Did Job Bake a Cake?

    Baking cakes is not a new thing for me.  I have made over 400 cakes over the last 8 years.  A lot of them wedding cakes.

    Wedding cakes are scary.  They are a once in a lifetime event.  There is so much that can go wrong with the cake.

    When I got home yesterday with Barrett we made a cake that was half white and half chocolate.  He was so good about helping.  I let him (with help) put all the ingredients in the mixers.  He wanted to crack the eggs all by himself.

    Because I was doing two flavors of cake, I used both my mixer and Bobby Sue's mixer.  When we turned them on for the two minutes Barrett got so excited.  He shock his head in a circle to follow the beater. He squealed with happiness a few times as well.  He was covered from head to toe with chocolate cake batter.

    It was a lot of fun to bake cakes with him.

   The whole time I was teaching Barrett how to bake cakes I thought about how God had taught me so many things.  This verse came to mind. "Teach me, and I will be silent; And show me how I have erred" Job 6:24

    I have taken so many classes over the years and learned a lot about God.  I have not been the ideal student.  I want to learn but I don't want to listen and I really don't want to know where I have messed up
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    I need to take a lesson from Barrett.  He eagerly waited for the next instruction and boldly tried to accomplish the task.  He would spill something and say "Oh No" and look to me for a way to correct the mistake.

    I wonder if God enjoys watching us try to accomplish a task he had given us as much as I enjoyed watching Barrett.  I know I will mess up things.  I know I will try hard to do it right,  I hope that I will continue to have a child like attitude.

    "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

17 Years Under Our Belts

On July 4th Darrin and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. Darrin has been my best friend, my hero and just an amazing man.

We decided to spend the morning at the Watermelon Festival in Grand Bay.

Bobby Sue had entered Barrett in a beautiful baby contest.  The contest started a 9 am.  The room was full of people.

It took a while for them to get to Barrett's group.  Barrett was ready to get on the stage.  He was such a ham both times he got to go on stage.

 There were only two boys in his age group.  Both boys got sales for best eyes and best hair.

Barrett was crowned King in his age group.  He loved getting a crown.
We all celebrated with a funnel cake and watermelon before heading home.

We finished the night by having dinner at the Pelican Reef and then over to Dog River for fire works at the marina

Sunday Cedar Rapids to Moline

Today is the last day of competition.

Scott, Mallory and Ashley rode in the car today.  No need to worry about time penalty's. Today would be all about having some fun.

Darrin and I had 5 hrs to make the 1 hour and 15 minute trip.  We stopped at the I-80 truck stop and toured the museum.  It was pretty cool.  There were some very cool trucks and some very unusual trucks too.  We also walked around the store and looked at all kinds of crazy souvenir items.


On this trip we have enjoyed many National Parks and a lot of museums.

We got to the hotel and the B team was at the desk.  This hotel decided to not let us check in for two reasons. First the rooms were not ready and second they would only let Travis and Scott have the rooms.  Problem was soon solved.

Randy came down to meet us and we hung out most of the afternoon.  We so cool to see so many family members on this cross country race.

I watched as the cars come across the finish line and they announced what their place was in the race.  The winners of each class had confetti shot over them.  Nice touch.

The cars parked along the street.  The local cars came out to park with the Great Race cars.

At 6 pm we went to a reception and a dinner before the award ceremony. It was fun to hang out with all our new friends one last night.  The banquet was nice.  The food was good.

At the award ceremony Scott won the best friend award from Toshi and team Japan.

Saturday Sioux Falls to Cedar Rapids

The day started with great expectations.  The car was running great.  The girls got plenty of sleep.  Navigating a rally you have to be sharp and on point.

The girls set their stop watches and Mallory marked up the instructions.  It was an exciting morning for all of us.

Today would be Scott and Mallory in the car.

Ashley, Darrin and I drove pretty much straight to the hotel, stopping only for gas and food.

We traveled out of South Dakota into Michigan and down into Iowa.  We arrived in town and went to the hotel and got everything in the rooms.

We headed down to the finish line and waited for the cars to come in.

Cars came by and several people said that things are not good.  Peter came and said it was a fuel pump.  We waited and waited.  Every car came in but ours. 

I went and talked to scoring and they said that our car was on the road.  They were an hour behind.

It was a big disappointment.  Mallory and Scott had car troubles.  The fuel pump had gone out. A local person took Scott to a parts store so he could get a new fuel pump.  Peter stopped to help as long as he could.

The worst part was that there had been a fuel pump in the car but Scott was cleaning out the car before we left Mobile and put the pump in the excursion.

Scott and Mallory got the car going but Scott had gotten over heated so he had to sit for 20 minutes before going.

This caused them to be past their window to finish for the day and also cost them the race.  It was a championship day that had to be finished in order to be given a score. 

The team ended the day with a DNF.  

Friday Trip to Sioux Falls

We had an early start time.  The girls went and set their stop watched and get the instructions for the day.

It was Ashley's turn to navigate.  Mallory helped Ashley mark up the instructions and the two went over everything.

We saw them off and then loaded the truck. We headed out for the long trip. It is a long boring ride across South Dakota.  Not much to look at but a tree here and there.

Just after leaving the Black Hills and heading toward Sioux Falls you come across the Badlands and Wall Drug.  The Badlands National Park is know for the fossils.

It has been rumored to have been the place that the lunar landing on the moon was filmed.  It has a very moon like landscape.

Near the Badlands we started to see the cars again.

About half way across the state we stopped at the Corn Palace.  We walked to the front of the Palace. The tribute to rock and roll on the building was nicely done.

We arrived at the hotel and took a much needed rest.  The trailer parking area was in the park where the falls for Sioux Falls were.  We took a moment to go see them.

The longest day came to an end for the drivers as they came across the finish line. 

Sioux Falls fed us an awesome dinner and gave us all a T-shirt. There was a big crowd for the car display.

Miss South Dakota greeted the cars as they came in.  After The team was parked she came over and took a photo with the team.

There was a democratic convention going on at our hotel.  I know this would be funny with Scott.

We went over to the hotel that Tag and MaryBeth were staying at and hung out with them for a while.

When we came back over to our hotel there were a bunch of Great Racers in the bar.  Not long after we arrived Brad from Hagerties came in dressed in a bee costume.

The team came in 35th for the day and 30th place overall with a time of 19:40.

Thursday Cheyenne to Rapid City

We left early to try to get to Rapid City early.  Mallory and Scott were in the car for the day.

Several times during our travel to Rapid we saw cars.  It was cool to see the cars in the wide open space and I was able to take some awesome photos.

The landscape became more and more familiar.  The high desert has its own distinct look to it.

The trip was a 5 hour trip up Wyoming and then over into South Dakota.  We passed by Crazy Horse and stopped long enough to take a photo.

I had not seen Crazy Horse for at least 15 years. It still looked the same.  One of our first dates was on the Crazy Horse Volksmarch.  We climbed up the backside of the mountain and got to stand on the arm right under the nose.

We headed straight to Mount Rushmore.  I got another stamp in my National Park book.  Ashley enjoyed it but like everybody says  "it was smaller than she thought it would be.". We toured the museum and shortly headed out. 

When we arrived at the hotel we unloaded the trailer and headed to Taco Johns. It was as good as I remembered.

We went back to the hotel and checked in.  Then we were off to see friends.  We went and visited Kerry first then Rusty.

Wasn't long and it was time to go downtown.  Crowds were gathering early.  Every Thursday night the town of Rapid City has their Summer Nights with two outdoor stages and food vendors. At 6 pm the band's started.  By the time half the cars were parked there was well over 6000 people there.  It was unreal!

So many of Darrin's family and our friends showed up! The crowd easily topped 10,000 by the end of the night.

The team showed up and they had a great day.  The team got their first ace.  But as Mallory noticed one of their scores was way off so she went to argue with the time keepers.  Not long after that Mallory came back with her second ace.

The girls were off to enjoy the music and their friends.  We hung out at the car and enjoyed the little time we had with our friends.

Darrin's parents came up from Nashville and met us on St. Joe street and we all went to dinner.  Got to spend a little bit of time with Kerry and Mary.

The team came in 32nd place overall and 15th place for the day with a time of 11.64 seconds.

Mallory said that she enjoyed seeing the buffalo and seeing the Black Hills.  The air went out on the convertible today.  That just sounds funny to me, they are in a convertible The trick is they would put wet towels on their knees and the air blowing on that would keep them cool.

Wednesday Evanston to Cheyenne

We saw the team off and, packed everything into the excursion traveled across the state of Wyoming.  As you can see by the hotel cart this is a feet to accomplish.  3 adults and two teenage girls sure can bring a lot of stuff with them.

We crossed the Continental Divide.  We made a steady climb in elevations that really effected our ears.  We saw cars running parallel to the interstate.  Made for some very interesting and cool photos. We tried to use a rest area but it was full of racers so we kept going.

When we got to the hotel in Cheyenne we unloaded. It took two trips cause the cart was small to fit in the elevator.  The hotel was built in 1910. 

While we unloaded the truck and got the suitcases to the rooms the bell man went across the street and stood in a parking spot for us.  It was awesome to have the spot right across the street.

One of the many cool features of the hotel was the elevator.  It was small so that a cowboy could not take his horse with him to his room.  He would have to leave his horse at the livery stable.

The hotel had great views of the sunset and the sunrise.  There were so many very cool things to look at in the historic Plans Hotel.  The mosaic at the front door.  The open entry with the wrap around balcony on the second floor.

Downtown Cheyenne was defiantly a old cowboy town.  The train station across the street from the hotel had been restored and housed a museum and a few little shops.

The finish line was right across the street from the hotel.
Darrin and I walked around a little bit. We then saw the Troubadour's arriving into town so we went over to where we were to park.  the problem was that the city had forgot to block off the parking lot that morning.

They took two or three tries at getting the big bus and trailer into the parking lot.

Then we sat in front of the hotel and ate cookies and watched people pull into town.  Was nice to rest a little.

About 5:30 we headed over to watch the cars arrive.  Ashley, Darrin and I went to over to the finish line. One by one the cars arrived. They parked and people came out to see the cars.

Cheyenne had a large crowd, the largest so far. It was fun to see all the people and to talk to them.  The town feed us dinner inside the depot.

Ashley and Scott were pleased with the day when they arrived.  They had a 29 second day and they were in 2nd place in the X-Cup division.



Ashley said that she had enjoyed a snowball fight in the mountains of Wyoming.   Scott said the car still gave them problems with what acted like a vapor lock.

The team is in 37th place over all and in 2nd place in the X-Cup division with a 29:10 second day.