We are here

We are here safe and sound. I am exhausted from the last week. The kids are doing ok, better now that we aren't driving. Each night Isaac cries for his own bed and home. He won't accept that we are not going back to Oklahoma. Yesterday when we crossed the border into Ohio I told them we were at our new home and Isaac said, "Yea, we are in Hokamoka!" Uh, well no. Eli isn't sleeping well but that will work itself out. Today we are cleaning out the van and doing laundry and tomorrow Mike and I are leaving before the break of dawn to drive to Myrtle Beach for a week. Chelsey is a saint I tell ya. I can't repay her for watching the boys. I am nervous about leaving them. I've never left the boys longer than a night (not counting hospital stays after having babies because that doesn't count) and I've never left Eli. I am mainly just concerned that they are really out of their element and confused now and tomorrow I am ditching out on them. But, they are having fun with their cousins and Chelsey will take good care of them. We hope all the fires at Myrtle Beach didn't burn the resort down....

One thing about our drive here...

I think the Midwest is in my blood. The Midwest was my birth place (Nebraska) and I've lived in the Midwest about 9 years total. Driving throughout Illinois and Indiana was very nice for me. When we crossed into Indiana Mike asked me if I felt like I was home and I had to say no. I don't feel like Indiana is my home. Strangely enough, I feel like Utah is my home. But, the Midwest has such a familiarity for me that it is nice to be back. My roommate Ruthie would argue that Ohio isn't the Midwest, but it is not the East, so maybe the Mideast....

I don't really know how to describe the feelings I had while we drove through those two states. I couldn't help but remember all the things we did on the farm, the pigs, the augers, the corn fields. Trees! Not the scary ghost trees in Oklahoma but pretty, full trees all over the place. I thought of the snow drifts and the gravel roads that kick up so much dust when you drive down them you can't even see in front of you. I loved looking at the red and white barns and the old dilapidated barns--it reminded me of the barn on the farm that we used to say was going to be our club house but the mice scared me. I loved seeing the silos. I couldn't help but wonder what their lives were like. Did their lives look similar to the one we used to have when we lived on the farm or was I just remembering things from a kids point of view? Mainly, I just thought about the simplicity of life on a farm. Farmers work so hard, but for some reason I think of life being simple and slow. It is nice, and friendly and makes me feel happy.

So, now we are in Ohio and I will say this...Ohio is way prettier than Oklahoma. But like Isaac, I wish we were still in our house and had our comfortable, familiar life.

Let's see what our new adventure has to bring to us.