Our summer - Oct. 13, 2004
Langston wrote about his summer in all of two pages in his journal, or he dictated to me. I've put off writing about it because there's so much to tell. But new things are happening now in Doha so I'll do my best to remember the high points.
Needless to say, we were quite excited to be going home. Our pastor said I should think of Doha as home but I do better thinking of it as "home away from home". In a way the summer helped make it seem more like home to me. We flew to Houston mid-June for Jon's computer training class. We spent Father's Day with my family in Navasota. It was a great reunion then headed back to Houston. Langston and I had the luxury of sleeping in and enjoying the buffet breakfast in the nice hotel. It rained almost the whole time we were in Houston. Jon's mom and stepdad came down to be with us for a few days. We shopped in the mall and enjoyed touring one of Houston's natural history museums. We especially enjoyed the Butterfly Place.
It was really great being back in our home church, so great to see everyone. We stayed in our house for one week since one of the girls had moved out early. Everyone should be a guest in your own house. It was a new experience.
We traveled to Branson, MO with my parents for the fourth of July. My sister Jan met us there. We had hoped more of my family would come but it was just our group. We had a great time though. We went to Silver Dollar City, saw the Haygood Family, went to the magic show. A real highlight was going to the Dixie Stampede. We got discounted tickets by meeting a young couple who work there while we were grabbing fast food.
Langton met a new friend named Austin. He enjoyed playing with him at the time-share.
Our family took a side trip to Mansfield, MO to see Laura Ingalls Wilder home site. We enjoyed touring their small home as well as Rocky Ridge. It was neat to see personal photos of them all. It certainly made it come alive for me.
Jon was very busy with computer stuff because he had to change the location of his server for his personal business. It kept him up late in the night for at least a week.
Our other special trip was to Galveston (Crystal Beach) with the Magee family. We had hoped several families could come with us but in the end it was just our two families. We had a great time. The condo we rented was right by the beach. The kids and dogs all had a great time. We got some pretty pictures of the sunset there which shows you don't have to travel around the world to find God's beauty. It was a refreshing time together.
On July 26th Jon flew back to Doha for work. By this time I had started to feel like a real gypsy, never quite sure where we'd spend the night. We stayed several nights with our pastor and family. Dale and Kathy were gone part of that time. Almost 90 year old Ruby actually cooked for me! She fixed great country food and we enjoyed our visit. This was the week Langston went to Vacation Bible School at Parkway Baptist. We missed the first day. When we went on the second day I noticed a poster on the glass saying certain ages were full. I assumed this was information for the school they have in the fall. It never occurred to me Bible school could be full. I'm glad I was ignorant about it because it was a great highlight for Langston. We love AWANA but don't have access to Bible School in Qatar.
We also stayed a few days at the Magees way out in the country. Langston got to see the goats, chickens, horses, and cows that live on a farm. We enjoyed seeing the cow being milked in the morning.
We spent most of the next month at my parents home, Skyhaven, outside of Navasota. We were blessed with some very nice weather for the first of August. I helped Mother mow down a good bit of the yopoun. It was great therapy to cut down bushes and feel I was helping the place look a little better. Langston enjoyed helping with the goats and playing in the cottonseed which we fed them everyday. His Paw-paw even gave him a goat. He named her Sally. I was so glad Langston could enjoy being in the country. He built a "house" up from the pond. It looked more like a house plan but he had several amenities, a tire swing Maw-maw put up, a basketball goal of sorts, a hammock. He started digging for a swimming pool but needed more manual labor on that project!
Posted by nellie at October 13, 2004 06:42 PM