On my mind today

We leave in about 20 minutes for vacation. We're pretty excited about it, as I guess most people are about vacation. Some place new, some place different, new experiences, new friends. This year, we're going to the Pacific Northwest. We're flying to Seattle (7:10 AM Wednesday morning), driving down to see some dear friends in Portland, OR, then coming back to Seattle for a Mariners game (we see a baseball game every year around our anniversary, a tradition we started on our honeymoon in Boston). On Saturday morning, our real adventure begins. We're catching a cruise ship (not the one that crashed yesterday!) for an Alaska Cruise, something we've always wanted to do. We're a little nervous as we've never taken a cruise before, but we're excited about the newness of it! We're going to TRY to find internet connection while we're gone so we can let you see what we're seeing. If we can't then we'll post it when we get home! When we get bac...

I've got to give a shout-out to my man Dustin Tanner. Or as I like to call him "DT". This is Dustin's first year of baseball. Last night, DT hit a single that turned into a homer! Way to go DT!

Sort of anyway. All of our things are in the Frankston parsonage and many of them are even unboxed. Yet the house is strewn with boxes, tape, packing materials, and just plain ol' junk! We didn't break much - a coffee cup, an inexpensive pitcher, a fruit bowl and a creamer - not bad for the speed with which we packed and moved! We were very pleased with how it went. We've said our tearful "see you laters" to our MBC family so now we're all set for our vacation. Pray for us while we're gone. See the next post for info on our vacation!

A very special thank-you to some important people - Stile, Bryson, Phil and R.G. - you guys are lifesavers. Without their help in getting all our junk loaded, we'd probably still be at it! They drove all the way over to Corsicana for us to abuse them all day long (especially with that sleeper sofa!). Despite the 85% chance of rain, we never saw it! Another special thanks to Judy, Johnny, Sue, Jim, Ruth Coach Holcomb and anyone else who came to help us get into the parsonage. Have you ever considered how much junk you accumulate? Not unless you're moving, right? We were the same way. We rented the biggest truck Budget had to offer (24') and still needed a 20' trailer, two pickup beds and Julie's Trailblazer to get all our junk over there! Wow. I didn't think we had enough to fill the 24' truck! So we backed the truck up to the door and got busy. It took about three hours to load up. When we finally got done, we drove over - mercifully, some of you were there ...

I thought you might like to see what our beautiful home has become - a repository for boxes and junk! We're getting ready for tomorrow when we've got some fellas coming over to help us load out and get over to Frankston. Pray for the transition - it's supposed to rain.

So I'm back home now, done with my stint at Navarro College. My students were great and I'll miss them and the interchange of ideas. Perhaps the Lord will open a door to teaching again later. Now, my attention shifts fully to moving! Julie has been packing like a mad-woman and she has just about got the house packed up - and not a minute too soon! Our fellas are coming on Thursday to load it all up on the truck we secured (thanks U-Haul!) and we'll be on our way to our new home in Frankston. I'm so excited about the coming days at FBC and eagerly look forward to getting started. We'll get it started on June 1!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Finals at Navarro College are this week so I spent the weekend grading papers, packing and having the king of all moving sales. More on the sale in a minute. My last final is this morning at 10:30, so I'm about to leave for it as I write to you. I'll be done with grades by nightfall (I hope). It's been crazy over the weekend - everyone and their brother wants to see us before we leave. My cell and our home phone are ringing much more than normal as if people have just discovered us. As for that moving sale, we've always done well with garage sales, but this one we did great with! Not that we made a ton of money (which we didn't) but we got rid of most all of what we wanted to get rid of (which we did!). That's especially important given that THIS THURSDAY is moving day! Ready or not, here we go. Our house is a maze of boxes, full and empty ones waiting to be filled. All the drawers are empty and most all of the closets...

Last night at Prayer meeting, we had a storm blow through that was indeed powerful. The 15 ft oak tree in the church yard was bent at about 45 degrees in the power of the wind! I've never seen such an angry storm come through - and quickly! By the end of prayer meeting, it was raining, but not as severely. When we got up this morning, the rain was coming again. All this to say "Thanks Lord - We know July is still coming when we'll be begging for some rain."

Today, I met with final class at Navarro. I've got two finals to give (one Monday, one Tuesday), but I'm through teaching. The students I've had have been terrific. I'll miss the interaction with them and the academic stimulation. Even still, I'm excited about the opportunity to have those 20 or so hours a week back to use in other ways!