An Unexpected Visitor

We have spent the last couple of weeks enjoying a vacation and catching up with friends that live elsewhere. It has been so much fun! Family members, high school friends, church friends - all our pleasantly surprised to see us and very willing to catch us up on all the news. It was great to go back and enjoy some memories.

When we got home to Georgia, it felt wonderful. It was in the mid seventies, as opposed to the 105 degree temperatures in Oklahoma. The house was clean (gasp) and there were no creepy bugs lying around (double gasp) and the Postal Service managed to correctly deliver our mail on the date we requested (triple gasp). And then I found this ransom note...

I am not quite sure how the perpetrator and abettors got in to our lovely abode, but they did. Which made me glad that the house was clean and that there were no creepy bugs lying around.

Now we have to figure out how to get the blessed cereal bowl back, because breakfast without the perfect cereal bowl makes Scott a cranky boy.

Swimming In the Deep End

It is midnight, which means that I am now 38 years old. Gag me.

I am celebrating by wearing my birthday jewelry, enjoying time with the fam, and indulging in red velvet birthday cake. And I just found a june bug crawling on me. Gag me again.

"It was 20 years ago today (Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play)", when I was at Neat Week, rooming with Carrie Jane Hicks, taking a huge stack of clep tests, and wondering what my life at college would be like. I pretty much got it all wrong. But I managed to clep 18 hours, get a degree, get a job in my field, get married, get kids, and get much more wisdom from a series of 1,000,000 decisions that have forever changed my world.

So here's to everyone, who upon reaching the deep end of their 30s, who knows that life cannot be predicted, that the impossible is bound to happen, and that joy will be found in the most unexpected places. After years of second guessing, I can no longer deny that God has controlled it all and my job is to give Him the glory.

I'm signing off now - I just batted away another june bug and the stupid things are creeping me out.

Big Sky Country

Today was a fun day for the family. We went to some of my favorite Montana places and we drove through some be-youtiful parts of Montana. The family had a pretty good time, too.

One of the most incredible things about Montana, in my opinion, is the sky. Oklahoma has a beautiful sky, but in Montana the colors are different, the elevation is different, and you have mountain ranges framing all the skies. The skies have been stormy lately, and you can look to your right and see the storm, but on your left you see the prettiest blue with the most incredible white clouds.

Driving back to Bozeman today, we were talking about our trip and we started seeing rainbows. We saw double rainbows, we saw the entire arch several times, and we saw the end of the rainbow, but no pot of gold. We lost count of all of the rainbows we saw today. It was probably just the same one over and over again, but it ended someplace different as we wound around the highway. It was a wonderful visual.

How Cold Can You Go?

I took the girls to the Big Timber Water Slide today. It is a bit of a misnomer because there are about eight water slides plus play areas for small children. It was not even 70 degrees and the water is actually melted snow. And it rained on us.

But, so much fun! And it is cheap, considering the prices I see in Atlanta. The good parts are when one water slide actually takes you into the hill and gets pitch black and you can't see where the turns come next. Darby loved everything, Roxy loved everything, and I passed on the water slide where you had to climb five flights of stairs to do it. I had been there two hours at that point, and my creaky arthritic knees had to just say no. Too bad the lightning came - darn, momma can't do that big slide.

I have done an inventory and everyone has all ten fingers, all ten toes, no one has hypothermia, but all three of us have been chilly for the entire evening. Makes me wonder what polar bears are thinkin', those idiots that dive into icy waters up North. They are certifiable.

The Weekend - the Small Town Version

It's been a while since the Franks' fam has absorbed what life really is in a small town. But this week, we are getting all caught up on the machinations of Big Timber MT. This is what Saturday is like:

-I wake up, shower, and twist my hair into ringlets to let dry naturally. No makeup, no worries. Scott heads out to fish - the best place is by the city dump. I'm thinking that I don't want to eat those fish...

-The first of the relatives come over after visiting the Farmer's Market. The growing season is off to a slow start because no one has been able to pick any vegetables except for lettuce. Scott is back to dig for some night crawlers in Grandma's adorable garden that is filled with Montana wildflowers.

-More relatives come over (it is now 10 AM) and we all go sit out on the patio, enjoying the 65 degree temperature.

-Another relative comes over, with a friend who is polite enough not to ask about my hair but does notice that I am not from Montana. So I must still sound like an Okie, even though I live in Georgia...

-The first wave of relatives leave and Darby and Roxy start painting designs on Grandma's picnic table and benches. They have done this before, and Grandma loves it, so we do it some more. Roxy paints a rock to look like an owl and it's j'adorable.

-More relatives come over at 11, this time bringing small children and fireworks. My girls have never lit a firework in their lives, which is a sure sign of being a city kid. We light about two dozen smoke bombs and then the roving neighborhood kid that may or may not have a home comes over with loud and noisy rockets to shoot off.

-We manage to lose the neighbor kid, keep the relatives, and head inside for some lunch. Grandma and Darby have miraculously prepared a feast, so everyone is full now.

-Relatives head out about 2:00 and Scottie is back from the dump. He catches fish, but managed to lose some big ones. Yeah, right...fishermen can tell tales.

-One hour later, more relatives come, this time bearing food, fireworks, and a baby cousin we have never seen. Roxy and Darby are excited - new people to pester, new people for silliness. I am shocked to learn that the four month old has been potty training - with success. I realize that I am beyond hope for that type of attentive parenting. My 42 year old husband puts Black Cats into his army men and starts blowing them up. There is nothing like explosives to bring two grown boys/men together.

-Cousins enjoy each other, adults enjoy steaks and potato salad, I enjoy holding a baby again, cousins enjoy shooting their fireworks. Oh, and the wandering neighborhood kid is back again.

My conclusion: Saturday in this small town is even more exhausting than a Sunday morning church + potluck + small group at my house.

Small Town Crime= :)

Scott and I enjoyed a quiet breakfast today in his small Montana hometown. It was 50 degrees outside and such a beautiful blue sky morning, we decided to read the police blotter. This is a very entertaining event, because in small towns, the wildest things happen:

-A caller reported illegal dumping at the high school Dumpster. It turned out that the person was an employee of the high school and had been doing some cleanup.

-Services were rendered to a resident who reported a raccoon acting like it wanted in to the house. An officer responded but determined the animal was not rabid but wanted cat food that was stored there.

-A welfare check was made on an elderly resident whose family could not reach her. The cats had knocked her phone off the hook but the resident was fine.

-Heifers were reported on the railroad right of way. The owners were located and the animals cleared off the railroad.

-Services were rendered to a visitor to the area whose husband was overdue from a fishing trip. The fisherman was located by officers. He was all right but had become tired and decided to take a nap and slept longer than he intended to.

-A complaint was made of a pickup truck parked at a local business. It had a badger tied to it. An officer could not locate the owner but did remove the badger from the bumper and put it in the back of the truck instead.

There were dire reports of sheep in the road, erratic drivers, etc. You gotta love small town life.

I Heard the Crash on the Highway

It's been a while, my little blogworld. I am enjoying a vacay now, but broke down to catch up on email, bills, blogs, etc. As much as I am enjoying a great week with my family, I still cannot live down the road trip to Branson. I am still rattled by the events of that day.

I happened to watch the single worst traffic accident in Oklahoma's history, if you believe the Tulsa World newspaper. I was driving on I44, heading to Springfield, MO, to pick up my husband at the airport. My parents were driving I44, also, but they were a distance behind me. The traffic was completely stopped due to a smaller accident on the highway, but I was nervous because the traffic was really piling up and I have a fear of chain reaction accidents, where the cars crash into each other like dominoes. As I watched in my mirror, I saw numerous cars crash together behind me as a giant semi came full force down the highway, smashing on top of cars like a Transformers movie scene. I screamed, panicked, shook, then drove forward slowly, trying to get out of the way. I did not see a white van, like my parent's vehicle, but I did not know if I saw the whole wreck or only part of it.

I just drove and shook, constantly trying to contact my folks in their van. It was definitely one of the scariest moments in my life, thinking about the people that died and wondering where my family was. I knew people had died, because the force of the truck and the sounds and smells were so horrible, I did not see how people could survive. I was buffered from the wreck by about 5-6 cars, plus I was one land over but the wreck went all over the highway and that may not have mattered in the end. After the slowest 15-20 minutes of my life, my dad got through on my cell phone. They were behind the wreck and could not see anything. I was trying to calm down, telling them that the wreck was horrible and that there would be fatalities and that they would be stuck on the highway for quite some time. I was just so happy to hear their voices, knowing that they were no where near the wreck, because I had been entirely too close for comfort.

In the end, 10 people died. I can't believe I saw all of that in my mirror. My girls were concerned about the wreck, but I kept them plugged into the DVD player while I panicked there on I44. They saw nothing, their headphones buffered out all the screeching metal, burning rubber, and horrified faces of everyone around me.

I will be forever grateful that God gave me a buffer from that crash on the highway. I spent about the next hour praying about everything I saw, thanking God that my loved ones were safe.

The vacation was more important because of the close call with that wreck on the highway. Thank you God for my family.