Thursday approx. 7:00 am.
Greetings all from the friendly skies. Right as I am writing this we are still on our ascent and the pilot is doing his best to avoid the unfavorable weather which went through Omaha dumping what seemed like buckets of water Wednesday evening.
Last night, or Wednesday evening was a fun time. We left Hartley at approximately 2:00 pm and met Pat in Omaha around 5:30 pm and went to his apartment. We then went to see the town, he showed some of the better eating places and we made a stop by the Verizon Wireless store hoping to get Amanda a new phone, but no luck (and no mom and dad I didn't get one, though I wish I woulda). After that we went to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise (yes like the Jimmie Buffet song, because he owns the chain). After finding out about a 40 minute wait we took the buzzer and went to see the other shops along the stripmall. We spent some time in American Eagle, Andrew and Amanda purchased pants and Pat and I made fun of most of the clothing.
After that we walked alittle further down to Scheel's and spent time in there and when we decided we should be getting back to the restaurant we discovered at the door that the storm had moved in and was in full swing. I likened it to standing on the Maid of the Mist near the Niagara Falls. Needless to say the wind was blowing, hard. After about 10 minutes of waiting the storm out and realizing it's not going to let up any, we allowed our appetites to lead us through the rain back to the restaurant, ducking under any canopies or overhangs we could find.
When we made it back to the restaurant we were pretty wet and the storm had not calmed any! We had a short wait for our table and as we waited we stood next to the main door which is a revolving door, and the winds were so strong that the dooor was folding in, it was quite interesting and watching the employees scramble around containing the water was mildly humorous. At our table we ordered our food and enjoyed a guitar duo performing some great music, mostly country which I enjoyed, but they were pretty loud, we had to scream at our watiress so she could hear our orders, it was interesting. But the food was excellent and we would like to greatly thank Pat for the meal, for letting us crash as his apartment, and bringing us to the airport really early! By the time we left Cheeseburger in Paradise, the storm had passed and we went to Cindy's house and watched the tailend of the movie her family was watching. We then went back to Pat's apartment and relaxed and got ready for bed. We were all probably in bed before 11:00 pm. It took me awhile to fall asleep but when I did, 3:30 am came too quickly. We all showered and got our stuff in order and Pat brought us to the airpoprt to see us off. Again, a big thanks to Pat for all he did, it was nice to not have to make an extra expense for a hotel room! Once in the airport we had a pretty decent line before we got our boarding passes, and then walked to the gate. Andrew beelined it to the coffee place while Amanda and I watched the stuff. We didn't have any problems getting through Security, but I woudn't have minded seeing Andrew frisked, that would have been hilarious. But we boarded the plane, a rather small plane at that, but we had a nice family behind us we chatted with, it was nice I think it settled Andrew's nerves, and mine. But I made sure everyone knew this was Andrew's first time, including one of our flight attendents, Janet. She was a nice lady. Well, we're cruzing right now, avoiding the worst of the storm with the help of O'Hare tower, and shortly after I finish writing this, we will be probably beginning our decent into Chicago!
9:10 am
Well, we're here in the busiest airport in the world eating breakfast at our gate (B12) and watching the numerous people stroll by, or run in some cases, on their way to who know's where. I often find myself not only wondering where the people are from, or going, but also what's on their mind, on their hearts, and where their faith is. It's not uncommon to see women with headcoverings, perhaps being Muslim, but otheres it's not as obvious where they may stand as far as religion goes. Sometimes I feel myself wanting to just go up to them and ask, but I don't, fearing an odd look or perhaps a profanity, who knows.
Our landing was fine, I think Andrew was slightly worried when he heard the landing gear go down. But anyway, we had a pretty good walk from Concourse F where we arrived to Concourse B. So when we found our gate, we decided to go to the underground walkway and checkout the neon lights, so we road those for awhile. We had about a 2 hour layover, so we had the time. After that we stopped at a Starbucks so Andrew and Amanda could get coffee, I sat and watched the bags. I felt alone:(. Then we went and got our breakfast and now we're just relaxing waiting for our airplane to arrive from Minneapolis and for us to board. I'll write again maybe sometime this afternoon or late evening!
10:30 P.M.
Wow, we are tired. But it has been a great but a very busy day. Let's see, where did I leave you, ahh yes, O'Hare. Well, we got on our plane, the wonderful 737-500 and were able to all sit next to eachother in the emergency exit row right over the wing, so the seats in front of us were pretty much almost out of our reach. Amanda and I had to kinda do an interesting kicking maneuver to get our backpacks under the seats ahead of us. But the take off was ok, once we actually got onto the runway. We sat in a line of planes at one point I think i counted we were 14th in line, I think we sat there for alittle over a half an hour, so we didn't really take off as planned at 10:10 a.m. it was probably closer to 11:00 am. But, it had been raining almost the whole time we were in Chicago and so the weather wasn't very nice, so after take off it took us awhile to get through and away from the weather which made for some pretty crazy turbulance, which I didn't much appreciate, but it wasn't real bad there were some doozies of bumps and dips. But once we got up to our cruizing altitude of 35,000 feet, it was smooth sailing...or flying:>. But we had about a 2 hrs. and 45 minute flight so we got some reading done, listened to some music, and most of all, we all got a nice little nap. It was nice. Even more interestingly, I tried out the lavatory, which was as you can imagine, an experience. When we came into San Antonio, at around 2:00 pm. we had no problems. We got in and went down to baggage claim where we were met by Judy and the kids. After alittle wait we got all our baggage, nothing lost!!! So, then Judy took us out to eat at EZ's which is a great burger type place, it was good food. After that we went out to Judy and John's home, which is alittle over 20 minutes from San Antonio and sits on some beautiful 5 acres of Texas wilderness. So much so that deer stroll right up to the house in the yard. But this evening we spent most of the night hanging out, Andrew and I got in a nice nap before supper which was some of John's great spagetti, it was delicious. But we put finishing touches on our program for Friday night. So, since we've been up for longer than a human should, we'll be headed to bed early tonight, so whenever I get a chance I'll post some happenings tomorrow.
God's Blessings from the Land of the Alamo,
Adam (the others say hi)
Friday, August 12, 2005
I think I'm gonna just use the same post, hopefully it doesn't become too confusing. But last night we all got a good night's sleep i think. Andrew and I took over little Michaels room, we'd like to thank him, and Amanda slept in Michelle's room. I got up at about 8:00 am and then we all took our showers. John had gotten some breakfast for us. There were waffles, but I went with fruit and bacon and some orange juice. We hung out for alittle bit and then Judy took us downtown and dropped us off at the Alamo while she went to make some copies for andrew and get a guitar. But we spent about an hour at the Alamo, which is absolutly amazing. I wish I could post some pictures, maybe I will later when I get home. But we sat through a really good and short presentation a guide did about the whole war and the Alamo and we kinda just walked the complex. After that Judy picked us up and we thought we would go see one of the Missions in San Antonio. After Judy got some help on how to find it we went to the Mission of San Jose which is quite large and really nice aswell. We then did some driving around, Judy showed us some of the buildings and such. We stopped by a nice christian school where Michelle and a bunch of other girls were playing volleyball, we picked up her and 2 friends and went to see the high school Michelle will attend in 2 years and it is huge! We couldn't believe it. We went to eat at Quizno's and then back home to relax. It's about 2:50 pm. and we're gonna get headed on to the Loft to get set up for tonight, so i'll post tonight when I get home about how it went! Hopefully it will go well, keep us and the kids in your prayers! Later!
Saturday, August 13, 2005
10:00AM
Sorry I didn't post last night, some unfortunate events occured, I got a migraine at about 9:30, so by the time we got home at 10:30, I didn't much feel like posting, so Judy, now officially the nicest lady in southern Texas, got me ice and was my mommy when my mommy couldn't be here. Thank you Judy, you were such a big help:>. But we are waiting for the kids to arrive to start off today's session, but about yesterdays, it went pretty good I'd say. We got that at about 3:30 and set up the PA system and everything. The guy we had been working with didn't tell the lady we were supposed to work with yesterday to get everything up and running that we were coming so she was pretty mad at the guy. Judy says the guy is horrible at communication, and we all saw why. But we got everything started when all the kids got there and played some games, introduced ourselves and we ate some Little Caesar's pizza and did a beginning intro. of our Extreme Makeover-Christ Edition, Amanda had a great adaptation of the motto, it was great. The real "Extreme Makeover-Home Edition" motto is "Put together one very run-down house, a deserving family, several opinionated designers, seven days and what do you get? The answer is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." Well, Amanda came up with this: "Put together on very hopeless sinner, a world in need of a Savior, one perfect designer, three days and what do you get? The answer is Extreme Makeover: Christ Edition." Pretty incredible huh? I like it! But after that we did some music that I think the kids really enjoyed, taught them some new songs, and then I did my talk, which I thought went pretty well. I tried to make it as entertaining as possible, I hope the kids liked it! But then we took a small break, played a few more songs and then Andrew took the stage. He did a great job using his theme on Contentment and applying it also with my trust theme, he fit them together nicely. After he was done, we split into five small groups and did alittle more studying, the groups worked well, it was nice to have the opportunity to get to know some of the kids alittle better! Well, after the groups was when I got the messed up vision of my migraine and we kinda started wrapping everything up, thanking John and Judy and their family for SO graciously opening up their home and making sure we are comfortable, we are so thankful that God has given us this opportunity and blessed us with such a great family to make it all so enjoyable! THANK YOU! Well, we all went to bed early, except I think Amanda hung out with some friends michelle had stay over night. Well, I better get going to greet any kids who are arriving for today! bye!
Sunday, August 21, 2005
So! My time has been extremely pinched, I haven't had hardly any time! it's sad, but I have some free time today now that I'm at college and we haven't started classes (but we do tomorrow) Anyway, well, I better finish what we did!
On saturday the 13th the kids came over to John and Judy's house and Amanda spoke about her faith and moved most of the grown ups and me to tears. But it was alot like friday's format, we sang some songs. I think the favorite of the kids was Pharoah Pharoah! But after we got everything finished up at John and Judy's, we headed over to another house of one of the men who helped us named Karl. Another man, Todd, grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs for us and the kids went swimming in Karl's pool, which was beautiful by the way. Andrew, Amanda, and I also went swimming with the kids. Most of them ended up going after us, but Andrew also played some basketball with alittle hoop they had on the deck. It was a wonderful time. Later, the kids made some homemade, original birthday cards for some residents at a nearby nursing home. We finished the day off with a really cool slide show and prayer. It was an amazing time. But that was just the beginning of the day for us. Later, Amanda went out to eat a mexican restaurant so they dropped andrew and I off at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was great because we, as a couple of small town boys, got to go and explore downtown San Antonio. After we ate, we walked alittle down the Riverwalk and we followed a portion of it through the lobby of the Hyatt hotel went over to take some more pictures of the Alamo. We then decided to try to get to the Tower of America, but Andrew was too much of a wuss to try a cab for the first time, so we attempted to walk, which yes..is probably more unsafe than a taxi. But we got almost there but there was some construction and a big building in our way so we just decided to go back and by that time Andrew had realized that would really should have just gotten a taxi..alittle late huh? Anyway, we made our way to the Rivercenter Mall which is very large and walked around there for awhile and then went to meet Amanda infront of the Alamo. We had to wait a while for her because supposedly the service was slow at their restaurant, but it was ok. I got like a dozen more pictures of the Alamo and we also checked out a statue the state of Texas had given to the city to honor those who died at the Alamo. But then we all met up and walked down the Riverwalk, took a boat tour. It is a very beautiful site, lined with restaurants and shops and such, very touristy though. And on our way home we stopped by a little place for some ice cream.
On Sunday we got up and when to the Alamo Heights United Methodist church which is HUGE! It was one of the largest churches I had ever gone too. But after that we got home and road their fourwheeler around their property which was awesome. But by the time we got doing that, it was time to head to the airport. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:05, so we got there in plenty of time, but when we got there our flight was supposedly extremely delayed so they bumped us up to another flight, which took off almost an hour earlier than our original one. So we had to rush to get all of our stuff together and rush through security and right onto our plane. We then flew to Houston International airport. But when we landed, they didn't have a gate for us, so we sat in the plane on the tarmac...which was bad because before we even landed I had to go to the bathroom REALLY BAD. So by this time, I'm sorry, but it was starting to hurt. So after the pilot had stopped driving the plane in circles (he took it in 2 complete circles...yeah.a 737 by the way) I hurried to the back of the plane to ask the flight attendents if i could use the bathroom. One told me no, nicely, and that they would have to inform the pilot, but the other just told me to do it quickly, so i did as fast as i could and hurried back to my seat in plenty of time before the plane started to make its way to our new gate. But after we got there, we made our way almost all the way across the entire airport to our gate, E5, and once we found it we went to get supper. By the time we had returned to E5, our gate had changed to E7. So we went there and sat down, i started to read my book, and before we knew it, our flight was changed to a later time and do gate E2. Well, our plane was coming from Mexico City so it was very late and we were supposed to fly out at 8:54, but we didn't even get on the plane until 9:30. After a few moments, the pilot told us that one of our navigational lights was burnt out and they had to replace it, but have a lot more few moments, they told us that it wasn't the bulb, it was a wire that had come loose, which scared me since if that wire could come loose, what other wires could come loose. But after we finally took off at about 10:30, we had a nice flight to Omaha and got in at about 12:20. We all had gotten some nice naps in. Amanda was really hard to wake up, and we wanted to make sure she was awake cause she was goin to drive us home. But after we got our bags and amanda got directions to her car in the parking ramp and out of omaha from her dad it was about 1:00 am. So we took off and got lost in omaha and eventually after some further assistance from Pat, got out and on our way home. We drove all the until Lemars when amanda had to put gas in her car. But it was 3:30 by that time and there was only a truck stop open and the lady working was VERY rude. But then we continued on, I had fallen asleep before, but then fell asleep again, poor amanda! But she did great! She got us home at about 4:30 Monday morning! It was a great trip!
In Christ,
Adam
