Alyssa The Hon: 7/1/08

Mommy and Daddy say they are being tested.

I'm not sure I know what they mean, but Mommy says it started with deciding to move!

She said moving it stressful in itself, and anything added to that will be harder to deal with.

Like Daddy being over at the new house until about midnight every night for the past two months.

And that nice police officer over in Cherokee county.

And the air conditioner doesn't work in the van.

And the water backing up in every drain in the house.

And the unexpected 15 hour lay-over in Atlanta, and Amanda's surgery.

And today the transmission died in Daddy's car. $2,000.

And we're planning to move SATURDAY, even though the gas people haven't hooked us up, yet.

And the new oven is still in a box in the kitchen floor.

And the new shower unit is still in a box in the den floor.

And Daddy found Sneaky Snake on a floor joist in the crawl space.

Oh, and the bee's, though MUCH fewer in number, still inhabit the rear corner of the roof!

But, it's all good. Daddy says we'll make it through!

Okay....Sunday, we dedicated Jasmine at church.

That's what they do at the Baptist church.

Andy, Jonathan, me and Amanda all got baptised at the Presbyterian church, but we didn't get 'dunked' so we caint be Baptist until we are! We all have been dunked now, except Amanda.

Here's Jasmine in her white dedication frock that Mommy and Daddy bought for her in China!

Okay. That's all for today.

Monday, Jasmine goes to Shriner's in Greenville for her first visit to see what they can do for her fingers.

We'll let you know what they say!

This may be a long post since it's been so long since I've posted!

If you remember, I posted about the Catawba Fish Camp.

Well, I got this video from there and thought I'd share it.

I actually got an e-mail from Inside Edition. They want to put it on TV!

I have watched this thing several times, and I'm pretty sure she went through all of that, and did not come out with a toy or anything!

Also, did you notice how cool everyone was? I guess this happens all the time?

Okay, enough of that...

Daddy took Mommy and Amanda to the airport on Sunday morning.
They were going to Philadelphia for Amanda's titanium rib expansion.
They were supposed to get there about 3 or 4.

Well, as you might have guessed, Atlanta's airport was shut down for two hours because of weather. So they sat on the runway in Charlotte for a couple of hours, and then they finally got to Atlanta.

Of course, after having been shut down for two hours, they were quite busy, and their plane was still in DC!

They eventually got to Philadelphia about 5 am Monday morning.
Surgery is at 10:00!

You know, you can drive it in about 9-10 hours....

This is the third trip in a row that it has taken longer to fly than drive, but hey, at least they got to sleep in the airport with a few thousand other folks!

UPDATE -- 12:45 -- Mommy just called and said Amanda was doing good and would be waking up soon!

Saturday was CWA's family picnic in lovely Fletcher, NC.
If you know anything about Fletcher, NC, and Lancaster, SC, then you know they aint no good way to get there!

Daddy decided that the fastest route would be through York to Blacksburg and then on the interstate.

This was a HUGE mistake!

To get to York, you have to go through Rock Hill. Rock Hill is the national headquarters for the anti-destination league, or the ADL for short.

The ADL is a group of mostly older, retired folks, committed to driving 10 miles under the speed limit and limiting your ability to get to any destination.

They are very well organised and coordinated. For instance, just as one ADL lieutenant turns off and you think the way is clear, another will pull out in his place and continue with the manoeuvres.

It is all very frustrating. In addition to the ADL, they will also speed up and slow down constantly, so you feel like you're in a rocking buggy or something.

So, with all that back and forth movement, Amanda finally hurled in the back seat.
It was not pretty, nor was it pleasant!

We stopped to clean up, and then continued on.

As soon as we hit the road again, the ADL was right there with us.
Eventually, we left their occupied area, and the road opened to a magnificent new divided four lane highway.

But there was still an ADL operative in front of the car in front of us.

He made a lapse in judgement and allowed the guy in front to get around him.
Daddy closed in close behind and stuck with him.
This ADL guy was going down!
Then we saw this....