trip continued

on the way to ogden, we came across a dead skunk.

upon smelling the skunk, dad said, "someone farted!" shannon, age 6, responded, "no one farted, that's bird poop!"

road signs seen on trip:

headlights on when wipers are needed. (i thought that was common sense, apparently not.)

construction fines higher when workers are present. (that one makes a ton of sense!)

other random funnies...
shaun, "when you put it (the cellphone) on airplane mode..."
nadia, "it charges faster."
taylor, " that's because a plane is faster than a car."

shaun on seeing a random pond in wyoming, "look, it's wyomings version of a humidifier

a massive bus-like motorhome in front of us was burning oil. nadia, "hello, burny."

we saw a shooting star at 5:30 am. (that was WAY cool!)

strange thoughts i had on the trip...
*when it comes to cheetos, name brand really is the to go... (the off brand ones tasted stale, and nasty)
*nebraska is dreary no matter the time of day you cross it.
*retread (tires from a semi) look an awful lot like a beached whale
*contrary to the movie red2, i'm not sure ANY car can fit under a semi truck while driving.
*i wonder what roadkill stew would taste like, using the skunk, possum, deer, porcupine, and raccoon we saw
*seeing llamas and cows in the same pasture, i wonder what you would call a cow llama mix?
*i wonder what it would be like to witness a gully washer (not be in one, just see it)?
*i'm so glad the freeway in wyoming is not free range!

revivd

i have opened an etsy shop that is all about taking something old and making it into something new. at the moment, all i have are t-shirt rugs, but i will be adding things over time. i'm looking at a denim/t-shirt hot pad, old necktie phone purses, and old bed frame benches. i might look at jean bags as well.

here are some of the rugs i've done...

 random rug made for mom.

 second random rug made for mom.

 shades of pink made to sell.

rainbow image of all rugs possible.

trip story

last december, when my parents were here, mom said she wanted to have a few of the kids spend some time out with them (kansas city) during the summer. things happened, other trips were necessary, and they couldn't get kids out there for a reasonable price. we had recently been gifted a suburban (more on that later), and it was in better shape than the other cars we have. if was more cost effective to fix the few problems the suburban had, and pay for gas, than it was to get just the older 2 kids out there. so, we fixed the front doors, attempted to fix the cargo door, and headed to kansas city for a couple of weeks.

the trip out there was extremely uneventful. the suburban worked beautifully, and the kids were amazing! we thought we could miss most of the heat by driving all night, but we ended up hitting nebraska during the day, with 100+ temps. even with the spray bottle, and windows open (cause the a/c doesn't work), it was a hot and miserable drive.

while we were out there, we did a few more things to the suburban. some was needed, some were problems that popped up while we were there. **the joke was that we only had to drive 1300 miles to get it fixed.**
as we knew that it is old, and had quirks, we did some basic maintenance on it. checks on the air filter, old, but clean; found a hose connector that was severely damaged, replaced it and now it runs MUCH better; changed the oil, put in some fuel and oil system cleaners, tightened up the mirrors (they would end up pushed into the car from the wind of just driving), added more transmission fluid when we started having issues with that system. my brother got the broken key out of the ignition, and dad got copies made.

i have an old roommate who lives in the area, and we met up at a park and let her girls and the 3 little ones play. much fun was had by all!

nathan, my 12-year-old brother tried to set up a conference call for my sisters and i. apparently, i missed the memo, cause i wasn't part of it.

we had some friends stop by for a few minutes on their way through to tennessee (now they might leave us permanently for tennessee. i might have to disable their cars somehow...).

we had sick kids, and sick parents, and sick grandparents part of the time. we extended our trip a few days to try and make up for that, but we still didn't do a whole lot.

preparations

today is prep day.

i refuse to go on vacation if the house is a mess. the lawn is done, we have started on the family room, and need to make sure bathrooms are done at least.
i'd like the kitchen clean too, but that might be asking too much

elizabeth is getting the suburban cleaned out.

tonight, we are getting the doors fixed on the suburban so we can go.

tomorrow we pack, and make sure we have everything else ready.

crazy week!

this morning, i was able to get shaun's counseling changed, and then headed to IF to get some tshirts for my new projects (more on that later).

on the way down, the doctors office called me and said they had a cancellation tomorrow, and could get me in. i said yes (heck, yes. another day to make sure i'm recovered enough to help drive...YES!). so my second d&c (that's a depressing thing to write) is tomorrow instead.

i called a friend to watch the kids, i arranged for a meal to be brought in.

i am on top of things! (i only wish!!)

oh, i still need to find someone to bring in mail, and water my garden....

i'm done

i've had it with my body today.

it's been nearly 6 weeks since we discovered sprout would not be joining us. almost 6 weeks since i had the d&c. and i'm still bleeding. not a ton, but enough to know that something wasn't right. and all 3 pregnancy tests have come back positive. (they've wanted to make sure the "surgery" took. i've had one every other week since the d&c)

today, i finally decided that i was done, and needed to find out why things weren't back to "normal." i made an appointment to see the ob.

the third test came back positive.
we did a sonogram to see if something might have gotten missed.

a square inch of tissue was missed. it might not seem like a huge deal, but when there's only about 6 square inches or so to begin with...

we scheduled a second d&c for thursday afternoon. 

...24 hours before we are supposed to leave for 2 weeks to kansas city...

...the exact same time as shaun's counseling...

i've had it!!