Hi All,

Texas was awesome!  We had a great time, and look forward to being back possibly for a couple of months in 2010 and 11.  I have to say, though, if I had a to pick a favorite time, it might have been the flights.  There wasn't a one that I didn't meet an interesting person - and my siblings either.  From Nashville to Atlanta on the way out, I met a man from Los Vegas, and he said he wants to get us there...doesn't that sound interesting?!  On the way from Atlanta to Austin our flight attendant was Montgomery Gentry's bus driver's wife...  She was fun, and we gave her some music instruction ideas for her kids who are interested in music.  On the way back from Austin to Memphis Caleb was talking to a chatty man from....I forget, but we had a great time with him.  Ben also met a man from somewhere who is a videographer, and worked with Garth Brooks, spent a lot of time in the music world.  They talked for the entire hour and half flight!  Jared also talked to a man very interested in music, but I couldn't hear the conversation as they were towards the back of the plane.  Then on the way from Memphis to Nashville Jared and I met a sweet Christian young lady who works in NY City in a Theater.  She was really nice.

The showcase went well, as Jared said, but we had some struggle with the sound...  That's to be expected - they don't deal with a lot of bluegrass bands!  But the response was good.

We spent the weekend with the Links, Greers, and met a couple new, sweet family's.  It was a great time!  Our average bedtime for all of last week was probably 3 in the morning.

On Friday we all (us, the Greers, and the Links) all packed into the Links bus and went to South Padre Island, and that was really awesome.  The boys carried sand in their pockets for the remainder of the trip.  Well, that's what they get for jumping off fifty foot sand dunes, rolling, tumbling and playing king of the mountain!  We sure didn't go prepared for the beach, but it was fun anyway.

We never did make it into Mexico, but we were right next to the border, and I wish that we had had time.  I love Mexico, and I know Jared was dying to speak some Spanish.

We went to a Golden Corral on Friday evening before we left for the Link's concert, and our waitress was this sweet old mexican lady who hobbled around very deliberately.  She made us laugh so hard!  We were leaving and Rebekah put a note on the table with the tip that said "we love you, and Jesus loves you, too!"  Caleb and I glanced back as we were heading out and saw her pick it up and look at it, and next thing we knew there were about two other waitresses and a waitor all inspecting it...  :-)  Well, it might keep them busy for a couple of days!

We had to be up early on Saturday to head out and catch our flight in Austin.  Papa wanted Indian food really bad, so we stopped at this really nice restaurant for all of 20-25 minutes or so... What a way to waste $12 a person!!  But we did catch our flight... :-)

We pulled into Nashville around 9:30 PM, and it was FREEZING!  Then we took the long way home (I don't know why) and got home around 12:30 AM.

Yesterday was spent catching up, celebrating Timothy's birthday (Papa and Mama took him to Glasgow for the afternoon) and then we watched a movie last night.

Today we're all back to work, work, and more work!  Which reminds me that I have a couple of bank reconciliations to do before I head home...

Catch you all later!

Elisabeth

P.S.  I am trying to get pictures of the trip up, but so far it is not working.  Hopefully tomorrow they will be on here.  Check back!