Just 7 1/2 More Weeks....

"Just 7 1/2 more weeks" is what I kept saying as I walked into our current home away from home, interspersed with "after all, this is an adventure, right?"  Last Monday, my BFF and I drove 14 hours from Colorado Springs to San Antonio with the fluffy little one and rolled in to our extended stay motel where my husband had checked us in the previous day.  We (the Cowboy and I) have been "displaced" (i.e. homeless) since July 27th, while we await the completion of our new home in TX.  The first week, we crashed at my BFF's house then we were off to Washington, DC where we attended my husband's birth grandmother's inurnment at Arlington National Cemetery.  He was reunited with his birth mother and her family about 5 or 6 years ago and we have been blessed to have a wonderful relationship with them.  They invited us to be a part of the weekend/week and were able to meet a lot of his distant cousins he had heard about but never met.  They have embraced us with open arms and have made us feel like family.  We cherish the time we have with them making up for the years we have missed together.  

The trip went well.  I always get nervous when everything goes off without a hitch, assuming something really bad will happen, but it was an awesome trip.  It was hot and we walked our legs off.  We were able to get some quality time in with friends we have not seen in a long time, and spent an evening with the Secret Service.  Technically, that would be our friend who works for the SS, on "O"'s detail.  We were able to walk by the White House (several times, and not on purpose, but you have to walk everywhere there to get anywhere).  We also went to Mount Vernon to see George Washington's plantation.  It was so much smaller than I expected, but way cool to me none-the-less.  Mid-week Quin flew back Colorado to pack his car and head to San Antonio while I went off to Minneapolis to the Creative Memories Showcase (convention). It was their 25th anniversary and I was hoping it would be a spectacular trip.  It was indeed fun, as my BFF and another great friend in my sales group joined me there.  It was not the all out bash I had hoped it would be for their 25th anniversary, but as with so many companies, the economy has hit them and they have scaled back in many areas to help keep it the wonderful company that it is.  At week's end I headed back to Colorado for one last night at my friend's house.  Early last morning we packed the car and headed on our way.

Get me OUT OF HERE...it is not funny anymore!  I do NOT like the car and you are NOT my real mother!

The drive was not bad.  It did not seem like a 14 hour drive.  We took some short cuts and it shaved off a good hour or more of the drive.  At last...we arrived to our final destination.  I was so looking forward to being in one place for more than a week.  A place that looked in the pictures like it would be a decent, clean place and as Tom Boddett has mentioned on numerous occasions, they'll leave the light on for us.  What could be bad about a place that sounds so friendly.  I soon found out.....It is not the Ritz.  It is not even Holiday Inn.....it is one step above a crack motel.  It is clean, in that I have found no bugs.  It is smokey smelling not because the rooms are smoking rooms, but because the clientele hang outside on the door steps to smoke and it all comes in through the vents.  No amount of candle burning or cooking inside takes that smell away.  It is livable.  It is decent and it is in a pretty decent area of town.  It could be MUCH worse.  All I could say was "It's only for 7 1/2 weeks, right?"  We are now approaching the 6 week mark.  Specifically we have 43 days 10 hours 28 minutes and 34 seconds...not that I am counting.  It is a fine trade off for what awaits us at the end of those 43+ days....I spend my days staring at a picture of that jacuzzi tub I will enjoy 43 days from now....The least traumatized, oddly, is Harleigh. 

After all...we're really not spending a lot of time here anyway....there is so much to do, so much exploring in this city.  6+ weeks and counting.....