Month: July 2010

This is probably my favorite picture of Jonathan from our trip.  I took this picture of him at the Kalamazoo Air-zoo.  He loved being inside a real cockpit with real buttons and switches to push. 

Real early tomorrow morning we will picking Scott up from the airport.  I will have to awaken the kids and at lunch today, I described to them how I imagine tomorrow morning will be. 

Joshua, I’ll only have to tell twice and he’ll be up and at ’em.  He’ll probably even help get the others up.

Ruth will be a challenge since she usually sleeps so soundly.  I anticipate having to tell her loudly severral times and then shake her shoulder, or threaten to tickle her feet to finally get her up and moving.

Hannah, I will come into the room and quietly and sweetly as possible tell her to wake up. There are two possible reactions I expect from her. She’ll either grumble and turn over covering her head with her pillow and then cry as I insist she get up, or she’ll jump out of bed and squeal excitedly because we’re going to get Daddy. . 

Jonathan, I’ll probably have to carry out after trying to wake him up enough to at least go potty first.

Then Elijah should be the simplest to just feed and put in his car seat.  But I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose that time to have the dirtiest diaper of the week.  Watch them all surprise me and give totally different reactions than I am anticipating.  We shall see.  I’ll try to post again tomorrow if I get a chance.

One funny thing that from my confusion of Scott’s arrival was I had rescheduled Elijah’s 4 month check-up for Wednesday, thinking that we might be too tired from picking Scott  up on Tuesday.  Oh well maybe I’ll leave the kids at home to watch a movie or something while Scott rests.  It will be different taking only Elijah to the doctor. 

This eveniung, I took the kids with me to the store to get some much needed groceries.  I found Hebrew National Beef Hot Dogs on sale for 75 cents a package.  That was 6.5 cents per ounce!  It was just about cheaper than the cheap stuff.  I bought just about every package they had.   I told the cashier that with a family our size you don’t pass up a good deal like that.

Now I need to wash some dishes and then get some sleep.  Scott’s flight will take him about 2 and a half to 3 hours to get all the way from Los Angeles to Houston.  It will take me a little over half that just  to drive to the airport.  Kind of funny isn’t it? 

I’ll try to post an update sometime tomorrow about Scott’s arrival.  Thanks for all your prayers.

I’ve probably heard this question a billions of times (using another of Hannah’s favorite phrases).  Everything seems to be a billion with that girl.   I don’t know exactly how to break her of the habit of asking, “Can I tell you something?” before everything she wants to say.  And if anyone says, “No.”  She’ll stop and look at you like, “what do I do now?”  Usually the person that tells her no gives in and lets her tell them.

Here are some more pictures from our trip.  I wanted to post the pictures I have from our fishing trip. 

Jonathan caught his first fish with the help of Grandpa Art.  Jonathan was a little nervous of touching the fish, he wouldn’t even hold the string the fish is on for the picture. But the position his hand was in makes it look like he was holding it.

Joshua caught two or three fish.  He was the official fish carrier.  He would carry the fish that were keepers to the bucket and release the ones that were too small back into the bucket.  After we got back Grandpa Art taught him how to clean the fish.

This is the only picture I could get of Hannah.  She was freaking out over the fish on her line and was demanding in a very shrieky voice that someone get that fish off her hook.  If you hadn’t guessed already she is our drama queen.

Ruth was the last to start catching fish.   She was getting disturbed by the fact and I told her that the fish probably knew that she wasn’t baiting her own hook.  She didn’t like touching the worms so we kept having to put the worm on for her.  I was a little tired of having to stop what I was doing to put a worm on her hook, so I told her that the first step in catching fish was to put the worm on your own hook.  She then got her nerve up and started baiting her own hook and sure enough she started catching fish.  In fact she probably caught the most.

I don’t know how well my fishing advice will go for anyone else but it seemed to work for her.  I think technically it was because she was able to get her hook in the water faster because she wasn’t having to wait on someone else to bait it for her. 

Today was Ruth’s 10th Birthday.  She had asked me as we were driving back to Texas from Michigan that we not have to drive on her birthday.  I told her that it all depended on how many times they asked to stop.  I did have to tease her yesterday once we arrived that on her birthday after she opened her presents we could all get in the van again and ride around town just for fun. But she didn’t seem to like that idea.

They were encouraged by me telling them how many hours were left along the way.  If we had driven straight through without any stops we could have made it to my parents house in 20 hours or so.  They were all excited that it could be that quick and all started agreeing that they would not ask to go to the restroom the whole trip.  I smiled and told them that we would see how long that lasted. 
 

We arrived in Michigan Friday evening.  We had a good visit with the family.  There was a lot of Construction in Illinois and in Michigan.  We arrived and unpacked most of our things.  I had Jonathan and Elijah sleep in the room with me while Joshua, Ruth, and Hannah slept in the livingroom.  The older two slept on cots, and Hannah slept on the couch.

Saturday, we went fishing on a pontoon that belonged to Scott’s, mother’s, husband’s, brother.  I guess that would be Scott’s mother’s brother-in-law.  Anyway, we went on the boat and everyone caught a fish.  Even Jonathan caught a fish. 

Saturday night, I asked Scott’s mom, Judy,  if there was a church that she would like to visit.  Normally we always go to the church Scott was saved and grew up in.  This time we went to the church she went to when she was a girl.  It was a cute little church building in the country.  I was amazed at how many people went to that little church.  They had a lot of cute little children as well.  There were several people there that were friends with Judy’s family.  Some she remembered from when she was a girl.  I even saw Scott’s uncle Howard there.  He is very nice.  I found out that he has been helping the Amish in their part of Michigan.  I think that is pretty neat.

Monday, we went to a Museum called the Kalamazoo Air Zoo.  There were a lot of rides there.  One section had air planes and another building had an outerspace exhibit.  It was pretty neat and the kids were able to ride a lot of neat rides.  I’ll have to post more about that when I have more time.

Then Tuesday we stayed at Judy’s home and enjoyed visits from several of Scott’s family.  His Aunt Vicky and Cousin Nancy came that morning and then around lunch time we enjoyed a visit from his Aunt Beverly and Aunt Shelby.  Joshua enjoyed playing with Aunt Shelby’s grandson Joey.  

Then today, we loaded up the van and headed out around Noon.  If we were able to drive the whole way without any stops we could have been back by 5 a.m. or so.  The kids were real excited about that, and even said they wouldn’t ask to go to the bathroom for the whole trip if we could get back to Texas in one day.  But I knew that wouldn’t last long.  Right now we are in Illinois and will probably make it through to Arkansas tomorrow. 

Ruth’s birthday is Saturday and she is really not wanting to be on the road on her birthday.  So I’m going to try to make good time tomorrow and hopefully stop around 9 p.m. tomorrow night.  I’m tired and will need to get some good sleep tonight. 

Scott called me today and he told me that this has been a really productive trip.  He is amazed at all the ministry he has been able to help with on this trip and the response of the people to their team.  I have not had internet the whole time I was in Michigan and had been wondering about how he was doing.  It was so good to hear his voice.

Friday, I am hoping to make it to my parents by Friday.  On Saturday, we will celebrate Ruth’s birthday, and then Sunday I am looking forward to hearing my Dad preach again, and then Sunday or Monday I hope to head home and get the house in order for Scott’s arrival on Tuesday. 

The above pictures were taken as we were headed toward Michigan.  The one of me was taken by Hannah.  The other two pictures were taken at Boomland which is one of our favorite stops on our way to Michigan.  We had stopped for a restroom break and I let Jonathan and Hannah ride one of the kiddy rides. 

I’m so glad to be able to be online again. Tomorrow, I will try to post some more pictures from our trip.

I am so tired right now but I wanted to blog that we made it to our hotel around 11:00 tonight.  It took an hour to get everything in and the kids to bed.  I should be in bed right now myself but really wanted to go online since there was free access and see how things were going for Scott.  I hadn’t heard from him today but I saw some posts by others on the Mission team.  I also got to see some new pictures.  It sounds like everything is going well there.  I pray every night that God will help them as they awake.  And every morning I pray that they are able to sleep well. 

I decided to drive later tonight than I did last night.  We had stopped at Boomland in Missouri for a restroom break and to let the kids stretch their legs.  It was about 8 p.m. when we stopped there and I decided I was feeling pretty well, that I could drive a little further tonight while Elijah and Jonathan were asleep.  I figured that would leave us with only 6 hours to drive tomorrow.  Check out time is 11 a.m. tomorrow so I hope that we are able to make good time in the morning.  Even if we left at check out time, we could drive 3 hours and stop for a break or lunch and drive another 3 hours and make it to Michigan before it got dark.  That’s if we can manage to keep our stops short.  We tend to take a long time getting back in the car after we stop.  Having to change two dirty diapers in one stop doesn’t help any.  But I think we will be able to do it tomorrow.  Especially if I go to bed and get some sleep here in a minute. 

Last night we stopped at a hotel and the three older children wanted to sleep in one bed and I let Jonathan sleep in my bed.  It’s amazing how much wriggling a two year old can do in his sleep.  I had fallen asleep or was about to and suddenly I was kicked hard in the back.  I turned around and found Jonathan was laying sideways in the bed.  So I repositioned him correctly on his pillow.  Then I tried to fall asleep again when suddenly I was hit in the face by his hand.  Then I was afraid he might fall out of the bed with all his moving around.  At one point he even put his head toward the foot of the bed trying to get comfortable.  It was crazy.  I moved him back the right direction again.  If he does it again tonight he might wind up sleeping on the floor.  But so far he seems to be staying still over there.  He must be too tired to care which position he falls asleep in.

I had a slight emotional moment while driving tonight.  My shoulder was sore from being too tense while driving.  I have a problem tensing my muscles when I drive at night.  I was all tense when I thought about how Scott would rub my shoulders.  It made me sad a little and in the dark I allowed a tear or two to fall.  I also thought about how I’ve never seen this much of the country before.  Usually Scott and I take turns driving and sometimes while he drives, I fall asleep.  This time I have been awake the whole trip.  I reckon that is a good thing.  But I miss him terribly. 

I’ll end with a picture Hannah took today.  I was trying to get pictures of everyone in the van.  The only one I couldn’t get a picture of from my driver’s seat was Elijah so I gave the camera to Hannah.  Here is the picture she proudly took.  I have four copies of this picture in my camera.   It must have been the first picture I’ve ever let her take with my camera since she was so proud of it.  I did have Ruth take another picture and Ruth actually got his face in it. 

Well, I had better get some sleep now.  From some of the messages I’ve read on Facebook, I’m hearing that God is doing some amazing things in Thailand.  He’s been taking care of them and He’s been taking care of me and the kids as well.  

I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  I better get some sleep though.  I don’t guess the Prov. 31 woman didn’t let her candle go out by night because she was blogging. 

I love this picture of Scott in Thailand.  It was taken in Thailand and posted on the Mission’s facebook page.  Scott is holding his e-reader and I’m sure he is showing the gentleman some of the pictures he has of our family. 

I received an e’mail from him and they are doing well.  They are in the village teaching about 600 children.  There is a computer lab in the school where he is able to send me brief e’mails as time permits.  It sounds like they have been keeping pretty busy. 

I let the kids play with water guns yesterday.  Ruth did not have a water gun so we let her use the water hose.  That did not seem fair to Joshua at first but after I explained it to him, he agreed and had a great time. 

We watched fireworks in Corsicana with my parents, my sister, and her husband. We found a nice spot to watch without it being too loud. We were about a half mile from the spot they were setting them off. The picture doesn’t do justice to how nice they were.

Then today my dad made homemade ice cream. After we ate ice cream, I allowed the kids to run off the energy with water guns. They didn’t quite have enough water guns

so Papa told Ruth she could use the hose. That was almost an issue with Joshua who didn’t think it fair. But once he realized that was the only option he went out and joined the fun.