Camping with Alligators... and Mosquitoes...

Yes, my friends.

It IS late October.

Which means it is finally camping season in Texas! 

It kind of cramps our style to not be able to camp all summer... but we'll take what we can get in the Fall.

We headed down to Brazos Bend State Park for a camping adventure with some friends from church.

 We actually got to wear sweaters and start a fire! A REAL camping trip!

Yes, I have blogged about Brazos Bend before.

And yes- that is the park with alligators.

(See posts here and here)

But we weren't eaten by any alligators... thank goodness.

Just mosquitoes... swarms of them.

I think I'd take alligator bites over mosquito bites any day...

Just sayin'

Alligator bites don't itch.

 We went biking around the lakes... swamps

 I used an 8 year old's bike...

It actually wasn't too bad- just had a bad case of 'sore bottom' afterwards.

I need to get a "big girl" bike someday....

 But how cute is this kid?

She makes me smile.

 Looks beautiful enough to go swimming, right?

Too bad the lake is full of gators...

No touchy.

 

While hot dogs roasted- football was played...

fun was had with glow sticks...

And mosquitoes drank our blood.

Once the mosquitoes all die...

we're up for another camping adventure!

The Bug...

The travel bug that is.

I've been putting pics from Switzerland into our "Third Year of Marriage" book...

and I want to travel again.

I NEED to travel again.

It's the bug- it's contagious- I can't help it.

How can you resist paddle boats in Italy?

Or sitting in a wildflower field while basking in the beauty Alps?!

 

Or riding a cable car up to the highest mountain and feeling like you're on top of the world?

 

You can't resist.

That's the only answer.

 

I miss Switzerland.

Time for a new adventure.

Some Things I've Learned...

I've learned a lot so far in my long two month stint as a high school dance teacher...

1- I've learned that "mums" aren't an English lady's term for "mom"... But a gob of ribbons and bells worn for Homecoming. Weird.

2- I've learned that to "shuffle" is neither a tap nor a clogging step... But a dance craze brought upon by the song "Party Rock". Mrs. Brame is no good at said "shuffling".

3- I've learned that girls fight. I'm talking full on punching each other. This was a bit of a shocker.

4- I've learned that there's a big "Mexican vs. Black" fight at the end of every year. Can't wait.

5- I've learned some ebonics- like the words "trippin" and "sugar boo".

6- I've learned that we pledge allegiance everyday not only to the flag of the United States of America- but also the Texas flag. Well... I don't but the students do. 

7- I've learned that BYU taught me REALLY WELL how to teach white, Mormon kids.... 

But not other populations :)

8- I've learned to pick my own battles. In all my dance Ed classes they told me to use music they've never heard before so you wouldn't have the problem of them singing along or getting distracted, etc. ...Yeah right. My students wouldn't do anything if they didn't know the music. That's just how it is.

9- I've learned that students have no qualms about dropping the "f" bomb.

They get in trouble for it- don't worry.

10- I've learned that my first period class is awesome!

But unfortunately I think I owe it to the fact that it's 7:00 am and their bad attitudes haven't woken up yet :)

The End of a Looooong Week...

It's raining outside...

It's been raining cats and dogs all day (who made up that expression anyway?)

I love the rain on two conditions:

1- I don't have to be out in it.

That was probably the worst part about the mission... walking around in the rain.... getting soaking wet and not being able to do anything about it. Oh you COULD try and use an umbrella- but the wind would tear it to shreds. Oh no- I gave up on that about month six. We walked through many a Polish rainstorms and I vowed I would never walk in the rain (if I didn't have to) EVER AGAIN.

In fact- I got so sick of the rain (and slugs... oh the slugs...) that I started carrying around salt with me and killing slugs as a way to get out my anger of walking in the rain... morbid I know.

Rain is just so much nicer and cozier from the inside of a house, don't ya think?

And number 2- As long as I have someone to be with.

Which I don't.

At the moment... he's on his way home as we speak.

BUT knowing my luck- his flight will be delayed... because of said rain.

Oh well... I'm just glad he's on his way home.

It's been a long week.

Life is harder when Jon isn't around.

I've decided that husband and wife are meant to be together.

Shocker I know.

It's not like the scriptures tell us that or anything ;)

Because I've been home alone- I've had a lot of time to read... and I finished this book.

I know it's wildly popular- and I kinda followed the crowd on this one...

but this book was amazing.

It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me re-evaluate the way I treat others, and definitely made me glad I didn't live in the 60's because I probably would have been lynched for speaking my mind.

I'm definitely planning on reading this book again...

and soon.

Speaking of the mission (from above)... I checked the Polish mission blog today and had a wonderful surprise.
They had a chapel open house at the Warsaw 2 branch in (you guessed it) Warsaw.
That was my first area of my mission and I don't remember a whole lot, but when I saw this picture- the lady in orange looked strangely familiar.
The caption on the picture talked about her and her two sons and how she has a baptismal date set in two weeks.

I clicked on the picture to make it bigger and I was sure of it-
I had taught her!
In fact- my trainer and I were her first contact with the missionaries!
I immediately rummaged through my mission pics...
and found this...

Same girl... 4 years earlier.
*Sigh*
It's just that sometimes as a missionary you wonder if you did any good.
I only saw a handful of people baptized...
a lot of them became inactive.
It just warmed my heart to see that a seed that Sister Brown and I planted 4 years ago-
will lead to her baptism in 2 weeks.
No matter what the situation- seeing someone come to Christ is a good feeling.
And seeing that picture made me feel good inside.

A Bunch of Sickies

Yesterday was a little bit of a rough day for the Brame family.

We were both in the hospital.

Amelia in Texas.

Jon in Washington.

We both made it out alive.

Amelia had a small procedure...

Jon had a more major surgery.

He doesn't like surgery... and he's had his fair share.

Did you know he's had two open heart surgeries?

Well he has...

and it took us 3 years to convince him to get this surgery done!

Doesn't he look excited?

I just wanna know what he said to that nurse because she looks horrified!

 All ready!

And he survived.

Hallelujah.

 

Now...

bring on those medical bills.

Not a Care in the World... in Couer D'Alene

We left Houston over the weekend.

It was amazing to get out of the heat and see family.

However, it was no easy task getting there.

Remember how we've had record breaking heat and dryness and fires?

We've been asked to pray for rain.

To fast for rain.

Well the rain came- and it came on the exact day and the exact hour that we were supposed to fly out of Houston.

Pretty sweet timing, huh?

And it wasn't JUST rain- it was hail, and lightning and black, swirling hurricane clouds.

It delayed our flight by two hours... and they told us we wouldn't make our connecting flight to Spokane, which was the LAST connecting flight for the night.

Needless to say- we were super bummed kuz it meant we'd have to stay the night in Denver and not get into Spokane until Friday morning.

This trip (already being a short one as it was) was going to be cut even shorter.

We got into Denver an HOUR after our Spokane flight was scheduled to leave. 

An HOUR!

We jumped onto our phone as soon as we landed to check the flight status to Spokane...

They'd been delayed... and they were boarding!

We sprinted off the plane and down to the other side of the terminal... the gate was closed.

But miracle of all miracles- they opened it, just for us.

We had made it.

My cursing Southwest (in my head) had paid off ;)

And on with the weekend.

Jon's parents picked us up from Spokane and we drove to Coeur D'Alene to meet up with our Canadian family.

We spent the next few days soaking in the cool air here...

 Beautiful morning...

 We spent LOADS of time outside...

(because we COULD without melting! Ah, blessed Idaho)

 Out on the lake...

 Riding jet skis...

Hanging out under the shade...

 Enjoying scenery...

 "Where should we adventure to next Meli?"

"I dunno- I need to fix my hair..."

 Kayaking...

Did we get tired of Idaho? 

Not one bit...

 We did some relaxing...

and car napping...

And some Conference watching...

(bed head and all!)

And of course- some BYU football watching!

We even did some shopping while the boys went to Priesthood session.

But the best part- was meeting this cute little guy.

Our very own nephew, Sawyer.

Wish we could have taken him home with us!

 Pretty sure Jon won him over.

 Unfortunately- all good things come to an end.

And much to my chagrin, vacations come to a close.

Although reading this book on the way home made it a much easier flight :)