Library Halloween Parade

The Wichita Falls Public Library had a Halloween parade at story time on Tuesday. The kids listened to two stories then lined up to walk around the library and Senior center collecting candy.

Afterwards, we dropped by Grandma's school to say hi.

Ugh...

People (you know who you are) should write me or call me ot text me or something. I am DYING here! Doesn't have to be long or meaningful... just addressed to me.

Oh, really? : P ; )

Round Up

The Holliday High School Homecoming tradition is to have a spectacular winning game on Friday then get together for a barbeque dinner at 5:30 on Saturday. All of the school clubs have game booths out on the tennis courts: bingo, duck pond, dunk tank, jail, cake walk... and it is entitled "Round Up." Traditionally, everyone dresses in western wear and the Round Up king and queen are crowned at the talent show.

I dressed the kids in western wear (or as much as I could from Goodwill's slim pickins) and we arrived at 6:15 at the tennis courts. Turns out they're not there any more. We drove around the school and found people starting to gather, but nothing was happening. We walked to the cafeteria (aka the cafetorium) and found out it was starting at 6:30. We walked around for a bit, got our barbeque dinners, and went to play games. There were a total of 6 games: dart throw, nail driving (what???), basketball, the wheel of fortune, bingo, and the duck pond. It took us about 30 minutes to do all the games twice which was good because it was getting dark and there were no lights. Geniuses. With our pockets full of candy and plastic kazoos, we headed home and the kids were tucked into bed by 7:40.

Holliday

Gas = $2.41 per gallon
Freeze warning for tomorrow
Cats aren't fighting
Halloween costumes are finished
Ella = Indian
Jacob = Robot
Dishwasher works
Laundry is free
WIC uses a credit card instead of checks
(although they said that BOTH of my children were overweight!!!)
My new insurance is just as bad as my old insurance
Yay.

Our Trip to Texas - Day 5

Friday, October 3rd: After packing the car up yet again, we headed towards our final destination, Holliday, Texas. This was an awkward day of driving because Tomo had to go potty and had not gone potty since the day before. (I'm not so good at the Math and I bought one too few litter boxes. I'm glad that she didn't pee in the hotel room though!) Tomo squirmed and cried and we pulled over three or four times to let her go, but she just wouldn't.

When we finally reached Lubbock, we came across a PetSmart and bought another litter box. Kris stood outside with Tomo and the litter box for 30 minutes while the kids and I listened to "The Wheels on the Bus" about 5000 times. No go. We now had an open litter box and a still squirmy kitty so I put the litter box at my feet and the cat in my lap and we got back on the highway. About 5 minutes later, Tomo jumped down into the litterbox and did her thing. Nothing like having the smell of cat pee being blown back on you from the air conditioning vents. The good news (and possibly the only reason Tomo is still alive) is that nothing got on the carpets.

We stopped in Crosbyton at the good ol' DQ for lunch and continued East. At around 4:30 we pulled into Holliday. The truck was out front and Grandma was waiting. After hugs and kisses, we unloaded the car. Mom had warned us about the state of the truck, so it was only disappointment, not surprise, when we saw all of our things collapsed in a heap. I was only concerned with my little rolltop desk (so I told myself) so I dug it out, relieved to see that it was fine. I then found my broken dishes, my broken lamp, our broken bookshelf, my broken mirror, and several dozen other smushed boxes of various sizes. I can hear dishes rattling, broken, but I refuse to open them. Schrodinger's dishes.

.

Our Trip to Texas - Day Four

Thursday, October 2nd: With plans to stay in a different hotel in a different city, we had to pack everything up in the morning. We also had filled our memory card in our camera so while Kris packed, Ella and I ran to Walgreens and had our pictures put onto CD. I also ran by Goodwill and purchased a couple of sweatshirts since we'd decided to go to Carlsbad Caverns for the day. It took us forever to get out of the hotel (our fault, not theirs) but by 11:00 we were headed for Carlsbad. This turned out to be perfect timing since it was right during Ella's nap. On arriving, Tomo got checked in at the visitor center for a mere $5 and we were on our way.

We'd debated whether we sould go down the Nautral Entrance so we could talk about bats with Jacob or whether we should just take the elevator down 750 feet to the Big Room since Ella's not so great at the hiking and we didn't want her falling face first into the bat cave. Because of time, we opted for the elevator route-- this turned out to be the limit of Jacob and Ella's patience. They reall liked the cave, but were really tired after an hour and a half.

Ella, our little geologist, enjoyed yelling everything she saw, "ROCK! ROCK! ROCK! WATER! WATER!! ROCK!!!). We had been told to be quiet in the caves because of the echo, but luckily there were very few people (think 10) visiting that day and the echoes of an 18 month old didn't seem to bother anyone. Once hearing that we were in the Hall of Giants, Jacob became obsessed with the idea that the stalagmites were monsters because giants are monsters. For the next hour he kept asking, "Where is that monster's mouth? What do those monsters eat? Why can't those monsters move? Is that monster's name Red X? Are those monsters going to eat me?" He even corrected a mistaken park ranger on this subject...

Once we'd done the loop we were back up the elevator to the surface. We picked up Tomo and headed towards Hobbs, New Mexico for our new hotel. After arriving we did a quick change into presentable clothes and drove to Seminole, Texas to meet my grandmother (Gram) for dinner. Jacob and Ella did great at the restaurant and I was SO happy to have REAL Mexican food! Mmmm.... enchiladas!!! It was wonderful seeing Gram (and seeing the kids show off for her!) and we were sad to head backwards to Hobbs.

(Turn head 90 degrees...)

Our Trip to Texas - Day Three

Wednesday, October 1st: We left Munds Park, Arizona around 7:30 AM and headed towards Roswell, New Mexico. It was a harder drive today (mentally) and we had more stops this leg. One stop was at the Petrified Forest National Park. We couldn't all get out of the car at once since we had Tomo with us, so we took turns going potty and walking around. After finding out that the drive through the petrified forest was going to be an extra hour and a half and that it cost an extra $10, we promptly headed back towards good ol' I 40. Highlights of this jaunt included seeing two roadrunners, the free hands-on exhibit, and getting gas at a pump so old that the attendent has to come out and read the numbers.

After a long drive, we arrived in Roswell and crashed at the hotel while Kris went on a Sonic run. WARNING: The following is TMI so you'll have to highlight: Jake and Ella were in the tub playing when I noticed that Ella had pooped. I quickly got the kids out of the tub and was trying to clean out the tub when I heard Jake yell, "Ewww, Ella! That's poo poo!" Ella was evidently not finished pooping and made a huge pile in the middle of the carpeted floor. She kept trying to point to it and kept yelling, "Poo poo! Poo poo!" It was great...

Our Trip to Texas - Day Two

Tuesday, September 30th: We slept as late as the kids would let us and then got ready for a trip to Sedona. Kris and I took Jacob to Sedona a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it so we wanted to spend more time there. We took the scenic route through the mountains and pines, stopped at all the photo ops, and ended up in the red rocks of Sedona. Ella fell asleep on the way, so we pulled over and Jake and I went hiking while Kris read and Ella slept. The hike was a little scary, but an amazing view. Jacob did a great job and really liked climbing and throwing rocks. By the time we were done, Ella was awake and we drove to another viewpoint to walk around a bit.

Our Trip to Texas - Day One

Monday, September 29th: We planned on leaving at 7:00 but end up leaving at 8:00. We had visits from Harry, Miles, and Brooke and then went to drop off the air mattress and saw Bridget and Kate. I started sobbing about 50 yards from the house (as we rounded the curve by Hope's house) but managed to get it together by the Irvine city limits.

The trip went well. The kids were tired from getting up so early and both were asleep after about 45 minutes. Our first stop was, what else, the Dairy Queen in Barstow. Jacob kept asking, "Is this Texas?" He was very disappointed that, no, in fact, it was still California. "Well, you need to go to Texas. That's where Grandma lives."

Once out of California, the scenery became interesting and clouds appeared in the sky.

We stopped again in Seligtown (or something) to walk around, watch trains, and poke grasshoppers.

After about an hour we headed on to Munds Park, Arizona which is just South of Flagstaff. We arrived around 7:oo and ate a dinner of chicken fried steak and chili.

1000 More Words (plus a few sobs)

Here's what happens when you don't tie down your boxes. I sure wish someone had mentioned tying stuff down BEFORE we sent it off. Note the open storage tub with all the dishes...