Four days of driving behind us and two more to go- we are a little more than halfway there! It’s been a fun trip so far! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who’s been praying for our trip. Nora’s been a real trooper and has blown us away with how patient she’s been during the long hours of road travel. We could not have expected this. (Although we were hopeful.) And Remy seems to enter some kind of trance after he wedges himself between the back seat and the front passenger seat where he almost becomes invisible and we often forget he’s there. So he’s been extremely low maintenance.

Here’s a quick recap of the trip so far if you’re interested-

Moving Day-Tuesday, November 23rd
A snowstorm hit Kirkland the night and day before the moving van was supposed to arrive. The roads were pretty icy and most places were closed on Tuesday morning. We were thrilled to see the moving van pull up a few hours later. These movers were awesome. They inventoried, wrapped, and loaded up all our stuff in two hours. That morning, Josh woke up with an itch to get on the road. Since the movers were so fast, we knew there was a chance we could start that night. For extra motivation, we sent our air mattress with the moving van. The only catch was that Josh had to finish repainting our room and Nora’s room. I couldn’t help because the paint fumes were ridiculously awful and I had to keep an eye on Nora. But he did it and we were on the road before 7 that night. We made it to our goal- Portland, Oregon.

Day One-Wednesday, November 24th
Josh took Nora to the hotel breakfast where she loved the make-them-yourself waffles. She also had apple juice for the first time along with a piece of toast. That’s a big breakfast for her. So when it all came back up ten minutes into our drive, (literally minutes after I said, “This is going to be an adventure!”) we hoped it was just a combination of excitement and eating too much.

We pulled over onto a random street, stripped the poor child down to her diaper in 20 something degree weather, and tried to clean up as best we could with wipes. About ten minutes after we got back on the road, that second outfit was ruined when she got sick again. We pulled into a Walgreens parking lot to clean up again and Josh went inside to get some towels. After covering her up as best we could, we started on our way again. She did fine until we stopped for lunch. All she wanted was some water and one of Josh’s chips. That didn’t stay down either and we had to acknowledge that she did indeed have a stomach bug. By the time we pulled into Redding, CA that night, she was on her fourth outfit and that one needed a wash as well. Thankfully, the hotel we stayed in had a laundry room. She was down to two outfits to last the rest of the week.

But it was a beautiful drive that day! We drove through the northern California mountains and got to see Mt Shasta. We also got to eat at In N Out that night for dinner. So delicious. And totally worth the half an hour we spent waiting in the drive through line.

And I also should add that even though Nora wasn’t feeling well, she did a great job and was able to sleep through most of the drive. We felt awful for her but we were very proud. I also want to give a shout out to Mom- I called her throughout the day with updates and to get any advice about Nora being sick and what we needed to look for. Mom totally called it and said she would probably be sick off and on for about 12 hours and then be really tired another 12 hours, and probably the whole next day as well. That’s exactly what happened. Good job, Mom!

Day Two- Thursday, Nov.25th
Nora didn’t get sick the next day but wow, was she sleepy. She slept almost the whole day, and we weren’t complaining. She was pretty happy when she was awake, so she seemed to be on the mend.
This was also Thanksgiving Day! Our only concern for this day was if we would be able to find something to eat for dinner. We knew we would at least get a good breakfast since it was part of the hotel package.

Wow. This hotel’s dining room was Small Talk Central. We spent an hour in there. As soon as we walked in, a nice couple who was about to leave offered us their table. They immediately started talking about their travel plans and asking about ours and we swapped stories.

Somehow, it turned to the wife’s recent eye surgery. I had noticed she was wearing dark sunglasses but wasn’t going to say anything. Just after Josh got up to get a few things, she started to take off her sunglasses to show me the results. I absolutely panicked. I’m a bit squeamish and hadn’t actually started to eat yet. But what do you do, yell out, “Oh, no, that’s okay, please, please keep the sunglasses on?” I didn’t know what to do but wait in slight horror as the shades came down.
Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as I feared and I think God gave me the grace to block it out immediately afterwards. A good reminder for why I’m not a nurse.

Then a few conversations later, some guy who had also been talking normal travel talk walked up to Josh and showed up him a recent incision that had been made to insert a piece of titanium into his neck. We’re not sure what was up with the post op show and tell. I guess we should be thankful we didn’t have anything to show?

A few hours and several miles later (just outside Sacramento) we stopped to get gas and I never thought I would be so happy to see an open McDonalds. We were that desperate to find anything open for lunch. I knew Nora was still feeling under the weather when she turned down a french fry.

We kept driving and I started making calls to find a place to stay in LA that night. Several places had vacancies but hardly anyone allowed dogs. I called about ten places, most of whom wouldn’t talk to me after I said “dog” and the two places that did take dogs charged between $50 and $75 extra. We hadn’t had any problems until now finding a place to stay that charged a small pet fee.

So we moved outside LA and widened our circle until I finally found a hotel that accepted dogs for a small fee. We booked a room immediately.

I kinda misread the map scale because I told Josh that I thought this place was just outside LA. It turns out that Redlands, CA is about an hour outside LA. That’s like driving to Athens.

By the time we got there, we were so tired and it was getting late and our odds of getting any kind of dinner seemed smaller and smaller. Then we saw the hotel. As Josh described it when I kept asking him how bad it was, it was “a little dicey.” Let’s just say it was one of those rooms that you stop looking at because you keep finding things wrong with it. Such as the huge dent in the wall where the door handle had smashed through the drywall and was being covered with a square patch of wallpaper pasted right on top of the original wallpaper. And the trashcan in the middle of the floor that was resting on top of two newspapers. Newspapers that I picked up to throw away and discovered they were damp and covering a mystery puddle. Then the bathroom with random hot spots on floors and a toilet that ran every hour. You get the idea.

And Josh was nice enough to wait until the next morning to point out that there was a “gentleman’s lounge” just across the street. I’m so glad I didn’t know that at the time. But. I am grateful that we had a roof over our heads and place that accepted Remy. We had shelter- that’s the important thing.

We did end up finding a Popeyes that was open so we got to have poultry and mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving after all. =)

Day Three- Friday, November 26th
We found a Chick Fil A!!!!! We got to eat a real, genuine Chick Fil A breakfast. So good.

We drove through the rest of southern California, Arizona, and made it all the way to New Mexico. One of my new favorite cities is Phoenix. It’s like a bright, clean, gigantic outdoor mall in the middle of the desert. And everyone seems so happy. It must be all the Vitamin D.

We hoped to make it all the way to El Paso, Texas that night but we were too tired. After driving through miles and miles of dark desert, we saw the beautiful lights of Las Cruces, New Mexico and decided to stay there.

Day Four- Saturday, November 27th

Which brings us to today. I was craving something light after a few days of drive through food. Josh was nice and agreed to let me go to Starbucks and we got pastries for breakfast. Then we drove through the Texas desert. Of all the days for me to crave a light breakfast, I chose the day with a route that goes through miles and miles of land with very little civilization and few choices for places to stop to eat. Silly.

But first we got to drive through El Paso and visited the home the Teagues built and spent several years in! Josh, Nora and I knocked on the front door and the current residents invited us to look inside. Josh even got to see his old bedroom. Nora was thrilled because they had two really sweet, friendly kids and a cat. It was so fun to see how excited Josh was to see his old home and relive memories driving through the town and neighborhood. I’m so glad we were able to go inside! Texans are so nice.

Nora and I also got our first glimpse of Mexico today as we drove just along the border. I don’t think she cared but I was fascinated.

Then we drove and drove and drove and drove. Texas is huge. We drove for almost nine hours and are now halfway through the state in Abilene, Texas. This is where Josh’s parents went to college and I love this city! It’s huge and has so many great places to eat! We are staying in the nicest hotel yet- it’s only been open since March. I love new hotels.

Nora seems to be back to her old self with her old energy back. She’s napping a lot less but is still very sweet and a joy in the car.
Tomorrow we will attempt to finish crossing Texas. Seriously, this state is HUGE.

And I know everyone probably says this after you drive across half the country, but WOW, is God awesome. He created these gorgeous snow capped mountains and these crazy plants like cactuses and these gigantic mounds of red sand and rocks. It’s been really fun hanging out with Josh and Nora and getting to see such a range of God’s handiwork.

Halfway done with the trip! Thanks again for the prayers!!

Last night our group from church threw a going-away party for us.
We love these friends dearly and have been blessed tremendously through them.

Nora joined me on the floor after a long-day’s work at the office.

The profile!

Notice the faint little foot?

Crazy 3D profile shot with our baby holding a little fist next to his/her nose.

Yesterday, at 22 weeks, we caught the first glimpse of our coming little blessing.

Nora is a total whiz on that iPad. Doesn’t need an ounce of supervision or help.
It’d serve us well if I could train her to post a picture each day to our website…

Thank you so much to everyone who’s been praying about the house! We really appreciate it. =) We think we found the one! It’s in the same neighborhood as Josh’s brother and my mom, which is fun and seems old fashioned in a good way. And the rest of our families are going to be within driving distance! (I’m counting Birmingham, even if that is a longer drive, it’s better than a plane ride!) We just need the inspection to go well and we should be good to go. I really hope this is the one because it seems like it would be so much fun to live near family. We’re already envisioning meeting up at the pool, walking to each others’ houses, and making day trips to visit the Birmingham folks!

We’ve decided that we are driving and planning to leave Seattle on the 24th of November and drive through Thanksgiving and be in Atlanta by Sunday night. We are prepared that we may have to make extra stops if the weather isn’t safe to drive in, but that’s the plan for now. The movers are scheduled and I’d say about 60% of the house is packed up.
Since we’ll be on the road during Thanksgiving, Josh agreed to stop and eat at Cracker Barrel. I’m so excited. I’ve been craving Cracker Barrel. And….. there’s one outside of Buffalo, where we’ll hopefully be staying that night! Yes!

Finally, I feel so bad for Nora these days. I think she gets really bored. I haven’t been able to play with her or take her out as much as she probably needs since we’ve been packing during the day. At least there’s lots of boxes around…

We are thinking of getting her a dollhouse for Christmas. It looks like she’s ready for one.

PS. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Tuesday! We’re hoping to have some fun pictures to post of Baby Teague!

PPS. Speaking of pictures, sorry that we haven’t had new pictures of the day! Josh is the one who knows how to do those and he’s been super busy scheduling movers, the whole process of trying to find and purchase a home, not to mention experiencing a busy time at work. Hopefully we can get those POD’s going soon.