We are home!!!! Though it is hard to know where home is these days. There is a joy and contented peace that comes with returning to the solace of quiet streets, a green transformed world and winds that whisper gently through the treetops. Back home to wide open spaces for children to run, be free, jump, ride and roam like they never have before. I am convinced more so now than ever that children were created to be outside creatures exploring, discovering and learning about all the world and God's incredible creation has to offer. Neighborhoods were never meant to raise children in......at least not our children. I don't think they have ever been more grateful for the outside and the freedom to run in wide open places and soar in swings that hang from high, lofty tree branches whose many leaves of green shade them from sunny days and sunburns. We returned home to the forever beloved blooms of bright daylilies, pink roses and soft sweet smelling lavender. Though sometimes I begin to wonder if "home" is where my heart stays with these enchanting blooms and gusty, beloved, spring storms and winds or with the strings that still remain firmly attached to sweet beloved family members back home.....300 miles away from where we are. My heart longs to stay but yearns to return home to all that was lost.
But, oh the stories I have to tell!! I suppose when you pair up just half of the parent equation, coupled with early, 1st trimester pregnancy and then 7 young children on a road trip one is bound to come home with more than a fair share of interesting, very entertaining stories. Stories of kids imprisoned within a vehicle for 17 hrs straight, trying to attempt Wal Mart after 10 hours of being confined in carseats, losing children in hotels, carsick kids, tales of 19 children in a mountaintop cabin, winding our way...in a 15 passenger van....up and down small mountain roads that boast curvy, cliffside dropoffs, picnics with 19 kids by rushing mountain rivers, vehicle problems and overheating catastrophes, spilled Koolaid on other people's comforters, camera failure, a few days of sworn insanity and a ton of long lasting memories that will forever be held dear to the ones who are old enough to remember it all. Yes, all of that and much more.
Departure day arrived and the back passenger door on the van promptly and without notice quit working yet again. Yes, this would be one of the few remaining items that the mechanics did not have time to get to before we left. And, yes, this would be the very door that happens to open to the 3 back rows where every kid enters and is buckled into their seats. So....I was a little put out at that one but quite determined not to let it phase the journey that still lay before us. So, the beginning of many days began of loading every kid through the front and back doors. By the end of it we had a perfect routine of Garrison, Grant, Garrett and Grayson all loading through the very back doors and a small pathway carved out of the luggage so each could reach their appointed seats. Evye and Aubrey entered from the front seat and I would hand off Gavin to Evye in which she would then buckle him in. As much of a pain in the butt as it was we soon all reached a point that we no longer took any note of it. It's just what we did. Although I will say it's a little like having a one mile long house and only having an entry point from the front and back door. The absurdity of not having a middle door is quite laughable. And I had my fair share of going between cussing it out and just laughing out of sheer insanity at it.
So, the long road trip had begun in earnest. But in all of it's wonder the van also does not sport a CD player or any sort of entertainment options. So, we were at the mercy of whatever radio station was within range. The 1st 300 miles were easy, as I have all of the stations between here and Dallas memorized. Once we passed the DFW stop music became interesting. At one point we even resorted to one of the 50 Spanish stations we came across. I was hoping the children might be able to translate given their Rosetta Stone Spanish courses. That was not happening but we were all able to figure out the general gist of the song between the 3 of us trying to comprehend.
So, bound for FW we were. We met Mother, Scott and Ashley for lunch...a not so quick one....before we continued on. Lunch was so incredibly great and I found myself not really wanting to leave. It felt a little weird to be blowing through and then leaving everybody behind to continue on into the great unknown. But, leave we did.
The children were all mesmerized by Dallas. Having grown up there I suppose I just kind of always fail to see the grandeur of it. But the buildings were awe inspiring to them so they talked in excited ways as we made our way through the towering buildings, connecting freeways and many cars. All went somewhat well if you do not consider into the equation the 50 million bathroom trips that took place between Dallas and Texarkana. Oh my gosh....their bladders have to be the size of a kidney bean. And letting them have unlimited refills at lunch wasn't exactly an ingenious plan on my part. So....I know the mind's eye is imagining....wondering. Did I take them all in everytime we made a stop. Not just no....but, crap no! We had a routine down of me taking in from Evye on down to the boys while Grayson stayed with Garrett and Gavin in the locked van. Then I came out and waited while Grayson went in and had his turn. Garrett did eventually have his fill of that one though so by the end of that day he was also making bathroom trips with us. Gavin never did get out of his seat the whole entire 10 hrs we drove...slowly making our way to Little Rock. Yes, we managed to turn that day into a 12 hr one in the van...if not a 13 hr one. It was loooooong. The plan was to arrive before dark but that was blown so far out of the water that we were doing good to make it there by 11 pm.
Dare I mention that we stopped at a Wal Mart in Hope, Ark....yes, the birthplace of Bill Clinton himself...and no, we didn't opt for the detour by his birth house. By this time we had been cooped up for hours.....way too many hours. I shall sum up that trip that, if 1st impressions are everything, the town of Hope is probably writing an amendment right now that having more than 1 kid is no longer an option. They'll probably just go straight to the Supreme Court with the plea to have large families outlawed. We all had to pee, of course, so we hit the bathrooms before trying to gather the few needed things I was too impatient to stop for early on in our journey. Declaring to Brad "No, we'll get it later." "No, honey, I'll stop tonight once we get to Ark." He was adamant that I get a calling card in the event that cell phones did not work at the cabin. So, stop we did. I finally just started passing people and saying, "Scuse me. I'm sorry. They've been in the car for 12 hrs." "So sorry! They're a little desperate to be out of the car. They've been in it way too long." Oh, ma'am. I'm sorry. They're just ready to run. We've come from Dallas." Grayson was having NASCAR races with the grocery cart, Evye was hanging on the cart and continually being dumped off and staying mad about it, Aubrey was an absolute chaotic whirlwind that was in and out of the cart and in between every clothes rack there was and Garrison and Grant were fighting in the basket of the cart where they were contained. Garrett was screaching at injustices...who knows which ones....and Gavin was fussy in the backpack I wore. At that point I was close to pleading insanity and turning around to go home. The only thing that kept me from it was reasoning out that I had only 2 hrs until Little Rock whereas home was now no less than 10 hrs behind us.
Once loaded back up I was a little frustrated at this point of our journey and was feeding them all of our snacks to keep from stopping yet again for a meal. No, the Wal Mart McDonald's wasn't happening. After knowing what I know I just can't bring myself to do McDonald's anymore. I have come to love deeply feeding them whole foods and keeping them healthy. We have come too far and we have not seen a dr in over a year now. The road was not the place to jeopardize their heath now. Healthy foods, healthy body. And we have proven that over and again in all of them now. And then something about sitting on your butt for 12 hrs doesn't do much for the appetite. So, they dined on granola bars and some forbidden snack cookies that are never allowed at home. We had trail mix and all sorts of other healthy options along with 118 apples in tow so they had a somewhat healthy balanced snack of a meal. We finally pulled into Little Rock at 11pm and entered into the hotel lobby somewhat quietly and without much ado. Though it did turn a ton of heads.....the heads that happened to be getting in when we did. I had packed an overnight case with everyone's needed clothes and toiletries to eliminate bringing in 1,500 suitcases. It worked well and I had only the one thing that Grayson towed and then the travel crib. We did end up bringing in the food that we reserved for the cabin meals. I ended up feeding them all PB and honey sandwiches, Wheat Thins and pretzels, apples, pudding and applesauce for a very late dinner served up in our 2 adjoining rooms.
The boys were in love with the hotel....at first. It was the 1st time they had ever truly experienced a hotel. They could not get over the fact that "the building has beds!!!! Lots of beds and a bathtub!!!" I longed for Brad to see them see it all for the 1st time. It is so much fun watching children discover life and find new things they had no knowledge of before. They were all overjoyed and filled with delight at arriving and having tons of beds and a place to roam. They camped out on the beds and watched a late night matinee of Blue's Clue's and Spy Kids while they ate and I sat up Gavin's bed. But as bedtime drew near the boys didn't think the beds were nearly the novelty they had before. Suddenly the nightmare occurred that THEY had to sleep in them. 2 hours, many tears and many minutes later spent on the phone with Brad they still seemed no closer to just giving it up and sleeping. Grant seemed to be the worst, in which he then instilled his fear of whatever in Garrison. And, of course, then Garrett followed suit. Good freakin grief. Would the night just ever come to an end???? I was exasperated and far from sympathetic at this point. After yet another phone call to Brad and many words of comfort on his part they finally drifted off to sleep one by one.......at 1am.
Alright..if I keep going like this, this entry will make a book. So, I'll try to hurry it up a bit.
But, oh the stories I have to tell!! I suppose when you pair up just half of the parent equation, coupled with early, 1st trimester pregnancy and then 7 young children on a road trip one is bound to come home with more than a fair share of interesting, very entertaining stories. Stories of kids imprisoned within a vehicle for 17 hrs straight, trying to attempt Wal Mart after 10 hours of being confined in carseats, losing children in hotels, carsick kids, tales of 19 children in a mountaintop cabin, winding our way...in a 15 passenger van....up and down small mountain roads that boast curvy, cliffside dropoffs, picnics with 19 kids by rushing mountain rivers, vehicle problems and overheating catastrophes, spilled Koolaid on other people's comforters, camera failure, a few days of sworn insanity and a ton of long lasting memories that will forever be held dear to the ones who are old enough to remember it all. Yes, all of that and much more.
Departure day arrived and the back passenger door on the van promptly and without notice quit working yet again. Yes, this would be one of the few remaining items that the mechanics did not have time to get to before we left. And, yes, this would be the very door that happens to open to the 3 back rows where every kid enters and is buckled into their seats. So....I was a little put out at that one but quite determined not to let it phase the journey that still lay before us. So, the beginning of many days began of loading every kid through the front and back doors. By the end of it we had a perfect routine of Garrison, Grant, Garrett and Grayson all loading through the very back doors and a small pathway carved out of the luggage so each could reach their appointed seats. Evye and Aubrey entered from the front seat and I would hand off Gavin to Evye in which she would then buckle him in. As much of a pain in the butt as it was we soon all reached a point that we no longer took any note of it. It's just what we did. Although I will say it's a little like having a one mile long house and only having an entry point from the front and back door. The absurdity of not having a middle door is quite laughable. And I had my fair share of going between cussing it out and just laughing out of sheer insanity at it.
So, the long road trip had begun in earnest. But in all of it's wonder the van also does not sport a CD player or any sort of entertainment options. So, we were at the mercy of whatever radio station was within range. The 1st 300 miles were easy, as I have all of the stations between here and Dallas memorized. Once we passed the DFW stop music became interesting. At one point we even resorted to one of the 50 Spanish stations we came across. I was hoping the children might be able to translate given their Rosetta Stone Spanish courses. That was not happening but we were all able to figure out the general gist of the song between the 3 of us trying to comprehend.
So, bound for FW we were. We met Mother, Scott and Ashley for lunch...a not so quick one....before we continued on. Lunch was so incredibly great and I found myself not really wanting to leave. It felt a little weird to be blowing through and then leaving everybody behind to continue on into the great unknown. But, leave we did.
The children were all mesmerized by Dallas. Having grown up there I suppose I just kind of always fail to see the grandeur of it. But the buildings were awe inspiring to them so they talked in excited ways as we made our way through the towering buildings, connecting freeways and many cars. All went somewhat well if you do not consider into the equation the 50 million bathroom trips that took place between Dallas and Texarkana. Oh my gosh....their bladders have to be the size of a kidney bean. And letting them have unlimited refills at lunch wasn't exactly an ingenious plan on my part. So....I know the mind's eye is imagining....wondering. Did I take them all in everytime we made a stop. Not just no....but, crap no! We had a routine down of me taking in from Evye on down to the boys while Grayson stayed with Garrett and Gavin in the locked van. Then I came out and waited while Grayson went in and had his turn. Garrett did eventually have his fill of that one though so by the end of that day he was also making bathroom trips with us. Gavin never did get out of his seat the whole entire 10 hrs we drove...slowly making our way to Little Rock. Yes, we managed to turn that day into a 12 hr one in the van...if not a 13 hr one. It was loooooong. The plan was to arrive before dark but that was blown so far out of the water that we were doing good to make it there by 11 pm.
Dare I mention that we stopped at a Wal Mart in Hope, Ark....yes, the birthplace of Bill Clinton himself...and no, we didn't opt for the detour by his birth house. By this time we had been cooped up for hours.....way too many hours. I shall sum up that trip that, if 1st impressions are everything, the town of Hope is probably writing an amendment right now that having more than 1 kid is no longer an option. They'll probably just go straight to the Supreme Court with the plea to have large families outlawed. We all had to pee, of course, so we hit the bathrooms before trying to gather the few needed things I was too impatient to stop for early on in our journey. Declaring to Brad "No, we'll get it later." "No, honey, I'll stop tonight once we get to Ark." He was adamant that I get a calling card in the event that cell phones did not work at the cabin. So, stop we did. I finally just started passing people and saying, "Scuse me. I'm sorry. They've been in the car for 12 hrs." "So sorry! They're a little desperate to be out of the car. They've been in it way too long." Oh, ma'am. I'm sorry. They're just ready to run. We've come from Dallas." Grayson was having NASCAR races with the grocery cart, Evye was hanging on the cart and continually being dumped off and staying mad about it, Aubrey was an absolute chaotic whirlwind that was in and out of the cart and in between every clothes rack there was and Garrison and Grant were fighting in the basket of the cart where they were contained. Garrett was screaching at injustices...who knows which ones....and Gavin was fussy in the backpack I wore. At that point I was close to pleading insanity and turning around to go home. The only thing that kept me from it was reasoning out that I had only 2 hrs until Little Rock whereas home was now no less than 10 hrs behind us.
Once loaded back up I was a little frustrated at this point of our journey and was feeding them all of our snacks to keep from stopping yet again for a meal. No, the Wal Mart McDonald's wasn't happening. After knowing what I know I just can't bring myself to do McDonald's anymore. I have come to love deeply feeding them whole foods and keeping them healthy. We have come too far and we have not seen a dr in over a year now. The road was not the place to jeopardize their heath now. Healthy foods, healthy body. And we have proven that over and again in all of them now. And then something about sitting on your butt for 12 hrs doesn't do much for the appetite. So, they dined on granola bars and some forbidden snack cookies that are never allowed at home. We had trail mix and all sorts of other healthy options along with 118 apples in tow so they had a somewhat healthy balanced snack of a meal. We finally pulled into Little Rock at 11pm and entered into the hotel lobby somewhat quietly and without much ado. Though it did turn a ton of heads.....the heads that happened to be getting in when we did. I had packed an overnight case with everyone's needed clothes and toiletries to eliminate bringing in 1,500 suitcases. It worked well and I had only the one thing that Grayson towed and then the travel crib. We did end up bringing in the food that we reserved for the cabin meals. I ended up feeding them all PB and honey sandwiches, Wheat Thins and pretzels, apples, pudding and applesauce for a very late dinner served up in our 2 adjoining rooms.
The boys were in love with the hotel....at first. It was the 1st time they had ever truly experienced a hotel. They could not get over the fact that "the building has beds!!!! Lots of beds and a bathtub!!!" I longed for Brad to see them see it all for the 1st time. It is so much fun watching children discover life and find new things they had no knowledge of before. They were all overjoyed and filled with delight at arriving and having tons of beds and a place to roam. They camped out on the beds and watched a late night matinee of Blue's Clue's and Spy Kids while they ate and I sat up Gavin's bed. But as bedtime drew near the boys didn't think the beds were nearly the novelty they had before. Suddenly the nightmare occurred that THEY had to sleep in them. 2 hours, many tears and many minutes later spent on the phone with Brad they still seemed no closer to just giving it up and sleeping. Grant seemed to be the worst, in which he then instilled his fear of whatever in Garrison. And, of course, then Garrett followed suit. Good freakin grief. Would the night just ever come to an end???? I was exasperated and far from sympathetic at this point. After yet another phone call to Brad and many words of comfort on his part they finally drifted off to sleep one by one.......at 1am.
Alright..if I keep going like this, this entry will make a book. So, I'll try to hurry it up a bit.
We woke bright and early and I went through the mental great debate on whether to bring the complimentary breakfast up to them all, to just scrap it and get something on the road or to actually attempt taking them all down and sitting for a formal breakfast in the hotel's dining area. I finally arrived at the fact that I have worked way too hard to instill behaviour and character qualities in them and how will they ever live up to them if I never present them with opportunities to do so? So, with everyone dressed and hair fixed we all made our way down. We were quite the entertainment for all travelers that happened to also be staying with us. The children were incredible and we all ate in peace and enjoyable conversation between us all. They had highchairs so Garrett occupied one while Gavin sat contentedly in his backpack. We only had 1 spill, Aubrey's doing, and it was quickly cleaned up by Grayson. I was pleased and it gave me the needed boost of confidence to keep going and that everything Brad and I work so hard to instill in them does pay off. They all ate a ton and I was able to relax and enjoy their company and funny antics.
We headed back up to the room to gather what little there was to load up. At some point in there the hotel phone rang. NO ONE had our hotel room or number and Brad had been using the cell phone. We all looked at each other a little perplexed as Grayson pointed out the obvious with "Hey, Mom. The phone's ringing." I shrugged my shoulders and just said, "Well, answer it I guess." He answered as I continued working. He lowered the phone and said, "Hey, Mom. They want to know if we're missing a kid." My immediate answer was "No! Of course not." But I counted to be sure. Grant was climbing on one of the bathroom cabinets and everybody else was sitting on the bed watching early morning cartoons. But I counted anyway. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. What????? So, I counted again. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. It didn't make much sense to me. I couldn't figure out why I was only coming up with 6. And then I couldn't figure out who in the world was missing. Grayson had already told them that we weren't missing anybody and they had hung up. Once he put the phone down he said, "Well, they just said that if we are he's on the 3rd floor." I hurriedly told him to open the door and see who it was since I was still clueless at this point as to who exactly wasn't in the room. Sure enough........a very long way down the hallway at the opposite end of the hotel was Garrett's short little stocky body being held by some kind woman talking to him. The escapade was completed as 5 of his siblings stood peering out the door and, upon discovering him, all rushed to his aid saying his name as they raced down the hallway towards him. I was too embarrassed at that point to actually accompany them. So, I let the herd bombard the lady that held him as she handed him over to a ton of his concerned siblings. Evye, trying not to kill or injure herself in the process, carried his 30 pd self back to our room. So, with that interesting little turn of events and my feelings of complete and total inadequacy to even figure out which kid was actually missing we headed towards the van and loaded up. I have to admit I did have quite the laugh once I realized that we have so many we can actually miss one and not even know it...and then upon finding out be a little stumped as to who the missing one might be. The whole thing was so absurd that Brad and I laughed over it for a long while afterwards. In an effort to wear their butts out before getting in for another 9 hr day belted in place I found a grassy little area and had them run laps, do jumping jacks, push-ups, sit-ups and run races. They laughed and squealed and wore themselves out for about 10 minutes. We then started another long day in the van. Anyone who has never seen a 25 month old do "sits ups" and "push-ups" has been deprived of a good, deep laugh.
All went surprisingly well except for the passengers in the front that had to listen to Garrett whine, cry and scream for hours on end. By this point he was missing Brad and was not about to let it die. He is attached to Brad in every way and both of us had wondered what effects the trip would have on him and how 14 days away from Brad would go over. Apparently, it wasn't looking too promising. By about 3 hrs into the trip I swore that the trip home would consist of him on the very back row away from the snack box, water and everything up front...including me. And so it was that, true to my word, he occupied the back row on our way home days later and we all rode in much more peace. He was away from all of the temptations and when he did grow irritated he was very far removed from the driver. Even the person pathetically stuck on the backseat with him could move up a row to put some distance between his outrageous temper and their ears.
We finally crossed over into Memphis and the massively overfilled and flooded Mississippi River and made our way to Nashville, crossing over the time zone. We all rejoiced. Knoxville was within a tolerable distance. Somewhere between Nashville and Knoxville Gavin needed a bottle and I decided to change him. Upon unsnapping him in the front seat I quickly came to see that this would be no ordinary diaper change, as he had exploded every elastic boundary it held. I moved him to a picnic table and dug out the needed supplies of wet wipes, baby wash, new diaper and new outfit. We were in for the long haul on this one and there was no quick way out. So, there somewhere on some road side rest stop, the children ran freely through the very green grass and plentiful blooming white dogwoods and purple crepe myrtles while I was up to my eyeballs in poop. With that finally over and 15 bathroom trips later on behalf of everyone that had discovered the novelty of running free and being out of the van we once again loaded back up and started on our way. Delay #104 of the day.
That was the last major detour until we arrived in Pigeon Forge, in which Brad and my communication skills were not at their peak and he promptly, in his effort to help, got us lost. So, at 7 pm we ended up winding our way through the massive mountains of the Smokey Mountain National Park, having missed our turn to the cabin. It was a beautiful drive and had I not been so entirely irritated I might would have actually enjoyed the abounding beauty. A rushing mountain river ran down the land that separated the different directions of traffic. It was breathtaking. The children were in awe. We drove through a long mountain tunnel and crossed bridges and saw things they have never in a lifetime seen. Had I not been so irritated I might could've enjoyed it as much as they did. But, alas...we enjoyed it later in the trip so all was not lost on my irrational, moody behalf.
We did manage to somehow finally arrive and were greeted with hugs from everyone and a plethora of other children. My kids were in heaven. Oh yeah...in our journey up the mountain to reach the cabin we drove around edges of steep, cliffs that dropped off and seemed to deposit any vehicle that dare stray from the narrow path off into the inner bowels of the earth. It had Grayson crying and Evye praying quietly. The others were a bit quiet except for Garrett who kept proclaiming loudly in a rhetorical voice, "Don't fall off, Mom. Don't fall off." Yes, thank you, Garrett.
So, we reached the cabin and were shocked at its luxuriousness. 4 bedrooms with an entirely unexpected loft area, accessible by a ladder, that also housed a bed and dresser. This became a favorite with the children. It had a massive media room with stadium seating and huge recliners for the chairs. The upstairs game room contained a pool table, air hockey table and foosball table along with a pull out sofa. The children spent most of their time up there playing pool and air hockey. Downstairs there was a great kitchen fit for any chef and a huge living area with a huge rock fireplace. 2 of the bedrooms were located off of the living area and had large garden tubs. The other 2 bedrooms were located upstairs off of the gameroom area. It had a large deck in which many chairs sat, along with a picnic table and hot tub. The entire deck overlooked the surrounding mountains. It was like being in a dream. It was a little surreal that we were actually there. So many years of talking of doing this and here we finally were with each friend we had so dearly longed to see. We settled in well and had a long awaited visit with everyone there. It was like coming home to sweet dear friends that I had longed for years to see. It was quite the reunion. Days were spent visiting a petting zoo and picnic-ing high up in the mountains of the National park. Each of us took one dinner so each night's meal was covered. I have to fess up that mine was the sucky one and turned out horrible, but when plagued by morning sickness I have found that not much at all turns out good these days. I mean...like, doesn't turn out good to anyone. I think I just lose heart in fixing any of it since it all looks and smells disgusting. I can't imagine that it was decent to any of the other adults but due to the fact it was a simple bland chicken spaghetti dish, usually a favorite of mine, filled with too much Velveeta it became a huge hit with the children. Oh well. I'll try again next year.
I have to say though that despite the morning sickness the lasagna MN friend cooked and the chicken and rice NC friend cooked were abosolutely incredible. Probably because I had absolutely nothing to do with the preparations of it and didn't have to smell the beginnings of it.
The 1st night we were there everybody set to unloading, in which all van doors...well, those that would work......were opened numerous times. Somehow, not surprisingly, the driver door got left open over night. Grayson discovered it the next morning. It wasn't too much of a shock..as it tends to happen somewhat regularly. What was a shock was the smell that seeped out of it when I went to go get some needed items out of it later that morning. We had yet to take the case of apples out and it smelled a bit as if they were rotting. Way too fresh to rot I questioned it but couldn't come up with a better answer to the perplexing nastiness. In the floor of the driver's seat was a puddle of water and an overturned styromfoam cup. I thought maybe it had spilled resulting in the offensive smell. An unopened Nilla wafer package lay in the puddle which I didn't think much of. It had some of the liquid on it so I picked it up and smelled again. It seemed to be the source of the odor. So, I carried it in and asked the others what they thought of it. Immediately it was deemed "cat pee". Oh............can I puke now?????? Ugh!!!!!!!! It was sooooo nasty. And to think we had to live with the nastiness until it aired out...if it ever aired out. And then to think that I had touched it!!!! So, I went to work on it with what I had on hand...which happened to be a small bottle of Palmolive or something of that sort. It's pretty safe to say it didn't phase it. So, next stop was the cat pee odor elimanator magic...which proved to have no magic at all. So now I had some wild cat pee permanently embedded into the carpeting of our van. It reaked for days. We left windows down when we could but, due to the fear it would return or bring its friends, I was forced to roll the windows up at night and trap in the putridity of it all. To say that morning sickness, despite the fact it seems to be lessening as time goes by, and cat pee smell do not get along is drastically understating the situation.
But, I loved the time we had there.....despite feral, mountain cats peeing freely in our van. I hope that from here on out we find a way to make it happen every year.....meeting up with each other, that is.....not having wild cats pee in our van. Though I think it'd be a blast to try and find a new destination each year since we had so much fun seeing new things and discovering new places. I deeply love and cherish the friends we rendeveuxed with and am already missing them dearly. Oh, what it would be to all live closer! Of the 4 of us that stay in touch one lives in Alabama, one in NC and the other in Wisconsin......and then there is, of course, me in west TX. The children have lifelong friends in their children and they still ask now when we will see them again.
So, after what seemed like too short of a time with each other but, now very ready to get closer to home and back to some routine of normalcy, the day dawned in which it was time for us to leave. As we reloaded all food items, suitcases, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows and travel crib from the front and back doors someone tried the middle door yet again and it blessedly opened. So........we had access to the middle of the van for a few days!!!! I had no clue how glad I would be for that until a few hours down the road.
After taking pics with everybody our journey home began. I had decided to drive it straight through instead of staying in a hotel again. Check out from the cabin was at 10 am and we actually did really good on time and had said our goodbyes and were on the road right at 10. Since I was only going to Fort Worth the drive had been whittled down to 14 hrs instead of the 17 it is if we were to go all the way home. I figured if we left at 10am that would put us there about 11pm since we were switching back into Central time. It seemed reasonable...but then what in the world was I thinking that a 14 hr trip would be a mere 14 trip with just me and all of them in tow?????? They did well, and true to my word, Garrett occupied the farthest back seat. This arrangement worked nicely for everyone and we rode in peace and some fun conversation that ranged from meaningful to just downright funny. Peeing began to take place in earnest about 5 hrs into it so the stops began. I had come up with a plan to simplify and make the trip back home much easier than the one we had going. So, I made a rule for everyone that we stop only every 5 hrs. It would help us make better time and eliminate the work of getting everyone in and out 1,500 times in one day. I figured this would be about when we would need gas so each time we stopped for gas we could all pee. And, amazingly...it worked well! But soon enougt the 5 hr rule was broken due to one not going when all the others went on the 5 hr mark. So, after a little bit of anger on my part, since it had been unbeknownst to me that she had skipped out on her 5 hr opportunity, we made a special stop. So, then another special stop which really had me mad by then since when one goes they all have to go....and I refused to let anyone out on the 1st special stop. We crossed over all of our now familiar landmarks and were soon crusing into the flooded areas of TN and Ark. We had actually thought these areas were supposed to be filled with water until we saw a house sitting in water and then the top of a fence peaking out from under the currents and then a street lamp in which the water was up to its light. After observing all of this we put it together that this was indeed a massive flood in this area. Of course, one I had no clue about it until we were driving through it. I'm sure it had been on the news at some point. But since we have no news here and it never made MSN's front page I stayed quite ignorant about it. So, again we crossed over the swollen Mississippi and into the flooded ag lands. It didn't seem very long before we were stopping to pee yet again at the Ark visitor's travel center. We went in to gather some info for some friends and pee, as long as we were there. Little did I know that once given tourist info that the lady had to take down our personal travel info.....where we were from, where we had been, where we were headed, if we stayed overnight in Ark and how many were in our party. Since I only had Grant and Aubrey with me she asked if it was just the 3 of us. Having no clue she needed the specific info and not really thinking it mattered much who I was with I just said, "Oh, no. I've got a few more in the car waiting on me." She asked how many there were total in our traveling group and I said, still not quite understanding her need for info, "Well, it's just me and my other 5 children." Her mouth dropped. Then she went into totaling them all up since I had failed to proclaim the number 7. Then Aubrey, having learned from the pros, chirped up with, "And she's got a baby in her tummy. She's pregnant. It's a girl baby. (hopeful thinking on her part since we still have no clue what this baby is)" So, then the woman starts a 10 minute conversation about me traveling alone with 7 children, wanting to know their ages, where my husband was and why I was going it alone. She then went on to say how she just couldn't even tell. I figured she was just talking about being able to tell that I am pregnant. So, I just said, "Oh....I'm only 11 wks." She said..."Oh, no, honey . I never would've dreamed you have 7 children. You're too skinny and look like a little stick!" Well......I definitely would never place myself in the stick category and show no signs of going there anytime soon. In fact...in my current state of pregnancy I think I am running at marathon speeds in the other direction of stickidity state. But, I found it was worth the entire trip in there and worth the 10 minute delay just to have obtained that boost for the day.
So, with lighter spirits and everyone glad to have stretched their legs for a minute we were back on the road. Little Rock was not far. It was our stopping destination for dinner, in which we would all pee again and get out. But somewhere between the travel center and Little Rock Evye, who occupied the backseat with Garrett, started becoming increasingly carsick. In an effort to relieve it without stopping, in my tyranical ways, I had her come up front to see if that would ease it. Ummmm...........no. Instead she just puked right beside me into the travel center sack instead of doing it in the backseat where I would have been spared the smell. Little did we know how useful the Ark bag would become or what purpose it was to serve. I finally found the exit that was comprised of our little hotel, some other hotel and a McDonald's. Though it was located on the very outskirts of east Little Rock I was desperate to get out, as was she, and we were at least somewhat familiar with the area. Gavin had become a little fussy, very unusual for him, so I figured he needed out and some food.
Upon getting out of the van we all noticed a screeching, hissing, awful sound coming from within the van's inner regions. I quickly went to check the temperature gauge and all seemed well. It pointed towards being a little warm but not hot. So, we stood at the front of the van and listened to it hiss, screech and moan. We looked at it and were perplexed but I had no clue what to do. I decided then that there was nothing to do. Brad was hundred of miles away and we were miles from any civilization that could actually help us out on the vehicle end of things. And it would inevitably mean spending the night...maybe many...while we tried to remedy the situation. I decided not to call Brad and tell him of the strange noises coming from our van. I figured it would only serve to unnerve him and afterall, what was he going to do........drive 1,200 miles to come get all of us in his quad cab Dodge????? And if I told him he would undoubtedly go insane with worry. So......no....it would do no good to reveal this bit of info I had. So it was that we continued on with him living in complete ignoranance and bliss as to what was taking place. Eventually the hissing and moaning stopped and I was soon to forget about the whole ordeal.
I stretched Gavin out and then put him back in to feed him. He showed no enthusiasm at all over the food and about 1/2 way through the 2nd jar I learned that babies apparently can get carsick too. I found this unbelievable since no one has ever mentioned anything about very young children suffering from this awful condition. So, now there was puke to clean up all the way down him, into the carseat and into the straps and the harness clips. I took a deep breath and just reconciled myself to the fact that the trip home was going to take much onger than I had anticipated. But, what else was new? And the world was very much still ok. Everyone was in good spirits and we were happy. I made up my mind I would rely on a huge Starbucks if the need arose so that I could finish the trip home. We would not be forced to stay in a hotel again...though it was tempting at this point........especially with our familiar hotel within walking distance of where we stood at the moment.
With Gavin cleaned up and in new clothes I reached for Garrett so that we could make the trip in to the McDonald's bathroom. Given the fact that I had brought nothing but healthy fruit like grapes, apples and bananas to snack on for the trip home and, apparently detoxifying, granola and given the fact they had not been able to move all day I quickly deduced that Garrett was not just wet. In fact...what was all in his carseat, filled his shorts and ran down his legs was far from just mere pee. Taking yet another huge deep breath I set to work on him. Once again on our trip I found a picnic table...this time a McDonald's one (lovely).....and had my array of wet wipes, baby wash, good smelling lotion, new diaper and new clothes. That change was not nearly as quick as the one I had been able to do on Gavin a few days before, if you could even consider Gavin's a "short" episode. At this point I was feeling a little overwhelmed and a little desperate knowing we still needed to stop for dinner. On any normal day I would never in my life eat at McDonald's. In fact, I loathe the place. I think it is disgusting. As stated before, I know way too much about food now and I treasure way too dearly what goes into the children's bodies. Plus the fact the food is just nasty to begin with. But, this was no normal day and it has been years since we've eaten at the place. What harm could one meal do? They will not die over 1 meal and, despite the lack of nutritional anything, it will feed them and fill tummies so that we can hurry this thing up. Did I mention it happened to be the only option available within miles????? Thus part of my decision making process. So.....we ate McDonald's. Oh my freakin gosh. I had no clue how used to healthy foods you get until you fill your stomach with a lead bomb like that. It reaked havoc and by the time we reached Mother's house at 1am and all the next day everyone of the children had diarrhea. It was awful. I knew it was no virus since they all complained of stomach cramps after the meal and there was no vomiting associated with any of it. So, out came the Bentonite Clay to begin the internal soaking up of the awful stuff I had willingly fed them. That was enough to cure me of McDonald's for a lifetime. Not only did I now have 2 carsick kids but now I had inadvertantly given them all diarrhea.
As night time fell across the many miles we drove, one by one the children started drifting off. We finally reached Texarkana and drove into one of the biggest storms of the year. There was a huge debate between Brad and I on whether to push onward or just call it quits due to the severity of the storm. It seemed tolerable at the moment and I promised if it got too bad we'd just go ahead and stop or seek shelter under an awning. We barely missed the worst of it and found out later that tornadoes reacked havoc on the nearby areas just hours after we drove through them. It passed a few miles to the east of us so we never knew the extent of how bad the storms really were except for the toerrential rains and blinding pierces of lightening that seemed to strike only mere feet away from the road we drove and electrified the sky, lighting up the world every few seconds.
After a stop for yet another Starbucks, now totaling 2, we finally started getting into familiar east TX territory. And finally we were weaving our way through the brightly lit, belovedly familiar freeways of Dallas. It seemed that the van knew the way to Mother's from here and went on autopilot. The freeways were nothing and the glowing of the buildings in the dark night sky seemed enchanting...if only for a time.
We pulled into Mother's and Thomas' driveway right at 1am so the trip had not been totally blown and it was not too desperately late. The 3 of us gently unloaded a ton of sleepy kids that had been awakened by the storm we drove through a couple of hours before. At last we found our places and laid down and slept for the 1st time in what seemed like a very long while.
The week at Mother and Thomas' was filled with fun. Though the 1st day there I was exhausted to the brink of total insanity. When Grant spilled the only remaning bottle of red Crystal Light on their comforter I broke down. Mother is absolutely anal about the cleanliness and state of her house and is much more rigid in in her ways....thus the reason her stuff lives a much longer life than our's ever does. But I feared her wrath and I couldn't believe it happened to begin with. I tearfully stripped the bed and called home crying telling Brad I couldn't do this anymore and we were coming home. He convinced me to stay long enough so that the children could have their playday with all of Jackie's children, for the visit with Scott on Sunday and for my sonogram on Monday morning. He said I would deeply regret it if I bailed out now.....which I would've. After our 10 years of marriage he knows me well. He gave me the needed strength to continue on and promised that if I would just sleep some I would feel much better. I put the exhausted children down for naps, had Grayson and Evye fold the 15 loads of laundry I had done that morning and then I succombed to sleep with the little ones. I didn't feel too much better when I got up, still dreading the comforter incident and awaiting the time I could take it to the cleaners.
All was not lost, and it ended up that the comforter came completely clean...though it took a week from the time it was given to them until the time we got it back. So, Thomas and Mother were continually and lovingly reminded every night that we were indeed very there in their house and using every square foot of it........even while they were gone during the day hours working.
We did love our time there and thankfully the 1st day was the absolute most taxing due to sleep deprivation and utter exhaustion. This trip was certainly not for the faint of heart. But it was about one of the most rewarding things I have ever accomplished too. Sunday was spent in the company of Scott....in which I loved since it has been so long since we have had time just to sit and enjoy each other's company. The last few times it has been over run in a very fun way with tons of family. I miss being able to talk to him and have only a few others around. It seems the last few times have been huge family gatherings like Thanksgiving, in which all of the extended family is there as well.
We did go to Jackie's and it brought back every reason in the world I miss them so very much. The children played and played like they would never see each other again and embraced their best friends' company for hours. They left with promises of spending a night with them later on during our stay. And so they did and so it was that Evye cried and cried when it was time to return to Mother's so that we could ready for our trip home. Similiar to what she went through last summer when Jackie's crew left here after visiting, she sobbed uncontrollably for hours and there was no comforting her and no solace I could offer. I finally figured this out and she ended up just crying herself to sleep. She cried for Milly and Mercy and for the many years it would be before she would ever see them again. Meladramatic as she is, it still broke my heart to see her so broken and so very hopeless over having to leave them yet again. I think it is just any parent's desire to see their children thrive and when parents see a truly dynamic relationship in which there is a bosom friend born they are driven to nurture it and let it grow. Everytime she goes through this I feel as if I am destroying it yet again. She has other close friends but she has yet to feel for anyone the way she does about Milly and Mercy and all of Jackie's girls. She loves them more than life itself. Grayson, Curtis and Pearce spent the day shooting bullfrogs and were in their own heaven. Grant and Charles hit it off, though they had no clue what each other's names even were. It was hysterically funny but so sad to me at the same time. I want our children to KNOW each other and to have the relationships that I dreamed of them having while we grew up. And they have the desire to have that, though the miles tear them away from each other and make it impossible at this point. Grant has aked everyday to go back to Aunt Jackie's house and play with "the boy". And there is not a day that goes by that Evye does not check the calendar and count the days until Milly's birthday in June, in which she has been promised a trip back up there to celebrate with her.
After our very 1st day spent there we readied everyone to leave and Grayson started the van to get the a/c going. Not very long after that Madison came in reporting that our van was smoking. Hmmmm........not good. I went out and indeed gray smoke seemed to billow from beneath the hood. With everyone having already been buckled in I gave the order to unload everybody...in the event that it blew up. I turned it off and again it made the eery hissing, moaning, screeching sounds that had occured in Little Rock. In my highly skilled, experienced mechanic ingeniousness I came to the conclusion that it had something to do with the radiator fluid...or something of that sort. The cap was off and whatever neon green fluid had filled the container had splashed up onto the battery and corroded it and the container was now emtpy. It seemed to be an important component that needed liquid so I figured this had to be the source of the problem. I called Brad and based on what helpful info I could give him he reached the same conclusion. Curtis returned home from work about that time so he took over........ever so thankfully on my part. This time the temperature gauge did read that it was so hot that it couldn't even go any farther into the red. Each time I turned it on and then off it was faithful to moan, hiss and bellow. It was so loud, in fact, that Brad could hear it from his cell phone status. So, Curtis filled the empty container, that was desperatly needing liquid, with water so that we had enough to get it to help. The mechanics that worked on it before we left, assuring our safety and that everything within was perfectly capable of making a 2,800 mile trip, had said that if anything dare go wrong in our journey that we could take it to the nearest chain of their's and they would fix it since it was all under warranty and they would even tow it for free. Seeing the water Curtis was filling it with pour out from under the hood certainly indicated this was going nowhere good. We all thought it bought us enough time to make the short drive there....but, alas....only 2 short minutes later it was smoking again and making awful demonic noises. After talk ran between all of the men it was decided it had to be towed.....or I would need to be stopping every few quarter miles to put water into it. No good. Despite the fact that Mother was now there on scene also to follow me to the car garage it seemed driving it there was going to do more harm than good. So, it was decided that it needed to be towed. I collected everything from within and after waiting awhile we left it in Jackie and Curtis' driveway to be towed and the children and I all piled into Mother's quad cab Dodge and made the trip back to her house. Yes......that would be 9 people in one Dodge. And it would remain that way for 2 entire days. They told Brad Sat afternoon that it would be ready at 5:30 and that the children and I needed to be there promptly, as they closed at 6. Fair enough. We planned our day around that and all 9 of us made our way back to Flower Mound and where the van sat. But we arrived only to find it far from ready. We told them we'd go grab a bite to eat and they assured us that it would be ready when we returned. We returned an hour later and still it sat high up on the car rise in the garage. So, our wait began. If you have never waited 3 hrs with young 7 children in a busy parking lot that happenes to be the main thoroughfare for a grocery store you have never truly experienced life. By about 30 minutes into it I had them all piled out of the truck...as we were all growing quite claustrophobic. By an hour into it they were running around in the parking lot. By 2 hrs into it they were growing quite feral and I resorted to a mini bootcamp for kids, similiar to what I had done at the hotel the morning before we loaded up...though this bootcamp lasted for a good 45 minutes, not the mere 10 that the hotel one had...... in which I had them all doing jumping jacks, one legged races, sit-ups, push-ups, balancing on yellow parking lines and doing heel/toe touches. That seemed to wear them out somewhat. We then continued on with duck, duck goose, I spy, the quiet game and any other thing my exhasperated mind could think of. By 3 hrs into it I was really mad. It was now 9 pm, we had planned to attend church the next day and it was an hour past their bedtime....but they still were not even close to being ready for bed. In fact...they were now quite black from rolling around all over the parking lot.
With all of the dignity and diplomacy I could muster I went in and kindly told them that we were leaving. Again they said, this time a little defensively......"We are done!! Just one more thing. It'll take about 5 minutes. We can't let this vehicle go until it passes the whatever test. It is in your best interest and we are protecting you." I said with a surprising kindess and in an understanding of their own predicament that I knew it was no fault of their own and I had no doubt that it was probably posing a problem passing the test. And then I thanked them for their tireless and continuing effort.....but I had 7 children that had been waiting for 4 hrs now and it was now an hour and a half past their bedtime. We would be back tomorrow to pick it up. So, again we all crammed in like little sardines into Mother's truck , due to no other option at this point, and we made our way back to her house. On Sunday Thomas was home so while we awaited Scott's arrival we left the napping little ones with him and just Mother, Grayson, Evye and I spread out within the truck and went to pick the van up. So, now 2 days later we had transportation again....maybe. It was indeed ready and waiting when we got there.....though it still smelled like cat pee. I forgot to forewarn the mechanics about that one. It was so bad I was embarrassed that anyone would be forced to get into it and think we allowed that or were so trashed out that our animals just pee freely all over everything. I felt embarrassed that we had left a large family impression of stink, filth and disorganization since that pretty much summed the van up.
So, 2 days later and a very pretty, shiny penny later I was back to having transportation again. We found out later that all that went wrong was not worked on the 1st time since it had been inspected and deemed "good" and no one thought it needed any work on those areas. Apparently they were terribly misled by what they saw....or never looked at. But the little overheating incident blew something like the alternator, radiator and timing chain. All had to be replaced....which now happen to be under warranty along with the vast majority of everything else now under the hood. They started to charge us the towing fee since "the broken parts were not associated with any of the work that had been done before." But I threw a fit so they did manage to take that off of our bill. It still was far from cheap. But even as I was tempted to get a little disheartened about it and the vast amount of money that had to be unexpectedly forked up I thought back on our episode in Little Rock and became overwhelmingly grateful that it had not ended like it had in Jackie's driveway and that we were not stranded in a McDonald's parking lot or on the side of some interstate hundreds of miles away from home. It could've been sooooo much worse. Though everybody was in a state of disbelief when I coughed up what had occured in Little Rock and the fact that I had never mentioned any of it to Brad. I had no clue the severity of what was happening under the hood. And I think we were incredibly spared what could've gone really really wrong so very many miles away from familiar homeland.
So, we celebrated Madison's 14th birthday while we were there again on Th night for their Bible study and then left for home Sat morning...exactly 14 days since we had pulled out of the driveway in anticipation of the many adventures that lay ahead.
The trip home was a short one. No one wanted to stop and they were all anxious to get back to their trampoline and bikes. So, we made it in a record 3 hrs straight. And a joyous reunion it was. Brad had cleaned the house and done the remaining wash I had not been able to get to. He had fixed the children's favorite, spaghetti, for their dinner and then fixed a huge welcome home dinner of steak, baked sweet potatoes and salad for the 2 of us. Yes...it was good to be home. Grant, on emotional overload went from laughing excitedly to a torrent of tears upon seeing Brad. Garrett fell right in by his side saying "Daddy!!!!!" non stop. I didn't think he was ever going to let go of him and once put back down on the ground so everyone could unload I didn't think he'd ever let go of his leg. He stayed firmly attached to him. Even Gavin squealed with excitement and fell into his arms once he saw him. He had PLENTY of people waiting to be held by him. His arms were occupied for hours that night.
So......that about sums up our days on the road. I'm sure I'll think of things I left out as they come to mind but I'm quite sure that covered the major stuff. Oh.......besides the fact the camera died the day before we left TN. So, I'll load what pictures we were able to get but the rest of our trip was, sadly, not captured on camera. It got some of the really good parts of TN though. I think we've messed with it enough that we have brought it back to life until we can get another. So, hopefully I'll get some Mother's Day pics tomorrow.
Oh.....did I ever mention that the van door, after having it work for about 4 amazing days, succombed and reverted back to its state of refusing to serve the backseat passengers well. So, by the middle of the week at Mother's we were once again loading everyone from the front and very back doors. We even managed to vacuum out the entire van like this!
Alright, forgive any and all misspellings, as spell check only went half of the way through this. I think it's too long for Blogger spell check to comphrehend. I'll proof read tomorrow when it's not 2 am.
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