decisions!

i hate making decisions! it will cost us about the same amount to get out to Utah whether we drive straight through or go to Chicago for a couple of days. It'll be a difference of 300 miles, though. If we go to Chicago, we only have to spend one night in a hotel, too. We'll drive from here to Tennessee and spend a night at my grandparents (about a 9 hour drive) then drive from Tennessee to Chicago and spend a couple of days (about 8 hours drive). Then drive to Omaha and spend the night either with someone from Thomas' mission or Thomas' aunt who lives in Omaha (about a 6 hour drive) and then drive to Salt Lake (about 13 hour drive). So, we could either just stop in Omaha for lunch or dinner with family or friends and then drive a few more hours before stopping at a hotel or try to drive a 13 hour day the last day and just get there. I am afraid that if we try to drive straight through, the girls will be a nightmare in the car for 3 straight days of 12 hour driving. But then again, they will probably be a nightmare no matter what. I just realized that I am going to have to stop and feed Ainsley every 3 hours, plus I am going to have to feed her every 3 hours at night. Ryan, we'll let you know as soon as we do if we need you to come help us drive. I don't know how else we would do it. I'll try to get Ainsley drinking bottles at least by then. Maybe that will speed up the feeding stops. We are going to *try* to leave here on June 8th. Pricing truck rentals, that just seems to be the cheapest time. Gas is going to cost us a fortune! I wish it would go down a bit in price. The truck we are looking at renting is diesel, so hopefully that will stay where it is. We're looking at Penske because it is the cheapest and because they break down less than a UHaul. I'm just thinking out loud here.... Anyone have any suggestions for moving cross-country with a toddler and a newborn? I've thought about driving at night because then Hannah won't have her schedule messed up, but we'll still have to stop and feed Ainsley. And then we'll be tired and want to sleep all day and I'll have to stay up with the awake kids... I'm good, but not that good. My kids would wreak havoc on the hotel room and none of the adults would get any sleep!

A friend from church just brought over a HUGE stack of moving boxes from the last time she moved. Thanks Laurie! Now I have no excuses! I cleaned out a couple of cupboards today and got rid of a few dishes that are cracked or broken. My kitchen is teeny tiny so there really isn't much in there that I don't use regularly. I do have a whole bunch of old knives that are so dull they can barely cut butter. I'll get rid of those, too. My goal today is to go through the computer desk and the bookshelf next to it and organize them and shred all the old papers that we don't need any more. I need to file a bunch of old papers, too. So, those will get organized as well.

And all of this is based on thomas getting a job that starts in mid-June. So, we need to find out if he can definitely start working then. If not, we have to re-evaluate everything. We have found a few cute apartments online. We'll have to wait until we get there before we find anything permanent. So, we'll have to find a storage unit, too. The fun never ends!