North Carolina

The drive to NC was pretty. It seems that NC, like TX cares to plant flowers along the roadsides to make the scenery more attractive for those stuck driving the highways. My dear friend, Jenn, was kind enough to let us stay at her place for a few days. Poor Jenn seemed to have nothing but car problems while I was there, but at least she was not alone as we drug one car after the other to the garage! When the guys are away, it seems like nothing but trouble follows. It was nice just to do the mundane stuff of hanging out, grocery shopping and staying up all night talking... it was relaxing and fun. And, oh, the fun the kids had! My girls just loved hanging out with Jenn's kids! They have missed each other since Jenn and her family moved away more than a year ago.

Now, my eldest is not fond of dogs, especially ones that are taller than her knees, so she kept her distance from Jenn's boxer for most of our visit. But, by the end of our visit, she had finally warmed up to the pup. My youngest on the other hand, is VERY fond of all living things. She had a blast playing with the dog and the cat and chasing squirrels out in the yard.

While we were there, my eldest saw Jenn knitting a prayer shawl and asked her if she would make one for her stuffed bear so he wouldn't be cold on the airplane flight to Korea. I didn't know what to make of my daughter asking for a gift like that, but Jenn thought that she had asked so sweetly, that she found some yarn laying around and got right to knitting up a little blanket for a stuffed bear named, Pete. What a blessing to have such wonderful friends!

It was sad to drive away that morning... my oldest daughter is having trouble saying goodbye to loved ones every few days as we move from one house to another traveling across the country. We still have several more stops to go before we get to Korea... I pray she will be alright.







Jenn working on my eldest's blanket with
my future cat, Lucky, and my youngest





My eldest with the pup and
her stuffed animal, Pete



Our kids

Welcome to Alabama

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous going to Alabama. I have watched "Sweet Home Alabama"... it says you should "need a passport to go down here". What's a good old Yankee girl supposed to think? Well, it wasn't anything near as strange as I had imagined... at least not where I was in Dothan. Must be the military influence there has straightened them out (lol). My mother-in-law (MIL) kindly put us up in a hotel nearby. The girls and I had a great time hanging out with my MIL and my brother-in-law (BIL), Dan, the whole time. We saw my MIL's horses and went to a horse show. We had a cookout at Dan's house. He is great at grilling. My eldest was always quick to ask for a piggy-back ride like she had from daddy. Uncle Dan just loved hanging out and spoiling those two girls. On Mother's Day, my MIL took us all down to St Andrews State Park in Panama City, Florida to see the Gulf beach. It was beautiful down there. Small waves, white beaches, sea shells to be gathered and admired. There was also an inlet there that provided sheltered and shallow swimming for the little ones. It was wonderful! After church that evening, we all went out to eat at Ryan's Buffet. My MIL was just so tickled that we had come to Alabama to spend Mother's Day weekend with her. On our last day in AL, we went to a nursing home to see my MIL's sister who had a stroke a number of years ago. Doris was has a limited vocabulary, but it was even more limited that day due to how excited she was to finally get to meet her two little great-nieces. All she could say was, "Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy!" It was such a sweet visit and I am so glad that we had the time to go see her. That evening we had dinner at my MIL's house... first time I have ever seen the place. It was a cute cottage down by a lake in the woods. My girls went outside after dark and collected frogs and may have even loved a few to death. We looked at old pictures and just enjoyed each other's company. I am so glad that we ventured into wilds of Alabama!



Uncle Dan, the girls and my MIL
with the girl showing the horse



Uncle Dan coloring with the girls



The girls on the beach at
St Andrews State Park




Uncle Dan and my eldest in the
waves of the Gulf of Mexico



Me, my MIL, the girls and
Uncle Dan (my BIL)



My youngest listening to the
ocean in a shell at grandma's



Uncle Dan and the girls

Traveling to Alabama

Well, we drove from Texas to Alabama in two days. The traffic in Houston is so bad... I spent hours white-knuckled in stop-n-go traffic. When the girls asked to stop for a break to stretch, I was glad to take a break from the traffic. We pulled over about 50 meters from the ocean, and there the girls found some shells to entertain them for a few minutes. We grabbed dinner at Ihop and got back on the road. We had barely crossed the border into Louisiana when we decided to get a room for the night. The next day we decided to stop in Gulfport, MS to stretch our legs and check out the Gulf coast for the first time in our lives. The waves were nice and gentle. Of course the girls loved it and I thought it was pretty nice myself. We spent about 45 minutes on the beach and got back on the road and got to Alabama around 9:30 at night. The hotel my mother-in-law booked for us did not have internet access. Since I only had that night to talk to my husband before he was gone on a training exercise for a week, I asked her if she would mind if I switched hotels to one that had internet access. I felt so bad having to ask that of my MIL since she had gone through so much trouble to find us a place close to her house. So we ended up staying at a Holiday Inn up the road and were even given a room upgrade... the manager on duty wanted to bless us by giving us a larger room on the 1st floor so I wasn't leaving my kids several times to go unload the car and drag things to the second floor. Just so you know, the military discount in Alabama is also higher than the AAA discount. Not a bad thing for those of us in the military. But because the cost of the room was a bit higher at the H.I., we only stayed there for one night.



Texas Roadside Flowers



Road-side stop in Houston, Texas




Girls crashed at hotel in Louisiana



Collecting Shells in
Gulfport, Mississippi

A few tips... based on my experiences

When you live in Arizona, you pretty much wear sandals or flip flops all the time. In Sierra Vista, you will find mosquitoes, but mostly during May-August. For the most part, it is not the kind of place where all the local bugs are out to get you and make a meal of you... too harsh of an environment. That, and I really didn't spend that much time outside. Texas is green and beautiful... but if you are going outside and plan to be walking through the grass, you need to wear shoes and socks. The fire ants are always looking for someone to bite... they are very aggressive. We also found that sitting in the flowers for a quick photo can get you all bit up too, by little bugs called thrips. I couldn't figure out why my girls were so upset to be sitting in the flowers getting their picture taken. Well, they were getting bit by bugs that are almost too tiny to see. I was fortunate to get these two cute shots, though.



While I was in Texas, I had a wonderful time visiting with friends. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to visit everyone I wanted to see nor did I get to spend as much time as I would have liked with the people I did see.

My Thoughts on Texas

Now, I know everything is relative... it just depends on what you are comparing something to. I have been living in AZ for almost 4 years (yikes). I am from the Northeast. AZ is dry, brown, DEAD. There is not much to look at 9-10 months out of the year. The other 2-3 months of the year, it actually "rains" once in awhile... if you want to call it that. They get a whopping 14 inches of rain a year with most of it falling in July and August... they actually have the nerve to call it monsoon season! Texas gets about 32 inches a year and I believe most of it falls in April-May. As I got closer to Fort Hood, it was beautiful! There was grass that God watered, beautiful wildflowers along the roadsides, rivers worth building a bridge over... in a word... LIFE! I actually felt like I was coming home. I was so excited to get into Texas and see that I had not missed the bluebonnets entirely. I even found a whole field of them between Oakalla and Burnette. I stopped with the girls several times to take pictures. I was thrilled to see Life! I never really fit in AZ. I couldn't get past the fact that the place is so dry and brown. I had to beg anything green to grow... unless it was a cactus... a plant that I don't particularly like. A plant that can bite back is really not a nice plant.
Now, in reference to things being relative, I will be heading to PA and NY in the next few weeks... the town where my dad lives in PA gets about 44 inches of rain a year and the town where my mom lives gets about 42 inches of rain per year. So, when I leave this green land and head North, I will most likely find Texas to be a bit scraggly compared to PA and NY. But, it is all relative. For now, I am feeling "at home" in Texas.