Thursday, March 26, 2009

Oklahoma

I cant believe we are here. It didn't really sink in that we were moving for me until halfway to Denver. The drive started out great. I drove the Hyundai with Preston who slept the first three hours. Cory drove the van with porter and Theo happily watching new movies on the DVD player. I love technology. How the pioneers traveled for days on end with kids is beyond me. I suppose then they were going so slow the kids could walk and so as a parent you didnt have to hear them whining the whole way. The hard part for me was when Preston woke up from his nap. The crying started followed by a scream. We stopped and i nursed him and we were off again. At this time i realized my silliness in not having his carseat on the right side of the car. I could not reach him to help him get the binky back in his mouth. Finally out of desperation in the middle of no where i stoped on the side of the road and took everything out of my car so i could re arrange it with the baby on the right side of the back seat. I then drove for the next three hours with my right hand reached back there so he could clutch it with both his arms. If i moved it he would cry. My shoulder is still sore from driving in that position!

Denver was awesome. Our hotel was really nice, think granite counter tops and dark hardwood headboards. I was so sick of driving i was ready to just move in there! Theo was up till 2 am, i guess he had slept alot during the day so he was a bit wired. The second day of driving was a little better since Preston and i had figured out the arrangement of him holding my arm in desperation while i sang every hymn that i could think of. I had to drink a mountain Dew since thats the only drink i like that has caffeine in it and i was trying to stay awake by this point. I have not had caffeine in so many years that after only half the drink i was wired! The main reason i was trying to stay awake is because Kansas is so boring ( no offence to people that live there) Its just miles and miles of flat nothing ness with an occasional farm on the side of the road. It was really windy too and my car was shaking.

The third day we finally arrived in Oklahoma. Its just like anywhere else... super walmart, sonic, KFC, McDonald's, bestbuy, home deopt. When did we become so commercialized that all the cities in the US were the same? Since our truck was not going to arrive for a few days we had to figure out some bed arrangement. We went to get some bunk beds for the boys but everyone ( even walmart!) was out of wood beds. Well that's not entirely true i could have bought one for 800 dollars but i was a bit too cheap for that. So we just bought two twin mattresses and put them on the floor pushed together. We slept on that the whole family, well we are still sleeping on it and will until our stuff gets here which has been delayed till Friday. (grrrr) So if you didn't know that we had more stuff coming we look pretty poor and white trash. We are all in one room sleeping on the floor with nothing on the window but tin foil to keep out the street light at night. Our living room has nothing but suitcases, laundry, and a few boxes strewn about. we bought a card table that we set our computer up on and also we eat at it. We have all paper plates, cups, and bowls. In the living room is a big window and for privacy at night i wanted to hang a sheet up over it. But we didn't have anything to hang with. So I taped it up with box tape. Lovely black sheet TAPED to my wall. Seriously we are living the white trash life!! We even bought a wireless thing for the computer and taped it to the window so we could use the neighbors Internet ( don't worry they know we are using it at least!) Hopefully the cable guys find time to come to our house soon so we can stop mooching.

The people are all really nice here. We live in a four plex basically. The people across from us are Spanish, underneath us they are black, and the fourth family is from Irak and really friendly and nice. They came and introduced them selves. Its sad because they both have degrees back home but our country doesn't recognize them so they have to go to school all over again here. I asked them why they moved to the US and the dad sarcastically said " well there is this little war going on back at our home... have you heard of it??" The wife said she misses her family terribly but its too much money to go back and visit them. They have a little boy that is three that my kids have played with. Across from us there is a Jewish family ( practicing since the guy wears the yamika all the time) and another Spanish family. So its a pretty diverse place.

7 comments:

Barbara said...

Nice to hear your detailed, newsy update. We miss you. My house stays put now and it is so quiet. Don's mourning how old Porter will be when they can work in the shop again together.

Burnhams said...

I smiled at your singing every hymn that you could think of. Thats how we travel too. The kids like hymn singing the best, over anything else, so we sing and sing.

Glad you made it and have good neighbors, I hope your stuff gets there soon, and that when you go to Texas they will get there sooner :)

Thora said...

I'm so glad that you wrote, I've been thinking and thinking about you in OK and how you're doing. Man, I wish I lived near an Iraqi family, so I could practice some Arabic....lucky you. We've never formally met our neighbors, and we've lived here for eight months. Man, am I lame. I love your white trash ways, but hey, if I were you I wouldn't pay 800 dollars for a bunk bed either. I'd wait it out and get one that works.

Call me sometime! Love, your sister.

Amelia said...

I wish I had known you were going through Kansas, you totally could have stopped and stayed with Todd's mom. She lives in Topeka. Course, you may not have been anywhere near there. Oh well.

I love your white-trash ghetto style. And your neighborhood sounds fascinating.

Zanny said...

Wow, I felt like I was there! I loved all your descriptions. I'm so glad you all have each other. Your cute little family on twin mattresses - that's so darling!

Marcie said...

You made it! Congrats. Hang in there. Did I tell you that my mom grew up in OK? Yup, my aunts, uncles, grandma and cousins could be your neighbors....well not the Spanish or Iraqi ones.

Heather said...

I'm glad to hear you got there safely. On many of our moving journeys I sat in the back seat while Scott drove and would lean my body over to allow baby to nurse every time she made a peep. It was horribly uncomfortable but saved us from having to stop all of the time. Shoulder aches for you and back aches for me... but well worth it.