Sheri's Journal

7-11-09

It was about 6:00 in the morning and we were asleep in bed when a typical Missouri storm came out of nowhere. We woke to the sound of large hail hitting the roof and the wind whipping around our awning. Shae jumped out of bed, slipped on some clothes, and ran to put the awning in . In that short amount of time he was too late. The wind had bent the frame of the awning and ripped the material part of the awning from the camper. There was no hope of fixing it, so much hardware was bent and broken. Cody got up and went out to see what had happened and if he could help Shae. The guys were checking this out and lighting was striking all around us. I asked them to come inside and wait until morning to fix it, but you know them, they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, so they stayed out in the lightning storm. Later on that morning, Shae looked over the awning and decided that we needed to take it off because it would not ride well down the road like it was. He got up on the roof to reach the higher parts of the hardware and Cody stood below holding on to one of the poles. When Shae disconnected one side of the awning it fell and hit the side of our van. Thank goodness it hit the passenger side mirror. The mirror pushed in to the side of the door and the awning slide down the door and left a nice dent and scraped the pain all the way down to the metal. In all it’s about 2,000 dollars worth of damage. Shae came in and told me about the awning falling down on the van and we both just busted out laughing. What else could we do but laugh? Shae had enough forethought to take pictures of the mangled awning against the van before putting it up so maybe the insurance will cover it. I told Shae maybe we should stay home the rest of the day and not do anything so nothing else would break. But, we decided to try to leave..

Sheri

7-12-09

Woke up early hoping to get off early this morning since we didn’t get off last night. Thank goodness my mom made us lunch and dinner yesterday and Meg made us biscuits and gravy this morning. Sure saved us a lot of time not having to clean the kitchen. We really appreciate their thoughtfulness.. It was really hard to say bye to mom. She cried as she hugged us. After breakfast it still took us about 2 and a half hours to get ready to go. It takes a while to get things ready to go after we’ve stayed somewhere for a long time. The trip is going to be harder this time out. The two biggest changes are that we have a wonderful baby, and I’m not well and am trying to still get my lungs clear. We’re heading west, so hopefully the dry air will help me some, but I’ll talk more about that in another entry. I’m driving the van this time, having little Tytus made it where we wouldn’t fit in the truck anymore. We bought our 15 passenger van and now we’re like the typical home school family with a van full of kids! Behind my van I’m pulling a trailer that has 4 ATVs, 3 kayaks, and 7 bikes, and a 4 horse boat motor that we’re hoping to scrounge up the money to buy a boat for. Shae and Cody got the camper all hooked up to the truck and we pulled out somewhere around 1:00pm. We didn’t make it 20 min down the road before Gabriel said he had to pee. We had a little pee jug we got when Shae had his kidney stones removed. So Naomi got that out and Gabriel tried to get his wee wee out of his pants and into the bottle while still in his car seat. Hanna and I were panicked when he didn’t get his wee wee into the bottle, we knew that pee was gonna get all over the van.

“I have to pee and poop!” Gabriel announced after unsuccessfully getting the bottle fixed. I got the walkie talkie and told Shae the bad news. He told me to pull over wherever he pulled over so Gabriel could use the toilet in the camper. There was a place to stop on the side of the on ramp leading onto I-44. We stopped there and I took Gabriel into the camper. He then told me he didn’t have to go poop, just pee. I told him he was going to sit there until he pooped since we had to stop. After a minute I realized that there was no poop coming, so I got him off of the toilet and brought him back to the van. I opened up the door to find Tytus bright red screaming. You know how babies wake up whenever the vehicle stops moving. I kneeled next to his seat and did the nursing over the car seat bit. He was very hungry and very happy to nurse. Tytus began to fall asleep so I quickly got back into the drivers seat and told Shae to get back on the road quick. Hopefully we’ll make it more than an hour from where we were. All the kids are sick except for Tytus and Naomi. Hopefully they’ll get well soon. We’re suppose to be in Nebraska tonight, but that’s not gonna happen. I’m not sure where we’ll end up.

Sheri

July 13, 2009

Wallace State Park was very nice. Our campsite had a really long pad so we were able to park the van and trailer behind it also. It had two good playgrounds and last night the kids played in the water faucet at the one playground and got soaked!! The other playground had one of those back hoe toys you sit on and scoop dirt. This morning Gabriel told me a story about how he was getting red leapers (?) with it. He had quite a huge story about it. The kids and I took a very nice walk around a field picking flowers and looking at different kinds of trees.

I talked to Dr. Sohrab, she said I have severe asthma. I told her about all the mistakes she had in her doctor’s report at my last appointment. She said that my history doesn’t really matter, the fact is that I have asthma now. My concern is if insurance gets that information they will say my condition is preexisting. I also talked to the guy from the pulmonary lab. He agreed with her diagnosis. They both said to stay on Pulmicort and Proair . They both said I have severe case of it right now. My peak flow reading is 150. At the end of my pregnancy it was only 124 at its best. It should be 400. I’m in the red danger zone, but hopefully starting back to the inhalers will help. We’ve left MO heading towards drier climates so hopefully that will help. After 2-4 weeks on the Pulmicort I should notice a difference. The lung specialist said two cups of strong coffee is a good in the field remedy for an asthma attack. Dark Chocolate helps an asthma cough. I also talked to a nurse and she said she uses caffeine to control her asthma. Another lady told me apples are the best food for asthma.

I’m not totally sure I have asthma, I think I was a combination of things that started this. Stress, pregnancy, bronchitis, exposure to fumes, I think it was all more than my body could handle. I do have hope that I’ll not have to live with this, though all the reports I’ve read say there’s no cure. I know that Jesus is my healer. He can overcome anything.

We’re on our way and are in Kansas now. It’s very beautiful. Low rolling hills with lots and lots of farm land. It’s a lot cooler up here, yet still warm. We were able to play outside even in the middle of the day. Down in southern Missouri it was too hot even at 9:00am.

Sheri

July 15, 2009

Yesterday, Tuesday the 14th of July, we stopped by a gas station here in Marysville, Kansas. I was pretty tired so I had Cody run in and ask the attendant if there was a campground close by. She said we could camp at the city park. I wasn’t too sure about this, but thought we could check it out. It is awesome! We can stay for free and it has 50 amps, water, and a sewer dump. We are so thankful. There is also the most awesome playground ever. It is made to be similar to the actual town!

We got up this morning and got a late start. We hiked to the Chamber of Commerce. They had a lot of great info. We visited the Pony Express Station One museum, and hiked to the Pony Express Monument and Murals. The murals look like they are moving! It all was a lot of great fun. Gabriel has decided he wants to be a Pony Express rider and not a bull rider! Sounds good to me!

The Pony Express Museum was wonderful. It was $3 per adult and just a little for kids, I can’t remember the exact price. There was a movie, a pretend horse that Gabriel didn’t want to get off of. Josephine thought the carriage was her princess carriage. She sat in it for over ½ an hour. The history in this town is amazing. The main streets are still made of brick! It is stunning. The old buildings and shops are so neat to see. We went to the Koester House. It was from the middle 1800’s. We got to see an old piano worth over $100,000! Had to watch the kids in that room. Since the kids were so well behaved, the tour guide took us behind the ropes and played an old music box worth over $15,000. It was so beautiful sounding, I could have listened to it for hours. We toured the courthouse, also. We went to the Trails park where 8 different trails heading west came through this area. Some were the Oregon, California, Morman, Military…check out our website, the kids will have an essay on it. We also got to go to the Alcove Spring. God really protected Josephine. We were walking down a trail. It was coming back from a spring that had been discovered in the middle 1800’s by a group of pioneers heading west. It was so amazing to get to walk where the pioneers walked. On the way back to the van, we had to cross a bridge. Shae was carrying Josie, I was walking with Gabriel and Naomi and had Tytus in the sling. Cody and Hanna had headed out on a trail that they had to find out where it led. We weren’t sure where it would lead them, so they had to find out! Shae was in the lead. He had to go potty and found the perfect tree. He set Josie down and began to walk off the trail. He suddenly began yelling at Josie to get back. I started to run towards her. Shae jumped and then kicked his leg towards the ground. I saw grass, weeds, dirt, and a copperhead poisonous snake fly through the air in the opposite direction of Josie. I grabbed Josie by the arm while trying to hold Tytus’ in the sling. We ran back to the bridge and as far from the grass as possible. Josie was crying loudly. Shae began searching for a large stick to kill the horrible creature with. All he could find was branch with lots of small branches on the end. He stabbed at the snake over and over again. The snake kept striking at the branch. Shae wanted to kill the demon. He chased that thing down the hill with that branch. Gabriel stared at his daddy with awe and respect. He talked about the incident a lot that night. We praised God over and over for protecting Josie and Shae. Shae said he has never kicked a poisonous snake with is foot before!

We had a great time at the pool today. It was a wonderful place. There is a kiddy pool for seven and under. There is also a huge water slide. They don’t have strict rules here like in bigger cities. Kids can go down more than one at a time. They can be any age and wear flotation devices. Of course the sign at the bottom of the steps says they have to be able to swim across the pool, not wear a life vest, and must go alone. The life guards didn’t make us follow any of those rules. It is nice to be in a small town….

7-17-09

We left Marysville today. Before leaving we ran by the Pony Express barn and took a picture of Gabriel holding the Christian County Headliner Newspaper in front of it. They are putting articles about our trip in the newspaper. Then we delivered mail to the Post Office. Gabriel had his chaps and cowboy hat, stick horse and mail. He had the mail in a leather pouch Meg had made for him. He rode that wild stick horse up to the counter and delivered the mail on time to the Post Office just like the Pony Express riders did. The newspaper was next door and wanted a picture, so I guess we’ll be in the newspaper there soon. We didn’t get off until about 1pm. It was definitely later than we had hoped. It seemed like a long drive. We made it to the Geographic center of the Continental United States. It was a tourist trap, but still cool. It is in the middle of absolutely no where, with nothing around….except….the mean, nasty, hateful, town pest,…a rooster. We pulled up at the site when we heard a screeching rooster crow from the direction of the monument for the center of the United States.

rooster when it tried to spur him over and over!

7-27-09

Nebraska was beautiful! Who knew there was more than grass there? I wasn’t very impressed when we first drove across the border from Kansas to Nebraska on Hwy 281 north of Lebanon, where we stopped to see the geographic center of the United States, (see previous post). The second we crossed into Nebraska the roads got so bumpy! My son, Cody, commented on how terrible they were compared to Kansas. Well, the roads were better further into the state. We turned west on 136 in Red Cloud and stopped in Alma t the city campground. It was o.k. there. Our neighbor was freaking out because she said that if we ran our washer/dryer it would blow all the fuses to everyone’s electric. Shae engineers electrical stuff and said it would be fine. I, of course, trust my husband. The lady was quite aggravating and I had to remind myself that she just needs Jesus. We left first thing Saturday morning, heading for the northern Nebraska. We were hoping to volunteer at a camp in Lexington Nebraska, but could not. Most the kids had a bad cough and cold…no fun. I heard that the Sand Hills in central Nebraska were considered one of the top ten drives in America. The sand dunes are the largest in the western Hemisphere. Now I love a good museum, but I love God’s museums even better. I couldn’t wait to do this drive. We got on Hwy 2 and headed west. I must agree, that drive was incredible. It was so peaceful, a calming beauty. Rolling hills with intermittent trees. There was a beautiful river that ran along the side of the road. It looked so refreshing. I just wanted to jump in at the next available spot. There were ranches here and there. Not many people, not many towns. I loved being out in the middle of such breathtaking scenery without the business of cities and traffic. We stopped by the National Forest. All the trees had been hand planted. We jumped in the river in all of our clothes. It was so refreshing. The bottom of the river was the softest sand. We could of spent a week there easily. There was a campground there and a few campgrounds on Hwy 2. Since we had a reservation in South Dakota, we needed to move on. I am going to try to buy 5-10 acres on that river. I don’t want to live there permanently, but I want to spend a month a year there. It would rejuvenate me in every way. There aren’t a lot of gas stations so make sure you fill up before you head out on Hwy 2. We drove all the way to Alliance Nebraska that night. It was disappointing going from such incredible country to a dirty little city. We stayed at a little parking lot campground on the edge of town. It did it’s job, plus we had cable! Everyone loved that.

Sunday morning we left asap and headed for, yes, Car Henge! Not Stone Henge, Car Henge! It is such a tourist trap…and we totally fell for it. This man, buried cars in the ground in the exact shape and size as the real Stone Henge. The kids ran around it and on the little path way. It was free, or we would have driven by. There was a little food stand, but we didn’t get any. There was no where for us to park, so we had to leave the camper, truck, van, and trailer on the side of the road, where the sign said “No Parking”! Shae and I took turns with the vehicles while the other looked at the strange car monument. We were not too impressed and headed on. A while down the road we came to a wonderful little museum. It was early afternoon on Sunday, and everyone was hungry, as usual. We try not to eat out much, so we pulled over at a little, free, local museum, called Dawes County Historical Museum. It ended up being absolutely delightful. It is on Hwy 385 in Chadron, north of Alliance, and almost to the border of South Dakota. We enjoyed the old log home and farm we could go in. The church was sweet and the school house was really great. There was a ton of old farm equipment in a field nearby. The main building of the museum was huge! They had so many neat things crammed in there! We could go back at least one more time. It was wonderful. It is on the left hand side of the road, heading north. It is the local county museum run by volunteers. We continued on to our current destination, the Black Hills of South Dakota. What a great time!