Sandwiches. Everyone likes 'em. Sandwiches.

My watch beeped twice today at 4:58. And then again once at 5:00. I find this very confusing. Is it taking after the watch in Stranger than Fiction? Well, if I start hearing voices...hm, never mind. :)

Roadtrip #2: HOUSTON!

"So have you heard about Cameron Mackintosh's latest musical? It's about these people who raise a pig and the rest of the town eats Spam."

How could you not miss misguided conversations like this? ;)

After three years of not making it down to Houston, I finally had the chance and had planned on flying. But I never bought the tickets. And something kept nagging at me. I had never really considered driving, simply because I usually flew. But I wasn't satisfied with the idea of flying. Until one morning in church when I was still mulling over the issue (I know, I know) and the lightbulb went off. What if I drove? But eight hours in a car? At these gas prices?

But Denton was almost halfway in between and if I didn't have to drive all eight hours in one go both ways, I was content. So Philip & Kelly graciously put me up again for another night and made it much easier. The drive though wasn't bad at all. I've never (that I can recall) been on a solitary roadtrip and it was pretty fantastic. Just driving to music? Or riding in silence? Perfect. Besides, no one needs to hear my rendition of Juggernaut after being in the car nine hours. Behind a van that won't go at stop signs.

This was such a great trip! I loved spending so much time with them. They're such a great family and Will is, of course, my very cool big brother so it was incredibly refreshing to hang out with all of them again and soak up his awesome hugs. We drove around the loop, watched the FIF documentary, had cheesebread, saw their cool library.... Ha, and we even got to go to Kroger. :)

While I was in Houston Kim began recommending books to me, and one in particular caught my eye that she had already checked out from the library: How I Killed Pluto & Why it Had it Coming. Written, as stated, by the guy who got Pluto kicked out of planet status (Michael Brown.) It's well worth the read if you have any interest in the topic, because it's not only very insightful on how astronomers and the international space community work, but it's also written well and pretty funny. Also, we almost had 100+ planets. There was so much going on at that time that we had no idea of!
As I was finishing up that one, Will highly recommended Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I managed to read the first half while I was there (and it is really beautiful) and he kindly lent the book to me to finish. Game of Thrones, my ever backup, will be on hold for awhile because this one has caught my attention more and takes precedence. Even if I haven't returned to it yet. (Still, after GoT I still plan to return to finally finishing Good Omens.)

Also, one night Dave & I had the opportunity to babysit the kiddos! Hm. Mind you, this was the very first time I have ever babysat. I mean, I've watched kids a lot, but not babies. Mostly because they terrify me. But I really wanted to help, and Kim's a great teacher, so we went with it. And, a few hiccups withstanding, everything went fine. They were lovely. I was really happy to spend time with both of them.
And to give you an idea of how sweet Isaac is: babies that small I am ambivalent about. About six months and up, I'm better. But when they can't even hold their head up, there's just too much that can go wrong. So I keep my distance and usually go play with the older kids. But I have to admit that by about the third time Isaac fell asleep against me I was pretty smitten.

Robbie is also a total doll. We played with trains, trucks, in the sandbox, had pillow fights, watched the fish movie, sharks, read books, tickled... You can't beat that. (Okay, so he was bolted past me when I first arrived and hid in the kitchen. But thankfully that was over with pretty quick. :) )

I was able to bust through Texas on the way back - I made it to Denton in a little over four hours, had dinner with Philip & Kelly, and was flying until I hit a screeching halt right. across. the. border. Seriously, maybe six miles into the border. Construction. Ridiculous traffic. As we inched our way along I glanced out of my window at a lady with her foot sticking out of the window while driving. Then a man with a basketball started dribbling up and down the highway and then made a return route doing tricks on the side of the road. And then a laptop caught my eye out of a rear windshield with a phone number on it in huge font. The laptop was then taken down and when it popped back up it read "SO BORED. SOMEONE PLEASE CALL US."
Later I saw the girl in the passenger seat of that car pump her fists as someone had apparently called her. It was pretty funny.
But I made it from Houston on one tank of gas and with that in mind and a new route through the Thackerville construction, I'm ready to go again. :)

"Mis Sherri, Mis Sherri, why did you fill the bathtub so high?! Why did you fill the bathtub so high?!"

"Are you a pillow?"
"No. I'm a Robbie. (beat) Trust me."