Musings....

Okay, here are just some random thoughts:

People that don't understand that "green means GO" really bug me
Florida sunsets are gorgeous
time is not always the same in every culture
I am very thankful for my children- God has blessed us beyond measure
no matter where you are, you are "home" with other believers
God's Creation is indescribable
I have decided having a pool in the backyard is a priority;)
I am not looking forward to school starting this fall
family is precious
Michelle is growing into a wonderful young lady


I may add to my musings, these are just a few things that have popped into my head the last few days!

All Settled In!

well, we got to Bradenton Monday night! We decided to drive all the way in 2 days! We weren't able to get into our new house until Tuesday morning, we had to meet with the realtor to get our keys and sign some final papers. We also found out we don't have water yet :0 I guess the neighbors were all watering their lawns out of this outdoor water supply, so the owner had a block put on the water. We are managing just fine- good thing theres a pool in the backyard- at least we can flush the toilets with the water from that! We are fully settled in- I got everything unpacked yesterday, and we all slept great last night. On the agenda today is 1) WATER!! 2) find one of the churchs on our list, then we plan on taking the kids to the Gulf!!

Oh- we also made it to D's new jobsite- only 15 minutes away, and a pretty easy drive to get there! Everything is lookin' good at the Anderson house!!

FLORIDA!!

Yeah! We made it to FLorida! We just crossed the state line-- palm trees met us at the border, and lovely moss hanging from stately trees!! 200 Miles to Tampa where we will stop for the night- still some miles to put on today- but we're in FLORIDA!!! :)

Georgia

We are driving thru Georgia! Already have gone thru Atlanta- whew! And we are hoping to get into Florida tonight. Everything is still going well- its a lot more hot and humid down here than what we are used to in MN :O BUt we will get used to it in time. Ummm, the dirt is red down here, we drove thru some mountains, it was beautiful! Of course I'm a nervous nelly and was freakin out thru them- it would be an awful place to brake down, let me tell ya'! People drive like idiots down here- I guess there is a reason we call it "MN nice", there is just no common courtesy on the roads down here.

Okay, license plates: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Georgia, Massachusets, Colorado, N. Carolina, S Carolina, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, Nebraska, Missouri, Florida, Tennesee, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Maryland, Kansas, Conneticut, Wyoming, W. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Utah,Mississippi, Kentucky, Arizona, Arkansas, N Dakota, S Dakota, Texas, Maine, California, Lousiana, Alabama, and for the Canandian ones we have Quebec, Ontario, Alberta,

We have counted 94 U-Hauls, and 60 WalMart trucks, and Dennis has counted 41 "slug bugs" and 13 Porshes!!

I'll post some pics later!

17 hours on the road :0

Okay- we have been on the road for 17 hours! Of course there is time that needs to be accounted for with gas stops. We are over half way to our destination, and have found a hotel to spend the night in. We are staying in Nashville TN for the night! Wish we had the time to enjoy the sights, but we are excited to finish our journey and find our new home! The cat made the drive just fine, the kids have done wonderfully! They didn't start getting crabby until about 7 o'clock tonight- you can figure that is after 15 and 1/2 hours on the road, so not too bad to my way of thinking! Joseph asked me, very quiety, "mom, when do you think we can start looking for a hotel?" I thought it was so funny, he didn't want to seem whiney, but yet he was SO sick of being in the van!

If any of you have been on a long road trip you'll be able to understand what I mean when I say that it takes some time to get my "land legs" back, after being in the van for that long of time, I have a hard time when I'm back on solid ground, and I'm not moving at 75mph. It is such a weird feeling-- like I'm in slow motion and the world is spinning around me at full speed. Not a fun feeling:} The kids don't seem to be affected by it, but Dennis and I felt just sick when we got to our room tonight. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad.

Pray that tomorrow will go as well as today did. That the kids will still be as excited to finish this journey as they were to start it:) That the cat will be able to settle down and not make himself sick, (I feel so bad for the poor little guy).
Pray that D and I will get a good nights sleep so we will be in good moods tomorrow.

Oh-- final count for the day on Walmart trucks- 41
on U-Hauls- 47
on D's "slug-bugs"- 24
I will write all the license plates that we have seen in the morning:) I left my paper in the van, and there were too many to remember!

Well Goodnight everyone!! I will check in in the morning and update you on the last half of our journey!!

On our way!

Yeah! We are finally on our way down to Florida!! We were planning on leaving Monday, early. But after getting the van and trailer packed, we decided "why wait?", so we hit the road at 3:20 this morning!! The kids were so excited, not much sleep was accomplished that last night at home. (I didn't get much sleep either,"did I remember to pack that?", going thru my head all night)

We hit the Illinois border at 10:38 this morning, we have counted 31 Walmart trucks and we are almost half way thru all the license plates in the US, we even saw an Ontario plate!! And we have to wonder at the people who have boats parked next to these little ponds and call them lakes:) SO funny after living in "the land of 10,000 lakes" all our lives, I guess we can count ourselves blessed to have been able to swim and ski whenever we chose! And to have children who swim like little fishes, having grown up living across the street from our very own swimming hole!

The kids are doing great, haven't heard any complaining yet :) always a good thing! We are hoping to get to Nashville before we stop to spend the night, but we will have to see how long D can handle driving. Not much sleep for him last night either...