Off We Go!!

We had a hard time saying goodbye to our temporary home at Grandma and Grandpa Cutler's house, but we were all excited to go!

Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Kimmy were all there to help us check in our 15 bags, 3 car seats, and one stroller. Rich had weighed each one with a bathroom scale and stuffed things in until they were 50 lbs. each. The woman at the counter was endlessly patient and helpful with us. After much to-do, we said goodbye and went through security with our 9 carry-on bags, only to realize we forgot the other stroller! Once we got on the plane, we had to wait an hour on the ground for clearance to go to Chicago, but luckily we had our bag of tricks to keep us busy!

Aunt Kimmy was a super-hero in helping us get ready to go. She made several trips to stores for odds and ends, and then got several fun pictures of family developed for us to take along to help us remember. We will sure miss her while she's on her mission!

Here's us in the Dallas airport super-excited to go!

Moving and Christmas Together

Wonderful Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave and Grandpa Cutler came from Dallas to rescue us! They brought food, laughter, fun, and lots of elbow grease. Katie packed my piles into suitcases, cleaned bathrooms, and played with the baby, while Grandpa and Dave cleaned up the house and ran errands for us. We might still be there if they hadn't come to scoot us out of there!


This is Grandma and Grandpa Cutler reading the Cajun Night Before Christmas to the boys--a Cutler family tradition. What a relief to get to Mom and Dad's house where the fridge works, there's lots of toys, and lots of love. Katie and Dave and Kimmy were already there, and Amy, James and Max arrived later.


This is Russell watching the packers pack up our air shipment on our last day in our house. Both Isaac and Russell have been so brave about this whole thing, and did amazingly well without toys for a week in our nearly-empty house. They mostly just ran around outside and inside and improvised toys out of boxes and junk!


Sadly enough, our beloved harvest gold fridge broke two days before we moved. I've been praying for the ugly thing to die for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for it. Isaac filmed a 3-minute inch-by-inch tribute to the thing, and I called all my friends to come over for free food while I made chicken, rolls, and frozen vegetables for breakfast!


We had to say goodbye to our beautiful Martha Washington Duck. Robin and David came to visit and we took her down to the creek for her first and final swim there (I think the water level was finally low enough that she wasn't afraid!). She is living now with the Mellors in our ward who will take good care of her. We will miss our loyal friend.


Graham tried out the bouncer this week for the first time and loved it! He also rolled over, put his pacifier in his mouth, and laughed all within a matter of days! He is endlessly happy and smiley.


The moving truck drove off with most all of our stuff. Russell was especially impressed with the sheer size of the thing. We only filled half of it, but we've certainly got lots more stuff than when we drove up to the house five and half years ago with a little U-Haul! Russell has said several times with gravity since the truck drove off, "The moving truck took our trains to India." And then Isaac chimes in, "Yea, we won't see them for a long time!"


The great thing about moving is that you find long-lost stuff--like the mouthpiece to our bugle. We barely had time to enjoy it and practice our bugling talents before it too was carted off to India. Luckily we've got some of those Legos in our air shipment so we can build towers in our empty house!


It was such a relief to finally arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Dallas and settle in to the Christmas fun. We are so glad to have this stopover trip with our loved ones before we face our adventures in India!


We will miss so many of our friends in Austin. We wish we'd been together enough to take pictures of all of them, but here's our next-door-neighbor Chloe.


And here's Joseph Wells. The boys didn't get a chance to say a formal "goodbye" to Joseph, Jacob, and Serena Wells, but we will surely remember them and keep in touch.

Taj Mahal with Graham

Taj Majal. It was amazing in person!

Graham was not really amused . . .

Graham wasn't really impressed, but he was an attraction almost as large as the Taj. Several women came up and tried to take him right out of our arms (not maliciously, just wanting to hold him).

We were lucky enough to have a guide who turned photographer, which was lucky since there were people everywhere wanting to charge you $10 to take your picture.

Posing with one of the many people who wanted to have their picture taken with us. There were very few Western sight-seers, so we were a novelty, especially with Graham.

This is the mosque built on the side of the Taj. On the other side is an identical building built for guests. The entire Taj is symmetrical.

There wasn't water flowing here today, but usually there is, they say. The amazing thing about the Taj is that it's built on top of water and teak wood so that if there's an earthquake, it won't be destroyed.

Two gorgeous kids who wanted their picture taken with us. We saw lots of kids with black eyeliner under their eyes. We finally had someone tell us they do that to keep evil spirits and looks away from them.

The Taj again.

Graham AND Rich tuckered out from site-seeing.

House-Hunting

I think this is the outdoor view of our favorite apartment so far--Anand Loc.

Groovy window at entrance of Anand Loc house.

Anand Loc landlord. He spoke very good English (unlike some others) and seemed like he would be very responsive to us.

Terrace in front of Vasant Vihar and Anjana, our relocation consultant.

Inside of Vasant Vihar house. It's old, but very open and light. This was the first one I could picture us living in--kids running around, playing outside, etc.

Bathroom of Vasant Vihar house. Yuck! The old gentleman landlord said he would clean them up. I hope he's telling the truth.

I loved the moulding and rounded entrances in this Vasant Vihar house. You could almost feel the old British Raj entertaining in this one.

School-Hunting

One of the classes at the Lotus Valley International School.

A really neat design in the school lobby made out of colored sand. When they get tired of it, I guess they just sweep it up!

Now the AMERICAN EMBASSY SCHOOL

Library at Embassy School. Better than the Leander Public Library, and it is public to Embassy School families.

This is one of the preschool classrooms at the Embassy school.

Preschool classroom at the Embassy School.

Schedule for kindergarten class

Playground at Embassy School.

Playground again.

Swimming pool at Embassy School. There's a lap pool, a diving pool, and kiddie pool. After school hours families can use the facilities.

The cafeteria. They were serving hot dogs, and they have ice cream cones every day!

Graham's Blessing

Graham's blessing party

Happy baby!

Graham, Dad & Grandpas blessing

Look-See Trip

Graham's mosquito-netted crib in our hotel room at the Intercontinental in Nehru Place (not Connaught Place, which we discovered the hard way when we first arrived late in the evening Wednesday night and drove all the way there in a taxi, only to discover we were on the wrong side of town!)

Getting over jetlag.

Trail Mix and Growing Up

I think I may actually be a real live adult now.

Why, you ask? Because when I eat trail mix now (and this is only in the last month or so), I eat it by the handful instead of picking out the best parts (the M&Ms, of course) and leaving the rest for later. The rest are usually just raisins and nuts, which I don't necessarily dislike. But why waste your time with nuts and raisins when you can eat M&Ms? Now when I take a handful and eat the M&Ms and nuts and raisins all at once, the mixture of the three is a whole new wonderful taste that I never got before because I was so busy picking out the "good" parts.

So, I guess that means I'm growing up a bit. I'm learning that I don't always have to be the best or have the best, and sometimes what I think is the absolute best thing or choice isn't really. I realize now that taking life by the handful with all of its ugliness, beauty, mediocrity, and wonders makes for a pretty tasty existence, especially when I don't get too hung up on classifying every bite. Actually living beats thinking too much about it.

And what do ya'll do differently now that you're growing up? I know we all are growing up (or getting old, however you want to see it!), whether we'd like to admit it or not!