Are we done yet?

I feel like asking myself "are we done yet?" I am flustered with packing, and the raging mess my house has become. Piles everywhere, random items floating around the house. I feel like I need to be further along in my packing, but we still have a few days, and most things are necessary for survival. Even things I originally thought we could do without, have found their way back into the mix of things. I wish I could just teleport all our belongings, and meet them in Seattle.

OK, only a few more days of packing. Then the drive, then the unpack. This sounds like a lot. I think I will take a nap!

Here's our new house!

Goin' out West

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have an announcement. This Roberts family is officially high-tailin' it out of the mid-west, and heading straight for the northwest. Seattle, Washington to be exact. I know what you are all thinking "is she serious?" "Didn't they just move?" "Why?" "What about the cows?" Well, there are many reasons, the first being that job opportunities are just not readily available here in Rolla. Jon has had a rough run searching out steady employment here. So he started searching nationwide. He literally looked everywhere. Then he called a land-surveying company in Seattle. They were so excited to hear from him, they asked him to fly out as soon as he could for a face to face interview. He was nervous and excited when he flew out Sunday morning. He had a stack of other surveying jobs, just in case, and another pile rent-to-owns to check out. He was offered the job on the spot, and then set out to find us a place to live. After finding a great ranch-style home, he thought, "I can't believe how easy this was to get all of this taken care of. I found us a home and a job in one day."

While in Seattle he also visited Sarah, Iris and Charlie. He had a great time, and thought they were such a cute little family.

So Wednesday came, and Jon was ready to fly home. Once at the airport, he learned that the Chicago airport (where he had a layover) had stopped all traffic due to a lightning storm. The Chicago airport is the second largest in the country and has an airplane landing and taking off every 30 seconds. The airport was shut down for two hours, so you do the math. He left Seattle not knowing what was ahead of him. When his airplane got to Chicago is flew around and around waiting to land. Then it ran low on gas, so they flew to Indianapolis to re-fuel. They were on the runway waiting for fuel for three hours. When he got to Chicago, he had missed his flight to St Louis of course. All flights were cancelled, and so he was stuck in Chicago. After waiting in line a million hours, he finally went to the smaller second airport in Chicago, and caught a flight leaving at 7am. We met him at Lambert International at 8am. The boys and I went up to the big city for a quick-pick-up-dad-and-get-home trip, and ended up staying the night at his sister Susan's house. They were great to us, and we really had a fun time. Zion woke up around 2am, so I brought him into my bed, and what a nightmare. Gosh that kid doesn't even slow down to sleep!

Anyways, we are finally home here in Rolla. Well, it's our home until the last of March. I have been packing, and sorting. I am a pro packer, and should look into it as a career! I am excited to move back out west. I am also sad to leave this area that we have been in so long. I know the boys will miss their grandparents extremely. I suppose the most consistant thing in life is change. So here's to another big change in our life.

PS I hope I am still sane after the drive. Anyone want to go on a tour de freeways?

Pictures

Here are a couple of random pictures of the boys.


Finger painting.

Fun in a box

All smiles


Look what Juddah caught in his butterfly net!

A Whole New World

It has been so long since I have posted a blog entry. I know all my fans (ok, family members)are just dying to hear about my life. The thing is, I always forget my camera when we go do fun things, and my blog entries are just better with pictures.

Lately we have had fun going to playgroups, library, parades, and yesterday, da da da da "Disney On Ice!" Jon's sister gets tickets from her work to all kinds of events. She snagged some for us. The theme was "the Princess Collection" So as you can imagine, Juddah and Zion were some of the only boys. It was a great adventure though. We had a special parking pass so we were able to park right by the doors. Juddah was so entranced by it all. The music and lights were great. Zion liked it for about 5 minutes, which was a long time for him. Then we spent the rest of the time running around the concessions. Juddah stayed with Ashley his cousin who is my age.

While Zion and I were running around I was awed by all the stuff they were selling. $16 whirly light things, $10 cotton candy, $14 snow cone in a theme cup, shirts, popcorn, toys, figures, fairy wings, etc, all extremely over priced and cheaply made. But people we shelling out the big bucks for all kinds of gear. Every girl around us had a light-up tiara, and wand, and sooo many treats. I am cheap, we brought our own treats, and didn't buy anything. Sorry Disney, I hope we didn't cut your profits by too much!

We really had a great time, and the boys slept great last night. Thanks for inviting us Auntie Susan!

Puppy Love

Juddah always pretends he has a dog, or is a dog named "Lightning." We have talked on and off about getting a dog, but have always decided against it. On Sunday Juddah announced "I need a puppy." So Dad hopped online and found a dog he thought would be great. I didn't know for sure if he was going to get the dog, and then when he got home "surprise" a little puppy was in his arms.

Wow a new member of our family, and I didn't even get any stretch marks!



The boys have been so excited. The dog seems to love Juddah the most. She follows him everywhere. Zion runs around saying "chase, chase!" Juddah named the dog "Lightning." I have tried to convince him to name her something else, like Rover, or Kaya,or pretty much anything, but he insists, her name is "Lightning."


She is a really smart dog too. She is part Australian Sheppard, and part farm collie. Yesterday we took her to the farm, and Karen was moving the rams out of the field that the girl sheep are in. Lightning, ran right to the pasture, and separated the girls from the ram. It was amazing. We were all shocked that she knew just what to do. We hope we can train her to help us move cattle. We are working on house training her. Which, I have not been to consistent at. I can't really follow her around everywhere to make sure she doesn't poop or pee. I know it just takes time, but seriously, can she start picking up after herself?? So far so good. I have had mixed feelings about having a puppy, but she has been so fun.

So if anyone has any good potty training tips send them my way.

Catch o' the Day

This morning at 3am the alarm went off. "It's three already?" I mumbled. Jon shot out of bed, excited for opening day of trout season. I heard him bumbling around getting all his gear on. At six I heard thunder, lightning and hail. I pictured Jon at Meramec Springs, disappointed that he wasn't able to fish. But when he got home he had two nice looking trout in his cooler. I asked him if he was scarred to be chest deep in a river while a thunder storm roared overhead. He said "I wasn't scarred, but I told the guy next to me if I was hit by lightning, he could have my pole!" The boys were so excited to see the shiny fish I could barely get them to eat breakfast. Now we have beautiful fish fillets in our fridge. What should I serve with fish?


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I figured out how to change the font size, so I hope this makes my blog easier to read, and it makes my entries look longer, double bonus!!