Now that we know where we will be moving, Chase and I decided to take a trip down to Austin to find us a place to reside for the next little while. This was to be my first time leaving little Jack for longer than a day. I was very nervous and almost took him with us (which looking back would have been disastrous). Of course the inevitable happened. Our flight took off on Friday and Jack vomited Thursday morning in the car. We had no idea what we were going to do! Do we take him to the Todd's if he might be sick or do we forgo the trip and be homeless our first month in Austin? Or, do we take him with us so he can barf all over the realtor's car? My kids tend to throw up in the car, not all the time, but it's happened quite a few times. So, when they vomit on the road I never know if it's just car sickness or if they have actually caught a bug. Virginia heat and Chase's driving are never a good combination and because we REALLY had to find a house, we went with our initial plan...to leave him with the Todd's.
Here's the other twist. Cate and Mike were heading to Utah for her high school reunion and Pops flew out to take care of the 8 kids ALL BY HIMSELF. Pops is more than capable but even I (a stay at home mom) would be overwhelmed with 8 kids by myself. CC was in Maryland at a music camp and was going to join him late Friday night. Pops was the sole care giver for the entire day and that's including a "might have a flu bug" baby. I felt awful. I still can't believe I actually left him there. I really did hope he just got a little car sick because no one else in the Cannon fam had thrown up yet. We said a big long prayer when we left and then tried to forget about the worst that could happen.
I really enjoyed my flight. I crocheted the whole time and got two hats done. It is so nice to actually relax on the plane. When we got there and got our gangster mobile rental car, we headed to Austin to check out some of the neighborhoods. NFP set us up with a relocation specialist because in Austin you can't even look at a rental with out an agent to unlock the door. Leslie was a hilarious woman and we got along great but I fear she wasted a lot of our time. I'm the kind of person who NEVER takes tours because I'm not patient enough to sit and listen to someone talk to me. I wouldn't mind having a tour guide to answer my questions, but let me do the exploring. I was DYING to have all the house codes Leslie had so I could drive to where I wanted to go, skip the houses I didn't want to see and leave the houses that smelled like nicotine instead of humoring her back to the car. Maybe we weren't specific on what we told her we wanted. There were several criteria that had to be met, the most important being...no cockroaches. The first day we saw a lot of homes with some serious bug problems. I've hear Texas has bugs, but this was ridiculous!! I even caught Leslie trying to confiscate a roach out the side door with her shoe but I caught he in the act. I guess I'm hard to please...am I?...but I can't have those kinds of roommates.
We wanted to live near the hill country but close to Chase's work as well. Everything either had ridiculous amounts of wallpaper, roaches, or was WAY too expensive. By our fourth and final day I was getting VERY depressed that we had wasted all this time and still hadn't found a place to live. It wasn't helpful that it was about 106 degrees outside EVERY DAY that we were there. I was confused because I heard that the cost of living was cheaper than D.C. but in the rental market, it really isn't THAT much more affordable. Buying a home is WAY more cost effective because there are so few rental properties and about a bazillion homes for sale. I just didn't feel comfortable buying a home in an area I didn't know; so we went home with a little knowledge of where we wanted to live, but still no home.
When we arrived in Virginia we realized that both James and CC had vomited as well, but it turns out they drank some expired milk because everyone else was fine. I'm just going to keep telling myself that Jack didn't get everyone sick because it makes me feel better knowing the whole trip wasn't a complete waste of time while it infested the Todd home with a bug of it's own. Sadie had a ball with out Mom and Dad around. She drank as much lemonade as she wanted and had froot loops for breakfast. One morning while we were in Texas I called to see how she was doing. I asked her what she had for breakfast and she replied "froot loops. They were the healthy kind mommy" which meant that instead of eating the artificial flavors in Froot Loops, she ate them in the Fruity Cheerios instead. She played with Grace the whole weekend and watched all the television she desired. What a vacation!
When we pulled up to our house after picking the kids up Sadie broke down while asking why we were at "this" house. I guess she thought we were going directly to Texas after we got back from Austin. The breakdown snowballed into a tantrum over the discovery that we would NOT house a pony in our garage when we got to Texas. In one of her books, Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse, the character wants a pony and tells her parents she can keep it in the garage. When we told Sadie we would have a garage in Texas she automatically made the connection. Garage=Pony!! I don't know when she had the owning a pony epiphany but she was heartbroken once we explained that ponies poop and we wouldn't want all that poop in our garage (while ignoring the fact that owning a horse is WAY beyond our budget). Through tears she explained that "her ponies wouldn't poop." Her plastic ones at home don't poop so why would a larger, hairier one create waste. It was a sad, sad day for our little Sadie but good to have us all under one roof again.
While exploring the potential areas one house in particular really scared us away. The idiot that owns this home in Avery Ranch had this spider lurking right by the front door. If I had noticed it at first I wouldn't have even gone up to the doorbell but once it rang I turned around to look at Chase and saw a web the size of a large window with THIS SPIDER right in the center. I was surprised to find people were decorating for Halloween so early in the year (I really thought it was fake) and then gasped when I realized it was real. Yikes!! The myth that "where there's one there's 30" ran through my head over an over again as I looked at the home inside. It was actually a nice house but after seeing Herbert (that's what we named him) we decided to pass.
Why on earth would you let a spider that size sit right outside your door. especially when you're trying to rent the place!! Like I said before...not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have to admit that after examining the web for the few seconds I could bare, it was pretty beautiful and you could tell that the spider had worked pretty hard to construct it's home. He did very well for himself. Judging from his size he's caught quite a few dinners in that web.
The trip wasn't a total waste. I got to hang out with my best friend and enjoy the 100 degree humidity (great for the skin..ya know). We also got to see the bats fly in downtown Austin. It's a pretty big tourist attraction and I was very excited to see it in person. IT WAS AMAZING!! 1.5 million bats fly at dusk every night to feast on the insects down the lake. Bats...you saved our trip!!
Here's the other twist. Cate and Mike were heading to Utah for her high school reunion and Pops flew out to take care of the 8 kids ALL BY HIMSELF. Pops is more than capable but even I (a stay at home mom) would be overwhelmed with 8 kids by myself. CC was in Maryland at a music camp and was going to join him late Friday night. Pops was the sole care giver for the entire day and that's including a "might have a flu bug" baby. I felt awful. I still can't believe I actually left him there. I really did hope he just got a little car sick because no one else in the Cannon fam had thrown up yet. We said a big long prayer when we left and then tried to forget about the worst that could happen.
I really enjoyed my flight. I crocheted the whole time and got two hats done. It is so nice to actually relax on the plane. When we got there and got our gangster mobile rental car, we headed to Austin to check out some of the neighborhoods. NFP set us up with a relocation specialist because in Austin you can't even look at a rental with out an agent to unlock the door. Leslie was a hilarious woman and we got along great but I fear she wasted a lot of our time. I'm the kind of person who NEVER takes tours because I'm not patient enough to sit and listen to someone talk to me. I wouldn't mind having a tour guide to answer my questions, but let me do the exploring. I was DYING to have all the house codes Leslie had so I could drive to where I wanted to go, skip the houses I didn't want to see and leave the houses that smelled like nicotine instead of humoring her back to the car. Maybe we weren't specific on what we told her we wanted. There were several criteria that had to be met, the most important being...no cockroaches. The first day we saw a lot of homes with some serious bug problems. I've hear Texas has bugs, but this was ridiculous!! I even caught Leslie trying to confiscate a roach out the side door with her shoe but I caught he in the act. I guess I'm hard to please...am I?...but I can't have those kinds of roommates.
We wanted to live near the hill country but close to Chase's work as well. Everything either had ridiculous amounts of wallpaper, roaches, or was WAY too expensive. By our fourth and final day I was getting VERY depressed that we had wasted all this time and still hadn't found a place to live. It wasn't helpful that it was about 106 degrees outside EVERY DAY that we were there. I was confused because I heard that the cost of living was cheaper than D.C. but in the rental market, it really isn't THAT much more affordable. Buying a home is WAY more cost effective because there are so few rental properties and about a bazillion homes for sale. I just didn't feel comfortable buying a home in an area I didn't know; so we went home with a little knowledge of where we wanted to live, but still no home.
When we arrived in Virginia we realized that both James and CC had vomited as well, but it turns out they drank some expired milk because everyone else was fine. I'm just going to keep telling myself that Jack didn't get everyone sick because it makes me feel better knowing the whole trip wasn't a complete waste of time while it infested the Todd home with a bug of it's own. Sadie had a ball with out Mom and Dad around. She drank as much lemonade as she wanted and had froot loops for breakfast. One morning while we were in Texas I called to see how she was doing. I asked her what she had for breakfast and she replied "froot loops. They were the healthy kind mommy" which meant that instead of eating the artificial flavors in Froot Loops, she ate them in the Fruity Cheerios instead. She played with Grace the whole weekend and watched all the television she desired. What a vacation!
When we pulled up to our house after picking the kids up Sadie broke down while asking why we were at "this" house. I guess she thought we were going directly to Texas after we got back from Austin. The breakdown snowballed into a tantrum over the discovery that we would NOT house a pony in our garage when we got to Texas. In one of her books, Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse, the character wants a pony and tells her parents she can keep it in the garage. When we told Sadie we would have a garage in Texas she automatically made the connection. Garage=Pony!! I don't know when she had the owning a pony epiphany but she was heartbroken once we explained that ponies poop and we wouldn't want all that poop in our garage (while ignoring the fact that owning a horse is WAY beyond our budget). Through tears she explained that "her ponies wouldn't poop." Her plastic ones at home don't poop so why would a larger, hairier one create waste. It was a sad, sad day for our little Sadie but good to have us all under one roof again.
While exploring the potential areas one house in particular really scared us away. The idiot that owns this home in Avery Ranch had this spider lurking right by the front door. If I had noticed it at first I wouldn't have even gone up to the doorbell but once it rang I turned around to look at Chase and saw a web the size of a large window with THIS SPIDER right in the center. I was surprised to find people were decorating for Halloween so early in the year (I really thought it was fake) and then gasped when I realized it was real. Yikes!! The myth that "where there's one there's 30" ran through my head over an over again as I looked at the home inside. It was actually a nice house but after seeing Herbert (that's what we named him) we decided to pass.
Why on earth would you let a spider that size sit right outside your door. especially when you're trying to rent the place!! Like I said before...not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have to admit that after examining the web for the few seconds I could bare, it was pretty beautiful and you could tell that the spider had worked pretty hard to construct it's home. He did very well for himself. Judging from his size he's caught quite a few dinners in that web.The trip wasn't a total waste. I got to hang out with my best friend and enjoy the 100 degree humidity (great for the skin..ya know). We also got to see the bats fly in downtown Austin. It's a pretty big tourist attraction and I was very excited to see it in person. IT WAS AMAZING!! 1.5 million bats fly at dusk every night to feast on the insects down the lake. Bats...you saved our trip!!
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