THURSDAY APRIL 26TH
7:58am Me and the three kids load up in the van, and the kids wave goodbye to daddy and our home. I get a little bit teary. Jonathan stays at the house to wait for the movers to arrive at 8:00.
8:18 Jonathan calls; the movers have called and will be an hour late.
8:30 Ryan asks for the first of many times, "Are we in Lubbock yet?"
8:45 We've been in the car for 47 minutes of a 6 hour journey. Ryan sighs and protests, "Geesh! Are we even still in Texas?"
9:15 Highway construcion on I-20. Down to one lane. Stuck behind school bus.
9:30 Lauryn falls asleep. I start a movie on the portable DVD player for the boys. All is well and quiet.
11:00 We hit Abilene, TX. I tell Ryan we can stop at McDonalds. We never see the Golden Arches. We finally see a Dairy Queen, but I pass up stopping. In my experience, DQ's bathrooms are less than sanitary. Way less.
11:05 I realize I have passed through all of Abilene without stopping for lunch. I have no idea what's ahead and I start to worry about where and when we'll eat.
11:20 We are in Merkel, TX and I see another Dairy Queen and decide to stop. Earlier concerns about bathroom confirmed. I'm sure the entire restaurant heard me yelling "Hands in the air! Don't touch anything!"
12:20 I tell they boys, "We need to hit the road." Dylan replies, "Yeah mom, we need to hit the road if we're going to get to the airport." I guess since we flew to Lubbock last time, he thought that we were headed to a really far away airport.
12:30 I notice the trees are getting short.
12:40 These can really no longer be trees. They are shrubs.
12:45 There are no longer even any shrubs.
1:00 We hit a long stretch of road with no exits, and no place to take a potty break.
1:15 I need a potty break.
1:20 I am seriously doubting my judgment; why is world would I drink a large iced tea at Dairy Queen?
1:25 I am cursing the iced tea.
1:30 Feeling really desperate now. I am scouting out trees, but as mentioned before they are few and far between.
1:40 We finally hit a town with a McDonalds. I rush all three kids into the one stall bathroom. I yell at Ryan as he starts to pull down his pants that Mommy gets to go first and he'll just have to hold it.
2:30 I arrive at the apartment we have rented "sight unseen" based on pictures we see online.
2:35 I get the key to the apartment and walk thru the complex to find our unit. The smell of marijuana is heavy in the air.
2:36 I rationalize, "Well, it's okay. It's going to be fine. I know a lot of pot smokers who are perfectly wonderful, harmless people."
2:40 I unlock our unit. The apartment is....really, really bad. I won't write about it, for fear it would remain too long in my nightmares. NO STINKIN' WAY this is the same complex I saw pictures of online.
3:00 The associate pastor's wife arrives and delcares, "Oh no. You are NOT living here."
3:30 Real estate agents all over the city of Lubbock have been contacted, trying to find us a new place to live. The apartment has been threatened with legal action if they do not let us out of our lease. They have indeed completely misrepresented themselves online, and apparently they know it, because they eventually let us out of our lease with a full refund.
5:00 The associate pastor's wife and I take a break from calling Realtors and go eat dinner with her husband and all our kiddos. I had a Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. It was wonderful. It's a good thing it was wonderful, because if something would have been wrong with it I would have probably completely freaked out.
5:45 We start getting calls back from Realtors. We schedule some rent houses to look at after dinner.
6:00 Jonathan arrives in Lubbock. He's a bit stressed because I've been calling him telling him about the ghetto-ville apartments we've rented, but he can't really do anything because he's on the road. We leave the restaurant to meet him at a rental property.
7:00 After looking at two places, we find the perfect rent house for us. 3 bedroom..2 bath...2 car garage...big backyard with privacy fence...brand new carpet...fresh paint...and vacant and ready to be moved in tomorrow morning after our application is approved. I begin to think that God knew this would happen all along.
8:00 Jonathan goes to the property management company with the super nice, super great Realtor who was willing to work late and begin our application process. The church gets us a room at a suite hotel and me and the kids head on over.
8:15 Our application is approved. We can move in tomorrow.
9:00 Jonathan finally eats dinner.
9:30 Jonathan arrives at the hotel, and we talk about how no one but God could have worked this out for us in such a perfect way in such a short time. We talk some more about how good He is, and how we know He has called us here.
I'm Starr Cliff. A domestically-challenged mom, climbing over mountains of laundry to bring you my stray observations and amusing stories about my kids. (more)
I also blog at:
- Trinity Kidsplace
- Cash Clan Japan
- detailgal
- Jonathan Cliff
- Sipping Chardonnay
- Teach and Tickle
- if the shoe fits?
Design by: soapbox.SUPERSTAR