Family Bonding Time a.k.a. A Driving Screamfest

As we travel to Iowa City this summer we are taking a long road trip. I have planned on this for a long time. It will be one of the few moments in our life together when Justin will not be studying for something.

Tragically, there is not much between Salt Lake City and Iowa City. So, we decided to head to Las Vegas and say goodbye to the folks there, ditch the kiddos for a short escape, and then begin our oh-so-exciting road trip.

Here are the two options I have come up with so far:

Trip through the Midwest

Las Vegas, Nevada to

The Grand Canyon to

Mesa Verde, Colorado to

Denver, Colorado to

Kansas City, Kansas to

Nauvoo, Illinois to

Carthage, Illinois to

Chicago, Illinois to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin to

Iowa City, Iowa

Total Miles: 2483

Total Time Driving: 1 day 21 hours

Trip through the South:

Las Vegas, Nevada to

The Grand Canyon to

Alburquerque, New Mexico to

Amarilla, Texas to

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma through

Arkansas to

Memphis, Tennessee to

Nashville, Tennessee to

Nauvoo, Illinois to

Carthage, Illinois to

Chicago, Illinois to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin to

Iowa City, Iowa

Total Miles: 3037

Total Time Driving: 2 days 4 hours

What do you think?
Which path would you choose?
Do you have other ideas?
Do you think our van will explode with all this craziness?

There are maps on the sidebar so you can debate my summer plans as well. Come on, you know you want to spend your day mindlessly planning my life for me.

I see that most of you are on my side of the fence about sending E to kindergarten. Justin and my mother do not agree. I'm still leaning to no.

Why, oh why...

... do children pick their noses so incessantly?????


**** This is meant as a rhetorical question ****

Joy is Mine

The amazing brother-in-law has got data off the keplat computer.

The old Dell - which is slightly broken and makes people look fat - does hook up to the internet.

I have found a place to rent that doesn't make we want to actually dig a hole and live in it.

And GQ is complying with my dictatorial declaration that he no longer eat in the middle of the night.

I have a great video I want to post of E singing about ice cream, but I am not sure the Dell will obey my commands. I will try tomorrow.

In other news, yesterday I asked E to draw four pictures of our family so that I could give them as thank-you notes to people who helped with our trip.

She drew one intense picture of a very large house with four teensy people on the sidelines.

Then she drew one picture with eyes on it, one picture with windows on it, and one picture with heads on it.

She insisted that all that added up to four pictures of our family.

Still debating whether to send her to kindergarten next year. The deadline is Sept. 15, and her birthday is Sept. 6. She would be sooo young. And she would go away from me a whole year earlier when she graduated from high school.

But then, yesterday, I was pretty sure that her little mind needed a lot more than me during the day.

Hmmm.

Today...

... I did not fold the laundry.

I washed it, but I did not fold it. Because I did not want to.

Instead, it is sitting in the basket getting wrinkled.

I also read a book for most of the day about Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

When I was in high school one of my closest friends read a book by her. She never loaned it to me, she just told me about it. Then, she bought me a different book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh than the one she'd told me all about. I've always loved that book ("Gift From The Sea") but I've always wanted to read the other book. But I don't know what it's called. Anyway, this is entirely pointless, but it is interesting to read about people's real lives and how they mess things up and think they have things figured out and how they don't. I especially liked the part of how she debated whether she could be a writer and be a mother.

Choosing an identity is a tricky business.

Being without a computer is also a tricky business. I am not thinking about the things I've lost. Instead, I am closing my eyes tightly and hoping my brother-in-law will work miracles tomorrow.

My two-bedroom, clean town home is looking possible. I had to call people on the phone to investigate it, which was extremely traumatic.

No pictures. They are on the dead computer.

Luckily, I have back-ups of those.

As for all work on my novel from October through March... not so much.

I guess it's good I started being a slacker in February.

I am also missing my budget.

Does this mean I can buy whatever I want?

Too bad I can't look on the internet for it.

While I Am Out

Okay,

I will try not to sound so melodramatic.

We have a good lead tonight, we'll see if it turns into something tomorrow.

I am going to live in a 2 bedroom so I can afford it, it won't be disgusting, and Ellie can go to the school I want her to go to. If you visit you will have to sleep on the floor.

My computer decided to give up the ghost. This is slightly traumatic.

Anyway, since I am horrible at answering the phone and will now be unable to check my e-mail every 2 seconds while Justin is at school, I thought I should tell you all that I am going to live through my trip to Iowa and I am not really trying to ignore you.

Have a great Monday.

Miss me horribly.

A Message from Iowa... I Am Unhinged...

I am sitting in the Super 8 in Iowa while Justin fills up on some March Madness.



When I arrived at the Super 8, it was St. Patrick's Day and I was informed by the clerk that Iowa City has the most bars per capita of any city in the United States.



Somehow, this describes the Super 8 experience entirely.



But one can't judge a city by the Super 8.



Right now I am sitting at the computer in the Super 8 and tears are going down my cheeks. This is for many reasons:



1st - I am unhinged.

2nd - I read my sister's blog.

3rd - I read cJane's blog about repentance.

4th - I cannot find a place I want to live in Iowa City.



I have spent three days driving and looking and starting my own collection of flyers.

I have considered living in the yuckiest places imaginable, the most expensive places imaginable, buying a house - and I DO NOT WANT to buy a house, and living in the country.

I would live in the country, but no one else will let me.

It's like when I wanted to buy that stupid dog, and I did, and it was a bad idea.

But this time I am not pregnant.

So, I am going back to Salt Lake with no place to live, but I have learned this:

I am buying a Garmin - thanks Kristin,

and I want to live in a house that doesn't exist.

I've Decided...

... to dig a hole in Iowa and live in it.

This will be easier.

The end.

Daylight Savings

Justin and I thought that this morning we would be able to wake up and have a few moments to sleep in. After all, our children would still be sleeping until what they thought was 7:00... now 8:00.

Sure, our bodies hadn't changed over either, but just the idea of it felt good.

Well, whoever told my kids it was daylight savings should be fired.

They woke up an hour earlier than usual in honor of the day.