Cracked Rear View

Attention anyone who has my phone number and calls or texts me ever:

My phone is dead. Technically, my screen is dead. I can still receive calls, I just won't have any idea who's calling. I can neither send nor receive texts. We just discovered that I can make calls, but since I don't have access to my phone book, I can only call numbers I know by heart.

Which means I can call Bryan, my parents' home, and 911.

And that is all.

So if you need to contact me, please email me or call Bryan. We're working on a solution as I type, but I'm not sure how long it will take.

And to whoever has sent me texts tonight, will you call or email? Because I have no idea what you sent. Or who sent it.

Zoom In

There's nothing like an after-lunch, under-the-desk fort to get you in the reading mood.

Ever Wonder How Three Car Seats Fit Into a Toyota Camry?

Wonder no more my friends...

Calling Plan

One novelty in our hotel room is a phone. This is the first time Cooper and Phoebe have had a house phone and the first time any of them have had a corded phone. In fact, the phone was such a popular item when we first arrived that I had to unplug it and stick it in the top of a cupboard.

We were doing something on Saturday and I needed to call down to the front desk. Phoebe was asleep in the bedroom, so I couldn't use that phone. I considered (briefly) leaving the kids in the room and running downstairs and taking care of the matter, but quickly decided against that. Finally I gave in and pulled the phone out of the cupboard and plugged it in to the jack in the living room.

Amazingly, the boys left it alone, so I decided not to return it to its cupboard prison.

I forgot about the phone until after Phoebe was up from her nap. I was doing something in the bedroom and I walked out into the living room to see Phoebe on the phone.

Me: Phoebe, hang up the phone please.

Phoebe: (after hanging up) I called somebody.

Me: You did? Who did you call?

Phoebe: (nonchalantly) Somebody.

Run Away

One of the ways we've been filling our days is by going to the YMCA. The boys are taking swimming lessons and pre-karate lessons and I am taking advantage of the on-site childcare. We've been every morning for the last week. I sign the kids in, then I scurry over to a gigantic room that houses treadmills and weight machines and exercise bikes. Then I do my best to walk off all the stress of wrangling small children.

I started out mostly walking. I would run for a minute here and there, but then I would return to walking and let my heart calm down. Over the last several days I've been increasing the running. Yesterday, during the course of my forty-two minute workout, I ran for a combined total of ten minutes.

Today I did something I've never done. As in, I have no memories of ever doing this in my lifetime. Are you ready?

I ran for six minutes in a row.

That might not seem like a big deal, but for this asthmatic, it's huge. And the only reason I stopped was because my shoe came untied. I have no idea if I'll be able to replicate this accomplishment, but I was shocked and pleased.

And now I'm so sore I can barely move.

But it's worth it.

A Little Bit Louder Now

One of the tricky aspects of living in a hotel is volume control. Now, you may not know this about us, but we're kind of loud. And by kind of, I mean ridiculously. We all can project and we all like being heard. This is great when we're at the park (I can usually locate my children purely by sound), but not so great when anyone standing outside our door (or down the hall, or near the elevator) can hear what is going on in our house.

Peter seems to have picked up on this fact, probably because Bryan and I spend a great deal of time telling everyone to be quiet. In fact, Peter illustrated this problem for us.

Can you tell which room is ours?

Oshkosh

We have been going almost non-stop the last two weeks. I insisted that we stay at home this afternoon so that Phoebe could have a good nap, but I think it was really so I could have a rest. And though taking them to museums and parks and the library all day everyday is exhausting, I've learned I can do it. I'm just as warn out as the kids at the end of the day, but I make it all the way to bedtime.

Last week we went to a park in Oshkosh (yes, I said Oshkosh) that had a small zoo, a castle park, a train, a carousel, and a lake. We had fun.

The Grand Tour

I tried for several days to load a movie to the blog. I have since determined that the slow-speed of the internet will make that impossible. And that is a shame, because I've got some very cute footage.

We are living in a hotel this summer. Thankfully, it's a suite. It is still, however, only 500 square feet. And we are loud, active people. At least three of us are.

Would you like a tour?

The entryway/living room/boys' bedroom:

The kitchen (there is a sink and a full-size dishwasher as well, you just can't see either of them in this picture)/dining room/Lego table:

The office/playroom/ entertainment center (I'm standing in front of the wall-mounted flat-screen TV to take this picture):

The closet/dressing room/laundry hamper/shoe repository/Phoebe's favorite place in the suite in which to play:

I've neglected to include a picture of the bathroom and the bedroom (which sleeps me, Bryan, and Phoebe and is where the boys fall asleep each night and remain until we carry them to the fold-out bed in the living room), but you have a good idea of where we're living.

Speaking of the bedroom, I believe it is past my bedtime.

Goodnight all.

On the Way

We made it to Wisconsin.

Remember how I wrote that we were leaving very soon on Thursday? Well, "very soon" turned into almost two in the afternoon. Our whole journey was shifted and meant that we had to drive until after midnight every night. On Friday night (or rather, Saturday morning) we rolled into our hotel at about 2. I'm still not recovered.

But as I said, we made it. Here are some highlights of the trip.

• We saw some cool wild animals, some alive, some not-so-much. In Utah we saw a huge Moose on the side of the road. Wyoming was full of pronghorn sheep. A coyote wandered down the freeway next to us in Nebraska. We drove by a Bison farm in Iowa. And in Sidney, Nebraska a prairie dog scurried around the McDonald's parking lot. The kids and I were highly amused by that.
• We got to stop and visit my cousin Elise and her family in Iowa. Our kids are similar in age and it was a relief for everyone that they got to run around the backyard and let out their stuck-in-the-car-pent-up energy. And Elise sent us on our way with a bag of treats that included two delicious loaves of homemade bread. We're still eating them. Thank you Elise!
• Iowa wins for the best rest stops. We stopped at one that was dedicated to local writers - it was really cool. And clean.
• We crossed the Mississippi! That might not sound like a big deal, but I was thrilled. As in, I was hooting and giggling as we drove across the bridge. It's a good thing we decided to take both of our cars, because I would have driven Bryan a wee bit crazy. But we crossed the Mississippi! And the radio and TV stations start with a W instead of a K!
• Iowa and Wisconsin are both beautiful. They're clean and green and quite lovely to look at.
• I now know that I have the ability to drive 1500 miles. That blows my mind just a little bit. Bryan enjoys driving more than I do, so he usually drives during our road trips. This is the longest and farthest I've ever driven. I feel like I can do hard things. And that's important because we're living in a 500 square foot hotel suite for twelve weeks, and I can already tell that this is not going to be easy.