Frozen Gumbo and Marshmellow Eating Gators

We pushed on about four hundred miles after getting a late start in San Antonio. We arrived in Louisiana just before 7 pm. Plugged in the trailer and broke out fishing poles. Currently Gary and I are sitting on our fold out chairs about 20 feet from a 10 acre lake, the locals (being an eleven year old boy named Logan) say have gators swimming around in it. According to Logan they like to eat marshmallows and cantaloupe rinds. We met Logan and his sister Amber as we set off to fish, or at least show the kids how to fish. Logan helped them with worms and even caught a baby bass. I turned away as he yanked the hook from it's belly. However it did not detour my children who were fascinated by this little local boy. Mason especially was drawn to him and his colorful life. Apparently Logan's dad is seven foot tall, Logan's friend had his whole nipple bit off by an alligator and Logan himself wrestled without personal injury, a water moccasin. Logana also caught a shark killed a bob cat and traveled to London and was mostly Cuban. He said he wanted to be a scientist but he was not smart enough and his travel trailer was repossessed. He was a sweet little boy with about a dozen other tall tales. He followed me and Gary around anxious to tell us all of them, he even invited himself into our trailer and left us with his favorite recipe, fire eggs, cinnamon toast, sausage and syrup. His accent was enduring and he was very polite, calling us Mr. Gary and Miss Kim. He stuck around and roasted marshmallows with us and had some cantaloupe. He was not with his mom or dad at this KOA, I found out he lived just 15 minutes away and was here with a young man who he said was like a brother to him. I think these mild exagerations to put it nicely are a cultural thing. My mom being born in Arkansa has told some pretty big stories too, I alwasy believed them but now I question, did my aunt Rosie really get chased by a black panther? mmmmmmm

The air is muggy, my legs are an all you can eat buffet for these blasted mosquito's. Next to me is a lake and it is buzzing, little frogs, ducks and night birds gather and as I look out across the glassy black water I do wander if perhaps there are alligators in there. I am excited or as Nettie says "So Scited" as we are going on a swamp boat tour tomorrow. For two hours we will be in the deep swamps, where most swamp boats can't go. We will be with a local who will show us gators, how he collects their eggs and how to duck hunt. I wander how Judah and Nettie will behave for two hours while we watch birds and edge our way along waters that in some places are just two inches deep.

Mason is very excited and he is on vacation ready to live this time to the fullest, his plans for tomorrow are as told.

"I want to wake up, play some miniature golf, do some fishing and then hit that swamp boat tour." The child has little concept of time right now, or ever for that matter. Oh to be young and free of time constraints.

The other night he told that he would never take drugs or do awanna. (Mary Jane), Gary and I laughed so hard.

This morning we woke up to a grand Texas thunderstorm, it rocked out little trailer and questioned Gary of our safety, but apparently everything is just big in Texas and we were just fine.

We really have had a great trip. I have been keeping track of road kill for the last few days as I have found it easier to find than live animals. Thus far I have seen about 5 coyotes, 15 armadillos, 2 possums, 3 turkey vultures, 1 owl, and 5 skunks. I am looking forward to seeing some live animals tomorrow in Americas wetlands. This swamp tour has been featured on Discovery channel and in magazines. It is the real deal and we are hoping to see a Pilated Woodpecker. Gary and I have wanted to see one of those since we were in Bar Harbor Main but never got the chance. This swamp tour boast that their viewers will see gators up to 18 feet long! almost as big as the boat. Just had a moment of hesitation. Shake it off. Gators don't attack boats do they? I will google that one after this. This is the website of the tour we will be going on. http://www.champagnesswampstours.com/

barely keeping my eyes open

All kids have been thoroughly rinsed and put to bed, one out of four brushed their teeth, which is not bad considering......at least I got to brush my teeth. I realized I also forgot our shampoo and conditioner and so for the moment we will all be using the curly headed stuff of Nettie and Judah. My eyes are on fire, my nose is feeling itchy and I am hoping that this is not a cold. Nettie is sneezing and has a watery nose and Judah has been sneezing for some time now. I have to admit as I said in the last post just an hour ago, this trailer is a mess! tooth paste in the sink, wet towels, and possible dog vomit on the bed, ahhh just like home. I am having serious trailer envy right now. We are surrounded by the big hitters, the coaches and fifth wheels that are so huge and luxurious they are hauled by big rigs. As I walk by them trying to imagine how it must be to own one of those, my mouth waters over the slide outs that takes them from being a home on wheels to a mansion on wheels in my opinion. Just a few days into this trip and I think I would prefer a motor home. Gary and I have debated on this for years, we have researched every option from tents to pop ups and fifth wheels. For now this suites us, but I am not sure for how long. As the kids get bigger we will run out of room. Taking long distance trips I think a motor home is the best way to go. I could actually work out while we drove! I am finding fitness is hard to do on the road. Sitting for endless hours, snacking even with the best intentions I am sure I was not created to eat that many nuts!! I haven't been monitoring my blood sugar, I missed my thyroid pill. I am off kilter right now and as organized has I thought I was I still cannot manage to find the things I need or keep track of where everything is or needs to be. I think this will be a good learning experience for the whole family, including the dogs! Okay off to bed. Tomorrow we will try for Baton Rouge, 400 miles.

Walmart across the country

Well it is 10 pm, Gary is at Walmart in San Antonio picking up the things I forgot. I am so mad because I vowed I wouldn't go to Walmart on this trip!! Can't seem to get away from Walmart. Well at least I can brush my teeth now.

We logged over 600 miles today landing in San Antonio, the Alamo state. It was muggy and since we are at the KOA right by the river there is an abundance of blood sucking insects. The dogs are getting used to the travel thing, I even found Sweetie sitting on the dash board of the Suburban.

Today was mostly uneventful. I have only used the DVD player 1 time, the kids are doing so good. Netsanet asked me today if she could watch the "Princess and the Crack" What she meant was "The Nut Cracker" :)

We arrived at the KOA a little past 7 pm, the kids road their bikes and played on the typical old fashioned KOA play ground, wooden merry go rounds, metal structures and all around tall unsafe toys. They had a blast. Well I have to cut this short because Judah is all over the place, and I cannot even describe how that is in a 23 foot trailer. Lets just put it this way, this little trailer looks much like my house, dirty dishes, dirty floors, and toys everywhere. I guess the adage is true, "You can run but you cannot hide".

On a different note, Abby thinks Texas is beautiful. She is a doll who can really find the pretty things in life, just like Gary. This morning, in New Mexico she put her chair on the picnic table overlooking the Vally and watched the sunset. I have pictures of all of these things but guess what? I forgot the cords to down load them into Gary's computer.

Las Crusas New Mexico, Night one

Well as I am turning in for bed I realize how many things I have forgotten at home. My toothbrush, sheets, our favorite blanket, as I like to tease Gary "his blankie" he says he can't sleep without it and it is what makes home a home. He just now asked me if I could have a neighbor UPS it.

The kids are sleeping, Gary is turning in and it is just me and the light of this computer. There is the droning of the fan and it is making me sleepy.

The day started off just fine. One of the kids clogged toilet and then several others used it on top of that so Gary had to fish poo products out because the plunger wasn't doing the trick. I gagged and held the bag, then gave the kids a piece of my mind. Because of the poo debacle we left set out on our adventure with now wallet. When we turned around to get it, and trust me that is no easy feat hauling 6 K pounds, we realized that neither of us had keys to get into the house. We both gave our keys to our friends, I gave mine to the wife, Gary gave his to the husband. Long story short, we have their keys and were finally able to make contact with them as they were not home and just let ourselves into their house to get our keys back. After that whole thing it went fairly smoothly.

We arrived in New Mexico and set up the trailer for the night. Abby had a huge melt down which sent me into a melt down. Nettie insisted she could ride her bike even though I told her she couldn't. She ended up a with a few skinned knees. No tears though. Judah was amazing!! When he has a mission he is all about the long haul, I think he would make a great fighter pilot, but he wants to be a trucker. There was hardly any fighting, I attribute this to much prayer from our church and family. He would remain quiet for the longest stretches then say something so random it made me laugh, like "Mom when we back home can we go to Walmart and buy olives?"

This KOA has met my expectations, it is clean, friendly and feels safe. The kids were able to ride their bikes, play on the playground and dig in the dirt with their shovels building paths for their trucks. Right now as we are sitting on a scenic pull in sight I am looking down at the city valley, lights are sparkling and spread out like jewels beneath me. It is dark and almost magical. During the day the prairie lands seem lonely and I thought we would be isolated, but we are not as the city is just below, welcoming, sprawling singing "There is a Walmart here, you can buy the toothbrush and sheets you forgot and oh that microwave safe dish you need!!" Yessssss. I will be there shortly.

We are going to try for San Antonio tomorrow, it is a long drive over 600 miles. But if the kids do well then we will just push on. Then we should be arriving in Baton Rouge the next day, there is talk of a swamp ride! I would love that.

Dinner went well, outside of the Abby melt down which had much to do with Mason forgetting to pack his bike helmet. Of course Abby's is black with a flame and we have Netties, but didn't bring Netties bike and Netties is pink. Same helmet just different colors so I made Abby give her black helmet to Mason and I made her wear the pink one. You can imagine. So that was another thing I forgot. Darn. I would gladly spend 20 bucks on a new helmet so that I don't have to deal with that again. Can't blame the girl though, the black one with flames is waaaaaaay cooler!

Espresso is a good traveler but Sweetie is not doing so hot. I hope she gets used to the stress soon. She didn't eat or drink today. But she did pee pee while on a walk so that is a good thing considering she hasn't really been on a leash too many times.

Well I better run, off to try to sleep. Gary changed his mind to 5 am. Good golly.

Sweet Home Hamavama

Well we are just getting ready to leave for Alalbama. We are so excited, there has been a ton of a packing to do, still not done. I feel like I am leaving behind so much unfinished buisness. I have been so focused on leaving I have forgotten that at some point I am coming home and I still have so much stuff to do. I guess that is how vacations go.

I shaved the hairy mutt and Sweetie the Chihuahua doesn't want anything to do with him, she runs and hides everytime he comes near. For two days she has not recognized him, I thought these dogs were supposed to be smart.

The kids are so excited, they can hardly stand it. I think we leave tomorrow early in the AM. I hope and pray we can stand the journey. The two little ones have been fighting like crazy. I have the car clean, food packed, house kinda picked up, dogs microchipped. I hope that I can update on the road when we stop, I would love to journal this time for the kids.

All the time

I get told all the time that Abby looks like Dakota Fanning. The other day a lady at the Jack in a box drive through scared me to death when she started screaming! That was by far the biggest reaction I have ever seen so I am doing my yearly comparison. This is Datkota at 6 and Abby at five. It was funny because now she is getting to the age that she understands and we have been told this for a few years now. But the other day she said "Mom who was that lady that said I was Jehovah Raffa?" I was utterly confused until I understood she pulled another Abbyism withe her mixed up words, I laughed so hard. She meant to say Dakota Fanning.

God Doesn't want me in Africa

I feel I need to write this.

For a while now I have felt a slow down or a stop in my ministry outside the family. It isn't for lack of passion it is just the attention in my life is focused on my kids. Training Mason and Abby to continue in their walk with the Lord, and teaching Nettie and Judah what it is to be in our family and to love God. But mainly the training of my own spirit to walk closer to God in wisdom, to be the mom and wife I need to be here in my home.

For so long I craved leaving, I thought leaving here, moving to Africa would be the best thing for my family. I dreamed about it, and even secretly planned for it and prayed for it. But God doesn't want me in Africa. God doesn't want me anywhere, he can't use the "me" in Kim, the "Me" is the soul, who I am. I am compassionate, occasionally funny, out going Kim. But God doesn't need those things, hurting people don't need those things. Nobody needs my knowledge or human compassion. I am sure those things are nice and I have gotten by with them for so long but God needs the Me in Me to shrink. If I can step back and trust in God who made me then I should be able to give Me over to him and when that happens then it is no longer my compassion, which is nothing more than dry leaves. It is God's and it is that compassion that heals the broken hearted and binds up wounds that my human understanding could never touch. God's hand reaches further than ME and God's love, starts at home with ME. It starts with the most difficult challenge, family life. Especially after adopting the challenge lies to understand how God loves my kids and Gary. If I can't wrap my arms around Nettie and Judah and love them like God than how am I going to wrap my arms around orphans in Africa and really minister to them with the true power of God. It is not and illusion or some far off idea, the power of God is real and it heals. To go to a remote and hurting place in Africa is actually more easily done for me than to wake up and deal with Judah's tantrums and behaviors that I cannot fix. But is that real for me? What if the orphan I was loving with my human compassion turned around and hurt me? Would I still love? I think that is why God has told me he doesn't need me in Africa. He needs me to let go of me and let him move in me and have his being.

A little Perrier and it is all okay

It is really the thought that counts, or in my case, any thought that counts as long as I am being thought about.

On the way home from Costco the other day, Gary remembered that I like Perrier sparkling water. He actually remembered and look at Costco even though I forgot to remind him. The when he called he told me he would go by Safeway on the way home. Well that just means a lot to me because I hate stopping when I am on the way home. I told him not to worry about it, but he did anyway and not only brought me a big tall glass bottle of the bubbly stuff, but a whole case! To me that just means the world. Ahhhh love at it's finest.

On a different note and for the sake of record keeping. Judah did choke on a shrimp tail today. After he choked on a rubber chip. Poor kid I was tickling him and he was chewing on a rubber chip that I didn't know about and he swallowed it. But I have to say he was thrilled when he found out that he would have the chance to see the rubber chip once again in the toilet. I did freak him out with the shrimp though. The kid loves shrimp, well until tonight. I practically had all the kids vegetarian by the end of dinner. When Judah found out that shrimp lived in the water he told me that I lied to him and that he didn't like fish. Well it was actually when I uncurled the shrimp and showed the kids the insect like legs and then showed how they walk that he didn't like shrimp. It took a few minutes of coaxing and telling him they didn't have eyes before he would eat it again. With great mistrust and suspicion he went on to ask me where his milk came from, the pasta, cheese, vegetables it was a new concept that is for sure.

In Response to Mothers Day Mayham

After my tell all post, I had several people, mostly moms share with me that their mothers day were not all they had hoped for. But it was this letter to me from a long time friend that made me really smile. He is not a mom, but a dad and I can really appreciate his point of view. :) I say we vote John B. "King of mothers day!"

"If I were King, I'd designate one day every week as Mom's Day Off, to recognize the ones who give so much of everything they have, every other day of the week, to their families with grace and fortitude. On M.D.O., you would get waited on hand and foot by the rest of the family, or just left alone for some peace & quiet, if you wish. Children would be required to remember and recite at least 10-15 things their mother's did for them the previous week and say "thank you" with a hug. Pampering, maternal decompression, and restfulness are the order of the day. Movie theatres, Spa's, and eateries of all kinds would offer a 90% discount to mothers on M.D.O.. A large assortment of bath treatments would promptly arrive at your doorstep (delivered by a sexy UPS driver, naturally) for your use. I could go on and on, but you get the idea; Mom's deserve way more TLC than they usually get.

Now, I don't want to get on a rant here, but indulge me for a paragraph.... Hallmark is kind of evil, I think - using a careful construct of psychology (in the form of guilt), mass media bombardment, and an array of insipid, stupidly-written cards and gifts that (most of the time)replace substance, heartfelt talking/passion, romantic originality, and imagination. I think it amounts to preying on people's emotional and/or relational shortcomings - All in the name of a multi-billion dollar business enterprise. As an average absent minded guy myself, I admit to getting burned a time or two on this Hallmark day or that (Valentine's Day is one I don't particularly like, especially when we have wedding anniversaries to remember our spouses). Sadly, as our society progresses toward a nanosecond cultural mindset, I suspect more and more people will submit to things like Hallmark out of convenience or the unwillingness to creatively use their brains to unselfishly communicate love, to apologize, offer sympathies, or just plain express themselves about anything."

Mama Mia Day

Good grief. Has there been a worse mothers day in 7 years I have had the privileged of being a mom. MMMMM let me think.............

NO! no there hasn't

Well the day started off innocent enough. Abby was the first to remember it was my day. That is an oxymoron, Mothers day? really come on, does that exist?

My head was pounding but I proceeded to let all the kids fight over who was going to put lotion on my legs, meanwhile they are digging in my jewelry box to find a necklace I should wear. Mason was in the kitchen trying his best in a helpless male sort of way to microwave frozen omelets that I bought the day before because I wanted to set them up for success. But the frozen egg thing wasn't working out for Mason, ending in much screaming at me from the kitchen, while Nettie slathered hotel lotion not only on my eye lids, but in my eyes. Finally I got up. I make breakfast, I stop the arguing, I try to find a clean dish. You may ask "Where is Gary?" well let me tell you, he was in Hawaii. To give him some credit he was on his way home. I told him not to worry about a gift, our love was a gift enough, blah just kidding. I told him a week ago to get the kids together and make me a card. Did it happen? No. I thought somewhere, as I scrambled to get the kids ready for church by myself, that maybe he brought me a card or something from Hawaii. No. In fact when he called he didn't even remember. Niccccceeeeee.

He got home, blah blah blah, I tried not to be mad, blah blah blah, didn't work. As Abby screamed out of control, something about pants, I realized, as I did laundry that someones orange crayon made it's way into the dryer, ruining one of my favorite shirts, the one I was going to wear to church. I didn't let the orange crayon thing get me down, I would still wear the shirt. I put it on, then as I walked into the bedroom the shirt caught up on the door handle ripping a huge hole in it! When I was just at the point of tears I realized that I didn't even have my shirt on the right way! It was inside out. That is about the time I lost it. That is about the time my mom called. As I talked to her I couldn't hold back the tears and all the make up I put on, and let me tell you it was a lot because it was a special occasion and even though I was going to church by myself I wanted to feel good. Well a puddle of eyeliner and mascara later I wasn't feeling good. Now the flood gates where opened, my feelings totally hurt. I think out of fear Gary decided to go to church with me, even though he had flown all night. I sat in the back with Abby. It was at this point the injury and injustice stabbed. The phone rang and I overheard him telling his brother that he called his mom this morning and already wished her a Happy's mother day. See, funny thing, when he called me on his way home this morning, apparantly AFTER he called his mom, he forgot to wish me a Happy's mother day.

You know I am still hurt, I still have a headache, life goes on. I am making lunch and cleaning you know doing mother things. But let me tell you something. I am mad at Hallmark and the media for pumping this mom up to the level where I think I should have a day, because the disappointment in not being remembered by my husband on mothers day, the disappointment of buying my own frozen breakfast and my own flowers is too much for this mom. It would be all the same if this day didn't exist. Maybe I will feel better tomorrow but for now I stand with all the women who don't like this day. Who don't fit into this day. I know you are out there. You are not alone. I am boycotting mothers day, care to join me?? No? didn't think so lucky girls. :)