Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Some weeks seem to attract important events. I had a doozie of a week last week.

Moving

On Monday, August 15, we closed on the sale of our house of almost 15 years. It’s the house that has seen everybody’s prom pictures, numerous homecoming dinners, and countless birthday celebrations; lamented the passing of beloved pets (dogs, cats, fish, firebelly toads); been a workspace for several jobs and seen us through a year of unemployment;  taken us through elementary, middle school, and high school and 2 kids’ worth of college classes; it’s been our home since my 18-year-old was 4. Right now, we are renting back from the new owners until they can move in, which is November 1. We had a dream experience, thanks largely to our fabulous realtor, Cindy Niels, who helped us prep, priced it right, and worked tirelessly to show it. It had never occurred to us that everything would work out so perfectly, even in our wildest dreams. The new owners love all the same things about the house that we did and they have a brand new young family. I’m so happy that there will be kids enjoying this great home again.

Returning to Running

On Wednesday, I got my “return to running” program at PT. For the next two weeks, I’m working on my own, doing the strength and flexibility exercises that I was doing at PT. In addition, I’m running! Yes, it’s short intervals (right now, I’m doing 4 x 3 minute intervals, with 2 minutes of walking recovery inbetween)…and it’s going to stay that way for quite some time. It will take me 12 weeks to get to my 40 minutes of solid running which will completely cut me loose to train as I see fit. Until then, I’ll go back in a couple of weeks for an evaluation to see how all this is progressing. It’s absolutely fabulous; I sweat during a workout!! My PT, Christine, is whipping my ankle (and the rest of me) back into shape. I went today to do my workout on my own and it felt marvelous. I even did bouncy turns on the Bosu ball even though it wasn’t on my list of things to do….shhhh…don’t tell Christine….

Emptying the Nest

That night, we had all the family in town over to our house for a so-long dinner for our boy. We all talked about how it was most likely the last time we’d congregate together at Sophora Cove. Sure, there will be a couple of things here and there before we move in October, but the odds that either of our away kids would be home are low. This leaves our oldest daughter and her long-term boyfriend, who live here in Austin, to bear the full brunt of parental attention.

To end the week, we took our youngest child to college at UTSA on Friday, August 19. The hardest moment for me was leaving the house, knowing that he would probably never come back to it. Another challenge was that he had to pack to move to college, pack to move to the new house, and pack for storage or get rid of stuff. Now, both kid rooms (the big room that held both our girls as they grew up and our son’s room with his Dallas Cowbody colored walls) sit virtually empty. I have a little bit of work still to do in each but it is as though all of our children are gone–which, in truth, they are. It was a smooth move-in for the youngest (clothing disaster averted on I35 and roommate check-in awkwardness totally dispensed with) and he even managed to get into the Chemistry class that he wanted after drops had been completed. Last we heard, he’d been to a welcome dinner, met new friends, and bought his books. The fact that we haven’t heard anything in the last couple of days is a good sign.

Between a “real” workout, closing out the house situation, and wrapping up the college process for the youngest, I feel as though a thousand-pound weight has been lifted off of me. I don’t think I really had any idea how stressed I was until significant chunks of my load fell away. Sure, there’s tons of stuff left to do but it’s just moving stuff around. I’m only getting better and I’ll only be running more. And it’s now up to my boy as to what successes he chooses to have at school. Exciting times.

In the meantime, the hubby and I are joking that our to-do list for next weekend is 1) learn French, 2) go sky-diving, and 3) get a tattoo. Life is good!!