Kissing the ground (not really) and praying for day 2

Our departure day brought a bittersweet goodbye as we bid a fond farewell to good friends that we thought we might not have the chance to see before we left. We hugged through tears as my family climbed through our personal possessions to find our seats in our vehicles. I feel very blessed that we were able to say goodbye to them and hope that life provides us the opportunity in the future to see them again.

So on to day one of our driving....we did not get out as early as we'd hoped, the installation saw to it to make clearing the biggest issue it could. Housing was no big deal, that took about 5 minutes.....I guess they just wanted the money for the cleaning crew we were paying for....but me being the obsessive person I am, I had to clean it ahead of them.......go figure! But the last few things my husband had to clear, took way too long......Anyway, once on the road we were able to drive about 5 hours of our trip.....that 5 hours included me freaking out as I yelled at one of my daughters 'that checking her blind spots as she changed lanes WAS NOT AN OPTION'.....then at the other one 'that YOU DO NOT STOP OR SLOW DOWN ON THE HIGHWAY WHEN YOU CHANGE LANES, YOU WILL GET US KILLED'.......one almost took out a van, the other decided to get into a challenge with an 18 wheeler over who would win out on the merging of the lanes......and decided to go 85 miles an hour to do so.......that ended with a 20 minute disertation from her mother on why we don't take on tired truckers on the highway.........then I got to listen to her go off every time a driver refused to use their blinkers when they changed lanes only for her to use her windshield wipers a few times instead of her own.......and so when we finally stopped for the night I wanted to kiss the ground but it did not look so appetizing.......the only one in the car not making trouble was the dog. She was happy in her little collapsible carrier all snug on the car seat........

When my husband and I decided to stop for the night the girls were a bit PO'd, they wanted to keep driving the other 5 hours to the inlaws......we were like, um......what gave you the idea that we would drive all the way through.......they say we did, and we both laughed in unison and told them "Oh, we lied, we were never driving all the way through after three days of movers, two days of cutting grass and cleaning a house." They were not happy at first, but now that have had a good nights sleep and are refreshed..............they now know that they get another chance to drive and drive me crazy in the car with their driving, so all is well with La Familia esta Loco! No wonder my husband and Dennis are riding in the truck and only call on the phone when absolutely necessary......they know the hell I'm in.

The only saving grace is that I will have a small reprieve from my crazy driving daughters who only see one problem with driving and that is when I mention that maybe I should take over the wheel for awhile........so barring any huge fiasco that might happen while we are there, like them going out with their 15 cousins and getting into trouble with the local law (which are problably related to us anyway) or my shih tsu getting knocked up but one of the many strays that run the old Kentucky homestead, we should make it out of the state without anyone ending up in the ER.............. but everytime we go home to see the family I have this overwhelming fear that someone will lose a limb or a barn will get burned down or when the phone rings it will be the other shoe dropping and it will involve my children.......I guess that is what happens when your children and all their cousins reach the ages mine are.....it was so much easier when they were all little and cute and listened to their parents......now, not so easy..........so with all that being said, lets all say a little prayer that my children remain safe, my dog unpregnant and that I don't lose my mind! :D

~ASW