R&R Story #2--The snow

So Monday morning came, and I am a mean mom, so I made my kids go to school, and did what I do best. Yes, I went back to bed. I woke up a while later to the sound of my from ringing. School was getting out early. I looked out the window and what did I see? No, no popcorn, but it was white. It was snowing. We spent the day watching the snow and packing to go on our trip to Florida.
Tuesday morning we got up, loaded the van up and were on our way. The snow was gone by the time we hit nashville. I guess that wasn't the end of the snow in Clarksville though. Every night for our first week, we got a call from the school saying there would be no school. Normally, I would protest this many snow days, but this time it worked to our advantage.
You see, CMCSS (or whatever they are) has a pretty strict attendence policy, and my kids had already missed 5 days a piece. I went into to the school to find out what I needed to do to excuse the absences for our trip to Florida. After much research they found out that the policy is to only excuse 5 days for R&R. LAME!!! We had planned to be gone for 10.
So eventhough my friends back in Clarksville we terribly annoyed at the snow, this is the snow storm that saved me from going to truancy court.

Catching up that photo thingy

I was taking pictures all along. I just never posted them, so I will now. Ok?

Week 3: Sharing the brownie batter beater (say that 3 times fast)

Week 4: When life gives you a snow day, make a blanket fort

Week 5: I found theese folded together. Someone owes me 10 cents

Week 6: Don't let them fool you. They are freezing.

Week 7: Elevator lottery-- Jade wins

Week 8: quick family pic before he got on his plane

And now: I am all caught up. Yay!!

My daddy is a genius

Saturday the kids were driving me absolutely crazy. We needed to get out, and I needed more aligator clips. It wasn't anything exciting, but it wasn't home. We loaded into the van and drove our happy little selves over to Sally Beauty Supply. I got alligator clips, and the kids didn't touch anything. Success!! Next stop redbox (Do you really think my kids would behave in the store if they hadn't been bribed?) We pile back in the van, go to start it, and......lots of clicking no starting :( So we went and walked around the flea market thingy for a bit (mostly so I could gather my thoughts, but also in case by some miracle my van just needed a few minutes to think about what it had done and decide that it liked me again)
So we piled into the van AGAIN, and still nothing. I considered walking home, but my favorite daughter does not seem to understand that shorts are not appropriate clothing for November. I was pretty sure all I needed was a jump start anyways. There was a man sitting in his car not to far away, so I went and asked if he would help. He told me no because he was just about to leave (FYI he left 30 minutes later) I texted spare army guy. He was out of town. I texted another friend, but then I remembered that I have emergency road service. Anything to do with insurance completely terrifies me, so I called my daddy to verify how this procedure works. He told me that I probably just had a bad connection on my battery (it was true too the post on my battery were fuzzy and blue and ewwwww). He sent me to buy a coke. I bought a coke, and dumped it over the battery, which by the way is a very interesting thing to see. The blue turned all kinds of colors and then melted away. Sadly, the van still did not start. :(
I went back into the Sally Beauty and borrowed a phone book. I looked up emergency road service. There were 2 in town Seriously?!? Aren't there like 8 in Tremonton? and we have 2 here? Anyways, towing company number one does not do jumpstarts and towing company 2 does not take state farm, is going to charge me $45 and I am going to have to wait AN HOUR. At this point the really nice (and really flamboyant) guy that works at Sally Beauty offered to help me jump the van. So he pulls his jeep around and figures out how to open his hood (he says car maintenance is his boyfriends job) and the jumper cables don't reach. Then he realizes that I am parked next to the man that works at Game Stop. So the gamestop guy comes and tries to help me jump the van, but it still doesn't work. He is convinced that my starter is dead. Finally, I called a friend that lives nearby and she picked up me and the kids and brought us home.
I called and reported this all to my dad (you just can't fit this story into a text message). He told me that my starter was not dead, and exactly what to do. So this morning I went back and followed my dad's instructions, and it worked :D The gamestop emplyee that was convinced that my starter was dead watched the whole thing this morning. I wonder what he thought about that.
Anyways, the van goes again. Hoooray!! Now I just need a spare person with a driver's license so I can go back and get the truck.
P.S. I have a new respect for what my dad does for a living (he is a mechanic in case you didn't know). Getting the cables off the battery was a pain in the butt.

Pictures of the river

This is the Cumberland river. It is less than a block from our hotel. Right now it is above flood stage. It is expected to continue rising for atleast another day. It hasn't reached the road yet. I'm not sure if it will or not.

Flowers, flowers every where

Look at all the flowers I found walking around the block!

Yep, it's spring here. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love springtime in the desert, but how can you not love all of these flowers. I do admit they do create a cloud of pollen, but for some reason it hasn't really affected our allergies, so I'm loving it. I should have taken pictures back when the magnolias were blooming. Maybe there will be some in Kentucky/Tenessee. I sure hope so.

To the park

I took Caibo to the park today. Instead of having lots of little parks with playgrounds all over town, our city has one big children's park. Everytime we went around the corner and saw another playground Caibo said, "Look mom! Another park."
I hope I am not the only one, but my kids are obsessed with those little automatic "hanitizer" (their word for hand sanitizer) dispensers. They just won't leave them alone. That might just have been Caibo's favorite thing at the park, except the car of course.

Out and about

I always forget that blogger puts the last picture first. I'm not going to fix it though.

This is our monkey friend. He lives at the Mc Donald's play place. This is the fanciest play place I have ever been to.

They also had video games and TVs (one had Finding Nemo, the other Nickelodeon) I'm not the biggest fan of this. In my opinion the best part of playplaces is that the kids run around and wear themselves out. What do you think?

My kids love any restraunt with chopsticks.

They liked this one even more because of the fire (it was a hibachi) Sorry, no fire pictures. I was too distracted by the fire.

by some miracle my filter isn't overachieving today

I have a confession to make. My life is boring. Yes, it is true. I am not an exciting person, so I am always on the look out for something interesting to post as my facebook status. As I was driving across the country I thought up several status updates, but decided to wait until the end of the day to use them, so I wouldn't wreck the van texting and driving. Sadly, by the end of the day I was always too tired. So, in honor of Random thought Tuesday, I bring you the status updates I thought up (and can still remember) from my long, long drive:

got my kicks on Route 66

always thought the animators of the movie cars made the hills in the background look like cars on purpose, it turns out the hills really do look like cars.

it's a good thing people in the middle of nowhere have a sense of humor about living in the middle of nowhere.

resisted the urge to go to Roswell when I saw the exit sign.

Jade says Texas smells like crap. I think she's right.

mmmm Cherry cider, too bad they are closed.

didn't know it snows in Texas. I guess you learn something new every day.

just passed the "It'll do" hotel.

Dallas+Rush hour+snow=how is this even fair?

Crossed the Mississippi and lived to tell about it

and then, I got so bored of driving I pretty much quit with the status update thing, so that's all the random I have for you today. If you want more random head over to The source of all randomness and join the fun.

RTT and Dear So and So at the same time

I have missed doing Dear So and So and Random thought Tuesday, so I am going to do them both at the same time. I'm not going to hunt down the pictures. I'm feeling too lazy. We can call this adventures in air travel.
Random airport thoughts:
As you go down the escalator to baggage claim at LAS there is a big poster advertising some show that Bette Midler (sp?) is doing somewhere in Vegas. I didn't pay much attention to the details. I was too distracted. I think they put her head on someone else's body. Either that or she has a really big head.
I'm thinking about starting the air travel diet. Seriously, you walk FOREVER, and you don't eat very much because you don't have time. I was sitting next to some ladies that packed sandwiches because they knew their layover wasn't going to be long enough to get food. I wonder how they got those sandwiches through security, or are sandwiches ok?
Dear So and So airport edition:
Dear midwestern airlines,
You made me cry at the airport where millions of people could see me, but you gave me free tickets and meal vouchers. I guess we are even.
Thanks for a really long day,
the crying girl with the broken flip flop
Dear me,
Packing that extra pair of flip flop was absolutely brilliant.
You are so smart!
yes I know
Dear Real Food Company,
I thought you said pickles, onions. I said sure why not. It turns at you said pickled onions, which was way better. Can I have the recipe?
craving so more,
not going to Houston just for pickled onions
Well, I feel better now. I'm sure I left you all wondering what the heck happened to me. Just know, I survived the airport fiasco, and the lady behind me in the ticketing line was right. I will totally laugh about this some day.

Don't worry I always come back (eventually)

It is true. I haven't blogged alot lately. It's not that I don't have anything going on (quite the opposite actually). Honestly I don't even know where to begin, but because I like you (and because people are beginning to worry about my well being) I will fill you in.
Jerry has finished his 8 weeks of AIT in Alabama. Somehow the army manages to turn 8 weeks into 3 months. I don't know how they do it, but they are REALLY good at it. He is now at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. 3/4 of my time and energy have been devoted to trying to get myself, my children, and all of our stuff to Florida. It's more complicated than it sounds especially when you add the army into the mix. At the rate I am going I expect to be in Florida sometime before 2010 (I hope).
The kids are back in school. Jade is in first grade. She loves it. Her penmanship gets better every day, thanks to her teacher who has a handwriting obsession. It was fun to watch her last night as she sat down to study her spelling words for the first time (atleast that I have seen). I know she will do great on her test today. Caibo is going to Wee wonders preschool (thanks to everyone on facebook that recommended it to me and saved my butt). He absolutely loves it. Yesterday he brought home Slush the class pet (a stuffed dog). He was so cute carrying him around and feeding him his bottle.
I spent Labor Day weekend with Jerry in Florida looking for a place to live. We got to go to the beach. Fort Walton Beach has the whitest sand I have ever seen (and I have been to Aruba) and the water was so warm. It had been stormy all day, so there were waves to jump and play in. We had a great time. I didn't want to come home, but I did it anyway. I hope we get to move soon.
Last week, I tripped and fell. I hurt my arm, but refused to go to the doctor. Yesterday, my arm was still hurting me, so I finally gave in and went to the instacare. I got to have my first x-rays ever, which was kindof cool (until I get the bill). It turns out that I broke my elbow. (for all my readers who speak medical the words he used were fractured radial head) I don't have a cast yet. Dr. Prince will decide that on Tuesday. Jade says if I need a cast I should get pink. That seems a bit flashy to me. Caibo told me he tripped and broke his "elmo" and the put a pair of his "lucky underwear" on his arm to immitate the sling the Dr. gave me. I wish I could have gotten a picture it was hilarious.
I think that covers about half of everything, but I have written enough to prove that I am still alive. Eventually, I will post some pictures. Maybe I should make a poll. It could ask what you think will happen first: moving to florida or posting pictures.