Movin on... up?

We finally heard from Hallandale about two weeks ago and they gave Danny a start date of June 8th. In these past two weeks we planned goodbye parties- a game night, a musical night, dinners with friends, a picnic at Tom Brown. Krissie made us a going-away cheesecake at Bible Study. I finalized the Garcia family reunion plans for 2010 and mailed out the invitations. We also began packing, cleaning and purging in earnest. (Don't ask me for those inline skates- they're gone!) It never ceases to amaze me how many boxes it takes. There were minor set-backs, like Dominic's permanent-marker escapade, and unexpected victories, like Noemie peeing in the potty. (She went three times in one day and we had never even tried teaching her! Random!) We made arrangements with a friend to house-sit and hightailed it for south Florida on Thursday afternoon, stopping only at a drive-thru for dinner and eating in the car on the go. We arrived at Jensen Beach 6 hours later where we found that my parents beach house was a plumbing disaster. We let Dominic play in the pool for half an hour or so before we climbed back into the car and continued south. At about Davie, we hit so much traffic that we didn't arrive in Miami for almost another two hours (a drive that would otherwise have taken 40 min). Exhausted and sore, with Danny's clutch sticking and his car's brakelight switch busted from the intense stop-and-go necessary to keep from getting butted in traffic lines, we pulled into my parents driveway at 11 pm. On Friday, we dropped the kids off with Danny's parents and headed back to Davie to begin the apartment search. My head was spinning by the time we were done.

The local news is filled with stories of a recent string of robberies, and a murder where the victim's body parts are showing up in different spots every day from Miami to Pompano Beach. What a far cry from Tallahassee, where it seems the biggest fear is that some patch of forest near your house will get mowed over to make room for development. Dominic is in crazy-mode most of the time, and Noemie is her usually cheerful self. A little whiny these days but content. Abuela's in crazy mode too. Just this morning she was ranting about how the woman who comes to bathe her is demon-possessed. The lady seems nice to me, but maybe abuela knows something I don't.

It may be a while before I can post pictures; I have no idea where the camera cables are. A lot of things are missing at the moment. For now, my mind doesn't appear to be one of them. Let's see how long that lasts!