God’s Provision

We were driving northwest on I-24 W just southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, Saturday morning when our right front tire blew out.

Thankfully, we were in the right hand land at the time and Greg was driving. He did incredible job of getting us onto the shoulder of the road safely.

We joined AAA before our trip to the Grand Canyon last year because I was going to be doing the majority of the trip by myself. We used the service on that trip when we had a flat tire overnight while at the hotel. We used it again this trip as well. Unfortunately, we were not at the hotel and were not really anywhere we could walk easily to and go inside.

So we waited in the van. The kids watched movies.

Carys had to go potty immediately, though. Thankfully, she's little enough to go on the side of the road. J The AAA people told us we would have priority status because we were on the side of a busy interstate. It still took 50 minutes for the truck to get there. Meanwhile, Greg began the process of taking the luggage rack off the trailer hitch and getting the spare tire out from under the van.

Then more waiting. He looks cheeful, though, doesn't he?

Once Mike arrived, he had the tire changed and everything back together in 15 minutes.

Jacking up the van was the trickiest part.

This is the tire we took off!

We were on our way about an hour and a half later. About 2 hours later, we were in "the middle of nowhere" Illinois when Greg thought the tire felt funny again. He pulled to the side of the road, and sure enough, the spare tire was flat. We were about 7 miles from the nearest exit, so Greg used the air compressor in the van to put as much air as possible in the tire. It seemed to be leaking out almost as fast as he could put it in, though. The next exit didn't amount to much. It was near the Lake of Egypt camping area and was comprised of one combination fuel and food stop called King Tut's Food and Fuel. (I am NOT making this up!) They had one can of Fix-a-Flat which Greg bought (for $6.21!). He also used their air machine to try to put more air in the tire. We got back in the van and attempted to make it about 7 miles to the nearest real town on a back road rather than a highway. We got 2 miles before the tire went completely flat.

The guy behind us saw what was going on and pulled over in front of us. I got on the phone with AAA. (I had also tried to do this when the tire first went flat.) I was not impressed with AAA at this point. They're great if you have a need somewhere where you can wait comfortably (like a hotel) but otherwise... It was going to be more than an hour to get another tow truck out. Meanwhile, Greg and John attempted to jack up our van using two jacks John had in his truck. They actually managed to do it as quickly as Mike, the "professional" did. Anyway, John and Dana planned to take Greg and the tire into Marion to Walmart to buy a new tire then back to put it on the van. But, guess what? A mounted tire John had in his truck that he was taking in to have the tire removed from the rim so he could use the tire for something else actually fit our van perfectly. Is that God, or what? They put it on and led us in to Walmart where we bought a new tire and had it put on. John and Dana did NOT want to take any money EVEN for the mounted tire which they gave us, but we finally convinced them to at least take $20 for it. She was adamant that they didn't stop to help us for money. We knew that, of course, but they gave us the tire and rim and spent a lot of time helping us. We hope they at least enjoyed dinner out!

To make a LONG story somewhat shorter, we would have arrived in Belleville at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon, instead we got there at 8:00pm. What a day! Thank you God for watching over your children during all of this mess!

On the Road Again

We left home at 11:15 this morning for a trip to Illinois to visit my family. It's been six years since we've been there. Thankfully, my parents have been willing to travel down here, and that has been much simpler than taking long trips with all the kids. However, they are getting older and my dad has had several surgeries in the past year. So, it's getting more difficult for them to drive all this way. Dad hates to fly, too. So, we're expecting to be doing a lot more traveling to Illinois in future years. It's much easier to travel since the kids aren't so little, but it's also getting more and more difficult to fit a long trip into our schedules.

We are making the trip in order to help my parents celebrate their 80th birthdays. Dad was 80 on June 16, and Mom will turn 80 on September 13. It was totally impossible to go twice in such a short time, so we picked a time in between the two. We usually don't travel at all during the summer, so this is strange to us. We hope to do some fun things while in the St. Louis area. Our museum passes are good for two different science centers in the area that we've never visited before, unbelievably. And we'll probably make a trip to the zoo. We've been up in the Arch several times, so we probably won't do that again until Carys is bigger.

While we're there, we'll also be celebrating our 20th anniversary, so we plan to eat somewhere on The Hill, an area of St. Louis famous for its Italian food. We can't wait! I've never eaten at a single restaurant on The Hill despite growing up in the area. Ridiculous!

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post this week.

Summer Encampment

Landon swore he'd never go to Summer Encampment. However he had such a blast serving on staff at the past Winter Encampment that he changed his mind. He does NOT like the heat. So, this was a challenge for him. He came home covered in a heat rash. This is typical for him and part of why he doesn't like the heat! He took his camera and got some great pictures. We got some as well at the Pass in Review ceremony.

Landon takes his first shot at rappelling (if you can call it that - he wasn't going very quickly down this wall!).


The India Flight Commander, Semko, brought this war paint. That's not actually what you call it, but Landon's not here so I can't ask him. :)


This is some of the Squadron 3 staff which consisted of Golf, Hotel, and India flights.


A Navy helicopter flew in, and the cadets got to tour it.


During the closing ceremony, the line staff went forward to receive awards. Landon is the one with glasses in the center. (He's been having a problem with his contacs and has to wear his glasses for three months.) The cadet on his left (actually Landon's right, but to the left as you look at the picture) is one of his good friends, Brock Wright.


Landon's Flight, Golf Flight, during the Pass in Review ceremony. Landon was the Flight Commander and is the one saluting in this picture.


After the ceremony, Landon had to sign out his flight and give them their certificates.


He got about 5 hours of sleep a night. It took him 3 entire days to get back to his normal cheerful self!

Testing, Testing, Testing

In early June, Landon took the SAT for the first time. He could hardly wait for his scores as he thought he'd done pretty well. Shortly after that, he took his third CLEP test - English Composition with Essay. This one is worth 6 college English credits.

Yesterday, he received his CLEP score. He made a 77 out of 80. This morning his SAT scores went online. He made a perfect score on the Critical Reading section and a 700 on the math, giving him a 1500 on the two sections of the test that most colleges count. (Many colleges are not interested in the newer writing section that includes a subjective essay score. He made a 770 on that part anyway.)

In the meantime, he took a 6-week college course via dual enrollment - Microcomputer Applications. He really enjoyed it AND he finished the course with a grade of 98.2%. So, he is beginning his junior year of high school in the fall and already has 15 college credits. :)

He's always been a good test taker, and that seems to be paying off. We will be going out to dinner to celebrate today! Woohoo!

What's Up

I spent last week running to doctor's appointments - Tuesday in Orlando, Wednesday in Ocala, Thursday in Gainesville. No one has any this week, thankfully. No, that's wrong. Gerren and Chase have the orthodontist Thursday, but at least it's only 5-10 minutes from our house.

Today was a full day of evaluations for area homeschoolers. So many of these moms inspire me because of their daily lives. My friend Mindy spent this last year battling cancer and still managed to do the important stuff with her girls. She will be quick to tell you she couldn't have done it with the help of a friend and her mom. :) I hope I was able to be a help to some of these moms as well.

I've been doing a lot of reading this summer - prereading stuff for Landon next year (The Scarlet Letter, The View From Saturday - I loved this one, and some of O. Henry's short stories) as well as some just-for-fun stuff (the newest mysteries by my favorite authors - Dare to Die by Carolyn Hart - and trying to read everything Ted Dekker's ever written). No better way to spend a summer in my book! :)

Carys's Story

Carys is getting to the age where she remembers stories in detail. When we picked her up from her class after church yesterday, she was very excitedly telling us about Jesus sleeping in the boat and the scary storm. She remembered a lot of the details. I just LOVE that! She really loves her class at this church and has made friends (unlike the rest of us).

Anyway, last night she came into the bathroom where I was washing my face and said, "Can I tell you a story?" Now who could resist that? So she began...

"Uponce a time" (no, that's not a typo, I guess this is her version of once upon a time - did I say that Daddy tells her a story every night? - it sounds like u-pon-sa time)

"Uponce a time there were two little girls named Tockley and Gockley..."

"Tockley and Gockley?" I asked.

"Yes, Tockley and Gockley." (All her imaginary friends have names that rhyme with Tockley - except for Hayden - but that's another story!)

"Hers a little tiny girl," she continued, with her two fingers held up to show me how tiny.

"Like you?" I asked.

"Uh huh," she affirmed, nodding yes.

"There was a storm and thunder and lightening. They were really scared." (I wonder where this part of the story came from. LOL!)

She prattled on, following me from room to room as I got ready for bed. I found it so funny that Tockley and Gockley talked to one another, one in a very high voice and the other in a very low voice.

What a clever girl we have!

School Planning Aggravation!

Our plans for Landon's school for the fall have been thrown for a loop this week, and I am tired of thinking about it and just want to pull the covers over my head and never come out! Landon is finishing a pre-calculus class (which consists of college algebra and trigonometry) and will be ready to take calculus in the fall. He is also ready for physics as far as science goes. We had always planned for him to dual enroll at our local community college when he got to this point.

However, the branch of CFCC that is five minutes from our house doesn't offer either of these classes AT ALL! To take them, we would have to go to the main campus which is a 45 minute drive from us. That would mean I'd have to drive Landon there, since he does not have his license yet (and won't get it until he gets a job and can afford his own insurance). On top of that, they only have one section of Calculus I with Analytical Geometry even at the main campus, and it meets four days a week! How in the world am I supposed to homeschool 3 other kids while spending all my time driving Landon back and forth to class.

And to add insult to injury, CFCC requires Calculus I as a prerequisite for Physics (even though PHCC, another community college near us) requires only Pre-Calculus as a pre- OR co-requisite. Why the big difference? PHCC has both of these classes at their campus about 30 minutes from us, and they both meet only 2 days a week. There is a slight overlap, however, with the Physics lab and the Calculus class one day. We are contemplating dual enrolling there instead of CFCC. However, that will probably mean going to the main campus next semester which is even further.

I honestly want to get in bed, pull the covers over my head, and never come out. Sigh!