Yes, you guessed it, I have to bring it up again…Lee graduates THIS WEEK!!! Friday at 3:00 pm to be exact.

In preparation for graduation, we of course need to move. Since we didn’t want to drive our van packed full of our things from Memphis and then back to North Carolina or come back after graduation and move out, I took almost everything to my parents’ home this week. I did a bit of packing on Monday and then Tuesday hit it hard, and Lee had the van all loaded by about 9:30 pm. Wednesday morning I took off with the kiddos and headed to North Carolina. The drive is about 6 hours, which includes a ½ hour stop. The kids did great (and we don’t have a portable DVD player. J) Wednesday evening Daniel and Amy and family came over and I made them dinner. For dessert we had brownies and some yummy strawberries from my dad’s strawberry patch.

Thursday when the girls took their nap, I unloaded the van. The boys loved playing with their new toys—their toys that have been in storage for 8 months. After lunch we went to Daniel & Amy’s and had a fun visit.

As I was leaving Daniel’s, I saw a magazine on their bookshelf. I read the title of the feature article out loud, wondering what it was about. “ ‘Cooking with Chumby’?” To paraphrase, Daniel casually said, “Oh, yeah, that’s my article and Chumby is great.” I thought that was sooooo cool. Great job Daniel! So, check out the May 2008 Linux Journal…feature article by Daniel Bartholomew. But I was wrong, and it's called "Adventures with Chumby"--on the website anyway.

We left Friday morning, well basically 11am, and arrived back to our place at about 5:00 pm. The drive from Boone, North Carolina to Elizabethon, Tennessee is so pretty! Mountains, rolling hills, with a shoreline of a lake in view from the road, flowering trees…just gorgeous! I enjoyed seeing you Dad and Amy and Daniel and kids. The girls slept really well at my parents—and even slept through early-morning seminary which is held upstairs where we slept. I also had fun with the DVR at my parents and recorded American Idol, plus some other shows.

On our drive home I was hoping to stop once, off the side of the road for a quick potty-break and feed the girls lunch. Well, we did stop. I “knew” the boys would have no problem “picking a bush” and I could wait to avail myself. I was totally wrong. Clark for some reason couldn’t go off the side of the road, but wanted to use a toilet! I didn’t have my double stroller because I left it at my parents’ house, and I didn’t have a single stroller either because I left it at our apartment. You may think, so what, you don’t have a stroller. Well, the thought of holding two babies and having my boys trot after me into a nasty public bathroom was what I was trying to avoid! (Cal is potty-trained but still needs assistance and it’s hard to do when I’ve got my “hands full”. Thus my reason for stopping at the side of the road! So I pull into a gas station and hold the girls in my arms and we trot into their bathroom. Luckily it was just one big bathroom and not a lot of stalls. Picture this: of course there isn’t a stool in the bathroom for little kids to stand on and the toilet is too high for Cal to just stand up and go, so I’m holding two babies with my left arm and barely holding Cal up with my right while he uses the toilet. AND during my 60 seconds of walking in and out of the gas station at least three people told me “You’ve got your hands full.”

After this little story, I must relate to you my shopping trip to Target this past week, on Tuesday I think it was. It was a pretty normal shopping trip. But I thought I would tell you what a normal shopping trip is like. One guy stopped me and asked how many kids I had left home. At another point, a wife walked by and saw the girls and said to her husband: “Oh honey, you have to see the babies!” Then on the way out I overheard a conversation about my kids, but all I picked up was the good stuff: “They all are gorgeous kids.” Then as I was putting away my cart a lady asked me if “they” were all mine. After saying yes she was quite shocked and said “If it were me, I’d be in an institution.” I have never heard that comment before.

Going back to our moving/packing. I packed up almost everything from our kitchen. Dish-wise and utensil-wise, I left a can opener, a slotted spoon, a spatula, a knife, some baby utensils and a saucepan. I should have left a few more things. Friday night when we cooked dinner, we had to cook in shifts, using the same pan three times. And we currently don’t have our microwave either.

Back to the weekly adventures: Friday night we got together with the Mathsons, Nielsens, Smiths and Nybergs at the park, visited and had cookies, ice cream and popsicles. It was especially good for the boys after being in the van for a few hours.

Saturday morning Lee took Clark to Lowe’s and I exercised. That afternoon we went to the Butlers. Lee helped put up some dry wall in their upstairs and we stayed for dinner. It was fun to visit with Brooke and then also with a couple other friends, Mindy and Melissa. Clark and Cal had a lot of fun too. Brooke loaned us a few dishes and it has been a great help. After the Butlers, a stop at Walmart, and putting the kids to bed, we watched “Miracle”. It was a good film. We have a Sanyo DVD player with a TVG thing in it, so it blocks out swear words. We are going to have to fiddle with it a little bit because it blocks out a bit more than we’d like. We miss important parts of conversations. But it’s great because we avoid basically all swearing.

Today was a nice Sunday. Tonight we went to the Nybergs and had a little belated party for Shelly—her birthday was yesterday.

Well, definitely past my bedtime. We’re heading to Memphis Wednesday early afternoon! And for a few days before we leave, we get to enjoy a new disposal!