A Most Eventful Weekend...

On our way to ALR!

Two of my upline and I headed off on a road trip on Thursday (Jan 8th) to Ridgedale, MO (near Branson) for the Advanced Leadership Conference with our company, Usborne Books & More.  Our trip up was nice, trouble-free.  Stephanie and Holly had made the drive the year before in a dense fog and kept joking about how they almost died because they could not see... and there are a lot of high, mountain passes and twisty curves, so, yes... they had been in danger!  Our drive was fine, though.  We made it to the beautiful Big Cedar Lodge and had a wonderful first evening and full day of training the next.  The boys were staying with my parents Thursday evening, and Michael picked them up on Friday after he got off from work. 

Well, very late Friday night Michael started having what he thought were bad heartburn pains, and then coughing up blood.  He called me at 3am saying, "I think I have an emergency."  I tried to calm him down and figure out what was going on, but I'm not good at anything medical, so I didn't know.  When I hung up with Michael after that call, I didn't know what he was going to do... and since I didn't hear back from him, I figured it must have passed and he went back to sleep.  I didn't sleep much myself wondering and worrying, but got a text from him about 7am saying "I'm not dead yet, but at the ER.  Running tests!"  I didn't realize he had driven himself and the boys to the ER (and apparently Callen put up a big mean fuss about being woken up, yikes!)  Thankfully, Michael's parents are down for a two-month long visit and staying relatively near by, so Steve came and got the boys from the ER and brought them back to our house and they went back to bed.  I called my mom and asked her to go to the house and take over for Steve so he could go back up to the hospital to be with Michael.

After going back and forth through text with Michael and Steve, turns out the tests pointed to Michael's gallbladder and it needed to be removed ASAP.  SURGERY!  I was so upset that I wasn't there and was having a really hard time deciding between staying where I was and rushing back to Texas by myself.  Everyone told me to stay where I was, so I listened.  Michael was in good hands at the hospital, his dad was there, my kids were with my mom... there wasn't much I could do.  I tried to continue with a full-day of sitting through training, but I had a difficult time concentrating.  The word spread quickly and everyone was coming up asking questions and offering prayers and and nice words.  I even got a hug and a few words of encouragement from Randall White, our President/CEO.  I remember crying a lot, praying a lot and blowing up my phone with texts and calls all day long.  Michael's surgery kept getting pushed back, till finally about 5pm, he went in.  I could have been there had I left that morning.  The surgery went well, and this gallbladder was full of stones, according to the doctor.  He had 4 holes poked into him.  He stayed over night and was released on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday morning was the day we were supposed to leave Big Cedar Lodge and the girls riding with me agreed we could leave at 6am, so we jumped up and got in the car (in our PJs and all!), intending to miss a storm that was coming in from the Northeast.  Well, turns out we ran smack dab into the middle of one that was in Arkansas.  The main freeway was shut down and there was about a 2 hours standstill reported, so the GPS offered an alternate route, which LOOKED like it bypassed the mountains completely.  That seemed like a good idea at the time.  Well, we soon found out it steadily went right up a mountain and was far less traveled, which is NOT a good combination.  We passed many cars spun off on to the sides of the road and kept going.  Then we got to a part with a sign that read "Steep Slope Ahead."  Uh oh.  Indeed.  The entire highway was a giant sheet of ice, and there was absolutely nothing I could do anymore.... there was no way to accelerate so we just kind of came to a slow stop, and then the car started sliding sideways.  We slid, almost in slow motion, into a guard rail on the side of the road.  It was pretty much a straight drop down the other side of it, but luckily we just struck the guard rail a little.  We tried to get out, but the highway was, as I said, one giant sheet of ice, it was impossible to cross or walk around on.  We didn't see any other civilization, no real houses or businesses.  So, we sat there for a while, charging up our phones, calling 911 to let them know where we were exactly, letting our loved ones know we had a bit of delay, lol. 

Just slowly slid and stopped there.

Solid sheet of ice!

We sat on the side of the road there for about an hour and a half.  We got periodic calls from the 911 dispatch saying they couldn't come to us because all of their resources were stuck, too.  The firetruck had slid off into a ditch, the two sheriff trucks were off the roads, the wrecker was wrecked, etc.  REALLY!  We pretty much made it the farthest up the mountain out of anyone, and no one could come for us!  At one point we saw some hope!  A sand truck was making it's way up and around the corner, but then before our very eyes, it slid off the road, too.  Thankfully, the fireman who had the firetruck off into the ditch a little ways down came to check on that guy, and saw us!  He was able to make his way over to use and ask us if we wanted to come down to where he and a bunch of others were gathered in some warm work trucks.  My car wouldn't start at that point, I had ran the battery down charging the phones and such, oops!  So, we decided to take him up on that.  We gathered some stuff and blankets and headed along the guard rail with him down the mountain.  A little ways down I noticed a house across the street, and having to go to the bathroom pretty badly by then, wondered out loud if those people were home because it'd be nice to use there bathroom!!!  The sweet Fireman, grabbed his phone and goes, "Let me call them!"  We then realized we were in a town of 399 people, everyone knew everyone in Winslow, AR!  Thankfully, they were home and we could come use their bathroom, but we had to figure out how to cross the highway, which was solid ice.  Fireman Shane said he had witnessed a lady walk along on her blanket for traction, so we tried it and worked.  Was a very interesting experience shuffling along across a highway on a blanket (IN MY PJs, mind you!), but it worked. 

These sweet older couple let us into their home and we used their bathroom, they offered us coffee and cookies and said we could stay there as long as we needed.  Stephanie asked if they were football fans and they turned on the Cowboy game for us, lol.  They served us lunch and everything.  We had a wonderful time getting to know these people who saved our lives.  At this point I hadn't told Michael what had happened because I didn't want him worrying about me, so when I found out he was finally home with his mom, I called and told him the story.  We tried so hard to get up early and get home as fast as we could, we ended up with an extra 5-hour delay.  Finally, it rained a bit and warmed up a little, so the sand truck was able to drive backwards, sanding himself up the mountain.  We jump started the car and got it off the guard rail and everything looked fine.  The sweet couple escorted us all the way back down to the mountain and over to the main freeway again.  And we were on our way home at last.  I got home about 9pm on Sunday.

Whew.  What a weekend to remember!  Thankfully, Michael is doing much better now, he is healing very well and back to moving around and working and all that.  The dent in the car popped itself out pretty much, which is awesome.  And good grief, I learned my lesson about Arkansas back roads!

Michigan Vacation Recap...

Wow, ok, I kept saying to myself that I'd sit down and blog about our Michigan vacation in full detail with pictures and links and everything.  And, well... it's been nearly three weeks and I have not had the time to sit and focus like that... nor do I see that opportunity arising in the future.  So, dang it.  This will have to do...

Route 1: Grand Prairie, TX to Whitehall, MI

Friday, Aug 3rd:

Michael arrived home from work later than expected and it took us longer to pack up than expected as well.  Late start, but finally on the road around 330pm.  We got about an hour into the trip and Preston already had to go to the bathroom.  Stopped for Dinner and bathroom in Greenville.  Then proceeded to drive all night.  Several stops for bathroom, drinks, snacks, diaper changes.  One particularly memorable diaper change occurred in the middle of no where Arkansas.  Callen started complaining that his bottom hurt quite vehemently, so we pulled over at the next exit... nothing but cornfields, not even a streetlight.  Oh well.  Proceeded to change the kid, who was neither wet nor messy (grr!), and approximately 1billion mosquitoes flew into our vehicle because of the light.  Oops.  That was NOT cool.  We also realized that we were getting very poor gas mileage and the wind noise caused by the overheard luggage was incredibly irritating.  We decided to stop, also in Arkansas, and take everything down from the luggage rack and cram it in the back so we could stop the noise AND get better gas mileage.  To our surprise, everything fit fine.  We didn't even NEED the luggage rack and cross bars, which we had purchased specifically for this trip because we though the back was simply too small for our luggage.  Sigh.  Anyway, other than that our overnight drive went rather smoothly and we arrived at our destination around 1130am on Saturday morning.

Saturday, Aug 4th:

Arrived in Michigan, then drove through a parade in Grand Rapids and finally ended up in Whitehall, Michigan - our final destination!  Left the kids with grandparents and attempted to rest for a while.  Enjoyed checking out "Grandma" and "Grandpa's" house, and the nice lake view out their back window.  And the kids fell in love with their giant basement.  Michael and I were able to slip away after dinner and have dessert by ourselves at Pekadill's.  Mmm!

Sunday, Aug 5th:

Church and lunch afterwards at... Pekadill's.  We got to spend some time with Great Aunt Laura there.  Great Grandma Kathy came over and Callen got to meet her for the first time in person!  Later we all went to Duck Lake and splashed around in the little creek there, and went out into Lake Michigan.  Callen LOVED the little creek.  However, as soon as we got a bit out into the "big water," and a large wave smashed into his face, he wasn't so crazy about the water.  Plus, it was a bit cool and he couldn't stop shivering, poor thing!  Preston loved every bit of it.  Michael and he ran up and down the sand dune, and thankfully didn't fall!

Monday, Aug 6th:

Michael's birthday!  He wanted to go sailing so he, Preston and Steve went over to a friend's house to borrow a boat.  Michael and Preston sailed a little ways, then the winds kicked up and pushed them into the shore... they had to abandon the boat and walk back to the friend's house.  And when the got there the friend and Steve were gone.  They had gone in another boat to tow back to the sail boat because they had seen what happened.  It was quite a little adventure for Preston!  After that we visited a little tourist town called Pentwater... it was so fun.  We visited the Cosmic Candy Company to get some pressed pennies for Preston.  And I scored some delicious Michigan Cherry Coffee, mmme!  Then we went out to Ludington State Park to get some more pennies and visit the dam.  We also went over to the SS Badger Car Ferry for some pennies.  Played at the park there and had a pizza picnic.  The kids were rather grumpy off and on even though the weather was nice and we were having fun along the way

Tuesday, Aug 7th:

We knocked ourselves out on Tuesday!  We picked blueberries... the boys loved that, so much fun!  Then we went to Mac Wood's Dune Rides, the Country Dairy and Lewis Farm to pet some animals.  At the Country Dairy we got to drink all the milk/chocolate milk we wanted, visit some cows and had some yummy lunch.  That place was neat... next time we'll have to go earlier to get to do the dairy tour (it was closed).  That evening we went out to see the sunset on the Lake at White River Light Station.  It was lovely. It was a full day of fun and being outside in the nice weather.

Wednesday, Aug 8th:

The boys, Michael and I went down to Holland to visit the little Dutch Village to get some pennies.  We had lunch, went out to see Pere Marquette and the Big Lake again.  Then went and visited with Great Grandma Kathy again.  And met up with Steve, Jill and Laura at the Unity Fest Concert.  We saw Manic Drive, Abandon Kansas, Group1Crew and Peter Furler and Phil Joel.  It was fun... and it drizzled on us.  

Thursday, Aug 9th:

Michael wanted to take Preston out on a canoe ride, but he wouldn't go (grumpy guts!) so Michael went with his Dad.  The kids and I just hung out around the house.  Later we went out to a little town called Bitely because they had a little shop there with a penny machine, and pretty much nothing else.  We stopped and ate at a restaurant called "Daniel's." And we dropped by an Amish store... with no electricity and all kinds of fun little things!  That evening, Michael and I had a date by ourselves for dinner at Sam's Bistro.  We shared a yummy pizza, and the owner of the store gave us our dinner for free because Jill always sent him so much business!  Yay!  We started packing up and getting ready for the return trip.

Friday, Aug 10th:

We left around 815am and had several stops to make on the way to our hotel.  After the long drive there, we decided we needed to break up the trip home.  We stopped in Arcola, Indiana at Rockome Gardens.  It was this neat attraction that had a lot of Amish stuff, old schoolhouse and shops, a Raggedy Ann & Andy museum and all kinds of neat stuff.  Would have loved to stayed and looked around a while, but since we were on a schedule we just had to get the penny and go.  We also stopped at some truck stops in Portage, Indiana to get pennies.  We arrived in Marion, Illinois, where we were staying for the night (Sikeston was completely BOOKED!).  Got checked into our hotel and walked across the street to the 17th Street Grill for dinner and pennies!  It was delicous!  Then we drove over to Makanda to get some more pennies at their Boardwalk, but it was all closed up.  Booo!  (I left a note with some money and they ended up sending us the pennies in the mail, yay!).  We went back to the hotel and swam in the indoor pool, boys had a blast.  The hotel was REALLY great for the price... it was  a Country Inn & Suites, and I highly recommend it!

Saturday, Aug 11th:

Left the hotel around 815am and our first stop was at Boomland for pennies and drinks.  Then we stopped by Lambert's Cafe, but they didn't open for another 1.5 hours and we didn't want to wait so we had to skip those pennies.  We stopped in Benton, Arkansas for a penny and finally made it home all in one piece.

Whew!  It was a fantastic trip. The weather was so nice it was very hard to leave Whitehall that Friday.  We would have loved to stay for a week or two more, but just couldn't do it.  The boys had a great time, even though the fussed and complained about a lot of things... I know they enjoyed it.  It was so great to just get away and do fun stuff and enjoy family up there.  I can't wait to go again!

See Preston's Pennies blog post about the trip here.

Here are pix... they're not exactly in order.  Enjoy!