Long Time Coming

So I've been lazy about this whole blogging thing for the past month. Or maybe just busy with life. We made it to Arizona. Settled into the outlaws, or as settled as we can be here. It's been crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

Big J spent a good deal of time with us for the 2 1/2 weeks Tim was here. So that made for 5 kids at any given time. I've also had H all summer. We had only been here for about a week when we made our very first ever 'accident' trip to the ER. Tim and I were putting together a trampoline and left my mother-in-law to watch the kids. Big huge colossal effing mistake. From the backyard, Tim and I could hear I screaming. Bloody murder, somebody is injured, screaming. We were kinda at a point where we couldn't very well stop, so Tim calls HIS mom and tells her to bring I outside to us. She brings I out, and Tim notices right away she has blood on her shirt. So we wrestle her down (at this point she forgot about her booboo and wanted to bounce-bounce) and try to locate the source. She had a small, but deep, cut to the underside of her chin. It was deep enough that the fatty tissue was poking out. I was freaking livid. I was even more freaking livid when TIM'S mother had no clue she was hurt, even though she had I's blood on her own damn shirt. Real freaking observant. Anyway, I refused to let her watch J while we went to the ER. Dropped J off with my Dad's wife, and took I to the ER. My little girl is a trooper. She did so good while they were checking her out. It took two stitches to close her chin. She cried. Tim cried. I cried. I'm pretty sure the male nurse holding her head cried. At least he was doing an awful lot of sniffling. Anyway, she cried, but she held perfectly still. Such a sweet girl. We took her back 5 days later to get the stitches out, and that was worse than getting them put in. Both times she got little bears to keep. The second time she refused to take the bear home with us. The first bear is sitting abandoned on the floor. It's the owie bear. She doesn't care for him much.

Ahhhh so much is going on. Tim left on June 16 and it's just been madness since then. 4 kids, 2 inlaws, and me. I've barely had time to think, let alone sit down and think out loud. I'm buried in mounds of dirty laundry, dirty dishes, and just dirty house it seems like. It's been a huge adjustment. A difficult adjustment. I hate it here.

15 Miles To Go

This trip was long and hard. It was absolutely insane with 6 kids. We stayed Friday night in Los Cruces, NM. Long story short, it was 1,100 miles of, "Are we there yet?" "How many more miles?" "How far have we gone?" "When will we be there?"

Yeah... fun times. It really wouldn't have been so bad, but the questions started in San Antonio, which was only about 25 miles into our trip. By Junction Texas, about 200 miles into the second half of a 2100 mile trip, I had told the kids they couldn't ask anymore location questions until after we stopped for lunch on Saturday. That actually lasted for almost 100 miles.

So anyway, we stayed Friday night in Los Cruces. The hotels pet policy said only dogs under 50 lbs and no cats. So basically we had to smuggle two 80 pound dogs and one very angry puddy tat into a hotel room, on the third floor. Saturday morning we thought we would hit the road early, but in reality, after feeding and watering 6 children, 2 dogs and the very angry puddy tat, we didn't get out of Los Cruces until closer to 9 local time. And then we hauled ass... like the devil himself was on our tail. We made Tuscon around oneish, fed children again and turned North. Things were pretty uneventful on the last day. We made it from Los Cruces to Black Canyon City with no major issues.

Then it hit. The last 20 miles or so on the interstate was a 6% mountain grade, going up roughly 4,000 feet in about 12 miles or so. The Suburban struggled with that big damn Uhaul. I thought we were in the clear when we turned off of I-17 onto Hwy 69. There was only about 20 miles to go at that point. I was feeling sorry for the ole truck and was trying to go easy on her. Temps and oil pressure were fine, but she was still pretty sluggish. Just past Mayer Arizona it happened. She just died. Engine shut down, but at least we still had power steering.

So there we were, 15 miles from the final destination, stuck on the side of the road. We think that the transmission overheated, went into 'save my own ass' mode, and just shut down. That's just a theory. Since I don't have a handy dandy trans temp guage, we aren't positive. Stuck on the side of the road with 6 kids, 2 dogs and the very angry (and plotting our deaths) puddy tat. We called Tim's dad to come get the Uhaul and we called my dad to come get animals. For the 20 minutes or so we were stuck there, only one person stopped to see if they could help... a 60ish man on a motorcycle.

Anyway, the dads showed up. Tim's dad took the Uhaul and mine took C and the animals. My poor dogs and cat weren't doing so well, being stuck in the truck with no AC. By then we were able to start the burb with no problems and made it the rest of the way into town with no problems. We haven't had a problem since then. So who knows.

So now we're here. End of trip. End of that story. If I should ever decide to take a 2100 mile roadtrip with half my life in a Uhaul behind me and all my kids/critters in the burb, remind me of all the 'fun' that we had on this trip.

Time to Tuck Tail and Go Home

Well since our renters have left us in such a bind, we've been looking for ways to make things work out. We don't want to go into foreclosure on that house. The way I see it, we borrowed that money so we are obligated to pay it back. That and I really don't want to add to the already rocky real estate problem. So while the house is on the market, I will move back to Arizona and live with Tim's parents. Fun times. At least we'll be able to continue making the mortgage payment while the house is on the market. Maybe even get some money back into our savings and pay off some debt. There really isn't much debt, but those damn renters we had in the house left it in such a mess that we spent what little savings we had and racked a credit card back up.

So the plan now is... at the end of May, I'm going to pack up my children and go back to AZ. Since Tim is deploying anyway, he will just go straight from AZ to DE and stay in the house while we're waiting for it to sell.

I have mixed feeling about the whole thing. I know my in-laws, specifically my mother-in-law, will drive me batty. But I'm thrilled that my kids are going to be able to spend time with Nana before she leaves us. She's at an age now, where human bodies just give out with no notice. We love her and want to make the most of the time we have left. I'm also really excited to be near my Dad again. Being so far away from him has been hell for me. We've always been very close and I can't wait to be able to see him on a regular basis again. I miss him so much.

So we've started making plans. Today we are going to check out some storage units. The majority of our belongings will stay here in GA until we get orders again. Then the movers can just go pick it all up from storage. We just need to find a place that they can get a semi into. Tim's 67 Chevy will also go into storage. Hopefully we can keep everything at one place, but who knows how that will pan out. Tim is taking my old truck and his motorcycle with him. I'll keep the Burb. See? Plans are forming as I blog about forming plans.

I'm only taking what I will absolutely need to subsist in AZ. It's proving to be really difficult to sort through my belongings and decide what I don't need. I love my things. Tim and I have worked so hard for what we have and it just sucks that I can't take it all with me now. So basically I'm only going to be able to take enough things to furnish 2 rooms for me and the kids and my kitchen stuff. I can't live without my stand mixer.

We've already worked out an agreement with my inlaws. They really are wonderful people at heart. Just different than what I am and I expect that may cause an argument here and there. Anyway, I'll pay them a small rent and take over payment of some utilities. One big condition I had for living with them is I want to do the cooking and grocery shopping. Neither of them had a problem with that. I'm a damn good cook if I do say so myself! Last condition I had... I have to get cable internet as soon as I get there. It's crack. I can't live without it. I'm not sure what they have now, but I do remember it being slower than molasses on a cold winter day. I can't deal with that. I like my crack/cable. I like instant gratification.

Now that it's a reality, it's so bittersweet. We will be closer to family that I really am going to need to get me through the 6 months Tim will be gone. But I love Georgia. I'm going to miss it. The people are so damn friendly here. And of course I will miss Dena. She has proved to be a very good friend, and people like her are so hard to come by. To use her own words, she's good people. I'm very sad to be leaving her and am going to miss her horribly. But Arizona does have phenomenal Mexican food and that does make up the difference a little.

I'm still torn though. We wanted to stay here. To retire here. And to finally settle down here. In Georgia. Where even the worst of days in winter isn't much below 40. Ahhhh I'll miss that. In Arizona, we'll be far enough up the mountain to experience winter. Almost full force. It does get cold there, and the wind coming off the mountains can be brutal.

Long story short, I've still got a lot of mixed emotions about the whole thing.

So Here I Am

So here I am. I've been talking about doing this for months... make that years. I need a place to put my words. I've got all these things/thoughts just flying around in my head and since I can't get them out through my mouth, I thought maybe... just maybe I could put them all down in cyberspace. Where they are safer from prying eyes than if I would put them, say, under my mattress.

Last night I was thinking... how do I do it? How am I juggling being all the things I'm supposed to be. I have 3 awesome kids, one with a learning disability. I have this sweet, loving man... who in a moment of lust/blindness married me on the fourth date. I have friends (granted most of them live in my computer) who I can bear my soul to. And I have... well I guess I'll call it my 'religion'. So how do I manage them all? I don't! At least not all well, all at the same time.

My husband. As I write/type this, he is flying on a 'big aeroplane' as he would say. It's what he does. It's what he loves. I always joke, that if that plane were a woman he would definately leave me for her. He loves his plane, with all her oddities and tempermental problems. He loves her... I mean it. He would be devestated without that plane. He knows it in and out. It's because he is so good at his job that I get to do what I do best. Sit on my rear and do a whole lot of nothing. Or at least it seems like that at the end of the day.

My kids. Three of them. C just turned 9 and it seems like almost every day is a battle. Somewhere along the way he has discovered he is his own person and that mom doesn't rule the universe. Things were so much easier when he thought that I really did hang the moon. When he still thought the sun rose and set because I told it to. Okay well not quite but you get the jist. He's growing up. Turning into this little person that I sometimes don't recognize for all his 'grownupness'. He has his battles (read ADHD), but he has stuck his chin out and met it head on.

J is going to be 3 this month. He is totally different from C. He wants to learn everything he can and conquer every mountain, just as long as I'm there next to him. He is fearless of most things, but not quite ready to let go of my pantleg. We had our first playgroup today, but that is for another time. Another post. J is the lovebug. He is the one who wants to be held, hugged, cuddled, and just 'be' with me. ME!

I is the little lady in the house. She has everyone wrapped around her little drama-queen finger. She's 18 months now and she already has the world at her fingertips. At least she thinks so and none of us are brave enough to tell her otherwise. She thinks she can do anything and usually she does just that. No way my girl is going to let her brothers get the best of her. But at the end of the day, she's looking out the window for daddy. At the end of the day, it's daddy that she wants. At least I got my mama's boys.

So that's my family. There is the reason my sun rises and sets each day. They are my everything. I'm going to stop there before things get really corny.

I'm... well I'm me. I don't make too many apologies about it either. I'm painfully shy in person, but outrageously outspoken once I know you, or if I'm hiding behind my computer. I promise not to be too snarky, sarcastic, or opinionated... at first anyway. I promise not to make too many smart ass comments... in the beginning. More about me later.