There's No Place Like Home

We're HERE!!!!!!! We pulled into town at about 6pm on Thursday night. Hello Texas! Woohooo! So, I gotta tell you my story :) hehehe.

We stopped in Phoenix at some friends' house. They used to live in Florence when I was growing up, and moved away after I married and left Florence. Their oldest daughter is one year older than me, and their middle daughter (well, youngest daughter, their youngest child is a boy) is a grade behind me in school. They're GREAT people. Love the Harlines.

Anyway, my mom and Patti are SUPER great friends, and it was SO nice of her to offer to let us stay. We got to Phoenix at about 4 or 5 pm. They live in a REALLY nice gated community. You all remember what my trailer looks like, right? Not the typical vehicle found in a gated community - LMBO! We took the kids to the park, and let them get their wiggles out. It was DEFINITLY much needed.

Here's Jimmy playing in the sand.And all the kids on th play structure. Jacob is there, you just can't see him - believe me - hehehe. It was starting to get dark, but it was still warm. Gotta love Arizona :)

And here's Patti and Chris. Patti is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her! Dueling bloggers - hehehe. She's a big time blogger too - LOL!
So after the park, we went back to their house, and had dinner with them, and their daughter, Beth. She and her hubby Kyle live about 20 minutes away in town. They have 2 little girls, Paige and Gracie. SWEET little things. I'd never actually met them before, but felt like I knew them through Beth's blog. Funny how blogs are like that - hehehehe.

Here's Jimmy, playing with all the toys. He thought he'd died and went to heaven. At one point, he said "Mom, can we just stay here instead of going to Texas". Bless his little heart!

Emeline and Gracie - adorable!!!
We left the next morning at about 8:30, and headed to Walmart. You know, the Arizona Cardinals (football) are going to the Superbowl, and my hubby has been a Cardinals fan since before they moved to Arizona from St. Louis. He wanted me to stop by Wally World and buy him a ball cap. Sorry honey, all the Arizona fans beat you to it. They're all gone :( No Cardinals hat for you.

I think we were on the road again by 9am. It was about a 7 hour drive into El Paso. I was getting pretty tired of driving, and the kids were starting to get a little tired of riding. But then, wo could blame them.

I was SO glad when we finally made it to Texas. And I was THRILLED when El Paso was in sight. The mountains were BEAUTIFUL!!! But the city seemed to go on FOREVER. I just kept driving, and driving, and driving. Captain America had texted me directions (since apparently mapquest doesn't know where I live), and I was trying my best to follow them. I-10 seemed to go on FOREVER. I finally found my exit, and tried to get onto Tranmountain something or another. But, since my trailer was HUGE, and it was dusk, and people wanted to get home, NO ONE was letting me in. I had to get over 2 lanes to be in the right position, and people woudln't let me in.

I ended up getting piped in the WRONG direction. And what direction was that, might you ask? DIRECTLY up those mountains! And when I say up, I mean UP! My poor truck was tired, and woudln't go any faster than 25-30 mph. Up and up and up we went. I coudln't find anywhere to turn around. There were no side roads. Besides, it was a divided road, so it wasn't like I could have turned around and gotten back on the right road anyway.

I was starting to panic. My nerves were shot, and I was DONE with the move. I may have (yep, bad parenting coming out) told the kids that we were hopelessly lost, and gonna get stuck in the mountains, and that the mountain lions were gonna eat us. Oh yeah, and I was almost crying by this point. Sniffling. It got REAL quite in the truck. Poor kids, I think I scared them - hehehe.

Well, after what seemed like an ETERNITY, we found a place to make a u-turn. We headed back down the GIANT mountain. But, guess what happens when you weight 9000 lbs, and need to go down a GIANT mountain? Your breaks overheat. Yep. By the time we got to the bottom, I could smell them, and they weren't working all that well. I had to really PRESS hard to stop at the stop light. I was now on the right road, at least.

I pulled over into the Whataburger/Denny's parking lot (or something like that), parked the truck, turned it off, and called Captain America. COME GET ME, I sobbed into the phone. I was a mess. But in about 15 minutes he was there, leading me back to our new home. I was so overwhelmed and sad and happy and tired. But mostly relieved that the LONG trip was over, and that I was FINALLY done and HOME!!!

On Friday, we took the truck to get it weighed. Trailer and all. That's how the Army calculates how much money to pay you for your move. Based on weight. We were 9000 ish lbs, including the trailer and all our junk. We're pretty heavy - LOL!

I also got the kids registered for school. It seems like a really nice school. There's a uniform (jeans - blue or black, School Tshirt/polo shirt). Never been to a school with a uniform. But I think it'll be ok. Not a very fancy uniform, so the boys shouldn't throw too big of a tizzy. They get to start school on Monday. Wish us luck :)

I took a few pics of our house, and wanted to share. Here's my fam at our new house! That's our door!!! Woohoo! I have a door - LMBO!

See how pretty it is - and it's all mine - er, ours. That's right. Ours - hehehehe.
My mom and I weren't really quite sure of the floor plan before I got here, so I took a few more pics to show her what it looked like. The kitchen/dining room/living room area are all connected, but it's quite a large space, so it doesn't feel cramped.


And look how nice my kitchen is. Can you tell I'm gushing here - Hehehehe.
So Captain America and I have decided that Friday night is now our date night. Since we've been married, we really haven't gone on dates. We've done "date night" at home, watching movies, playing cards, playing games, reading books, all sorts of things. But we've never paid for babysitting. It was just never in the budget. You know how many kids I have - LMBO! The babysitting would have been even more than the activity - hehehe.

Well, since Jacob is now almost 12, we've decided that he is ready for babysitting siblings. He's been left in charge for limited amounts of time with the kids, and has always done fantastic. Well, tonight was his first OFFICIAL babysitting evening. It was perfect. The movie theater was 5 minutes from the house, he had my cell phone, and was told to Captain Americas cell phone if he needed anything. Jimmy, Joe, and Eme were already asleep in bed, and he and Tom were playing video games. I was fairly certain that they weren't gonna budge the whole time.

Yep, I was right. When we got home, they were in the same place - LMBO! Jimmy had woken up at one point, and Jacob had gotten him a small drink of water, and put him back to bed. What a GREAT babysitter. Love ya, Jacob! The long 11 1/2 years of waiting was WELL worth it. So this is what it's like to have older kids - LOL!

The movie was Fantastic, by the way. Inkheart, with Brenden Fraiser (yeah, probably not spelled right - hehehe). I'm a fantasy nut, so this was RIGHT up my alley. Absolutely loved it. I'm definitely gonna buy it when it comes out on DVD. My kids are gonna love it too. And, it was SO nice to go to the movies on a date with my hubby. Granted, we were like the oldest ones in the theater (ok, so probably not, but I now know where all the teens go after dark), but it was SO nice to have some grown up time. I could get used to this!

So since I as SO tired last night, but still wanted to give you guys something, I made the first quote that popped into my head. From the Wizard of Oz. And, since I'm at my new home, I thought it was appropriate. So, I hope you enjoy :) Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)

FONTS:
H - Beautiful ES Caps
ome - Perpetua Titling MT