Welcome to Kansas

Well, here we are. In Kansas. We made it. Just after posting on Friday, the movers came up and told me that it was time to pack the computer. Good timing. So, after that, I was able to visit with my friend, Sara (BTW, baby Daphne is too cute, Sara!), and was able to say goodbye to some neighbors on the street. Cindy stopped by and picked up the fish and I was able to say goodbye to her as well. We tied up some loose ends and the moving van drove off around 3 pm. We picked up Jacob from the bus stop and headed out for dinner.

We decided that for our last night in Winchester, we'd go to Ichiban. The kids always loved eating there and that was no exception. We then headed to the hotel where the kids got to swim for a while and went to bed very early.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and headed over to the house to get the animals and pick up a few things we had left. Cheryl graciously offered to mail a few things to us and we headed out to the airport...we thought that we'd be really early since Mike's flight was at 2:30 and mine was at 4:30. I dropped everyone off at departures and headed back to drop off the rental car.

When I got back, Mike was still checking in. Apparently, there's a huge difference between a large dog and an extra large dog. A large dog can ride on the smaller plane, an extra large dog cannot...and I guess Oriana is an extra large dog. So, Mike and Hannah...along with Oriana, flew out to Kansas via Chicago (with a one hour layover)and Jacob, Daniel and I will take the 2:30 nonstop flight. The catch is that Mike and Hannah's flight was in 30 minutes so I had to take care of the animals. Nice.

I had to follow the dog over to the TSA screeners and take her out of the crate (we had literally just taken the muzzle off of her and I had to put it back on), pat her down while they put the crate through the machine. I then had the pleasure of putting her back into the crate. Luckily, by that point I had it down. I got to repeat the same process with the bunny. After that, the kids, cat and I headed for the security screeners with our tickets in hand.

After removing everyone's shoes, coats, etc, I was instructed to remove Guillermo from the carrier (it took me ten minutes just to get him in) and walk through the x-ray machine with him. Getting him out of the carrier was actually harder than getting him in. I thought that I was going to have to pull the carrier apart. After getting everyone through, we then got to put ourselves back together and it took me another 10 minutes to get the cat back into the carrier. We then headed to the gate.

We finally got onto the plane and one of the flight attendants kept asking me how I was able to get the cat on the plane and what paperwork I needed because he's going to be taking his cat soon. Just to prove to you how much the United reservations people do not know, this guy told me that reservations told him that unless he was on an international flight, his cat would not need a health certificate. I told him that he would definately need a health certificate for his cat. Gotta love United.

There was another gentleman on the plane who had heard me talking to the boys about Kansas. He asked if we were relocating and I said yes. He said that he had done the exact same thing 25 years ago almost to the day. He said that he thought we'd like it here. I sure hope so.

Amazingly, our flight was 20 minutes early into Kansas and it made me nervous because I had no idea when Mike's flight would be in from Chicago. Timing was perfect because just a few minutes after we landed, Mike and Hannah landed. We picked up the pets and a co worker of Mike's took us over to rent a car.

I was nervous about seeing the house for the first time but quickly discovered that Mike had done a great job in picking out a house. It really is awesome. It feels really big and the kids love the basement. Mom will be happy to know that the "safe room" is a reinforced tornado shelter. Sweet.

We headed out to Nebraska Furniture Mart this morning to get even more new furniture. Think of Good's Furniture on steroids. This place was huge. We got our own personal assistant for the day and picked out beds for all of the kids, a TV stand, a bookshelf and nightstands for our room. Awesome place. That will be here a week from tomorrow...our couches and stuff come tomorrow, as does the rest of our stuff.

I know that there's a lot that I'm forgetting and I'm sure that Mike would like to tell his side of things but I think that's enough for now.

STUFF I FORGOT TO ADD...

1. It seems we have inherited a kitty. The previous owners decided to just leave their cat here and moved away without him. So sad. It's a nice cat but it just seems to keep trying to come into the house whenever we open a door. Last night, he (or she we just don't know) came in only to be greeted by Oriana. He (she) ran out with a big fat tail. Knowing that we'd probably end up adopting the little beggar anyway, we went ahead and fed him this morning. He's cute...looks like a long haired version of Guillermo. We still have not allowed him inside the house.

2. The bastards that sold us the house decided to get one last jab in. We discovered the furnace went out so our first (and only) attempt at fixing it was to see if the circuit breaker was tripped. It wasn't but there was another that was so I flipped it back over only to discover that it was the breaker to the smoke detector. That asshole decided that instead of fixing a SAFETY ISSUE, he'd take the easy way out and just flip the switch off. What a bastard. Nice, huh?

3. I will be posting pictures as soon as our computer is up and running tomorrow! I've got lots of them...I took some from the airplane looking down at the clouds and i have some of the house...as well as of the cat that it looks like we now own.

4. The kids take their tour of the school tomorrow and meet their teachers. They will be starting school on Tuesday. We've passed their school several times...it looks really nice.