we drank it.

All night long, we had an absolute blast. I recommend being partners with a man as great as my husband.

By the time dessert came, we realized we were way beyond any hope of pacing outselves. Can you tell?

We didn't grab any photos of the final seconds of 2009 or the balloon drop, which wound up just being people jumping up to knock the trapped balloons out of their net. It was packed and very festive! The celebration was fantastic, and we were so glad we picked that party to close out 2009.

And finally here's us in 2010, ready for all that this next year will bring us. I'm so lucky to have you Matt--love you!

new car for 2010

2009-12-31T16:45:00.000-08:00

We bought a new car yesterday! We had been shopping for a while and weren't settling on anything. A few weeks ago Hyundai released it's redesigned Tucson 2010 and we went to try it out. We really liked it and decided it was the one. SUV but not too big, good fuel economy, fun to drive, good looking, good price. Here it is in our driveway. :)

Par-TAY!

2009-12-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!!

We had our first Texas party last night. It was a super holiday party -- if I do say so myself. We had 20+ people from work, high school, college, and friends of friends including some lovely kids. Overall, it was a super night!

We made way too much food, including a very popular brisket, a special strawberry & avocado salsa, and very popular sugar cookies (in holiday shapes of course). Our newly-tried drink was a cranberry tea vodka concoction with ginger ale. It was interesting, but not a huge hit. Most people drank beer (which made the clean-up the following morning a pleasure!) and some wine. The kids enjoyed [a lot] of alcohol-free egg-nog and lots of cookies.

Barkley was his usual hit with the kids. They liked petting him and were especially excited when the 8-year-old rabbit (happy almost birthday, Barks) actually hopped out of his cage and lept around his [own] room. To make his evening even more exciting, my friend Helen from work brought her dog who, apparently, has withdrawal problems when Helen leaves him at home. So Barkely and [Sir] Magnus had an interesting play date; we all think Barkley won the stare down.

To all who attended, thank you for making our night fun and fulfilling. Happy, safe holidays to all!

Still here

2009-12-14T09:53:00.001-08:00

No, we haven't stopped updating the blog!! More to come soon.

Love from A & M in Austin

Updates

2009-11-17T10:42:00.000-08:00

Hi loyal (and sporatic) readers!

We're behind on posting on some fun visits--Barbara & Joel and then Cara. We also owe you some photos of our house with furniture in it, but it's still a bit of work in progress, so we're waiting on that a bit more...

We learned Matt needs to be in the Baltimore area for work the week after Thanksgiving, so, since I haven't yet landed my job, we'll be staying up that way for the extra week! I'll probably be in Philly most of that time, but may make it down to B'More and/or DC. Looking forward to it!

And I've started Christmas shopping. Woah it feels good to have started before Thanksgiving! I haven't completed anyone's gifts but I'm collecting up some fun stuff no less. This should help us with getting presents up to the NE without as much hassle carrying stuff on the plane. We'll just ship it.

Halloween

2009-11-04T11:01:00.001-08:00

We were pretty impressed with ourselves this Halloween, having just closed on our house that week, moved out of our apartment that day, and hosted painters while getting dressed in our costumes. I spent 15 minutes at Walgreens to create our costumes and Matt surprised me by playing along with what I brought him!

After donning our costumes, we hosted the Browns for a quick back porch dinner. Hannah was an adorable spider. When he arrived, Colin was dressed as a skeleton (or as "bones" as he called his costume), but he thought it best to de-costume for his meal.

Well sort of--they showed up with the pizza since we had nothing in the house except the few plastic cups they brought us earlier in the week! Matt was "hick big daddy," hahaha.

We set up a special trick or treating bowl for Colin since he had just read Charlie Brown's Halloween. Charlie gets rocks instead of candy, which sounded pretty cool to Colin. So at our house, he selected rocks instead of M&M's.

Then we hosted some great neighborhood trick or treaters and met some adult neighbors while we were at it.

Here I am as Housewife. Or, as one kid put it, "Oh, I get it, you're dressed as someone going to a slumber party!"

It was hilarious how many kids stared at Matt and asked him whether his teeth were real.

Then we went downtown, again feeling very impressed with ourselves. The scene on 6th Street was very entertaining!

That's my man! And some cool longhorns at the famous Driskill Hotel.

The hotel had a pumpkin carving contest.

After lots of people watching, we stopped in a bar/club I later learned is Lance Armstrong's! Six.

It was a nice place and we sat up on the rooftop deck for a bite to eat and some more costume spotting. We had no idea we might see some girls dressed in only panties and paint. I missed the front shot, but it was amazing. My expression was very similar to Matt's....

See her in the background?

But he told me, as always, that he was most happy with his own super model!

our new paint

2009-11-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

Here are some before and photos of our house, showing off our brand new paint colors! The before photos include the previous owner's furniture, Amy, Amy's coffee... and just a touch of our real estate agent Berry Cox!

Since our movers just came yesterday, the house is currently a mess with our boxes, so we'll have to post new photos in a few weeks when we're all organized with our stuff. Enjoy!

From the front door

Before

After

Dining Room

Before

After

Living

Before

After

Kitcen

Before

After

Master

Before

After

food, friends, fall

2009-10-19T08:01:00.001-07:00

Ah today is feeling so good! I have a solid to-do list of fun and productive things. I've got my happy channel on on Pandora music. I've got my funky spotty pumpkin and first ever mums outside on the front steps. And the weather in the past 2 days (and today) is wonderfully autumny--sunny, clear, and ranging through the day from 55 to 75. PERFECT.

Despite some bumps in the road (pun intended... wait for it) it was a great weekend. Saturday we slept in and then got up and out to cheer on our friends in an impressive 24-hour mountain bike race out east of Austin, Rocky Hill. (Get it now, bumps in the road, mountain biking, eh eh?). Here are some highlights.

Ryun debriefs Cam (and Hannah) on his lap.

Justin jogging to his bike to start his lap.

Colin and Tab waiting for dad to ride by!

Matt filming the bikers.

Ryan prepping his bike for another lap.

Cameron resting with his boy.

Skilled spectator.

Racers Cameron and Ryan and Ryan's number one cheerleader Hilary.

The campsite crew--Tab with Hannah, Grandma Linda with Colin, and some usual suspects.

Saturday night we had some delicious Indian food at a new good-looking order-at-the-counter restaurant here. We're so happy to know we can get some tasty Indian in Austin! And afterward we had a tasty drink next door, sitting by a big Texas stone fireplace. And check this--I ordered some UT orange colored cocktail that made me incredibly giggley, entertaining Matt as well as the table of guys next to us. Haha, oops.

Sunday was more bumps in the road--we were both feeling sick--but we got by with some good TV, naps... and a delicious bath for me. Then I rallied to give the car interior a thorough cleaning and met up for a fun coffee with new friends and family of DC's Tasha Parker!! Lovely.

Moving on to my to-do list, but also thinking of my beautiful family and friends up in DC, PA, and NY. Miss you

first visit - dan, ashley, jess, jim

2009-10-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some highlights from our first visiters to Austin!

9101 Taylorcrest Cove and its future owners (and visitors!) We met our neighbor and asked him to take this photo!

Matt at Cavender's boots.

Dan proudly trying his first pair of cowboy boots.

Dan's closeup.

On our way into the stadium after walking through crazy tailgate parties.

Players entering the field through a cloud of smoke.

Don't Mess With Texas!!

Matt spectating.

Singing fight songs and getting pumped.

Hook 'em horns!

Amy in her new birthday present cowboy hat. Thanks, Jess & Jim!

Staying warm after the game.

Sunday at the Alamo in San Antonio!

Enchanted Rock hike

2009-10-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

While Matt was in NYC a few weekends ago, I drove out West of Austin to the Fredericksburg area to a park called Enchanted Rock for a hike. There are enormous pink granite rocks--the main trail is a high right up the biggest one. Then there are hikes around the outskirts of the rocks and there are also lots of rockclimbing areas. I did about 4 miles of hikes in the drizzling rain. It was fun and refreshing. Here are some tidbits!

You can understand how big this rock is by making out the tiny people standing on top.

It was definitely slippery while wet.

Addison Oktoberfest

2009-10-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

I've had these photos waiting to be posted for several weeks. Matt and I were so excited to see a family name blazened all over the place when we were in Addison, TX, right next to Dallas. Every photo has at least one "Addison!" in it except for the one with me an my wurst lunch and the last one with the kids. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving plans

2009-10-07T11:34:00.001-07:00

We've booked our flights for Thanksgiving. Here's our schedule!

Thursday morning we take a very early flight and arrive in NYC at 1pm. We'll visit Barbara & Joel and then go volunteer at the Bowery Mission for Thanksgiving dinner. Anyone want to join us for, most likely, the 4 to 6pm shift? Barbara, Joel, Cara, Jon, Michelle, others?

Friday we'll visit with friends and Chase family in NYC and have a T-Giving dinner that evening.

Saturday morning we'll probably take a train down to Philly and out to North Wales for Thanksgiving #2, joining in the cooking as early as we can!

Sunday we're free in the morning and afternoon and taking a 4pm flight home. Molly, can we plan some time together??

Looking forward to a trip back home!

Matt passed!!

2009-10-05T07:11:00.001-07:00

Matt passed his security test!!! He just found out this morning and I'm so proud of him. even without passing, all that learning was great, but now he knows all the hard work was very worth it! Congrats, Matt!!

This weekend Matt was in NYC to visit friends and family. He fit in some great time with Barbara, Joel, Cara, Jon, grandma, and Michelle, and even swung by Dan and Ashley's place for a quick hello and tour of their first apartment.

Meanwhile, I had a good weekend at home alone in Austin. There was definitely a LOT of movie and TV watching, but I also had a lovely evening with the Browns and a full day trip to Enchanted Rock out by Fredericksburg. It was drizzling most of the day, but I really enjoyed myself anyhow. Photos to come soon.

And I'm missing everyone up north. Can't wait to have Jess, Jim, Dan, and Ashley in town next weekend and the rest of you soon after. Love you!

we think we have a contract!

2009-09-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Friends and family, we have been told that we have a contract on a house! We don't have the document in hand yet, so it's not "signed, sealed, and delivered," but it should be coming any moment. Will post lots more info on the house after we have confirmation, but we're very excited. :)

We also learned a little more about 2 of the 3 houses on which we previously put offers.

The one which was active contingent and on which we put a backup offer settled, and the sales price was 3 or 5 thousand above our offer price--so we were right on track with our numbers.

The one on which they barely came down from their overly high list price has moved into short sale. As I understand it, that means they're on their way to bankruptcy rather than reducing their price on their own. They must be upside down on their loan (owe more than they'll get selling it at today's rates), which makes some sense since they bought just a couple years ago when prices were a bit higher. That means we could probably get it for a good rate, but we are now prefering our latest find and not looking back!

Love to you all!

loves

2009-09-23T10:40:00.001-07:00

Colin loves (Mr) Matt.

So much so that he scooted his chair around the corner of the table to sit right next to him.

However Colin also loves his Mom's iphone.

Matt was impressed (and I was scared) by how good Colin was at this game on there. Kids are sure going to take over the world and we'll be so mystified by their technology.

And (Mr) Matt loves Colin!

So much that he gave him his bath. :)

What a bunch of cuties were in this small room together. I'm showing just Tab's head and a peek at Hannah's toes instead of the adorable full frontal infant bath... Tab's so unsure of bath photos that she's never even taken any, let alone posted them on a blog!!

Day 7: Dallas to Austin

2009-09-23T10:16:00.001-07:00

Back on August 22 we woke up in Dallas and made the final 3.5 hour drive to Austin. And we weren't the only cool things arriving in Austin!

What's this?

It's a train being hauled by a truck!

And yes, these guys arrived the same time as us!!

But here are the stars of the circus, just having stopped the car after a long fun journey to AUSTIN. We're so happy here:

Day 6: AR to TX

2009-09-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

We toured Hot Springs some more in the morning. Here's main street.

We first visited the national park museum. It was in a bathhouse furnished the way it was in 1915. Here's the men's main bathing room, which was way nicer than the women's. You can see there are stalls which each contain an deep bath or an old shower with so many valves it looks they look like torture machines. You'd have an attendant to run your bath for you and help you with your robe, etc.

The museum also showed more medical rooms where you might sit in one of those steam chamber boxes or breath in steam. And that had something right, at least, that working out would help your health. Look at this cute gym!

Here's one of the sitting rooms where the rich bathers would socialize in all their finest clothes. See the fancy stained glass ceiling?

Then we walked over to the new old Quapaw bath house. You could get a private bath and massage kind of treatment like a mix bewteen a modern day spa and and old fashioned bath house.

We chose the less expensive option of bathing in the 4 large pools which were adjusted down in temperature. Each pool was labeled with its own temperature and we were instructed to move from the hotest to the coolest: 104, 103, 102, 98.

We were also given the spring water to drink cold. I thought it had no taste but Matt said it tasted of a lot of minerals.

Finally we took a stroll through the beautiful hillside where bathers use to prominade.

We checked out many places where the water flowed out of the earth. You couldn't touch it without getting burnt.

In this pool you could just briefly touch the water and not get scalded.

There were a lot of interesting characters living in this town and clearly a number of sick or disabled people still hoping the waters could have healing properties. We saw people parked by the drinking fountains with many gallon jugs in the trunk, filling them up one by one.

After losing and quickly reclaiming Matt's wallet--THANK YOU to whoever picked up what I dropped and THANK YOU to the Staybridge hotel for helping us get it back--we drove on to the Texas border.

As you've noticed, we took photos of each state crossing. So you can imagine we were excited to document our arrival in our new home state. We looked for it....

But had to suffice with the welcome center sign!

Turns out the main welcome sign was taken down for road construction! We did our best to make up for the missing road sign at the Texas-sized roadside information center. And the woman at the welcome desk gave us a very warm welcome, at least!

We drove through a good section of Texas with trees that looked just like Arkansas--pretty green. Close to Dallas it started to look very Texas with more yellowed grasses and sparse trees. We were almost done our journey!

Finally arriving in Dallas for the evening, we ate a delicious meal in a cool up-and-coming arts district. We browsed some cool art galleries and settled in for our first night's sleep as Texas residents.

house counter offer

2009-09-23T09:16:00.001-07:00

Okay, so we got our first counter offer on a house. Which is progress from how we did on the first 2 houses. But... we sincerely think this seller is very unrealistic about the market. They were very over priced in their original asking price and only came down a tiny bit from their asking price.

Day 5: TN to AR

2009-09-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

We wanted to arrive in Memphis in time for some BBQ for lunch, but we didn't, so we kind of plowed through. Sorry Memph. We got some good shots from the car, though?

Important sculpture?

Tram thing along river park?

And we crossed into the great state of Arkansas!

Which means, folks, we are now living west of the Mississippi!

Driving through the forests of Arkansas, we arrived in remarkable Hot Springs. Water comes out of the ground all over the place here at 146 degrees, loaded with minerals (but not smelling of sulfur)! Back in the 19th century they piped the water into huge bath houses for sick or rich people to "take the waters." All but one of the bath houses closed by the 1960's, well after everyone had realized taking a bath doesn't fix your chronic illnesses. The next day we "took the waters" ourselves at the second operational bath house, which just opened last year, I think. More on that in the next posting. The evening we arrived in Hot Springs we just took a walk down the main street and saw the steam rising from the fountains!

We loved staying at the beautiful new Staybridge Suites! Ohhh Staybridgey, you sweet sweet hotel with your daily free happy hour reception, beautiful furnishings, lovely views of the lake, helpful staff, and yummy shampoos.

we've been here a month!

2009-09-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

I just realized it's been a month since we arrived in Austin! We hadn't yet moved into this apartment, but we'd arrived at our hotel.

So over a month ago, it was... Day 4 of our road trip, KY to TN!

We failed to get a picture with our great friends and gracious hosts Sarah and Kevin Brown! It was a wonderful visit. Instead of their smiling faces, here's a photo of Matt enjoying a delicious meal at a restaurant they sent us to. :)

Then we enjoyed a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I don't know if you've all heard that Matt and I started loving country music about a year ago. You probably didn't notice we played one of our favorite songs at our wedding, International Harvester!!

Anyway, here's Matt enjoying the hall of fame.

We learned a lot of about the history of this musica we just started enjoying. Here are lots of platinum albums!

Before our delicious meatloaf dinner out with the Browns at a funky former washeteria (which is what they seem to call a laundromat down south), Matt and I visited Nashville's own lifesize recreation of the Parthenon. Well, it was closed, but we walked around the outside.

And near the Parthenon was this monument being moved or something... I knew it was a good image to capture, but I don't have the insightful caption it deserves. Have one?

houses

2009-09-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

We didn't get house #2. The first buyer successfully closed this morning. So we put down our offer on house #3 tonight. We heard back from the seller's agent already who (naturally) said our offer was way low, but we'll see where it goes. We're prepping ourselves to not get this house, as that seems to be our trend. :) We'll, of course, keep you posted!

poor matt

2009-09-19T11:42:00.000-07:00

My poor Matt is STILL in his test! I saw him enter the test room at 8am and it's now 1:34pm. I know there was signin and rules and stuff before they started, but still, 9 to 1:30 = 4.5 hours. I'm sure you're being very smart in there, but you must be tied. Come on out soon, honey!

another bid

2009-09-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging from Dallas! Right now Matt is in the Mequite conference room taking a security certification exam. We're in a suburb just outside Dallas (but you don't know you're not in Dallas anymore), and it's called ADDISON! My mom's maiden name. Just lovely.

Yesterday before driving up here we put a bid in on another house! I'll post it once we find out if we got it or not. It's definitely not a sure thing and we have another house in mind we'll try to get if we're not able to land this second one. I think one way or another we're going to buy a house soon!!!

Later today when Matt's done his exam we're going to the Addison Octoberfest. I'm sure we'll get some fun photos there, and I promise I'll post more photos soon. I knew going into this I'd be a weak blogger, but I'm trying!

Love to everyone up in the NE--I miss you!

Outbid

2009-09-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

We heard this morning that we were outbid on the house. Too bad, it was cute and fit us well, albeit not ideal. It was at 6200 Jumano Ln, Austin, TX (link at Realtor: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6200-Jumano-Ln_Austin_TX_78749_1112502324?mp=1 ) which was a nice location but it was apparently not meant to be. The agent said they recieved three offers and the seller chose to go back to one of them (not us) for a counter which was then accepted. However TX allows for a 10 day "cooling off" period in which, for any reason, a buyer can bail on the deal. (There are also the standard financing and inspection outs.) SO, it might come back on the market, but we have lots of others to choose from so we're moving on! (literally)

The Trash Project... and house offers

2009-09-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Last night we attended The Trash Project by Forklift Danceworks and the Austin Solid Waste crew. It was so much fun and a really unique and cool experience! It was a celebration of the workers and the TRUCKS! It was so cool seeing all the trucks do their thing.

I just googled for reviews of the evening and found this older video showing the choregrapher and performers practicing their sychronized trash truck dances. She worked with the trash crews for a year learning about the community and their work and participating in a documentary.

So it was a VERY rainy day in Austin yesterday and we spent most of it looking at houses and driving through flooded roads. By the evening, the rain was at times full on but not pouring and sometimes just misting. They had set up bleachers for 700 people in part of the old airport--I think it was runway. I didn't expect the seats to be full when we got there 25 minutes before the show in the rain; by the time the show started, people were packed on the floor in front and peering over from behind!

We wound past the professional lighting setups, musicians, and film crews for the documentary and found two skinny seats. There were 16 trucks in the show from street sweepers to single stream recycling trucks to a road kill pick up truck. There were about twelve performances and for all of them (even the dull ones where basically trash pickup crews simulanteous ran across the "stage" and dumped trash into various trucks) the audience was cheering and hooting for their trash crew performers--it felt so good to participate in this evening all about these hard workers and their impressive vehicles and impressive driving, manuvering, and teamwork.

Some of the highlights were:
The Crane Solo
Synchronized Recycling Truck Dance
3 separate Road Kill Truck Driveby's with very touching voiceovers from the driver which, of course, made me cry. I was crying and cheering watching about 30 Solid Waste employees and 16 trash trucks driving together in harmony!

And today we put an offer on a house. I'm not going to go into details yet until we learn if we got the place, so stand by for a few hours or a day!

I just ate the best biscuit of my life!!!

2009-09-11T08:36:00.001-07:00

Holy cow. That. Was. Perfection.

Let me set the stage.

On what I thought would be a pretty ordinary day, Matt and I started off by driving to the neighborhood of a house we're interested in buying. We wanted to see what the traffic sounded like during rush hour, since it's close to the highway. It wasn't unbearable, but definitely noticiable. And not really important in the scheme of muffins and biscuits.

After I dropped Matt off at work, I went to look at another neighborhood and to see whether there are any shops in walking distance. There really aren't, Matt, partly because there are no sidewalks over there on Old Bee Cave and one other road you have to take. Plus it's just old strip mall stuff with McDonalds and Autozone.

Then I saw Jim's Restaurant, which our realtor had told us is where he eats about half his meals--an old-school diner. It reminded me a lot of Honey's in Durham, Jess! I debated eating there because I thought it might feel sad to eat alone at this tired old Texan diner, but, wanting some coffee pronto, I went for it.

The western omlette and hashbrowns were fine and, not surprisingly, the accompanying salsa was hot. But who cares. Here it is......

Two big, warm, golden biscuits on their own plate, served with 2 packets of grape jelly and one butter. Luckily I didn't fill up too much on omlette before I broke off a piece to try or I would have been too full. The outside edge was perfectly salty and just hard enough for a little crunch and crumble. The inside was just past doughy--so perfectly cooked and warm and buttery and fluffy--that I think you'd honestly enjoy rolling around in a pile of biscuit middles. I ate both with a single packet of grape jelly, a couple coffee refills, and a smile, all while reading the Austin Statesman someone left behind next to my table. What a morning!

I hope I didn't just catch them on a great baking day and that I can share something so delicious with many of you when you visit!

Amy back to TX with a freshly Texan Barkley!

2009-09-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful long weekend with my family in Jersey. I was so happy to also spend some brief but great time with old Digitas coworkers and with Molsa. Miss you all!

Chat, Pop, Dan, Ashley, Mom, Dad, Jess, and Jim... thanks especially for helping search for my car key in that last hectic twenty minutes!!! It took a while to get to the airport because of traffic, but I drove carefully and calmly thanks to your friendly reminders to take a deep breath as a rushed off. I have a great image in my mind of everyone sending me off after all the rushing around. Love you!

Barkley and I had a smooth trip down, and he's all comfy in our rental. He probably disliked the car ride more than any of the rest of it, and cheerfully greeted travelers and munched on snacks while sitting under the seat in front of me! Of course there were lots of surprised and intrigued travelers along the way, all expecting to see a cat in the carrier and then learning about house bunnies. It was an education opportunity. ;)

So good to see you all.

More photos of the old road trip still to come, but it's time to pick up my hubby from work!

Day 3: WV to KY

2009-08-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning we quickly hit the road from West Virginia to Kentucky.

It was hard to capture the border crossing in the rain. :)

We drove through Lexington; the horse farms were beautiful.

When we arrived at our destination for the evening, we took an awesome lantern-lit walk through a cave in Mamoth Caves Nat'l Park.

Back in the 19th century, the slaves touring visitors through the cave would accept payment to write your name on the ceiling using a candle!

Our fantastic tour guide took our photo in front of the bridal cave where people used to get married. Weird? Yes!

We retired at the Country Hearth Inn. It was a little beyond Matt's comfort zone, which he chose to expess with this photo.

Day 2: State College to Pittsburg to Charleston, WV

2009-08-31T13:12:00.001-07:00

Sunday evening to Monday morning, we had a great time with the Boozes.

Ryan, we didn't catch you on "film," but look at your cuties!

Vivienne wrote her name beautifully for us and cut it out for easy transport in our car!

Lia was also working at the table and sharing nicely.

It's always so wonderful to see them. Rejuvinating!

We sadly left the Booz's but dutifully drove further West to visit Pittsburg.

Here's Matt at Carnegie Mellon, his dad's alma mater.

A signature sandwich in Pittsburg--see my fries INSIDE my sandwich??!

After Pittsburg we crossed our first post-PA state border: West Virginia.

Here's what I looked like fitting in with the natives...

...While watching GREYHOUND RACING!! See the 2 bunnies in front?

Matt wasn't quite as good at being an under cover West Viginian, but his beer and beard helped.

Matt won our own version of betting by ONE POINT.

It was a good day!!

Day 1: NJ through Philly through Harrisburg to State College

2009-08-31T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sunday we departed NJ and drove out to Western PA to spend the night with our dear friends Laura & Ryan and their 2 darlings. Here's what some of it looked like:

We waved good bye to center city Philly from the bridge as we drove on by.

We passed our old exit from 76, "the Schooks."

We tried to travel via the scenic route in rural PA to see a bit of the Amish community. I saw one friendly Menonite on a bike and captured Matt sleeping in the corn rows.

We stopped to check out a little of the PA state capital.

Contemplating statehood.

Fancy.

"Matthew"

Refreshed and ready for some more driving after our visit to Harrisburg.

Only day 1 of the trip and signs were pointing us to our friends in Austin!

visiting friends and family

2009-08-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

Before hitting the road we fit in a few great visits. We didn't get photos of everyone, but we had great visits with you all! On the photos...

We saw the Moguls freshly moved from San Fran to B'more. Unforunately we didn't snag a photo of Doug and the only one of Alexis is her daugher feeding her a popsicle, which looks weird.

So, here are the kiddos and Matt!

Matt & Jonas

Matt teaching Amelia and Jonas how to cool their mini pizza pockets.

We had lots of good time to spend with Molly, her parents, and her precious Ethan. Here's a couple from a visit with the Deckers and Michelle, up from DC!

Mama and baby.

Michelle visiting the new family and offering up babysitting skillz!!!

And then we started off the trip by driving EAST to NJ to the shore. :) We weren't getting any closer to TX but it was a great couple days at the beach and with mom, dad, and bro.

Matt, Amy, Dad, Mom, Dan!

a backlog of photos

2009-08-31T10:49:00.001-07:00

I will finally share some photos from the past 3 weeks. Since I've never posted photos using blogspot before, let me begin with just the POD packing as a first go. Enjoy!

First, the Movers secured the POD.

Matt's locking was double checked by Amy. Secure! (Do you see how excited we were?)

Happy movers and movee. These guys ROCKED it.

interview!

2009-08-28T10:23:00.001-07:00

I'm on my way to an interview; wish me luck!

Ken Burns' National Parks

2009-08-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars for this PBS documenary starting September 27. Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Idea." Thank goodness PBS is one of the few channels we get at our temp rental! Thanks, Sarah & Kevin, for letting us know about this!

As many of you know, I LOVE the national parks, and even tried (and failed) to get a job as a park ranger. Lots of you also know I love documentaries, including Ken Burns' Civil War. Sing the violin tune, you know it!

Can't wait.

forklift danceworks

2009-08-25T13:41:00.000-07:00

Matt and I saw a lovely poster for this last night near dinner and I am VERY excited to attend September 12:

Forklift Danceworks: The Trash Project

housing basics

2009-08-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

While new family and friends are tuning into our blog, I should share some housing info! Thanks, Aunt Ann, for pointing out this missing major detail. :)

Since arrived on Saturday we've been at a (nicely pricelined) hotel by the highway. After three nights there (always waking up like feeling like we were run over by a truck for some reason), I checked us out today and loaded up the car with all our stuff.

Starting tonight at 6pm we'll be in our short-term furnished rental. We expect to be there for the next 2 months or so while we shop for a house to buy. It's located here, which is one of the hip areas of town. We should start posting photos of lots of stuff in the next couple days, and we'll include something to show our new place.

By the way, please don't mail us there please--we're using a PO Box for now: PO Box 40674, Austin, TX 78704.

We're working on learning more about neighborhoods in which we might buy. But at the same time we're trying not to rush so we have a real chance to get aclimated, figuring out what fits us best!

the good news and the bad news

2009-08-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

I did a little reading about how long it takes the body to adjust to a new hot climate" and learned it's generally 2 weeks... or more. I would guess it will take more than that to psychologically adjust, but maybe my body will get there that quickly! When military troops are relocated to hot climates, they hopefully are kept on base for 2 weeks before being deployed in action, allowing some adjustment.

We'll keep you posted. Signing off at 101 degrees...

Finally getting serious about finding a job

2009-08-24T15:29:00.000-07:00

But not that serious.... Today marked the kickoff of my efforts to end unemployment in Austin. Starting with my own unemployment. (And then honestly I'll probably take a break before ending anyone else's unemployment.)

While getting warmed up for the real kickoff, I did laundry, worked out, planned a nice dinner out to celebrate Matt's first day of work, paid some bills, folded laundry, got a post office box, dressed for dinner, and emailed some friends. I will admit this was not (all) necessarily getting me closer to a job, but it sure got me feeling productive and got a number of important competing to-do's crossed off.

And THEN I spent almost 2 solid hours reading up on a potential employer, making my list of job-search to-do's, writing job-related emails, and identifying some new leads. Score!!

Tomorrow I shall put lots of focus and engergy in this direction again!! But now I will go pick up my husband from his first day of work!!!

Paperwork

2009-08-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I started pre-work paperwork today for my new job; starting tomorrow! It has been nice being off all these weeks, but it sure flew by! I'll be a Principle Systems Engineer at Overwatch Systems (http://tactical.overwatch.com/) and it should be fun! More on what I'll be doing there when I know. I report for duty at 0800 Monday morning, 8/24.....

posting from AUSTIN

2009-08-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

We just woke up from our first night sleeping as Austinites! It was kind of terrible, but that's the fault of our hotel room, not our new hometown. :) We were both freezing and sweating in alternating periods of about 10 minutes, it felt like. Ha.

Anyway, we arrived!! The rest of our trip was just splendid.

- We drove to Nashville where Amy finally met our friends in person--Sarah and Kevin--and we had a great time catching up. Nashville way exceded our expectations with great food, beautiful parks, and the very well-done Country Music Hall of Fame.

- We visited the Nissan factory in Smyrna, TN, just outside Nashville, comparing it to our recent visit to Toyota in KY. We thought Toyota won out in coolness and clean, bright, cheerfulness. However, we saw some more close-ups at Nissan, and different parts of the process, so it was definitely worth it.

- We took our longest day drive through Memphis and on to Hot Springs, Arkansas and enjoyed an evening walking through the historic downtown and staying in our new favorite hotel, Staybridge Suites. On Friday morning we saw how beautiful the lake and town were, and enjoyed a short hike, visit to the National Park where we learned about "taking the waters" back in the early days--1915--and then bathed ourselves in the newly reopened bathhouse, the Quapaw. I managed to drop Matt's wallet outside the car, but we got it back within the hour since someone found it and turned it in. Good ol' Arkansasians. Thank you to our hero, whoever you are out there!

- Finally on Friday afternoon we drove... into Texas! We counted down the miles and it was very exciting! But also sad since they'd taken down the Welcome To Texas sign--due to road construction. The excessive Texas Welcome Center mostly made up for the sign letdown.

- Friday night was fun in Dallas, after a lot of rush house traffic. We stayed at an interesting modernized Spanish mission style hotel on a little cliff and we visited a newly thriving arts neighborhood, Bishop. DELICIOUS dinner at Vera Cruz with traditional Mayan and Aztec dishes and nice strolling through art galleries.

- Saturday morning we decided to head right to Austin. The road trip seems to have been just long enough to tire us out, so perfect timing to finish it up. We arrived in the mid-afternoon after a delicious lunch of Texas BBQ on the way. More to come soon!

Trip Update

2009-08-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Its harder than we thought to post updates from the road, but here's a long-awaited status from both of us.

We are writing from Horse Cave, KY, right outside Mammoth National Park. We'll work on adding some more details at some point, but since our last update in Sea Isle, we've:

- made a quick stop to walk around the capital of PA, Harrisburg. Our first time there.

- had a wonderful visit & stay with our friends the Booz's in State College. Hello to Laura, Ryan, Viv, and Lia--our first blog subscribers?! :)

- spend a couple hours in Pittsburg, also a first for us. We looked out from the 36th floor of the Cathedral of Learning and also had a mediocre sandwich (but we very much appreciate the tip to go try it--huge sandwiches complete with french fries and coleslaw between the breads!).

- drove to Charleston, WV (another capital) and attended a grayhound race track--we decided to bet amongst ourselves since we didn't understand all the complicated betting options. Matt won 9 to 8. :) Walked through the mall and stayed the night.

- drove to Lexington, KY Tuesday morning and then right on to Georgetown where we toured the Toyota factory. AWESOME.

- drove to Mammoth National Park in South Central KY where we hiked "at the surface" and then in the cave--by gas lantern light--with a great tour guide. We spent the night in our most rustic motel to date, but really it's turned out to be lovely. See us blogging from the continental breakfast?!

Love to all.

Today is the day

2009-08-16T06:26:00.001-07:00

Before being ready to depart, we had to repack the car. You see, when we left Philly, I took great care to just get everything IN the car. As described in our last post, that was not accomplished and Jane and Jim showed up with perfect timing to save the day and take some (read: 3) bags which just didn't fit.

So, at the shore, we repacked. We moved items from one suitcase to another, discarded many toiletries, gifted the Shorehouse with "presents," and made it all fit. But not just fit, fit smartly. So now, for example, we can get items out that we need when hoteling and, arguably more importantly, get items (like food and maps) when driving. It was a heck of a day and hot as heckfry in the morning, but we're feeling good about our new car's status!

TODAY IS THE DAY. We had a lovely breakfast including delicious bacon, are having some good family time now, and will soon depart to try to fly a kite. ("Oh go fly a kite.") Then, we plan to depart around noon for the first part of our trip: a visit with the Booz Family in State College, PA. Stay tuned!

MOVED OUT

2009-08-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

We've moved from Philly! We're blogging from the NJ Shore before we begin our drive tomorrow.

Summary:
Wed--POD delivered and basic packing completed. Thurs--awesome movers filled the POD. Fri--we cleaned up, ran our last errands, lunch with Chat & Pop, packed the car (weeell, sort of--more on that later), and drove (farther from TX) to the shore! Saturday--woke up to really begin this blog thing!

Wednesday:
To deliver the POD they use a contraption called the PODZILLA, which is one of the cooler things I have seen in a long time. Check out the video and we recorded it too on our camcorder. The driver, Mark, was very helpful and put the POD right where we wanted it with the door just steps from our sidewalk. I asked him to get it a tad up on the curb so that it would be entirely out of the street so he manuvered the thing a few more inches over and set it up on the curb which, as it turns out, was a genius spot of dumb luck (keep reading). He showed us how to use the POD (simple) and drove away. Later that afternoon, we got a downpour the likes of which I havent seen in a while. The wudder was speeding down the side of our road at hundreds of gallons per minute (est)! It was crazy. But because the POD was up on the curb, all of the water ran right under it and on its way! I don't know what would have happened if the POD was on the street, but I assume we would have ended up with a wetter POD than we had.

Thursday:
The next day around 9:15, our Movers showed up from Shannon Movers in NJ. If you're in the area and ever have a need for movers, this crew was awesome. Mike, Ashante, and Kyle busted their butts -- we helped move stuff, too -- for 4+hours and packed the POD as tight as can be. They were very careful and didnt damage anything (we think!). They were also fun, personable, polite and professional. I'm going to write an email to our broker/coordinator (MovingStaffers) to let them know how satisfied we are. (This is a stark difference compared to our move from N.Wales to Philly when we used Hughes Relocation (United). NOT RECOMMENDED. They gave us one leader and two inexperienced kids who were listening to their ipods and DANCING instead of working hard, who bent our king mattress due to stupidity and who scratched up our hallway trying to fit furniture down there (the company repaired at their expense).) We got it all in there, plus the spare bed (last minute addition) with room to spare; in fact, we could probably have fit in another 16 boxes! That thing is huge! (pd)

Friday:
Crazy day. Now that the POD is all set and locked, we concentrated on other stuff. Got all our car boxes (way too many) organized; copied music to SD cards for music on the road; another GoodWill deposit; checked to see why the USPS is failing to hold our mail (resubmitted the form); dropped the car off for new tires (stupid A3 cupping issue) and dropped $700; lunch with Chat & Pop at The Pointe (great cookies); ate Nestle Dipps before they melted; discovered it will not all fit in the car (thanks for the rescue, Jane & Jim!); had our last meal in Chestnut Hill at Solaris Grill; hit the road for the NJ Shore at 9p. WHOO!

Moving is Exciting but Stressful

2009-07-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

We had a very productive whirlwind 3 day weekend in Austin. I met with 4 potential employers on Friday and then Saturday and Sunday we looked at, hmm, 20 houses? It was a LOT to take in and think about. Our options and preferences are starting to emerge!

44 Days to Matt's Start Date

2009-07-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

The count down is on--we're working on planning the logistics of our move to get us down there and ready for Matt's start date Aug 24. Once we get a sense of the big moving dates, I'll be happy to move on to plans for final North East visits and such.

This weekend--well, today--we're going up to NYC to see Jess & Jim, Barbara & Joel, Matt's Grandma, and MichelleL. It will be great to fit in all those visits and then Sunday we'll be back home to do some work/prep.

Next weekend we decided to take a pre-trip down to Austin to look at some houses and/or temporary furnished housing. With a lot of luck and guts, we could put an offer in on a house. Otherwise we'll have learned some more about neighborhoods and possibily houses that could still be available when we arrive in August. I'll also try to book some meetings to explore job opportunities.

Talked to Bill

2009-07-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I told my boss, Bill Regli, that we were moving. It was such a great conversation.

Bill has probably been the best boss I have ever worked for. Passionate, caring, genuinely interested in the well-being of his team and his students. Smart, type-A, but relaxed and easy to talk with. Responsive, guiding, but lets you run with things you thing are right. Hands-off but there when you need him.

I believe he was genuinely happy for me/us. He sounded it, at least. He said that, as a professor, one of the best parts about his job is that he genuinely gets to help people. He asked me some hard questions a few weeks back when Amy and I were sorting everything out, and during this call he was glad that he could help us figure out what we think is most important to us now.

So, thanks, Bill.

Spreading the News

2009-07-08T14:09:00.001-07:00

We're starting our to-do lists for the move and, friend-by-friend, mom-by-mom, sharing the news of our decision. Hopefully soon the shock will wear off and they will be following our progress here, sharing in some of the fun.

Meanwhile I suddenly have zits like I'm 18 again. Hello, stress! Awesome!!

DECIDED

2009-07-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

WHEW!! As many of you know, this has been a LONG TIME coming, but we're thrilled to have decided that we are ready to take the plunge and are moving to Austin!!

We had a very nice weekend at the NJ Shore (Sea Isle City) and enjoyed a very good debate between Amy's siblings (moderated by Ashley) and learned a few new things which we hadn't yet considered. After another day of turmoil, we decided to just go for it; if it's not for us we can always move back to the northeast.

Thank you all for your support, guidance, love and ideas. We hope to see you in Austin often!!

More to come....

M