What our days look like

Our days start early - we all seem to have fallen into the habit of waking at least an hour earlier than normal, which means we are waking at an ungodly hour, Fort Worth time.  Jeremy and I start tossing and turning around 5 a.m., and Gideon is usually talking away in his room by 6:15 a.m.

So breakfast is usually done and Jeremy out the door with a packed lunch by 7:30-7:45 a.m.  Gideon starts asking to watch TV around this time and, thankfully, the local PBS station airs Curious George at 8 a.m.

Then we dress for the day, load up the stroller, leash the dog and fumble our way out of the hotel around 9 a.m. for our walk through the wooded area behind the hotel.  That walk ends with a stop at the neighborhood playground just across a ravine at the back of the hotel.

Now that I have a car, we generally make an outing in it in the mornings after our walk - grocery shopping, lunch, checking mail at the post office.  Thursday, we'll visit the local library for the first time to attend storytime.  Then we head back to the hotel for naptime.

After nap, there's generally plenty of time for playing and often a trip to the hotel swimming pool.

It's been shocking to discover that I am officially an old fuddy-duddy, because getting suited up to go get wet in the pool seems troublesome and unappealing.  When did that happen?!  I can remember just a couple of years ago being just as excited as a kid about checking out a hotel's swimming pool.  I clearly recall being frustrated with my own parents' lack of interest and enthusiasm for visiting the pool when I was a child.  And now that's me?!  How?  When?

Then I start dinner in our tiny kitchen.  Jeremy gets home around 5:30 p.m.

Meals are kept much simpler and clean-up much easier and shorter when there is one skillet, two pots, one paring knife, one steak knife, a smattering of silverware supplemented with fast-food takeout plastic ware and three dinner plates.  I generally give Gideon a bath while Jeremy takes poor cooped-up Sally for one more walk before putting Gideon to bed around 8.

It's not exactly the "vacation" or life of ease I'd imagined when planning our move this way.  But we're extremely grateful for two bedrooms since "Lockheed normally does not pay for a 2 bedroom".  Laundry is free in the hotel.  There's a convenience store just a few steps in front of our accommodations that allows for quick access to snacks, drinks, lunch.  


We're exceedingly grateful for a suitable place for our morning walks and a playground within easy reach.  Each bedroom has its own TV, in addition to the huge, wall-mounted one in the living room, all with cable TV - two concepts we are all completely unfamiliar with, but relish in these tight quarters.

And we're grateful for the breaks from the hotel provided by house-hunting excursions - exploring the surrounding countryside on our own, peeking into the homes of others and imagining our own lives there with a realtor.  (And Gideon is especially thankful for the generosity of friends and former - soon-to-be-again - "Koreans", who help spare him the in-and-out of the car of house showings with the realtor by keeping him in their amusement park of a house.)  But more on those trips later...

We're figuring out a routine and remembering how to orient ourselves to new surroundings.  It's just the beginning...