Friday, August 11, 2017

more driving

Montana is a beautiful state.
Our drive today is short. We're only driving to Spokane,WA.

We drove through Coeur d'Alene on our way to the hotel and I had never been there before. We stopped to check out the lake. It was beautiful! There were people everywhere and once Carson saw people were swimming he just had to join them. Plus it was a very warm day. 

For over a week we stayed in a different bed. Almost a new State with each new bed. 
Wednesday our home in Illinois.
Thursday in Wisconsin.
Friday in South Dakota.
Saturday was Montana.
Sunday Washington and
Monday Pendleton, Oregon. Brian and I attended a work dinner in Pendleton Monday night then the kids and I headed to Salem on Tuesday where we stayed in a hotel until we moved into our apartment on Saturday. We had the keys Thursday but movers didn't arrive until the weekend.
Normally, after a move, I feel at home very quickly. This time not so much. We know/hope the apartment is temporary so we're not putting up wall hangings. It might be a mistake but it is what it is. Our home in Illinois has not sold yet. We've lowered the price yet again. It feels like we're giving it away. We're almost at the point where we'll just break even. Oh well, that's better than at a loss. 

Brian's new company has been amazing. They've offered to help in many ways since our house hasn't sold. He is loving working with this company. I'm so glad. That's why we moved here. 

This will be my last post here. My new blog is called "Shuldberg's Oregon Trail". Here's to new adventures!

Mt. Rushmore & Bailee


We arrived very early so we could fit this into our schedule. These first two pictures are from the road. Karlee took them for me. So cool!!


I'm not sure the kids are excited to be back.





Look!! Here I am!

This was the original plan for the mountain. Ambitious! I think where they stopped is just as impressive.

The kids ended up enjoying visiting after all. We walked on a trail that took us closer to the mountain. As we were leaving the crowds were getting intense. It was perfect!

Tired boys...

BAILEE!!!! She meet us in Butte, Montana for the night. It was great to see her! She was taking Cali with her to deliver to Grandmas until we can take her back. The apartment only allows two pets. :(
This is our third hotel but the first chance to get in the pool. The boys were excited. 

driving begins

Thursday night we stayed in Wisconsin. We were up bright and early since we had a long drive ahead of us. These lucky dogs some how got shot gun for the drive.

The boys are already bored...

Corn fields in Minnasota. It's a beautiful sight!
Bored again.
Cali in the truck with Brian and Karlee.
We had rain through much of Minnasota. 
Then in South Dakota we had a beautiful sunset! These were taken through my sunroof, of course.



Our hotel was west of Mt. Rushmore so we decided to stop before the hotel. I'm so glad we did. It was so cool! I loved the flags too. That night in the hotel I debated and debated about going the next morning. It would add an hour to our drive let alone a few hours while we're there. Brian and decided we most likely will never make it back so we planned on going back in the morning. Wahoo!

our last day

It's been over 3 weeks since I've blogged. I finally feel like I have time to sit and do a little catch up. Or maybe I should call it a BIG catch up. The packers did a great job packing everything up. They left one TV and our beds for us to use. Our pets did pretty good staying out of the way as well. I don't think these two have ever been such good friends. 


This picture was taken on Wednesday when we still had wifi. ;) Wednesday we were suppose to have movers. We were scheduled a 2 day load. Well, the driver was MIA. Around 10 AM I reached out to the company and they hadn't been able to get ahold of the driver. The GPS said he was in Indiana. It didn't look good. It was finally decided that we'd load everything in one day, Thursday. 

We spent the day Wednesday hauling off the furniture that we weren't taking; Mason's dresser, the sofa in the basement, mine and Brian's dresser set. All had already lived their life...time to retire. 


 With movers working everywhere the kids spent a lot of time playing cards. Marie Z, our friend and realtor, taught Carson how to play Gin. We played that a lot too. Karlee and Carson are playing war with three decks. They had to find a way to speed up the game. This is what they came up with, in the above picture.

I don't know if I ever shared that Karlee's car died on her way home from visiting Victoria in Indiana. It happened about two hours away on a Sunday. I managed to find a tow company to bring the car and Karlee close to home, to a repair shop. We found out it wasn't worth repairing, no surprise, so we salvaged it for a few bucks. Really, it was only a few :(  With her leaving on her mission soon we decided to make it work with only two cars. So far it's worked out ok. 
Thursday morning we had more work to do. I'll admit this is Mason's kind of work. Laying down while helping drain the water bed. He did a great job!

Karlee helped put the bolts in to secure the tub on the washer. All the kids were great helping out where needed. Have I mentioned we weren't able to turn off water to the washer and fridge? In the middle of loading on Friday we had a plumber out to fix our problem. There have been many problems but luckily we were able to find solutions. 

It was finally getting to a point I would clear out the last few boxes so I could wipe down a room and vacuum. This closet never looked so good! This is basically how the entire upstairs got cleaned. Karlee and I would haul the last few boxes out into the hall then clean. 

I really liked how they labeled our closet as "HIS"  and "HERS". It really did help on this end.
Poor Cali was put on a leash to keep track of her outside. She hated it!! All we had left was sweeping and mopping then we would leave. We didn't want to lose her.

It was such a long, hot, humid day for moving. The movers were there for over 10 hours making sure we were all loaded by the end of the day. They didn't leave until after 10. Everything did not fit in their 53' trailer. We were told it would be non essentials that would be delivered later. 

We left the house at 10:45 PM. We thought we were too exhausted to be sad. Before we left we did have a family prayer, standing in a circle in the driveway. The tears came. Mostly from Carson but a little from everyone. We all learned to love Illinois. This past week I scrolled through pictures on my phone and I just about cried. I already miss so much of St. Charles! I know it's partly because we're in a small apartment surrounded by boxes. It's not feeling like home much. 


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

We're moving!

Look at her antlers! I facetimed Bailee Sunday and it was a surprise to see antlers. I mean I know she loves working at Badger and all but is this really necessary? Geez Bailee ;)  We get to see Bailee on Saturday. I'm so very excited! Brian and I decided to take a route to Oregon a little north so we'll be stopping at Mt. Rushmore (wahoo!) then we'll stay one night in Montana where Bailee will meet us and we'll give her Cali. We can only have two pets in the apartment and dogs are more work so we'll keep them. Julie has graciously accepted to take Cali for us. Bailee is very excited to have Cali close. She would take her if her apartment would allow it. We hope it's only for a short time so Julie and Larry don't hate us too bad for taking care of our cat.

Packers arrived bright and early Monday morning. The only safe place for awhile was the dining room. We have many spots throughout the house that has a sign "DO NOT PACK". Those spots are growing. I hope we have room for all we'll be taking with us.

A couple days ago the kids heard an advertisement for .59 short stack at IHOP on Tuesday. I told the kids to remind me and maybe we could go. When the movers left on Monday they said the kitchen was first to be packed. They really wanted to pack the kitchen on Monday but I convinced them to leave it one more day. Since I couldn't really make breakfast and have it cleaned up and all the dishes washed by 8 for the movers it worked out perfect to go out for breakfast. We were out the door a few minutes before 7 and made it back home before 8. Score!! IHOP was very empty at 7. It was nice. Our waitress asked us if we were there for the pancakes so she put in the order very quickly. We didn't even look at menus.

Boysenberry syrup... YUM!!
I added a $5 tip and we called it good. Such a great way to start the day!

last bucket list item

Our last "normal" week, last week, in Illinois and CJ was able to get his Harry Potter marathon in. He was soo looking forward to this. He didn't do it until Friday and all week long he kept telling us how many days till the marathon and he was almost giddy asking Karlee if she was excited too. He was up around 6:30 and the marathon started promptly as 7. Before it all began CJ asked if I would bring them their meals since they couldn't leave the basement. I agreed. Mason was stoked! He wanted his meals downstairs as well. I told him the only way that would happen is if he was actively watching before it was meal time. Mason is under the blue blanket in the bottom left corner of the picture. He ate breakfast down stairs.

Do you see the rack of clothes left of the TV? That's CJ's costumes for the marathon. He probably changed 2-3 times for each movie. He loved everything about this marathon. They finished around 2:15 in the morning. I went to bed around 11. Karlee fell asleep a few times but not for long periods. CJ made it though it all! I'm sure he'll do this again one day. Mason watched until mid morning then he went down again at 11 when I said it was bedtime. He was downstairs with them watching his own shows from his phone. He did not want to go to bed before them.


Then Saturday after more cleaning and organizing we had a respite at Otter Cove for the last time. Karlee and Carson had a blast together. They both love to swim. Mason was ready to go home long before the rest of us, as usual. But we all did the lazy river together a few times, we rode tubes down the yellow slide and even played volleyball. We will miss this park and rec district and their pools very much.

Saturday night while on my walk with the dogs, talking with Brian on the phone, I came across this lone deer. He wasn't spooked at all. It was a surprise.


Also this past week, Carson lost a tooth. He had an upper right molar that he noticed was loose on Wednesday. It kept bothering him so he pulled it out on Thursday morning. I think he's our only child that has pulled out his own teeth. :0)

Our first summer in Illinois Carson wanted to visit a new park every week. I never shared the last park we visited back in 2014 so I thought I'd share it now in our last summer here in St. Charles.

This is Island Park in Geneva.

 We had a picnic then the kids went and played in the water.





 Only late in the summer is anyone able to walk out to these rocks. The rest of the time the river is much higher.

The boys had a lot of fun.

 It's a beautiful park!