Moving out... updated!

Goodbye Waterfall Gardens... moving day has come and gone and so much has happened since then but it feels like we said goodbye yesterday... oh how many great memories we made in this place... and we already miss it... Pack out took 2 days and I am still not sure how this fabulous group of men did it.  I have never had movers before and I hope never to have to move again without them... they were awesome and I have zero complaints.  They were respectful to our stuff and us, took little breaks and worked non-stop... it was amazing.  There were several times throughout the day I would feel guilty for not being able to help... I would try to feed them or give them water but they would just say they brought their own stuff.. and keep on working.

Here is Day 1... they were so fast... before we knew it and entire room was packed up.  The left Pierce's bed, the TV and the master bed so we could sleep in the condo one last time.

 

 

 

Since I could not help out (they would not insure it if I helped)... I started to get bored and took pics with my camera... here are some boxes...

I thought it was crazy how they packed... not to waste any space the would take a box and wrap it around the item... guess what this is?

 

The end of day 1... Pierce came home to this madness... He thought it was pretty cool at first but then noticed all his stuff was in boxes... For Dinner he mentioned to Dad that he wanted to camp in his tent to eat dinner and watch a movie... Dad mentioned that his tent was packed up and we had a minor breakdown... Pierce was in tears before we knew it... I think he had had enough... so we grabbed his blanket off the bed and made a tent as fast as we could... he was happy... 

I had to take a picture of this before we threw it away... documentation of everything Tita had ever bought... all her grocery receipts, etc. all nice and neat in a book like a checking account... I miss that Tita...

Day 2... they are back and ready to go...

The crate has arrived and they are starting to fill it... still hoping and praying that everything fits inside... the guy in charge says it will but it will be tight...

The process... they would wrap up the boxes... the boxes would be taken to the elevator... then loaded in a lory (small truck) in the basement... then taken to the street to and packed in to the crate... man these guys are good....

Here we are... almost done... still room for the last box... can you guess how many boxes there were total? 

154... wow... who would have thought... we came here with 800 lbs air shipment and now we are leaving with 154 boxes.

Getting the final thumbs up... they are finished... yeah.

It was amazing to watch these men pack that crate (I had always thought that women were better packers but they proved me wrong... or at least give us women a good run for our money)... at the end they would throw boxes around in and out and switch them up left to right, top to bottom... and I was a bit concerned about the boxes they were throwing around and then I noticed that all these boxes they were shifting around and throwing were EMPTY... they do this so there is no shifting while in transit... that is nice but what I saw and heard was that I could have had more stuff... to fill those empty boxes... oh well to late.

Welcome to our empty home... man it looks big and white... just like when we arrived...

 

One last "hurrah" in Pierce's room... on to the next adventure...

Our new place... step 1!

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One Sunday we traveled around with a Realtor and saw 9 different condos... at the end of the day Blake and I loved them all but one of them really stood out... Waterfall Gardens... our Realtor told us not to spend to much time analysing them just to pick the one that our gut told us too... so we did... Here is our new home for the next ??? years we are here in Singapore.

Waterfall Gardens

Pierce's favorite part are the shark fins on top of the condo and of course the pool. This place is brand new so there are not that many people living in it yet but the pool always has some one in it and the kids all seem so nice.

We are going to love this place I can tell... it is not much bigger than our old place but we now have 2 balconies instead of one and the helpers quarters are much bigger and storage is nice. The living space is still small but it is new and we get to pick everything out. We spent a week picking out the lighting and the curtains... and now we are furniture shopping so here is step 1... the place at its bare minimum.



We have our own private lift.. the elevator opens to our personal sitting area (shoe area) and here is the view into the living room/balcony.


Here is shot looking back at the elevator.

Once you pass through the living room around the corner is the dining room/kitchen... the kitchen is probably the number one reason I LOVE THIS PLACE. I guess I better start using it.

Here are some views from the balconies... the living room balcony looks over the pool and the master bedroom balcony looks over the streets.

The master bedroom...and master bathroom... blake's favorite thing.

Hallway... sitting bay window.

Janie and Jack bathroom between P's room and guest room (welcoming all guest here).

Pierce's room and/or Guest room... almost exactly the same...

Powder bath in the hallway...

Just another look at the kitchen in case you did not get a good view the first time... wow... weeee..

Behind the kitchen is the good stuff... washer and dryer.... love it.

The helper has a room and a bathroom... and there is an extra storage room... yeah...

We can't wait to show you step 2... things are looking great... we now have lighting and drapes... and some temp furniture... waiting for the real stuff and our shipment from the states... stay tuned... we are having fun.

800 pounds...

When we signed up to be Noble Employee's they told us that we could ship 800 lbs to Singapore... and that this 800 lbs would be air freight so the things could not be to big. Blake and I said that the most important things that we would ship a comfortable bed for us to sleep on (the last 2.5 years we have been sleeping on a not so comfortable bed) and our bikes. If it was up to Blake he would have added in a TV and a stereo and called it a day... well me on the other hand I had to maximize my allotment to the fullest. Just humor me for a bit and imagine a queen size bed that weighs 300 lbs and bikes that weigh 120 lbs... what could one pack to get the remaining 380 lbs. Well I had big plans... kitchen stuff, rugs, bathroom stuff, Pierce's bedding and our bedding and more. A few days before pack out (meaning the shippers were coming to assess our shipment) we were told that they WERE NOT going to be able to ship a queen size bed but we could ship the bikes... so this was good and bad news.... the bad news was that we could not have a comfy bed but the good news was that we had 300 more pounds... WOWWWWW... was I happy... Blake not so much he was a little scared of what I would bring over...

The next few pictures are of the day of packing... the packers came and got everything organized, labeled and ready for air shipment... check this out.

This is a picture of the infamous scale... every box that was packed was then weighed and that weight was written on the box and then on my notebook so I could keep a running tally. You better believe my mission was to get as much in as possible... the packers did a great job... and were very patient with me... I fought for every pound... if they weighed it and it was 20.5 they would round up to 21 but I would remember that .5 and then if the next package weighed 19.5 I would tell them to put 19 bc the last one they rounded up... he he he... oh boy.

The bikes caused alot of issues... first they did not want to come apart and then they weighed more then we thought... but they made it... they are in pieces but they made it... hopefully we can put them back together.

The finished product... all 800 lbs fit into this small van... man oh man. The shipment will be shipped today and should arrive in one week. I am so excited it will be like Christmas in September. I have already forgotten some of the stuff I have packed but thanks to my trusty notepad with all the inventory I can look at it and great really excited... can't wait...

One more week and we will have our stuff...

Where have we been...

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Has it really been since July 27th that we updated the blog... well the last thing I wrote about was our trip back to Texas (was suppose to be permanent) and that Blake and I were going to Maui and Pierce was staying with ViVi and Grandad for a week... well lets just say we have alot to update you on... but today I am going to give you the cliff notes...

Yes we did go to Maui with some friends for a week and it was a great vacation (there will be more on Maui later)... we had a blast with our friends and we left there saying "we saw Maui" and we did...

While mommy and daddy were playing so was Pierce... he learned all sorts of things while staying with ViVi and Grandad... how to stand on Grandad's hands and say "king of the world", he became an expert at hunting for bugs and digging for worms, he learned how to ride a bike (with 2 extra wheels) and ViVi made sure he ate like a champ for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We sure were ready to see the little man when we returned... we got to spend another week in DFW seeing the family before we headed back to Houston.

While in Houston we got to go to a baseball game... and thanks to JuJu and KW we got some of the best seats in the house for a great game. And of course while in Houston we got to spend alot of time with friends and hang out with Grace... which is Pierce's best friend.

While in Houston we decided to put our old house up for rent again... so if you are interested let me know. We had alot of cleaning to do and fixing up... but we got it done and when I took this picture I got a little sad... the Realtor told me that when you have a rent house you can not look at anymore as your home but an investment... not sure if that made me happy or sad...

We even got new carpet...

I donated my hair to locks of love... I kept it long while in Singapore but it stayed in a pony tail... and thought it was time to cut it off... I usually donate every 2 years but this time I waited longer... got to donate an extra 2 inches for a total of 12inches...

So this is the part where I can tell who is reading the blog or who is just looking at the pictures...another big decision we made while back in Texas was that we would move back to Singapore for another couple of years. Blake was in Texas for about 2 weeks and then Pierce and I stayed for another 4 weeks. We are now back in Singapore hence the delay in writing on the blog and we have been here for a couple of days but before we got here we had to pack again... here is a picture of some of the packing that took place... there will be a whole blog entry about the packing so stay tuned... oh how I hate to pack.

Blake is now a Noble Drilling employee... our first gig here in Singapore was as a contractor but he decided to take a job there again. As an employee versus a contractor there are many perks and one of them is traveling in business class... Pierce and I had only been in business class one other time (a fluke in Vietnam) but never like this... we got to lie down FLAT for 30 hours... we had to ride a total of 2 planes and the first was from Houston to Newark (3.5 hours) and the second from Newark to Singapore (18.5 hours)... lets just say the last 5 hours were brutal but worth it... we are now back in Singapore and still have alot to do to get settled again but we are making good head way.

I know this blog was kind of short and left out alot of details but you get an idea of our life for the past 5 weeks... we sure have missed you but we are back... more details later... leave comments if you have any questions...thanks for all the emails and comments asking where we are... it is nice to know we were missed...