T-16 days and counting

It's been a while since I blogged and so much has happened. So much has happened yet there is SO much to do. This is not going to be eloquent.

In a nutshell the move to TX moves forward. We have not yet sold our house. We were confident we would have sold it by now based on the other activity in the neighborhood but here we sit. We are having another open house Sunday. We lowered the price again but regardless the move date is pretty much set for July 29th.

Our new house will not be ready until the end of September so we have a 3 month lease on an apartment in Richardson Texas, Half way between Wylie, where our new house is being built, and the Nortel office in Richardson.

We are moving ourselves so in stead of renting a big truck and driving it across country we are going to use "PODS". Basically the PODS company will drop off a 16'x 8'x 8' shipping container on our driveway on the 7/21, In that pod we are going to put all of the things we don't plan on using before we get into our house. They will pick that POD up on the 25th and drop off a second POD. In that POD we will put all off the things we will need in the apartment. The second pod will be picked up the 29th with the last of our belongings and both will travel together to Dallas. The first pod will be kept at the "PODS" storage facility in Dallas through September then dropped off at the new house. The second pod will be dropped off in the parking lot of the apartment complex sometime between the 5th and the 8th. We will unload it and they will come pick it up the next day.

Michelle, Kyle, Tyler, Karen and I will be pulling out of Durham, PROBABLY the 29th. We will be driving both the van and the Volvo taking turns driving and keeping each other awake etc. The cats will be in the Volvo. Let me tell you that will be interesting. I do not know honestly where Bob will be staying. His job in Durham will keep him in NC through the beginning of school.

We will arrive in Fairview Texas on the 1st of August. This is where my in-laws now live. We will stay at their house until the furniture arrives at the apartment. Howard and Nancy on the other hand will be riding a boat down some river in Germany for 3 weeks or something of that sort. So we will have the house to ourselves.

The kids ended up their school years with a Bang. I do not recall all of the grades etc. but overall we were pleased.

Tyler Graduated with a 4.6+ Weighted GPA and was something like 45th in his class of around 380. I am sure I got those number wrong but Bottom line I think it comes to around the top 11-12% of his class. He took the AP calculus test and received a score of 5 out of 5 and a 4 out of 5 on the AP Psychology test. We took him to his orientation at UNC-CH a couple of weeks ago. He is now all registered, his books ordered, his dorm room and room-mate are all assigned etc. He is going to participate in the Marching band at UNC..... He is very excited... but mostly because he received his Laptop computer. He spend much of his day on that thing.

Kyle was able to pull things together at school. It was a rough year for him in some ways. He took Physics as a sophomore which is hard enough but he probably needed to have had the math he was taking at the same time as physics, BEFORE he took physics. It made things more difficult than they probably would have been otherwise. He got his Driver Learners permit yesterday. He has not driven yet other than the behind the wheel class offered by the schools but soon I am sure.

Michelle is at Band camp this week. It is the same camp that Bob and Tyler went to at UNC-Greensboro. She and a couple of her friends from school all went. I have not heard from her so I will assume she is doing fine. We will know on Friday when we go to pick her up.

Karen has been busy with move preparations, plus keeping the house clean (cleaner than usual) in case a perspective buyer requests a showing. Driving kids around etc. Never mind painting and stripping wall paper and trimming bushes and .... You get the picture. All of this is very stressful on us all but it seems much of the details seem to fall on her. She has been a rock through all of the turmoil. I love you hon!

I have been busy with work and move preparations. I have been riding my bike to work more often which has turned out to be nice. I get some time to think as a ride in. It's a little less than 6 miles one way and it takes me around 35-45 minutes. I take a shower at work then ride home in the evening.

The Volvo is in the shop due to a little mishap between Tyler and a concrete structure in the parking lot at school so this week I have ridden in 3 out of the 4 days so far. And yesterday I rode in, played soccer at lunch then immediately rode home. That was probably a mistake. It was hot and muggy. I was pretty much worthless when I got home.

Anyway, That, in a nutshell is the news from NC.

Tim