Wednesday, January 9, 2008

So much fun, so little time

We made it to South Texas! After a long (needless to say) four day drive, we are back to the land of 80 degree sunny days, where we are not sure if it's January or June.

Thank you for praying for our safety and sanity. Thanks to dear friends (ode to Mr. & Mrs. B!), our children were entertained for a half hour out of each day with a Mr. Rogers, Elmo, Kipper, or Steve Green's "Hide 'em in your Heart video via a portable DVD player. Thus ended the "I want my children to learn how to survive a car trip as I did as a kid...with books, scenery, and toys" syndrome that was very impractical for four 12-14 hour days in the car. And, selfishly, it gave me 30 minutes of blissful peace as I was not having to turn around every 5 minutes to do the infamous Toy Trade or Book Barter. Tara, I can never thank you enough for your idea of a set snack time and a schedule for getting through the day. Though I didn't have bathroom breaks timed (Caleb only wishes I could do that!), we had our Bible/catechism/prayer time as soon as we hit the major highway, followed by looking at books, toy time, snack, encouragement to look out the window, a few conflict management scenes, lunch stop, video, nap, more books/toy time, snack, supper, then drive-as-far-as-we-can-after-the-kids-are-asleep.

Four days later, we were able to welcome in the New Year by arriving at Grandma and Da-dee-dee's (Grandaddy's) house at 11:45 p.m. Yeah God!

Since we've been here, I've worked on writing some very overdue letters, getting up to date on our reports from Mission to the World, and enjoying the kids having fun with grandparents. Caleb is off "shootin'" right now with a group of friends from our church in Dallas (they're really quail hunting). When he returns, we'll head south to Mexico for a week, for meetings and seeing our dear friends.

To our 'amigos' in Montana, we miss you. Today Abigail's Grandaddy asked her if she missed Mexico. She said, "No, but I miss Montana. That was my favoritest place to live ever!" To our 'amigos' in Dallas, we look forward to spending time with you soon.

This was longer than I hope to usually post, but since Caleb's been gone, I guess I haven't had enough adult conversation :-)

2 comments:

Tara Barthel said...

Oh my STARS but we miss you guys SO MUCH!!

So glad that the trip went well. We are continuing to pray for you.

With much love,
Fred, Tara & Sophia

Anonymous said...

We were so happy to be able to spend time with you guys in between your very hectic schedule. We love you so much and can hardly wait to see you again!