Sunday, August 06, 2006

Jen in AZ

I wanted to check your blog and see how you are doing - been praying. I can't remember the blog address.....feel free to email it to me if you don't want to leave it here.....or just know that I'm praying for you and your family.

De'Etta
STACIA UPDATE

The blue ink is gone. She looks normal. Shew. {G}

She was very, very weary of her car seat last night. I'm glad we are stopping for a few days now.
SATURDAY - AUGUST 5th - DAY FIVE

Yesterday, Zander began telling us that he wanted to go home. He said he did NOT want to get the girls - they were "stinky Petes". Krista was his "girl" for years before they left home last fall. He was really quite adamant and vocal about the fact that he didn't want to see them and we should turn around and go back home. We continued to drive.

Highlights:

733+ bikers spotted today. I wish we'd counted them on the first two days. Now - they are on the opposite side of the freeway as we are past the SD exits. It's amazing to see all the types of cycles and trailers and such.....With the early starts I've not been able to do my hair etc in the morning. I put make up on at the first stop. Mike commented that I shouldn't fret that I look at least as good as the biker babes....:::snort::: the helmet head/bandana look. I inisted on curling my hair and applying make up this a.m....you'll note why later!

OH - a highlight on the second day is that for the first time in over 20 years of driving with Mike he got tired enough to ask ME to drive. I did fairly well I thought...until he woke up, asked where we were and then said to pull over. I told him I could make it to Sheridan. We went a few miles more and he said, "no - pull over now". I knew I was tired....driving with just one eye resting.....but I didn't realize that I was terrifying the whole van with my creative lane weaving. LOL

We stopped at BK off the freeway and met Cynthia, Emily, Josh and Nathan for breakfast at 6:30 a.m. YES - we slept in until 5 a.m. AND I had time to look NORMAL when meeting Cynthia. LOL For those who don't know Cynthia - she was Bre's first piano teacher. We struck up a friendship during that time that has lasted over the years and our moves. Cynthia and I co-own the homeschooling list Support4HomeSchool (link to the right if you want to check it out). It was fun to see them again.

We left BK at about 7:30. We THOUGHT we had a 6 hour trip in to Spokane...but we had not accounted for ROAD CONSTUCTION. Cynthia warned us about it in Bozeman but it was really much worse outside of Butte......which Cynthia probably really didn't know about because we all KNOW she slept all the way to Seattle in May anyway. LOL And a side note - for those of you from SHS - let Sharon know that we eat NORMAL and not to sweat what to feed us on Tuesday. Yes, at HOME I'm feeding the family a certain way but on the road....may I just say the Bacon revolt is once again in full swing? I'm watching what Zander eats as best as I can but he's EASY....I have crackers and Nature Valley Oats and honey granola bars....whole milk and a box of crispix and he's in heaven.

Josiah got to drive today - see note above about how rare this is.

We drove by Belgrade and I realized that our friends the Stricklers now live there. We'll have to see if we can look them up when we drive back through. I also saw a sign for "Wheat Montana" - bakery and deli. WM is who shipped Prairie Gold wheat berries to AK. Mike said we can stop on our back and see if they have about 50# for sale....because we can't find anyone in TX to ship it to us...and to have WM ship it is EXPENSIVE.

We discovered that getting a later start in the day really did make for more of a "stressful" day in the car with the little ones. We stopped for gas in Missoula and lunch in St Regis, MT. This wasn't the way we PLANNED it but we couldn't find anything in Missoula where we pulled off. We did find a nice little spot to eat in St Regis. I had my first really BIG salad since we left and was much happier for it. While the others are thrilled to have "double ham crossainwhiches" in the a.m. - the egg crossainwhich is getting a bit old. {sigh}

The girls called when we were outside of Missoula. The boys joked about how hyper Bre would be when we got in. I said, "nah - she's grown up". We told them we'd call them when we reached Couer de lane (however you SPELL THAT????). We called and could tell that she was getting a bit excited. They asked us to meet them at the church. We pulled in and the girls began running to the van....then Bre STOPPED and began jumping up and down and screaming - made me cry....made Mike laugh and drive by the girls. :::snort::: We all untangled ourselves from the van and hugged etc. The girls then gave us the big behind the scenes tour of the MC office and the church.

As we left the church, the girls invited whoever wanted to ride with them to come with them. As Zander walked off with them he turned back to Mike and I and said "I'm not mad at them anymore". The girls were a bit mystified but we knew exactly what he was talking about. LOL

We checked into the hotel and went swimming while Mike took a nap. Well - Bre didn't swim because she had a worship team practice later in the day. It turns out that another MC student - Nick was in the pool with his parents. He and the kids got into a huge splashing war.....they had a great time and released a lot of that pent up energy.

The girls commented on how amazed they are at the changes in Zander. Over and over I heard how wonderful it was to have him talking and interacting with them. What a huge pat on the back I felt after the work of the past 6 1/2 months. It also gave me determination to continue the course even on this trip. I heard one of them comment to the older boys "so this is Zander off of preservatives".....and really he's NOT as good as he is at home...because his schedule/routine is off and he IS getting some stuff as careful as I am trying to be. We are avoiding the obvious (flavored syrup, margarine, skim milk, soda) but you KNOW that there are things in the french toast sticks.... He's doing much better than I expected...and I continue to pray about each day.

After Bre went to worship team practice....Krista took us down to the Little Spokane River. It was SO pretty. I love pretty nature and this trip has been a balm. We left the river and went to Pizza Hut and then took Krista home.

Oh MY! We'd been saying for weeks that we were going to Spokane to get the girls. The older kids understood that the girls are in host homes and that there would be a few days here where they would see them but they wouldnt' be sleeping with us. Zander didn't understand. He sobbed and wailed when Krista got out of the van. We tried to explain but I don't think he will get it until he sees her again.
FRIDAY - AUGUST 4th - DAY TWO

Can you believe we got another bright and early start out of CO? Yep - up at 4:30 a.m. and on the road by 5. Ken, Lynn and Matt even got up to see us off - though we tried really hard to be quiet. We took the time to fuel up - and take a picture and headed down the road. Our goal: Hardin, MT.

Highlights: more cows, wheat fields now, open praires, mountains, Bikers EVERYWHERE - more today than yesterday as we neared the turnoff from CO/NM to Sturgis....and lots coming FROM MT on the opposite side of the freeway.

Somwhere along the line I said "and on the left we have cows"...Zander was evidently getting a bit frustrated with the predictablity of my comments....a few minutes later he said "And on the left we have...RHINOS and a LION!"......

Jamin had expressed an interest in seeing "The Little BigHorn Battlefield" - "Custer's Last Stand". We'd studied the westward expanision and the whole resettlement issue of the Indians this year in school. Don't you love homeschooling? All of a life can be a field trip! We found ourselves arriving in Hardin at a decent hour so we stopped at the battlefield. This led to some interesting discussion of Mike and the boys for the rest of the day (and since I'm catching up I may as well say into the 3rd day of our trip).

In Hardin we toured the town. We felt like we were in a time warp. Some things simply never change much - and yet we were changed. Sort of. We left Hardin with 11, 9, 7, 5 year olds and pregnant....we were back with 12, 9, 7, 4 and baby....just different names and faces. We saw our old house (paint still holding), the community center, Dollies (where the kids would walk for candy), the church we pastored in, the park we played in, the hospital Jared was born in...and more. It was especially meaningful to Jared to visit his homestate and home town. He was two when we entered the military. "Home" is a rather fluid concept to him.

We went out to the cemetary and visited the gravesites of my Grams and my Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill and I had planted a lilac bush and a rose bush by Gram's grave and they are doing well - huge now. Mom, the rocks that the kids had given grams...that you glued to the tombstone are still there. Surprisngly, we found that walking through the cemetary was a great way for the children to remember Hardin. They had been saying they didn't remember or remembered little...but as we saw names we recognized (and we were surprised at how many we saw) we told stories of each person. This was really our frist stop and was a very positive experience. It was sad - but happy....truly bitter sweet.

We had tried to stay at Super 8 but it was booked full. We found two rooms at the American Inn before we left TX. I'd forgotten that shortly before we moved the owner had built a casino on the property too. We were so glad I'd make reservations as we watched several in the process of discovering that everything in the town was booked. YES - this weekend is the opening of the annual big event in Sturgis for bikers. It was us and the Bikers at American Inn.

Sam and Evelyn invited us over for dinner....these were friends from our years in Hardin. They had the Bullshows (more friends) over as well and we had a great time catching up. Debbi (who was in the youth group when we were youth leaders) drove down with Heidi's daughter (twin sister) and her children were there as well. It was a fun evening. We had way more people we had hoped to catch up with in Hardin....but we had to get an early start the next a.m.
THURSDAY - AUGUST 3rd - DAY ONE

Mike had told us all that we would be getting an early start. We loaded the van on Wed. night and were ready to go....well almost. He and I stayed up and tried to find hotels. It was after mid-night when we were finally done. We did manage to find places to stay everywhere except Westliffe, CO. We'll continue to try to book spots or we may yet end up in Wal-mart's parking lot.

4:30 came early. We managed to get out of the house in good time - despite the fact that Mike decided to grab a bit of toast before we left. Our plan was to drive for four hours and stop for breakfast. The strategy was that the little ones would sleep for the first leg of the journey - they'd be to dazed to squabble or make much ruckus. This worked fairly well. We drove from TX to Castle Rock, CO the first day - a 14 hour day with two stops.

Chris, a friend from AL, has a daughter Amy. That's background and really does fit in here - you'll see. Amy has just returned home from a trip to Turkey and Europe. Along the way she took pictures of her feet at all the big attractions. The idea came to me about 5 a.m. that I wanted to do some sort of theme like Amy did. I thought hard about the main attractions we would be seeing on this trip, the highlights of the trip and decided....drum roll.....to photograph the kids at each bill board for prices at the gas stations we stopped at. Surprisingly the kids are going along with this fairly well. Picutres WILL follow.

We stopped for breakfast at a truck stop - cheap food and big servings. We stopped again at about 4 p.m. for lunch..... As we drove past the Academy we talked of Jared's big dream. I told him again that it is HIS dream and he should make it as big as he wants it. We also waved at the exit where Kristine and San Luis' live.

Highlights of the day would include: meals {g}, Zander's pointing out of lots of cows, RAIN and bikers everywhere. We began to realize that we must be hitting the Sturgis, SD weekend. Do any of you know what that means? From our time living in Hardin, MT we are very aware of Sturgis, SD.

When we hit Amarillo - I waved at Carol....I'll never forget this town....because after hours in the car, Zander's wit surfaced. He said, "What do you know, MOM? LOOK!! That building is as big as you are!" :::snort::: It turns out he was thinking that it was tall....and believe me we'd not seen anything tall in a good many hours. We saw miles of cornfields.....and sunflowers. We saw our first RAIN in months somewhere between New Mexico and Colorado. It was hilarious that Zander began to worry about the rain. "The grass and cows are getting WET". Goodness - we forgot how much of his life centers around West TX. I think he was to young when we left to AK to remember much at all. He was amazed at the mountains in CO.....

We stopped for "lunch" in Raton, NM. As we got out of the van Zander remarked "WOW - LOOK there are trees behind those bushes". We finally deducted that he was impressed with the number and height of TREES.....as most the trees we've seen in the last year are of the "brush" variety or mesquite - and most of them are not tall and full.

Stacia traveled well. She took a couple of long, long naps. We are realizing that the plan to start early is good - we'll see if we can keep it up.

We were honored to be the first house guests of Ken and Lynn in Castle Rock. We were chaplains together at Elmendorf. They have just moved to CO from Edwards to retire. Their things were delievered on Thursday and we were so surprised that they offered us a place to stay that night. We had a great time visiting with them, seeing the blessing of God in their life and catching a glimpse of what life after the Air Force may look like. Of coure, *I* began dreaming my own dream of an assignment to the Springs about the time Jared is accepted into the Academy...It could happen.



We're in Spokane. We are in a really nice hotel...all the fun extras....a business center with a couple of computers, a pool, breakfast, nice lobby, laundry and such. The amazing thing to me is that they gave us our rooms at a military discount for $64.00 a night. Yes, I typed that right. I believe this may be the nices hotel we stay in and it is by far the cheapest.

I'm going to quickly try to summarize the trip below. The girls have laptops with wi fi so later on I may be able to add some pictures.