Road trip to Timpson

So, We will start with my first road trip to of the summer.

I went with my friend Adriane to her parents house in Timpson, TX. We were going there to pick up her sister, Amanda, stuff because she was moving to Midland. And to get a few things Adriane's parents were giving to her. Timpson is about an hour or so from the Louisiana boarder. In some ways I felt like I was back in Louisiana. It was extremely green with lots of trees. On the way our we stopped at CHIPOTLE in Dallas for dinner. I love and miss the Silver Bullet! YUM! Adriane curses the day I introduced her to Chipotle, we don't have one in Midland. We spent Friday to Sunday in Timpson. During this trip I truly realized how much I appreciate my family, who they are and what they do. I actually called Mom and Dad while they were ion there trip in Boston to let them know this.

On the way home we were about 45 minutes from Midland, just west of Big Spring when one of the van's tires blew out. We were very disappointed by this. We were so close and yet so far away from home. We were able to call my friend Ben who lives in Big Spring to come help us out. Ben and Bjorn came to our rescue! They along with the help of a friendly couple how stopped were able to help us get on our way. 2 hours later we made it home!

Such the blog slacker!

I have tried to be better! I haven't posted any thing but I have thought about it. I have a few projects I have have even worked on for my blog. I am going to try to catch up on the last six months or so.

All Things Austen....Oh I am in HEAVEN!!

"My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation." Jane Austen, 1775-1817

Many of you may know that I LOVE Jane Austen! But you may NOT know that I am addicted to all things Austen. I recently read "Austenland" by Shannon Hale. It is a good quick read and if you haven't read it check it out! As I read the book I started to see some things in myself that the main character, Jane, was dealt with. I love the leading men in all of Austen's novels, Fitzwilliam Darcy(who really is Collin Firth!), George Knightley, Frederick Wentworth, Edward Ferrars top my list. I watched a movie a couple of weeks ago called Lost in Austen. It has a similar feel to Austenland except that the main character, Amanda Price-a modern girl, switches places with Elizabeth Bennett. So this was an extremely long winded tangent to get me to THIS.... Well, today I decided to be ahead of the curve and come up with my ideas for Singing time for Primary on Sunday. I was checking out http://www.sugardoodle.net/ and found some ideas for handouts for Visiting Teaching this month. While looking at one of the website, http://emmasplacetobe.blogspot.com/2009/07/august-visiting-teaching-message.html, I was soooo easily distracted by Emma's sites I like when I saw Jane Austen Today, http://janitesonthejames.blogspot.com. If you are a Jane Austen fan this website is a must see! It has some really fun items on it.

And the rains came tumblin' down...and the floods came up!!

West Texas was once part of the Permian Basin. The basins of the area, the largest being the Midland Basin and the smallest being the Marfa Basin have since dried up and the area has become a desert. The forecast for this region generally calls for clear skies, with little to no precipitation. I learned recently that it is not considered hot in West Texas until the thermometer hits 100 degrees! This year, however, we have seen some uncharacteristic weather for the area. We have endured many rain, thunder, and hail storms along. Don't get me wrong I love the rain but I could live without another hail storm. (see previous post) Because it usually doesn't rain the ground and the drainage systems are not prepared for such an on slot of liquid. It is in this weather that makes me glad that I have my KIA and not my previous vehicles, a Honda Civic or a Volkswagen Jetta! Here are a few pictures I took while I was out yesterday.

Disclaimer: All of the pictures where taken while stopped at a red light or when parked on the side of the road. No dangerous maneuvers were taken during taking of pictures.

What the HAIL!?!

The Saturday before Easter I went to a friend’s house in Greenwood, which is like 30 minutes from my house for a barbeque. After having a wonderful time I need to get home. We were having a surprise birthday party for a friend that night. As I was driving home I could see on the horizon that a storm was coming in. By the time I heard the weather service warning on the radio about severe thunderstorm with golf ball size hail on the radio I was about 10 minutes from home. I thought if I can just make it home I will be able to put my car in the garage. About one minute later the hail started. I franticly looked for somewhere to park and protect my car. Everyone else had the same idea. I found a spot under the protégé at a hotel. The available spot left the driver’s side, some of the roof, and hood of my car exposed to the hail. I sat in my car for about 10 minutes trying to survive the storm. Can I just tell you that being inside a car during a hailstorm is awful? I was almost in tears saying over and over again, “Please Heavenly Father, make it stop! Please make it stop!” When the hail stopped I ventured out and drove home. At first I thought that I might have gotten out of the storm without any damage but then I thought I looked at the driver’s side passenger door! I just about died. There was this HUGE dent in the door. Upon further inspection I found more smaller dents on the driver’s side and hood of my car! I was devastated and kind of mad; my poor baby had been hurt! About 2 weeks later I had the estimate done to see how much it would cost to get my car fixed. I figured that my luck would be that it would cost like $531, my deductable is $500. You can imagine my surprise when the insurance adjuster showed me the estimate which showed $1350 worth of damage. I learn that the biggest dent would require that section of the car to be painted. I put off getting my car fixed right away. I figured that everyone would rush to get their cars fixed and it would be best to wait a bit to get my car in. I knew that I would have a rental for a couple of days. I decided to take my car to the Kia dealership to get fixed even though it is in Odessa. I figured they would do a good job on the painting and if anything was messed up they would fix it. So, last week I brought my car in to get fixed. My insurance doesn’t cover rentals. I used Dan Lowe’s employee discount, THANKS DAN!, to get a cheap rental. It was a Toyota Yaris. After having the car for about a day I decided that I really didn’t care for the car. It did get amazing gas mileage. But the thing looks like an EGG! After 5 days my car was ready. Luckily I was in Odessa to see the Asthma/Allergy specialist. I was extremely happy to have my car!!!

The EGG!

The some of the HAIL damage!!

This was the biggest one. The one that cost alot to fix.

This a picture of where that huge dent was on the car.

This is the size of most of the dents in the car....

The sad thing is that now every time there is a storm, I freek out about hail. I really don't want to go through that agaain!

Insight into the sleepless mind!

This weekend is Memorial Day Weekend. I decided to go camping with some friends to the Davis Mountains. In case you were wondering there are mountains in West Texas! They are about 2-2 1/2 hours away. The McDonald Observatory is there. We really wanted to go to one of their Star Parties. Of course this weekend was rainy and overcast but the temperature was nice and we still got to see Saturn and go on a virtual star tour. Well, for all of you who may not know this I have been enjoying the effects of an asthma attack for the last two weeks. (I am doing considerably well now and feel that getting out in to the clean air helped a lot!)

Situation: Camping, air mattress, coughing. Needless to say I excused myself to the car.

Situation: Restless and a tad bored. I found my camera. This is the result......

The trees outside of my car.

The edge of the parking spot for our campsite, which was #85.

If you look closely you can see my cute tent in the darkness!

My honey bear blanket that I have had since I was around 12 years old! I love that blanket!

The next few are some random shots of things inside my car.....

You might not be able to tell but I really like my car!

This is me trying to be artistic with some self portraits.

I kinda like the first and last ones of these!

This is what I looked like while trying to sleep in my car!

This is what I should have looked like while sleeping in my car!!
I was able to eventually fall asleep and sleep quite well after having may restless nights involving a cough. Maybe I should sleep in my car more often when I'm sick!

I am actually contemplating going out there right now if I am unable to fall asleep soon with this annoying cough.....

So soooorrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyy!!!

I'm a slacker!! To get you off my back here is a post!!