When last we left our heroes . . .

. . . we were stuck in Burley, ID. Dominic made it to his first day of work on Monday after driving 2.5 hours. The kids and I got to hang out in Burley.

However, we were at a motel right off the highway, and the town was a few miles away. I pulled out the stroller and tried to walk. I hit a snag when I realized there wasn't even a shoulder, let alone a sidewalk, on the overpass leading into town. I left the boys with strict instructions to hold tight to the stroller while I checked on the median; turns out it was not an option. While I was off investigating, a lady drove by and saw the kids by the side of the road. She thought "uh oh" and pulled over. Her name was Carrie, and she was relieved to see me walk back. She drove an SUV, so the stroller and all of us fit just fine. Carrie was our angel, taking us into town to a great park and giving me her phone number.

The children happily played for awhile; I accidentally fell asleep on a bench. When Sammy needed to go potty (Benjamin's potty training has gone out the window), we found a thrift store that let us use their bathroom. Dominic's boss let him leave early to come get us. We all made it up to Caldwell that night. In case you're wondering, Dominic made that 2.5 hour drive 3 times, totaling 555 miles driven in 1 day. Wow.

The rest of the week has been occupied with learning a new job and looking for housing. Dominic likes his job already. He works with crazy people again, but he'll always have that in psychology. The housing market is wide open, with lots of houses for rent under $700 a month. The problem occurs in that most owners work through rental agencies, whose hours are the same as Dominic's. So we've looked at a lot of places and actually applied to 2. For the first house, we turned in the application an hour after someone else; of course they got it. For the second house, they should let us know tomorrow. We have a list of places to call if that falls through, too.

Meanwhile, we are all tired of living in hotels. Our first motel was cute, and we had a patio right over a river. When the boys first saw the water, they both said, "we shouldn't throw anything in there." And they didn't. But after a few days we needed a change of scenery. Plus, they told us the weekly rate was not retroactive. We are now at a Days Inn, which has internet, a laundry room and a continental breakfast, which saves on our food bill. Cute is not modern.

The children are holding up as well as can be expected. They watch a ridiculous amount of t.v., but there's nothing else to do. The boys have a lot of energy, and their only outlets are wrestling and jumping on the beds. Lisy has started screaming whenever she's tired or hungry. She is also very clingy. Tonight I held her until she fell asleep, which made for a much quieter bedtime.

Dominic and I are mostly worried about moving before Thanksgiving weekend, when every thing will be closed for 4 days.