Our crazy lives

We hadn't been in Mass. for more than a few days when I jumped on a plane and headed down to New Jersey to visit the folks. Thankfully, we were able to get almost everything put away and I felt confident that Patrick could handle the rest while I was gone. It turned out to be an awesome two week vacation for me full of shopping, sewing, and other sorts of craftiness for Peyton's sake. It felt really fabulous to be with my mom for that long...I don't think that Patrick and River would agree with that though. Now we are all back together and Patrick and I are trying to find part time/seasonal jobs to tide us over financially until Patrick can obtain a career. It has proved quite frustrating for us because we don't really know how long we'll be here in Foxboro, nor do we have a firm idea of where we'll end up. I guess these are all factors of a "grown-up life". I'm just glad that we have wonderful friends and family everywhere to help us through the transitional period.
Peyton is doing really well and is moving more and more (to a point of making me nauseous) every day. She continues to grow and her kicks/punches are becoming more prominent. Right now we measure about 39 inches around when I am standing, and I'm told that we'll only get bigger.

We have arrived!

Well we're finally here in beautiful Foxboro, MA! We arrived Saturday at around 4:00 in the afternoon...and not a moment too soon. Amazing how a few days in the car and spending nights in random hotels can make you especially grateful for home. Especially after our final stay over in Rochester, NY. We decided that after visiting Kirtland and Cleveland, OH that we would try to drive a few more hours toward Mass. and stop wherever seemed most convenient. That place just happened to be the Motel 6 right by the Rochester airport. I should have known that this was a bad decision just because the only room that was available was a smoking room...but they were the only hotel that would accept River, so our options were limited. As we pulled in we noticed A LOT of shady characters. Little did we know that the majority of them would be throwing a party right down the hall from us. ALL night there were people going in and out of the room, talking loudly, making other noises, etc. etc. This probably wouldn't have been so bad if River weren't such a protective guard dog. Every time he saw a shadow pass our door, a voice or other noise in the hallway, he would leap to his feet and growl/bark. This continued almost every 30 minutes or so until close to 4:30 AM. Needless to say we were all lacking in the sleep department the next day, but pushed on so that we could make it to Foxboro before it got too dark. The rain that hit us all through upstate New York was terrible! But we survived, and now we are surrounded by boxes (too many) and fantastic family and friends. We are so grateful to have arrived in safety, and River is grateful that he has a pool and a yard to play in. Hopefully we'll get everything situated in the next few days and then it really will start feeling like we're home.

Well, I would have written yesterday...but Nebraska is so incredibly dull that describing the trip would result in all of you falling asleep. It was an extremely long day- end of story. Right now we are sitting in our hotel room in the beautiful Tinley Park, IL. We are about 20 miles outside of Chicago, but because of inclement weather and lack of time I doubt we'll be able to see the city sights. One highlight is that we're going to have dinner with a mission buddy of mine. River and Patrick have continued to be quite the traveling troopers as we slowly make our way to the East coast. Tomorrow we'll head to Cleveland, Ohio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

First Day on the Road

Well we survived out first day on the road. Nothing really eventful happened (those who have driven through Wyoming before are probably not surprised by this) and thankfully we arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming incident free. Mom and I had a lot of fun driving together and talking; Patrick was a natural truck driver and arrived in good spirits; and River slept almost the entire trip. One highlight was the beautiful display of rainbows we saw just off the road. It was spectacular! Tomorrow we get to drive through Nebraska...