You haven't failed until you stop trying

This is one of my favorite sayings, or mantras or whatever you want to call it. 
I think it is one of the really great things about life.  We get to decide how long the race is going to be.
For example, I really want to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  I decided in 2002 that I would qualify by my 30th birthday.  My training program was headed in that direction until surprise! I detoured to get my darling boy.  I couldn't eat or sleep during most of my pregnancy, so running was out of the question.  Re-set goal to qualifying by my 35th birthday.  Well, that was 2 weeks ago and guess what? I'm not even close.  Between then and now I have acheived an intermediate goal of completing a marathon.  The great thing is though, even though I haven't accomplished my goal yet, I haven't failed because I am still trying.  My new goal: Qualify for Boston while we are living in New Jersey.  This would be a great opportunity, because unlike other times, it wouldn't be a big burden on my family to travel to Boston for the race. 
I use this for all kinds of things; finishing my degree. (I have been a junior in college for 15 years), being a good housekeeper, etc.  As long as I am still trying, I haven't lost the race because I haven't crossed the finish line.

Where to go, where to go?

I told Doug that I would be in charge of planning the first week of our trip this summer.  We are planning on taking...hold on a minute while I check....8 days to get from Orlando to Idaho for our family reunion.  So now I need to actually sit down and plan it.  That needs to include a couple of days in Colorado. 
So here is my general method for figuring this out.
1. Mapquest the route to get an idea of generally the best way to go, and what is on the way. 
Well, Mapquest wants us to go through Missouri and Kansas, so we need to figure out a new route. 
2. Look at a National Park map to see which sites we need to go to on the way.  The goal for this trip: Tuskeegee in Alabama, possibly Tupelo National Battlefield in Mississippi, Arkansas Post NM, Abilates Flint Quarries in the Texas panhandle, Capulin Volcano in New Mexico and Great Sand Dunes in southern Colorado.  I'll see if I can work it all out.
3. Hopefully I can also find the time to stop at some other places on the way.

One of the things I'm going to really miss about Florida is watching the space shuttle launch from my front yard. Of course by the end of the year there won't be any more shuttle launches to watch anyway.  This is Atlantis' last mission.  Then it will be put in a museum somewhere.  There was an article about the selection process for museums in the paper today.  Apparently you have to apply and make a good case for why you deserve a space shuttle, and pay the $28 million dollars it will cost to prepare it for exhibition and transport it.  Some places on the list: National Air and Space Museum, Kennedy Space Center, the flight control center in Houston, the space flight center in Huntsville Alabama, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at the Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, and an aircraft carrier in New York that was responsible for retrieving the early astronauts from the Apollo missions.

Personally, the National Air and Space museum should be obvious,  the Kennedy Space Center, I'm not really sure about, they already have a replica on display, but should be a front-runner.  I think there should be one in Houston.  That way they would be in a variety of areas across the country, in places that people would expect to them to be.

This is a picture of a photo on the wall at Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas.  We went there as part of a family reunion in 2007.  We had a great day with the family and all the cousins. 

About the photo; "Bill" is a outlaw that has just been captured by the sheriff (#4) and his possee.  As the photo was being taken, Bill was trying to get the sheriff's revolver out of his pocket.  Fortunalty for the rest of the people in the photo, he was unsucessful.

Fort Smith National Historic Site is right on the border of Arkansas and Oklahoma, in fact it overlooks the Arkansas River that forms the border.  It has a nice museum, preserves an old west style courthouse, commissary and gallows, and has a nice grassy hill and picnic area.  While we were there, we saw a couple coming there to get married.  I would love to know what about the place made them decide to get married there. 

www.nps.gov/fosm

I'm pretty proud of myself.  What should I tackle tomorrow?  Backyard perhaps?

FYI the cracker box on the table contains files that are not being packed.  I figured they would be easy to keep seperate if I put them in a bright red box.

Here is my sunroom.  There is a problem with my sun room.  It is kind of the junk drawer of our house.   Anything that doesn't have another home goes in the sunroom.  My goal for today.  Clean out the sunroom.  Hopefully I will post another picture showing my awesome clean sunroom later.

New Jersey Day 4

So today we went to the ward in New Jersey that we will probably end up in.  It was kind of cool because the building was built on the same floor plan as the church that I went to all growing up.  The ward was about the same size as ours now, with a pretty big YW program (15 or so).  They seemed friendly and excited about having us move in.  The most amazing thing about the ward was the primary.  The primary kids have been taught to line up in the hallway and fold their arms until the leaders are ready for them, and they do it!  Wow.  They also gave the mothers big bars of dark chocolate, instead of flowers, which I think all around is a good thing. 
It was really hard to go to church though and see a bunch of unfamiliar faces and wonder if I will ever make friends there like I have here.  All in all, it was a nice visit.

New Jersey Day 3

So today we drove around the neighborhood to see how far the church and schools are.  The elementary school and middle school are next to each other which is nice.  Then we took a deep breath and left the small borough area that we have been in the whole time.  It was a little scary, but I was determined to go shopping. 
We used to love to shop at Lord & Taylor in Colorado, but then they closed all their Colorado stores, and there were none in Florida, but there is a Lord and Taylor about 20 minutes away from here and an outlet about an hour away.  I saw that there was a sale this week at the outlet so we ventured down there to try and find it.  The mall that it was in was packed!  Not only did we have to follow someone out of the store to find a parking space, but someone did the same to us. 
Was it worth it? 
Well, we bought 2 boys' shirts, 2 linen skirts, 2 blouses, 1 silk skirt, 2 scarves, 2 men's polo style shirts and a pair of slacks for $108.  My favorite was the Anne Klein silk skirt for me that was originally $250 that ended up being $12!  I just wish I had bought the $30 suede pumps I had been looking at. 
Then as we were driving home we hit what looked like a big black grocery bag that we can now hear flapping whenever we drive, but we can't see it anywhere under the car, it makes quite the noise on the highway.  I guess we will just let the car rental company figure out where it is.
Then we stopped for my birthday dinner and ice cream afterward. 
We will be going to check out the local ward tomorrow.

New Jersey Day 2

Another day of getting acquainted with the area and looking at houses.  Had another high school visit today.  Where yesterday there was a beautiful school with people that weren't really friendly the high school today was totally different.  The principal met with us answered all our questions, then gave us a tour of the school.  Highlights: 
1. The principal said that they really ignore standardized tests. He said he felt that the level that the tests assess is much lower than the expected level of acheviment for the students.
2. 2 years of required American History
3. A lot of intership opportunities for students
4. Framed art prints in the high school hallway
5. The cafeteria actually cooks all the food!  Nothing is brought in and reheated.
6. The school has about half the student body that our current high school has.

We saw a few more houses today.  One that was nice enough, but right on a busy street.  We might put in an offer on the  house we saw yesterday, still the frontrunner.

We looked at a few new areas today, some less populated and more like a typical suburban town.  Didn't like it as much as the other  cities we were looking at. 

Houses

We looked at four houses today.  Two were Cape Cod style houses one with a teeny tiny kitchen.  (It is smaller than any kitchen we have ever had since the girls were born.)  Cookie baking day in there?  Not possible.  Another one was in really nice condition, and we should have liked it, but we totally didn't.  It had a nice kitchen cute bedrooms with slanted ceilings (how fun is that?)  There is a little playhouse in the back, and a detached garage and a fun walk-in basement, nice size lot, but meh, just didn't connect with it. 
Another house was across the street from an active railroad track.  (Like I could throw a baseball from the front door and hit the tracks).  The carpets were disgusting and I have a high tolerance for dirty.  In the backyard there was an old broken down pool and a trampoline in similar condition.  Nope.
Then there was this house built in the 60's and hasn't been updated at all.  It has the original dark gold oven, hardwood floors with paint all over them.  (like they painted with no drop cloths)  tiny 1 car garage, (if the car isn't very big) no dishwasher and one of the cabniet doors was just sitting in front of the cabinet.  I don't know what it was, but everyone LOVED it.  I'm sure the agent thinks we are crazy, but seriously we walked in and just were so excited about it.  Weird.  An advantage would be with the condition that it is in now, it isn't like the landlord could complain about wear and tear on the property when we move out. 

Bergen County, New Jersey and Joe, our agent.

So the company hired a tour guide to show us around the neighborhood, and he also is a real estate agent.  So we spent the day looking at different neighborhoods.  The neighborhoods are beautiful.  Old deciduous trees everywhere.  Many houses are on wooded lots, that are just gorgeous.  The county is a bunch of small towns.  There are a lot of cities in Florida that are trying to re-vitalize their historic downtown area.  What they are trying to do is to create a feel like there is in these small towns.  Not a lot of restaurant chains, but individually owned restaurants, bookstores, hair salons.  It is so cool to see these downtowns thriving. 
We visited one high school today.  Ridgewood High School, the one with the best test scores in the county.  I'll try to figure out how to post a picture of it.  The staff wasn't particularly friendly or helpful. 

Since I just finished my English paper on John Updike's short story "A&P" I thought it was fun to actually shop there.  Sale prices are in line with sale prices in Florida, and store brands are reasonable, but name brand not-on-sale prices are much higher.  I will have to be more careful about sales and couponing. 

As we were driving around town "I." asked us "Why did they build all these big bumps all over the road?"  Then we got to explain to him that they were HILLS! 

Joe is the guy that was hired to show us around town and we hired to find a rental for us.  He immediately got on my good side by pointing out a revolutionary war site, and then giving us an in depth history of the area.  Turns out he is a big history and family history buff.  Then when he gave me a list of all the best cemeteries in the area, well that is just a different level of awesome.

Flying to New Jersey

Flying to New Jersey:
Here's a tip, if you want an easy time at the airport fly out on a Wednesday night.  There was NO ONE  at the airport, no lines any where, we were flew through security, were the only people on the trains.  Then we got on the plane and at that moment it we knew: We had left "I.'s" backpack somewhere.  I was hoping it was just at the gate so I swam upstream on the airplane to get out and go to the gate.  No backpack.  Asked at the desk; No backpack.  The people at the desk recommened that I go look on the trains.  I could make it if I ran.  Not hurried, RAN.  So I ran (with all the kids on the plane I ran, looked on the train, waited for the next train. No backpack.  I ran back to the desk, they called the lost and found, it was closed, then someone at the desk remembered that a co-workers husband worked in security.  So they called him and they had the backpack!  Quick discussion on how to get it back.  Could I run some more?  Yep.  Did I know where to go? No.  So one of the lovely workers at the desk ran with me all the way back to security, got the backpack back, ran back.  As we got to the end of the concourse, the desk worker said I'm stopping, you keep going.  I arrive at the desk dripping in sweat from running, but with the backpack.  All the flight attendents on the flight asked if I had found it. Apparently, they had already started the security talk, and Christine had stood up and called the flight attendent over and told her that they couldn't leave because I wasn't there. I can't thank the desk workers at Continental enough, they were incredibly helpful. 

We landed in Newark, and found our way to the guy in the black suit hold a sign that said MOULTON, he picked led us to the SUV limo, "I." was very impressed that they had given him a carseat that was his favorite color.  I was just happy to see a bottle of water.  I also realized that other than knowing that Doug was in a hotel somewhere near Montvale, I had no idea where we should go.  Luckily the driver did.  So weird to be one of those people who has a driver waiting for me at the airport to whisk me off somewhere. 

This post is really long, so I think I'll break it up into several sections.