day 1

Monday we had prepared a breakfast casserole that only had to be baked. This took much longer than we expected, and we had to wait for it, even after getting everything else done. Eventually it was cooked, and most of us didn't like it. We chocked down some and cleaned up, and were ready to go. It was around 9-9:30 when we rolled out.

We'd planned to eat a late picnic lunch at Meramac Springs park, but by the time we reached Springfield we needed a pit stop. We made a last minute decision to pull into Lambert's (home of the throwed rolls), and all used the restrooms and consulted the menu. At $15 and up per entree, it was too pricey, so we got a granola bar out of the back of the van and went on down the road. 

Once we got on I-44, the traffic didn't seem too bad, so when we stopped at the Candy Factory, we let Taryn drive a while. Of course things picked up after that, but she managed to avoid any vehicle damage. The park seemed hours away, and we were all hungry and grumpy by the time we arrived. We parked at the closest green spot, and hopped out for a picnic. We were greeted by swarms of gnats/midges/no-see-ums. We found a shady spot and ate as quickly as possible, while attempting to not open our eyes or mouths. The gnats weren't actively attacking us, but were so solid that we couldn't avoid them. We looked at the waterfall and the fishery, and then drove around to the old iron works. They were quite interesting, but again with the gnats. We used the toilets and quickly left. 

We made it to St. Louis and found the Arch and parking garage without any trouble, then walked along to the Arch. Meeting a local on the path who was unenthusiastic about going up, Taryn decided not to go, so she, the two little boys, and I went through the museum and gift shops while Bob took the others up. The museum had lots of interesting items, but they were arranged randomly, not following a timeline or subject groupings. There were cows and other animals, quotes from MLK, Twain, and Einstein; pictures of Indians and presidents; farm implements and coins; a video about Lewis and Clark. If there was an overall theme I'd guess it was grievance with the US's war policy. One gift shop was supposed to resemble an old Mercantile, but the lights were so dim inside that I couldn't make out what some of the items for sale actually were. Over to the brightly lit gift shop, where they were half-closing the entry way 30 minutes before closing time. I decided not to buy anything. Bob and the others finally made it back down on the last tram, and we went back outside 5 minutes before they locked up.

From there it was only 15 minutes to our hotel, but with construction and one-way streets it took us at least that long to get out of downtown St. Louis. We finally made it across the wrong bridge into Illinois (sympathizing with my buddy Ganieda and her trips into Brisbane), and soon rejoined the main road out to O'Fallon. The hotel was on the exit past all the shopping, and was pretty much the only thing at its location. Bob and I went to check in, and immediately noticed the QUIET.  The rooms were reasonably comfortable and clean.  The water pressure in the showers was amazing. 

There is a single restaurant next door to the hotel, and it appeared reasonably priced so we went for it. Italian. It took at least two hours to get and eat our food - pizza and pasta. It was all tasty, but by the time it came we were almost too tired to be hungry, so a lot of pizza was wasted. We finally made it out and went to bed and bath.

(My apologies to my cousins Kevin and Heather - I told Heather I'd let her know when we went to St. Louis, and I didn't. We were only there for a couple of hours, and it would have been ahrd to predict the time, but I could have tried.)

Monday pictures

 Maramac Springs

 View from the arch, using the "miniature" effect on my camera.

 The brave ones.

Daniel laughing for joy after throwing a handful of pebbles.

short version

Yesterday we got home from a 6 day trip. I will write about each day, and hopefully throw in some pictures, but here's the summary.

Monday we left and headed for St. Louis to see the arch. We stayed that night at Super 8 hotel in O Fallon, Illinois.

Tuesday we drove across Illinois, Indiana, and most of Kentucky, arriving at Microtel of Florence, Kentucky for the night.

Wednesday we went to the Creation Museum and stayed a second night in the same hotel.

Thursday we drove south to Lexington and then west through Peducah, Kentucky, spending the night just across the state line in Super 8 of Metropolis, Illinois. 

Friday we made it half-way across Missouri to Ava, where we stayed at a Super 8.

Saturday we visited my cousin's girls and in-laws, and then came on home.

We arrived in Huntsville about 6pm, and my allergies (which hadn't bothered me all week) immediately started acting up. It was good to see our own beds again.

the last 24 hours

24 hours ago I was curled up on my bed, trying to breathe. About 7 last night I started getting pains in my abdomen; lower at first, but then moving up to my rib cage. I worried it was a miscarriage but after the center of pain moved up I didn't think it was, but I was still worried. It hurt so bad that I actually spent some time confessing sins and making sure I was ready to go.

Once Bob got Daniel in bed he came to check on me, and I had him call my doctor's nurse line. She wasn't able to pick a cause over the phone and suggested a trip to the ER if "the pain was unbearable." On a scale of 1-10 I ranked it a 12, and we got in the van. The children were all asleep, so we left them home. Taryn is 15 so it should be all legal.

The drive to Washington Regional hospital was uncomfortable to say the least. It's hard to sit in a bucket seat while doubled over. But we made it there; I crawled in (well, it felt like it) and they handed us a paper to fill out. Then I was called into "triage" and asked silly questions about my height and history. Bob repeated that I was pregnant, and hey - action! She popped me in a wheelchair and sprinted a couple miles down to the maternity ward. 

It took them just a few minutes to attend to me, but again with paperwork. I was told to put on a hospital gown (for no apparent reason), and then she checked for the baby's heartbeat. It took her a while to find it, but she did, so we were relieved about that. Then she gathered a few paper towels which she used to carefully wipe her doppler while walking out the door, leaving me all gooey. She popped back in and wanted to check for dilation, which was also fine, and she again left the room without offering a paper towel for me to wipe up. Bob has only been present at a few checks, but even he knew that I'd want to wipe up. Meanwhile, still nothing done or said about the pain. Well, baby being okay, the said since I was 19 weeks 4 days and not yet 20 weeks, I had to go back to the ER. Another sprint - by the time we got back, Bob wanted a wheelchair. Meanwhile I'm groaning and retching...

Back in the ER we had to fill out a new paper and go to triage again, to answer the same silly questions and take my vitals. Then we sat. I writhed in my wheelchair and Bob tried to dose off on the plastic bench. They had "Family Guy" blaring on multiple TV sets. Bob people-watched and put together stories of the other "guests." I read Anna Karenina on my phone. My legs got twitchy. My stomach HURT! And the nurses hopped around and answered the phone and didn't make eye contact or give me any meds. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and tried to curl up on one of the double chairs. Apparently I dosed off for a few minutes, and when I woke up the pain was gone!

I sat up, and felt okay. I decided to walk across the room to the ladies restroom and put my shirt back on, and if I still felt okay, we would go home. I did, and it was. I took the hospital gown and puke bucket back to the nurse and said, "I guess it didn't kill me." She asked me to sign a paper before leaving, saying I was leaving on my own accord, against medical advice. In thinking about it afterward, I should have crossed out "against" and written in "without," but I didn't think of it then.

We got home at 4am, and went straight to bed. I slept fitfully from 5-8:30 and then woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep. I was tired and sore this morning, but not sick. So anyway, I made good progress in my book.

Today we went to Green Forest to pick up our beef, then into Huntsville for some shopping at Walmart for socks and undies, and lunch at Crossbow. We checked Granny's first, but they were crowded, and Daniel started crying for Crossbow. Back home to clean out and fill the freezer, wash the van, make supper, pack up our clothes for next week, print maps and directions, and get showered for church tomorrow.

Now, if Daniel will only go to sleep, so will I.

party time

There was a bit of a blow-up at church tonight when parties of the first part made a definitive statement, parties of the second part made a vague but pointedly contradictory statement and then was shocked and amazed when the first party took offense, while parties who were supposed to be of the first part showed themselves to be of the second part, and parties of the first part were accused of reacting inappropriately to a hypothetical situation rather than the actual one. Blood pressures were raised and mocked, apologies were tendered while ensuring that everyone knew the other party was actually in the wrong, and the whole party was loudly encouraged to move on while being prevented from doing so!

Obviously I'm not going into details, and I hope there is a trace of humor in my write-up, because, while nerve-wracking, the whole thing is so frustratingly silly when one steps back and looks at it. The worry is that innocent bystanders may have been offended or confused, but only time will tell if any damage was actually done.

pictures

 Bad picture from before the construction.

 New windows from outside, today. I wanted between-the-glass dividers, but Bob convinced me they would quickly become dated.

From inside, today.

And we have a door!

Well, I kinda gave away the punch line in the title, but here's the rest of the story.

Taryn had an allergy shot today, so it was back to town with us. Bob thought he'd be smart and look at the Lowe's in Rogers, since we hadn't been there yet. On the way we stopped at a small independent construction store, and they had some possibilities, but the one we liked best was a $650, and it wasn't perfect. So we went on north to Lowe's of Rogers. They didn't have anything new, but did have a few "rejects" that all opened the wrong way.

Next stop was Krispy Kreme, even though they didn't have the "Hot" light on (they didn't last time, either. We need to find out when they normally do). They also didn't have the mocha filled doughnuts, either. AND, though half of us wanted Kreme filled and half wanted custard filled (and she took them off the appropriate shelf) they were all custard filled. Grrrrr.

While there we looked over the door catalog from the little store and decided to go to Home Depot of Rogers. At Home Depot they had the same basic display as at the one in Fayetteville, but on the "reject" shelf they had a door that looked promising. So I flagged the cheerful young man to look up the price (it didn't have a price tag). He scanned it with his phone, and it came up blank. He got his co-worker's phone, and it didn't find it either. He tried the item number, and the search feature, and kept coming up empty. So I got MY phone out and scanned it with Google goggles (an app I have), and it found it on some shopping website as a Home Depot product "out of stock in 29 stores near you." It showed a price of $249. He looked at my phone and said that would do, and went to get us a cart. We had a winner! He helped us get it on the cart, and cut off the plastic wrapper.

We took the door up front and went to look at paint. After much deliberation we picked a sunny blue paint, then the right base for it, and went to wait at the paint counter while the employees there showed their lack of sequential thinking. We puttered a little more and went to check out.

The only lanes open were "self checkout" lanes with no scanner "guns." hahaha. The attendant had a scanner, so rang up the paint (was supposed to be $5 off and wasn't, but I didn't quibble), and went to scan the door when she noticed a "will call" sticker - meaning it was ordered and on hold for someone else. Oh, no! I explained it was wrapped in plastic so we hadn't seen the sticker before, and then looked at it - it was dated January. Well, she paged the door worker who'd helped us, but he was busy. So she called customer service, and they didn't help.  So she helped another customer, and then the guy called her back. She said the door has a sticker on it, and he said it was okay. So she shrugged and scanned it. But the bar code registered as invalid. She tried again. She paged the guy again. He called back again. He told her to just ring it up as a clearance item, and cost of $278. It had been awhile, I guess he forgot it was supposed to be $249, but it was still cheaper than just about any entry door we'd looked at, and we did like it, so we didn't say anything. She apologized for it taking so long and thanked us for being patient. And "Bob's your uncle," we were done!

Then the older girls and I went into Target while Bob rested in the van with the little ones. We hit some of the advertised sales, and got some chips. The shopping done, we went looking for a restaurant. Somehow we decided to check out the Rib Crib in Springdale. I got a menu from their website, but it didn't have prices, so Bob and I went in to see. I glanced over the menu, noticing the $11-18 price range and no kid's menu. Then a server came up and Bob asked about a kids menu while he asked if we needed a table for two. Prices there were $4-6. hmmm. I asked if there were any specials today, and he said "kids eat free." He verified there were no disclaimers. We called in the gang. We finally all decided on our food, but the burgers on the adult menu come with two patties, so Taryn asked if she could just get one patty, and he said sure. He also offered to mix Sprite and HiC for the boys' drinks. It was a little slow as they were short handed, but we needed the time to rest and relax. The food wasn't the best ever, but it was on the good side of the scale, and the portions were generous. When it came time for the kids' free ice cream the waiter informed Taryn that since she wanted a small burger, he'd rung it up as a child's plate, so she got ice cream, too! Then he came out with (in his words) "the longest, cheapest ticket I've ever seen." $23.50. For 10 people to eat, with soda and ice cream! Most of us had ribs, and there was some left over after we were all full. Unbelievable. We will be back soon, I'm sure.

Just two stops on the way home, for butter at Braum's and milk at Harp's grocery (and fuel while I was in the store). Phew! Home by 9pm. Achievement tests tomorrow morning...