New Starts in 2013

Happy New Year!!

The Laeser Institute has relocated its headquarters back to Los Alamos, New Mexico.  When I was a kid, I referred to Los Alamos as LA and, since I had never been to the real "LA", I thought that it made me sound cool to say I was from there.  Almost twenty years after leaving LA, I have returned to raise my family here and ..... it is fairly weird and .... pretty fantastic that it actually happened.

The relocation to LA has been an exciting, stressful, overwhelming, wonderful adventure thus far.  Leaving Chattanooga was not easy and the decision did not come lightly.  Our friends in Chattanooga are an integral part of our life and we miss them very much!  I tried to maximize the time we spent with friends and we had some good times!  I want to thank the Cliche family for a wonderful party, the Reda-Eisenbeis family for a terrific mall day and the Martin family for a perfect send-off.

Shots of Chattanooga.  Views very different than what we will see in NM. Scenery we will miss.

The last week of our Chattanooga life was a whirlwind.  Layton finished at Brown International Academy with the highest math score in the first grade, I gave finals and compiled final grades and Kestrel said goodbye to her classmates.  At the same time, I organized, purged and packed many of our things prior to picking up the moving truck thinking that it would be very easy to pack up and go.  I was wrong.  Emptying a house is not a good time.  Not at all.

Luke had the task of taking down the climbing wall and packing it all up.  It took him an entire day!!  The wall was integral part of our house and it was a bit sad to see it bare.  Luke worked so hard to create it. I know he will build another in NM, but the taking down of the wall finalized the Chattanooga Chapter.

 

After the wall was down it was really time to do it.  We rented a 24 foot budget truck and towed the tercel (yep, she came home too).  I anticipated the move to be stressful, so I adopted a laid-back persona to get it all done.  I thought a lot of the stress would be centered around the 24 foot truck, so I broke the move into milestones...
Milestone 1:  Luke picking up truck and backing it into our driveway.

Milestone 1 went smoothly...Luke picked up the moving truck on 12/11/12 and we had most of the it loaded that night.  In fact, the house was pretty empty.  We all slept in on the floor of our room in sleeping bags....

So, the next morning we took our time and finished loading and cleaning.....and said our goodbyes to 2311 Waterhaven Drive.  And, yes, I had a little seizure while pulling away.  (For those of you who may not know, a seizure is a little cry-fit that easily subsides but lasts a while.)

And then we said our goodbyes to Chattanooga as we drove west....

The next few milestones in the move went well.  Milestone 2:  getting gas at a truck stop with the 24 foot moving truck and trailer.  Milestone 2 was easy.  Milestone 3:  pulling into first hotel.  Milestone 3 had a bit of a hiccup, but my hubby worked it out as usual.  After those first few milestones, I didn't have to worry anymore and the trip became more relaxed for me.

Luke was a trooper!  If I have not said this before....I will profess my adoration for my husband and his ability to get a job done under duress.  He had the flu during this entire process and he still lead our family on this cross-country journey.  Luke ROCKS and I love him more and more as time goes on.

 I didn't take too many pictures during the 1390 mile drive, but Arkansas, Oklahoma (especially Oklahoma) and Texas took its toll and we were so excited to cross the border into the Land Of Enchantment!

 And the Land of Enchantment welcomed us with a great snowstorm and a full-blown winter wonderland.  When we got to Los Alamos, I started taking a few pictures to document our arrival.

And then we were at our new house..... 192 Zuni Street!!!  We were welcomed by Luke's parents, who had come from Florida to prep the house for our arrival, and soon joined by my mom and step-dad.  Nana fixed a delicious taco supper and we began to understand the importance of this move as we all sat at our table....

Well-fed and well-rested, we woke up the next morning and this is the view from our new house....

WOW!!!!  BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Additional help arrived and we unloaded the truck.  Unloading took about 2 hours....unpacking is a different story.

Moving at Christmas with small children adds another dimension of difficulty because you have to still prepare for Santa's arrival.  After a week or so we began FESTIVUS!!!!!!

Even though there was no Festivus pole this year, the mini-tree (to the dismay of my mom) did the trick.  Santa found us after all and the kids had a wonderful Festivus.

We spent Festivus with family!  Luke came home at 3 a.m. on Christmas night and we spent the day-after insulated with just the four of us.  Sometimes we just need to hole-up and be by ourselves.  No pictures, just us....

The kids spent the week after sledding, settling and spending time with family.  Bapi (my dad) came for the day and brought their gifts.  Their cousin, Jillian, came into town and they all went sledding.  Here is a short video of Kestrel and Jillian sailing with a push from Papa....

We spent New Year's Day in Abiquiu and brought in 2013 with a wonderful spirit of family!!!

Have a wonderful 2013 - may you all have peace, love, health and happiness!!!!!