Wow. That is really all I can say. Just wow. Time has flown and dragged by at the same time. And now, here I sit in a home, my home, in Cinci, Ohio. Weird. Oh and I only have two months until baby comes? How did that happen? Double weird.
Where do I start?
Maybe I’ll just fling up some photo collages of our journey since right before Paul left – some of you might have seen the pics on Facebook, simply scroll faster if you want to get through them quicker. Though if you go too fast you might miss any witty reparte in between them… well, no promises. 😀
We’ll start with the loading the truck collage. We loaded the truck the day before Mother’s Day. That is my awesome bro with the ductaped pants – they kept splitting further… and further… and we just kept adding to the tape so he wouldn’t be indecent. 😀
After the truck was loaded, we realized there was a lot of stuff we wanted to take that didn’t fit. Then when the car behind it was pulling heavy we had to empty it – so that meant all of our musical instruments had to stay behind. It was the deciding factor on driving out a second truck.
Sunday, Paul tried to leave me a Mother’s Day present…
Saram wrapped kids. Unfortunately, they escaped.. and then they revolted and tried to keep dad from leaving.
He escaped too, and left the next day.
Then came the fun. And all the hard work. I worked on packing odds and ends, painting the inside of the house, mowing lawns with grass up to my chest in some places, chasing five kids, growing a baby, going on last ditch outing with friends, and keeping from going completely insane. The worst part of it all was how much I missed having my hubby with me. I love that man!
We had fun too in the midst of all the work. I would have like to do more, but we at least made it to the beach one last time, and to Mt. St. Helens.
My brother and his family came with us on the beach trip, the Mt. St. Helens trip I did solo.
I was proud of myself with two things on the St. Helens trip- 1. I didn’t go completely insane and 2. I managed to stay awake on the way home (though I had to chug a giant Dr. Pepper in order to do so – yuck. At least it tastes a little better than the other colas, and without the caffeine we wouldn’t have made it.)
In the midst of everything else we also threw an early b-day party for Em…
We had to have the cake on the floor because our table was already with hubby in Ohio.
And had Jacob’s preschool Graduation
Is he just stinkin’ cute or what? 😀 Then we were on the road. My bro from Oregon helped us drive – he drove the truck while hubby and I enjoyed the un-air conditioned van. Our first stop was Utah to visit my big sis. Heidi and Paul’s big bro. Mark. Of course we were exhausted and dead in the brain when we stopped by Mark’s place so I didn’t get the camera out. SHOOT. At least I remembered at Heidi’s – it was a close call though – it didn’t come out until right before we left. (My feet were looking slightly pudgy)
Then on to Colorado to visit my next big sis. Lisa. We went to the most amazing park while we were there. We got to see my parents too. I am shooting myself in the foot for not taking more pics. Grrrr. (My ankles were feeling left out and decided to join my feet in pudgyness)
Then we crashed at my big bro. Kimball’s place in Arkansas. By now, my ankles resembled tree trunks and I began to hang out in the truck with my bro. I’d like to say it was sibling bonding, but it really was the AC – just kidding. 😀 It was definitely both.
Finally in Ohio – I don’t have more pics yet – but they will be coming…
for now enjoy our back yard and a really cool park. The deer in the pics is in our neighbor’s yard. We saw it three days in a row this week. The first day it was two yards down (when I took the pics) the second it was in our next door neighbor’s yard, and the third it was in our yard. If we see it again, I think I will name it. 😀 We have millions of lightning bugs – my absolute favorite – there’s just something magical about them. And I have been able to see and catch a photo of the Red Cardinal – my favorite childhood bird, which I completely forgot lived out here. Also in our back yard and neighbor’s back yards we frequently sight bunnies hopping around. 😀
A wonderful end to a long and fun few months! I am hoping to have lots of adventures to tell. For now – I am off to bed. Because even if I don’t post this until later – it is 1:00 in the AM right now.
Fun and Flawed 