To Bloomington and Beyond

After Cummins Falls we headed north again. We should have driven farther that night, and the next day would have gone much better, but oh well. Hindsight. We loved the falls and didn't want to leave.

We got a bit late start to Bloomington and ended up at the back of the line for a Karen Kingsbury book signing and event. They'd sold 400 tickets and we were very near the back of those 400 fans. The instructions were to get our book signed and then go watch a 30-minute video. Really they should have started sending people to watch the video first once the line got long. We waited over 2 hours in line, and then it was so late that I skipped watching the video because we needed to move on.

The upside of the long line was that Karen Kingsbury's mom travels with her, but most people don't know who she is. She recognized Jasmine and I and came over to talk with us while we were in line. So I got to catch up on all the news while waiting.

with Anne Kingsbury

with Karen Kingsbury

Only one of Karen's children was with her, the youngest, Austin. He is 6'4" and Jasmine is 4'9". He is a really friendly young man and dutifully posed with all of Karen's fans.

We were supposed to be at my step grandson's football game two hours away from 1-3, but arrived at 5!! The game had gotten rained out half way through, so we didn't actually miss it. We met up at their house. Getting there so late, we didn't have much time with them. But it went really well. Tyler got Griffin into Magic the Gathering cards, and Jasmine and Phoenix messed with drums together. Griffin was really upset when Ty had to leave.\

We took a bunch of photos together. My tripod was buried, so we balanced the camera on a pile of old photo albums.

Phoenix and Jasmine

Griffin and Tyler

Jasmine, Griffin, Tyler

 Phoenix, Jasmine, Griffin, Tyler

Phoenix, Jasmine, Griffin
Me, Mike, Ashley, Tyler

I don't get to see these guys very often, so we are trying to plan something for next summer.

After this we drove on up to my Mom's arriving about four hours later than planned.

Rest of Trip

I posted about being at my mom's house in northern Indiana and that the used transmission I'd just gotten had started to leak. I drove to Montgomery, Alabama where we attended the Karen Kingsbury's Love Tour event. Jasmine had such a rough school year that I splurged and got the VIP tickets. We got to see the inside of the tour bus they rented and get pictures with Karen before the event. The "reception" the church provided was packaged cookies and bottles of water on a tray on the tour bus. LOL. I was expecting a little more of a sit down and have some dinky sandwiches and a Q&A  with Karen. I guess each church planned what they'd have. This church went with the minimum. Still, it was a nice program. We have a long history with Karen, her mom, daughter and oldest son. This time we met two of her adopted sons.

Karen with Tyler and Haitian born son Sean.

Jasmine thought it was cool that Sean plays drums too. Although Jasmine has opted not to be in band this year due to the amount of time it takes up which makes it hard for her to do homework.

We stayed over night in Montgomery, and the next morning I saw transmission fluid under the car. Like a puddle of it. So I found an oil change place. They checked and it was down two quarts. They didn't see where it was leaking from. Car died hours later only 26 miles from home. I ended up getting a new axle. What will they decide needs replaced next? Rick rescued us, and the car was towed. But we arrived home safely.

A lot has happened since then, and we've kept you updated on the adoption part of it. But there's other news to share, and I'll do that soon.

River--Best of Both?

River is turning into a beautiful blend of Hunter and Jessica.

Here are some photos of Jessica as a baby:

With my mom who is currently in the hospital.

And these are Hunter as a baby:

Here is Hunter with River:

And 24 years ago, Rick with Jessica:

Here are some photos of River taken on Monday.

Look at those eyes!

Had to decide what would be the first book I would read River. There were several I considered: Goodnight Moon, God Gave Us You, Runaway Bunny, Do You Love Me Mamma and so on. But I decided to go with one of Karen Kingsbury's books, Whatever You Grow Up to Be. She has written a couple of princess ones but those were not to be found. 

And yeah, it's okay if you fall asleep while we read. We'll just read it again another day.

The next three pictures are from today. Jessica came over to get a little pamper time because she is still really sore from the C section, and I don't mind changing diapers and making lunch for her.

The card table behind me is always up during long holiday breaks and is used for games and puzzles. It's still up because we are still working on a puzzle. I am redoing the family room, and it will be up whenever the ping pong table isn't. The ping  pong table takes up the whole room.

Destin and Pensacola

A friend of mine from high school drove down to the panhandle with her family for spring break. We met in Destin for an early lunch.

One of her daughters is to next to her and the daughter's friend behind.

On Friday Jessica and I drove to Pensacola for the Extraordinary Women's Convention in Pensacola. They have them in several city through the U.S. They take place on Friday 7-10 and Saturday 8:30-4:00. If you sign up for the next year at the conference, it's only $49. A bit more online, and it goes up a lot nearer to the conference and is $109 at the door!

They have a face book pageHere. Some of the pictures below are from that page. Others were taken by Jessica, myself or someone in line with us.

Kasy Van Norman, Karen Kingsbury, Liz Curtis Higgs, Angie Smith. 

With Anne Kingsbury, Karen's mom

Karen Kingsbury

Jessica with Karen Kingsbury's daughter Kelsey and Kelsey's husband Kyle who sang at the convention.

Margaret Feinberg. I really enjoyed hearing her. She was funny, yet had a sound message about happiness and joy despite her struggles with cancer.

Michael O' Brien lead the worship music. Everyone loves him. 

Kyle Kupecky sang, and Mercy Me had the late concert Friday night. We left because it was really loud, and Jessica already had a headache.

This is the first time I'd heard Liz and she is funny and amazing and very genuine. I read all of her Bad Women of the Bible series when I was writing my devo about Bible women (The One Year Devotions for Girls Starring Women of the Bible), so it was nice to meet her in person. 

I have interacted with her briefly a couple of times at ICRS in the past, but she was signing her books set in Scotland (I think), and I got them for someone else since I don't read those.

We have her kid's books The Pumpkin Patch Parable, The Parable of the Lily, The Sunflower Parable, The Pine Tree Parable.

Tim Hawkins was there, too, but no pictures of him. He was funny, but honestly you could tell he was trying to be funny--sometimes too hard. But Margaret and Liz were just genuinely funny because they are women, and they knew what we could all relate to. 

If you ever have a chance to go to EWC, go. And take someone you are close to so you can share the experience.

Atlanta Day 5 and 6

On Tuesday we went back to ICRS for more book signings and to see more authors.

If you read Christian romance, check out Rachel Hauck--The Wedding Dress, Once Upon a Prince, Princesses Ever After

with baseball player Darrel Strawberry

If you're looking for a summer read try Robin Caroll's Injustice for All or Deliver Us from Evil, the first books in two different series.

Jasmine with KB and Lacrae

Jasmine with Colton Dixon

Jasmine with Karen Kingsbury, her husband Don Russell and daughter Kelsey.

Jasmine was singing for them, but there was LOUD music playing in the background, so I'm not sure how she kept on tune.

with Ted Dekker

With Hannah Alexander. Hannah Alexander is a made up name for a husband/wife writing team. She was there alone signing their newest book Hallowed Halls.

With Christian comedian Anita Renfroe. We are the same age, and she does a lot about middle age and life changes. She's right on target on with her humor.

This picture is from Jasmine's camera and is of the author's boot camp on Sunday.

with Torry Martin on Sunday on the way to the opening event

Wednesday was the last day of ICRS, and it closed at 3. It's pretty quiet on the floor that day. Most of the signings are on Monday and Tuesday. There are usually just a few less known authors signing on Wednesday, and a lot of people have gone home. That's why I was surprised they had the God's Not Dead actors signing the DVD on Wednesday.

We met a teen author at the Zondervan booth.

We said goodbye to a lot of people we won't see again until next year's ICRS, assuming we are able to go. Until then, we follow them on facebook.

We left before noon and headed to the Atlanta Zoo. Easier said than done since one of the streets on my directions was nowhere to be found. I called Rick and he pulled up a map and talked me there. That even had challenges as some of the streets had been renamed. But he's my hero, and he got me there. I'll post the zoo pictures next time.