"Grandmama puts it this way:  I feel like a fresh new woman"

Background: Abby & I eating dinner, a Boston song playing in the background. Me, singing along.

Abby: "You know this song, Mom?"

Me: "Yeah, I know alot of songs. I used to sing this song when I was a kid"

Abby: "Man, this must be an old song"

Hmmm.

I like to sing. I like to sing like Ethel Merman. Really loud. Randomly.

Tonight, I was doing "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" (a personal fave) in my loudest Ethel Merman voice. However, I sort of launched off in mid-song:

"last week he took all my money...and it may sound funny..."

I was interrupted by the sound of my sweet precious 1st grader:

"MOM. You are not giving any details. Who is HE?"

I bet Jim Croce didn't have to deal with such questions.

Mike is outside mowing the lawn...Abby and I are sitting at the kitchen table sharing a snack. We watch him mow through the big windows in the kitchen. We observe, critique and grade his mowing technique.

"Mom...why is Daddy wearing his pretty clothes to mow the lawn?"

I didn't know the answer, but we decided to dock him a few points for it.

Abby tells me about the eggs they are keeping in the class that will be hatching into chickens soon.

"Mom. Guess what. We have chicken eggs in class. We are keeping them in a enominator so they will be warm."

Vocab mishaps are one of my favorite things about kids...a few of my favorites so far:

deorient for deodorant
refrigerlator for refrigerator
cafeterion for cafeteria (she still calls it that!)

Do you have a favorite vocab mishap?

Tonight, driving down the road we passed a police truck. Attached to the truck was a horse trailer carrying 2 horses. Clearly, it was a "horse unit" and they were either coming or going. I pointed the police truck out to Abby and said, "Oh look, they have a couple of horses".

To which she responded (seriously - and in horror, I might add), "Oh no! Are they taking the horses to horse jail?"

Later on in the evening I had Abby strip down for bath time. Folks, there's something about the removal of the clothes that turns this child into a Broadway showing of Mamma Mia!. And to the degree that I'm trying to take care of biz and get through the bath event is the degree to which she is hammin' it up. I'm trying to wash the stinkin' tub out and she's standing on the stool, wiggling all that the good Lord gave her and singing, "I'm....a nekkid....mole rat".

Whose child is this?



love & nekkid mole rats,

k

Hopefully you've gotten up off the floor after having fallen from the shock of seeing a new post from me. Are you ok? Hopefully it's just minor scratches and bruises. Now, don't get too cozy in your seat, this will be a short one. Starting off with an apology for my absence, and no promises about my activity going forward. I'm just in a bit of a busy season - what can you do.

But, my readers are important to me...and I'm trying my best to keep y'all updated. I do have some good material to post soon...one of them may be a picture of something I've knitted around a street pole in Middle TN. Stay tuned.

For now, here's a little nibble for you to whet your Adventures appetite.

BACKGROUND: Mike waking Abby up for school

THE CONVO:
Mike: "Abby, wake up honey, it's time to get up...what can I make you for breakfast?"

Abby: (Groggy and Tired) "Is sleep on the menu?"


BACKGROUND: Fast forward 10 minutes...in the kitchen for breakfast

THE CONVO:
Mike: "So what is it going to be?"
Abby: "Can I have a piece of toast?"
Mike: "Sure...do you want some cereal with that?"
Abby: "No, that's too many grains"

I don't know where she would have gotten something like that from...???!!!

Today is Abby's official birthday...



This morning Abby crawled into our bed and woke us up. Mike whispered, "Happy Birthday" to her and she whispered back, "I feel bigger".



After church Abby ran out to the end of the driveway to get the morning paper, which was quite large and heavy looking (chocked full of good coupons, I was hoping). Mike asked Abby if it was too heavy for her to carry to which she scoffed and said, "C'mon...I'm six."



Oh boy.

Stinkin' cute jacket and hat courtesy of Auntie Kathryn...

What holds the attention of a sanctuary full of toddlers, preschoolers and Kindergarteners for a full hour?



Miss Patty Cake...a grown woman dressed in bright primary colors who sings childrens songs. She came to our church to "perform" and the kids had a blast. Momma was not able to have any coffee, was suffering from sleep deprivation and had a slight dehydration headache...needless to say, I had a blast as well.

SAID IN MY HEARING: Abby was helping me clean house today. While cleaning my bedroom, I had her organize my vanity (she loves to stack and arrange my makeup!) Unfortunately, there were alot of used q-tips laying there on my table. She collected them up and held them together in her precious little hand. Then with a very serious tone she said, "MOM."

"Yes, honey" I replied.

"We really need to make sure these get IN to the trashcan....OK?"

Loved her usage of "WE"...wonder where she gets that from. At any rate, I totally got served by my 5 year old.

C-NOTE POST
Last but not least...

Regardless of whether you've just jumped on board or you have been with us since our First Post on the 8th of February 2008, I wanted to take a moment and thank you for riding along with us on our Adventures. With this post, we celebrate ONE HUNDRED entries into the Club Amaro blog. I guess for some that's not any big deal, but 100 seems like a fun number to celebrate. So lift a glass, blow a horn or dance around your computer (I'll be doing the same).

I hope you've enjoyed peeking into our little world as much as I've enjoyed writing about it.

love, love, love...

k

It's been fall break here in Middle Tennessee and for parents that means one thing: kids home from school. For two weeks. All day. Now of course this is no issue if you're the kind of Mom that has lots of fun ideas, plans, crafts and play dates with Mac-n-Cheese & Capri Sun lunches. Well, I'm not really that kind of Mom...I mean, I can do stuff like that but it doesn't come so naturally for me. I'm also in a one kid world (which is quite different from a multiple-kid world). I've heard these special "cool mom" skills can improve with additional offspring. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but it's been 5 years and this is still me folks. Don't get me wrong, there was fun times for Abby last week, but then she went and got the strep throat and rash which kind of sealed the deal on fall break fun. Not to mention B & M's kids came down with some sort of flu like thing - it was just a sick week!

I'll tell you one thing that I can do....PRETEND! Oh yeah, I'm a good pretender. And I have the perfect pretending buddy - Abby! She doesn't watch much TV, so her pretend-play repitoire is modeled by things that she sees at home or school. One of my personal favorites is "Office". Office is good because I'm playing, but I can also sneak real work in while I'm pretending to be office buddy. In order for you to have a greater appreciation for the operations here at Club Amaro, you must - I repeat MUST - have a deeper understanding of "Office". It's time for a photo montage...YEAH!


It's important to follow Office attire guidelines. Of course at this Office, the guidelines are very loose. Exhibit A. a leotard and skirt paired with some lovely lavender heels and matching purse (a gift from Arie P.) Nevermind you can see the unmentionables...


Next, you always bring at least one baby to the office. Today it was Aubrey. What? You don't see her in the picture? Top right corner, nestled in her stroller underneath the fleece blanket. Of course, you can't bring all four kids because that would be too much crying and disruption.


You must always have some kind of paperwork to do. Today at the Office, we are reviewing an Istockphoto.com listing from a past project of mine. Other days, I print out IRS forms or other applications. She fills them out and consults with me about the content. She'll say things like, "should I enter this into the oplication [application] or should I FTP it to the database?". Come on, she listens to two techno-geeks all day long, of course she's going to say stuff like that.


This reminds me of another important aspect of Office...you need pretend names. I mean, it's really unprofessional to call your collegue, "Mom". My name is "Amanda" after everyones favorite advertising executive from Melrose Place (come on, you KNOW you watched it!!). Abby has gone the more conservative route, using "Laura" after the modest and moral Laura Ingles Wilder of Little House on the Prarie (come on, you KNOW you watched it!!). At least she didn't pick Nellie. Also, since Mike works at home, sometimes he gets sucked into our little Office world - we refer to him as "The President"....or, "El Jefe".

It's important to note that our pretend names carry over to other pretend activities such as "Crafters" (this is where we hang out in the craft room and pretend we are artists working on our masterpieces), or "Kitchen". Actually, in Kitchen, we have different names - I am "Master Chef" and she is "Sous Chef" - but we both KNOW that behind those names we are really Laura and Amanda.

Hopefully you're not confused. Or embarrassed. For me.

I love to pretend with Abby - I don't know if this makes me wierd or dysfunctional or if my child will have to have counseling someday. But I think a little pretending is healthy. As much as I love to play these things, my favorite part about pretending is when I say something to "Laura", and she gives me this certain look and says, "let's go back to being Momma and Abby".



love & capri suns,
k

aka,
amanda

SECRET MESSAGE: Navajo Slave goes on Sev runs.

This money saving maven has met her match! I had to pay full price for something...MAMA NO LIKE! The city caught me red handed on one of those traffic camera's running a light. In fact, you can see it for yourself:



Mike and I have already watched it about 50 times (one time for each dollar I had to spend get back in the good graces of this fine city) and we laugh our butts off every time. I don't know why the video strikes me so funny - it's just the sight of my little Camry boppin' on through that lonesome turn lane. Let me give you a little background on this right hand turn. There are TWO right hand turn lanes and when the light is green, it's a party and everyone gets to go. Then the light turns yellow, then red - at that time a green right arrow appears for the right hand turn lane. Well apparently the left right hand turn lane has been naughty because it's not allowed to go on the right green arrow light. Only the rightmost right hand lane can turn. I'm not sure if any of that made sense - but, it explains why nobody is in the left right hand turn lane - except of course for me. Bop, bop, boppin' along...

Of course, this little infraction has had its intended effect on me...today I found myself being much more obedient to traffic signs and lights. Not sure how long that will last...

Said in my hearing...
Today I was not feeling so well. So after we got home from school, I suggested to Abby that we have some "cuddle time" on the bed. Of course my idea would be that she brings a few books and reads to me as I close my eyes, rest and hope I feel better. Her idea is that I read to her while she relaxes after a hard day at school (come on, recess IS tiring!). Being the fab mom that I am, I acquiesced. I started to read but found myself unable to muster much enthusiasm in my voice. Abby - using hand gestures that are impossible to document in this forum - says to me, "MOM. You need to read the words with more excitement!"

Jack and Mary BoBo
No, this is not some nursery rhyme that I screwed up! Jack Daniels - as in the whiskey....and Miss Mary BoBo as in...well, Miss Mary BoBo! Two places that we visited with our friend Kathryn during her visit here. I never had an opportunity to write about it so I thought I'd give a little Readers Digest of it.



We drove down to the little town of Lynchburg, Tn. (a wonderful drive with lots of beautiful country scenery). First stop: JACK. Funny little side note, Lynchburg is in a DRY county - that means alcohol is not served or sold anywhere! The distillery can only sell "commemorative" bottles of Jack.



We took a tour of the distillery where Jack Daniels whiskey is made. The grounds are beautiful and the smell of whiskey fills your nostrils as soon as you get out of the car. I knew we were in for a wild ride as soon as we met our feisty tour guide, William. He kept things lively, I'll just leave it at that. The tour is great and we learned quite a bit about the process...we may have even learned more if we understood 1/2 of what William was saying.

After the tour, we went down the road a bit to downtown Lynchburg where 1 pm "dinner" reservations awaited us at Miss Mary BoBo's (MMBB). We weren't sure what to expect, but went at the suggestion of a friend. Turns out, MMBB is a boarding house & restaurant (although no longer used as a boarding house). The bedrooms of the house have been converted into mini-dining rooms where meals are served family style at a large table. Each room has a "hostess" - a local Lynchburg lady - that gets everyone familiar with each other and the food and handles any questions or concerns. We just so happened to be seated in the "Tolley" room with Lynne Tolley herself as our hostess. Lynne is the current proprietress of MMBB (Miss Mary was her mama) - and she is the great-grandniece of Jack Daniels. It doesn't stop there folks, Miss Lynne takes a little time each Friday to imbibe over at the distillery....oh sure....they CALL it taste testing, but we know the truth. Seriously though, she's an "official tester" for JD. They say sometimes it only takes a whiff to tell good from bad. Anyway - if you want to know more about MMBB, just google it and read all the fabulous write-ups about it. There is some fun history to it.


The 3 of us (along with 8 or 9 others) feasted on fried chicken, meatloaf, rice casserole, candied apples (candied with Jack, of course), pinto beans with red pepper relish, greens, fried okra, corn muffins, sweet tea and some fudge pie w/ fresh cream (Jack's in the cream too!) for dessert. I think I missed a dish, but you get the picture. We were so full afterwards that we walked around downtown Lynchburg and looked at souvenirs in hopes of our stomach returning to normal size.



And we couldn't help but take in a few rocks in the rocking chairs that were so abundantly available in front of the shops. NICE!

Well - thanks for hanging in there with me for this lenthy post. I hope you are all well and find yourself more informed about the haps at Club Amaro.

Love and okra,
k

SECRET MESSAGE: "It was the PASTA"

Awhile before school started we bought Abby an alarm clock so that she would be excited about waking up for school (oh if that was all it took for me...). It's been a great tool to encourage her to get up on time and it gives her a little bit of responsibility as she is the one to get up and turn it off.

Well, I think the excitement factor is officially null and void. Yesterday after I got out of the shower, Mike reports to me that Abby's alarm went off and she immediately got in bed and went back to sleep.

Oh, that dog ain't gonna hunt, I thought. I marched into her room and found her cozied up under the covers fast asleep. I started in on the "secondary" alarm proceedings: opening of the blinds, turning on of the light, singing her name loudly, etc. I sit on the edge of the bed and she stirs awake. After lovingly welcoming her to the day, I start in on my lawyer like questioning of the morning offense.

"So why did you get back in bed after your alarm went off?"

She responds to me in the half-asleep daze:

"I was having a dream about baking cookies"

"Oh," I said "ok...but that doesn't explain why you got back in bed"

"I got back into bed because I wanted to finish my dream up."

Well, I couldn't argue with that!

Just a quick update for ya on the haps at Club Amaro.

As of yesterday our apartment is FINALLY empty...and CLEAN! I never thought I would see it empty. Good grief. I spent 4 hours cleaning that place - spic and span it was when I was done. The fella came in to do the walk through and said, "Awesome" and "Ah man, I sure pray-shate this" about 7 times each and then signed off on it! They are real relaxed here about deposits - we were not required to pay a one - not to mention our first month was free. The guy doing the walk through was so grateful for me having cleaned it the way I did that I got the sense that it wasn't something that was required. Oh well...it made me feel good to do it.

Boxes are slowly but surely disappearing, thanks to B & M who are going to be moving in a few weeks (I think). They are still working on their house, which is going to be incredible once it's finished! We are looking forward to being down the street from each other (and we're also looking forward to being settled!). Rooms are starting to become functional (I cooked my first official meal on my new stove tonight). There's always the reorganizing that will take place for the next few months, but it feels good to have rooms in working order.

"Painter Rob" just finished the guest bathroom - it looks fabulous. The color is "Swiss Almond" and it's a major improvement over the wallpaper. The prior owners must have gotten a deal on this hunter green and maroon stripped wall paper because it's everywhere. The cool news is that Painter Rob needs an updated website....and, I just so happen to know someone who does websites and also needs her living room painted. The sunny-yellow is a little too perky for us and it's not quite right with the merlot couch and chairs.


Abby is having a blast in Kindergarten...the above shot is a pic of their Teddy Bear picnic they had today. This was "bear" week at school...they were asked to bring a stuffed animal bear to school to hang out for the week. They learned all about bears, hibernation, types of bears and all that kind of stuff. Abby had her first trip to the school nurse on Thursday after she tripped, fell and bled. She told me every last detail on the way home from school that day and at the very end she said this about the school nurse: "She sure knows about being a nurse".

Last but not least, we had a fun spur of the moment outing tonight - all the way to our next door neighbors house. The husband is part of a garage band (and I mean that literally...they play in their garage!). They had a huge table of food, a whole bunch of guys playin' stuff and a nice big couch for the wives. They played country oldies, and they were REALLY GOOD! There was a stand up bass, steel guitar, piano, guitars and a full drum set. They were just jammin' the night away. The male singer had a great Johnny Cash sounding voice and there was a gal there who sang a few and she sounded like Loretta Lynn. We hung out there for quite a while just listening and laughing at the 'back and fourth' banter between the musicians. Even Abby got into it. We are excited about having such cool neighbors!

Well, I hope that everyone has a great weekend in store...I can pretty much sum up the weekend ahead for us in one word: BOXES. We are excited for our first official visitation, which is coming up in less than a month...but, before that happens, there's a little matter of someone turning into a new decade. HMmmmmmmmm....

love and 30 somethings,
k

A hungry Abby polished off her egg this morning in the blink of an eye...her comment upon finishing the last bite? "Man, I finished that egg in a jiffy!"

After my chuckling died down, Abby started in on her fruit, which consisted of some peach and pear. The peach, while very delicious, had a skin that was not so pretty. Abby picked it up, looked at it and commented, "this peach skin is spinning out of control".



Oh the years ahead where many other people will have input into Abby's vocabulary and life besides Mom and Dad...people who say things like "jiffy" and "spinning out of control". If this is the extent of it, then I can't complain - but it does remind me how important it is as parents that we take action and bathe our children in prayer DAILY.

"Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street."
Lamentations 2:19

A quick update to let you know that we OFFICIALLY own a part of Tennessee. Well, to be completely technical we owe money to a bank who owns a part of Tennessee - but that doesn't sound quite as exciting. We closed escrow today and got the nod from our Realtor that it's Ok to use our keys. What's next? MOVING. More on that to come.

Secondly, Abby has completed her 2nd day of Kindergarten. She is loving it. The afternoon "pretend school" time is in full swing already! (This is where she sets up all her babies and stuffed animals and pretends to teach them).

One cute item of note...yesterday after her first day, she was telling me about eating lunch in the cafeteria. I will mostly be making her lunch this year, but her school also has a full service cafeteria there as well. Abby had eyes the size of saucers as she told me about the "other side" of the cafeteria where the kids go up with a tray and select food from a table. She said, "And you know what?" (There was a long pause where I think she was waiting for me to guess or something)....she puts her hand up to her cheek like she's going to tell me a secret and then whispers, "then they PAY for it".

I think the cafeteria concept is very exciting to her...I guess she's led a sheltered life. I guess there are worse things to not know about, eh?

Anyway - we are very excited about the things going on around here...we also acknowledge that "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17).

Love,
k

Background: This morning. Abby washing her face with a little sponge that Gmama gave to her.

I ask: "Is that refreshing?"

Abby responds: "Oh, I feel like a new woman"

---

Background: This afternoon on the way home from school, Abby tells me about the result of her science experiment that was started yesterday.

Abby states: "The water was PITCH orange"

The statement was accompanied by a hand gesture similar to the one an umpire makes as he's calling someone safe at home plate.

A little business to get out of the way: Please note that very soon, I will be shutting down this blog to public access for privacy purposes. If you want to stay updated on Club Amaro Adventures, please send me an email and I will send you an invitation to the site (AFTER I SWITCH TO PRIVATE ACCESS). If you'd rather just get the email version of the blog each time its updated, please sign up in the box to the right entitled, "Subscribe". If you are already a subscriber, you need not do anything. Thanks for understanding!! Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog update...

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I send greetings to you from my new (to me) $50 garage sale dining room table in my new (to me) Tennessee apartment. As I type, I'm surrounded by all our belongings that fall into one of the following categories:

1. In a box
2. Not in a box, but not in a proper place
3. Not in a box and put somewhere that seemed logical at the time, but will most likely get moved two or three times in the next two or three weeks
4. Not in a box and put in the perfect place

In addition to all our belongings, we have bonus items that include, but are not limited to:

a. boxes of all shapes and sizes - some new, some used and some REALLY used.
b. paper
c. paper
d. paper
e. paper
f. paper

And I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but we have paper.

First of all, let me say that I'm so thankful that all our stuff arrived and that it appeared to arrive in pretty much the same condition that it was when it left. The moving company that we hired was top notch (Chipman/United Van Lines) with only a few minor exceptions (who doesn't have those, eh?). That being said, part of the reason everything got here in one piece is because they used an entire forest worth of trees to wrap our stuff! You would not believe the amount of paper that we are dealing with here...I'm not exaggerating, I promise! I mean, it's really a problem. You hate to throw it away - I mean, we paid for the stuff, right? And, knowing that we'll be moving soon it would be wise to hold onto it. But what do you do with bags and bags and bags of paper? It's a paper problem. Let me give you an example...in our guest bathroom back in Concord we had a little dish that had a few slivers - and I do mean slivers - of soap. These slivers of soap were wrapped up in FOUR layers of 24"x 24" paper. A pony-tail holder, a small rock and some belly button lint - wrapped in 2 layers. A plastic cup - 2 layers. 3 votive candles - 4 layers. I could go on, but how much fun would that be for you...anyway, Bonni and Michael have a huge attic over their garage, so we are stuffing paper in big boxes and storing it. Hmmm....storing paper....who knew it would go down like that.

Ok, I apologize for going off on that - it wasn't how I intended to launch my first official post from our new place. But, alas - I am tired and sore...I do not feel like writing. However, I do need to let everyone know that we are here in our new place and we are getting settled. I don't have many pictures right now that are very exciting - for example:



I did want to say that I've received a few emails over the past week or so and I have NOT been able to respond to anyone! It's been so busy that I haven't had alot of opportunity to boot up and email. So, for those of you that have contacted me - please be patient - I will catch up with you very soon! Do know that I really, really, really love hearing from you and getting little stories about what's going on outside of TN...so keep the love notes comin' y'all....PLEASE!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

love and many paper layers...
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