tour de love

Greetings. 

I felt bad not blogging for so long, but soon realized that my the only people that read this fabulous blog

 were all people that were on the 

Tour De Love stops, 

so they would surely understand the lack of updates.

Then I spent the last 2 days, not blogging, but rather trying to do some maintenance work on the blog. I discovered that depending on what size screen you view the blog on depends on how you view the pictures. That can't be right. So, every once and a while if you see a picture that has about 25% cut off, it is NOT me trying to be creative (Misty!) it's something that I can't figure out. I will continue to work to better understand the behind the scenes of blogging.
Oh and of course once we get settled in Colombia, our blog will reflect that...
(as in the "Texas Lifestyle" will be gonzo)

So, where were we...

Tour de Love....

Unfortunately, the negative aspect to not blogging for over 2 weeks is that I really have to 

try to go back and put pieces together. So bear with me. 

We set off from Beaumont for Tennessee. Matt in a 16 foot U-Haul trailer which pulled the car and Sarah and Bella in the big red truck. Sarah loves driving the big red truck....

Okay, so this is a blatant lie, but it was better than the U-Haul. 

It was a full day of driving but we arrived in Knoxville in time for bed (and a drink).

We are storing our furniture and other belongings in a storage unit in Knoxville while we are abroad. 

So after the unloading of the truck we were able to really begin our vacation.

We enjoyed a lot of food, drink, laugher, outdoors, and 

of course quality time with the 4 legged family members.

My parents recently purchased a "cottage" on the water. Now, when I say on the water, I literally mean, on the water. It is surrounded by water on all 4 sides and is in the middle of a lake. The previous owners had as my mother would say, a different style than what she was going for. However, I would call it tacky. So, The Schoenfelder's have been busy renovating this cottage to their liking. This involves demo, like you see on HGTV and lots of work. We have had the opportunity to spend some time out on the cottage and see the vision it is moving towards and witness a lot of progress. I should probably clarify. I witnessed progress, my husband, was a part of the progress. I believe due to his assistance we now have part ownership in the "floating cottage". We are very much looking forward to
visiting this spot when we migrate north.

the view

before

after. that's called progress

the bar that i plan to belly up to next time I am here.

Of course you're all aware of Matt's crazy work schedule and once that slowed down 

we prepared for our exit from 885 East Drive
 then prepared to move abroad.

So obviously, seeing this made me really happy...

Bella's tour de love stopped here.
She reached her final destination.
She is home.
B transitioned fairly well and is enjoying her new housemates.
I am not sure if I can say the same for Bailey,
but she and Lola seem to have a good ole' time.

In all honesty, I expected the "parting" to be difficult
but thought I totally had it under control.
Nah.
But the good news is Bella is doing well,
she is extremely loved,
& gets lots of attention.
I miss her lots already.


After we dried our eyes we headed to Chicago...





It's pretty hard to recap that weekend, but it involved delicious food, story telling, laugher, amazing friends and quenching our thirst.

From Chicago, we hit the road to home sweet home Iowa. Our week's stay in Iowa went so fast.
There are so many special people to see and spend time with.
We had a great time catching up with Matt's parents and we even
road tripped to Missouri to see Matt's grandmothers.
Since we have moved to Texas we have not traveled that way so
 it was nice to have some extra time and visit with some extended family.
It was great to be able to see several people throughout the week.

Good friends of ours, The Bethel's, welcomed a baby boy at the beginning of this year.




We got to see the Brown's twice this week, once for dinner in Kansas City and at Jakes...
we are lucky!
(and I am hoping my luck continues and I also get to see them in VEGAS)


Matt's sisters came into town for the weekend with their adorable families.
We usually only get to see them around Holidays so it was nice to spend time
with the kids and the girls without an agenda. We ate some great
home-cooked meals, they helped us get through our Napa Valley wine stock,
(I think Marcie is an official Cakebread fan)
and we enjoyed everyone's company.



(If you read Shelley's blog, Yes, I stole the above pictures from her.)

We are so thankful to everyone who made time to see us
during our Tour de Love.
While it was difficult to say goodbye for now
it was also a great feeling...
For
this adventure would not be possible if it were
not for the
love and support
of our friends and family.

we love you. 

flouride

Hi.

I'm still processing....

This whole move thing.

To another country.

And guess what...

It's happening fast.

Fast as in....

We are approaching our last week as Beaumontians. 

Residents of Beaumont, Texas. 

Right now it looks like our last day in "Big Money Texas" is March 11.

From their we will begin our "Tour de Love"

We will be in touch about the destinations and dates.

And I believe we will be Colombians on March 28th.

It's been an interesting week. 

Between the conversations I have had with people attempting to explain 

the idea that I am moving to another continent

and

the random things that continue to puzzle me about moving to another land.

For example, today I was at the dentist and the kind Doc

made some comment about his lack of knowledge of the flouride in the water in Colombia.

Seriously.

Like, who would have ever thought of that.

Right?

Then I started to think about the water in general.

Are we entering a country with general rules to drinking water
(I will have to get back to you on that)

And now it is several days later and I am working on finishing this post.
So expect it to be random.
As random as the title.

We are now leaving Beaumont Friday morning.
Packing a U-Haul and heading to Tennessee to unpack it and begin to soak up
all the love, laughter, and joy
we can out of family.
Then we get to continue the journey and soaking in
Chicago and Iowa.

One thing I am not looking forward to:
Leaving this love:

She will be in good hands.
This much we know for sure.
She will be a resident of "Good Ole' Rocky Top"
and we are looking forward to our weekly skype sessions

We are also looking forward to soaking up some bottles of this:

We totally planned on bringing the Valley with us to CO...
Then we decided we should probably look into it.
Apparently it's not really all that easy to bring alcohol into a foreign country.
Praying the Colombia has their own fine wines to offer.

Last weekend as Texans:
Spent in Galveston, Texas.
Mardi Gras 2011.
Fab way to go out.


Tomorrow is my last day of week.
I have quite a bit of anxiety about this whole
Good Bye
thing.
I have been really, really, really
blessed
to work with some extraordinary people
and
truly enjoy the work I do.
Now, you may be able to better comprehend my anxiety.
Pretty difficult thing to say good bye to.
But as someone just told me:
"It's not Good Bye.
It's
See Ya
Later"

See Ya'll Later.