Friday, May 29, 2009

I will make you fishers of men....

We had a wonderful day. Melvin and Shirley came by and we had a fantastic time catching up. It was so good to see them and the kids. I am very sad that they will be going back to Singapore in a few weeks but I know I will see them again and we will, like always pick up where we left off.

I love Alabama. The pace is slow, the farms out here are fresh and there is just wide open spaces, green trees and grass. People are friendly and today I realized how truly Southern I am. I see where I get the gift of gab, I see how I fit in. It is like I found my people.

We stopped by a few farm markets and bought, watermelon, onions, eggplant and a plethora of other vegetables. Picked straight and set up on carts, dirt still clodded on them. I asked if they were organic and he laughed at me. He said they have copperhead rattlesnakes, not that I know how that relates to spraying your farm with chemicals, but .... he said he had one that was six feet long. He apparently eats them. He told us if he caught one tomorrow when he went to get the corn he would put it on ice for us to grill. I am down with that.

We stopped by one little market, I nearly cried. Three little old men chomping on peaches and chewing the fat. They gathered next to a pick up truck with a home made trailer filled with fruit. The trailer was the back end of an old truck, it was covered with an awning made of sticks and tarp and in the middle was flown an American flag. The flag waved faithfully in the breeze, tattered at the ends, but still in the middle of that little shade awning and above those three old men in overalls it looked glorious. We bought a watermelon from them and sampled a few nectarines, I giggled as I watched him clumsily put the fruit into a Walmart plastic bag. Just can't get away from Walmart, even in the very fringe of the United States.

My trailer envy has turned into full blown motor home desire. Of course that would not happen anytime soon but a girl can dream. We stopped by camping world and I made the grave mistake of looking at trailers. Let me tell you, the difference between our trailer and the ones I looked at were night and day. They were huge!! one even had a separate rooms the room in the back had four beds!!! Someday....

For dinner we had fresh shrimp that tasted like lobster, we apparently liked it as much as the fish did today. Gary had the great idea of using it as bait for our first real fishing trip down to the dock. I have pictures of all of this but ... I will post them later. We took Melvin and Shirley and their two kids down to the dock and cast our lines over. I prayed that this would be a great fishing trip for the kids and Jesus ordered all the animals he could certainly arrange my kids to catch a fish. Ethan was the first to catch a fish and he did it within 3 minutes. Next came Mason a cat fish, then Nicole.a pin fish, Abby was struggling with her little line. I held her tight and prayed that she would catch a big one! Gary interrupted but Abby was taking this prayer very seriously and told dad to wait. Then when I was done she hopped over to dad and grabbed the pole. A few minutes later she reeled in a catfish that was about 8 inches! The biggest catch of the day, prior to her casting her line and hooking me on the back of the leg! Her faith was so big and her fish was big too. She really did pray believing, not doubting. Later she told me, "Wow mom God really does control the animals!" Next Judah caught a fish then Nettie. That was it. No more, once everyone had a turn they stopped biting. We caught 6 fish within 30 minutes. It was and experience that I don't think they will soon forget. God wants to use our kids, he is sending a message that he does intend on making them fishers of men. Gary was shocked I was shocked, we laughed and had a good time. There were several other people on the Pier fishing but not a single fish was brought in but from our little kids with the least experience and a bat man pole.

It is time to sleep, our trailer is still crooked which means I can't use the hot water as it has something to do with the propane I don't know. It feels like there are crumbs in my bed and I am sticky and itching like the dickens. I rubbed banana on my leg like my mom said but I haven't felt relief just yet.

Mason is my boy. He found an injured toad and really tried to take care of it. Finally he let it go, I think Judah had run over it with his bike. He decided to write a note and leave it next to Mr. Toad. The note was a song that went like this

Mr Toad Mr Toad, how are you
Mr. Toad Mr. Toad I love you

We prayed for that little toad.

He also was a big helper and really impressed me. He went to his daddy and asked him what it was he could do to help. I can tell he really wanted to hang out with the guys tonight. It was so cute. I also was walking in the sand next to our trailer and in the sand someone wrote, I love my mom. It was Mason. What a sweet kid.

All for now. We are getting ready for the beach tomorrow. It should be fun. We will meet Melvin and Shirley there in the morning, maybe with fresh grilled rattler. :)

I need to add for Judah how I am seeing him become a little man, a guardian like his namesake. He woke up straight out of his sleep the other night and was walking out the front door. When asked he said, half asleep, that he was looking for Abby. She was right there but he is so protective of her. Also on the pier I found him hanging onto Mason and Abby's shirts from behind. I asked him what he was doing and he said he didn't want them to fall in. We were on the playground I took off my shoes and in the middle of swinging he asked me to put them back on so bugs wouldn't bite my feet anymore. He is such a sweet boy.

MMMm bacon flavored bath towels

Melt downs.

I had my first today. This morning actually. The thought did pass through my mind "Why in the world did we do this?" We drove all this way to fight heat, humidity and bugs. My legs and hands and feet are currently on fire. The pain started last night, my legs burned and itched as new bumps seemed to appear from no where. Then it happened, Sweetie the chihuahua pe peed on Gary. I forgot to walk her. ooops. So Gary tossed and turned and was rightfully very angry. As I mentioned before Gary has a thing for certain blankets and their comfort so when our second best blanket was urinated on by the 3 pound canine, he was livid. The trailer bed is wobbly and everytime he moved with the new scratchy blanket, I felt as though I was being rocked by giant waves. Needless to say I did, we, didn't sleep too much.

Our trailer and camps site is leaning to the right so everything tips, including me, our food the plates, you know. I tried to make a great breakfast but Judah had a complete melt down and the trailer felt way too small. Mason spilled three cups of milk, flys invaded upon the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon, and there is the constant fight with the sand. Ants the size of Texas were unwelcome intruders, and although I hate to use poison, we sprayed the area. I know the neighbors, some nice folks from Alabama thought I was a loon as I spit and cursed the ground. Well not really but I might as well. I said I didn't like this place and I didn't want to stay longer than I had to. I yelled at the kids, I yelled at the dogs and I yelled at Gary. Not really showing God's love. It is always embarrassing to then meet the people next to you and wander what they must think of you. The good thing is that it is always temporary.

I got my groove on and now things are better. The kids have been riding bikes, finding toads and playing in the mud for hours. Gary just set up a game for them to do outside and I took a shower in the KOA public showers. It was a full size shower, nice and hot, and the water didn't run out after 5 minutes. Yessss, it is the small things. My legs are still on fire, but the good news is that there isn't a lot of West Nile Virus here. I had horrible dreams of tornado's and tsunamis and our little trailer being washed into the Gulf of Mexico. Abby woke with night mares of germs and getting sick. Poor baby. She also woke with a stuffy nose.

As I prayed in the shower, the steam and God cleansing my very soul, I found my peace again. I am home as long as I have my little home with me. Every camp ground we pull up too seems unfamiliar, I worry about it's safety and where my kids will run and ride and how I will watch them. There is a lonely feeling that comes over me at first, then we set up our little trailer and I know I am home. Day light comes and I see that we are surrounded by friendlies and the danger I imagined is not so bad. The kids find things to do, they make up games and mostly follow the rules. We loose them every once and while but they seem to come back. I am trying to let go of the fear, and I realize I am riddled to the core with fear. I don't want to put that on my kids.

I dried off, thinking Gary was right that this shower was nice and worth the effort. I pulled my towel from the little hook and tried my best to dry off (humidity) and when I dried my face all I could smell was bacon. Now I know why all these years I have watched campers cook their bacon outside. The smell is thick and will soak into everything. So I smiled as I am learning and decided that smelling like bacon was better than how I smelled before. It's all good.