July 5, 2002

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be home. Not taking anything away from our fabulous trip, but I appreciate every little thing more. I forgot about the delicious California weather. My heart leaps at seeing every old friend. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to the dreamy feeling of sleeping in my own bed. The kids are as brown as berries from living in the pool all week. Food tastes so good when you know the hands that have prepared it.

I’m just relishing in my time with the Lord every morning in my Lazy Boy, especially since I ordered a new Bible study. How many of you have already heard of Beth Moore? I just discovered her while I was on the trip. Maybe it is because we don’t have a LifeWay Christian Bookstore near me, but whatever the reason, I can’t believe I didn’t know there was such a treasure trove of Bible studies available. I just started her study on the life of David. I love it. I so desperately want to be like David, with a heart that is after God’s.

We spent the majority of this first week at home working hard to get the RV unloaded and the house put back together. I can’t believe we somehow fit so much stuff into such a small space. What’s so funny is that I forgot where I used to keep things. I stood standing before my kitchen drawers wondering, “Did I keep the dishtowels in the third or fourth drawer?”

I’m having fun wearing a “new” outfit everyday. I feel like I just came home from a mega-shopping spree. All my old clothes seem new again. Same goes for the children’s audio and video tapes. They are enjoying listening to all of there old “Adventures in Odyssey” tapes at night. They even pulled out all of my old “Facts of Life” videos and are watching them again.

My niece, Erin, arrived on Tuesday for a visit. She is fifteen-years-old and we love having her around. I hope she isn’t bored to tears. So far she hasn’t been able to do anything except swim with the kids while Steve and I work. But we promised to take them to Magic Mountain and a water park next week.

The very first evening home we had a good, old-fashioned, Cauble family night. We had pizza delivered and rented “I Am Sam.” What a fabulous movie! We have the “curse-free TV” box which muted all of the bad words so the movie was very clean and we all loved it. I highly recommend it.

In order to see as many friends as quickly as possible we hosted our own “Welcome Home” party on July 4th. I’m not very good at visual estimation but we must have had nearly 100 people show up throughout the day. The pool was stocked with children, the patio tables were surrounded by adults descending upon the chips and dips, the air was filled with a cacophony of conversation and patriotic music, and hugs were being liberally dispersed. The highlight of the party was either the homemade ice cream or the toilet overflowing and flooding the bathroom. Man, how I missed my friends.
Now, it is you that I miss. It has been so weird not journaling for you every night. I have truly enjoyed sharing the trip with you. From this point on, I will simply share my life with you. The highlights and the lowlights. In light of that, I want to thank you, again, for your prayers, understanding and encouraging emails this past week. I also appreciate the many offers to help us out financially. You are so gracious but we just couldn’t accept such generous offers. I hope you understand, though, how touched we are by your caring hearts.

I have also received a few emails from friends who respectfully disagree with us. I want you to know that I appreciate that you feel the freedom in our friendship to have differences of opinion. Many of these emails have caused me to think, rethink, and head to my knees again.

I must sign off for this week. I’m staring at this new treadmill that I bought and have yet to use. I weighed yesterday, (the first time in a year), and discovered that I have gained ten pounds. Considering how much junk food we ate all year, it could be worse, but I’ll probably burn more calories walking than typing, so I better get started.

P.S. The winner of the Family Dream Trivia Contest is Laurie Clay of Springview, Nebraska. She, along with four others, got 30 out of 31 answers correct! Laurie just got hers in the soonest.

The original questions are archived on the website on June 26th. Here are the answers:


1) Mr. & Mrs. Bob Tiffin
2) “Finding God in America” (This book has been set aside temporarily because it was too hard to enjoy the trip if I had to write a book about it. Instead I’m working on the homeschool book.)
3) “Buster”
4) The Dodge Caravan
5) Being in the parade
6) “The Boy Who Could Fly”
7) Cracker Barrel
8) San Francisco
9) Yellowstone National Park
10) Benjamin Franklin
11) Harry and David’s, Herr’s Snacks, Martin Guitars, Byers Choice, Tiffin Motorhomes, Creative Memories, Louisville Slugger, Ben & Jerry’s, Nanticoke Homes, Crayola, Cabot Cheese
12) Kenny Wallace
13) I rented a theater, invited all of Steve’s friends, and had a private showing of his favorite movie, “The Boy Who Could Fly.”
14) Scrapbook of the filming
15) Texas 42 domino game
16) Entertainment Tonight
17) Maine, Nebraska, Kansas, Hawaii, Alaska, North Dakota
18) Two, Scott and Julie
19) Wal-Mart
20) Stuffed Beanie Buddies
21) One Dollar and Two Dollar Coins
22) She hit her chin on the seesaw
23) Morgan Freeman
24) Haven
25) Junior Ranger Badges
26) Clancy
27) Two
28) Tiffin Motorhomes
29) Tucker
30) Haven
31) I was wearing one high heel and one flat shoe.

How did you do?

25 or more correct answers – I owe you a mocha latte.
15 or more correct answers – I owe you a cup of coffee.
5 or more correct answers – I owe you a Coffee Nip.
Less than 5 correct answers – You owe me a Starbucks gift card.

I hope you had as much fun as I did reliving some of the wonderful memories we created on this trip. And, thanks, Karen, for the fun Coffee Talk questions.