Florida and Beyond

We have returned from Florida. We are trying to re-coup a bit because we are off again for Wisconsin starting Monday!
Florida was a very restful time for us. We had meetings for only two days, so for the rest of the time we just relaxed as a family.
We went to the zoo...swam in the pool...went to Daytona Beach and got crispy...pretty much just had a great vacation.
I am a time oriented person so it took a bit for me to get used to waking up when we wanted to, eating when we were hungry, doing whatever we wanted to, whenever we wanted to. But this was the first vacation that we have ever taken as a family where it was just us in one place for a week with nothing to do.
Usually vacations are so packed that they seem to go by so fast, and one needs to rest when they get home, but this time we didn't feel like that. We know that the next several months are going to be super-crazy and we were thankful to get a time to just laze around for a bit.
We had several meetings with the Communications Dept. that we have been praying about working with, and got some valuable insight and direction for our immediate future.
The decision is that while their need for writers is great and I have the talent that they are looking for, I lack the formal schooling that is needed to jump right in and start working. They have asked me to take a couple of semesters of college (one or two classes each semester). We are planning on using the next year or two to spend time with our churches and raise our necessary support, so we will see if I can take the classes at the same time.
Our plan (contingent on God's Plan...) is to head to Wisconsin for about ten days. After Anarazell there are so many people that we know up there that are like family now we want to see them one more time before we head out west for a few years.
Jen's sister and her husband are starting classes here in Missouri, Aug. 14th so we want to be here to help them unpack when they get here on the 9th.
On the 11th we will start our trip westward. We will travel the modified Oregon trail. We will start in Missouri and end up in Oregon, and we will take several months to do it, but we are going to visit family, friends and churches in 5 states along the way! More about that later.
So that is that for now...I will post pics of Florida later today or tomorrow...