An Anniversary and 3 States in 3 Days

Blog Post About July 2021

After the trips to see grandparents, we returned to our Texas base for two days before moving on. 

While there, on the morning of my 25th anniversary, I headed over to a friend's house. 

When my time with my friend was coming to a close, I got a message from Doug (late at night back in the Middle East) saying that I should go to a certain parking lot in the city where I was.

I texted him when I got there, and he told me to go to James Avery and pick up an order for Doug Taylor.

When I went in, there were two pairs of silver earrings for me to pick up, bought and paid for.

Happy Silver Anniversary to us!

That night, Doug also had three friends take me out to dinner. 

It was fun, but it would have been a lot more fun if Doug had been there.

Thanks Doug!

The day after our anniversary, Keira and I flew to Nashville. 

The first airport we went to cancelled our flight because of lightening. A sweet friend picked us up and drove us an hour and a half to another airport so we could catch another flight. We were constantly blessed by amazing friends!

We arrived late at night, but Kylie was still happy to come get us.

The next day, we looked at some possible houses for Kylie to move into, and then when Kylie had classes, Keira and I did a little sightseeing at the Opryland Hotel and Mall.

Covid made it kind of empty

A large Hungry Hippos game

Riding a ride with a new friend.

When Kylie got out of class at 5pm, we headed to Jackson, Mississippi, with a 6 hour drive in front of us!

The next morning, in Mississippi, Kylie had a follow up appointment with the doctor that did surgery on her knee. Later that night, we went to see Karis dance in her first ballet performance of the summer (she's in the front row, on the right)

Again, kneeling in the front, right.

It was good for all of us girls to be together.

Karis always has a good time at dance camp. 

This year, she stayed for four weeks with a fun roommate.

So many girls got Covid, and many were sent home, but thankfully, Karis made it all summer without being sent home.

Timon and Pumba at camp, ready to do some calisthenics.

Anniversary and ANOTHER dead chicken

As some of you know from facebook or my newsletter that my dogs escaped out the front gate a few weeks ago and promptly killed a chicken across the road.

We settled affairs with the neighbors and enjoyed chicken pizza that night.

Well, Doug and I celebrated our 14th anniversary this last Tuesday, and we had nice relaxing plans.

Our team member offered to keep all the kids for the night, so we could stay out late if we wanted or sleep in, if we wanted.

I went to drop them off at 4pm, and I stayed to visit a while.

Doug had been called to town by a man who said he wanted to give Doug a gift for being such a good friend.

When Doug got back, I still had not returned, but he called to inform me he was bringing home a large rooster.

What I didn’t know is that Doug had to go back to town, so he left the rooster on the porch so the dogs couldn’t get him, chained up the door, and he went off for another errand (he was trying to get me high-speed internet for my anniversary present).

When I walked home about 25 minutes later, I could see feathers through the papyrus mats that sort of hide our yard from the road.

I started yelling at the dogs, and Lee quickly ran away, knowing he was in trouble, but not Matata.

I got in the yard, popped both dogs, and carried the limp body to the porch.

The dogs had worked at the gate and wiggled the chain lose, somehow.

I was so mad.

I put the bird in a bucket and texted Doug, “Bird is dead.”

When Doug got home, we walked to a nearby restaurant to eat, leaving the dead bird in the bucket on a better-chained up porch, and waited for our night watchman to arrive.

After dinner, which surprising only took 30 minutes to cook and cost us only $7.00 total, we walked back home, and asked the night watchman if the meat was salvageable.

He thought parts of it were, so I went to work boiling lots of water so he could get the feathers off.

As he worked on the bird, Doug and I got cleaned up and ready to vegetate on the couch watching movies.

When the bird was ready, I put it on the stove to boil, and went back to the movie.

Later I heard gurgling, and I asked Doug if he thought it was raining outside.

Nope.

Then I smelled something and wondered if Patrick was burning trash.

Then Doug said, “Chicken.”

I ran to the kitchen and all but a few droplets of water had boiled out of the pot, hence the gurgling.

Instead of being upset at myself, which I should have been, it just made me madder at the dogs. It is such a crazy habit that proud people always look for people/things to blame except themselves.

I took the smoking chicken out, put it in a covered bowl to hide the smell, and stuck it in the fridge.

I put water in the pan to boil away the blackened mess, promised Doug I would set my timer on my watch, and we finally went back to watching the movie.

Gurgling.

I looked at my watch. Yes, I had set the timer for 20 minutes, but I never hit “START!”

I am such an idiot!

The pot was dry again.

This time, I filled the pot with water, turned the fire off, and resigned myself to the fact I was going to leave the pot for Alice to clean in the morning. Happy Anniversary to me!

On pizza night, we shared our barbecue chicken pizza with the watchman that had actually done all the work to clean it. He said it was good.

And by the way, two days later, 5 men in blue did in fact come and hook up some high-speed internet in our house. We can skype from our own home! Thanks for the anniversary presents, Doug.

The internet and the chicken.