Colorado Trip, Part 3 -- The Hays' House

When the Ministers Retreat ended late Saturday afternoon we headed for Colorado Springs. I especially enjoyed the drive and the scenery this time, knowing it will probably be the last time for a long time that I'll be there. I grew up in the 'Springs and have always loved going back. It's a beautiful city (as cities go) and holds lots of wonderful memories of "the good old days." :-)

By the time we got to the Hays' house and got everything unloaded it was already 9:00. We commenced getting six filthy children bathed and put to bed, then gathered around the game table. We always start with I Buy, and this time Brother Dustin & Sister Jamey had a special gift for James before we began. I didn't get a good picture of it, but it's a card holder that clamps onto the table! So James not only has a handy-dandy card holder so he doesn't have to strain himself (!), but NOW he doesn't even have to hold the card holder! Pitiful. Only people who have played games with James can possibly appreciate how perfect a gift this is for him. Ha! He loved it. :-)

I don't think we'd even made it through a whole game of I Buy before James staggered into the living room and collapsed on the couch, declaring he was way too tired to be able to play any more.

Brother Dustin was beside himself. "What?!?!? It's not even midnight!"

The plan had been for us to stay the night there on Saturday, go to church in 'Springs on Sunday, then Pueblo that afternoon, then drive home afterward. We all knew this was our "last night" with the Hays and there was no way we were about to let it end with James going to bed before the first game was even over with! Brother Dustin finally made a deal with him: we would let him go to bed (after finishing that game--but we'd forgo the traditional Balderdash game) if he would agree to come back to 'Springs and stay again the next night. I think James would have agreed to just about anything to win the privilege of sleep at that moment! Ha!

So Sunday morning we went to church in 'Springs, then ran through a drive-through and headed down for the 2:00 service in Pueblo. We enjoyed both services, though James had developed some sort of pain that he thinks was coming from his kidneys. We prayed for him several times that day and he seemed to get progressively better as the day went on. James had preached in 'Springs that morning and we really enjoyed hearing Brother Hawkins preach the very same message in Pueblo a few hours later! Ha! Guess some of us needed to hear it twice. It was great. :-)

After service we all hung out at the fellowship hall for a couple of hours, enjoying a pot luck with turkey and roast and all sorts of goodness. Our contribution was a bunch of stuff from Wal-Mart (mac-n-cheese, potato salad, a cake, etc.) since we didn't have time or opportunity to do any cooking. It worked. ;-) It was nice to have some time with the Clarksons and Lewises and Kaufmans (who were still there contrary to their previous plans--ha!), though we spent most of our time with the Clarksons. We had a hard time getting out of there, but I'm glad we were finally able to make one departure without any tears. That was a nice change! I'm not sure how we pulled it off, except we knew we were on our way back to the Hays' house for more fun and fellowship.

When we got to the Hays' house on Saturday night I saw the chair sitting in their living room... that is an exact match to my green plaid couch! Amazing. (Almost as amazing as the fact that Jamey got it for free!) On Sunday night James and Dustin both showed up in their pj's... that matched. (They were both wearing their IYC shirts.) And then all three boys came downstairs wearing identical pj's, too! Ha! I had to get a picture. Come on, say it with me: "Aaaaawwwwwwwww, that's so cute!" HA! Just like the girls in junior high who always dress to match. ;-)

I must confess that Jamey and I have the same pj's too (we both got them for Christmas this last year)--but we weren't wearing them at the same time like the guys were. They were just so adorable. HA! HA! HA!

That night we were able to play I Buy AND Balderdash, as tradition demands. All throughout the night the Brother Dustin was working on James, trying to get him talked into staying one more night. Before long Jamey and I had joined in--and I was shocked when I began to realize that James was actually considering it, if only slightly for quite a while. When James would leave the room the rest of us would discuss how likely it was that he would actually do it. As the night progressed I remember us reaching what we felt like was about 70%... Ha! In the end, though he never verbalized it (he loves to keep you in suspense like that) we knew he had decided to stay one more night. Wa-Hoo! I never cease to be amazed at the power of influence Mr. Hays seems to have over James—there’s no way anybody else in the world would have been able to talk him into that! Ha! I love it. :-)

We had great fun that night, though I don't have the pictures to prove it. The only thing that I remember specifically was a brand new impersonation that James performed for us. My camera is way too slow these days and I couldn't get pictures to take until several seconds (30 or more sometimes!) after I wanted to, but this particular impersonation was so great that it had Brother Dustin in the fetal position on his kitchen floor, laughing so hard he couldn't breath. :-)

I'm really wishing I had just taken a video clip of it because I'm fairly confident it will never happen again. I'm really not sure James could DO it again! And he wouldn't think of doing it for anybody but the Hays--it was just the right time and the right place, I guess. He wouldn't have let me post a video clip anyway--I'm not even at liberty to say what it was, only that we nearly laughed ourselves sick. It was deep, gasping, painful laughter. Ah yes, more great memories! :-)

Can't remember what time we went to bed that night. 2:00ish, maybe? We got up the next morning and I did a load of laundry (we were already a day past the "going home" date--and staying for another) and Jamey took care of some house stuff. The kids played outside on the fort and we just had a nice, relaxing morning. Brother Dustin had two jobs in the morning, but by noon he had called in and told the secretary not to set anything up for him the rest of the day--he was taking off. It kills him to know there are PEOPLE to be with and he's missing out. One of the few things he and I actually have in common. ;-) We had lunch, then were sure to institute nap time. Not for the kids--for the adults. Ha! The kids played games and whatnot while all of the exhausted adults crashed all over the living room. We needed some sleep after the severe lack of it during the Retreat and the two nights since--not to mention the one coming up.

We went to Carino's for dinner that night because they have their family platters half price on Mondays--it's a GREAT deal. Makes you feel totally okay with getting Italian sodas for everybody, especially since the refills are free. I restrained myself this time and only had three. I've been known to have as many as five. ;-) Carino's had been part of the bribe dangled in front of James to talk him into staying another night. :-)

After dinner we headed to Mardel, one of the things James loves to do when we're in 'Springs. (Yes, another part of the bribery.) I think it was the first time we'd gone there with Brother Dustin and I must say, it was a whole new experience! Here he is, your General VLB Coordinator...

Looks like he's going out, trying to convert somebody to whatever it is he's doing...

He said he's going to get something like that to wear during the VLB program at the Assembly next year. HA!

And here we have the State Overseer of Alabama, the three headed version of him.

Lillie did NOT like the rubber snake that "Brudder Hoe-wn" (as Aleah says) found. Her Dad took it upon himself to make her good and upset with it.
Here he is trying to make up.
And finally... I can't really explain this. All I know is we turned around to see this, and hear James saying in a squeaky voice, "I am that hero!" (I'm telling you--he is a DIFFERENT PERSON when he gets with that Hays character!!!)
Jamey amazed us all (but not really--she has quite a reputation) by buying a hardback book for her kids for nineteen cents, and a DVD for them for sixty-nine cents or something crazy like that! HA! She is soooooo cool. James always teases that she can buy ANYTHING for a quarter. She just keeps proving it to be true! Ha!

We finally went back to the house and let the kids watch the new Veggie Tales we'd just bought at Mardel. We played games and, to tell the truth, it was really pretty low-key for most of the night. We finished I Buy, put the kids to bed, then visited for a while before playing Balderdash. We had a good time and several good laughs as we always do. We realized at the end of the game that we were doing a card that we had done the very first time we ever played together nearly three years ago. That means we've come full circle--played the whole game through, almost entirely with the Hays! It was sort of neat and sort of sad for our "last night." Somewhere toward the end of the game (when we were way beyond tired and apparently a little loopy) James read one of the old definitions Brother Dustin had written for an earlier game. I should say he tried to read it. He laughed so hard it took him quite a while to get through--which, of course, made the rest of us laugh just as hard. In fact, by the end my sides and stomach were hurting soooooo bad from laughing (no doubt compounded by the painful laughter the night before over the impersonation)--and I was sore and aching for three days afterward!!! Ha! Crazy. I don't laugh that hard very often, but it was a grand and glorious way to spend our "last night" with the Hays. We kept saying that ("It's our last night!") and using it to try to talk James into one thing or another, that's why I keep mentioning it. ;-) God has truly blessed us with a special friendship with that family and we are sooooo thankful for all of the wonderful fellowship we've had with them over the past several years. They are some of the very best in the whole Church of God and we are going to miss them way, way too much. But I'm not going there, because I know Brother Dustin is going to read this and I don't want to make him cry again. He's been such a wreck over this, just sobs and sobs every time he thinks of us, can't go to work any more because of the depression he's battling and all that. I don't want to make it any worse for him. Okay, so it's probably not THAT bad... but almost. ;-) I stayed up to write a thank you/goodbye note to them the last night we were there and I just cried and cried while I was writing. I found out a few days later that Brother Dustin did the same thing when he read it! I know he'll appreciate me publicly sharing what a sap he is. ;-) He's about as sensitive a guy as James is, so I took it as a great compliment that he's shed so many tears over us! Jamey and I don't have any problem with the fact that we're cry-babies over this, but I have been truly surprised at how hard James has taken this whole leaving-the-Region thing, and by how hard Brother Dustin is taking it. I don't mean it to be cruel, but it makes me so happy! Ha! I guess I'm just glad to see that both of them have hearts, whether they like it or not and whether they want to admit it or not. And they're going to miss each other. Aaaaawwwwwwww, that's so sweeeeeeet. HA! (Can't wait to hear their response to this post!) ;-)