This is My Forties

The morning of the sixth we were up early, raring to get some breakfast and head over to the office to sign the final closing paperwork.  Our appointment was at ten.  There was a little tension in the room with the divorcees there together, but everything was done quickly enough and they remained civil.  Our realtor had a minor panic attack when our bank didn't transfer the money over right away, but a phone call expedited the process.  Last time we bought a house Josh's credit was so awful they said it was best to list him as a non-contributing spouse.  This time it was all him and I was the one not on any paperwork really... yay for no job! haha.  We had to rush right out of the room because it happened to be the last day we had reserved the rental.  Josh tried to extend it online or on the phone, but because we'd already had it for a full month, it was something that apparently had to be done in person.  Off to Dulles we went.  As luck wou...

Pittsburgh is a short putt from where my parents live.  We arrived at lunchtime.  First we had to deliver a painting for my Mom.  One of the customers at Cannon Coffee noticed my Mom's work on the walls and commissioned her to paint a portrait of his late wife.  He was really fun to talk to, retired enlisted Navy, just had gotten back from a Navy reunion and was showing us tons of photos and news articles about it.  It was awesome.  He loved the portrait so much he asked her to paint another one, her wedding photo. We had lunch with Ben at the Crested Duck Charcuterie ... so stinkin' delicious.  I contemplated submitting this place for some food network show, but it's not a diner nor drive-in and certainly not a dive... so I'm at a loss.  The chef/owner is a self taught meat genius.  The duck lomo was perfect, just the right amount of "I miss Spain" with enough originality, lots of outstanding flavor.  Nate was kind enough to hang ou...

It's been over a month since we left Madrid and it feels like much more time has passed since then.  In fact it already feels like our three years in Spain are distant memories.  I'm finally back here, ready to share our experience thus far.  We are still very much wrapped up in the process of moving.  Today it's my job to call and sign up for trash removal services (ahhhh country life), fax some paperwork to the electric company, and get a few issues with Verizon ironed out.  I do have a little time to try and catch up with news and photos while the kids loudly battle it out on Super Mario Brothers downstairs. Our last week in Spain was bittersweet for me.  I've heard most families on the way out are so ready to end the stress that they're more than ecstatic to get the hell outta dodge... and I was in total agreement.  We repacked our room and and created a mountain of trash in the hotel for the poor cleaning ladies.  We never got around to g...

The boys and I went over to Noah's school for a little hands-on learning fun.  Noah was our teacher as we took a look at all the things they have been learning this year. In 2nd grade they have already introduced multiplication and division and they're sure to include these lessons in many ways: word problems, manipulatives, and the simple text version I remember.  They have also begun to introduce practical application with fractions.  Tristan did some geometry and found a sphere! In social studies we learned all about Native Americans.  We saw the Aztec calendar.  Did you know it only has 20 days?  We also got to see the paper model of Tenochitlan the kids made, the original Mexico City, built by the Aztecs. We read Noah's fascinating tale about planting 10 cents that grew into a money tree!  I cannot wait to read the rest of his stories.  Noah has apparently already learned how to use Microsoft Power Point too, which is so very "...