Transition to San Antonio

Medals from No Label Tri

So it has been a while since we put up a blog post, sorry. We have been busy as usual. Kimber and Sidney had to readjust to reality after their trip to Hawaii.  Kimber started working in earnest in San Antonio. She commuted to San Antonio on Monday each week and returned on Friday for about two months.

Kimber did her first triathlon of the year in March. It was the No Label Triathlon, an average sprint distance tri. The pool was inside a natatorium, thank goodness because it was really cool and windy. The bike and run were fine except for the wind and the fact that Kimber couldn't feel her feet when she was done and she wore wool socks. It was soooo cold. But it ended at a brewery which made Kirk's day. Each adult participant or spectator got four free small beers. The participant medal was also a bottle opener.  Kimber scarfed pizza while Kirk enjoyed a couple of beers. Kimber liked having a triathlon early in the year but this one was super disorganized. The transition
s were in two different places and Kimber couldn't find her bike afterward. We wandered old town Katy for 30 minutes trying to find it.

We house hunted in late March. We had only two days to find a house and a short move in time frame. We are speed demons at looking for a house now since this is number 6. We looked at new construction on day one and lived-in houses on day two. We came back to new construction and put an offer on a new build in Sonoma Mesa on day two. The house has a similar lay out to our Katy house but is just a bit bigger. The yard is huge and very sloped, like everything around here. But the view is fantastic. We as on the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole of a golf course. There are nothing but trees and hills on the other side of the fairway.

2014 MS150 End Day 1

Stripe from a rainy ride on tandem

Kirk and Kimber rode in the BP MS 150 in early April. It is a bike ride from Houston to Austin to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Kimber has ridden four years and Kirk for three. Kimber rode in honor of a lady named Helen this year. Helen was diagnosed with MS 37 years ago while she was trying to raise her young family. Kimber knows Helen because Helen is the mother of a friend of hers. It was an honor to ride for Helen this year. Between them, Kirk and Kimber raised $4500 for the society and raised the awareness of MS. The weather Saturday of the ride was not the worst ever but not favorable. Sunday was super though. This year Kimber and Kirk rode their own tandem. It took forever to get back to Houston from Austin. There was a lot of traffic. Then when we got home we were locked out of the house. Thankfully the realtor came over and got our key out of the lock box so we could get in.

Speaking of realtors, our house in Katy got an offer on the first day it was on the market for above asking price.  The people then backed out a few days later, but we got another above asking price offer immediately after that, and they closed on May 22nd. We were only "double" homeowners for a month, so it all worked out pretty nicely.

Kimber did a super sprint triathlon the weekend after the MS150 and the day before her birthday. It is a way to have a mid life crisis. The super sprint was 300 meter swim, 8 mile bike ride and 2 mile run. The swim was in a pool but since we have had a cold winter the pool was really cold. The bike ride was fine but the best part was the run. It was a color run where you get doused with colored corn starch three times. Kimber looked like an Easter egg when she was finished. Fitting since it was the day before Easter. The corn starch color was not supposed to stain but it took days to wash it off.

So one of the major disadvantages of moving for Kimber's job is the effect on Kirk's career. Normally he has to quit his job and find a new one affecting his insurance and retirement. This time he got lucky and was able to transfer from UT in Houston to UT in San Antonio keeping the same benefits, vacation and salary. Of course that made it such that Kimber had to deal more with the move than normal making her almost loose her mind.

We moved the last days of April and first days of May. It was a pretty stressful move. Kirk worked until midday on Friday. That meant packing the old Ford onto the truck late in the day and then getting our cars loaded with pets. Kirk took the fish in two five gallon buckets, the fish tank, the stand, the bird cage and bird in his car. I took boxes of stuff that couldn't go on the truck, the cat, cat litter and Sidney. We said our goodbye to the house and headed for San Antonio. We offloaded the cat, the bird, and the fish and then crashed at the hotel. Saturday brought offloading. We sent over half the boxes back with the movers. We are super fast packers too. Again, not our first rodeo.

Unfortunately the movers did more damage than normal this time. Several pieces of furniture were damaged on this move along with more damage to the walls than normal. It was a little frustrating. But worst of all the movers damaged Kimber's road bike. It was very upsetting. Kimber loves her bike and not having it up and running while waiting for the damage to be evaluated and reimbursed.

We had to buy a freezer when we moved because we bought a half of a cow. We have 175 pounds of meat, about half hamburger and half other cuts that we paid roughly $3 a pound. We have had several packs of hamburger and several steaks and they have been fantastic. It was a good buy that we are enjoying.

Monkey Rock in Lost Maples State Park

We went for a really nice hike right after we moved. We went to Lost Maples State Park, about and hour and a half drive. We went the Saturday of Memorial Day because it wasn't supposed to rain that day. Yeah right. We were soaked. It didn't pour but it was wet all day. We did ten miles - great job Sidney. After 1/4 mile the sole of Kimber's right hiking boot started to come off. We tried to tape it on with medical tape but the whole thing was off and unsalvageable after another 1/4 mile.  Kimber could hike with just the padding part so on we went. At about a mile the sole came off the other boot. Kimber wore them last at Machu Picchu and we guess that did them in. So she did almost ten miles without the soles on her boots. It was a great hike and Sidney did the whole thing too. We stopped at a meat market on the way home and got some fresh seafood stuffed chicken and pork for dinner. A super day!

Sidney's Girl Scout troop came for a visit at the end of May. They drove over from Houston on Saturday and Kirk and Sidney met them at Sea World. After Sea World the girls, 9 of them, along with 5 adults came and spent the night. The girls slept on the floor in the family room upstairs and all the adults had a bed. We ate sliders made out of our hamburger mentioned above along with veggies and fruit salad. We finished with home made Popsicles. The girls explored the area between the yard and golf course and played soccer or ran around the house, the weekend was amazingly fun and easy to pull off.

Sidney did her first triathlon in late May also. Kimber and Sidney went back to Houston one weekend and stayed with Theresa. We drove over Friday night and chilled out. Sidney did her triathlon Saturday morning. She did a super job and we are so proud of her. We went back to Theresa's and cleaned up. Then we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. We stayed for a few hours and then Sidney went to spend the night with her friend. They were both thrilled to see each other.  Kimber picked her up Sunday morning to go back to our Katy church. We finished the Sunday with Body Pump by Kimber's favorite instructor at the YMCA before driving back to San Antonio. Sidney said it was one of the best weekends ever, and it was.

Did I say I was Proud!!

Sidney finished up school and then headed to Georgia for her annual trip to see Kirk's parents. She spent a week at the beach and also went to the Juliet Gordon Lowe house in Savannah. She was the founder of the Girl Scouts and Sidney loved going to visit there. Kirk and Kimber drove over to Houston to get Sidney when she came back. Kimber had to drive over on Wednesday night to go to training on Thursday. She stayed at Theresa's. Kirk came over Friday night and stayed through Sunday and we picked Sidney up on Saturday. Kimber went for a bike ride (on her mountain bike since her road bike is damaged) on Saturday morning. While she was riding, she heard several cracks and a crash. A large old tree on someone's property fell right as she was riding by. It was kind of cool. Kimber enjoyed a hill-less bike ride for a change. Kirk and Sidney returned to San Antonio on Sunday. Kimber stayed on in Houston because she had to go to Lafayette on Monday. She was there through Wednesday, making the long almost 8 hours drive back to San Antonio Wednesday night.

We all went shooting sporting clays the weekend before July 4th. Sidney tried once with a 20 gauge. She didn't like it. She was surprised by the noise and recoil. It was pretty funny. Kirk did really good shooting and Kimber hit a few of the skeet. Kimber hit both targets on the last set. She was super proud of herself.

We have found a great park near the house to go for evening walks. There are about five miles of trails and it is less than 10 minutes from the house. It is free and mostly in the shade. A ton of trees and birds. It is called Friedrich Park and it is great. We go over at least twice per week.

Oh and did we say we only have a 20 minute commute most evenings and a few minutes shorter in the morning. Not to rub it in or anything.

Sidney was in Germany for a week and is hanging in Norway now for another week (she will be there a total of three weeks) before meeting us in Austria. She is a little concerned about being away from mom for 4 weeks but isn't nervous at all about the traveling. Go figure.