10 Tips To Kill Time When Stuck at Walmart During a Freak Storm

We just got back into Clinton after our 3 day road trip with the team to Beloit, Wisconsin. There were 3 other girls that made the trip as well, so I finally got some carpool buddies! It was a great trip and Daniel finished off the last game of the first half HOT! He went 3 for 5 with 2 Doubles, 2 RBIS, and a basehit! Praise the Lord! I am just so proud of him. I see him work so hard out there everyday and it's such a sweet blessing to see him doing well.
Anyways, one thing we've learned thru experience in the past seasons of being out here in the Midwest is that the following statement is a solid fact: Expect the unexpected when it comes to the weather!

After getting to the hotel in Beloit on Friday, Daniel and I decided we would go for a walk to the local Walmart that was a few minutes away. The sun was out and shining at the time and it was a perfect opportunity to get our blood moving again after being cooped up in the bus/car for the past couple hours. So we got to Walmart, walked around, grabbed a couple things we needed and proceeded to the checkout. As soon as the cashier rang us through. "BOOOOOOM", a loud thunder rattled the walls and we heard a complete downpour of rain pounding the ceiling above us!!! We walked towards the exit to check it out and it was complete chaos! Wind blowing, rain pouring, lighting, and thunder! Looked like clips of a hurricane scene we had seen on TV and this is not an exaggeration (okay, maybe it wasn't hurricane status-but it was intense). It came hard and quick! We we're left with little options and knew it'd be crazy for us to try to walk back to the hotel in this kind of weather. So we were stranded.

So here is the exclusive:

              

"Daniel &Chelsea's 10 Tips to Kill Time When Stuck at Walmart During a Freak Storm":

                                                    
                                              Tip #1: Balance a pineapple on your head

                                                            Tip #2: Juggle Potatoes

Tip#3: Workout

Tip#4: Try on a Mu-Mu

Tip#5: Hang out with Justin Beiber

Tip#6: Have a sword fight (while putting the camera on self timer)

Tip#7: Ride a bike (more like 'pose' with it b/c they're locked up)

Tip#8: Knit

Tip#9: Take a nap

Tip#10: Take pictures on a bench

We were thankfully rescued by our sweet friends Hawkins and Samantha! And was back in time for Daniel to catch the bus to the field. The storm eventually passed and we were able to get some good weather for a great weekend of baseball in Beloit, Wisconsin.

The Thrill of Traveling

I write from IOWA today! Lots to blog, I finally made it out here this passed Monday, but sure had a journey trying to get out here; I'll start with that. Bear with me....

Monday morning started out perfect. Set my alarm clock to wake me up at 3:30 am. Although I barely slept at all due to the anticipation of finally getting to see my husband after 6 long weeks apart. Had all my bags packed and my mom, dad, tutu (Hawaiian word for grandma)and I headed out to SNA airport. We decided to leave early in hopes to have a nice breakfast somewhere before my flight. But as soon as we got in the car, I realized my headsets weren't in my iPod case. After my million check-list making sure I had everything, I fell short on the headphones. I asked my dad if I could run into the super Walmart near our house real quick, because I was not ready to make those flights without my music and didn't want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on headphones at the airport. So I ran into Walmart headed towards the electronics to quickly pick up some headsets. Turns out, all the headsets were locked up and I needed to find an employee to unlock it for me. After asking multiple employees, all in which didn't have the key, about 10 minutes had passed. That turned into 13 minutes as I continued waiting once I was told they were on it. I'd say about 15 minutes into it, I was finally able to retrieve the headsets! It took way too long, but headsets in hand and I was ready to go!

Unfortunately this ended up cutting into our breakfast time, so I had to settle for a McDonalds McMuffin in exchange for the pancake stack I had been anticipating from Ihop. Finally pulled up to the airport, said my goodbyes and I was on my way.
I walked up to the ticket counter, dreading putting my suitcase on that scale, but to my surprise, my bag was only 2 pounds over so I was able to throw a couple things into my carry on. As I went thru security, I noticed the belt had stopped and my bag was under inspection. Two men looked through the security monitor examining my bag as I stood there jacketless, shoeless thinking what could possibly be the hold up. They then called for back up as my mysterious carry on bag continued to hold up the line. I was pulled aside, given the talk, and then was searched. Turns out I had a bottle of hairspray in a pocket in my bag that I had completely forgotten to check. Must had been there from a previous trip. So that was tossed and I was finally free to go.

The first flight was perfect. I landed for my layover in DFW, ticket in hand and ready to hop off to quickly check the gate number for my next flight to Moline. As my eyes scrolled down the list of destinations, I came to Moline only to be disappointed by the words CANCELLED scrolled across it! I was clueless on the reason and what I would be doing. All I knew is that I was determined to get to Daniel someway or another Monday. After waiting in the long line of fellow disappointed and irritated American Airline flyers, I finally reached the counter to find out my options. There weren't many. She told me she had nothing flying into Chicago or Iowa City and that they would put me in a hotel for the night and fly me into Moline tomorrow evening. No thank you! I continued to ask if there was anything else at all and was so relieved to hear the words "we actually have a flight flying into Peoria, leaving DFW at 7:30 tonight". "I'll take it!" It was one of the last tickets, so I was thrilled I didn't have to stay the night, but not so thrilled that I had about 4.5 hours to kill at the airport. Peoria was also about an extra hour of a drive for Daniel to come get me, but worth it instead of us having to wait a whole extra day.
Finally boarded the flight and made it safely to Peoria. I had butterflies as I walked towards to baggage claim and was met by my handsome husband! The crazy day was all worth it at that moment!

So I have been completely enjoying my time out here in Iowa. We are back with the Fullans, our wonderful host family that we stayed with last year. They make us feel so at home and really do feel like family to us. We are so grateful the Lord brought them into our lives. We were also worried about our car situation while I'm out here because we decided it'd be too hard to bring our car out here again and a wonderful family, the Collachias, is letting us use their car! It's been such a blessing! The community and people out here are incredible and we feel so extremely blessed! God is so great for ALWAYS working out the details! :)

Well, Daniel's game was suppose to start at 2:00 today but has been delayed due to rain. He just texted me saying it's back on for 5:00 (which is in about 15 minutes), so I need to wrap this up. Thanks again to all our prayer warriors out there! I'll try to post again soon.

Oh, and Daniel hit a HR the other day!!!! Super exciting!!!

Hope you all are having a blessed day!

Hebrews 13:15 "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."

Stranded At Sea

Yesterday my family and I made the 4 hour trip to Nevada to spend the day at Lake Mead. We ended up leaving around 2:30 in the morning because my Dad wanted to be able to get out there early so we could get the most out of our day trip. The day started out great. We got some really good boating in. My sister and I got to tube, she fell off twice while I held on for life! There was no way I was letting go and getting in the fish infested water. It's just a phobia of mine, which I know I need to overcome. I'm not even quite sure when this phobia started because I remember when I was younger I was fearless of the water. Thinking back... I think it may have been when I was 10 years old. I went to a summer camp in Hawaii called 'Explorations'; in which Hawaiian children are taught about our culture, etc. We get to do alot of hands on trips and one of them was making a human fish net (the way Hawaiians used to do it) and I don't know; I'm thinking something happened then. Maybe I got bit? Or maybe the slimy feeling of the fish on my feet and legs freaked me out? Not too sure. But I kind of remember this crazy phobia of mine starting sometime after that.

Anyways, now that you got that background story on me, back to our day at Lake Mead. The sun was beaming and the temp was hot. I don't mind the heat at all though. I actually prefer it. I get cold pretty easy, so 107 degrees doesn't bother me too much. While my parents and sister complained about it, I soaked it up. Maybe a little too much because I feel like I look like I just stepped out of a tribe in the Amazon, I got dark! So as we boated around and enjoyed the scenery, we got kind of caught up in it and really lost our sense of time and wasn't paying too much attention to how long we had been out on the lake for. We started out with a full tank of gas in the morning and figured it'd be enough for the day. When we realized we we're starting to run low, we knew it was time to start heading back to the dock. Thinking we knew where we were going, we began to make our way 'back'. This lake is pretty huge (way bigger then our usual day trips to Lake Perris in which we pretty much just ride laps around). We turned into a cove which we thought we had docked from, only to find out it was just a cove... we began to ask boaters how to get back to Boulder Harbor and was directed to keep heading South. After seeing it in the near distance, "brumpt brumpt brumpt", we had ran out of gas!!! So there we were, my dad, mom, sister and I drifting engine less in the middle of Lake Mead. Boaters began to pass us thinking we we're just hanging out. My mom pulled out her cell phone, happy to see the signal bars and called a Lake Mead emergency number. After being told the cost of towing would cost somewhere around $185; we resorted to try to ask for help before committing to paying that. I pulled out the fog horn and began to blow and wave my arms to oncoming boaters. After about 15 minutes, we saw a boat in the distance begin to head towards us. As they were pulling up, the young guy driving the boat was heading right towards us and not stopping. We all began to panic and were confused as their boat hit the side of ours. After realizing it was an accident and that they weren't some crazy pirates trying to attack us, we let them know what happened and they were so kind to throw us a rope to tie to our boat and towed us to the lake gas station, which was about a 20 min boat ride away from where we were. They were a really nice family of about 8 people, offered us watermelon and waters as we floated behind them to get gas. My parents ended up paying them for their trouble and we were so relieved to gas up and finally head to our dock! It was an adventure for sure and the Lord was so faithful to provide those friendly boaters that came to our rescue! Lesson learned, Always make sure you have enough gas to make it back! :) I love my family! I finally leave tomorrow morning to be with my wonderful hubby after a very long month and a half of being apart! Beyond excited!! Next time I blog, I'll be with Daniel! Hope you all are doing wonderful!