Home Again...YEAH!!!

Vacations are a time of renewal of spirit and body.   Well, maybe not so much body except that I am so tired at night that I am sleeping really well.  8-)  Vacations make you appreciate the creature comforts of home and make you glad to be there again.

We had a wonderful dinner with Sharyn, Sherman, and Dustin at Texas Roadhouse on Wednesday night and then went back to the hotel and packed in preparation for heading out on Thursday.  Sharyn had a sonogram scheduled for Thursday morning so we met them at the hospital prior to heading out to be with her in case it wasn't good news.  It was all good news and we spent a few minutes praising God before heading back home.

On the way home we stopped in Glendale and went into a few antique stores and then headed down to Bowling Green to check out the Lost Caves.  They had a really nice souvenir store and I found a necklace, some earrings and a really cute rock tree for the mantel.  Mom has one of these and I always thought it was cute. 

We are already in the throws of laundry and fixing things.  As you can see below, my handy man is being very handy cleaning out the lint filter. 

I guess we'll head out and get some groceries in a little bit and a new air duct.  This one is made out of aluminum and very rigid (why they would make a dryer hose like that I cannot figure...) so we are going to look for a more flexible hose when we're out and about later today.

Here is a word from Max about our temporary housing here on earth...

"Our Forever House

By Max Lucado

“I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23:6, NKJV

Where will you live forever? In the house of the Lord. If his house is your “forever house,” what does that make this earthly house? You got it! Short term housing. This is not our home.

This explains the homesickness we feel . . . Deep down you know you are not home yet. So be careful not to act like you are."

By Grace Alone -

Teresa

More Vacation Stuff...

Our trip is progressing quite nicely.  We had a lot of fun visiting with Don and Mary. (Tom's friends from his childhood.)  We went to their door (now you have to realize that they haven't seen Tom in 20 years) and saw the curtains flutter when we knocked on the door.  Our first thought was that no one was going to answer the door.  (Tom WAS going to say when she opened the door, "Have you heard the word of God today?" in a nasaly voice reminiscent of an old Saturday Night Live joke but when she opened the door and he saw her face he decided that wasn't a good idea if he wanted her to let him in...lol)

Anyway, Mary opens the door and says "Can I help you?" and he says "I'm looking for Don and Mary Clark" and she says "I'm Mary but Don isn't here."  She didn't have a particularly friendly look on her face but Tom forged on..."Well, I'm Tom" and she says "Tom?" and he says "Tom Hammond" and she repeats it and then you see a light bulb come on for her...lol.  She gave us a really big hug and invited us in. 

She tried to get Don to come home because he was at a church picnic and he said he was about to start their bible study and would come home after that.  We chatted with Mary and their son Jimmy for the next hour and then when Don was about to come in the door, she sent Tom out of the room and introduces me to Don as her cousin and says, "You remember her, right?" and he has this puzzled look on his face but says "yes, I remember her."  Their son Jimmy was absolutely rolling on the floor laughing and I figured that would give it away to Don and then Tom walks in and Don looks at him with another puzzled face.  We tell him who Tom is and all of a sudden he gets it and actually looks relieved...lol.

We had dinner with them last night and heard Don's testamony and he shared some CDs with us from different sermons that his pastor has given and he gave us a New Testement on CDs as well.  Honestly, he has such a generous and giving spirit that, if he had thought of it, he would have given us the shirt off of his back if we wanted it.  They are a really sweet couple and I hope we see them again soon.  I would love to meet someone like them in Alabama and become best friends with them. 

We took our camera with us last night and totally forgot to get pictures.  In fact, we left the camera there and they called us and we had to go back and get it.

Early yesterday we went over to Sharyn and Sherman's and went with them and their grandson, Dustin, to the Creation Museum.  It was really an amazing place. 

We started by going to the Stargazers Planetarium show.  We were all herded into an auditorium with seats that laid back so you could see the ceiling where all the stars and galaxies, etc were shown.  By the time it was all over, you realized just how small and insignificant you really are in the scheme of things and you wonder, since we are such a small part of the entire system that God created, why does he care for us so much?

Next we went on to the different displays.

Bambi and I getting to know each other...

Tom traveled back in time to play with the dinosaur...

They had an amazing display of Noah's ark.  Here are some pictures from the different displays of their idea of what Noah's ark was like.

Old Noah was organized...lined 'em up..two by two..

Close up of that two by two action ...

 Poor prostate sinners....missed the boat....

Floating around in that sealed up boat...sinners dying all around it.  I sure am glad God came up with a different plan to save lost sinners.  8-)

The detail they put into the inside of the ark was great.  Here they are having a family dinner inside the ark.

More of the inside of the Ark...

Just imagine the smell from all those animals closed up in the ark.  All the work that Noah and his family had to do to take care of all the animals and make sure they lived until the flooding was over.

The final scene on Mt. Ararat.  You KNOW they were glad to open that door and get out of there.  8-)

Today, Tom let me sleep in until 9:30 this morning and then we got our coffee and looked for a movie to go see.  We finally picked "Larry Crowne" which is a Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts movie.  It was really good.  A good lighthearted comedy.  We are resting around the room until dinner time and then we are heading over to Texas Roadhouse to have dinner with Sharyn and Sherman tonight and say goodbye to them before we head back home tomorrow. 

By Grace Alone -

Teresa

Vacation....AHHHHHHHHHHHH...

We started out on our trip yesterday and after getting our Starbuck's Coffee we were on the road.  I read while we were on the road (Yeah for the IPOD and Kindle application...I love to read.)  We drove until we got to Bowling Green, KY and ate at Cracker Barrel.  We both had the brisket (like any of you care what we ate...lol) and then splurged and got this berry cobbler for dessert.  It was a mixture of blueberry, blackberry, and strawberries with a delicate crust and blackberry ice cream on top.  OH IT WAS YUMMY...8-) 

We then headed on to complete the trip that would take us into Covington, KY.  We checked into our hotel and the first thing we saw when we drove around to the back entrance was this:

Of course, just getting a picture of the Weiner, wasn't enough....I needed one of Tom with the weiner...lol

After we unloaded the truck of all our STUFF that was required to exist for a few days in KY, we headed out to Walmart to find a good pillow and a few other sundry items that I needed.  As we pulled into the Walmart parking lot, Tom says, "What's that?  Texas something..." 

And all of a sudden we both realize that it is a Texas Roadhouse and it is only 5 minutes away from our hotel.  We were plenty tired and so glad that there was something that close that just happens to be our FAVORITE restaurant.  We did our Walmart run and then went over for a leisurely supper.  They have the best Filet Mignon Steak in the world. 

We went back to the hotel and the rest of the day was spent recuperating and sleeping.  We woke up late this morning because neither of us slept very well.  The room seemed too warm and the bed wasn't as good as our bed at home.  We headed first thing this morning to spend the day with his sister and brother-in-law Sherman.  We visited with their daughter Robin and son-in-law Tony and their 6 (Yes, that is SIX children) who were just absolutely delightful.  They ranged from ages 7 to 18 years in age.  They left and then their daughter Tammy and her two sons came over.  Austin who is almost 4 and Dustin who is 11.  They also have (I think) 5 grandchildren that live in Texas.  So she has 13 grandchildren.  Amazing...

Here they are working to get the fourth of July meal on the table.  They wouldn't let us help so we just sat around like useless knots on logs.  (I'm not very good at doing that so I snuck pictures while they were busy.)

It really was an amazing meal, blueberries, strawberries, grapes (three differet kinds), watermelon, chips, hamburgers, hotdogs, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and soda.  Tom and I just kept nibbling on all that fruit long after they were done eating.

Tom, Sharyn, and Sherman.

 Tom and his Sister, Sharyn

Sharyn and some strange girl without much hair yet....wonder who she is?

After visiting with Sharyn and Sherman, we rode over to his friend Don Clark's and had some fun visiting there.  That is another story for another day. 

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! 

By Grace Alone -

Teresa