Construction is Going... But not fast enough

The past few weeks have been rough.  A lot of driving, being away from the kids, sleeping wherever we can impost upon the kindness of others.  You might think I have taken up a new job as a cross-country truck driver or something like that, but it is much worse -- The Texas Batemans are homeless.

Since closing on our house May 30th, we have been house-hopping in an effort to survive until our house is completed... on July 18th.  So that is 7 weeks that we needed to figure out a place to live.  No problem, we originally thought.  Get a cheap apartment for 2 months, then we'll have plenty of time to move in/out.  Little did we know 3 months is the shortest lease any apartment seemed willing to do.  Not only was rent anywhere near what we expected, they also tack on an extra $150 or so per month since it is short term.  This was starting to get unpleasant.  What happened to being able to rent an entire house for $850 like I did in college?  Adios 214 Ira, those rent prices are long gone.

So what to do now?  Extended stay hotels?  Not too bad.  I've stayed in similar type joints when traveling for work and they are livable... without children!  As we continued to complain about our predicament, the weeks began to fill themselves in.  We remembered that one of the weeks we'll be on vacation in Destin & DisneyWorld!  Then people started generously noting that they would be out of town certain weeks and we could housesit for them.  Before we knew it, we had filled in all of our "gaps" with specific help from Mamo and Pampo in San Antonio.  They would let the kids stay with them and let us call San Antonio home base between houses.

And now here we are -- traveling to Katy/Houston each week to work and then back to San Antonio to be with the kids and the rest of Angel's family.  It ain't Ozzie and Harriet, but it will sure make it that much sweeter when we finally get to move into our new place.  In addition to a tremendous THANK YOU to the Beals, we would also like to thank the Gryparis, Spier, and Ertan families for helping us to keep a roof over our heads.  We'll have to say that it hasn't exactly been roughing it in 3+ bedroom houses :)

To the right you would be able see the first part of a time-lapse series I am putting together to show our house being built.  There is quite a bit more progress on the house today, but apparently the addition of "Saturday In The Park" by Chicago as an audio backdrop was enough to make this video a copyright violation according to Microsoft - go figure.

The good news...

Being away from the kids has made us realize the importance of weekends as a time to do fun stuff and get out and see what is out there.  To that end, we have been making the most of our weekends recently.  Last weekend it was Brazos Bend State Park for a day of learning and gator watching.  We saw 2 in just a brief 20-30 minute walk!  One was a mama guarding a nest (didn't get too close to her :)) and the other was staring at us from the water below the boardwalk.  It couldn't have been more than 5 feet away and 1 foot below us.  I thought is was a bit odd, but everyone seemed to think it wasn't too dangerous and we still have all of our kids so I guess it wasn't that bad.  We've also stepped up the moviegoing with Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E under our belts this June.

This weekend it was a hill country excursion to learn about the many wonders of the Texas hill country.  We started at Aquarena Springs - the source of 100% of San Antonio's drinking water. 

 

While the glass-bottom boat tours were awesome we were sad that Ralph the swimming pig has retired.  Jackson is becoming quite the photographer - here are 2 pictures he took on the trip:

Next it was on to Wonderworld which is a tourist trap plopped down on top of a pretty awesome cave.  This dry-formed cave was less stuffy than most because you can touch anything and everything in the cave including some 35 million year old sea clam fossils. 

The tour also included a ride to the top of a tower, a trip through the anti-gravity room, and the animal train to feed the deer our of our hands (the clear favorite among the kids). 

 

 

Emily said the goat above looked like me which is why he made the album.  If you want a good laugh, just check out these adorable videos of the kids feeding the deer!

 

Although the fun is plentiful, tomorrow it will be back to Houston for a short week.  Very excited though, because it is only 4 more days of work and then we are Florida bound!  WooHoo!