Wednesday at Miracle Farm: including "Blue Bell, before the Apocalypse!"

Wednesday morning we got up and finished up some projects until lunch time, then cleaned up and relaxed a little before heading in to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Factory. Everyone was having fun and being fun to be around!

Cleaning gutters for the host families

Bluebonnets!

I can't get enough of this tree!

The little girl on the chair next to Mike and Rebecca is a child of some of the house parents. She came over to visit us after lunch, and she and Rebecca were walking around when she stopped by a flower and then started screaming. I rushed over to her and looked for fire ants on her ankles (we had dealt with fire ants constantly) but there were none. So I told her I was sorry but I needed to pull her pants down (as she continued to scream). When I got them down I felt something brush my hand and a yellow jacket flew out! It had stung her SEVEN times. I felt so bad for her. We got her back to her mom, and she later told us that she already had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, and that she was fine. Except that she had to have blood drawn at the appointment--and seven stings and a blood draw make for a pretty bad day!

Shortly after that excitement, we left for Blue Bell. This was after the first listeria outbreak but before the 2nd. I've been on the tour three times, and still enjoyed it, especially the free scoop at the end. If you ever go, remember that you can ask for as many samples as you want before you get your scoop! I ended up choosing Sea Salt Caramel. Mmm. 

From Blue Bell we left to drive an hour to Montgomery to eat supper at The Pizza Shack. Buuuut...had a double blow-out on the way! We were exiting the highway when it happened, so were going slow enough that Mike never lost control and found a safe place to wait for help. And it was before 5:00 (barely) so Mike was able to find someone to bring us 2 tires and put them on. And the weather was pleasant as we waited an hour for it to be done. So it wasn't the worst thing I've ever experienced on a mission trip! (That would be this story.) And the pizza was really good!