Another hectic few days here in Casa McMaster! As it turned out, things with the car went very well!

Col decided (with my input) it was the one for us, so, on Wednesday morning it was guns a-blazing to try and get things in order.  Paperwork went through with the bank for finance, paperwork went through with the insurance company and even more paperwork with the dealer. But it got sorted, with little hassle and we were told we could pick the car up at 1pm Thursday – score!

While Col was out and about sorting out all of the paperwork, I was at home entertaining.  From around 10am to 1.30pm I had a house full of ladies and kids.

Some of these ladies are ‘old skoolers’ within Houston and the SSA but a large number of them were ‘my’ newcomers that I’ve been working with over the last few months.  Nothing is nicer than hearing some one tell you how much you have helped them with their move and say thank you – it really made me feel like I was making a difference here and helping people.

Again I answered the door with a T-shirt on my head (not in my PJ’s this time!) to a brand new spouse for whom English is her third language.  She must have been so scared to come on her own, she arrived a little earlier and was very conscious of her English but she did very well and by the end of the morning was talking with a number of people – she was the last person to leave too!

Most of the ladies brought some kind of dish with them so my house was coming down with sweets and treats (it still is!).  Cakes, buns, fruit plate, veggie plate, croissants…I even got two bunches of flowers for hosting – I was so touched!

There were also a number of French spouses in attendance but I really didn’t feel confident enough to speak any kind of French,  I did understand a lot of it though!

I’m so glad I planned the coffee morning for that morning because the time flew in for me! I didn’t get any sleep the night before as I was anxious about Rowan flying across the Atlantic on his own and I was exhausted and concerned.  But the coffee morning kept me distracted and preoccupied and I just had enough time to clean up the mess after Coffee before Col arrived home and we headed to the airport!

I could almost confidently say that I think SLB is some secret cult, we can’t go anywhere without bumping into at least one person who works for Col’s company – and true to form we got talking to a guy Col knows from the Rosharon office.  While we’re talking I see someone who I am 90% sure is Rowan walking into the gents – it’s safe to say he was practically jumped when he got out of the loo!

We grabbed his luggage and headed to the car and the first thing he commented on – surprise surprise – was the overwhelming heat.  The whole trip home he commented on various things, cars, buildings, the time it took to get home and how he’d only ever seen a Taco Bell in Grand Theft Auto! LOL!

First stop was home where we got him settled in his room and the boys got changed for footie before we headed out to Chilis for dinner.  Rowan’s first experience of an American restaurant was a great one, he really enjoyed it.  I made him order on his own to get practise at it – cause at first he wanted us to do it for him.  He did just fine!

When we were done with dinner we headed to Pearland where Col usually plays indoor footie with the boys on a Wednesday night.  After the hour and a half of football I was hearing great reports about how good Rowan is and how they all enjoyed playing with him.  I have to admit, my chest puffed out with pride just a little!

I have no idea how he managed it, but he stayed up til after midnight! Once he was in bed he slept like a log until just after 10am this morning!

This morning I was up early and did my online ‘thang’.  I processed 3 newcomers this morning alone and once Rowan got up we decided to head in to Chipotle for lunch.  Chipotle was packed and it was already 12.30pm so we just decided to pick up the new car first before lunch.

The dealership took sooooooooooooo long! Apparently someone dropped the emergency key down some kind of grating (which leads to under the building itself where snakes and the like live) and the car wasn’t washed like it was supposed to be so we had to wait…and wait…so we took pictures! LOL

When we eventually got sorted, I took the Saab and started to follow Col home, however getting on to the first road we got separated and I had to pull off the road as I had ZERO idea how to get home from where I was.  Once I got the first turn off the road we were on, he was pretty easy to follow and I took the drive in my stride.  I really need to pick up the theory test book again and work on my driving skillz cause I need to get this stupid license sooner than later now that we’ve got a car each to play with!

We dropped Lexie off at home before Col took me up to the hairdresser for my first ever Deva cut.  Deva is a kind of hair care routine for ‘curly girls’.  They cut your hair while dry and curly – cutting each curl individually.  It was an awesome experience.  Gerri was fantastic, educational and really enjoyable to have as a hair dresser.

While I was getting my hair done (with nothing to eat but a protein bar!), the boys went and got Jack in the Box and pretty much had a half hour before they had to come back up to the City – traffic was horrible, we got stuck in traffic for ages on the way there and they got stuck on the way back home too.

Anyway, once the 2.5 hour hair cut (and a cost that I shall not mention!) we headed up I45 to I10 where we drove past the bakery doing our wedding cake (yay it’s still in business! LOL!) and went to Red Robin (yummmm!) for dinner (cause I had a coupon! LOL!).

Rowan loved it and commented on how he’s loved all of the food he’s had here so far which was nice to hear cause I wasn’t sure if he’d like it or not here, in pretty much every respect.

After dinner we went around the corner to Dave and Busters (a huge video arcade).  Here you buy credit and play games to win tokens.  It sounds all rather childish – and I guess that’s the point.  It’s so much fun!  He bloody loved it and wants to go back again!

Col tried to do better – and failed, 1 ticket for him too!