I hate to burst your bubble but this post will NOT be about the Grammy Award winning song by one of my favorite heavy metal bands, Metallica (ok, well they were my one of my favorites in high school).

Gosh, I hope I didn't lose any readers.

ONE. Today's post title is in honor of the ONE year anniversary of our little Adventure OUT of Concord, California. Those Camry tires didn't actually cross the CA/AZ state line until early March '08, but leaving the Bay Area was definitely significant. Just to reminisce, I popped over to the last 2 posts from my Bay Area residency ("Charlotte Ave, 7500lbs lighter" and "74 miles down, 2226 miles to go"). It seems like ages ago when I wrote those...so many miles driven, so many sights seen. An apartment, a house purchase and BOXES, BOXES, BOXES! And moving box paper...OH the paper. New friends made, old friends missed. New church, new gym, new cuisine, lack of cuisine, new weather patterns. Parenting a kindergartner, the "pick up" line, the homework, the PTA, the "my kid is smarter than me" syndrome. The new job, the new neighbors, the new language, y'all... The new Mom's group, being a participant, not being the leader, missing my H2H girls, opening up to new girls, wondering if I say "y'all" they will like me more. Aye, yaye, yaye.

Just in case you were curious, I will tell you what Mike and I will be doing over the next few months. We will have conversations that go like this:

Kristin: "Guess what we were doing one year ago today"

Mike: "We were in San Diego eating at Nicolosi's with your Dad and brother"

Kristin: "No we weren't, that was last night...today was the day that we went to Balboa Park and Steve and I bailed on you guys at the Space Theater"

Mike: "Nuh uh...that was tomorrow....go look on your calender"

Kristin: "Oh yeah."

Don't deny my prophetic giftings...it will happen. On to other topics... Once again I have been delinquent in updating you on major happenings here at Club Amaro. So sorry...I've been too busy thinking about my one year anniversary this month. :) So, here are a few morsels to satisfy your Club cravings...

Jumping Bean



Some of you may know that Abby wanted to participate in the American Heart Association's "Jump Rope for Heart" event at school. Never mind that she didn't even know what a jump rope was, but nevertheless, she had been praying for ways to help other people and she saw this as a way to do that. Of course her PE teacher at school did start to teach jump rope, so I was fairly relieved and decided that she could participate. She set out to do her fund raising and raised quite a tidy sum. $603 to be exact.

Turns out, she was the top fundraiser of the entire school!!! She doesn't seem at all moved by the fact that she raised more money than anyone. I think that's kinda cool. She was just excited to be the one to get "Heart Dude" (a little stuffed heart with arms and legs). The funny part is, I didn't tell her about all the gifts she earned for raising that much money (you remember those crazy gifts they give you when you did fund raising at school). I guess they'll have some assembly or something and hand all that out. I'll just let her be surprised.

We're in "treble" now
Mike and I are big fans of Dave Ramsey and are trying to live out the principals that he teaches. In order to get Abby on board, we set her up with the Dave Ramsey Jr. program. She earns a commission each week for various things around the house. With her commission, we teach her to "save, spend and give" wisely (God help her that she has us for role models - but we are trying!). She decided that she wanted a real keyboard so she could start playing the piano. So we put that up as a goal and she started to save up. Fortunately for her, Christmas and birthday money came in to supplement the commissions that she gets each week. She saved up $114 and bought her a Yamaha YPT210 AND an adapter. It's a great keyboard except for the default volume is LOUD. She's loving it... I'm keeping my eye on her to see if there may have to be piano lessons in the future. I'm itching to get a piano in this house, and that seems like a good excuse.

That's about all the post I can pump out at the moment...hopefully your craving is satisfied for the time being. I promise I still love you...

chaocito...

k

Howdy, y'all, from the great state of Texas! I think the last time I posted, I actually talked with a California accent. I'm not so sure that's the case now, having spent the last 5 weeks in Texas and Louisiana. OK...so I might not sound exactly like a rajun' cajun or a cowboy, but my choices of cuisine during this time would certainly qualify me for at least an honorary status.

There were more than a few times last week in Louisiana that I was reminded of that famous scene in Forrest Gump. You know the one...Bubba telling Forrest all of the ways to prepare shrimp..."shrimp gumbo, shrimp etouffee, grilled shrimp..." Heck, a whole chain of restaurants was founded because of it. Well, call me the Bubba Gump of crawfish! Crawfish pie, crawfish cornbread, crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish, crawfish and corn maque choux, you name it, I tried it. What can I say? If I'm in Louisiana, I'm a gonna be chompin' down the crawfish. Well, almost any crawfish...I never could bring myself to try the all-you-can-eat 3 pound boiled crawfish plates....I thought they might up and walk off the platter at any second...too creepy for my likin'...

Now Texas, that's a different story! Barbeque is the name of the game around these here parts. I live by a simple rule, I come to Texas, I eat BBQ at least once during my stay here. Our favorite place is fast becoming Red, Hot, and Blue. Great beef brisket served Memphis style (that is, with cole slaw on top) at a great price. Can't beat it, at least out here in Fort Worth. There might be a certain FCF BBQ chef that might give this place a run for its money...

So...you'd think that all I've done on this trip is eat, eat, and eat. Well, not entirely true. I've had time to ruminate on our cross-country trek many times along the way and thought I'd share a few musings and observations. Hopefully, this isn't worse than listening to a Kenny G song, but we'll soon see. I'll make sure Kristin closely monitors the number of hits this particular post gets. I'm guessing somewhere in the 300 range...as in 300 thousand. Yeah, right. Dream on.

Anyhow, enough nonsense. Almost eight weeks on the road and I must say this has been an excellent adventure so far (sorry Bill and Ted). We've been quite blessed to be able to visit family in CA, TX, and LA, making this trip seem more like an extended vacation rather than a move. We are grateful to so many friends and family that have supported and prayed for us. I can honestly say that Club Amaro has felt the effects of every single prayer that has been lifted up on our behalf. It has been absolutely amazing. Thanks!!!

Besides visiting and staying with family along the way, it has been exciting to see so much of God's splendor in creation. There are no words or pictures that can describe the majesty of the Grand Canyon or any of the other natural wonders that we've visited. Truly amazing spectacles, ones that we will remember for a long, long time. I know Kristin has already done a wonderful job of documenting our travels so far, so I won't repeat all of it here. Suffice it to say that we have had quite an experience and have enjoyed every moment of it. Well, except for that slip and fall that Kristin had a few weeks ago. Her leg is getting better, but it has been a slow recovery so far. :-(

So here we are, less than a week from traveling up to our final destination in Tennessee. As great as this trip has been, we are looking forward to finally settling down and starting a new home. It hasn't come without a price - namely, leaving friends and family behind in California. And you don't know how many times on this trip Kristin and I have looked at each other and said, "What ARE we doing?" But we trust that the Lord has led us down this path for a reason and His plan is always better than we could ever imagine. Why would we want it any other way?

I'll sign off with a verse that I've been pondering for the last few days -- Romans 12:12 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." It is my prayer for each of you...

Peace, joy, and every blessing,
M

Yes, I know that is a completely meaningless title...but, my only other option was, "Let me recapitulate - oh wait, I never capitulated in the first place". That doesn't even makes sense...so, I went with funny.


It's been almost a week since my last post and I know millions of people are chomping at the bit to know what we've been up to! Well, I can tell you that although we've been having alot of fun, there's nothing that's too blog-worthy.

I did take a rather nasty fall on the bathroom tile on Wednesday. I was barefoot and the floor was freshly mopped...a recipe for disaster. Although I was a gymnast for a number of years back in the day, my ability to do the splits has been completely lost...and even if there was a small chance that I could do the splits, the area where I fell was small, and not designed for gymnastic activity. In case you were wondering, I can tell you with 100% certainty that ones knee is not supposed to bend left and right, but it will in a forced situation (like doing the splits in a confined space on a freshly mopped tile floor with bare feet). In other words, I started into the splits, and then my knee buckled the wrong way and hyper-extended. Yes, it hurt. Yes, I said bad words. I've been trying to nurse it back to health with RICE and it's feeling better unless I move it.

We've also enjoyed a few spring thunderstorms here. I remember each year growing up we would spend a few weeks in Louisiana (of course it was always in the hottest and humidist 2 weeks of the year). One of my favorite memories was the summer thunderstorm. It would be lik 85 degrees out, pooring rain....the thunder and lightning would make your knees shake. Unless of course you knew the counting rule: the more seconds you count between the thunder and lightning, the farther away the lightning was and the less you had to worry. As a kid, that's a comfort. Especially at night, sleeping in the room of a thousand windows (that would be the living room at my Nana & Papa's house). I would lay there, listen for the thunder...then count, "one one thousand, two two thousand, three.........whew!! it was a 7!" Anything over a 4 or 5 was like...no worries. Anyway - the room we are in here in Texas has a big window that's perfect for viewing storms....one woke me up in the middle of the night, so I got up, opened the blinds and just laid there watching the rain and lightning and listening to those huge claps of thunder. I love it!!

Tomorrow morning, we are off to Lafayette, La. to visit Aunt Jan and Uncle Richard and then we're off to Monroe to visit the rest of the family....Abby will FINALLY have some kids to play with! Poor Abby has gone over a month without proper child's play. She will have all her little cousins (well, they're technically 2nd cousins) to hang out with....she's very excited! I'm also going to make sure that Mike gets his first proper serving of mudbugs...here's a little picture of some of my family eating a "proper" serving of mudbugs:



Yeah...yum.

One other item of note before I sign off...we have an official arrival date for Murfreesboro. April 21st. Exactly 15 years and 2 days after the date I officially arrived in the Bay Area from San Diego. Our moving guys have a 6 to 12 day delivery spread, so although we arrive on the 21st, our stuff could be there as late as April 27th.

A few prayer concerns:
1. For protection for our belongings as they make their way out from California to TN...and, that the delivery spread would be closer to the 6 day and not the 12 day.
2. For traveling mercies - to and from Louisiana
3. For speedy and full recovery for my knee injury

love and won tons,
k

Yep...it's a done deal. Charlotte Ave just shed 7500 pounds of Amaro belongings. Those mover guys zipped in and whisked all the boxes and various household items away....in the rain no less. What was left was a house that doesn't even look familiar to me anymore. Weird, I must say. Reality is setting in.

So tonight we had dinner - our LAST DINNER - at Claim Jumper w/ Nancy and Leslie. It was great visiting with them - of course, there's the goodbye part....those are getting a little old. After dinner, we headed back to Charlotte Ave to do a little "clean up" before tomorrow's activities (cleaners, final electrician and plumbing work). Abby jumped right in and was a huge help, as usual. The movers were kind enough to leave all kinds of random things behind! We found a slipper for one of Abby's dolls, a plastic kangaroo, a pair of socks (which incidentally were right in the middle of the room - hello? what's up with that? throw them in a box and put them on the moving truck - what are we paying you for anyway?), lots of dust bunnies and about $3.29 worth of coins.

One item that really threw me for a loop was a big, huge, massive box of used toiletries. Let me stop right there - I have a confession to make...I am a toiletry junkie. There. I said it. I was faced head on with my addition as I sat and looked at this 4 cubic foot box of various toiletries - all used. See, the movers can't take anything in the toiletry realm that's been opened. Just my luck.....all my cool lotions, body washes, body sprays, mouth washes, astringents, bubble baths and the like....I had to say goodbye to it. Of course, I'm getting good at goodbyes now!

So - that's it for now....empty house. Lots and lots of errands on tap tomorrow including a trip to the doctor for Abby, whose cough is just not going away. It will be a good opportunity to also say goodbye to Dr. Chua-Lim...Abby's pediatrician of 5 years now.

Today I'm especially thankful for: Ann and Tyson K. - they took Abby today so she could play and have fun while Mom sat and watched movers all day. Also, Shelley and Natalie O. for taking Abby on Tuesday. They will probably never know how much that meant to me to have Abby cared for while all this boring stuff was going on at home. I'm also thankful for my long, long time friends Nancy and Leslie....who I've known longer than anyone else in the Bay Area! Saying goodbye tonight was harder than it looked (I've run out of tears at this point). Lastly, I'm thankful for Harv - who, even though is the most un-sentimental person I know (don't call me mean for saying that - he would tell you the same!), managed a hug and a "it's been nice" for me as we took off this evening from the house. It has been nice, Harv! You've been one of our best friends here in town and I would eat a fish eye to prove it to ya.

Prayer requests: please pray for health (esp. for Abby) and safety as we take off tomorrow for Patterson.

love and dust bunnies,
k

I was hoping to have a leisurely evening tonight where I could ponder and write about life and moving. But instead, we are in a frenzy trying to pack for a 7 week road trip as well as prepare for the movers who will be here in about 8 hours to pack up life as we know it. I can't believe that in 2 days we will be leaving our life on Charlotte Ave. We're taking bets as to how many pairs of underwear one can get away with on a 7 week road trip - feel free to chime in with any thoughts you may have on that.

Until the next time.
k