I'm a mom... but I can still be spontaneous!

After enduring a few years of, in many ways (except financial, phew!) a life of single motherhood, as Bill traveled back and forth from his Puerto Rican baby (the hotel he was building) - we decided to pick up our family and move there for the duration of the project. The decision came on Saturday - and we were to leave a week later. This blog tracked our experiences as we left our home in CT, withdrew our kids from school, left our puppy in the care of a trusted dog-lover, left the snow and the rat race and the routine... for a beautiful, rather remote island. I hoped to allow my friends & family to track our progress (or lack thereof?) as we lugged our stuff to one of the few remaining places that does not have a Starbucks, the kids and I embarked on our first ever homeschooling experience (I'd always thought homeschoolers were aliens), and I happily moved my triathlon training from the pool, trainer & dreadmill to what basically amounts to paradise. Most of all, I hoped my blogging will push others to step out of their comfort zone and try something they always swore "NEVER!" to do. (Of course, hopefully it's not something destructive).

So now, we are back in CT after our 3 surreal months in Vieques. In no time whatsoever my day became jam-packed with activities and tasks, but somehow it feels "right" in the way that the nothingness of Vieques felt "right." I suppose that's how you know you're following your bliss - and where you do it becomes irrelevant.

Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Leaving tomorrow!

My favorite story from this week was told to me by Jackie's 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Lachmann. Apparently another teacher popped into her classroom to tell her about an encounter she had just had with William, our kindergartner. He was wandering down the hallway, taking his sweet ole time, so she asked, "Can I help you? Where are you going?" He looked at her and replied, "Puerto Rico."

Today's big events were 1) leaving Penny the Puppy and 2) Jackie's performance in The Jungle Book. Penny is staying with Teresa, a groomer in Monroe. So she is not only with a couple who loves dogs so much they've made it their business, but she is in plenty of canine company. There must have been a dozen dogs there today for her to run round with. Teresa asked me when we plan to return? I told her that Bill informed me yesterday we have a one-way ticket (gulp!) but we will definitely be back, after all we still have a house full of stuff here. She then told me that she has 2 dogs of her own. One of them is a poodle. The reason she has the poodle is the owner never came back. I assured her that wouldn't be the case with us. Hey, we're Facebook friends, so it's easy to track me :)

Jackie's play was great. It was definitely terrible timing since I didn't start packing our clothing until after the show (ie 4pm) and spent a lot of time this week going back & forth with rehearsals. But hey, makes our story even better. She played Kaa (the evil, manipulative snake). Definitely a stretch for her, the angel that she is (and I'm not being sarcastic) but she did great. Amazing how much she loves being on stage. And a few really good friends came to watch her, which was just so touching. They were also at last night's send-off party, which was also just perfect. I know they're all being super friends because they know we won't be able to resist coming back here since we'll miss them so much :)

During all this, I've also been working on bringing Achieve to CT - a triathlon camp for kids. It's an amazing 6 week summer camp for kids ages 9-14. My meeting at the Waterbury YMCA about it yesterday couldn't have been better, and if all goes well we'll be the first Achieve camp in New England! I just have to get my USA Triathlon coach certification, which will hopefully happen this year. The training workshops apparently fill up within 5 minutes, so I need to stay on top of this from my island perch. Please feel free to send me reminders! This is truly a dream come true for me - training 20+ under-privileged kids to swim, bike, run (and make healthy choices in every aspect of their lives) - and basically achieve what they never dreamed was possible.

OK, off to finish smilepacking (my friend Mike came up with that term, I love it!).

xoox
Susanne
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