Its been a big year of changes for my family. Everyone is moving. Earlier this year my sister moved to a new house (although it was only a few houses down from the old one). My father accepted a resident professorship at Johns Hopkins in Nanjing for a two year contract, so my parents are moving to China next week (!!).
When I was a kid, we moved frequently, until I was in 7th grade and my parents bought the house they have lived in for the past 28 years. My mother has said over the years that my father gets "one last move." I think she probably was imagining downsizing to a nice 55+ retirement community at the shore, not moving 8,000 miles overseas.
My inlaws sold their house in New Jersey and moved to California. They are currently living with us until the closing on their new house near here in a few weeks. It will be lovely to have family out here permanently; we have made a few friends but our network is still small. I'm looking forward to Sunday dinners with the grandparents like we used to have when we lived upstairs from them.
One of my kids started at a new school. We have high hopes for it, but it is thirty miles from our house. (Before you start saying "why don't you just go to your local elementary school or a private school closer to your house???" lets assume that if I am willing to drive my kid to a school thirty miles from my house there is probably a good reason, mkay? And if you are thinking "why didn't you think of this before you bought a far away house 18 months ago?" then lets assume that we had plans that didn't work out.)
It is a good school, but it is far away. Actually, scratch that. It isn't THAT far, and the other school our children go to isn't THAT far, but the two schools are in opposite directions, and the distance between the two is actually what is far, and I spend all my time driving between the two and then back to our house. We went from having a long commute (1.5 hours) to an even longer commute (2 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon). The kids and I spend all our time (and gas and toll money) in the car.
We might move too.
You knew that was coming, right? People who move ten times in ten years can't just buy a house and settle down. They become the sort of people who move eleven times in twelve years. (Better than twelve times in twelve years, I guess.) More decorating!
If we do move it won't be till next summer, so stay tuned.
***Extremely recent development: I did not even attempt to sign up for a carpool, even though a huge number of the students at the new school are in a carpool, because I had really specific needs---of the five seats in my car, my backseat is full of my three young children so I would only have room for ONE carpool kid who is older and could ride in the front seat; I have to drive north to Town A to drop off two kids before I can head east to the new school in Town B to drop off other kid, so I would only want to carpool with someone in Town A, not my hometown (or the carpool kid would be suffering through our extremely long commute), and so forth.
Some woman got our number out of the school address book and called me out of the blue, noting that we lived close together and she was attempting to start a carpool with a few other families. I explained my issues and that while I wish I could carpool, it just probably wouldn't work for me. We chatted a bit and hung up. Apparently she talked to someone else, because the next day, I got an email from another parent who EXACTLY FIT ALL MY CARPOOL NEEDS. Weird, eh? Starting Wednesday I will be driving north to Town A in the morning, dropping off all three kids, and then going home. SA-WEET! Sadly, I will still be having the sucky three hour round trip in the afternoons, but hey, I'll take driving four hours in a day over driving five hours in a day.
When I was a kid, we moved frequently, until I was in 7th grade and my parents bought the house they have lived in for the past 28 years. My mother has said over the years that my father gets "one last move." I think she probably was imagining downsizing to a nice 55+ retirement community at the shore, not moving 8,000 miles overseas.
My inlaws sold their house in New Jersey and moved to California. They are currently living with us until the closing on their new house near here in a few weeks. It will be lovely to have family out here permanently; we have made a few friends but our network is still small. I'm looking forward to Sunday dinners with the grandparents like we used to have when we lived upstairs from them.
One of my kids started at a new school. We have high hopes for it, but it is thirty miles from our house. (Before you start saying "why don't you just go to your local elementary school or a private school closer to your house???" lets assume that if I am willing to drive my kid to a school thirty miles from my house there is probably a good reason, mkay? And if you are thinking "why didn't you think of this before you bought a far away house 18 months ago?" then lets assume that we had plans that didn't work out.)
It is a good school, but it is far away. Actually, scratch that. It isn't THAT far, and the other school our children go to isn't THAT far, but the two schools are in opposite directions, and the distance between the two is actually what is far, and I spend all my time driving between the two and then back to our house. We went from having a long commute (1.5 hours) to an even longer commute (2 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon). The kids and I spend all our time (and gas and toll money) in the car.
We might move too.
You knew that was coming, right? People who move ten times in ten years can't just buy a house and settle down. They become the sort of people who move eleven times in twelve years. (Better than twelve times in twelve years, I guess.) More decorating!
If we do move it won't be till next summer, so stay tuned.
***Extremely recent development: I did not even attempt to sign up for a carpool, even though a huge number of the students at the new school are in a carpool, because I had really specific needs---of the five seats in my car, my backseat is full of my three young children so I would only have room for ONE carpool kid who is older and could ride in the front seat; I have to drive north to Town A to drop off two kids before I can head east to the new school in Town B to drop off other kid, so I would only want to carpool with someone in Town A, not my hometown (or the carpool kid would be suffering through our extremely long commute), and so forth.
Some woman got our number out of the school address book and called me out of the blue, noting that we lived close together and she was attempting to start a carpool with a few other families. I explained my issues and that while I wish I could carpool, it just probably wouldn't work for me. We chatted a bit and hung up. Apparently she talked to someone else, because the next day, I got an email from another parent who EXACTLY FIT ALL MY CARPOOL NEEDS. Weird, eh? Starting Wednesday I will be driving north to Town A in the morning, dropping off all three kids, and then going home. SA-WEET! Sadly, I will still be having the sucky three hour round trip in the afternoons, but hey, I'll take driving four hours in a day over driving five hours in a day.
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