So much change, so little time...

These last few weeks have really been a trip!! We went to Montana and interviewed with 3 dentist the last week in February. We came home and put in an offer to one on the 5th of March and by the 7th we were Moving to Billings Montana and starting April 1st! The Moving truck showed upon the 17th at 1: 30pm and was gone by 4:30, by 7:00 we were on our way in the van pulling the Malibu behind!
(Monday the 17th)The first night we didn't get to far we made it to Indianapolis! We were so exhausted from our day of moving and cleaning.
(Tuesday the 18th)The second day we made it quite a bit farther all the way to Sioux falls Iowa! I was so sad we didn't get to go to Nauvoo. Towing the car slowed us down quite a bit, not to mention all the stops for our carnivorous children. I swear they were hungry every minute of every day! As it turned out we would have hit some of the terrible flooding that was there had we have gone.
(Wednesday the 19th)The next day somewhere in South Dakota the transmission in the van decided it had had enough! We are so fortunate we back tracked about 20 miles to this little place that seriously had a mechanic, a u-haul drop, a truck stop and a car wash! The people were so nice. They flushed our transmission, took the U-haul dolly back, we washed the transmission fluid off the vehicles, and ate at the truck stop! ( which by the way was the BEST meal we ate!) And we were off now in 2 vehicles driving separately! ( The mechanic was so awesome he actually called us about 2 hours after we left to see if we were stranded or if the transmission was going to hold out! )
We are so frustrated at the U-haul company. When we moved to Kentucky the truck broke down 3 times and we ended up completely unloading and loading our stuff onto a new truck! And then had to beg for reimbursement for the days it took to get us a different truck. This time we just rented a dolly from them to pull the car. After they told me the full trailer that you pull your car completely onto was to heavy for our van, they tried to give it to us for the same price as a favor, because they didn't have a dolly on the lot. We went to a different store and got the dolly that was within the weight limit for our van. But the hitch they put on rubs against the muffler and makes a terrible noise and we feel like the problems we had on this trip could have been avoided. Come to find out we were maxed out on the weight limit, especially with 5 people in the car too.( They failed to mention that small detail too) The moral of the story is avoid using u-haul at all costs, I promise it is worth the extra bucks to go with a different company!
We made it all the way to Rapid City, South Dakota! ( And did I mention our truck was already in billings Montana!) We got up and went to Mount Rushmore,and stopped at an old time taffy shoppe, that pulled their own taffy. Then we hit the road again!
Finally, Thursday night we made it to Billings and in time to swim in the hotel pool too!!
Friday morning we met our truck driver and began the dreaded process of unloading the truck we had just loaded, and up to the 3rd floor too!! We were so blessed to have a few missionaries stop by to help us unload. The elevator was a huge help too!
My parents came over Easter, to help with the kiddo's and to unload boxes. Thanks Mom and Dad! The Easter bunny did find us the kids were very concerned! We are moved in and almost box free! (Almost)
Now I just have to keep my kids quiet for the next 6 months. The hallways outside our apartment door looks like a big race track and there are 3 flights of stairs to race down. We also have a nice round about inside the apartment that you can run around in a circle! Not to mention the singing, fighting, giggling, crying, stomping, and slamming that happens with 3 little girls!
Kailtyn loves school, who wouldn't it is an hour and 15 minutes shorter they have 3 recesses, no uniforms and NO homework. She has died and gone to heaven!! The girls ( Kaitlyn and Jenna) also got haircuts to their shoulders! A fun spring thing to do ! I will post pictures as soon as I can find them....
For now we are safe and sound in Billings, and looking forward to closing on the biggest purchase of our life on March 31st! This last month has been so crazy and I think I finally had enough time to absorb it all today. My tear ducts have been a bit over active today as I realize our families are not as close as they seemed( still 8 hours away) And our "Fill in" family ( our dear friends) are even farther, now that I have made that drive! I am feeling like a fish out of water. But we are excited for what the future will bring to our family.

WE MADE IT!!

Wow that is quite the drive, but we made it to the "Big Sky Country", Montana! I am afraid I don't have much time to update right now. We have missed our Internet terribly, and now that it is hooked up we have a lot of things to finish up, before closing on the practice in just 5 short days!!
I wanted to say a big THANK YOU for all those who helped us during our quick move! I couldn't have done it without you all! Thank you so much.
More to come soon.......

HERE WE GO.....

OKAY so we put and offer in on a dental practice on Wednesday of last week, and by Friday it was a done deal. We are the new owners of a practice in Billings Montana, and we will start APRIL 1st. Yes that's right APRIL 1st! OH yes did I mention that gives us about 10 days to pack up this place and be on the road!! I am so not a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl! But I am holding on (for dear life) and hoping that I do not kill over from anxiety attack before this is done! The truck comes on March 17Th ready or not!! I do have to say however that the Lord has blessed us so much. After trying to find something for so long and having several practices slip through our hands we finally found the ONE! And who would have thought to look in Montana. I am amazed at how fast things can be put together when it is the right one! ( My girls are only excited because we are moving to "HANNAH MONTANA"!)

This is so bitter sweet in so many ways! I have had to come to terms with my feelings a whole lot sooner than I wanted to. I will really miss this place! Kentucky has been the place our family has grown. When we moved here Kaitlyn was 2 1/2 and Jenna was 6 months old. Madelyn was not even a second thought! We have grown together here, cried together here, laughed together here, and met fabulous friends that filled in as family while we were away from ours. We have discovered new wonders like "blink blink bugs, and trees that flower abundantly( I had no idea so many trees flowered), humidity, tornadoes, ice storms, and currently 13 inches of SNOW!! I think I will really miss Kentucky. But I am excited to continue our little adventure, and find out what is next around the corner. Don't get me wrong I am also scared to death. To our friends we are leaving behind, we love you and will miss you terribly, please keep in touch and know that our door is always open. To our families we can't wait to be a little closer and catch up on lost time, and lost teeth! To Billings Montana Look out HERE we COME!!

What a Trip!

What a crazy week. I didn't realize what kind of miles we traveled until I started adding it up! We flew a total of 4054 miles, and then drove another 1598 miles! I think we took full advantage of the "unlimited miles" on the rental car. We took the kids to my parents for a week so that Joe and I could look at some practice opportunities in Montana. After dropping the kids off we hadn't been on the road for more than 1 1/2 hours when the jeep behind us slid off the road and flipped on it's side. Luckily no one was hurt. We were able to help them out( a father and 9 year old son) and get them where they needed to go. We continued on our trip and had clear roads the rest of the week. What a blessing that was. We feel like we saw a good chunk of the state of Montana. We made a good loop through the state. We looked at 3 practices while we were in Montana before heading back to pick up the kids from grandma's. ( What a life saver grandparents are! We can't wait to be a little bit closer.) There is something to be said about knowing that your kids are taken care of, I am pretty sure I missed them more than they missed me! They had a great time. We then made the long flight back and headed for home!

Happy 7th Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn just celebrated her 7th birthday. I can hardly believe I am the mother of a 7 year old. She seems so grown up these days! It was a pretty crazy week for us. We were trying to get ready for a trip back west to look at some practice opportunities. We left the day after her birthday. Somehow we pulled off a last minute birthday party and made it a special day for her.
Kailtyn is such a good helper. And I am so proud of her. Last night after school she had a lot of homework. She had a paper to write that wasn't due until next week, her usual homework(which is a packet for the whole week), and a few things she missed last week that we didn't get before she left. She did it ALL last night. She was so determined to get it done, just so she could turn it all in tomorrow. She is such a hard worker and a great sister. Madelyn calls her "Cake" (for Kate) and loves her to death, Jenna can't hardly wait for her to get home from school and looks up to her so much! We Love You SIS!

Kentucky Weather

I am a little behind on blogging but I wanted to post a few pictures from 2 weeks ago when we had an ice storm. First what a funny day that was. I am usually one to get up and around and be ready to go by the time the kids head out the door for school. I had a whole day to busily try and get laundry done and start the packing process for our upcoming trip out west. So of course on this day I was STILL in my pajamas! ( yes I think I learned my lesson). Joe called and said that they were closing the University and sending the residents home. I hopped on the computer and didn't see anything about schools and looked outside and it looked fine. I didn't think much of it. about a half an hour later I went to turn on some cartoons for the kids and the news station said they were dismissing school at 10:00!It was 9:58!! I panicked and called my faithful carpooling buddy Cathy, and literally RAN out the door. No wallet, No cellphone, Pajama's pants on, with tennis shoes! Needless to say I was a MESS! On the way to the school I had the radio on which was useless. The announcer came on and said that they were dismissing school early and to LOG ON to their site for further details! ( A little difficult to do when you are in the CAR don't you think) By the time I got to the school there was no one in carpool line and I thought that I was really late. So I had to go IN. ( I was mortified) Come to find out as I left my house they had changed the dismissal time to 11:00 and I was early! (Thanks to the radio I missed that little announcement since I couldn't LOG on in my CAR!) Anyway all in all I got the kids and we went home just in time for this ice storm to hit. These storms I think leave things looking beautiful! But I can definitely see the danger in them if you have to be out and about. It took Joe quite a while to get home and we were pretty glad to see him when he walked in the door. Anyway we have only had 2 of these since we have lived in Kentucky.