1300 miles, homeless & jobless :-)

I write this blog out of our Jeep we've been living out of for 5 days. Piled with clothes, dogs, and other things. So far our trip has been a very nice one. We set off on our homeless adventure on Thursday after the movers left. Our trip has been an adventure ever since.

On Thursday around 7:00pm we received a call from Jason's mom. She was diagnosed with pneumonia that was contagious and just wanted to let us know. We had planned on staying with them for the weekend. Since I'm already sick I didn't think it would be a good idea to stay with them. Jason will be gone and I'll be staying by myself in PA. I didn't want to risk getting sick and being all alone so I told Jason I would rather find someplace else to stay. Since we were right outside of Nashville we knew we only had a few miles to decide whether to continue to Ohio or go the shortest way to PA. I called my mom, who complained about the furkids and didn't really want us to stay. I basically told her to decide and not beat around the bush. In the meantime I logged online and called tons of hotels in the area looking for a place that would keep 5 dogs. No luck. So, I called my WONDERFUL friend Marla. Marla is like family to us. She owns a boarding kennel and has tons of barns. I called her and was like "Marla, can we live in your barn for the weekend". She wasn't home so I left a message on her cell and on her home phone. Just when I thought all hope was lost mom called back and said we could stay with her. I was so thankful. Honestly, I was so stressed at that time I forgot to thank her. So, a few minutes later I made the call to thank her so much for letting us stay. So, the adventure continued. By this time it was going on midnight and we still hadn't made it close to Cincinnati. Jason had been up since 5 that morning and was exhausted so we pulled over and I started to drive. Once we made it outside of Louisville on 71 the traffic came to a dead stop. I had just passed an exit ramp so I felt stuck. I guess the traffic had been sitting for a while because people were outside of their vehicles walking around. I think one guy was even using the restroom. Anyway, we didn't bring the Atlas because we had made this drive several times in the past. I could see the exit ramp I passed was 9B and had a general idea how far out of Louisville I was. So, we logged onto Yahoo maps trying to pull up 9B. No luck. I called my Jack and had him pull out a map. He gave us an idea where exit 9B was and where it would take us. So, once again we pulled up Yahoo maps. We thought about just staying parked and sleeping while the cleaned up the accident but I knew we only had 2 hours left to drive and just wanted to get it over with. Jeep to the rescue, I pulled off on the shoulder and up over the hill to the ramp. It was so much fun I have to add too. Jason stayed logged on and we continued making our way through the backcountry of KY. God Bless wireless internet service. It has came to our rescue several times.

We arrived at moms house around 3:00am. By then Jason was going on 24 hours of being awake. We unloaded the fully packed car and put the kids to bed and then went to sleep ourselves. The kids woke us up at 9:00 and around that time we received a call from Marla. She was so sad she had missed our call and wondered if we still needed to stay in the barn. We told her that mom had let us stay with her and then she offered to keep the dogs for the night. She wanted to give us some relaxing time without them and also visit. Our kids LOVE aunt Marla too. So, we loaded up the kids again and took off for Aunt Marla's house. Once we arrived in Trenton and headed that way the dogs started barking and getting excited. They KNOW where she lives and how to get their. We used to go to Marlas with them almost every night when we lived in Ohio.

That afternoon we met up with Mom and Jack at Skyline. My sis had been with us for the morning and we planned on going to some stores to look around. Around 6:00 we headed home to mom's house. That night we went to sleep really early. We were so tired.

On Saturday Jason went to visit his family and I stayed at the house and Stacy and I slept for most of the morning. Both of us were so exhausted. That evening we went over to Tina's house for the family Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I have a huge family. Everyone was so shocked to see us their.

Come Sunday it was time to leave again. We loaded up the car and headed for PA. The drive ended up taking us 9 hours. We drove through Pittsburgh, a city I had never driven through before. We almost got lost but ended up getting on the right track :-) We met Dan the Realtor Man at our house around 3:30. We did the walk through. I'm getting so excited about moving in. Then we took the kids to the hotel for the night. Jason and I went to Lowe's for a bit to look around. Then we went to Quaker Steak and Lube. They had really good wings and loaded spicy fries. We went to sleep really early.

Now, we're back in the car again this morning. We're about to close on our house. I'm not sure if many of you know but our closing money is being held by our bank in MS. So, we're praying that it will clear today so we'll be able to move right in. If not, it's another homeless day for us again. I'm so ready to get out of this car and settle in. Not to mention I haven't been able to sleep for a week because I'm SO EXCITED!

Ahh, till this evening or sometime tomorrow.........