So, after getting back from Canada I’m in full packing mode again. This time there is more to pack than usual – our whole house!
That’s right. After 20 months living in Houston and adventuring in North America we’re packing up all our stuff ready to come home to England. The girls and I will be home for good next week. My Lovely Husband will be in Houston full time for a while longer but home regularly to see us girls.
Apart from the packing and sorting, which is not much fun, we are trying to fit some nice activities in too. The girls have had swimming lessons, craft projects using up all of our craft materials (yesterday they built a playhouse under the table using cardboard and felt), we’ve had a play date too and also visited their old school to say goodbye there. My Lovely Husband and I have even managed to fit in a couple of dinners with friends too.
Fortunately the goodbyes to their closest friends yesterday will not be too painful as they will be returning to the UK in the not too distant future but we will really miss them in the meantime.
The goodbyes for the Big One will be hard but the Little One is ready to go to her “real” home and start at her “real” school, as she calls it! The Big One is ready to go home too but, like her Mummy, she finds goodbyes much harder.
We do all feel sad about leaving Houston, despite the excitement of heading home. I’ve felt tearful all week, which I didn’t really expect, but we have so enjoyed our time exploring the beauty of America and Canada.
There are lots of things we will miss: our large, beautiful house; the swimming pool in the garden and swimming every day; Wholefoods(!); the road outside the house for scootering and riding our bikes up and down in; almost constant sunshine; Summer warmth in January; the exciting storms which mean you just have to stop and watch; the local radio station Mix 96.5 (the girls are now big fans of American pop rock); rodeos; short school days (both girls will be in full time school with longer days when we get home); Houston Zoo and Houston Museum of Natural Sciences; the opportunity to see lots of live music; the funny lizards and wonderful wildlife.
There are some things we won’t miss too: large cockroaches and the humidity of the Summer here being the biggest things, other than being so far away from friends and family.
The only worry now (apart from how we manoeuvre 2 small, tired children, 10 suitcases and 2 car seats around 2 airports) is whether the girls will settle down quickly when we get home. We have 8 days to get them back on UK time and ready for school. The Big One is still on Vancouver time (an 8 hour time difference from the UK, rather than the 6 hour difference from Houston) so this could be hard work. But we are really looking forward to seeing everyone and moving back in to our (much smaller) house.
So it’s a surprisingly tearful goodbye from Houston and our Long American Holiday. Thanks for coming along with us and sharing the fun.
I’d better go and finish the packing…
