A rainy Saturday

They say "it never rains in Southern California" and for the past year or two, they'd be right. Not sure what is happening to the weather, but it is raining in Southern California today.

Today was supposed to be Joshua's first AYSO soccer game and picture day. He had been praying that it wouldn't rain, although Jon and I pointed out that farmers, plants, animals and all of us that live in this desert need the rain. So when I woke up at 6:00 this morning and heard the rain I started thinking of ways to defuse some of the disappointment. We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and right now Jon and Joshua are out playing in the rain. They even had the bright idea of getting the key to the jacuzzi so that after they are wet and cold (its 64 degrees) they can go get warmed up. This should give me an hour or so to pack a few more boxes.

Yep, we are proceeding with our plans to get a new pre-fab home. Great financing has come in through the company we are working with to get the new home, including a $30K credit for the old house. Not sure why a bank would offer us that, but we are very grateful. Next Saturday we'll be out at the factory picking out some of the specifics for our home.

Hope you all enjoy your Saturday whether you have rain or sun.

Sheryl

A sick boy and a pre-fab home

Well, this week didn't turn out to be what I had expected or planned. I was called to the school on Tuesday morning to pick up Joshua who was in the nurses office with a headache and sore throat. To be honest, I thought he was faking, because he didn't show signs of being sick when we got home. Wednesday I assumed he'd be back at school, but during the night the cough started and by the morning he had a bad cold. He ended up home all week. His teacher told me in an e-mail that "it is going around." Ah, welcome back to school....

On another note, I have been researching possible financing options for a new pre-fab home and it looks like we might be able to afford to replace our 32 year-old mobile home for a nice new one without going too far into debt. Of course "too far into debt" is all relative. This afternoon we will get to walk through a model of the home we are interested in. Here is a picture of the floor plan, if you are interested. The home will fit nicely on our lot and we may end up with a wrap-around porch that starts at the end by the dining room and goes around the side to the living room. We're hoping to make decisions about the details of our home in a couple weeks. Then, assuming the financing all comes together, we'll be packing, moving out, moving back in and unpacking between now and Thanksgiving. Some friends of ours from church have offered their recently remodeled upstairs bedrooms for us to use during this time. What a blessing and an answer to prayer.

Sheryl

A new France

I am excited to introduce you to my newest niece. Madeline McKenna France was born Sunday, September 9th at 2:22pm! She weighed 6lbs 15.3 ounces and both Renee and baby are doing great. Labor was fast and furious and Renee did it all natural. Very impressive!

Maddy is the first-born to my youngest brother Scott and his wife Renee. They live in Seattle, but are planning to come down to So. Cal. for Thanksgiving, so we'll get to meet Maddy in two months.

Sheryl

Good news, Bad news

The insurance adjuster came out Friday evening and did a very thorough job of investigating our mold situation. I'll try not to go into too much detail, but the good news is that the pipes below Joshua's room do not have a leak, so there isn't any bacteria soaking up into his room. The bad news is that the water source seems to be coming from the water heater and based on the evidence or lack there of, our insurance will not be covering any of the costs to fix the problem. There is evidence of a large water problem that could have occurred a long time ago and caused the mold to grow in the flooring under the water heater. The smell of the mold and maybe mold spores probably went straight into Joshua's room through the cold-air exchange vent which is in the corner of his room right next to the water heater. We pulled up the carpet and the stain on the bottom of the carpet indicated that water had come in through the walls by the water heater. The insurance adjuster was able to get pictures of the "inside" the sub-floor by getting his digital camera into the air vent and some holes underneath the house. It was helpful to see exactly what the damage is inside the floor.

Once again, the good news is that the problem isn't quite as big as expected, but we still have the problem in the bathroom probably caused by a leak under the shower and the damage caused by the water heater to the corner of the house is pretty extensive. So, we've got to decide if we are going to fix the problem in our 32-year old mobile home or get a new one. Thanks for your prayers for wisdom.

Sheryl

Mold and back to school

I realize that I never reported on our lives during August. After being gone for a month, we were busy, like everyone else. I am looking forward to getting back into the routine of school, although Joshua is not excited about homework. Here he is with some of his buddies today on the first day of school.

Unfortunately our lives will not be slowing down any time soon. I am PTA President at Joshua's school this year and involved in leadership at our church. And then on Friday we got some news that will effect our lives in ways we probably can't even imagine yet. We had a mold inspector come to our house. I have been concerned about a moldy smell in Joshua's room. When we got back from our road trip, maybe since the room had been sealed up for a month, Joshua was unable to sleep at night without coughing really hard. We've moved him into our room. The inspector confirmed our worse fears. There is a leak in the bathroom shower, right next to Joshua's room, however that does not seem to be what is causing the mold in his room. There is mold in the wall of that bathroom, so the shower will need to be removed probably along with the wall and floor. Then we found that there is a leak in our water heater, which is in an outside panel that backs up to the corner of Joshua's closet. So we will need to replace the water heater and have the moldy wood, etc. removed from that corner of the house. However, that does not seem to be what is causing the mold in Joshua's room. Finally, the inspector found a wet spot on Joshua's floor. The wet spot is a circular area about a foot in diameter and after looking under the house, he realized that it is right above where the drainage pipes in the house meet and go to the outside drain. All the drains come together, so the leak includes mold and bacteria. He confirmed that Joshua may not do anything in that room again. There are many studies that show a raised chance of children developing asthma when exposed to mold. I spent all day Saturday doing laundry since everything made of cloth needed to be washed or thrown away. We will need to wipe down all his toys, furniture, etc. (Heavy sigh!)

I called our insurance company today, placed a claim and they have made it a level one claim. The lady who took the information over the phone was very compassionate. So now we'll wait to see what insurance will cover and how much. Then we'll need to decide what to do next.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during this stressful time.

Sheryl

Road Trip 2007 Stats

We have been back from our road trip for almost a month, so I apologize for the delay in getting this final posting up. Thanks to the many of you who have read my trip reports and kept up with us. It is an encouragement to hear from many of you and to know that you were praying for us.

I am borrowing an idea from my brother's trip blog and posting a picture of the map of our trip. Following are some interesting (in my opinion) stats from our trip.
Miles driven: 6,598
Length of trip: 30 days and 10 hrs.
Driving days: 21
States we traveled through: 19
Cost of gas: $729.75
Average miles/gal: 29 (We love our Escape.)
Average price of gas: $3.21 per gal.
Overnighted:
- 9 nights in 7 hotels
- 16 nights in 10 homes
- 5 nights at 3 campsites
Nights rained on in campsite: 2
Friends and Family we visited: 84 (spent the night with 36 of these)
US state license plates: 48
(Where were the folks from Rhode Island and New Hampshire? We figured we wouldn't see Hawaii.)
Canadian Provence license plates: 5
Support the Troops Ribbons: 197
Penske Trucks (Joshua's favorite): 75
Tumble Weeds (Jon's selection): 6
Denny's Restaurants: 33 (They don't have these east of New Mexico.)
Cars stuck due to heavy rain: 5 (Not us -- thanks to Jon's great driving.)
Universities we visited: 4
National Parks we toured: 3
Harry Potter books I read or we listened to on CD: 5 (We finished book 6 when we got home, bought book 7 and finished it in 4 days.)
Some of our favorite sites and activities:
- Oatman, AZ -- you gotta love the wild burros
- Grand Canyon Caverns, AZ -- ask Joshua about this place some time.
- Meteor Crater, AZ -- Amazing!
- Butterfly Exhibit at Houston Natural History Museum
- World's Largest Tree house -- visit the Morans in Crossville, TN
- Canoing Chain o Lakes near Ft. Wayne, IN
- Lincoln Museum, Springfield, IL
- Driving through south central Utah
- Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
- Zion National Park, UT -- hiking the Narrows as a family
- Hoover Dam, NV/AZ

This was an amazing experience for our family. We were able to spend time with Jon's entire immediate family as well as his grandpa, 5 cousins and their families. We visited with great friends that we haven't seen in many, many years. What a great way to spend a month -- we highly recommend it, if you get a chance.

Sheryl

Road trip update #13

After breakfast in Boulder City, NV, we got a pretty early start and were at Hoover Dam a little after 9:00. Little did we know what a good move that was. When we left 3 hours later the traffic snaked almost 5 miles back to Boulder City from the dam. It would have taken about an hour just to get to the dam. Since 9/11 there has been a lot of security at the dam -- cars are checked and there are metal detectors in the visitors center. They are also in the process of building a huge new bridge that will cross the Colorado just downstream of the dam. I think they said it would be 1,000 feet above the water. It looks like it will be very high. If you look at the top left-hand corner of the picture to the right, you can see the base of the cement pillars that will hold up the new bridge. The bridge itself is much higher up.

Jon and I visited the dam many years ago and were pleasantly surprised by the new visitors center. They have great displays and lots of hands-on activities for kids. They also still have the tour that takes you down inside the dam. You can see Joshua in front of the generators. It is awesome to see the inside of the dam and realize that it was built during the Great Depression. Amazing.

It was very warm and so after taking the tour, watching a couple videos and viewing the dam from both sides of the bridge, we were ready to go. It was Friday, July 27 and we had decided to get home that day. It was a long drive, but we only hit a bit of traffic coming into Riverside. We jumped on the toll roads off the 91 and were home by 7:00 p.m.

I have one more entry I want to make with stats from our trip. But I don't have all of my numbers figured out yet, so you'll have to wait for next time. Thanks for reading.

Sheryl

Road trip update #12

Monday, July 23, we packed up our wet camping gear and headed the short drive to Bryce Canyon to see this amazing natural work of art. We listened to a great presentation by a park ranger explaining how these gorgeous "hodoos" were formed. The National Park is called "Bryce Canyon" but technically it is not a canyon because the hodoos were not formed by river erosion but by rain, ice, wind, plant roots, animals, etc. In Bryce they have 200 days a year where there is a freeze/thaw cycle. That means that at night is gets cold enough to freeze and in the day time it warms enough to thaw. That extreme temperature variance has been the major cause of these formations even though they don't get a lot of rain. Amazing. We took a short hike along the Rim Trail and enjoyed the exercise and the views. After a few hours we were ready to drive to Zion National Park.

This drive on country road 89 and 9 was another awe-inspiring drive. I had not entered Zion through this route two years ago and so I was surprised by the Mt. Carmel tunnel -- a mile or so through the rock -- and then the awesome view of the Zion Canyon (a real one formed by the Virgin River). One of our goals of visiting Zion was to hike The Narrows. This is a path that follows the Virgin River upstream until the path becomes the river. Unfortunately due to the combination of the fires earlier in the month and the rain that had arrived just before us, there were flash flood warnings the day we arrived. In fact, that morning at 8:30 there had been a flash flood. The river was moving at 146 cfs (cubic feet per second) which is dangerous for an experienced hiker. So we spent Tuesday and Wednesday taking other hikes in the park -- there are many. We toured the valley in the shuttle bus, attended a Junior Ranger program on beavers, walked the Pa'us Trail, hiked to the Emerald Pools and just relaxed around our camp site. After three days without showers, we found the Quality Inn in Springdale where you could pay $4 for an 8 minute shower -- that was wonderful. We did laundry, bought groceries and enjoyed the local town.

We got rained on the first night, which helped to cool things down a bit and since we were staying for two more nights, we weren't worried about our tenting getting wet again. Tuesday we had a few afternoon sprinkles but Wednesday we didn't get any rain. The river rate was also slowly returning to normal (40 cfs), although the water was an ugly grey color due to dirt and ash from the fires upstream.

Wednesday night we rented our gear -- special boots and extra tall poles -- for a hike in The Narrows on Thursday morning. We had to pack up our vehicle that night since we were checking out on Thursday, but all the work for worth it. We got to the trail head at 8:30 and hiked for 5 hours. Joshua wanted to hike in the river the entire way. This made for very slow going, but was cool and fun. After a couple of hours in the water, he agreed to take some of the paths along the side of the river whenever possible. This allowed us to make it back in half the time it took us to go up. The path was closed at a certain point due to the fire damage upstream, but the hike was still well-worth it. You can see from the first picture the color of the Virgin River. When we reached the turn-around point, we headed a short distance up a tributary that obviously did not have ash run-off. There the water was clear and you could see the rocks below the water. Two years ago the water was clear and so the hike had been a lot easier since you could see most of the rocks that you were either stepping on or over. Hiking in a rocky riverbed without the aid of clear water was quite a challenge, but we all loved it. This final picture is of the narrowest part of the river that we were able to reach. Maybe next time we can go farther up and see the "real" Narrows.

After the hike we made a quick change into clean clothes -- no time for a shower -- and hit the road for Boulder City, NV, (next to Hoover Dam). We had been planning to camp on Lake Meade, visit Hoover Dam Thursday afternoon and head for home Friday. Instead we drove to Boulder City, found a cute, family-owned motel that was very nice, got showers, had dinner and went to bed exhausted. Next entry -- Hoover Dam.

Sheryl

Road trip update #11

Saturday, July 21st we said goodbye to Chris and left Pueblo driving on a beautiful road that followed the Arkansas River (how did it get that name in Colorado). There were many people rafting down the river and it was beautiful country. Jon did most of the driving during our trip because I was the navigator and can read and do many other things in a moving vehicle that Jon can't. However, that day Jon was getting tired and I wanted a chance to drive through the Colorado Rockies. We switched places right before we drove around Blue Mesa Reservoir. It was gorgeous and it was just fortunate that I didn't drive off the road while trying to catch the awesome views.

We stopped in Junction City, CO, and did some grocery shopping since the next five days we would be camping in Utah. It was 100+ degrees and the wind was blowing hard -- quite a change from the mountains. Green River is a small camp site right on the river and just off the I-70 in eastern Utah. It is quite an oasis in those desert lands. This was our first time to get all of our camping gear out, set up the tent, break out the cook stove, etc. Everything worked fine and we enjoyed a simple meal in a nearly empty campground. This may have been due to the fact that it was 100 degrees. After the sun set it cooled down a bit, but inside the tent it was very hot and it was the first night I slept very poorly. We were glad to pack up and head for Bryce Canyon the next morning.

Once again we avoided the freeway and took county roads 24 and 12 down through south central Utah.

It was an amazing drive and I highly recommend it. Here are a few shots I took as we drove. Every few miles the geology changed and the colors were just phenomenal. You'll have to go yourself to get the full value since my camera could not do it justice.























We found our camp site at Pine Lake, about 5 miles north of Bryce Canyon off a dirt road. It was more beautiful than the pictures on the web site. There were free-range cattle grazing all around the campground and they kept us awake mooing till about 10:00 p.m. and started again around 6:00 the next morning. The cliffs behind our camp site were breathtaking and the small man-made lake was so peaceful. Joshua was able to ride his bike and Jon and I enjoyed walking around the lake on the dam. The afternoon was restful and we enjoyed chicken and pasta for dinner. After our evening walk I noticed some dark clouds and was a little concerned. Sure enough at midnight I woke up and needed to go to the bathroom only to discover that it had started raining. We were under some pine trees so the wind in the trees sounded much louder than the actual rain. After about half an hour it died down a bit and I made a dash for the out-house. Got back to the tent before another down pour. Fortunately we have a good tent and Jon had pitched it well cause we didn't get wet during the night. The next day it took a little while to clean up, but we weren't in a hurry, so we enjoyed the sun that was coming in and out of the clouds. I was up early and so got some great shots of the cows that had jumped the fences and were grazing in our campground. This mama posed nicely for me.

This entry is getting pretty long, so I'll save Bryce Canyon for the next update.

Sheryl

Road trip update #10

Thursday, July 19th we left fairly early from St. Louis. We had a long drive ahead of us along with a visit with some friends for lunch.

We had a rather uneventful drive to Higginsville, MO, where we met our friends Paul, Melissa and Mary. They are friends from our days at Trinity Presbyterian Church and moved out to Missouri a number of years ago. It was fun to reconnect with them, but due to the impending rain (yes, it was still with us) we met for lunch at a Chinese buffet instead of at the local fair. Sure enough, about half way through our meal it started to pour. But it had stopped by the end of our meal, so we walked over to the 4-H booths and checked out the pigs. They were waiting for the sale later that evening and who knows, maybe one of them will be someones bacon soon (no offense to any vegetarians reading this).

We headed on our way into the wide state of Kansas. It actually has a lot of variety in its scenery and was beautiful. We took some country roads to avoid Kansas City and the toll roads. We followed the Oregon Trail for a while. Jon wasn't too tired and so we pressed on driving 2/3 of the way across the state before stopping at a Days Inn in Russell, KS. I had considered camping, but with the rain clouds following us, we decided to drive a little longer and stay at a hotel -- a wise move that night. By driving farther than planned this also allow us a shorter drive the next day as we headed to Pueblo, CO.

If you saw our original agenda, you know that Pueblo wasn't on it. We were hoping to see friends in Boulder, up off I-70, but they were out of town. When Jon's cousin Chris Moran heard that we were driving through CO, he invited us to dinner. What he didn't realize was that I would then ask if we could spend the night. He very graciously allowed up to use his empty guest room, which was a great place for our air mattresses. Chris was at our wedding 15 years ago, but that was the last time we had seen him, so it was great to get reconnected. He treated us to dinner and gave us a great tour of the quaint town of Pueblo, CO.

Road trip update #9

Tuesday, July 17, turned out to be a very long day since we tried to travel a little farther than was reasonable and see more people then was realistic. But we had a wonderful time in Detroit -- Joshua didn't want to leave his cousins Baker, Regan and Riley -- so we were very glad to have added that portion of our trip.

We left Detroit around 9:00 a.m. and headed to South Bend, IN, where our friends Bill and Lisa live. I have known Bill since I was in 3rd grade in the Philippines where both of our parents were missionaries. I met Lisa in the 80s when we all attended Trinity Presbyterian Church together. They have lived in South Bend since Bill was accepted for his PhD at Notre Dame and then became a prof at St. Mary's. We had a quick driving tour of the Notre Dame campus and a great late lunch on a restaurant patio overlooking the river while the clouds threatened to rain, but didn't. Joshua has been thrilled to wear his Notre Dame T-shirt once he found out that he is part Irish, but our die-hard USC friends here in Southern California may not be as pleased.

We left South Bend around 2:00 and headed for Bloomington, IL. We drove south of Chicago and were fortunate not to hit too much afternoon traffic. With the added hour -- driving from the eastern to central time zone -- we were able to get to our friends Jeff and Pam's home for a late dinner around 6:30. Jeff and I were math majors together at Biola, but I didn't really get to know him until after college when we were both involved at Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton. That is also where Jon and Jeff became good friends as well. Jeff and Pam have four children and Joshua was thrilled to learn new games and run around in the backyard even when it started to sprinkle.

We had a few hours Wednesday morning to hang out in Bloomington before Jeff headed to work -- he is a prof at the University of Illinois and is actually using his math major -- amazing. We headed back to route 66 but got lost in some corn fields looking for Funks Grove, so we headed on down the road to Springfield, IL, where we truly enjoyed walking around down town and touring the Lincoln Presidential Museum. Can you tell which person in the picture does not belong to the Lincoln family?

We ended the day in St. Louis, MO, with Bobbie and John Lautenschlager -- great name, isn't it? Jon met them when he was a Marine Security Guard in Sierra Leon, West Africa, and they were missionaries there. I had met Bobbie and John in 1991 when I drove with Jon out to Southern California. We had discovered then, but I had forgotten, that John, who grew up in Terra Bella, California, a few miles from where my dad grew up on the France Family Farm, was actually taught to fly by my uncle Paul France. Talk about a small world. Oh, yeah, and my OBGyn when Joshua was born knew John from when they both were interns at the same hospital in St. Louis. So we have lots of connections to this wonderful couple. They treated us to a home-cooked meal and then a driving tour of St. Louis. We discovered that there are many great kid-friendly activities in the city and so need to plan another trip out some day.

Road trip update #8

Here are some pictures of our time in Ft. Wayne, IN, with Jon's brother Matt and family as well as our short time in the Detroit, MI, area with Jon's cousin Steve and Jon's brother Greg and family.

Road trip #7

We had a wonderful time in Ft. Wayne. The weather was perfect -- sunny but not too hot. They did finally get rain Sunday evening, which they were in need of and for once it had stopped the morning we left.

Monday we were up fairly early so we could drive to the Detroit area to meet the 3rd Baker Brother -- Jon's cousin Steve who he had not seen in decades. We took the scenic route through north western Ohio so we could add another state to our list of states for this trip. We met Steve, Michelle and their three kids at a Chinese buffet in the Detroit area and had a great time getting to know their family. After lunch we headed to Greg (Jon's youngest brother) and Sharon's home north of Detroit. They have three children around Joshua's age and since we visited them last summer the kids all reconnected very quickly. Jon and Greg took the kids swimming while I relaxed at the house with my book and Sharon got a nap -- a perfect afternoon.

Today we head for Bloomington, IL, via South Bend, IN. We are waiting to hear from our friends Bill and Lisa, so hopefully we'll be able to connect with them around lunch time. This evening we'll be visiting a friend Jon and I have each known since the 80s but haven't seen since the 90s.

This is the furthest northeast we will get on this trip, so I guess today we are officially heading for home, although we still have about 10 days left of our trip. All for now.

Sheryl

Road Trip #6

We had a great drive from Crossville, TN, to Louisville, KY. We drove through the country for about half of the drive and enjoyed an authentic lunch at the Big Moose Smokehouse BBQ in Glasgow, KY. In Louisville we were able to enjoy the hospitality of our dear friends Bill and Valerie, but unfortunately they were out of town. I lived with Bill and Valerie for four years just prior to marrying Jon so it was an odd sensation to arrive in a strange home where the furniture, pictures, dishes and many other items were so familiar. It felt like going home. We spent the afternoon relaxing while I finished reading the third Harry Potter book to Jon and Joshua. We have the finally three books on CD, so I won't have to read out loud any more. In the evening I enjoyed a cup of tea while I read my book -- the perfect activity for this home.

Of course it started raining in Louisville on Friday morning, but fortunately it stopped before we needed to load the car. We had an uneventful drive to Ft. Wayne, IN, and are enjoying ourselves with Jon's twin brother Matt, wife Brenda and daughters. Today we went to the Chain O Lakes and took canoes out for a a couple hours before enjoying a picnic. We are having gorgeous weather -- dry and in the 70s -- although there has been a strong wind blowing all day.

We'll enjoy another day here tomorrow and head to the Detroit area either Sunday night or Monday morning -- haven't decided yet. Hope you all are having a great July.

Sheryl

Road Trip #4.5

I was just going to write another update and realized that I missed posting pictures of our weekend in Tennessee.

Here is Jon with his cousin Mark, who he hadn't seen since Mark was a teenager. It was great to reconnect at his and Teresa's home in Memphis.










We always enjoy visiting with the musical relatives in Nashville. This past year Jon's Grandpa Baker moved to Nashville so we were thrilled to visit with him on this trip to Tennessee. Here are Jon and Joshua with Tim, Angela, their daughters and Grandpa Baker who is 97 years young.











Before we left Nashville on Monday, we had a delicious breakfast with Jon's cousin Dave, wife Julie and son Nathan. It had been decades since they had seen each other.

Road Trip #5

Sure enough we had rain yesterday (Tuesday, July 10). Joshua really wanted to miniature golf and it wasn't that cold, so we walked the half mile to the course and played in the rain. I have to admit that when it started coming down really hard, I hid out under the porch roof.

Jon and his dad took our Escape in to a dealer for the 5,000 mile servicing. When they got back the sun was out so we went down and took the paddle boats out on the lake for a short run. Then Jon and I headed into town for a date night. We enjoyed an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and then enjoyed "Pirates of the Caribbean -- Deadman's Chest." It was an entertaining movie and a great night out for Jon and me. Joshua enjoyed time on the beach at the lake with his grandpa and grandma.

We were able to miniature golf again today with only slight interference from the rain. We visited an amazing tree house -- 100+ feet high, incorporating numerous trees (see pictures below inside the tree house and a view from the outside). In the afternoon we took a swim in the pool. We stopped by a local church that has prayed for us while Jon was deployed and sent him a care package in Iraq. We are ending the evening with the movie that inspired this trip -- "Cars."


We've made a slight change in our plans and will be leaving Crossville tomorrow morning instead of on Friday. In that way we'll spend the weekend with Jon's brother and family in Ft. Wayne and then drive up to the Detroit area to see more family on Monday before heading to South Bend, IN, and Bloomington, IL, on Tuesday.

We've had a great time with Jon's folks and look forward to seeing more family in the next few days followed by lots of good friends. All for now.

Sheryl

Road Trip #4

We have arrived safely in Crossville, Tennessee (half way between Nashville and Knoxville) where Jon's parents are living. So now to up date y'all (a little Southern drawl) on our travels since Houston.

Longview, Texas, is where Jon's sister Linda, husband Walter and seven children live. (see picture of Jon, Joshua and the Burklin kids). We arrived Tuesday (July 3) in the evening. Joshua immediately connected with his cousins Spencer (11 years), Lucy (9 years) and Jasper (6 years) and they disappeared into the back yard to jump on the trampoline. We hardly saw Joshua for the next couple days.

The 4th of July was mostly rainy so Jon, Walter and the 4 older kids (Lina, Flynn, Mary and Mercy) played one of Jon's favorite games -- Rail Barrons. It was literally an all-day game lasting from about 9:00 in the morning until dinner that night, which was delayed till 7:00 p.m. so the game could be concluded. Joshua and the younger kids were in and out of the house depending on the rain. I got caught up on my e-mail (I was going through withdrawals) and enjoyed reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini the author of best seller "The Kite Runner." I am really enjoying this story about the lives of Afghan women spanning my life time. The rain did let up after dark and we were able to set off a few fireworks to celebrate the day.

The next day Mary, Mercy and Spencer had a sword-fighting class and so Linda and I played lifeguards while Jon got in a very cold pool with Lucy, Joshua and Jasper (see picture of Jon with Jasper). After lunch we were off to a skating party for homeschoolers in the Longview area. I hadn't skated in about 30 years but it was amazing how quickly it came back -- at least I didn't fall. This was Joshua's first time to roller skate and with Jon's help he did pretty good, although Joshua got tired of Jon and I giving him "helpful hints." In the end he made it around the rink a couple times with his cousin Lucy by his side. It was a great couple hours while the rain continued outside.

Friday morning dawned with heavier rain than we had already experienced that week. It was flooding around the house so after breakfast we hit the road. We drove in heavy rain for a couple hours as we headed east into Louisiana and then north into Arkansas. Around noon outside Little Rock the rain finally let up and we turned off the windshield wipers for the first time all day. Jon kept his speed down and we were so grateful for a safe drive as we saw 4 vehicles stuck in ditches on the side of the road and another one that looked like it stalled out in high water. What a drive. Unfortunately we weren't able to meet up with my college friend Beth, due to our delayed travel time -- we were about an hour behind schedule due to the heavy rain -- and scheduled activities Beth's son had. We may be able to connect on our way back when we go through the Kansas City area.

Saturday morning we were able to visit with Jon's cousin Mark Baker and his family in Memphis. They haven't seen each other in about 20 years, so it was fun getting caught up on each other's lives. They have three young boys, so Joshua enjoyed building Legos while we talked. That evening, after a slight detour into Mississippi so we could add another state to our route, we arrived in Nashville at Jon's grandpa Baker's home. We enjoyed dinner with him and another cousin of Jon's -- Tim Lauer and his family. We spent more time with the Lauers and Grandpa on Sunday.

Monday we had breakfast with Dave Baker's family, another cousin that Jon has not seen in decades. After getting caught up on their lives, we went back and played a game of Scrabble with Grandpa. He is 97 years old and beat us all handily. It was a wonderful time, but sure enough after no rain for two days, it started raining as we were loading our car -- amazing! We hit the road about 1:30 and spent quite a bit of the drive in the rain. When we arrived we found out that it has been the driest summer in 130 years here and that day it rained. Amazing! We must have brought the rain with us from Texas.

We hope to enjoy the recreational activities here at Lake Tansi where Jon's folks live. We plan to use the paddle boats, go miniature golfing, swimming in the pool and the lake and maybe going out on a boat as well. Should be fun and I'll update y'all later.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Sheryl

Road Trip #3

We're getting ready to hit the road from Longview, Texas. We hope to swing through the corner of Louisiana and then head up north of Little Rock, Arkansas, to meet up with my college friend Beth and her son this afternoon. We were going to camp in eastern Arkansas, but this part of the country has had tons of rain for a couple months and the past three days it has barely stopped raining, so I voted for a Days Inn tonight. Tomorrow we plan to meet one of Jon's cousins and his family in Memphis and then move on to Nashville where we'll meet up with other cousins and spend the weekend with Jon's Grandpa Baker.

If you read this today, please pray for safety as we drive through the rain and any puddles that might cross our path. Thanks.

Sheryl

Pictures of the road trip Day 7

Before leaving Houston we enjoyed the Butterfly Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. One type of butterfly kept thinking Jon's shirt was its favorite plant. Joshua patiently waited to get this picture of his favorite butterfly.

Pictures from the road trip Day 5

We didn't take any pictures of our drive from Gallup, NM, to Amarillo, TX, to Dallas but there were some beautiful lands.

Our time in the Dallas area was about visiting good friends. Here we are with our friends the Homers, our hosts the Andrews family, and with our friend June.