bye bye

Friday night we did go to the Rose Garden (pictures to come later), then we went and exchanged something I got in the wrong size at the mall. Then it was home ... what shall we do with our last hour?

"How about an evening swim Mom?"

"I'll just dangle my feet, but sounds good"

Mom and I chatted for a good hour or so and then she konked out. I stayed up another hour to pack my luggage and get ready for today. I found the camera and had a bit of silly time too :-)

This is this morning. We're not teary eyed yet, but I'm sure we'll get there.

Mom getting in her car to go to work.

I'm off to take a shower and then driving to the bank (where Mom works) to drop off her key. Then I'm headed to the airport. sniff sniff

CDR

What's CDR? If you just asked that your life is just not as full as mine is. CDR, Camp Deer Run, is a Christian youth camp in north east Texas. I spent 9 summers of my life going to CDR and am blessed through my experiences there. In my last post I mentioned I got to go to the 50 Year Reunion of CDR, but I didn't get to take many pictures. This is what I managed.

If you can make it out, this is the sign on the main road leading to camp. This was such an exhilarating sight when I was younger: after a year of waiting, 4 weeks of packing, the longest church service in the world and an hour and a half of driving after church I was almost there!* What good memories!

I nabbed this photo from Rachel, she is a great blogger and always has her camera ready. Which I'm SO glad as it's the only photo I really have of me at camp.

Rachel and I with Scarecrow in the back (no idea what Scarecrow's given name is, he's just Scarecrow to everyone!)

I did take these photos of the Rec Hall. Every child who goes to CDR gets to paint their name in the Rec Hall on the last day of camp. In the last few years they've stopped children painting over other people's names, so my bit has stayed. In 2003 I helped out on staff for a week and repainted my name ... had to show that British side of my life now :-)
I don't have to mention that I don't look that great in the self portrait in the Rec Hall. I will ask for a reprieve as I'd been up through the night being ill. Oh yes that's right, not only was I sleep deprived and jet lagged, I was up being sick through the night and had a 7 hour drive the next day - nice! (Today, 2 weeks later, I sit at my desk wondering how I actually managed to pull it off. Oh the lasting memories.)

*I had similar feeling when I drove up this time too. It'd been over 10 years since I camped there and more than 5 since I'd last been there. Months of wanting to get to go, 20 hours of traveling to get there by taxi, plane, bus and rental car, and finally, finally you see the sign. The sign's a bit of a "welcome back" sign, and it's always a welcome sight!

5 States, 6 cities and a road trip

As my trip was so last minute, I didn't manage to get a lot of sleep the night before I left between booking the tickets, the taxis and the hire car, calling my mom, dad and sister to let them know I was coming and throwing a few things in a suitcase, I only managed about 2 hours of sleep before I was back up and getting ready for the journey. Luckily I asked my mom to phone me before she went to bed (4am my time, 10pm her time) to make sure I was up Saturday . I say luckily - if she hadn't have called me I wouldn't have woken up til the taxi came - I somehow had managed to turn off both alarms I set to wake me up! This was the first trip I've ever paid for a taxi to take me all the way to the airport. I must admit it that the hassle free trek to the airport was nice, but I still hated forking out the money for it, but I guess when I need to be at the airport before 6am I didn't have a lot of choice.

The journey over was quite uneventful in itself. True to form I was about 15 minutes late to the airport which meant I was pulled out of the queue at the ticket counter so I could check in. There was a guy who was argumentative with the sales lady. "Why do I have to wait 30 minutes longer because people get here late." I do see his point, but on the other hand, if people didn't get to the airport 4 hours before they needed to, the queue wouldn't be so long and I wouldn't have had to jump the queue. Also, whether he wait 30 more minute waiting to check in or waiting for his plane to board - he would have still be waiting somewhere in the airport. Nevermind. I made it to Dallas (Texas) via a lay over in Chicago. It took me 2 and a half hours to get my luggage and rent a car. How ridiculous is that?! It took less time to go through immigrations and customs and get my luggage in Chicago!!!

It was just after 7pm by the time I made it to CDR. I grew up going to CDR every summer and it holds a very special place in my heart. There was a 50 year anniversary celebration there and not long after I strolled up the guy at the microphone welcomed me (he was stunned I'd come all the way from England for it). That was neat for me, but at the same time odd to be singled out because there were a fair few that had traveled quite a distance to attend. I enjoyed getting to catch up with the grown up version of my friends and catching up with their lives now. The bad part was that I was sick. Properly sick. Not nice at all. I think it was a combination of the serious heat and lack of sleep, whatever it was, it was not pleasant. I ended up sleeping the night in the Mess Hall (the canteen area) on a couch in the back as there were toilets near by. I think I ended up quite nice off as it;s one of the only air conditioned buildings on the property. Unfortunately I didn't get to take many pictures as (1) I wasn't well and (2) the only camera I had was the one on my phone.

After church on Sunday morning at camp I drove the 7 hours up to Cheryl and Scott's. This was a hard drive as I was still very unwell and I was still suffering from jet lag. There were several stops along the way and pit stops on the side of the road, but I made it. Everyone (Cheryl, Scott, Madi, Mom and Dad and some of Scott's family) was at Scott's parents house having a BBQ. It was good to visit with them, the last time I saw Scott's side of the family was at Cheryl and Scott's wedding 9 years ago. Scott's nieces had fun listening to my accent and talking about living in England. They're cute girls. I see why Cheryl speaks so highly of them.

Madi didn't get a moment of piece. As soon as you had her, someone else wanted her off you.
Cheryl and Madi

Me and Madi just after I arrived. Look at those cute cheeks!

Mom feeding Madi

Dad with Madi

So you get the picture, Madi was passed around :-)
This is Mike (Scott's brother), Cheryl with Madi and me

In the front sitting down is Scott and Ceryl's standing next to him. In the back are Mike's friends, no clue on names ... I think there's a Jason in there somewhere?

Scott, being the good son he is, took his Mom some BBQ for dinner. He got the old truck out that he and family restored. Dad got to tag along for the ride.

Then he took Mom for a spin

Monday morning the Gilberts were all at Cheryl and Scott's house. Cheryl and Scott had their hands full - all 4 Gilberts under one roof is always an adventure!

I got to feed Madi some breakfast. Notice I'm opening my mouth too (check out the above picture of Mom feeding Madi ... no denying I'm her daughter!) - why do we grown ups do this :-)

William (dog on the left) often doesn't eat if my parents leave him behind and go on a trip, so Mom decided to take hime to Arkansas with her. He still didn't eat much, so Mom thought she'd hand feed him .. that wasn't fast enough for this hungry boy. He chowed ddown on 2 lots of food.

Meanwhile Dad and Scott were upstairs watching Transformers in Scott's "play room". It's not a play room, it's a transformer room. Look closely at the walls

Let me help point them out. I guess there's no where better to watch a movie about transformers than in a transformer room. Scott even has transformers on display in a show box inset into the floor!

Mom tends to be a bit camera happy (notice all the picture's I've posted - and it's not all of them!) Cheryl and Scott get tired of it and try to mess up the pictures. Here Cheryl is pointing at her lovely wall as to avoid the photo. "Don't worry Cheryl, I'll still take the photo" says Mom :-)

Mom and Dad had to get on the road so they could get home and ready for work on Tuesday. I ended up staying at my sister's house so I could spend more time with them and Madi. But we got a family photo before they left.

Can't you see how much she loves me - it's written all over her face :-)

Take 2

Mom showing Madi some more love before she heads off

Mom, the camera girl, was gone, but I filled her shoes pretty good.
Madi "working" with her Daddy editing photos for her blog

Her daddy was finding ways to amuse her. Post it note's are great.

"There's something on my head"

"Hey, where'd that go"

"These make good eatin"

"num num!"

"What mischief can I make on the floor?"

"See how strong I am"

"Look Mom, one hand"

"One adult down, who's next. They just don't make grown ups like they use to!"

"I guess I'll have to amuse myself now. Who's that pretty baby in the mirror?"

"Cameras - I want to take a photo, give me!"

Madi was "acting up" while I was feeding her dinner which was unusual for her and her parents weren't impressed. I think she wasn't feeling so hot either as shortly after we abandoned feeding her she launched all her dinner out of her stomach in style. Luckily this happened on the kitchen tile and was easy enough to clean up.

Tuesday I drove down to Mom's flat in Tyler (another 7 hour drive), at least this time I wasn't sick! I stopped in Paris on my way through and had lunch with my "Yaya" at TaMolly's (my all time favourite TexMex restaurant). Sherry has been fun adopted grandparent to have in my life since I was a late teenager. It was good to catch up with her, but the time was too short!

I got stopped waiting for a train to pass on the way to Mom's from Paris. I thought it was picture worthy as I can't remember ever getting stopped by trains growing up - there's so few trains on the go in the States

I made it to Tyler around 8 (this is the front to the apartment complex she's in)

Mom was already in her pjs ready for bed! Old timer :-)
"Karen, why do you have that camera, put it away"

"Fine, I'll hide from you"

"Hey"

Wednesday mom went to wok and I worked on our school timetable from the flat. I did take a break to go for a quick swim ... timetabling by the pool, now that's how to timetable!
We went to church just after Mom got back from work. I was surprised to see a few familiar faces from the CDR reunion, but it was good to know Mom's in good hands down here in Tyler. After church we headed to The Olive Garden, one of my favourite Italian restaurants in the States. We were so full from dinner that we cam home and crawled into bed.

Mom cracks me up when she talks on her mobile phone. Having a mobile is a new thing for Mom, and she, well she holds the phone like this when she's speaking into the mouth piece. Bless her.

Mom had the day off on Thursday (as she has to work on Saturday). Mom pottered about in the kitchen making some chocolate covered pretzels as a thank you for a neighbour downstairs and some finger foods for a birthday celebration at work on Friday while we waited for the maintenance man from the apartments to come by. (Mom punch a hole through the tiles in the bathroom wall. No she's not that strong and she wasn't angry - the sheet rock behind the tile has serious water damage and it was "an accident waiting to happen" as they say.) I took the time to timetable some more.

Thursday evening we wondered down to the mall for a few hours were, of all things, I bought a dress. It was just so cute and it was 50% off - how could I pass it up! The last dress I wore was my wedding dress! The last skirt I wore was 5 years ago to a wedding. So watch out for the photos - you might never see them again!

We got back from the mall, via the grocery store, quite late and we were both pretty hungry. Mom had sow cooked a roast all day - it made the flat hot, but it sure was tasty!!! Mom had to finish a few things for Friday's work thing so we didn't get to bed till 11:30. This is really late for my mom.

And that brings us to today, Friday. Mom's back at work. I'm waiting around for the maintenance guy to come back and finish off while writing this blog, all procrastinating working on the timetable. Tonight Mom wants to take me to the Tyler Rose Gardens. My mother loves her nature and the beauty you find in it. The rose garden's not big on my "to see" list, but I get to spend time with my mother and I know it's something she likes (and doesn't have many people around to do "stuff" with), and I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

I always laugh at Mom and how long she spends getting ready. We're polar opposite - I get up last minute and tonrnado through the house. She gets up hours before she needs to and leisurely gets ready.

Such concentration is needed when doing your hair :-)

And that's it for now. Saturday after I send mom to work, I'll drive myself back to Dallas (my finial 3 hour drive ... I've done over a thousand miles this week!) to the airport. And I'm sad to leave. I am seriously considering stopping visiting the States. I'm always so sad to leave my family behind. I can't imagine living in the States, everything SO different to what I'm accustom to, and I can't imagine living with any of my family (we all argue too much), but I miss them so much when I leave them. [wipes tear from eye] sniff sniff. I guess I need to convince my family to immigrate to England. The British are always complaining about the bloody foreigners taking over the jobs ... why can't my family be part of those bloody foreigners :-)