Rocky Top...Just like the song says - We are in Tennessee. Nashville, to be specific. We got in tonight and will spend a night or two at John's brother, Greg's, house in TN. Laundry was the first priority. Kids are running wild with all the space. We plan on going to Graceland in Memphis on our way out of TN. Will keep you posted and take pics.

The Life of a Trucker...Well, I kind of feel like we might be experiencing the life of a trucker driver.  Except we stay in Holiday Inns and stop off at tourist attractions...ha!  We finally left Long Beach yesterday.  Sad to leave our sweet neighbors...  Spent the night last night in Harrisburg, PA.  Pennsylvania is SO beautiful.  It really is a nice drive.  We got to see our friends, Paul and Desiree, and their 3 girls who live in York, PA.  The kids have already gotten to go swimming 3 times in the hotel pools since we left.  Piggy-pie heaven!  Today, we drove through part of the auto tour of the battlefields at Gettysburg.  That was really cool to see where these battles really took place and to see some of the historic buildings.  Then, we went on to drive through a portion of Maryland, West Virginia, and then stopping for the night once we got to Virginia.  Tomorrow will be spent mostly driving through Virginia.  Would like to make it to John's brother, Greg, house in Smyrna, TN but we will have to see how our drive goes.  Loving the minivan.  Everything is going well.  I will post again at next Wifi hotspot...ha!

All Good Things Come to an End...Today is the kid's last day of school due to the move back to TX. Jacob's class through a party for him yesterday since his teacher will not be there today. The kids in his class all made him a card and drew pictures for him. It was very sweet. Julia's class is having a party for her today. They have both had a really great school year with wonderful teachers. We have been blessed.

We break down the beds today and head out tomorrow morning after the POD is picked up. Our neighbor, Brona, is cooking out hotdogs and hamburgers tonight. That'll be great since we are getting ready to have a week of eating out. Keep us in your prayers as we drive across country. I'll update the blog along the way, if I can.

Beth's Birthday...Yesterday, John and I took the kids to Julia's friend, Beth's, 5th birthday party. It was a lot of fun! And Beth's older sister, Victoria, was in Jacob's kindergarten class last year and still play together so both the kids were invited. There were about 5 kids total. They had 2 different outside bouncy toys for the kids to slide and play on. There was great wraps and sandwiches from Sorrento's Italian deli for the adults and pizza for the kids. And it turned out to be a really beautiful day to just sit on the deck, visit, and watch the kids play. It was also a really nice break for me with all the packing lately. We are SO excited about the move but will really miss Long Beach, our friends, and the beautiful, pleasant weather. I wish it could be in the 70's all the time! Ha!

Casual Dinner with Friends...We went over to John and Brona's last night for one last friendly dinner before we move. They have been such good friends to us and hope we will keep in touch in the future. We reminisced, grilled out, and laughed a lot. Here are a couple of snapshots.

Matthias...We had a playdate yesterday at the playground with Julia's favorite school friend, Matthias. They wait for each other every day before and after school. They are not in the same class but they have been great buddies from the git-go.

Mohawk Max....Here are a couple of pictures of our neighbor's baby, Max, the other day before they went to a bbq. Check out that COOL mohawk! Jacob is crazy about him.

Packing, Packing, Packing...Well, in the midst of continuing to pack, we got exciting news from our real estate agent in TX. The offer we made on a house was accepted! Yea! Now, as long as inspections, etc. go according to plan, we are excited about our new house.

Happy Mother's Day...Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommies in my life! I am blessed to have such wonderful parents, friends, and mentors in my life. Being a Mommy isn't about recognition but it sure is nice to have your kids remember every once in a while all you do for them. And all it takes is a hug and a hand made gift from school to bring us to tears and be thankful for all our blessings. Thank you, God.

New Minivan...As of yesterday I am the proud owner of a beautiful minivan! Never thought I'd get so excited about a minivan since in my naive twenties I swore I'd never get one...HA! Now, I am so excited I can hardly stand it! It is a 2005 Honda Odyssey with all the bells and whistles. John drove to PA to get it for me and WOW! did he do a great job picking one out! Can't wait to drive kids to school and run errands today! Even though it is raining!!!! It is the little things in life to get a person excited!

Packing, Packing, Packing...We are up to our eyeballs in boxes. The packing has begun for our move back to TX. Hard to believe we've been here 2 years. One year wasn't long enough, 2 years was probably too long. We are anxious to be back in a bigger house with a yard so that we all have room to have our own space and the kids can run wild in the backyard without worrying about cars. Plus, we are ready to be back closer to our family so we can help out more when health problems arise. John is heading to PA to get us a minivan for our cross country drive back to TX. It will really be nice to have a bigger car since our kids are SO tall! Their legs both bump the backseats. Elliotts grow big kids! Ha!

The Queens Zoo...On Friday, Jacob went with the rest of his grade to the Queens Zoo in Flushing Queens. His favorite animal was the Zebra. The weather held out. It was a cloudy day but no rain so they all had a great time. Check out the zoo at http://nyzoosandaquarium.com/qz

In the meantime...Packing has begun at the Elliott household. The POD is due to arrive on May 12th. Sometime within a week or so after that date, we will start our trek back across these here United States back to God's Country (for those of you who don't know...Oklahoma and Texas!). We will really miss a lot about NY and it has been a WONDERFUL adventure. We've been here 2 years and we are looking forward to being back home closer to our family and friends and especially a bigger house with a yard...ha!

Trip to OK and TX...Well, we made a trip back to TX last week to house hunting. We got a lot of house hunting done and have narrowed it down to 4 houses. Now we are just number crunching before we make an offer on one. In the meantime, John's dad was hospitalized and so we spent several days up in Healdton to check on everyone and help out where we could. The kids got a huge kick out of mowing the backyard on our old riding lawn mower. Weeeeeee!!!!!!