Friday, May 25 - Tucson, AZ

I’m writing this from the road, about 6:30 pm Pacific Time (actually, we’re in AZ which I *think* is Mountain Time so…maybe it is 7:30 since we are heading east???) What a day this has been. We were up before 7, didn’t make coffee thinking we’d just pack the pot and get it on the road. We got to it - packing bed linens and trying to get the rest of the house finished up. Kids were doing their best to stay out from under our feet but once the TV was gone, they truly had NOTHING to do while they waited for us. They decided to amuse themselves by hiding in the cabinets in the playroom. I wasn’t there so I don’t know what happened exactly but all of a sudden, we heard William crying hysterically. Steve and I both dropped what we were doing and ran to him…he met us in the hall with blood just above his eyebrow. Apparently Tinna had thrown open a cabinet door and the corner of it hit him in the face. This was maybe 9:30 and our goal was to be on the road by 10. Steve took him down to Balboa to be seen at the ER. Thankfully they were able to use DermaBond and he didn’t have to have stitches. He has a bit of a black eye but has not cried or complained since the injury occurred. What a brave boy!

So, what to do with the girls? 2 or 3 hours of sitting in the house looking at the walls? Ugh. I said “We’ll go walk Henry and then come home to have a snack and play Leapsters”. The girls agreed that this was a good idea but as we walked out the door, I realized, Steven took the car which contained all of the food, books, and games! I called over to Rachel to see if we could borrow some toys and she graciously offered for us to come play. She fed us, too, since the girls didn’t even have breakfast by that point!

Anyway, Steve and William got back from Balboa around noon and we finished up with packing the car and cleaning the house. We FINALLY got on the road a little bit after 1. It’s been a long, slow drive. Because we were towing a trailer, we had to drive 55 in CA. ZZZzzz. Another irritating incident of the day was that we received a phone call from the trucking company that is transporting our RAV saying that the car will be in VA on Sunday and where will we meet them to get the car off the truck? This was very frustrating as they were told up front that we wouldn’t be in VA until at least June 1. If we are not able to find someone to receive the car for us, we’ll have to pay $175.00 per day that it sits on the truck! Thankfully, we were able to reach our realtor who said he will take care of the matter for us. Phew.

Has anyone out there read “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold? My friend Heather brought it down to me last night along with “Flirting With Forty”. She said they are both excellent books. I started “The Lovely Bones” last night after reading the reviews on the back cover, one of which says “Don’t start “The Lovely Bones” unless you can finish it.” Of course I missed the next sentence of that same review that says “The book begins with more horror than you could imagine but closes with more beauty than you could hope for…” When I started reading it last night, I seriously thought I might throw up during the first chapter and I still don’t know if the promised beautiful ending is enough to get me through it. And what is it with all of the death focused books that are coming into my life these days? Is it some sort of premonition? I hope I’m just being paranoid!

Below are a few photos from Packout – Day 2 and Delaney’s last day at Miller CDC. Looking at them now (in the morning, in the hotel) they are a bit out of order...Delaney took the donuts to school for her last day. The rest I think you can figure out. We are trying to get on the road - it's 7:42 - so I need to go!