Spring Break - Fort Morgan, Alabama - Tuesday, March 25, 2008

It's the end of our first full 24 hours at our Spring Break location in Fort Morgan, AL and we had a fun day!

We arrived around 7:30 or so on Monday evening, unloaded the truck, and then ordered pizza since we were too tired from traveling to go to the grocery store. The pizza was good, but since we didn't go to the store, we didn't have any paper towels, so we improvised and used toilet paper to wipe our faces and hands...

Luke and I took a walk on the beach first thing this morning. It was a bit chilly, but we had a good walk together. Luke picked up a lot of shells and enjoyed being next to the water and in the sand...

When we got back from our walk, we got some breakfast and the rest of the family got up and ate as well...Grant was the last one to get up...he slept in the longest. We all took our time getting showers and ready for the day and by the time we were done it was time to look for a place to eat for lunch.

After reading some reviews online, Cota and I decided on eating at a place called Bahama Bob's. The food there was great! I ordered a Soft Shell Crab Po' Boy sandwich and when it arrived at the table it freaked me out a bit because the LEGS were still ON the crab! They were fried right along with the rest of the crab...I was expecting more of a "soft shell crab MEAT" sandwich...not the WHOLE THING! I ate the sandwich and it was good...the french fries were very tasty as well. I did leave one set of legs uneaten because I ran out of bread and didn't want to eat them on their own. Here are a couple pictures of the family before our food arrived...

When we were done with lunch we all took a short walk on the beach before we got back in the truck to head to Wal-Mart for a food/beach toys/other miscellaneous items trip. After all of our shopping items were loaded into the truck we headed back to our "home away from home", unloaded & put away the groceries, and then went out to the beach for a bit.

As I walked out to the beach, I saw A.J. walking back to the house and he was soaking wet! He had fallen in the water and was on his way back to the house to get his swim trunks to put on. When I got to the edge of the water, I saw the older kids still in the water playing and could hardly believe it....that water was COLD!After a bit, A.J. was back to join the rest of the kids playing in the water...It didn't take long before the water (with the aid of the wind) got too cold for A.J. and he needed to be warmed up by Kelsey (and Sydney, too)...doesn't Cota look warm and dry in her towel?

Grant and Luke decided that they were cold also and gave up playing in the water to go inside to get a warm shower...

After another round of showers and baths, we all settled down for the evening and had a small dinner here.

We have a busy day tomorrow, so I need to be getting to bed. I'll be sure to post about our Wednesday adventures tomorrow evening. Good night!

Well update #3...it's not good.

The update is that WE NEED WHOLE A NEW WELL!!!! I am not happy about this because it will be at least a week before it can be dug & put in and maybe even longer than that. We have to get a permit to do it from the Health Department & we can't do that until Monday morning which will be 1 week of not having our well working. We do have a temporary setup that allows us to have some water to flush toilets, wash our hands, the occasional shower, and other things that don't require a lot of water, but Jason has to fill the water tank that supplies us with the water, so that's a bit time-consuming for him. My parents are staying at my father-in-law's cabin so that they can have water and the boys, Jason, and I go out in the evenings to get our showers.

The good news in all of this is that Grant, Luke, and I will be leaving on Sunday afternoon to go to Gulf Shores, Alabama (actually, we'll be staying in Fort Morgan) for a Spring Break trip with my sister-in-law, Cota, and her 3 kids, Kelsey, Sydney, and A.J. Unfortunately, Jason and Matt (Cota's husband) have to work next week, so they are unable to join us. Not only are we getting to take a trip for Spring Break, but there will be RUNNING WATER there! I am so excited about that! Neither the boys or I have been to Alabama before and this will be their first time to see the Gulf of Mexico. We will be renting 1/2 of a house/duplex for the week while we are there and we are right on the beach! It sleeps 12 people and there are only 7 of us, so we'll have plenty of room. Here's a picture of the place we'll be staying (it's on the right side in this picture):

The boys are getting excited about the trip. When I told them, Grant was so thrilled he said that, "I am so happy and excited I feel like I have bubbles inside of me!" He cracks me up sometimes! I am taking my computer with me, so I'll be able to blog about our trip while we're there. Ahhh, just thinking about being on the beach and hearing the waves crashing on the shore is relaxing me right now.

Still no water here...

Jason said that hopefully the well-guy will be here today. As of right now, he is not here....I'm starting to wonder if we'll be going another day without running water...2 full days with no water and we're about 1/2 way through our 3rd day. Ugh!

I'm going to be taking our clothes to a laundromat so that we have clean clothes to wear and so that I don't get further behind on laundry.

I would really, really like to have water soon, please.

**Update as of this evening...we still don't have running water, but the well-repair guy did eventually make it to our house this afternoon around 2:30. They started working on the well, but it isn't fixed...they guy was gone by 4:30 or 5:00, I think. Hopefully we'll have a working well tomorrow sometime!

How frustrating...

We haven't had any water at our house today! Jason realized this when he got up to take a shower this morning before he went to work. Thankfully, the boys had taken showers before they went to bed last night, so they were okay for school today. Jason told me that he called the well-repair guy around 7:45 this morning to get him to come & look at our well to see what was wrong with it. He showed up sometime in the early afternoon & told Jason that the pump had come loose & fell to the bottom of the well. Not good. Hopefully, we will get the old pump removed/fished out from the bottom & then have a new one installed tomorrow (3/18).

I never realized how much I use water throughout the day.....that was until I couldn't use it! I would reach for the faucet to turn on the water and then be so frustrated because it wasn't there when I needed it! We had to pump off the water from the pool cover to put into a bucket to use when we needed to flush. I even went and bought 10 - 1 gallon jugs of water (10 for $10....my lucky day!) to be able to wash our hands, brush our teeth, and prepare dinner for tonight.

In the midst of my frustration, God brought me a moment of clarity....how blessed are we that we can have water at the flick of a wrist by turning on a faucet? Sure, my brief time of not having water is an inconvenience to me and my family, but once the well is fixed, it will be there again whenever we need it. My frustrations turned to thankfulness as I realized how blessed we were to have clean, fresh water...there are so many people in poor, impoverished countries that don't have that luxury whenever they want it.

Tonight, we were able to go out to Jason's dad's cabin and get showers after dinner. I can't remember the last time that I was so thankful to have a shower!

The newest addition to our family...

Last Sunday (3/9/08), it seemed to me that Jason was acting pretty weird around me. I kept asking him if something was wrong and he finally ended up blurting out to me, "You know how sometimes it's better if you don't ask a lot of questions?"...I was shocked by this! I barely knew how to respond to him because he doesn't ever talk to me that way, so I didn't say anything, but my mind was just spinning now.

I tried to go about the rest of my day the best that I could, but I still thought that Jason was acting weird, so I asked him if I had done something to upset him. He told me that I hadn't, but he needed to tell me something, so we went into our room & he closed the door. I was really starting to wonder what was going on. The first words out of Jason's mouth were, "I lied to you." I started to panic and feel sick to my stomach...tears were starting to form in my eyes. He started to tell me, "You know when I said that I had to go to Decatur on Friday (3/7) for work? Well, I didn't go there...". Tears were nearly ready to come out of my eyes & I wanted to throw up. He then said, "I went to Farmer City to The Liquid Edge to see Doug and give him a down payment for a boat!" I thought in my head, "OK! This is a good thing!" I was so relieved and I cried happy tears, but I still smacked Jason on the arm (he says that I punched him in the arm and almost knocked his drink out of his hand) for "lying" to me and making me worry.

So, this past Thursday afternoon (3/13), Jason went to Farmer City to pick up our new boat! Grant & Luke didn't know about the boat, so we decided to surprise them when we got home from their gymnastic lessons. When we got close to home, I had the boys close their eyes and put their heads on their laps. I pulled up behind the house where Jason had parked the boat and had the boys get out of the car while keeping their eyes closed. I counted to three and then had them open their eyes....they were so surprised! They could hardly believe their eyes that we had a boat sitting at our house! We hadn't told my dad either, so he was surprised too when he saw the boat pulling into the driveway.

Here's our 2008 MasterCraft X-45....




We've been trying to think of a name for the boat and Jason came up with H.M.S. for Her (or His) Majesty's Ship, but I think that I like my version better....Huge Money Sucker (due to all of the gas it'll take to make her go!).

We're all very happy and we can hardly wait to get out on the water for the first time! You can be sure that I'll blog about that day!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!

We are all wearing green here today...are you? For dinner tonight, we will be having our traditional meal of corned beef & cabbage (with potatoes, carrots, onions, and parsnips). We'll have 2 choices for dessert: green mint cake or brownies with St. Patrick's Day decorations. I bought Green River for the boys to drink too. Mmmmm....I can smell our dinner cooking now & I am getting so hungry.

Grant & Luke were so excited today that they didn't have to wear their school uniforms! They got to wear green....the more green, the better. They both looked great! I'll post a picture later for you to see their "green wear".



Ok....here's what the boys wore to school today, Grant is in the striped shirt & Luke is wearing the camouflage: