Happy Trails!

Well.........as typical for this pregnancy this is my once a week entry...or more like once a month entry at the rate I am going these days. Since all of my precious blogging hours were between the hours of 10 pm and 2 am I seem to have lost those. It's amazing if I can make it past 10 these days and I sleep til 9. So, why in the world do I find a need for a nap too??????? I know my iron is probably low but despite the 2 slow release pills I am on a day they don't seem to be phasing this aspect of it. Next stop is the Chlorophyll stop. My body doesn't seem to like breaking down the pills very well despite the massive amounts of folic acid I am on to aid the process and Chlorophyll is always the ever wonderful wonder worker that can get it back up where it belongs. So, while blowing through Fort Worth I'll be stopping to pick it up since I've procrastinated and can no longer wait for mail delivery of the liquid gold.

Anyway, there is much to say and as always, the story of my life, I have left much off over the weeks I have fallen so miserably behind at this. It seems the biggest and most obvious at this point is that I will now go missing even longer. The children and I are taking a spontaneous, crazily fun vacation to the Smoky Mountains. Brad is staying here to limit the number of days he uses up before the baby comes and to man the menagerie we have going. I begged him to go and he's begged me to stay. Due to the fact that we do absolutely everything together this is something new and foreign and oddly strange to us. He is already dreading the time we are gone and has no clue what to do with himself. Being the organizer and list maker that I am I have supplied him with a long list of to-do's to keep his boredom at bay. Things he would grow easily frustrated by when trying to do it with 15 little boys in tow. I am hoping very much that he will have the backyard leveled and the swingset put together as a welcome home surprise but I am thinking that is a little too far out there as far as expectations go. So, I will keep my expectations at a minimum and actually be very surprised if he does anything except mope and whine and go stir crazy during our absence. I know that the one time the older 5 were gone right after I had Gavin I cried after they left. The house seemed so empty and so eerily and wrongly quiet. The time that should've been my most savored became the longest, hardest time to survive. Won't be doing that one again.

So, the plan is for the children and I to leave here around 9 Saturday morning and stop in Fort Worth to have lunch with Mother and pick up Chlorophyll and whatever we've already discovered got left behind.....which is inevitable. Then we will keep going on to Little Rock. We'll find a place there to stay for the night and then pick back up the next morning and hit the road again.....bound for our Smoky Mountain destination, located on the far eastern tip of TN. Somehow we went from looking in Memphis to crossing the entire state for a better view. Suffice it to say I didn't quite realize we would have to go across the entire state for a view. But we are all ecstatic...well, if you leave Brad out of the equation....and I am about as excited as the children. It is the 1st time I have been out of the state in 4 years and the first vacation the older ones have experienced at an age they are old enough to remember and truly enjoy. We have already heard the "You're absolutely crazy, wacked-out insane" comments for taking the 7 of them and doing this but it blows people's minds when one is confident to do it "alone". I am far from alone as I have Grayson who is more helpful than most adults I know at aiding a person, focusing on the task at hand and getting the job done. And then Evye has become quite the pro at dealing with and manning the little ones while in the van and holding or occupying one or all when I can't meet an immediate need. I figured out what it would take to stay organized and limit what comes out of the van for our night in Ark and so far I don't have a doubt that this will be one of the most fun things we've done in a very long while. But, oh how my heart aches for Brad's company already. He'll be on shift Saturday when we leave and I'm actually kind of glad he won't be here to see us off. I think it'd be too depressing leaving him standing behind. So it is that I will wake with him early Sat and he will leave for work and the children and I will get on the road.

So, after spending 5 days getting to, staying in and leaving TN we will return to Fort Worth and stay with Mother for a little over a week while our floors are refinished here. The time there will fly by quickly, as we have a trip to the zoo planned, an appt with my midwife and probably 2 days to spend hanging out with Jackie, seeing and holding Baby Cyrus and letting the children play. It will be a full week full of fun and stuff to see and do.

Oh.......did I mention that I'm meeting 3 of my dearest friends in TN for our vacation??? We rented a massive cabin and will fill it up with children between the 4 of us. One is due with her 5th anyday, another has 5, the other 8 and then my crew of 7. To save myself dragging out the calculator in years to come......that totals up to 24 children. And I think 9 of them are something like 4 and under. So, I'm not the only crazy one making this trip. We are coming from north, south, east and west and decided this was our desired vacation place. So, we're all traveling from our different sides of the US with our children in tow to make this happen.

I think the worst part is trying to get everybody ready and packed. If we could just get on the road and get the details over with my joy would have a hard time being rivaled by much. But, as it is, the packing and the list making and the odds and ends for hair, baths and stuff is kind of taxing. Although, this year for the 1st time Grayson and Evye packed everything on their own and then Evye went on to pack Aubrey's entire suitcase. When left up to Aubrey on her own she just packs 94 pair of underwear and says she's ready to go. I made out a list, printed it off and gave them each their own. They were able to pack their entire suitcase up and each one has already been set by the door. That was a new milestone in making a trip easier. I managed to get Garrison and Grant packed up 2 days ago and then after packing Garrett up yesterday he lovingly unzipped his suitcase and dumped it all back out today. Evye was the lifesaver on that one and packed it all back up. I still have to go back through his and make sure nothing got left or shoved under the couch in the repacking of it. So, now at 12:20 am I am left with myself and Gavin to pack. Tomorrow will be spent in town grocery shopping for snacks and needed items and picking up produce from co op. All suitcases should be packed by the dawn of tomorrow morning........or at least that's the goal so that Brad is free to load the van up tomorrow evening so that we can set sail on time Sat morning.

We return on the 2nd of May only to repack and take the whole crew camping the very next day, the 3rd, and will be gone through the 5th. Our church is doing a family campout that weekend so we timed it in order to make it home for that......just barely, as we're unsure if the floors will be treadable at that point. So, our time here needs to be limited. But I'm sure the children will take no time in breaking the floors back in for the short 15 hrs we are here. I think by the time we end this 3 wk sojourn that they will be very ready to be tucked warmly and comfortably back into their own beds. It is the 1st time any will have been gone from home for this amount of time. But given where we are staying and the comforts of the TN cabin and Mother's house I think they'll do great. TN is huge and Mother's house is just like another home to them. I'm not exactly sure how the camping part will go just yet but I guess we'll know soon enough. Brad and I will be sleeping inside the trailer with Gavin and Garrett and the rest of them will be housed in a tent outside of the trailer.

I will have no computer access while in TN and my time at Mother's computer will be entirely limited. So, my blogging for April may have come to an end with this post. If I grow bored while Mother works and the children nap I may try to catch up on our sojourning details then. If not, I will write my book of traveling the world over with 7 children in tow when we return the 1st week of May!!!