Despite all the Hecticness We are Having Fun

Yesterday wasn't terribly busy, but we had lots going on. We went to the gym in the AM, I went to the grocery store for probably the last time (and said goodbye to my deli guy), Michael stayed here and waited for our friend, Jens, to come by to drop off some stuff, Chris came by to pick up all the furniture we aren't taking and then we went out with Chris and Fayne in the evening.

Our couch, coffee table, computer desk, computer chair, dresser, a cabinet, two little rolling carts, cd stand and two barstools along with some other odds and ends all walked out of the apartment today. Now just about everything left in here, we are taking.

Chris and Fayne took us out to eat Vietnamese food for dinner and then we went and sat around and talked all night as they helped us polish off most of our alcohol. The movers wont move alcohol so the only responsible thing we could think of was to drink it all. Actually there wasn't that much but it was good stuff and didn't want to toss it. They have 2 snakes, by the end of the night we both braved up to holding the creepy little things. Actually it wasn't so bad. We had a really fun day and evening and we have been able to keep our minds off everything we have to be doing when we have been doing other things.

Snake 1
Snake 1 and 2 (on Faynes right hand)
Im not so sure how I feel about this... but it wasn't so bad.
Michael overcoming his snake fear

Today was not as fun as yesterday but we got a ton done. Our bags are all packed for our few days in a hotel in Dallas and our month in a hotel in Copenhagen. The movers come first thing tomorrow morning. 8:00AM!!! I suppose its a ready or not, here they come kinda situation, but I think we are ready to go and ready for the movers to come. Our place is going to be EMPTY tomorrow. Hard to believe.

Back From the Sun City

We will start with fun:

THE NEGRETE DANCE!
Here is my little brother and me being goofy
(This is a video, push play)

As you can tell because of the lack of posts, we have been away. We got back last night from El Paso after spending the week there for Thanksgiving. We had a really great time. We got a chance to spend a lot of time with the family and some of my friends. Sunday after we arrived my mom had the whole clan over for a little party (Clan being my brothers and sisters and their families) My nieces and nephews are all becoming giants. It is slightly scary. I was chatting with one of my little nephews who is in 6th grade this year. He looked at me ever so seriously and asked, "How tall was I when you met me?" It made me giggle inside and I told him, "Jonathan, I met you the day you were born!" he responded with.. "oh...well...then.....how tall was I at your wedding?" So I showed him and he seemed much more pleased with that answer.

Me and all my nieces! Including my great (grand?) niece (the littlest one)

Alex and me

Michael and My Mom

My big sis

Playing with my Nieces and Nephews in our hoodies

All the Siblings - We are like the Brady Bunch!

The rest of the week we spent buying some last minute stuff for the move, seeing as many friends and more of the family as we could and tried to take it easy. We saw everyone on our list that we had wanted to see before we left (except for one of my nephews) but our list was pretty big and I was impressed we got to everyone and even got to see some people Multiple times! We were both pretty under the weather as well. Something about the EL Paso air whether the pollution or the dust from the desert I don't know, but we were both yucky. We didn't get anything done for the move that we had hoped to (calling to cancel stuff, changing our address with the post office... Boring stuff like that) but oh well. Just another thing to add to our list of stuff for Monday and Tuesday.

We got back home last night and as we landed we both took a deep breathe as we got ready for our last little push here. The next few days are going to be BUSY BUSY BUSY! We just have to make it to Wednesday at 6 pm and then we can relax for a bit.

Some other Random Pictures For Fun

After we put up the Christmas Tree at my moms

My good friend Dean and me

Other good friends "Get You Guns Up (Texas Tech) and Gig 'Em (Texas A&M)" Pic.

My Boys! Hubby and Bro

My older brother, Michael, Me and My Mom

Friday Friday Friday

Yesterday was busy, but not so busy at the same time. I left pretty early and went to Chris and Faynes to do our laundry because we lost ours last weekend, and we got through a lot of clothes.
I spent almost all day there. They were getting ready for a camping trip which looked like some hard work. There are 5 in their family. They have 3 boys! 3!! I can't imagine. When I was leaving their middle son came up out of nowhere and gave me a hug. It was sweet and reminded me of when my little nephew Jonathan use to do the same thing. I'm gonna miss their kiddos too. They are way cute!

Yesterday was Michaels last day of work I picked him up at TI and he came walking through the parking lot with a box. It looked as if he had been fired. He said as he was walking people refused to look at him and he felt like he had been fired. Kinda funny. He said his last day was really busy but went well and he was pretty sad. However, on Tuesday after Thanksgiving he is going out with his group for a goodbye lunch so he will get to see everyone one more time. He has 2 weeks off now. He will enjoy that.

After our days both came to an end we met up with Mary and Jason for dinner, for a farewell dinner, a congrats to Michael on the new job, a congrats to Mary because she found out she is getting her own Starbucks store that she will manage. It is brand new and she is really excited and to congratulate Jason on making the Mock Trail team in law school! They insisted dinner was also to congratulate me on my new tai chi sword, but I think that was stretching it a little far. We hung out for a while and they came back to our place afterwards for a bit to. We had a really good time.

My posts are becoming more and more frequent if nothing else so we can look back and see everything we were doing leading up to our move.

Friendly Faces

15 months ago when we moved to Dallas we knew more people then we could count that lived in the DFW metroplex area. Problem was, everything is so far apart here that we never really saw anyone, besides Mary and Jason of course. In the short 15 months I have grown comfortable with seeing the same faces in the different places we go.

A random select few people I am going to miss...

I'm going to miss Chi, the Vietnamese woman that cuts my hair and always tells me I need to start having babies now. (Does she think I'm getting old and need to rush it?? lol)

The woman at target who when I order pictures and sees the last name always tells me that she went to school with a Pate but he pronounced it "Pay-tee"

I'll miss my deli guy, Jerry, who all he has to do is see my face, and he knows exactly what I want, how much I want and how I want it cut. Such a simple thing, but makes my life just a little bit easier. He doesn't know my name, but I'm sure in referring to me my name is "Pound and a half of Arostica"

The rotating faces at Starbucks, I swear there are new workers there bi-monthly. But they quickly get to know what it is I want.

Then there is the gym...ooo the gym. So many people I'm going to miss in there, some have become good friends, others have become comfortable familiar faces that we never speak more then 3 words to at a time.

Jeff who is a HUGE guy. Practices Martial Arts and has some huge guns (not the shooting kind, the muscle kind) but always tells us something about us being in the gym, like our babies are going to be born with dumbbells in their hands, or we are going to lift all the weight out of the equiptment.

Ed, the guy that always waves to us while he is on the stair machine when we walk in that has become our friend and swears that if he works out his abs, his stomach is going to get huge. He always makes us laugh about something and who has come to our rescue when we had car problems. Horray for those kind of friends!!


And then the 4 obvious people...

Chris and Fayne whom I've been spending at least an hour and a half with for the past 11 months and recently more like several hours a week......I've said it before, I'll say it again, they have become such a huge and important part of my life and introduced me to something that I have become incredibly passionate about...Tai Chi. They started as my mentors, but have become very good friends as well. I will feel their absence immediately...

and surprise surprise.....Can you guess the last two??

You got it....Mary and Jason. I don't even want to think about that yet...Without them, I'm not sure how our time in Dallas would have been. They were our support for those first LOOONG months, I can't even imagine if we had moved here without them. That would have made our transition here so much more difficult. It will be the first time in 3 years that we have lived in different cities. I know our friendship between the 4 of us is strong enough to survive time and distance though and I know without a doubt, they will be taking advantage of us being in Europe!

I'm not looking forward to our Dallas goodbyes, those are going to be the real ones. They wont be the, goodbye because you are leaving Dallas and we will still be here, or the goodbye we are going back to Dallas and will see you soon, it will be the goodbye because we are leaving and aren't coming back. Those are always the hardest for me.

I'm Not Dying

ok, so i'm feeling better...mostly. Almost completely, just a little lingering junk. I'm almost certain it was just severe allergies. I took it easy this morning, then ran a few errands, met Fayne for Lunch at Central Market (a grocery store) and then we met Chris at Starbucks. Michael and I had our last sports conditioning class tonight and afterwards our pal Ed took us and the trainer Casey and his sister who is also in the class out for dinner. We thought that was very nice of him.

So, this is our last Thursday in Dallas. Next Thursday, Thanksgiving, we will be in El Paso, and the following Thursday....will be the day we land in Denmark. Crazy.

Not Here, Not Now...

Tuesday night we went to dinner at some friends place. Everything was good until right before we left and both of our allergies AND our asthma went into high gear from their doggie. Sneezy, coughy, itchy throat...the whole 9 yards. Well we got home and went to bed. Michael healed over night, I did not. Yesterday the temperature dropped down pretty low and the wind was crazy and kicked a bunch more stuff in the air that always gets my allergies going. They bothered me most of the day just moderately but by 5:30, I was completely miserable. My throat felt as if I had swallowed a thorny rose stem, my nose was stuffy, my ears were in pain, my lungs were tight, and it was all accompanied by a lovely sinus headache. This morning, I woke up feeling better then I did yesterday, but my throat/ears are still bothering me and my nose is still pretty stuffy. I can't tell if my body is just having a hard time fighting off the allergies, or if I am coming down with something. I'm holding onto the, this is just really bad lingering allergies theory and my bodys way of saying, "SLOW DOWN WOMAN"

#6

Today we traded in our rental car for our 6th rental car since October 6th!

#1 - CAN'T REMEMBER....
#2 - Chevy Cobalt
#3 - Chevy Impala
#4 - Chevy Cobalt - wrecked!!!!
#5 - Ford Focus
#6 - Buick LaCross

and we have 2 more to come
#7 - El Paso
#8 - Last of Dallas

This morning we got the Buick LaSaber and started a new contract because today, TI starts paying for the rental cars!!! HORRAY!!! Slowly, but surely, we are becoming TI's resposibility and it is going to be so nice! We booked our hotel in Dallas our last two nights and while we stay in a hotel, TI buys all our food (Including food from the grocery store) Did I say, "HORRAY"??

We got a new couch and coffee table (that matches the thing our TV is on) and they are being delivered today. The couch is more of a loveseat, perhaps a little bigger, but not much. It is made to have a slip cover on it, so we got a black one for now, but we can change out the color at anytime. They are both from IKEA and we will be living just a couple miles from the IKEA in Copenhagen, it will be easy to get a new slipcover if we ever want it.

I've started packing our winter clothes thatwe won't wear here bfore we leave, but will need the second we land in Copenhagen.

We have booked our hotel aka.. temporary home... for the month of December in Copenhagen. We will be staying at the SAS Radisson. Not the one we stayed at on our househunting trip but another one, just about a mile away. It is in central copenhagen and we will still be walking distance from anything we need including a Metro Station. It will be nice to be in Central Copenhagen for the holidays with so many festivals and markets going on everyday. We will also be in the City Center for New Years, which should be CRAZY, but fun. The hotel has an indoor pool, a nice gym, a spa, and houses a really big casino on the 1st floor. Also the hotel, the casino and its resturants have a TON of holiday things going on. Should be fun!

I have been surprised at this but LOTS of people have been asking us if we are still going to the gym during this crazy time. The answer, of course! It has been one of the only constants in our lives for the past 4 years. It gives us a place to try to leave the hecticness of our lives at the door and a place to see and talk to friendly faces. Skipping our 1.5 hours at the gym everyday would probably make us feel worse, then better about the extra time we managed to find.

Now... onto another busy day!!

And Then There Were Two

We came to Dallas with only 4 things we really cared about.
1 & 2 . Each Other
3. Hendrix
4. The Blazer

We lost Hendrix along the way, and yesterday the Blazer drove off with its new owner. Michaels mom and Wayne. It was actually more sad then we thought it would be to watch it drive away. It had been a great car for the time we had it.




Along with the Blazer Tanya and Wayne took all of our good guestroom furiture including the bed, and the washer and dryer and some other odds and ends. It became a little more real seeing stuff we aren't taking being loaded into a trailer.

Goodbye Stuff!!

Today we are on the hunt for some new furniture (its cheaper to get here) for our Danish Flat. Things like a smaller couch, bedside tables and a few other little things. Hopefully we will find something.

This week is our last full week in Dallas (we leave Sunday for El Paso) and our schedules are shaping up to be nothing short of a circus. We have 3 dinners planned with friends on different nights. The other three nights we are trying to leave open to do stuff around the apt to get it ready to go for the move after we get back from El Paso. Michael has 5 days left of work here. His last day at Dallas TI will be this coming Friday. He will then have 2 weeks offs which he is increadibly excited for. Nice thing is, he is only using three days of vacation time! The three days before Thanksgiving. Then when we get back, those aren't days off, but are more like "moving days". Once we move Michael has a handful of days he hasn't used that we will be cashing out on. horray!

One other note. We got our contract for our flat and everything looks great. Flemming had told us he would never advise us to sign anything that he wasn't completely comfortable with but by the looks of the contract everything looks fantastic. Michael has a phone meeting with him next week to discuss it all. We will then put down our deposit (3 months rent OUCH) ad first months rent (so yes, at one time, we will basically pay the amount of 4 months rent.. did I say OUCH?)
When we move out we will get that 3 months rent deposit back minus the cost of any repairs and such... So thats that!!

The next few weeks are going to FLY!

Moving Stuff Around

Tanya and Wayne (Michaels mom and stepdad) are coming down here tomorrow till Saturday. They will be leaving with our Blazer, nice guestroom furniture that is too big to take with us but don't want to get rid of (Been in Michaels family a long time) and our guestroom bed and some other odds and ends. But in order to send them off with the 12 drawers and book shelf I have to clear it off and I'm realizing there is no where to put it all!! YIKES! I have a feeling the next week and a half this place is going to be a mess. The movers are going to look at us like we are crazy when they get here and see all of our stuff laying around on the floor. Oh well, we don't have that much stuff so I'm sure it will be far from the worst they have ever seen.

This is our schedule... brace yourselves, this is scary. We are here (counting today) 10 days, then we leave for El Paso for almost a week. When we get back we have 5 days before we head out (We leave in the Evening on the 29th). We have 13 nights left in our own bed until January!!! I told Michael I am going to actually enjoy being in a hotel for a month. I don't know what I will do with myself besides enjoy the holidays. There wont' be a kitchen to cook in, Housekeeping will be coming by everyday to clean the place... Needless to say, I am looking very much forward to December and the holiday season this year. We already have something booked for our anniversary. The "Crazy Christmas cabaret" It is a pretty big deal in Copenhagen every year. It takes place in Tivoli (a popular amusement park and gardens) not amusement park in the 6 flags sense, but more of a place with kids rides, and lots of restaurants and it is beautiful. Hard to describe. Anyways, this Crazy Christmas cabaret is a British Production and suppose to be hysterical. We wanted to go last time we were there, but didn't. That will be a fun way to spend our anniversary and I imagine will eat dinner in the gardens and browse the charming Christmas Market , and eat and drink Glogg and Aebleskivers (a Danish tradition and it is so yummmmmy) ah, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

As a side note, I'm going to have to be starting a new blog as well. "Learning to Love Dallas" just won't make sense anymore. So I suppose, this blog is quickly coming to an end too.

I Think We Love NASCAR !?!?!?!?

Yup, I think we might. We went with Melissa and Frank and Melissa's parents and had a great time. We didn't know what to expect, but WOW!! It was increadible. The amount of people was crazy, Texas Motor Speedway was HUGE, the cars were SOOOOOOO fast, and SOOOOOOO Loud. It was awesome. We knew we would enjoy the expirence but had no idea that we would enjoy it as much as we did. The race was about 3 hours long and they did about 360ish laps. I never could figure out what was exciting about watching cars drive in circles for that long, but now I know... and can't explain it. The worst was after the race when the street basically became a parking lot. It took us a LONG time to get home.

Melissa and Me Waiting for the Race to Start

Terry

Melissa and Happy Frank

Holly and Michael

The Boys

Looking Straight Ahead from our Seats

Crazy McClains

Melissa and the Crowd

Looking Slightly Left from our Seats
See the cars coming on the track?

Michael and Me Listening to the Race

Racing as it Gets Dark

The weeekend was fun and it was great to see the McClains and meet Frank, but like always, fun weekends go by way too fast.