Why can't we ever just have a normal trip?

Maddy is still enjoying her princess crown and birthday cards.

Maddy in her new pj's from Grams. She looks so cute and they fit great.

This weekend we went to York. Aaron wanted to be on this President's Counsel thing that gives input for ideas for the school. So I got roped into it as well. I am not good when it comes to coming up with ideas so I was mostly just going along since I hadn't been back for 6 or 7 years. Tammy came as well since one of her friends was going to be there for the weekend. I did not take as many pictures as I wanted. :(
We traveled on Friday, which was Aaron's birthday. We got out later than we planned so didn't get to York til about 8:30 Friday evening. Maddy was tired so we put her in bed and then Aaron ran over to The Kitchen (formerly known as Country Kitchen) and got carrot cake and fruits of the forest pie. It was yummy. The next morning we got up. Tam was going to meet her friends and we were going to have breakfast with Dr. Ray Miller. I had decided to make some coffee since it was available in the room and we were going to try to feed Maddy before breakfast as well. Well to use the mic to heat up her cereal I had to unplug the coffee pot. So as I was doing that, somehow I tipped the whole pot of coffee and the coffee maker over and spilled the hot coffee on my forearm.  Aaron and Tam were really great about remembering first aid and we got the burns under cold water. Aaron ran over to Wal-Mart for neosporin and gauze. It was pretty painful to get it wrapped but I took some advil and once the air got cut off it felt ok. The neosporin also had pain relief stuff in it so that helped.

Maddy playing on the curb at Easthill. Not the site of my favorite York memories. This is where we had chapel.

We made it to breakfast (late) but then spent all morning talking with Dr. Ray. Then we went to the lunch they provided for us, heard the choir, dropped Maddy off to hang out with Tammy and went to our meeting. There were about 25 people of all ages at the meeting. There was one girl at my table that was there when I was so it was fun to catch up with her. I didn't really know her when I was there but we both at least remembered each other's faces.

Aaron and Maddy posing in the prayer chapel. Last time I was in York they had just finished the renovation but Aaron had never seen it.

Prayer chapel alter. The candelabras and Bible were originals from the old church site.

New dorms. Word on campus is the students call these "the Gibb's crib".

Maddy at the wonderful York tradition called "Songfest".

After that we had supper in the cafeteria which was not a good experience because we got there late and only got salad before they closed everything down. Then Maddy was crying because someone had ice cream and we couldn't get back in to get her any. Aaron got someone to let him in so Maddy did end up getting her ice cream. We ran to Runza to finish eating since we were both still hungry and then rushed over to Song Fest. It was a fun show. Four clubs performed, but only two of then had a really good show. That is typical of York at Song Fest. The school is just not big enough to support four strong clubs. Aaron's old club AXE won the show. Maddy really enjoyed it. She was trying to dance with the people on stage. It was hilarious.

An old haunt.

Maddy decided to entertain herself by doing this on the way home.

The next morning we went to church with Stephen and Nikki Cooper and their two kids. Their little girl, Elliana is almost 4. She and Maddy had a great time playing together. It was so cute. They shared stickers in church. (Maddy was not as good at sharing as Elliana :).) Then we grabbed some lunch from Taco John's and went back to their house to eat. Maddy had a great time playing outside in the swing and playing dolls with Elliana. Elliana even pushed Maddy around in a little car they had outside. It was so fun to watch them together.
We left York later than we intended. It was about 2 when we got on the road. We stopped at Pizza Hut in Kansas. At about 7:30 we still had about 5 hours to go. The trip went well for awhile. Tam had been a machine and drove all the way to where we stopped for supper. Then I drove to Paul's Valley, OK and then had to stop because my arm was hurting. Aaron took over at this point. He was just about to pull over to let Tam drive again when he noticed the heat gauge was pegged out. UH OH!!!! We pulled over at a gas station. Aaron was putting anitfreeze and stuff in once he got it cooled down enough but I could already tell there was no way we were making it home in this car. Well this guy came over and started trying to help. He was heading to Denton for work and said he'd follow us to Denton. Well we made it maybe 15 more miles down the road. Then had to ditch the car at an exit. Aaron talked the guy into taking us home. I think Aaron was crazy for asking and the guy was crazy for doing it, but he did not try to kill us and we made it back. He was actually a very interesting guy and had me quite nervous the whole way. He said he was a trucker. He lived in Mustang, OK but drives down to Denton every Sunday to pick up his truck for work. He plays in a band at his church in Moore, OK and he had his praise music CD going in the car. He told us all about how his wife had the third largest brain tumor in the world and that she sounded like Leann Womack but no country singers would hire her to work for them because she looked like she had a stroke after her operation. He told us how his worship leader sounded better than a black lady singing southern gospel. He told us how he was working on an album with a guy who used to be a guitarist for Toby Keith. All may have been true but it made him sound crazy. Anyhow we got here. He went miles out of his way to bring us home so he turned out to be a guy who was trying to do what a Christian should do I guess. He knew every exit everywhere on the roads we were on. Not just the roads but the actual exit numbers. He knew all the Love's Stations between Moore and Denton. That is for sure. It was very interesting, but I'm not sure I'm ready to repeat the experience of trusting my kid's and my family's well being to a total stranger at 1 in the morning!
Yesterday Aaron came home from work early so I could get to my doctor's appointment. I decided I needed to go in to get some silvedene to help the burn heal. The doctor said it was looking good and we had done all the right stuff. He gave me a prescription and told me I could take a shower. I didn't know if I should get water on the burn so that was a huge relief to hear I could shower! They bandaged me up and then we went and picked up the prescription, got a u-haul car trailer, dropped Maddy off to hang with Tam and then headed up to get our car. All of that went really well and we got the car back to the house. We were all so tired though. Especially Aaron and Tam who only got 3 or 4 hours of sleep before having to go to work. So the car is sitting in the front of the house and we are going to try to find someone to buy it for parts. Hopefully we can get a good price for it and add to our savings to buy another car. It was a crazy, crazy, crazy trip.

Other quick news:
Maddy was scheduled to have her surgery this Thursday, but because of a rash taht isn't quite gone they are waiting to do it til April 21st. They did not tell us this til this morning so we are scrambling to reschedule what we rescheduled for the surgery. It is a pain to have to do that but I'm glad they are being super cautious about infection risk and it will give me a couple of weeks to get my burn healed up before having to try to take care of a grumpy two year old. So I think in someways it really worked out for the best. Plus, maybe we will have time to find a car before all the surgery stuff gets going. Continued prayers for the upcoming surgery are much appreciated.