they'll probably survive

For a few days there, I thought we left our children in Idaho (or at least West Virginia) and replaced them with monsters.

In all fairness to them, the first few days of the drive went really well. The kids were well behaved, even when they weren't watching Blue's Clues or Dora. (Though they did plenty of that.) And we only had one very mild barf incident.

After we left Dave's parents everything changed.

About an hour into the drive, while Jack was (finally) sleeping peacefully, we got cut off on the interstate by a big, white, van with Kansas license plates and a "my grass is blue" bumper sticker. We had to slam our brakes so hard to not hit the crazy lady and it woke Jack up.

I wish we somehow could have pumped Jack's screams and whines into her car as punishment for inattentive driving.

The rest of that day and the 5 hour drive the next were filled with my scrambling to keep our children from crying and whining. Unless they were asleep. That was bliss.

We arrived at our very empty apartment on Monday evening. It is a great apartment and we really love it. There isn't much to keep kids occupied in it when it is empty. So we did what any normal person would do and we went to the store.

That's when we realized our children had gone crazy. And that we were exhausted.

I think after a good night's sleep on our own beds and a house that isn't quite so empty, we're starting to feel normal again.

Moving across the country is one of those experiences as a parent where you wonder if you have permanently scarred your children.