Hello all! No I didn't fall all the way off the face of the earth we just slid south. Or rather we made the longest move of my entire life! SO for those of you who don't know we made the leap in July and moved from Idaho to the beautiful state of Texas. It is like a country all it's own....or a planet....that's it....we moved to a different planet! It is HOT here....but not uncomfortable... Not like "I feel like I am melting hot"....But I must admit there are those days when I am working to unload boxes and I am in the garage and it feels about 140 degrees. I swear I lose about 5 pounds....LOL WOuldn't that be cool if it were true?! So we have been here about 2 months now, the kids have started school, and we are all but settled. 
The Drive was unbelievably long! 1600 Miles long.....We drove through Idaho, of course, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally Texas. We had a bad fuel pump in Laramie....While Laramie had a horrible storm and no power. I ended up covered in mud thanks to my dog. We spent the night in Fort Collins, CO at a KOA.....But where else do you camp out if you have......2 adults, 6 kids....we thought we would bring two extra just for the heck of it!......4 dogs....only because we are insane. A cat....because sadly enough I gave the other 2 away.....and a lizard.....did I get all of us....it was a traveling road show. Kind of like a circus or a freak show. Then the second night....because we drove from 7 in the morning until late and never got any closer....we stayed in Kansas.....Salina. It was humid there! I think that is why I appreciate the humidity here....that was the worst! My feet in my flip flops felt as though I had walked through a puddle....gross. We stayed the night in the only place with a cheap room that was vacant.....again our traveling road show needed somewhere.....and let me tell you....I wondered if I should sleep! YUCK!! (Nat's Bday amidst the move)
Our moving truck didn't show up for 2 weeks....we camped in our house with a mini fridge.....It was a wonderful start to our new adventure! SO we thought we had to make the best of it.
The kids convinced us to go swimming at Marie's house in Fort Worth which was wonderful until we all got sick...not all together....one at a time and we didn't want Marie's two angels getting sick so we quarrentined ourselves. 
We took the kids to Dublin, TX which is the oldest doc pepper plant in operation. Or the first....
anyhow they still use real sugar in there recipe.....Yes it does make the difference believe it or not
....I think that was the flavor from when i first 
fell in love with that pop when I was a little girl! Oh.....side note....Pop is not Pop here....it's soda. I know technicality Soda Pop. Anyhow, Sami was told saying pencil the way it should be rather than pincil sounded snobby! :-) On with the story! So then the kids convinced us to look at random OLD cemeteries
out in the middle of no where....and they are old.....like civil war old! Pretty cool! Last but not least the kids got a wonderful going away present from their great grandpa.....and with it they made us take them to Hurrican Harbor. So how could we argue? He gave it to them and told them to use it how they wanted! Little did we know that the kids had this worked out before we even left Idaho! We took the kids to a Rangers game....it is seriously cheaper to go to the rangers games than the chukars back in Idaho! It cost all 8 of us 18 dollors grand total to get in.....and not crappy seats either! 
(Oh when we went with our own kids we watch them play the red sox.....so cool!!! They messed up our tickets so they gave us the homerun section for free.....the guy in front of us caught a homerun ball in the second inning.....KinslerRangers second baseman hit it......anyway he had sat it in the cup holder and these kids took it and Nat I.D. them and the guy got it back and gave it to nat for being so cool! It was a blast! I adore baseball!!!)
So funny story...we have a few....we took the girls to the airport. Which like everything else in this huge state was monsterous! It was like it's own town...it was serious travel time by vehicle from terminal to terminal! We started off in terminal E at 8 in the morning.....apparently the airline had issues. I was unimpressed from the beginining...from the rude employees to the unorganized manor they handled things! Anyway....the girls were supposed to be off by 10:30....by 11 they loaded the plane. The whole time while watching through the window...and told I can't leave til the plane takes off "unaccompanied minors" I see them working on the engine.....for 3 hours! Then they unload the plane and begin rebooking flights on other airlines! Seriously angry people filled the terminal. They worried about the kids first...which didn't make me anyones friend. They actually booked them on a flight that we couldn't even make it to the other terminal in time to get on.....terminal C. (Of course no one told us where we needed to go.....no one knew. So helpful!) But before we could go there they said....you need to pick up the girls unaccompanied fees from the desk....don't stand in line you don't have time we will tell her you are coming......should have been my first clue that I would be attacked by the angry mob. I hear REALLY load....Lady the line is back here. I try to be nice and said "I know they told me to come here"....to hear "We were all told to come here princess" I had one lady with a 3 year old that the woman stopped helping to help me....be NICE! Thank you random lady!!! The whole time this other woman and other jerkes were saying rude things! If only they knew that by the time we made it to American Airlines the guy at the desk would laugh and say they already boarded and the other people knew better than to book flights like this! So then he was wonderful and booked the girls on a flight that night.....he said be there at 6! So we fed the kids because no one had eaten since 5am.....and since Texas is so big we couldn't actually go to far so we hung close.....well 30 minutes away close to the airport. We went back early......5:00 thank goodness.....because they kept changing gates on us....serious....we would get to one and it would be boarding Mexico or Paris.....and then we would go to the one that they then said over the load speaker to find that in the mean time it was changed.....finally we get to the right place to have them baording at 5:30 not 6 and you have to be there 30 min early or you miss the flight! Crazy!!! But we made it back to our house at 8:30pm.....What a nightmare....though the girls made it home to their worried parents Safe and sound!
Then our first relaxing week end ended with a tornado and our trampoline blowing away....about half a mile into a pile of twisted up metal! The kids were devastated.....it was so crazy! We about got sstruck by lightening.....running through the foot of water in my back yard....lightening struck right in front of me...literally.....which made our power go out for 9 hours.......then we were put on a back up transformer and 1/4 of our power for 2 days....anyhow....what would I have done if we found the trampoline??? Who the heck knows! I am an idiote from Idaho I was just pissed about the trampoline! LOL
So it has been one adventure after another.....and I still love it here! Even though the spiders look like rodents.....the grass isn't real grass.....and the only place around here with no trees is my yard. Next time I will tell you about our adventure with schools! I thought our schools in Idaho followed safety precautions!
So it has been one adventure after another.....and I still love it here! Even though the spiders look like rodents.....the grass isn't real grass.....and the only place around here with no trees is my yard. Next time I will tell you about our adventure with schools! I thought our schools in Idaho followed safety precautions! BTW.....we just joined the tech age again yesterday. The kids are so happy......there were so many things with our school and other things that we had no other choice....even though we wanted to torment the kids longer!!! Love you all and am so glad to be back!!!
