So we are finally back to the closest thing we can call home, American Fork, Utah. We are staying with my parents while trying to search for a place of our own. For the past 2 years we have lived where we have been told to live and have made it work. It didn't matter if it was a tiny hotel room in ghetto Kansas or a large apartment in Long Island. I never got to choose the layout, room size or even furniture for that matter. We adapted to our surroundings and stayed positive 99% of the time. Now searching for a place I am trying to decide how picky should I be? I've used less of a kitchen, or fit things in a smaller room. How much storage space do I really need? Although a large yard for the kids to play in and a open friendly family room are key to my family. Hopefully soon we will be posting a place we plan to stay in for years, not weeks or months. Living our of our car was fun, but having a place to stay and play is better.

This is me ranting just a bit so don't take it to personal if you have a pet...
In the past 15 months we have lived in 4 apartments, 3 extended stays, 3 hotels, a house and with 2 different family members. Some places have been nicer than others. Some in nice area's others not so much. Living in many different scenario's I have seen how many people choose to live.
One thing I have noticed that just astounds me is how some people with pets choose to live. As many places that I have lived and parks I have gone to I am always amazed at how many refuse to clean up after their pets as well. Particularly dogs.
I have come to the conclusion that if you can't clean up after your pet's don't have one! Last year when we moved to Long Island we had to move into one of the sales reps old place's after they left. They chose to get a pet while living there and obviously chose not to clean up after it either. We walked in and the smell hit us like a brick wall. Nasty! We had to have someone come clean it cause it smelled like pet leftovers.
Now we just recently moved in after another sales rep in Kentucky and sure enough same nasty smell when we walked in! We have had to stay in an extended stay till it gets cleaned up. Supposedly this person bought a dog and didn't do well training it. Now that it has been cleaned out it still smells of dog and a dogs business. The gentlemen that delivered furniture today asked me, "Does it smell like dog in here or is it just me?" I wish it was just you buddy.
I think as a non pet owner I also tend to notice it that much more. I can't really air it out cause it is so hot and humid outside. I would love suggestions.

How do I feed my kids while we have been living in hotels is usually one of the first questions I get. Here are a few things I have done:


BREAKFAST

Breakfast is pretty easy. We usually just have the hotel's breakfast. The key here is take extra's back to your room. Sometimes we would eat in the lobby then make a plate for later. Others I would go down while kids were sleeping, then bring up food for them. Even after doing that I would bring them down after they woke up for breakfast. Why? The extra food taken to our room was usually used for a snack or even lunch.
LUNCH
This is when I would eat leftover breakfast foods. We would use the bread meant for toast, with the peanut butter and jelly packets make great sandwhich's. Or sometimes I would pour cereal in a bowl and milk in a cup for a snack or lunch later. Yogurts and fruit were easy to store in our mini fridge. Oatmeal and hot chocolate packets easily cooked in a micorwave or with the coffee pot. Bagels and extra cream cheese packets were one of Kadan's favorites. I also used the coffee pot for cup of noodles. Then we would go out for kid's meals once or twice a week.

DINNER
Dinner was a little trickier. Especially when trying to avoid pizza, fast food and spending lots of money. I used my plug in griddle a lot. With the griddle I would have lots of grilled cheese's sandwhich's usually with stolen left over continental breakfast bread too! Quesidilla's were really easy as well as grilled tuna sandwhichs. Sometimes I would grill the roast beef with some cheese and brown some cut french bread for a hot sandwhch option. If you buy those add water and easy pour pancake mix containers and can steal small syrup packets as well this was another cheap yummy dinner most kids love. Sometimes I would eat heated up chilli and micorwaved potatoes and a salad. Those meals and a dinner out to eat 1-2 times a week we were pretty much set.
Just make sure to have paper products, plastic utinsils, paper towels, baggies, a spatualla, can opener 1 or 2 tupperware conatiners for mixing or storing, and no spill cups are great.

So after being snowed in a week we had 2 days we could get out and get things done. We knew another storm was coming on Wednesday, so we went to the store, my Dr's appointment, and things liked that. Come Tuesday night I felt a strange severe pain, unlike anyother while being pregnant. After no baby movement for a few hours I called the hospital, sure enough I had to go in. So here we are packing up the kids at 3 in the morning knowing full well the storm was just starting. The 30 minute drive took close to an hour. Of course the baby started moving just as we were pulling into the parking lot which already had easily 5-6 inches of snow on it. After an hour of tests everything was fine and we were ready to go home and go to sleep.
One problem. It is was so bad outside there was no way we are making it home. Luckily Steven's sister only lives 10 minutes away, so we headed that way. We had several close calls in our little car but finally made it to their road. Only we got stuck within yards of their driveway. After digging our way out to only inch forward we call his sister who comes to our rescue. We had to park our car down the road and stay with them 2 days. It was fun having company while being snowed in this time. So Steven made his way to dig out our car getting home by Friday evening.
I am looking forward to 2 weeks of nothing but sun!

While being snowed in we may not of had milk, bread or cheese we had plenty of food. Although my kids live off those things. The lack of cereal, pb&j's, quesidilla's, grilled cheese, and chocoalte milk was the end of the world!
I have been raised my whole life with the concept of food storage. Since we have been moving so much I have had to untrain my brain to buy extra.Usually if a recipe called for corn i would buy several cans of corn, not I have to only buy what I have planned for the week.
kadan was dieing with no bread. PB&J's are his favorite staple. So I decided to make bread. Although I didn't have a bread pan, I thought why buy one when we would just move in about 6 months? So I did what any other young mom would do, call her mother for suggestions. The end result was bread from a can. Thanks to her idea and my ingenuity we actually got to have PB&J's for dinner. What a treat my kids thought that was compared to oatmeal, stir-fry, tacos, bean burritos, soups and egg everything (we did have 2 dozen eggs.) They were in bread heaven. My husband and I also thought taste of warm fresh bread was refreshing as ever.
Then after 6 days of no milk (this was devastating for our 2 yr old) Steven finally decided to backpack the 1.5 mile trip to the store. Luckily he ended up getting a ride from a nice neighbor. Now I am also doing what I hated that my mother did; 1/2 dry milk mixed with 1/2 real milk. The kids haven't noticed the difference, and its stretching our only 2 gallons of milk. This is also cause the store had no milk so he ended up buying the last of it from the gas station.
After all this I have much thanks to give. Thanks Mom for many lessons on food storage. I am thankful for still having running water and electricity. Thanks Santa for the wii this Christmas. Thanks strange neighbor for the ride to the store. Plus many lessons learned and patience tested.

This is out our Kitchen window.

            

This picture is sideways and out our front door.

This is out our back door.

After visiting Utah for 2 weeks we made the trip back to our Oklahoma home. We arrived at 1 am Tuesday morning just as the snow started to fall. We thought about stopping at the stroe to get a few things for breakfast, but we were so tired and the roads were VERY icy. We could not beilive our eyes to what we woke to. I've been in snow storms before but not like this. With wind at 25 mph we had 4 ft drifts all around. The pictures were taken in the morning and it only got worse through the day.
Being that we were gone for 2 weeks we had no milk, bread, produce or cheese. 4 days later we still have plenty of food but are running low on patience. The kids have had good and bad moments (as well as Mom and Dad). We are grateful for electricity and running water though! Maybe we should have just stayed in Utah another week!

Yesenia and her doll toys.

My Grandpa and his wife Betty sent the kids a singing dog. They love it. My daughter just wants to sing and dance to it. We'll see if mom makes it to Christmas before it gets hidden?!

After our side trip we went to North Carolina for 2 weeks. It rained most of the time and we were ready to go home, only we had forgotten where that was exactly. Steven accepted a job with his sister in Oklahoma. So we went back to our old home, Utah, for a few weeks. We switched out our summer clothes for winter clothes. By now we are professionals at packing up our car. We can get quite a bit to fit into small places. We also fixed the car up a bit and prepped ourselves for one last road trip, well for at least 6 months.
Everyone told us the route we were taking from American Fork, UT to Denver was the long way so we decided to try their way. It added 2 hours to our trip. Instead of an 18 hour car ride we decided to make it 20 hours.
Although it took longer than we would have liked we finally ended up in one place and we're ready to settle a bit. Now the adventure of staying in one place for a while begins. While we make Oklahoma a home, we will see who wins Stevens business for next summer and where we will go...

Now that I finally got to go to place I have wanted to visit since my best friend growing up went, I too can be a New York Superstar. We had so much fun going to Little Italy, Chinatown, Staten Island, the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, Ground Zero, Times Square and so much more.
We even took the kids to see The Lion King, which was amazing. I really wanted to see Kristen Chenoweth in Promises, Promises but oh well. Another time another day.

We  moved to Long Island for about 6 weeks. It was crazy, busy and fun. There was lots to see and do.
Taking the kids to the beach was probably our favorite part. I just had finished reading the Percy Jackson series so it was fun to go to Montauk beach, like in the books. Montauk is past the Hamptons and at the tip of Long Island. The kids loved just throwing sand into the water. It was our daughter, Yesenia's, first time at the beach. We are big beach lovers so this was a highlight for us.

Here are a few thing I will miss in Louisville:

1. People's accents and how they say Louisville. We have heard it pronounced a dozen different ways. We have heard slight southern accents to the thickest of thickest. Surprisingly I will miss being called ma'am, and hon. It is very normal for everyone to call everyone these terms. I use to think being called ma'am made me feel old, but when you live down here it very normal and common.

2. The Brown Hotel's 4 star food. It is not a place we could afford to go to often if we lived here, but when you do go, it's amazing!

3. How green and beautiful it is!

4. The neat birds that come eat Kadan's bird seeds he has left out for them.

5. The mass choices of restaurants. You have such a large variety of yummy choices all within a close driving range. My tummy loves it too!
We have enjoyed our time here and the people. I don't know if we will get a chance to ever come back, but we loved our stay here. I never learned to make a mean collard greens, but I didn't leave empty handed either.

So a few of our favorite sales reps were stranded for a week. The company paid for their extended stay for a week but because they checked in late they lost the reservation and the money. Understandably the company said you're on your own for a week. We are too nice to let these poor guys find a place on their own, so we offered ours. Kadans room still has 2 twins, and we still have that aero bed, why not? So we split our king apart with Kadan on one twin, and Steven and I on the other. We just set up Yesenia's bed in our room, which gave us limited walking room, but it was worth it. The kids were happy to have people to entertain and I actually had people to cook for, it really wasn't to bad.

We heard a few weeks ago that we would most likely be going to New Orleans for the post season. I was thrilled. I posted it on my facebook, texted my family, called my mom, practically yelled it from the rooftop like in those funny Japanese shows that you can't understand. My sister went there along time ago and had a grande time. Ever since then I have wanted to experience the culture. My husband use to live near there as a child and has small memories. The idea of working two more months was looking that much brighter.
That is until we got the call that New Orleans was out and Long Island was in! Which is just as exciting, only it's just as exciting in the opposite direction of home. I will save the email my sister sent of all the funs things to do for another time. Delete the New Orleans sites links from my favorites, and tuck away my notebook of must sees for another day.
The kids are excited with idea of living on an island, I can't wait to go see a show and be a New York Superstar. New York has also always been a dream to visit for me. So in two more weeks off we go to follow the yellow brick road.