The kids love going in the car for some reason. Gives ‘em lots more opportunity to pull the “He’s on my side!” thing, and we all know how much kids enjoy that little game.

Check out these pictures I took on the way…

Is that bizarre, or what?! Regardless of what it looks like, that is not snow and ice on the lake. It’s salt. Crazy, hu?! It was the most amazing sight—it looks just like a frozen lake and your mind has a really tough time comprehending it. Your eyes are telling you one thing: ice and snow. And your mind and body are telling you another: it’s got to be 100 degrees out there—it can’t be ice and snow! It’s weird.

James had been planning this mini-trip for about a week and was all settled that we would eat at the Golden Corral that first night. He even ate a light lunch that day in preparation. Lo and behold, when we got to Carlsbad we discovered that what used to be the Golden Corral is now the Dragon China Buffet! Poor James! He loves Chinese food, but he’d had his heart set on a steak for days! Ha! We ended up at Chili’s and he got a much better steak than he would have gotten at Golden Corral, I’m sure. (This Chili’s was terrific—the bar was completely closed off from the rest of the restaurant, like with real walls and doors!) We all had strawberry lemonade to drink—it’s the best!

We decided to have dessert ala Wal-Mart: Whoppers and Milk Duds! Ha! We ended up doing some shopping and finding some much needed articles of clothing for some of us. A red shirt for me (I’ve had these terrific cherry socks for a couple of months, but no red shirt to wear them with—what a dilemma!!!), a couple of dress shirts for Joe, two little boy ties and dress shoes all the way around for the kid-o’s. Everything was super cheap and they were in need, so it worked out great. James was tired of looking at my grungy tennis shoes, so he made me get a new pair, too. It always feels so great to have fresh, white shoes. Especially when you have really fun socks to wear with them! ;-)

We had a nice, relaxing evening at the motel after our dinner and shopping outing. I called Mom to tell her about our day and all of the family that we’d seen. We watched great stuff on TV. By that I mean really dumb stuff. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, to be exact. They did a story about some dummy who was “buried alive” for 5 full months. Lived in a little box (much larger than a coffin, but still way too cramped for me!) all that time with just a pipe leading up to the real world to be able to breath and transport things up and down as needed. People like that are just nuts. I mean, what do you get from throwing away 5 full months with your wife and kids and normal life?! You get your name written down with a “world record” title next to it, but nobody even remembers what your name is. (I sure don’t!) They just call you “the dummy who was buried alive for 5 months” and talk about you on their equally meaningless blog. ;-) And it only lasts until some other dope decides he can out-do you and take your title. Dumb!!! D-U-M, dumb. The other part of the show was terrific, though—it was about the guy from Montana (can’t recall his name either) who is the fastest gun in the world. His quick draw was amazing!!! Joe was in heaven. The guy does lots of trick shooting, but his speed is just baffling. Very, very cool.

We slept terrible on an awful bed. I usually don’t have any problem in motels, but this one was the pits. The bed was too small for us to start with (although we can usually cope with that much better than we did this time!) and it was hard and the comforter was slick and kept sliding off onto the floor and the sheets kept coming untucked and rolling themselves up under us. And Sam kept losing his blanket and hollering for it throughout the night. I was ready for a nap by the time we got up! Ha!

We headed all the way to the other end of town so James could get his Egg McMuffin for breakfast. Weird-o. Then we headed on out to the caverns. We were there for about two hours and really, really enjoyed it. We took the elevator 750’ down into the cave, then took the miles of trail that take you through “The Big Room.” What an amazing cave! You want to know the best part of all??? The weather!!! ~Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh~ It was glorious down there!!! I was ready to move in, right there. If only there was a way to have the great cave temperature along with the cheeriness of some sunshine, I’d be all set. :-) Anyway, here are some pictures… (Notice the happy shirt!)

Great cave, hu?! I couldn't resist. They're doing loads of remodleing to the facilities there.

Unless you've been there, these pictures mean nothing. You cannot imagine the immensity of this cave. It just blows your mind how HUGE it is--and how HUGE all of the structures and formations are. It's impossible to get good pictures of it all, but we took over 100 of them so we'd be sure to get some good ones! This is what I came up with...

This one is called the Sword of something-or-another. Or was it a dagger?

This is the Lion's Tail. Cool, hu?!

This is a picture of the stalagtites directly above us. Or are they stalagmites? Tites come down and mites go up, right?! Anyway, isn't that cool?!

Same thing, taken from a slight angle...

I knew that a picture of the pit itself wouldn't turn out, so I took a picture of the diagram so you could get some sort of perspective on the size of this place. Can you see the size of the tiny little figure where the sign says "You are here"?!

A couple more nifty shots. Look at the swirly things in the second one! Neat-o, hu?!

The elevater ride 750' back up to the surface.

This is what the kids looked like after our miles of spelunking.

We finished up at the caverns at about lunchtime, so we grabbed a bite to eat and headed on home. It’s only about a two hour drive and the kids and I slept for most of it. It was so great!!! I loved the whole thing. It’s such a blast to pack for just one night and then when your vacation is over to just be home in two hours! Amazing. We ought to take these mini-trips more often! It’s all the fun with none of the exhaustion! :-)

I got unpacked and everything cleaned up that night—another perk to a mini-trip vs. a big one. Then yesterday I loaded up the kids and headed down to Midland. Mardel was having a big 20% off sale on their entire kid’s section, as well as the educational department. So I got a couple of Veggie CD’s that we’ve been missing, a craft book for use in school with the kids, and a math book for Katie. With James’ discount on top of the sale price, we basically paid for the craft book and got the math book and the CD’s for free! Happy shopping!!! (Yes, I was wearing a happy shirt, in case you’re wondering!)

We did some more running around, then came home and I started in on the laundry and other house stuff. We had communion and feetwashing service last night and it was really good. It came at the perfect time for me. Some things came up yesterday that were a little difficult for me and I’m so thankful! The Bible says that a scorner heareth not rebuke and that some people are “wiser in their own conceit” than seven men that can render a reason. On the other hand, if you rebuke a wise man, he will love you. “A wise man will hear, and will increase learning.” And how ‘bout this one, “A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.” Don’t you just love the Proverbs?! I want so much to be wise and not foolish! Sometimes it’s so hard when somebody “rebukes” you—brings something to your attention that perhaps you need to change. But I don’t want to “rage” and “be confident” that I’m right and everybody else is wrong. I don’t want to come up with more explanations for myself than seven men who can render genuine reasons! I want to be like the wise man who will hear those hard things—the rebukes and reproofs—and be thankful for them. How much better to learn from your mistakes than to try to defend them! I say that as if I’m an old pro at it. I wish! It’s so not natural for me—I find myself bristling against accusations to begin with. It’s always sooooooo hard to just swallow your pride and do what’s right. But only at first—once you get started it gets so much easier and it’s just soooooooooo peaceful! It feels soooooooooo good to know that God is working in your heart through His Word and through friends and loved ones who care enough to help you see your weaknesses. It’s a great thing to not have to stay the same person you are today with all of the same failures and weaknesses—we can be changed “from glory to glory” and keep on getting closer to God and more and more Christlike along the way! How exciting is that?! But we have to make up our minds to be the humble wise man instead of the self-confident fool.

That’s my sermon for the week. If Katie was around she’d sing a special song for you, then take up an offering. ;-)

Sister Marcia and Sara and Aaron have been in Andrews this week, but we hadn’t been able to see them because of all of the other things we’ve been up to. It was nice to have them in church with us last night though. Afterwards everybody came over to our house and visited and played games. It was great! We always enjoy having them with us. They are a blessing to us and always lots of fun.

And that gets us all caught up to today. Aren't you glad?! I actually wrote most of this last night, but didn't feel like taking the time to post the pictures until now. I'm going to do some school with the kids, then get back to the laundry. The pile keeps growing and is going to start crawling across the room if I don't take control of things. Wish me luck!

~The Long-Winded One~