Day 1 - Road Trip

Mom trying to trip the car passing us by throwing a banana peel out the driver's side window!!!
Dad, Alison & I passing the loooong Tennessee trip by playing Risk on Joe's computer.
Alison really started getting mad at the computer player on Risk. He was really winning!
The only traffic jam that we ran into was 2 miles long. Joe went on Tennessee's website and found the cause before we got there.
Here's the cause!

Day 1 - 9am CST

Superhubby arose this morning at 2:50 and woke me up at 2:58...2 minutes before my alarm was to go off!!!! Don’t you hate that? I finally fell asleep around midnight last night and woke back up at 2, then fell back to sleep. So, I got around 3 hours of sleep. If you know me well, I don’t function on less than 7 hours, so I’m not doing too wonderful in my brain.
Well, we pushed off from the in-laws (I mean out-laws :-) ) at 3:40 am. A 20 minute miracle! We were supposed to leave at 4. Molly and Woody knew we were leaving last night when we took their bed over to the in-laws. Molly had that worried look on her face every time we’d go to take something out to the camper or vehicle and leave her in the house. So, we had to say g’bye to our babies this morning. I miss them already. It’s now 10am for those of you at home and we’re in Tennessee. Mom-in-law said we’re definitely going to make Nashville by noon (especially if it’s home time, not central time).
We’re making really good time, not as good mileage and I actually got a nap in the mix. But only after I curled up in the back of the Explorer with my pillow and blankie. Most of our stuff is packed in the camper, so I slept back here with the food and cooler. I really don’t know how long I slept, but it really wasn’t bad rest. Well, more later.

2 days, 13 hours and 28 minutes!!!!!!!

Ok, so I'm taking a break. I really didn't plan on blogging before sometime on Saturday or Sunday, but I need a break! The yard is finally (mostly) mowed. There are a couple places that I let go because I got tired of being "yelled" at by Superhubby. I unfortunately ran over 2 of his baby hazelnut trees. When he doesn't have them marked well and the grass got taller than they were...it was almost inevitable for lil' miss Missy to do. So, I avoided that area on top of the hill where his raspberries are. We've worked on the garden like locos and still don't have it all done. Last night we worked until we couldn't see anymore. We drug the monstrous charcoal grill out back to the garden and grilled chicken and potatoes and veggies. Finally we packed up all the gardening stuff and when Superhubby got to the grill he needed a flashlight to see the food. :-) We finished planting too many tomatoes and began planting plenty of peppers. I finished planting horrendous amounts of hot peppers today. We still have pumpkins/squash and melons to plant. Hopefully it'll clear up enough on Friday afternoon that Superhubby can come home and plant them. My roses, creeping Jenny and lilac still need planted also. I'd like (I'm afraid it's wishful thinking) to plant some seeds for my climbing flowers to see if they'll come up before we get back, but I don't know if that'll happen. The house is the next thing on the list. Cleaning time!!! Monday night, mom-in-law wanted to close up the camper and have it all ready to go because of the rain that they've been calling for to make sure that it doesn't get rained on and is dry when it's closed up. So, Monday I had all the clothes and stuff that went in the camper all packed up and took it all over. Now, all we need to make sure is packed is the bathroom bag with the last minute essentials, the much needed electronics (ie. laptop for blogging, digital camera and video camera and mp3 players.) Friday night, the dogs' bed is going over to mom-in-law's (they're staying with Superhubby's cousin at her house whilst we are gallyvanting around the country) along with Red the guinea pigster. The kittens are growing up a lot! They all have their eyes open now and they are sooooo cute!! Tillie is getting anxious to go outside, so I'm going to have to make sure that cuz and neighbor lady know to watch that she doesn't leave the house when they come in to feed. Well, while I'm waiting on the storms to arrive, I've got to go get caught up on my cleaning. I'm sure we'll see eachother again soon. Same time, same channel! :-) As Superhubby would say "Lost an old bagel!" (Hasta Luego for those of you who don't speak Joe)

7 Days, 13 hours & 17 minutes!!!!!!

Yeah, m'kay...I'm gettin' anxious! With a million and one things to do before we leave, I just wanna go now! I don't wanna have to do one of those million and one things...waaaaaaaah! Well, on a good note, the front garden is fully planted! Bad note, the back garden isn't even half way planted. :-( We've got all the cucumbers, zucchini, beets, cabbage, greens, potatoes, most onions & lettuces planted. We've got TOO MANY tomato & pepper plants that need planted in the back. The peas are coming up. Half the corn is planted. The pumpkins & melons are still in trays awaiting plantation and Lord knows how many more things need planted before we depart. That's just the veggies. I know I've got a lilac, a rose & some "creeping Jenny" (like creeping phlox) that need planted too. Among all that, the large yard that we have needs mowed, the house needs cleaned & all laundry needs done so I can pack. The good news is, the laundry's almost complete. The bad news is, the house is a wreck! I've assigned myself a room or area a day to get it done by Friday of next week. This includes mowing the front and side yards on my own during the daytime while praying that it doesn't rain on the days that I've allotted for it.
Nuff about all that I need to do...the kitties are getting so much bigger! Two have eyes completely open and the other is half way there. I've started thinking about how much they've grown just over the last week and a half and how much I'm going to miss during the two weeks that I'm going to be gone. I helped Tillie out today by changing the teeny tiny box that she had picked out under the table with a box twice the size. Poor thing had those babies crawling all over her, clawing at her face and everything. The box really was only big enough for her to lay in, let alone add three quickly growing kittens. I think she likes it now that she's checked it all out and everything's kosher. At first she was like "Hey, whadda ya doin'?!?" But after a couple minutes, she settled right in.
Ok, so I renewed my cellphone contract a couple weeks ago and ordered my new phone online. I got it last Saturday. It's a red (dark red, not fire engine red like Donnie's) Motorola Razor. I'm not sure that I like it. But the cheaper phones really aren't worth much anymore. It's definitely an upgrade from the trash Samsung I had before. Even though it was cute, it wasn't by any means practical. This phone is the Razor V3a...nothing like the V3m or V3i. It doesn't have an mp3 player or a micro sd slot *sniff, sniff...* One thing it does have is a camera/videocamera. But that's about it. Yeah, they're cute, but not really what I was looking for. I was trying for the LG AX2800 which is a lot like the Razor, but it actually has an mp3 player and card slot for only $19.00 more. After rebate I got this one for $0.99. The problem was, our service provider is phasing the LG phone out and phasing in the MUCH more expensive one the next step up. So, (in a know-it-all voice) they "didn't have anymore in stock". Even though it was still on the website. "I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know why it's still on our website." I hate that! Oh, well...guess I'm stuck with this phone (cute, but not really what I wanted) for two years. Maybe in two years, there will be an acceptable phone in the "cheap" category for when you renew contract. We'll see.
Speaking of things that I hate...I really dislike those little pieces of skin that decide the hang out over top your cuticles and get caught on things and then bleed like a stuck pig when pulled off accidentally. You have anything like this that you greatly dislike?

Okay...The Official Countdown has already begun!

We're going on vacation not this coming Saturday, but next. That means...
10 DAYS & COUNTING!!!
I will be blogging during our adventures out west. I can't say how often, but I'll hopefully be posting pics too. We're hoping to get one of our cell phones to work as a modem to accomplish this. We're on the race now to get everything done that needs done before we leave, ie: clean the house, mow the yard, get most of the garden planted, clean out the leftovers in the fridge, etc. I'm trying to get caught up on laundry too...not my favorite thing to do. Alison is going with us, she's so pumped about it that she's had a month long countdown going on herself. :-)

The kittens are 9 days old now and one has its eyes open and another is just beginning to open them. They're getting fat, but Tillie has moved them into our bedroom, hidden in a box under a table. She just moved them today.

Well, I'm sorry for such a shorty bloggy, but I've run out of things to say...it's getting late and I'm tired. So, hasta luego amigos!!!

I'm a momma!!!

Nope, not what you think! Ha ha! Sunday morning I woke up and found Tillie (the white cat w/gray patch of hair on her head & one blue & one green eye) had gotten skinnier. We had an inkling that she was prego, but we weren't sure. We brought her in the house 3 months ago when we found she had gone into heat one Sunday night after church. Well, here's the result: She had 4 (3 look almost exactly like her..one of those died in birth and 1 that looks like the male that's been running around lately...a dark gray tiger striped). Aren't they cute?

I'm also pumped (for many reasons, but...) because I have an interview at 1:30 today for a smaller food store that sells meat products & fresh produce. Pray for me, because since I quit teaching, we've been kinda keepin' it tight.

Well, I gotta go fix lunch, Superhubby's home today with a sever headache. I'm going to see if I can get him to eat. Then I'm going to have to get ready to leave for the interview soon. Latah!

Randomness...

Whoops! Over the phone when Mom told me my baby nephew's name that has been picked out, it sounded like Nathan...but it's Mason! Cool name huh? Me likey! Sorry for the mistake all!
The outreach revival that we had was awesome! Really unlike any revival I've ever been a part of. On Saturday we were at the park and had music, drama, puppets, free candy and all kinds of other stuff and it was fun! One of the guys that (at the time I didn't know who he was) I gave a flier to throughout the week sometime turned out to be one that rents off of our good friends. They showed up at the park on Saturday and I got to meet the whole family. They are a Puerto Rican family. The wifey is going to have a baby, if she hasn't already. And they're going to name her Génesis. It is their first child together, so I think it's very appropriate and beautiful! So, we stood around talking on Saturday for a while and they showed up on Sunday to the service. He decided that he wanted to get baptized after I explained it to them (in Spanish...my first). He had, as a child been baptized under the trinity and I told them how getting rebaptized in Jesus name was biblical. So, he and the two kids (around 10-12 yrs old) got baptized. She said that she wanted to, but later. I assume that it was a fear that went along with the pregnancy, but I don't know. We actually baptized somewhere around 16 people just on Sunday. I've heard that 3-4 people also got the Holy Ghost that day. God is amazing! We usually run somewhere around 200 on Sundays and we had somewhere between 400-450 there just for that one service! I'm excited to see how many show back up in the next few services. I fully expect to see the PR family there tonight, but it may depend on work schedules.
Well, we are one month away from VACATION TIME!!! That's right, in one month we are going to take a two week trip out west. Looking forward to the loop through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, (possibly) Utah and Colorado then back home is just too much to bear at this point. It's so close, but there's still a lot to do in preparation. I'm planning on keeping up with my blog throughout the trip so you all can see what we're up to and where we are at the time. Pics and all!!! So, as of right now, we're trying to get the garden started and get all organized for the two weeks of absence here. I'm so excited! Well, gotta go for now. I've got to add my bloggy list back on since I didn't realize it knocked 'em all off when I changed my background pic. Sorry all!
Hasta luego!

Shout, For He has given us this city!

Revival fire fall! Since I've been walking the city streets all week, I've not had time to post about all of the absolutely awesome things that God is doing! Ok, really, revival started on Easter Sunday night. We had one lady (Jackie) get baptized in Jesus name and get the Holy Ghost. The following Sunday night (last week) one man (Terry) did the same. We started revival with the Cook's that same day. All afternoon on Sunday, we walked around town, hanging door hangers and handing out fliers advertising our big community day and giveaway event that is to happen today (and yesterday at the park). I walked the streets some more on Monday afternoon, Tuesday all day, Wednesday all day, Thursday all day and worked on stuff in the office, calling people and gathering a list of names on Friday. During Wednesday night's service, 6 were baptized in Jesus name (one of which got the Holy Ghost) and two others got the Holy Ghost! On Friday, Brother Cook went out talking to people on the street and he found a man that was in need of God and he ended up coming back to the church and getting baptized and received an awesome touch from God! I hope he shows up to the service today! So, since Easter Sunday, 9 have gotten baptized and 5 have received the Holy Ghost! And it's not over yet! The whole church has had an incredible anticipation of today's service. We all feel like it's going to be such a huge outpouring of the Spirit! I can't wait until 2:00 when it all starts!
On a side note, on Tuesday, my brother and sis-in-law told us that they're going to have a boy! I don't remember if I told you before, but at Christmas they told us the good news. So, for now, they have picked out Nathan for a name. She's due in early August. Yay! I'm going to be an auntie!!! :-)
Another side note, the kiddos' verdict came in for the March trial. The court is giving mom and dad another two months to get their act together. So, yet another trial some time in May. Woohoo.....

Dryin' out!

Sorry for such a long lag in between posts, but as I mentioned before, I've been fighting SUPER s--l--o--w connections. So, we're beginning to dry out and so are the phone lines, so, I've got a fast enough connection now to actually do something online. Yay! I'm tellin' ya, we're so very close to finishing the house it's not even funny. I've been working on priming the walls in the kiddos' rooms all week and I'm going back to it as soon as I finish this post. We worked on trimming the girl's room last night, but didn't finish. We did enough that I can move some stuff out of the way so I can finish priming the final wall in that room. Her room is almost done. I started priming the boy's room, but had to stop because of the stuff that we need to get rid of. Speaking of which, is there anyone out there that would like a nice cabinet radio (old fashioned) complete with record player and 8 track to fix up? I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with it, from what I gather, it's minor, but we picked up two and we've already got one in our bedroom. We just don't have room for another, or the time to fix it up. Let me know. We're still running into storage issues. Still selling things on ebay. I finally broke down and TOLD Superhubby that he had to buy a toolbox big enough to fit all his tools in! I'm tired of whatever room we're working in, there's a pile of tools in the middle of it. It used to be my utility room, then it moved to the kids' bathroom and now it's been the boy's room for quite some time now and I'm tripping over tools like crazy! So, we finally went to the tool store and he picked one out. Now, I just have to get him to sit down and organize things into which toolbox he wants what. I'm still fighting the pile o'tools. I may just throw 'em all in the big tool box and make him organize when he gets around to it. I can't get to where I want to paint in that room. Grrr! Last Saturday, Superhubby and his dad worked on the back overhang over the back doors. They're almost done, but we have to go back to the tool store tonight to get another sheet of plywood. We under estimated. :-( Because he's coming back over tomorrow to help finish it. We should be able to do the home inspection and fire inspection in the next few weeks.

Yes, I did have a birthday. Woopee! I'm 28. Two years from 30...whaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I don't know if I can handle it! My wonderful Spanish students threw me a party on Monday night in class. (Muchas gracias!) I wasn't expecting it and me being my prompt (early) self, spoiled the surprize! Oops. Tomorrow night we're going out to eat with the fam. I hope everyone can make it. It'll be fun!

Ok guys, Sunday night, H.O.P. is up for their next "performance" (I hate calling it a performance, but what else can you call it? Suggestions?) and I'm super SUPER nervous!!!! I'm doing a skit, a monologue to be exact and I've never done a speaking part in anything before! After that, we're doing a song that God put on my heart and gave me the choreography to. I pray it is so very powerful! Pray for me, especially that I can remember my lines! :-) I asked my family to come, I hope they do. I could use a little support in this and I really miss seeing them at church. I don't see them very often now, and I miss that. Well all, I really have to go get covered in paint again. Somebody's gotta do it! :-) Later!

Life is against me!

The last three days (Tues - Thurs) have been against me blogging!
It all began from the rain on Mon. & Tues. and I was busier than all get out trying to get things done around here. On top of all the housework that is added on by the drywall dust and added "junk" from other rooms in rooms that they don't belong, I had to work on my piano (on which I feel like I'm slacking) and H.O.P. stuff. Hands of Praise has become my new "burden" that God has blessed me in. It used to be the music department, God would give me songs to sing that I felt would bless others. Now, on top of giving me songs, He's giving me "dramas" or "human videos" and sign-language/dowel movements to go along with the songs. So far "My All" which we did back in the fall and March's song (TBA for surprise purposes) have been given to me by God. We're going to do something like what we did back in the fall/winter with "Everything" (the drama/human video of the girl being attacked by sin and Jesus coming to her rescue). It's the same concept of dramatics, but it is so very powerful! I was listening to the song...I've heard it quite a few times on cd...and all the sudden it just started playing out in my mind. I approached H.O.P. leader and said "Waddaya think?" and he loved it! So, that's what we're working on now. ANYWHO, I had a gob of things to do on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we had so much rain that our yard was a mote and the water was seeping into our phone lines. And you can only imagine what that does to dial-up! I went from a 46kbps connection to a 12kbps connection! Killer! I did NOTHING on line Wednesday.

Thursday was basically the same way, but I was trying to get the rest of my house clean because I have a new student that just started coming out on Thursdays. It's a guy I went to high school with (come to find out, he married a girl I went to college with! Crazy!) He contacted our old Spanish teacher to find out if he could get private lessons because he's working in law enforcement now and she called me and said "Help! I have no time! Can you?" And I said, "Sure, why not?" So, most of my day was spent finishing the clean up from the days before and getting his lesson all squared up in my mind. It went well. It was really weird seeing him all grown up though! 10 yrs post - high school! Wow!

The last couple days I've been working on priming the new drywall and painting over that UGLY bold pinky color that used to be the kiddos' rooms. I'm not even close to being done! I was focusing on the areas around the doors and windows because Superhubby was going to trim them last night. He ran into a problem though, he needed to add a tidbit of drywall because the trim didn't cover all of the gap beside the door. Bummer! More spackling, sanding and priming! Yuck! We did complete the two bathrooms over the last week though! All trim up, all painting done, it's a wonderful feeling! So, now...all we really have to focus on are the two kids' rooms, the soffit work on the roof and anything they may tell us after the first home study visit that we need to do. So, pray for us because the kids' trial is on the 17th, yup, my b-day. I told Superhubby "This could be a really good b-day or a really bad one depending on what happens." Well, toodles!