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...

Little Boy Lost

I have to write this down so I will never forget how precious our children are, and how they can be gone in the blink of an eye.

We were shopping at the Crossroads Mall in St Cloud today, its a very confusing design, at least for me it is. We had only gone into a couple of different stores when Joseph decided he had to use the bathroom, of course. Its a pet peave of mine, they always wait until we get into a store that of course has no bathroom, then decide they have to go NOW!! So I took him out into the mall and we started to look for a bathroom. As we were frantically looking for a bathroom for J, a little blonde boy went running by, darting around people, running in and out of stores, he lept running faster and faster. Joseph is frantically looking for a sign to point the way to a restroom, but there was something about that little boy. I knew something wasn't right. I knew he was lost, and just wasn't admitting it to himself. I grabbed Dennis and the other kids, sent Joseph with Alexis to the bathroom( it ended up being 2 stores down from the store we had been shopping in). Dennis took 3 of the kids to look for the little boy, while I stayed within sight of the bathrooms, yet at the crossroads of 2 different corridors. All of a sudden he darted out of a store behind D and took off running right for me, by this time he new he was lost, but didn't know what to do about it.

I caught ahold of him and told him that I would help him find his mommy. His name was Ian. He was 5 years old and "almost in kindergarten". He was supposed to be playing in the park area with his brother and sister, but decided he wanted to go find his mommy instead. I went to the nearest store and asked them to call mall security, a little boy was lost, and couldn't find his mommy. All I could think of as I was holding this little boy, was that his mommy must be frantically looking for him.

Mall security arrived, asked for a description of his mommy, and asked him a few other questions. His last name? "I don't have a last name." how old is his brother? "I don't know, he's bigger than me." Thru all of these questions, I'm wondering why his mom hasn't contacted mall security looking for HIM. Don't they even know he's missing? Sad to say, his mom had no clue her little boy was sitting in the lap of a stranger. She didn't have any idea that her little boy could have been "helped" by someone who didn't have good intentions.

It was just by happen chance that she walked up to us and recognized her little boy sitting in my lap. I don't know if she would have even glanced at him if it weren't for the security guards around us. I don't believe she ever did realize the seriousness of the situation. All she did was ask him were his brother and sister were. Grabbed him by the hand and walked away.

I was almost in tears just holding this precious little boy. He had the sweetest little gravelly voice, and this pure white hair. He was trying to be so brave and trust us that we would be able to find his mommy. She should have been the one trying to find her little boy.

As I was using the restroom at a restaraunt today, this tiny little girl walked in, she must have been 3, maybe 4 years old, she was singing quietly to herself, had the sweetest little smile, and she was all by herself. As she walked out a lady walked in, she told me that my little girl had gone out by herself, "she's not my little girl", I said. She looked sad as she washed her hands, "people just don't cherish their children as they should", she told me. I have to agree. It would have been so easy for anyone to take that little girls hand and walk out the exit door, it was right next to the restrooms. And anybody could have "helped" little Ian right outside into their car and out of his parents lives.

So those of you who are parents out there, and are reading this, please, hold your child's hand when you are out shopping, take the time to bring your little girl to the restroom, hold them tight. For me. Our children are too precious.