misconceptions

Week 1: This journey to Texas to visit family and friends before reporting for training in July has been much different than what we imagined it to be. When we lived in New Orleans Cameron had three jobs: Hiller, full time school, & serving our church as the music minister. I was a full time mommy to my little guys and worked at Kenneth's part time. When we packed what little bit we had left and departed from New Orleans we had an idea that life would be very relaxing and welcomed being "bored" for the first time in our married life. This was our misconception!
Texas welcomed us with a virus and a scramble to get Benjamin into a doctor and since our insurance didn't cross state lines with us we had a challenge on our hands. God is good and provided a doctor free of charge! In an attempt to keep things interesting, Micah followed with a virus all his own =)
Week 2: We headed to Austin, Tx to visit my sister and her family. It was a great visit and the boys were fasinated with picking all of their dinner vegtables straight from her impressive garden. They picked quite a few things they didn't plan on eating for dinner too; beets, bell peppers, ect A dinner at ChuckECheese resulted in Jennifer and her sister acting like children and hitting every ticket jackpot they could, ending the night with 1,600+ tickets and leaving the facility with three very impressive dollar store level toys for the kids.
On our way back to Corpus we stopped and made a visit to the Snake Farm. Cameron and I had been there before but felt obligated to share our reptile passion with our boys. We are proud to say they have inherited this wonderful genetic gift! Micah and Ben were fascinated with the petting zoo but did require being reminded to stay out of "green" mud (yes disgusting). Our next stop was to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. It amazes me what I think my children will be excited about and then they end up could care less about. We drove through the safari and the boys would hop into our laps and feed some African Deer and then jump into the backseat and play with a toy. We would exclaim "Look! A buffalo is coming to the car to eat!" And the boys would not be phased by the exclamation as if buffalo have visited our car on a regular basis!?
Week 3: We are now in June and I can't believe how fast our time is flying. There are still so many people to see and spend time with! This week has been really fun. The weekend was spent seeing my grandparents. They have a huge place in my heart and have invested so much into me spiritually being the woman I am today. I don't think they will ever understand HOW much they impacted my life! In addition to sweet visits with family, I caught some cool wildlife. Cameron and I have started running together every morning with the boys. In part this is exercise that we both desire and enjoy but the real reason for this passion is Cameron doesn't trust me going alone! Cameron knows the real reason I'm out running is to see how much wildlife I can encounter and catch! Part of the "for better or for worse" part of our marriage is that he is obligated to run 3 miles with me inorder to keep me safe! So we've caught and brought home two turtles. The first one Micah named "Micah'Angelo" in honor of Ninja Turtles. I 'thought' I had found a shady spot to put his box but the sun has a tendancy of moving through out the day and killed our "Micah'Angelo." To redeem myself I found a tiny baby turtle and set it up inside in a box. It wasn't eating and the same fate was closing in quickly so we let him "play" in the garden and make his great escape! The highlight of the week was the huge Tarantula!!! Now I am scared out of my wits of spiders and this was huge for me to catch it! The boys have a book about spiders and tarantulas and have been wanting to see one badly. I was driving home the other day and saw a big furry circle in the road and as I came on it I realized it was a huge tarantula. I jumped out of the car with a zip lock bad and a flip flop and got it to run into the bag. It wasn't easy and there was alot of jumping and screaming on my part but I got it! The kids loved it and I did actually pet his booty and was surprised at how soft he was. We ended up giving him to my little brother's friend as a pet.
Unfortunately Ben has managed to encounter another virus and has been running a fever of 103 today. Fortunately not as high as the last virus but 103 is yucky still. So a few prayer requests from us would be:

• Healing for Ben and protection for Micah from getting sick
• Spiritual growth as Cam and I feel days flying by without a moment to sit and study God's word. Discipline to MAKE time!
• Busy days of repacking and reorganizing what we will take with us, what needs to stay and who will keep it for us.
• Travel mercy on our family as everyday we are driving to see somebody or making appoitments somewhere to speak with churches.