OKLAHOMA for lunch and onto KANSAS

September 2-6, 2014

Day #4-6

We traveled from Denison, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma for lunch with a dear friend from residency days.  It was a joy to get to hear her plans for full time mission work in the Middle East.

FYI: Maybe Oreo cookies was a bad idea for an on-the-road snack.

OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS

 In the evening we arrived in Overland Park, Kansas, and ate dinner with friends from Harlingen.  Actually we didn’t even know Karyn all that well when we lived in South Texas and we have yet to meet her hubby(unfortunately we was away on business).  It is such a blessing to see how God has raised up our support team.

 We stayed two nights with a family we met last home assignment in Texas.  Our families just clicked.

TEXAS

August 30 – Day #1

Hurst, Texas

We spent the day playing in the pool with my three best friends and their families.  Naomi, Lauren, Alexis and I have been best friends for over 25 years.  You can be guaranteed that any time we get together there is lots of giggles and stories beginning with "Remember when...".  What a blessing long time friendships are.

DENISON, TEXAS

September 2-3, 2014

DAY # 2 and #3

After spending the night in Hurst, Texas with Alexis, we headed north to Denison, Texas and spent the next two nights with Naomi and her family. Naomi and I were instantly best friends when we met in 6^th grade in Abilene, Texas.  We stayed best friends all through high school and even roomed together 3 years in college. 

We always had a blast when we get to see each other.  We wore ourselves and the kids out swimming, playing soccer and wiffleball, carpet ball, air hockey, Ping-Pong, and Nintendo.

LET the 5 WEEK ROAD TRIP BEGIN!

August 30, 2014

BIG family (the more the merrier, right?)

BIG vehicle (praising God for our 15 passenger van)

BIG trip (5 weeks, 23 states, many many miles, wonderful reunions with friends, great site-seeing ventures along the way, lots of car schooling, Adventures in Odyssey, snacks and gas station bathrooms)

Stay tuned....

TRIP to HARLINGEN

August 22-25, 2014

We spent 4 days in Harlingen, South Texas.  That’s where we lived for 4 years while Jeff was in residency.  We had a wonderfully full schedule and saw lots friends. 

These were our hosts: Jeff’s past residency director.  I think our kids spent more time in the pool than in their house.

This is my crew plus one of my best South Texas friend’s crew.  Kristi and I did everything together, always carting the kids around and always adding to our numbers.  She has 8 kids.

For us no trip to South Texas in the summer is complete without a beach trip.  We met several new resident family and hung out went with some we already knew.  We even got to drink terere with a family in the residency who had done a month long internship with us in April.

 Dinner with sweet friends from our long ago church home group.

Hanging with some good friends.

 It was fun seeing this family again.  Three years ago they did a month long internship with us in Paraguay.

 We love the realtor who sold us our first house 15 years ago and then resold that house 4 years later when we moved to Paraguay.

 Look how fast we got to travel!

Some of our dear friends were moving from the valley to Colorado and stayed the night at our house on the way.  We have a tradition of playing Boggle while together.  Jeff has a tradition of always winning Boggle while we all are together.

4th TIME'S a CHARM

4^th TIME’S A CHARM

August 14, 2014

            Three weeks ago when I walked into the local DPS office I felt as if I were back in Paraguay.  The overcrowded waiting room groaned with people who had been waiting for a long time.  Lines of people curving around various obstacles made it impossible to tell where one ended and anther started.  Then I really felt as if I were back in Paraguay when, after three hours of waiting, I walked out no closer to my goal.  You see because my driver’s license is more than 2 years expired I have to not only renew it but take the written and driving test again. 

            The second attempt at getting my license I only had to wait 2 hours and the lady behind the counter liked my paperwork that time (it’s really hard to prove you live somewhere when you’ve only been in that place a couple weeks and own nothing) and I passed my written driving test (yes, I did study).    

            The third trip to DPS was to take my driving test which is booked by appointment only one week in advance.  I showed up on time and confident after practicing my parallel parking in the parking lot only to have the teacher discover before even meeting me that the car’s registration (I was in my mother-in-law’s vehicle) was out of date and therefore I couldn’t complete the test.  I booked another appointment for the following week.

            Fourth time in three weeks to the DPS office I passed my driving test and now I can drive in this country.   

THESE PAST WEEKS

We’ve hosted a lot which we are loving.  It has been fun getting to know people again and having a nice house to serve a meal. 

 August 13, 2014: we began school today.  5 kids in 4 grades. 

We’ve been chasing this guy around.  He is running and hiding and getting into EVERYTHING a healthy 1 ½ year old should.  He is so full of life, so cute, and so fun to have around!  

I am 18 weeks…feeling good and getting big

Ginny has been enjoying horseback riding lessons

 Julia loves her new cowgirl boots!

Spending time with family