March 20, 2015: And Thus It Begins

This is it, we are officially, completely “in motion.”  Today is the day that my family has been waiting for for three and a half years.  Today begins my travel to join the family and head to Europe.  But first, Florida.  We will be in Spain, having been to Dublin as well, by Monday.  What a weekend it is going to be. This is one weekend that I think none of us will every forget.

I had to be up early this morning, which was anything but ideal, because I had to get Joe and Brittany at Houston’s Hobby airport.  Their plane was scheduled to land at 8:05 this morning.

It turned out that the time for their flight was wrong and even though they got a late start they were on the ground in Houston by 7:26!  So I was scrambling to get to the airport to get them this morning.  But we were back to the house before nine.  They were pretty exhausted after the week away.  The dogs were very glad to see them.

I spent my entire morning packing, cleaning and doing laundry.  There is still so much to be done before we can leave.  I got my iPad all charged up so that it would be ready to travel tonight.

It was a crazy day and I had no time to spare.  I worked on getting the house in order and every ready until the very last second.  No time to spare.

It was five when we left to head to the airport. Traffic was terrible so it took about fifty minutes to get there.  So all of the “extra” time that I had budgeted was used up just in the initial traffic.

I got to the airport about six.  I got put into the pre-screened line and got through security super fast.  I had a nice, long, relaxing wait then for my flight, exactly what I needed.  The last few days have been stressful and hectic trying to get everything ready.

But now that I am in the airport, all of the prep is done.  Nothing more to do, I am here and it is all moving forward.  It is really hard to believe that it is really real, but I am now committed and on my way to our new life in Europe.  So surreal.  Other than getting married and having kids, this is the biggest life change that we have ever made.

I ate at a burger joint in the airport.  Two small beers and some fried shrimp, pickles and jalapeños and it was time to get onto the plane.

The flight was fine tonight.  I had a whole row to myself on Southwest which was pretty awesome.  The flight was not too long.  Just over two hours.  Houston to Orlando isn’t bad at all.

I got into Orlando and rented my car.  We had a rental lined up from National but there was no National rep there to rent it to me, just a sign sending me to Alamo.  They took care of me but then National had no cars of the right size.  So Alamo gave me a free upgrade and I got a Mazda 3 which was great.

It was a long drive, almost an hour, from the airport to the house that the family had rented.  Not a bad drive, but I was tired and just wanted to get there and get to bed.

It was just after midnight by the time that I actually got to the house!  Everyone was asleep already.  I just came in and went straight to bed.  Dominica had a king bed and the girls have been sharing with her.  They had left room for me – Dominica had told them that if they left room I would be able to snuggle them when I arrived from Texas so they had carefully not go onto my part of the bed.

Going to be a very busy day tomorrow.  We are in Disney all day, have logistics to deal with in the morning and in the evening – we are off to Ireland.