Tennessee

It was awesome to drive into Tennessee. The gateway to TN is over a huge bridge over a "river" that leads into Memphis. I say "river" because good grief, that was huge. DB even referred to it as the ocean. Gone are the days of cricks and streams.....we have come to the big time, baby! It doesn't feel too humid here so far, although we haven't cracked our windows yet either. JT is sound asleep and will hopefully stay that way until Jackson. DB asks about every 5 minutes if we are there yet.....I am starting to ask the same question in my head. I feel so excited and so nervous that it isn't even funny. We aren't in Kansas anymore, Todo!

Lonoke Arkansas

Thank heavens Ben is a driving rock star. We drove 900 miles yesterday. We made it to Lonoke, Arkansas at 1:30 in the morning, and the hotel receptionist even felt sorry for us weary travelers and gave us a discount. We stayed at a nicer hotel to reward the boys with a swimming adventure this morning. When DB and I were at the breakfast bar this morning, he said, "Mom, this is a nice place. I think we should stay here forever." He wasn't even swayed by the fact that his light sabers or pirate ship aren't here. I think he just really didn't want to get back in the car. We had a good time this morning hanging out and relaxing a bit before getting back on the road, and I think all of our nerves have benefited. Only 2 1/2 hrs or so until Jackson! To us, that should be chump change. Arkansas is looking much more interesting this morning than any other state we have been in so far. We have seen several ponds, swamps, and lots of trees. We still have yet to reach the mountains on the horizon, though!

OOOOOOOHHHHklahoma

What is it about small one horse towns and Dairy Queens? TX and OK both have each of those aplenty. I have decided, though that my poor little brain is struggling to understand where the mountains went. I think I have started doing a trick with my mind and eyes, you know on those puzzles that have missing lines, but your brain just naturally puts them there and you think you are seeing a complete picture? Well, my brain is just assuming that the mountains are there somewhere behind the blue haze on the horizon. And now that it is dark, it is just a matter of time until we enter a canyon. We are trying to make it to Little Rock tonight, so we have a long 4 more hours of trying to entertain JT in the dark. (He just slept for 2 1/2 hours, so bedtime is far off now....) Thank heavens for my book lamp that we brought with us, we'd be in trouble. AND thank heavens for gas stations that sell bananas....the kid was sick of goldfish, teddy grahams, pretzles and cheese crackers today. Up next.....Arkansas!

The Lone Star State

Texas. The land of wide open spaces, barbeque and even fried pie. We haven't seen much by the way of homes yet in Texas, but plenty of advertising for all of the above. In STG, there are signs everywhere for all sorts of home builders, but around here, bbq and wrangler jeans are where it's at. JT is officially done, but we have been holding him off with the glorious invention of the Dum-Dum sucker. Just the right size for little mouths and fingers, and small enough that the mess is managable and even a little endearing. I finally caved and let DB turn on a movie, because really I have been a bit bored too by the scenery (or the lack thereof....) We are going to be stopping in Amarillo at a steak house that Ben has been drooling over since seeing it on the food network weeks ago. 15 miles to go until lunch.......get me outta this car!

Albuquerque

We stayed with some friends last night here in Albuquerque. The thing that I first noticed when driving into this city was when we pulled up to a stoplight next to a bus. The bus was very long, AND it was full of people! Public transportation at its finest! I think I have been a small town girl for too long if a bus full of people strikes me as fascinating, what do you think? Thanks to our hostess for letting us have some peanut butter and cake filling sandwiches last night and an AMAZING breakfast this moring. That has been a bright spot of this moving experience---our friends keep taking pity on our poor souls and feed us WAY better than we are accustomed to. Next post--Texas.

New Mexico

So far New Mexico is much more interesting than AZ. It is funny to see all of the pottery and jewlery huts that say "OPEN" but are deserted. I suppose winter is not the time for trinket shopping. We have been motivated to try to come up with indian names for ourselves, but have had no luck. JT is struggling with the drive, I think his ears are giving him trouble still. Mine haven't popped all the way after leaving the canyon outside of Page, AZ. DB was thrilled to open more cars as soon as we crossed into NM, and is just a great traveler. They are both soundly asleep now. Thank heavens. Wait a sec, I think Ben is asleep too.........nope, just resting his eyes. Love you all!

We are on our way!

Well, the moving company took a bit longer than we expected to load all of our stuff last night, so we finally headed out this morning. Thank you so much to all of our friends who helped us make this transition a bit easier. We don't know what we would have done without our friends here in ole STG, especially this last couple of crazy weeks. We don't know what we are going to do without you all. Arizona is pretty when you are right next to Utah, but so far I think AZ is not much to sneeze at, although apparently it is plenty to cough at, as all four of us have been doing plenty of that! All I see is a whole lotta nothing! JT has only had one crying spell so far, we did break in to Grandma's treat bag that she sent with us. Oh, and dum-dum suckers are my lifesaver for babies with plugged ears that just won't pop. DB anxiously awaits each state line because that is when he can open a new toy. Next post..... New Mexico!

Croup is the medical code word for CRAP

Hey there, this is going to be one of those venting posts, so reader beware. JT was diagnosed with croup in the emergency room on Tuesday night at about midnight. From then on, we have just been having a BALL with the poor kid wandering around wondering why mommy won't make his cough better. The best part is, there is not much we can do for him except make him sleep outside. Although, just so there is no confusion, I have not resorted to that......YET. So I have decided that the origin of the medical term "croup" is from the english noun "crap" meaning nonsense or junk. The only problem was that doctors didn't feel comfortable diagnosing their patients with "crap" (they didn't feel it sounded smart enough) so they just changed out the vowels and voila! Croup. So now, when they say "Yup, he's got a croupy cough alright" well, you get the idea. JT sure picked a CROUPY time to get sick, if you ask me. D-Day is on Tuesday so far, maybe Wednesday. Good times.

Watch out world!!!

The much anticipated call finally came today, and Ben got his promotion! YAY! The only thing is that we are headed for Tennessee! That's right, the home of Davy Crockett, the Grand 'Ole Opry, and the Great Smoky Mountains! We are 90 percent excited and 10 percent scared spitless (yah, that 10 percent is ALL mine!) We are planning on a moving day of January 31st.

Not quite sneaky enough....

DB climbed into bed with me this morning, and this is how our conversation went:
DB: Mom, can we have a talk?
Me: Sure, buddy. What's up?
DB: Do I have to go to school today?
Me: Yes
DB: Is it a short day today?
Me: No
DB: It's a long day?
Me: yes
DB: Well, then I think I am sick today.
Me: giggle, giggle......If it was a short day would you still be sick?
DB: no
Me: well then you are going to school

At least the kid hasn't figured out how to fake sick yet! And we HAVE been working on our honesty around our house, so maybe we are making progress.

Sweet

So we were "reading" the scriptures today......well, Ben is gone, so DB insists on reading by himself every couple of days. This consists of him pretending that he is reading the words, but just repeating the stories that we have covered for the last couple of days. Anyway, he informed me that Nephi and his brothers returned to Jerusalem for the Grass Plates, not the Brass plates. When I tried to correct him, he even said "Mom, look at that tree. They were green, just like that!" His certainty was just so sweet that it was almost hard to correct.

And can't forget sweet JT......I think that most babies are able to point to their nose or toes or some body part on command first, right? Not my JT. He finally pointed to something on command--his shoes. The kid loves his shoes. Not having them ON, mind you. He just likes to play with them, carry them around. When I ask him were his shoes are when he is barefoot, he looks down at his feet and grunts like he is shocked they aren't there. Man I love this kid.

Baby steps.....

I have started purging my life of "stuff." I am a self-proclaimed pack rat, and I've gotta say that I have hung on to stuff that is just ridiculous. I still have my second grade construction paper ribbon that was my award for winning second place in the spelling bee. In case you are wondering, the word I misspelled is "disappoint." Fitting, I know. I lost to a boy named Casey. One day I just may finally let it go, but that is not today. Anyway, I did take a baby step today and FINALLY shredded all of DB's medical bills. I did add them up before I shredded them, and the grand total?.....$185,384.34. Now in all honesty, we did not pay all of those. I did manage to get IHC (which stands for I Hardly Care) to write off maybe half. I really don't know where the rest came from, I just know that we made sure to always pay our tithing first and foremost and it just worked out......4 years later. Yes, it took us until he was 4 to pay off the kid. It was liberating when we could change his middle name to B instead of Intermountain! So I have been hanging on to those suckers for 6 years as a sort of badge, I guess, and I have finally let it go. You know, it feels good! Maybe next will be my grade school box.......well, let's not get carried away here......maybe BEN'S grade school box!

Happy New Year!

Oh what a year 2008 was, but man are we looking forward to this brand spankin' new year! It was a wonderful year of watching our little JT grow and learn. Then DB starting Kindergarten and experiencing his first kiss was just monumental for us. I lost my sweet Grammy, which was very difficult, and we will definitely miss her for years to come. We spent some good time with our families, and even got to have some of them over to our house a couple of times. Dallin still talks about going to Thriller and Disneyland, and is already looking forward to his next birthday. We had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year's party, and have really counted our blessings in each of our friends and family. It is always so thrilling to stand at the front end of a new year and just imagine what is going to come your way. A new house? A new city? New friends? A cool vacation? A major trial? You can almost feel the electricity in the air. Here we come, 2009......watch out!