Say It Isn't So!

Two weeks since I blogged???? That's CRAZY! There's no catching up, of course. But we all know I'll try anyway. ;-)

State Convention. Uummm... ;-) I've waited way too long to post about that (I can't remember things that happened that long ago!) AND failed to take even the one picture I had promised. I know that we had a GREAT Convention. It just felt good and solid and sound. It seemed like everything had such a nice coherent flow to it and there never seemed to be any opposing spirits of any kind. It was wonderful. The highlights for me personally included Sister Bishop's message on outward adornment (it was so, so, sooooo good--I wish she would have had or taken more time and not hurried so much!) and Dustin Warren's message on The Word of God. I don't think I've ever heard him preach before, but he did excellent. I couldn't help thinking while he was up there how much the western folks would enjoy having him out as Camp evangelist or guest speaker for some function. They would be blessed by his ministry and would get SUCH a kick out of just HIM. :-) I've thought how much they would enjoy Jeremy Wallace, too--either of those guys would be fantastic for Family Camp if it ever worked out. (Spread the word out there, westerners--got a couple of recommendations for you!)

We received the most ginormous pounding (along with a huge offering--I still feel so overwhelmed by it all!) and spent quite a while Sunday night hauling it all in and trying to arrange it on the table so we could take a picture of it.

We all (kids especially) were exhausted after Convention (the long drive really gets to you when you're having late nights coupled with early mornings!), but Monday morning we packed our things and hopped into the van to take a little trip. James had been looking forward to a mini family vacation and was ready to get out of town once he made it through Convention.

Our first stop was Best Buy in Hoover where we bought a new camera. Mine was 5 years old and getting more and more sluggish all the time. We’d been so pleased with it however that we opted to go for the newer version of the same thing. So I’ve got another Canon and I’m sure we’ll be very happy with it once I play around with it some more and figure out exactly what I’m doing with it.

We had a few other stops to make, including Charlie's new boarders up in McCalla. We also stopped by 2nd & Charles (the kids were thrilled to get some new comic books—Dilbert and Garfield, I think—for the trip), then on to Atlanta where we met up with Mom & Dad.  That’s right, we took a vacation with Mom & Dad! How cool is that?!

That first night we just enjoyed a nice dinner together, then went to our motel rooms, visited a bit, then got some much needed sleep.

The next morning we drove downtown (how in the world did we ever get anywhere before the invention of the GPS?! Atlanta is a NIGHTMARE to navigate through!), ended up on Level 5 of a parking garage, walked down the stairs to the street (the elevator was at the far corner of the garage), then realized we had forgotten our tickets in the van. Guess who got to run up 4 flights of stairs to retrieve them. :-) After much discussion, we finally decided to take the Marta, a subway-type train thing that runs underground and above ground. We then took a bus (all unfamiliar experiences for us!) up to the Georgia Aquarium.

Once we finished at the aquarium it was lunch time, but the only thing nearby was a café that sold hot dogs and the like—for about $7 apiece. I just can’t pay $7 for a hot dog. We told the kids we’d make up for it later with a big dinner, but we were skipping lunch!

We then walked over to the Coca-Cola Museum. It was great. :-) I loved seeing all of the old, historic stuff and I wish there would have been more of it. In the “pop culture” room there was a video playing that recounted the history of when they introduced New Coke, replacing the original Coca-Cola formula in 1985. It was all vaguely familiar to me, but I was pretty young at the time and don’t remember a lot about it. Dad started filling me in on the rest of the story—how the public was irate and the company received hundreds of thousands of calls and letters expressing outrage and dissatisfaction—and demanding a reintroduction of Coca-Cola, the original formula. After only 77 days, the company did just that and sales spiked, leaving Pepsi in the dust. Pepsi, who had been claiming that the switch to New Coke proved that they had indeed won the “cola wars” after all these years, then started bellyaching that introducing New Coke and then restoring Coca-Cola Classic was all a marketing ploy rather than a genuine attempt to take the company in a new direction. The video was still playing and had caught up to Dad’s rendition, with a response from the CEO of Coca-Cola, but before he spoke the words Dad told me, “He said, ‘We’re not that dumb. And we’re not that smart.’” Then the video immediately echoed those same words and I was floored. I asked Dad if he had recently read something about it that sparked his memory. Nope. He’s never seen or heard anything about it since that time, but he remembered that statement from the CEO from 26 years ago!!! Incredible. THAT is where I get my genes. All the genes that enable me to remember silly and unimportant things from years and years ago, but which prevent me from remembering anything of significance in the present—all those genes come from Dad, obviously. :-)

Okay, so that was probably a bit too much Coke history to include in my person blog, but I’ve been a Coke fan for forever and found the whole story quite interesting. Besides, it’s my blog. ;-)

When we left the museum we wandered around trying to figure out which way to go to catch a bus to take us back to the Marta that would take us back to the parking garage where we could get the van. Mom was our navigator and in the end we walked a three or four blocks in the hot, humid sunshine (bleagh) and skipped the bus entirely, arriving and the Marta station. Along the way we narrowly escaped getting mugged. At least it’s possible that the guy would have mugged us. Dad’s $5 with a promise that it wouldn’t be spend on drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes was enough to satisfy the dude. Gotta love Atlanta.

By the time we rode the Marta back to where we’d come from, had a nice dinner, and got back to our motel it was about 4:00 and we all decided it was naptime. What a crazy thing to do on a vacation and at such a late hour in the day! But we were exhausted going in to this vacation and it just seemed like the right thing to do. And it felt sooooo good. :-)

We all piled into the van after an hour or two in search of some dessert. We wandered around until we landed at a Baskin Robbins. It ended up being the best decision ever because the cones were on sale for $1 apiece… so several of us went back for a second one! HA!

We went back to the hotel and played Catch Phrase. It was fun, though it freaks me out a little bit to think that my kids are old enough to play that game and actually be good at it. Well, one of them is really good at it, another is so-so, and then there’s Sam. He can’t read quickly and certainly not under pressure, so he just helps guess the answers—and he’s the best guesser of the bunch. It was fun and we laughed a LOT.

The next morning we slept in, then just hung around the hotel until it was time to load up. We all went to lunch together at this really neat and HUGE old diner called Varsity. There were mixed reviews on the food, ranging from “no good” to “great,” but we all agreed it was a really neat place and we were glad we went there.

From there we said our goodbyes to Mom and Dad. They headed back to Cleveland and we headed on to Anniston.

~whew~ That’s going to have to cut it for tonight. I intended to add it lots of pictures from the aquarium and Coke Museum, but it’s too late now and I’m too tired. And we’re going to look at the Quinncrest Monstrosity in the morning, so we’ve got to be up and about decently early. The Quinncrest Monstrosity is a house that we can’t believe we’re actually considering… yet we’re going to take a look inside it tomorrow. I’ll blog about that place one of these days, whether anything comes from it or not. That’s one you can look forward to. ;-) Until then, help us pray again for God’s will. The right house at the right time for the right price in the right location with the right setting and the right opportunities to minister and be hospitable… Those are the prayers of my heart. Not to be picky or anything… ;-)