#Houston Day 3: Target, Swimming, Chilling

Day 3 of The Kerrie Show on the Road! WELCOME! Okay, so our first day in a new place we usually just chill so this won't be all that exciting. Excitement comes later so come back. Here is today in pictures anyway, peeps, and the Texas-shaped waffle was the highlight of my entire morning!

In case you have been living under a rock, here is where we are. Mr. Kerrie is working here for weeks and weeks so we had to stalk him to keep him on the straight path.

See that? I did not cook it. I put it on my plate and ate it and profusely thanked the people who DID make it.

No joke. Two waffle makers make these. We definitely don't have Kansas-shaped waffles unless we shape them into a simple rectangle.

See that? Well, do you? It's the menu, friends. It's what is FREE for dinner THREE NIGHTS A WEEK. More of me not cooking, which is really just better for everyone involved.

Cutest thing ever. Sam wanted to sleep with his sisters so all 5 kids were in one room and it is freaking me out that no children are in our bed!

Michael and Joel share a bed.

Time to go hunting for provisions like M&Ms and juice pouches and flip flops and forgotten toothbrushes.

And ended up with hats and jackets and T-shirts. Sam needed a rain jacket and a regular jacket, he informed me. I said, "Don't ever say all you got was hand-me-downs, kid."

Aren't they sweet, that Michael and Sam? Taking our groceries and goodies in on a luggage cart.

After a zillion-hour shopping trip and lunch we hit the pool. Pool was COLD so we hot tubbed some.

Joel got some shots of a couple of  lizards fighting!

Okay, fine. To be honest, I did not get in much. I tried to get my tan on.

Before Mr. Kerrie came home from work I snuck in 30 minutes on the treadmill.

After dinner, back to the pool. The guy's head you see? He and his 4 boys and wife are from Overland Park, right up the road. Do not say SMALL WORLD to me.

Click here for Day Four.

#TheKerrieShow in #Houston Day 2: Oklahoma to Houston to Outback

Here is our travel day #2 in pictures!

Callie and Mommy, just waking up.

Breakfast at the Embassy Suites in Norman, Oklahoma

Brekkers

The obligatory balcony shot like we did in like 2010 in Colorado! My, how things have changed!

A stop on the road at a rest stop/park

Getting there!

Houston skyline!

We are here! Mr. Kerrie lookin' fine as usual!

Arrival in Houston and dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Yes, that is a blue cheese wedge salad! Sam is in green.

Checkin' out the pool and hot tub at Staybridge Suites.

Click here for Day Three!

#Houston Day 1: KC to Oklahoma

We went to church Saturday night so we could head out of town Sunday as early as possible, which turned out to be noon thirty. We were hoping to leave at noon, so leaving only 30 minutes behind schedule was a HUGE improvement for the McFamily. I think the kids sat in the van for an hour waiting for us to get all packed, me to run to QT for ice, etc.

My fancy camera is not doing its wireless download right now and I don't wanna search for the cable so I will post the pix I took with my new phone and grab the others later!

The McVan ... my friend Eva got me the I Love Aron sticker and the Beware magnet!

The night before leaving. The kids were so excited ... Sam slept with us like always but the other 4 kids were in the girls' room ... newly moved around at Callie's request

Sammiches for the trip ... 9 PBJs

Somewhere in Oklahoma

Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Norman, Oklahoma ($60 to feed 7 of us! EEEK!)

At Embassy Suites in Norman, Oklahoma for the night. SWANKY!

Look, we all know I am mostly blogging this for my parents and Mr. Kerrie's parents and also for Joel's friend Nathan! But I want to give a shout-out to Brooke, who I met at this hotel, and she showed me how to get my hip back into whack. Brooke is like my opposite: one kid, school principal and so on ... but we are also alike in that we both have a husband who likes a clean house and we are bad at keeping house. Instant friends.

Click here to check out Day Two.

Comicon & The #Arrow's Autograph: McLoughlin Blue Laws are Alive and Well

When Aron and I were first dating, we were not exactly what you would call religious. I was going through this "down with men because they are all going to just hurt you anyway so why even bother building anything meaningful" phase at the ripe old age of 24, and he was ready to settle down at almost 29 years old. I met my match with this guy, that's for sure. He turned my thinking around just by being this awesome person. I truly believe God brought him into my life for a reason and here we are almost 20 years later.

Anyway, maybe a year and a half into our relationship we started going to Catholic church (he was raised Catholic and I was raised ... hmmm, how do I explain this? ... I was raised by two parents who had been raised kinda super-Protestant? My parents did not raise me to be religious but gave me all the major moral stuff they were supposed to ... and for this reason I am able to hang out with all kinds of different people and be okay with them and not think everyone has to be just like me).

Walking Her Age in Miles Every Year the Week Before Her Birthday

Back in the day, in between leaving my abusive first spouse and discovering my amazing husband Mr. Kerrie, I dated a psychologist. We worked together when I was around age 23 and he was around age 46 and we were together about 18 months. A few times we went to stay at his mom’s house in Topeka, Kansas and his mother was a firecracker who used to be a teacher. Here’s the cool thing about Irene Walker:

She was a walker.

Let’s say she was turning 75 that year. She would work her way up to walking 75 miles during the 7 days before her birthday. Each year she would up it a mile.

I think that is super cool and I hope to be like that someday. 

I can currently barely walk 3 miles without being in pain the next day so the thought of walking 44 miles during 7 days this coming June would freak me all out.

I'd love to do something like this someday where I could walk a half marathon like Mr. Kerrie and I did in October 2001 when I barely even realized I was pregnant with our first child!

P.S. My ex's brother had a slew of kids and they homeschooled. I was in love with the idea of that even then. I loved how many kids they had and what a loving family they were. I wanted that for myself someday so badly and knew I was not going to have that with my ex, and he knew it too. Things worked out for the best and we both moved on and are happy and friendly.  There are people who come into your life for a reason ... my ex was there for many reasons: to help me out of my abusive marriage, to introduce me to his amazing mother (I walked my first 5K around the Plaza with them and another in Topeka with them and fell in love with the 5K), to introduce me to his fabulous brother and his large family, to let me know that I could have exactly what I wanted someday out of my life if I would just go for it.

Irene died of lung cancer from 30 years of second-hand smoke in 2004. My ex's cousin is preparing for the NY Marathon and is dedicating her run to Irene Walker. I hope to do the same sort of thing someday.