The Week of the Hays

Sounds something like an old horror flick, hu? You know, like “Night of the Dead” or something. “Week of the Hays”… Never mind.

I’m sorry to say that my generous nature has taken over and I’m not going to relay all of the terrible and dastardly things Dustin Hays did to my house and family while they were here. I just can’t seem to make myself destroy the character of another human being like that. I know you’re all disappointed, but I have no choice. It’s such a burden to be so very kindhearted. ~sigh~

Okay, so the truth is I would LOVE to tell you about a full week’s worth of blunders on the part of Brother Dustin, but I can’t seem to recall them. It could be that I’ve simply waited too long to post about their visit. (It’s been ages--it’s practically time for them to come again!) Perhaps on behalf of my own sanity my brain has subconsciously blacked out all of Brother Dustin’s awful deeds. Or it could be that after he cut and drilled holes in wrong places all over my house last time and dropped a BOULDER on MY SON, he was extra careful this time. Actually, it was probably that I BLOGGED about everything he did in back in May. This time he was suffering from severe anxiety all week long, checking and double checking his every move, watching his back, and covering his tracks so as to protect what little reputation he has left after last time. ;-) He did, however, tie one of my children up with a rope (the same one he crushed beneath the mighty boulder last time) and when we discovered the situation he had deep grooves in his wrists—nearly bleeding--from the rope and his hands were purple and swollen and had lost nearly all their feeling. He’s still struggling to regain full use of them now… (Only a slight exaggeration, I assure you!) HA! ;-)

So, to the point. We had such a great week!!! The Hays got in on Sunday night at about midnight. They were bushed from the long day, but we stayed up and talked until after 1:00 that night. The next day we did the house walk-through to show Brother Dustin where he was to work all of his electrical magic. I do recall that it took the self proclaimed "Electrician Extraordinaire" 45 minutes to complete what he had assured me was nothing more than a 5 minute job. "5 minutes after I walk in the door it'll be take care of, guaranteed." Of course, I'd rather it take him the 45 minutes so I can razz him about it than for him to actually complete it in the 5 he promised. James, on the other hand, is the one to foot the bill and would have opted for the 5 minutes instead of 45! Ha!

We had clam chowder for dinner that night, put the kids to bed and got down to the real business at hand: GAMES! I Buy first, then Balderdash. I won. Dustin lost. :-)

Tuesday we got a bit of a late start. I'll spare you all the details, but we had a minor water issue in the bathroom that day. I can't blame it on Brother Dustin personally this time, but I can say that he is partially to blame in the sense that if it weren't for him it never would have occurred. ;-) No real damage was done, but it was nice to have something else to blame him for throughout the week. I know we were all ready to string the kids up by the end of that day and had decided by dinner time that we would have an early bedtime that night. It didn't work, of course. We had a minor catastrophe with the pineapple upside down cake (a crack in the pan, dripping into the oven, having to pour out and reassemble everything in a new pan...) and it set us back a bit. In the end James was leading us in "speed devotions," singing Deep & Wide at a rate never before accomplished by mortal man. ;-) Got the kids to bed and hit the games!

Nothing remarkable about Wednesday that I recall. I did some school with the kids on Thursday because they were driving me nuts and school seems to help them somehow. We had BTI service at Sister Grimes' house that night, then went to grab a bite at Wendy's afterward. It was awful. It's got to be the worst Wendy's this side of the Mississippi--and every bit as slow as all the ones back there!

Brother Dustin FINALLY finished up on the jobs we had for him here in the house ;-) and got busy on the Regional Office stuff on Friday. It was the day we rented the trencher, a necessary TOY that the guys got to play on for a little while that morning. That's also the day we got some very, very happy news from Tammy!!! :-)

And Saturday was the day we all loaded up and headed for Colorado. It was SUCH a great week!!! I love all of it--visiting and discussing church issues and politics (ha!) and just WHATEVER. I love just having them HERE and the kids all playing together and having a blast together. But, of course, most of all I love the GAMES. I think it's safe to say that I came out on top this time. James and Jamey really couldn't care less who wins or loses but Dustin and I are just a wee bit competitive, so the only real "competing" goes on between the two of us. I took 'im. ;-) He did win one game of Balderdash, I believe. I just wanted him to feel that he was doing well. HA! Regardless of who won each night (can you believe I would start a statement like that?!), it was TONS of fun and we laughed ourselves to tears more than once. One night in particular I laughed so hard that my sides were aching like I'd just run a marathon and the tears were just pouring. ~aaaahhhh~ There's just nothing like the joy of such agony! :-)

Okay, some pictures!!!

James made some dessert creations for all the kids one night. Didn't get a picture of Isaac's for some reason, but here is everybody else...

Katie's was a crab

Joe got a snake

Sam had an alien
And Aleah got a flower
Ah, yes! On Wednesday we went to horse lessons! Jamey and the kids came with us. Sam has decided he's not interested in the lessons anymore (I just can't understand that kid!), so we let Isaac have Sam's usual riding time. The kid is such a wanna-be cowboy and just grinned the whole time! He was so cute!

This is a picture of the teacher's two new fillies. Aren't they gorgeous?! I love the one in the back--she's just beautiful. :-)

And here's Cowboy Isaac, anxiously awaiting his turn to ride. :-)
And the most important pictures of all! Here we have Brother Dustin trying to blame his poor wife for their latest loss in Pictionary. They were WAY ahead of us this night, dangerously so, and he didn't handle it too well when we took back the lead and pulled out another win. It gives us a perfect record with that game--they have yet to beat us. :-) I must say I was pretty worried that night though! Ha!
We've created a regular game pattern with Dustin & Jamey. As soon as the kids hit the hay we pull out I Buy, then Pictionary, then Balderdash. You have to save Balderdash for the very end because it's only any good if you're really, really tired and feeling a little loopy. :-) Anyway, here is a picture of the I Buy score sheet. I graciously took a picture of Brother Dustin ahead after the first round of the second game. It was probably the last time he was in the position. ;-) You can, of course, look at the scores from the first game if you're interested.
Hhmmm... Somebody doesn't look too happy with how this game is going! (I'm always red and Dustin is always black, in case you didn't already guess that.) Jamey, of course, couldn't care less who wins or loses--she's just here for the laughs along the way!
Here's the end of the game one night...
And the next night. Look how far ahead that little red piece is--got enough points to run right off the end of the game board. More importantly, look where Mr. Black is in the running. Gotta love that! :-)
Okay, enough of that.

Here are a few pictures of our Colorado trip. I already posted some of the Salida part of the trip from there on Saturday night. The next day we had service with the Salida folk, then went out to Taco Bell and visited with Chad for a little while. It was so great to be able to spend some time with him! When we were done there we headed to 'Springs and made it to service just in time to hear Brother Hays' message. ;-) He preached on the shepherds, I believe, and their response to the news of Jesus' birth.

After service we went out to eat at Fargo's with the Hays and Stephen and Danielle Brown and their kids. It was fun! We always enjoy going to Fargo's during the holidays because of how cool they have it decorated. We felt gyped this year though. The tree didn't reach to the top of the second floor and the buffalo didn't have a bow around his neck. It was still great, nonetheless. ;-)

After that we went back to the church to pick up the wallet Joe had forgotten there, then parked and walked up and down the street in Old Colorado City. Nothing was open, of course, but we love looking at all the little shops and it just seems like the thing to do at Christmastime, you know?!

And that's about it! We went back to the Hays' house and finished the night off with our trio of games again. ~sigh~ What a great time!!!

And just for Brother VanDeventer's sanity (!), here are a few pictures of Brother Dustin actually doing some work. We didn't JUST play games all week, you know. We squeezed in a few jobs here and there, too. Sister Mary, can you see that Brother V. sees these please?! Thank you! :-)

Here is Brother Dustin wiring the Regional Office...

And him and James digging the trench to get electricity out there.

Ta-Da! My Hays' post is complete!

We came home from Colorado Monday night, did laundry on Tuesday, then headed out to the family shin-dig in Glorieta on Wednesday. That will be my next retro-post. ;-)