Hey y'all...Hope you're all recovering from your wild and crazy July fourths - or would that be July 1/4's? Hey, I never promised you grammatical correctness here...you get my point, let's move on.

We are bringing down the house here in Tejas - trying to keep cool in the midst of 100+ degree weather. We've managed to do a pretty good job - after all, it's a "dry" heat, right? We actually had a little cooling trend here today - got down to about 93 degrees - Grandpapa kept saying if it gets any cooler we'd have to break out the coats.

Thought you'd all be on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what we've been up to, so I'll do a little recap. I gave you the Reader's Digest version in the post title...but I'll follow up with a few pictures and a little commentary.

The Dremel...one of mankind's most useful tools. Do you not know about the dremel? If not, immediately go down to the Home Depots and find out all you can about it. When Abby was a baby, she would get the crusty nose. Those of you with kids know what I'm talking about. Even if you don't have kids - you've had a case of the crusty nose. Don't pretend like you've never had one. Anyway - when Abby had the crusty nose, Grandpapa always said he was going to go get the q-tip attachment for the dremel and take care of biz. Now see...if you don't know what a dremel is, that won't make alot of sense. So - all that to say, Abby & Grandpapa had a little time with the dremel today. NO, there were no q-tips involved thank goodness! They were working on a little project together.



As you can see, Abby's has her safety goggles on...Grandpapa's motto is: SAFETY FIRST.

Of course, you have to balance out your workshop projects with a little domestic activity. That would be Grandmama's area...here, you can see Abby in the kitchen assisting GMM with the lemonade pie we had with our 4th of July meal.



Abby did most of the work on the pie herself, down to the licking of the spoons, beaters & bowl. I think all the licking took place prior to the mixing of the pie filling, but I'm not sure...let's hope.

Once again, it's all about balance. Workshop project and domestic activity must be balanced with the right amount of blowing stuff up. Yeah...huh, huh...blowing stuff up is cool.

Just let me have my pyromaniac moment, please, ok?

In honor of our country's 233rd birthday, GPP purchased the Costco package of fireworks, complete with Eyeballs, Happy Penguins, Poppers, Bumble Bees, Snakes, Sparklers and those little things that look like booger papers that you throw on the ground to make popping noises.



One thing about GPP...he's all about safety. His motto is: SAFETY FIRST (my motto is, REPETITION AGAIN). I took one look at that box of firecrackers and my finger turned into a bic lighter...I was ready to tear into them and light stuff. But GPP had to have a staging area AND, the lighting area had to prepped. That included soaking of the wood and grass in surrounding areas as well as proper safety gear for those under 7 years of age.



Abby is not afraid to watch fireworks (we have 5 years of Titoland to thank for that!). However, the thought of lighting one up or holding onto a sparkler put her in a tail spin. Mike and I trust GPP (20+ years in the military and some of those as fire marshall) and had no problem with him teaching her respect for fire and proper techniques for dealing with it. She was apprehensive at first. She could barely light the wick without GPP there holding the punk (fyi - that's a big long incense looking thing they use to light the fireworks...don't know if that's official, but hey, GPP said). After she lit it, she would run for the hills like a little school girl. Of course, she is a little school girl, but that's beside the point. It took a little gentle - and I do mean gentle - coercing, but by the end of the night, Abby was running the fireworks show! She knew the names of all the fireworks and was instructing the onlookers about what was going down - all this with her hand on her hip. Those of you who know Abby personally can visualize just what I'm talking about.

During all this display of fire power, I had a chance to play with The Reb and see what kind of fun images I could get. Here's one of my favorites - this one is called the Eyeball.


One thing that I didn't squeeze into the post title is our trip to Rangers Stadium on Friday night. A great game (Rangers won 3-1) that included a home run and a post-game fireworks show. We were WAY up high, but they were still great seats (and thank goodness, in the shade!).

Be sure to visit the DropShots account for all the pics...you know, I don't post them all here. These are the teasers, people. Go there, make comments on them...let me know that you're out there.

So there you have it...another update from the Club. You will probably hear from us again before we leave at the end of the week. So keep your bookmark handy.

Keepin' it real in Tejas,

k

Tired greetings from Little Rock, Arkansas....

Today (after several HOURS of packing our belongings) we said goodbye to Grandmama, Grandpapa and Fort Worth, Texas and jumped on the I30 towards AK.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Dancing Bear Ranch (the nick-name of Gmama & Gpapa's home) - it was a great place to get caught up after time on the road. We had fun outings and relaxing days - we endured a few thunderstorms and 1 evening of tornado sirens. We took care of alot of preparations for TN and we watched alot of movies. We did alot of stayin' up late and alot of sleepin' in. Lots of hugs, kisses and "cozy" time. Thanks Gmama & Gpapa for a truly memorable time....we appreciate your hospitality and look forward to our next visit!

It's just shy of Midnight here at this cozy hotel in Little Rock - in some number of hours, our car (freshly detailed, plus a few dead Arkansas bugs) will complete the final leg of this 6 state tour. Our little car has put on more than 4,000 miles and hasn't parked in a place of its own in 2 months. This family is thankful for the opportunity we've had to do this road trip - it has been loads of fun and a deep bonding experience for the 3 of us. We feel blessed that Mike was able to work along the way, which enabled us to really stretch out the time and save a bit of money too. We have seen incredible sights and have a new appreciation for God's creation. Plus, we picked up a few words and phrases to add to our vocabulary, y'all.

We are excited to see our friends Michael, Bonni, Beka, Karin, Aaron & Judah (yes, that's 1 family) whom we'll be staying with until our stuff arrives (probably Thursday). Do the math people, that's 9 of us under 1 roof. The kids outnumber the adults. It should be a wild ride...stay tuned for new and exciting adventures as the Amaro's hit Murfreesboro tomorrow.

Tennessee will not know what hit them.

big little rock hugs,
k

PS: We have new cell phone numbers and mailing address...posting them here would not be wise of course, so if you're interested in the info, drop us a line using the contact email to the right and you'll get the information quicker than you can say Grand Ole Opry.

Yes, I know that is a completely meaningless title...but, my only other option was, "Let me recapitulate - oh wait, I never capitulated in the first place". That doesn't even makes sense...so, I went with funny.


It's been almost a week since my last post and I know millions of people are chomping at the bit to know what we've been up to! Well, I can tell you that although we've been having alot of fun, there's nothing that's too blog-worthy.

I did take a rather nasty fall on the bathroom tile on Wednesday. I was barefoot and the floor was freshly mopped...a recipe for disaster. Although I was a gymnast for a number of years back in the day, my ability to do the splits has been completely lost...and even if there was a small chance that I could do the splits, the area where I fell was small, and not designed for gymnastic activity. In case you were wondering, I can tell you with 100% certainty that ones knee is not supposed to bend left and right, but it will in a forced situation (like doing the splits in a confined space on a freshly mopped tile floor with bare feet). In other words, I started into the splits, and then my knee buckled the wrong way and hyper-extended. Yes, it hurt. Yes, I said bad words. I've been trying to nurse it back to health with RICE and it's feeling better unless I move it.

We've also enjoyed a few spring thunderstorms here. I remember each year growing up we would spend a few weeks in Louisiana (of course it was always in the hottest and humidist 2 weeks of the year). One of my favorite memories was the summer thunderstorm. It would be lik 85 degrees out, pooring rain....the thunder and lightning would make your knees shake. Unless of course you knew the counting rule: the more seconds you count between the thunder and lightning, the farther away the lightning was and the less you had to worry. As a kid, that's a comfort. Especially at night, sleeping in the room of a thousand windows (that would be the living room at my Nana & Papa's house). I would lay there, listen for the thunder...then count, "one one thousand, two two thousand, three.........whew!! it was a 7!" Anything over a 4 or 5 was like...no worries. Anyway - the room we are in here in Texas has a big window that's perfect for viewing storms....one woke me up in the middle of the night, so I got up, opened the blinds and just laid there watching the rain and lightning and listening to those huge claps of thunder. I love it!!

Tomorrow morning, we are off to Lafayette, La. to visit Aunt Jan and Uncle Richard and then we're off to Monroe to visit the rest of the family....Abby will FINALLY have some kids to play with! Poor Abby has gone over a month without proper child's play. She will have all her little cousins (well, they're technically 2nd cousins) to hang out with....she's very excited! I'm also going to make sure that Mike gets his first proper serving of mudbugs...here's a little picture of some of my family eating a "proper" serving of mudbugs:



Yeah...yum.

One other item of note before I sign off...we have an official arrival date for Murfreesboro. April 21st. Exactly 15 years and 2 days after the date I officially arrived in the Bay Area from San Diego. Our moving guys have a 6 to 12 day delivery spread, so although we arrive on the 21st, our stuff could be there as late as April 27th.

A few prayer concerns:
1. For protection for our belongings as they make their way out from California to TN...and, that the delivery spread would be closer to the 6 day and not the 12 day.
2. For traveling mercies - to and from Louisiana
3. For speedy and full recovery for my knee injury

love and won tons,
k

Yee haw...I'm back with another adventure for ya! We hit the stockyards again tonight but this time we put out cowboy hats on and saddled up for our first rodeo - complete with bull riding, barrel racing, bucking broncos and calf ropin'. This ain't yer grandpa's fair rodeo...this was legitimate professional competition y'all.

Upon arrival to the yards, we hooked ourselves up with some good Tex-mex grub. Then we mosied on over to the ring and secured our front row seats. The seats were great, although I was half expectin' to eat a little dirt - especially after the buckin' broncos competition. Abby was sittin' purdy on Grandpapa's lap with her pink cowgirl hat...we were buckled in for a rootin' tootin' good time.

I think it's rodeo law that any event MUST begin with a playing of Lee Greenwood's, "I'm Proud to be an American". Someone is going to the slammer if they screw that one up. They played it even before the National Anthem! Call me a patriot - I always get choked up when I hear that Greenwood song...especially that part where it all builds up to the climactic chorus at the end...poignant, but I digress.



Some of the highlights of the rodeo...first off, the bull riding was incredible. Those bulls are just madder than a junkyard dog! It just ain't natural to be ridin' one. As Randy pointed out to us, all the competitions are legitimate ranchin' duties except for bull ridin'. None of the cowboys made it past eight seconds (which by the way seems like an eternity!)...but, it was impressive none-the-less.

Another cool highlight - one of those cowboys roped himself a calf in just under 11 seconds. It was very impressive...'specially since more than half those cowpokes couldn't even git their darn rope round the little guy. I was so conflicted watching the calf ropin'...on the one hand, I was cheerin' for the cowboy to do the thing, then, when he did the thing, I was madder than a wet hen to see it and I wanted to go rescue the little calfaroonie.

More on the hilarious side was the part of the show where they let all the older kids in the ring, release a calf with a ribbon tied on it's tail and let it fly. The kids run around the ring tryin' to get that ribbon...poor little calf - I feel so bad for 'em. Another time they let the kids 5 and under (sans Abigial Susan Amaro) chase a sheep with a ribbon on its tail. Kids from the city and barnyard animals are not a good combination. I think I'll write a letter to somebody.

If you get a chance, check out the cool video I got of the bucking bronco - it starts off slow...but keep watchin' - it gets buck wild. As well, there are some rodeo photos - they were pretty hard to get as the action was fast and my camera is old. But, if you look real hard you'll see a few cool things.

Well - things are great here in the Lone Star state...we are enjoying our time at the Bashford residence and looking forward to some time in Luzy-anna next week.

Hold on to yer hat and sharpen yer spurs kids...more adventures are on the way!

love and calf freedom,
k

Yee haw and greetings from Fort Worth! We've been blessed with some incredible weather the last few days. Couple that with the fact that Gpapa has had 2 vacation days from the saltmines and you've got a recipe for fun.

Monday, Gmama & Gpapa gave Mike and I the old "see ya later" and took Abby out for lunch and a day at the zoo. They were gone so long that I was beginning to wonder if the zoo didn't capture them and put them in the monkey exhibit. Upon return back to base camp, Mike and I listened to countless stories of animals antics. It was nice to hear they had such a great time because Mike and I were carrying out far less interesting tasks like work, laundry, grocery shopping and the like. Later on that evening we all ate dinner in the living room (gasp!) and watched Charlotte's Web (the OLD one, not the new!). La dee dah.




Today was another beautiful day - that temperature gauge was reaching all day long to touch that 80 mark and finally did later in the afternoon. Mike was able to finish work a little early so we headed out to the Fort Worth Stockyards. There is alot of history behind the Stockyards - it was the last major stop for South Texas drovers herding cattle up to the railheads in Kansas. When the railroad finally arrived in 1876, Fort Worth became a major shipping point for livestock. These days, although there is still plenty of livestock around, it's filled with shopping and dining attractions, a rodeo, a human maze and other fun frivolities. Every day at 11:30 and 4pm they have a "cattle drive" right down the middle of the main street!


This wasn't the first time Mike and I had visited the stockyards, but it was Abby's first time. As soon as we got out of the car, she was already petting a horse! We mosied around for awhile checking out the attractions and then headed for dinner at Risky's Steakhouse. Although an order of "calf fries" was very tempting, we "steered" clear and "herded" ourselves over to the steak menu. Everyone enjoyed steak, except for Abby who went with the the chicken fingers...

By the way, Risky's has the 2nd best peach cobbler ever . The 1st best honor goes to my Aunt Bonnie whose peach cobbler won my heart so many years ago before I could comprehend how fattening it was to add 2 sticks of butter to one pan.

Oh yeah, an interesting tidbit - on our way to the stockyards, we witnessed (and were literally 2 feet from getting hit by) a high speed car chase on the I-35!! It was a VERY scary moment... The car being chased was the one that almost hit us, then not far behind was the cop chasing him. If Mike had started his lane change one second earlier, I would probably not be writing this post right now!!

Well, that's all for now...we enjoyed our day at the yards and are hoping to go back and catch a rodeo before we leave. Yee haw... One more thing - you can see more pictures of zoo day and stockyards at the Dropshots site - just click here.

love & calf fries,
k

Don't worry, the adventures are still happening! Here in Fort Worth, we've actually fallen into a routine that resembles something normal. Although for some reason, I keep forgetting to set an alarm at night and end up waking up at 9:30 or 10 in the morning. OH DARN! I know, I'll have to come back to reality one of these days.

So - I'm here to update you on some highlights of the last few days...actually, most of them are concentrated around events of today. Randy's Dad (Connie, aka Great Grandpa, aka GGpa), stepmom (Betty, aka Great Grandma, aka GGma) and nephew (Jake, no aka) drove down from Cameron, Missouri to visit with us this Easter weekend (that's a good 12 hour day driving!). They arrived late in the evening on Friday, so we didn't get to see them until this morning. Unfortunately, Randy had to work all day long today (makin' those jet airplanes is a big job)...but we set out to have a fun day despite his absence.


First on the list was an Egg hunt at Grandmama & Grandpapa's church. Gmama wasn't really sure what to expect, but we figured it would be worth the 3 minute drive to check it out. So Mike, Abby, Gmama, GGma, Jake and I set out to hunt eggs. The church did a real good job on the pre-hunt warm up (songs, story, prayer). However, upon arrival to the egg-hunting "field" we were all disappointed to find about 2000 eggs just laying on the grass. I mean, what's up with that? Doesn't 'hunt' sort of assume that there's work involved? Anyway - there was a "ready, set, go". Then chaos ensued as about 20 or so 5-12 year olds were unleashed into the field to indulge their every egg hunt desire. Regardless of the setup, we didn't want to miss out on our piece of the pie...so, Jake and Abby came up with their strategy and took off at the appointed moment. They decided to run as fast as possible to the END of the field and work their way back while the other kids got greedy right there at the beginning.


I am probably making this egg hunt to sound like a battle out of the movie Braveheart...in fact, it was quite civil. The kids who got more were even sharing with those who didn't get much - warm and fuzzy, you know. Abby and Jake made out pretty good with the candy-filled eggs (although much to my hormonally-induced chagrin, there was no stinkin' chocolate. whad up with that?) Abby shared alot of her candy with Jake since he was a good helper.

Once we got home though, Jake took matters into his own hands and took all the eggs out to the backyard and hid them for Abby to find. Now THAT was alot more fun! Of course Abby had to have a turn at hiding the eggs for Jake as well...


We had a great time visiting with the Greats (and Jake) today. We'll get to spend tomorrow with them as well...the whole family will be able to attend Resurrection Day service at Gmama & Gpapa's church. I just loaded about 4 days worth of pictures, so don't forget to check them out by clicking here.

Lastly, Mike and I had the opportunity to attend and incredible Good Friday service at a local church here in Fort Worth. Most Good Friday services are the same no matter where you go - dark lighting, candles, an old rugged cross propped up somewhere on stage, communion and the old hymns that talk about Jesus on the cross. This service wasn't any different, but somehow it was nice to just be "anonymous" somewhere while we took some time to remember the price that was paid for all of us.

I remember having gone to church for quite awhile before I truly understood what Resurrection Day meant. I couldn't understand why Jesus had to die at all...if God is God then why couldn't he just forgive us and be done with it (didn't seem like a good plan to me - and I know everything). It was Easter - probably 1999 or maybe 2000 when I had that "Damascus Road" sort of moment and the revelation of what transpired on the cross was revealed to me. We were having our "Come and See" group on the cozy couches of Fireside Court when a man named Lee answered my "why" question....very simply he said, "well, what else could God do to show you how much He loves you?" It's not rocket science, but for some reason when Lee said that, it all made sense. Of course there's alot of theology that goes along with the meaning of cross - but, hey - I can't argue with the "sky parting" moment that I had when Lee spoke his simple words to me. Jesus loves me - and the way he showed me is by enduring the cross to pay my sin bill, in full, forever. And, I'm not sure what more he could have done than that.

Enjoy your Resurrection Day!

He is risen,
k

We are enjoying our stay at the Bashford Suites here in Fort Worth, Tx. Here's a little update for ya on what's going on.

March 17th is not only known as St. Paddy's day around this house - it also happens to be Randy's birthday (Randy - aka, Grandpapa). Although he had to work, he came home to birthday party festivities. Us girls cooked the birthday meal and got the present zone ready...then we all enjoyed a great home cooked meal (in the "fancy" dining room!), present opening and dessert! Abby had hand-picked some goodies from the gift shop at the air museum we visited just a few days before. A book about the F-14 Tomcat, a rubber band propelled P-51 Mustang and some sort of foam plane (a banshee) that gets SERIOUS air lift! If we would have known how much fun that foam plane was, we would have bought many more! Another year in the books for Grandpapa, and we pray many more ahead!

A living arrangement update - we had requested prayer a few posts back for our living situation once we arrived in Tennessee. Mike, Abby and I have been praying each night on our road trip that God would already be preparing our living arrangements for our arrival in TN sometime in late April. We found an apartment complex that seemed just right for us (we had our friend Bonni visit the complex and meet with the leasing person - she gave it thumbs up). However, the likelihood was low that the specific floor plan we needed would come up exactly at the right time.

Well today I spoke with the leasing agent at the complex - it turns out, there is one apartment (the exact floor plan we are looking for) coming available on April 15th. Not only that, but it's a previous "model apartment" - so there is nobody living next door to this particular unit. It also is very close to the pool (not sure if you knew this or not, but it gets HOT there in the summer!) and has a nice grassy area behind the unit - perfect for kids. The best part is they are running a special this month - your first month of rent is free, and they waive the application fee! So today I worked on filling out the application and getting the supporting documentation over to the leasing office. They have no problem with us not physically being there, and are agreeable to handing the keys over to Bonni until we officially arrive. We will know for sure tomorrow after they process the application and check our details. It would be great to have this little detail secured this early in the game - I figured it might be a little more trouble than this.... I'll keep you posted. By the way, the floor plan that we are looking at is a 3 bedroom/2 bath and is 1216 sq. feet - just 31 sq. feet shy of the square footage that we had on Charlotte. The rent is $965. They also have 6 month leases (we thought it would be a year) so we are hoping that in the fall we will be ready to buy a house.

Well, we are soaked to the gills out here in Fort Worth! It has been raining cats and dogs...we've heard rumors of tornado warnings, flood watches and 2 inch hail - but right here in Mom & Randy's hood, we just have alot of wind and rain. They are blessed to live in this little nook of a county that just seems to stay out of the way of tornadoes. We are so thankful that our whole trip we've experienced such great weather - now that we have some place cozy to hunker down at, we are fine with the rain. It's quite impressive rain, too I might add - some of it goes horizontal!

It's been nice to cook and clean (good grief, I can't believe I actually said that) and not have to tip a waiter. There's a lot of fun that goes along with traveling and eating out....but I've been craving a home cooked meal and a messy kitchen to clean. Of course, check back next week when I might be singing a different tune like, "I want my baby back baby back baby back, I want my baby back baby back baby back....Chili's baby back ribs" or something along those lines :) Just kiddin around.

All for now...

k

Here's a phrase we don't have to hear for awhile, "check out time is 11am".

We left Midland, Texas this morning at 9am and arrived in Fort Worth sometime around 3pm (with 2 leisurely pit stops somewhere in between). We came in just in the nick of time because a storm is making its way through Texas as I write this... Once again, I can't say enough how blessed we've been through this entire trip - the weather has been fabulous (not one drop of rain the entire time). In addition - on the days where we've had to drive long distances, the time flew by so quickly! I don't know how that happens other than we know that people are praying for these things specifically. Your prayers are being answered - thanks!!

Randy and Mike unloaded the 1000 lbs that we've been carrying around in the car while I proceed to explode it all into our bedroom and other areas of the house. Settled in for 3 weeks. By the way, it is very strange driving our Camry round these parts - seeing our car parked in my Mom's garage!

At this point, we hope to settle into a somewhat normal routine....Mike will be working in his "office" for the next 3 weeks and I will be doing a bit of AFH work myself as well as helping with cooking and shopping. I will also be pursuing some living arrangements in TN and negotiating with the Van Lines on the shipping of our "stuff". We also look forward to visiting family in Louisiana the first week of April!!


Now don't go bailing on me - I will keep the blog updated (probably not on a daily basis, but as I feel led to) as well as our pictures. By the way - have you seen the option to sign up for these blog updates via email? Look over at the top right hand side of the blog where it says, "Subscribe"....put your email address there, then go through the verification process (which is a snap) and then you'll get these blogs delivered to your email the next day. That way, you won't have to remember to come back (and we don't want you to forget about us!).


Lastly - here's a little laughable tidbit....we just got some of our mail here in Texas (delivered from our mailbox in TN). And guess what? Mike has JURY DUTY!! I wonder if Contra Costa County will pay for his plane ticket? What's even more funny is the hoops he has to go through to get himself "disqualified".

Mmmmwhaaw!
k

Well folks, I'm back - first off, I'd like to thank Mike for a fabulous post last night...and just so you know, I encourage him frequently to post, but he insists that I do it. Please feel free to encourage more of Mike on this blog by shooting him an email.

So I was chatting with my stepdad, Randy on the phone a few weeks ago about driving routes. I had mentioned that we really needed a stop between El Paso and Fort Worth because the driving distance was too long. Usually, I would try to find places to stop where there was some local sightseeing in order to increase our fun quotient. When I asked him about stopping in west TX somewhere, he said to me, "well...God didn't spend too much time on West Texas". The comment made me chuckle at the time, but I've come to realize that truer words have not been spoken! Mike was right on in his post - there is a whole lot of nothing going on around these parts.

We decided to by pass the city of El Paso (which we now refer to as By Paso) because we had more than a few occasions to hear what a stinky little town it is. So, we thought instead to make a really long travel day (Albuquerque to Midland), get to Midland late in the eve then have a "day off" the next day to ramp up for another travel day to Fort Worth. So we slept in and had a leisurely morning getting ready and hanging out. About noon, we decided to see if there was anything to do in this town - or if it was in fact just a "mid-way" point between By Paso and Ft. Worth.

So Mike was in charge of mapping out a little sightseeing. Our expectations were low to begin with - but, we did want to give the city a chance. We ended up at the American Airpower Heritage Museum. Entering through the doors we found ourselves in the museum gift shop. The price of admission made both Mike and I scoff. I wondered if for that price I would get to ride in a B-52 or something. I mean, really...scoff, scoff (or should I say, squeek, squeek).

We decided to go for it anyway - and we are so glad that we did.

Now I will be honest with you - I wasn't terribly excited about spending the afternoon in a airpower heritage museum...there are a few hundred other things that I could think of that would be more fun for me. But hey, that's what us gals do for our men, right? I sacrifice many a chick-flick to cuddle up and watch "Band of Brothers" with Mike (to be honest, though it's a favorite in our DVD collection). I go out of my way to put war movies in the Netflix queue because I know that Mike will enjoy them. (In Mike's defense, he will gladly suffer through a chick-flick if I really want to see it). So, I pulled up my boot straps and walked on in to the museum.


WOW....this museum was so well done. Although there were some Vietnam era planes, the entire museum (all 40,000 square feet of it) was dedicated to the history of WWII airpower. There were incredible exhibits, mini-movies, artifacts, memorabilia, hands-on equipment as well as a research library and conservation lab. There were actual airplanes to see as well - including a B-29 Superfortress affectionately named "Fifi" (whose wheels were taller than Abby).

We spent quite awhile checking out this museum and we recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Midland, Tx. Please check out more photos of the museum by clicking here.

Later on in the eve, we decided we wanted to find another reason to like Midland. Mike was on the case again - this time, his goal was to find a local eatery that would serve up some BBQ.
"Sam's BBQ" on Scharbauer Dr. was selected for our dining pleasure. Once again, Mike hit a homerun. Although, there a moment of trepidation as well pulled up to the joint. It just seemed shabby and run down. Mike turned off the car and we sort of sat there a minute - the unspoken words flying back and forth. I saw a sign in the door that said, "smoking allowed" - that's my out, I thought to myself! I mentioned it to Mike (who is almost allergic to cigarette smoke)...."OHHH Noooo..." he said. "We should go somewhere else"...."Well, no...let's just go here"...."Well, if you really want to"...."Should we?". You know the drill...

Finally Mike just opened the door - I could almost hear Abby say, "Finally" under her breath. We stepped inside Sam's and the smell of mesquite filled our nostrils. OH YEAH. The place was just about as toe up on the inside as it was on the outside...but at this point our eyes were blinded by the lovely smells that were making their way into our noses. We sat down in a booth whose vinyl was duct taped together. We were handed a laminated piece of paper with a handful of choices (no kid menu and crayons here, baby). Nothing seemed to matter - we were in a mesquite-induced trance. We ordered - and in no time plates of food appeared before us. Let me just say this....there was no family chatter going on at this table. Just eating. It was good bbq.

We came to the register to pay and the waitress asked us if we enjoyed our meal. I couldn't help myself - I said to the waitress, "Well, as my Aunt Jan would say, 'it was so good it made me want to slap my mama's hand'". Not only did I say that, but I said it in my best southern accent. So it came out more like this, "it wuh so good it made me wana slap my mamas hayen"
Praise the Lord that the waitress thought that was funny because that could have been an awkward moment. It already was for Mike...

So - there you have it. Saturday in Midland, Tx. - in the books. Tomorrow we are off to Fort Worth for a much needed travel respite. We will be there for 3 weeks, then we have some more traveling planned. Don't stop checking the blog though - you can count on me for more meaningless commentary.

PRAYER REQUESTS

1. Praise: We can't believe how quickly the travel time goes - we feel this is an answer to prayer - thank you for those that are praying - it does make a difference!

2. Please pray for - yet again - safe travel...this time to Ft. Worth.

3. We have been praying for housing arrangements for our arrival in Tn. There are not alot of apartment complexes in TN...at least in the area where we are targeting. There is one complex that fits our criteria - but not sure if the one we are looking at would be available at the right time. Please pray that God would be preparing our place even now and that it would be clear to us which place is right (and that we would be open to whatever it is).

Lastly - I just want to say how much we love hearing from "home"....your emails and comments from the blog are bringing us joy on the road. We miss you guys and look forward to our next visit to CA.

Love you so much it makes me wanna slap my mama's hand.
(Hey Mom - it's just a figure of speech, ok?)

k