Family Time: Road Trips

Growing up, family-time was always important to me. Spending time with the people you love... until long after they start driving you crazy! Road trips were always fun. Mom over-stressing on every detail until we finally left and scheduling in the "fun". Haha! Gotta love Mom! (Really... would we have remembered to pack important things like clothes and underwear without her?!) And then there was Dad. Always being somewhat clueless as to why Mom was in a bad mood as we loaded into the van, he'd start off the "happiness" with Beach Boys music as we pulled out of the driveway. And then, from us (the kids/siblings) came the never-ending questions of "Are we there yet?" or "Can we stop to go to the bathroom?" Our stops usually involved many historical places such as battlefields and old homes... which, of course, we never appreciated until after we left home.

Road trips didn't end when I got married, I'm excited to say. In fact, being on the road with my hubby over the last 8 and a half years has been good for our relationship (in more ways than one). For one thing, we found out that the mountains don't actually give me colds! The mixture of my allergies and the elevation do... unless I remember to take Benadryl with me! This has solved many travel problems, in that now I LOVE going to the mountains and don't get sick anymore! Wahoo! (We've been to see some part of the Rockies at least 6 times since we've been married, if that gives you any indication as to how often we go.) By the way... if you haven't ever been to Colorado (West of Denver and then South of Vail) in the fall... GO! It's beautiful!

We have our system worked out pretty well while in the car. He drives and I navigate. I love to look at the maps in the atlas and figure out our route. The only part I don't like is when we get to a big city and I can't figure out the best way to get through it, especially if we get on a One-Way and we need to go the other way. We've talked about getting a GPS for times like that.

And then there are the endless jokes we tell, the books I read to him, the silly (and some serious) songs we listen/sing to... and, occasionally, we even manage to have some good conversations! Haha! All in all, our trips are very relaxing and enjoyable... haha... oh yeah... and... did I mention that we rarely make reservations for anywhere we go?! It usually works better for us if we don't. For example, we have only made reservations 4 times since we've been married... I don't mean just for a vacation... I mean period! That's it! The trips are still very enjoyable, but something always seems to happen:

1st Time: (Honeymoon) - Yellowstone National Park - Since we got married in February, during the school year, we decided to take our honeymoon when school was out and before we moved to Chickasha. So... we went to Yellowstone in mid-May. The snow was still higher than my car (on the side of the road) and the ENTIRE Yellowstone Lake was completely frozen over! Then, it started sleeting on us while we were driving through the park! Our reservations were for 3 nights. We stayed one and ended up down in Arizona to visit some of my family.

2nd Time: (Vacation) - Estes Park, CO - To make a long story shorter... our car broke down on our only full-day there and we spent the whole day (thankfully, at least in our cabin) waiting for the car to get fixed. The repairs cost more than the entire trip!

3rd Time: (Vacation) - Disney World, FL - (Not a road trip, but still a "reservation" experience.) This one was actually funny. I wanted to go to Disney World because, according to word of mouth, Orlando was less likely to get hit by a hurricane than the beach locations we were looking at (and our vacation was during hurricane season)... not to mention, I hadn't been since I was 6 and John had never been! So... we booked everything in advance. Then... a hurricane headed straight for Orlando before we left and sat on top of it until the last day we were there! (Yes, there were no hurricanes in the beach locations we looked at that year... only in Orlando.) How crazy is that?! It was a good thing, I know. The last day, where we actually had sunlight (instead of rain, rain, and more rain), I got sick from all of the heat and we went back to the hotel pretty early in the day.

4th Time: (Anniversary Weekend) - Mount Magazine, AR - We don't get snow around here very often, but it began snowing a couple of hours before we headed to our destination. We called in advance to see if the snow was sticking on the roads (to see if we should take my car or John's 4-wheel drive truck). They told us it wasn't, so we headed out in my car. Well, they were right... it wasn't sticking to the roads! The parking lot, however, was more than a few inches deep in snow that was packed over solid ice. We almost didn't make it out of the parking lot the next day!

Like I said, we still enjoy them and have fun, regardless of what's come up! Every family should have the fun experiences of Road Trips!

Dreams - The Tower

Over the past several days, I've become more and more interested in what some of my recurring dreams mean. (No, I have not seen "Inception" and my interest came before I even saw the trailer for it.) For those who know me, you know that I've always had an interest in those visions that happen at night while I sleep, mainly due to the fact that many have come true.

What has me most interested, however, are the dreams that I've had for years and years that never seem to go away. Whenever I have them again, I'm constantly questioning, "What issue am I not dealing with?" or "What in the world does this mean?"

One such dream, involves me being in the tower of a castle. Not the Disney type of castle, but this brown, 2 to 3 story, stone castle set in the middle of a desert with sand dunes all around. There are no glass windows, but just large openings where doors and windows would be. At some point in the dream, I'm looking at the vast desert through the 'window' of the tower, watching and waiting for something. It feels dangerous... like I'm not safe.

Sometimes, as I stand in that tower, I hold a book in my hands. A book, I can tell, that is very important. It's like I'm trying to protect it from being stolen or taken away. When danger starts to come, I usually hide it in a place that no one knows about. Other times, I run with it.

As I stand watching and waiting, there comes a time where I see the enemy coming (though most of the time I don't actually see it... I just know it's there). Only one or two times have I ever rushed out of the castle to meet the danger, usually with sword in hand. (If I do this, it's usually when I realize I'm dreaming because I can actually use the sword the right way and not get killed!) But all of the other times, I run through a maze of unfurnished, dusty rooms, trying to find a place to hide. Along the way, I remember a safe place... a secret passageway into a hidden room. At times, I've gone through the passageway only to discover other people hiding there. When I see them, I know that if I stay, they won't be safe, so I leave to find another hiding place. But even if I'm alone in that room, I never feel completely safe because I'm still hiding. That's when the dream usually changes or I wake up.

Part of me knows how significant this dream is, spiritually. It reflects what happens - or doesn't happen - in my spiritual walk with God. Such as my watching/waiting for danger. I always know an attack is around the corner, but sometimes I see it and sometimes I don't. The book... well... my belief in God has always been important to me, but I stumble so many times in making learning about Him and His Word a priority. The only place I know I can hide that book where no one else can get it (in my waking life) is my heart... and I don't even try to hide it there much anymore. And finally, there are times where I feel confident enough to do battle... but most of the time, I'd rather avoid confrontation, hiding behind this excuse or that excuse to avoid a discussion I might not have an answer to.

Might sound a little off the wall to some people, but I believe if you've experienced dreams like these over and over, there's something screaming to be made right or be dealt with. I don't think this one is 'dealt with' yet, but I know that facing it and seeing it for what it could mean is a step in the right direction.