Fun in Austin

We have enjoyed a fun-filled week in Austin! On Monday, Brian and I took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda which was a nice reprieve from the heat for a few hours. Tuesday, Poppy and I took the kids to the little natural history museum at UT, and then we had Thai noodle bowls for lunch. It has been 100 degrees every day in Austin this week. On Wednesday, I went to a great yoga class taught by Charly Pivert, and in the evening the kids played in the sprinkler which they stuck in the dirt to have a crazy mud extravaganza. They were having so much fun that I kept thinking I wanted to play. Not being able to hold off any longer, I changed into my bathing suit and joined in on the fun. When I showed up in my bathing suit the kids couldn't believe I was going to get in with them. As soon as I stepped into the mud, they tentatively began to make mud prints on my legs, but once they realized I was committed they went all out and scrubbed me from head to toe (it was a laughter filled spa session for free :-)! Thursday morning, Poppy and I packed a lunch and drove the kids down to Natural Bridges Cavern (just north of San Antonio). We enjoyed a beautiful hike through the caverns, and a nice picnic lunch in the shade. When we got back to Austin, Brian and I took the kids out for Mexican food, and then Vashti asked if we could buy some balloons and fill them up with water. We stopped by the grocery and found a bag of 200 balloons for $2.99. Back at the Fernandez homestead/campsite, Brian filled about 175 balloons with water while I kept the mosquitoes at bay. Brian, Tomas, all five kids (Shanti, Vashti, Sofia, Cinco and Diego), and I had a blast tossing balloons to each other in the driveway. Everyone got wet, and everyone had fun! On Friday, I had a very leisurely lunch at Blue Dahlia Bistro (which was outstanding) with Mary Londos, and we had a relaxing evening at home swimming, eating pizza, and watching a movie. Aaahhh, Brian is taking the weekend off and we are hanging out and staying cool. It looks like we will be leaving Austin around the beginning of July. We're going to start planning our final going-away party so stay tuned!

Settling In

We are settling into life in our 5th wheel. Currently, we are parked in our friends driveway (which is only a few doors down from our previous home), and the kids are having a great time staying here with the 3 Fernandez kids. The new owners of our house (Marjorie and Danny) let the kids go swimming every evening at the pool Brian put in last summer, and they are happy to let the kids harvest all of the blackberries this season. It is a little weird being in visual sight of our home of the past 12 years, but this has allowed for a gentle transition. We get to enjoy some of the joys of our previous home and we get to visit Zoe (our puppy who is now living with our next door neighbor) while at the same time we are letting go. Zoe seems very content with her new family which consists of a young puppy named Annie, 2 older dogs, 1 yr. old triplet girls, 8 yr old Brannon, and Larry & Kathy.
As of right now, we have not decided when we are leaving Austin or where we are going first. We had planned to head towards Ohio and Pennsylvania, but it seems very likely that we will spend at least part of the summer in Colorado first. As the heat increases the mountains seem to be calling very loudly! Besides, I (Daphnie), have been really missing the mountains, and I am excited to get out and hike with the kids. Brian has been compiling a list of places he would like to take the kids over the next couple of years, and we are all getting excited about hitting the open road.
We weighed the rig, and discovered that we have to get rid of more stuff because we are over our weight limit! I was pleased because I still felt like we had more than I wanted to be responsible for, but it is tough because it means we have to start eliminating things we really wanted to keep like extra tools, massage table, kitchen stuff, more clothes and books. Everyone is generously giving away more belongings (including Vashti and Shanti) which is pretty amazing since we have already given up so much. Vashti even agreed to part with a whole box of her favorite board books (impressive for a 3 year old)!
It feels like the time to leave Austin is getting close. For now, we will continue to enjoy our friends and all the things we love about Austin.

We closed on our house sale yesterday! Now we lease back for 30 days and move from the stick house into the rolling house :)

Just remember: Ask for what you want :)
Last Thursday we had a friend (who is a Realtor) over to discuss ideas and price on selling our house after the summer. What I told our friends I would really like would be for the perfect buyers, who love the house, to show up and buy it now but let us stay for the summer to swim in the pool. That way I can do the work on the house the way they want, instead of just what I think a buyer would want. So, our friend walked through the space with me and said "you know, my girlfriend is a realtor too, and she has a client who could be a good fit for your place, however they're looking now. If you want, we could let them see it, and at the least it would be an interesting exercise." Well, needless to say, that was a little ahead of the game, so I told him we'd have to think about that.

Saturday... Went to the dealership and finalized the deal on the RV. They need a week to get it ready for me. Went home in the evening and after briefly discussing it with DW, we decided to call our friend and allow them to show the house to the prospective couple... the next day :eek:

Sunday... Our new friends arrive at 1:30 to look at the house. We talked a little, then wanting to give them some space we left to go have lunch. After lunch we swung by the video store; need to veg out a little after a hectic weekend. Call coming in on my cell... they are offering us our asking price and we'll have the contract this evening. Not only are the buyers a natural extension of our community, they even want to hold the same intention and use of the unique spaces we've created here. Also, they are generously accommodating of the fact that this is a little ahead of our planned time-line and are willing to help us stay for a couple of months to get ready to leave.

Tuesday... house inspection; nothing unexpected for our 1/2 50+ yr. old house. (The other 1/2 is only a few years old).

Wednesday... repair requests; again, nothing unreasonable or unexpected.

Thursday... complete a few of the repairs.

Friday... guess I better go to the RV dealer and pick up that hitch so I can install it!

After becoming increasingly dismayed with allergies in Austin, and finding that we're working just to cover overhead, we've decided to hit the road. We love camping and road tripping as a family (dad, mom, son, daughter, and sometimes poppy), so after a three and a half week trip with the minivan and a pop-up, we came home last month and decided to try full-timing and workamping. After extensive research on the net and lots of reading from the library, we decided on a fifthwheel and a dually. Knowing that allergy season will be worst beginning again in the fall, we've decided to leave as soon after this summer as we can sell the house. After our first trip to the large rv dealership nearby, we fell in love with a deal on a fiver with a bunk room in the back and queen master up front (Monte Vista 35rbmv). Two weeks later (first week of March) we've put a deposit on it and purchased an '05 Ford F350 diesel dually crew-cab. It's official... now we're just putting the vibe out there so that one or more of our friends who are turning up saying they want to buy our house will be able to afford it.