Home again, home again…jiggity jig!

Well, we are back from the great state of Texas. Thanks to those of you we got to see and sorry to those we missed. The conference was amazing. Hanging out with friends and just doing nothing was so much fun. (Dave, I’m betting 70 billion). And hanging out with my amazing family was just awesome. Pam and Carolyn are superheroes. Most of the trip went well. We bought a DVD player for the car before we went. What a sanity saver!! The kids did really well with it. Erin would occasionally flip out, but not too much.

I’m convinced that everything is defiantly bigger in Texas. The highways, the stores, even the food. Food…oh, man. We had some goooooood food. La Hacienda Ranch, Kirby Lane Café, Johnny Carino’s, Double Daves, Chuy’s…yum.

From Dallas, we headed to Georgetown, right outside of Austin for the ARC conference. Craig Groeschel was the featured speaker from lifechurch.tv I’ll write more on the conference later. On to more news…

I've been sick since we got home with terrible abdominal pain and nausea. We even had a trip to the ER on Tuesday thinking that it might be my appendix. It turns out that it is just a bladder infection. I'm on an antibiotic now and am feeling slightly better. Since we’ve gotten home it seems like everything has went nuts. The next few paragraphs are random but that’s how my week has been.

Our neighbors told us the day before we left for our trip that they were moving due to forclosure. When we got back, they were packing up all of their stuff and I helped them move. The sad thing is that we’ve lived next to each other for 4 ½ years, yet I really don’t know them. The day that they move out is the day that I decided to share my faith and my phone number. I should have done that a long time ago. I probably couldn’t have prevented their financial situation (the mother had an accident and is now on disability) but we could have tried to help in someway. Lesson learned…don’t wait four years to get to know your neighbors.

A family that I grew up with (that goes to my parents' church) was in a bad car wreck. Someone rear-ended the car and then fled the scene. Three people were critically injured and one was killed. The girl that died was engaged to one of the people that was critically injured and they were suppose to get married next month.

My mom called yesterday and said that she and my brother made a special trip to Indy to pick up a friend from the airport and were lost. They wanted me to meet them and show them how to get to the airport. That was fun. When we pulled up to the airport to get my brother's friend, I got out of the car and was helping with the luggage. Somewhere along the line, I hear "Hi, Mommy!". Ethan had unbuckled himself from his car seat, climbed through the driver's seat to let himself out of the car and was standing in the middle of oncoming traffic. I about died. I screamed, he cried, I cried. I ran and picked him up and I lectured about not getting out of the car unless Mommy or Daddy says it's OK. We just switched him to a booster seat, which he can buckle/unbuckle himself. I know he thought that we were stopped somewhere and Grandma and Uncle Ryan were there so it must be good to say "hi". After tears, hugs and many I love yous, we had a long talk about traffic and how we can stay safe. I couldn't sleep last night with thinking of all of the scenarios of me not hearing him say "Hi, Mommy" or not turning around quick enough. Every mother's nightmare...

Whew…what a week. I’m so ready for it to be over with. We did have a great day today though. The kids and I went for a wagon ride and picnic at the pond (mud puddle) in our subdivision today. Despite the fact that the neighborhood playground has been removed and a goose was very interested in our lunch, we did pretty good. Everytime Erin saw the goose, she'd say "Duck... QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!" She loves the animal sounds right now, especially "WOOF! WOOF!"

On a scholarly note, Ethan has been interested in learning how to read. Pam bought him some beginning readers while were in Texas. He's made it through the first four little books reading them correctly by himself. He's doing so good. We are trying not to push it too much but he keeps asking "Can I read you a story?" and stuff like that.

Ok, enough updates. It's off to bed for me. I’m spent. More random, usless news later!