an unexpected trip

Well, we got a phone call this morning that my aunt Bert was in the hospitol after having a heart attack overnight. She is mostly stable but having trouble mainting a healthy blood preasure and keeping it in a safe range. After thinking about it for some time, I just have to say, I am sick to death of waiting for some one in my family to die to see them again-one last time. I don't have much family left and while we have not been close in the past, it's just rediculous that we only see eachother at a funeral! So, the girls and I are going to leave in the AM for a trip to Texas to see my aunt and cousin and uncles. We will be gone about a week and home before the kids start school on the 24th.
Please think of us as we make the 16 hr drive down there and home next week

Dana

just us

Our Summer is drawing to a close soon with the girls return to school on the 24th. Our Summer was much more laid back than we had hoped it would be, however, this was not a bad thing all in all. We have started making some new friends and enjoying getting to know them. This Sat I am hosting the first girls night (no kiddies allowed) at my house. I am looking forward to it and I am expecting about 8 other women. So, it should be a great time. The girls are going to my moms and Adam and a couple of the other hubby's are going to the Monster Truck show at the Speedway. I am in school still even though I was going to take a break. I still have moments where I'm not sure if I can go on with it, but I am afraid if I take a leave, I'm not going to want to go back and then that will be bad!

So, whats going on here? Adam has been working some pretty long weeks at work. There was a guy with an injury and Adam had to pick up the slack. He has been working some pretty big projects and he seems to like that a lot. He has to go to SF in Sept for a training class, so he will be gone about a week for that. We just celebrated our 8th wedding anniv a couple of weeks ago and neither of us can believe we have been together over ten years. It just goes so fast~

Makenzie has spent her Summer hanging out with her BF. She's getting so big! It's so hard to see how mature she is getting so fast. She takes really good care of her sisters and is always up for something new. We just bought new school shoes for her and I'm afraid she has her mothers big feet! She is really looking forward to getting back to school and seeing who is in her class this year. BTW-school supplies have gotten out of control! I'm just sayin!

Alexandra has nearly finished learning to play twinkle little star on her Violin. She truly loves her violin and picks up the next level of song almost instantly. She has a birthday coming up the end of Sept. which feels both far away and right around corner! She wants to go to Chuck E Cheese, I'm so trying to get this changed to anywhere else. We go to CC all the time, but during the day, during the week, and not at birthday party prices! We will see, I'd much rather do something here at the house! Her list this year consists of Barbie and the Diamond castle- the castle, the dogs and the little kids... she has everything else for it. New barbie clothes and toys. A Nintendo DS, a scooter and..."everyone we know to be able to move here and see us"

Jacqueline informed me that for her birthday, she wants toys! But this could change since it's so far away lol. She is doing great. She is pretty sad that she can't go to school yet and did not get new clothes, shoes and supplies. I'm planning on getting her some work books she and I can do during the day's for "pre- school" here at the house. I have not began to plan their party yet, but I guess I need to do that so I can figure out what kind of a cake I'm going to be constructing this year!

Bad day

Okay,
so I'm having a bad day.. nothing special, just a good old fashioned, annoyed at the world, feeling sorry for myself- bad day!!! I don't need lectures on feeling better, or how life will work out, or how sunny and wonderful the world is... nope it's not, not today! Today it just sucks.. A LOT!!!
I miss my friends, plain and simple! I want to go to the movies with Sarah, hang out and have a drink with Heidi and see Jo do something crazy we will laugh about for weeks. You can't replace that or get it over.. I miss them, I miss how simple and fun my life was... and I MISS MY FRIENDS DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm pretty pissed about it today, I should be planning a bbq with my gals, getting ready to watch firewoks over my house tomorrow. Iv'e tried to make the best of it, Im trying hard to be okay with it, Im trying to find things we enjoy doing and trying really really hard to like it here! (and I do on most days!!) but today I can truly say- I WISHED WE HAD NEVER MOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes-I yelled that!


***dont get me wrong, this has nothing to do with NC, its a lovly state, with tons of neat things to do and I am sure in time... it will be fine. (like when I move everyone out here to me =)..)***


Okay- Im done-for now!

OF COURSE!!

This has been my phrase for..well a while but specifically the past few days...
We have been busy for a few days helping my mom get settled in as best we can, with out trying to be in the way. The girls have enjoyed the distraction and of course seeing some family.

On the other side, Ive been having hard time adjusting to the move and to several private things that have been going on in our life. There is a lot of stress and I seem to have been experiencing some depression signs. Our family as well as both our extended families have been dealing with some things that have added to our concerns as well as my school. It's a bit much and I've been feeling a little overwhelmed. So, Ive been trying to find a way to shake myself out of this slump I am in and so far I've had little luck. So, I have decided to take some time off of school, about three months or so and concentrate on me for a while. I hope this will be enough time to start working on some things that will hopefully help me.

In the meantime, The girls are out of school for Summer now. They have been home for one day so far and I've decided it's going to be a long summer if they can't remember how to get along better!
We had an incident a few days ago with Makenzie and Alexandra "play fighting" that turned into real fighting and then a kick in the face. This resulted in Alexandra having a trip to the dentist today for an xray and a subsequent tooth extraction- no worries it was a baby tooth and was already loose, so all is well in the life of Alexandra again! Makenzie felt bad, at least for the moment, and hopefully this will deter anymore fist fights...for a while!

Jacqueline on the other hand had her dental check up today and we had some not great news at all!! Turns out her teeth themselves are healthy and shiny.. no cavities. However, her thumb sucking that her pediatrician kept assuring me was no problem and not to worry about it.. has caused some pretty major damage to her mouth. This includes, a miss alignment of her upper jaw, where her "aggressive thumb sucking" has caused her upper jaw to shift to the right so she has an over bite to the left.. also, a pretty big over bite in the front. If she continues to suck her thumb, she can get a thing called pallet collapse that will require surgery to repair.. OF COURSE!!! So, they are going to fit her with this thing called a dental appliance. This a device that is added to her two back molars by a sort of cement and then a metal band/wire goes between them, keeping her from being able to create a suction in her mouth. Also there are little prongs in a wire that will run her jaw line and this will poke her thumb when she puts it in her mouth. This device will run about 450.00! ouch! This will stay in for about 8 months or so.
After her 6 year old molars come in, she will be getting a retainer to help realign her top jaw where it should be, ( push it back to the right). After about a year of that, when her two front teeth fall out and come back in as adult teeth, she will most likely end up with braces for about two years to correct the sever overbite and teeth misalignment she has caused in her upper jaw.

The dentist said, thumb sucking is not bad for babies, but once they start really getting teeth in, it can be tricky, and it must stop before adult teeth come in. So, its' been a fun day for us around here!

ahhhhhhhhh

I am also rebelling against... okay well everything. I don't want to turn 28 this year, it's too close to 30! I like my bday, but I am pretty much done adding candles to the cake. I've decided this is an unnecessary thing once you have reached 21!
I'm also rebelling against my long and lovely hair! Yep, my down to my waist, strait hair is no more! I cut it off yesterday! Not all of it, it's still down past my shoulders but its' short by comparison and has some nice brown undertones added to my blond hair.
Maybe it's part of the reconstruction I am doing on my self. I am not sure, but I think it looks good and Adam does too, so there ya go.

Too old for Tinkerbell

They grow up faster then you think... It goes in a flash...Where did the time go... common phrases that all describe our children who all too often change before our very eyes with out our knowledge or permission!!

And so it has began for us!
The other day Makenzie came into the kitchen and bluntly said, "how old do I have to be before I can stop calling you mommy and start calling you mom?" Ugh.. I said, "well, I guess you can do it anytime you want." It didn't really bother me too much and I didn't put too much more thought into it. Until, a couple of days ago, she walked into a room and said, "hey mom..." It stopped me for a minute and I kinda smiled at the thought that it obviously makes her feel more grown up... Adam on the other time, was not thrilled. He has proclaimed more than once that he disapproves of the girls getting older and that with each more "grown up" act she has, he hates it more. Yes, we know the alternative to growing up is not good, that's not what we mean. It's just hard to see that sweet little girl who's followed him around like a shadow for years, pulling away into her own world. Just as he thought that was bad enough for the moment, Makenzie told us the other day, that she is in fact too old for Tinkerbell sheets. I was personally crushed since Tinkerbell is my idol... but she said, she was okay with having Tinkerbell stuff, and decorations, but...too old for "cartoon sheets" okay, that was enough for Adam, he proclaimed that her growing up was crap and left the room for me to deal with it =0). I told her fine, we would get her some regular sheets with out cartoons. So, looks like we are in the market for sheets, as every sheet set the girls own is in fact some character of some kind.
The girls officially finish up school in two days, this will put Alexandra into the second grade!!!! YAY she made it, and Makenzie into the 3rd grade.. where in deed is the time going?!?!?

Catching up...

I guess it's been a while since I've updated my blog, so I thought I should take the time to do so. First, I'll start by saying I don't really have time to be doing this! I'm sneaking it in between loads of laundry, packing for a trip and a 4 page paper due tomorrow that I have not started yet!

I guess it's been since Easter since I added some things worth mentioning on here, so I'll do my best. After Easter two of the girls went and spent Spring break with my mom. Jacqueline was supposed to go, but at the last minute had a break down and just couldn't do it . We had a great week planned of going to the zoo and doing neat things..but then I ended up with a really bad case of food poising..If you ever have the pleasure, I am sooooo sorry! It was awful and I just wanted to sleep till it was over! But since I had Jacqueline I had to be up..sorta! She was great about it and played with herself most of the time. It took about 2 1/2 weeks to get over! We went and picked up the girls and drove through DC on our way home, it was neat for the girls to see, and we have promised to get back there for them to really see it.

Since then it's pretty much been life as usual at the Roig house which on it's best day's is just chaotic! The girls have a couple more weeks of school and are getting pretty antsy about it . We have had some pretty nice days mixed in with tons of thunderstorms. The dog and Jacqueline are not fans of them, and tend to stick together when the thunder really gets going. A couple of weekends ago we had some pretty warm weather. So, we put up the slide and had a few kids from the neighborhood around. We ordered pizza and sat outside watching the kids play, it was a lot of fun. The Jasmine..not a fan of the slide, it freaked her out so much she didn't want to come out of the garage!

I'm back in school, so my nights are pretty busy. I had a professor who got a good dose of my temper when he called me anti American. It's a long story but it boils down to my liberal democratic views and his beyond Conservative Republic views. The class was government and was supposed to be a trade of ideas... until he heard mine, then I got a good ear full of mean spirited comments for a few weeks, which I tried to take with a grain of salt-till he called me anti American and some other things, the it was a two page letter response .. I ended the class with an apology from him and a grade I deserved not the d he was trying to give me! ugh I am so glad that class is done! Now, it's on to psychology.

Adam is doing great at work, they keep sneaking in more jobs for him to do and more responsibility as if he's not going to notice! We don't mind, more over time, more money!

Makenzie is doing great, she has a couple of good friends and they spend a lot of time together. She is pretty well ahead of her grade level, so she should move on with no problems. We are keeping an eye on her, she seems to get bored when things are too easy! We too her to the orthodontist last week. We were worried about some problems with her teeth coming in sideways, but the orthodontist seems to think she has a few more teeth that need to come out and that by the time that happens, her other teeth should be okay, and so no braces for now YAY!! and they are going to see her back when she's 10 to recheck the progress.

Alexandra is loving her violin. Her teacher is great and they get along well. In fact, the instructor took her picture to put on the website, so she should be up there soon. She's excited about that. She can play the first bar of twinkle twinkle little star and lights up when she gets it right. I can't wait to see her learn the whole song! She wants to play it in the talent show next year at school! I'll probably cry. She works so hard at it, and even though it's pretty hard to learn, the violin makes her so happy. She has struggled a lot this year in school, she seems to be at grade level just barley. We have talked to her teacher about weather she should be held back or move on, we are waiting on a final word. Adam is just concerned about her having to struggle so hard her whole life. It takes her longer to get things, and then she has to be reminded a lot, she's pretty shy about things and so we would rather her stay back one year and really get it, vs struggling forever, so we will see.

Jacqueline doesn't have much to report, she's a mess! Happy as ever and runs the house when the girls are not here. Her and the dog are pretty good pals, and they run all over the place. Jasmine has learned that if she follows Jacqueline to the door, she can usually escape.. this is almost comical as Jasmine is to afraid to go anywhere, she runs into the front yard and waits for us to come get her, she's always got this dopey look on her face like she's not sure what to so next. So, we call her back and she comes running! Jacqueline is sad she can't go to school next year, so I really need to find something to get her into.

We are planning a trip to Disney world in Jan for Makenzies bday. We had plans to go with my family, but things have changed a few times.. we will blame it on my sister who started the avalanche with the wonderful news of her being pregnant. We are happy for her and hope she has a girl so the girls have another girl to play with! After many changed plans, we settled on Jan and Makenzie is just pretty thrilled with us being there for her bday.

We also got news that my mom and her husband are going to be moving to NC about 30 min away. It's a cheaper area than Maryland and should make things easier on them. The girls are excited about having family closer, so I hope they get to enjoy this time.
Tomorrow we are going to be making the trip to Maryland to try to help sort things out and have a yard sale. There are just some things my mom can't do and Al will need help with, so we are going to see if how much the girls can get in the way! =0)

That's it for now I'm afraid, not too exciting, just busy living our happy little life!

Spring time!

Okay, so we spent Easter at my brothers house in VA. The girls had a blast with their cousins who they've never been able to spend much time with. It was a lot of fun even though my poor brother got pretty sick before we left.
I had uploaded these pictures then realized I did them in reverse... so scroll to the bottom and back up! Happy looking...
Saying goodbye

Saying good bye after a fun weekend!

Getten down! boogie!!

You want a piece of me??

Jeremiah.. can I help you?

Picture with the grandparents

Our treasures

Lookin for eggs


Jeremiah found one!

We had so much fun!

Adam working on a plane with Jeremiah




Uncle Phil building a car with Jacqueline-even though he felt like death! Thanks uncle phil!

Easter morning!

Easter with our cousins Josh and Jeremiah

nks

introducing...

Jasmine! (and no we didn't name her..) She is the newest member of our family... I have been asking about a dog for a while (like years) Adam has always been against it sue to some child hood run-ins with a dog. At any rate after a long talk and some puppy dog eyes, I finally talked him into letting me look for a dog! YAY... I found Jasmine who's family was relocating to another state and couldn't take her with them. So, Jacqueline drove to SC today and picked her up. She is a gem! She's so sweet, crate trained, so when you say Jasmine crate... she goes to bed. She knows basic commands and will even let Jacqueline walk her on the leash. She is much smaller than her pictures show, she's less than two feet tall!

She has taken to Adam of course! Follows him everywhere and wants to hang out with him. But he really likes her =0). She is cute and hard to resist. She is a 10 month old Beagle though she is black and white which I guess is unusual for that breed. but, shes short and is not thrilled with our stair case. She went up it once with Adam, but came right back down! Anyway, I'm sure there will be many adventures to come with out new friend...

Well, I'm back at it! Today is the start of my first class since the Christmas break in Mid-December. Since I had to take off so much time with the move, I had to re-enroll and fill out new financial aid (which we STILL don't qualify for..but don't get me started on that soap box!) So, I have to fill out paper work for aid I know we won't get because the government requires it before I can be approved for loans! ugh.. but its done. Then I just had to pay for those lovely text books, go buy new supplies, organize my schedule for the rest of the year so the school knows how much to charge me... and sit in on a conference call with my advisor and financial aid officer to determine how many classes I can "afford" this year! why am I going back to school again??

But, now I "get" to start classes... My parents will love to hear that I NOW value the free education that was high school! I know that's amusing, but I guess that's why they call it hindsight. I got a bill the other day for my first year and with the "estimated" interest, if I choose to pay over 119 months.. I owe 10,376.82 for my first year of school... I only have three more left... please don't do the math and report back! I enjoy school, I really do. I am glad I chose to do this for me and hope that I will be able to get a job in the field I want when I am done and that this will all be worth it. but there are days, like today when I look at the laundry that needs to be done and the errands stacking up on my calendar, the books, notebooks and papers piled up for me to read and the reminder of how many nights this week Ill be up till 3 am writing the 3 papers I have due this week. In these moments I truly wonder if I made a big mistake, if I stepped to far out on the ledge with no way back in? What was I thinking? There are reasons 17 year olds go to college! No one is yelling about socks, or complaining because its 7 pm and you are so involved in your paper you forgot that people were waiting for you to feed them!
Then, Adam sent me a text the other day that said, "I'm so proud of how hard you work and how dedicated you are to finishing school." Crap! Now, I have to suck it up and move forward! =0)

I know it sounds as if I am complaining, I truly am not. At least I don't mean to be complaining. Life, just seems to be hard enough, and I hope that this choice does not make my family suffer, that they don't end up feeling like I wasn't there for them because I waited so long to do this. I know at the end there is a light and that once I am working in this field, Ill be happy and able to contribute to our family! YAY ME!
In the meantime, Ill be sneaking in four chapters a week of reading between groceries and bath time, and writing papers while listening to the hum of the dishwasher and sounds of the quite house while everyone sleeps! Maybe, if nothing else, the girls will find the value of education and take advantage of learning before life really begins to happen!


On a side note, we are starting to meet new people. We have had a couple of people over and I've been out of the house a couple of times. It feels weird, like I'm interviewing for a position and I hate that. I think it takes me a long time to open up and be myself around people, as odd as it is to say about me, I'm shy like that! SO, meeting new people is always very hard for me.. well not meeting, but connecting! Every time I meet someone else, they get compared to me best friend who I miss so much! I try not to do this, but its so hard not to compare people to the girl who became much like my sister. I'm finding it hard to call and talk to my friends back in Nevada, since I always want to cry when I think about them... I guess avoiding it doesn't make it better!!
On one hand, I feel silly for missing my friends so much, like a little kid who misses there friend at summer camp. But, I guess you have to understand that I have not lived near my family in over 8 years, so it's always been Adams family around us. In the absence of my family, I had my friends. Our friends and us spent nearly every weekend together, several nights a week, and most holidays together. We went camping together, to events and to dinner. We've watched each others kids grow and have shared in happy times and the loss of loved ones together, much like a family. I don't let many people "in" , so for me, it really does feel like I've lost something. I know that I have not and in time, it will be easier. I think for now its still the shock of moving so far away and everything about our lives changing.

The good thing is we are closer to some of my family and we going to spend Easter with my brother and his family. The first holiday we have spent with them since Makenzie's first Christmas. My mom and her husband are also coming down, so it will be the first time my mom will have all her grand kids around at the same time. So, It's nice we are able to do that now. Its still about a 5 hr drive for us and about 3 for my mom., but its better than the two and three day drives we had before!

Some days you just FEEL like a bad mom!

Well, I know I am not a bad mom.. there are days I have questioned that, but, I know I can take my girls anywhere and know will behave. They get good grades, don't get into real trouble and are loving children.. yet there are days, when you just throw your hands up and think.. that was it.. that was the moment that will send my kids into therapy for years to come!

I know every mom has those moments and Im not unique to these thoughts.. but in those moments, you just know you've failed.
Yesterday.... I had one of those moments!

Alexandra had a dentist apt that she has been freting over for a week. Last summer Makenzie had 4 teeth pulled, so I think she thought she was in for it too. I have been trying to get her to understand it was just a routine thing and not to worry. So, we went to her apt at 2 pm.. when we got there 30 min early.. I thought we were in great shape.. BUT from the waiting room we could a little kid screaming.. Alexandra was getting nervous, but she was okay still. Turns out it was a 3 yr old with 4 cavities (thats a whole nother frustration with me) anyhoo they had nearly ALL the techs in there "helping" the dr.. They finally got her back there and xrayd and cleaned her teeth. took all of 10 min. THEN we waited, and waited and waited... I looked down at my watch and to my horror realized we had in fact been there for an hr and a half! OMG! I called Adam to find out where he was (over an hr away)and me over 30 min away... and Makenzie...getting home in 15 min!
I told the dental tech I had to go and they kept piddleing around and I finally said, " I HAVE AN 8 YR OLD AT HOME NOW ALONE AND IM 30 MIN AWAY I HAVE TO GO!!!"
They finally let me leave! We RAN to the car and drove home as fast as I could with out getting a ticket and pulled into the drivway.. Makenzie was sitting on the porch (with our 18 yr old nieghbor girl) she looked up, seen me and burt into tears... It was one of those moments where I got out of my car, knelt down next to her and just started saying I am soooooo sorry!!!!!

It just broke my heart! She said, there were no cars, but I hoped daddys car was in the garage, I knocked and rang the doorbell and no one was here.. I didnt know where you were and I thought you forgot me...

it was terrible, I felt like such a bad mother! There wasnt really anything I could do to make her understand how bad I felt.. But, I told her we would get her a house key so she could awalys get in the house! ugh..
The neighbor girl told her she did a responsible thing by going to the neighbors house where some one was home, but Makenzie didnt care, she was hurt that I forgot her (even though I didnt). BUT Alexandra did not have any cavities!! YAY for me

Makenzie of course is just fine.. but Im sure Ill flub up more stuff before she turns 24 and begins therapy lol.


On a side note, there is a bird.. who gets rather vocal when we leave the house.. shes been living in a bush in the front by the door, and gets quite upset at us when we leave the house, flying on top of the house and freaking out! This bush is about chest high to me, but there is indeed a nest in the bush, we check it out (with out touchig it) everytime we leave the house, I just knew she wouldnt put eggs in there, since we pass by there so often, but the girls thought it was so neat that we could see a real birds nest. SO after the "ordeal" yesterday, Jacqueline came running over yelling, " WE HAVE EGGS!!!!" sure enought the bird layed two blue speckled eggs in the nest.. the girls think its great, and I think it will be cool to watch once the babies are born... but I feer that now that theyre ARE eggs, the mother is going to be even more angry at us when we leave the house.. so I am hoping we dont get attacked by mamma bird!

I have some pictures I have taken, Ill get them up soon

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!!

our progress

Most everything is packed.. there are some exceptions we are finishing up today. The carpets have been cleaned and holes patched. Today, is the girls last day of school. We are taking cupcakes and juice to their class rooms to celebrate and let them say good bye. Lots of people are coming around in the next couple of days to say good bye, so its been pretty rough. Adams sister is driving up today to say goodbye and see the girls. Adams dad gets in this afternoon to see everyone and lend a hand with the packing of the truck. My dad gets in tonight to help with the long drive on Sat. Life is as crazy as it gets right now!! Over the last few days, the kids have realized that things are really happening. Makenzie demanded to know why Adam could just not quit his job and we'd stay here. So, we had to sit her down and explain to her WHY quiting your job is not a good idea.

The other day we finished Jacquelines room, taking down her bed, washing walls that sort of thing. The next day, Jacqueline realized that all of her stuff was gone. For the rest of the day, everything we said to her provoked tears. When asked what was wrong she would say, I don't know. After listing off everything that we thought could have been wrong with her, we figured out she was scared and confused over the move. She wasnt sure where all of our stuff would end up, there was too much moving around of the things shes always known. She can't understand what moving is or what Noth Carolina means.

This morning we had another bout of it, she crawled into our bed this morning to cry, proffessing she had no idea why she was sad, or why she was crying she just wanted too.... I understand how she feels!!!

But for today, we don't have time to be sad. We have a million little things to get done and only a half million min to do it all!

Our phone and internet get turned off tomorrow, so I don't know when Ill be able to get everyone caught up on how we are doing. We leave before dawn on sat for this new crazy, scarry exciting adventure!!

It's all pretty final

Well, as I write this my house is in shambles. There are boxes both packed and half packed in just about every room in the house. The kitchen is all but done, I'm working all the girls rooms today and with any luck will finish th today. We've emptied the garage of clutter, and it's now filling up with furniture and boxes. We signed the lease on our new house today and made arrangements to have the utilities turned off at this house. We've reserved the truck and bought tickets, we've scheduled carpet cleaners and trips to the dump. We've given away furniture and thrown away junk. Just a few short months ago we didn't even have a plan, and now we are less than two weeks away from our biggest move ever. To a new town, a new home where we won't know anyone. We are both super excited about what the new job means for Adam and getting to explore a new place, we are also sad at what we are leaving behind. It's a bit scary to move to a place you know nothing about, where you know no one, and even to house you have never seen! But that's where we are at! Over this last weekend, we went and said good bye to Adams grandparents. It was rather hard for us but especially Adam who is not sure he will ever see them alive again. The kids love seeing them, and they are always so welcoming to us. On our way down we ran into a close family friend and had dinner with him. Dan has been a fixture in our lives for 7 years now. He has been through just about everything with us, and we with him. Saying good bye to him, knowing it would be sometime before we saw him again, was very hard. It also brought me to the realization that this is all happening and that that goodbye was the first of many.

On Friday the 13th our friends are throwing us a party that will be bitter sweet. The ending of something we have grown accustomed to-Friday night potlucks with our closest friends. They are happy for us and several are already making plans to visit Carolina.

This will also be Adams official last day with the Sacramento office, and the start of his "vacation"

On the 14th (Happy Valentines Day) Adam and I will be super busy making last min trips to the dump and cleaning walls, it's not so romantic, but we both feel the sacrifices we are making and have made for each other to live happy lives with our family proves we love each other very much and we don't have to niche out a special day to realize that. And we don't have time =0)
I'll let him spoil me later!

On the 15th more of the same-Packing and trying to get everything painted and cleaned.. this will much of our next few days.
On the 19th My dad flys in-He is going to do what he does.. drive!! He's going to be driving the rental truck for us while we follow in the van with the kids. Thursday will also be the girls last day of school. This should prove to be a hard day for them, but we hope knowing papa will be here later in the evening will make things easier.
On the morning of the 20th we will be picking up the moving truck and rounding up some volunteers to load the thing. It should take the better part of the day! We have a couple of neighbors and Adam and his dad and my dad who will be around to get the job done.
Friday night, we will be meeting our dearest friends for one last dinner together. Friday night we will be crashing with friends.. we've had several offers of places to stay.. it's been very nice.

Sat the 21st before dawn cracks- we will hit the road! We will drive, well until we don't feel like it anymore, hopefully a good chunk of our driving will be on Sat. Then crashing in a hotel somewhere.
With any luck we hope to be in Oklahoma late Sunday. We will then be spending the week here spending time with my dad's side of the family. The girls are really looking forward to seeing my family, so we hope this will help in the transition.
On Sat we will once again head out in the very early hours and driving most of the way, staying the night a few hours outside of Charlotte if we can. Sunday the 1st we hope to arrive in Charlotte mid morning and unloading the truck into our new house!! woohoo
Monday, we will be taking my dad to the airport, dropping off the rental truck and starting the task of unpacking.. ugh

Monday, my mother and her husband plan to arrive and see the girls, and lending a hand where needed. They will be staying until Thursday-
Tuesday will be Adams first official day at his new job YAY and Thursday the girls first day back to school!

Then, we settle back into a life of normalcy-whatever ever that is!

Our new address is 4215 Sebring ct, Concord NC 28025 (yes we see the irony too, and it's pronounced con-cord) I will have the mail forwarded starting on the 18th from our NV address. Please hold any mail you may want to send until after the 1st to make sure, we get it!

Well, that's our life for the next three weeks. I won't know a new phone number for a couple of weeks there, but we will have our cell phones and won't be changing the number for a while if at all. If you need that number let me know, and we will get it to you.

The Roigs

There are so many sad diseases that abound in this world. Some, take the lives of people we know and love much to early, others just cause pain and discomfort. They limit the enjoyment everyone has the right to feel in their lifetime. It's a sad fact that many of us know people that have been affected and that is unlikely to change in our lifetimes. But, that's what they said about polio and chickenpox, and now young children are vaccinated for both!

I believe it takes courage to put yourself out there and be counted as one of the few who stand up for something, who fight for something you believe in. I also feel that when someone stands up, when they fight, we should support them. All too often we, living our busy lives, forget that we too can be affected by a sudden illness that will forever change our lives, and those around us. I never thought about cervical cancer a single day, until I had to sit there receiving radiation. Now, I contribute every chance I get. I now have to worry about breast cancer after my grandmothers mastectomy a few years ago, so I now support that.

I believe that we always want to do more, we have the most amazing intentions, but life just seems to run away with us.

Adams cousin is biking for MS. He doesn't need to raise thousands of dollars in fact his goal is $300.00 yet he's only managed to raise 15.00 of it. I know, I know, money is tight foe everyone, believe me!! We understand that completely! But, if you could just one time in the next few weeks, skip the morning coffee or the desert at dinner, and give $2.00 or even $5.00 for this wonderful cause.

Chris, is a wonderful person with a truly gold heart. He is not doing this for a pat on the back, or because the money is going into his secret vacation account. He truly is doing this because he believes in it.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along the information to those who may be able to help.

https://secure3.convio.net/nmss/site/Donation2?idb=1158762815&df_id=21954&FR_ID=11059&PROXY_ID=2496507&PROXY_TYPE=20&21954.donation=form1

Have a great day,
Dana & Adam

oh Jacqueline

On a lighter note... How many ways can I count how much I love Jacqueline's little personality. I doubt there has been another child with as much of it as she has! She prances around here doing her own little thing and every one in a while says something that reminds us this is her world and we just happen to be here! Some of it shocks me.. but sometime the things she says just leave me speachless... I hope you can picture the following...

I sent the girls in to retrieve the clothes from the dryer, so I could continue sorting the mound of socks in front of me. Jacqueline comes in the room wearing a pair of Adam's boxers.. shes holding them up to her armpits! and says in a deap voice.. do these fit me okay? I laughed and sent her back to help Makenzie.. a few min later she comes busting in the room yelling very loudly..

MOMMY! We found your thing.. it fell out of the dryer but we found it!
Me;what thing Jacqueline? at this point I was still sorting socks...
MOMMY!!
WHAT?!? I realized she was waiting for me to look at her!
MOMMY we f ound your thing that goes over you.. (at this point she stading there with her hands in cups holding fake boobs and yelling) ya know, it holds your big things and makes them bigger!
me: trying not to laugh I said; My bra?
NOW SHE WHISPERS... yeah, we found your (looks around) bra.. but it's okay we put it in the basket!

and she ran away.. I absolutly had nothing to say! Where do they get this stuff.. I loved the fact that she could yell your big ol' things, but whispered we put it in the basket.

The next day, Adam came home and we went to walmart, Jacqueline walked up to the bras, picked up a big bra and yelled at Adam... Look I have boobs!

He just looked at me and shook his head!

Centered

Today has been .. one of those days. Not a bad day... just a long day! We've had some great news, some good news and some frustrating news. I ran a million errands, caught up on some emails, did some chores (even though you can't tell!) made some phone calls and packed some boxes and just got done with dinner with the girls. It's 15 after seven and I can't decide if my thought is, it's already seven, or it's only seven. Because either way, I have hours of work left to do tonight before I can crawl into bed. I need to get some more boxes packed, dishes and laundry done and work on a project I've been working on at night, and Adam is out of town again until Friday. It will be like this until we move.

I really do hate him being gone like this. Its tough on him, it's tough on the kids, and it's really hard on me, especially now! I could really use his help with some of this packing stuff and could use his opinions and input on whether some things should go or stay. Tomorrow, Alexandra is getting an award at school. It's the first time she's ever gotten one, and she can hardly stand the wait. But, he's going to miss it. Just another in a long line of little things he's had to miss being gone like this. It's been almost 5 months of this gone, home, gone again. The kids literally can't keep up with if he's home tonight or not.

I know it's only for a few more weeks, and I am thankful that we are not still facing a year of this!! Yet, at the end of the day when I'm exhausted and mentally worn out, when the kids are in bed, and it's silent. I still hate it! I sat down just now for a few minutes to answer and e-mail from a friend.

I am frazzled and a bit stressed trying to cram life and kids and packing and (somewhere mom) into one day. But, when checking my e-mail, I ran across something a friend sent. It's one of those that makes you smile, makes you sad and makes you think all at the same time. It snapped me back to where I am in my life and centered me.

I am happy with where we are in our lives, the future looks pretty great from where we are standing. There are going to be some hard moments, like leaving our friends and family, but we know and understand that a new life is on the other side of the sunset were riding off into. We are excited about the new house and Adams new job. It doesn't make the task at hand feel any less daunting when I look around and see what still needs to be done! I just might have to print this out and post some of the sayings around my house to remind me!

I Believe...

A Birth Certificate shows that we were born. A Death Certificate shows that we died, Pictures show that we lived!

I Believe...That just because two people argue, It doesn't mean they don't love each other.

And just because they don't argue, It doesn't mean they do love each other..

I Believe....That we don't have to change friends if

We understand that friends change.

I Believe....That no matter how good a friend is, They're going to hurt you every once in a while And you must forgive them for that.

I Believe...That true friendship continues to grow, Even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love..

I Believe...That you can do something in an instant That will give you heartache for life.

I Believe....That it's taking me a long time To become the person I want to be.

I Believe...That you should always leave loved ones with Loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe...That you can keep going long after you think you can't.

I Believe...That we are responsible for what We do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe...That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe...That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I Believe...That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I Believe...That my best friend and I, can do anything, or nothing and have the best time.

I Believe...That sometimes the people you expect to kick you When you're down, will be the ones to help you get back up.

I Believe....That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, But that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I Believe...That maturity has more to do with What types of experiences you've had And what you've learned from them And less to do with How many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe....That it isn't always enough, To be forgiven by others. Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I Believe...That no matter how bad your heart is broken The world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe...That our background and circumstances May have influenced who we are, But, we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe......That you shouldn't be so eager to find Out a secret. It could change your life Forever.

I Believe...Two people can look at the exact same Thing and see something totally different.

I Believe...That your life can be changed in a matter of Hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe....That even when you think you have no more to give,When A friend cries out to you -You will find the strength to help.

I Believe...That credentials on the wall Do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe...That the people you care about most in life Are taken from you too soon.

I Believe...'The happiest of people don't necessarily Have the best of everything; They just make the most of everything.

And now we wait... sort of

Well, here I am again, packing for my trip. This time, I am packing to go home to Nevada. It's bitter sweet really. On one hand, it's nice to go home, see my babies and my friends. On the other hand, I have a list of stuff near two pages long of things I have to get done when I get home. To top it off, I know that now it will not really feel like home anymore, it will feel like that topsy turvey place full of boxes!

This week has been, well crazy! We got in on Wed. night. It was a very long day. We found each other, our rental car and then our hotel! We managed to find dinner and then pretty much crashed. Thursday we had to get up early and have breakfast and go meet with the new guys at the office. They were the most warm and inviting group of people ever. They sat and talked with us about places to look for a home, weather, schools, shopping, people and of course work for four hours. They took us to lunch and chatted with us some more. We felt very welcomed by everyone in Adams new office. During the whole meeting they kept saying, if you decide to come on bored. That was nice to hear, it ment, they wanted Adam, they were waiting for him to say yes. After the meeting we left and took a drive around the area, we went and looked at the area we were going to look at the house in and visited what would be the girls new school if we took that particular house. The school was nice, has a HUGE play area with LOTS of very cool play scapes. The guidance counselor could not be any sweeter, or any more southern if she wanted to be. It was a nice experience for us there. She gave us paper work for the school, a list of what the girls would need and offered to tour the girls and us around the school when we came back. That pretty much took up most of our Thursday!

On Friday morning, we drove back out to the house and looked at it. It's hard to explain! On the main level, there are 3 bedrooms, a "mud" or breakfast room, a parlor and a living room and a bathroom.
On the lower level, that used to be a basement, there is a HUGE room they used as the master bedroom.. its massive with a "closet" that's the size of 2 or three walk in closets... there is a laundry room, two more bedrooms, a bathroom and an empty room. The master bedroom has a fireplace, and there is one in the living room upstairs. There are 4 doors leading to the outside.. the outside is equivalent to one and half football fields. It's stupid big!! Half is grass and half is woods. We are told there are deer and many wildlife that come to the property, and while we were in the yard we saw, red robins, wood peckers and heard countless other birds. Its very peaceful While we can see the neighbors, the property is so big, we are in no way on top of them.

The home needs updating... they had begun the work on the place and had to stop before they had to sell it. There a several little projects we would do, but are excited about doing.

We filled out the application and are now, waiting to hear back. It should take a couple of days to hear back from them on if everything went well. The only thing that we are trying to get settled is, we don't want to start the payments until March when we would move in, leaving the whole month of Feb for them to not make any money. So, we are negotiating right now with that.

Once we looked at the house, we went to home depot and priced some of the projects we would want to do right away to see if it was something we could work with. We then took a drive around some more of the area, the other way. We accidentally found Philipp Moris USA. The plant is massive! But, not that I ever thought about it, it really had a strong oder of tobacco just driving by! (it's over an hr from where we'd be living) We found and drove around the Lowes motor speed way, which too is gigantic! We found the huge mall that looks like something I'd never want to walk through! After that we went back and relaxed for a while at the room. Then we realized it was a Friday night and we had no kids, so we went to a 1030 movie last night! It was odd to be out late and not have to worry about getting home.
Today we went and visited a plantation. It's very old and has original buildings and land, it was very neat to see. While leaving there, we passed and stopped at the Carolina raptor center. Its a sanctuary for injured raptor birds. If you don't know what those are, they are owls, vultures, hawks, eagles, any bird that hunts and kills with talons and beaks. It was fascinating to us. They try to heal the birds and release them into the wild, but if they can't do that, they provide them with a home of their own and provide as much natural invironment for them to live in.

After that, we went back to the room for a break, and I crashed!! I slept for a few hours, missing our hockey game, we were going to go to. But I guess I just needed the rest! We went and had dinner and talked for a while.. now we are getting ready to head to bed and have a very very long day tomorrow. Adam will get home around 4 and I will get home around 10 (pm for both).

After that... we wait on news. News on the house, should get the final offer letter for Adam to sign all in the next few days. But while we wait, my life gets crazy....er! I have to make appointments for the kids, pack the house and make arrangements. Its going to be a while before I "rest" again!
We feel our trip was successful, I'm happy with the way it went. I won't feel comfortable and easy about it until we have signed papers from everyone, but that's just me!