Another Update

Another update from my mom...

Shaun

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Hi Everyone

Well, it’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for almost 2 weeks. I must apologise for not writing more often. We’ve been out & about a lot & when we’re home there’s still great competition to use the computer as our air freighted goods have still not been delivered. They have been in Dallas for over a week but have just cleared customs. We’ve been promised that they will be delivered between 1:00 & 3:00p.m. tomorrow. We will then each have a computer & will be able to Skype.

It has still been raining quite a lot however when it’s not raining it’s really hot already. Even though we had air conditioning in our home in SA it’s still quite an adjustment living with it all the time. Everyone turns the air conditioning up so much that it’s freezing inside. You need an overcoat to go to the shops, church etc even though it’s boiling outside. Kelly & I have spent quite a lot of time this week going out with a realtor (estate agent). Murray has joined us when he can & Shaun says he’ll look when we have short list. She is the same lady that took us out in December & is excellent – very knowledgeable & seems honest. She takes time to explain why certain types of roofing, wall finishes etc are not great, points out potential problems with the homes, explains why homes might not be good for resale e.g. near busy roads, railway lies etc. This is a great help as the homes are constructed so differently to SA & we don’t know the areas. Murray has also had input form colleagues at work. We’ve seen some lovely homes but there are only 2 or 3 that could be options. We’re battling to find a home that has what we need (or want) as well as having a bit of a back garden for the dogs. We really like an area called Willow Bend in Plano but grassy areas in the back gardens aren’t common – it’s all pool & patio so we’ve been looking in a lovely gated community called Starwood in Frisco. Here quite a few of the gardens back onto greenbelts & have gates onto them. Unfortunately this area is further away from SMU & Murray’s work but everyone seems OK with this. Even though we won’t rush into buying a home, I hope we find one soon. You can usually move in within about a month & it doesn’t have to be at the end / beginning of a month. Our container only arrives about the 6^th or 7^th July but who knows how long it’ll take to get though customs.

Today we went to the Willow Bend Church. A smaller church than Honeyridge & the total opposite to the one we went to last week. Very laid back & casual. The worship band was great although some of the words of the songs were rather superficial. Th sermon was a bit like a talk you would get in a school hall about the importance of friendship with each other. The title of the sermon was “Not good if detached”. To be fair it wasn’t the pastor preaching – he was away. Next week we’re going to try Stonebriar Community Church where Chuck Swindoll is the pastor. Evening services don’t seem to be the norm here. Occasionally special evening services are held.

Shaun & I have found driving on the RHS of the road not as daunting as it first seemed. However it does require your full attention especially when tuning left – you have to remember to go across to the far side of the road & watch the cars coming from the left. You instinctively look for cars coming from the right. (That might sound a bit confusing.) Kelly hasn’t driven yet as she is too young to drive a hire car. We’re even having to pay a premium for Shaun to drive as he’s under 25. Seems strange as teenagers can get their drivers licenses at 16. Hopefully we’ll buy 1 or 2 cars soon. Murray has been waiting for days to get responses from people about cars & cell phones.

Murray went away from midday on Thurs to Fri afternoon for a company team building session. They went to the Star Brand Ranch, about 1 ½ hours out of Dallas. It was quite a fun experience going to a ranch. Shaun’s was meant to have his first lecture on Wed evening but the lecturer had been in Nashville & due to bad weather couldn’t fly out to Dallas. He started on Thurs evening. He will only be having lectures on Wed & Thurs evenings – 3 hrs on Wed & 4 hrs on Thurs. Most of the lectures are done in the evenings so that the students can get jobs in the summer. Kelly has been learning for her SATs which she writes at 9:00am on Thurs 14^th June. This week she’ll really have to get down to some more serious studying – even though she has already done quite a lot, most of it has been in front of the TV. I have always done the washing first thing in the morning but now I’m also trying to get into the routine of doing the ironing early every day as well. This way I keep on top of it & it’s over for the day - certainly not my favourite chore. Last week Tuesday I changed, washed & tumble dried all the sheets & towels only to find that when the cleaning service came on Wed, they change the beds & take away all the dirty linen. Would have been nice if someone had told me this but I guess I should just enjoy it & not complain. We really are spoilt with all the domestic help we have in SA.

Shaun & esp. Kelly are really missing their friends so we’ve had some family movie watching. Last night we hired ‘Freedom Writers’. It was really good & is a movie worth watching. We’ve also been to the cinema to watch ‘Pirates of the Caribbean. At World’s End’ (not my type of movie) & Shriek 3 (quite sweet). On Friday evening we went to the Macaroni Grill for supper. Its serves all types of Italian food. What a great restaurant with great food & service. The company gives us a daily allowance for 45 days so we’ve been eating out a fair bit & buying some different foods from the supermarkets which we probably wouldn’t normally buy. They sell some really good freezer meals which aren’t badly priced. I bought a huge meal of cheese stuffed ravioli in a bolognaise meat sauce for $7. We can claim the allowance with restaurant & grocery bills.

Well that’s all for now. Missing you all.

Lots of love

Heather

P.S. For those of you who want to leave a message on the blog and don’t know how to do it, I will explain. At the bottom of each post, the number of comments will be shown. Click that link and enter your comment in the box that appears on the right-hand side. Then click “Publish your comment” comment to add your comment to the post. That’s all there is to it.

Cheers

Shaun