The Story of a Lifetime: Stranded

Alright, well......Sunday was quite a peaceful day and after having not planned to go anywhere it was just so very pretty we took off for the lake. We haven't been out there in awhile and everybody's talking about how much the water has risen. Camera in hand we headed out the door to see what all we could discover. Winding our way through the hills and green pastures dotted with cows, goats and sheep we were all quite in love with the day. When we arrived at our little, what seems like, private boat ramp it didn't take much to see that it was now submerged in water, a 1st since we've lived here. So, taking any kind of family pic was not quite an option there. After wading around there for awhile we took off in search of some more fun picture places. Any ounce of pride I had concerning the pictures I have the ability to get of them pretty much went out the window as I began clicking the camera. And I couldn't very well do random shots of them playing due to the rattlesnake issues in the grass and the water level now up around our favorite spot. I'm not sure what exactly it takes to get 6 excited kids and 1 sleepy baby all lined up and have everybody smiling....but whatever it is, I definitely didn't have it on Sunday! None of them will ever win picture of the year award.....but it was kind of fun and is rather priceless in capturing reality at its finest.

So I kind of cut off Gavin's head in this pic and Evye's not really holding it to begin with but it's a funny picture

Last October with no water

Sunday with lots of water

But that was all before getting stranded at the lake by a ball joint bearing, or something of the sort, going out on the Suburban. I'm not exactly sure I'd ever envisioned, or even kind of thought, what would ever happen if we were to get stuck somewhere out here. And there's plenty of places to get really stuck with no cell phone reception...no matter how great your reception is. As usual, we did our turning around in the pastures when we saw something worth going back for and it just happened to be in one of those pasture turns that I became quite convinced we wouldn't be going farther than that point. It seriously sounded like the bottom of everything just fell out. I drove slowly, like creeping-along slowly, to a point where I thought I could get some reception and a place that was paved too. I figured as long as I was at it I might as well find a good snakeless point in which to assess the problem. It would've taken Brad an hour to get to us so after talking it over with him and telling him our predicament and wasting another 45 minutes trying to decide what to do and describe it, as Garrett and Gavin both screamed in the background hungrily, we agreed I just needed to get the Suburban home....that is if it didn't blow up before then. I think that had to be the absolute longest car ride in the history of the US. Have you ever done 20 mph for 45 miles?????? So, a little restless and bored after chatting with all of the wildlife, cattle, sheep and goat herds for miles on end (seriously....they could've run faster than we were going) I finally picked it up to 40. At 40 we started smelling smoke and rubber, which was of course no less than the ball joint bearing or lack thereof, grating on the tire...or something to that effect. Brad explained it and said to keep driving. Ummmmm........ok, if you say so. So, with Grayson asking the same freakin questions 90 million times about what exactly is going on with it, Evye and Aubrey fighting in the backseat and Garrett and Gavin both screaming quite noisily at this point we back it back down to.......yes, 25 mph. In my logical mind it only made since that the smell, therefore the burning and wearing of the tire, would go away at a slower speed. Obviously, I'm not a mechanic or even an individual with any knowledge of vehicles since we drove on at 25 with the smell still smelling. Maybe if I'd actually thought through it a little I might would have come to the conclusion that if the tire is even turning at ALL then it is being burned. Now having figured that small little part out after 50 freakin miles I finally figured if it was going to burn and smoke then we might as well just hurry up and get home. So, I sped up to 50 and we all sat in the aroma of smoke and burnt rubber for the duration of the trip home. Lovely.

Everybody was way more concerned with the scalding rock they were sitting on

I thought it was kind of funny........Brad didn't really ever get to that point. I think all he ever saw was his entire family in a smoking Suburban driving down a lonely, seldom traveled 2 lane highway.......and then of course in his manly mind, all of the money flying out the window with each turn of the wheel......seeing as how everytime it turned it was a little more burned than the last....not to mention the whole little ball joint issue that now has to be addressed. So, here we are now stranded at home vs the lake with no way to get anywhere. Due to his truck not even fitting 1/2 of us we can't exactly go anywhere. In my restless state feeling a little claustrophobic and jailed I decided to tackle my projects. The absurd part is the fact that we probably wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway. I think it's just the knowing that we CAN'T go anywhere if we wanted to that spurs the confined and phobic feelings. So, our poor Suburban now sits crippled in the carport until we get to a point in life where we can have it fixed. Oh well, better stranded here than at the lake, I suppose.

Some good has come out of it since I have been forced to deal with my obsessive cleaning attack. Instead of being gripey about it and staying in a continually stressed out mood I actually put us all to work to get the task done. But........I very wrongly assumed it was an easy 1 day project. This is more like a freakin 30 day project. I took pictures of the closet just so I could remember how bad it was so I could compare the before and after pics. Needless to say, I'm STILL working on it. Who knew a closet could hold so much crap. The terms "tossing" and "decluttering" don't even quite seem to do it justice. Ad you know, I'm a very organized person in most things. Our junk drawers, bathrooms and everyday life stuff is very clearly labeled, organized and easy to get to. They all have specific baskets, bins and places to reside. Why my closet was never included in that organization process, I'm not quite sure. Well.....yes, I am. It was a very intimidating project and a very LARGE project. For some reason I have this thing with clothes. Clothes and the thought of them just overwhelm me so it's easier to never deal with it. The whole changing of the season thing of the children's clothes is such a major undertaking and such a huge dreaded task that I just tend to get one needed thing out at a time and then they all end up piling up and it becomes a huge monstrous pile of clothes crap......in season, out of season, outgrown and wearable......all shoved in corners or bins....all in my closet.

Anyway, here we are stranded at home and up to our eyeballs in crap....or more nicely put, organization projects......before we really get going with school. Next project up is the pantry.

And as I was taking pictures on Sunday and then again yesterday I was so ovecome with how blessed we are to haveb een given each and every one of them and how beautiful each one of them are. Look at these eyes!