I read an article in a neat book we get in our area. Its for families, its free and comes in the paper once a month. It shows articles, places to visit and happenings in the area for families. In the last one, it showd an article for how to cut back on money and still enjoy things. One of the things was a mom who had a spread sheet of all the kids eat free places in the area with the days they offer it. She said, it's nice to still be able to go out and not have to spend a lot of money to do it.
So, I did a couple of google searches for kids eat free and turns out there are about 30 of them around our area offering these "perks" on different nights, mostly Tuesdays and Thursdays nights. So, I made a list of my own and thought it would be nice and save us somewhere between 15-20 when we go out to dinner at times. Some are nice places like steakhouses and some are fast food like chic-fila (sp). During my search I ran accross a posting board where a mom was asking about local eateries that offered this, and another poster blasted her, saying that kids eat free are just a ruise to get you in the door, and if you can't afford to pay for the things your kids order to stay home and that kids are not so special that they shouldnt have to pay for meals they eat.
I was taken off guard by this and insulted that people just assume that looking for bargins for your family is the same thing as not being able to finacially provide for them. Obviously this second poster doesnt have children, as I can not believe anyone with kids would be so harsh or rude when speaking of children. but it still got under my skin and made me stop and ask myself if taking advantage of kids eat free nights are "unfair to the resteraunts that you visit"?
But, I think not! I believe that these places offer kids eat free to get parents there, yes. But, most of the kids eat free nights are on nights people tend to stay home, like Tuesdays and Thursday nights. I'm not going in and asking for free meals for my kids, Im not begging or having them eat knowing I can't pay for their food!!! Am I crazy?

Back to me

Well, now that the stress of moving of trying to find a place to move and making sure our family was okay and the move itself is done with, I can focus on me some more. Over the past 6 months I have put back on some of the weight I had worked on getting off. Its been frusterating me, but I have just not had time to get it together.

I made my new plan to get back into my work out routine and I am pretty excited about it. I've revamped my diet and made some decisions. We joined the zoo society for a year so Jacqueline can go a couple times a month and walk the zoo. We live in a god neighborhood where her and I can walk in the mornings and I have my work out equipment at home. Once we figure out an average for our finances I want to join the YMCA.. I can get a student discount and join the aquatics program once a week.. YAY.. I have joined a website that keeps track of how I am doing, the calories I have eaten and the ones Ive burned and sugests how to adjust them so that I can stay on track. I also have a class that starts in a week and I am excited about getting back to school.

I think it's so very important for me to redirect some attention back to me.. I love my family but they are settling in now and doing well, and it's time to do that for me!

So, wish me luck and Ill try to keep up with how Im doing.

heart checks out just fine

I don't think anything in the world gives your heart a good check faster than seeing blood pouring out of one of your kids!
Ill start with everyone is okay just a bit bruised...

I heard thud.. followed by crying.. followed by screaming.. I went to investigate! Rounding the corner, I see jacqueline both hands over her face with blood puring down her screaming and Makenzie holding her walking her down the stairs saying she fell on her face! Fell on her what? from where and how the hell did she fall on her FACE?
Apparently, Alexandra was "holding" her and swinging her around and dropped her.. on her face.. I resisted the urge to grab her and take her to the nearest ER! YAY FOR ME

I did apply as much pressure as she'd let me and cleaned off all the blood from her hands, legs and face while she was distracted! (by the screaming) We finally got her her noseto stop bleeding.. she has a slight bruise on her nose but seems to be doing fine. She said her whole nose hurts, but is laying beside me telling me all about what happend to her... Daddy's on his way home from work to check on her.. cause "daddy can know if im okay"...

Ah, life in the Roig house, never boring!

feels like home

Well it's been fun for us over the past few days. We have been trying to finish up the last few things that make this move final! It seems like we are always finding new things that need to be taken care of. One major one was the car. When we moved, we knew the plates were going to expire during the move but we didnt want to pay a whole year worth of taxes to Nevada and to NC. for one day. So, we decided to wait! When we got here, I could not register the van because it's in Adams name and we didnt have NC licenses. Adam has been working too many hours to get to the DMV, so we have not been able to do it.

We finally got a weird brake with him working nights since that means he was home during the day.. so he went to get his license and was told we needed his SS card. So, back home we went, found it and drove back (with expired tags mind you) get there, no our proof of residence is not good enough, back home we go.. had to wait another day.. go back today Adam takes the test and gets his license... no wrong place for tags, have to go somewhere else! grrrr

But it feels nice not to have to worry about the police again. I still need to get my new license, but that can wait a while.

This afternoon, the girls and I went to go look at a TV I found online for sale. The couple was nice and reminded me of Adams grandparents a bit, we got the tv in the pouring down rain and headed home. All the way home, I thought it was neat that I recognized where I was and even found my way with out the GPS. It was neat to know that I knew where I was. Walking into the house and looking around this evening, it hit me that it feels like home. Its been an adjustment for us all and there have been some tougher days but we are moving in the right direction. Until now its been sureal. I know we are here, but its felt more like a visit than our permanent home. But, here we are nearly unpacked in our new home!

God's taking a shower

Okay, well it's no secret we are not religeous... but this is cute

Over the past couple of days, Jacqueline has picked up on a God thing.. She said he lives on that hill. Then she saw a cross on the side of the road like when someone dies... she said, maybe thats where God died.

Im not sure where shes picking up, maybe on TV but at anyrate, I engage in conversations with her, after all Im not athiest! I encourage her thoughts. So, while we were driving today she said, Gods not dead! I said well no, he isnt dead why? She said, well it's raining, It rains when God takes a shower! Normally it doesnt rain cause he takes a bath. I just smiled and said, okay well he must be pretty dirty then (its been raining since Friday) she said, well maybe he just likes to take his time!



The sun is out now and the rain has stopped first time since Friday, so he must be finished now

It's Sunday

Well, it's Sunday. Adam is working today again! The guys at his office have been pretty shocked with Adam's lets get to work eithic. We don't get it either, but the guys here really have a 9-5 mentality. He gets a long with them all just fine, and has no complaints, but Adam is not the okay its four lets go home kinda guy... he's a what else can we get done before we leave kinda guy. I guess that's why they wanted him here though, so he's working today and will work an 18 hr day tomorrow then nights for the rest of the week.. he's in his zone.

Meanwhile, the house is mostly done... yesterday he managed to get the girls shelves and closet up, pictures hung and wine rack up. He was on a roll! SO, the girls (kenz and Alexandra) have most of their room put together. Makenzie said, it feels like a room! So, I think it will help her settle in now. She has made a new friend, but since I have not had time to meet the parents she has not been allowed to go play. but the little girl lives on the next block, rides her buss and is in her class. So, I need to make a point to get over there soon.

I have not made any new friends yet, you'd have to leave the house to do that!! The lonliness is starting to sink in and yesterday I cried for no apparent reason at all. I miss my friends, was the best answer I could come up with and even then I felt stupid saying it outloud.. but it was true. I think it is not helped that Adams new schedule has had him working late almost everynight and both weekends we've been here, so getting out and exploring have not been an option.

And... it's raining, well drizzeling really and has been for three days now... and will be for three more. Not a good hardy rain that you can listen to and will lull you, not a thunderstorm with all its exciting sounds... just an on and off drizzel making the air cold and the ground too wet to go anywhere... so it's added to my mood I think.

The house is almost done, and it feels great, there are still a couple of things that need to be done but I don't want all of Adams time home to be "working" and I can't do some of the things on my own... soooo I'll have to wait a bit longer to get them finished.

I start school in two weeks, so that will help keep me occupied I think. We found a preschool for Jacqueline to go to, twice a week will run me 140.00 a month! It's the least expensive we have found. Im still trying to find a violin teacher and I think I have found the football league that will have cheerleading for Makenzie.... they just have to see if they have a spot for her. ugh!

news from the homefront

We have been here a week, well just over now, and we are starting to settle into life again. Things did not go exactly to plan with our move, and we were not shocked at all. It is of course us, and we had to be ready for those little things that make life interesting! Among those were a couple of things that didn't make it in the trip such as Makenzies book cases that were damaged and a couple of things we thought had made the trip and didn't, like my broom and some things we didn't realize had been packed and spent a week looking for like our GPS. All in all, things were not, are not too bad. The weather warmed up nicely over this last weekend, so we could open some windows and get some fresh air through the house.

We have had to replace a few things, we knew we were going to have to, but now we have had to actually do it! We found a nice deal on a new grill for Adam, and with spring approaching, we are thrilled to be able to eat out in the nice weather, before the heat gets us. We also had to replace my dining room set, we got a great deal on a new table and chairs, but it was more money, we had to spend. We also had to replace dressers, I found a lovely deal on three dressers on Craigslist, very old, solid wood all three for 75.00 it was a great deal the only thing we have to replace now is two book cases. These are harder to replace since new they are pricey, and I need them to be specific, so finding them used has been a challenge. So, those have not been replaced. We have to get the car registered here and new licenses. So Im watching that money fly right by-it hurts a little! =0)

Adams grandmother sent us nice welcome home gift.. two days after our arrival the UPS guy brought us Omaha steaks, it was very exciting to get a package!
My mother and her husband made the drive down to see us over this last weekend, the kids really enjoyed spending time with yet another set of grandparents, and we put Al to work running errands, moving furniture and assembling, he was a good sport, but I think he was ready to get back to his easier job! Adam says he'd rather go to his real work cause it's easier than working for me!
The kids enjoyed their time with their grandparents, running around playing hide n seek and gave my mother a make over using every last one of their hair accessories (twice) there are pictures somewhere. When they left though, Makenzie broke down. She reached her saying good bye limit. She was crying and angry. She said she was tired of everyone leaving and wished we'd never moved. It was heartbreaking to see her so upset and sad. She cried for a couple of min and then seemed to be fine. I guess we all need to release now and then.

The girls, all in all are doing well. They like their new school and seem to be settling into it okay. They are on the bus now, and while the stop is, in my opinion too far away, they assure me it's like walking to their old one, and they are fine... uh huh. Makenzie has her first field trip here tomorrow and is very excited about it. They are going to see a play in Charlotte. They say they are making friends and seem to be settling into homework routine better this week. I am having a hard time with the home work of the new school. They are a year ahead of where they were in Nevada, with Alexandra learning the same things such as time and money as Makenzie was learning when we left.., so they are playing catch up a bit, but seem to be adjusting.

Jacqueline is doing great, she is still getting used to the time difference I think, and asks everyday if its time for her nap yet.. but when she's up, shes the same ol Jacqueline running around having fun. Shes helped a lot unpacking and putting things away, and has found a new hobby. Even though we live in a development we have TONS of birds out in the back yard. They sing and chirp and hang out in the bushes, so she asked if we could get bird food and feed them. So, now we have a 10 bag of bird food, and she throws food out in the mornings, opens the curtains and waits for the show.. I'm thinking of getting her a bird bath this spring. We have all kinds of birds even robins, so she thinks it's pretty neat. She can't start school in the fall, so she will be home one more year. Shes going to be pretty upset over that one.

Adam is doing great, so far he loves his job. He worked last Sunday 6 hours for a hotel that could only be tested at certain times. This week so far he went to SC two days and worked 11 hr days.. he loves it. The time change has been interesting, before we know it, its 7 pm, and we are just eating dinner, and no one is that hungry. It's been an adjustment for all of us. Adam got a brand new mini van for work, it's actually the 08 model of my van without all the cool stuff, but its new and he likes it. He got a brand new laptop right out of the box and a new cell phone and other cool toys, so everything they told him he'd be getting all on his first day. We have not gotten our first full check from this office yet, so we don't know what our new checks will be averaging, so that will take some time to figure out, I think. The guys here have a slower approach to things going to work at 8 and heading out around 430 or so, Adam has made it known that he doesn't sit well, and that going home because it's time not because they are finished is not in his mind set. So, they are giving him more to do. They keep apologizing to him for running him all over and having him doing a couple of jobs at once. He laughed and told his boss, this was a typical week for him. So, I think they are starting to understand what is Adam and his work ethic..., and they are giving him more room to run and more things to do.
The guys have taken to him pretty well, and he seems to get along with everyone, but it is of course Adam! The guys at the office are talking about getting together for a bbq soon to meet everyone so that's more incentive for me to finish, I guess.

I have been a busy little bee. Its hard to believe we've been here such a short time. It feels like so much longer. I have most of the downstairs put away, and this week have most of it cleaned YAY. I have hung up ALL the curtains in the house-I think, hung up pictures, assembled things and arranged things. I have painted boxes for the girls rooms, unpacked nearly all of Jacquelines room and some of ours, put away books and found towels and clothes! YAY I have re enrolled in school and classes begin next month. I am a couple month behind and was told I might have to retake Algebra... this sent me into a horrible state of.., I can't do this ... but I think Ill put off that class till things calm down a bit and take some other classes in the meantime. I have found all the shopping places I need to know about with in a reasonable driving distance and discovered we are pretty centrally loctated to a lot of things.
I have not found my keys... I know! No, not all the boxes are unpacked, but I have not found them yet. I ordered a key fob on ebay at the suggestion of a friend of my dad's... I'm going to take it to dodge and see if I can sweet talk a service guy into programing it for me.. I am sure that by doing this, I will in fact find my other set of keys! But I am pretty tired of now being able to open my can with an arm full of stuff! I know, I am spoiled to that little button on the key ring, and I want it back! I did find the GPS in a box from our bedroom!! Now, in case you were not aware... the GPS was supposed to be left out for our trip.., so we could find our new house! Well, when we left the old house, no one had seen it. When we got here, Adam looked in all the places he thought he put it... no luck. My step dad and I tore the garage apart looking and NO GPS... this is important to me, since I get lost leaving the driveway, and if you could see where the house is, you'd get it! Anyway, Id given up hope and Adam was convinced that in the dash to finish, someone had thrown away my GPS.. the other day while unpacking the 4th "last box" there it was!! YAY... then we thought Adam was going to have to steal it for work.. but no, turns out the office bought all the techs GPS's for their cars.. YAY again. SO, I have that back now that I know where the stores are! But, I am sure I will find more uses for my little talking friend.

So, life here is doing what it does... it's moving forward. We seem to be moving right along with it though. We miss everyone a lot and that has been tough for us. I agree with Makenzie its been hard saying good bye to everyone, we've been doing it for three weeks now. Every visit while we welcome it, is bitter sweet. Nicole and the boys were supposed to be here this week, but the boys are under the weather, and so they will be making it down another time. So, we still have that to look forward to. I am afraid once that visit is over it will just be us, and that will feel very lonely~

We hope to get out of the house in the next few weekends and take the girls around the area. Let them see there is more to NC than their school and home. This weekend its supposed to rain and be back in the 40's again, so we will be sitting this weekend out.

We hope everyone is doing well and hope to talk to everyone soon!

We've arrived

Well, we've spent night two in our new home...

We left Nevada a week and a half ago. It was a bitterly cold morning, but our friends braved the cold and came and said goodbye anyway. It's hard to leave such loyal people behind! Adam's parents also came out to bid us fare well. We drove ALL day, stopping only for fuel and a couple of meals. We ate lunch in Salt Lake city and dinner the other side of Wyoming, so we made great time. The kids did wonderful for us. The girls used the restroom when we stopped for fuel and meals, so there were no emergency pit stops and no complaints, except for Jacqueline getting tired mid way through day two of sitting and decided to stand and "stretch" in the middle of the van. Day two put us in Oklahoma very very late... like 1 am late! But, we made it there, climbed right into bed and passed out! Much of Monday was spent sleeping in, and we made a trip to say hi to my grandma.
We did get to meet up with my family for dinner that night, and it was fun for the girls to get to run around to so many people they hardly remember and tell them all about our trip.

The rest of the week we hung out with my family, Wed, Adam went on a few calls with my dad and ended up at a fire with the dept and helped put out a fire, this has been established as the best part of his "vacation". Thursday we went to see my aunt and took my grandma to lunch with just us girls. It was fun to have the ladies together for lunch, Grandma of course had to take the girls shopping!! We spent the night with my aunt and was able to hang out with her much of Friday as well. Friday night we spent the last night at my dads house and got to bed WAY to late. We were getting up at 430 to leave.

Sat morning we left in the freezing cold, knowing there had been reports of snow along the way. We drove all day in the pouring down rain, some so bad we could hardly see the big yellow truck in front of us, the wind was terrible! The girls-slept through most of it! We had lunch in Memphis and decided that cracker barrel is not too bad of a place to grab lunch. When we finished lunch, we had to fuel up before heading out, and midway through the fuel up... the hail began. FUN TIMES>

We made it to the other side of TN on Sat. if you've ever driven through TN you know just how long this day was. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful state... but hard to see through the rain and wind. We made it to the little town just outside of the bad part of the mountain range we had to cross, we thought it best to tackle that mountain in the daytime, with fresher-er eyes and brains. We stayed the night somewhere along the smokey mountains. I only know this, cause all the signs kept saying exit to Smokey mountain national park.

Sunday was well..... interesting. Up to this point, we had no actual problems to speak of, just driving and more driving... Until we tried to leave our wonderful little hotel on Sunday morning. It's 530 AM, it's dark VERY VERY cold....and raining.. When Alexandra points out the completely flat tire! UGH... so my dad started the truck which I am SURE made everyone happy since it's diesel and very loud... we put the kids and the turtle in the truck and watched as Adam tried to fix the flat... we used a can of fix a flat to no avail,... so we pulled stuff out of the trunk, Adam lowered the spare tire down from under the van and to our surprise, it was a regular tire... YAY since as I said it was 530 on Sunday morning. 20 min later, we got the tire changed, got fuel, skipped breakfast and headed out. This put us late as we were actually on a schedule Sunday to meet up with the new landlord at 11 am! We started over the mountain in pouring down rain and watched the temp gauge in the van go down to 34 then back up to 38 all morning.. this was important, since they were predicting terrible snow for us... we finally made it over the mountain and into North Carolina. I was sooo grateful to see that sign! We realized two things. However, one.. the guys we hired to help unload the truck, never called that morning to get an address! and Two that we were not going to make our meeting, and I could not find that landlords number... AHH So, I called my brother, who checked my email for me and gave us his number.. YAY technology. By this time the rain/hail/sleet and times made everyone in North Carolina-FREAK OUT!!! Our new landlord, didn't want to drive out to meet us in the "bad weather" and asked us to come to him-in downtown charlotte, with a 26 ft moving truck followed by a 5 ft trailer.. yeah.. okay! We met up with him, got the code for the door, paid him and were off again. By this time it is 33 degrees outside, and just dumping rain... We FINALY made it to the new house, took our first ever look at our new home and then began the terrible task of unloading the truck. alone! It was an adventure to say the very least. My dad lit the gas fire place for us, so we could come in and get warm from time to time. The unloading of the truck could not have been more laughable. We would come in for a break and the rain would all but stop, the second we would walk into the garage.. the bottom would fall out! Several times, the rain made noise.. ah yes the wonderful sound of freezing rain. It was so cold every ones hands just hurt trying to move things into the house. My dad and Adam unloaded that truck from about 1230 until almost 7 pm in the freezing rain. It was terrible for them to be out there! The last 45 min they were out there, the rain turned to sleet freezing on impact over the metal ramp of the truck.. it was down right dangerous to be moving boxes off it. By the time they finished it was snowing, we were starving and tired. We went to go find an Outback I had spotted earlier in the day... this was not easy for two reasons. I could not remember the exact location only the general area and the light snow was now thick heavy wet snow, falling at two inches and hr., We finally found outback, got out of the car and the manager said, we are closing due to snow! WHAT? Are you kidding?? Did I mention it was only 730 at night? So, we asked him to point us in the direction of some where that would not be closed! SO, again we set out wondering around trying to find somewhere.. we found a wonderful steakhouse with a great waiter that made out meal very nice. It was in the fact the best meal we'd had in a while, maybe it was because everything was finally over..., but it was great.
We then had to find a Walmart to buy some things for the house... that was a mess! The roads we were told, don't get plowed here since it doesn't snow... this confused us since we were driving in 4 inches of snow! We got lost finding Walmart since we didn't know many of the roads have two names... we don't know either! We happened upon it at 10 that night and grabbed a few things and went home. Everyone just kind of died... we fell into our beds, and into comas!

Now, apparently since it doesn't snow in N. Carolina, when it does people loose their minds... no one, and I mean no one was open Monday... the Uhaul and Penske places were close... most of the gas stations were closed and there was a spin out or accident every mile on the highway.
We had to make a trip back to Walmart for the rest of the things we didn't get the night before, and 60% of the employees had called out of work that day. SO, the CLOSED half of the store... electronics, jewelry, the auto shop, the bakery -CLOSED. they had one door and four cash registers open. It was the dumbest thing ever! So, for future reference we know that if it snows-don't bother!!

Now, the house? It's great.. the bedroom for Makenzie was so big we put Alexandra in with her, and they have a whole half of the room left... Jacqueline has a big room and then we will have a spare and there is a full bath too. Downstairs is everything else. The kitchen is nice with a decent amount of cabinet space. The master bedroom is pretty big, with a huge bathroom the size of our old kitchen and a walk in closet that could hold a queen size bed in it. The neighbor hood is nice and there are several houses for sale, including a beautiful one across the street!
I don't have pictures yet since all you would see is boxes right now! But, I will get some up soon.

Adam went to work today-thrilled to be back at it. I have to go to the new school today and enroll the girls before we drive each other nuts.. and I am still on the search for a trash can... not cause I'm picky... cause, we can't find one!

I have most of the kitchen unpacked, and we had our first home cooked meal in our home last night YAY.. itwas wonderful!

The cable, Internet and phone are all connected, email me if you need the new number or the new address.

Everyone we have met has been nice, the neighbor offered to move his cars off the street if we needed more room for our truck and cars and another neighbor stopped and chatted with us for a few min about our move... although it really could have waited since he was in his car... and we were standing in the rain... but it was a nice gesture.

We really miss our friends, and things are kinda sad for me that I can't show them our new house, or plan a big move in BBQ with everyone, Adams at work and other than a errand I have to run today, Im pretty much alone here again. It's a rather gloomy prospect that it will probable be some time before I make any new friends here.. mostly because I don't have time to get out for a while. So, Im trying not to let that get to me too much. This weekend my mom and her husband will come for a visit to see the girls, so I have to clear up some of the obstacle course by then, and sometime in the near future, my nephews and sister in law might make a trip, so we have things to look forward to, other than unpacking these boxes!!