"goodbye, house."

there is a tradition in our family where we say, "goodbye, house" when we are leaving for a while. it was usually said in the wee hours of the morning when we were on our way to the airport to head out of town. well, yesterday i said goodbye to my house. it has served us well. we have had many play dates, parties, poker nights, and dinners in that house. it is the house ella grew from a baby to a little girl and the house we brought beckett home to. many, many great memories. here are a few things, besides my house, that i will miss.

1. friends
we were blessed to truly know what it is to live in community and "do life" with our friends. i am so thankful for jen and julie who were right down the street and who always encouraged me and reminded me that i was not crazy even though i felt that way at times when raising a 2 year old and then having a newborn. thanks for the many times you helped watch one or both of my kids. i cherish the conversations we had (or tried to have) while the kids played.

2. ramos
i came to love the local mexican restaurant. they have great chips and salsa and a yummy spicy ranch. i usually got the chicken fajitas. oh, and if you go there on a friday night you get great mariachi entertainment.

3. poker night/settlers night
very sad we will no longer be a part of the group, especially now that settlers is in the mix. we always had such a blast with the fierce competitors...james and julie.

4. the pool
have you seen our sweet set up in shadowglen? it is huge and kid friendly. unfortunately we were not there as much as i would have liked this summer because we were out of town so much or packing. ella loved playing with scott and watching him go down the slide and i liked talking with friends and meeting new ones.

5. super donuts
they new scott by name and order. he and ella had a saturday morning tradition of going to the donut shop (ella in pj's) to get a donut. they would always run into some of ella's friends (usually anna and cole or rilyn and ella p).

6. bunco
i will miss our bunco group. it was the one time a month that i knew i could get out of the house and hang out with other ladies. i am bringing my dice to start a new group in morocco.

it is pretty surreal that we have officially moved out of manor. we have been so busy that it hasn't had time to sink in. ella actually asked about our house tonight. i had to remind her that she said goodbye to our house and that we will have a new house in morocco. she said that she wanted her house with the bricks (and motioned with her hands as if laying bricks one on top of the other). i am glad that our house was a true home for her. i just hope she is not shocked when she sees our new house is actually an apartment and made out of cement and not bricks. i will update later a picture of our moving truck packed to the max (not even an inch to spare!)

Douglass Casa(BLANCA)

For those of you who don't know, we are moving. I apologize we didn't get the word to you sooner. For those of you who are saying "about time they updated the old blog, jeez", I'll ignore your complaints...we've been just a little busy.

It is true, we are moving to North Africa.

I am teaching in an International American School. Yes, the wife and kids are also coming.

We will be updating our blog frequently, so please check back.

Also, starting Aug. 12th we will have a new US phone number. I'll email you the number.

Here are some pics where we will be living.

Scott, Diana, Ella, Beckett


Yes, we can see the ocean from our apt.!