Our wonderful trip!

We had a really really great time in Montana. It's always good to sit back and relax for a long bit.

I'll skim some of the highlights here, but really a trip to Montana is mostly about staying outside all day long and playing cards at night. The best stuff ever. I will post some pictures later, once I get unpacked.



Chicago: We drove to Chicago in order to catch the train and save some time and money. Good idea in theory, but it didn't work out as well as we had planned. We got to Chicago with many hours to spare before we needed to be at the train. We parked our car and decided to take the boys to the Willis Tower (new name for the Sears Tower). They recently installed 4 all glass slide out boxes. Each box is 4 feet deep and about 8 feet wide. These boxes are solid glass and so you feel like you are standing on nothing when you step out over the city. The boys had absolutely no fear and Sammy spent his entire time laying down on the glass with his face plastered downward, looking at the cars and city below him. We got some great pictures!



Amtrak: The train that we rode out to Whitefish was the exact same train that I have been riding since I was a kid. Nothing had been updated. No plug-ins for computers or anything. Overall, not horrible on the ride out. Jay and I were really tired from driving all night but the kids did really well. 32 hours after boarding the train, we arrived on time in Whitefish. All in all, even being an older train, it is still a great way to travel. For those who have never traveled by train, here's some details. We've never done a sleeping car because of the price so I only have info on coach seating. There are no assigned seats, just assigned cars. The conductors tell you what car to sit in so that they let you off at the correct stop. Seats are in sets of two and are larger than aircraft seats. They also have a leg rest and a foot rest and the back leans back slightly farther. Two train seats together is about the same width as three airplane seats. There is no arm rest between the pair of seats so it makes spreading out really easy. There is a fold down tray on the seat in front of you, but if you are at the front of the car (first pair of seats) you don't get the tray, but get much more leg room (and still have foot rest). On the trip out, Sam and I were in the first seats with Jay and Tom directly behind and Joe across from Jay. The bigger boys wanted trays for coloring, while I desired the extra room. There is plenty of room for the kids to sit on the floor and have their toys on their seat (as if it were a table). The train is noisy at times, but typically people get quiet at night. There is a dining car (needs reservations and is really pricy). A passenger can carry on any food and non-alcoholic drinks they would like to have. There is also a cafe car that sells sandwiches, snacks, breakfast items, sodas, water, juice, and alcoholic drinks. They are a little pricy, but not as bad as the dining car, plus you just walk down there anytime it is open. Bathrooms (for some reason) are exactly like airplane bathrooms. The cars we ride in are double levels with seats on the upper floor for most everyone, handicapped seating downstairs and bathrooms downstairs. The upper level of the train is the only level that you can travel car to car on. It is fairly cheap to travel by train and kids travel half price. Each ticketed passenger is allowed two carryons (not counting purses, laptops or diaper bags) and three checked bags.
Our train home arrived almost 4 hours late into Chicago which was a drag. At least it was on time on the way out.



Whitefish: It is a beautiful place and I still love it. It has grown very much over the years and the neighboring town of Kalispell is starting to look very East Coast. The weather was really pretty good, with 93 degree days and 45 degree nights. It did rain all night one night and the last two days of our trip had much cooler days at about 77 and overcast.



Big Mountain: We drove up to the Whitefish Ski Resort on Sunday. We then rode a gondola car to the summit of Big Mountain and took a look around. The first plan had been for Sam and I to ride back down since we didn't think he would be up for the walk down. I really didn't want to ride back down. (In all honesty, the gondola car made me feel a bit panicky, and while I could have ridden a chair lift down, I wasn't sure that would make me feel much better.) So we decided to hoof it down as a family. The grade was very steep and the boys complained almost the entire time. Jay and I enjoyed it though my calf muscles were screaming by the time we got down. We got some great photos and saw many many pretty wild flowers as we walked down.



Glacier Park: The day after we walked down Big Mountain, we gathered the boys into the car and drove 1/2 a hour up the road to Glacier Park. I have lots of good memories from Glacier as a kid and it is a tradition to go there, even if you don't make it all the way up the Going To The Sun Road. Our goal was to make it to the top this time. So we did. We drove to the top of Logan Pass on the Going To The Sun Road. We got out at the visitor center where it was a cool 55 degrees and decided to hike up to the Hidden Lake Overlook, 1.5 miles away, uphill. The first 1/3 of the path is a wooden boardwalk, with sorta steep, tilted steps. We got to see some snow and lots of snowmelt waterfalls. Really pretty. About 3/4 of the way up the trail, we encountered a mother mountain goat and her kid. Some tourists had isolated the kid on one side of the trail while mommy was headed through the trees on the other side. The poor baby was crying and crying for its mother. Finally most people got out of the way (only after being asked many times by several of us bystanders), but there was still one teenage/collage age girl that wouldn't move. She was trying to get a cellphone picture of the poor baby. Even after the kid crossed the road and ran into the trees, she was still following them. Perhaps, the girl would have acted better if it was a grizzly bear instead of a mountain goat, but I am not sure. We saw several goats on the trip up to and back from Hidden Lake. We went to the overlook and someone pointed out some bighorn sheep. They were hidden about a mile away and could only be seen with binoculars, and still not clearly even then. The older boys wanted to continue on the trek, but the trail continued for another 1.5 miles and went down next to Hidden Lake. To continue would have been downhill, but the 3 miles back to the car would have been too much. It's not very easy to carry Sam if he needs it because we need our arms to balance ourselves. The path is fairly tricky at times. We decided just to head back. Once we finally got back to the parking lot, a ranger mentioned to Jay that there were some bighorn sheep at the end of the parking lot. We walked over there and sure enough, there were about 8-10 bighorn sheep grazing in a meadow about 30 feet from the end of the parking lot. Thankfully, there was a stone wall to keep everyone back with signs asking people to stay on the path. The meadows can get damaged fairly easily by foot traffic so it is important to stay off the grasses. It was great to see the sheep up close as usually they are just some blobs on the side of a distant mountain.



Molly: My brother and his wife brought their brand new puppy Molly along for the trip. The boys don't really remember any of our dogs being puppies so they thought it was so much fun to play with her. She really liked the boys. She is also one pampered pup and got even more attention than usual with three boys and extra adults to watch after her. She is a really cute little Wheaten Terrier.



My grandfather: We found out some bad news while in Montana, my grandfather has prostate cancer. He is currently undergoing chemo for it and it is basically a wait and see situation. This was really sad news as he has always had pretty good health. So far, he is feeling pretty good with only some minor problems on the days that he gets his shots. His doctor says that Grandpa is doing better with the shots than anyone he has ever seen.

Playing cards: Every trip we ever took to Montana and any time my grandparents came to visit us, my parents would stay up extremely late playing pinochle. Over the last 7-8 years, us grandkids have been allowed to sub in for one grandparent or another. This year, my parents and Jay and I played several games. Jay and I also played with Nick and Kelly and my Grandparents. For some reason, Jay and I never play with my parents or Nick and Kelly any other time we see them. It's a family tradition and a competive one at that.

Badmitton: The other big Montana family tradition. Nick and I used to play for hours as kids. Back and forth, we'd hit the birdie with the goal of seeing how many times we could hit it in a row. Every year, we get the stuff out (no net, though) and play. We are passing it along to our kids too.

Big Sky Water Park: The big boys love to go there. We had planned to leave Sam with my parents and go there, but my parents ended up going into town that day so I had to stay behind to watch Sam. My grandparents are really up to watching a little kid. Jay and my brother Nick took Joe and Tom and had a really fun time. Tommy was actually able to ride some of the slides without an adult this year.

Overall, a great trip and I am sure that I am leaving something out.

Pre-vacation Stress

It gets us everytime. The kids get crazy with excitement, I get stressed, Jay gets stressed. Everything piles up. We get irritated and then go on vacation. The travel is usually stressful and we don't always enjoy it like we should. Kids are always short on sleep, etc., etc.
Add to this that I am working for the entire day on the day we are leaving. After work, we will be driving 12 hours to Chicago to catch the train to Montana. Once on the train, I know we can relax, but that's a ways away.
Tonight I showed our neighbor how to care for the chickens. About 30 minutes later, her husband called and talked to Jay for a bit. He told Jay that they really just couldn't watch the chickens after all. Okay. It is now 9 pm and we have to find someone else to watch the chickens. We did some calling with no luck. Then we called Jessica and she saved the day. We just have to drop the chickens off at her house tomorrow to be coop guests.
I am really looking forward to the trip, once we get pass the stressful part. I haven't ridden the train in 6 years, since Joe was just a baby. I think the kids will really enjoy it, though boredom may sit in. I have some ideas about getting past it, hopefully they will work.
I need to pack my clothes and Jay's clothes and then most of the packing will be done. Then I can go to bed.
I doubt that I will write anything until I get back.

Tots Line

So at last month's MOM Club meeting, we had a guest speaker from Tots Line. I spent most of the meeting looking at the lady and thinking "I know her from somewhere."I didn't catch the speaker's name or I would have known her. I read our August newsletter which had a recap of the meeting and mentioned her name. She's my neighbor's sister-in-law. I called my neighbor and confirmed that yes Krystine works for Tots Line. I just saw and talked to Krystine on Saturday at a birthday party. In my defense, I only see her once or twice a year. It's a small world.
I talked to Dorene for awhile about Tots Line today. Budget cuts have cut Krystine's job back to 20 hours a week and she is basically the only employee now. More cuts may be coming. That would be a huge shame as Tots Line is a great service.

Getting ready

We have spent most of this week so far getting ready for our trip to Montana. We are really looking forward to this trip. We have a lot of little things to do in order to get ready. We have to get laundry done, the house cleaned up, the car cleaned out, everything packed. I have a baby sitter for the chickens, but not for the dogs. My mother-in-law can watch them but only half the time so I have to get someone else to watch them the rest of the time.
We are also still thinking about getting ready for Australia. The plan seems to change daily, sometimes hourly. Jay came home last night saying that the rumor at work was that he was leaving in 6-8 weeks. Jay talked to a few people at work today and yes he is leaving in 6-8 weeks, but only for a few weeks. The current plan is that Jay will go for a few weeks and then come home and then we will all go in January. I am sure this will change again. That's just how it is. It changes and will continue to change.

Vacation Bible School

As a small child, we had a tradion of being dropped off at a local church for vacation bible school. I am doing the same with my kids. For $10 per kid, Joe and Tom go to VBS from 9 am until 12 pm for the entire week. Today was the first day and as usual, it is pretty much organized chaos during drop off and pick up. Once the parents clear it, it's pretty good, but while parents are there, it's really busy. I went down my street at 8:30 and a friend I haven't talked to in a long time pulled out behind me and followed me to VBS. Her kids were going too! Joe and her son Max were in the same preschool, and while both at Ft. Smallwood, were not in the same class. Joe was really happy to see some old friends there. Once I dropped off, I went to my very first yoga session ever. I have done a tiny bit of prenatal yoga and lots of "stretching" classes, but never a yoga session. I loved it. I think I may need to look into beginners yoga when we get back from vacation. After yoga, Sam and I ran to Target and then back to school to pick up the boys. We tried to play on the playground a bit, but Tom was just being a magnet for pain. First a boy hit him with a stick and then he got beat up by a two-year-old. It was hot and we were hungry so we left. We had hoped to go swimming at my neighbors house, but they weren't home.
While out and about today, I suddenly remembered that Jay is going out with his friends tonight and I will be alone. Ugh. I'm not prepared for this tonight. I have to be alone on Wednesday night as well.
We have a pretty full week planned in order to prepare for our trip. We are leaving Saturday night after an all day crop. We tend have to drive to Chicago to board the train by 2 the next afternoon. We are really looking forward to the trip. I am dreading the crop and then drive, but that's the only real stressful part of the trip.

7 out of 8 chickens agree...

The title came to me while chasing one chicken around and around the yard. We lock our chickens in a coop at night and I seem to always be chasing 1 chicken around at night trying to convince her to head to bed. I sprinkle some scratch in the coop, fill their water and stand back. 6-7 usually head right in, fast as can be. I tend to have 1-2 that just won't go in. It's almost like a naughty kid trying to stay up late. I came home from a MOM Club event today and had three chickens in the driveway. They ran around to the gate and I was able to get them back in without too much trouble. Our 4 1/2 ft fence contains them for the most part. If I thought they would stay out of the road, I wouldn't worry about keeping them in the pen. (For those who aren't familiar with the set up, our chicken coop is inside the fenced area we made for Chloe. It's a big fenced area with lots of shade). The chickens like to climb the trees in the pen and have been known from time to time to jump the fence.
I didn't feel like cooking tonight, but I didn't feel like eating out at a real place. We tried to figure out where to go. We asked our kids and Sammy jumped up yelling "hot dog!" Jay said maybe we should try Anne's Dairy Creme. We've never eaten there, but our neighbors like it. As a kid in a tiny town, we would occasionally eat out at the only restaurant in town. My favorite meal (from there) as a kid was a foot long hot dog with chili and ketchup, onion rings and a orange slushie. Dessert was always a vanilla ice cream dipped in cherry coating. Yum!
Anne's only has foot long hot dogs, no regular ones. We ordered one each for the kids, plus food for Jay and I. We ate outside in the grass as they have no place to eat inside. Joe had half a foot long, Sammy had half a foot long, and Tommy ate his entire foot long and the other half of Joe's foot long. We brought half a foot long home and someone can eat it tomorrow. It brought back lots of memories. Though Anne's cuts the foot longs in half before wrapping them up. As a kid, they were served whole and part of the appeal was trying to hold up a massive hot dog.
After dinner, we asked the kids what they wanted to do and gave them three choices 1) go home and go to bed 2) go home and build the bunk beds 3) go to the park and play. Our kids all three picked bunk beds. So we went home and bunked Joe and Tom's bed in order to give them more room in their room. We'll see how it goes.

Well that's okay

Thursday my mother-in-law babysat the kids for me so that I could try to get some things done. I am proud say that I got most of my errands done.
I got birth certificates for Tom and Sam (already have one for Joe).
I got new glasses. Unfortunately, they don't carry the same style as I had gotten last time so I had to branch out to something else. I can always find what I really don't like but have a harder time finding things I do like. The place I go has a 2 pair for $99 special. I was going to end up paying $99 whether I got two pairs or not, so I went ahead and got two pairs. I have always gotten the anti-reflective coating on my glasses, ever since I started wearing glasses in college. I chose not to pay the extra $40 per pair this time. I regret it already. I think I may have to go back and get it.
While waiting for my glasses to finish, I got my hair cut and my lip waxed. My friend Jessica's waxing story inspired me to try it for the first time, but I decided to try it small. It didn't really hurt. My stylist must have misunderstood me when I talked about my hair, at least about the length. It is quite short and I am not sure what to do with it. It looks okay, but I haven't had hair this short before and have a hard time styling it. I'm sure it will work out and it will grow out. Jay was surprised too about the length.
I dropped off my watch to have the crystal replaced. It is completely broken and I was worried about water getting into it. I meant to take my back-up watch in for a battery, but I forgot. Now I am without watch. It is very weird for me and I will have to figure something out before I go insane from not having a watch.
I also used some of the money I earned babysitting the neighbor to buy a new outfit. I got both the shirt and pants on sale! The shirt was $7 off the regular price and the pants were 40% off.
All in all, a successful day. The kids had a fun time with grandma and did pretty well.
I went out with some friends last night for dancing in celebration of a birthday. $6 for a bottomless cup. I tend to drink for about an hour and then switch to diet coke for the rest of the time. I probably should switch to something different than diet coke. I tend to have too much caffeine and spend the rest of the night awake. I spilled a rum and diet coke all over my brand new pants. That was a little irksome. At least it dried quick. I had a pretty good time and actually danced a bit.

A pretty good Wednesday

I fear Wednesdays. Jay leaves for work in the morning and then goes sailing directly after work so he isn't home until 10 pm. I have the kids from 7 in the morning until late. Usually Wednesday just aren't good, no matter what activities we have planned. Today wasn't so bad.
We had a slight hiccup while trying to get the kids to clean up and then into bed. The day was pretty nice and relaxed and fun. I am calm because of it. I have hope that perhaps this weekend while he is sailing won't be so bad.
I was looking forward to getting lots and lots done tomorrow because my mother-in-law will be watching the kids all day per our agreement. She called this evening to say she would be here around 10:30 or 11. What? I have an appointment at 10 and had hoped to go to the courthouse before then. I had requested she be here really early, but she said "I don't know when I'll get up". So I had to call and cancel my appointment. They do walkins, but I just didn't want to have to wait around forever.
Hopefully I will still get everything done that I wanted to. My appointment was for new glasses since Sammy broke mine months ago. I really need them. I'm starting to get headaches again. A sure sign I need to let my eyes rest. I need to go to the courthouse and get birth certificate copies for Sam and Tom. I have to apply in person for some silly reason. I also hope to get a much needed haircut and a little shopping. Hopefully it will go well.
I jogged this morning (as usual) but last night was the first night that I have slept through without waking up at all. I think that I jogged half of my jog with my eyes closed. I just didn't want to wake up. On the plus side it is getting slightly easier to get up. I set out my clothes at night so I feel like I really have to do it.

Um, what?

I was babysitting my neighbor's son today at his house. They have a pool so we all went swimming. As I was serving the afternoon treat, Jay came home. He knew where to find me and came over to the house. At first I thought "holy cow, it's 5:30 already!" but then realized that there was just no way for it to be 5:30. It wasn't. It was only about 4:45. What brings you home early, I asked.
Well, Jay had some big stuff to discuss with me.
Yeah....
Some higher up guy came to Jay today (the guy is one of the ones who's coordinating some of the Australia stuff). The guy asked Jay if he was still on the list for Austraila. Then proceded to ask Jay if he would be ready to move in July. July 2010? No, July as in this month. Jay then said, well how about January. The guy said "how about August?" Jay then said he would have to talk to me.
August.
As in a month from now.
What????!!!!!!!
So, here's the deal. We have no clue if Jay will actually be needed. NGC has decided to move some of the Australia stuff to Australia earlier rather than later. As of tomorrow, Jay's name will be on the list to move earlier too. No clue if they will actually move Jay and we probably won't know until early August if they actually plan to move Jay early. We would go too.
I am going to do my very very best not to freak completely out. I am a planner and a worrier. I don't like this not knowing stuff. Nor do I like the only a few weeks notice stuff. Of course, they could decided not to send Jay and it would be January still.
Just craziness!

Complaint department and our Sunday

Sometimes I feel like my blog has become my own personal complaint department, but at the same time I feel I have to censor what I write simply because I know there are certain people who could read it.
No, I don't want to complain about everything. No, I don't like to complain. I just need an outlet sometimes. Sorry, that's just the way it is.

Our day today was fairly uneventful. We drove our trailer to the Eastern shore to drop off our stuff. It went it just fine. My mom is still out of town until Saturday. Apparently, my mom exaggerated my uncle's condition. He can walk, but is in bad pain and can't go upstairs. He is not being a good patient (he's at home) and is driving my aunt up the wall. I'm glad that it is not quite as horrible as my mom first said, though I hope the operation on Wednesday goes well.
Anyway, while we were driving over to Cambridge, we could see that traffic was already backing up on the west bound lanes.
We unloaded, visited a bit and then headed home. The drive that normally takes about 1 1/2 hours, it took over 2 hours just to get to Severna Park. We stopped for dinner at Bill Bateman's. It was an enjoyable dinner. Jay had two very large beers as he has had a stressful weekend. Sam was playing with my hand and asked how I got the lines on it. Jay (in his beer enhanced state) very loudly said "I got very over zealous in bed once" Several people turned to look at him. Oh my. Sometimes, Jay's internal filter doesn't work.

Such fun!

Despite the multiple plan changes, we had a wonderful 4th of July! After my mom called Saturday morning, we set out to find some fireworks. We searched online and found a few options. We decided on Annapolis simply because it was closest. We decided to park at the Navy stadium and get shuttled into town. We arrived there about 6 pm, just in time to try to find a seat for the parade. We finally found a spot of curb that was empty. The only downside was that we were right next to a drainage grate and most of the candy thrown at the boys went right down the drain. (Joe later said "It wasn't so great for the candy to go down the grate") The parade was a lot of fun, but nothing like the freedom parades from my high school days. There was only one marching band, and it was from a performing arts group. There were lots of fire trucks, horses, old cars and political groups. Joe's favorite was the tiller fire truck, Tom's was the belly dancing float, and Sam's was a canine group (about 30+ dogs, many dressed in patriotic attire). Jay and I both like the floats that were decorated like boats. I, of course, had brief grand ideas about the Pasadena PBA Parade.
The parade finally ended and we had to go in search of some dinner. We were hoping for street vendors, but no such luck. We went into a small restaurant off the city dock and ordered some pizza and wraps to go. While waiting for our food, I finally sent Jay and the boys outside to listen to the Navy band so they wouldn't go crazy inside. It was very long wait for out food, over 1/2 an hour. Finally, it arrived and I had to go search out Jay and the kids. They had managed to score a small corner down on the dock. While eating, I bought three glow light necklaces and we listened to music. Even though we were quite close to the music, there were so many people that it was hard to hear. Finally at just after 9, the fireworks started. They were off to the left of where we were, but we had perfect seats. Jay always has good luck like that. The fireworks were beautiful and the finale was awe inspiring. Sammy was a little nervous the whole time as loud noises make him like that.
After the fireworks we had to walk a long way back uphill to the shuttle bus. Once we got there, we saw a line that was over a block and a half long. The line headed towards the stadium so once we got towards the end of the line, I wanted us to just keep walking. I figured it was only about a 20 minute walk. Jay hesitated because of the boys, but then decided if I was game, so was he. Jay put Sam on his shoulders and I held hands with Joe and Tom. We made it just fine with minimal complaining from the bigger boys. It was about 15 minutes back to the car.
As a kid, we always went somewhere for fireworks. There were many times were we on vacation so the place was different, but we almost always went somewhere. We were often in Arkansas with grandparents and cousins. We would all go over to the mall and sit in the grass on a blanket. Us kids would bring card games to play while we waited. I have pretty vivid memories of Uno and fireworks which would have been before 7th grade. I'm glad we had a good time and got to see some fireworks this year. Obviously, they don't celebrate July 4th in Australia. They do have Australia day in January, but that could fall during the time we are in the states.

As a side note, when I was in high school in Evansville, I was in the marching band for two years. Both years, we marched in the Freedom parade. It was part of the Freedom Festival and Thunder on the Ohio. All of the marching bands in the city participated in this parade. It was kinda a big deal. It was a very long very tiring parade for those of us marching, but at least we didn't have to do it in full uniform, just shorts and our band shirts. I haven't found any local parades like the ones I was used to. Even the West Side Fall Festival parade in Evansville had both of the west side high school bands in it.

This wasn't what we had planned

On Thursday, we had a pretty decent plan for the weekend. Saturday would be spent in Calvert County the entire day visiting family and allowing Jay to race in the annual 4th of July pool races. We would miss the 4th of July games taking place on the 3rd because Jay has to work.
I went out for my final MOMS Club board meeting as soon as Jay got home on Thursday so I wasn't able to talk to him much. When I got home from dinner, he announced that he didn't have to work. "Great" I said. "Well, yeah, I thought so...until my mom called."
I figured that she was just calling to set up some baby sitting that I had requested. No, she was calling to tell Jay that he had to remove all of his stuff from the cabin. (Which we planned to do it August anyway.) Problem was it had to be out this weekend, no reason given. When I asked her about it later and why it was so sudden, she just said that she'd known for a while that it needed to get out, but still no reason.
Well, we had quite a bit of furniture there plus all the spare engines for the Checker. We have no place to put them right now. We were planning to rent some storage place in the same building my dad has some rented, but we were planning to do it in August.
So our plans had to change. We decided to do to go to the cabin/Calvert County on Friday. We would then get to do the 4th of July games on Friday but Jay would have to miss competing in the pool races. Saturday we would drive all of our stuff to my mom's house and unload at the storage place. We would then spend the day in her community pool and hit the fireworks in Cambridge.
Friday went okay. The games started super early this year, at 9:30 so we missed most of the games. We were there to participate in the egg race and the egg toss. Jay managed to pull 3rd place in the egg race, but we didn't get any other ribbons this year. And I am proud to say that the egg in the egg toss broke in Jay's hands, not mine. We gathered up Jay's dad and his girlfriend and went over to the cabin. Jay loaded up the engines, while I tried to locate all of our stuff. The cabin is being renovated and the floors refinished (or installed for the first time). All the stuff has been shoved upstairs into the sleeping loft.
We got most of what we wanted loaded onto the trailer when Jay's mom announced that the furniture could actually stay for a bit longer. Jay said "no, if we are being kicked out, then we're leaving." We will have to go back in August for the rest of our stuff. It just couldn't fit in the car or trailer.
We swam in the community pool for about 45 minutes and then we headed home. I had made chili in the crock pot while Jay had made bread in the bread machine before we left. Something went horribly wrong with the bread and was a total loss. We had chili though and put the kids to bed as it was pretty late already.

We woke up Saturday morning to the phone ringing at 7 am. We don't have a phone in our room anymore and neither of us felt like getting up to answer it. We get so many wrong numbers that there is little point in rushing to the phone. Shortly after the house phone stopped ringing, my cell phone started ringing. Well, this can't be good. There is usually only 1 reason to call so early. I didn't get to my cell phone in time but the call was from my mom. I called her back right away.
My uncle Joe (her brother-in-law) had a herniated disk rupture last night which caused some of the bones in his spine to break, the bone fragments are pushing on his spine and he is paralyzed. He is going in for surgery on Wedseday with the hope that if they remove the fragments, then he won't be paralyzed anymore. Mom is flying down today to help her sister with her kids (ages 12 and 7) and whatnot. Mom asked that we not come to her house today because Dad is taking her to the airport and won't be home.
So no pool or firework plans for Saturday. We promised our kids fireworks so we are scrambled to find some other plans but man o man, this was not what we had planned.
We are going to unload our stuff on Sunday now and Sunday's plan of bunking the big boys' beds got moved for today.

It's been awhile

It's been a long while since I posted. I am just being lazy. I have no other excuse. I'm not sleeping well at night. I think I am stressed, hot, and worried about little stuff. As usual, the air conditioning is not on. Jay prefers that and since I don't make enough money to pay the increase in the bill, I tend to go along with it. The humidity gets a bit too much at times. I am having allergy problems right now too. For only a short time every year, I am stuffed up and sneezing as the flowering trees outside our bedroom start to bloom. I will be like this until they are done blooming. I am only miserable while in our room or that half of the house. Unfortunately, our bedroom is slightly cooler than the living room or else I'd sleep on the couch.
I am still jogging most mornings. I did not get up this morning. I didn't fall asleep until about 2:30 last night and so 6:20 was just too early. 7:20 was also too early, but I had to get up with the kids.
My wrist has been causing problems too. I think I am sleeping on it wrong or something. I have no clue why it hurts, just that it is bothering me.
July should be a busy month. We are going to Calvert County this Saturday and to Montana in 2 1/2 weeks. I don't feel ready for the Montana trip. There's not really anything to get ready, other than packing. I just feel unready though.
Well, I need to get moving. Dogs and chickens are waiting on me.