Week of ups and downs

Wow our week certainly was full of highs and lows!  We started Sunday by taking the camper up to Pine Grove State Park near Shippensburg PA. The park is set in a mountainous area right on the Appalachian trail.  It has two lakes, Laural and Fuller.  Fuller is our favorite, it has very clear blue-green water and the swimming area goes to 30 feet in depth.  It is a super place for mask and fins, with lots of fish to gaze at and inspect. The beach sports some very soft white sand. The first part of the week was very peaceful.  Anna and I were the only ones there till Wednesday when Martha came.
Anna found friends every day and spent hours trying to net fish, which I told her I would make into sardines if she caught enough.  But she caught none the whole week although she didn't lack effort.  She also built sand mansions and lakes of her own, all the while wearing her diving mask on her forehead, so that when she got hot the mask would be ready to slip down over her face and she could go exploring the lake's aquatic life.
This contentedness on her part gave me plenty of time to read or swim or just sit and gaze at the beauty of it all!
Bruce had decided to eat dinner and sleep at the camper only a few of the nights we were there because of his early morning treatments, I began to regret having asked him to take us to the lake, I could tell it was exhausting him,the drive was about an hour to the lake.
Wednesday is when things began to go poorly.  I knew Bruce had come  to the campground that afternoon, but he never joined us for a swim.  By the way there  is no phone service unless you stand at just the right spot on the beach, so I couldn't call him.  Leaving Martha to watch Anna at the lake, I drove up to the camper, where I had found Bruce, he had falled a sleep and had just awoke. So I convinced him he needed a relaxing swim and down we went to the lake. It was as I walked out to the beach that I made a critical mistake. I needed to use the rest room and while doing so I laid my I Phone on the toilet paper holder.  But with much on my mind I walked back out forgetting the phone.
It was about 7:00PM and there were only a few people at the beach, but in that very small group, there obviously was a thief.   I realized what I had done within 10-15 minutes, and ran as fast as these legs could take me back to the bathroom only to have my hopes dashed.  Someone had taken it. The phone that had all my contacts, medical appointments,our family pictures and our favorite music gone. Just like that gone.  What an imbisole I was to be so irrespondsible with such a costly item.  I  enquired at the life gaurd station and park office, they all greated me with smiles that turned grave as they realized the hopelessness of the situation.  Wow, talk about a high and wonderful feeling being smashed as if hit in the gut.
Well I tried to cheer myself up with all the things that had bothered me about that phone and encourged myself that perhaps it was one of those things we come to depend to much upon and perhaps enjoy to much, after all I had so much of my favorite music downloaded to it.
Thursday Martha and I took Anna back down to the beach and enjoyed another beautiful day, however bitter sweet, doing the same things.  Martha would put on her fins and mask, I too, and we would explore the deep waters, while Anna played contentedly finding many children to build castles with.
We were however looking at people in a more suspicous way now and a good bit of our joy was gone.
Thursday evening we prepared cornish hens with a lemon pepper sauce, mashed potatos, stuffing, gravy,corn and an applecrumb pie. Perhaps I decided on crumbs because that was just what I felt like, a real crumb bum.  In retrospect I was probably trying to say, with food, please forgive me Bruce, but he was to tired to get the message, and I know he loves me regardless of my problems, but I feel so  rotten for being so careless with my phone. 
The next day started out quite strange. I needed to run back to Harrisburg for physical therapy, Not wanting to wake Martha I woke the girls and off we went. The airconditioner stopped working in the car  so we were using the windows for cool air, as we drove Sarah began telling about a dream she had which seemed quite real to her. She dreamed that Anna  was pouring a bottle of water down on her from the top bunk. When she woke her shirt was wet but not her pants.   Well...later that evening as Anna is guzzling a bottle of water down, Sarah reminds her to not drink to much or she might wet the bed. Anna replied with "Well actually...." Then you know it's coming.Your belly is going to be wrenched with laughter. And sure enough it was, for what she explained was that she indeed did wet the top buck, the night before, and in the middle of the night was discarding drenched laundry off the bed not realizing they were not hitting their destination on the floor but instead the wet cloths were landing on an innocently dreaming Sarah, oh my!
Well back to the beginning of the day. I went to therapy where they attached me to an odd traction machine.  The controls or position wasn't right and it began to bruise the base of the skull, after much endurance and hoping it would get better,the headaches started and so I had the machine stopped.  Whew what a relief!
Back at the house Hannah offered to take Anna shopping and bring here out to Pine Grove Park to have some fun to.
So Sarah and I took off back to the park, all the while I am worried about Martha being there all alone. So we picked up milk and some Taco bell to take back and share. But as fate would have it we made it about 45minutes down the interstate, when my car died.  No warning, not even a clutching of it's chest, not a cough or fever. So we drifted thanks to momentum,  off an exit ramp near Carlise.  But there we sat in the exit lane and Betsy (the name I give to my cars) was not able to move another inch. Cars were blowing their horns, impatient tractor trailers were pushing their way through narrowly missing us.  Finally a young man offered to push us to the berm of the road.  And since I no longer have a cellphone he allowed me to call AAA on his very nice, well taken care of,  I Phone( more salt in my wound).  They told me a truck would be out in no more then 15 minutes. But it took at least a half an hour and Sarah and I thought we may pass out in the heat, we started to feel very flushed and  nauseated. I envisioned them finding two withered skeletons sitting in the front seat of this now oven like Ford Escort. We had no shade and we couldn't leave the car in case the tow truck would come he would need us there.  We really did begin to feel light headed and I began to wonder what to do, I  was sure it couldn't take a minute longer.  Finally the tow truck arrive and very efficiently load Betsy onto her gurney. And we took her to the auto doctor.  There we found that her timing belt had broke, it will takeover $300.  for the part and he can't start till Monday.  The gentleman at the office allowed us a phone call, wisely I called Hannah who was fairly close by this time, so Sarah and I walked, carrying our jug  of milk and somewhat stale tacos, towards the highway exit. We were so thankful to see her!!
We headed  for  the park, where I knew Martha had to be patiently pacing the camper floor and feeling quite concerned, to put it mildly! Apparently she had a bit of stress herself, as a two campers pulled in, one on  either side of ours and  apparently the families  were related.  The people were none to happy that our camper rested between the two and were waving there arms in frustration about our camper being in the midst. The park had just added our site to the park's campground and it wasn't yet on the camp map.  So between being worried to death about what had happened to us ( as many hours had past) Martha also feared she may have to get out the bear spray to defend our camp spot from the irate campers.   So when we returned I wondered why  a bunch of kids were giving us the evil eye.
As we went inside to contemplate our next move we ran into continuous obstacles.  Hannah realized she forgot her diapers, we tried the camp store to no avail. When we returned it had down poured so hard we now had a nice size lake at our door step.  We thought and thought how we could make things work.  Hannah could stay if we found diapers and then all ride to church in the morning.  We could skip church and get a much needed break; via phone Bruce nixed that quickly and firmly.  But then the deciding factor came as Martha ran some water in the sink and it barely trickled.  I went back to check the tanks and sure enough the water tank was empty, and the black water full.  Not god news.
So we (all 6 of us) packed in Hannah's little cobalt, like the sardines Anna hoped she'd catch.  And headed home hoping we were not stopped for stacking two of the kids into one seat belt.  We traveled only a few miles when the low fuel light lit and dinged.  We were quite a ways from any gas station but the Lord was with us all day and  he wasn't going to leave us now.  We made it to the gas station and home safely.  Praise the Lord. For He is good all the time!!!!!!  Bruce took our weary group to Friendly's for dinner at about 8PM, the food was great, but, many of us felt like we could fall asleep right there, forget about eating,wow,what an exhausting day!
I hope your Sabbath is restful and full of God's will for you!