After the Assembly ended we went back to the house and let the poor, neglected poodle out for a few minutes before heading to Chattanooga for dinner at a BBQ joint. Ah, yes. Poor Hershey. It was a long, lonely week for him! One day we didn't make it back at all in between sessions, so he was locked inside the house for a full 14 hours all alone. For all of his quirks, I'm thankful that he's perfectly trained in the ways that really matter on days like that! Anyway, dinner was GREAT and then we had a nice, relaxing evening back at Mom & Dad's house. For the 300 of you who went to Ryan's... don't tell me about all the fun I missed! ;-)

Monday morning James headed off to the Presbytery meeting (Dad was gone EARLY in the morning), so I spent my time gathering up our belongings, cleaning things here and there, sorting laundry, packing up and loading the van. We headed to HQ at about 10:30, I think, to help get things ready for lunch for all the Presby guys. Sister Shaw had things pretty well taken care of, so there wasn't a whole lot to do. I got the tables clothed (get it?) and sorted sugar packets with Sister Castro and Katie. (Pitiful job, I know--but it was right down my alley. And they look SO much better now! Ha!) My only other real job was dishing up and passing out the sherbet. It was kind of fun to play waitress... until I came to one particular Overseer who inquired as to whether the sherbet was good or not. He basically told me that I had no business serving something to others that I hadn't first tasted myself and would be able to verify personally that it is worthwhile; a lot of people do that with religion and so on and so forth. I endured the lecture for as long as I could and finally took a bite of sherbet, shoved the spoon back into the bowl and slapped it down in front of him. "Ith good!" Some people, I tell ya'. ;-)

(For those of you who are royally grossed out, I did remove that bowl and give it to one of my kids. The picky Overseer got a fresh bowl.)

We left directly following lunch and headed to Pennsylvania. We knew there was no way we'd make it all the way, so we didn't really push it. We stopped near Pigeon Forge and went into a really neat furniture and decor place that specialized in rustic, log, and lodge stuff. I LOVED IT! It's bad to go places like that though 'cuz you want it all. We actually made it out with nothing. Sad, but probably a good thing.

After that we took the kids to Bass Pro Shops. At least I think that's what it was. One of those outdoorsy kind of stores that is as much museum as it is store. They thought it was terrific!!! I did think to bring my camera with me, but realized once we got inside that the memory card was in the laptop. Oopsie. It was really, really neat and a nice break in the trip.

Can't remember how far we made it that night... I think it was someplace just beyond Roanoke. We stayed in the Relax Inn. James said the lobby had Ganesha all over it. Sounded like there had been a food fight in there to me, but he explained that Ganesha is the name of a Hindu god--the one that looks like an elephant. Creepy! I hate staying places like that. Feels like you're "supporting" the crazy false religion, you know?! The rooms weren't the greatest either. One wall had that dark paneling that all the trailers in the 70's were finished out with. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but that's an awful long time for a motel to go without remodeling! The lady was going to charge a $10 pet fee for Hershey. HA! Maybe if we were at a real NICE motel, but this place?! He would have been a nice improvement, you know?! It was a beautiful night, not too hot and not too cold, so we just left him in the van and saved the $10. He's so good to just curl up and go to sleep, so it's not a problem.

We finished out the trek to James' folks house at about 1:00 the next day. The kids immediately hit the toys outside. They've got a swing set and plastic play fort and bikes of all shapes and sizes. AND...

***Drum roll, please...***

Katie learned how to ride a bike!!! Wa-Hoo!!! I'll confess that this is one of those moments that I'm ashamed to admit that my kid is just now getting to something that they should have conquered long ago but never did because of reasons that are not their own fault. We bought them bikes a couple of years ago, but from the very get-go they had problems--the bikes, not the kids. The handlebars would flop around and need tightened, then the training wheels would fall off, then the tires would go flat--they would break down faster than we could fix them, so they really weren't ridable most of the time. Anyway, James' Mom had bought an old beat up bike for a quarter (really--25 cents) at a yard sale recently. It's been obviously painted several times by children and the seat is completely duct taped. In fact, it may BE duct tape with no seat at all! Ha! Anyway, Katie hopped on it and I helped steady her a few times. She kept working at it and in just 5 or 10 minutes was zipping all over the place unassisted! Wa-Hoo!!! I'm sooooo excited for her!!! Joe's been working on it a little bit, too, and he's close to getting the hang of it as well. :-) I have pictures but, like I said, the Internet connection here is way too slow to think about uploading pictures. They'll come later.

We had a nice night here and some of the best corn on the cob I've ever eaten. That's one of my most favoritest things about coming here--all of the FRESH, FRESH, FRESH fruits and veggies. You can drive a few miles to an Amishman's house with an orchard sitting picturesquely behind it and go pick out how many bushels or baskets of peaches or plums or apples that you want. I got some HUGE, gorgeous, juicy blackberries the other day. Finished 'em off tonight. YUM! :-) Anyway...

Wednesday is the day they have the Amish market in Belleville, about 20 miles from here. We got up early and headed that direction. We stopped at a few garage sales along the way and found some clothes for the kids. I love Belleville. I just love seeing all of the Amish people and horses and the farm animals for auction and their baked goods and everything else. Some of them are still a little weird about having their pictures taken, so I either try to aim and shoot real fast hoping they won't notice, or just shoot from the hip and hope I actually get 'em in the picture! I'll go through and see if I got any good ones one of these days.

We made it home from our shopping excursion in the afternoon and put everybody down for a much needed nap. When I woke up the kids were outside and Grandma Wanda was with them, filling up the swimming pool. They had a great time, even though the water was way too cold to actually be enjoyable. I know because I experienced it. I watched their Dad continually spray them all with the hose until they were nearly in tears (do all Dad's have a tough time knowing when to quit?! Ha!), so I finally took one of the water guns and gave him a taste of his own medicine. I fixed his wagon, Sister Janis! Ha! Anyway, he talked one of the boys into shooting me. I warned them that they'd be sorry and I'd dunk their heads in the pool water if they did it, but the promting from Dad was more convincing than the threatening from Mom. I didn't follow through with the dunking their heads thing, only because I didn't have to. They were sorry long before I got that far. But by the time it was over we were all soaked head to toe.

Today has been nice and relaxing. We just hung out around the house today. The kids played outside a lot. I've flipped through the channels a lot today. We don't have TV at home, so it's nice when we go other places to actually be able to watch something here and there. Ha! It seems to be getting harder all the time! It just amazes me. James' folks have 70 channels and most of the time you can flip through them and not find ANYTHING that is both clean and interesting or enjoyable. How is that possible?! 70 channels!!! It's nuts. I have found a few things on HGTV and I watched part of Bonanza with Joe today. I'm really wishing I would have thought to bring a cross-stitch or something to work on!

Grandpa Norman gave all of the kids rides on the tractor today. That's always a highlight for them. And James went into town and picked up some pizza from Danny's, always a highlight for him... and him alone! The stuff is TERRIBLE! It's nothing but school cafeteria pizza from when I was in 3rd grade, soy cheese and all. Bleagh. But I ate my obligatory piece and James held back to only 6 or 8 pieces, so all is well. :-)

And that just about gets us caught up! I'll write more when there's something more to write about. ;-) Until then...

~Rebekah~