The Joneses Family Vacation

If you've ever seen the movie The Johnson's Family Vacation, multiply it by 10 and you'll get an idea how our annual pilgrimage to Mississippi went. The blessing is that I predicted I would want to throw one of the children from the moving vehicle or physically harm George, but I made a decision to stay calm and take in whatever was thrown at me. I would prefer to fly to Mississippi, however George and Dorian enjoy the road trip, and it gives us an opportunity to stop and visit my mother in Phoenix along the way. While I recognize how blessed I am to have a husband that is frugal and saves more than half of our monthly income (our goal is to retire early and focus only on what we have a passion for), his frugality sometimes gets in the way of having fun. First let me start by saying only one of the girls wanted to travel with us, so we saved on additional hotel expenses, by staying with family, but that wasn't the only savings George found.
Sure you read this, and it makes for a funny blog entry, but when you're driving cross country, what is the typically the goal? You guessed it, get to where you are going without having to stop 5 million times for restroom breaks. George had a different goal in mind, he set out to find the cheapest gas in town along the way. Mind you we drove in his Honda Civic (a car he recently purchased to save on gas), so we already knew gas would be less expensive than my Land Rover we drove there last year. This would not have been such a headache, if he had utilized the internet from his smart phone in order to research this prior to the trip, or even while we made our stops. To save money on his cell phone bill, he has a phone that is a pocket PC, but isn't connected because he won't pay for the services to utilize all the functions of the phone. He also has had the phone for several years now, and it no longer holds a charge to even be functional. He doesn't even utilize my smart phone (which is on it's own plan, as we have different opinions regarding a monthly cell phone budget), instead he puts $5 - $10 in fuel in the car to see if the next gas station we encounter has cheaper gas. We did this the entire car trip home, which cost us over 6 hours in time. At some point I did pay him back. He doesn't have a CD player in his car, so we had to rely on local radio stations or conversation to keep us entertained. While driving through Texas, you can find any genre of country music (yeah, there is a difference) and I found a classic country station that played everything from the theme to Ponderosa to Show Tunes. I had two cups of coffee and a Red Bull in order to stay awake to make it to the cheapest motel with the best free breakfast and I sang everything that came on the radio loud and off key. While it kept me awake and entertained, it also kept George awake when he was trying to nap. These are adventures the kids will look back on and want to duplicate when they have families of their own, as for me, I'm just glad to be home and out of that tiny car.

Home for More Than the Holidays

It's been a full year since George has been home regularly. This time last year, he accepted orders that kept him away from home, and reduced him to a weekend visitor with his family. As we plan to have more children next month via IVF, I'm thrilled that he will actually be home to assist with the four children as I embark on what may become a huge hormonal journey. While I'm excited to have him home, I know that we will have to get used to bumping past each other in the hallway, reaching over one another while looking for snacks in the fridge, and finding our space again while hogging all the covers at night. We work well together, but my inability to give George my undivided attention during the day with little ones still at home, may throw him for a loop, or drive me batty. Over the course of the past two years, I've spent most weeks without my husband. I've had to rely on friends for childcare during evening classes, schedule doctor's appointments during children's school hours, and waited until weekends before attempting such tasks as salon visits. I've placed my businesses on hold, as well as schooling until further notice. Once I become accustomed to a daily schedule with four children, I will be able to pick all the balls up again and start juggling.
As we plan for our annual cross country drive to the south to visit family for the holidays, I look forward to having less kids and a whole week with George. This may be our last drive without additional kids. Next year if the girls are still with us, we will take them on vacation with us. One of the girls, Olivia, has stated she wants to join us regardless. The oldest and youngest girl would like to spend the week with their mother. Though I feel a bit uneasy about being so far away and leaving them behind, I've prayed and am satisfied knowing they will be fine. They may not enjoy their time alone with their mother, however they will certainly have a greater appreciation for their new home. There are lots of tasks to get acomplished before the year is out, and having George home for this period of time (however short it may be) is just what the doctor ordered. Stay tuned for my next entry to find out if having George home is as exciting as it seems.