Friday, February 19, 2010

Little Monster Moments

Little Monster: I gotta go potty!
Daddy: Hold it buddy, we're trying to find somewhere!
Little Monster: I can't! Mine pants are in da way!

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Little Monster: (out of the middle of NOWHERE!) pee is yellow. Poop is green.
Daddy: Yes, sometimes it is.
Little Monster: Mine poop changes colors too!!

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Old House New House

When we were in California we were in a new house. I mean, probably only a couple of years old, new. Here in Rhode Island, we are in an old house, as in, probably more than a couple of decades old. I knew we would be in an older house when we moved here, and I was willing to "put up" with the inconvenience since we are only here for a few short months. However, after being here a week, I am thoroughly happy with our "new" old home.

Our "Old" New house in California was wired for Internet throughout most of the house, was beautiful on the outside, and was fairly new. It had a fenced in backyard and a huge front yard. There were power receptacles everywhere and had a decent sized pantry. And here ends the list of things I miss about our "old" new home.

Our "New" old house in Rhode Island has closets. Big Closets. Larger Rooms for the children, free heat, a SCREEN door on both the front and the back door, new Berber carpet that looks amazing, brand new windows all over, open floor plan, laundry room that has a Door! That can be Shut! and tons of shelving. HOT! water, and and free utilities. Our house is all one story, so toys can stay in the kids bedrooms! We are also getting to keep some of our rent money -- enough to pay for an amazing preschool that Little Monster will attend next week. There are about 5 nicer chain eat-in restaurants within a mile or so, as well as a few different fast food chains. And the clincher -- we get real cable. Not some crappy satellite service that is going to nickel and dime us to death. No over priced, under-bandwidth "High" (but really Low) speed Internet. Our cable and Internet package here is cheaper than just the satellite in CA, and we get our phone for free. We also get high definition signal and FAST FAST FAST Internet!

These things don't make up for the fact that I couldn't transplant my bible study group and my huge circle of wonderful friends, but they do make day to day life just a bit easier!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Welcome Home!

It is a relief to finally be in our new home. We are now nestled into our cozy house on the East Coast. It is very temporary, as we should be returning to the west coast soon. It is amazing to live somewhere we've lived before. Things have changes a bit, but it's nice to know where the good grocery stores are, be familiar with the local chains, and at least have an idea about where I am when we move to a new home.


We spent ten days in the truck traveling across the country. Have you ever spent ten days in a truck with an 8 month old and a three year old? It makes for quite an adventure!


We stopped in Las Vegas to walk the strip, do some people watching and eat at one of the buffets. After that, the real trip began. Up early, and driving late, it still took us ten days. Between stops for restrooms (gotta love being just past potty training!), nursing breaks, and plain old sanity breaks made the days go by quickly.


Some highlights of the trip:


  • Las Vegas, and Treasure Island show: "There will be no pillaging of this booty tonight boys!" A show not meant for kids.

  • 10 rest areas between Monterey CA and the eastern AZ border. 2 were open.

  • I-10 in El Paso, TX is so close to Mexico, that one of our iPhones decided to go ahead and join the Mexican Cellular network. It only costs about $20/mb to send and receive data.

  • Three solid days of rain. Rain at night. Rain during the day. Rain. Rain. and more. RAIN!

  • Trying to hit up every Cracker Barrel possible for those oh-so-good biscuits and southern comfort food.

  • Flooding! Flooding! Flooding! As we were getting ready to leave Texas, the roads started to get a bit waterlogged. We found that they had closed the interstate minutes after we passed because it was covered in water.

  • We experienced the most complicated interchange on I-10 in Houston, TX.

  • Driving through the swamps of Louisiana was an experience. Have you ever driven down there? That is definitely a new experience. We were grateful to have passed through BEFORE the Superbowl AND Mardi Gras.

  • Stopped in Northern VA in the snow and let Little Monster throw snowballs. His first time being old enough to play in it!

After all of those, we hit DC and Baltimore. Two days after they were hit with three feet of snow. Pulling the fifth wheel. Imagine if you will, the worst washboard road you can think of. Then multiply that by 1000. We had a hitch haul, carrying the generator and an air compressor on the back. Note, the word "had." As we pulled into Connecticut for the coldest night of our lives in the camper, we were very grateful that we had made it without incident. The hitch haul had cracked and broken, but had managed to hang on until we stopped for the night.


We could tell we were on the receiving end of many heartfelt prayers, because we didn't have any car trouble, and despite all of the adventure, we all managed to keep our sanity, and most of the time our sense of humor.


The snow in RI held off long enough for us to park our fifth wheel at its new home a few blocks away from our house, and the ABF trailer to arrive. But, the second we opened the trailer to unload, the snow came down. We got nearly a foot of snow while we were unloading, though we were lucky enough to have several neighbors come out to help.


As of right now, we are mostly moved in, and enjoying being on the east coast. The person who enjoys it the most? Probably our daughter who got her first taste of Dunkin donuts and a jelly filled munchkin: