I'm never Traveling Again... or... This week's Wednesday's Hodgepodge

If you can't tell from this week's Blog title... we are still traveling.  Tomorrow we complete our trip home, after being gone for almost an entire month.  5 states.  6 different beds.  One zoo, One theme park, One major league ball park, One aquarium, One beach house.  3 kids.  One car,  2300 miles.  Many bottles of wine drunk by yours truly for, er, therapy bonding with family and friends.


We are currently in our hotel in the middle of nowhere, Nevada.  Slow internet, but internet nonetheless.  Sunburned kids, travel exhausted, running on mental and emotional fumes at the moment.  So yes, this week's answers should be interesting indeed!  :-)


1. What is the most useful book in your house?


Definitely our "How to fix and clean anything" book that I got when we were newlyweds... it has been a lifesaver on many an occasion!

2. What's worse-being too hot or too cold?


Definitely too hot - when you are cold, there are always things you can do to warm up... Being hot, you're just kinda stuck there... and don't even get me started on being hot AND in 90 million percent humidity like in the south!  Blech!

3. Share something that made you smile this past weekend.


This past weekend my three kiddos and I spent the night at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA.  Wow.  We had SO much fun (besides the fact that the flamingoes squawked All Blinkin Night Long)  That aside - it was great to see the smiles on my kids faces, their wonder and excitement, and to see my youngest C telling everyone exactly what each of the fish were.  As we walked by the huge tanks I would hear his sweet little voice saying things like "Why hello dogfish, how are you?"  And "No, those aren't zebra sharks sister, those are pilot fish!"  And darn it if he wasn't right!

4. How do you like your hamburgers? Or don't you?


I love hamburgers on the grill, cooked medium, thick and juicy, served with toasted buns, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and ketchup.  And perferrably cooked by my husband, who somehow always knows how to make the patties just perfect!

5. What's your summer beach read? If it's not summer in your part of the world then tell us what book you're reading in front of the fire while sipping hot cocoa.


Right now my eldest C and I are reading the Mortal Instruments series and are having a lot of fun reading them together.  Since the latest one is waiting for me at home, I have begun reading "Water for Stone" which is an incredibly compelling read.  One of my "go-to" series though, when I want something light, is the Sisterchicks series by Robin Jones Gunn.  Hilarious!!

6. How was your birthday celebrated when you were a kid?


Different every year, sometimes with friends, sometimes with just family... I remember one time having my party at a toy store which, lets admit, is pretty darn cool!  And of course there is the prerequisite torture chamber Chuck E Cheese.  Let me just say to my parents, for that one... i am SO sorry.

7. What's something that is totally uncool that you love anyway?


The answer to this would probably depend on who you ask.  My children would say my love for 80s music.  My husband would say him! :-) I would probably have to say, though, my minivan - totally uncool, depletes any sexual attraction whatsoever... but boy does it carry a load and the gas mileage is AWESOME!  Can't deny that, with our busy household!

8. Insert your own random thought here.


My brain is mush at the moment.  So I will just use this space to shout out a HUGE praise to God for getting us to all of our vacation destinations this past month safely and (mostly) sanely!  Today even, as my three children, my mother-in-law, and I neared our final destination of the day, we stopped for dinner and gas.  After a truly horrific Mexican dinner, we walked out to discover that I had locked my keys in the car.  Sigh.  So I walked to the gas station, where the attendant said that this very thing had happened to him just a few days before, and he just happened to have the locksmith's number with him.  He even dialed the number for me, and the locksmith just happened to be driving into town right then and was there within 10 minutes.  He got my keys out, and after discovering that my DH is in Afghanistan, didn't charge me the after-hours fee!  We were back on the road - all said and done, within an hour of stopping!


Now, I know there weren't any true "Just Happened" in that story, or in our entire vacation... God provides... every time... in one way or another.  And sometimes the angels he puts in the way are in the form of your mother-in-law who flew out to help you the last leg of your trip, in the form of gas attendants, and in the form of locksmiths.


To God be the Glory.