Dreaded Stand Still...

Today I have fully realized how important HinckleDoodle has become to me. I truly adore my fans and try to make the best effort to build friendships, business relationships, and quality products. I have realized that in MO I had created a routine to try and keep constant content coming to my biz page to keep my fans interested and involved. I tried my hardest (and enjoyed every minute of it) to upload pictures every 2 or 3 days of finished products. It's been so long since I've finished something.

Here's the supplies I have right now:

I have this and maybe 4 ozs of stuffing :(

And if my supplies that I currently have were equivalent to a 12-inch ruler...this isn't even a centimeter of what I have. The rest is being stored away in a military warehouse until we get a more permanent home that I have no access to! :( It's really bringing me down! And I can't just go get more since money is tight until the Army reimburses us for our move!

I CAN gladly say that yesterday was my first full sunny day in NY! It's beautiful! This is how warm days are supposed to feel. No humidity that drenches you in sweat as soon as you walk out the door!

Here's some fun things I've discovered about NY, since I arrived:

- U-Turns are legal! Aaahhh I know the first time someone does that in front of me, I'm going to freak out lol I told my husband that there is no way I'll ever do one. That's the last thing this world needs me getting used to! I would be pulling them at every chance I got lol Darn woman drivers, right?

- The traffic lights are different. Confusing! There are so many lights and signs at every intersection. I'll try and get a picture of them for my Missourians as soon as I can.

- Do bugs even exist here? I have seen maybe 2 or 3. When I was outside last night, I noticed that around the outside light there were no bugs at all flying around it! In Missouri, there's literally hundreds of bugs crowding around a light at night. I thought that was strange AND AWESOME! I'm crossing my fingers, June Bugs don't exist here lol

This is our current temporary home:

And this is our temporary front yard...an intersection... Sigh lol

ANDDDD my husband came up with a grand idea that I shall start implementing here on my blog that I think everyone will enjoy. My daughter, Owen Amelia, is one of the kookiest characters that has ever been. She says the funniest things. I've always thought she'd be able to have her own show and I've been meaning to make a book that is nothing but Owen quotes :) And so, my husband said I should start putting out "Owenisms" lol So I think with every blog post and occasionally on my biz page, I'll put a quote or two from my funny daughter that will surely put a smile on your face!

1st Owenism ever shared and this is an old one, but it's my favorite so far:

"Yeah, well...

you're a twisty tornado in a garden of rotten cheese."

This was her comeback to her Dad after he was teasing her. HILARIOUS!!!!!

Every adventure has a rocky road...

The trip was so smooth and we had lots of fun but now the trouble begins...

I am a very proud military wife, daughter, friend, sister, niece...etc. I'm tied to the military in so many ways, but being apart of the Army is new to me. I'm more connected to the Air Force since my father is a retired Master Sgt and my brother is a Sgt in the AF. I can say with certainty that the Air Force takes care of families A LOT better than Army. Army treats each soldier (at least in our situation) like they're a burden and since they're a burden, so is their family.

"Basically, we're shit out of luck" is what I couldn't hold back from saying today to one of the civilian workers today. We were supposed to get advance money to help us with our trip from MO to NY but it didn't come so we made it on what we had. Now we're running low and are...well...basically shit out of luck. I hope that my next blog post isn't from a McDonald's parking lot from their free Wi-Fi telling you all that we're living out of our SUV!

I know things will eventually work themselves out and I'm trying to focus on that. But day-by-day as a wife and mother, I worry about how to take care of my family because that is the job description for both those titles and I take them very seriously.

I am going to try and drown myself in HinckleDoodle because that's my happy place. :) I have limited supplies since most of it is with the movers somewhere, but I can make it work. So while Drew is in-processing and we're in a stand still, I hope to get some important biz stuff done with HinckleDoodle. I need to do some reorganzing and plan my grand opening of my online store!


In short, yes. Yes, I would say we've hit our rocky road, but this mama and her family shall prevail!!!!

You know why because this goofy little angel is the reason why:

Whew I'm glad I can relax now!

Everything has gone smoothly except the last hour or two of today's travels. When it got dark, it started to rain harder and OMG we went down this scary road to our hotel and we could barely see the lines. It was the worst and longest 7 miles EVER! But we're in tonight's temporary home: safe, fed, and happy.

Tonight's post will mostly be just pictures :)

We started our adventure today at our hotel in Zanesville, OH...

The handsome men of the trip waiting for the lady of the house to get ready :)

And today I decided to wear my lovely NY gear since we were so close to the state border of our new stomping ground :)

And we decided to have breakfast across the street at Denny's.

I really love the next two pictures, by the way!

Daddy and Owie Pie! Or 'The Twins' as most call them lol

My beautiful daughter and I!!
I swear you can't tell sometimes that I made her, but I promise she came from my womb! lol

Little Owen said she wanted that seal and by golly with two tries, she got that seal! ALL BY HERSELF!
Well, it tried to cheat her out of it, but don't you worry, this mom saved the day!

We then ventured further down I-70E thru OH and eventually, we went thru WV for a mere 13 miles but from what we saw of Wheeling, WV...we want to retire there! But unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of the awesome hills and quirky houses that had my name written all over them!
BUT I did get this cool tunnel photo:



Further and further we went thru WV to PA...Pennsylvania didn't impress us at first, but it did get prettier and prettier as we drove through :)

And after Pennsylvania came....yup, you guessed it:

NEW YORK!!!!

I was very VERY ecstatic to finally see this sign and to finally start building a sense of home again. I love what I have seen of NY so far. The drivers here are the equivalent of a KS driver (no offense Kansas fans lol) back home, but overall...it's different here.

We enjoyed the scenic route of Highway 5 East and came across a Lake Erie harbor :)

Pictures don't do it justice at all. Lake Erie is incredible!

MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY by a random boat not in the water :)

Miss Owen loved all the birds!

And after this, we got back on 90E and it was rather uneventful so no pictures...then the raining began and got worse...and now we're in Auburn, NY for the night and able to sleep in (YAY!) since we're less than 2 hours from Fort Drum now :)

Our original idea was to stay in Syracuse, but I think we're just wanting to get to Fort Drum and not worrying about travelling for a little while! I'm ready to plant some roots and start making a home again!

Cross your fingers with me that Fort Drum has a home immediately available!

Load Up, It's a New Day!

I can't type too much about what's happened so far...but I thought it'd be nice to give you all a short update about this epic adventure that my family and I are on and it's the relocation of HinckleDoodle!

We started our trip at my parents' house in Knob Noster at about 6 am :) I cried, yes...I have never lived more than 20 minutes from my parents so moving 18 1/2 hours away is a huge deal. But like I said to my husband...this is the true beginning of our adult lives and marriage really. I am excited beyond belief and of course, scared.

Our trip has been so successful and smooth that it's pretty much unbelievable. I thought it would be more painful lol! We felt like we only drove 3 or 4 hours and we put 13 hours on the road yesterday!

My daughter has her own atlas and we've been marking all our stops. My dad got her an atlas so she can find how to go back to papa's house...AWWWWW sweet, right? She's having a blast doing it!

We went thru Missouri to Illinois to Indiana to Ohio and we're halfway to a little piece of West Virginia then we'll be in Pennsylvania! After that..........yes..... NEW YORK!!!!!! Yes you may start singing "Concrete jungles, where dreams are made of...There's nothing you can't doooooo....Now you're in NEW YORKKKKKKK!"  I know I just did. lol ;)

We plan on taking the scenic route by Lake Erie and then make it to Syracuse, NY to stay the night and explore since it's the closest big city to Fort Drum and we're sure to spend a lot of weekends there :)

Here's just a few pictures of our trip :)

This is Owen, Mr. Bosley, and myself enjoying the trip....or at least relaxing lol

I've always wanted to take a picture like this... :) And here it is...

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday in Effingham, IL for lunch. I find exciting because here we are on a grand adventure and I'm eating at a restaurant I've never eaten at before. Yes, I know that's weird but I don't get out much lol.
Daddy and Owie Pie reunited after his stint in Korea. Back to being BFFs! They are the best road trip partners EVER! They constantly keep the laughs going in the SUV :)

And this is the state we're in right now and where our 2nd day of travelling will begin...The great state of Ohio. I will say that so far it looks like MO, IL, and IN all look the same and OH reminded us of Kansas...I can't wait to see PA and NY!

So thank you all for the well wishes for safe travels and fun-having because it's been working! We've been happy, safe, and lucky to have like NO traffic at all. It's odd actually how bare the roads were yesterday. I'm hoping today is the same but since it's the end of the holiday weekend...I fear we may not be as lucky but we will see....

<3 Jess xoxo