UPDATE!

WIDNERFUL LIFE, PART 1

As you all know, we are moving to the East coast this summer. After looking at train schedules, researching schools, gyms, churches, communities, and houses for rent, Joe & I took Ross & Chloe to Connecticut for 5 days. Our goal for the trip: buy-in. We are in agreement that if we can nail down the school piece of this jigsaw puzzle, we can tweak the other stuff around it. So, we found an awesome school, Christian Hertiage School, for the kids. The students and faculty rolled out a very long red carpet for us and treated us with so much hospitality we were SURE a Texan must be on staff!!! :) Ross & Chloe shadowed for one day, made lots of friends, and had a great experience. School: check.

After researching about 6 gyms in the CT area, I narrowed down the gym selection to ONE. Chloe got to participate in a level 5 team workout, and loved every minute of it. She even came out and asked to stay longer than we originally planned! The coach was amazing and took a lot of time answering our neurotic "we want this to be about her and not your program" questions, and our philisophies matched. Gym: check.

The Northeast is a very different environment than our southern, Bible belt, evangelical community, so we thought for SURE the church search would take a bit of time. Not true! We found Black Rock Community Church, and loved the worship, the message, and the kids programs. If anyone tries to tell you there aren't very many "committed Christians" in the northeast, don't listen! We ran into a whole slew of them while we were in Connecticut!!! Church: check.

Funny little coincidence: our neighbor here in Frisco, Texas knew our realtor in Stamford, Connecticut. Except I didn't know that until after I hired the CT realtor. Tell me God isn't in the details!!! :) Lorraine took us all over Stamford, showing us neighborhoods and areas that would be close to the train (for Joe) and the Merritt Parkway (for me). We left with 2 very doable options right in Stamford. So, house: check.

Commute. It's not a long word, but it is a nasty one. To work in the city, Joe would be facing a 42 minute train ride and about a 15 minute subway ride to his office. Add to that the 10 minutes it would take to get to the train, and we're up to 75 minutes. One way. On a good day. When everyone and everything is on time. I know most of you can do simple math, but let me just add it up for you: 12.5 hours a week commuting. That is longer than the average work day! So, Joe decided the search needed to continue. We were home for one week, and then flew with all 3 kids to Newark, New Jersey, to check out that fine state! It was all good! I am too tired to go on for now, though. If anyone is still reading, please know I'll post about that soon!!!