Day 3

Nichole thinks everyone should have an escape when they are trying to move… and not just to their new home.  She can’t begin to describe the joy and peace of leaving the chaos of Little Elm and coming to Denton to be in this home of peacefulness in a canopy of trees.  The girls love it.  Nichole loves it.  Shahram loves it.  Trees do something miraculous to the chakras.  Out every window there is a covering of green leaves and branches, sometimes the sun is shooting through.  Sometimes it’s overcast, but it’s always beautiful and refreshing to our spirits.  It reenergizes us to continue packing and thinking positively, upon return to the house in LE.  From living down there for four years, away from most of our friends, we can see we have become quite reclusive.  We’ve been here off and on for 3 days and we’ve not attempted to see anyone, though we did think about it today.  We think we are mellowing and adjusting.  Persia is having the most difficulty and she’s back to screaming a lot and hitting Margaux.  She needs a visit to Rodney, who just happens to be in Hawaii until the 20th.  But we’ll get through it.

The painters started today.  We have to meet another realtor at 5:30 this evening back over there.  We think Margaux and Persia will stay in Denton.  We’re wondering if we’ll have time to go get them some Chinese or Thai food.

So, after meeting with the painters this morning, we did indeed return to Denton–Shahram had breakfasted with Checkers before he went back to Little Elm this morning.  Checkers was glad to see us, and he and Persia are starting to become friends again.  She still wants Daddy and/or Mama close by when interacting with him, but she’s not crying and clinging like she had been.  We had late coffee and late brunch and then Shahram went to work, and Nichole and the girls headed out back.  What a lovely back yard.  Nichole emptied the water from the luggage carrier where it was thought that mosquitoes may be breeding.  Then Margaux tried the zipline several times and Persia got on the air-pogo stick/swing and we bounced her for quite a long time. 

After a bit, Margaux wanted to go play basketball so we all headed out front.  Persia had a little spill and after comforting her, all three ladies sat on the porch swing and rocked and rocked enjoyed the good smell of approaching rain, the new sounds of birds and big vehicles at work, and a slight breeze.  Nichole started to crochet at some point after getting Persia an apple.  Margaux started reading a book and Persia just sat quietly, enjoying her fruit and all the sensations. 

After about an hour, Persia sat on Nichole’s lap and fell asleep.  She was carried up to bed where she continues to nap, now 90 minutes later.  It’s 3:55pm.  We love it here.  We hope our next home has this many trees, this many birds and is this peaceful.  We think some of the less peacefulness is the amount of stuff we hold onto.  We want to get rid of so much JUNK!  But when you’re standing there with stuff that’s been yours forever, you have a kind of emotional attachment that’s hard to set aside.  I think we did best when Tiffany was there telling Margaux to pick just 20.  And that’s a lot of stuffed animals anyway. Twenty!  Gosh we used to buy that girl everything.  So glad those days are over, never to be experienced again.

Ahhh, peace.  Ahhh peace.

Day 2

Our first overnight was a bit less than restful.  Persia had difficulty several times wanting both of her parents to be near.  This may turn out to be a good thing.  We slept in the same bed and were fine. 

We returned to Little Elm to do some more packing and cleaning and to decide on a painter.  We went with CertaPro due to their price, time frame, and general professionality.  The homeschoolers who underbid them by almost $1100 got mad and snippy when we asked what kind of paint they plan to use, if they have insurance, are bonded, and for references.  Shahram said to them that it was fine that they didn’t have insurance, weren’t bonded, but could they send references.  The man, Keith Greenwood, said he would send them first thing in the morning.  Nichole didn’t believe he would and she was right (we are writing a back-dated entry).  He didn’t send a thing. 

So, we called Taylor Porter with CertaPro and we settled on a deal, with him taking off $200. 

A little while after that, Pam texted me asking if we had power.  She thought we were in Denton.  Actually, Shahram and the girls had just returned from Denton where they had retrieved the estimate/contract, fed the cat, and grabbed our spare house key.  The power had gone out shortly after they left Denton.  Persia was miserable, and we thought the power might not come back on, so we put her to bed in Little Elm and decided to spend the night and keep cleaning past midnight.    I really need to be rich, because I’m a terrible housekeeper.  A 3100 square foot house should not be owned by people who do not like to clean or by people who will not spend the money on professional cleaners–at least a few times a year.  Gosh.

Shortly after Shahram and I went to bed–sleeping in the same bed as Persia–Nichole asked Shahram if he had left the porch light on in Denton.  He thought he had so he drove to Denton to spend the night there.  Nichole stayed in Little Elm with the girls.

50 Days

We have the very fortunate and rare opportunity to spend 50 days in a town where we think we’d like to live before moving there. We are house-sitting for dear friends while they are away on their Summer vacation. We are taking this opportunity when we won’t be in our home to list it unoccupied. We know it’s been a long time since we’ve updated this blog and these 50 days won’t be much about dating our dating, but we think it’s a significant event–this whole thing, and we want to document it.

Today, we met with some painters at our home in Little Elm, got some numbers back from our third realtor, Marvin Jolly, and packed frantically (though it was 6pm when we started) for spending the first night in Denton. We arrived around 8:30. Nichole entered the house and immediately fed Checkers, the sweet cat. It took quite some time to unload the cars due to Persia’s sudden fear of being around the kitty. A month ago, she loved Checkers, even wanted to lay on him. She was so sweet. But during Grandy and Pop’s visit a few weeks ago, the neighborhood stray jumped up on her and she has been frightened of cats ever since. So, this may take a few days of getting used to Checkers before the affection returns.

Finally, the car was unloaded and Shahram wheeled the stroller to the house, thinking he’d keep it in the house like we do in Little Elm. While he finished transporting the previous things from the car, Nichole sat on the porch swing with Persia. Persia enjoyed this greatly. Nichole examined the developed spider webs and the two significant-looking wasp or hornet nests on the porch’s ceiling, remembering how some sort of bees chased her and Persia the previous Summer and how Tiffany rescued them with her quick thinking. Persia also did a lot of looking up. When the strolled came close to the house, Persia wanted a stroll. So Shahram took her for a walk up the block in the dark and they both enjoyed it. The mosquitos must have been taking a break–we were all fine.

Margaux put almost everything away that accumulated inside the door. Tiffany and her family got the house really spic and span before leaving town. Such a nice change from our nearly disastrous home, in the process of packing up, cleaning and staging. The house here in Denton, on this very shady street with so many beautiful old trees is peaceful, to say the least. The energy of the house is just lovely. Even so, Persia is having a hard time. It’s 11:58pm and she’s been up and down three times so far. We just gave her some Cheerios and she was talking to the cat from a distance, laughing as he cleaned his paws. Maybe this won’t take so long afterall.

Tomorrow, we wish we could go to hear the music on the square, but we still have quite a bit to do at the house, so we will return to Little Elm after breakfast and work there all day. We think there will probably only be one or two more days of cleaning, packing, etc. before we’re ready to be out of the house. THe estimate we received from Certapro was about $2400 and change. The estimate from Marianne and Keith Greenwood was $1375, and then they would also replace faucets for $100 labor. The Greenwoods would be able to start on Monday and it would take them about a week to finish. Certapro could do it at the end of the week and it would take them one day. We’re pretty sure that the Greenwoods don’t have insurance, probably aren’t bonded, but they’ve been doing this for years. They’re also homeschoolers of 6 children, with two left at home. They have a nice energy. We also liked Taylor with Certapro and he has a five star rating through Service Magic. It’s not a completely easy choice, but we think we are going to go with the Greenwoods. It will save us $1000, and help support a homeschooling family–and we really like that.

Persia seems to be winding down now with Shahram on the daybed. Wow, that AC is loud when it comes on. That’s going to take some getting used to. We brought out fans and hopefully we’ll have them directly correctly by tomorrow night. Right now, everyone’s really tired and wants to get some sleep.

Good night world.

Shahram, Nichole, Margaux,and Persia
Day 1