Update

THANK YOU for the prayers. God absolutely intervened and fixed our problem! Wa-Hoo! Wanna hear about it???

To make a very long story short (think I can do it?), on Thursday I became aware that we might not have a CAMPGROUND to use for Family Camp--which starts in three weeks. They had double booked and two other groups were scheduled to be there during our week. Can you imagine?! The other folks had already paid for their time there, whereas we hadn't paid anything. We've worked directly with the Mayor for this campground for 3 or 4 years now and she's never wanted a contract or deposit before (which is very bad business on her part AND ours--I think we've all learned our lesson on that one!), so we had no leverage whatsoever. Except that we have connections. By that I mean that we pray to the God who can work miracles for his people! :-) That's just what we did, and just what He did. Yesterday the Mayor called back and said she'd talked the other folks into waiting until after our Camp is over with before they come. There will still be one group finishing up there the night that we arrive, but they've also been very kind and understanding and I'm sure we can work together with them easily that first night. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

I have spent a considerable amount of time researching campgrounds the past couple of weeks hoping to find a new place to host Family Camp and/or Minister's Retreat. When I got the "Oops, looks like the campground is taken during that time" news on Thursday I upped by efforts to ultra-high gear! Ha! I had talked to Brother Dustin (the Camp Director) and we were desperate enough to consider looking at regular campsites and asking people to use their tuition money to buy a tent for their family. Ha! Anything but CANCEL, that was the plan. :-) But God worked it out much better than that and we're sooooo thankful.

So can you see why I didn't want to share the dilemma that first night??? I didn't want everybody in the region to freak out about not having camp and be calling one another and me (!) saying, "WHAT?!?!? Now what are we gonna do???" There were no answers to give and no need to get everybody all panicked over what God worked out for us the next day anyway. Now we can save our panic for a later date. :-) My plan at this point is to not talk to the Mayor again until I absolutely have to. It seems every time I do there is some new catastrophe worst than the last one and I'm just not up for it. This one only lasted about 20 hours, but it aged me considerably!

So now you know. It was terrible, but it's all over with and no harm done. THANK GOD! He is sooooo good to us. The other good news is that I have two new campgrounds to explore (and calls out on several others--not including the dozens I've contacted and already learned that they WON'T work) that MIGHT be possibilities for future use. We're going to be looking into them in the next few weeks and see if they really might meet our needs and if we really might be able to afford them. So many aspects to consider. I'm praying for God's direction and open doors. Anyway, that's our latest Camp news--things are looking GREAT and we are soooooo excited about "The Great Expedition" coming up! :-)

Peace... or Panic?!?!?

So hard to decide. But my mother was gracious enough to point out that I haven't blogged since Monday, so I decided I should post something. As she said, we have a prayer request... a particularly urgent one... But I fear sharing the details just yet, since I HOPE to receive better and happier information on the subject today than I did yesterday. We earnestly covet your prayers, but I would hate to speak prematurely (we're hoping the information we receive will be the right kind, that will make our prayer request a much less urgent one) and have everybody fly into a fit of panic unnecessary. Indeed, if we're going to panic, I feel deeply it should be reserved for the proper time. :-) And in the spirit of panicking, I felt led to post a portion of an article by an author from whom I receive great inspiration. He's one of my very favorites and a man truly gifted in his manner of articulation. His name is Pat McManus :-) and in the following essay he covers some of the finer points of panicking. I thought the information might be useful if we happen to need it in the near future. He's speaking particularly of panicking when one is lost in the woods, however the method and proper procedure of panic can be applied to any situation. Enjoy.

I disagree sharply with most survival experts on what the lost person should do first. Most of them start out by saying some fool thing like, "The first rule of survival is DON'T PANIC!" Well, anyone who has ever been lost knows that kind of advice is complete nonsense. They might as well tell you "DON'T SWEAT!" or "DON'T GET GOOSE BUMPS ALL OVER YOUR BODY!"

Survival experts are apparently such calm, rational people themselves that they assume a lost person spends considerable time deliberating the question of whether he should panic: "Let's see, the first thing I'll do is panic, and then I'll check to see on which side of the trees the moss is growing." It doesn't work that way.

First of all, one is either a panicker or one isn't, and the occasion of being lost is no time to start fretting about a flaw in one's character. My own theory holds that it is best, if one is a panicker, to get the panic out of the system as quickly as possible. Holding panic in may cause severe psychological disorders and even stomach cramps and baldness. Also, the impacted panic may break loose at a later date, if there is a later date, and cause one to sprint across a shopping mall yelling "Help! Help!" at the top of his lungs. Shopping malls being what they are, no one would probably notice but it might be embarrassing anyway.

Over the years I've been involved in several dozen panics, usually as a participant, sometimes simply as an observer. Most of my panics have been of a solitary nature, but on several occasions I have organized and led group panics, one of which involved twenty-some people. In that instance a utility company took advantage of the swath we cut through the forest and built a power line along it.

Back in the earlier days of my panicking I utilized what is known technically as the Full Bore Linear Panic (FBLP). This is where you run flat out in a straight line until the course of your panic is deflected by a large rock or tree, after which you get up and sprint off in a new direction. The FBLP is also popularly referred to as the ricochet or pinball panic or sometimes simply as "going bananas." Once an FBLP is underway there is no stopping it. It gains momentum at every stride, and the participants get so caught up in it they forget the reason for holding it in the first place. They'll panic right out of the woods, onto a road, down the road, through a town, and back into the woods, all the time picking up momentum. One time when we were kids my friend Retch and I panicked right through a logging crew and the loggers dropped what they were doing and ran along with us under the impression we were being pursued by something. When they found out all we were doing was panicking, they fell back, grumbling, and returned to their work. This tendency of panic to feed upon itself gives it ever-increasing momentum and occasionally indigestion.

Although it will do absolutely no good, I must advice against undertaking a Full Bore Linear Panic unless, of course, one is equipped with a stout heart, a three-day supply of food, and a valid passport. Instead, I recommend the Stationary or Modified Panic. It offers the same therapeutic effect and subsides after a few minutes with none of the FBLP's adverse side-effects, such as making your life insurance company break out in a bad rash.

The Stationary Panic first came to my attention one time when a large but harmless snake slithered across a trail a couple of yards ahead of my wife. She made a high-pitched chittering sound and began jumping up and down and flailing the air with her arms. It was a most impressive performance, particularly since each jump was approximately a foot high and her backpack happened to be the one with the tent on it. The only adverse side effect to the Stationary Panic was that the lone witness to the spectacle could not help laughing every time he though about it, a reaction quickly remedied, however, by his sleeping most of the night outside the tent in a driving rainstorm.

Although I immediately perceived the advantage of this form of panic, I could not imagine myself bouncing up and down, flailing my arms and chittering like an angry squirrel, particularly in front of the rough company with whom I usually find myself in a predicament requiring a panic. Thus it came about that I invented the Modified Stationary Panic, or MSP.

The key to the MSP is not to bounce up and down in a monotonous fashion but to vary the steps so that it appears to be a sort of folk dance. You can make up your own steps but I highly recommend throwing in a couple of Russian squat kicks. The chittering sound should be replaced by an Austrian folk song, shouted out at the top of your voice. The MSP is particularly appropriate for group panics. There are few sights so inspiring as a group of lost hunters, arms entwined, dancing and singing for all they are worth as night closes in upon them.

As entertaining as it sounds, I'm hoping we can manage to avoid a mass group panic, so...

PLEASE PRAY! I felt some definite twinges of panic yesterday and my children keep questioning me about the one eyelid that keeps fluttering without command (just kidding!), but for the most part I have peace and am even sort of excited to see just how God is going to work out this little dilemma. I HATE it when people do things like this--allude to some deep dark secret that's so urgent and they need your prayers... but they won't tell you what it is! SO FRUSTRATING. So feel free to spew your frustrations here, and I will probably be posting the actual details of our problem tonight or tomorrow. I just want to wait until maybe, just maybe, there won't be such a problem anymore! Even if you're mad at me for not telling, please pray anyway! :-)

Suddenly So Tired

Don't know how it happened, but I'm suddenly feeling completely wiped out. And for no reason--James did all the work today! I'm finishing up on the last of the laundry and I had hopes of doing the ironing tonight, too, but I've changed my mind. I think I'm going to blog and go to bed instead. It's sounding like a much better plan at the moment.

I spent 2 or 3 hours online Friday night, looking at dozens upon dozens upon dozens of websites for campgrounds that might work for our Family Camp next year or for Minister's Retreat this fall. I searched within a 300 mile radius (crazy, hu?!) of our zip code and was shocked when the first campground on the list was IN our zip code! Who knew?!?!? It's probably 8 or 10 miles away from our house, as the crow flies. Taking the actual roads it's 16 miles away. I took down tons of information on several different campgrounds and intend to make lots of phone calls this week and see if we have any options at all.

Saturday morning we loaded up the fam and headed in to the great big, giant flea market, the one that covers acres and acres. The only trouble is that it was rainy and about 80% of the vendors didn't show up! It was just as well with me. I'd rather spend less than an hour walking around a practically vacant lot on a nice, cool day through a little bit of drizzle than to wiggle my way through hordes of people and hundreds of booths filled with junk I don't want anyway on a hot, sweaty, smelly day that's "better for business." Since there wasn't a whole lot to see there James took us to two or three indoor flea market type places and we enjoyed walking around, though I don't think we bought anything. Then we drove down "Antique Alley" and made a couple of stops, just 'cuz we were still in the mood.

We decided to try to find that campground before going home, so we meandered up this steep and windy little highway, up, up, up to a beautiful area and found it without any problem. I was in love with the place before we ever even got out of the car. It was gorgeous. The camp dude (manager?) was very, very friendly and showed us around the entire facility. He reminded me a little bit of the dad from the Incredibles. Ha! Anyway, the campground wasn't anything hoity-toity, but it was pristine. The dorms were fantastic and they actually did have 7 family-style rooms available as well (for more $, of course), the chapel was perfect and just the right size for us, the bathrooms were so clean and set up perfectly--oh! And there was GRASS! Lots of thick, lush, green grass!!! Can you imagine?! All we've had the past several years has been a field of DIRT. Or if we play water games, a MUDHOLE. Ha! There were two volleyball courts and a softball field, a whole bunch of different ropes courses out in the woods (a Jacob's ladder thingie, a zip line, a spider web thingie and who knows what all else), then they had this little gold mine area with a well and two or three mines (not real ones--just that they had built to look like the real thing) and... ~sigh~ And so much more. But, alas, we're too poor. We might could work it out for a Minister's Retreat... if so many of our folks didn't have to bring their kids with them. It's just way, way too much money since most of our people have 3-5 children. OH! And a swimming pool! They had the most beautiful, clean and heated pool I've ever seen in my life (perhaps because it's been years since I've seen one up close?) surrounded by a 6' privacy fence the whole way around. Could it get any more perfect?!?!? ~Ugh~ It's really just torture to think about it. Especially when I think of the contrast between this place and where we go for Camp! Ha! How many folks do you know who have "bug bombs" on their camp list? ;-) It doesn't much matter though. Everybody loves Camp and would endure just about anything to be there. We've got so many great memories thanks to Mountainair, and I'm sure we'll make some more this year. And we'll all work together and laugh our way through them. It's all good and I'm thankful to have a place that is sooooo cheap and our big families are able to afford. God is good to have blessed us with it. :-)

I stayed up Saturday night working on my VLB service. I have had the topic on my heart for weeks, but still had a terrible time getting it all put together! I finally gave up and went to bed, hoping it would come together in the afternoon.

We had a stressful morning service. That's not entirely accurate. I had a stressful morning service! Just little issues with the kids kept me distracted and I felt like I missed most of what was going on. The kids had a very unpleasant day, too. I spent all afternoon working on my VLB service, up until the moment we walked out the door--and I had just sort of stopped where I was, with no conclusion or anything. ?! That sort of thing freaks me out!!! I felt like I was just barely touching on things that could go so much deeper (if only I could figure out how!) and like it was all sort of scattered and incomplete. But everybody seemed to enjoy it okay anyway. I never know whether to be relieved or insulted when that happens. Ha! It's like when you look terrible and frumpy and gross and your husband chooses that day to complement you and tell you how nice you look. Kinda makes you want to knock his block off. ;-)

After service last night we went to McAllister's with Sister Galiviz. I was so glad she was there. Not only do I really enjoy her company, but she split a club sandwich with me that I otherwise would have eaten myself and been miserable for. ;-) We had a nice time, then let the kids run through the fountain outside before heading home. I think Sister Galaviz would have joined them if it hadn't been so chilly out. :-)

Once we got the kids to bed I finally started working on the Western Skies. I was up pretty late and got quite a bit done, so that's good. I spent most of today working on it, as well. That and making or receiving quite a few phone calls. I hate being on the phone all day. Even if they are good and useful calls--the necessary kind that have to be made--it just feels like you're not accomplishing anything! Some of the calls today accomplished a whole lot and answered a lot of questions, provided lots of necessary information and all that kind of thing... but ya' still feel like you've been loafing, you know?! Of course, the other reason I might feel that way is because of that marvellous husband of mine...

While I was working on the paper today, James snuck into the kitchen and started working on lunch. He grilled steaks that he had bought for the holiday, baked some potatoes on the grill, and boiled some corn on the cob to go with it. Yum! He even sliced and sugared some strawberries for the strawberry shortcake! After lunch he went to the store to pick up a few things, came home and cut up the left-over steaks, some chicken, and some left-over pork chops from the other night, mixed 'em with who-knows-what all and let them marinade for a couple of hours, then cooked up some truly fantastic fajitas for dinner tonight--and some fried potatoes, too. WOW!!! What a guy! All I have to do is clean up the mess! What a bargain. :-) It was sooooo nice and allowed me to get a whole lot more done on the paper than I otherwise would have.

And that's about it from here. I've got a few final touches to add to the paper, but they can wait until tomorrow.

Oh, I thought I'd go ahead and post this picture. It's not for the purpose of inviting all of you blog people to the shower and thereby obligating you to drive or fly thousands of miles OR to try to squeeze any gifts out of you. (Though I'm sure they would be most appreciated. You may send them to... --JUST KIDDING!) It's just that I so rarely do anything "crafy" that I felt the need to share. The invitations were quite simple, but that's a very, very good thing because Tammy knows a whole lot of people! Anything more complicated than this and I would probably still be working on them! Ha! Anyway, here it is, Mom--I know you asked to see it.

Hhmmm. For some reason the picture looks rather blurry. I think it has something to do with the way I saved it after I blanked out the location. I felt the need to do that in case any weird, stalking-type people from New York might be out there... Ha!

My Wonderful Husband

Somehow I seem to have failed to post about how great he's been lately! First of all, he let me sleep in way, way too late on Saturday. The wood blinds were closed (I always try to open them when I go to bed so I can wake up to sunshine) and our room stays pretty much like a cave that way. When I woke up it looked and felt like 6:00 in the morning... but I was over three hours wrong!!! Can you imagine?! I had noooooo idea it was that late. I didn't know I could even sleep in that late anymore! Crazy! James had been up with the kids, taking care of breakfast and keeping them occupied and quiet so I wouldn't wake up. Wow! What a guy!

I finally got up and going and James said he was going to Wal-Mart... with all three kids! Whoa! So they all went and did some shopping, allowing me some all alone time to work on getting unpacked and settled back in after our trip. James took the kids out to lunch, too, then when he came home he brought me some really pretty roses and a pizza to throw in the oven for dinner. Can you imagine?! I was quite suspicious, I assure you. It was reminiscent of a certain someone who calls on occasion and starts the conversation all sugary. "Well, hello there, Sister Becki!!! And how is my favorite overseer's wife doing today? You know, it was just such a privilege to have you guys come and spend some time with us..." And so on. It always REALLY creeps me out, mostly because it's the prelude to a request or favor that they feel they need to butter you up for, you know? And... well, just because it's really creepy! Well, I've been watching for days now and James still hasn't asked me for any big or crazy favors, so I'm inclined to believe that he was really, truly just being an amazingly sweet and thoughtful husband!

And just a little while ago I sat down with a bowl of blackberries covered in milk and sugar (food of the gods, I tell you... if it's proper to make such statements! Ha!) because James bought some berries for me yesterday "just because" he knows how much I lo-o-o-o-o-ove them. Wowzers! I'm beginning to feel rather spoiled. I kinda like it. ;-) James is usually a pretty great husband, but he's been excelling here lately. I'm wondering how long he can keep it up at this rate. Perhaps if I keep blogging about his progress (and failures?) it will keep him motivated. (Just kidding, Dear!)

Today has been a productive day that didn't feel at all productive. I had a pretty good list of things to accomlish and I was able to mark them all off, but they were the kind of things that don't FEEL like you're getting anything done. Devotions and school with the kids, of course. Then I spent quite a while finalizing some contracts with the campgound we use for our Ladies' and Men's Retreats, getting some things printed that I've needed to for days now, working on some Regional paper stuff, and lots and lots of phone calls concerning all of the above. Oh, and I got a whole bunch of thank you cards written out. That was a biggie.

We had Home Missions service tonight at Sister Grimes' house, then we stopped by a pet store and James bought 10 fish at .26 cents apiece for the pond. He filled it up this week, so he figured we'd try to keep some fish again this year. I don't know if they'll make it or not. They're pretty tiny and we learned last year that little garter snakes with itty-bitty mouths are able to eat fish sigificantly bigger around than themselves! We haven't seen any snakes yet this year and are hoping the fish grow a whole lot before they show up. Time will tell!

That's about it from here. Short and sweet! Whadya' know?! ;-)

My House is Scrubbed and Ready for Company!

Now if only I had some! ~sigh~ What a gyp to have worked so hard and have every room in the house all whipped into shape and good enough for company... only to have none. I'm still a month away from company coming. By then we'll have to go through this all over again! Ha!

After devotions this morning I sent the kids out to play, then did a great big, major scrub job on their bathroom. Gotta do the BIG cleaning every now and then, you know. James has been waging war on the weeds this week and recruited the kids to help, so that kept them busy and gave me plenty of time to work on the inside of the house. At one point he had Katie crawl underneath the deck to pull all of the weeds he couldn't get to! Ha!

After lunch James sent the kids in to do school, but I was on a mission to get the house all cleaned up. I therefore announced that today would be serious home-ec day! I dusted all of the ceiling fans first while the kids took care of all the clutter and made sure everything in the house was put away in it's proper place. Then I got the basket of hole-y or unmatchable socks, slid one on to each kid's hand, sprayed them with Endust and sent them to work on all of the wood in the house. I managed to get all of the floors swept/vaccumed in the whole house, with Sam's help. I love watching him vacuum--it's hilarious! He works so hard at it and manages to maneuver the Oreck around pretty well, but it's quite a wrestling match, complete with plenty of grunts and groans. :-)

When we finished all of that I designated a certain area of tile to each child and gave them sponges and soapy water and had them scrub all of those floors while I cleaned the wood floors. After a long, hard day I'm thrilled to say that the house looks GREAT! But I am sooooo tired. I feel like crashing any moment now. But I've got some e-mails to return and I could work on the Regional paper. It would be a very, very short paper however since the only thing I've received is a WMB boost from Sister Clarkson! Ha! Today is the deadline, but the rest of the slackers out there haven't sent anything in. Some of them are enjoying revival service with Brother Ammons, I'm sure, but others (need I name names?) prefer to slide their reports in with only moments to spare before the clock strikes midnight. ~sigh~ Creeps. (You know who you are!) ;-)

Today while the kids were outside working/playing Sam decided he was ready to ride his bike like a big kid, so he went and got his tools and removed his training wheels. He spent lots of time practicing this afternoon. He's the kind of kid who will either work and work and work until he's got it down, or he'll get frustrated and put his extra wheels back on by tomorrow night!

Katie was at odds with Joe today over something (same ole', same ole') and she got a piece of paper and scribbled down, "Katie's always wright!" HA! I thoroughly enjoyed explaining to her--with her own note--the fallacy of that statement. Ha! She took it surprisingly well and was able to laugh at her dumb spelling error. :-)

The only other action I can think of today are the grasshoppers that Katie and Joe caught. (Apparently they weren't at odds all day...) They were so thrilled that they had "tamed" the grasshoppers and they didn't try to hop away or anything, they just rode around in the little truck.

As I watched the kids continue to play with them I realized the reason for the grasshoppers' "contentment." Joe would put them in a bowl of water to "swim" for a minute or two, then back into the truck where Katie would cover them up with a wet cloth to keep them safe. They weren't happy and content, they were half drowned! Ha! I finally convinced the kids to just let the poor things go before it was too late. I hate seeing anything die, even grasshoppers. No problem seeing spiders die, but nice little things are different. ;-) Anyway, they looked cute in the truck! I hope at least some of them recovered from their trauma. They'll probably have to endure more of the same tomorrow. It must be a terrible thing to be small and catchable when you live in the yard of young children!

My Failure to Blog

...apparently has nothing to do with whether or not I'm with people! Sorry, Mom--I know it's been four days. It's Jon and Em's fault. They gave me some books while I was up there and I've been spending my blogging opportunities curled up in my chair with them!

I failed to mentioned that I had some ALONE time when we got home on Friday. We got back from our trip mid-afternoon and Sister Grimes had a pounding for us that needed picked up. So James and the kids stayed home and unloaded the van while I--yes, I!!!--drove into town to fetch it. She felt bad about asking us to come and get it, but she really didn't have the room to keep it. I told her she was crazy--she got us a pounding, the least we could do is go pick it up! Anyway, on my way into town it suddenly occurred to me... "I'm alone. I am all alone. There is nobody with me in this vehicle... no husband... no children... it's just ME!!! I'm going to town BY MYSELF!!!" James runs 90% of the errands around here and the other 10% are done by our family, all together. I'm pretty sure this was the very first time since we've lived here (nearly a year and a half) that I've gone to town all by myself. It was glorious!!! Oh, how I need some alone time every now and again. (But only if there aren't PEOPLE to be with--as if that makes any sense! Ha!) I called Sister Grimes and told her the wonderful revelation I'd just had and said I was going to make the best of it and would be just a little bit later coming to get our pounding. :-) So I went into a Tuesday Morning (seemed to be similar to a Big Lots) and then strolled around Hobby Lobby, just for fun. Afterward I decided to go to the Family Thrift Center (nothing like celebrating my big night on the town!) and I'm so glad I did! I was able to get a pair of jeans for Joe, 2 dresses for Katie ($2 apiece!), and three dress shirts and 2 ties for the boys. Wa-Hoo!

We got our things pretty well unpacked that night, then I crashed. Blogged, then finished up the book Emilee had given me while we were in Colorado. On Saturday I did about 8 loads of laundry and stayed up until 2:00, I think, working on 2 weeks worth of ironing--lots of dress clothes. Bleagh. Still, it felt GREAT to get it all done.

Sunday was a good day; good service, good dinner, good nap, good service. Here are the kids in their new shirts, ties, and dress from the thrift store. Sam's Looney Toons tie was a big hit with all three kids--they thought it was just the coolest thing in the world. I did, too--for 99 cents! :-)

After church that night I started the book that Jon had given me and quit at about 1:30, half way through it. I hate stopping in the middle of a book (!) but I have learned a little self-discipline. :-)

Yesterday was a good, full day, though I don't have the house back in order yet like I wish I did. I spent the bigger part of the day working on invitations for Tammy's baby shower. True to my nature, I vastly underestimated the task at hand. Ha! No, it really wasn't that bad and I thoroughly enjoyed doing something "crafty," though they are fairly simple. I just think it should be illegal for somebody to have that many friends--Tammy must have about 5 times as many as I do! Ha! It was fun. I mangaged some school with the kids during the day and James was good enough to cook some pork chops and potatoes on the grill (they were so good!), so it was a great day for me! When we got the kids put to bed I grabbed Jon's book and finished it up by about 1:30... again. I really enjoyed it--I think you'd like it, too, Em. I'll bring it back to you at Camp.

This morning we loaded the family up and headed to town to hit some flea market type places. James has been itching to do that for a while, so today was the day. It was fun, though I was really tired from my series of late nights the past... month??? We had a good time and came away with a really nice picnic basket (we've been looking for one now that we actually live in a place where we like to go have picnics!), a pitcher for my kitchen, and a couple of skirts. James took us out for a nice lunch, then we came home in time for me to nap for about 20 minutes before taking the kids to horse lessons. Right now I'm blogging while they are piled all over the floor doing school. I usually make them use the table, but it's just one of those days, you know?

So now I'm hoping I'll get a surge of energy and be able to get some things done around here tonight. The house ain't lookin' so great and I'd really like to get it cleaned up nice so we can enjoy being home a little better. That's my plan.

~sigh~ As for the incident that I mentioned but couldn't make myself expound on last week... I still don't want to! It's one thing to be endebted to Dustin Hays but quite another to actually put it in writing so it can never be questioned, nor forgotten. Still, I seriously doubt he'll let me forget it anyway. ~sigh~ To make a long story short, my kid puked in his van. The guys were all riding to revival service together and I had no idea there was a problem until we pulled up next to them at the church and Brother Dustin hopped out of his van and delivered a rather urgent message. ~Ugh~ I still can't believe it. There are no words to express how terrible you feel (nevermind the kid!) when one of your children does such a thing in somebody else's vehicle. I know, because I've searched for them. Absolutely horrified, aghast, thoroughly ashamed, totally and completely mortified--none of them can aptly describe the feeling. Then it's multiplied 100 times because it wasn't just anybody's van... it was Dustin's van. It's like the final curtain dropping and a deep sense of foreboding begins to seep into your soul; a dreadful, hopeless sort of feeling. The kind you would get if you suddenly found yourself beholden and indebted to your worse enemy because of some horrific event like your kid puking in his van. Oh wait... that is what happened. ~si-i-i-i-i-i-igh~ It's just so wrong. And despite that smiley, friendly, agreeable front that Mr. Hays commonly displays, I'll have you know he is anything but gracious in such instances. Can you imagine somebody taking the opportunity to smother an already guilt-ridden mother with even more blame and mercilessly bringing the event to her remembrance time after time after time??? Just for a small taste, here is one of his entries from Balderdash a few days later. The title of the movie was Where the Green Ants Dream. And here is the plot he submitted: "Green ants live in a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan owned by an innocent pastor. The ants' dream comes true when SOMEONE else's child throws up in said van on the way to a revival service." Oh, the cruelty! Oh, the heartlessness!!! ~sigh~ It's just so not right. I tried to tell Brother Dustin that it's probably a subconscious thing with Joe. He probably threw up in his van (and did one other incredibly unseemly thing that I'm still not talking about) while we were there in retribution for Dustin dropping that massive, gargantuan boulder on him last year. Of course, my guilt was still such that my presentation of the theory was rather weak and unconvincing. I just HATE having to play defense. It's usually so easy to keep the upperhand against such a foe that I'm quite unpracticed at this part of it. All I can do at this point is wait it out until Dustin or one of his children pulls a big one and turns the tables back where they belong. Knowing him, it shouldn't take too long. I'm holding on to that hope, anyway.

Here's the big sick-o.

Don't be fooled by that innocent look on his face. He's the one who slung everything out of balance. I even told Brother Dustin he could drop another boulder on him if he wanted to! Ha! Of course, he refused. It was far more monstrous of him to keep me wallowing in guilt than to even out the playing field for me. ~sigh~ Jerk. ;-)

Okay, gotta run. Sam is waiting for me to help him take care of some cleaning around here. He's all ready to get busy! Love that little worker. Especially since he doesn't puke in other peoples' vans. ;-)

Roger Ammons' Wine Cellar

My real title should be "Home at Last" or something similar, but I promised Brother Ammons I was going to post the above title, so I had to follow through. You'll have to wait until later to find out what it's all about though. ;-)

We are finally home from our Colorado trip after 14 full days, which is only 3 days longer than originally scheduled. When I think of all of the blessings in the Revival that I received in those extra three days (not to mention the FUN and FELLOWSHIP enjoyed, of course) it would have been truly tragic to have missed out and come home any sooner than we did! I'm sooooo thankful we were able to make the trip and stay the extra days. Now we're home and unloaded, but that's about it. I'm feeling the big Post Trip Crash coming on, though I can't understand why. We were up late every night, but we were able to sleep in the past several days and even grab a nap here and there. Somehow all I'm feeling right now are the late nights, not the naps or sleeping in! So I have half a mountain of laundry in the floor (the rest is yet to be unpacked and discovered), but I think I'm DONE for the night and will just plan on starting fresh in the morning. For now, I blog. :-)

Let's see, now. I last blogged on Tuesday, correct? Jamey fixed a really fantastic Mexican chicken casserole (forgot to get the recipe, Jamey--can you e-mail it to me???) before we headed to church that night. We had another good service with even more visitors from the north and the south. ;-) Brother Ammons preached about the need to rescue the perishing and how the words "lost" and "perish" are often interchangeable in Scripture. That's all my brain is able to recall at the moment, but I know it was good! :-)

After church that night the game of choice was Pictionary--Brother Ammons, Brother Dustin and James against Sister Jamey and me. Girls vs. Guys. Who do YOU think won? ;-) Jamey and I were off to a roaring start but the guys had a real surge and nearly caught us toward the end of the game. It would have been extremely difficult to lose gracefully to them considering some of the art work they were producing. (I'm typically the epitome of a gracefuly loser, of course...) I was glad I didn't have to figure out a witty response to such a loss--I may have just turned to violence instead. ;-) Jamey and I work pretty well together, I think. Good enough to beat the fellas, anyway.

Here is Brother Ammons doing his part to help what turned out to be The Losers. :-)

This is one of his most impressive drawings. Any guesses?



The word was "fever." And they actually guessed it once they figured out that it was a sick dude with a thermometer instead of a sad dude grossed out by a worm. :-) For Brother Ammons' sake, I will let it be known that this particular piece was drawn with his left hand. ;-)

His next piece was even more impressive. Come now, surely you can see it!



This is, of course, Brother Ammons' wine cellar. But, of course! How could you have missed it??? It's subtle, yet obvious, don't you think??? HA! The truly disgusting thing is that they GUESSED it. Can you imagine?! This was during an All Play round where Brother Ammons was drawing for the guys and I was drawing for Jamey--and we had to draw with our eyes closed. I managed to make a house with a room underground and James overheard Jamey guess "basement." Eventually he tried "cellar" then went with my previous statement about there being no possible way for them to guess what we were about to try to draw with our eyes closed--and he guessed "wine cellar," almost sealing his fate as either a single father or a corpse. (I was struggling to decide whether to kill him or myself...) It took some doing to convince me that he hadn't simply looked at the answer, but even still I'm not too awful thrilled about it. I mean, LOOK at that picture!!! I really love Brother Ammons... but they sooooooo did not deserve to win that round! Ha! Talk about abstract art... :-)

I can't remember exactly what was going on in this shot, except that I was trying to take a picture of the game board to show that Jamey and I won and Dustin lost yet again (it's becoming quite a tradition), I'm just sad I was too slow to snap the picture while Jamey still had him in a headlock. Ha!

All of the little people woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Wednesday. Well, almost all of them! HA! I must share this... One day Brother Dustin noticed a mess that the kids had made in the backyard and hollered, "Alright, everybody under four and a half feet tall get outside and get that stuff put away!... Um... Except for Brother Ammons!" HA! Maybe you had to be there. :-) Anyway, all of the kids were crabs on Wednesday. Joe and Sam crawled out of bed hitting each other and griping and tattling and in all other ways begging for spankin's and naps. So what was I to do?! Actually, I believe all of my children were sent to lay down by about 10:30 that morning! We'd been gone from home for a long time and they run on pure adrenaline when they're with the other kids AND they'd been staying up way late because of services and such. So they were just shot. I had them all lay down for quite a while again in the afternoon, though I'm not sure any of them ever actually fell asleep. Stubborn little brats! Ha!

Revivial was really good again that night. Brother Ammons preached on being changed and talked about the life cycle of the butterfly and the process of metamorphosis. Preceeding his message he wanted all the kids to come up and sing He's Still Workin' on Me, but none of them knew how the verses went. Brother Dustin and James were supposed to be helping them, but you wouldn't have known it when the second verse came along! Ha! They had a bit of trouble fitting all of the words in and I thought they'd just about given up on it, but then they spit 'em all out in a hurry to make up for it. :-) Enjoyable, if not entirely austere.



And here's a special song Brother Ammons sang to go along with his message--I thought you might enjoy it. :-)



After service that night the Wantuloks came over for a while. We visited for a bit, then played a truly great game of Balderdash. I would have to re-read some of the really great definitions (we have a "keepers" bag in which to save the truly worthy submissions that we just don't want to forget about!)--but it still wouldn't be the same. You just had to be there. More times than not, you have to do very little wondering about which entries are Dustin's or Daniel's. Dustin has a particular pattern of writing that is uniquely his own. And it usually takes up two or more sheets of paper for each answer. Daniel, on the other hand, is more concise... but you can't pronounce half of his words and wouldn't know what they meant even if you could! HA! Makes for a truly interesting game, I assure you. Still, I think Brother Ammons was the most surprising of all. I feel like I've learned so much more about that man this week. I've been around him several times before at various church functions and when he's stayed in our home for revivals in the past, but it was quite different this time. He's always cracked me up and had a quirky sense of humor, but I was a bit surprised at how hanging out with a bunch of punk kids (which is how I still view myself and most of the other folks in our region--we're all still pretty young!) influenced him! HA! I will forever recall his impression of a blind man doing karate and a few other things that, for his sake, I won't share here. ;-) The man is a MESS and we truly enjoyed every minute with him--the crazy, laughter and tear filled ones as well as the good, rich discussions and spiritual insights he had to share. I think I respect him now more than I ever have before. In spite of that last game of Balderdash. HA!

Had to post the traditional picture. James and Jamey won the game on the same round. I'm always red and Dustin is always yellow. Here we are in our proper positions. :-) I'm not sure what he's smiling about. He probably just saw me whip out the camera and was trying to plaster a good "I don't care that I'm a big loser" smile on his face. I'm not buyin' it. ;-)



Somehow throughout the course of the evening Dustin called me a genius, then later on said that I was his friend. (Nevermind the circumstances surrounding the statment...) I was astonished at both admissions and was going to try to get them in writing with his signature attached but he quickly withdrew them when I was unable to spell "genius." HA! It did come to me about 10 minutes later, but it hardly took the embarassment away. ~sigh~ Anyway, I think the party broke up at about 1:30 and Daniel finally took his poor, exhausted wife home! I'm so glad they came, but I know Cathy was sooooo tired! I felt bad for her.

Thursday was our last day at the Hays' house. I got everything all packed up and ready to go and we pretty well just sat around and enjoyed the rest of the day. Brother Dustin ended up having most of the day off from work, so we sat down in the afternoon and finished the game of I Buy that we'd begun earlier in the week. I won. More importantly, somebody else lost. Yet again. I wonder if I'll ever tire of the same old thing happening time after time after time... Nah! :-)

All week long we had a girl van (ours) and a guy van (Hays') for going to church (not sure it was a good idea after the tragic incident of Monday night!), so we stuck to the pattern last night when we headed to Salida for service. That means I had Jamey and Katie and Aleah (who I've had SO much fun with this week--that girl is a nut!) and little Lillie with me for the drive over there. It was so great. The more I'm around Jamey the more I just really, really like her! It was great to have a couple of hours to just chat. I think we ought to do this more often. Maybe on those trips when our husbands are exchanging yard work for each other, right, Jamey?! :-)

The trip to Salida was pretty uneventful for most of us, but James says he saw a BEAR near Coaldale. Can you believe that?! It was crossing the river. I would have LOVED to have seen a moose AND a bear on our big Colorado trip... Still, it's cool that somebody did. :-)

The service in Salida was really, really good and I was so blessed by Brother Ammons' message once more. This time he preached about the greatest singer in the world and made certain we knew that it was Jesus, not Elvis. :-) He spoke about singing in the midst of our troubles and trials just as David, the great Psalmist, sang songs to the Lord throughout his deepest, darkest trials, and how Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight in the midst of the prison. The most poignant to me, however, was when he pointed out that Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples after the Last Supper and just before He was betrayed. And Jesus, of course, knew what was about to happen, but still sang a song to God in anticipation of it! Wow! Brother Ammons brought out different passages revealing that Jesus wants to join in song with us--it was something I'd never thought of before and was so very blessed by.

We had two visitors from the Elders' church come join us about half way through the sermon and they both seemed to really, really enjoy it. If you think of it, please say a prayer for that Salida church. Most everybody has moved away from there, leaving an almost empty building and no pastor. James feels strongly that the work is not done there--that there are souls hungry for the truth in that area--but we really need God to work a miracle (or a few!) to see the work growing and thriving there again. HE IS ABLE.

After the service we said our final goodbyes to Brother Ammons and the Hays, then went over to Sister Flora's house. We had a really nice visit with her over some Ramen noodles (long story--but it has to do with Joe's love of food (particularly Ramen) and Sister Flora's love of children and of making them happy!), then stayed in her spare room that night. She is such a neat lady. Such a loving and selfless person, always using up all of her strength and energy serving other people. We had a wonderful visit with her and were so thankful for the opportunity to be with her.

After a nice breakfast ala Sister Flora, we finally hit the road today and headed south. Such a bittersweet day! I love being HOME again. My very own nice, comfortable home--where I belong. But I hate it that we had to leave all of the PEOPLE behind in order to come here! Ha! The only real consolation is that we've got Camp and Convention coming up in just a few weeks. In fact, when we got home tonight I got out a notebook and started making a list of everything I need to do between now and then. All I can say is I'm real glad I didn't start making this list while we were on our trip or I wouldn't have had nearly as much fun! Ha! I started to feel a wee bit panicked as the list just kept growing and growing and growing... But it's all good. I am more excited about Camp this year than I have been in a long time. Can't figure out what the difference is (I've always LOVED Camp), but I just feel extra excited this time--can't wait! Wa-Hoo!!! :-)

Okay, before I go, here's one last picture. It's the one we had made in Estes Park. I love it! :-)

Change of Plans

We're having a GREAT time on our trip. So great, in fact, that we've decided to extend our trip a bit. The original plan was to head home this morning, but James altered that plan yesterday. :-) It's pretty quiet around here right now, so I'll try to catch you up a bit on what's been going on.

Thursday morning we got up (in Salida) and headed (with a sick-o -- thanks again for that pitcher you loaned us, Em!!!) over to Pueblo to visit their service that night, then be there for the District Convention that weekend.

I probably shouldn't post the following pictures. I never know if you're going to be happy to see them or depressed afterward, Mom! ;-) I know, I know. "Lo-o-o-o-o-o-ok at that gorgeous blue Colorado sky!!!" Right?

The view from the top of "your hill": the Twin Sisters. Probably the header for the upcoming issue of the Western Skies. :-)

We stopped by the Royal Gorge on our way so the kids could see it. They've been there before, but were too little to remember. Here's the same picture we've taken a hundred times before! Ha! If you click to enlarge it, you can probably see the Arkansas river way down at the bottom. We never did see the cable car. Must not be running yet this year.
Here are the kids searching for "fools gold" while James tends to his injured knee. He had just slipped on the gravel and scraped it up a bit.
The picture doesn't show what it really looks like at all, but it shines and shimmers--enough to hurt your eyes if the sun is shining brightly. You can see why folks used to think they'd struck it rich when they'd come across a whole bunch of the pretty, but worthless, stuff!

We got to Pueblo and did a little running around, then went to Keven & Michele Lewis' house. We spent the next two nights with them and it was GREAT. I love them sooooo much and it's been ages since we've really spent any time with them. Chris & Haley Thompson stayed there on Friday night, too, and we even squeezed in a game of I Buy after service. Perfect! Strangly, I can't recall who won. REALLY. I would hate it if I was the winner and can't remember it!

The Convention was really, really good. I don't have my program in front of me, so I can't recall all of the details (looking over the program is my only hope!) BUT I do have a few pictures, so that helps. Here is the "greeting of the District Overseer and wife" part. :-)

Special prayer for the pastors
Ah, yes! Brother VanDeventer's ABM boost was picture worthy! I get so tired of the same old convention picture: a guy in a suit behind a pulpit, another guy in a suit behind a pulpit, some other guy... So it's great when there's something different to take pictures of! James took these. Brother V has really been emphasizing the need to reach out to our strays and backsliders and those who have been lost in recent years. He and his daughter Julie sang "The Lost Sheep" as Brother Chris and the Gleaners acted it out.

Here's one particularly cute little sheep. :-)
The theme for the convention was "By Him All Things Consist" and the messages were entitled "By Him the Church Consists" (preached by James), "By Him Sanctification Consists (Keven Lewis), and "By Him Families Consist" (Dustin Hays). They were all really good. I was really blessed by Brother Keven's message and we had a good time of prayer afterward and the Lord really blessed.
Ha! I love this picture, although Sister Karen wouldn't. ;-) She was simply on program to read a scripture at the beginning of a session, but it all came out in true Karen fashion. She was reading about when God created Adam, caused him to fall into a deep sleep (thus Brother Daryl lying on the floor), took his rib and made a woman. It was quite... colorful! :-)

When Convention ended on Saturday evening we all headed to Country Buffet where we had our very own private banquet room, which was GREAT. When I say "we all" I mean a bunch of us who were at convention--44 of us; 19 adults and 25 kids. I think that's what I counted. We had a men's table, a women's table, and two children's tables. Seems we're always outnumbered by the little ones anymore. Good thing our kids are so nearly perfectly behaved. (HA!)

I'm not sure I would trust a massage from this particular girl, I don't care how cute she is!
Genesis kept the kids occupied with various games once they got restless. One of the privileges of having a room all to yourselves!
And Brother Daryl kept the men entertained. ;-)
More disturbing than the hat itself is how proud he seems to be of himself in it! Ha!

After we finally cleared out of the restaurant we headed to Colorado Springs to move into the Hays' house for a couple of days. We were up talking until about 1:30 or so that night. I think. All the nights run together now! We visited their church Sunday morning--what a beautiful place to worship God has blessed them with! James preached about the harlot of Revelation on Mother's Day. ~sigh~ I tried to tell him ya' just can't do that, but... ;-) I did call my Mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day, but was too late to be the first. Dewayne Smith beat me! Can you believe that?! It's bad enough to be a rotten daughter and fail to get your Mom's card in the mail in time (it's still in my purse--but I'll be home sometime this week and get an envelope for it, Mom! Ha!), but then to be beat out by Dewayne Smith?! ~sigh~ I'm a loser!!! ;-)

After service we went back to the house and were served peanut butter sandwiches in the home of Dustin Hays. Can you imagine somebody serving peanut butter to his guests for Sunday dinner??? And on Mother's Day??? ~gasp!~ Well, I never!!! Some people are just that way, I guess. ;-)

Later that day we all loaded up and headed to Castle Rock to meet Jon & Em for dinner and orchestrate the first passing of the baton. Actually it was the passing of the evangelist, but he'll probably feel a bit like a baton by the end of this revival! Ha! Brother Ammons flew in to Denver yesterday and preached at the Aurora church, he'll be preaching in 'Springs for three nights, Salida for one, Craig for three, Pueblo for three, and then Aurora for two more--with people passing him along to the next church all along the way. :-) Anyway, we had a GREAT Mother's Day dinner complete with dessert (Jamey, Emilee and I tried the three different kinds of those fantabulous molten cakes!), even though we were outnumbered again: adults-7; kids-11. But those short people are the reason we were the guests of honor for the meal, right?! Despite what we considered to be a little bit of chaos going on at the youthful end of the table we actually had a comment when we left about our "well behaved" children. HA! It's all relative, I suppose.

We brought Brother Ammons "home" to the Hays' house and enjoyed one game of Balderdash with him (James has dubbed it the best game ever) and shared plenty of laughs. He was instructed early on that the purpose of the game wasn't so much to make points as it was to laugh and cause others to laugh. We did laugh a lot. But of course, points always matter. Especially when you're playing with certain people. I would like for everybody to notice the red game piece and the yellow game piece. Beautiful, isn't it? I'm sure you can figure out which pieces belong to whom. :-)


After the game we all sat and visited until 3:30 in the morning when I finally told Brother Ammons that the young men in the room were looking really pitiful and weren't going to last much longer. Brother Ammons, of course, was still going strong--nevermind the fact that it was 5:30 his time! Ha! We sooooo enjoyed listening to him. He's an amazing man. He's got that great, quirky sense of humor and does a really great imression of Herman Ard (and has a plethora of stories to share), and he's just got so much wisdom--we all just love hearing him recount his experiences over the years and rehearse the series of events in the early 90's and whatnot. His memory is AMAZING and you feel like you learn so much from just visiting with him, both from the events themselves and from his insight concerning them.

Yesterday Brother Dustin had to work (while all of the other people were together--at his own house--visiting... Even though it goes against all of my usual sentiments toward him, I can't help but feel really bad! Being a PEOPLE person, too, I can only imagine misery of that kind!), and the rest of us just hung out around the house, then ran to Mardel for a while in the afternoon. Came home and I was able to get a nap, though I found out later that Jamey never got the chance. She's the one with a nursing baby and who's doing all of the work around here--she's the one who really needed and deserved a nap! Maybe today. Anyway, she fixed a wonderful meatloaf dinner, then we were off to our first night of Revival.

Here are a few random pictures from the day.

We had quite the costume parade with varying characters throughout the day. At this moment we had a cop, a Batman, a firegirl and a cowboy. Aleah doesn't much care what she is as long as she's with everybody else!

I'm having a hard time recalling exactly what was going on here, but Brother Dustin was putting on some sort of demonstration. Doesn't Joe look impressed???
Brother Ammons checking up on the forums. :-)
There was one very, very unfortunate event that happened on the way to church that I just can't make myself talk openly about as yet. We'll just say it was terrible enough that I feel forever chargeable to Dustin Hays... which has to be just about the worst possible position to find yourself in. I spent a great deal of time apologizing and expressing just how mortified I am and in essence just groveling a whole lot... I even told him he's welcome to drop another boulder on Joe if he wanted to. The matter still hasn't been fully... Resolved, shall we say? HA! Literally. ~sigh~ I HATE being on this end of the game! I really prefer for HIM to be the one indebted to ME in one way or another. It has a much more natural flow that way. ;-) But for now I'm a little bit at the mercy of his graciousness... Ooooooh, I hope Dustin does something really dumb or destructive or in some other way swing the pendulum back where it belongs very, very soon. :-)

In spite of the calamitous prelude to the service (!), we had a really, really good first night of revival. And a nice group of musicians! (Excuse Joe's casual attire; it was necessary after the pre-service catastrophe.)



I was sooooo blessed by Brother Ammon's message. He's so... thorough in his study and knowledge of the Word of God. His message was not something he sat down and studied for in a few hours; it came from an obviously ongoing study of the dates, times, places and individuals involved in the account we were reading. He spoke of Simon and Martha and Mary and three different dimensions of worship, respectively: passive worship (inactive, almost non-existant), pastoral worship (done from a sense of duty or responsibility), and passionate worship (sponaneous and deep, heartfelt worship). There were so many aspects to it and it was so very, very good. The Lord really blessed and helped me in the alter service--He is just so, so, so good to me! He deserves nothing less than our passionate worship and that's what I want to give Him.
Jon & Em had driven down from Denver and Daniel & Cathy had come from Pueblo for the service, so afterward we all sat around and visited until after 11:00, I think, while the kids ran wild in the other room. It was great listening to Jon and Brother Ammons talk.


They're both rather sagacious and you can tell they enjoy having those intellegent conversations with one another that they're unable to have with the rest of us. Ha! Even still, the general consensus would be that Jon is a dope. Mom, I'm glad you weren't there. You would have been ready to hurt him just like the ride back from Fields of the Wood last year. ;-)

Anyway, we had a great time. Aleah needed her picture taken so she could come look at it. Emilee had just brought this dress (and the sunflower one, Mom) to her. The hem appears to be coming out, but that's easily fixed.


The church actually has black lights up front, so the guys turned off the regular lights and let the kids "glow" in the black lights for a few minutes. Even Brother Ammons had to get up and go play in them for a minute. :-)

We got home rather late and got the kids to bed while the guys visited. Brother Ammons decided he'd better head to bed somewhere around midnight and the rest of us gathered around the table for some nachos and a game of I Buy. Unfortunately, it was 2:00 in the morning before we realized it and Brother Dustin, of all people, decided he just couldn't take it anymore. Wimp. ;-) We only made it half way through the game, but I think I was winning nicely. :-)

Today we got up and got the whole crowd showered for the first time in way too long (gross--bunch of smelly kids!), then Sister Jamey and I ran to Wal-Mart for a few necessities and left James & Brother Ammons to babysit. :-) We just got back a few minutes ago. Haven't decided yet if we're going to take a nap or play a game this afternoon. Jamey probably needs a nap! I've been writing this post up off and on all day.

Thanks to a really fast Internet connection I was even able to slap all of those pictures up here! Wa-Hoo! I never expected to be blogging from here, but I actually had the free time today after doing some laundry and emptying and repacking our suitcases. (They were getting a little out of hand!) Everybody has decided to lay down, so it's nice and quite around here. The weather is gorgeous. All of the windows are open and there's a nice breeze wafting through the house. ~Aaaaahhh~ What a great day. What a great trip!

Okay, from here...

We'll be attending the Revival here in the 'Springs and staying at the Hays' house again tonight and tomorrow night. Thursday Brother Ammons is preaching in Salida, so we're going to drive over and be there for that service as well. We'll probably just get a motel room there and then head home the next day. Unless plans change again. You never can tell! I'll either blog from Salida or when we get home at the end of the week. I have a couple of books to read, too, so it'll be a tough call whether to read or blog. :-)

We got up yesterday morning and enjoyed yet another beautiful drive from Estes Park into Denver. James had wanted to take the kids to Casa Bonita last time we went through Denver but it just didn't work out, so we went there for lunch yesterday. The kids had a blast, as always, and I'm always amazed by the layout and caves and hidden seating areas all over the place. James said he read that the restaurant can seat 1,100 people. Can you imagine?! We had a great table right next to the waterfall so the kids were up front and personal for the western show. Bart fell off the cliff into the lagoon again. Who would've imagined??? :-) All of the kids were too scared to walk through the cave this time. I was relieved. I'm the one who has to deal with it in the black of night if they have any issues!

We got to Jon & Em's house at about 1:00, I think, and the kids spent the afternoon playing with all the cousins while James dozed and Emilee and I just visited. It was a nice, relaxing afternoon and, as always, we just love being with all the Smiths! Emilee made tacos for dinner, then we were off to church at Brother Messenger's house. Here is the pile-o-cousins all ready for service. ;-)

Sadly, that's the only picture I took with the Smiths! What was I thinking???

After service we went home and put all the kid-o's to bed, then the four of us adults went downstairs and James and I saw and experienced the Wii for the very first time. What fun! I think tennis may have been the most fun, although the only thing I actually won at was cow racing--that was great! Ha! After trying out a whole lot of the different games we just sat around and talked for a few hours. Until about 2:30, I think! We'd lost James a few hours earlier, of course. ;-)

Auntie Em fixed pancakes for breakfast this morning, making for a very happy group of little people. We had another nice, relaxing morning that I thoroughly enjoyed. :-) We stuck around for lunch, then loaded up and said our goodbyes. They were real easy this time since we'll be seeing everybody again in just two days. :-)

Sam has had a real strange day today, sleeping through most of it. He slept most of the morning away at the Smith's house, then slept nearly the entire trip over to Salida. He never said anything about feeling sick, but he just couldn't seem to wake up today! Weird. I napped a little bit in the car, too, but made sure to wake up in time for some more great scenery. :-)

We got checked into our motel, then had a really nice dinner before church. We enjoyed a good service with Sister Flora--it's always so good to see her. She is such a special lady. And I always just love going back to the Salida church. It's full of sooooo many memories and I usually end up laughing and crying over them! I always miss Grandmother and Granddaddy so much while I'm there. But I always remember the Saturday night prayer meetings we had as teenagers and how the power of God was soooooooo strong there and how He was answering prayers and moving in our church during that time. I always think of bringing Katie to church on a Tuesday night, the day she'd been born and I remember Shanda and I taking turns in the little "nursery" feeding or changing Katie and Cainan. Sooooo many things that seem like a lifetime ago! And then I remember being at that church a REAL lifetime ago--when I was 8 or 10 years old. I'd go to church with Grandmother and all of the Clarksons would be there and Toni Yahn and Brandon and a few others, we'd sit on those hard pews and we'd sing page 277 ("Sweet is the song... I'm singing today...!), then afterwards Grandmother would take me out to eat at the Country Bounty. :-) How did I get to be old and married and have kids and all that stuff?! And so FAST! It's crazy. Anyway, that's my little trip down memory lane.

We went over to Sister Flora's house to visit for a little while after church tonight, so that was nice. James stopped and got milkshakes for the kids on our way back to the motel. Now they're all asleep or close to it and I'm not far behind them. Tomorrow we'll be doing some running around, then visiting the Pueblo church in their service tomorrow night. We'll stay with Keven & Michele Lewis the next two nights since District Convention starts there in Pueblo the day after tomorrow. After that it's on to the Hays' house for our last church visit and one night visiting the revival with Brother Ammons. Then we're planning on heading home on Tuesday. Chances are this is the last time you'll hear from me before we get back home since this is likely our last motel stay. I don't blog while we're staying with people. It takes away from my people time. But then, I've probably mentioned that some time before. ;-) Please be in prayer for the rest of our services and for our District Convention. I'll try to be better about pictures on the rest of the trip than I've been on this last leg. :-)

No proof reading again tonight. Just so you know. ;-)

Wow, where to start?! This is been su-u-u-u-u-uch a great trip!!! Believe it or not, we were all gased up and on the road by 6:30 Saturday morning. We don't pull off early departures like that very often, but I'm sooooo glad we did! It made for a very nice day. I told James that if I could nap for a little while then I'd take over the driving mid-morning. We chatted for quite a while, then I dozed for 30 or 40 minutes before James pulled over at a McDonalds in Cuba (really!) for breakfast. I took over the driving after that. It was 8:30. I always thought of mid-morning starting at 10:00, not 8:30. ;-) I was already feeling quite rested and it wasn't a problem.

We reached Durango at about noon, but weren't quite ready to stop for lunch yet so I just drove on. I LOVE the drive from Durango north. It had been rainy and overcast all day long, so that hindered us from being able to take in all of the views I had been so looking forward to. But even through the rain and with low visibility and low laying clouds... it's just sooooo pretty!!! We went on to Silverton (neat, neat little town), but found nothing for lunch. So we drove on to Ouray. Between Silverton and Ouray the rain turned to snow. ~Aaaaaahhhhh~ Is there anything in the whole world that can make a person happier than driving through the breathtaking Rocky Mountains and being able to see beautiful, magical snow falling, making it all the more gorgeous??? And in May?! I LOVE IT! :-)

This particular stretch of road is my favorite in the whole wide world. I've never seen anything that can surpass the scenery there. It's just so spectacular and... dramatic, I guess. The steep and jagged ridges, the waterfalls, the deep gorges and canyons... It's just amazing. Obviously, the weather and lighting made for very poor picture taking conditions, but I oohed and aahed myself silly anyway. :-)









The road from Silverton to Ouray is not only sensational, but also quite snakely! It's great fun to drive, although you can't go very fast. And by "very fast" I mean anything beyond about 35 miles per hour--at best. There are several of those yellow highway signs along the way displaying the winding and "s"ing turns again and proclaiming an advisory speed of 15 mph -- or even 10 mph a few times. Crazy!

Here's a picture looking down into Ouray as you near the town. It had stopped snowing entirely by the time we got there, but it was still quite chilly and there was a steady drizzle coming down.

If I would have been quick enough with the camera I would have taken a picture of all of the people who were actually out swimming in the pool at the edge of town--in the cold and rain! It would have been totally modest, I assure you, as all you could see were several heads bobbing up and down in the steaming water--everybody was nice and toasty in the natural hot springs pool and there was no bare skin to be seen anywhere. Ha!

There was nothing to eat in Ouray either, so we drove on. It was finally sometime after 1:00 when we reached Montrose and everybody thought they were starving to death. We were just about to pull over when it suddenly occurred to us that there is a Taco Time in Delta! We'd come this far--why stop now?! So my family humored me (James promised to buy the kids dessert if they'd wait a while longer to eat without complaining!) and we had lunch at 2:00. I way over-did it. A crisp meat burrito, a crisp bean burrito, and most of a cherry empanada. Tsk, tsk, tsk. So bad!

Anyway, James took over the driving from there and I slept a bit more. We got to Craig a little after 6:00, I think. We stopped by K-Mart and walked around for quite a while just so everybody could stretch their legs a bit after the trip. We ended up finding some good deals ($1 shirts and a nice pewter frame on sale real cheap--now we can finally display our family picture from last year!), so that was nice.

We decided we should grab a bite to eat before we headed over to the Clarks' house. We'd never discussed dinner plans with them and didn't want to show up there and have one of the kids get hungry and ask what was for dinner or something. ! So we went to Wendy's and, although I was still plenty full from Taco Time, I had a Jr. Burger and some oranges. Bad, bad, bad idea. We all ate light, but as we were pulling up to the Clarks' house, so was the pizza delivery girl with a great big stack of pizzas! Aaaaahhhh!!! So we ate dinner AGAIN! Oh, I was sooooo stuffed. Sister Stacey had me try some pineapple mango salsa, too, and although I was way too full to eat more than two chips (!) it was delicious!!! I usually don't like things like that and I usually can't stand things very spicy. And this stuff looked and sounded terrible! Ha! But it was sooooo good! WOW. I was wishing I'd had only one crisp burrito and had skipped Wendy's entirely!

We had a great time visiting with the Clarks and the Cox's, as always. We so enjoy going to Craig and were so happy that we were able to make it back after only about 6 months this time. The kids had a BLAST together and I think we all called it a night at about 11:00.

We were up decently early Sunday morning and had plenty of time to visit before service, especially since you don't have to drive to get there! (The Clarks are living in the "parsonage" part of the church building right now.) It was nice to have some extra visiting time.

We had a good service with a good Sunday School class and worship service, then James preached on the two women (the Church and the really bad woman) spoken of in Revelation. I enjoyed the part of the service when Brother Gerald came up front and sang Happy Birthday to himself. :-)

He turned 46 on Saturday. :-)

After church everybody stuck around for this really great white chili that Sister Stacey had made. It, too, was very good. And the freshly fried tortilla strips they had made to go with it were way too tempting--I ate too much once more. I am so prone to do that we we travel! Anyway, we had a nice time visiting and laughing some more.

The kids organized a band, of sorts, and asked James to come play the piano for them. They picked out their favorite songs from the blue book and sang one after another after another.

Sam must be multi-talented. I don't think there's any way I could play a tamborine and a ukelele at the same time!

They all headed outside for some more fun. How many kids can fit on one trampoline? At least 14 from what I can tell! Ha! This was just a recipe for disaster. It was only a matter of time before somebody came inside injured.

It was, of course, JOE! With yet another head injury! What a shock!!! I told him I'm just going to start calling him Lumpy because he's ALWAYS got a new lump on his head from one thing or another. Apparently he and Colton collided in mid-air and although it's not even visible in the picture (how is that possible?!), he had a nice little bluish welt above his left eye. Colton looked to have a little knot on his forhead, too, but the picture just didn't show much. In any case, it didn't look like they were holding any grudges!

At about 4:00 we finally headed out, after learning from the truckers amongst us that the road we had intended to take over to Estes Park is still closed--it's usually not opened up until sometime in June due to snow. It just blows James' mind. How can a road be snowed out until JUNE?! Ha! Anyway, Brother Daryl directed us on which route to take and it happened to be through Walden, Colorado, which is the Moose Viewing Capital of the state, according to the sign. Sister Janis said we would see moose through there. Brother Gerald said, "I've never seen a moose there in all of my life!" Well, Brother Gerald...

Is that not just sooooo cool?! Maybe nothing special to those Alaska folk (!), but it was pretty exciting for me! It's only the second time in my life that I've seen a moose in the wild. And I almost missed the picture of it. This little lady crossed the road and I started screaming at James to stop the van. We came to a screeching halt and the moose stopped, turned completely sideways to us, turned and looked and smiled and just waited... I grabbed me camera, pushed the button, and was greeted by those dreaded words: "Change the batteries." AAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHH! I was so mad!!! I grabbed my cell phone and snapped one grainy picture, then remembered a trick that sometimes works with my camera. I dumped all of the batteries out, mixed 'em up and put them back in and ~voila~ the camera was rarin' to go! By then the moose was quite a ways away, but I whistled and hollered, "Hey, moosey-moosey-moosey!!!" as loud as I could several times and she stopped and looked over her shoulder at me for several seconds. She was a very sweet moose and I was so glad to have met her acquaintance. :-)

After Walden we headed into some more serious mountain territory which brought on some more serious mountain weather. :-) Look--a snow plow! In May! How cool is that?!

Up near the top of whatever pass we were going over, the snow was sooooo deep on the sides of the road I just had to take this picture. It was piled up at least as tall as our van. Ha! Love it!

I love how you can't even see the sign that says "Roosevelt National Forest" because it's buried in the snow!

Once we came down out of the snowy stuff, we were amazed at the scenery that awaited us. This was a brand new route for us and we loved it! Sooooo pretty! And I have a new favorite place: Rustic, Colorado. Does that not sound like the most wonderful place on the planet?! I never knew it existed, but the very name of it just sounds soooooo perfect! It is such a fantastic area. LOVE IT! Anyway, here are some pictures from that leg of the trip. Still cloudy weather and the pictures can't begin to display the true beauty of it (I blame the weather AND the photographer!), but it gives you an idea anyway. :-)





Somewhere along that road we saw this nice little herd of elk. I whistled and hollered, "Hey, elky-elky-elky!!!" and some of them responded as well as my moose had earlier. What courteous wildlife they have there!

We got into Ft. Collins and found a Fazoli's, which is what James had been hoping for since there's no such thing where we're from. I failed again real big. I ordered the kids' lasagna... but then had four breadsticks with it! They were nice and fresh and soooooo good--crispy, golden-brown, dripping with grease... ~sigh~ Who can resist that?! Not me, apparently. "Whether 'tis better to share my breadsticks, cooked crisp and greasy... or to scarf down the whole thing myself?!" ~sigh~ I failed.

It was dark as we drove from there into Estes Park, so we missed all of that scenery. But we'll see it on our way out tomorrow, so it's all good. :-) We got to our motel at about 10:30, I think and let the kids watch a shark documentary on Animal Planet before bed. What a treat!

This morning we grabbed a bite at McDonalds, then headed up into the National Park to drive around looking for elk and let the kids run around in the mountains a bit. Of course, we hadn't even made it down the hill from our motel and to the McDonals before we saw our first herd of elk...

They must be the city elk. Don't care for the country life, so they just stay in town and hang out in the park all the time. Really--every time we passed that park (several times today) there were a whole slew of elk there.

The only thing that could have made things any prettier today would have been some of those gorgeous deep blue Colorado skies. It was still so cloudy and overcast throughout most of the day. Not that it's anything to complain about--it's gorgeous here no matter what kind of weather you're having!

We stopped several places along the way and let the kids run around and climb on the rocks. They LOVED it. Although it was very, very cold!

(Great picture of Joe, hu?! Ha!)

You have to click on this one to enlarge it and appreciate the river snaking it's way through the valley.





MOM... Got a question for Dad... None of the bull elk had very big racks because it's so early in the year, but how come some of them have smooth, pointy racks like this...

And others have the rounded, velvety racks like this??? Does it have something to do with their age???



Katie was always the first to conquer whatever mountain was there to be conquered.

Father and sons

Tree hugger (I don't know what comes over him some times)





Katie took this picture of us sitting under the bridge by the really cool, rocky river.

There is no way you can tell how enourmous these boulders were--it was so cool!

On our way back to the car Katie found this fallen tree that was still partly attached at one end and was therefore suspended balance-beam style above the ground, so she thought she'd give it a try. Then the rest of the family had to give it a try.

If you're guessing he didn't make it very far, you're right. In fact, you're looking right now at how far he made it!

Joe did better than his Dad.

Of course, I beat them all when it was my turn. James says it's "that Smith stubbornness" since he told me I couldn't do it--had to prove him wrong and all that. I don't care what he calls it. I won. :-)

As we were leaving the river James pointed this sign out to me. AFTER all of our kids had been playing on the boulers in the river. Oh, that's nice to know!

After a couple of hours of running around and driving through the National Park we came back into town. Estes Park has a really neat downtown with lots of fun shops, so we parked the van and started walking up one side of the street and down the other. We smelled all of the food joints as we passed by and decided that the Chicago style pizza place smelled the best, so we walked back there for lunch. It was a very good decision! YUM.

After that we took the kids to have their picture taken at one of those old time photo places. James and I had gone to Estes Park for our honeymoon and had one taken, so we thought it would be fun to do another one with the whole family. It was going to cost a fortune to do one with 5 people (not that it was cheap for 3--those places are such a racket!) and we would've had to do an 8x10" and we only wanted a 5x7", so we decided to just do the kids. It turned out GREAT! I meant to bring it in so I could take a picture of it to post, but I forgot. Somebody remind me and I'll post it next time! :-)

We did some more walking and I was facing a major dilemma: do I buy the moose socks (I do have a thing about fun socks, you know), or do I buy the adorable little stuffed moose??? I've always liked moose and, of course, they go great in our woodsy bedroom, but after SEEING a moose I love them even more! Anyway, I opted for this guy. Isn't he just too cute??? We decided Walden would be the perfect name for him. :-) Katie is sleeping with him right now, although she's been warned not to drool on him.

After returning and buying my moose, it was time to re-walk the streets in search of dessert. :-) There are a TON of little candy shops here--at least 8 of them. It's NUTS! And most of them look sooooo good! That is SOOOOOO James' sort of thing, so we ended up buying stuff from three of them! Ha! We only bought the freshly made stuff. We got salt water taffy at one place, some FANTASTIC white chocolate covered pretzels and a gigantic cashew caramel turtle at another, then two different kind of fudge at the last. Talk about over-doing it! But this was our "vacation" part of the trip and James wanted to do it up right. And I think I ate 5 of the pretzels. And they're not the tiny ones either. They're probably three inches across! ~sigh~ I'm going to gain 20 lbs. on this trip!

After the candy thing, we hopped in the van and drove over to the Stanley hotel, the very famous one that was in some freaky horror movie from long ago. It's a beautiful place! F.O. Stanley and his famous Steamer arrived in Estes Park in 1903 and found the town lacking in amenities, so he took it upon himself to fix it, I guess! This hotel has been featured as one of America's most haunted hotels. Oooooooh! ;-)

Here are the kid-o's with the Stanley Steamer. Cool, hu?!

After we left there we were pretty much out of things to do--and it was only 3:00! So we stopped at a park and let the kids run wild some more. :-) Afterwards we went back to the motel and James took a nap while the kids and I watched some more Animal Planet. We headed out for dinner later on...

I didn't use the zoom on this picture--she really was just a few feet away from the van. These elk are so people friendly. They don't even really act annoyed. Of course, none of them posed for me like the moose up in Walden (!), but they're anything but afraid of you and your camera.

We drove back into the National Park to look for some more wildlife just one more time (James kept hoping to see one of the HUGE herds or 2 or 3 hundred elk like we saw here on our honeymoon)--and the kids wanted their picture taken WITH the elk. So we told them they could run down the hill as far as that rock they're standing on. :-)

We grabbed a bite to eat, came back and got everybody showered and cleaned up, and now they're sleeping soundly and I'm blogging my life away. Thanks for reading, Mom! I figure you're the only one left after all of this! HA! Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too long! But I wanted it all written down so I'LL remember it years from now. Anyway, tomorrow looks to be another big day, but I'm hoping we'll make it to Jon and Em's pretty early in the afternoon. I'm excited about all of our church visits now that our the vacation part of our trip is over with. It's been GREAT and I'm sooooo thankful that we've been able to do this, but now I'm ready for the other! Keep us in your prayers!

I'll try to post more (but less!) from Salida on Wednesday night. :-)

Way too tired to check for typo's--so just try to overlook them. Guess it's too late for that. Try to forget them, then! ;-)