reminiscing & KART races

Yesterday Brian took the boys into Santa Maria to watch kart racing. He’d like to get the boys into that. I think it is about $350 for the family membership for the year (year round daily access to the track, too) and then it costs about $60 per race. We definitely need one of the smaller houses if he wants to afford stuff like that.

I visited with Patty while they were in Santa Maria. That was nice. We chatted and went to the neighbors to let out the dog. I petted some cute kittens. I met her son Robert who just arrived home from a missions trip. It was nice of her to entertain me while Brian and the boys were doing their thing.

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

This morning Ki, Connor and I went for a walk down the block and around the corner from the hotel. Connor took off like a dart again, on the way back. He cut through the gas station and went back to the hotel. He takes off a lot. At the library today he finished his time on their computer and just went outside; his brothers tagging along.

His running off is much better, and easier to deal with, now that he is older. He has scared me a couple times. I remember walking the neighborhood looking for him and wondering what he’d do when he realized wherere he was. If he’d stay there or head home and if I’d miss him as a he went a different route than I.

I remember all the time he walked out of the house to play in the backyard or walk in the street.( naked or in his undies) I always kept a close eye on him so often saw him walking out or realized right away. Once on a cold February day (about 20 degrees) I found him naked in the back yard with the house on playing in a puddle.

ARCHES

pictures from Moab. It was an awesome place! The rocks were amazing. They had neat fungis on them. Blues and yellows and a black spotchily one. and the formations and colors of the rocks and arches were great, too. It was like being in another world.

The boys climbing up a sand hill. They are tiny dots.

Connor coming down.......

update

June 25, 2008

Still no cats. In the beginning I hoped to have them here by now. Brian says the hotel room is too small and maybe they should stay there till we get into a house. Maybe he is right, but I miss my cat.

The vet messed up their last appointment. All I asked for was their health check (for the plane) and rabies shot. He gave them all their vaccines. I just get rabies shots for my cats. He always wants to give them all their shots and tests. He even ran a Leukemia test on them. It was supposed to be $88 for what I asked. I left the money with my dad. The vet decided to do everything and it cost about $250. My dad had to pay. I feel awful. I called and tried to see if I could work something out, since he did more than what I asked for without my permission. But I guess my dad let him and he was the one taking them. I’m in California. The vet is in Ohio. I don’t know what else I can do. Just write a check for my dad.

I want to live in Lompoc. We haven’t found a place here yet. Keep praying for God to bring us to our house quickly. Lompoc would be perfect. It’s close to everything we need, close to Brian’s work, close to the homeschool group and youth center. And that seems like a good idea with gas prices the way they are. Plus just saving on time. But I know that where God puts us will be the perfect place. I just hope His perfect and mine match up this time.

I am growing impatient. Already. We haven’t been here that long. I’m not really impatient about finding a house. I’m impatient about getting involved. We have our library cards. Brian, Connor and Gavin got theirs on Sunday. I felt weird about applying for a library card with an out of state address. It went well. I decided to get mine yesterday. A different lady was in charge and she gave me a hard time. But she looked up my husband’s and saw there were other out of state cards and gave me my card. We have books and the boys are in the Reading Program. We haven’t done a reading program since Kindergarten days.

I am trying to sign up for the Base Youth Center, but I don’t have an address yet.
There is an animal shelter here that is mostly cats. My boys want to volunteer there.

Oh, there is a 50 cent fee here for inter library loans. I’m not used to that. It was free where we lived in Ohio. I looked up some of the series the kids and I read and they are not all at 1 location, but spread over 2-3 locations.

I really need to not get too involved in case we end up in Santa Maria and not here.

Sand Dollars, Jelly Fish... I got stung

We went to the beach this morning. We bought an umbrella and mats last night. We picked up a few snacks for the cooler. We arrived at the beach.
The heat wave has broken. It was COLD!!!! Connor huddles up under the umbrella for a while.
Gavin and Ki quickly took to the waves.
Connor finally decided to run down to the shore and touch the water with his toe and run back. Then Brian brought some neat rocks, so Connor decided to go rock hunting. He found 1/2 a Sand Dollar. Is that a Sand 50Cent Piece? The he huddles up wrapped in a towel; this time he was on the sand and in the sun.
A little while later he decided to run down and touch the water again. This time he stayed and splashed. and found some full amount sand dollars.
Gavin saw a big purple jelly fish in the waves. It ended up washed up onto the beach. Then a second one… then a 3rd…… There ended up being about 5 or 6 of them washed up on shore.
I got stung. I was helping Connor bury up to his neck. The tide was coming in and we were working quickly. A little sand bee crawled into my sandal and stung me on the foot a couple times.
We were there about 3 hours. It warmed up around noon.
As soon as we got back to the hotel, Gavin and Ki went to the pool. Connor and Brian watched the NASCAR race. I showered and blogged. And got pics off the camera card.
COMING UP - - - pics of the Flower Seed Capital of the USA……

CHANGED

originally, we were to move sometime between Jan - May. when thhe weather wasn't 100 stinking degrees. This is just too hot and way too many sangrivores. mosquitoes. So I asked Brian if we could just go to Calli. now. From where we'll be in California, we can drive to the Grand Canyon area in a day. We can wait till October when it's not boiling hot.

So we might be in CA in 2 days.

BOOKS BOOKS!

I bought graphic novels for the kids to read. I know; “Graphic Novels” make them sound like smutty books. No, I did not buy Smutty Books for my boys. They are comic books, but in a book format (a novel) instead of the comic book type book. The ones I bought are based on the kids’ cartoon Teen Titans. Ki loves them! Ki is my slow reader. Reading is a lot of hard work for him due to his dyslexia and SID and dyspraxia. So these short portions for reading are good for him. He has been reading a lot this trip. He even asked me if I had another book for him to read!

I’ll be stopping at Barnes and Nobles in the next big town to see if I can find some more graphic novels got Ki (and his brothers)

☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺

Yesterday while I was sitting in the van at the gas station, the boys all went in to use the restroom. Apparently, they took in some money and bought snacks. Ki bought Jolly Ranchers for himself. He bought a bag of Swedish Fish for me. I thought was sweet of him to use his money to buy a snack for me. I never would have done that for my mom or dad when I was a kid. He is just so sweet and thoughtful; such a HUGE difference than who he was about 6-9 yra ago. He was so angry and full of rage and violence. He’d bring papers home from Sunday School with Jesus and the sheep colored as covered on blood and killed. Sometimes Jesus would have a sword and all other people on the coloring page were bloody. It’s been a long road and lots of therapy, but he is doing so well now.

☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺

I need some Shut Eye. My Fioricet makes me sleepy.
☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺☺♥☺

I bought books. Lots. 2 Graphic Novels for Ki (Avatar cartoon). For Connor, I bought 2 Cat Warrior Graphic Novels and the Next Cat Warrior Hardback (next for him and fairly new, as the paperbacks won’t be out till Nov.) HE was a little concerned about the price since it was only available in hardback so cost more than the paperback. I told him not to worry about it. I bought “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” for Gavin. C&K were in the store with me. I wanted to get Holes for Gavin. I thought Connor would like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It seemed his kind of writing. I guess he and Ki both liked it, because they said I had to get it for Gavin. Hmmmmm….. maybe they hope to read it next. As soon as we got in the van Ki and Connor were reading their books. Gavin was on the cell phone with his best friend back in Ohio.

* I bought To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. She wrote The Doomsday Book, which is one of my favorites.

A Day of Battle Techs

My boys got to play in a Battletech Simulator. They get into the cockpit, use the controls and fight other players in their mech cockpits. They are all set up like real battle techs. Different Mechs with different abilities. Here are a few pictures and a short video. They loved it. Connor got 21 kills in one 10 minute session. They all played, even Brian. I guess they played about 10 or 11 times.

VIDEO of the SCREEN DISPLAY

TRIP UPDATE

June 10, 2008
Travel Journal.

We are on the road again. A 9 hour trip from Omaha to Denver. We just left Brian’s sister’s place. Brian and I went to Starbuck’s this morning. Dan and Sallie came with us.

I gave the GPS to Connor for this leg of the trip. He really enjoyed it. We had him find a place to eat lunch. I think he really enjoyed that. He found a place, told us the miles and which exit number and all the boys kept track of how many exits. After a while Connor said we have 8 miles left to get to the exit and we are going about 70 and we’d have to drive to the place and park, so it should take us 7 minutes.

Afterwards, while we were in the van waiting for his brothers, Connor reset the MAX SPEED, then he help the GPS tightly and RAN across the parking lot and grassy area. He got the MAX speed to 9.7. He thought that was great fun! He had the biggest, giggly smile on his face wile running with the GPS unit.

It is Gavin’s turn with the GPS now. He enjoys watching the map change as we go along and finding the next road or river we will cross and checking the mileage all along the way. He touches all the rivers and areas so the GPS will display the name.

۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

I drove 50 miles while pulling the camper! Yeah Me! I hate hate hate driving, so driving and pulling a camper and going through construction was a really big thing for me. I had my Driving Snack. Fig Newton sans SoBe Energy Juice this time.

۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

About 4 PM Mountain Time the landscape suddenly changed. Pretty much as we entered Colorado. It went from the lush green farmland of Nebraska with a gazillion lakes and rivers, to ‘SouthWestern Landscape”, short grasses, sage bush, yucca-looking plants, cacti and we even saw some tumble weed!~ And some lonh horn steer to complete the picture! As much as I have always waned to live in an area such as Ohio for the lush green plants and full trees, it is exciting to see the new landscape. Cacti and Tumbleweed. Yucca and sage. The openness does have a nice quality; being able to see for miles and miles A row of clouds against the horizon.


۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

The rest stop had a display of T-Shirts. They were those Christian Logo Shirts. Like “Jesus died for
MYSPACE
in heaven”

and one with a STARBUCKS LOGO, it had Jesus with a crown og thorns, drawn in the manner of the lady in the Starbucks Logo and read:SACRIFICED
FOR ME
Around the green circle. w/ Heb 10:10 split in the middle of the green circle

Ki was thinking of buying a shirt. I liked the one that said
ORGAN DONOR with the red medical symbol between the words
And in small print underneath it said “I gave my heart to God” and had a verse ref.
I mainly wrote that to remind me to look them up online when we have an address. I told Ki that they might be cheaper online.


۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

The exits were not many. In fact at the exits they’d warn the next exit wouldn’t be for 10 or 15 miles. We got on the BIG E on gas, took an exit for gas and it turns out to be 6 more miles off the exit on turns and twists and a Mom & Pop place (which aren’t always open we have found), so we got back on the highway. There was another chain gas station 15 miles away.

۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

We stopped at Chipotle for dinner. It was a small town, had a Walmart and a few stores and fast food places. The stop signs and he cross walk signs had lights on the sign and were powered by solar panels… it was neat! And their was a sign at the edge of the Walmart parking lot that warned that they have special lines and if the shopping carts are taken outside the parking lot they lock up ! How do they do that?? I wanted to take a cart past the edge and experience auto wheel lock up.


۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼
۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼۞ ☼۝☼

Wendy (the GPS) needs some serious map updates!

We are in Aurora, CO tonight. Tomorrow we hang around Denver and drive to Colorado Springs in the early evening.

PICS and video

At the Park in Omaha with the cousins

FIRST DAY of the trip

June 6, 2008

• We left the house at 10:33 AM. After a stop at the realtor’s and a fuelling stop (10:45), we hit the highway at around 10:55.
• Brian’s mom almost cried. We all did our hugs and prayed together.
• GPS units are fun. It has trip-meter. It calculates our average speeds, keeps track of how long we’ve been stopped, how long till we arrive, and more. The boys like it; especially Gavin. It’s great for his constant asking of questions. His go beyond the normal “Are we there yet?” Gavin’s questions are: “How many miles till we get there? What’s our average speed? How many miles have we gone so far and how long have we been on the road?”
۞ This morning he calculated an average estimate for how many hours from Ohio to Lompoc, Cal. It is about 2,362 miles. He decided to round it to 2,400 to make it easily divisible by an average speed of 60 MPH (though highway speed limits are more, with construction and pulling a camper he figured 60 MPH was a good average. First he did it with 2, 362 miles and that makes it 2, 362 minutes. I told him most people don’t want to know how many minutes, but how many miles. That’s why he decided to round it up to 2,400 miles. Made it easier to get the average hours. 2,400 divieded-by 60.
• I like watching our vehicle on the GPS unit go around the cloverleaf ramps when getting on the highway. And watching our van go over rivers and state borders and passing by parks and lakes.
• The boys also like to see our arrival time change as we go along our trip. (due to stopping for lunch or going slowly through traffic)
• They are watching a DVD. We have the player that drops open from the ceiling. (not that we wanted it, but we wanted a Honda Odyssey and could only afford a use done and this one came with it. But it is nice.) They usually just watch a DVD in the evening when it’s too dark to do their other stuff, but we let them start a big trip with a movie.

** Connor broke the main wire of his braces. **

• They are watching “RV” w/ Robin Williams. I have never seen it, but they have seen it before. It’s been like this more recently. The boys having seen movies we haven’t. I talk about renting a DVD and they say, “We’ve already seen that.” HUH? When? Where? Usually it’s at Bible Study (the kids sometimes watch movies in the basement) or with Grammy/Pappy or Mimi/Papa.
~~~After 5 ½ hours of driving, our gas tank was EMPTY so we had to fill up a second time in ONE day! The gov’t is supposed to reimburse our gas if we submit receipts so we are being sure to keep all of them.
• 4:40- Brian looks in the rear mirror and notices our pop up camper is popped-up on one corner. We pull over and a few cables are loose as well. The boys go out to help him. It’s nice having older boys that can do these things. Gone are the days of 3 little boys in car seats.
• Backing-up… around 2 we drove through a thunderstorm with a tornado watch… while towing a camper. JOY.
• The fields were often flooded. Ponds of water in the middle of rows of newly sprouting plants. The rain bouncing off the ponds in id field were interesting to see.
• 4:54- the 4 men seem to have the camper fixed and are getting all tied-down, or cranked and latched down, I guess. Not bad at all, considering Brian was afraid this would be a one hour delay. Ki and I prayed it would be easily remedied.
• YEAH GOD!
• The camper popped open again. Brian bought a strap to keep it closed until we get to Eric and Kim’s place. We arrived around 1:30 am.
• SO NEEDED/WANTED a shower, but fell instantly asleep.