Friends From South Carolina

Some of you may not know this about me, but I was born in South Carolina. I'm not sure if I am what people call a "Southern Belle" since my mom was from Missouri and my dad lived in Michigan - his mom however grew up in the marshes of Alabama so I tend to identify myself as a Southern girl. I lived in the foot hills of the Smokey Mountains and grew up seeing snacks like pig ears, onion rings, and pickled eggs on the shelves in the grocery store. We didn't buy them of course because of my mixed heritage but I ate them sometimes at friends houses. The dirt roads were orange and the pine trees were so tall they seemed always about ready to topple over on me. I painted T-shirts and fence posts with squashed poke-weed berries and I mashed the buttons on the elevators. My parents watched NASCAR and shouted at the TV screen while I played in the backyard. I loved watching the Dukes of Hazard and would try to pull the same stunts as the General Lee did on my little pink and purple bicycle. I lived the first story of my life there in South Carolina for eleven years until we moved to Missouri. 

It's not the best picture, but it gets the point across, we went canoeing down Clear Water Creek. Oh, and there's that one kayak in the back.

While we lived there in my birth state we had many adventures, adventures that were shared with in particular, the Courtney family. This past week two of these long lost "family members" came to visit for a few days. I won't try to reconstruct our week for you but I just wanted to share a few pictures here on my blog instead of blowing up my Instagram feed. I'm thinking of all a' y'all, my sixty-two Instagram followers, so thank me please. ;) 

From Here to There Incredible Things are Everywhere...

Come with me back to 2010. I am standing outside with a pair of rubber boots I threw on - no socks of course. It is January and I grabbed my huge white coat that makes me look like a walking marshmallow. I didn't zip it up so instead I hug myself stuffing my hands in my pockets, keeping the cold at bay. I stand ankle deep in fresh clean snow. Up in the sky I watch my breath float away towards the gorgeous full moon. The light of the moon is so bright that no stars can be seen for at least one outstretched-hand-length away and when the light hits the snow it lights up the whole field almost as bright as day. I can see the Milky Way. The sky is black as tar. The sounds I hear are comforting. A pack of coyotes yip and scream as the hunt in the night. Owls talk. Chickens murmur and cluck softly. I walk into the driveway and admire the beautiful snowflakes on the hoods of our suburban, truck, water trailer. They are incredible. I turn back towards the house and head inside. By this time I can't feel my toes. Our blue Christmas lights have faded since we put them up last year. Icicles hang from the roof.

Now, step back into the present. It's December. I am sitting on the short flower bed wall, bare feet planted firmly on our concrete sidewalk.

Road Trip with Grandma: Henry Ford Museum, Canada, Visiting Family

You may have heard this already but in case you haven't, my Grandma and I went for a road trip up to Detroit, Michigan. Grandma was keen on visiting family and I was looking forward to exploring the old places my Dad grew up in. I have been back for a while now but I haven't been able to find the time to write this post. Actually right now I really want to go to bed but I figured I had to get this out. In that light, this post won't be as detailed as I want but here we go.

Grandma and I left Wednesday, September 10 and stopped for the night in Kentucky. At one of the rest stops we saw a horse track with a bunch of people standing around. We didn't see any horses though just people and cameras. We arrived in Michigan the next day and stayed at a nice hotel in Troy, about thirty minutes from Detroit. Dad grew up in Royal Oak, between Troy and Detroit.

Just Hopping on to Say Hello

Hello all, I know I have not been active on my blog for a while. Maybe yall can guess why? Yes its true, I'm pulling the "we're in the process of adopting four boys two of which are twins" card.

Since they've moved in things have gone just as I expected. It's been hard, very tiring, amusing, a little hard on the heart strings, and above all else absolutely incredible. I think I have kind of overrun my friends newseed on Facebook with little stories about them. I will share a few of them here just because I know some of my readers don't have Facebook accounts. Don't worry though, when we come to that part I will warn you so those of you who have been following me daily won't have to read it all over again.

I guess the main point of this post is to let yall know that I'm still here, alive and kicking. Well, alive at least. At the moment I am using the little store of energy I have left to write this for yall. I've been sick the past few days and it's just been really blah. Today I went out in the pouring rain to check the mail. It was really exciting and has been the highlight of my day. Understandably, it probably would have been the highlight of the day regardless if I was sick or not. Still, the adrenaline rush I felt walking through the huge puddle that is our yard was nothing like I've felt since the day we spotted the parking lot after a two day hike with only two meals between them.

I've had my birthday since last talking with yall and I've made plans to take a nine day trip up north with my Grandma. We are going to Detroit to see the old home place and go to church. We'll probably take a short jog into Canada too. We'll also spend some time up in Traverse City with family. It's a fifteen hour trip that I am not looking forward to driving, but I am excited to be going. I'll be lugging along some of my school work too and try to get some work in at night before I go to bed. The rest of the time I suppose we'll be busy. I'll write a blog post about our trip when I get back.

Now, here are some Facebook posts for yall and a few pictures. I'll try to get back into Musical Monday as soon as I can. As it is though, it's going to be tough to find a good time to record without little guys playing the accompanying background track.

The Beach, the Bay, and Crabs

So, where were we?

We were moving happily along in or plans for heading to Belize when God rudely interrupted us and sent us reeling. What was He thinking?

I say He was thinking up a might good plan. Now that He has taken our focus off of Belize, (even if it was a painful removal) I can't exactly say we know for sure what we are looking at now, but none the less things are going on and at a right steady pace. Let me see if I can catch all y'all up on our life.

If I recall correctly, my older brother is still with us at this point in our story. We got the call from Dads work while we were in Louisiana. We continued on to Texas where we picked up my older brother stayed there for a few days with friends then instead of going across the border we turned around and returned to Louisiana for a week. From there back to Alabama to my Grandma. My big brother stayed in Alabama for a week before returning to Arizona.
The Latter Part of October

Here are a few shots from our first week in Alabama.


Hehe, haha, My big brother had his graduation party from high school at Grandma's that week. Here's baby chowing down on the graduation cake. :)

We are Not Moving to Belize

photo credit

It was while we were in Louisiana that my dad got a call from work. His boss said that he couldn't let my dad go to Belize and work there. So that was the end of it. All in one phone call. All of our plans, work, and time we put into it, more than a year, all of our expectations, hopes, desires, and as we felt our duty, were all put to nothing in one phone call.

I notised my parents acting a little fishy and I wondered what was up. Mom told me we were going to stay with our friends for another day. Okay, yipee another day. I was definetly not looking forward to saying goodbye so postponing our departure was very good news for me. But I still wondered what was going on. The next day our parents told us. I was very dissapointed.

We decided to stick with our plans and to continue on to Texas

Texas



Sunday - Thursday, October 14 - 18
We had fun in Texas visiting with friends. Here are some pictures of our time there.

One day we took a trip into Dentin. We breezed through the court house, stopped at a coffee shop, browsed through a second hand book store, and went gold digging in a thrift store. (We found quite a few gems but were low on space and didn't take any back)

Court House

Because I have a fascination for crooked pictures...

They turned the old court house into a museum. A new one was built in another part of the city.

I just love these old fashioned kitchens. I want one like this in my own house some day. Well almost, maybe I'd like a liiitle more counter space. ;)

Alabama: Part Two

Sunday, October 7

we went to Grandma's church. I've sorta grown up there. We visited often over the years and I remember playing on the play ground, making a friend there which I kept through the years because we visited often enough.

I love playing the piano in that building. The sound just wells up in there and fills the whole room. I could play for hours upon hours in that building. I love going in there when nobody else is around and just singing and playing to my hearts content. Sacred and solemn, joyful, beautiful, sad, confusion and turmoil, peace and contentment, praise. Playing on that piano in that room, I can make the music speak.

Alabama: Part One

I made a mistake in my last post. We did not go to Louisiana until after we had visited Alabama. This is the real order starting at Georgia. Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. I had posted out of order and put Louisiana first. Sorry if that's a little confusing. The dates I wrote for Louisiana are all wrong. Those dates actually belong to Alabama. So, I'll just start all over again.

Monday, September 31 [Update: 11/22/12, Ahh! Why did I put Speteber 31? There is no Septeber 31! This was actually Monday, October 1]

We got to my grandma's place in Alabama late Sunday night. I can't remember if grandma met us at the door or not, it was a while ago and things have kinda blurred together in my memory. Anyways, I'll just get started with the pictures. We stayed in Alabama for a whole week. Here's (quite) a few snapshots of what we did that week.

We went out on the river of course...

Louisiana

Monday, September 31 [ Update: 11/22/12, I wrote the dates wrong on this post. This actually happened in the early part of October, after we had been in Alabama for about a week.]

We got in to Louisiana late Sunday night. After greeting our friends in whispers and pajamas, we quickly went to our prepared places of rest and plunged into a very deep sleep. It's amazing how hours of being cramped in a vehicle can make a sofa feel like as if you were enveloped in a cloud. (Although I've heard that clouds are actually very wet and cold.... but let us leave that to the scientist.)

The next week was filled with both joy and sadness. This would be the last time we saw these folks for a very long time. With laughs and smiles that were both genuine and sad we spent these days trying not to think about the day we were going to leave. Here are a few pictures of our time there. (Please note there will be no pictures of faces as our friends have asked to be kept private.)

 

The second oldest is growing avocados. This is her second try. The first two died after she put them in soil. I was quite impressed, I've always wanted to grow avocados, my older brother has.

Georgia

Sunday night, September 30

On our way to Louisiana we stopped in Georgia. We did not stay long at all, only for a few hours. We have some friends that live there, they used to live in South Carolina. They went to the same church we did and we lived right next door to each other for a while. (I was too little to remember that part but I do remember their house.)

Seeing these people was two things, strange and dreamlike, but also like we had never left. I used to call the mom Aunt Lasagna. For some reason Tanya was very hard for me to remember. Em---- was there and S------ to but their middle brother was not. He died last year from a heart attack. It was very different not having him there. He was my "boyfriend" when I was little and we played together all the time. S------ didn't remember us, he had only been a baby back then, but I remember him. He and my little sister would play out on the sun porch with the big blocks. I was the only one of us young people that remembered anybody. Mom and Dad did perfectly and talked and talked.
They had dinner waiting for us when we got there. Pizza, lemonade, and some dessert. It was good, and boy let me tell you, I was hungry.

South Carolina: Part Three

I have not posted about our travels in quite a while. The days are kinda blurring together so I will have to go real quickly through the rest of the pictures to get all y'all caught up on current events in the H--------- household.

Right, so South Carolina. Here are the rest of the pictures.

Saturday, September 29


These pictures are all from the Jockey Lot. A huge outdoor flea market where you can practically do ALL of your shopping. From pigs to socks, guitars and lotions... anything you can think of you can find here. We used to go here often when we were little. Sometimes Dad would buy us a bag of boiled peanuts to munch on as we walked around. The place used to seem very big when I was little but somehow it shrunk in size over the years.

One time in the indoor section I started following a man in a huge brown overcoat. Dad had one similar to is and I thought it was him. When I found out it wasn't I was so scared and didn't know what to do. I stood there in the middle of the walk way my mind racing trying to figure out if I should go searching or to stay put and wait for them to find me. Thankfully Dad found me before I had made up my mind. After that I stayed very close to my family.

Another time before that, I don't even remember the event myself - have only heard Mom and Dad talk about it, we bought a pot bellied pig and we named it Jack. I don't remember getting him but I do have a faint recollection of the car ride home. It was stinky. We didn't keep Jack for long but I do have a few personal memories of him.... Like the time Mom and Dad gave him a bath with SOAP. (Don't laugh please, I beg for the cover of ignorance.) They were giving him a bath in preparation of the greased pig chase. (Which by the way I remember, it was very funny and scary with Jack running all over the place.) Oh man, you wouldn't believe the fuss he put up. He screamed and squealed and screamed and kicked and thrashed around as if he was seeing the light of day for the last time. The whole neighbor hood must have heard him for miles around. First I was up close watching but Mom screamed to me, "Stand back!" I went up on the back porch and watched the whole thing with eyes opened wide.

Anyways, I could tell you more about Jack but we must get on with the Jockey Lot.

South Carolina: Part Two

Tuesday, September 25

We didn't do very much this day. Just has breakfast did school work... just like we used to. :)

Look at these two little sleepy heads.... <3

South Carolina: Part One

Sunday, September 23


Having left Indiana we head for South Carolina. Here are some traveling pictures.

Now isn't this great? It was so odd to see this design on the bag.

Yes, we are on the road.

Late night supper in Tennisee

He was soo wired. He had so much fun flipping the pages in the Juke Box, and climbing up and down from the benches, and crawling over Mom as he tried to do a face plant in the waffle.

Indiana: Part Two

As for everything we did in Indiana, it wasn't a whole lot. I will just breeze through this real fast because as of right now, I am three states behind in my writing. So, Indiana.

The night we got there I didn't do much of anything except eat and go to bed. Aunt Rita had ordered some pizza so that's what I had for dinner.

Friday, September 21

The next morning I slept in. We stayed at the house all that day. We walked the dogs through the familiar patch of woods, played with the baby, and when I wasn't doing that I was writing about Arizona. So here are a few photos of an ordinary day.

He had a lot of fun with the magnets.

 

Indiana: Part One

Thursday, September 20

Wednesday night, I am packing up my things.

I didn't get up any earlier than I normally did because my flight was at eleven o'clock, but we did hurry through the morning. We were completely ready to go at eight thirty which was when we had planned on leaving. But first, we took some pictures with my dog. Because after all, that was why I was there, to drop her off with them. We can't take her with us to Belize. I am going to miss her. :(

 

 

We left just a few minutes after eight thirty. It was a long drive into Phoenix, my grandparents were nervous about the traffic, but we got there without any problems. Inside the airport we managed things like pros.... we only stood around totally confused once. ;)

Arizona: Part Two

Monday, September 17

I spent the morning packing my things and getting ready to go to my grandparents. When they arrived I said goodbye to Grandpa Larry and brought my things out to the van. I was happy to see them. :) Grandma was glad to see Dixie too, said she had missed her. Grandma had a birthday present to drop off at her friends house so we went there first. She was at work so we just left the package on the door. Next we went to Grandpa's grandsons house and dropped something off there too. I don't remember what it was. Jake came out to meet us, he was just getting ready to head to his football practise or something. After that we stopped at McDonald's and I got an apple pie.

That's Grandpa in the purple. He does not have a beard.

They had packed a lunch so I pulled out a peanut butter jelly and had my pie for desert. Dixie was walked and then we were ready to make the drive. It wasn't very long and soon enough I began to recognise places from when our family was there last winter.

Arizona: Part One

Wednesday, September 12
This was the day I left Missouri, the last time I would see it, or anybody in it, for at least two years. That morning my younger brother and I went to our neighbors house before school so I could say goodbye to them. They live in the same house we used to rent right after our house burned down so its kinda funny to see other people using the house. When we got there only the mom and the oldest daughter was awake but news quickly spread that we were here so the other children got up. The oldest girl was wearing regular clothes, a skirt and a T-shirt. We talked a lot and we got to help milk their cow. I am not very good at that, I've done it maybe about four times. It made my arms and wrists sore so I didn't do it very long. After we milked the cow we headed back inside and they got ready for school. The girls became Mennonites when they put on their dresses and caps. They are not really but they go to the Mennonite school. We left at breakfast and carried out a gallon of milk with us.

Goodbye Tour

The upcoming posts that I will be writing will be about our Goodbye Tour. I'll write a post about each state we go to in parts. Part One, Part Two.... that kind of thing. The first one is Arizona Part One.

Saying Goodbye

This past week has been stressful. It is my last week here in Missouri. I am flying out to Arizona to stay there for about a week. I will leave my dog with my grandparents since we can't take her with us to Belize. Here is a compilation of my facebook status's that relate to the topic of saying goodbye.

August 31, 2012
Looking forward to some fun with my piano teacher! I'm going over to her house today to play some duets, talks, just have fun. :) Oh boy, time is flying. Its getting closer. Working on saying goodbye.

August 31, 2012
Driving in the rain today I watched the leaves fall, the wind blow. This world is beautiful. Especially my little corner of it. Familiar places, lovely faces. It's time to make a new home. I'm starting to say good bye.

September 5, 2012
I sweep out crumbs from the floor of the truck. Crushed animal crackers, stale french fries, some cheerios. I said goodbye to my piano teacher today.