Deanna Doss Shrodes

Today we left Maryland at about 10:30 am and headed to Richmond, VA to have lunch with Mom Sally, Pop Pop Bob, and Shari. We met at a place called the Black Finn , on the canal in Richmond. It was a beautiful location, and amazing food...Shari and I agreed they had one of the best burgers we've ever had in our whole lives. (And , we've had a lot!) We have Bob to thank for finding the restaurant for us to meet at today. He's a true food connoisseur. We enjoyed our lunch and talking for quite a while and then spend some time outside by the canal taking pictures and went on the roof to get a better look. It was sad to have to m ove on so soon but like we all said, it was better than not meeting at all! I was so glad that Shari took the time to come up from North Carolina. What a treat to see her twice within such a short time! [I'm going to post more pictures in a separate post that will be just photos from today.] We drove on until about 10:00 pm to Savannah, GA and we ...

We are leaving this morning to make the long trip back home, however we'll be making several stops and staying overnight -- we're going slow and won't be back until Saturday. First we're stopping through Richmond, Virginia to have lunch with Sally, Bob and Shari. Then we're moving on to sightsee in some other places and stay overnight. This makes the long car trip more bearable especially with such a full car. :-) All in all everyone is doing really well and they are watching a lot of movies on the trip while I read and write whole lot. I love vacation because I read and write purely for enjoyment, without assignment or deadline. So far I've read about six or seven books of the Bible, Glenn Beck's "Common Sense", Dan Millers, "48 Days to the Work You Love" , and a book about Princess Diana called, "A Royal Duty" . Oh yes, I must also include a magazine Emmy brought along about Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Just couldn...

Larry and his Dad took the kids ice skating last night in Bowie and I had some quiet time in the house. Yay for quiet time! Today we are just relaxing at the house again. It's much needed after all the running around we did, and we truly need some rest -- at least I do! I miss our dog Maddie terribly. Thankfully Cathy has posted a lot of photos. She also just took her for a "spa day". I thought that was so incredibly thoughtful. I miss our friends and our church too, of course. We are excited to be back this weekend but I am savoring my last moments of rest. We will start on the trip home tomorrow but are meeting my (birth) mother Sally and her husband Bob ("Pop Pop Bob" as we call him), and my sister Shari, for dinner on the way back home. I am really looking forward to seeing them. I saw Shari on her visit to Tampa in May however it's been quite a while since I've seen Mom Sally as I call her, and Bob. Our trip home will take us longer as we ...

House where we lived on 49th Street in Pennsauken/Camden. We lived on the top floor; the church janitor, Fernando lived (and still lives) on the bottom floor. Church is in the background. This was the second place Larry and I lived (first was out apt. at VFCC) and Dustin was born here. We are at my in-love's (inlaws, but I like to call them in love's) house today just RESTING . I'm loving this day. Today my mother-in-law made porkchops with gravy and my father in law made chili. Those are my favorite two things they both make and they are out of this world. Seriously, I moan when I eat them. Between eating stuff like this and Utz Potato chips, I have had to exercise every single day without fail or they will need to rent a U-Haul to bring me back to Tampa. We got home very late (I think it was 1:30 am?) from our trip to NJ and PA yesterday. We were riding the streets of Philadelphia at midnight with Larry and the kids running up and down the stairs that Rocky ran at ...

We are headed to several places today on our family memory tour. First we are headed to Valley Forge Christian College ...then Philly...New Jersey, and finally home. All of these places have significance to us as a family and we'll be on the road from this morning til' late tonight. Tuesday is a "stay home and rest day" in case you're wondering. :) We'll be at Larry's parents just chilling on Tuesday. I am perhaps most looking forward to that day, but these daily excursions to visit meaningful places have been very good. Yesterday we visited "Charm City Cakes" from Ace of Cakes (just took pics outside) and the Baltimore Harbor, and spent time in Barnes and Noble. I got some books to continue to give me reading material besides my Bible while we are away. Since I've already read five or six books of the Bible since we've been on the road I don't feel too terribly bad about going through several other books too. Will catch up later ...

Part of the bushel of crabs we finished off the other night at my sisters... Today is the seventh day of our vaca and for once in...well, never...we are not going to church on a Sunday morning! We always go to church, even on vacation. This year is no exception ~ we just chose to go on Saturday night instead of Sunday morning. Last night we went to Nati onal Community Church in Washington, DC, pastored by Mark Batterson. We went to the service at their Ebenezer's location. It was really awesome! We loved it. We got our coffees and lattes and headed in for the service. The worship was phenomenal. Dustin particularly enjoyed it as I knew he would. The message was on compassion and it was excellent. I really enjoy going to a different church when we are out of town and getting ideas of the way others do things and also just being refreshed and renewed and taking it all in. I do however, miss home and our church because there's nothing like home! I know they had a great service...