From Texas to Canada with three weeks of Boston in between

Our journey started off uneventful early Thursday morning January 17th. I dutifully following Pompey and his new Garmin through familiar roads, past our little town, then Roanoke, then Southlake, sigh, through Grapevine. When...he turns off down a road that took us through a picturesque part past the Gaylord and some other windy streets when he called and said Hey are you still back there and I was all Uh yeah I am directly behind you can't  you see me? when it dawned on me, ummm, that ain't him...I was following some lady in a black nissan altima. He drives a sentra. Oh details. Oh well. Thank God we were still in our neck of the woods and leave it to Grapevine traffic to end me up way into Dallas before him. It was funny. What was not funny was a few hours later, with a screaming baby (all twelve hours of that day's drive, thank you) when I got pulled over by a very small and thick accented Arkansas police man. POH-LEES Man. Wanna know why he pulled me over? Yeah, I was following too close. To Pompey. In his Nissan Sentra. Not ALtima. I took my warning and mom and I laughed about that one. Fiasco number three came a few hours even later when Pompey called to ask me where the original documents his company overnighted to us on the day of the move were. Hmmm...the ones I handed over to the driver? Who was headed to OKC, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and then Montreal in his big ole Mayflower Semi with all our earthly goods and his dog. yep. That would be the one. So...I call him to overnight them to us in Boston where we are staying two nights before our final trek to our new home. We make it int he dark of the night to Nashville and sleep then drive again...
The drive cross country was so beautiful. Stopped in Knoxville to have lunch with Susan. She and her husband Larry were our supervisors in Madrid and we have stayed close both in heart and work over the years. It was short and sweet and we were on the road again. Headed to Virginia. The first day of driving was a nightmare. My sweet laid back Betsy girl cried pretty much the entire trip. Screamed. Bloody Murder. It was horrendous. The rest of the trip, she rode and slept and sang all the through Vermont like she was a world class traveller. I think maybe she was expressing what I was feeling leaving Texas and my home and friends and life.
IN Tennessee, we got a call that our work visa had been delayed and would not be at the border. For 7-10 business days. So....our 2 night stay with our family in Boston got bumped to possibly two weeks. And they were already expecting two of their adult sons for a week, and Amanda's mom for 2 weeks. Their house of 3 went to 13 literally overnight!! Thank goodness Amanda and I are close and we are the perfect balance for each other and so the meal planning and scheduling and sleeping arrangements went into full swing and I think we managed it really really well. We were all sad to leave when our 2 day then 10 day then 3 week stay came to an end. She kept telling me I was the best wife she ever had!! I really love communal living and even better with family!! Sweet little Ava got all the cousin siblings she could have ever hoped for in one fell swooop!! We are headed back there in May and I wish it was next week. God providence was so clear through that stay. We learned tons about living life in the cold, taking care of a house by humidifying and boot trays for snow and I realised I had to reinvent my style because long skirts drag in the snow even with snow boots on and it is cccccoooolllDdd!! So, i took advantage of all the end of winter sales and adjusted my girliness to tights and leggings with shorter dresses and came to our new home with a more workable wardrobe.
So, we arrived in Montreal on February 7th. Pitufo turned 8 on the 8th, his golden birthday which is a really big deal for me. We had a grand celebration with our family in Boston and I resigned myself to the fittingness of my only child born in a foreign country waking up on his golden birthday in another foreign country. So, we celebrated best we could. Our stuff did not arrive unto the following Tuesday so we camped out on borrowed Boston air mattresses for us and Yaya and the boys slept on sleeping bags. We made good use of space heaters and humidifiers brought from Boston and Pompey hit up the local Lebanese market for heat and eat stuff for the fridge as well as paper goods. We made it work. Our stuff got here Tuesday just in time for the final countdown of Yaya's stay, she was leaving on the 17th. That gave me four days to unpack. 4 bedrooms. 2 offices. Playroom. Guest room. livign room. kitchen. wall decor. bathrooms. laundry room. Did it all get done? nope. I prioritized. Kitchen. Kids clothes. Our room. guest room playroom. She left Sunday and we cried. Okay mostly I cried. And Betsy keeps asking for her. Which makes me cry. But we'll be alright. And she comes back in May.
Today we checked out a school for the boys. We have to qualify for eligibilty based on our visa and home language but it is a mile from our home and they come home for lunch every day!! I am getting excited. A week ago we were just gonna stay in our jammies until the snow melts in March or April so I am making progress...