And They're Off!

Everyone was up late last night and too early this morning, so Inger renamed her family “The Family of Chaos,” as everyone was pretty crabby trying to get out the door on their way to San Francisco. It was a bit chaotic, and I have to say I added to their troubles. They were delayed at least a half an hour looking for a new Nintendo game that suddenly disappeared that they bought one of the twins for the road trip. Unbeknownst to me, it was sitting on the back seat when I flopped the seat forward and tucked it down in the handy storage compartment in the back of the van. Once I realized everyone said the last place it was seen was in the backseat, I knew right away where it might be. They hit the road shortly after I recovered it, on their long adventure down Interstate 5, heading to California in our sweet Honda “touring” van complete with built in navigational system and DVD player for the kids.




Soon after they left, I called several of the Best Buy stores again to see if anyone had gotten any shipments today of the iPad mini-computer from Apple. I found a store near Eugene, Oregon, that had just received 12 of them and they had nine left, so I was on the phone right away to Bjørn, telling him where to stop to buy that darn thing for Tobias. I thought they would have been in Oregon by the time I called them, but they got sidetracked in Centralia at the outlet mall there. I got nervous and called back the store to see if they would hold one for him, since they were on their way down (but several hours from actually getting there), and they wouldn’t do it. So I’m sure Tobias was feeling a bit stressful today, wondering if there would be any left by the time he got there, as there were only four left by the time I called the second time. I prayed a lot on his behalf, as I knew how much it meant to him.



I stayed off my feet as much as possible today, (at least now the throbbing pain is gone) paying bills and catching up on a few things (like posting old blogs), but I did have to go into town to close out an account at the bank. Just as I sat down with the bank person, Bjørn called me on the cell phone to inform me that they made it to Best Buy in time and Tobias finally got his long awaited iPad. I shouted “Hallelujah,” right in the bank, then had to explain myself to the woman helping me.



Kory was down in Seattle today at the naturopath doctor getting his (hopefully) last mercury detox treatment, then working over at our apartment building, preparing the way for a new roof next week. Kaleb had his pal, Timothy, here all day so they were off doing what boys do on a summer day, and the hours just slipped by for all of us. I didn’t get the house clean, laundry folded, or all the calls returned I needed to, but it was nice to have a day to just let it all go. I didn’t even make dinner.



Bjørn called exactly twelve hours after he left our house this morning, saying they were checked into their hotel in Grants Pass, Oregon, and they made it safe and sound. It’s about an eight hour drive so they took their time, which was good. They are all ready for another late night shopping spree at the Wal-Mart next to their hotel, and they will hit the road again tomorrow morning with Fisherman’s Wharf as their final destination. I do hope they are able to get tickets to go out and see Alcatraz, as when I checked on-line last night, they were all sold out for the weekend. It’s all Tobias was looking forward to seeing, but now that he has his new iPad, I’ll bet he won’t even know they are in San Francisco tomorrow – unless that gadget speaks up somehow and tells him so.