Our bags are packed and our lovely little bungalow in the hills of Hope Ranch is empty. The last two weeks have been a blur of packing.
We rented a storage container from the most "affordable" company we could get our hands on.... The only problem with that mentality, and what we discovered later, is that the container gets tipped up onto a 45 degree angle to be put on the truck. That means all the stuff inside the container will be tipped onto a 45 degree angle and smooshed to the back. Can you imagine all our stuff tumbling around in there, glasses breaking, bikes sliding and surfboards cracking? Yuck! As many of you know I like problem solving and puzzles and I think I've figured out a system so that no harm will come to our things. Now we only need to see if it works. The truck guy should be here within the hour.
Tomorrow we spend our last day and night in our house on the hill with the Beviers. We loved our last 2.5 years here and are definitely sad to say goodbye. We know that this moment was around the corner, regardless of a trip out of the country or not, as our family is growing. Besides, we'd eventually get tired of sleeping in the living room while our one year old gets the master bedroom.
We will be sad to leave Santa Barbara as well. We have a wonderfully supportive community, one that we'll happily return to next June.
Mostly we are excited. Saturday morning marks the beginning of our nomadic/transient life style. We're heading to Mammoth, my home town for the first month. We'll mountain bike, swim in crystal clear and icy cold lakes, hike through the beautiful forest and mountains, rock climb and relax. Then we'll do a whirlwind trip through Southern California visiting friends and family one last time before we board our plane to Chile in early September.
I'll update this blog when we leave Mammoth or if anything funny and or note worthy comes up. Otherwise, expect to hear from me more regularly when we start our trip.
Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate them. If you know of any x-students of mine that would be interested in reading this blog, please pass it along.
Ciao Santa Barbara, stay classy
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Pulling the Trigger
Once you pull the trigger, you can't go back or undo what you've done. The bullet has left the gun and the outcome is sealed.
My wife and I have pulled the trigger on a dream. Ever since becoming teachers, and independently of each other, we've wanted to live and work abroad for an extended period of time.
As a hunter, we hesitated for some time before making this decision, waiting for the exact right moment to make the frightening, life shaking decision to do something different. Several years ago we thought about it, but knew we needed to establish our careers. Then we thought we should establish our families and homes. We've always had an excuse to put off our dream another year. Don't get me wrong, we've been comfortable and happy in waiting. We've got great careers, a great home, and the most amazing friends and families we could ever hope for. But our dreams still nagged us. Recently we realized that if we didn't fire the gun, the dream would slip away, becoming a regret. That is something neither of us are prepared for.
So, with our new son in tow, we've pulled the trigger on our long overdue dream. I submitted and received approval of my request for leave, Kate's left her job, and Jaden's ready for whatever comes his way (he's an infant, he simply follows the breast milk). We're headed to Chile to live, work and play for a year. We're leaving behind much to be desired and something we're not prepared to lose. We think we are simply taking an extended journey, fully expecting to return to the life we've created in Santa Barbara. However, we're reentering the stream of life and nobody, not even us, knows where this current will take us.
As with any dream, making the decision to go for it is both the hardest and one of the most liberating experiences you can feel. Kate and I are excited, nervous, overwhelmed and overjoyed by the shear immensity of this seemingly small decision in a lifetime of decisions. I for one, feel more alive in this decision than I've felt for some time. We are off on an adventure, not knowing the outcome and really up to explore the opportunities that will fall before us.
The object of this blog is to document the nuances and adventures of traveling with my family and to share them with whomever reads the blog. My hope is that students, family and friends find this blog entertaining and informative. If not, oh well, it's my diary and you don't have to read it. Otherwise, enjoy! I hope, at the least, our decision helps to inspire others to reach for their dreams. But, I'm sure making the decision to follows our dreams, is not yet inspiring. We'll have to wait and see what comes of abandoning our path and starting down this unknown, less travelled road. I for one am excited.
If you subscribe to the post, you'll be updated by email when I update this blog. I'm thinking it will be a once a week type blog and I won't really get started until we are well on our way. Click follow on the upper right of the side bar.
My wife and I have pulled the trigger on a dream. Ever since becoming teachers, and independently of each other, we've wanted to live and work abroad for an extended period of time.
As a hunter, we hesitated for some time before making this decision, waiting for the exact right moment to make the frightening, life shaking decision to do something different. Several years ago we thought about it, but knew we needed to establish our careers. Then we thought we should establish our families and homes. We've always had an excuse to put off our dream another year. Don't get me wrong, we've been comfortable and happy in waiting. We've got great careers, a great home, and the most amazing friends and families we could ever hope for. But our dreams still nagged us. Recently we realized that if we didn't fire the gun, the dream would slip away, becoming a regret. That is something neither of us are prepared for.
So, with our new son in tow, we've pulled the trigger on our long overdue dream. I submitted and received approval of my request for leave, Kate's left her job, and Jaden's ready for whatever comes his way (he's an infant, he simply follows the breast milk). We're headed to Chile to live, work and play for a year. We're leaving behind much to be desired and something we're not prepared to lose. We think we are simply taking an extended journey, fully expecting to return to the life we've created in Santa Barbara. However, we're reentering the stream of life and nobody, not even us, knows where this current will take us.
As with any dream, making the decision to go for it is both the hardest and one of the most liberating experiences you can feel. Kate and I are excited, nervous, overwhelmed and overjoyed by the shear immensity of this seemingly small decision in a lifetime of decisions. I for one, feel more alive in this decision than I've felt for some time. We are off on an adventure, not knowing the outcome and really up to explore the opportunities that will fall before us.
The object of this blog is to document the nuances and adventures of traveling with my family and to share them with whomever reads the blog. My hope is that students, family and friends find this blog entertaining and informative. If not, oh well, it's my diary and you don't have to read it. Otherwise, enjoy! I hope, at the least, our decision helps to inspire others to reach for their dreams. But, I'm sure making the decision to follows our dreams, is not yet inspiring. We'll have to wait and see what comes of abandoning our path and starting down this unknown, less travelled road. I for one am excited.
If you subscribe to the post, you'll be updated by email when I update this blog. I'm thinking it will be a once a week type blog and I won't really get started until we are well on our way. Click follow on the upper right of the side bar.
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