the pad

We made it to Iowa in one piece. But just barely. Our drive here was scary! And not because the children were acting like wildebeests in the backseats. I wish that were the problem. No they were pretty well behaved. Besides a few requests for food (which I fulfilled by chucking snacks at them over my shoulder) they quietly sat and watched Frozen...over and over and over for the duration of our trek here.  No the scary part of our drive was the weather.

But first let me share a few pictures from the first part of our trip. An hour in we stopped at our friend's parents' house and spent a lazy afternoon swimming in the pool. 

(Yikes! I am pasty white. First thing on my to-do list in Iowa is find some sun!!!)

 

We were blissfully unaware of the fact that we were about to drive into the eye of the storm. It was a perfect afternoon of sun, swimming, and snacking...all with our favorite people!

We hit the road in the early evening and I promised the kids a cheeseburger from McDonalds as soon as we got to Iowa. (Mistake #1.)

Turns out there aren't a plethora of McDonalds in rural Iowa. Who knew?!? About 80 miles down the road I finally spotted those beautiful glowing Golden Arches on the horizon. And for some odd reason I was feeling extra compassionate towards my children and decided we would actually stop and eat in the restaurant (instead of using the drive thru and me tossing their cheeseburgers at them). I also promised them icecream cones if they ate their dinner well. (Mistake #2)

After the slowest service, we were all seated and enjoying our burgers when the skies turned BLACK. Actually a greenish-black. I madly started texting Joe requesting weather information. Charlotte was trying to decide if it was lightning or if someone was taking pictures outside. Mysteries abound:) Upon Joe's suggestion, I quickly wrapped up dinner and loaded the kids into the van WITHOUT the promised icecream and made a beeline out of town. 

I assumed we were driving out of the worst of it. Wrong! About 10-15 miles down the highway (and in the middle of wide open fields) things got uglier. The sky was green. The rain was pouring down. And lightning was coming down on both sides of the van. The thunder was practically shaking my van.  It felt like a bad dream. A very bad dream. And then this popped up on my phone...

Shelter! Ack. I would have loved to taken shelter. I definitely felt like we needed shelter. But again we were in middle of a field with nothing in sight! So I kept driving and called Joe in a panic. He quickly did a little research and discovered (based on the mile markers on the road) that we were basically in the eye of the storm. Joe also suggested we find shelter! Since that wasn't an option I white-knuckled it and drove as fast as I could. (Can you drive faster than a tornado?!) It was a very scary 30 minutes before we made it to more normal looking skies. Still stormy. But just your ordinary appearing thunderstorms. 

But we made it. And I hope to never have a repeat performance of that drive. Never ever again thank you very much!

We are now living the dream in a two bedroom basement apartment. It's another fourth year medical student's apartment (he is away on a rotation elsewhere). It's a complete bachelor pad but it is sufficient for our family of five. Enough with the words. Here it is in all it's glory...

My only complaints about the place are these. The bathroom smells. Like a dirty bathroom. But it appears clean. Again with the mysteries! And second, there is no dining room table and chairs. Suffice it to say meal times around the coffee table have been interesting (and challenging)!

Charlotte's initial assessment was "kinda great" while Isaiah rated the place as "good". 

Our first full day here was filled with even more rain and tornado sirens! Enough with the bad weather Iowa. We want to get out and have fun! And by fun I do not mean exploring Wal-Mart as a family...though that was pretty fun. I think that activity won't be as entertaining the second time around. Just a guess. 

On the road again!

Iowa & daddy here we come!!!!

not just any Friday.

It's test day (again).  Meaning Joe is taking his second boards exam today. For NINE hours. Meaning he is almost done with his third year of medical school. 

All that stands between him and the beginning of his LAST year of medical school is one hugely important test. Ack. I am so excited. And nervous. I might just be a wreck all day. It's a good thing my cool-as-cucumber husband is taking the test and not me.

I can't believe we are finally here! It feels like the promised land. Fourth year. The academic year that we have been looking forward to since...well before he started medical school! We made it. And mostly in one piece:) That means in a mere 266 days we will find out where Joe matches for residency. And in 344 days he will graduate as a MEDICAL DOCTOR! But who's counting?!? I can't believe we are this close to being done. (With this chapter of medical training that is. Residency will be it's own beast. A beast I am blissfully ignoring at the moment.)

Ok. I am not sure I have a point with all this rambling. I am just super excited.  And had to share. Today is test day. Hooray! Now the hard part (for me) begins...waiting 6 weeks for those test results. Boo. Hopefully we will be having so much fun in Iowa the time will just fly by. 

Since I don't have a current picture of our test taker I will end with the kids playing on the beach. Just because. 

Summer. It's the best!

moving mountains

We are finally back at my parents' house after our 10 day camp/camping/visit relatives sojourn around Minnesota. And let me be the first to admit that I am currently laughing at my pre-move self of two weeks ago. Because two weeks ago I thought packing up and moving with children was hard. Ha! Want to know what is hard? Trying to unpack and squeeze your family of five into a house that is already occupied and filled with two decades worth of living. I have piles of boxes in the living room. More piles in our rooms. And MOUNTAINS of boxes in the garage. All of these boxes need to find more permanent homes that will allow my parents to still use their living room and park in their garage! Erg. This is far more challenging than I ever expected. Admittedly I am NOT a minimalist so the amount of stuff I deemed necessary to have out of storage is not helping this little situation. And I have a deadline too. This weekend the kids and I leave to join Joe on the road. We will be gone for 8 weeks. I presume my parents would like their house useable for those 8 weeks...

I will spare you the incredibly boring pictures of our boxes in their new home. Instead I will end with the photographic evidence that my grandparents' home is a magical place for children...

I almost forgot! This morning while Charlotte was talking on the phone with her daddy she asked if she could go home. When he said no (without missing a beat) she responded with, "Okay. Then I want to go to Disney."

Ha! Quite the negotiator already. Iowa will be just like Disney World...I am sure of it. 

Shiver Bay

My kids and I along with my parents, my sister and her two kids, my aunt and uncle and their two grown children plus their respective families spent the weekend camping along the shore of Lake Superior. I had joked to my dad on our way there that we would know we had arrived once we reached the Canadian border. I should have looked at a map before we hit the road because my joke wasn't so funny once I saw a sign that read 'Canada 100 miles' and we were yet to reach our campground! That and we had been watching the temperatures plummet the further north we drove. They were in the low fifties by the time we arrived. Admittedly, by this point I was convinced that we had made a terrible mistake and that the entire weekend was going to be miserable. And then to add insult to injury we discovered while setting up camp that one wing of my parents pop-up camper was broken and unusable!!!

But despite our rocky start, we had a good weekend. My uncle miraculously repaired the camper. The temperatures remained in the fifties so we put on many layers. And despite the rain (mostly a drizzle) we had many campfires and cooked some meals over the fire. We saw a lighthouse and waterfalls. We threw rocks in the lake. The adults managed to sneak in one card game...scrunched in one camper with five wiggly children surrounding us. The kids enjoyed playing in the woods and building a fort. Oh and my girls LOVED playing in the mud despite my best efforts to keep them out of it. 

Overall my kids have been such troopers as I have dragged them from place to place immediately after being uprooted. Within a week we have moved 400+ miles, gone to camp, stayed overnight at my aunt & uncle's house, gone camping...and now we are headed to my grandparents' house for a few days! Poor Charlotte, when she is tired, asks to go home. And honestly, I don't exactly know how to respond to this request. Because while our house in Illinois is technically still ours until the end of the month. And Joe is in the nearly empty house. (Studying. For 4 more days...) It isn't really home anymore. One relative joked that I should put her in our van and tell her "Welcome Home!" But even that wasn't an option this past weekend as we had ridden up with my parents!

Thankfully I know that her requests to "go home" mostly mean she wants to be with her daddy. And while I can not grant her her wish to return home, I can reunite her with her daddy in one week! Once his boards exam is done we are all headed to Iowa for his first "away rotation" and I can hardly wait. It will be good to "home".