This was my Spring Break. Here it is the end of it and what I was hoping to do did not get done -- catching up on grading for two classes. However, the activities in lieu of that accomplishment don't give me any regrets. But the Monday back at school will be busy.
J.J. worked on Monday and Wednesday, so I stayed with the girls at home. Understanding how much work it is to take care of three kids at home, I did not have an ambitious to-do list for those days. Basically, I was happy to manage meals and dishes. But while Rachel and Maggie slept, I was able to transplant a couple of plants outside, and gather more piles of small limbs from the lawn because I will be mowing it fairly soon. It was fun to hang out with the girls by myself.
On Tuesday, I went in early and worked on an article that needs to be finished by the end of the month. I worked all day and for awhile felt like I was spinning wheels, but late in the afternoon it started to come together and I was satisfied with the result. It still needs some tweaking, but I think it is pretty much finished. It is for an collection of essays that is being published, and the editors have seen one draft and asked for some additions.
Thursday we left for Florence, AL in the morning, stopping at Shiloh National Battlefield on the way. We drove the back roads because that is the only way to go south from Murray, but it only took about 3 hours to get to Florence. At Shiloh, we walked around the visitor's center and drove around the grounds and had a picnic lunch on the grass. As far as the battlefield, there is not much to see. There are a lot of markers that show where certain divisions are, but there's not much to the story. We didn't really find out much of a story, because the girls were too wound up to sit through the 20-minute movie. But from what I gathered, the Confederates pushed the Union troops to a retreat on one day, but reinforcements for the Union arrived that night and the next day the Union retook their area and pushed the Confederates to retreat to win the battle. That was it, but there were 3500 dead in the 20,000 casualties. The best thing that we saw was a bald eagle perched on a tree. There were a few cars parked, so we pulled over, and found out that one guy had been there for 3 days watching these two eagles near their nest. Their nest, in another tree, was at least 10x10 feet. We could see the head of another eagle in the nest. We had binoculars in the car, and that enabled us to see the eagle close up, and it was amazing. The guy who was there for days said that that morning the eagle captured a turtle to eat. He had a telephoto lens and was taking lots of pictures.
We drove on to Florence, going south into Mississippi and then took a portion of the Natchez Trace just for fun, and then on to town. Mississippi and Alabama were two states I had never been to before, so those can be checked off. The reason we went to Florence was because it was south of us -- so no colder than Murray -- and we figured it had some things to do, and it did. We went to Helen Keller's birthplace for an interesting tour, (It was really pretty interesting and fun. Claire was fascinated by it and we will have to read the book about Helen Keller and maybe watch the movie. Claire keeps asking, "What's that girl's name? You know the one who can't see or hear.") and also toured a home that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and it was really cool (Claire also loved this. She loves to tour through homes. She was upset that we couldn't tour the house across the street when the tour guide pointed it out as the parents house. She thought the people living there should let us come see their house. Claire held onto the tour guide's hand the whole time - about 1/2 hour and asked questions and was very attentive. Rachel on the other hand wanted to climb on everything and had to be chased around. It was still really fun though.) But the real reason I suggested Florence in the first place was because there is a golf course there designed by Robert Trent Jones, and I knew it was the closest one to us -- there is an RTJ golf trail in Alabama with lots of courses throughout the state.
So, on Friday, I tried to go golfing. But I am not callous enough to leave three girls with J.J., so I planned to take Claire with me. However, that meant that the course would have to be uncrowded and accommodating. Well, when we got there, neither seemed to be true. There are two courses, one links course that is 8000 yards from the tips, and another one that is hilly and forested. There were a lot of people there, and the hilly, forested course that I wanted to play wasn't really ready, although people were playing it. The other course's fairways were all fervent green, but the roughs were all brown grass. Anyway, we didn't go and instead I took Claire shopping and swimming while Rachel, Maggie, and J.J. napped in our hotel.
We stayed in a Hampton Inn suite, and they had an indoor pool, which was great. Claire just swam and swam, and Rachel enjoyed it too after getting over her daddy accidentally dragging her in so her mouth got a little water when we first went in. We ate at an Italian restaurant on Thursday night and a Mexican restaurant on Friday night, both of which were close to our hotel. So though we didn't do a lot while we were there, we had a nice little getaway. We left Saturday after seeing the Frank Lloyd Wright house and drove a different way along the Buffalo river, and that made the road curvy with some nice scenery. We stopped at a town for lunch and let the girls play in the city park there, and then drove home.
(I had the scare of my life on our way into Florence. I was driving when I heard a little choking sound from the back seat. It sounded like when Maggie spits up and chokes a little, so I said, "Who's choking?" and when I turned around I saw Rachel in the back with the most panicked look in her eyes. She was choking on a sweet tart duck. I immediately hit the gas and made a right turn into an empty parking lot, not even looking to see if cars were coming. I yelled at Paul to get her out of her seat and her grabbed her and handed her to me. I flipped her over on her belly with her head down and started pounding on her back. She kind of coughed so I brought her up and she was still choking, so I pounded her again and she started to cry a little, so I looked in her mouth and could see the candy in the back of her throat, when she inhaled while crying, she sucked it back down and couldn't breathe again. I flipped her over on her belly again and started pounding on her back. Finally she spit it up and threw up. I just started bawling along with her. I just kept telling Heavenly Father thank you. It was the worst feeling in the world, followed by the best feeling in the world. It wore me out. She was a little freaked out for a while and just wanted to cuddle with me, but soon enough, she was back to her old self and trying to get more sweet tarts. I then threw the rest away. Every year I have to recertify my CPR and you go over choking and this is the first - and hopefully the only- time I have had to use it. I have done the CPR part but only in the hospital setting on people I don't know. I am sure glad I knew what to do and grateful for the training I have and for all Heavenly Father's help from letting me hear the choking to keeping my senses about me to helping Paul get her out and to saving my Rachel. I am grateful!!!)
When we got home, we immediately got ready for a baptism for a man whose wife is a member who recently came back to church. They were the family that came over to our house for dinner and a lesson by the missionaries. It is really great that he decided to get baptized. I gave the talk on baptism at the service. When we came home, the girls went straight for bed and got some needed sleep after a busy weekend.
That's it for this week. We hope everyone is doing well. Spring really arrived for us -- the weather was fairly nice last week, with one or two cooler days, but this weekend it warmed up in the high 60s and should stay that way for awhile. We have been outside most of the afternoon after coming home from church.
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