Chiming In

So, mostly I've let Jason take over the documenting of our progress (as it would have been pretty silly to have two posts, saying the same things) but I thought that I would chime in here.

So, first off, the trip did go as well as he intimated. By about 9 at night (the time that we were stopping on most evenings) the girls were cranky and ready to go to bed - and there was a bit of a scuffle on who would sleep where - but they were all-in-all very well behaved. The one extreme low-point for me, personally, was Mississippi.

Those who know me can attest that I absolutely hate it when my plans are messed up. OCD much? Yes, I know. But it really rubs me the wrong way - especially when someone waits until the last possible second before changing the plans. This is exactly what happened to land us in Mississippi. Our original plan had been to stop in Memphis, TN and have dinner with Jason's family there. When we were a couple hours out, Jason called his Mom to set things up. Through a course of phone calls it went from all of us meeting in Memphis (which was on our way) to us driving into Mississippi to visit at her home. Now, most of you reading this probably think "Oh, that wouldn't be that big of a deal" and you're right - it shouldn't be, but I have never tried to pretend that I'm not crazy and last minute, out-of-our way stops on the second-to-last day of our trip (when I was already cranky and rumpled from being in the car for so long) wasn't exactly going to make my happy-list. But, meh, that's my own hangup and I know it.

So we went. We visited. It was as nice as could be expected when we were all tired and more than a little cranky from being in the car so long (me especially, see above). Then my MiL wanted to show the girls her garden. Sounds great! She had lit a citronella candle and had a fire smoking to drive away mosquitoes and other bugs and things. I think "great, because I have always had trouble with getting eaten by any bugs in the vicinity". We go outside. I stay pretty close to the fire and candle. This should have meant that I was safe, right?

Wrong. Very wrong. I have over 10 mosquito bites to attest differently and one which appears to be a spider bite on my ankle. I thought it was a mosquito bite until it turned into an angry red circle a little bigger than a quarter and made that leg muscle all weak for a couple days. It's better now (the weakness, at least, as the redness remains) and doesn't have any striations nor is the skin less firm in that area, so I think I'm in the clear. Still, less than fun for me (especially the next day when I was trying to not scratch my skin off).

Since being here we did have the mishap with the jumprope which left me feeling very vulnerable and exposed. We still don't have our furniture for another four days - which includes all our dishes and pots and pans so we still can't cook and eat real food. Our internet is up and working and when the guy comes on Saturday I'm going to tell him to activate the cable outlet in our bedroom that way we have one item attached to each outlet. I have the girls watching Netflix Instant stuff from Nickelodeon to make up for the fact that we have no televisions, which seems to be helping in the stir-craziness that they are experiencing due to the fact that there's pretty much 0 toys here right now. I'm thinking about taking them out this afternoon to go find the little playground here in our complex, but we'll see how quiet time goes.

Tonight we need to go out to eat and then shop for some more don't-need-pans-or-dishes type foods to carry us until the movers bring out things on Monday. There's a place here called the Steak 'n' Shake that was good when we went before. They have burgers but they're more like a diner than a fast food place - kinda like an In & Out (they even have "Frisco Sauce" which is thousand island dressing!). I'm trying to convince myself to give it time, even with the first week being horrible, and that it will get better. I didn't realize how much it would help me to get some furniture in here. Last night I went ahead and put up curtains in the living room and Jason and I together assembled a coffee table and bookshelf from Ikea. It is a balm to me for reasons I don't entirely understand that we have actual real furniture in our house instead of just camp chairs and folding tables. It has made it easier for me to weather this first week and look forward to the time when I really do feel settled.

So that's all that I have to say about that - I may chime in again in a week or so to let you know how things go once we've gotten our furniture and gotten settled in for real. In the meantime, enjoy the play-by-play brought to you from my wonderful husband who is able to keep his head and be a rock for me right now when I really needed one. Insert enough ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey-ness here to make you feel sick and turn your monitor off. *grin*