We've Graduated......

........up to redneck.

We are now sitting in the lap of luxury with this monstrous beast! I think we have now completed the picture of town freak show. The people here think it is absolutely the funniest thing that's taken place in the town in a long while. They laugh when they drive by. I laugh when I drive up in my own driveway! Who wouldn't????!!! I had to keep everything under wraps until we made our Thanksgiving trips. We picked it up this past Thursday evening and took it on its first family fun trip just yesterday. It is soooooooo much fun and we have been so entirely blessed. The way it even came to us was a miracle and what we paid for it was the work of an Almighty God working on our behalf. It is the most fun, craziest, off the wall thing I think we have ever in a lifetime done. It's what keeps our life so much fun, interesting and merely entertaining. And if there was ever a doubt before......we know more now than ever that the Lord does indeed have a hysterically funny sense of humor.

We were both painfully aware that we have long sense outgrown the Suburban. We make it work and are so committed to living out of debt that we are being still and waiting on the Lord. We refuse to go into anymore debt so the Suburban continues to serve us well. But, the logistics of the Suburban occur when we face road trips. It is now down to taking 2 vehicles or we don't go. After figuring up what we would spend in gas taking his diesel truck and the Suburban we quickly realized we would be spending the same amount feeding Bertha, the lead rocket.....as Brad has affectionately named it. So, here we sit as the overwhelmingly blessed owners of her.



I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in all of my life as Mother and I followed Brad home the night we brought her home. She tops out at a phenomenal 62 miles an hour. As we wound our way through the west Texas hills in the dark he was messing with controls trying to figure it all out. Suddenly we'd be driving down the road at a whopping 50 miles an hour going uphill and the big yellow blinking slow down lights on top of either side of the bus would start lighting up the night in a school bus yellow glow. Just the mere thought that we owned it now was hysterically funny in and of itself and when paired with the obnoxious yellow blinking lights blinking like a railroad track sign I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pass out. Life and its twists and turns is just funny....especially when you have so many kids that you need this thing to get around in. It's a 66 passenger, 3/4 bus so I figure we're 7 kids down so just 59 more to go. How much better....or funnier........does it get??!!





So.....on to our first trip in this beast. We were able to throw absolutely every riding toy we owned into the back of it and Brad only had to take out one seat. It fit both scooters, all 4 toddler riding toys, both Grayson's and Evye's big bikes and then the bouncer for Gavin. It was heaven! We then piled up tons of blankets and pillows and the children set to work making a tent over a percentage of the seats. Garrison, Grant, Garrett and Gavin were all in carseats that Brad had rednecked securely in with a winch rope. I need to get pics of that too. You can't help but laugh. Garrett had an initial fear of his life being in jeopardy the 1st few times he rode in it but he warmed up to it pretty quickly once he had his carseat. It seems funny to me how children love boundaries. Once he was strapped in and back to being the life of the party I remembered back to reading the book "Boundaries with Kids" and was reminded how children thrive in life with boundaries because it means safety and security in their little worlds........the very reason that the children that are allowed to run free with few and far between rules are some of the most insecure bullyish kids that grow into insecure bullyish adults.





It didn't take long at all to fall in love with traveling in such bliss. The freedom of being able to get up and move around to get to stuff that was not buried under seats was just incredible. And then to be able to reach the kids was another novelty. It seemed rather ironic to me though that we now have 33 rows down each side of this bus and somehow somewhere along the way the un-carseated kids all ended up on the 1st 2 rows of the bus. Why is that????????? I finally turned around and looked at them in sheer disbelief and told them they have rows upon rows of heavenly vehicle bliss and we are all crammed up on the front 2 seats together breathing in each others hair. What's up with that???!!!!! So, they were banished to the back to make up bus games and do other bus things.





And at some point in their banishment came another unbelievable turn of events. So, we have these 33 rows..........or however many there since the forever mathematically minded Grayson has counted them.......and on a back one not far from the back door I wedge in the 2 pans of sweet potato casserole I had made on Friday. Tucked neatly up and secured with pillows and blankets we watched them the 1st few miles to make sure they were going to stay. All was well. I never gave it a 2nd thought. But as I was going from the back of the bus from laying down and playing with the children to the front of the bus to chat with Brad over the roar of the engine...and roar it does......I happened to pass by the pans of casserole. And astonishingly......yet not so astonishingly......one of the 2 pans had 3 child size foot prints now within it. After getting over being mad about it I just laughed. It seemed to complete the picture any of holiday attempt we take on.....where you are assured at least one thing will go really wrong. Still kind of mad about it I asked who the guilty one was. Of course, no one really paid attention to where their feet landed so no one could really say who did it. Finally after going back and forth between the 3 of them Grayson finally just said, "Mom, just have everybody stick their foot up there and compare foot sizes to the prints." Seeing the humor in it I finally laughed it off and just became grateful for the foil and plastic sack that covered it. It was saved from a disastrous end due to the foot just making a huge imprint but never coming into contact with the food itself. So it was that the pecanless sweet potato casserole was eaten despite the 3 large footprints that screwed up the topping.

Nothing like enjoying life with a few of your closest friends...especially when there's a new toy to play in

Arriving at Brad's parents' was just as fun as this entire thing has been. Since the neighbors seemed to be having a garage sale of some sort parking was severely limited in every way....of course, making this whole thing even funnier. Being the expert on driving monstrous size pieces of equipment Brad expertly parallel parked Bertha in between large amounts of cars. I couldn't quit laughing. Everytime he braked and had to back up to fit it in the air brakes hissed and squeaked obnoxiously and it began to sound a little reminiscent of a train hissing and groaning to a stop. By this time Brad was laughing right along with me. It successfully brought out the neighbors. As the children began exiting the bus it became quite clear to the neighbors who we were. Some came and greeted us and wanted to know names and ages of the children. They thought the bus was great and found it just as funny.





The day got even funnier as Brad and Grayson unloaded everything.....including all of the outside toys. It looked a little like the Cat in the Hat. The entire bus exploded with all kinds of crap and the children played hard, spreading it all out throughout the day. Then just as suddenly as it had exploded it was just as suddenly picked up and put back on board and we were pulling out with no signs of having ever been there. It was kind of like the bus just threw up and then sucked it all back in and it was over.





Brad's mom's mom and his aunt came, which we haven't seen since Ben died. It was good seeing them. It felt good to have so much praise showered upon the children from his aunt. It makes everything we do here at home so entirely worthwhile. She said that they are absolutely beautiful in pictures but she never expected them to ever be so well behaved, good and happy. She said not only are they beautiful on the outside but they are just as beautiful within too. She repeated over and over throughout the day how amazed she is by them and how incredible they all are....from their manners to their happiness to their social graces. There are days in time when it feels like everything in the world that you do starts to fall into place and it all comes together at one time. This week has been one of those times......from the field trip we took with our fellow large family homeschoolers on Thursday to having friends over on Friday to the trip Saturday and then church this morning. I am starting to see in the children what we have strived to attain for so very long. And I know that it is not just me that sees the effort and hardwork that has gone into it all.


Ands on a side note.......this is not the daycare passenger van! We have been so incredibly blessed in every regard. This bus just came out of the blue and here we are as the owners of this thing. I called the daycare lady this past Tuesday and was overwhelmed yet again by the goodness of God. Not only is the board getting ready to meet on the 26th but our family had come to her mind the very day I made the phone call to her. She said our family is on all of their hearts and they are looking forward to discussing it. The van and our family is one of the first things on the agenda to be discussed. We live in faith of what God is capable of doing and wait in hope with excited expectancy because of how much He loves us and how blessed we are for living in obedience to what He is telling us to do.