Small crisis and organizational accomplishments :)

Well, I just had a minor crisis and major 'brain-fart' moment. I put Myra in her crib for a nap and decided to quickly run downstairs to put something in the freezer. No sooner had the door closed behind me when I realized that it was still locked and I didn't have my keys. I didn't know if Myra had fallen asleep or was fussing. "Aaaaahhhhh!" I didn't even have any shoes on my feet. Luckily, Tim left his runners outside the door so I put them on and hurried across campus to find someone who could help me :). The front desk had a spare key - phew - and Myra was fast asleep when I walked in her room. Major guilt averted! All is well - can't believe I did that! :)

My days have been consumed with organizing and cleaning our place. I'm kind of weird in that if I had to choose between having a messy living space or messy closets I would choose a messy living place. I love having organized closets! So, monday was 'master bedroom monday' and the rest of this week I have focused on my closets. I'm very proud of my accomplishments so I took some video footage to show you :)

This is what our bedroom looks like:



Our bedroom closet:



The hallway closet:



Today, my focus is the front closet and kitchen. :) We're also going to attend an auction this evening and see if we can get some couches for our living room since all we have at the moment are two lawn chairs :)

Oooh! I just heard Myra :)

Here's a video of her waking up after her first nap - such a cheery disposition :) we are blessed!



As I post this y'all in BC land are probably just waking up and starting your day. Missing you and wishing each of you a peace filled day :)

Success!

This post is to celebrate a few successes big and small :)

Number 1: My sister in law, Ang, is a tri-athelete and she successfully completed the Ironman Triathalon in Penticton this past weekend. (that means 11 hours of swimming, biking, and running!) I could not even make it swimming across the lake and back. I can barely run for 30 seconds! (I know, I'm pathetic) :)

Anyways, Ang, we are sooooo PROUD of YOU! Good job and congratulations! We wished we could have cheered you on from the sidelines but since we couldn't we kept our eyes glued to the live feed on the ironman website. :-)



Number 2: Turns out that when the button on our oven is pointing to "bake" it actually doesn't bake - instead it burns the top of our pizza and leaves the bottom raw. So I was excited when I managed to successfully make a batch of chocolate chip cookies - which I've been craving all week :)

Number 3: Having the right products make all the difference! I bought some "Lime Away" to try on the bathtub and wouldn't you know it - the bottom of our bathtub is actually a nice off white/cream color and not a yucky brown as originally seen.

Random picture of Myra looking cute after her bath :)



Number 4: My kitchen cabinets have been giving me a lot of grief - When I went to casually wipe the cupboards before loading them with our stuff I realized that they were very sticky and caked with a layer of grease/oil. Gross!!! I have used all kinds of cleaners on them already but then I discovered "Oil Soap" and it is amazing! Still takes some diligent scrubbing but when you finish, the cabinets look new and fresh and most important - are NOT sticky :)




Anyways, I'm sure most of you don't really care about my cleaning breakthroughs :) so in other news....Myra is growing and growing and growing! I pulled out all kinds of outfits the last few days - both from my "6-12 month" box and my "12 month" box. This particular jumper is labeled 12-18 months. Crazy! but fun :)

www.myropolis.com :)

After posting every day for 10 days it feels like forever since I've written a post :) sorry. I've been distracted by piles of boxes and paper and laundry and Myra who keeps getting smarter and cuter every day!

For about 3 days now, Tim and I are often drawn to Myra's side by a squeal or yelp - only to find Myra with her face covered in blankets and her legs and arms flailing about. We take the covers off usually to find a very excited and happy smiling face :)
I tried to capture it on video - Myra is much calmer in this version than usual but you'll get the idea. We think she grabs the blanket from the side with the intention of eating it and then finds herself in this predicament. :)



Today for the first time I pulled out a rattle that Auntie Anita had given for Myra before she was even born. Thanks Anita - as you can see - she loves it :).

Home Stretch

We've made it to Indiana!!!! So far on our journey we have crossed 10 state borders including: Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. We are on our last map page - no need to turn any more pages :)
Tomorrow we get to sleep on our own bed - Yippee!!!





Funny story about this sign - the highway becomes a toll highway after Chicago. When Tim and I saw this sign we both almost had heart attacks as we could not believe that they would make us pay sixty dollars to use the highway! We figured they should at least give us a one year pass for that. Fortunately, as I was busy collecting the cash needed to pay this absurd toll, we saw the sign again and realized the fee was only sixty cents :) - phew!



Praying mantis that we saw at the pump at the Shell station in Iowa. Thought it was cool.



That's it for today :)

...oh yeah...funny thought - we will cross another time zone tomorrow so it will take one hour to drive to Chicago and three hours to drvie back :) ...confused?

Home Videos

I'm soooo excited!!! I just figured out how to upload video onto my blog! (thank you Jamie!) Here are my first two videos. :)

The first one is of the windiest road ever which I blogged about previously - It was taken as we were driving highway #1 in California - the groan which you will hear is me reacting to the "g" forces as we turned the corner. Not my finest moment.



This video was taken for you Jon since you requested a video of Myra talking - she was getting tired when I took this one so it's not the best but she said "Hi" :)



Now that I've figured out how to do this I will work on getting some better footage.

Missing you all!
Sweet dreams :)

p.s. I posted two posts today so scroll down to see more pictures of Myra :-)

Myra

Today was fairly uneventful - we drove through Nebraska and are now about 5 minutes into the border of Iowa in a town called Council Bluffs. In the words of Tim... "Well Charlotte, we are definitely in the prairies - there's no doubt about it" :-)

Picture taking today was focused on Myra :-) I'm sorry the shots are so blurry - I was trying to keep Myra's attention and I guess by doing that I forfeited having a steady hand. :(

Continental divides and stormy skies

Leaving Utah....





A continental divide is a line of elevated terrain (e.g. a plateau) which forms a border between two watersheds such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of the continent. Wyoming is part of the Great Divide or continental divide which separates the watersheds of the Pacific Ocean from those of the Atlantic or Arctic Oceans.

(I should say that taking pictures of city signs while traveling at 120 km/hr (the posted speed limit) is very stressful for me and the cause of much laughter in our car - sorry about how blurry they are - you might have noticed that I missed the "Utah" sign.)

"Wyoming Welcomes You" :)





For the majority of the day we drove between rain storms. Whichever side we looked towards we could see sheets of rain falling in the distance. A few times we were even lucky enough to catch glimpses of lightening. Mmmm, the smell of rain! I love it!









"Nebraska ...the good life"



Watching the thunder/lightening storm from our hotel room.





It's been a relaxing evening so far. :)
Something we are grateful for today is technology ...especially internet and web cams! - helps with the homesickness.

ttfn :)

Vastness

What struck me the most today while driving through Nevada was the vastness of the land around us. We were simultaneously surrounded by big mountains and could see for miles across the plain in front and beside us. The scenery wasn't stunning but was beautiful in its own way. It brought to mind the lyrics of the Downhere song "Great Are You"...

How I love your works, My God, My King
How I love your works, My God, My King
Your name rings on the plain
Like a not so distant train....

Because I'll never hold a picture of the whole horizon in my view
Because I'll never split the night in two
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I and Great are You!

- Downhere -









Through the Bonneville Salt Flats...







Sorry - those are all the pictures for today. We need new batteries for the camera and are hoping to find some first thing tomorrow morning.

We're in Salt Lake City, Utah for the night tonight and will cross the Rocky Mountains tomorrow. Our destination is Sidney, Nebraska. One thing I'm very grateful for today is air conditioning :) - outside temperatures for the last two days have been from 30 -38 degrees celcius.

Hope you are enjoying peace-filled sleeps :-)

Changing Landscapes

Before leaving San Francisco this morning, my friend Andrea graced us with her presence for breakfast on Pier 39. We had crepes...mmmmm....I love crepes! Andrea also brought us a bag full of healthy snack treats complete with fresh baked bran muffins, peanut butter-oatmeal-chocolate chip-m & m cookies, fruit, nuts and drinks. Just as I was lamenting to myself about how I wished I hadn't eaten the oat fudge bars Ang made for me so fast :) Thanks again Ang and Andrea for keeping us stocked with yummy snacks! ...and thanks Andrea for driving 40 minutes each way just to see us - we really enjoyed visiting with you :)



We couldn't drive through California and not stop at In-N-Out for a burger!



One thing I have been enjoying so far is observing the changing landscapes of the cities and states we drive through. In Oregon, we mostly saw sandy beaches/coast with lush vegetation. In California, we passed through the Redwood Forest and then drove for hours beside rocky coast. Today we drove through Yosemite Park and into Nevada. Massive stone-like mountains gave way to wide open spaces and desert like climate.













It was strange driving down this road because there was no sign of civilization anywhere - no power lines, no signs for upcoming towns, no cities in the distance - all we could see was an unending road and open spaces. At one point we stopped so I could feed Myra and Tim walked around a bit. He said it was amazing how silent that spot was. I think in over 90 minutes of driving we only saw about 5 cars. Felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

We arrived at our destination, Hawthorne, Nevada at around 7 pm tonight. First thing on the list was to find food and wow! was it ever good! I got to have "Milaneza" which is breaded steak - yeah for good memories of growing up :)





Myra has had a number of "firsts" already on this trip. Tonight she went "hot tubbing" for the first time. The hot tub at the hotel here was the temperature of bath water so I put Myra in her Kushies swim diaper and new swimsuit and Tim took her into the hot tub with him. I think she liked it :)





Next stop: Salt Lake City :)