I didn't quit blogging! I promise! Four Words: "Moving With a Baby"

So while my time is presently limited I will call this my "I promise I didn't quit blogging" blog.  I'll just fill you in on the goings-on.  A lot of McKinnians may have noticed the real estate market is hot.  In a matter of 2 total weeks we jumped at the opportunity to sell our West McKinney home and buy another one closer to all the action further east.  Most people would not take on moving house with a 4 1/2 month old baby....except us.  It was that fine line between foolish, and smart for jumping at the opportunity to take advantage of a super hot real estate market before all the Toyota folks get here from California.  We literally were probably 72 hours away from signing an apartment lease and my lovely wife did it again.  She found the perfect house, in a quiet neighborhood with just the right amount of space and features.  It was surprisingly hard to say goodbye to the old one but we are slowly but surely, as time allows, settling in to the new one unpacking a couple of boxes at a time and working our way out of survival mode.

This post is going to be a little bit different from my usual writings because it is admittedly rushed.  It is a shameless plug of local businesses combined with lessons learned, and a promise that I did not quit.

10 THINGS:
#1 Milestone Electric really do fix it in a flash- just like the jingle that gets stapled deep into your head during NBC5 commercial breaks in the morning.  We had some screwy electrical issues within the first day of moving in and problems were solved quickly.  Electrician- true expert and trustworthy individual.  Customer Service reps- Second to none.

#2 Fence companies love to talk nasty about one another when getting bids.  Dang! Be nice guys, keep it professional.

#3 Choose your movers wisely and breathe down their neck- yes they do this every day, but they still haven't learned their lesson about not grabbing washers and dryers by the knobs.

#4 Vee's Appliance Repair- Great experience.  On time, reliable, and actually fixes the problem in a timely manner.  He actually cares about his customers and put my daughter's needs ahead of his own.  Clean dry clothes for my baby and fast, adequate solutions.

#5 Albertson's is NOT your store. It is a dated, non-innovative cesspool of rotting produce, processed chemically enhanced rubbish, and the awful idea of "variety pack" combinations of meat.  Sorry I do not want moldy fruit or chicken juice in my 4 days past the sell by date ground beef.  I know I said I would not speak negatively on this blog, but I'm rebelling today.  Once you have experienced McKinney Farmers Market, Sprouts, Urban Acres or Trader Joe's....everything else sorta sucks.

#6 Trader Joe's is awesome.  Nice to have one nearby, and an Urban Acres share pickup down the street twice a month.

#7 Who would have thought that living further away from work actually makes for a quicker commute in the morning and evening.  It's achievable when you don't live 7 miles from any major highway and your nearest major highway is now one quarter of a mile away.  Toll bill goes up, but time spent in car angry about morning routine, 9 school zones, and terrible traffic ALL goes down and away. 


#9 Not having an HOA now is awesome.  It is nice not to spend $480 per year anymore to be menaced and sent nastgrams about the single weed that grew in my yard that morning while I was at work.

#10 Moving into a "project house" really makes me want to go to Lowe's and play.  Wife has the same bug.
"OMG! A gutter extension piece.  Sweetie, I need a gutter extension piece! And tacks!" 

Family: It's a Team

Before my next feature I just wanted to take a quick recess, and reflect on one of my themes.  Family.

Around town, I see all sorts of teamwork going on.  There are youth sports teams, high school drill teams, charity teams, street teams for bands, debate teams at school.  You see a lot of teambuilding exercises at work.  I even see some great teamwork going on between the vendors at the McKinney market.  But there is one team that sits at the top for me.  Family.  I don't often see family be compared as a team; a unit of people working together to function and accomplish all sorts of goals. 

I ponder a lot of ideas, and get a lot of my inspiration for blog topics from my own adventures and life events, usually while holding my baby daughter.  Yesterday I had to remind myself while she was in need of consolation, this is a team effort. As the man of my house, I have to be there through the best and worst of times and keep my head in the game.  I have to be there for my team. 

With teambuilding at work, where you're sorting out routine processes, people may be learning how to work together, putting a Band-Aid on some sort of procedural glitch, and create a professional harmony.

With a sports team, like baseball or basketball, it's a group of people working together, each bringing their strong point (position) and the end result is baskets and runs.

At the market, it's a "hey can you make me some change for this 20?" scenario....

But the family team is lifelong.  It's not a seasonal thing like a sport, and it's not a 9-5 thing like work. It's loved ones working together to function, or achieve many goals ranging from very simple to very complex and challenging.  Obviously this evolves over time as we all get older and our roles change in our loved ones' lives.  Children become adults, adults become parents, and parents become grandparents, etc.  But even as things evolve over time, family still requires teamwork.

I've found as a new dad, this is something I occasionally have to remind myself when I get off track.

I welcome your input.

-DAN+McKinneyTX-