Our Spring Trip to The States

As usual, photos on Facebook.... This trip got started back at Christmas time. We announced to the kids that they could go home for Homeschool camp and Dry Creek Camp. Frankly, at the time they didn’t seem as excited about it as I thought they’d be. But they had presents to open, and the Marines were here, so I guess that’s understandable. We almost messed up big time. When I was buying the plane tickets, Hannah asked me to double check the dates on the Dry Creek Camp. Turns out that it was a week later than I thought it was going to be. That meant we’d be gone 5 weeks. That’s the most Erin and I have been apart in the 21 years we’ve known each other! With the adoption trip to China coming up this Fall, and a family vacation to Australia in the works, he didn’t have enough vacation days to come to the States for part of the trip. Sigh. We tried our best to pack light for the trip. I told the kids not to pack many books or toys because I knew they’d want to bring things home from the U.S. We included a couple of big, empty back packs for bringing back stuff. I reminded them that they would have plenty to do on the plane because there would be those little video/game screens on the backs of the seats. Uh-oh. First mistake. When we got on the plane in Singapore we found out we were on an older plane. No video screens. Mom was in trouble! The boys in particular were not happy. H. had her new Kindle (birthday present), so she was a little better off. The boys made it fine, though. The plane from Tokyo also didn’t have the screens. United just isn’t as good as Continental. We flew through Tokyo and Chicago. The guy at customs in Chicago must be used to dealing with tired people. He asked all four of us to come up together. Then he started asking really tough questions like, “Where are you from?” I’m thinking “Do you mean ‘where did you grow up?’ ‘cause I just handed you 4 US passports – that should be obvious. Or do you mean ‘where did you wake up this morning?’” But before I can figure that out, 1 kid says, “Singapore” and 1 says, “Texas or Louisiana”. So I got to explain all that. Then he asks, “Where are you going?” I said, “Tennessee” at the same time that O. said, “Texas”. I’m starting to give the kids the evil “Please be quiet for a minute” Mommy glare, which I hope he isn’t interpreting to mean ‘don’t tell the nice man about our illegal activities’. Next hard question, “What is the value of the things you’re bringing into the U.S.?” Well, now, that is tough. How do I count the items I bought online that were shipped to Singapore from the US? Do I have to add up all the toiletries and clothes and stuff that I’ve bought in Singapore? Do I only count what I’m bringing in as gifts?!? I have no idea. All of this is going through my very tired brain. He and I talked it over and decided that I didn’t have enough to worry about. (I didn’t!) At least the kids didn’t offer suggestions… (Mom, you know that one Magic card I have is worth $xx, and my nerf gun is like a FORTUNE!) So maybe the glare was worth something. Hopefully he didn’t go home and tell his wife about this funny lady with the talkative kids. We landed in Knoxville about 30 hours after we left our house in Singapore. Dad had cancelled his golf trip to stay and visit with us for the weekend before we headed to Homeschool camp on Monday. He drove the truck to the airport, and Bobbie drove the car. We were worried that all of us plus luggage couldn’t fit in either one alone. When we got to Dad’s house at 8:30 or so at night, the lightening bugs were out. H and I had fun catching them. The boys wouldn’t touch them. They just don’t like bugs. Not even the cute ones. Silly boys. The weather was so nice! Low humidity and cooler temps. I would’ve been happy sleeping outside! ☺ The next morning, Dad wanted to take the kids to some garage sales. But first we all went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I LOVE Cracker Barrel. That, to me, is home cookin’. Yum Yum and more Yum! When the waitress asked H. what she wanted to drink, she said, “Lemonade”. My first thought was “with breakfast?!?” but then, “Oooh, yeah, they have lemonade in this country.” Next question, “Do you have free refills on that?” Answer: “Yes” Four jaws hit four chests. “I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!” I know it sounds like a minor thing, but that was the moment when we all knew we were HOME. Lemonade is very rare here in Singapore, and good lemonade is almost non-existent. (Auntie Anne’s pretzels is the only place I know that has it.) But free refills on lemonade? Never in a million years would you find that here. Some places won’t give you free refills on water! 98% of the places here do not have free refills on anything. Anyway, there was much rejoicing over H.’s good fortune/foresight, and jealousy from the rest of us who had already put in our drink orders. While the ‘big kids’ went with Papaw Fred to the garage sales, Memaw, O. and I hit the Wal-mart. O. needed new ‘church shoes’ and I needed to buy some sheets and towels for the big kids to take to Dry Creek camp later in the trip. They might as well use those for Homeschool camp so that we didn’t have to borrow as much from Bobbie. We also lucked up on the clearance racks. We needed to pick up some winter clothes for the big kids. They’ve outgrown all their winter clothes from the winter of 2009-2010 (the last time we had a winter), and our adoption trip to China is likely to be in October or November. (The weather in China is comparable to the weather in the U.S.) I found several things on the $2 rack! Woo-hoo! We ran some more errands and then rested the rest of that day. Sunday we went to church in the morning and then out to eat at Zaxby’s (like Raisin’ Cane’s in Louisiana). I spilled my whole glass of lemonade, but not to worry – free refills!! In fact, spilling drinks started to become a theme of this trip. I don’t know what the final count was, but there for a while we were spilling one drink per meal. Nothing to do but laugh and go on. Oh yeah, and use a lid. After lunch we went over to Tamani [Erin’s youngest sister] & Garland’s house and enjoyed playing with their kids. This trip was the first time my kids have gotten to see their youngest cousin. I got to see him last July when he was 10 months old. That afternoon we went over to Mamaw Tucker’s house and visited with her. We made plans with her for after camp to go up to Sevierville/Pigeon Forge and eat at the Apple Barn restaurant. Monday, Gordon and Wyveta (Erin’s parents) picked us up for Homeschool Camp. This is a week where homeschooling families who are members of the church of Christ get together as a sort of ‘group vacation’. Mostly we visit with one another while the kids play outside. But there are also Bible classes and hikes and every night there is a singing. It is a very fun and relaxing week. This year the only downside was our jet lag. It didn’t seem to bother the kids as much as it did me. It was a real struggle not to ‘sneak off’ for a little nap in the middle of the afternoon. I could tell at night during the singings that O. was sleepy. He was happy to go to bed as soon as I’d let him. I think it was on the second day of camp someone was putting together a group to go on a 10 mile hike. Normally, I would’ve thought, “Ooh, sounds like a challenging/fun thing to do.” But this time, I thought, “Either I’m old or jet lagged (or both) but that sounds terrible.” We did do some of the smaller hikes later in the week. One hike we went on got a little tricky. I was in the back chatting with friends when we came around a corner and saw Gordon helping a boy up. He was saying, “No, don’t yell. Come on!” Then we saw the hornet’s nest above them. Those hornets were mad! Apparently the first people in the group were blissfully unaware of the nest. Some folks in the middle got stung (H., Gordon, and the aforementioned kid on the ground). Those of us in the back got stranded while we waited for the hornets to go back inside their nest. (There was no way to go around – it was right on the trail with a cliff on one side, and a drop off on the other.) We waited a long time, and then I volunteered to go first. I heard them come very very close to me, but I just ducked and ran faster. Even though I didn’t get stung, the folks behind me decided to wait a little more. Finally everyone made it through. O. had heard that we had come upon a hornet’s nest. He told H. that we must all be dead. Sigh. My boys sure do have a phobia about stinging insects. Another hike went much better. We walked down to Crystal Falls and the kids and I waded in the icy water. Tamani, Garland, and their kids had joined us at camp by then, so we got to enjoy watching their kids play too. On the way back, their youngest fell asleep on his Dad’s shoulders. There was also an ‘adults vs. teenagers’ softball game. To show you how desperate they were, I played. I got an rbi!! O.k., so it was a sacrifice play, but the runner on first scored on a terrible error where the ball went into a thorn bush, but hey, let the record book show that I’m the one that hit the ball – that’s an rbi to me – 1st one ever! ☺ We lost anyway. But everyone had fun. All too soon camp was over and it was time to go home. I think I slept most of the way back. Jet lag. Thankfully I wasn’t the driver! I woke up in time to eat at Shoney’s though! ☺ The next day was Sunday. After church and lunch we went back over to Mamaw Tucker’s house to visit. We ended up going down to Goody’s to shop. Goody’s is an awesome place to shop. I like their clothes and their prices. I found a nice winter coat there for $20! I also couldn’t resist a jacket that was marked down to $8. I know, I know… I live in Singapore, and probably will move back to the Gulf Coast, so when will I need a winter coat or another jacket? Maybe I was channeling my Mom – couldn’t resist a bargain – especially not at Goody’s! Mamaw found a few things as well. She is shopping for some clothes to wear after her upcoming knee surgery. She wanted some capris that would be large enough to wear over her bandages/brace/whatever they’re going to put on her. Those of you who know Mamaw, know that I had to return those pants 2 days later. Yep. The next day was Memorial Day and we took Mamaw to Mackay’s Used Books (THE BEST used book store in the country!! – Not a dinky little shop that only has used Harlequin romances. No, this place is HUGE! We’ve been loyal customers since their early days.) She had a list of books she was looking for. We found several, and of course the kids and I bought a bunch, too. We are a bunch of bibliophiles. Hey, there are worse things to be. I should mention that H. had already found 50 (yes, Fifty) Goosebump books at a garage sale with Papaw. She agreed that they would have to stay in Rosenberg, so she started in to try to read them all before we left the US. (I think she made it.) In fact, the big kids found so many bargains at the garage sales, that O. had to go with them the next time they went. It’s a good thing that I found a “mini-van for the same price as a full-sized car” deal with the rental car company. Otherwise, a bunch of stuff would’ve stayed in Knoxville. Monday night we went over to Tami (My big sister) & Joe’s house for supper. We also played ‘corn hole’, which is a bean bag toss game. We had a good time. Honestly, I can’t remember now what we did on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, we headed to the mountains. We had rented a cabin up there near Dollywood. We went to Dollywood Wed. afternoon and used their ‘come after 3, next day free’ policy to get in for the next day too. The cabin was great, and even had a hot tub on the back porch. It was in the woods enough that from the back porch all you could see was trees. There was also a pool table and an air hockey table. Dad and I stayed up late watching the Hatfields and McCoys series on the History Channel. Not sure I’d recommend it (very violent), but it was interesting. Dollywood was a lot of fun. You’ve probably seen the picture of us riding the newest roller coaster. When we were discussing it, O. and I both wanted to sit on the ‘inside’ seat. A. and H. said they didn’t mind the outside. So the boys rode together, and H. went with me. Looking back, I should’ve ridden with O. The girls loved it, the boys hated it. Nevertheless, they were brave enough to ride it 4 more times. They said it got less scary each time they rode it. We rode all the other good rides there too, including Blazing Fury. (“Molly, you be careful now, I’ve got a weak back.” “Weak back or not, Luther, Here I come!”) We ate funnel cake and listened to some good Bluegrass music. The Smoky Mountains, Bluegrass music, and Hickory-Smoked pulled-pork barbeque are just part of who I am. I got to indulge in all three on this trip. I can live other places, but East Tennessee will always be home. People don’t even make fun of the way I talk when I’m there. I even like the quirky things there like “live at five at four” and the Sunsphere. (O.k., not really the Sunsphere – but it is quirky.) Thursday night we grilled hot dogs on the grill at the cabin. Friday morning we woke up, packed up and cleaned up. I was looking around to make sure everything was like we found it and I noticed some fingerprints on the door leading to the balcony. I was opening my mouth to yell at O. when I realized they were not human fingerprints. Nope. We’d had a furry visitor to our back porch in the middle of the night. We think it was a raccoon, but I couldn’t tell you how he got up there. It’s 3 stories off the ground. The nearest tree is very small in diameter (maybe 4 inches?), so maybe he rappelled from the roof or something. Nevertheless he left two paw prints and a nose print on the back door. Friday we got up and drove up to Clingman’s Dome. It was so foggy and cold. The kids acted like it was minus 20. It was probably 60 with a wind chill of 50. The view was terrible – just fog. (Yes, for those of you in the know, it looked just like Vesuvius!) But we did it. After our short hike, we drove down to meet Dad at Becky’s restaurant in Maryville (pronounced “Mur-vil”). Dad had gone back to Knoxville the night before to be in a softball game. After lunch we went over to Dad’s cousin’s house. She is now living where her parents used to live. I remember going to visit them when I was little. I love their house. So full of memories. The next morning the garage salers were at it again. They came home with even more stuff! Argh. O. bought me some jewelry. Cheap! He’s a nice kid. This Sunday, H. and I spent the night with Mamaw Tucker. We sat up watching Little House on the Prairie just like I used to do when I spent the night with her 35 years ago. On Monday we went up to the Apple Barn for lunch. YUMMY!! That place also has good Home Cookin’. After lunch we stopped in a store that Mamaw likes and bought some more pants. I warned her that she couldn’t bring these back, so she better like them. I think she did. I told Tami (who normally drives Mamaw everywhere she needs to go), not to let her try to return those. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way back. Mamaw stayed in the car while we went in, and I said, “I’ll leave you the key so you can turn the air on if you get hot.” She said, “No, you’d better not. Somebody might try to run off with me.” Yes, I did manage to not laugh ‘till I was out of earshot. She says the wackiest things. We had planned to go to Nashville on Wednesday. I’d done some research online and found that it was $900 cheaper to rent a car one-way in Nashville than it was to do so in Knoxville. So I volunteered to pay Dad’s gas if he would drive us. The only problem was could we all fit in the truck? Well, I squeezed in the back seat with the kids and we made it. It’s a good thing he had a truck. I don’t know how we would’ve made it with all that stuff otherwise. Also, he had a bunch of stuff that he was sending to Christi and Rick (my little sister and brother-in-law). When we decided on a date, Bobbie called Vanderbuilt hospital to see if she could do her annual heart transplant check-up that same day and save driving over there twice. They agreed on the date, but said they couldn’t give her a time ‘till it got closer. Well, we finally got them to give her an appointment time. They wanted her to be there at 5:30 a.m.! It’s a three hour drive from Knoxville, so I said we should drive over on Tuesday night and get a hotel. So that’s what we did. We said goodbye to Daddy and Bobbie in Nashville and headed for Jackson, TN. On the way, we stopped at the Hermitage (President Andrew Jackson’s home – and frequently visited by Sam Houston [for all you Texans]). I’d never been there. It was nice. The weather was perfect. We arrived in Jackson in time for supper (!). Wyveta is such a good cook. She had a spread of homemade treats. Most of it grown in their garden. We went to church with them that night, and then stayed over Thursday night as well. They invited Erin’s aunt, uncle, and cousins over for a cookout. We really enjoyed getting to see them. The kids all played together and the grown-ups got to catch up a little. It was a very nice evening. We discovered that the 5 of us hadn’t been to Jackson since Christmas of 2007. We really are overdue for a trip there! Friday we headed out to Arkansas. On the way, we stopped in Leland, MS at the Jim Henson exhibit. I’ve driven past there a dozen times and never stopped. It was neat. The little lady that works in there really likes her job, and would talk to you all day. We didn’t have all day. We continued on to Hamburg, AR where my little sister lives. Hamburg is a pretty small town. They do have a couple of traffic lights, so it’s bigger than Fulshear, TX, but still… Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everybody’s business. Christi and I enjoyed sitting and chatting until it was way past our bedtime. The kids all had fun wrestling their cousins and playing. Christi and her family are keeping our dog, Duke, for us while we’re overseas. I had a blast playing with him and he was very happy to see me, too. He is 11 ½ now, and is almost completely deaf. But he still loves to play ball and have his belly scratched. ☺ We went for a walk at the park Friday night. Saturday I got to see the boys’ karate class. They did some warm up and then spent a lot of time wrestling. No wonder they’re so good at it! We made plans to do a ‘kid swap’ for the afternoon. The grand plan was that I would take my niece and nephews bowling (their pick), and Christi would take my kids to see a movie. All went well ‘till we found out the bowling alley didn’t open ‘till after supper. Grrr. So we all went to Pizza Hut and the movies instead. We also went to Wal-mart and I got to play buggy races with my niece and nephews there – hey, we didn’t hit anyone or knock anything over, so it’s o.k. Sunday the big kids and I left pretty early to make it to church in Ruston, LA on time. O. stayed in Arkansas while I took H. and A. to Dry Creek Camp in Louisiana (about an hour north of Lake Charles). I dropped them off and then took off for Baton Rouge.” I barely made it to church on time at Park Forest. It was good to see the folks there, and I ended up going out to eat with some friends from there. Monday morning I got up early and checked out of the hotel. I left the rental van at the barn and loaded up the horses and drove 1 ½ hours to Amite, LA. The Country Lane B&B is now closed as a B&B, but the riding trails are still there, and Ms. Leah Beth (the owner) invited me to stay in her house while I was in town. Two good riding buddies, Suzanne and Lori, met me up there and we had a very nice ride. – Just like old times. We even had a picnic lunch afterwards like we used to. After they left to go back to Baton Rouge, I drove into Amite to try to get the truck headlights cleaned. But the guy at Walmart said the problem was on the inside of the covers. So I hunted around and found a place that would order me new ones. (I picked them up the next day.) I tried to ride Speedy again in the late afternoon, but he was acting a little barn sour. I thought it might be because Noah was back at the barn and we were riding alone. That’s never been a problem before, though, so I thought maybe he was just tired. Tuesday, Suzanne came back up to ride some more, but the problem with Speedy persisted. I ended up getting off and walking him back to the barn. I could just tell something was wrong with him. I was hoping that somehow it wasn’t “he’s just too old to ride much”. But, hey, he IS 29. I will always love him even if he doesn’t feel like being ridden. After Suzanne left, I went back into Amite and picked up the headlight covers. I also mailed a couple of boxes to the kids at Dry Creek Camp. It was fun to buy trinkets at the Dollar Tree that I thought they’d like. I also covered the boxes with Barney or Bob the Builder stickers so they’d be good and embarrassed about getting them. Hee hee hee. Hey, what’s a Mom for?! I tried the shortcut back to Prairieville. It was nice. Now I can get to the riding trails 30 min. faster. I put the horses back in their respective stalls, and tried to decide what I wanted to do next. I was by myself and could do anything I wanted in Baton Rouge. Hmmmm. I ended up buying a couple of pairs of jeans and some cookies. I ate at Chik-fil-A, and then went back to the hotel and ate the cookies. Pretty boring, huh? I watched Duck Dynasty on t.v. (Tami and Joe got me started on it the previous Monday at their house.) What a hoot!! Wednesday morning I took the truck to have the headlight covers replaced. The 1993 F150 is one of those trucks that you have to take ½ of the engine out in order to replace the headlight covers! Kid you not. So I ended up paying for 3 ½ hours of labor. Sigh. Oh well, at least I could drive it at night now. That came in handy when I went to church that night! Next, I took Speedy over to the other barn to meet Claire. We rode in the indoor arena. I put Speedy’s saddle on him and before I even tightened the girth he was acting antsy. I took the saddle off. He seemed to say, “ahhhh”. So I tried the bareback pad. No problem. In fact, I rode for an hour or so with just the bareback pad. He was feeling fine. So, we got that figured out – it’s the saddle, dumb human!!! So first we’re going to try some new saddle pads and see if that helps. If not, I’ll either ride bareback, or try a different saddle. Thursday morning, I got up and found the laundry mat. I wanted to wash my riding clothes and then leave them in the horse trailer. I’m not planning to come back to the States ‘till we move back, but just in case…. (I’m not going to ride in Singapore anymore – too boring going around and around in circles all the time!) Next, I went to say ‘bye to Speedy. I sat on his back while he grazed for a while. Then it was time to ‘hit the road’ back to Arkansas. I had trouble staying alert on the drive. I pulled over and took some caffeine. Then I stopped in a little town and walked around for a bit. But at last I made it back to Christi’s house. I found out that O. and his cousins had a little too much together time. They were turning into rivals! Uh-oh. I think it wasn’t the fun time that everyone had planned. Christi and Rick were ready for a break! Friday we went to Wal-mart to pick up a few things, and then to a neighbor’s house for a swim. We had a good day playing with the kids. That night, I watched all the kids while they went out for a date night. Yea! I took everybody over to Subway for supper and then we watched Thor. It was a pretty calm evening. Saturday, O. and I left early to get to Dry Creek to pick up H & A. When we got there, we met up with some friends from Ave. N and caravanned back to Houston. Along the way we stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch. Trish gets credit for working the gps that led us around the block to the DQ. ☺ Yea! We enjoyed sitting and chatting with Wade, Trish, and kids over lunch. We made arrangements for O. to spend the night with their son one night. Then we went on to Rosenberg. For being abandoned for 11.5 months out of the year, the apartment is in good shape – thanks again to Trish!! It’s actually starting to feel a little bit like home. I mean, there’s some of our stuff there and we keep coming back to it. Not that I’d ever want to live with 4 other people in a 2 bedroom apartment, but it could be done. The boys and I decided to go for a swim. It was a nice way to relax. For supper we went to CiCi’s pizza buffet. Not a bad choice. Sunday we went to church at Ave. N. It was so wonderful to see all our friends again! It really makes me homesick to sit here and think about all the fine people there. Maybe someday we can move back close enough to worship there again….. We ended up eating Mexican food twice that Sunday. That’s not a problem for me, though! Rhonda and her family came down to visit on Sunday night, and so we went for Mexican food again. Yum! Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were such a blur. We ran errands and took care of lots of business, including driving to Tomball to pick up a check, getting eye Dr. and dermatologist appointments out of the way. The kids all spent the night with friends one night, which gave me another opportunity to do whatever I wanted. Which ended up being – running more errands and going to bed early. I just wasn’t in the mood to go see a movie or try to figure out something fun to do. Monday I did eat lunch with Aleta which was very enjoyable. I think we sat and talked for more than an hour after we’d finished eating! ☺ Tuesday the kids and I went to see Jack and Ramona. They are also friends from church. She is in the nursing home now. We really enjoyed getting to spend some time with them and learned some neat stuff about Mr. Jack. I didn’t know he was a pole vaulter! Or that in his day they had to land in a couple inches of sand – no nice air mattress thing-y. No wonder he tore his knee up! Wednesday we went to Fuddruckers and to Bible study at Ave. N. Thursday morning we got up early and tried to get everything done before leaving for the airport. Turns out the dishwasher didn’t work, so I had to leave a load of dishes for Trish to do – Sorry Trish! We BARELY got everything packed in our suitcases. At the airport we had to switch around a pound or two – which really is just silly to make people switch so that the 51.5 pound bag and the 48.5 pound bag are now the same. Oh well. It really was less than 2 pounds that we had to switch around. A.’s carry-on bag broke and we ended up paying for a new suitcase at the airport. Sigh. But we’ll use is on further adventures I’m sure. It was not pleasant to see the lady going through his bag. He had his deodorant in there, and the x-ray guy thought it was liquid I guess. She unzipped it and it looked like Denis the Menace’s pockets: army men, candy, (Lots of candy), junk, a couple of books, more toys…. At least Dennis’ frog didn’t make it in there! The journey back was more pleasant thanks to the little screens that Continental had. The kids didn’t sleep much on the way to Tokyo, but I took a Melatonin and zonked for quite a while. In Tokyo, H. wanted something to drink, but I only had a $20 and they won’t give you U.S. change. So we went down to the origami museum/gift shop and bought some origami paper and some paper inflatable balls. Then everyone got drinks. Most expensive drinks of the trip I guess. Oh well. We made it home around 1 a.m. Erin was quite happy to see all of us. He had aired out the sauerkraut smell and had some pretty orchids for us, and a couple of welcome home signs. We were all glad to see him, too of course! :-D It was a good trip, but it’s good to be back. Summertime here is much slower because scouts and soccer are not going. So right now I have more than average number of days where I don’t have to go anywhere. I know that will change in August, so I’m trying to enjoy it while I can! Wow, I can’t believe you read all that!