Fourth of July trip

The road to where we stayed Auroras Fourth of july moment

Johnnys fourth of july moment

The kids together on the morning of the frouth, amazed that johnny took a paci..believe me...thats amazing! lol

Auroras moment on the way up..she loved the wind in her hair!

So we were back from texas for about two days, three nights. Luckily we were home for johns days off, so we got to spend some time with him before we headed off again. I wasnt really looking forward to another road trip. Thursday morning I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose. Called my mom and told her about it, she thought i was trying to weasle my way out of the trip (And i was) and she told me i was still going..

And yes she holds that power over me. Well we left, hit a little traffic, but ended up in Fresno at about elevenish...Spent the night at my aunts house and left the next morning. Really didnt have a whole lot of time to visit. We drove on up to the San fran area. Stopped at a babies r us along the way and picked up a few things. I was getting sicker and the kids were coming down with it too.. got some vapor rub for them and cold medicine, just in case..i had everything else i would need.. And actually they didnt get that bad.. so i didnt end up using the cold medicine or the vapor rub, so i returned the medicine yesterday at our local babies r us.

We stopped at a farm that sells all kinds of jams, jellies, fruit smoothies, pies..etc.. All stuff made there and with items grown there too. I was getting a little worn with all the traveling though, so i was just ready to reach our destation. We wound our way up into a really pretty wooded area. Reached our destination in the early afternoon, brought everything in. Set up the pack and plays..we were in a tiny room with a twin bed.. but it was the only place i could fit both the kids in the room with me.. and they needed to be in there with me. We chilled. Tried to go to bingo..but i explained to mom it would prolly not end well since it was past the kids bedtimes..Ended up having to go back and put the kids to bed before bingo was over. Then we hung out with papa and his wife. Then to bed.

The next day we went down to all the fourth of july festivities..that was fun, took aurora to the park, bid on silent acutions..etc.. had a blast..the kids were awak for like five hours and doing all kinds of stuff..and then i took them back up by myself and put them down for naps and they were out for like two hours where i got to read. They came back and mom and barbra went down to the river to float down the river..and i got the kids ready to meet papa down at the russian river bank.. well they were screaming, his screams were reverberating in my ears...and i was sick..it was difficult... and aurora fell part way down a flight of stairs..its a four story place, we were on the bottom third story...had to climb up to go in and out.. Not baby proofed, no baby gates.. i felt like i was walking on egg shells the entire time.

Left a day early because we wanted to split the trip up again. I did all the driving back. We went down to Albany..the bay area... to go out to lunch for two family members birthdays. We went to a fancy itallian restraunt, not a place for kids.. They did arlight, but it was taking forever and we ended up having to leave early so i could nurse johnny and they could nap. Drove back to my aunts house. Got to visit and had a blast.. played scrabble, aurora had a blast with my cousin emily..they are about four years apart in age..

Woke up the next day, visited some more and then left for home. Drove back home and thats it.. I have a ton of pics to get off my moms camera..mine died and though i had the charger i kept forgetting to charge it lol

Texas!!

Grandpas moment: He liked the air museum and he was great cause mommy didnt feel so great, so he took care of the kiddos.

Mommys moment: Going crazy from boredom, but excited to be heading to Tx
Johnny's moment: Chillen at the childrens museum..he had a blast there

Auroras moment: At the hotel, being a cute ham!

So as most of you know we took a trip to Texas recently. At times it was a bit rough with the two kids, but worth it. Here is my little cliff notes on the trip.

We dropped some stuff off at johns work and left from there. We drove for awhile until johnny had enough of driving and ended up at a pretty neat military museum. A Patton museum. We had a blast going through that and getting out of the car lol. We saw some neat tanks. Got the kids two new outfits. Then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove... We stopped at some Wendy's real late to get something to eat and to check on johnny who had been crying a bit. Little did we know, he had his head stuck under the britax headrest. We had made a last minute decision to move johnny into a big boy seat that still faces backwards and actually is meant for newborns and up.. Though he would be more comfortable, safer..etc.. my father had suggested it.. Oh and if i haven't said yet. The trip was my dad, the kids, and I...john had to work.

Well that scared the crap out of us..Dad got him out of the car and i walked him around and comforted him and massaged his neck. He was alright. We got driving again and ended up in Benson, AZ. We spent the night there in a nice hotel and got on the road again the next morning. Drove and drove, stopped at a little gift shop in New Mexico. Got the kids cowboy hats and moccasin's. Got back in and did more driving. OH and my dad had a horrible toothache the entire time, we had him see the dentist before we left, but she said she didnt see much and told him to make an appointment to see the orthopedic surgeon/specialist. Oh and we also tried johnny out in the other car seat for a day before we left and had no problems...little did we know..

So anyways, we didnt drive as much the second day. Ended up in a rainstorm in El Paso. Stayed at a really nice hotel there. Had some room service and just chilled. Slept and all that, left the next day and drove and drove and drove..finally ended up at our destination outside of Austin.

Got completely lost looking for our hotel.. Had to call and walk us through the way to get there.. little different than here..quite a few more one way streets.. But by the end of the stay we got the hang of it. Checked in..went to sleep, it was really late. Found out that they didnt have roll away cribs.. which sucked cause we could only fit one of our pack and plays in the car. So i had a hell of a time getting aurora to sleep with me every night.

Well the next day we meet up with my friend Teela and her two cute sons. Went to lunch and then looked at homes. Saw some really nice homes, not the perfect one yet, but thats okay cause john doesnt have a job out there yet. Dad was all about it at that point (now he is second guessing his feelings about moving cause of the heat. We will see what happens)

After that we explored the town a bit. The next day we went to the Inner space caverns with my friend and her sons again. That was fun, though a tad bit humid.. lol..and they told us to make sure the kiddos didnt touch anything..right... 3 two year olds (Almost...) we did our best and Id say they didnt touch hardly anything that i know of. We went back to the hotel after that and bathed aurora..she fell and got mud all over.

The next day we went to find a baptist church my dad wanted to see, then to the Austin children's museum. That was chaos, but fun. Dad pretty much stuck with johnny in the infant areas. And aurora and I were all over the place. She got a wooden choo choo set when we met and she loves trains now. We even bought her some more train stuff when we got back. I met another friend of T's and her cute daughter Addyson. All of us went out to lunch/dinner afterwards. Stayed there forever talking and letting the kids play on the playground. T's son, Jackson, finally warmed up to me!

We left the next morning. Aurora was sad to leave, she actually told me she didnt want to go home. Oh and to solve our little carseat problem, that was really a big problem. We bought a new infant car seat and stuffed the britax in the trunk. That was a feat...oh my.. that mustang has a tiny trunk.. and i used my tetris skills to make it all work lol.

We had a good drive on the way back, we stayed outside of El Paso.. We were forced to stop by a really bad rain/lighting storm. I mean lighting struck really close to us...i cant even count how many times we saw the lighting strike! It was amazing, cool, and scary! The kids pretty much slept through that. Stayed at an okay hotel, wouldnt be my first choice.. but we didnt have any other options. The next day we drove and drove and drove, stopped at a cool air/space museum that i wouldnt mind going back to and ended up home.. at like midnight. But i was determined! I missed my John Brown!

All in all we loved it.. it was hot, but i can deal! We will see if we actually move, we want to, but again its giving up our family, friends, and Disneyland! Cant forget dland..lol..and my dad is worried about the heat and im concerned john wont like the heat, plus he hasnt hear anything about his transfers... So things are still up in the air.

WOW....

We made our hotel reservations. John applied for two more positions in his company..If he gets one the soonest her could transfer is July 3rd. He would have to go out there without us.. Ive got stuff to finish up here..but i doubt it would be that soon. I just hope he gets one of the positions.

Dad and I made our hotel reservations tonight... The kids, dad, and I are going out there at the end of the month. John cant go cause of work... but im so excited. Ill miss him and traveling that far with kids wont be fun..but im soooo excited for our trip! And possible our move.

John wants a dog when we move... Im not so sure..that one we will have to think on a bit. If we do get a dog we will be going through a refferal from the american kennel club and paying for pure bred.. taking no chances with my kiddos.. Im doing some research, john wants a st bernard, but i dont think it would be fair to a dog like that in that kind of heat.

Oh and i emailed the realtor again, hadnt heard from her in a week or so.. let her know our hotel info and asked if she had found anything.. not that we can buy right away.. but i did ask about getting prequalified while we are out there. We cant actually buy till we know for sure that john has a job out there, i think she knows that though cause i told her we were only considering relocating to tx and that we would like to see the area.. But i really want to move there, unless i get there an hate it on our trip lol, but we arnt going anywhere without john getting a transfer.

So ready to go

It seems quick but i feel like im just ready to be done with california as my home. Im all for coming back to visit, but im so done living here. Im done worrying if we will ever own a home cause they are just too expensive for a family living on one income.. Im done worrying about what if someone breaks in and kills us or robs us...cause we live in an "okay" area..some might even call it good, but seriously an elderly guy just got shot here a year ago...killed in the night.. there are drug dealers at the other end of the street..it doesnt look like the ghetto cause of its facade..but it is.. Its better than a lot of places here, but its no where near my ideal for my kids. Im sick of worrying about the day they go to school...what will other kids teach my kids, what will the teachers want to teach my kids, will they get the attention they need when the classes are splitting at the seams with kids!..should i homeschool? etc..

Im ready to give my kids the life that i dreamed up for them.. and its not here in cali. Yes my mom will hate me for moving, yes i will miss her and the rest of the family and friends i have here. but its not forever..i will visit and they certainly can visit me..

I cant wait till the end of the month..i want to see what this place is like..what these possible new homes hold for me. I hope hope hope that i love them.. I hope they turn out to be all i want them to be...im trying not to build them up in my head. I also hope that john gets one of these positions he applied for. He has applied for two in our first choice city and will be applying for two more in our back ups tomorrow.... I hope something comes of those.. all those positions are within his current company.. i hope that we can make this work..

Pray for us. Im praying for God to tell me if this is right, is this where we should be?

Its set in motion

Now lets see where we go....

My father and I have planned a trip to the area in tx we want to move for the end of the this month. John cant go cause he has to work. John also applied for a job in the area as well, a transfer within his own company. Right now its the only position open in that area, so we didnt want to take the chance of passing it up and not having another one come up.. We will see if he gets it, its a supervisor postion. I hope he does.. but then again i hold out my hope until i know for sure that im going to like this place.

My father suggested emailing a real estate agent in the area. Someone to take us around, show us the city and some homes. So i did this morning and she emailed back this afternoon saying she would love to work with us and show us the city. To give her info on what we are looking for, our price range, and what we like. So i did.. it was pretty specific..lol.. I hope she can find what we are looking for, i think she will. I hope to hear back from her tomorrow. Even if john does get the job i doubt we can move till the end of july at the earliest..though he may need to go out there before us.

We would still have to get the front two units of dads triplex rented..set up who is going to manage them for us..get them ready for the next tenants..anyways there would be a lot to do..but thats all a little down the line..

millions of things going through my head

Okay.. so the past four years we have been discussing moving away from SoCal... for many reasons.. Well recently my father mentioned it as well, he feels as though nothing is holding him here now that grandma is gone.. he is disliking cali more and more...

So anyways...lots going on..we have a possible city lined up, a possible transfer in johns job..we will see, and we are discussing a mini vaca to visit the possible city : ) We might wait till end of july for the vaca..since we have one planned then already, but im hoping to do it sooner.

If we do move we will wait for john to get a new job or transfer, either find an apartment until we find the right home or go out and find a home.. either way...we will be buying a home..

Who knows if it will happen...its all so crazy, but somewhere inside me i feel like this is the right thing to do.

not very happy

Today was a pretty good day. Got up, made the bed, dressed and changed the kids, fed the kids, brushed their teeth.. etc.. Went to wal mart, watered my garden, did a little gardening with the two plants i just bought, made dinner, cleaned the living room, replaced the bathroom toilet seats, washed dishes, picked up the kids room....not in that order..but you get the idea.

Well tonight the kiddos go to bed and john is sitting at the computer frustrated.. it crashed..wouldnt come up...even in safe mode..worked on it forever! And finally came to the conclusion that windows needed to be reloaded...just freaking great.. so lets lose almost everything. Luckily we have a storage drive that stores all the important stuff, files, photos, videos..etc.. We lost a lot of programs.. most importantly my quicken..which im not too happy about. Oh well..such is life, we move on.. Im gonna take this as a positive...

We are cleaning out..all those favorites that i never used...are gone..i can now put ones that i really use, i can start quicken over afresh.... make us a new budget. Im gonna try to keep positive and we didnt lose the pics.. which just keeps me happy.. if we had lost the pics i would have been very upset.