Going from sharing a twin (which we don’t mind at all) to sharing a king bed at grandma and grandpa’s house we almost didn’t know what to do with ourselves. The kids behaved as far as I know, I was a little nervous with Eve staying in another room, one filled with all kinds of fun sewing “toys,” but it appears she heeded our warnings that those were not hers to touch. This is a big accomplishment for her. We got up early enough to visit with Grandma before she had to leave for a class, and tried a bit of Grandpa’s garlic health shake that I have previously heard about only in legends. You definitely wouldn’t find this shake as an option at Jamba Juice, but then again it probably is a lot more healthy than any of the Jamba Juice drinks. I only remember a few of the ingredients: garlic, 5-7 cloves, pomegranate, kale, broccoli, tangerine quartered with rind, flax seed, cinnamon, olive oil, and vinegar. Not as bad as it might sound, but I did tell him a bit if cayenne would have been good in it. It may have covered up the vinegar flavor which was the hardest one for me. The kids loved on grandma and grandpa a bit. Somehow grandpa convinced Hannah that she needed to teach him the alphabet it was quite comical.
After grandma headed to work Grandpa took us out for breakfast where he and Hannah continued their lessons.
Hannah would write out each letter and he would ask questions, one time Hannah was saying what each letter said and grandpa took the napkin where she had been writing them down for him and held it to his ear. After a few seconds he shook his head and handed it back to her. I guess he couldn’t hear the sounds coming from the letters that Hannah claimed they made. Breakfast was good and everyone was full, but it was tradition to go to the donut shop by grandma’s work to get donuts every morning when the grandkids visit and grandma had given Caleb a few dollars to buy everyone donuts. The kids each picked out one to go exclaiming that they were full and would like to save it for lunch. Back at the house I inspected the rooms to make sure we hadn’t left anything, all was in order. We gave grandpa our California address and turned the car towards Victorville.
Two hours later we pulled into Victorville. The office at our apartment complex was locked with an open sign in the window. Slightly perplexed we decided to find our apartment and check it out from the outside while we waited. When we returned the door was unlocked. We checked out the unit before signing the lease papers…it may have taken longer than signing all the papers for buying a house and nearly as many initials and signatures. There was a few hiccups like there was no refrigerator…it doesn’t come standard in the apartments. Thank goodness there was one we could rent for $25. For only three months it’s worth that cost. The other is that our lease is for three months and since we were moving in on the second it read three months and 30 days with an ending date of 3/31. That is a big problem since my contract ends 2/28. With a text message to the office manager we got it all squared away. For the three months to have a start date of 12/1 instead of 12/2 so we could have an ending date of 2/28. What a difference a day makes. We had to run to the bank to get a cashiers check for the deposits and first months rent and noticed the bank was quite close to the hospital, so we took the opportunity to drive by the hospital and find where I will need to go when I check in tomorrow.
We parked as close as we could get (which is not close) got the keys from the office and started unloading. It was raining pretty good and our four tubs are heavy. The vacuum bags are heavy too. I could complain about the weight but four trips or so to the car and we were done, and because everything was vacuum sealed or in a rubber maid tub the only thing that needed to be dried was the tubs and nothing was wet or damaged.
Chad was tired so we played a little game of Simon Says with the kids. Simon Says touch your nose, Simon Says put your pillow in your room. We found out two things. One, Hannah is pretty terrible at Simon Says. Two, this was a pretty effective way to get things quickly cleaned up and put away. There was a third thing we learned incase you all try this approach someday. Even if you don’t say “Simon Says” when you say tickle dad’s feet the kids will risk loosing the game to still tickle dad’s feet.
Now everything is put away, we didn’t make it to the store yet, but we can save that for tomorrow. The kids are all asleep and I should be too. Good night and send prayers this way as you think of us tomorrow. There are always a few first day jitters.
Owens Endeavors 