The Kitchen

I unpacked the kitchen the first day, but it seemed to be a dumping ground for all the other stuff in the house that didn't have a place yet. We are happy with the kitchen and it thankfully has just enough cabinets for all my stuff. However, the sliding glass door and kitchen window do not have any blinds, which means I'll be making curtains soon. The good thing is that our house backs up to a field so no one is looking into our house, but it would be still be nice to have something covering the slider at night.

Pictures of Our Basement

The basement has turned out better than I thought it would. The finished part is split into two sides by the staircase. One side is for school,craft and computer time and the other is for play.

TIME TO LEARN & EXPLORE
TIME TO PLAY

The back half of the basement is unfinished, but as you can see we have more toys then we have room. I also have three boxes of toys I haven't unpacked. I'm pretty sure you could say that my kids are spoiled. However, this side of the unfinished part has worked out well. We laid down foam pads so they can't feel the cold of the concrete and they enjoy setting up their train tracks and Lightening McQueen tracks. The best thing for me is that ALL of their toys are in the basement. Doug and I have already talked about how it's going to be tough going back to a house without a basement.

Ethan having fun!!

I went out shopping and Doug was home with the kids and five neighborhood kids. During the chaos Ethan decided that instead of painting a picture he would paint himself. He was very proud of his work!!

We finished the Family Room and Dinning Room Today!

We opened our last box!

It was a week of unrelenting work. We wanted to get the house set up as quickly as possible, but it turned out to be tougher than we remembered. I opened and unpacked the boxes and Doug broke them down and stuffed as much paper into as few boxes as he could.

Doug's Act of Heroism

On the second day of our four day drive from Washington to Illinois we came upon an accident that had just happened. Doug and I were talking on the phone driving separate cars and I was in the lead when I saw a car that was badly banged up. Glass was covering both lanes and as I passed the car I could see someone in there. I initially thought there were two people, but Doug quickly learned that there was only one person. I was a bit confused because the car was obviously in a single-car accident, but there was also another car behind that car that was just sitting there. As soon as I told Doug there was an accident and he saw for himself what had happened he told me to pull over and call 911. He jumped out and when I looked in my rear view mirror I saw flames coming out of the hood of the car. I quickly realized that Doug was putting himself in danger to try and save this person's life and I panicked for a second thinking that the car could blow up while he was trying to help. Then, I realized that there was nothing I could do except pray, so I turned to the kids in the car and told them we needed to pray. They immediately folded their hands and closed their eyes and I prayed for Doug's safety, the person that was stuck in the car and that Doug would get the help he needed to get this person out. Other cars stopped as they came upon the accident and my view of what was taking place was beginning to be obstructed. From what I could see there were people standing around, but no one seemed to be helping Doug. Then, I saw the person being carried and laid on the ground. At that point the flames were getting bigger and bigger and the car was completely on fire when the paramedics arrived. A person walking back to their car told me that three guys somehow pulled the door open. I knew that one of those three guys was my husband. After the paramedics left Doug walked over to us and I could tell something was wrong because of the way he was holding his hands and moving his arms. I realized once he got to me that it was because he had blood all over his hands. He told me that there were two guys that came from the other side of the median to help him. They somehow pried the door open and Doug pulled the lady from the car. He said he could see the dashboard starting to bubble from the heat and it was only minutes from being too late. After everything started to sink in, Doug called the state trooper for more information. He learned the first 911 call, which was not mine, was only 7 minutes before trooper arrived. In that short 7 minutes, we pulled over from the freeway, Doug rescued the women from the car and the entire car was engulfed in flames according to the trooper. Also, the lady in the car was a 72 year old women who had 8 children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was on her way to the airport to go see her newest great-grandchild. She had fallen asleep at the wheel, hit the median, jerked the car back to the road and flipped it from front to back. She had no broken bones and was able to leave the hospital within days after it happen. Doug had a chance to talk to her son and he was pretty emotional about the whole thing. He told Doug he had no idea who he saved and that she is one of those people who has a bigger than life personality. The next few days of our drive was consumed with thoughts about what had happen. Doug was amazed that he was put in that place at that time for that event. The odds of having us being the first ones on the scene of that accident was definitely an act of God. Also, we never found out what happen with the other car we saw when we pulled up. Our guess is that he was in shock because he saw what happen and was unable to respond.

Ready, Set, Drive

Day 1: Lacey, WA to Boise, ID - We had fog throughout most of Washington and Oregon
Day 2: Boise, ID to Cheyenne, WY - Doug saves a women's life. It was our longest day of driving and we were thankful to make it Cheyenne. It was interesting to see the red rocks in Utah. I've seen them before, but it never gets old. As night fell we hit thick fog close to Cheyenne, so it was slow going for the last hour.
Day 3: Cheyenne, WY to Topeka, KS - After being on the road for a few hours a car zoomed pass me. I moved back into his lane and within minutes I saw the hood of his car flying through the air towards me. I didn't have to make any drastic maneuvers because it hit the road about 15-20 yards in front of me, but it was a bit unnerving nonetheless. Driving through Denver was breathtaking. I didn't want to take my eyes off of the Rocky Mountains. I'm not sure there is anything more amazing to see. At one point, when we were heading east, I looked in my rear view mirror and could see the mountains in all their glory. I knew that would be the last glorious thing I would see because the rest of the day was flat and boring.
Day 4: Topeka, KS to Belleville, IL - The further we drove east the prettier it got. We were so excited once we crossed the Mississippi River and arrived to our new home. We were more than ready to get out of the car even though it was our shortest day of driving. The only thing we did that day was unpack the cars and made the beds so we could sleep there that night.

Great Wolf Lodge

Staying at the Great Wolf Lodge yesterday was amazing. The log cabin bunk beds were a hit with the kids in their cabin area of our room. In addition to the water park, they were also able to go trick-or-treating and at 8 pm the kids went downstairs for story time in their pj's. The coolest thing about the lodge was that we all wore wristbands and Doug's and my wristband got us into our room and we used them to buy anything in the hotel. It was so nice to not carry around keys, money or cards.

Ethan was brave to go down the BIG water slide, but he didn't want to do it twice

Doug and Jacob being dunked with water!!

Torn Between Two Worlds

I'm sitting in the TLF at McChord anxious to get to our home in Illinois. Thoughts running through my head of how I'm going to decorate the house, where pictures will go, how I will organize the basement for homeschool and play. Then, I find myself drifting back to the friends I made here and how I looked forward to hanging out with them this year, the programs I was excited to have the kids in, the church that felt like home and the house I worked so hard on to get exactly the way I wanted. The only way to describe the way I feel is that I'm torn between two worlds.

Jacob's 6th Birthday

Jacob was so excited for his Transformer birthday party. He could hardly wait until Saturday to have his friends over. He looked forward to this for over a year. Last year we had to cancel his party at the last minute because Ethan and Audrey came down with a stomach virus. Thankfully, there was no last minute cancellation and everything went really well. The kids had a lot of fun. We played a few games, had pizza and cake, then the kids went upstairs to play. My only regret is that I didn't get a group picture.

Girls vs. Boy

The girls found all their Autobot pieces before the boys found their Decepticons. However, we discovered that both teams were missing one piece, so it ended up being a tie as to who finished their puzzle first.

I don't know who enjoys opening presents more...the kids who brought the presents or the person opening them?

Time to blow out the candles!!

Party Favors are so much fun! Emma (the one in the picture with Audrey) found the Allspark cube that was holding all of the favors.

I love Transformers!!!