Destin

We had a fun, yet exhausting, weekend in Destin. We left Tuscaloosa as soon as I got off work Friday afternoon and arrived in Destin around 10:00pm that night. It took us about an hour to find our hotel because TomTom was not cooperating. Saturday was wet and rainy so we went shopping for a while and then we watched movies with Greyson, Ann and Carl. Saturday night we all went putt-putting at the Track and Greyson beat everyone! (Technically he came in last, but everytime we asked him how many strokes he had, he said One Strike!!)

Greyson and I playing putt putt

Then came Sunday morning....and deep sea fishing. We all arrived at the dock at 5:30am and left out about 6:00am. I made sure to take some Dramamine an hour before we left.

At 5:30am, before boarding the boat

I did good until about 10 minutes after we left. It was all downhill from there. I never threw up, but I came oh so very close. Forrest and his girlfriend Kristin were not so lucky. They both lost their breakfast. Even Brad and Carl got seasick towards the end of the trip. As soon as we got back on land, we learned that the reason the water was so choppy was because of the tropical storm Eduoard!! Never do I ever want to go deep sea fishing again. EVER. Among the 5 of us that went, we only caught about 12 fish.

Brad after we got back on land


And to top that all off, I think I have been suffering from a sinus infection for the past week. My doctor is out until tomorrow and the MedCenter has been extremely busy all day, meaning there will be a several hour wait. No thank you. At least I have Bunco tonight!

Updates

I just realized that it's been a while since I last blogged. Let's see.....

Brad graduates August 9th. We are SO excited! He has applied for positions with several places around town and is looking into the two year program at the VA. Hopefully something will turn out for him soon.

Reece starts daycare this Friday. That should be interesting. She has been coming to work with April all 7 months of her life so this will be the first time she will be without April all day. Reece has also started (almost) crawling! She can push herself around backwards to get where she wants to be. April put her on a pallet in the floor in front of her desk and a few minutes later, April looked down and saw Reece under her desk!

Griffin and Greyson start Kindergarten August 7th! That should REALLY be interesting. April said that Griffin is really excited and he is carrying his backpack with him all around the house. Cute!

Brad, me and his family are all going to Destin this weekend to go deep sea fishing! I'm so excited! I have never been to Destin and it's been about 10 years since I've been deep sea fishing! I can't wait! I just hope I don't get too sea sick. I'll post pictures as soon as we get back!

The story of crossing the river

As you know by now, in Honduras we ride in a school bus to and from the Mission Home and village. It is not unusual for us to have to cross over creeks in the bus to get to the villages we go to. We were all warned ahead of time that we would have to cross a creek. No one was worried, though, because we had all crossed a creek in Honduras at some point. Well we woke up on Sunday morning and prepared to head out on our 2 hour trip to Villa Santa, the village we visited. Our luggage went the night before. It had rained allllll night so the roads were not in the best condition. After about an hour and a half, I heard our team captain, Stan, say, "The creek is up ahead." I look up and instead of seeing a little creek, I see a raging river.

At this point, I'm thinking to myself, 'There is NO way we can ride a school bus across this river.' The river did have a little concrete bridge crossing it, but the bridge was still under construction.

So we all get out of the bus and walk down to the bridge where numerous Honduran workers and policemen are standing so that we could try to figure out what to do. So as we spoke to the policemen, we realize that this is the ONLY way to get to the village.....and our luggage made it the night before....the rain made the river rise. So all of our belongings are on the other side of this river. As we are still talking to the Hondurans, I see something moving out of the corner of my eye. I look up and a huge tree is falling straight toward us! The bank of the river was caving in because of the speed of the water! We all run and miss the tree. Unfortunately, the tree hits a Honduran man, but he only had minor injuries.

After talking to the policemen for an hour and a half, they finally agree to let us cross the bridge by foot. However, since the bridge was still under construction and not very stable, we were only allowed to cross two people at a time. Otherwise, the bridge would collapse under the weight of more people. Greeeeat.

It felt like we were walking into Noah's Ark! We all eventually make it to the other side. We had to wait another hour or so for someome to find a bus to come get us and take us to the village. A great way to start our week, huh?

The story of the 5 hour bus ride

Ok, so I told you I had quite a few stories to catch you up on from my Honduras trip. Well if you read my blog before I left, you saw the story of the plane crashing in Tegucigalpa. They closed the airport for a while so we had to fly into San Pedro Sula rather than Tegucigalpa. The only problem with that was San Pedro Sula is FIVE HOURS away from Tegucigalpa. And for those that don't know, the roads and vehicles in Honduras are not the best in the world. Most of the roads are just ground, not to mention that the entire country is mountainous and the only thing blocking you from running off the side of the mountain is a strand of barbed wire! So we pay the extra expense to charter an air conditioned bus, rather than the normal school bus we travel in. Everyone doped up on the dramamine and off we went. Our bus was pretty high-tech. It had a television mounted inside, so we watched a foreign movie (with English subtitles) to try and pass the time. About half way through the movie (most people were asleep at this point) I hear our team captain, Stan, (who is sitting right beside me) say, "Umm...can we turn this movie off, please?" I open my eyes and look at the screen and see two naked men having sex in a shower. Because it was a foreign movie that none of us had ever heard of, we had no idea there would be a gay sex scene in it! So after everyone woke up to see the pee-pee's, we decided to stop and stretch. We stopped at a traditional Honduran restaurant and we were instructed that we could eat anything but the salad. When we get up to the buffet line, none of us recognizes anything but rice! So that's what I ordered. There were a few brave souls that ordered chicken and such. So from meeting at the Birmingham Airport at 4:30am to arriving at the Mission Home at around midnight, we were some tired, drugged up missionaries who had all recently witnessed gay porn. And they say God doesn't have a sense of humor...

I'm baaaacccckkk!

Hallelujah! I'm back in the United States! What an eventful week I experienced. Among the five hour bus ride to get to our mission home, crossing a river, 3 miles of walking a day, extreme nausea, mud boots, bad bathroom experiences and almost being in a plane crash.....I'm EXHAUSTED!!!! I'll post stories from the trip soon, but for now, enjoy these pictures!

Me with my new friend, Michele

Me with our bus driver, Juan

The river we had to cross....by foot.

The infamous mud boots

With my beautiful translator, Katherine

The ladies I hung with

My friend Irma that I get to see every year and the Children's Home

Michele and I getting ready to work

Clothes and shoes ladies with our translator, Arlene

Church

Eating lunch

Juan and I again


I'll post some stories as soon as I get a second! Thanks for all the prayers. We had a great trip and ended with 221 salvations. Praise God!

Holy Crap!

So as most of you know, I am leaving this Saturday to go to Honduras for a week. Well on May 30, 2008, the airport in Honduras (Tegucigalpa) closed down because an airplane didn't land correctly, ran off the runway, and they ended up with 5 deaths and 38 injuries. (Tegucigalpa literally has the smallest runway in the world!) So since the airport was closed, we were going to have to fly into San Pedro Sula, which is about a 5 hour bus ride from Tegucigalpa. WELL I just got an email from the trip coordinator that the Tegucigalpa Airport was re-opening! And we are flying from there on our way back! Did I mention that the plane that crashed spilled over 2,000 gallons of jet fuel at the airport? And we are taking off from there?



Umm...I think I'll walk back, thanks.

4th of July Weekend

We had SUCH a fun long weekend! Friday, Brad and I slept in. He worked 16 hours the night before so he needed to sleep in! We lounged around the house for a little while and then we headed to Mom's. When we got to Mom's, Brad and Douglas talked sports while Mom and I set up for the party.




Around lunch time, April and alllll of her gang showed up and got the party started! We all swam and ate and had a great time.







Unfortunately, it started pouring down rain, but that didn't stop the boys from having fun in the pool!


After lunch, April, Josh and the kids went home so I took a nap! Afterwards, me, Brad, Katie and Douglas went to get our Wii and some fireworks.


Katie invited some friends over for dinner and they swam and ate, too. And as you probably guessed, I fell asleep before everyone shot the fireworks so I didn't get to see a single one! Saturday, Brad and I lounged around some more and I started the dreaded process of packing for Honduras. (I leave Saturday at 6am!) I cannot express to you how long I have been looking forward to that Saturday. Benkei was opening back up from their month long hiatus....or so we thought. So Brad, Mom, April and myself headed over to Benkei when we realized that they don't open until the 8th. I don't think I have ever been so mad. We all were. So we settled for Hokkaido instead. As Mom put it, "It's like getting a Happy Meal instead of Benkei." We still had a good time and good food, but it just wasn't the same! After we ate, Brad and I had a date with my Abby!



We all went to the movies to see Wall-E. I highly recommend it. It was very cute! Sunday, we went to church and afterwards, we ate at Long Horn for the first time. Oh My God. It was so good. I got the filet and I promise it was almost as good as The Bright Star. A little on the pricey side, but if you want a good filet, you should try it. That night, we went to Brad's brother's house to see them and the kids. And we also kicked their butts in Phase 10. Victory! So needless to say, neither Brad nor I wanted to get up and go to work this morning. What a great weekend!