Exercise in Futility or Exercising Futility or Is Exercising Futile?

Is there a theme here? And which is it? My exercise in futility has 4 parts..
1. We are still not much more informed about this move then we were a month ago. The information is slow in coming and it seems that the procedure for us to move is being done backward and so any one that should know really doesn't and can only speculate and say "well usually they....." but since this isn't the usual thing then no one knows. We did have 2 appraisers come this week who should have their info back to the relocation company by tomorrow hopefully and then maybe someone will make a decision. We think that they want to know exactly how big of a hit they will take on the house with the way that the economy is in the toilet right now and once they know that then they will do something. Also we are hoping that they are working backwards because the house has been for sale already so to put it up while we sit here and wait is futile. Someone just decide already! School starts in 4 weeks.

2. Because we don't know very much about when, where, how etc about this move I can't do very much packing. We found out yesterday that usually they send in a company to pack, load and move you in one day. But again that is the usual way and we don't know if we are the usual way or the unusual way. If they do come and pack for us then that is great but that means I can't pack much on my own. Insurance crapola or whatever. Also since we don't know if they are buying the house now or later, we don't know if we are going to buy a house right away or if we will go to an apartment or hotel or freeway underpass. Because of the lack of information I don't know whether we should pack the whole house or 75% of it. We can't fit the whole house in an apartment. By the way, they won't move the boat or the plane or ammuntion or the dog. I guess the boat and plane will have to stay. Maybe the dog will eat the ammunition so we have less to move on our own.

3. Me and the kids went through their rooms yesterday and they tried on all their pants and long sleeves so that I know what to buy them for school. They really don't need much. Cody and Connor need a few pair of pants, but really that is all that they NEED. We filled 2 huge boxes of stuff for DI and it is hard to justify buying a bunch of clothes when you throw out so much. I want to go shopping but don't want to buy a bunch of stuff that we just have to haul to Texas not to mention the fact that it becomes a whole day event to go to Vegas or St. George, gas prices are excruciating and who wants to drag 4 boys through the mall all day? I don't hear any volunteers! I have not been to Costco for a month and then it was up in Provo buying stuff for my mom. I keep holding my self back from going there because we are trying to empty out the freezer and the cabinets so that we have less to haul. It is making me crazy and I feel less secure knowing that I only have 4 cases of water instead of 8 and the only thing that separates me from the loony bin is 1 large package of toilet paper. I have such a compulsion to have lots and lots of stuff on hand"just in case". I even have coupons for Costco that are calling my name. Who doesn't need the value pack of 600 napkins or 15 count of scotchbrite sponges. What if the end comes and we have to build a raft out of those sponges to get out and we don't have them. AAARRRGGGHH-maybe I should start smokin crack or something. Maybe that would take the place the addiction to shopping I have.

4. My experiment to see how long it would take for my knee start hurting again has reached a conclusion. That does not mean that I am doing anything to change that conclusion but it has taken just about 4 weeks for my knee to start bugging my again since I quit exercising. I was doing really good and I even was walking at my mom's in Provo the last week of June but alas, I chose sleep rather than exercise and have continued in that vein ever since. I totally need to start walking again but have yet to motivate myself sufficiently enough to do it. I really have good intentions every day but every day comes and goes and my treadmill continues to collect dust bunnies and my behind continues to collect cellulite. I feel much better when I exercise and my knee is much less troublesome but that is still not enough motivation to get off my behind.

Does Anyone Have The Time?

Oh wait, yes I do. It is 5:22am!! What am I doing awake? Well we have been awake now for the last hour and a half because Cayden has the croup. He started breathing hard around 3:30 and got worse. We got out the nebulizer at 4:00 and after using on him for 45 minutes moved him to the shower for the steam treatment. The nebulizer is on the fritz. It sounds like a jet engine in my bedroom and is pushing very little air through it hence Cayden is not getting the medicine very fast. Well, it has lasted for 12 years and through 4 kids. We got it the summer I was pregnant with Connor and we were going to the Bahamas and Florida. Cody had really bad asthma but not croup if I remember right. We had to drag that thing on the airplane with us and it was a pain but we had to keep Cody breathing. Connor had the croup horribly when he was little and Caleb had it a few times but Cayden has had it the worst. He was seriously having flare ups once a month between 18 months and 3 years old but that has gotten much better. It is now only a few times a year but we don't have any idea what brings it on. I think it was last summer up in Provo around this time that mom and I took Cayden to the ER at 3:00am because of croup. Maybe it was 2 years ago-I would have to look at the pics that we took of him there to be sure. The last time he had it a few months ago and I took him to the doctor she wanted us to see a specialist because he is too old to be having croup. Connor still gets the barky cough sometimes when he gets sick and he is 11 so I am not overly concerned. Anyway the machine is literally on its last breath-haha and so the usual 15 minute med dose is taking much much longer. Cayden is wide awake and watching Pooh Bear on the loudest volume and I turned the fan off in there to help him breathe better so it is not a very relaxing atmosphere in my room right now. Don left for a 6:04 tee time-yeah he's nuts, but hopefully he can bring home a new nebulizer. I am so grateful that we have had the little machine because it has sure come in handy at 3:00 in the morning and saved us a few trips to the ER. Don took the boys to McGill Saturday afternoon to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa and to go fishing. They came home yesterday evening. Don said that Cayden did wake up a little hoarse yesterday morning. Here are few pics of their fun.

Connor's fort that he has been building for months and his fish that he caught.

Caleb is not thrilled because his fish got away. The boys at the McGill House.

Big smelter ovens in Ely


Caleb and Cayden climbing on the ovens. They look like huge beehives.

Connor and Caleb etaing the fish that Connor caught. He saved it and brought it home to show me and then Don grilled it for them.

Should Have Gone To Mamma Mia

Yesterday we took the kids and Laura and Taylor to Vegas to see Batman. We bought the tickets on Fandango and went in early to go to PF Changs and then go wait in line for seats.
Movie tickets for 7 people-$57.50
Dinner at Chang's-$43 (We had a gift card luckily and the service was crap!! We did not get our Crab Won tons and they were on the check, no one ever brought our brown rice, no one came to see if we had everything or if we happy and only 1 drink refill!)
Snacks at the movie-$40
Not to mention gas which I won't even tell you how much that was.

Grand total=Way too much money for a creepy, scary, loud, horribly dark movie that I did not even stay to see the end.

Luckily Cayden had been drinking like a fish and had to go to the bathroom a lot and so I graciously accepted the duty of potty patrol. About 40 minutes before it was over Cayden and I went out and decided to not go back in. We saw people coming out of Mamma Mia singing and dancing and all happy. Not so much with Batman. Caleb would have left but he was sitting by Laura and Taylor and did not want to be embarrassed for being scared. Needless to say both he and Cayden had a slumber party in our room. Funny sidenote-Caleb came into my office yesterday 3 times with different shirts on for me to approve his wardrobe. The first was a regular shirt under a button up shirt-he loves the layered look. After I confirmed the coolness of that outfit, he left. A few minutes later he came back in with a BYU jersey under the button up shirt. I told him that was not up to current fashion standards and the jersey should be worn alone or over something. He was not amused with my critique and stormed out of the office and seriously get this-he yells as he is stomping down the hall, "I am just trying to find something to wear. I have nothing to wear!" Hmm this is my 10 year old boy-again we would like to reiterate the fact that he is our Drama King and if we were in any way thinking that we were missing out on the drama of having a girl we think that he might suffice!
So back to Batman-There were really good special effects and of course lots of loud noises to go with them. I thought it was wwwwaaaayyyy ttttttttttooooooooo llllllooooonnnnnnngggg. 2 and 1/2 hours. I think that the creepiest thing was that Heath Ledger is dead but still blazing on the big screen. The Joker character is very dark and evil. I mean EEEEEVVVVVIIILLLL (those of you reminded of Axe Murderer may use Mike Myers voice impression here.) Most villains have a purpose-kill the enemy, or revenge for whatever injustice they have received but this guy was just insane and I don't mean in the funny way either. He was just scary! I really had that icky feeling most of the way through it and I am glad that Cayden and I left. Don thought it was good, Cody thought it was awesome, and the girls were entertained. At least they enjoyed themselves. So as titled above-I should have gone to Mamma Mia-Cayden actually asked if we could go to Mamma Mia. I should have acquiesced to his request. So now that you have all been warned and read my diatribe I will move on to happier topics.

My husband is so good to me. He took the boys to McGill to go fishing and gave me a night to myself. Connor went up there on Thursday with Grandma and Grandpa. Cody was not thrilled to go but he wisely chose to go as opposed to cleaning the whole house, cleaning out the garage and doing the yard. I would have gone to McGill too. I am currently having an ABBA fest and cooking-well now I am blogging, but I was cooking. Now you may ask why I am cooking while no one is here, well I am cooking for me silly and because I am sick of eating out! I made a super great sausage and zucchini quiche, pretzel salad, jello cake and peanut butter rice krispies. The jello cake and the pretzel salad aren't done yet so I have only eaten the quiche-no not the whole thing- and some rice krispies. The question is will I eat all of that or will some of it make it to tomorrow when everyone comes home? Well, we will just have to see.

Down in Dallas

Dallas Day 4/5-Home at last!

Monday was a really lazy day but I did get to go and see a few houses. Our realtor that we are using down there is out of town but she hooked us up with someone else from her office. It was so great to have that free breakfast at the hotel every day. Connor was the first one up every morning and he went down and brought back breakfast for the other lazy boys. Monday the kids played in the pool at the hotel for most of the day. Jessica brought her kids over about 12:30 and we got Cane's again for lunch. Around 2:30 Cody, Jessica and I left Don with the kids and went to look at houses. The kids stayed in the pool for a while and then went back to the room and consumed all of the snacks in the room (cookies, microwave popcorn, chips and queso from La Hacienda) while watching Bee Movie. Connor and Caleb had a great time playing with Jackson. Garrett finally warmed up to us toward the end of our visit. I'm glad the kids had others to play with. The house hunting went good and we were pleased with what we saw-I was so glad because when Don and I went before the first day was so discouraging. We saw 4 houses and 3 were great and the last one was a mess. The first house was huge-bigger than what we have now with a pool, 3 car garage, office, media room and game room. The only bummer was that the yard was pretty small because the pool took up the majority of it. It was a little more than we want to spend but it was a good deal for the square footage. I liked the location-seriously right behind the movie theater and a great shopping center. The 2nd house was right across the street from the first. Only a 2 car garage but 4 bedrooms, office off of the garage away from the main part of the house, game room and lots of closet storage-they were definitely Mormons because there was food storage everywhere, not to mention the Families are Forever sign above the door and the Greg Olsen prints all over the house. This one had the garden all along the back perimeter of the yard but no pool. The price was great and it would work well for us. The 3rd house was a ;little high priced because the man the lived there had added a bunch of stuff that he thinks is great but nothing that I would pay that much for. This one had the pool that was awesome! It would work really good for us if we can get him to come down in price. We are not ready to make an offer yet though because we are still waiting on GP to tell us how this works. I have not yet learned patience in my life and this must be a refresher course. Everyone was pretty tired after swimming and house hunting. We were going to go to dinner with the Cook's but the hotel had their manager's reception which was a small buffet that the kids and Don went down and ate at. Cody and I went to Red Robin around 9.
Tuesday we got up and got ready to leave. We seriously unpacked all the bags and repacked them so that everything would fit. We really did not purchase a bunch of stuff but had dirty clothes and snacks that we had bought. Don and Connor went across the street and brought back donuts for breakfast because we missed the morning breakfast at the hotel. Jessica came by with the kids to pick up Jackson's MP3 player so we said Bon Voyage to them as they were leaving for Utah that day. We loaded up the car and headed out to lunch. It was terribly muggy and not-storms were coming in. That was the worst day weather wise that we have experienced. We ended up eating at Jason's Deli and then asked Carmen Garmin to guide us to the airport. Getting in and through security was so much easier in Dallas than in Vegas. The flight was on time thank goodness! Cody sat by Cayden this time and took the brunt of his demands so I was able to sleep a little bit. We flew to San Antonio and then to Vegas. That is the bummer about Southwest is that there are few non stop flights. They weren't layovers but added a little over an hour to the flight time. The flight was pretty smooth up and down this time and I did not feel so much like I was going to puke. The kids did good and liked all the free drinks and peanuts that they got. Now that we have experienced the joy of flying with the kids I think that they would like to do it again but Don and I don't. It was so exhausting. We grabbed Sonic on the way home-all of us quite sick of eating out- and headed home. I love coming home to my house, my bed, my pillows and even my cleaning and unpacking. The kids were glad to be home and got right back in to their regular routines. Connor OCDing everything, Caleb plunking down in front of the TV and Cayden hardly moving from his room. Cayden is a home body and likes to play in his room. I was beat and after unpacking and straightening up a bit crashed.
Wednesday-today has been lazy for me. The kids are back wanting to play with friends and watch TV. They all went to Grandma and Grandpa's for lunch. I was grateful to eat a peanut butter sandwich and I am actually not dreading making dinner because it won't be restaurant food. The house is still clean from before we left so other than a few minor things we are good. My plan is to load a few boxes a day so that this moving thing will hopefully go smoothly and just in case they call us and say that the moving truck is coming in a week.

Dallas Day 3

We slept in Sunday morning. I actually woke up at around 7 but wisely chose to cover my head with the pillow and go back to sleep until 9. Connor and Dad made the food run this morning and came back with waffles and sausages and another kind of egg. The waffles are in the shape of Texas and they are big. Who would have thought! So I stayed in bed and went back to sleep til 11. Then we all got ready for church. We found the address and time on LDS.org and headed over there. We had a little mix up though. The internet says the start time is 1:30 so we got there at 1:20 but they had just switched at the beginning of July to the 1:00 time so we missed the Sacrament and sat in the hall trying to be inconspicuous. It did not work to well and we are glad it didn't. The RS president just happened to come out after the Sacrament with her baby and came over to me and asked if we were new or visiting. We told her a little bit of both sort of. She was very friendly and helpful and even gave me a map of the ward boundaries. While I was talking to her another man came over and started talking to Don. Wouldn't you know it but he knew right where Logandale was because he used to live in Henderson. After talking to these 2 people we ended up going into Sacrament for the last 20 minutes and had to pull chairs from the wall to sit in at the back of the cultural hall. How about that for inconspicuous. We felt really good about the ward and were happy to hear they had a large Primary and Youth Program. The Rs Pres actually has a daughter that is one month older than Cody and she said that she would introduce them if we decided to stay for classes. We said that we were only staying for Sacrament but thanked her for her help. She has not been here very long and actually came from Fresno so she sort of knows what we are dealing with moving from so far away. She said that she would be happy to help us with whatever and even offered for the kids to come and swim at her house while we went looking at houses. I was very glad to have talked to her and think that Heavenly Father knows what He is doing. If we had been on time to church we would have snuck in the back and snuck out after it was over and may not have talked to who we did. So it was good. We came back to the room, changed and went to lunch at the yummy Mexican place we were looking for on SAturday but this time we got directions from Jessica. It was a good thing that we did because there is no way that we would have found it alone. After lunch we came back and relaxed, did some laundry and let the kids swim so that they would not go nuts in the room. At 6:30 we headed to Jessica's for dinner. Russ was BBQing Turkey Kabobs and we had mashed potatoes and fruit and veggies with dip. After dinner we talked for a while and the kids ran around the house and outside-after the sun went down it cooled off a bit and was pretty nice outside- a fact that Russell said was quite unusual. We left around 9 and drove out to look at a house that is close to a shopping center and we wanted to see what the lights from the parking lot were like coming into the yard. Connor gets so irritated when we go driving around and looking at houses. It stems from the fact that when we go to Utah we will go say to the movies but then when we will take a very long and circuitous route home because we drive around and look for houses for sale. Another day in Dallas came to a close although I could not go to sleep until 2:30 for some odd reason. Part of it I think is the fact that the pillows here are down and they go very flat very fast. I like a little solidity to my head support. The weather here has still been quite hot-hotter than normal apparently. When we got off the plane on Friday it was quite sticky and hot by the airport but worse than out and away where we were staying because of the all the cars and busses and all that exhaust. I don't think that Cody was all that impressed at first especially when we were landing and he took note of the fact that there were absolutely no mountains. A fact that will be of great sadness for us and also a big problem for our direction finding-I can hardly tell which way is up here and have no mountains to orient myself by. I think that we really have to get a pool though. It is almost stupid not to when the houses are so close in price whether it has a pool or not. We learned yesterday that if you want a pool than you better buy a house with it already there because no matter how much you spend putting in a pool you only get $15K back out of it. Good to know becasue some pools that we have seen are $50K pools or better. The kids have all had so much fun in the pool here that it would be a major bummer if we could not find a house that we loved that had a pool already there.

Dallas Day 2

Dallas Day 2

Saturday was a busy day. Connor was the first kid to wake up and so he and I went downstairs to the free breakfast area and filled a plate with omelets, sausages, bagels, cereal boxes and condiments we returned to our rooms with me feeling like beggar or a thief. There was no sign that said you couldn't take food back to your room but I still felt like I was raiding the buffet and emptying it into my purse. When we got back to the room Caleb decided that he wanted to peruse the offerings so we went down agin. I pulled my hair up and wore my sunglasses in an attempt to not look like the same mom that had just come down and pilfered the buffet. Plus I was with a totally different kid so maybe no one recognized me. Anyway when we got back to the room Don left to go and get a haircut. There was Supercuts and a Great Clips just across the street. I think that he was gone for maybe 20 minutes. I was amazed when he walked back in so quickly. Ah the joys of civilization! After the kids all ate and we all got dressed, we headed out for the day. We decided to go the Dallas Science and Natural History Museum. We thought about the zoo but were worried that it would be too miserably hot. Mind you that we apparently brought the heat with us because it is now raining and stormy in Logandale and Dallas is practically in a heat wave. Classic! After a quick stop at 7-11 (by the way did anyone remember that yesterday, 7/11 was free Slurpee day? We did not either and there is a 7-11 right next door. Bummer!) We entered our destination address into our GPS friend affectionately named Pam (map backwards) by Cody. I like the name Carmen though-Carmen Garmin I think is pretty great. So half of the family is referring to the GPS as Pam while the others are calling it Carmen. We drove to the Dallas Fair Park where the museum was. Don was excited to see that is where the Cotton Bowl is played. It was a little nerve wracking getting there because there are about 400 freeways merging and intersecting and fly above you. Because we went to the Discovery Gateway in Salt Lake the week before the 4th and I bought a 6 month pass we were able to get into the museum for free because they are a partner museum with Discovery Gateway. This museum was a lot bigger than the one in Salt Lake. It also had more things for my bigger kids to enjoy. Don and Cody had the best time making huge bubbles. Actually everyone loved that and there was also a dinosaur excavating thing the kids could play in. It really was 2 museums in 1 because after spending 2 hours in the science part we went to another building that had the nature part. They had stuffed animals from the area on display. It was alot like the Bean Museum at BYU. When we were walking to the other building we saw a neat pond that had Swan paddleboats. After we went into the rest of the museum Don, Connor and Cayden got into 1 paddleboat and Codyand Caleb got into another. I declined and sat on a ledge in the shade while they paddles around the pond. The kids were excited to see lots of turtles, fish, tadpoles and squirrels. We saw that there was an aquarium there so we went to that too. It was quite small but had some cool things and was cheap. The kids were even allowed to touch some of the animals that were in tanks on the ground. I have a cute pic of Connor wanting to but not wanting to touch a crab thing that looks like a sting ray while the man from the aquarium holds it out to him. We then treated ourselves to yummy snowy and headed back toward the hotel to get some lunch. It had been a nice cheap way to kill a few hours. We wanted to eat at a yummy Mexican place that Jessica and Russell showed us last time but could not quite figure out how to get there so after some frustration, confusion and all around grumpiness we ended back at the hotel and went next door for some Cane's Chicken Fingers. After a few hours of resting and swimming at the hotel pool Cody and I wanted to do a little exploring. We went first to Barnes and Noble because you know we have never been there before. We perused the shelves for a while and then I left him and went across the street to Old Navy to find some flip flops for Connor who had just broken his. No luck at Old Navy so we started looking for a Jamba juice. The only one we knew of was about 10 miles away and half way there I decided that it was just too far so we opted for Sonic instead. We took some food back to the hotel and then Cody and I made another run into Target right before they closed. We tried to go back to Quizno's for Cody but sadly they had already closed but along the way back we found a lovely French Bakery/Cafe. They were still open so we had to enjoy their wares. Éclairs, Strawberry Napoleons and Chocolate Croissants all handed to us by an authentic French gal with accent. Much better than the creepy Jacque at Eliane's in Provo. That might be Cody and I's new favorite thing, French Bakerys. We came back to the hotel shared our goodies and tried to get everyone to bed. It was a fun day.

Dallas Day 1

It is 6:00am in Logandale, 8:00am in Dallas. For whatever reason I have been awake since 5:30 and unable to sleep. The rest of the family is still crashed out so I decided to be productive. (I think that I should be reading my scriptures but will get to that) Our day yesterday started out remarkably well. The kids all got up pretty good-well ok we were dressing Cayden 3 minutes before we walked out the door because this little stink has been going to bed extremely late-not for the lack of trying on our part because we do put him to bed but he keeps getting up to say "I have one more question" which usually is a declarative statement or a tattle on his brothers. I think that this wide awake at midnight thing with him started last week when Granddaddy Larry gave him Dr. Thunder to drink for dinner. That one night had mom and dad losing our minds, Caleb crying because Cayden would not stop touching his hair and face while he was trying to sleep and Cayden wandering up and down Grandma Penny's hall until 1:30am. That night has started a chain reaction of staying up late and sleeping in late that has yet to be fixed. So as we had stayed up late the night before cleaning and packing-see previous post about washer mishap-we were able to get out of the house on time. Connor spent the night at Grandma Dottie's because on Sunday night he had to share grandma with the other boys and he always gets his tail feathers rustled when he can't have grandma and grandpa to himself so he gets another night alone with them. Connor called us at 8:00 and asked if we were awake and as I was answering that question out came 2 others about this trip. I told him that yes we were up and would be over to get him in just a few minutes and at that time we would answer all of his questions. We loaded up and after a prayer we were off. The first thing that I said to the boys was that it was my turn to talk as I explained everything that was going to happen when we got to the airport and that when I was done talking they could ask questions. I think that lasted until about the second sentence I said. The whole ride in became the Spanish Inquisition from Connor and Cayden. Caleb who has been the most worried about flying was extremely quiet. Cody is the only one of the boys that has ever been on a plane before so it was quite the exciting event. Don and I had to keep squeezing each other's hand because the questions just kept coming and coming and coming. Here are 2 of the best1. Cayden said "Do they have "pawuking bags" (his word for puking) Where that question came from I am not sure.2. Cayden said something about the co-pilot using fire to make the plane fly in an answer to one of Connor's questions. I think that he has seen to many cartoons that show fire in the engines when the planes take off.3. Connor asked Don if it was scary flying in the dark-here is Don's classic answer. "It's just like flying in the day only darker." Good answer! I laughed about that one for 5 minutes. There is nothing like driving for an hour and answering a billion questions. I will be glad when the airport is closer. I can't imagine my insanity if there had been traffic!So after arriving at the airport, valeting the car, unloading and dragging the kids, their backpacks, my 2 carry on bags, Don's computer bag, 6 8 1/2 x 11 boarding passes, 5 pieces of luggage to check, while at the same time locating and not losing my drivers liscense, keeping Connor from bouncing off the walls because he was so excited, all to the tune of a hundred more questions and Cayden mad because he had to walk, practically stripping to get through security, getting the kids to hold onto their own boarding passes, Connor worried about getting into trouble for his diabetes supplies in his backpack, while maintaining my cheery disposition we arrived a little frazzled to our gate. We had to ride the tram thing out to the C gates-another new experience for the boys. Don used to be so anal about getting to the airport 2 hours early but he has calmed down in recent months so we should have only had to wait 20-30 minutes until they started to let us board the plane. We did not eat breakfast at home because we told the kids that we would get them something at the airport-I do not recommend this as 2 pieces of pizza, and 2 bottles of water from Sbarro and 1 lemon poppyseed muffin and 1 blended lemonade from Starbucks was $27.53. Don and Connor got a breakfast burrito and I don't even want to know what that cost. When we got to our gate we found a spot by the window so the kids could watch the planes coming and going-another ill advised plan as every plane that came into Cayden's line of sight was "our plane" until it turned the other direction and Cayden would get mad and go "AAARRRGGGHHH". There was a nice lady sitting next to us when we first got to the window but mysteriously she was not there when I returned from getting food. Hmmm wonder why she left. Connor and Caleb made a friend while we were waiting. His name was Caleb and he was from Lubbock. He kept saying "ya'll" to them-a prelude of things to come? We did not board the plane until 11:00 which was the time that we were supposed to leave. We did not leave until almost 11:45. Cayden must have inherited his patience gene from his mother. He was not quiet or still until we were in the air. As soon as possible we plugged him into the DVD player. He kept wanting me to open the panel where the oxygen masks pop out of because he thought that there should have been a TV in there that folded down like the one in the car. He would not let that go and kept saying "please just open it" so he could make sure that I was not lying to him. I was really sleepy at that point because I had taken a 1/2 a Dramamine because taking off and landing make me want to puke. I think that once we were airborn I dozed for 10 minutes until they started the drink service. Traveling with kids is EXHAUSTING!!!! We flew Southwest and we had a short stop in Lubbock. Hooray for taking off and landing twice. By the time that we got to Dallas which really was only 3 and 1/2 hours later although it felt like 10 the kids were frantic to get out of that plane. I was too and I always think that if I don't get out of that plane soon while everyone is standing in the aislea and getting their luggage out from the overhead that I am going to freak out with clausterphobia. I maintained my composure while trying to keep Cayden from shoving everyone forward. He kept saying "why don't they just go" quite loudly. The people on the rows around us wisely stayed in their seats while we got out first. I don't remember a day when I have ever said "excuse us" or "I'm sorry" so many times. I think that it has been a wise decision for us to not have taken the kids on any long airplane trips before. All in all I think that the boys had a good first flight. After exiting the plane and getting our luggage from baggae claim-again while Cayden fussed that his feet hurt and he was tired from walking-mind you we had been sitting for the last 4 hours-we got on the bus that took us to the rental car place. We are driving a spiffy Dodge Caravan. We rented Cayden a carseat and were reunited with Garmin, our GPS. Right out of the gate we made a wrong turn-against the directions of Garmin, and you can totally tell that men designed this gadget because when you make a wrong turn she says in a clearly exasperated voice "recalculating". Don and I laughed because it was reminiscent of our trip last month when we disobeyed Garmin's directions and thought that we knew better. She recalculated numerous times on that trip until we decided that she probably knew where she was going and it just best that we not try to think that we knew where we were going in a totally unfamiliar city. Don made a great comparison between Garmin and the Liahona and spirit. How each guides us and directs us but we have to listen and believe that we are not smarter than a digital, talking, satellite directed unit or more importantly not smarter than Heavenly Father. We decided to listen to Garmin and not argue. She did take us on an entirely different road than we had been on before but she was helpfully directing around traffic on the freeway. This other road happened to be the Mexican hood and was quite unsavory with the numerous bars and "Gentlemen's Clubs" yeah right! Think of Industrial and or Western in Vegas. It could have been the stolen goods or knock off purse and perfume capital of the city too. We stayed in Lewisville which is closer to where we are looking to move because we were a little more familiar with the area this time. We checked into the lovely Homewood Suites by Hilton and were pleasantly surprised to find a large 2 bedroom/2 bathroom with kitchenette and family room suite. It was after 6:00 (here) by this time and we had only eaten snacks on the plane so we were all pretty hungry. Don and I made the decision without consulting the kids that we were eating at Bennigan's. Mm mm mm-Monte Cristo's. After dinner we drove around Flower Mound to show the kids the area and the high school. Then we expertly located a house that we are interested in so that we would know the location. After that, we went and visited Jessica and her kids. Russell was out "Rockbanding" with his buddies. The kids played Rockband and bowling on the Cook's Wii. Cayden had a good time playing with Garrett and his cars. He was just glad to be able to move around. Connor and Caleb had a good time with Jackson. I know Bailey was a little disappointed that we did not bring any girls. We stayed there until a little after 9 and then made a quick trip to Target for some PB and J, Fruit Loops (my current midnight munchy) and bottled water. Don took the boys to A and W for root beer floats while Cody and I speedy shopped. We returned to our lovely accomodations to wash the airport funk off the kids and ourselves. We are on the 2nd floor and so we have to keep Cayden from running and stomping on the floor. After showers we actually had the kids asleep by 11:30-while that seems late it really isn't because that was only 9:30 in Nevada. That is the earliest they have been to bed in weeks. It is now 9:15am here and the free breakfast is over in 45 minutes so I must blog off to awaken my darling children for today's adventures

Murphy's Law

Wouldn't you know it-the day before we are leaving for Dallas the washer decides to take a dive on us. Yes, right in the middle of the cycle it starts making this horrible grinding noise and beeps with an error code. Don emptied the wet clothes into a laundry basket and proceeded to empty the standing water with a cup into the sink. The error code said it was a drain problem so he unhooked the water lines and the power and pulled off the drain hose. As he was doing that, low and behold, I found my IPOD Home clicker in the drain area and thought that that might be the problem. My children have a bad habit of leaving stuff in their pockets and I have a bad habit of not emptying them (ie.. the nails in the washer that were in Connor's pockets that lodged into the drain holes and made the drum not be able to turn) Don put the hoses back on and we tried everything again but alas, to no avail. The error code was not coming up again but it was still not working right. So we emptied the wet laundry again into a basket and Don proceeded to tear the back off of the washer and looked at all the hoses and stuff. He made an executive decision and decided that the drain pump was not working right so he called Whirlpool. Wouldn't you know i,t but the part that we needed is on back order but because we would have to wait until the 21 for anyone to get out here with it they would like to offer us 15% off of a new washer. DUH!! Don asked if there was somewhere else in Vegas that would have the part and they directed him to a appliance parts store. He called there and they had 19. 19 mind you when Whirlpool the manufacturer had none. Luckily Dena and Chris were in Vegas and as luck would have it, Dena had to go over to the road where the appliance store was located and she graciously said that she would pick it up. The place neglected to mention that they only take cash and so when she went in to get and got out her American Express they then told her they needed cash. She dug around in her purse and found $148.03. That is amazing-if I had to scrounge up some money from my purse it would have been close to $1.48. Thankfully, Don's parents let us use their washer all day long and so after spending 3 hours this morning on that mess and going back and forth to haul clothes it is now 10:15 and I am just finishing this post. It's a good thing that I could not sleep last night and I got up at 5:30-ok I tried to go back to sleep but it didn't happen so I actually got completely out of bed at 6:00. Dena got home around 6:30pm and we went and got the part and Don Don the Whirlpool man had the washer fixed in not time flat. Almost as fast as the toilet removal and replacement. Thank you so much Dena and Chris for saving us a trip to Vegas and Grandma and Grandpa for the use of your water, machine and detergent all day. We really appreciate it! Well, we are about all packed to leave for Dallas. We have had a busy last 3 weeks as we were gone to Provo for 2 weeks and now we are leaving again. I will try and recap the Provo trip maybe while we are gone this time but definitely when we get back. Maybe I can just title the post JULY and then you all can read my monthly novel about the Adams Adventures!