(cont.)

Here are some things that happened along the way that I thought were a little bit funny and some a little sad!!!

:) Lainee draws a picture of Scott (complete with armpit hair)
:) Lainee draws a picture of Maryland, which is just the house that Drew and Erin use to live in, I think she thinks the house is called Maryland!!!
:) Bradley and Taron find a "hippie" friend
:( We think their Hippie friend may have some issues.....!!!
:( Lainee falls down and gets her first black eye and a huge scrape across her cheek!!
:) Kennadee and Makayla spend a lot of their time in Kari's car, thus making my van easy to clean!!!
:( Toll Roads (seriously people.......BOOOOO)
:) Cassie, Erin and Taci texting us to see where we are!!!!
:( Cassie, Erin and Taci texting us to see where we are.............STILL NEBRASKA *sigh*
:) going to the Winter Quarters Temple and having the kids remember being there before!!!! (2 years ago)
:) Zachary and Grandma getting maps in every state we passed through!!! (I thought it was really cute how they had this bonding time!!)
:) Zachary taping one of his maps to the back of the chair in front of him and using it as "his own GPS"!!!
:( Realizing "someone" left their cell phone back at the Hotel.
:) Having that realization only 15 min. after they left the Hotel!!!!!
:) Kids being excited about Homework!!!!
:) Drinking Pepsi!!!!!
:( finshing it by 9 am


I am sure there is tons more and I will probably remember them later, but for now this is what I can offer :)

So you would think by now that we women (Me, Kari and Mom) would be pulling our hair out and wondering if our kids were old enough to hitchhike home, but nooooo, surprisingly for me, the kids seemed to be enjoying the journey as well (maybe not Landon so much but he is just 2). We had lots of fun things to entertain the kids with and that made traveling much easier. We had travel bingo, doll kits, legos, friendship bracelet kits, books, license plate games, homework sheets, notebooks to color in, puzzle/game books, aluminum foil, I-touchs, an I-pad (THANK YOU Uncle "Cloud" Galen) and of course Movies and Music!!!!! I also had the Harry Potter audio books on my touch and so whenever I could I would listen to them (the man who recorded them is simply aaaaaamazing!!!). Our 3rd and final night on the road we stopped just outside Akron, Ohio and got a hotel suite. I think the kids thought they were in Heaven. There was a kitchenette, 2 bedrooms and then the living room had a couch that pulled out to a bed, there were T.V.'s in all the rooms and big nice bathrooms!!! They thought is was soooo cool how we could all be together in the same "room"!!!

After some time in the pool the next morning we started the final leg of our journey HOORAY!!!! It was just so exciting to finally know that today would be the day that we would finally reach our destination, and even more exciting to think of everybody waiting for us to finally get there!!!! I do have to tell you about this town though, I am pretty sure it was in PA but I could be wrong. So for lunch we decided to stop in what we thought would be a small town, you couldn't see much from the freeway and the name of the town "Cranberry" just gave me the impression of a quaint little stop. Well it must have been a lot bigger than we thought for they had a two lane road going into the Wal-mart parking lot and it seemed like the roads going anywhere in that town were little mini freeways!!! But the park where we ate lunch was just what we needed so Thank You Cranberry for your wonderful community park!!!

Road Trip USA (cont.)

So day 2 brought on more of, you guessed it Nebraska..............*eye roll*. I cannot tell you the exhileration I felt when I saw that beautiful sign welcoming us into the state of Iowa! Although I should say that I am sooooo happy that there are those types of people who love to live in Nebraska despite the smell of dairy farms, because although I am not a milk fan, I do LOVE ice cream!!!! There really isn't much to tell up to this point except that when we stopped for the night in Iowa City, we found a hotel that looked like a castle and so the girls were all excited about being able to stay there. Our rooms had little balconies that looked out upon the moat aka swimming pool, and the beds in the rooms had huge head boards to make it look more Royal!!!! But I think what took the cake at this hotel was the pool. As the kids were diving in and swimming around they found a huge window in the side of the pool that when you looked through it you could see people eating in the Hotels' restaurant?!?!?!? Seriously I don't know that I could sit and eat while looking at people swimming in a pool.......*shudder*. Really, am I alone in this thinking??


Pictures of when we stopped for dinner and found an old train car that has now been turned into an ice cream shop!!! (it was closed, but the kids had fun playing on it!!)

Chapter 75: Road Trip USA!!!!

After a slight delay, the day finally dawned that marked the beginning of our Road Trip. We were sure excited to get up and get going, I had packed my van the night before we left and of course being my normal self I forgot to pack a "few" items and so the next morning was filled with; first waking up early, and re-packing and re-situating things and then helping Kari pack and re-pack and re-situate things, and then pretty much re-packing both cars and finally getting most everything in, just as I was standing back admiring my handy work, I realized that HOLY CRAP I still had 4 kids to put in this van *sigh*, but alas they all did fit and luckily for me I had thought ahead and limited my girls to only bringing one purse and the only extra things they could bring had to fit inside the purse and they had to be able to zip up that purse!!!

Off at last, since we had the delay we were just going to drive as far as we could and hope that there was an available hotel when we got to tired to go on. The kids quickly dove into their "tote-o-fun" and we hardly heard a peep from them. Wyoming came and seemed to take forever to get through, we had to make some pit stops but we finally made it into Nebraska -- Hooray!!!! (or so we thought) I really do not like Nebraska, I soon found out. Nebraska is the kind of state that drags on ffffooooorrrrevvvvverrrrr.....................and ever, and they have lots and lots of dairy farms, stinky!!!!!!!!!!! We found a hotel in North Platte and let the kids finally have a little freedom from the car, they were so excited to be out the cars and quickly threw on their swimming suits and were off for a much deserved pool time. I didn't want to jinx myself but I just had to say that the kids were awesome, there weren't any fights or squabbles, and I don't know if it was just the traveling or what but it seemed that there appetites had exploded, they were eating all their snacks and all their meals and then asking for more?!?!?!?! (I know.....wierd) With Day 1 complete and everyone still alive, it just made the trip even more exciting!!!!!

(to be cont.)

Chapter 74: DELAY

You know when you see that word at the airport everyone just kind of sighs................................*sigh*, ugh, so we have run into a delay for our Road Trip to Maryland, the engine in Kari's van decided to blow a rod and ruin the whole engine :( sadly Kari was already packed with every inch of space used and filled including the car top carrier. But Happily (if you can call it that) it happened near Salt Lake and before we got 1/2 way across the country. So we are having to postpone the start of our trip until Tues. morning and Kari buys a new van (fingers crossed). She was saying that this had better be the only glitch we have this trip and I whole heartedly agree, all in favor say I......................................"I". (okay done).

Although we have to delay I am still super excited to be able to go on this Road Trip and I cannot wait to see Erin and Taci and to see Alesa playing with her cousins again. I also am (call me crazy) excited to show my kids the country and spend some real quality time with them!!!! (I may change my mind 2 hrs. and 27 min. into the trip, give our take 1 hr. and 59 mins.)

Hey, can you hear that????? That is the sound of my tan calling me all the way from Ocean City Beach.....................I am coming, coming, coming, please wait for me, me, me!!!!!

Chapter 73: The "F" word

I Hate it, hate it, hate it with a passion. When I hear it my skin crawls and makes me shudder. I hate to hear it on T.V., I hate to read it in the newspaper, I hate to hear it uttered by my neighbors and I especially hate to hear it from my own kids' mouths, because that only means it has invaded my home!!!!


What word is it???? Well it's that nasty, vile word, the word everyone hates.......................
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FLOOD

Oh yeah, sorry you had to read it hear too, but it happened again. But unlike the other times, I actually looked at this flood as a blessing in disguise!!!!

Wait -- what????? I know those reading must be confused, because I just said I hated fl..... flo...... floods (augh, it is even hard for me to type it out!!!) But yes, this time it was a blessing. I was sitting on the couch watching T.V. and all of a sudden I hear a massive amount of water flowing, my first thought was that the kids had turned on the hose and were having a water fight, but something about the sound caused me to further investigate. As I went into the kitchen I could see water now dripping from under the sink and when I opened the cupboard, all I saw was a wall of water. I immediately tried to turn off the water valve underneath the sink, but I don't know if it was the 500 knobs that are under there or the fact that I had water shooting everywhere, but I could not get the water turned off. So as I was running downstairs to turn off the house water, I am screaming at Kennadee to call her Dad and tell him there is a flood, I finally get the water shut off and thankfully Scott is on his way home. As I come back upstairs to assess the damage and clean out under the sink so we can figure out what happened, I am amazed at the amount of water that had accumulated all over my kitchen floor, and I am immediately struck with the thought, what if I hadn't been sitting right there, what if I had been gone to the store or worse.................what if this had happened next week, when I would have been on my way to Maryland!!!! It really is a sobbering thought of how something as simple as a burst pipe from your kitchen faucet can bring about so much damage to your home. Scott the ever-faithful handy man was able to repair the damage and get us back in working order in no time. But for once in my life I am very, very thankful that the "F" bomb came when I was here to hear it, and face it head on.

Chapter 72: Can you guess who???

Hello my name is Benjamin Franklin, my parent's were Josiah and Abiah Franklin. I was the eigth out of ten children my mom gave birth to. I have lived in Boston which had over 7,000 people living there, Boston was found in 1630 ten years after pilgrims had landed in Plymouth, it was the biggest town in the British American colonies. I made a stove called the Franklin Stove in 1741 and then quit that business, I also made the Poor Richards Almanac. In 1748 I made an electricity experiment with a kite and a key, when a storm came by I let the kite fly out, later I touched the key and I felt quite the shock. In 1775 I was a member of the continental Congress and had advocates seperation from England. After all that I officially signed the constitution of the United States of America.

(this was a school assignment that Bradley did while I was in Maryland back in March of this year. I think the thing that impressed me the most was not only that he had to read about Ben and memorize his paper, but he and his Dad came up with his "costume" and then he had to perform his memorization as if he was part of a wax museum for the school.)

Chapter 71: The Cure All

Well what can I say???? Today was one of "those" days, it started off good but then quickly fell apart. We went from Melt Down to Nuclear Reactor in a matter of seconds. I had two kids who couldn't calm down enough for me to even reason with them, and then another kid who thought he was "helping" by yelling and bossing everybody else around. Needless to say ---- I had lost all contol in this household. I felt like a Mime on the street: I appear to be talking, I am showing you what you need to know and yet no one can hear, no one can understand my hand signals and even though I am desperately trying to get your attention, they all just seem to ignore me and pass by. This is the time where I wish I could just google "help" and a magic cure would appear, I would then give out the appropriate doses and calm would return to my home. But NOOOOOO I guess google doesn't think sanity is that necessary.

So what does work, what is the magic cure.................?????

A NAP!!!!!

aaaahhhhhhhhhh the sweet sound of sleeping!!!!! I have to say for a few *cough, Bradley, Kennadee, cough* they did not think they needed to take a "baby" nap, but after one look of my "evil eye" and they were putty in my hands. Another more stubborn child took to coming out every 10-20 min. claiming to have had a nap, but the "meanest mom" in me would calmly turn him around and put him back in his bed, I should say that he did this until dinner time, but I stuck to my guns and kept reminding him that if he wanted to get out of his bed, all he had to do was take a nap. After the majority of them took their naps and had gotten up, it was "A whole new day", all of a sudden being asked to do chores and get along with their siblings, didn't seem like a big deal. In fact, my kids were acting and behaving so well, and even saying things like "Thank you" and "is there anything I can do to help you?" and "your the best mom", that I really thought that maybe I had fallen asleep and I was now dreaming, but Thank Heavens, I was in the real world to enjoy this moment. I even took all 4 to Wal-mart so they could spend their b-day money and we didn't have 1, oh yeah I said it, not 1 argument, not even so much as a slight whimper or whine, and when I told them "NO" on wasting their money on something dumb or to sugary, they just simply put it back and went to find something else.

Mothers of the world I am here to testify that the Miracle Drug we so crave has been in the palms of our hands this whole time, it is just simply the power of NAPS!!!!!
(I am hoping this is really the case and that this Miracle Drug does not come with any nasty side effects!!!!!)