A Mess In Mississippi

July 10 & 11, 2010

My youngest sister, Kristy, her husband, Timothy Hall and their 4 sons, Clay, Thaddeus, Christopher and Ethan live in China and came to the States for their annual visit at the end of June. They arrived in Detroit and my dad picked them up and took them to his house. The Halls stayed in Michigan for 1 week and then drove Dad's Winnebago to Nashville for a two-week stay. They parked the motor home at our house and stayed at my sister, Mary Kelso's home in Mt. Juliet. Dad actually followed them down and stayed at our house. I had a big meal prepared for all of us when they arrived and we enjoyed getting to meet little Ethan, 3 months, for the first time.

The Halls and my dad arrived in Nashville on July 6^th and a couple of days later Bobby asked Dad if the Bowens could borrow the motor home for our trip to Mississippi the coming weekend. I resisted and wondered why Bobby would even want to mess with it. The problems with our motor home from a little over a year ago were still pretty fresh in my mind and I figured it would be the same way for him. Dad said he didn't mind at all if we took the motor home but it took us a couple of days to work it out. Bobby told me that the Saturday night concert was outdoors and considering the heat and humidity he thought we might really be thankful for the air conditioned motor home. I figured he was probably right and we drove the motor home.

We hadn't even gone completely out of town when Faith said, “We forgot our pajamas.” I thought she was funny and assured her that we had our, “pajamas in the... Bobby we don't have the suitcase!!!” It was still sitting on the table in my bedroom, unzipped. I guess just changing to a different vehicle and making sure we had the things we needed messed me up. I am still amazed that Faith, who's 4, would have noticed such a thing. At first we were trying to think of ways to get that suitcase but Bobby insisted we'd be fine. He said we could stop and buy a few things that we needed. “A few things that we needed?” My mind began scrambling over how we could made do with what we had. At least we had clothes to sing in. I could wash underwear out in the sink if I had to. I've done that before.

When we got to Jackson, Tennessee Bobby pulled over at a Family Dollar! Yuck! I went in and bought a package of small boys white t-shirts and a package of girls underwear. I didn't want to buy more than one package because the girls had more underwear at home than they need anyway. I knew that what I bought were going to be too big for Faith's itty bitty butt but knew that I had to buy them big enough for Hope to fit into. I got myself a package of underwear and decided I could make do with that. Thankfully, Landis' clothes were packed in Bobby's bag.

Our concert was at Union Grove Family Worship Center near Mooreville, Mississippi and outside as I said. The girls and I waited in the motor home as long as we possibly could before we got up the nerve to go out in the humidity. We enjoyed some hot dogs before the concert and the kids were having a great time playing in the inflatables and other games. Bobby shared the stage with a family group from Alabama and our kids had their turn singing as well.

The church put us in the Wyndam but only one room so Bobby offered that he and Landis would sleep in the motor home and the girls and I could sleep in the room. That was especially nice because the girls were sleeping in their new t-shirts and undies instead of pajamas.

I hurried as quickly as I could getting those sweaty girls bathed and ready for bed and finally got to bed after 11:00. I was in a hurry to get to bed because the following morning we had to make the 2 ½ hour drive to Carthage to sing at Free Trade Church of God.

When I met Bobby in the lobby for breakfast the following morning at 6:00 he told me he had bad news. He said around 2:00 AM the air conditioner quit working in the motor home. It wasn't too uncomfortable in the middle of the night but he was concerned about the rest of the day Sunday and Monday's drive home.

We were fine driving to Carthage and before we arrived there, Bobby was on the phone with Pastor Mark telling him about our trouble and asking him if he had any good mechanics in his church. Sure enough, when we arrived there were a couple of men dressed in their work clothes ready to take a look and see how they could help.

We sang here back in the late winter and really enjoyed getting to know Pastor Mark Gill and his beautiful wife, Gayla and their girls, Katelyn and Chelsea. Pastor Mark was the one who got us turned on to listening to Keith Moore again and his sermon series called Receiving and Ministering Healing. Oh how I enjoyed listening to that in the early morning drives while Bobby took a break and slept in the back of the van with the kids. Pastor Mark has become a friend of Bobby's and will call him every so often just to see how he's doing. He's a great guy and we appreciate him and his family a lot.

Unfortunately, after church we were no better off but we thanked these men for their time and trouble and went to lunch with the Gill Family.

After lunch we headed over to Philadelphia to unload the van and check into the Marriott. We took Chelsea with us as the church where we were ministering that evening was her uncle's church in Sebastopol and Pastor Mark thought she might be helpful in finding the place.

When we walked into our beautiful room it was like Christmas as the children each had a colorful basket with toys and candy overflowing out of them. There were squeals of delight and exclamations of excitement as they tore into their individual baskets and began to play with their toys. Even Bobby and I had a basket. It's pictured below. Chelsea was so helpful as she began picking up trash that was strewn all around the room for us. What a cool kid to see what needed to be done and just dig in.

After arriving at Crossroads Church of God in Sebastopol, I found a wire cutter in Bobby's tool box and had to cut a 3-pronged fish hook out of Hope's prettiest singing dress that she'd worn that morning. I was so thankful I could get it out without hurting the dress. I promised my huntin'-lovin', fishin'-freak boy of mine that every single piece of fishing gear I find from that point on I'd throw in the trash. That was the third time I've found a fish hook where it shouldn't be. Twice I found fish hooks in the floor, the first time being in Grace's shirt while she lay on the floor! That scares me! Since that promise I've thrown probably a half dozen fishing items in the trash.

Shortly after we arrived at the church it began raining and I had to run out in it to close all of our open windows in the motor home. Unfortunately, the rain did not cool things off but only made things steamier outside. For some reason I totally forgot to take my groceries into the hotel room so when we got to the church I remembered them and had to put them in the church's refrigerator. We had great food after church in the fellowship hall, barely remembered to get our groceries, and then headed back to Philadelphia to our very nice room.

We got ready for bed as quickly as possible – and that's NOT quickly when you consider changing Grace's diaper and clothes, making sure everyone's teeth are brushed, etc. But we wasted no time and got to sleep between 11 and midnight.

Bobby and I discussed it Sunday evening and I begged him to get up early on Monday and get a head start on the day because of the lack of air conditioning. My alarm went off at 5:30 and I began to dress and wake children up. We were on the road by 6:30 with the windows open and the wind blowing through the motor home wildly. I saw no point in fixing my hair so I just pulled it back in a ponytail. Why I didn't think of wearing a hat, I don't know. However, I did take the bow from the gift basket pictured above to hold my hair down for the day. Of course it was lovely. Ok, I only wore it for a moment because it was hideous on my head.

With the wind blowing through it was comfortable enough the entire trip. However, it was awful when we stopped to fuel up. We also had cloud cover the entire day until we drove into Nashville where the sun began to shine through the breaking clouds, and then I could really feel the difference in the temperature. But I was so glad to be home before it got too warm.

Cleaning up the motor home immediately after we parked in the driveway wasn't fun but we let the sweat run down our bodies and reminded ourselves it was good for us to sweat.

Of course it was good to be home again for a few more days with Timothy and Kristy and boys and then we were to leave for the panhandle of Oklahoma on Friday evening.