Journey to our new home

The following days were extremely exciting and incredibly boring all at the same time. Our journey to Boise was uneventful, broken up by rest stops to go potty and change the DVD when the movie was over. Kaytie drove our new van with Ashleigh and Patrick in tow, and William and Spencer had the daunting task of making sure that all of our belongings made it safely to our new home.

Day 1: The first leg of the trip brought us to the home of uncle Roy and aunt Sierra. Kaytie and the two younger kids arrived at the house about an hour before William and Spencer made it. Mostly due to the limited speed of the burdened moving truck (we managed to squeeze our entire lives into a 16' box truck!) in addition to a few spontaneous father/son moments that they shared along the way. That evening the children played, Ashleigh renewed her bond with Sadie, and the adults got a hot meal, warm shower, and soft bed for the night.

Day 2: The following morning we left bright and early, and made the journey to the home of aunt Sierra's father, Papa Simpson, in Farmington, UT. Both families made the trip as uncle Roy and aunt Sierra had tickets to a play to attend with Papa Simpson. Kaytie and aunt Sierra drove the van with Owen and Patrick, William had Spencer in the truck, and uncle Roy drove Brayden, Ashleigh, and Gavin in their truck. It was one of the shorter days of driving and everyone made good time, except for William in the moving truck of course. William did make an unscheduled stop in Provo however, to visit with his dear brother John and to give him a few things to care for. Upon arrival, Kaytie stayed at the house to keep track of the collective brood, and William and Spencer arrived approximately 2 hours behind everyone else. The children had a blast playing ping pong, reading books, playing video games, and throwing a parachuted army man off the upstairs banister. Gavin only got lost a handful of times... Later that night Sierra and Roy brought home delicious dinner. We ate better than most medieval kings!

Day 3: The next day we bid Papa Simpson a fond farewell and retook our journey. Roy drove the van with Kaytie, Ashleigh and Patrick, and once again William and Spencer piloted the moving truck. We were looking down the barrel of a nearly 8 hour drive to the home of uncle Roy's in-laws in Farmington, NM. The first part of the drive was arguably longer due to winding roads, steep grades, and strong winds. We reached the mid point of our journey and stopped for lunch. From here on the drivers of each vehicle kept closer tabs on each other so that we could take our rest stops, gas ups, and other breaks together. The tempo of the journey accelerated, unfortunately the truck did not. With a top speed of 65 m.p.h. and highway speed limits in excess of 70 m.p.h. it became tedious. We arrived just in time for dinner! Roy's in-laws had prepared a lovely spread of enchiladas and rice, and we dove in with a vigor that would belie William's slight form... ok we ate like pigs! Happy now? We spent the evening playing games in the basement before bedding down for the night.

Day 4:We woke refreshed and invigorated. Then we remembered that we still had another 8 hour drive that day... But after a hearty breakfast and farewells laced with invitations to return on the way back, we hit the open road. Roy at the helm of the Van, and you can probably guess by this point who was driving that gorram truck. (That's not autocorrect, if you get the reference, here's a high five for you) This leg was pretty uneventful, and was broken up only by the need to refuel, both the vehicles and the humans, or to relieve ourselves. Our destination was Amarillo, TX, and as we traversed the states, a sense of impending change began to weigh upon the collective minds of both Kaytie and William. We had passed the mid point of the whole journey the previous day, and that knowledge settled uneasily as we continued further from home than either of us had ever been, and for longer than we ever have. This day also featured our first real big city experience. We drove through Albuquerque NM. While we didn't stop to see any sights in the city, the freeway system with it's soaring and complicated on ramp/off ramp system was dizzying. Our path lie on one of the highest ramps, and that served to be an incredibly nerve wracking experience for a certain moving truck driver. However we survived and put that mess behind us as quickly as we could. We made it to Amarillo and stayed in a hotel that night. All three children opted to sleep in uncle Roy's room on the spare bed.

Day 5: After a paltry "continental breakfast" at the hotel, we made preparations for the final leg of our journey. Upon fueling up the rigs we got underway. I am not even gonna tell you who drove what, I think you get the idea by now. The drive to Dallas went quicker than anticipated. Once we reached the city limits however, the stress level skyrocketed! We hit the town pre-rush hour and it was incredibly busy. The highways were 4+ lanes, but virtually bumper to bumper. Relying on GPS to navigate added to the stress as we were often advised to take this exit or that with little time to merge into the appropriate lane. After what felt like an interminable ordeal, we took the final off ramp onto blessed residential roads. Moments later we pulled up to the house that we would spend the next several years (hopefully) calling and making into home. The unload went surprisingly quick as the truck backed up virtually to the front porch. We built the bunk bed and dressed the mattresses for Ashleigh, Kaytie and William. Uncle Roy ordered pizza, and scheduled an Uber. Later we said a regretful and grateful farewell to uncle Roy, this journey would have been much more of a burden without him and Roy was an incredible blessing, Ashleigh and Patrick have such wonderful memories of their uncle now to look back on. From our family, thank you Roy.

How did this all get started?

Let me start with when we first started this journey.  It was middle of February I believe. We were just done with not being able to do the things we had wanted, sick of living paycheck to paycheck and tired of being limited by things that were within our control, but that we hadn't taken control of. We were looking for answers. Then one day William came to me and says, "I am tired of waiting for life to happen to us, it is time for me to go get what I want. So I contacted this school to see about attending." I was in shock, it came out of no where. Then the next month was trying to get transcripts and old colleges to communicate. We had a big issue with Carrington, since they were rearranging their whole school at the time. It took about a month and a few upgraded calls to get them to finally give us an answer. At this point we didn't know whether William would be able to go. He needed to have 60 credits to continue onto Parker University. Also since Carrington does their semester, terms, quarters, or modules different than a typical school we didn't know how it would translate over.  After about a month and a half of waiting and phone calls and emails passed we finally got an answer at the end of May. I still remember that moment he got the call. I was so scared and excited at the same time. The reason being it was a long way from any family and whole new state and no idea how we were going to do it. We had a long road ahead of us.

 We went through our entire home and garage and get rid of a bunch of stuff, I'm sure glad we did. We had a bunch of just crap. I don't know how we acquired so much crap in such a tiny space. Also during this time we celebrated our 11th year wedding anniversary. On that same day we found that we were going to be welcoming a new addition to our family, I was dumb founded. This was not part of the plan at all! In fact I had an appointment to get an IUD inserted. I was on birth control and we didn't want to mess with having to get it when we moved, one less stress. Anyways, over the next month we packed, scheduled last minute doctor appointments, and bought plane tickets. Also during this time we were trying to get medicines set up for Spencer so he would have enough till we found a new pulmonologist, and what a pain that was! Ended up having my sister-in-law, Sheilah, send us some medicine after we had moved. At about that time I started to get severe nausea, I had a hard time doing daily tasks it was so bad. Thankfully I had an amazing OB and he called in some medicines to get me through. During this time we were on the hunt for housing. This was a trial and a blessing all at the same time. Nobody had openings for when we wanted to move, except one place and we hadn't heard anything leading up to our trip to Texas.

On July 25th we packed up the kids, in our new van, and drove to Boise to drop the kids off with Aunt Sierra and Uncle Roy while we flew to Texas. As we were driving on our trip I got an email! Not just any email, a housing email! We had gotten the house we were wanting to rent! What a blessing. This was the school's Power weekend where they invite prospective students to tour the school, meet other students, talk to faculty and see the philosophy of the school. The kids were excited they were able to spend the weekend with Aunt Sierra and Uncle Roy. Ashleigh made a new friend with their dog Sadie and she carried her little cousin Gavin around everywhere. Patrick and Spencer were excited to have two more boys to just play with. The next morning, Thursday, William and I got on a plane and flew to Denver. Our first flight of the day. Since it was stormy and raining in Denver the pilot had a hard time landing and had to have another go at it. I threw up, I was doing pretty good nausea wise at this point in pregnancy. But the next flight was great and no issues there. Poor William was stuck in the middle for both flights cause he was too tall for the window. We landed at DFW airport at about 8:30p.m. and caught an Uber to our hotel. My first opinion of Dallas at that point was: "I'm never driving ever when we get here the freeways are crazy and confusing, also everywhere!" We got some food and went straight to bed because we had to be up early to start our weekend at the school. The weekend consisted of us sitting in a large room listening to people talk but they also had points where we could tour the campus, talk to other students, and meet the admissions advisor we had been assigned. We got lots of answers to questions we had. Learned that William would only be in the Pre-DC program for 2 tri's or 8 months instead of the year we were thinking. We also got confirmations on a few things we were already thinking. Sunday morning we got up at 3:30 a.m. to head to the airport for our flight back to Boise to pick up our children. We were so exhausted at this point we hardly could keep our eyes open. We got back to Boise with no issues and safely. Left early Monday morning and headed for home.

The next two weeks consisted of packing and cleaning and last minute errands to get things into place for our move. On Thursday August 9th we picked up our moving truck and started our packing. We left The next morning for Boise, the first stop on our long journey.

To be continued......

P.s. I apologize for lack of any pictures. I didn't really take any during this time. I have a hard time remembering to take them!

Catch up...

Alright! its been a while. This is gonna be a catch up on what has been going on with us.

First of all, William is going back to school (yay!) starting April 1st. He will be doing prereques for chiropractic college. So two years here at SCC then we move to California for about 3 years so he can do chiropractic schooling. Long road but so totally worth it. Then, when he is done we will most likely move back to Spokane.

Spencer is getting so intelligent. We did have an evaluation done on him to see if there was anything missing. We had a feeling that there was because there are some things he is just behind on compared to other four year olds. We found that he his slightly autistic. Which affects his potty training and other social issues like talking and interaction. Still have a few tests and evaluations to do. But its nice to have an answer to my thoughts and to who Spencer is. He loves thomas the train. whenever we drive around town he is always looking for trains and callig them the various train names from thomas. He knows his alphabet, he recognizes them in upper and lower case and in sign language. Yes, i do teach my children a few signs, its good for them and makes things easier especially, for Ashleigh.

 Ashleigh is getting so big. She keeps blowing my mind away. She says so many words. Her favorite food is bananas. She asks for them all the time whether we have them or not. She also has been telling me when she is hungry but, that's almost constantly as well. She is climbing and exploring and having fun being one. She was allowed to go to nursery a couple months ahead of the usual cause we were constantly in the halls and also easier if before the seperation anxiety sets in. She loves nursery.  She has discovered baby dolls and pushing them around in the doll stroller. She loves to give kisses, she will do the fishy face to give kisses, so cute! Wish i could post a picture of it.

I havr been going through a lot. Been struggling with some post pardum deppression. I am not on meds, i have been trying to find other ways to cope, usually getting out of the house helps. Been working on my driving lots, im planning on taking my test soon, but we now have to go through a third party to do the actual test instead of at the DMV, costs about $150 more now. So lame. But, im gonna do it! One of my biggest challenges for years. Also, i have been in a decorating mood. Been getting pictures and making things to hang on my walls. My kids finally have decorations on their walls! Next project is our bedroom, so much to do! I find it to be our catching place, everything ends up there. So glad things are progressing for us finally, been hard pressing William to move forward, the more i try to help he digs his heels in.

We are so excited for this summer, get go to family reunion and will have most if not all my siblings there. Lots of things shooting for us now.

The last few months have been busy and boring all at the same time. We have been keeping busy with other stuff besides tv or internet. with our circumstances at the moment we cant afford them so they are gone. William's work has been super slow but has started to pick up the last week or so. This has been a very humbling experience for us.

Ashleigh is getting to be so cute. She is smiling and starting to occasionally giggle if prompted. We went to the doctor yesterday for her 2 month well check and she is doing great. She is 13 pounds and 25 3/4 inches long. she is such a joy to be around and so mellow. She can sleep through the night but sometimes i let her wake if i need her to feed cause im hurting. Loving having all the girly stuff around having so much fun.

Update!

Yes i know its been a while since i have blogged. So much going on and keep forgetting about it.

To catch everyone up on what has happened, William has graduated this last April doing a profession that he loves. He was on the Dean's list and got a 4.0 during the entire process. He took his MBLEX shortly before he graduated and got the highest score (of 841 out of 900) that anyone has seen before. Getting a job after he graduated has been rough but he finally got on with a very good spa that is very flexible and pays well. There are other incentives as well. The first couple weeks were rough not getting many hours but as time goes on he gets more and more. I am very proud of him he has done very well, especially with all the stress of living with in laws and such.

Next, We are expecting baby #2 and its a girl this time! We are so excited! Spencer hasn't yet grasped the concept yet, but he is learning. Before we started trying to get pregnant William promised that this one would be a girl. And he was correct! Same with predicting Spencer, he must have a sense for it. The pregnancy has been long and i'm only 28 1/2 weeks along. The first trimester was really hard. I was constantly sick with colds, stomach flu and sinus stuff on top of the insane nausea. Also started off with complications as well, there was an extra sack or fluid that had to be watched, we weren't sure if it was a twin or what. The second trimester has been much easier. The only thing is When i had my 20th week ultrasound they found a fibrous growth on my uterus that they have to watch. If it grows and interferes with the baby i may end up getting a C-section. I really don't want one if i can help it but, it depends on the size and positioning of it. I have another ultrasound in a couple weeks to see how big it is if it has grown. Now, I'm in my third trimester so far not too bad but im getting nausea again and a lot more tired. My cravings change frequently. I am due Sept 2nd.

Spencer is getting bigger and smarter by the day. He has figured out how to open his door and wont stay in there if we want him to. we had to get creative on keeping him in there, otherwise he wouldn't stay in bed and sleep during the night. He is talking more and more finally. his biggest word is Seriously, I must say it a lot. He is in the 95th percentile over all still. He is a couple pounds shy of 40 lbs. I almost need a lift to lift him up. :-P

Sorry i have been slacking on keeping up on the blog. But spencer is now walking like crazy, and has four teeth. He is getting to be such a big boy. Spencer is in the top 90th percential for his heighth and 75th for his weight. He has thinned out some since he started walking. He's not talking yet.

He is eating anything and everything but also gotten pickier in the last month or so. He is full of smiles all the time and a big momma's boy. Spencer always knows when daddy gets home and has to rush to see him. Its so cute but, there are those days that he just doesnt want daddy more than a minute to say hi then he wants mommy.

I am still breastfeeding him and plan to through the winter since its supposed to be a hard one for the flu and such.

The two pictures of him in the brown oufit were taken of him at greenbluff here in spokane. A friend was nice enough to take these pictures of him. It was a very cold day as well. So i snuggled up with him to keep him warm and me too. He had a taste of one ofthe apples and couldnt put it down and wouldnt let me take it away until he decided to fallover during a picture and land on his head off of a hay bale.

I will get his costume up for you to see as well and his new haircut. His hair was a bit longer than it is in these pictures. It started to curl at the ends and get frizzy so we decided to cut/shave him.

The last picture is of him being caught going into the kitchen to get into the cat food and water. He knows not to go. But we were about to head out the door for church and he saw the baby gate was up so he decided to bolt but i caught him and this is the look he decided to give me. He is a little cutie and even though he gets on my nerves and wants to be held when i dont want to be touched i still love him and enjoy him. I do get frustrated to where i have to put him down and walk into another room but what mother doesnt have to do that? Anyways. More pictures on the way. All is going good and cant wait to enjoy and spoil my little boy for christmas and his birthday.

Where has the time gone? i feel like i just had him yesterday. He has grown and became cuter and more mobile and i cant believe it.

Its been a while since i posted. I just need to get back in the habit. A lot has happened or is happening... Spencer is cutting his first tooth and he is on hte verg of crawling. He can pull himself up to a full stand all by himself. He is more and more curious about food everyday. He wants to have everything i have no matter what it is.

He is getting very mobile. But he stll likes to have mommy hold him ALL the time. Its frustrating when trying to get things done! He knows when dady is coming through the door and he gets excited and watches for him. Then instantly wants to be held by him.

He is becomming a boy now and its so fun to watch him as he grows and learns new things. He plays and scoots and says mama... But i dont think its the real thing, Cause he says it all the time.

He is now wearing 12 month clothing and some 9 month and some 18-24. Depends on the brand of the clothing item.

When we go to lay him down for a nap or for bed he will sit and play if he isnt tired enough. Its cute to watch and sometimes a big pain.

We didnt get a vacation this summer due to having to get new tires on the car. It was a bummer, we had a few opportunities that we could of gotten away but that and other things seemed to get in the way. Hopefully next year we can take a good one. Or maybe later in the year before all the holidays take a short one to visit granny or camp or something.

He is a turd like all boys are. He is an attention hog. What else? His personality keeps developing everyday. Enjoy the pictures. When i have more time ill add more.