On the Road Again to Find a Home

We decided that after discovering that Sam would be starting his job on the 19th of September giving us about 2 and half weeks to get our lives packed back up, and moved, it may be a good idea to find a place to live. We tried to make arrangements to have our family's watch Kaj, and it was getting rather complicated, and seemed to be complicating the lives of those family members, so Sam made the final call that we just drive there altogether. I didn't mind this plan at all. It might even be fun. Well, the first 2 hours of the drive there it was not fun at all. My sickness was coming back full swing, and the boys were either crying, fighting, or screaming in the back of the car. I looked at Sam many times and thought- "this was your idea, and oh, what a great idea it was." I imagined Sam and I flying on a plane together, and there was no mass hysteria going on around us. It did calm down after a while.

Of course, on a road trip with kids you do plan on many stops. Bum changing stops, eating stops, just need to stretch the ole legs stops, and others. The trip there it seemed we doubled the amount of stops even with kids. I wanted to be the annoying kid in the back of the car asking "are we there yet?" We ended up at a dive pizza place, as it turned out it was a place featured on Man vs. Food. Ha! Awesome. A couple hours later Josh started going crazy crying, and it was convenient timing, because I then threw up off the side of the road. I decided then and there my "pregnancy glow" looks a lot like that. Me, throwing up off the side of the road. And also, I do not believe there is a "pregnancy glow."

Nothing could be more glorious a feeling of when we arrived in Bend. The boys didn't get to bed till probably 11:30 that night. We woke up plenty early, because we had booked ourselves to see houses all morning. We looked at about 12 places in 2 days. Needless to say, the boys were pretty good sports considering this was not an ideal trip for them. Saturday morning we woke up and had to make a decision between 2 places. I don't know why it was so hard for me, but I was crying, and breaking down, and calling my dad, and really not wanting to make the decision. Our second choice, which had more space, said they would drop their price, and that they really wanted us in there. We went back and forth, and then went with that choice. I feel good about, and so does Sam, and I think it will be a really nice home for our family at this time. It is also big enough for visitors so I extend a warm welcome!
    I do wish I had taken pictures...but, pictures will come soon enough. We are leaving in T minus 4 days. This is nuts. I get nervous, and a bit scared, and then really really sad for the boys. I felt similar to leaving New York. It is very hard for me to take the boys away from everything that is now familiar. Kaj makes a check list of everyone who lives in this home every morning. "Where'd Mor Mor go?" "Where'd Pappy go?" "Sam home?" I have been trying to prepare him, and telling him we are not going to live with Mor Mor or Pappy anymore, asking are you ok with that? Sometimes he says yes, other times he says no. With Josh, he was too little to remember the New York house, so this is all he knows. I am very happy they have each other.
  Saturday after making the decision and putting a deposit down on the place we just wanted to hit the road. The trip had been a success- we have a place to live! And we thought there wasn't really a reason to stay. We booked a hotel in Boise which was the half way mark just to break up the trip this time, and it was a good thing. This trip seemed to be going a lot better, but we left around 2:00 in the afternoon after letting the boys have a longer stop eating their sandwiches and looking at the "pows."(cows)  We were making pretty good time this time, we had our rabbit on the road we named "Red" a car who was just cruising a long and our goal was to always end up behind "Red."
A couple hours away from Boise,  by then "Red" was long gone, and Kaj started telling us his tummy hurts. I had seen that look in the car before, and I started to remove all the items that Kaj had on his lap in the event that things get serious. A few seconds later things got serious, and we pulled off to the side of the road just as Kaj was finishing throwing up. (And for a kid that skinny I had not idea where all that had come from) (Sorry to be gross) Then, being the awesome helper that I am right now, it made me throw up. Sam was stuck on the brunt of clean up duty while I helped Josh.

There the 4 of us were on the side of the road, Kaj in nothing but a diaper, his clothes and shoes stuffed in a bag, and we took one look at that carseat and there was no way in H he would be able to sit back in that thing. Where was the next town? 10 miles. So Kaj on my lap, buckled in, and driving extra careful, ducking any sign of coppers we strolled into the next small town. I felt really awesome with a 3 year old on my lap pulling into the gas station. "Was that wrong? Cause if I had known anything was wrong with that..." ha Anyways, so I went inside to ask if they had anything like a Target or Walmart, and that guy smiled at me like "you silly traveller" and told me no there wasn't, but there was a Bi-Mart. Bi-Mart? Ok, "Do you think they have a carseat?" Because, what do you have to do when you are parents just rolling with the punches? You purchase a new carseat, and dump the one covered in sickness. So that is exactly what we did. Sam walked over to the dumpster behind McDonalds, brushed his hands of it and walked away. There was a manager who went to look in the dumpster as we pulled away to see what this mystery item was.. and I bid him good luck as we drove away.

What a trip?! One for the story book, Sam said. Yes, indeed. So we will make the trip again in a few days, Sam driving the moving truck, and me with the boys. I really hope this is an easier trip on everyone. But, hey! We have a place to live! And, if I am lucky I will get to listen to the "Monkey song" aka "I want to be like You" from the Jungle Book another hundred times.