Sherman, Texas

What an exciting trip to Sherman we had...first we left the house shortly before 1pm, a pretty good start for us. We were doing really good, making good time until we got to St. Louis, Missouri. We noticed that the car next to us was trying to get our attention and signaling that something was wrong with our van. Since we had a pack on top of the van, we thought that was the problem, so Dwayne pulled over, checked it and it was all just fine. On we went until another car was signaling us, but this guy was much better with his signal, he got through to us that our tire was going flat. We drove to the next gas station, which is farther than you really want to go on an almost flat tire, pulled in and discovered a very flat looking tire. Dwayne filled it up, we could not hear any leaking, so we were thinking we would be ok. We thought since we were already stopped it would be a good time to fill up on gas and have everyone take a potty break. After filling up with gas, both Dwayne and I decide to check the tire again, and we both hear the much dreaded hissing sound. There is a screw in our tire. Do you know how hard it can be to find a tire place sometimes? The first one was already closing when Dwayne went in, but sent him to their next place of business that was open for at least another hour. All this time as we are looking for a tire place to have our tire looked at we are hearing of all the flooding in the area that could possibly block the road we were planning to take out of St. Louis on our way to Oklahoma. We keep looking at the map trying to find another possible route, but they could all take us a lot more time and we are just not sure if they will work, because we are still going over the rivers that are causing the flooding. Finally, after we get our tire patched, (Yea...it only needed patched!) the guy at the tire place says we are just better off taking our original route and waiting in traffic if necessary. So, off we go again, after wasting about 2 hours in St. Louis. We are listening to the traffic on the radio as we exit onto the highway we find out the exit we are using opened up only moments before we got there and now the highway we are taking is completely clear with no back ups. What we could have been waiting for 10 miles is totally gone!!! As we are driving down that highway looking on both sides of the highway you can see roads and businesses under water, the flooding was that bad. We saw a semi almost completely covered in water. Talk about God's timing for us, 2 hours working on a tire is much better than 2 hours sitting in going no where traffic.

We finally pull over to spend the night in a hotel at Springfield, Missouri. That gets us just close enough so that we should arrive in Sherman around 3 or 4pm the next day. It is so nice to lay down in a bed instead of trying to sleep in the van. Of course, we always pick hotels with a free breakfast, because if you have seen how my son eats, that almost pays for the room. After a nice filling breakfast, off we go. We are making good time, getting excited, when all of a sudden I hear a horrible sound...puking...a child puking...Tobi is puking all over her new princess pillow. Oh my gosh, it smelled so bad. Dwayne is hurrying as fast as he can to find a gas station. We finally get pulled over and Dwayne has to throw away the pillow because it is just too covered to get cleaned on this trip. Lucky for us, the pillow caught most of it, so she was fairly easy to get cleaned up. We bought some wipes and freshener spray. It takes a lot of spray to try and get rid of that smell, but off we go to finish our trip.

We finally arrive in Sherman around 4pm, check into our hotel, a very nice room, then we head off to find a good place to eat. Now, Dwayne has lived in Texas before and loved it. He is ready to show his family all the cool Tex-Mex food places, but on that first night, I really wanted something familiar, so off to Olive Garden we all go. It is so nice to be somewhere you know. During dinner we get a call from Dwayne's boss and we get to go and check out where Dwayne will be working...a huge place, very nice. The kids loved the open space to run while we were looking around. I think Dora did a dozen or so cartwheels. Then we went off to Target, because when you have been dealing with cold days all winter, it is really hard to remember what 60 and 70 degree sunny days feel like and my son and youngest daughter need new summer shoes, also maybe they will need some shorts for the 80 degree day that will becoming up...lol.

Sunday was just another chillin' day before Dwayne heads off to work on Monday. We drove around a lot just looking at some possible communities in the area. Dwayne got a lot of feed back from people at work, which ends up narrowing down our search. We will end up looking in either Howe or Van Alstyne, Texas when it comes time to move. Van Alstyne will be our first choice, it has a highly rated school and a nice small town.

The rest of the week is just me dropping Dwayne off at work, the kiddos and I exploring the area and then picking Dwayne up from work. The kiddos and I checked out an aquarium in Dallas, oh my that is one huge city, shopping at Target every day, Chuck E Cheese for lunch, checking out an Pioneer Village, where Tobi picked up a very interesting story about a skull if you ask her about it you will need one of us to explain it to you...lol, a beautiful afternoon in a park and swimming...lots of swimming.

We got a little bit of an earlier start on our way home, and we had no problems at all on the way home, so we it only took us 15 hours and 8 minutes to get home. It felt so good to sleep in our own beds, in our own rooms...far away from each other...lol. I must say it is hard sharing a one room hotel room with 6 people for 6 nights!

Here are a few picts!

Sari, Brighton, Dora and Tobi next to a huge fish at the Aquarium.

Sari, Brighton, Dora and Tobi at the Aquarium.

Cari, Dora, Brighton, Tobi and Sari standing in front of a Jail cart that was used to hold up to 30 prisoners at night along the road they were working on.

Brighton, Sari, Dora and Tobi sitting in front of the one room cabin that housed a guy, his wife and their 14 children...it made us feel better about sharing our bigger hotel room with just 6 of us.

The kiddos enjoying the hot tub.

Check out this huge climbing rock at the playground.

Tobi conquers her fear of this huge slide.