So I was feeling bad about leaving the “kids” at the boarding place. I decided to make nice with the guy at the front desk of the hotel and asked if he could work me a deal on letting the cats stay with us. He just said that we never had this conversation. The cats were a little happy. =)

Big fat sigh of relief! Tina flew in to Orlando this afternoon and mommy and baby are doing just fine. We grabbed a quick bite with our friends and then drove up to Gainesville. We’re residing at the Extended-Stay Hotel until we can find a permanent place to unpack. Enjoy the fun pics of my sweaty self getting us unpacked and the beautiful pregnant wife!

Had a good time hanging out with Doug, Laura, and the kids over the last couple days. Heading out to pick up Tina from the airport soon!

This is a sad picture of where the kids are hanging out while I head down to Orlando to drop Dad off at the airport, and stay with the Boemler-Wareings. Tina will be flying in Sunday. I hope all goes well and our little baby girl does not try to come early.

and no I’m not talking about the Beastie Boys Album. What I’m referring to is the apartment that we had rented sight unseen. Holy cripes. Tina and I only had a couple days to find a place the last time we were in Gainesville, and the big struggle was finding a furnished unit to rent for short term (90 days) that was close to the hospital.

We thought we had found the best place. There were some condo conversions only 5 minutes from the hospital so we drove over to check them out. The deal was that the units were not selling as quick as they wanted, so they continued to rent some out furnished. We couldn’t see an actual empty unit because the leasing office was closed, but the sales office was open. For this reason we could only walk through the model, which looked fine so we figured it would work. They even offered us a three bedroom for the price of a two bedroom, which made it sound like a sweet deal.

BUT…

After seeing the unit in person I now know why they the couldn’t sell it. The place was totally filthy. Dirty walls that needed to be painted, stained floors with carpet that should have been replaced, cobwebs all over the place, housewares that looked like they came from the early 80’s and hadn’t been cleaned since then. The furniture was gross too with who knows what kinda stains infecting the couch.

Oh…but they did include an empty mens underwear box, a basketball, and my favorite (I’m not kidding either) a vibrating pillow.

As much as the last item made the move-in tempting, I resolved that there was no way I was going to let my wife and my baby girl stay in this place. I called Tina and we decided to board the cats for a few days and stay in a hotel while we figure out where to live.

Maybe we’ll have to search a little farther away, or deal with renting the furniture ourselves. We’ll figure something out though.

Snacks for the road trip: $27.56
Total fuel purchase: $185.39
White Castle sliders: $4.89
Kitty litter stuck in every crevice of your car: priceless
 
So overall the road trip was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, but there were some “fun” moments. Here are the highlights:
 
Thursday 1:07 am – We say goodbye to the wife and “kids” and we start the journey.

 
Thursday 1:25 am – Macy decides to christen the the trip with all the food she ate earlier that day. I guess the only good thing about her puking in the car was that she did so in the middle of the comforter making for an easy clean up.
 
Thursday 4:50 am – While heading through Kansas, we drive through one of the strongest rainstorms I’d ever been in. Could barely see the road. Note: You only need to check out the first 15 seconds of the video below to get the idea.

 
Thursday 5:30 am – Cornfield
 
Thursday 7:45 am – Cornfield
 
Thursday 8:57 am – Some vegetable field
 
Thursday 9:35 am – Cornfield
 
Thursday 11:00 am – Video Update

 
Thursday 2:50 pm – Drove by the St. Louis Arch
 
Thursday 8:37 pm – Tried to have dinner at Jack’s BBQ in Nashville, but downtown was a bit too crazy.
 
Thursday 9:00 pm – We settled for another Jack’s instead: Jack-in-the-Box
 
Friday 12:30 am – We drive through downtown Atlanta with almost zero traffic.

 
Friday 7:40 am – Dad and I (and the cats) arrive in Gainesville.
 
Thank God for dad. He drove about 60% of the time and it was good to have the company.

Cathie just wrote to me:

I spoke with Tracy a few hours ago…Jonathan is no better and maybe a bit worse…please continue to pray for him and his family…

Two hours from now my father-in-law, two cats, and myself will begin the 27+ hour journey to Gainesville Florida. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine this scenario. One good thing we have going for us is that dad works graveyards for the Museum of Nature and Science so he’ll be ready to start the first shift while I hopefully catch some shuteye.

Both cats offered to drive as well under the condition that we stop along the way to see the worlds largest ball of yarn. I might be willing to let Macy drive a few miles, but Pumps has been busted twice for a DUI so I don’t have a whole lot of trust for her these days.

Actually though, we are planning to push straight through more for the sake of the cats then anything. We should be arriving early Friday morning. Dad and I should have a few hours then to get the cats settled into the apartment and rest up before we drive two hours down to Orlando so he can catch an evening flight back to Colorado.

The Boemler-Wareings have been gracious enough to let me stay at their place in Orlando Friday and Saturday night. On Sunday evening I’ll be picking Tina up from the airport and we’ll then make the two hour drive back to Gainesville. I’ll feel a lot better once we’re settled in there.

On the ultrasound today, they estimated her weight at 5 lbs, 14 ounces. They did mention that at this stage, there can be quite a variance in weight. However, they feel comfortable stating that she is between 5 lbs and 5 lbs, 14 ounces. She still has a few more weeks and they estimate .5 lb per week this late in the game. This is good news – – maybe she will be near 6 lbs when she is born. The larger, the better! Everything else checked out fine…we just want her to stay put for a few more days!

As some of you know, we moved earlier this year to provide us with more financial flexibility since the future is unknown with our baby girl. For the past few months, we have been trying to rent our other house. Our goal was to have it rented before we went to Florida. Although we have had people apply to rent, there were always extenuating circumstances that made it not seem right (most applicants had bankruptcies, foreclosures, and/or other collection issues). Although we were open to giving someone a chance with an extra deposit, we never had a peace about it. So, we just kept passing people up and waiting, hoping for confirmation and just the right scenario.

This is the week we are getting ready to head out to Florida and guess what? We rented the house…God required us to wait on him and trust Him all the way until the last few days!!! This is such a relief financially, but also just a peace of mind knowing that someone will be living in the house and taking care of it while we are away. The family that has rented the house is sooo nice – Jim & Lisa who have two daughters, Kennedy and Hannah. They are relocating from Seattle and the peace that has come from waiting until just the right family came along was SO worth it! We are just so thankful for this blessing. The most interesting part: we were showing the house to someone else and they just happened to drive up as I was getting ready to leave for the day. I motioned to see if they were interested in seeing the house…and sure enough, that was it! They are such a great family too – – we hope that we can get to know them more upon our return!