Awake and Dreaming

With night time on yet another full day about to tip into the early hours of Sunday todays update will be predominately visual. We are almost half way through our time here in the US and things have moved so quickly that keeping a record seems to have slid to the bottom of the list.
Let me see if I can remember...


Yes, that's right. We live in an apartment. Five kiwis who are used to indoor/outdoor flow live in an apartment. Fortunately Americans upsize everything and so the rooms are generously sized and we have room enough.

The large wardrobes have provided great spaces for E and G to practise their art installation concepts And no, we don't make them sleep here. This is their solution to the order to 'stay in your room until 7am please'. It's technically not disobeying when the wardrobe is part of their room and they still have their blankets and pillows nearby apparently.

There were some things we learnt on our last extended trip that we filed away for future reference. One of those gems was how essential a good nanny was to us having the ability to maintain some kind of working structure and our sanity. Still when the time came to plan for this trip the idea seemed a bit hoity toity to me. I had a lot of 'shoulds' in mind about how I ought to manage things. Although we'd had people help out with the kids for various reasons over the years, the thought of having someone that was dedicated to helping our family and caring for the kids seemed like something 'other people' did. I struggled to fully embrace this working mother balancing act and just couldn't see myself managing the impending work schedule involving days away from our Nashville base on interstate trips, along side two rambuctious primary aged children.

When the first girl we organised had to pull out due to an unexpected family situation I started to question myself. I'd had a gut feeling about her but had gone ahead anyway. Maybe this was some kind of warning of what having a nanny would be like. Maybe I could just make it work without one I tried to fool myself. Ever the realist, Mr Evans thankfully knew us better and reminded me again of how it would end up if we attempted this mad plan without someone to help us!.
And then came Emma.


Full of fun, life and travel experience. She likes gluten free/raw foods the same as we do, has worked with kids before and she convinced her mum she should pause her Uni degree to come away with us for a while. (Thank you Alex!!).

It has been a full and busy week of travel, jetlag, learning to live together, new things at every turn and then the last two days straight she's been in charge of the kids. She's absolutely rocking it with a trip to the zoo and then today to gym class. Oh, did I mention she's a whole lot of fun and has a great sense of humour?!



In a country where safety is a bit more of a concern she is vigilant and aware. She had the kids writing stories this morning as well as giving them time and space to play imaginary games.
When the kids melted down this evening at dinner and I did my best to pull things together she continued to smile, seemingly well aware that most families are a little bit mad sometimes and this was no different.

She's passed out exhausted this evening along with us but boy am I glad she's here. We're only one week in but so far we're pretty gosh darned excited about this fantastic part of our team!.

This is very different to our last trip.

The Cowan Team 2015

The bustling streets of Manilla echo in our minds. The heat that wrapped around us still warms our hearts. Here in Nashville the streets are wide and space is ample. Cool weather outside is countered by the efficiency of internal heating at the apartment and seat warmers on the pimped out Chrysler we roll in each day.

All this is a little hard to reconcile. America is the land of 'bigger and better'. I remind myself that purpose has many faces. Currently, this is the time for building our businesses, which works to fund our vision, and this is the place we need to be to do that for now. So, I am set towards this task and all the adventure it brings.

I felt strangely calm last week about leaving all that we know.

The part that stung most was leaving our family and the beautiful network of good friends we have.

G's true love, Aunty Hannah.

But the wind of support from them all has filled our sails and we are moved forward into the dream with hope and expectancy.

Our champion travellers flew well. 12 hrs from Auckland to LA, a 4 hour transfer time, 1 hour to Vegas and enough time to grab a nasty airport meal, then another 3.5 hrs on to Nashville for a midnight arrival. Mr Evan made friends with a gentleman on the plane and in a show of typical southern hospitality he offered us a ride to our accommodation. He lived just down the road and despite my initial reservations I trusted my darling husbands instinct (and the knowledge that both of us and our already indispensable nanny Emma, had the skills to put up a good fight if absolutely necessary) and we were rewarded with a quick transfer from airport to apartment.

The first few days have been full of setup and sleep at odd hours.
We had a refresh driving lesson to get us into the flow of driving on the right hand side and after a nervous start and puzzled faces over a couple of odd road rules we are now checking the correct direction before we pull out onto the highway. Honestly though, who thought up the idea that you can take a right turn, even on a red light, so long as the road is clear. Aaahhh'mericans.

A little trip to the very big Target for a few essentials and some late night revelry at Wholefoods supermarket got us off to a grand start.

Yes, this blurry late night shot is all bags full of Wholefoods groceries. My kind of food heaven.