Russel Taylor’s Website

After a fairly stressful week, I decided I wanted to get away.  Years ago, when Donna and I lived in Alabama, we would pack up and drive a few hours, stay at a motel, and just explore the area in which we found ourselves.  It’s a little more difficult to do that around here, since you really need to drive a lot further in order to get anywhere interesting!  So we haven’t done that in a long time.  Well, this past weekend was the one.  I just had to decide where to go….  It was going to be a warm, but really windy weekend.  I figured east would be the way to go, since I could get to the woods, right?  But then, at the last minute, I decided to go west to Carlsbad Caverns.  The wind wouldn’t bother us underground!

We left on Friday after work and drove to Lubbock where we stayed the night at a nice Holiday Inn Express.  The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel. They had the greatest breakfast ever!  Freshly made pancakes, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, eggs, bagels, sausage, cereal, yogurt, several different kinds of coffees, and juice.  Yum!  We left from there and drove the rest of the way to the cave.

We decided to go down through the natural entrance.  The cave was absolutely stunning!  The trail was very steep, winding for about 1.25 miles down 750 feet, or, as the park ranger said, the equivalent of a 75 story building!  I had to carry Todd most of the way.  He walked some, and Donna gave me a (very) short break.  Preston and Russell were troopers, and made it down all by themselves!  By the time we made it down to the bottom, where the restrooms were, my arm and legs were killing me!  We didn’t make the tour of the Big Room, which was a little disappointing, but I suppose that gives us an excuse to go back!

We drove all the way home that evening, hitting a skunk in the process.  We all piled out of our stinky van and went to bed at 12:30 am Sunday morning.  And yes, we did make it to church later that day!

Once I get my pictures off the camera, I’ll add a few to this post.

Next Saturday, June 28th, we will be making a little road trip from Texas up to Michigan to visit my parents.  I’m really excited.  I haven’t been up there in ten years!  I will also get to meet my sister’s husband for the first time and see their new little girl!  As long as the kids don’t drive us crazy, I think it will be a great trip!

The trees are budding out.  All except the mesquite, as they normally leaf out later than most.  My allergies are killing me.  Areas nearby have had thunderstorms.  That’s right.  It’s Spring!  Not a lot has happened recently in our family.  Donna and I have been singing in the Church Choir, the boys have been doing well in Sunday School and Preston has been doing well in Kindergarten.

Next week it will be Thanksgiving.  Today at work we are having our Thanksgiving lunch.  I had to laugh to Donna last night, because everyone has been inviting me to Thanksgiving feasts!  Preston is having one at school, the other two boys are having one at daycare, Donna invited me to their’s at Notre Dame, I have my work one today, and next week is the “real” one!  I held my belly and asked her “Does it look like I need five Thanksgiving feasts?!?  Maybe I could handle five Thanksgiving snacks, but not feasts!”  I will just be doing my work one and the real one at Donna’s parents’ house.

I haven’t really done a good job of updating my blog lately… Just lazy, I guess.

Honestly, not much has happened. We’ve all been sick over the last week. Donna’s mom had knee replacement surgery. We visited Marlys in the City, where we saw the tornado damage from last month. We’ve been getting rain the last few days (praise Jesus!). I think that’s about it…

This last week has been pretty stressful.  On Wednesday my car decided to start acting wonky.  It has been losing power on acceleration.  I figured it was the spark plugs, so I bought some new ones and changed them out.  Two days later (yes, it took that long, and my hands are cut up too) my car has new spark plugs and wires, and it’s still acting up.

It’s Mother’s Day weekend, so we decide to take my car to Ardmore so that I can put some fuel injector cleaner in the gas and see if that helps out.  So, we get to Ardmore, and Donna’s parents buy us lunch at McDonald’s (McYucky’s as we call it).  Then they want to go to the park with the kids.  I didn’t really want to since my car is acting up, but Donna doesn’t give me any choice.  While at the park, Donna’s mom thinks it will be a good idea to take the kids to the splashpad so they can play in the water.  I tried to sit that one out, but Donna made me go sit with everyone else.  Russell, his usual self, falls down while running and hits his head on the concrete.  It was bad enough that everyone makes us take him to the emergency room.  It was pretty scary, because he was drooling and sedated.  After the doctor sees us, Russell even throws up a couple of times.  They do a CT scan and let us know he’ll be okay, after which Russell finally starts coming to (about two hours after his accident!).

After all that, we go to El Chico to eat, where Russell wolfs down chips and queso.  He had been begging for nachos as soon as we left the hospital.  After barfing it all up though, he seems fairly content not to eat any more.

Sunday, Mother’s Day, was mostly uneventful.  I grilled (burned) hamburger, hotdogs, bratwurst, and shrimp, and we feasted.  Then we packed up and went home.

The car is still acting up…