An Actual Conversation

This is an actual conversation that recently took place in our family.

A couple of weeks ago we were turning into our subdivision. Mark says to us all, "Look at those three really big dogs over there."

I immediately followed with, "Look at that huge raccoon right there."

Mark stopped the van as soon as it registered with him what I had said. He backed up and sure enough there sat the second biggest raccoon I had ever seen in my life. He was helping himself to somehing in the backyard of one of our subdivision's residents. One of the many out of the ordinary adventures around here.

Incidentally, the largest raccoon I have ever seen was in the Cone-Crossland Zoo in Crossett, AR. I think his name was Rocky. (On a side note, if he is still imprisoned there, I would encourage Crossett residents to rise up and demand his freedom be restored at once. He deserves better!)

Grand Junction is really a nice place to live. We are enjoying the newness of it still. The house is coming together and life is moving on.

The contractor should finish the grout on my new tub tomorrow morning. After that the house will be all ours again. We had a midget tub when we moved in. Please don't get all up in arms for little people. I'm not saying the tub was for midgets, which I wouldn't call them. It was itself a midget of a tub with a depth of a whopping 14 inches. (If the tub is offended you can join its cause for rights, etc.)

The new tub ... oh me oh my ... the new tub ... 22 inches deep folks! And although we didn't set out to get one with jets, it has them and they are good. Let the people say AMEN! I got to use it last night after the plumber got it installed. VERY COOL! I'll post pics here or on our yahoo group when they finish. "Tooooo - morrow, too - morrow, I love ya, ta-morrow, You're only a day away!!!!!!!!!!"

Blssings everybody!

Let's Have a Chat Lord

I am really glad to know our smoke alarms in our new house work. I think it is very cool that if one goes off they all go off. I think it is very helpful to know that when they go off we'll sit straight up in bed and have no idea what is going. I think fire drills are important and necessary for a safe evacuation of a home.

However, dear Heavenly Father, I do not appreciate and am very disappointed in your decision to create an impromptu fire alarm drill, throughout our home, at three o'clock in the morning. If you feel you've been getting the silent treatment, I'm sorry, but you are.

I do not enjoy my heart pounding so hard that I fear it will leap from my body. I do not enjoy seeing the terror on my children's faces and tears in their sleepy little eyes. I do not enjoy sneering at my husband feeling certain that his installation of all new smoke alarms the day before is somehow responsible.

Lord, 8:00 am to 1:00 pm is good for me. I'll give you a second option of 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm, after all, I'm not trying to be difficult here. Since I know you have no sense of earthly time, I'll spring for a $4.87 watch from Wal-Mart for you if you could avoid the overnight fire drill in the future.

Sincerely Yours,
Perturbed and Still Shaking

The Journey

3/13/07 - I haven't fully proofread this. There's my disclaimer. I do think I'm finally done though. I've had to work on it for a few minutes each day to get through it all!
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Well, this is the second time I've started this blog. Apparently SAVE AS DRAFT doesn't work all that well. Actually, I may not have gotten around to that and while I had a working document opened someone in my family closed it. Don't need to bother asking. No one will know anything.

Our trip to Colorado ...

Tuesday night, 2/20, we meet my sister Kara on the other side of Houston to let her keep the kiddos for us. We didn't want Will to get trampled and we didn't want Trini freaking out when her stuff was getting packed.

Wednesday, 2/21, three movers show up. They have most of the house packed, a number of boxes and some of the furniture loaded by the end of the day.

Thursday, 2/22, they packed up odds and ends and loaded, and loaded, and loaded, and then they loaded some more. The outdoor stuff took forever. Someone needs to declutter his junk!

By the time they drove Mark's CR-V up on to the trailer, that was about all that was going to fit. Thank goodness they were done. It was 8:30 pm before they headed out.

We went to eat at Pappdeaux's in Kemah for dinner and stayed, for the first time, at the Kemah Boardwalk Inn. It was really, really nice. We would have had a great view but unfortunately there was very dense fog in the area that night and the next morning. Bummer.

Friday, 2/23, we ran a few errands. We headed back to the house and loaded up our necessities. We had a full van but everything fit, including all 3 dogs, a small aquarium and the dozen or so surviving ants from the ant hill. 60-90 day life expectancy my foot!!

We headed to College Station to pick up the kids. I couldn't help feeling homeless as we left the house in Deer Park. Our keys were inside so it was no longer ours. Yet, the house in Grand Junction hadn't closed yet and it would be 3 or 4 more hours until we had our new home. After that we went to my mom's in Cedar Creek and spent the night there. As we left College Station we got the call that the closing had gone smoothly and we were homeowners once again.

Saturday, 2/24, we left early and headed back to College Station for my niece and nephew's joint birthday party. It was at a park there and it was really nice. About 1:30 we headed out for Colorado. As excited as we were it sure was hard to leave my family.

Before I go any further I need to fill you in on a teensy weensy detail that added lots of depth and meaning to this trip. Our oldest dog, Peanut the beagle, started having diarrhea on Thursday while the movers were loading stuff up. She couldn't control it and was going in her crate. There would eventually be vomiting to and <> blood in her stool. Well into the trip she wasn't wanting to get up out of her crate to be walked. We were afraid at one point she wouldn't make it.

Back to the story ...

So, we've left from College Station. We get to I-35 a few hours later an just outside of Waco the air gets brown and the winds are nuts. Obviously the wind was stirring up some good old fashioned Texas dust and dirt. I had never seen that before. It was weird. It stayed like that until Ft. Worth. Mark's arms were tired from bracing against the wind at the wheel.

We had dinner in Electra, TX, just north of Wichita Falls. The wind was blowing so hard that our little Peek-a-poo could barely walk in it.

We started looking for a Starbucks at this point as the plan was to fill me up with caffeine so I could drive during the night while Mark slept. None to be found ... we didn't pass a single one. I ended up having to settle for a large cup of coffee (that no amount of sugar could have improved upon) from Sonic. Trust me, I tried 5 packs!

About 11:30 pm I started driving. I got the leg of the trip that included wild animals darting around, falling rocks, icy roads, and unamusing road signs. "Falling Rock", "Avalanche Area", "Elk Crossing", and "Icy Roads LIKELY", to name a few. ?????????

The first part of my drive is when I saw a fox, some deer, and the biggest rabbit ever. The middle part of my drive was two lane, icy, mountain roads. The LAST part was wear the road was up and down, had icy patches, and finally, falling rock.

Mark woke up because I was driving so slow. I told him I was worried about hitting ice and losing control. ("Jesus Take the Wheel" began playing in my head.) Mark said I wouldn't slide far going that slow. I wasn't amused.

Not even five minutes later I top the hill at mach speed, (okay I was going 33 but it felt fast) and saw rocks ahead in both lanes. Another car was passing me going a more normal speed. I was able to move over far enough to let him swerve and neither of our vehicles were damaged. There's something to be said about us Texan drivers after all!

At 3:30 am both of children were awake watching Charlotte's Web. Just an interesting fact to note.

Mark started driving again pretty soon after that. It was close to 4:30 a.m. My arms were tired from the stress of the conditions. We pulled over at a rest area for a couple of hours and slept really well surprisingly. We watched the sun come up for the first time as Colorado residents and then got on the road again.

We had breakfast at McDonald's just north of Colorado Springs. We let the kids play for awhile and stretch out their legs. Then it was back on the road.

Mark got his chance at the fun of the roads west of Denver around Vail. Lots and lots of snow and some slick roads were only part of his fun. He did well and I stayed awake to gasp now and then. It was as pretty as it was nerve racking!

Lunch was in Glenwood Springs and then we knew we were on the "home" stretch, less than two hours from Grand Junction. We went straight to the house, our house. We arrived sometime in the 2:00 pm hour. It wouldn't take long for it to begin to feel like home. It was a wonderful feeling to hold the key in our hands and know it was ours.

I think this is long enough! If I've forgotten something I'll have to write a new blog later! Sorry it is so long! It represents the length of the trip I suppose!