116 Degrees And An Epic Update

Hi y'all! It's been a long time hasn't it? I know you mostly know the bits from being friends on facebook, but I thought I would dust off the old virtual stationery and sit down and give an update.
The weather here in North Texas (as in everywhere else in the nation) has been hot! Yesterday the thermometer on the back porch read 116 degrees! It's all that people can talk about (including me.)
It has been about a year since the kids and I moved from Fort Polk while hubby was finishing up his final months of a 20 year career in the Air Force. When he retired, we had been married for 15 years. Added all together, the deployments and separations due to his job equaled 4 solid years. 4 years of our 15 year marriage spent apart. This past year has been such a blessing of having him home and the sure knowledge that we won't be facing those kinds of separations anymore. I would never undo those years and I am thankful to be in a new phase.
During the past year we saw many changes. We have already moved 3 times. Our second Daughter joined the Air Force and was medically disqualified and sent home after several months of making a go of it. She moved in (next door) with Grandma and Grandpa and is working several jobs to save up to get her own place and waiting for school to start this month so she can work on getting a degree in physical education. 18 is proving to be a lovely and difficult age for us to watch her be. I say, "watch" because that is all we can do now. She's a precious girl, finding her way and making some choices that make us wince and duck and get on our knees in prayer. I remember those years in my own life and thank God every.single.day that He pulled me through and out of those onto a solid foundation of believing and trusting in Him.

Our oldest daughter will be leaving her teen years behind next week. You want to talk about pulling through. Her son is 2 1/2 and she is a good, good Mommy. Again ~ a child making choices that sent us to our knees. Of course, we would love for her to be married and we are very fond of her boyfriend. Even so, we are ever thankful and proud that they are working together in love to raise their son and making him a priority.

The twins. Oh my the twins. They are starting their sophomore year in High School. And their second year in North Texas. They will be 16 in November and will be learning to drive soon. TWO of them. Learning to drive. Aaaaannnnnddddd back to my knees I go. :) Boy twin stands 6'3" and girl twin 5'4". No, they are not identical. Yes, people still ask me that.

Along with our daughter, Hubby will be attending college in the fall to earn a degree in welding. He has been wanting to do this for many years, and thanks to the GI Bill, he will begin working that dream into reality in just a few weeks.

We are coming upon a challenging life situation, which, of course, is nothing new. We have been living in the rental house next door over to our property for the past year and we received a letter stating that we are required to sign another year rental agreement or move out. We will be moving out.

We are making some bold choices about what to do next that will certainly take dedication, patience and prayer. (Is there a theme here?) The ideas that we had about what life would be like on the outside aren't the reality that we are living. Although I do have 3 jobs, they are not providing the income that we thought I would be able to achieve once I could work outside the home full-time and although Hubby's retirement pay is enough to live on if one has no debt and is not trying to build a new home, it is not enough to live on if you do have debt and are trying to build a new home.

So, we are now entering the beginning phases of plan "D". We are outfitting the barn with some living space and looking into bringing a travel trailer to our property to supplement that living space and we are moving onto our own land. Finally. Plan D allows for us to be investing back into our own future, rather than the neighbor's future and will allow us to easily live within our means. The plan is to work our debt elimination plan to completion and then build our house. Now don't get all wound up about, "Living in a barn?? Living in a trailer?? With four people and two dogs???" I did say it was going to be challenging. We have agreed that we will do it as long as we can possibly stand it and we are trying to make it as comfortable and doable as possible while staying within the budget we have for this endeavor and when the day comes that we can no longer deal, we will make other arrangements.

I celebrated my 39th birthday. I tell you what folks, I have really enjoyed my 30's. I will live this last year of them with joy and look forward to my 40's being even better!

I have had amazing blessings in this last year that I have been able to travel for photography and worship and although these trips have not been money-makers, how many people get to go to Hawaii for free and spend a week taking pictures of their friends and making new ones? And how many people get to say, "I got to travel to lead women to Throne of God in worship and all needs were taken care of." Well, I suppose a lot of musicians get to say that, but not me. 'Til now.

We have been attending a local church for some time now and I have begun to sing with the Praise Team. This is a church in transition and we are treading carefully on letting our hearts get too deep until we know for sure this is where we are supposed to be, but the people are so dear and the doctrine is sound. We shall see.

Blessings on your day my friends,

Aloha With A Kiss

Did you even know that Hershey's makes Kisses with macadamia nuts in them??





I selflessly bit into one to prove it to you...





and look at the little banner!





Have I mentioned that I am going to Hawaii?

Aloha my friends,

Our Vacation Statistics

We drove approximately 4,000 miles through 5 states (4 of them twice) in about 16 days, attending 3 family gatherings, 1 airport, 2 church services, 4 amusement parks, 2 lakes, 2 Starbucks, 4 hotels, countless restaurants(including Jack-in-the-box in 4 states) and gas stations, using approximately 209 gallons of gas averaging approximately 19 miles to the gallon pulling 1 little blue trailer.

Highest price for regular unleaded gasoline: $3.09 in California
Which is still less than $5.00 for 16oz of Starbucks mochawhatever
Vacation Tally: $2500.00
Time spent with family and friends: Priceless.

Bestie Adventures ~ MySpace Style

Meet my very angelic BFF

I got the pleasure of an entire day with her. I present to you:
Bestie Adventures ~ MySpace Style


Okay. Just kidding. THIS is my very angelic BFF!

Got up in time to make it to second service at church. As is the tradition - everything was different than normal. Happens every.single.time I visit. Or, almost every.single.time.

Breakfast at Jack-In-The-Box. Cause ~hello~ I'm in California.

We stopped at Brandy's House. It's not really Brandy's house.
But we want it to be Brandy's house.

Lunch at PF Chang's. Be thankful we took our shot at this end of the horse. The other end is heart-shaped. Not making that up.

Here we found a reflective door and became obsessed with ourselves as one is wont to do when looking at such beauty.

Dinner at The Spaghetti Factory. It's not really a factory.

I took this picture especially for my sweet Mother-In-Law. This statue is for sale in the biggest indoor flea-market I've ever visited. See him holding his own pricetag? You're welcome.

Train Of Thought - S4J Style; A Series. Maybe.

So I got to thinking.


I'll just wait a moment and let that soak in.

Well, first a little instruction. These posts are going to be just my thinking as it is ordered in my head, from one tangent to the next. When you see this ..., that is code for, "And then I thought..." And starting in the next post, the title will include the beginning and ending thought in the 'train ride'.

ALLLLLL ABOOAAAARRRRD.....

I want to go to Hawaii...there are lots of people I know there right now...I bet GGG would know all the right places to go...She would make a great travel writer...because *1* she loves to travel, *2* she is a very eloquent writer, *3* she is willing to try stuff...my travel book would be totally the opposite. It would have stuff in it like, "So the bathroom here at exit 2 was so clean! Be sure and schedule your stop there. Pick up snacks because you will be hungry once you get to the top of the crater. And there might be a restaurant at the top but it could be closed or it could only serve food that you would never in your life allow to pass your lips, and then you would starve and become cranky. Or dead. And don't forget bottled water and sunscreen. Don't dally looking at souvenirs on your way up or you won't make it to the crater before dark and then you won't be allowed to go. If souvenirs are that important to you, you can schedule some time on your way to the airport"...it might be fun to write a travel book with several writers who are friends and travel in different ways and do a Hawaii from four perspectives a day or something like that...what am I going to make for dinner tomorrow...oh it is 11:31pm and I am not nearly ready to go to bed...

The Laundry Room Shuffle

Here we are a traveling and experiencing something that we are blessed to not have to do in our regular life. Share a public laundry-room. Even now, we are blessed that we have the option of using this facility without having to pay for the washing and drying itself, save for the detergent. I am witnessing an interesting phenomena. The leavers and the stayers. I am a stayer and I am glad to be. When I came into the laundry room, there were no people in here, however 2 of the 4 washing machines were in use. When I say “in use” I mean one of them is broken and the other has someone’s abandoned laundry in it. Seeing as how there was no one else, I grabbed up the remaining 2 washing machines and got started on my vigil. Then enters Chatty McChatterson (whom I have given this name because I cannot remember how she introduced herself to me but I AM enjoying her company) and finds that there are no available machines. This is where I insert a ‘facebook quiz’ type question. Are you a person who, empties the machine of abandoned clothes and refills it with your own, leaving the wet clothes in a pile on the next machine over? Or do you check the time and come back in a little while to see if the machine has been cleared? Or do you give up all together and go back to your room with your dirty chonies? I won’t ask you all the random facebook questions to determine your answer to this survery such as, “What color is your hair?” “Where did you attend school?” and “Do you like green tea or black tea?” I’ll just leave you to answer the direct questions. Mrs. McChatterson is a ‘take the wet clothes out and pile them onto the neighboring machine’. I am a ‘come back and check in a little while’ (in the wet department that is). So this is what she did. That was over an hour ago, and the pile has since been moved to another neighboring machine and still sits abandoned. Now, my first load wash finished and I was able to snag a free dryer and start another load of wash in the machine I freed up. When my second load of wash finished, it was my turn to decide. Dryers are a wee bit different. Do you, empty the dryer onto a neighboring machine and leave the clothes to get into a wrinkly pile? What if they are still damp? Do you remove the dry clothes, get your load in and then fold the abandoned clothes and leave them neatly on top of said machine? It was my turn to have to make this decision. Thankfully, the clothes in the dryer I wanted were all–the-way dry, and they had been there over an hour taking up valuable dryer space. So I pulled them out, put mine in, and folded the abandoned clothes neatly on top of the machine. When Chatty’s washing machine was finished, she set about finding herself a dryer. And once again, here is one stopped for at least 30 minutes. She claimed it. She talked about it first of course, “oh the people are probably going to be upset about this, but they’ve been done….” She took this particular pile of clothes and put them on a folding ledge or something for the person to come and claim when they decided they cared about their laundry. Well, Mrs. I-only-care-about-my-own-dirty-chonies came in to find her pile of abandoned dryer clothes sitting on the ledge and she was none too happy. Chatty McChatterson says to Dirty Chonies, “Oh – they had been finished for some time, so I put them up there.” Dirty Chonies was clearly unhappy about this situation, “Are they even DRY??” Chatty responded, “MMhm.” And then, “Are they still damp? I will remove my stuff so you can put them back in. It’s just that all the machines were full…” Ms. Chonies actually made Chatty empty her things out of the dryer so she could put hers back in. And she didn’t even say thank you. Then later she even suggested that there are OTHER laundry rooms here. Yes there are 5 laundry rooms in this building of lodging which houses at least 100 rooms. FAMILY rooms. I am learning that it is not my job to always correct people who are clearly (in my opinion) in the wrong. Dirty Chonies is being much more diligent about her laundry (to include throwing some of her clothes in MY DRYER WITH MY CLOTHES) (They are gone now.) However she is still being unbelievably rude to poor Chatty McChatterson. Tell me this, when you are utilizing a community, free, laundry facility – do you have the right to monotonize the machines while not tending to them??

The Quick Turn Around

Isn't it ironic that my whole trip to see HisGirl took less time than it has taken for me to post about why it was so quick?! Okay so here's the deal....
I found out quite a while back that she was going to be heading closer to my world and we immediately started pondering whether it were even plausible for me to meet up with her. Seeing as how she was going to be in town for work and by in town I mean 6-7 hours of driving away. We had decided that through the magic of airplines and online booking, we would be able to meet up for one night in Houston(which is a mere 3 1/2 hours of driving for me). Then the news came.

There was a snafu with the tickets and she would not be able to go through Houston on her way to Dallas at all but would have to go straight there and have no rendezvous with the BFF of all BFF's. That was really disappointing!

Anyway, life was moving on. Appointments were getting scheduled. I kept wishing in the back of my mind that there was some way that I could see her but there was always, "It's too far. There's not enough time for that kind of trip. There's no extra money in the budget for that." and we came to about a week or two before her trip and I just started wishing out loud. My husband responded to my ponderings with, "You could probably do it." HUH? REAlly?? "Yeah. You could probably do it as long as you're back in time for my surgery." Well ya don't have to tell ME twice buddy!!

SO - HisGirl was flying into Dallas on Wednesday afternoon at 1:18pm. My husband had to be to the hospital for surgery on his torn meniscus on Thursday morning at 6:15am. I had to be present to drive him there, drive him home and care for him after surgery. I also could not leave before Tuesday because I had to be home on Monday to attend his pre-op appointments. So that left me Tuesday afternoon(gotta go to PWOC don't ya know) through Wednesday night to drive to Dallas, pick up HisGirl and Jtothe2nd at the airport on Wednesday, visit and drive all the way back home.

Crazy. Insane. Maniacal. Apparently that's me.

Here are some wonderful blessings in my life that helped me make that possible.

• My wonderful Mother-in-law and Father-in-law live a really reasonable distance from the Dallas area and they are always kind to share their home with me.
• They were holding for us a used-but-new-to-us television that we have been trying to figure out how we were going to get down here.
• My wonderful and gracious husband allowed the risk of me not being home for his surgery to spend just a wee bit of time with someone who means a great deal to me.
  
• So, I drove up on Tuesday night after PWOC and picking up my car from the shop and stayed the night with hubby's parents. I got a good night's rest and on Wednesday with the help of a crew we loaded up the tv into the van and I headed down to Dallas to pick up the girls at the airport.
  

Also - it was HisGirl's birthday. HELLO. Can there be a better birthday present. I think not.

So there you go. I'll fully inform you on my husband's ailments and what we have been doing to help him pass the time while on convalescent leave in the days to come.

PS - Hubby and I got the TV unloaded from the van when I got home in the middle of the night, but it sat on the wagon for several days until the kids and I figured out how to get it up onto the tv stand without the help of the strongest person in the house.

Where In The World Is S4J? - Day 2 Continued

11:57am Heading South from here to the airport...



1:19pm Arrived at my destination! You guys are way too hip to me. You had me figured out right away!




1:29pm Picked up these...

HisGirl and Jtothe2nd

1:57pm Arrived at their swanky hotel and I spent some time taking pictures of the lovely lobby while they worked out the details of checking in...



3:10pm Time to eat and shop. Lunch at Rainforest Cafe...

3:15pm and because you people are harassing me about faces...



4:33pm After lunch we went around the Grapevine Mills Mall. We stopped in here...



Can you SEE the prices of these items? Jtothe2nd really loved that bowl sink AND those sunglasses.

5:09pm A little more fun back at the hotel before I had to be on my way home...


5:40pm I didn't get a picture of this because I was literally standing at the door when we heard a key in it. It was my Chica Wen who had just arrived from California!! I got to say, "Hello" and hug her before heading out for the 6 1/2 hour drive home.

8:19pm YAHOO! J-in-the-B for dinner!!
Arrived home around 12:30am

More later on the reason for the quick turn around.....

Where In The World Is S4J? - Day 2

Hey! Glad you came back to the South~ do you know that I blew right past my 300th post? This one marks number 302!
Anyway, Silly me, I went out without my camera this morning so you don't get any pics yet, but I will tell you these clues.

I stayed the night with family but this is not my final destination.

9:50am
I went to Target to buy some DVD+Rs (and can't we all just get along and not be (-) or (+) but just DVDR? Please? This is way more complicated than the simple folks like me can handle. I just want lots of space to store my pictures. I don't want to be out eighty bucks because my drive is a (+) but I bought (-) DVDs and already opened them before I even knew how wrong I was!
Anyway - so Target is your first clue. (You can deduce that I am not still at home)
After I left Target I went to Sonic for a breakfast sandwich and diet cherry Coke. I really like to eat at certain restaurants when I am away from home that I don't normally have the option of. Failing that, I will always go for what is familiar. I haven't had an opportunity yet to try either of my top 2. Which are Jack-in-the-Box and Del Taco.
Anyway, I need to get back to reloading the car and reprogramming the GPS and some other things before I am on my way. I will try to remember to drag out my camera soon.

Where In The World Is S4J?

Oohhh yeah! It's that time again! Time for an adventure. Here are some clues.....

Started out here with a full tank of gas and fresh transmission fluid.

2:04pm playlist: Eminem
(the service department was kind enough to leave my radio tuned to this choice music)

Stopped here to rest for a few minutes and play some more with the remote control I got for my camera as a gift for Christmas....

4:40pm iPod playlist - Take Us To The River (Robin Mark)

Time to fill up.....

7:11pm iPod playlist - Slowly (Avalon)

Getting late - but what a view.....

8:03pm iPod playlist Come Now Is The Time To Worship (Brian Doerksen)

Stopped for the night.....

8:48pm iPod Playlist - I Stand Amazed (Candi Pearson-Shelton)

Any guesses?

WOF - Kimleigh and Laudi

I am a stalker. I'll just put it out there. When I found out that I was going to be rooming with two girls that I know who are very good friends and I would like to be their gooder friend, I was so excited. So I set out on a mission...
1. Give them a name. Kimleigh
2. Make myself a nametag. Kimleigh Groupie.

That's me. And that's how I thought it was going to be for the weekend. And then there was a mix-up with the rooms. Which, in the end, got us a bonus roomie. Whom I ADORE. So I set out on a mission....
1. Give us a name. Laudi
2. Take a picture. See above.(Yes it is snowing in our hotel room in Louisiana)

First day of a weekend of fun, faith and fellowship! These are the funnest girls! Right now my partner is flying all over trying to smash a beetle to death, screaming and I am SURE upsetting the neighbors. Kimleigh is talking trash about Laudi, but we don't mind. Word.

Chicas Of Faith 2008 - Riddle: How Do You Get 5 Booties And 450 Pounds Of Luggage Into A 4 Passenger Vehicle?

Answer: You don't. Aint no way on God's green earth that is going to happen.

So, I have a little confession to make. I have been ~just a little bit~ waiting for someone else to tell the rental car story because I actually do not really know all of the details. Perhaps no one has figured out how to tell the story in an edifying Christian fashion.....I will tell you what I know and then hope that someone else will pick up the details.

We finally got the Cali Chicas' luggage and hopped a shuttle to the rental car company who shall remain nameless because I don't remember it due to the pending lawsuit. We entered the line to await our turn to receive assistance from a representative of the rental car company, and as we are waiting, we begin the discussion of how best to handle the rental car gas tank. Pay ahead and risk over paying? Don't pay ahead and risk not having time to gas up, hence - over paying? Don't pay ahead and be sure to fill up the gas tank on the way into the airport? I, being the most reasonable of the group, gave my opinion; "I am not a driver on this trip AND I am in the group that leaves 2 hours before the other group. Therefore, I do not have to have an opinion on this subject." Thank you. As we are running through this discussion, I happen to spy the businessman in line behind us just looking at us all in awe. I smiled and laughed, he smiled and laughed and then asked, "Is it always like this??"

Me: "Worse."

We all shared a good laugh, and then I had an epiphany. I am not a driver on this trip (you, being very observant, would have noticed this already) I don't have to stand in this silly line. I am going to enjoy one of the leather chairs in the corner and get out of peoples' ways. So, I excused myself from the ladies (still trying to decide what to do about the gasoline) and made a beeline for the chair.

This was a wonderful place to sit and watch weary travelers as they came and went, hoping for things to go smoothly so they could just peacefully continue on their ways. It did NOT, however, give me a good view, or auditory awareness of what was happening with my Chicas and OUR rental car.

As I sat and sat, pondered taking a nap, watched people, and sat some more, this couple came in.... I would say, older - maybe late 50's - early 60's - and the lady of the couple has bright red straw hair with the black/gray roots about 2 inches grown out. She is wearing black jeans, and some kind of black rock and roll tank top - and sportin' some tattoos on herself. She tells the man of the couple that she will wait here with the luggage whilst he secures their next mode of transportation. She then proceeds to show me the tear in her luggage and explain to me that the airline, rather than unzip the suitcase to inspect its contents, cut a 3 inch gash in it, in order to get at the 'powder' substance that showed up on the x-ray. When all the while, said 'powder' substance is just chili powder and she cannot fathom WHY they would destroy her luggage over packets of chili ingredients. She is just outraged. Outraged I tell you.

I, after expressing my condolences to her regarding her defamed luggage, and while watching her do her yoga poses in the rental car office, suggested to her that it looked like a tear that might have happened during transit. She could not accept this possibility, as it was clearly ridiculous and unfathomable.

"Why," you ask, "Do you have time for all of this? Shouldn't you have driven off like, hours ago??"

Refer to my confession above. Beg someone else to tell the story to you. I got nothin'.

I also saw a man come back in with the keys he had been given and complain that the car he had been assigned to was filthy and disgusting and that he was not accepting that.

There was also a man who came back in with the keys to the car he had been assigned to saying something about how it was a smaller car than what he had reserved and paid for and he would not accept that.

Me? I just sat and sat. I thought sure that I heard the voices of some of the Chicas here and there, but passed it off as them excitedly speaking to each other...

FINALLY they made for the door, and I made to follow them. We found our assigned car and worked to load the luggage, hook up the BEST TOOL EVER fondly named, "Madge", and pile us ladies in so that we could meet our date for dinner in King of Prussia. I don't really understand what was happening, but the girls were sort of randomly looking around and saying things like, "Oh! We don't have one of those??? Well what is THAT and THAT and THAT? Hmph and haw and fuss and hmph."

Me: "Uh... YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! LOOK RIGHT THERE! HMPH."

We worked to tell Madge where we were wanting to go and waiting for her to direct us and had a wee bit of a glitch with that so, we called our date to clarify where, exactly it was that we were meeting her - and then we were on our way!! Yahooo!!

I'll put up a teensy post in a little while just to show you what I have been up to lately...

Chicas of Faith 2008 - Picking Up The Cali Chicas

Picture it: God's Guitar Girl and Sing 4 Joy sitting in a row of seats at PHL, relaxing and waiting for the 30 minutes to expected arrival to pass. Did you notice that we showed up ON TIME? Mmhm. That's right. All of a sudden, the clouds parted, the heavens started singing and all time and space warped; except for the part in my line of vision where the most gorgeous group of women I have ever seen ~ aside from myself and GGG that is ~ was walking toward us, the leader of the group, my BFF. It was like breathing a breath of fresh air seeing her again and she was more beautiful than I even remembered.

To tell you the honest truth, much of the trip is quite a blur, but this part my heart remembers. I was saying to a friend the other day that my favorite part of these trips is the planning..... second only to the moment when I get to see my Chicas. So true. After hugs all around voluntarily, introducing GGG to the new girl Jtothe2nd, and scolding them for coming in early, we determined the direction to baggage claim and off we went. GGG and I had been together for a couple of days now, not really sleeping, GGG popping pills to fight off that stinking migraine, and me to tame my urethra, and maybe we were still a little jacked up from the awful color that they claim was the 'original' color in the courtroom part of Independence Hall. I guess we'll never know. But whatever the cause, we just sort of stood back and cracked each other up, at one point all the way to the floor, while we were waiting for the others to spy their luggage and gain us our freedom from PHL. (This, we will find out later was just a pipe dream)

This trip sparked a couple of new picture series for me. One being, the Peep series which is basically like a Where's Waldo? but with real life and people. This started because GGG was telling me about one of her favorite pictures from her cruise and how she wanted to do more and of course I was all over that! Well, GGG has sparked a revolution. Another series, the Papparrazzi series, began at the airport - when some unwilling Chica got upset that I was taking pictures of her after her long day of travel and put her hand in front of my camera. Don't you know that you cannot stifle art?
GGG and I were beside ourselves with laughter over how she was going to peep the other Chicas without them noticing. Sad to have to report we never managed it.
Waiting waiting waiting. WHEN will the luggage come?? We have a DATE with Jenster in King of Prussia and we still have to glide in, pick up the rental car and glide out.......mmhm.

Oh my goodness, will you look at the time?? I have a photo shoot this morning and I am still not dressed. Back later!

Chicas Of Faith 2008 - Search For Independence

Where were we? I laid down and went to sleep! Guitar strung and mostly tuned. Ahh. The next morning was super cool. The sound of rockin' guitar playing came from somewhere in the house. Not from me - no. Not from GGG - no. But who? Taylor! The boy of the host family was quietly playing his guitar in his room. What a way to start the day! I too, sat down and finished tuning my guitar. I tested it out by running through a couple of songs. BLESSED BE YOUR NAME and REVELATION SONG (This one I even played from memory! Who knew I could do that?) GGG had come down and here and there, when I wasn't being so loud that I could only hear myself, I could hear her dropping the harmony. Ahh - a life of worship....

Jenster gave us the tour of their basement, AKA Rock Out Central! A wall of guitars, a keyboard, some brass instruments, amplifiers, etc etc. And THEN adjacent to Rock Out Central was Mr. Jenster's workshop. "Who cares about man tools?" Well, my friends - this is not your ordinary workshop. No. This is the GUITAR workshop. He has a desk with a nice piece of carpet laid across it. Also on the desk, a Black and Decker cordless screwdriver with guitar machine turner attachment. I'm sure there is an actual technical name for this tool, I just don't know it. *Dear Todd, we did not touch your tools! Although, having spent at least a good 2 hours the night before restringing my 12-string, I really could have used that bad boy. Truly, if you had been home, I would have paid you to do it for me.*

So we got the tour of the best rooms ever and wiped the drool on our sleeves. Then it was time to admit that we had actually come east for tourism. We really loved this family. They were all so gracious and warm and we would have happily stayed with them. But GGG and I had flown in early so that we could go and meet Philadelphia.

So we arranged our luggage neatly downstairs; which we would retrieve later at dinner so we didn't have to figure out how to lug it all over Philadelphia. Then we loaded up into the car with Jenster and the kids and headed over to pick up Taylor's girlfriend - 'cause the Jenster family were visiting a pirate exhibit in Philly (not touring around with us. Whatever.) Taylor's girlfriend was as cute as Katie.

Jenster really is a GREAT person to be your tour guide! She drove us through Valley Forge on our way into Philadelphia. Guess what?? I finally pulled out my camera!


I am learning that there is just not enough time and I have to accept that I am not going to see it all in4/5 days.

So we get into Philadelphia and Jenster is telling us about where to find a Philly Cheese steak, where to do this and that and then all of a sudden - she pulls the car over and tells us to GET OUT! I am not even kidding. She kicked us to the curb! Literally! Some drivel about,"I realized this would be the best place for you to go visit the Liberty Bell." Psh. She just wanted to be rid of us.
She did get me super close to the Liberty Bell though. My dream was to touch it (and then sanitize my hand after, of course.) They made it impossible for me to experience my dream without getting arrested. I considered it. At any rate I took lots of pictures of it.

We also toured Independence Hall, which originally was named the Pennsylvania State House. Interesting. I know. I am a history buff. Get rid of the jealousy and move on people. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Here is me AT Independence Hall.....




Here are just a couple of shots of the architecture...



Let me just share with you, that you can't have a better companion to experience historical stuff than God's Guitar Girl. I adore this lady. She is passionate, outrageously funny, intelligent, strong-willed, godly, beautiful, quirky and she loves me back. We just went together, imagining the scene as men met to iron out the details of their futures and the futures of their descendants. Being willing to meet in this way at the risk of their very lives. Amazing.
Of course we ate the Philly Cheese steak from Sonny's (mine with no onions), and we also used the public transportation system - all the way down to the airport to pick up the other Chicas. GGG wrote an awesome, "get to know the '08 Chicas" post. You can read that here. (I am the Chica that you think is the cutest) Chicas of Faith 2008 was now officially about to begin.......

Chicas Of Faith 2008 - The Jenster Of My Dreams

Our plane got in a little before 8:30pm and as we are walking through the airport discussing where it is we are going to find our ride/tour guide/hotel hostess, we hear our names being called by a tiny voice in the distance. We turn and see a petite lady with a giant smile coming toward us. Do you know, Jen (as I am now allowed to call her) is nothing like I thought she would be and just like I thought she would be all at the same time. She is a softer, sweeter version InRealLife of the she of my imagination. Here is a summary of Jen gathered from our entire trip of knowing her.

J - Joyful
E - Eloquent
N - Nutty
S - Sweet
T - Triumphant
E - Encouraging
R - Radical

It was as though we had grown up in the same family. We fell right into conversation as we made our way to her prime parking space and loaded up our luggage. (Guitars made it safe and sound in case you were wondering)

GGG rode shotgun and she and Jen spent the ride back to Jensterville chatting about history, trivia and theology and all things interesting yet way too above me to participate, except for the ridiculous crack here and there. Jen pointed out to us that in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many of the skyscrapers in Philadelphia were lit up in pink lights. That was so neat. Sorry - still haven't taken any pictures yet. I can't remember all the talky talk that went on on the way to Jensterville (otherwise known as home). I just remember smiling the entire time and thinking how wonderful it is that my two friends were hitting it off and that I got to sit in on it.
We made it to the house and unloaded our luggage. Jen showed us to our room. There were chocolates set out for us on our bed! And also, we got to room with Arwyn! Arwyn is Jenster's husband's Martin made guitar.
*Dear Todd, although we lusted mightily after Arwyn, we did never one time touch her in any way, shape or form. Also, we lusted mightily after your Black and Decker tool with the guitar string twister attachment thingy, and restrained from fondling her as well.*
So anyway, here is where you can go over and give sympathy to Jenster for she had to endure the euphoric part of the cycle of my current medication. I am pretty sure that I told her my entire life story. All.night.long. I could not stop talking. I kept thinking to myself and then saying out loud, "Oh my gosh! I HAVE to stop!" Then I would say, "I am SO SORRY. You do not have to endure this! You can go to bed." She was so gracious and kind and funny. She finally told me that I was going to have to stop apologizing. What she probably wanted to say was, "NO, I didn't need to know about that bunny you had when you were 2 that was later used to make a pregnancy test for the neighbor who lived on the farm next door because they had already eaten their bunnies the winter before." Okay, I didn't tell her all that. Mostly because she finally ran away at 1:30am and maybe a little because that never happened. I was just trying to give you a fictional, yet dramatically accurate indication of what she had to endure. I was about 1/4 through the process of re-stringing my guitar at that point and nowhere close to ready to sleep. GGG had given up shortly after we had arrived at the house because she was fighting hard against a migraine. This was to be her fate the entire trip the poor dear. She was such a trooper though.

Sidebar: I know you are all wondering why I would re-string my guitar on vacation. Let me explain. I am a novice at tuning my guitar. When the strings(all 12) are de-tuned, or loosened, it is an equal amount of work for me to re-tune it, or replace the strings all together. When you fly with a guitar, it is possible if you do not loosen the strings, that it could actually snap into pieces. As I am not willing to take that chance with my beloved, the strings must be loosened. SO, because it is so much work for me to re-tune anyway, I try to make it a habit to put on new strings when I travel with my guitar.
I forgot to mention that Jen's children arrived home while we were chatting and I got the pleasure of meeting them. They also were not what I imagined, but they were just as they should be.

So, now I was faced with being completely dressed but ready to go to bed while my suitcases were in the dark in the room with the lady fighting the migraine. It took me about 20 minutes to decide whether I should just lay on the couch fully dressed across the room from Sookie in her crate and possibly disturb my host family like some crazy vagrant OR awake the poor dear with the goingtoruinhertrip headache. I decided that I would go quietly as I could upstairs and just get in the bed fully dressed. I know how to compromise and reason.

Thankfully, when I cracked open the door, GGG was sort of lucid. She said that she needed to take another pain pill. So she needed just enough light for me to be able to find my jammies. There you have it. Off to dreamland I went thinking, "I heart Jenster."

Chicas of Faith 2008 - Gotta Get To GGG

Well.......good, bad or ugly~ here we go.

GGG and I had had the BRILLIANT idea that we would road trip all the way to Philadelphia seeing as how we could not find reasonably priced plane tickets and we needed some catching up time. What's 25 hours in the car?? Somehow that morphed into ME driving 6 hours to HER house 2 days before Chicas and us jumping a plane together the day before Chicas. All well and good. I attended PWOC on Tuesday the 7th and then headed off to her house. I had a lovely trip. Stopped twice. Once to visit Walmart's facilities, and once to purchase petrol.
Once I got there, I met the new children she adopted. In between the time that she moved away from me a couple of years ago, and the day that I arrived back at her house - she had sold HER children and replaced them with ones that were grown up! They used words and drew pictures and ATE WITH FORKS. What on EARTH? I'm still reeling from the betrayal of it all. These new children hugged me as though they knew me. Must've been pre-conditioning from GGG. No other explanation.
THEN - they all treated me to the OG. That's right! Olive Garden. Never-ending-pasta-bowl baby! Thank you God's Guitar Girl and impostor babies. During dinner we fell right into a groove of chatting and laughing and just being together. Plus the boy of the adopted pair kept asking me funny 3 year old questions. And Lil' G was just a charming young lady. We stayed up way too late talking and musing and dreaming.
The morning of the 8th was so nice and leisurely! Our plane did not leave out of Austin until after 1pm so we (we being me) slept in until we (we being I) felt like it. And made our way to the Austin area where we ran an errand and headed for the airport.
We were SO stinking excited to get to meet Jenster InRealLife, as she was picking us up and putting us up. Or, maybe putting up with us is a better description. Because we were so distracty we did not pay attention to what we were reading on our boarding passes. So, here I am, using the airport facilities and I hear GGG yelling, "S4J(name changed to protect the lame)! GET OFF THE TOILET! THEY ARE CALLING US TO BOARD THE PLANE!!" People, we nearly missed our plane to certain adventure because we had to potty! We were flying Southwest airlines, and if you don't know what that means, it means that you don't have assigned seats. You get what you get. And because we were the last people on the plane, what we got was a whole lot of middle seats that were taken by purses. We went all the way to the back of the plane and all the way to the front of the plane before braving up and asking one of the purses to move over. I got to sit between the two polar ice caps, and you'll have to read GGG's description to hear about who she sat next to. You can be sure it wasn't me. I tell you, the lady who the purse belonged to was T-I-C-K-E-D that her purse had to give up its seat to someone who breathed and paid.
I started praying! Lord, let me be Your light. All I want to do is be mean right back. Take over HS...get to it Man! I pasted a huge smile on my face, and started passing notes back to GGG. At some point I wrote something about how I was not going to hide my light under a bushel, NO - I was going to let it shine!! So, I asked random questions to the lady, "Are you visiting Philadelphia?"
She replied, "NO. We are going to PROVIDENCE." And looked quickly out the window.
Me, "Oh! How nice!*smile smile* I've never been to Rhode Island!"
She, *yelling across me* "Tommy! Do you want a SNACK?"
He, *shakes head no, looking embarrassed*
She, *yelling across me* "Tommy! Do you want me to tell you when it is time to shoot up??"
He, *shakes head no, looking more embarrassed*
I'm passing notes with GGG ~ something like, "I think this is going well. I think the polar ice caps are starting to melt."
Anyway, the lady ~ Vera I think her name was ~ saw the little notebook I had taken my notepaper out of and asked, "Are you a member of PWOC?"
Me, "Why, yes!"
She, "I also am a member of PWOC."
Me, "No way!! Oh my goodness!!" *thinks to God, "Lord you are KA-RAYZEE"
Anyway ~ Me, Vera and Tommy chatted it up the rest of the flight. Chatted about serving on the board of PWOC, retirees and their place in PWOC, life in the military.... That's right! Turns out Tommy over there (who shoots up insulin and by the end of the flight had TWO women harassing him about snacking and testing his blood sugars and properly taking his injection) retired after 26 years in the Air Force. What do you know? Then he retired from another company, and then if I remember correctly - another one.
We talked about different places we have lived, their collection of over 300 Christmas village buildings of which Vera and Tommy disagree about the placement of such so Vera has solved the problem by inviting her local friends over for tea and decorating. Tommy will have to be satisfied to cut the tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden. Vera's favorite assignment was Spain.
We landed in Philadelphia and started discussing how we would recognize Jenster seeing as how we had never actually met her InRealLife, yet we were accepting her invitation to sleep over. Judge away. I can't care. We realized that we had no idea who we were looking for. (The only picture I remembered seeing of her, she had no hair)......

Hooie, Otherwise Known As Writer's Block

Okay. I want to tell you all about Chicas of Faith 2008, but I keep getting stuck on where to start.

"Start from the beginning," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time in July of 2007, on a plane on my way home from Chicas of Faith 2007, I started praying and musing over where I would be going for our Chica adventure in 2008.....

"Ummm.....that's a little TOO far back," you say.

I know.

"Start from when you actually KNEW where you were going," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time in I don't remember what month of 2007, after much prayer, we knew that we would be going to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for our Chica adventure 2008. It would be months of planning, decision making, praying, searching, re-searching, saving, praying....

"Meh. Still too early in the timeline," you say.

See my drama?

"Start the day you left for your trip," you say.

All righty....

Once upon a time, on the sweltering Louisiana 8th day of October, I attended PWOC; then skeedaddled out of there, dropped my friend at her home on my way out of town and hit the road for GGG's house in Texas.

"Och, that's really boring too! How about some pictures?" you say.

Yeah, about that... I didn't actually take any pictures until I got into downtown Philadelphia on the 9th.

"Hmm. Okay, well tell us more about your pre-retreat with GGG. There's GOT to be something good in there," you say.

I think you may be right. Let me think on that for a bit and I'll get back to you. Thanks for helping me work this out.

Thoughts On A Plane ~ Denver To Dallas

• Thank you, bladder
• God is good
• All the time
• I wish my jaw would stop dropping open when I zonk out
  

Thoughts On A Plane ~ Boise To Denver

• It's pretty bad when you can't even keep your eyes open during take-off.
• Are the flight attendants going to make it to me with the drink cart before I zonk out?
• Why does Coca Cola taste different on an airplane?
• Wow, that rainbow stripey design on the upholstery is just not pretty.
• Did I do enough for Ray?
• Oh crap! I forgot to turn off my cell phones.
• How is my brother older than me, yet has no gray hair?
• Dear bladder, please don't make me use the airplane lavatory.