Living with the checklist

Loan application tasks, dental cleanings, weeding belongings, etc... Abigail and I are in checklist mode. Lucky for me, Abigail is a mastermind at planning and writes everything down in transition notebook. Today I will start a 'leaving McGill' and 'transition planning for Baylor.' For Baylor, I am going to try to do it via Microsoft OneNote. Actually i already have this notebook created, it's just empty. Baylor has the full Microsoft suite of tools available. I am already using Teams with a few new colleagues. Returning from our trip, I am aware of the expectation for both leading and collaborating when I arrive. It's within that framework that I need to plan.

My morning stops at Second Cup are becoming essential. My saying 'je voudrais un petit café ici' felt special. Here, I take the time to just breathe, sip a little café. Sitting here, I am fully aware of the blessings that God has provided in coming to Montreal and the promise of more good to come in Waco. It's too easy to stay in the 'things to do mindset' and not slowing long enough to be mindful and gracious.

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Offer made

We made another step toward getting a home in Waco. Even though we have our house hunting trip scheduled for the 27th, we made an offer on our favorite house yesterday. The stock of homes in our preferred price point is small. Our list of possible home was around 16 with some of them already going to pending, we starting to get concerned our top choice might not be available for our visit. The realtor we are working with, Cristy, has been excellent. Earlier in the week, she facetimed with Abigail, going through the home. Next Abigail was going to have Neil and Amber go down Sunday, facetime with them as they went through the home. Yesterday morning, we decided that we didn't need Neil to go and Cristy did another facetime walkthough. Friday night, we did the electronic signature program sign/initial the offer documents. Now it's a waiting game. We will still need to visit other homes on the top of our list in case the negotiati...

Buying the house, easing into Baylor

The weekend before going to Waco, we made an offer on a home. After a few counter offers, we accepted the seller’s last offer. The timing was perfect in that we arrived on a Thursday and saw the house for the first time. I could tell that Abigail was relieved finally seeing the home in person. The home inspection was Friday and detailed a number of major issues. Abigail was there for the inspections, which would not have been the case if we saved the house hunting for our trip. We asked that the seller address the roof, electrical, and HVAC deficiencies, which they accepted. Abigail is hard-core was clear that we would pull out of the deal if they were not going to address the roof and electric. Saturday, Cornelius, Amber, and little Neil came down to stay the night. We all went to our first Baylor athletic event, the Lady Bears (basketball) won the game as well and the Big 12title. They are ranked number 2 in the US. ...

Dreams of Montreal

The other night I dreamt of being together with my colleagues at McGill. The dream covered an entire day is work meetings and ended dining out followed by drinks. When I woke a felt a bit sad. The dream reminded my how much I valued my colleagues and in some ways how I miss living in Montreal. There funny part is that we didn't always agree but we were able to still dialogue, worked through solutions, etc... It's hard to put my finger on it and my wife doesn't share my perspective. The winters are hard and long, but I embraced it, I was out in it. Running on Mont Royal in winter bordered being spiritual experiences, the cold, the snow, the bare trees and the quietness as you earned the views provided at the top. I miss not only hearing (and understanding) French but also how interesting the accents of francophones speaking English. Cycling was a dream in Quebec and swimming at Parc Jean Drapeau in the outdoor beautiful 50 competition pool was epic. ...

rolling through, libraries, bikes, and more

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