The Motherland Adventure

**There are actually pictures included in this post! Read on...**

so, hi…it’s been a while…blah, blah, blah.
For today’s blogging entry, I promise not to whine and complain about not being able to download pictures from my camera. I won’t even mention my sweet but memory-challenged mac mini. But since I have brought that up, will you pause while I take care of something that has been weighing on my mind?
Dear Mr. Steve Jobs and your entire Mac world staff and friends,
Could you please, please release your new Macbooks to the civilians? Didn’t the rumor leak that it would be the end of September? Aren’t we getting dangerously close to October? Any closer and those numbers on the calendar are going to run right into one another! I’ve been saving up for one for a really, really long time. In fact, it took birthing two children and the IRS check we earned for pushing them into the world to save up. That IRS reward check is practically disintegrated in my hot, little hands and I need to use it now! Please understand my concern.
Sincerely,
Your growing-more-impatient-with-each-passing-day-but-faithful-Mac-customer.
p.s. Macs forever

Oh my gosh, I feel better. Thanks for pausing.
Like I was saying,
In the spirit of not complaining, I’ve taken matters into my own hands. I used my handy new phone (b/c YES another phone of mine broke—the LCD display just decided to heck with all of these numbers and went out. I had NOTHING to do with this and NO I don’t have your number. Again.) to take pictures and email them to myself. From email, I can snag them like Swiper (what-you don’t watch Dora? Weird.) and post them on my blog without my computer memory ever knowing. So sneaky I am.
Ahem-what I’m trying to say with all of this is, we’re not going to complain today. We’re going to talk a little Texas history, folks. Yep. Things you should know about this state. Texas history was one of my favorite subjects. And while Ms. Boone wouldn’t have guessed it, I particularly loved reading about early Czech settlers (my family). Did you know that, at some point, the Czech language was the third most spoken language in Texas? You care. I know you do. Anyway, I wasn’t planning on being able to share the next story with you but it became an adventure. I am delighted to have something to blog about, pictures to accompany the post, and to share a piece of my own family’s history!
You see, my sister in law moved with her family to Costa Rica…their next stop for a few years or so. Someone is coming to Yoakum today to load the car to be shipped. The car had more gas than the company would allow, and, after a few attempts at getting people to siphon gas from the car (would have done it myself like the guy at the full-service station suggested, but my siphoning techniques are underdeveloped, to say the least) I decided we would take advantage, spend some gas, and go on an adventure. One diaper/wipes/triscuits/cheese/sippy cups/sonic tea-with-lime run later, we were on our way to the Motherland…

My husband grew up in Yoakum. The cool thing about that, not to mention what made up the jist (sp?) of our first-ever conversation, is that my family helped settled land not too far from Yoakum in an area called Moravia. The subject of our day’s adventure!

My great-great grandfather came to Moravia (named after the REAL motherland-Czechoslovakia--it's not a city or even a town really. my grandmother used to say, in its' present state, it's more like a community) in like 1887, or 1870 something…help me familly! In helping to settle that area, he (my family) helped build a Catholic church among a few other things. The church is still there, with an attached cemetery, of course, and still holds masses from time to time. Sometimes, they even have polka masses. For all of my non-Czech friends, that means that they sing the songs to polka tunes and if the priest can do so, he’ll speak in Czech.
So, I decided my children needed to see the ol’ place. And they wanted to see it too, I’m just sure of it. I had to stop once and check my directions at a gas station in Halletsville, and with one more assurance from a TX D.O.T. guy on an old FM road, we drove up to this.

Ascension Catholic Church in Moravia. My grandmother (as I’m sure many other members of my family) was born here (okay, maybe not IN the church but somewhere really close by…), baptized here, sang in the choir here, taught school right around here, married here? (help me again!)

Remember, this was taken on an iphone!
I’ve been here before but was unable to go in. They don’t just leave special, historical places unlocked y’all. But this time, even though the doors were locked, they left the inside doors open and we could see most of the church. I can’t believe this picture came out…I was holding my phone to the glass.
Look closely. REALLY closely. See that chandelier hanging in the center of the aisle? My great grandparents donated that chandelier to the church. The crystal chandelier was brought from Czechoslovakia; my grandmother told me once that the crate in which it arrived was what she used for a closet as a girl. Isn’t that cool?
Next on the adventure list, we needed to go find the headstones of our ancestors buried in the attached cemetery. I did my best to keep my children off of people’s gravesites. I really did. And when Lori started picking up pretty flowers from tombstones, I also did my best not to yell too loudly or act too brashly among those peacefully resting. But, as it turns out, a graveyard

is just not suited for children to whom death is not even a concept. I decided to skip the lecture on respect and allow them to throw rocks. But only on the sidewalks. They finally complied. Sweet, respectful children.
Okay so here was one of the areas marked out for my family.

And you thought my maiden name was tough. This side of the family only got one vowel! And, if I remember another story correctly, this vowel was included only after the typical insertion as new immigrants got off the boat and became Americans. When I got married, I kept the vowels to a minimum like my maiden name. Good job, Michael, for helping me keep it close to home.
We found all of the rest of our family in that cemetery and I decided it was time to record this historical moment. After all, here I was, generations later, with my own children. It was time for pictures.
My sweet, respectful children tried to cooperate. Their little toddler hearts wanted me to have this memory to treasure…but this was about all I could manage.


Lori has decided that looking at the camera is just not in her contract anymore.

this one got a little closer.

at this point, long past lunch time and bordering on nap time, I figured we’d had enough. My children were champions though, and after changing a really nasty diaper of Lori’s, we were back in the car for the ride home.
And then, it hit me. That 32 oz sonic-tea-with-lime. My, only 11 weeks from delivering, heck of a pregnant belly rested oh-so-heavily on my bladder, ensuring that I needed to do something quickly. (Did I mention that Moravia is an AREA...not a town with public restrooms?) So...for decency's sake and for respect of the motherland, I will leave out this next part of the adventure.
As we turned to get back on the FM road I first mentioned, I realized we couldn’t leave without passing by Moravia Store. Another Texas historical marker. Read about it…





This place is famous y’all. And here is where the high profiles enter—a side entrance so as not to be confused with the regular folk.
Hee hee, I just took this as a tribute to my husband. Playing in halls like this is how he honed his musical gifts. He knows all about those side entrances, oh yes he does…being high profile and all…

And thus, as we drove home toward the sunset, filled with the memories of how "they became us", our adventure ended…after one stop at a feed store, of course, since I decided to go home a different way. I couldn’t have called it an adventure if I didn’t do something risky, right? And besides, the empty gas light on the way home was proof that all of the driving was worth it. The car can be shipped now! Thank you, my in-laws, for sponsoring this adventure!