Just saying a quick hi. I'm still here. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

You better hope that your 'here' is not the same as my 'here'. If it is, you may need to get away fast.

If you are here, and Neak is here, and I am here..then are we here or there???? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
maybe I'm lost but thats a normal thing.

hey my big broad son is here with a mate.. He's on a few days leave after doing a field training thingy over here and he came to see his mum. Isn't he sweet? I bought him Chinese ..he ate $94 worth <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Hes so big and looks so much like Aussie its kinda scary!! lol

he also drinks like him <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

but as I have said before..still my baby boy!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />
Mikey thinks he's in heaven he adores big brother and follows him around like a puppy as much as he can isn't that so cute!

Wish I could see it. Though I am here, too, I find it hard to make out either one of you. Squinting helps. $95 of Chinese food??? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

This morning I had a bad dream, then, still in my dream, tried to post about it on MB.......using watercolor. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Today is the last day of school before Spring Break. *twitch twitch*

Cinders, wonderful about your event! You really went the distance! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

AW, tell your mum it's ok if she hasn't read it yet. I will just send her a round tuit. You have Mikey, so I will have to send you several. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

SS, good to hear from you as well. Have you been to any more cool camping places?

Tomorrow, I have an 11.5 mile training walk. Next to the last big one. I feel wobbly. Really, really wobbly.

This is not good. I need the training session.

Hope you feel better - I know that is really important to you.

We are in Talent, OR, headed for WA and TX next. It's going to be a quick trip, since we need to be back by next weekend for the program.

I am thinking of changing the Dervish's name to Banshee. We wore him (them) out today, and he got so whiny all he could do was squee. He went to sleep at 7, Mr. Computer at 7:30, and the Princess is still cruising along.

Church was lovely this morning. They have it in a carpeted gymnasium. It's pretty small, but everyone was so friendly! The sermon was about Peter when he was released from prison by the angel (just for Mom to be able to snicker at me, that was originally typed "when he was released by the angel from prison"), and the power of intercessory prayer.

We were invited to stay for potluck afterwards, and the kids all found little friends immediately.

After we finished eating, we walked back to the truck and went to the rest area that was just down the road. AJ & I took a short nap, while the kids read stories, then fed the seagulls. (Neaksis thought I said "beagles", so insert that into every spot I said "seagulls", and picture her face when we came to the part about flying.)

The seagulls were flocked outside the truck, as the kids tore the truck apart to find more food for them. The seagulls did not seem to like the sunflower seed husks that had been sprinkled for them, though I suspect they were planning to come back for the little strawberry pieces.

The seagulls DID eat the bread, dried tomato and basil crackers, leftover burritos, quesadilla pieces, grapes, and who knows what else. One quesadilla piece was thrown out whole, so one seagull grabbed it and flew off with it, while all the others chased it, pecking and scolding.

That is when we ran the stuffing out of the kids.

Now we are at the Wal Mart to get, among other things, more bread. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like memory building, Neak.

I managed 6 miles. I was still feeling a bit wobbly when I started. Felt better when I finished. Might have squeezed out 8 under the circumstances but I didn't want to risk being found shriveled in a ditch.

Unshriveled in a ditch is not much of an improvement. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Good call, and 6 is nothing to sneeze at. (Just ask the Dervish, who tells everyone his age is "Past 5!")

6 is very good Rella. Don't wear yourself out training!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Neak hope the trip is a nice smooth run ..for ALL in the cab lol <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I was up ALL last night until 6.00am and had a few hours sleep and now so tired I can't sleep <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />
work tomorrow

we also come off daylight saving tonight so clocks go back 1 hour. Is that why I am on time lately??? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, ladies....did you know most of the half marathon walkers are middle-aged women with cooshy bodies that we got by NOT exercising diligently. And WE ROCK!!!!

We just went on daylight savings a bit ago. Now I am running 2 hours late.

Get some sleep, AW.

Get some rest, Cinders.

We made it to WA without too much trouble, and are waiting to get unloaded. Then we'll go to White Swan, stage for tomorrow, and tire the kids out again. AJ brought the soccer ball, so that ought to be funny.

I have been dozing off and on since 10. We got a room so we could sleep in beds, actually shower, and do some laundry. (Did I mention that Mr. C forgot to bring all his clothes, and that it was only his good fortune that I had just gotten him two outfits, or he would have been nekkid?)

The stupid dryer was so slow - the first load finished washing at about 9pm, and a short while ago I gave up waiting for the second load to dry all the way, and draped it around the room, along with selections from the first load. Stupid dryer. I think I said that. More than 3 hours to "dry" two loads.

It is nice to have a few hours to relax before cramming back into the truck and commencing our mad dash to San Antonio. Not that sleeping in the truck isn't wonderful. When it is in motion, whoever is asleep piles into the bottom bunk, behind the net. When we stop, the net comes up, AJ & I sleep on the bottom bunk, Mr. C sleeps on the top bunk, and the Princess and Dervish sleep on the floor, their feet on either side of the gear shifter. By morning, the Dervish is almost always in bed with us, usually between us so I am left clinging to the bed with my rear hanging off. Cosy.

Getting sleepy again...see ya'll (y'all?) ((yawl??)) in the morning.

That stupid baby made me flash the head elder on our outing Sabbath.

I am going to wear high button shirts until he is 30.

The head elder is going to be wearing blinders.

t&l

Neaksis flashes church elders and TL wants to blinders on them?

Now THAT is a discussion I could have SO much fun with, however fearing unjustifiable retribution I shall restrain myself lol <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Now to tactfully change the subject .. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Sometimes bringing up a son has it's downside especially when you just KNOW he's pushing your buttons ...
my son sent me this today at work by email as he's thinking of changing his career after looking this up .....
[color:"blue"]
There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time
Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

Mum let's just think for a minute, is there any job anywhere else in the world that even comes close to this? [/color]


I would smack him but he's too tall and so far away.

<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

I meant voluntary blinders, worn for fear of suddenly-and-without-warning having his, um, horizons broadened. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

t&l

Probably, Neaksis didn't show him anything he hasn't seen, in some form, in the past.

I'm devastated to have missed that. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Monday night I drove through Idaho. I saw Pacific Press right there by the road, which was fun. Too bad it was so late - I would loved to have visited.

The wind picked up leaving the truck stop in Nampa, and sent clouds of sand swirling all over, with visibility like driving through thick fog.

Then the weirdest thing happened. AJ still teases me that I was hallucinating, but I wasn't.

The wind was blowing terribly, and sent swarms of tumbleweeds racing across the road. Hundreds, then thousands and thousands. Tens of thousands, mile after mile.

It was like an endless episode of "The Trouble With Tribbles".

I smashed through them like they weren't even there, but it was almost like hitting animals, because they moved like they were alive. Some just rolled, others hopped, bounced, jumped, and leaped, twirling and dancing in a turbulent river across the road.

Several were as tall as I am, since they reached just above the hood of the truck before I squashed them to bits.

The effect was hypnotic: trying to steer a straight course between the white lines, with a perpendicular sweep boucing and jouncing along. I had to force myself to aim for the lines, and not watch the tumbleweeds. Not follow the tumbleweeds. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Just when I was used to fighting the wind and weeds from one direction, it shifted, and all the tumbleweeds started coming back from the other direction. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Finally past the scene of the massacree, I stopped at a rest area to use the facilities and pry my fingers away from the steering wheel. Which is where AJ started hinting that I must have hallucinated the whole thing, despite the little tumbleweed sticks poking out from his grill, his headlights, and every other tiny little orifice on the front of the truck.

He drove the rest of the night, having a bad icy stretch, but other than that, not too bad.

I took over again right around Moab, UT. Neakie the Pooh and the Blustery Day! It was very very windy and gusty, with tons of road construction, to boot. At the end of my first 3 hours I had gone 65 miles.

It picked up from there, and I brought us all the way into Texas before trading again.

I got to see the entrance to Arches National Monument, all of Wilson Arch, which was visible from the road, Roswell in the distance as we detoured around on the new truck route, and the turnoff to Carlsbad Caverns.

Now we are at our destination, 3 days early, waiting to get unloaded. If they hurry, we have a load in Laredo, going to Southern CA and then Kent, which would be perfect if we could get it.

There are no bathrooms here, so I hope they hurry

In closing, I just have to say I am worried about Neaksis. I think she may be leaving the straight and narrow. First she says "smitten with gonads" in church, and then she flashes the head elder. At least it wasn't the pastor, but I have to worry about what could be next. Once these tightly wound personality types start to unravel, anything is possible.

I'll keep you posted. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /><img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Neak

keep your legs crossed and don't think of water!! It never worked for me but I figure it might for someone some day!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I'm sure Neaksis will be ok <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> ........ well I was sure it was still Tuesday as well so maybe that is not reassuring after all !!! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Well, it's always breakfast time somewhere.