Our first week in the middle of nowhere

     Good morning ! I've been making mental notes and coming up with some Alamo stories for y'all. At first I thought "What am I going to tell them? We're in the middle of nowhere!" Once again life proves it's not about the destination but the journey along the way."
      Our first day in Alamo was wonderful. I woke up early and had the whole morning to myself . Thanks to my new trailer, the boys slept snugly in their room and I was able to have some peace. It may have been peace and quiet between 4 and 7 AM but I'll take it either way. My friend Cayla showed us around.  We finally have an address! I opened a PO Box, it's very unsettling not having an address.  We also  looked at the "other trailer park" options because ours was having some power issues. Meaning our power kept turning off. Not a great start. First we went to this "secret park" which was someones yard, at the end of a spooky street.I say spooky because it is on the edge of town and no clear definition of where town stops and desert starts.  Then we investigated "the other park," which was basically a parking lot, without laundry facilities, we decided to stay put. Along the way, we managed to pop all of our tires, on the bicycles and the jogging strollers. Turned out that "other park" was full of little "goat heads." I wasn't familiar with these pokies before, but after pulling out a few hundred of them and patching all six tires, now I know what they are! After our serious threat to leave the RV park,  the owners fixed our electrical problems. I would say this in itself was enough excitement for a day, but  that evening,  Waylon started throwing up. I've never had a one-year-old throw up before,  it's awful. They don't seem to know when it's coming, (or they do and can't tell you)  so you really just aim them at things. The stomach bug spread to everybody except for me for which I am eternally grateful. This gave me the opportunity to really get familiar with the towns laundry mat. I've spent $40 on laundry this week. With half the town's laundry machines out of order, it was a miracle that I have clean linens. Poor Ian came home sick on Wednesday with those dreaded words "your son got me sick." These poor guys, whatever they had,  it sounded terrible. Horrible noises coming from both bathrooms. Somehow I survived! Shuffling crackers to one room  and gatorade to the other.   Everyday I love my trailer more and more . It is so much more livable,  there is so much more space and  I am so grateful that my husband bought  this for me. In fact I feel quite spoiled!

    My friend Cayla, took the opportunity to quarantine her family and left the city! Actually, they left because her husband finished his apprenticeship. She is now officially married to a journeyman which gives all of us a glimmer of hope. It's so wonderful to see someone finish this apprenticeship. It is proof that the hard work and sacrifices will pay off. We are so happy for them. So they left town for a bit to get his Journeyman's ticket. I was so relieved when they came back. For a moment I thought we had lost them! If it wasn't a blizzard in Salt Lake, who knows if they would've come back! So  by Saturday, I had a little break in the action and Cayla and I were able to run a 5K in honor of the victims of Sandy Hooke. It was so fun to have a running buddy. She is definitely more compatible and more fun ,as a running partner than either my brother (sorry Nate) or Ian. ( He already knows this.) We had a few days here in the 60s but most of the week has been in the 70s. Which didn't seem like a big deal until I started seeing reports of Salt Lake and Colorado . Sorry friends out there, stay warm!

      I also got to pick up my first basket of fresh fruits and veggies on Saturday morning from bountiful baskets. Cayla forewarned me that the grocery store had slim choices for fresh produce. I'm so grateful that she was able to figure this stuff out ahead of my arrival, I feel so lucky. There was a little drama with the produce truck not arriving on time and I had to make three separate trips to the elementary school which isn't a big deal because I'm right down the street. and I don't have a lot to do. We  got all sort of goodies like pineapple, bananas, tangerines, grapefruit, Chinese cabbage and a box of sugar cookies to  decorate for Easter! In Alamo you really do need to plan ahead. I found this out when the grocery store ran out of bread. So signing up for bountiful baskets to receive fresh fruit and veggies a week ahead of time seems like a necessity.

        On Sunday we got a new family into the park. The boys are so excited to have some kids around here. The timing is perfect because we're on spring break and we need some entertainment! Ian was lucky enough to get off early yesterday ( he's working seven days a week, 12 hour days) and was home around five. Then we got to witness this really neat tradition that the guys in our park on Sundays call family dinner. ( I'm pretty sure Cayla actually started it.) I was caught off guard and you know how I like to plan, but sure enough at 5 o'clock, food started coming out of the trailers and everyone asked if we were ready for dinner!  I was not as I was up to my elbows in Chinese cabbage. So I whipped together a Chinese chicken salad and went out to feast on smoked pork loin, pasta salad and watermelon. I am so impressed that they get together every Sunday. It was so fun seeing all the guys hang out and enjoy each others company. Afterwards the guys all started playing poker and Houston  moved in on them. Luck was on Houston side and the boy cleaned house with those guys. We finished the evening off by enjoying a new recipe from the Pioneer Woman. If you haven't made her Apple dumplings they are a must! They have a secret ingredient (its Mountain Dew) Sounds weird, I know, but it was incredible yummy and easy to make. So we ended up having a pretty good,  entertaining week in the middle of nowhere.  Now we're ready for our second week. Let's hope everyone is healthy!

I am woman, hear me roar. I had to patch my own tires, because Ian is working every day, used 3 tubes of slime, but I got the job done!

 

Apple Dumplings! Imagine this warm gooeyness with vanilla ice cream. I should've taken a picture when it was plated, but we were hungry and it smelled soooo good!

The Mad dash to Alamo

     Hey friends ! We're still waiting it out in Salt Lake. I'm happy to report that we have been having sunny weather in the mid 50s. It's funny how the 50s feel so cold in Southern California but in Salt lake it's short sleeve weather! We've been keeping ourselves entertained with the local skate park and luckily there are a lot of kids in our rv park.
     Wrex and I went to see nick Vujicic on Saturday. What an inspirational man. He started the ministry "Life without limbs" He was born without arms or legs but he uses his story to encourage others. I thought it would be a neat experience to bring Wrex and I was able to get two tickets just  for us. While Wex did enjoy it he was more concerned about "how our date was going."  To learn more about Nick look here http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/


End of this entry and starting over......

      Well the day after I wrote this Ian  received a call to work. They sent us to Alamo Nevada. We had been browsing at new fifth wheels and decided if we were going to be spending the summer in the desert we needed to upgrade. So as crazy as it was we moved all of our stuff into a new fifth wheel ( with a huge kids room in the back) and got on the road headed for Alamo.  It would be surprising if you have ever heard of Alamo Nevada. They're only 1070 residents here. The grocery store is half gas station, but it's the closest town to area 51. This would probably be a very difficult place to be in if it wasn't for another line wife Cayla. Cayla's blog inspired us to live on the road and it is such a treat that we get to be with her, on her families last leg of this journey.Cayla has some pictures and fun facts about Alamo on her blog but discalimer, her pictures make it look way cooler than it actually is. So don't all go buying plane tickets at once. http://livinthelifeofalinemanswife.blogspot.com/2013/02/alamo-nv.html
    It's been a little hard getting time to write because as soon as we got here Waylon got sick.  You would think with my family being isolated on the road that we would be imune to all those germs out there, but it seems like the stomach flu has hit us again.

      They have Ian working 12 hour days and there's rumor that they will soon be working 14 hours a day.  He couldn't be happier to be back at work. He comes home with a goofy grin on his face every day. I am still busy unpacking, homeschooling and taking care of sick kids. But I can tell you this,  I am so happy that we have our new trailer.  This would be an extremely difficult town to be in, if we didn't have more room in our trailer . Ian describes this part of the desert as "the Hills have eyes" kindve desert.  It's very desolate and already pretty warm. So I think we will be spending most of our summer inside. I'll tell you more as it unfolds and as soon as I get back on my feet. ~Love Kristina

Keeping Busy

      Two months is an eternity to be out if work! I'm use to coming up with things to keep the kids busy and  look forward to but my new job is to come up with family activities to keep us all busy. I'm sure it's going to be an adjustment when Ian does get "the call." Who will help with the  laundry and dishes . Ian has taken on the task of organizing.... everything. Something I will never be able to keep up on. It's true what they say, "many hands makes the work load light " and due to this we've had extra time on our hands. Our first adventure started with the best of intentions of my husband. I have been complaining about my jogging stroller tires being flat since October. I tried repairing it myself and lately I've decided just to upgrade and find something on Craigslist . After going to several bike shops though, finally someone offered some help on upgrading the tubes and Ian got to work on it. I was so happy to get my stroller back and wanted to show my appreciation. It has been in the low 40s and they kept saying it would snow but it wasn't coming. So I bundled Waylon up in 2 shirts and a snow suit. ( let me reiterate , the skies were clear and had been for days) We started out on our run and he had a warm bottle , a pacifier and a blanket, just for comfort . Everything was great for the first 25 minutes, but then the wind picked up. Waylon started crying and the blanket kept falling off. I was so close to home, I couldn't see calling Ian. I figured I could run home in the time that he loaded the boys into the car and found me. So needless to say, I started running (faster) , the temperature dropped a bit and my fingers were freezing so I can only imagine poor little Waylon's. We lost the bottle and the pacifier. I think it was the fastest mile I've run yet . We got back to the park and I couldn't unbuckle my screaming child because my frozen fingers wouldn't work. So I pounded on the trailer door. Ian pretty much laughed at me and told me I was insane. He said Waylon wasn't cold to the touch , he was probably just scared. I promptly shut myself in the bathroom and cried, until I realized that Waylon wanted me! What a gift that children trust their parents. A gift sometimes I feel I don't deserve . So we bundled him up in a blanket and gave him a warm bottle because I was convinced he was freezing. He went right to sleep. At that moment, Ian opened the front door and we saw quite a snow storm hit. In only a few minutes the jogging stroller was covered in several inches of snow. We have had the nicest weather but it can change very suddenly. As this story shows. It felt like a huge momma fail.
    On Monday we celebrated Houston's 7th birthday. Yes, all of our birthdays seem to be around the same part of the year, we're almost done with birthday season over here, just have to celebrate mine at the end of the month and then we'll be good til November. We wanted to make his birthday special but being on a budget we were kinda winging it. We decided to get him a new bicycle because the one he had was way too small and it's a great activity to do when you live on the road. It could hardly have been a surprise to him, because we took him to bike shops all weekend long having him try this one and that one. So Sunday night, I decorated the trailer with party decorations and he woke up to his favorite breakfast, buttered croissants on angry bird plates and his new bike! We finished our school work and then decided to go to an indoor rock climbing gym. Houston is a spider monkey. He was up and down the walls like a pro. Were looking at a future lineman in that boy.Wrex went up a few times just to prove he could, but he wasn't that into it. This gym was no joke, they gave Ian and I a tutorial on tying the knots and all of the proper procedures (I didn't climb but I learned all the stuff so I could be at the bottom with the ropes. (Sorry I don't know all the terms, I was just happy to be there and learn a figure eight knot.) Houston went up so many difficult wall climbs that I'm pretty sure he pushed Ian to do more than he would've done. You can see a friendly father son competition budding between the now seven year and his dad. After that we grabbed some In N Out (birthday boys choice) and we went home to play some new board games. We had a great, corny, old fashioned birthday dinner . We ate homemade fried chicken, again not my choice to make in a trailer, but it was the birthday boys request. We ate chocolate cake and played cards. All in all it was a really fun day .
        We were lucky enough this week to have a friend watch our kids for us so we could have a date night . We went to see "Silver Linings Playbook " which I enjoyed but the movie theater was something I had never experienced . First of all the movies were way cheaper than back home but once you're inside they have restaurants ( that's right several) and you could take a meal into your movie. How cool is that ? We had fun and got some great grub at Cafe Rio. Which is outside of the theaters.  I wasn't ready for that whole eating in the theater experience. Next time we'll have to get there a little earlier.  A big thanks to my friend Jen for making that happen. .
     We also found a neat little skate park near us. Perks of being home schooled is that it was pretty much empty and we are now declaring that our official spot for PE. I think it was just as good to get my husband out and moving as it was for the little boys
     So you see, we've been keeping busy. Ian gets really antsy if we don't keep our day filled. Poor guy is bored out if his mind. Hopefully I'll be posting that we're back to work soon, but until then, here are some pictures from our week.

Keeping my man busy at the skate park...yeah he's still got it

Clue, is one of my favorite board games! LOVE!

Sometimes I impress myself, with what we accomplish in this ity bity kitchen.

Just a warm up free climb

Dad is whipping these kids into shape, they are doing dishes nightly. ( I didn't say they were happy about it)

Look how big that snow bank is compared to him!