Easter

We started the morning before sunrise.  PK had to go to work and since our time with Hannah "believing" is short, we wanted to hunt eggs and do the Easter Bunny thing before he left.  Aaron and Hannah were ready to go.  It took a bit more encouraging to get Rachel moving.  The Easter Bunny left them some goodies in new pails to use at the beach this summer.  Since it was still dark and the Easter Bunny didn't want to hide eggs outside in the pre-dawn hours, the eggs were hidden in the livingroom and diningroom.  As is his usual fashion at our house, the Easter Bunny filled the eggs with coins instead of money.

Hannah was really excited because those shoes have a littl heel on them.  It wasn't what I wanted for my eight year old, but I am old and tired and she won that battle.  The leggings were also not a part of the original ensemble, but again, she won.

Aaron is always ready to throw on a tie, but he was pretty happy with this look.

The look on her face is so silly.  She wasn't trying to be silly, but really just didn't want to pose.

All three Sweet Baby Rays.

Easter From a Heavenly Perspective

Dear Grandma,

How are you?  Do you know Easter will make almost seven months since you went to Heaven?  Some days it seems like yesterday and some days it seems like it has already been years.

Let's see...what have you missed?  I'm sure everyone in Evansville has more news for you than I do.  Brandon's mom passed away suddenly a few weeks ago.  It was a massive heart attack.  It was really hard on all of them.

 P.K., the kids and I are doing great.  Can you believe I turned 40 this year?  Ugh!  Aaron was confirmed in church last Sunday.  As you know, he gave his heart to Jesus years ago, but this was just a public statement.  I am so proud of him.  He has such a hunger to learn more about God and he's so tender to His Spirit.  I decided to join our church that Sunday as well.  We have been attending there for about a year and a half so I guess it was time.  I still enjoy working at the preschool.  The kids are cute.  It is still hard at times to adjust to not being home all the time and figuring out how to get everything done around here.  The kids have been on Spring Break this past week.  It was a needed break.  Rachel has had so much homework this year.  She had a Social Studies project where she had to interview someone "older."  She said it was too bad she couldn't talk to you.  I agreed.  I told her you would have some good stories to share.  Hannah is just Hannah and is happy as long as she can have fun.  Aaron's snake shed again this past week.  I guess he is about 3 feet long.  Well, I think that about covers the usual things you would ask me.

After your funeral, Uncle Dennis dug up some bulbs from your Easter Lilies in your yard for me to bring back down here.  I planted them along the fence in my front yard.  I really didn't get my hopes up because I don't have a green thumb.  A couple weeks ago, I glanced out my window and there they were punching through the ground.  They must like this red Georgia clay.  They don't have flowers on them, but the leaves are really green.  I think that is o.k.  I researched a little and they don't always bloom the first year.

I went for a walk this afternoon and as I was walking, I realized this would be your first Easter in Heaven.  That made me wish I could ask you what it is like to be getting ready to celebrate your first Easter there.  Are there Easter lilies and daffodils for you to enjoy?  Do you all just sit back and laugh at all of us down here as we hurry to find the perfect shoes to wear with our new outfits on Easter Sunday?  Are you laughing at me because my biggest concern about Easter day right now is when we should eat?  I really want to have friends over for Easter lunch right after church, but since P.K. has to work, I want to wait to have our dinner when he gets home.  I know that is so not where my mind should be focused.  Is there a special celebration remembering the Resurrection of the Lamb or is that just every day?  Does God whisper a special message to all of us down here to remember on Easter of all days that the enemy was defeated on the cross and we just have to hang on a bit longer before we get to see Him face to face and celebrate our first Easter with Him?  I'm sure your experiences the past seven months would be hard to explain.

I miss you!

Love,
Jody

The Road to the Middle of Nowhere

Some of my blog posts may interest other people and some posts may leave people wondering why I felt I needed to share.  I write my blog to record our family memories.  If someone happens to enjoying it along the way, that is great!!  I had an experience yesterday and when I mentioned that I was going to write a blog post Rachel said, "This is really one of those You-Had-to-be-There-Moments."  I told her that was fine.  When I look back a few years from now and read this post, I will remember how funny it was for me and the kids.

Our friends Becky, Matt and their two girls are visiting for Spring Break.  One of the things on Becky's list of "Things to Do" was to visit the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain.  The kids and I love going there so we tagged along.

We had planned to be on the road around 8:45 a.m. in order to make it to the park around opening time.  Becky sent me a text about 6:45 a.m. (Yes, she texted me when we were both in the same house.  It was really a great idea.  As we have people scattered in different sleeping arrangements throughout the house, I didn't want to get up and wander around the house and needlessly wake someone up.  She sent me a text when she got up to see if I was awake and we had some quiet coffee time before anyone else was up...I digress.)  About 7:30 we discussed waking everyone up to get ready to go, but we were enjoying our quiet so much, we decided to wait. 

By the time everyone was up, had eaten breakfast and got ready to go, it was 10:30.  That meant we would get there about lunch time.  Our big decision...did we want to pack sandwiches or just grab something when we got close?  Feeling lazy, we decided we would just grab something when we got close. 

We were in two separate vehicles.  Rachel texted Becky (Relax...Matt was driving...no texting and driving here) and we decided we would stop just before getting off the interstate.  Who would have known it was going to be a scenic highway with nothing in sight?  We both checked out the GPS and found a Subway about 5 miles away.  It was past the animal park, so really only about 2-3 miles out of our way.  Here are the text messages that followed.

Rachel: Cool. We found one and it's our new destination.

Becky:  Shake Rag Rd?  We will follow you.

(Oh, yes.  It was really on Shake Rag Rd.)

After driving, and driving and driving...

Becky: Is this Subway in AL?

Rachel:  Ha, ha.

We finally turn onto Shake Rag Road.  As we were turning, I was quite certain there would not be a Subway this far in the middle of nowhere.  When the GPS said we were arriving at our destination on the left, all I saw was a cow pasture.

Becky:  Is the Subway in some Hillbilly's garage?

Then we passed this large pink stucco shack.

The next thing that looked remotely interesting and/or close by (according to the GPS) was the Purple Cow Cafe.  This took us on some more middle of nowhere roads.  When we passed the sign that read, "Prison Detail" I locked the doors.  We didn't see any prisoners.  Matt told Becky they must have escaped.  By this time we were already slap happy. 

Rachel:  The whatever colored cow thing better be open and have a bathroom because my mom needs to go potty.

We came to a four way stop with signs directing us to the highways.  I made the decision to follow the GPS toward the Purple Cow. 

Rachel:  That stop sign was probably our only road to civilization.

Becky calls and says, "Why didn't you turn toward the highway."
The road that the GPS told me to turn on did not exist where it said to turn.  At this point we were back to the highway.  I pulled over and called Becky.  She said, "Well, why don't we just take the highway until we find something."  I asked her if she wanted to try north or south.  She suggested south.  Worse case scenario, we will hit Columbus.

Rachel: How could driving this far out of the middle of nowhere still leave us in the middle of nowhere.

Becky:  Matt's doing an I told you so.  He voted to go north.

Rachel: Mom says she didn't vote.  She just followed your advice.

Becky:  Yeah, I know.  But seriously, this has got to be the only stretch of interstate in America without some sort of fast food every 5 miles.

Rachel:  Hannah says, "If we would've gone to the animal safari we would have been done by now and could be getting something on our way home.

We passed a couple exits that had only gas stations.  We finally saw a blue sign that had three hotels listed on it.  I thought for sure with three hotels, there would be at least one restaurant.  We had been thinking fast food, but after searching for an hour backwoods of Georgia, Cracker Barrel or something similar would have been fine. 

The next sign had a title for gas stations and listed two or three.  Underneath the gas stations was a title for food and then it was blank.  Again, tears from too much laughing.
We were on the outskirts of the Columbus before we found a Burger King.  I'm thinking taking the two minutes before we left to grab the cooler and throw in some turkey and chips would have lost us a lot of laughs!!