I've always wanted an indoor swimming pool!!

Ever try going without a washer and dryer for almost two weeks?  Not so bad when you're single or maybe if there are just two of you...if you have that extra stash of emergency ugly underware somewhere.  But try doing that with 5 kids...yeah not so much fun.

Yesterday Charlie finally finished installing the outlet so I could plug in my dryer and fixed all the electrical, so I was able to exclaim for the first time in my life.  OH MY GOD!  I'm so grateful I can finally do laundry.  Yes I was actually excited to begin.  I put the washer and dryer just where I wanted them.  Placed some flowers in the window.  Set up the laundry baskets and loaded them full of every single article of clothing we all own.  Placed the ironing board just so...put the kitty litter box so it was out of the way and invisible and quite possibly almost unsmellable.  Put away my boots, the scale (like I ever use it...who wants to be purposely depressed) and basically set up everything nice and neat.  I even put a nice cushy rug down on the floor....over the floor drain (its so unsightly...what could possibly go wrong?)  And started my first load of laundry.  Excellent everything worked out perfectly!  Put that in the dryer and started my second load.  The dryer dinged just as the second load finished.  I opened the door and stepped in....SQUISH!!  WTH?

I looked at my soaked feet to find a pool...a swimming pool...a lake filling up my laundry room.  My first thought was...oh crap, I hope it doesn't leak all over the downstairs  Charlie will not be happy.  Quickly followed by...ugh I have to clean all this up and figure out what happened.  After much grumbling and walking around with a blanket under my feet and mopping my heart out, I figured out the drain hose wasn't properly tightened and remedied the situation post haste.  So what did I learn?  Well first my rug is now not covering the drain...oh lovely drain!  Second make sure everything is tightened before starting a washing machine for the first time.  Oh and I'm pretty sure I'm over the indoor swimming pool fantasy, I think I pass...it's a pain in the butt!!

What I've learned...

*I'm stronger than I think I am...I can do this!  It's like Josh said when told how crazy it was that we had moved everyone across the country to NYC..."Well, she had to do it."

*I thought I was only directionally challenged in game on WoW...but apparently it bleeds into real life.  Thank the Lord for GPS...but since I don't take it with me when getting off the subway the chances that I'll go the wrong way out of the subway entrance are pretty high.

*It only took me 10 min of standing in front of a metro card kiosk to figure out how to add money to my metro card...and I'm in graduate school....I'm not sure what I think about that.

*When Prof. Yockey heard I traveled from Utah in a car with 5 kids and a cat he said I should get course credit for that...should I hold him to that... maybe push for extra credit??

*When living in an old apartment you cannot plug two things into the same wall socket...eventhough there are two spaces and the other thing that is plugged in isn't on...I learned very quickly where the circuit breakers were.

*Also what is the difference between too hot and too cold in an old apartment in regards to the shower...apparently less than a millimeter.  Where is just right?  I feel like a deprived Goldilocks.

*When it snows in NYC it's not kidding around, but WOW is it beautiful the whole sky lights up in the reflection of the flakes...no need for night lights for the kids at night.  Also a Thank you God for 4 wheel drive I'm so glad my Jeep has it.

*What to do when the dryer you own has 4 prongs and the plug only has 3...shoving it in doesn't work and so far neither does trying to get the landlord to replace the outlet so the apartment is up to code...meanwhile I'm almost to my stash of emergency underware...please please Charlie fix the outlet, not the emergency underware...anything but that!

*In order to register the kids for school I need to have a signed rental agreement (check) and a utility bill....ummm I've been in the apartment for less than a week how in the name of all that is holy am I supposed to have a utility bill???  So can I still register my kids for school...who knows?

*Yay there is a Costco in Staten Island...but not a Wal-mart (but I'm ok with that) and everything here closes at 8 pm at night...weird.

*Why are all the windows nailed shut...on the list to ask Charlie when he finally gets around to the doing the walk though with me.

*I am constantly worried that my heating oil will run out, because I have no idea how long it is supposed to last and Charlie still has yet to give me a key so I can check it.  I am almost to a paranoid level.  Please God please may it be like the woman who had a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil and no money to buy more for food.

*Becoming a librarian requires A LOT of reading...who knew?  /snort

Isn't that what everyone would do?

So I'm a single/divorced mom of 5 kids, I've stayed at home with them for 13 of 15 years I've been a mom. I haven't been in school for 16 years and I don't have many skills that look good on a resume.  So I decided  that since I have the opportunity to do so, I should grab for what I really want.  I applied to Pratt Institute, which is primarily an Art and Design School (usually ranked in the top 10) and it has the oldest accredited Library and Information Science program (which is why I applied).  I mean com'on it's in Manhattan!!  You get to have classes taught by librarians in the NYPL and go to Florence and Prague and London.  They have a dual masters program that will give me a MLS and a History of Art Masters.  Plus the Brooklyn campus stands in for the Harvard campus in the TV show Fringe.  Neato!  How could I resist!  All I have to do is get an apartment in NYC, financial aid, and move across the country.  Given the fact that my application was accepted...wouldn't anyone else in my position do the same thing?

So I tried to sell my house...that was a no go and it got rented to some polygamous family from down the street...poor man with like 3 heckling and pregnant wives.  What was he thinking...what were they thinking...but I digress.  I packed up my 3500 square ft house into a trailer (many many many thanks to my best friend and her husband...I don't know what I would have done without them).  I mailed (thanks again to Branden) a bunch of stuff to my parents, who had agreed to let my 5 kids and myself take over their small house for a few months.  Packed my kids and a cat into a Jeep Commander and drove from Utah to Rochester, NY (with a small stop in Savannah, GA just because).  

I had no job (still no job and running on the hope that we'll make it with financial aid) and still no apartment in NYC but my hopes were high.  Living with my parents wasn't at all what I had hoped it would be, but if I had gone there with my eyes unclouded it probably turned out much like most people would expect when you combine two differently run households into a tiny house.  Thank goodness for the YMCA, Cynthia, my Aunt and Uncle, Trinity and Koininia Fellowship.  Three weeks before the term was supposed to start I finally got an apartment in Staten Island.  Packed up the 5 kids and the cat again into the Jeep Commander and too much stuff that the Jeep probably would have exploded if my very kind Aunt and Uncle hadn't let me drop some stuff off at their house.  Drove the 6 hours to the apartment and attempted to move in.  So here we are...I still don't have the kids registered for school and the schools are a bit scary.  I have to commute 1 1/2 hours to school and then back again (up hill both ways in blinding snowstorms all year round...hehe).  I have to fit all my stuff and 5 kids oh and don't forget a cat, into an apartment that is maybe 1200 square ft.  But it's New York City!!!  Think of all the stuff we can do.  I'm sure anyone else in my position would have done the same thing.  Right!??