Ten days in Texas.

Watching Hurricane Irene hit the East Coast has been a strange experience for us - kind of like we're on vacation & all of these things are happening while we're gone, with us fully expecting to hop on a plane & head back home. I've been anxious about my neighborhood & worried about the people we know there. I've been wondering how our doormen could get to work (most of them live an hour away, at least) & how their families are doing. I've followed my friend's photos & updates on Instagram & felt so very far away. I think that when you experience grief (& leaving a home & friends you've loved so very much for 6+ years certainly causes grief upon separation), it doesn't have an immediate onset, & 10 days later, there are many things that prick me with that acute sense of loss & sadness (for the record: I fully expect this to continue for weeks & months to come). Some of these things are silly - like the weather.com app still pulling up New York City weather every time I open it. Some of these things are not - like the constant chatter over the past few days about Irene. I'm glad she wasn't too rude upon her arrival.

We've been in Texas for 10 days. It has been good to us, despite the scorching heat. People are incredibly kind - from the builder of our home, to our neighbors, to the Costco checkout people, to the woman at Papasito's who asked if Quinn went to Suhn-daye School. When I said yes, she said I can just tell! Speaking of Papasito's, Quinn is obsessed with Mexican food. At lunch on Friday, he managed to eat three tortillas, a half cup of beans, plenty of avocado, a sampling of our fajitas & just a little bit of our dessert. This was all after his own lunch of fruit & veggies. He's still a shrimp for his age, but he apparently has the appetite of a five year old. Anyway. I'm sure that we'll really like it here, in part because of the abundance of fresh tortillas. 

We had a busy week. Mike is already diving in head-first to work, I've made a half-dozen trips to Target, & we have a refrigerator full of food. We love our home, we love having cars, we love having a washer & dryer, & we have empty cupboards & closets & rooms that we'll likely not fill any time soon. It's all strange & wonderful at the same time.

My mother! Bless her heart. She was here for a week & worked her little heart out every day. I really, really love her for this, even more than I ever have. She is really just the champion of all mothers. Our movers came on Thursday, & by Saturday morning my house was 90% unpacked. The other 10% can't be put away until we have more furniture (arriving in the next month or two), but I can sleep at night knowing that we've done all that we can do. We were both thoroughly exhausted by the time she left, but the results are amazing. My closet is organized, Quinn's room is set up, my kitchen is totally unpacked, our guest room looks beautiful & my towels & sheets are perfectly folded & put away. I don't have any boxes left in the house, & besides our study (the doors will stay closed for a very long time - I'm pretending it's not there), everything is put away in it's proper place. She cooked, she cleaned, she told me it was going to be okay when I was on the edge (maybe several times each day), she worked with Quinn on his crawling (he's still practicing), fed him snacks in the backseat while we drove all around & generally just kept us sane. We're so, so very grateful for her & her willingness to hop on a plane to help. I am well aware that I have a really special mom, & I'm more fully committed to being like her for Quinn. 

A few photos from the past few days.