A New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We had an exciting New Years week. We left that Monday from Grandview, WA with the destination of Klamath Falls, OR. Josh's church in Grandview voted to buy us new tires, so Monday morning we packed up and headed to Yakima to get our new tires. After that we left and almost didn't make it to Oregon. We got stuck on Hwy. 97 and Caleb had to put our chains on. It took him almost 30 minutes to get them on, and then when we got over the hill we didn't need them anymore! But at least we made it over the hill. Once we hit the bottom of Oregon we started seeing snow again and for some reason everyone wanted to go 35 mph on the highway. It was very frustrating because the roads were dry with no ice whatsoever and there were still vehicles stuck in the snowbanks. We were trying to figure out how in the world they went off the road, but I still don't understand it. We finally made it to Klamath Falls, and met my old friend Bekah Donaldson (Frain) at a restaurant with the rest of her family. We haven't seen each other since I was a Junior in HS so it was really nice. Her mom and brother are living with her, so it was good to see them again too! We had a nice meal, and then we crashed at our hotel!
The second day, Tuesday, our destination was Bakersfield, CA. The GPS said it would take 10 1/2 hrs and it was pretty close. It was a loooooooooong day, but we made it. Caleb's Granny (great-grandma) lives there and her church let us use their Missions Apartment. We went to see her the next day, Wednesday, and had a great time. Most of you will know that our oldest child, Noah, is not a hugging person. He doesn't like to hug or be touched, but he gave Granny a big hug (for Noah) right away. It was so sweet and I almost cried! The kids were really good and we had a great time with Granny. She is so sweet and I felt like I've always known her even though I had never met her before. I started to do the lunch dishes until she told me that was the only thing she could do and she was going to be completely bored the rest of the day if I took that job away from her! haha, she makes me laugh.
That night we went to Granny's church, McKee Road Baptist Church, for their services. I was having really bad indigestion and could barely sit up straight, so I took Lela back to the apartment. We cuddled and rested until Noah and Kayla came running back in all excited and exclaiming "We're going to stay up until midnight and play games and eat food and make popcorn and watch movies!!!" I was about to call them crazy nuts until I remembered it was New Years Eve! The apartment is attached to the Fellowship Hall and the church really did stay up until Midnight doing all those things! So we didn't get much sleep Wednesday night.
Thursday we drove from Bakersfield, CA to Flagstaff, AZ. This was probably our worst and longest day. I don't know why this drive was so hard, but it seemed like we were never going to get there! We finally arrived at Bro. Feaster's house at about 7:30pm and they showed us the apartment where we would be staying. It wasn't anything more than a few mattresses on the nursery floor, but we were so exhausted we were just thankful for a warm place to lay down! I probably would've slept on a pew. We did drag ourselves out to eat since we hadn't eated since 11:30am and we were thankful we still had some Chili's gift cards left!!
Friday morning we were a little more jazzed about traveling and we left pretty early in the morning. We drove all the way to Pampa, TX (a little NE of Amarillo) with a few stops at some trading posts along the way. Caleb has decided he hates New Mexico. Every time we stopped for a bathroom break, we had to drive around to five different places before we could find somewhere that was open AND had a bathroom! I guess if I were more willing to use a port-a-potty we could've gone earlier, but I'd rather wait, thank you! We finally drug ourselves (dragged, drugged?) into Pampa around 10:30pm and crashed in the lovely Missions apartment there. I don't even remember putting the kids in bed, I was out as soon as I laid down (lied down, layed down? my mind isn't working grammatically tonight).
Saturday morning we were more than happy to get on the road because our final stop was Mustang, OK!! Caleb was up and got the kids into the van before I had even moved from the position I landed in the night before. We left Pampa by 7:30am which was a good thing, because we didn't find a place to stop for breakfast until 9:30am. We all decided we just had to have biscuits and gravy and what better place to get it than Braums!! We knew we were close to home when we saw that Braums. The rest of the drive seemed to drag, but we were in Mustang by 11:15am. We went to the church and saw Miss Vicki who was watching the kids for visitation, and then we went to lunch with Caleb's parents.
We had a good week of traveling with no major setbacks. Noah got his school done while traveling, we didn't have any car problems, and we never left anyone at a gas station. We are so thankful to the churches that let us crash in their Missions apartments. Churches may never how much of a blessing it is to be able to stay in one, but I feel it is a necessity in a church! Even if it's a few mattresses on the nursery floor! =)

Last Blog For a While

Well, this will be the last blog for a while. Tomorrow we are going back to the land of no internet, Grandview, WA and then next Monday we're leaving for OKLAHOMA!!! We're so very excited! We'll be traveling the week of Dec. 29th-Jan. 4th so please keep us in your prayers. We will be stopping in Bakersfield, CA to see Caleb's Granny hopefully Tuesday night and spending Wednesday with her. Then Thursday we will start our trek to the homeland. We hope to be there by late Friday/early Saturday depending on how well the traveling goes. But since we'll have the time zones against us (losing an hour every day) we're not sure how that will go. Especially since we'll have to buy food and everything before we get to the place we're staying in Oklahoma. But, we will be in church in Mustang, OK on the 4th, and we can't wait!

Our friends, Ron and Vicki Lehew, who mean a lot to us, have allowed us to use the trailer Ron purchased last year while we're in Oklahoma. It's right next to their current trailer so we'll have neighbors. We're so thankful to the Lord for providing a place of our own to live, we weren't sure where we were going to stay for the 2 weeks we'll be home. But God is always faithful and provides for us. We will be in Oklahoma until the 16th of January when we'll be leaving for New Mexico. We'll be at the Heartland Home Missions Conference, if anyone else will be there! I'm not sure how many of the meetings the kids and I will be able to attend, but I'm sure Caleb will be there for most, if not all, of them. Hope to see you there, maybe!

Thanks for reading and leaving comments. It's humbling to know that people care about what we're doing and how we're doing on the road. We're having fun, but we're ready to be home, even if just for a little bit!

SNOW!!!

Well, we've been in Washington for three months, and we've finally seen snow! We're in Auburn, WA which is just south of Seattle, and there's a light dusting of real snow here. Not tiny little ice balls, not white ice, but snow! I opened the window in our hotel Sunday morning and showed the kids and they absolutely freaked out! So we got dressed in our warmest church clothes and went to the van to go to church, and they were so excited to touch snow! I felt bad for my poor little Southern kids. Everytime we were outside and they saw snow, they HAD to walk in it and get it all over their feet. I thought about yelling at them to get out because their socks were going to get all wet, they would track snow into the van, etc. but I decided to let them have their fun. We're leaving Washington in 2 weeks (WHOO-HOO!!) and who knows when they'll see snow again! I'll try to take pictures today, if it doesn't melt by the time we go out.

New Friends and Wii!!

On Thursday, Dec. 4th, we drove to Oak Harbor, WA to spend the weekend with Bo and Kimberly McKenzie. Caleb knew Bo from Heartland and then some preacher's meetings, but I had never met either of them before. We had a great weekend and the best part was, they had a Wii! So we played that almost constantly. It is just fun to meet people and have an instant connection because of the Lord! The more Kimberly and I talked the more we realized we were the same person! So many things in our background and family life are similar, it's scary! We were both raised in Christian homes, our dads were both military, we both married plumbers and now we're both in full-time ministry! Plus we both have a love for shoes that reaches to every womWe also got to see Robin and Micheal Graves, and it was good to see them again. We went to Mrs. Graves' candy shop and got some delicious candy! They make all of their treats in their store and they're very fancy. http://www.cascadecandy.com/ Check out their website!!

We also had "girl time" on Saturday. I got a pedicure and the girls got their nails painted! They had so much fun.

Right now we're in Everett, Wa staying in a gorgeous Missions Apartment, and it's actually an apartment! We have it all to ourselves and we feel like we're in a castle! We haven't stayed anywhere by ourselves this large in a long time. We're counting down the days until we're back in Oklahoma and we're excited to see our friends and family again! Thanks for all of your prayers.

Lela's Birthday!!

On Monday, December 1st, Lela turned 3!! This was not an exciting bday for her because it means that she isn't 2 1/2 anymore! She loved telling people she was 2 1/2 and she always got a laugh. Telling people you're 3 just isn't as cute, apparently. But she's finally starting to come around and says she's 3 now. Caleb picked up an ice cream cake and made Lela's favorite meal, spaghetti and meatballs, for dinner. We had a good time with Josh and his family, ate lots of food, had good cake, and Lela got what she wanted, two movies! She got Monster, Inc. and 101 Dalmations. They're both now her favorite movies and would watch them constantly, if we let her. I have pictures, but they're on Rochelle's camera so I'll have to wait until I can get them on my camera!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving! We spent it with our friends, Chris and Tammie House who live in Hillsboro, OR. We were in Baker City, OR that Tuesday and enjoyed a Thanksgiving banquet with Elkhorn Baptist Church and the Looneys there. Then Wednesday we drove to Hillsboro (near Portland) and went to Corridor Baptist Church that night. The church there was very nice and gracious and got us a hotel room for the two nights we would be there! We were overwhelmed by their love, it was so kind of them. Then Thursday we spent the entire day with the Houses. Tammie wouldn't let me do anything, so I got to lay down on the couch all day and relax! The kids all got along and it was just a good day. I'm thankful for friends that will open their homes to us while we don't have a home!

Updates!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! I didn't realize how long until I checked the sight again. I'm worse at this than I am at sending out Thank You cards! And that's bad. So I'll try to do some short updates so it's not so long.

The week of Nov 17th-21st I was incredibly sick! The only things I could keep down were strawberry yogurt and Dr. Pepper! So, Wednesday we drove from Pasco, WA to North Bend, OR and I was so sick and tired that drive (8 hours) that when we got to North Bend, Caleb dropped me off at the ER. They completely misunderstood why I was there and treated me like someone with half a brain who didn't know that you get nauseous when you're pregnant. But I got an anti-nausea pill and a prescription out of the deal, so it wasn't so bad. Plus I got to hear the baby's (yes, just one baby!) heartbeat and I did find out I was dehydrated, just tired. They wouldn't check my iron, which I didn't understand, but since I'm always low when I'm pregnant, I'm pretty sure my iron was terribly low that week! But I've been getting it back up and feel better now.
The next day, since the nausea pill was 24 hours, we drove along the Oregon coast on Hwy 101 and had a great time! We stopped at the Sea Lion Caves and saw some cute sea lions swimming in the ocean. And then we stopped at a beach and even though it was absolutely freezing, we took off our socks and shoes and ran through the waves! It was so fun, and the kids had a blast. We have video of the kids and I in the waves, but I think we're missing a cord and I can't figure out how to upload the video to the computer! But once I figure it out, I will post it.