On May 15^th Larry, Darryl and his other brother Darryl came to move us.  They had the IQ of a doorknob and four teeth between them.  They were going to be in charge of every single earthly possession I owned.  They were five hours late getting to our house and they did not finish packing up the truck until 3:00 am.  My children were sleeping on the floor in the empty house waiting for these fine specimens to finish.  The whole family was getting on an 8:00 am flight to Las Vegas the next morning.  I learned from previous moves that the driver is in charge and if you have a good driver your move will go smoothly.  A good driver takes inventory of every box and piece of furniture that goes on the truck, he organizes how each piece of inventory will fit on the truck, he is in charge of the paperwork, and he tells the movers when to take a lunch break, essentially he is very involved in the entire process.  Our driver slept in his truck bed while Larry, Darryl, and Darryl packed the truck.  At 2:00 am the Fool Patrol finally finished packing the truck and they woke up the driver.  He informed us that he had to inspect our car for any scratches or dents before they loaded it on the truck.  Why he chose to do this now and not in the 8 hours while the others were packing the house is beyond me.  This is the first time that we ever transported the car via moving company but since it was a cross country move we didn’t want to drive the distance.  So, a stack of paperwork and one hour later the moving van heads off.

We arrived at the Airport Marriott at 3:30 am to find that they gave our room away.  We were sent to the Westin.  We finally got to bed around 5:00 am and had to be up at 6:15 am for our 8:00 am flight.  The good thing about the whole fiasco was that the girls were so tired they slept the entire four hour plane ride.  During the plane ride I struck up a conversation with a woman sitting next to me.  Turns out she was a “certified psychic” which didn’t surprise me considering she was headed to Las Vegas.  She asked me if I was pregnant which was unusual because I was still in my first trimester and not even showing.  I asked her how she knew and she said she could read people’s energy and she could “feel” that I was pregnant.  She told me she could tell me what the sex of the baby was going to be if I wanted to know.  I was game.  She put her hands on my belly and told me I was going to have a girl.  She “felt” I was going to have a girl.  I didn’t tell my husband this because I know he wanted a son to play football with and carry on the name.  But, she went on to say that I was going to have three girls and a boy.  I guess time will tell.

We landed in Las Vegas.  For those who have never flown into Las Vegas it is like looking at a huge amusement park from the sky.  There are castles, pyramids, roller coasters, space needles, the Eiffel tower and millions of lights all on a desert oasis.  I have found that whenever we were flying into Las Vegas from various travels the passengers are drunk, giddy with excitement and joking with the flight attendants.  But if you are flying out of Las Vegas the passengers are hung over, sleep deprived and irritable from losing all their money – not a good combination when you are sitting next to them and flying with children.

When we arrived in Las Vegas we had a few days before the moving van arrived so we hung out in our home away from home – Budget Suites. You could rent suites by the week or by the month.  It was a classy place.  When I took my children to the pool one day we met the resident stripper, the gambler who needed to win at blackjack to pay for his next month’s rent, and the wife and kids who just fled the abusive husband.  We were not in Kansas anymore.