Okay, I finally got the pictures off of James’ camera, so if anyone wants to see some really scary pictures of Kendall, Alex and Joey (and, yeah, okay, me, too!) with shotguns, click here:  Flickr. 

It was a blast (pun intended!).  And beware:  Alex is a crack shot!!!

So we got into Arlington Friday afternoon, and spent time with our friends, the Bakers.  Cathy and I have been friends since 7th grade, and it is always wonderful to get to hang out with her!  Her sister, Lola, came over for a while, and that was wonderful.  I don’t get to see them nearly enough.  The kids had fun playing Wii and bashing pine cones with tennis rackets. (Don’t ask!!)

Saturday morning Gaylon picked Kendall and Joey up at the DFW Airport, and then they all spent the day at Cabella’s.  For those of you who like me, are ‘redneck challenged’, Cabella’s is a huge sporting store.  From what I heard, Gaylon and Joey had a blast, but Kendall and Alex were less than thrilled!

Saturday evening we went out for some good ol’ fashioned Tex-Mex, and then we headed on over to the ranch where Gaylon has been living on Saturday night.  The kids all stayed in one camper, and Gaylon and I stayed in the other.  Even in a really nice RV, I just don’t think I’m much of a “camper”, although I think if one was all stocked with my own stuff, it would be a lot better than staying in a motel.

Sunday we drove into Abilene to check out the church that we will probably be attending once we get moved out here: Holy Family.  Then, after church, we met up with Gaylon’s nephew, Joe (aka: Critter) and his wife, Candace,  to see their brand new baby boy!  Faith got a picture of me holding him.  He is so tiny!!  It’s amazing how quickly you forget how little they are at first.

Great-Aunt Val with Baby Colton James Brooks

Sunday afternoon we went over to Gaylon’s nephew James’ and his wife, Tammy’s, house and hung out over there until LATE!!  They live just outside of Merkel. The boys all spent the afternoon shooting skeet, and I even shot a few times, although I didn’t hit anything.  Faith took lots of pictures of this with James’ camera, but I haven’t figured out how to get them onto my computer yet.  However, when I do, I’ll post them. James grilled out, and it was really wonderful.  Mesquite grilled pork. . . yum!

Yesterday we went into Abilene on a “Fact-Finding Mission” and drove through several neighborhoods and checked out the mall.  Alex likes it, and Faith is okay with it.  It’s better than I expected, which is nice.  I have to say though that I love the people here.  There is no friendlier bunch of folks on this planet than Texans. Kendall and Joey stayed out on the ranch, hunting.  They are having a blast, apparently!

We spent the night at James and Tammy’s last night because there were thunderstorms rolling through.  Kendall and Joey stayed at the camper, and they were fine, although they did lose power at one point.  Alex had a rough night, though.  He got up in the middle of the night to find the bathroom, tripped, fell, and knocked himself out!  He said he woke up on the floor seeing stars!  We heard him, so Gaylon went up to check on him, and he had a really nasty gash on his eyebrow and a milder one across his eyelid! He’s okay, though, thank God!  It could have been so much worse.  Today he just has a mild black-eye, not nearly as bad as I thought it might be.

Today, Faith is driving Tammy’s Kubota all over the ranch and having the time of her life, and I heard a rumor that Tammy is going to take her fishing.  Faith is such a country girl!  Joey texted me to say he killed a rabbit this morning, and Faith is ready to go back over there and skin it and use the brains and fat to cure the hide.  Ummm. . . yeah. “Not my bag, baby!!”

Tomorrow we head over to Midland to see Gaylon’s brother, Chuck, and his wife, Anna, and my Aunt Bobbie.  Then Thursday we will drive over to Post to see Granny Lucille and Granny Dee.  Friday we are headed back into the Dallas area and will see Cathy one more time, then head over to spend the night at my cousin, James Westbrook’s house.  So, we are busy, and it’s going fast.  We will be back in North Carolina in no time.

So tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are headed out to Texas to spend Spring Break with Gaylon.  The kids are really excited, and I know I will be, too, once the driving part is over!  We are going to spend tomorrow night in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and might tour the Battleground Friday morning.  Then, Friday night we are going to stay with my dear friend, Cathy.  I am definitely looking forward to that!  Gaylon will meet us there, which makes it all that much better!

Saturday night we are headed over to my cousin, James’ house.  He is a terrific host and an awesome cook, so that’s gonna be great, too!  Then, Sunday morning we are headed on over to Abilene and ultimately to the ranch where Gaylon has been living.  We are planning to stay with his nephew, James Paul, though, and not in an RV.  Although we may spend one night in the RV, because the kids think that would be really cool.

Kendall will be flying into DFW with his buddy, Joey, and we will pick them up at the airport Saturday morning.  So, we will all be together, and it will be a lot of fun.  I think one of the best parts is going to be the warmth!!!  I am so ready for some heat.  We are leaving 6 inches of snow behind here in North Carolina.  With any luck, it will all be gone by the time we get home.

I just wanted to let everybody know that I have finally finished uploading all the pictures I took along the way and while we were in Texas this month.  If you just click on one of the pictures on the right sidebar of this page, it will take you to my Flickr account, where you can see not only those pictures, but literally hundreds of others.  I will be uploading all of the photos from the Adams Album to Flickr later this afternoon or evening.

We finally got home from Texas yesterday.  My aunt is doing much better, although she is not out of the woods yet.  I am so glad that we went to see her!  She is so precious to me. I do believe that she will get to go home at some point in the near future.  Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for her and for us!

We got to see Amber and Victoria, along with Amber’s new husband, Bobby.  I can’t believe how big Victoria has gotten!  And she is absolutely beautiful.  She looks just like Amber did at that age.  Amber looked really good, too, and it was great to get to see her again.  We got to see other family members, too:  Joey, Gaylon’s brother, and three of his younger kids: Matthew, Dorinda and Jonathan.  Faith and Dorinda have been writing letters back-and-forth for almost a year now, so it was really cool that they got to see each other and hang out for a bit.

We attended Mass at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, where my mother converted to Catholicism when she was in High School. (How sad that the daughter of a Cradle Catholic had to “convert”!)  It was cool to go to Mass there, but the acoustics were really, really bad, making it very difficult to hear what was being said.  I did hear and totally agree with one thing the priest said, though: it really doesn’t matter if it’s a dry heat or a humid heat, once you get up to 100 degrees, it’s HOT! (It was almost unbearably hot the whole time we were there!)

On the way home from Midland, we spent an evening with my cousin Branden and his wife, Laura. I have been wanting to meet her for such a long time!  We email and blog back-and-forth, but until this past Sunday evening, we’d never met.  So, that was very cool.  I wish we could have spent more time there, but Faith was sick and we needed to get her on home.  (She and Mom both came home sick . . . happens every time!)

Anyway, we are all really glad to be home.  I really miss all the mountains and trees when I’m gone!  Did I mention it was only 71 degrees here today?

Last night, we got to eat Mexican food.  At La Bodega on Big Spring Street in Midland. REAL Mexican food!!!  Tex-Mex.  The stuff that God eats.  After eating “Mexican Food” in North Carolina for 14 years, it is always a super-special treat to eat the real thing.  The salsa that came with the chips actually made my eyes water, it was so hot!  Man, that was good!!!  And it just got better from there.  The queso was actually a lovely golden color, not icky white goat cheese. The food came out smothered in glorious RED sauce, covered with CHEDDAR cheese!!!  It was Nirvana!

So, wanting to share the experience, I called Kendall to let him know how awesomely hot the salsa was.  He was rather rude about it, and told me that if I ever wanted to talk to him again, I should stop talking right then about the salsa. So, I called Gaylon, to share my joy with him.  He said the exact same thing Kendall said (which is really not appropriate to share here) and started whining about how he and Kendall were back home eating Ken-L Rations.  (Yeah, right!)

I am disappointed that they didn’t appreciate my experience, but Mom and Alex certainly did!  Alex loves Tex-Mex, even though he refuses to eat any ‘Mexican’ food in North Carolina.  And really, after last night, it’s going to be really difficult to convince my palate that the stuff they serve out there is worth eating.  *sigh*

We got to Midland, Texas on Wednesday.  Even though I grew up in this part of the country, I am still always shocked to see how FLAT and BROWN it is here.  There just are not any hills or trees.  I have to say though, that what God left out in landscape, He made up for in the skies.  They are really gorgeous here.

On the way out, we got to spend some time with my dear friend, Cathy and her family.  That was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, and we had not even reached our final destination yet!

Mom and I got to see Aunt Bobbie very briefly on Wednesday, and she looked a lot better than I had expected, which was great.  Thursday they moved her to a new facility (something about Medicaid not covering her stay where she was at. . .) and we all went over to see her for a while yesterday.  My cousin and brother-in-law both say it will be a much better place for her.  I really hope so.  Aunt Bobbie is very precious to all of us on our side of the family, because she is all we have left.  I couldn’t help but notice the other day how very much she looked like my grandmother, her oldest sister.

I got to stay with my cousin Wednesday night.  Her home is absolutely GEORGEOUS!  I felt like I was staying with royalty!  We got to visit quit awhile, and will hopefully have a lot more time to visit more before we head back.

It was also wonderful to see Chuck and Anna.  Chuck is Gaylon’s brother, and it’s always great to get to see them.  We got to meet their ‘new’ granddaughter, Akasha, who is absolutely adorable!  Faith fell in love with her and spent the entire evening playing with her.   In fact, Faith and Alex stayed over there Wednesday night, rather than go with me to my cousin’s, because they were having so much fun.

On the way from Dallas to Midland yesterday we stopped off to see Gaylon’s mom and grandmother.  That was really nice, and I got some pictures.  They are staying in a travel trailer out on Gaylon’s cousin’s ranch outside of Sweetwater, Texas.  We got to see him, too, which was a treat.

With the Grandmothers

Mom and I were amazed to see all of the wind generators all over the place. There are literally thousands of them out here now. At some points, I felt like I was in some sort of science fiction movie! I do think it’s a good idea, though, because there is certainly plenty of WIND.  (Did I ever mention how much I hate the wind???)

Wind Turbines in Texas

Anyway, I just wanted to post an update. Several folks have asked how long it took us to get here.  Three days.  It’s a total of 19 hours of ‘drive time’, but we divide that up usually so we don’t all go crazy.  I will write more as we continue on our journey.

So yesterday we drove all the way to Canton, Mississippi. Yeah, it’s a really long drive.  But, the weather was great and the kids got along great, so all is well.  I chose Canton because it is the little town where my Dad’s family lived before the Civil War.  I have done so much research revolving around this little town that I wanted to actually see it for myself!  We are going downtown this morning so I can take some pictures.  

Then, we’re back on the road, headed for Texas.  We had originally planned to drive straight through to Midland, but when we realized that it would be a twelve hour drive, we unanimously elected to stop in Dallas tonight.  We won’t be doing any visiting, except with my aunt and uncle, with whom we are staying.  Then we’ll head to Midland tomorrow morning.

Aunt Bobbie is doing somewhat better, according to my cousin, Pattye.  She is a bit stronger, and can pull herself up to a sitting position now.  They are going to be moving her to another care facility on Thursday, something to do with her insurance.  At any rate, we can’t wait to see her tomorrow.

So, that’s my update so far.  I’ll be writing more as we go.

View From Our 8th Floor Balcony

Gaylon and I had an amazing weekend in Gatlinburg!  We stayed at the Edgewater Hotel, which was okay.  The elevators were agonizingly s-l-o-w.  But the view from our 8th floor room was awesome! The staff was very nice, friendly and helpful, and the rooms were nice and clean.  Their “bountiful free Continental Breakfast” was, in a word, horrible!  Especially the coffee and the gravy.  After trying it the first morning, we gave it up and went to Shoney’s which was pretty good.  (Still weak and flavorless coffee, though.)

We ate dinner at Linebergers Seafood the first night.  We both had steak and lobster, since we had a $30 gift card from the hotel for that establishment.  The lobster was great, but the steak was a tad on the dry side.  It did have great flavor, though!  And, happily, the coffee was good!  Then we wandered around town until it was time for Gatlinburg’s 33rd Annual 4th of July Midnight Parade.  People had started setting chairs up all along the main street early the morning of the 3rd, and so we didn’t really think we would get a decent spot to see the parade.  But amazingly, we managed to find a perch on top of a barricade and got a great view of the

City of Gatlinburg Float

entire thing!  Right before the parade started, they closed the street to traffic, and we started noticing that coins (real money) were falling into the street, seemingly from nowhere.  All up and down the street, children were running around like crazy chasing these mysterious coins!  After several minutes, we were able to figure out that various shops were throwing their tip jars into the street for the children!  It was absolute pandemonium, and the kids had a blast!!  The parade itself was excellent, with some really amazing floats. My favorite part was the bagpipes!!

We spent the next day (Friday) at Dollywood.  That was nice, and we took in a show, which was a lot of fun.  After leaving Dollywood, we headed back into Gatlinburg for dinner.  We got an amazing deal on some Mexican food at No Way Jose’s Cantina, and finished out dinner in perfect time to walk out into the parking lot and just stand there with several hundred other folks and look up into the sky to witness the most magnificent fireworks display I’ve ever seen!  It was right over the restaraunt, and we could physically feel the mortars going off, we were so close!  The grand finale lasted probably 3 or 4 minutes, and we could hear the most amazing roar echoing off of the mountains!  It was so incredible, I really don’t have the words to describe it!  When it was over, a woman next to us shouted “God Bless the USA!” and a lot of people started shouting “USA! USA! USA!”  It was fantastic!

Grotto Falls

Yesterday we woke up to rain.  But, rather than be discouraged, we thought maybe the Pancake Pantry we had been wanting to eat at might not have such a long line!  So we rushed over there (about a 3 block walk from our hotel) and sure enough: the rain had chased everyone away!  So we got right in and had an awesome breakfast.  Their coffee wasn’t very good, but the pancakes made up for it.  After breakfast, we drove over to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and went hiking.  We hiked up to Grotto Falls, which is about a two and a half mile hike, usually, but we had to park quite a ways from the trail head, so we figure we hiked right at 3 miles.  The falls were really beautiful!  And the weather was awesome, too!  It threatened to rain again all day, but never did, and we had some really nice breezes going up the mountain, which was great!

Last night, we made it to Mass at St. Mary’s, managing to get the absolute last parking spot available at the church!  After Mass, we randomly picked The Park Grill restaurant because it looked really nice, and actually got front-row parking and walked right in!  The steak was melt-in-your-mouth perfect, and their coffee was divine!! (Can you tell that coffee is what really matters to me?)

This morning we knew we’d never have time to wait in line again at the Pancake Pantry, so we thought we’d try out Flapjacks on our way out of town.  Well, the eggs, biscuits and gravy were really good!  But the pancakes, ah, tasted like they had added cake batter to them!  NOT the taste I want in pancakes. . . it was really weird.  And the coffee, well, not so great.  But it was hot and caffeinated, so we were happy!

Our drive home was mostly uneventful.  Just 3/4 of a mile from our exit in Asheville, traffic inexplicably went from 70mph to PARKED.  I had just enough time to lock down the brakes and avoid hitting the truck in front of me, and the poor guy behind me had to swerve into the shoulder toward the retaining wall (is there a law that states that I-40 MUST be under construction at all times, coast-to-coast?) and narrowly avoided plowing right into us!  If we’d been literally 20 feet farther up the road, there was no shoulder, and he would have had to hit me and the wall.  Which brings me to my main point:  God is so good!!  Gaylon and I had an awesome time all weekend long, and the whole time we could see God’s blessings all around us.  It was terrific, and I really hope we get to get away again soon!

So we took the kids to camp last Saturday!  You would think it would be nice and quiet around here, but so far, that’s not really been the case.  We  had people here working on the rock on our front porch, we have a guy here painting Alex’s and Faith’s rooms (which will be a total suprise for them w hen they come home next weekend!), we’ve had a jewelry party.  We’ve been BUSY!

But finally, today, Gaylon and I are getting away.   We are headed for Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a weekend alone.  Tonight we are going to stay up late and watch their famous Midnight 4th of July Parade.  Tomorrow, we thought it would be a lot of fun to spend the 4th at Dollywood, where patriotism is still alive and thriving!  Saturday we are going hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  In fact, we may do a bit of that this afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  The rest of our time we are just going to chill.

Alex and Faith seem to be having a terrific time at camp.  Faith goes to Camp Merri-Mac for Girls, and Alex goes to Camp Timberlake for boys.  The two camps share the property, but all of their activities are seperate.  I’ve had a lot of people ask me if it’s ‘Bible Camp’.  No.  They do devotionals every morning, and on Sundays they have a service.  They also provide transportation for their Catholic campers to go to Mass.  But the best way to describe their camps is to say that they are like on ‘Parent Trap’.  They have lots of activites, like horseback riding, rock climbing, kayaking, archery, riflery, soccer, art, gymnastics, fencing, and Alex’s personal favorite: paintball!

They also have Indian tribes that all of the new campers are initiated into the first day of camp each year.  Alex and Faith are both Iroquois.  The other tribes are Seminole (for boys and girls) and Choctaw (girls only).  When I was a kid, I went to camp at Heart O’ The Hills Girls Camp down in Hunt, Texas.  It was really similar, except it was only girls on the property, and our Indian tribes were Pawnee and Shawnee.

So, I’m off to pack!

I am very excited to be headed down to Georgia in the morning to do a bit of research. My mother’s great-grandmother was Eulalie Boggs, and her family was from Oglethorpe County, Georgia. My mission tomorrow and the next day is to dig up documentation that will help me take the family back

Eulalie Boggs Scott (1869-1909)

a generation or two more. I think my chances are better than average, since the street one block off of Main Street is Lexington, Georgia is named (are you ready??) Boggs Street! If nothing else I can take a picture of the street sign for the scrapbook, right?

I am proud to say that Eulalie’s father, Choang T. Boggs was a Sergeant-Major in the Confederate Army. 1st Georgia Regulars, Company H. After the war, he was a School Teacher. They left Georgia sometime after 1880 and moved to Ouachita County, Arkansas. It was here that young Eulalie met her future husband, Armstead Lee Scott, who would eventually move her to Texas.

I am looking forward to my trip very much for several reasons. One, it has been quite a few years since I’ve been able to spend a couple of afternoons poking around in dusty old archives. I love that! Two, it will be gloriously Spring down in good ol’ Oglethorpe County, GA. It’s been a bit nippy up here, and I’m looking forward to the warmth. Furthermore, my friend Lisa is going with me! She is planning on studying and writing some sort of paper for her nursing class while I poke around in ancient probate records. But, come evening, we will have a wonderful time, I’m sure! It’s always more fun to have a traveling companion. It will be a nice working break for both of us!

Well, I am up in Indiana with a friend who needs me to be a character witness for him in court tomorrow!  Kendall and I are going to be available to be called to the witness stand to speak on his behalf.  There is the possibility that we might not get to testify, but just in case, we are ready.  It is my sincere prayer that he will be able to bring his son home with him after this.  I am going to say a rosary tonight for his family.  I think a prayer to St. Jude is in order, too.

Our house is coming along well.  We have footers, basement walls, and the basement plumbing done.  If all goes as planned, they will come Tuesday to pour the foundation slab, and I think things will really start to move along after that.  I have an appointment Monday to go and talk to an interior designer about my kitchen, and we’ll probably discuss bathrooms, too.  I want to spend the bulk of our money in the kitchen and master bath, the other bathrooms don’t need to be as "luxurioius", LOL!

Soooo. . . all-in-all, things are going really well.  Everyone has been sick really early this year with the bronchial chest stuff, so hopefully we will be done for the year (season?) and not have to do our yearly ordeal with it in Jan/Feb.

Random note:  there are a TON of really cute shops up here, and I really wish we had time to go check them all out and do a little shopping.  But apparently we are leaving as soon as court is over to head down to Kentucky so the boys can do some rock-climbing.  But that should give me some more time alone, and that will be nice.  Tonight I get my own room, and the guys all have their own room.  That’s nice, too.