In the 505

Here we are in Albuquerque!

On Wednesday we woke up in Fort Stockton at our hotel and got on the road.  We got a good early start and were set to get into Albuquerque around 4:30.  Ten miles east of El Paso on I-10 (where the speed limit is 80 mph), my rear tire blew out.  I managed to get us to the side of the road and stopped safely.

  

We had to unload the full trunk to get to the spare and started at it.  I managed to loosen all but one nut on the tire and could not get the fourth one to budge.  Lissa waved down a truck and a nice rancher lady from Arizona pulled over to help us out.  We worked with my tire iron and then hers for 10 minutes and couldn't get it to move.  Finally, we managed to get it loose right as a policeman pulled up to help.  Rancher lady got back on her way and Texas Cop started helping us out.  He didn't like the jack that comes in my trunk, so he called another officer for help.  Before we knew it, there were three police cars and a Texas Department of Transportation truck parked behind us.  

Lissa, the girls and I stayed out of their way and let them change the tire.  Then we got all loaded up again and headed into El Paso to get a new tire at WalMart.  Two hours later we were back on the road headed for Albuquerque.  We got in at 9:30.

Lauren did ok on Thursday morning but woke up from her nap with a fever.  She spent most of the rest of the day napping.  Ben got in late Thursday night and she felt much better on Friday morning when she got to spend some time with Daddy.

Last night we went to dinner at Ortega's, which was great as usual.  Today Ben has been working on my car trying to get a rattle fixed and figuring out what he's going to do about the dent the policemen put in my car when they were trying to jack it up to change the tire.

I am looking forward to the Bee on Monday!

On The Road

Lissa, Lauren, Natalie and I stopped for the night in Fort Stockton, Texas.  We got here last night at 9 and Lauren jumped on the beds for about an hour and a half before she would go to sleep.  We have about 7 hours of driving today and we're about to get started.

Albuquerque, here we come!

Moving Day

The movers are here packing up the house. Both girls are peacefully sleeping through it.

Ben is taking care of a few last things on base and once he gets back I'm going to take Lauren for one last trip to Tumblers (if he gets back by then) and then we'll hit the road for San Antonio. I pick Lissa up at the airport tonight at 8:30. Natalie has appointments tomorrow- the first one at 8:30 am and the last one at 2:30 pm. I'm hoping to be done with that early so we can be on the road by 3:30/4:00 and get out of San Antonio ahead of rush hour traffic. Then we start the 11 hour trek to Albuquerque!!

I am really sad to leave this house and I will miss it, but I am looking forward to spending the summer with family and then getting to Washington.

Splash!

On Saturday we all got together for my friend's son's second birthday party. They rented a giant inflatable water slide and everyone got in on the action. I think the adults made just as many trips on it as the kids (if not more). We all had a blast.

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was pretty quiet here. Ben worked on my car for a little while during the day and we had a nice dinner. On Monday evening I drove back to San Antonio with Natalie. She had a CT scan Tuesday morning because I was concerned about a little fluid build up she had. Dr. M said everything looked great and that her CT scan showed "dramatic improvement" over the CT scan from last month. He showed me the two scans and I was able to see the difference, too.

Yesterday Natalie had her last PT session with her PT therapist and she was impressed with Natalie's progress. She said she thought that at the rate Natalie is improving, she won't need PT anymore by the end of the summer. That's great news, and we'll have to have her checked out once we get up to Washington.

This weekend Ben and I have to get our stuff together for the summer. On Monday I'm taking the girls down to San Antonio and picking up Lissa at the airport. Natalie has a few appointments on Tuesday again and hopefully we'll be able to get on the road Tuesday afternoon to head to Albuquerque. Ben will stay at the house to oversee the packing and loading of all of our stuff.

The lady who put an offer on our house officially rejected our counter offer/withdrew her offer. So the house is still on the market for now. We're hoping to sell it, but we're going to put it on the rental market as of June 15th. Maybe another year of paying the mortgage and waiting for the housing market to stabilize will work out for us.

I'm getting really excited to head to Albuquerque next week, it's going to be a fun summer!

This Week

This week started out with my birthday on Sunday. Ben made breakfast and we spent most of the day playing in the front yard. Lauren got a t-ball set and has been learning how to use it. She can hit the ball, which is pretty amazing since she closes her eyes every time. :) She has fun chasing and throwing the ball as much as hitting it.

Natalie and I sat under the shade of the tree while Ben and Lauren played. Some neighbor kids from up the street came down and got in on the action, too. They all had popsicles before we called it an afternoon.

We did a quiet dinner at home on Sunday. On Monday night we went to my friend Mandy's house. Her birthday is May 5, so she invited our friends over for a joint birthday celebration. We had lots of good food and cupcakes for dessert. Here's a picture of me and Mandy.

On Tuesday we had Tumblers as usual, and then lunch as usual. On Wednesday, Natalie had PT and did really well. That night we drove down to Austin to visit Ben's cousin, Jason, who was in town from New York. They were thinking it had been about fifteen years since they had seen each other last. We went to dinner and then took Lauren swimming at his hotel and just hung out most of the night. We stayed up way too late.

We got an offer on the house last week. It was really low, so we countered it, and we're waiting to hear back. We had another showing yesterday that we haven't heard about. I hope things happen soon.

On Sunday night I emailed Natalie's Neurosurgeon about some fluid that I've been seeing build up under her scar again. He called me back that night and she's going to go in this Tuesday for another CT scan and a visit with him. If she needs another surgery, she'll probably have it on Thursday. I'm hoping she doesn't, but there is a chance. Monday night I'll drive down to San Antonio and if she doesn't need surgery I'll come back on Tuesday. If she does, I'll come back on Friday and pack Saturday and Sunday, and then we have to go back to San Antonio on Monday either way. Natalie has appointments all day long on Tuesday the 19th and once we're done, we drive straight to Albuquerque for the summer. I have just over a week left in this house. I'm really going to miss it.

But, I'm also looking forward to spending the summer in Albuquerque. Sarah and I are signing up to do 2 5Ks this summer. One is the Cherry Garcia 5K and the other is the Chunky Monkey 5K. I don't really know why I want to do it since I hate running so much, but I think it will be fun, and I'll feel like I really accomplished something. My goal for the first one is easy, I just want to finish, and for the second one, I just want to improve my time. I'm not going to knock myself out over it.

Natalie had a big accomplishment today. She rolled onto her stomach (which she's been doing for a while) and then lifted her head all the way up! That's such a milestone for her, and a great improvement and I'm so proud!

It's MAY!

This month comes with a whole lot of stuff to do! On the fun side, I have my birthday, Mother's Day, and our 9th anniversary. We also have Natalie's last (and really long) appointment in San Antonio, a house to pack up, two cars to load, and moving out to do. That's on top of hoping the house sells.

We officially dropped the price of our house yesterday. It was a little painful to do it, but we need to bring in more showings if we want to get an offer. Please say a little prayer that the next owner makes an offer this week or next week.

Natalie's eye appointment went well. Dr. R thinks now that her vision is ok but that she's showing a preference for her left eye and that is why her right eye is weak. He started her on eye patch therapy. She has to wear an eye patch 2 hours a day, 5 days a week for probably the next year. She doesn't love it, but she does tolerate it ok, and two hours isn't that long. She has also shown some really good strides with her PT. Her head is stabilizing so much, and she even lifted it when she was on her belly on Wednesday! That was the first time and it was great to see! We have some homework for her PT and we see the PT Therapist next Wednesday.

And here is my favorite recent picture of Natalie because I actually caught her smiling!!

Isn't that a great grin?!

I've been working on Snapfish making photo books. First is "Freakin' Delicious" which is our family cookbook. As of right now, I'm just waiting on two recipes and then we'll be able to order them. It's become a hybrid cookbook/photo album, and that's really fun. It's going to be totally cute. The other one is a book full of the old pictures I scanned in last year at Mom's house. Lots of my baby pictures and pictures of my parents and a few of my sisters. That will be really nice to have in print.

Sunday is my birthday, and we don't have anything planned for that day. Monday we're going to go to Mandy's house and grill. Her birthday is Tuesday, so it's a joint birthday celebration. I think we're going to have cupcakes and just a really good time.

Next Wednesday or Thursday we might get to meet up with Ben's cousin, Jason. He's going to Austin and we're going to drive down to see him. I didn't get to meet him at the big family party in Albuquerque last fall.

Lots to keep us busy over the next three weeks! Looking forward to the bee on May 25th!