I love buying GAS!!

So how are prices near you nowadays? When I filled up my van to make the drive to OK a few weeks ago I paid $3.36, and we were the envy of our friends and family touting the lowest gas prices around. A couple of months ago, if I got my van lower than a quarter tank, I couldn't fill it up all the way cuz the maximum transaction of $75 per credit card would hit and I'd drive away shy of a full tank...for SEVENTY FIVE DARNED DOLLARS!

Well, welcome to Oklahoma guys!! Gas here rolled down to $1.99 a gallon late last week. Yup, you read that right...there's a ONE in the front of the price of my gas!! I haven't seen a ONE in the price of my gas since we rolled into Idaho three years ago and it was $1.99 there. Not many economic things to throw a parade over lately, but this is one of them! I actually filled my van up that was on fumes for $43!! That's about HALF the cost of what I was recently AND I actually have a full tank cuz I didn't hit the max transaction amount.

I did a little surfing too, and per MSN Autos, the lowest gas price in the country is $1.19 in Arkansas and the highest is $5.31 in Alaska (see honey, we really don't want to move there!). Average for the country is $2.65!!

Meat prices are still dumb, milk is about $3.50 a gallon, life is still darned expensive...but we are thankful for this little reprieve. Now if I only had a 1000 gallon gas tank in the back yard so I could REALLY take advantage of this little miracle!

I'm BAAAAACK!!!!

Wow, I've missed blogging about so much, but things have been so hectic I haven't been at my computer much. We are settling into our new home in Oklahoma...BUT... :-) there's always a but, right?! First bit of exciting news--we aren't staying here! Last weekend Josh and I bought a home and we'll be making our last and hopefully final move for YEARS in mid November. We weren't exactly planning on it, but the price was awesome and there was a brief miracle drop in the interest rates so the deal we snagged was beyond wonderful--we are so excited to own our own home again! The home we bought is brand new and just a couple of blocks from where we are renting right now, in the same subdivision. The kids will stay in the same school and will still be able to play with the friends they've made so far. So needless to say, the UNpacking was put on hold last week and next weekend we start REpacking for the trek down the street. I am soooo looking forward to Christmas, when I'm hoping I'll feel settled, something none of us have felt since early Fall. Here's a pic of the home we purchased...



I got my second call from Trevor's school that sounded something like this on Friday, "Hello, this is the nurse at Trevor's school. There's been a little accident, Trevor fell and cut his chin and it looks like he'll need stitches, can you come and pick him up?" So off I sped and collected my monkey who seems to love finding this kind of playground trouble (two years ago it was a broken arm at school). Josh was actually in town working at the office so he headed our way too and took Trev to the urgent care so I didn't have to do it alone with all three kids. Trev actually lucked out and didn't need stitches, just a good cleaning and an "expensive bandaid" as Josh put it LOL. The drama never stops *shaking my head*!


The kids are getting excited about Trick or Treating on Friday, but I am a bit disappointed about the holiday. About three days before Ike I had sat down with my patterns and costumes and had begun to hatch some ideas about what to make the kids for their Halloween costumes. I love to sew their costumes! But of course Ike changed those plans and we had to do store bought this year. And can you say EXPENSIVE??!! Emilee is being a princess witch, Trevor is being a Star Wars Storm Trooper and Carter is being a pumpkin. We aren't sure if Carter is going to actually GO as a pumpkin because he HATES his costume, but I was able to distract him for a few minutes yesterday into wearing his costume. I snapped a couple of pics as I wasn't sure we'd ever get it on him again...he is soooo headstrong it just floors us lol. And hopefully there will be cute pics of all three to follow later this week.

Playing at the parks that are within our new subdivision...

And some car traveling pics when we made the drive from TX to OK earlier this month...

Everything is OK in OK

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we made it to Oklahoma and our new home and all is well. Our movers arrived on Monday and delivered our stuff so now we have the crazy task of sorting through our belongings that are VERY mixed up after going through the tossing around of the water mitigation guys and then the packing of the packers...we have NO idea where ANYTHING is lol, but we are getting there. The big ones started their new school yesterday and even though they were reserved in the morning when we dropped them off, they were both all smiles when we picked them up after having a great day. Carter is very happy to have his bed back and have some space to run in that is his very own.

I won't be able to update or share pics for a while yet as I have a very limited internet connection (a wireless card with iffy reception). I am trying to get our home phone/internet/cable hooked up but it's going to be a while. Here's a kicker...are ya ready?... The phone company has a very extended install schedule right now as most of their technicians are down in the Houston, TX area trying to get service back up for the Hurricane Ike victims. Go figure, eh?

SEVEN!

It's a miracle...a fully shocking, absolutely amazing, desperately prayed for MIRACLE!!!

What you ask? SEVEN nights now Carter has slept through the night!!! *doing the happy dance*

Should this really be a miracle at 19 months of age? Nope, we should have had this little party oooohhhhh long over a year ago, but not my child. He has NEVER been a good sleeper...getting up several times per night and often ending up in our bed in my exhausted desperation to try to rest a bit. And even when I bring him into our bed it's a disaster as he's a darned tornado, thrashing everywhere, kicking one of us with his feet while he pushes the other with his hands.

Anyway, seven days ago I decided to try putting a pillow in his bed at naptime. *Disclaimer...the American Academy of Pediatrics does not advocate babies using pillows until the age of two...so take my parenting choice with your own grain of salt.* He seemed to relax more lately when sleeping with us when he'd scoot up to the pillows Josh and I were using and fall asleep on them. So I put him down at naptime and he immediately rolled over with a big smile on his face and fell asleep for a nice two hour nap. At bedtime that night I let him use the pillow again and he slept ALL night, not one single peep! And it's now been like that for a full week. The first couple of days we thought it was some teasing fluke...taunting us with a full night's sleep but expecting the bubble to burst at any moment. And up until this week, Carter has probably slept through the night less than 30 days total of his life and never more than maybe twice in a row. But here we are a week later so I'm feeling pretty optimistic to start a small parenting moment party!