Catching Up.....

Lately, it seems we have been running to and fro across the whole earth, but in reality,we've only traversed the east coast a handful of times. We come home long enough to unpack, get enough clothes ready for the next trip, repack, and take off before we can get too settled in. Our beds hardly feel like our own anymore. : )

The Thursday after we arrived home from the roofing trip to MD, we packed up and headed out to the eastern part of NC. There were some things we had to take care of with the DOT concerning the placement of our driveway. As we have done almost every other time we had business to attend to that would require an overnight stay, we set up camp at the State Park nearby.

The first stay was a two-nighter. The one site with electrical hook-up was already reserved, so we chose a nice spacious site on the quiet side of the campground. We didn't realize how true that was until the second night.

We enjoy hearing people have a good time ~ laughing, joking, playing ~ but when 11, 12, 1 o'clock in the morning rolls around, it's time for some peace and quiet. Everyone finally drifted off to sleep. About 3:00, Daddy had to make one of those necessary trips to the bath house. The next thing we knew, he was rushing back to the camper rousing everyone from a deep sleep, urgently telling us that the campground was on fire. The first thing that went through our minds was Oh, that's just someone's campfire. But he was insistent and scurried off to warn the other "not-so-chipper-at-3:00-in-the-morning" campers. As we piled out of the camper and tent, we looked in the direction of the bath house, and, sure enough, there was an orange glow above the treetops......and it wasn't because the sun was rising. Sara was ready to pack up all of our belongings and break camp prepared for a quick evacuation, but was calmed down with assurances that if there was a need for evacuation, the ranger would notify us with plenty of time to spare. We were already hearing cries for water from that direction, and when we arrived on the scene, our eyes beheld a hilariously ridiculous sight. The people who occupied that campsite were running back and forth with water bottles trying to douse the fire which by now surrounded their campsite, then stomp it out with nothing but flip flops on their feet. What courageous firefighters! : ) Ha! Ha! : )

By this time, Ray had already contacted the fire department as well as the ranger (who showed up with his shirt on backwards.....poor thing!). They had the situation under control in no time, and the campers that were milling about watching all the commotion soon decided to return to their comfy beds.

As we stood there watching the blaze be smothered by the firefighters' hoses, a little lady came over to chat. "Some man came and knocked on our door and told us the campground was on fire. Do you know who that was?" Keisha smiled with a knowing look and said, "That was probably my dad." Hmmmm......no wonder there are so many spectators! : )

We had an enjoyable time with campfire cooking (Ray specializes in hamburgers over the open flame), and playing table games without anything but a battery powered lantern put a new twist on things.

Are you in TROUBLE?????

We got to witness tobacco harvesting for the very first time. What an experience! At first Valerie was a little timid about going too close to take pictures, but then the foreman-type guy motioned to us to come over and told us to take all the pictures we wanted. Yippee!!! : )

Then there was some goofing off.....

O.K., girls......don't you think you're going a little too fast there??? : )

Now this is a little bit switched up.

Sara has a battering ram.

There you go ~ you could pass off as the real thing. : )

Allison enjoyed her newest form of transportation.

Although it was kind of tough getting through all that sand. : )

All kinds of creatures in all different places.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

September 19th we traveled up to WV for a missions conference that lasted the 20th through the 23rd. The people at Heritage Independent Baptist Church were sooooo sweet and took us in as family.

This banner greeted us as we entered the church. How neat with all the letters as the different flags!

Ah! We had a visitor in church!

And here is the congregation. Small in numbers, but mighty in spirit!

While there, three stayed at one lady's house, three at another lady's house, and Dad and Mom stayed at yet another lady's house. For lunch Mon. - Wed. everyone would gather at Ms. Gladys' and eat. There we were introduced to the Wii. : )

What a spread!

Sara and Allison playing their duet.

On Tuesday, all of us "girls" got together and went shopping at the Rio Mall (long "i" sound). It was more like an indoor flea market, and as you can see, you had to rummage to find your treasures. What fun! Christina was able to get a beautiful tea pot along with the creamer, sugar, 5 cups and saucers, and 4 dinner plates -- all for just $35!

Wednesday, we went to Trout Lake and some hiked around the lake while others "hung out" on the playground. (No pun intended.) : )

The girls with the ladies they stayed with, Gladys and Beulah

Billy and Ray

The Shepps to the Navajo in New Mexico

One of the many delicious meals at the church.

Cute Daniel -- Aren't his eyes absolutely adorable?!?

Daddy preached three times during the conference

The Wilson Family

Hmmmmm....is this a lesson in karate???

Ray, Daddy, Pastor Wilkins, Mr. Shepp

A treasure Ray found in the stream at Gladys' house. Better ask our Louisiana friends the term given to this creature! : )

Mom and Dad with Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday, the 24th, we made our way over to Deale, MD. That's right ~ home of the Blue Crab. : )

Ray was able to do a little crabbing...

and Allison enjoyed feeding the seagulls.

Pretty soon, though, everyone rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The flat part of Mrs. Brown's roof needed redone. They started on it that Friday, and because of the rainy weather (does it always rain in Deale when you take the shingles off the roof?), it wasn't finished until Monday.

Ray's trimming the edge at the sliding glass doors

and Daddy's trimming the edge around to fit the corner perfectly

On Saturday, we had a small dinner party for Christina's birthday. Happy belated birthday, Christina!

Mrs. Brown presented us with $$100 sows and bucks$$. : )

Sunday morning, we dropped in for another visit to First Baptist Church in Deale. We've gotten to know them pretty well over the last couple of months.
Sunday night, we had a meeting at Odenton Baptist Church. This was the church we had visited during their building dedication. What sweet people! It's neat to see the bond the Lord gives you with other brothers and sisters in the Lord.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deale, MD is just a small town community with small town people, but it's a different story once you travel into Annapolis to do some shopping. We foreigners had somewhat of what you call culture shock. : )

We learned that pedestrians only have the right-of-way at the cross walk. All others cross at their own risk. It just doesn't seem fair, though, when someone pushes you out into the middle of the road while you stop to evaluate the situation, now does it, Allison? : ) As was already mentioned, pedestrians only have the right-of-way at crosswalks. : )

The Whole Foods Market
This was a really neat place. No artificial preservatives, no dyes or colors......just plain, whole food. It sure cut down on the label reading.

Target was on the third floor , and as we were riding the two sets of escalators up to the store, we were wondering how in the world people would get their full buggies down to ground level. We didn't have to wonder forever. As we were leaving with our handful of purchases, a lady briskly pushed her buggy through a little gate and down to the next floor it glided! And she acted as though this was an everyday occurrence!

The next time we decided we were going to do that, too. We bought the few things we needed, but remembered after going through the checkout that we had forgotten to get the buggy. Oh, well. We grabbed a buggy, put our things into it, and pushed it through the gate so we could watch our buggy go down the escalator. : ) It just had to get really busy about that time, so we were posing for pictures with the buggy escalator all the while people were gawking at us. We were as much a novelty to them as the buggy escalator was to us. Soooooo out-of-townish! : )

Tuesday, we packed up what we had brought plus some extras and headed back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seems that we can go nowhere within 50 miles of a Bass Pro Shops without them sniffing it out! Really, it was a welcome excuse to get out and stretch our legs, and the decor is different at each one lending an extra adventure for the eyes.
Ray has a goal of visiting all of the Bass Pro Shops. Well, that's four down and.......how many to go????????

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ray bought himself some new makeup. Looks like he got into the fingerpaints.

Yes, Ray ~ there was a reason they sold makeup remover.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a sample of our homemade chocolate maple syrup made as a topping for Sara's birthday cheesecake.

The face says it all! : )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This past Friday, we headed back out to our land to take care of a few minor details as well as tend to a little bit of business. This called for an overnight stay at the state park. It seems to be just the time for creatures of all types and sizes to be making their presence known.

This is one of the harmless and less feared ones.


Camp life is fun. Set up camp, zip down the windows letting the breeze blow right through, kick back, relax, and.........play Bananagrams!

We did have a bit creepier things crawling around such as this spider. Take a gander at the size in comparison to the eyelet on the tarp!

The creepiest thing was that when we took a closer look, we saw that her back was covered with babies. Ugh!

Then when Christina tried to make it move, it ran back under the tarp and the babies fell off and started running everywhere.

It was under Sara's side of the tent. She did say there was a big lump under her the night before.......

Well, after this much excitement, you can imagine that we're plumb tuckered out. So goodbye for now!