Friday, April 10, 2009

Our Antiquing Trip

(I missed The Wednesday Walk because we were gone,...so I am posting this on Friday!)


We are home from our little ~Antiquing Jaunt~. John and I always have fun when we travel in the car together. I always tell him that I enjoy it because I have a "captive audience"! He listens to me as I jabber away,...and he can't get away,...so I can have all of his attention. He in turn likes to talk to me about things too.

We do have some great conversations when we are on the road. Do you find that to be true too? We comment about the surroundings of course,...like, "oh, there are the buffalo!". Then I said, "that one is standing so still he looks like a statue!"
Then my super smart husband told me that buffalo do that during blizzards too, to conserve energy. I laughed and he said that it was true. He said their hide is thick and they don't need to take cover from the elements, but they do stand still to conserve energy and to stay warmer in the cold weather. Do you think I should believe him? tee hee

When we first got married I believed every word he said. Once he told me that horses don't lay down when they sleep because their knees just lock and they sleep standing up. And he said, "if you do see a horse laying down he is going to die soon". Well, since that time we have seen LOTS of horses laying down and none of them died! ha! We just laugh about it now. He had heard that and really thought it was true. (I am bad, I never let him live it down!)

My husband did a great job of driving. He does it all when we are on trips, and I just help him look for street signs etc. But now that we have a G.P.S., I hardly even have to do that anymore.

Before we leave he gets on the computer and maps out our trip and makes the reservations, and then he makes his list of every antique mall along the route. We have done this for many years, so he remembers each place we have been before and can describe it to me before we get there. I NEVER remember any of them. (We are so different!)

This trip I wanted to go to Nell Hill's Home Decor store in Atchison, Ks., so we went there and to Garrety's, down the block. I found a couple of things, but I was a little disappointed really. You see I have several of the owner's Decorator Books, and they are wonderful,...so I just knew I would really enjoy going to her shops,...but I wasn't too impressed.

We stayed in Leavenworth and went to Westin, Mo., and it is an quaint old town with a lot of little specialty shops. Most of them weren't open, but we went into a few and then it started to drizzel on us, so we headed down the road. It was a pretty little town, and the people were friendly.

We went to St Josephs, Mo. too and hit some shops. But we found that due to Ebay and all of the antiques sold on there, that a lot of shops have closed down. It also might be due to the economy too. We found a few little treasures along the way, but the true treasure was just being off together on our little adventure.

I have a bunch of food allergies and it is very hard for me to eat in restaurants, so I always take a cooler full of food. Well, before we left we bought a 40 quart power chill electric cooler that can also plug in in the van. So, I had everything I needed. My daughter Lynnette has one of those and she took it when we rented a huge van and all 10 of us went on vacation together last summer/early autumn, and it was great.

John likes to listen to oldies and he sings along with them, because he knows most of the words. Isn't it crazy how we can't remember Bible verses when we are trying to memorize, yet we can remember songs from when we were kids in the 50's? I know some of them too, so sometimes we sing together! (We are silly and not very good,...but it is fun.)

I like to put in cd's and pick whatever I want to listen to, and he is a good sport too. I had several Amy Grant cd's and he never complained. We have Christian cd's too and I even took along sermons, but we were in and out of the car so much we didn't listen to those this trip.

We did take our Bible and our devotion book, so we did read and do devotions and pray each morning before heading out to find the shops. We know it makes us feel better to start the day that way,...and I am sure God wouldn't like it if we went our way without acknowledging Him first and giving Him praise for His protection and all of His blessings.

Our God is so Good! He gives us everything to enjoy! And He wants us to enjoy each other too. Are you and your spouse taking time out to enjoy each other and all that God gives you? I hope so. It is too easy to lose the special closeness that He wants us to share with each other and with Him. It is worth working at, that's for sure.

Today is Good Friday and a time of reflection for all that the Lord has done for us. He gave His life for us! This is the best thing anyone has ever done for me. How about you,...
Have you accepted His free gift of salvation? If not,... I hope the Easter story will come alive for you this year. I hope you will meet the risen Lord and surrender your heart to Him.

Blessings!
Linda

9 comments:

Kristin said...

I enjoyed reading about your trip so much! That is sad about the quaint little shops having to close....I see a lot of that out here too. I love that your husband and you enjoy each other so much. Your story reminded me of my last road trip with my Mom before she died. She talked and talked and I will treasure that time with her.

Thank you so much for praying for me...that is truly a blessing to me. This year, I am especially aware of what the Lord has done for me and I hope that my loved ones who don't know Him, will see what He has done in my life, and will come to know Him too. Every single day, He brings new miracles and blessings to my life.

Just today, I got an email from a lady who read a comment on a blog that I posted, who lives here in my town. She said they are getting ready to adopt and she read my adoption story. She said she had been wondering if they were doing the right thing, and then reading my story made her realize that they were! I got another post from a lady the other day who just happened to find my blog and read my adoption story on the day of her daughter's birthday that she had given up for adoption. She was having a hard time and just happened to read my story! It's those kind of things that make me realize how amazing God really is!

Then the whole blog makeover thing.....that's a miracle in of itself. I had been praying and praying because I didn't know what direction to go with my business, and as soon as I saw my new blog, I just knew that's the look I wanted for my business. Abigail and I are going to work on a separate blog for my business that matches the new one, like Veronica did for her hats. She's even going to work on making me a logo that I can use for my business cards and tags and things like that.

Also, I was able to talk to one of the moms in Kaylee's class at her Easter Party that goes to the church I'm going to on Easter. She was happy that I liked her church and is glad we're planning to come back. So now, I don't feel so alone after all.

So, thank you so much for your prayers. They are working and I am very blessed!!

I hope you have a wonderful Easter!!

Love,
Kristin

Valencia Jones-Edwards said...

I just love spending alone time with my hubby. I love it when we can talk uninterrupted..lol WIth all the kids that's rare. We love looking at thrift shops and buying unique pieces for our home as well. Enjoy your weekend!!

Veronica said...

Linda,

I am so glad you you and your husband had a great trip. I am the same way when we go on trips. I tend to talk my husband's ear off! I always have so much to tell him, and he's not much of a talker so it works out well!

I also know what you mean about how easy it is to remember the words to a song, but then have such a hard time memorizing Bible verses.

Thank you so much for all of your positive comments. I love having you as my "pen pal" too. I also noticed that you put my hat blog button up. Thank you so much for doing that. I am so honored!

Well, I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Easter! I'm off to get a few things I need for a dessert I'm making and I still need to figure out what I'm going to wear! Talk to you later!

Kelly @ Sufficient Grace Ministries said...

What a great trip! Thank you for your sweet comment. You have an amazing family. As you can tell, I love your sweet daughter, Lynette! And her mama is pretty special too! I'm so grateful to have met you both. The Lord has carried your family through much sorrow and His hand is evident in your lives. You both are such a blessing to me. I always enjoy visiting your blog. You share your heart beautifully.

Hope you have a wonderful Easter!

Many Blessings,
Kelly

Jennifer said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip -thanks for all the great details! Sure seems like a trip I would enjoy!! Just stopping by to say Happy Easter!!

Kathryn said...

Hi! Thanks for coming by my blog & leaving a comment.

I'm blessed to be able to spend 4 hours a week in the car with my husband. We hate making (the 2 hour each way) drive alone & are so grateful to have it together. I'm sure it is a big part of our happy marriage. We sing with the radio, or talk about a variety of things, often the service at church the day before. Sometimes we're just silent, or he's on a business call (i usually drive). We're just blessed to be together. :)

We don't do much antiquing, but did stop by a small shop yesterday & wished we had more time.

Thank you for sharing part of your life! Happy Easter. The Lord is Risen!

Jamimania said...

Yet another thing we have in common... I love antiques too!! Maybe sometime you can come to the Hays area... we have a couple of nice shops in town. One is called Northglen antiques and she has items shipped from Scotland. It's really neat. She also has some regular, every day type items and her little Scottie dog greets customers at the door. :) It's cute. There are at least 2 others that I can think of right now. One I haven't been to... but Ciara and I love meandering through the stores and letting our minds go wild with thoughts of the stories behind all these old things. So nostalgic, I just love it! One day when I have an empty room in my home I'll put out all my wonderful antiques again, but I won't wish that room vacant TOO soon since my precious daughter still occupies it. :) Bummer that so many of the stores had closed down, that has happened here too, there used to be 3 nice antique stores in Ellis, but they've all closed now. I think it's so disappointing.

Glad you enjoyed your trip with your honey man, I totally understand about having a captive audience! Some of our best conversations are in the car because he can't be on his computer working on business. :) His phone still rings, but... mostly I have his attention. You're so right about needing to prioritize our marriage relationship. We will celebrate 19 years this year and it would seem that it takes more work now than ever because we are so familiar with one another. We get along great... but there is always room for improvement. I was lucky enough to win the Love Dare/Fireproof gift from Kelly at "Beauty of Sufficent Grace" and we just started it yesterday. It is fantastic! Really gets you thinking about how you handle the every day stuff. Today we're working on kindness, so I'm already thinking about what kind act is in store for my sweetie.

Well... I could go on and on, you know... :) Someday we should have a big bloggy friend gathering so I can see you again and meet all these precious women that I've become friends with. Wouldn't that be fun?

Julie said...

I live in Leavenworth! You should've stopped by! :)

Unknown said...

Your trip sounds perfectly wonderful. :)

So, your cooler worked well huh? They're pretty handy things. It's a great thing for you to have with all of your allergies.

Well, I'm off to comment on all of the Wednesday's Walk posts. It's been a busy day and I'm just now getting started! Ugh! Truman killed 6 more chicks today. I'm so mad at him!!!! We're trying to think of a way to keep him out of the chicken house without keeping him on a chain all day. I think we have it figure out...we'll see.

Love you.
Lynnette