Don't get your hopes up. Nothing exciting or amusing took place around here today that I can think of. It was a typical Monday: cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, laundry... No ironing, however. I burnt out before I got that far, but it feels great to have the rest done.
It snowed here today! So pretty. I think we got about 3 inches. Enough to make it beautiful outside, but not enough to cause any real problems. I'll have to check it out and make sure the roads are okay before we head to the library tomorrow. I really don't want to be stuck while James AND Brother Chris are out of town. I have absolutely nobody else to call for help! The nearest people would be the Hays family, 6 hours away. Hey, on second thought... ;-)
Hhmmm. I really and truly don't have anything to blog today. The kids did school... Sam mopped the tile for me while I cleaned bathrooms... ~sigh~ Wow. How pitiful.
Oh, I did call and talk to Brother Strong this morning--that was enjoyable. :-) I called and explained to him (since he is in charge of the Sunday School Literature Review Committee) that I had received a packet of literature to proofread a couple of weeks ago and this morning I set it out so I could start going through it tonight... and that's when I noticed that it was due tomorrow. I apologized and asked if he still needed me to proof it or if I was too late. He said that something came up, pushing the deadline for that material back and there was really no rush on it--if I could get it back to him by the end of February it would be fine. I said, "Oh, Brother Strong--don't tell me that! You don't understand. If you tell me that I'll be calling you at the end of the month for the very same reason I'm calling you today! I work much better under pressure; please tell me you need it this week!" He laughed that funny little giggle of his (I love it--it cracks me up! I could even see his shoulders doing that up-and-down thing--ha!) and asked if I could please get it to him by the 20th, then. :-) I'll see if I can manage that.
It's actually what I'm supposed to be working on right now. ~sigh~ I always enjoy it once I get into it, but it's one of those things that I just have a hard time getting started on. But since I have absolutely nothing else to blog about, I guess I'll bite the bullet and get started. Wouldn't it be miraculous if I stayed up and just did the whole thing tonight and could actually mail it tomorrow--the original deadline?! Nah... not gonna happen. ;-)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Home Alone, Day Three
~whew~ It's so nice to not have to THINK to come up with a blog title for a change. I don't know if I'll blog every day, but at least I'll have titles if I do. :-)
Today has been a different kind of Sunday. I woke up sooooo tired today. You know, where your whole body just feels so HEAVY and you don't have the strength to even roll over, much less get out of bed--it takes real effort to even keep your eyes open. Sleep just feels sooooooo good and you can't pull out of it. I hate waking up like that! I'm thankful it doesn't happen very often. I finally managed to crawl out of bed, but only because we had church to get ready for.
Sundays are going to be a little different around here for a while. The Clarksons will be in Colorado for about a month so Brother Chris can fix his Mom's roof and so they can visit all the churches up there. While they're away, we're only going to be having one service each Sunday. We'll have Sunday School, morning worship, then in lieu of our usual sermon we'll have whichever auxiliary leader would have been on for the evening service go ahead and give their lesson. But today was BTI and Brother Chris is our BTI leader, so all we had was Sunday School and morning worship. It was good, of course, but felt very strange! Sister Connie taught Sunday School today and did a great job. I'd never heard her teach before (was it her first time ever?), but I thought she did very well gathering additional thoughts and scriptures to add to the lesson. She didn't ask for comments, however, so class ended earlier than scheduled. Of course, with Brother Chris and James both gone she might not have had any comments anyway! Ha! Then Katie led us in three or four songs and Joe played the guitar. I tell ya', we'd be in big trouble without that guitar when James is gone. It's going to be really tough for this church when we finally go to Alabama. I pray God will send them some musicians to help out!
I think we left the church just after 11:00 this morning. Crazy. We stopped by Sonic on our way home since we all had a real hankerin' for a slush. :-)
We got home and Joe was a good little man and built us a nice, cozy fire. ~Aaaaahhhh~ I love that. The fire AND that I have a son who built it all by himself. :-)
We tried to figure out what in the world we were going to do with the rest of our Sunday and somehow ended up sitting around the Monopoly board again. This time we were able to play the game out to the very end, hopefully prolonging the misery for everybody sufficiently so that they won't be asking to play that particular game again in the near future. :-) I was the first one to go bankrupt and the three kids were pretty much neck and neck. And neck, I guess. ;-) Joe started to falter and you could see the end was imminent. I finally told him to STOP PRAYING about MONOPOLY. Ha! I'd see him over there covering his eyes and hear him whispering every time before he was about to head down "death alley," where all Kate and Sam's hotels were. Ha! He was out before too long, leaving Katie and Sam to duke it out. Sam finally lost interest and I took over for him. In the end, I/Sam won, owning everything on the board and almost all of the money in the bank. Katie had a terrible time and simply couldn't refrain from griping, though she'd promised me ahead of time that she would only complain to herself, in her head. (Riiiiiight.) At one point she burst into tears and started ranting. I wanted so desperately to give her a motherly lecture along with "the look" to make her straighten up, but I simply could not retain my composure. I tried to tell her to pull herself together, but it wasn't very affective through my laughter and while I was wiping the tears away. It was so funny to me both because of how utterly absurd it is to CARE so much about a stupid game along with how truly pitiful it was to see someone in such a condition AND because I so clearly recall the misery she was enduring. I've felt the very same thing over the very same game when I was the very same age--though I was more prone to sharp sarcasm and slamming my piece on the board as I moved rather than tears. Too tom-boyish to let people see me cry if I could help it. I saw a bit of myself in Kate today, though I never had a chance to explain that that's why it was so funny. Poor kid. It's terrible to pour four hours of your life into a game and to be on top and truly expect to win only to watch it all slip away slowly and painfully over the final hour. I think it was a 4+ hour game. Like I said, I'm hoping it was enough that they don't think it's fun anymore. :-)
We were still at a loss as for what to do with the rest of the day, so I let them watch Homeward Bound. They thought it was terrific and, for the most part, it is. I just HATE anything and everything crude and for some reason they feel it necessary to add stupid tasteless stuff like that into kid movies. It's not funny, it's just rude and childish. Anyway, I cried several times through the movie (?!) and then at the very end of the show, when the animals fi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-inally made it back home, the DVD froze up. Aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuggggghhhh! The kids were outside and thought they heard a dog bark, they looked out over the horizon, not daring to believe that it could actually be... THE END. Ha! It didn't even show the first dog come over the hill! It was horrible!!! Sooooo frustrating.
I looked at the clock and realized it was church time in Denver, so I logged on to Jon's site and gathered the kids around so we could "attend" church tonight there. We sang along, Joe played his guitar, Kate played the tambourine, Charlie chewed on Sam (shouldn't be allowed in church, but you know)... I was so blessed to see Brother John Garcia moderating the service and leading songs. I love it that he's so involved and seems to be doing so well! Brother Daryl Clark preached tonight about the still, small voice that spoke to Elijah. He had some good thoughts, and he made a statement or two that CRACKED ME UP. Specifically the one about watching his money go down the drain... but you would've had to have "been there." ;-) We enjoyed the altar call, too, and prayed with them for a while. It was good to see our missing pastor on the video feed, knowing that he was able to join the folks in Denver for service. :-)
Charlie was DYING to play by the time service was over, so the kids drug him through the house on a blanket (one of his favorite games) and chased him and ran from him and all manner of chaos for 30 or 40 minutes. Then they settled down and read books to each other (I love it when they do that!) on the couch until I sent them to bed. Katie read Arnie the Doughnut to Sam tonight. Makes me happy. :-)
I talked with Mom for a minute tonight and then Sister Bishop, but I haven't heard from James. I'm wondering how the Men's Retreat was, but I'll never know because Chris Clarkson wasn't there. Ha! When I ask James he'll say what he always says: "It was good." That's it. If I really dig I might get three or four sentences worth, but that's about it. All I can figure is that Men's Retreats aren't nearly as good or exciting or memorable as Ladies' Retreats are. ;-)
Today has been a different kind of Sunday. I woke up sooooo tired today. You know, where your whole body just feels so HEAVY and you don't have the strength to even roll over, much less get out of bed--it takes real effort to even keep your eyes open. Sleep just feels sooooooo good and you can't pull out of it. I hate waking up like that! I'm thankful it doesn't happen very often. I finally managed to crawl out of bed, but only because we had church to get ready for.
Sundays are going to be a little different around here for a while. The Clarksons will be in Colorado for about a month so Brother Chris can fix his Mom's roof and so they can visit all the churches up there. While they're away, we're only going to be having one service each Sunday. We'll have Sunday School, morning worship, then in lieu of our usual sermon we'll have whichever auxiliary leader would have been on for the evening service go ahead and give their lesson. But today was BTI and Brother Chris is our BTI leader, so all we had was Sunday School and morning worship. It was good, of course, but felt very strange! Sister Connie taught Sunday School today and did a great job. I'd never heard her teach before (was it her first time ever?), but I thought she did very well gathering additional thoughts and scriptures to add to the lesson. She didn't ask for comments, however, so class ended earlier than scheduled. Of course, with Brother Chris and James both gone she might not have had any comments anyway! Ha! Then Katie led us in three or four songs and Joe played the guitar. I tell ya', we'd be in big trouble without that guitar when James is gone. It's going to be really tough for this church when we finally go to Alabama. I pray God will send them some musicians to help out!
I think we left the church just after 11:00 this morning. Crazy. We stopped by Sonic on our way home since we all had a real hankerin' for a slush. :-)
We got home and Joe was a good little man and built us a nice, cozy fire. ~Aaaaahhhh~ I love that. The fire AND that I have a son who built it all by himself. :-)
We tried to figure out what in the world we were going to do with the rest of our Sunday and somehow ended up sitting around the Monopoly board again. This time we were able to play the game out to the very end, hopefully prolonging the misery for everybody sufficiently so that they won't be asking to play that particular game again in the near future. :-) I was the first one to go bankrupt and the three kids were pretty much neck and neck. And neck, I guess. ;-) Joe started to falter and you could see the end was imminent. I finally told him to STOP PRAYING about MONOPOLY. Ha! I'd see him over there covering his eyes and hear him whispering every time before he was about to head down "death alley," where all Kate and Sam's hotels were. Ha! He was out before too long, leaving Katie and Sam to duke it out. Sam finally lost interest and I took over for him. In the end, I/Sam won, owning everything on the board and almost all of the money in the bank. Katie had a terrible time and simply couldn't refrain from griping, though she'd promised me ahead of time that she would only complain to herself, in her head. (Riiiiiight.) At one point she burst into tears and started ranting. I wanted so desperately to give her a motherly lecture along with "the look" to make her straighten up, but I simply could not retain my composure. I tried to tell her to pull herself together, but it wasn't very affective through my laughter and while I was wiping the tears away. It was so funny to me both because of how utterly absurd it is to CARE so much about a stupid game along with how truly pitiful it was to see someone in such a condition AND because I so clearly recall the misery she was enduring. I've felt the very same thing over the very same game when I was the very same age--though I was more prone to sharp sarcasm and slamming my piece on the board as I moved rather than tears. Too tom-boyish to let people see me cry if I could help it. I saw a bit of myself in Kate today, though I never had a chance to explain that that's why it was so funny. Poor kid. It's terrible to pour four hours of your life into a game and to be on top and truly expect to win only to watch it all slip away slowly and painfully over the final hour. I think it was a 4+ hour game. Like I said, I'm hoping it was enough that they don't think it's fun anymore. :-)
We were still at a loss as for what to do with the rest of the day, so I let them watch Homeward Bound. They thought it was terrific and, for the most part, it is. I just HATE anything and everything crude and for some reason they feel it necessary to add stupid tasteless stuff like that into kid movies. It's not funny, it's just rude and childish. Anyway, I cried several times through the movie (?!) and then at the very end of the show, when the animals fi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-inally made it back home, the DVD froze up. Aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuggggghhhh! The kids were outside and thought they heard a dog bark, they looked out over the horizon, not daring to believe that it could actually be... THE END. Ha! It didn't even show the first dog come over the hill! It was horrible!!! Sooooo frustrating.
I looked at the clock and realized it was church time in Denver, so I logged on to Jon's site and gathered the kids around so we could "attend" church tonight there. We sang along, Joe played his guitar, Kate played the tambourine, Charlie chewed on Sam (shouldn't be allowed in church, but you know)... I was so blessed to see Brother John Garcia moderating the service and leading songs. I love it that he's so involved and seems to be doing so well! Brother Daryl Clark preached tonight about the still, small voice that spoke to Elijah. He had some good thoughts, and he made a statement or two that CRACKED ME UP. Specifically the one about watching his money go down the drain... but you would've had to have "been there." ;-) We enjoyed the altar call, too, and prayed with them for a while. It was good to see our missing pastor on the video feed, knowing that he was able to join the folks in Denver for service. :-)
Charlie was DYING to play by the time service was over, so the kids drug him through the house on a blanket (one of his favorite games) and chased him and ran from him and all manner of chaos for 30 or 40 minutes. Then they settled down and read books to each other (I love it when they do that!) on the couch until I sent them to bed. Katie read Arnie the Doughnut to Sam tonight. Makes me happy. :-)
I talked with Mom for a minute tonight and then Sister Bishop, but I haven't heard from James. I'm wondering how the Men's Retreat was, but I'll never know because Chris Clarkson wasn't there. Ha! When I ask James he'll say what he always says: "It was good." That's it. If I really dig I might get three or four sentences worth, but that's about it. All I can figure is that Men's Retreats aren't nearly as good or exciting or memorable as Ladies' Retreats are. ;-)
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Home Alone, Day Two
This morning started off with Joe making french toast. With a little help from me. Thank goodness I got there in time. ;-) We then had devotions and picked up the house a bit before starting where we'd left off last night in our game of Monopoly. We played for about an hour, then had some more work to do to get everything ready for the Open House.
Jason showed up just before 1:00, as we were finishing up the last of our cleaning--and clearing the Monopoly game from the dining table. It's really best that way. The game had taken a turn and Joe was doomed (he can handle it), but Katie would probably be the next to go (she can't handle it) and it would have been long and agonizing to have to put up with her griping and whining while she slowly lost all of her money and property. I'm really just glad it's over with.
We had three hours to stay gone, but I really didn't want to go into Albuquerque on a Saturday. And besides, I was feeling bleagh all day today and just not up to doing much. So Katie was good enough to pack some chips, sandwiches and sodas in the picnic basket and we headed up the mountain to find a picnic spot in the National Forest. I passed the first spot because there were too many cars there, then the second one too. I had forgotten how far it was to the third picnic site, but now I know: it's right at the dog's breaking point. Katie was the lucky recipient of his carsickness this time, but I had little sympathy for her. She had been instructed to keep the dog next to her ON HIS BLANKET at all times--making sure his HEAD was over said blanket, just in case. ~sigh~ I just can't get over how wrong this is!!! Who ever heard of a carsick dog???
Katie got all cleaned up, we grabbed our picnic basket and slipped and slid on the crusted snow and ice down the hill to the picnic table. The snow had melted there and the table pretty much sat in a mud puddle, but what did I care? I already had a pukey dog and more laundry to take care of, besides feeling all bleagh. A little mud seemed fitting. I actually felt much better after sitting in the warm sunshine there while we were eating. But then the wind picked up suddenly and blew everything off the table, including the now empty picnic basket--into the mud, of course. Joe was leaning over picking things up when his cup of soda was tipped over by the wind and trickled down onto his head, around his ear and into his face. Ha! That almost made it worth the hassle and mess we had to clean up. :-)
I hauled everything back to the van and let the kids climb up and down all over the mountain for an hour or more. They would show up every few minutes telling me all about the mountain lion tracks they saw (dog tracks, no doubt) and how Sam thought he saw something moving in the bushes and all that stuff. Then they'd forge back into the woods to investigate further, enjoying every minute of their overactive imagination exercises.
I hadn't thought of it before, but you're supposed to pay a fee to picnic in the National Forest. I think it's CRAZY, but being the honest person that I am I started digging around for the three dollars I owed. Won't they be pleased when they pull the envelope out of the little box and find a dollar bill, six quarters, four dimes, a nickel, and five pennies. :-) I think you're only supposed to use cash or checks, not coins. But I only had that lone dollar bill and I certainly wasn't going to put a $5 in! Anyway, when I went to deposit my envelope in the tube I saw the warning sign posted about cougars being in this area along with the instructions for what you're supposed to do should you encounter one. None of the instructions ever include "Scream like a banshee while you high-tail it outta there" even though you know it's what any rational person would do. It did, however, say to keep children within arm's reach should you decide to explore the woods and if you see a cat you're to pick the children up immediately. So I told the kids that if they saw anything they were to get in the biggest pile they could manage and do their best to look like one big person instead of three little ones. Ha! I love the picture my head produces when I think of that. :-) Joe had a stick and was all set to defend the family. He's a good boy. Of course, we all know that his leadership would have been setting the example of screaming and flailing wildly as he tumbled down the mountain. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing I would do if I was put in that position. But God was good to us and the only cougars encountered today were in the minds of youngsters. :-)
When everybody was ready to go I put the dog in his box. We had taken it with us just because too much dog stuff looks cluttery sitting around the house when you know (or hope) people are going to be looking at it. I wasn't taking any more chances and figured it would be best if the sick-o was completely confined. Amazingly enough, he didn't cry or fuss at all. He usually wails like he's dying as soon as you shut the door, but he was either too sick to care or actually comforted by being in a familiar place.
We still had an hour before we could return to the house and there's not just a whole lot to do up here, so I did something I hardly ever do--though I did it last time James was away, too. I went to the little mountain video rental place. We looked around the kid/family section and came away with an old Dean Jones movie (I love him) called The Ugly Dachshund, as well as Homeward Bound. I'd never seen the first one and the kids had never seen either.
We headed home, but still had 30 or 40 minutes to kill. So I dumped the kids off at the head of the bike/walking trail. It's about two miles long, I think, so I figured that would take up some time and keep them occupied. Sam ran pretty much the whole way. Katie and Joe wore out and hopped in the van, amazed at how Sam just keeps on going. He was always wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay ahead of them. They met three people and a dog along the way, one lady very concerned and inquiring whether Sam (who was "alone" because he was ahead of the others) was lost. She probably thought he had a terrible mother letting him out there all alone--then there was a van stalking him. Ha!
When we got home there was a young couple here talking with Jason. They left after a few minutes and he gave me the low-down. Three couples came during the three hours and they all loved the house. Blah, blah, blah. Are you tired of the same old story?! I am! The last couple just moved into the state and are currently staying in an apartment in the city, but they hate it. They are country people from Ohio and really want to get out of town. They loved the house, but it's also the very first one they've been in. So who knows. Another couple said they had friends who are looking to move up here and they thought they'd look at the house for them. They loved it and said they'd tell the friends all about it... so they're not even "lookers" themselves. The other ones... I can't remember what he said. I know they liked it too and I know that Jason was going to be calling somebody (the first couple? the last couple?) on Monday and trying to take care of some business for them. It's all a blur now. I really don't get too wound up about anything any more. I think I'll start to get excited about something whenever we actually put pen to paper and sign a contract. Even then it can fall through, but at least it would be new territory for us instead of deja vu. Ha!
We had french fries and fried hot dogs for dinner tonight. It's been ages since we've done that, so it tasted extra good. Especially since I still have just a tiny bit of fry sauce left. :-) Then after all of the kids had their showers we watched The Ugly Dachshund. It was cute and the kids really enjoyed it. I was sure to get them to bed at a decent hour since we have church in the morning.
Oh yeah--and Charlie had to have another bath. Third day in a row he's taken a care ride and third day in a row we've been sorry. I Googled it tonight and was blown away to read that 95% of the time dogs that get carsick do so because of stress, not motion sickness. Really?! Come on!!! I just have a hard time making myself believe a lot of the dog advice that's out there nowadays. Stress??? That is so ridiculous! They say to take your dog for little short rides (5-10 minutes) to happy destinations (the park), soothing them throughout the ride, having a grand time with them when they get there, then doing the same thing when they return home. And to do this 5 times a day. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I've got to draw the line somewhere. I've done a lot of crazy things for the dumb dog, but get real! I'm going with the other counsel I found online that said to give your dog a spoon full of vanilla ice cream before you get in the car because it settles their stomach. That's more my speed. Now I'll HAVE to go buy some Blue Bell... ;-)
Jason showed up just before 1:00, as we were finishing up the last of our cleaning--and clearing the Monopoly game from the dining table. It's really best that way. The game had taken a turn and Joe was doomed (he can handle it), but Katie would probably be the next to go (she can't handle it) and it would have been long and agonizing to have to put up with her griping and whining while she slowly lost all of her money and property. I'm really just glad it's over with.
We had three hours to stay gone, but I really didn't want to go into Albuquerque on a Saturday. And besides, I was feeling bleagh all day today and just not up to doing much. So Katie was good enough to pack some chips, sandwiches and sodas in the picnic basket and we headed up the mountain to find a picnic spot in the National Forest. I passed the first spot because there were too many cars there, then the second one too. I had forgotten how far it was to the third picnic site, but now I know: it's right at the dog's breaking point. Katie was the lucky recipient of his carsickness this time, but I had little sympathy for her. She had been instructed to keep the dog next to her ON HIS BLANKET at all times--making sure his HEAD was over said blanket, just in case. ~sigh~ I just can't get over how wrong this is!!! Who ever heard of a carsick dog???
Katie got all cleaned up, we grabbed our picnic basket and slipped and slid on the crusted snow and ice down the hill to the picnic table. The snow had melted there and the table pretty much sat in a mud puddle, but what did I care? I already had a pukey dog and more laundry to take care of, besides feeling all bleagh. A little mud seemed fitting. I actually felt much better after sitting in the warm sunshine there while we were eating. But then the wind picked up suddenly and blew everything off the table, including the now empty picnic basket--into the mud, of course. Joe was leaning over picking things up when his cup of soda was tipped over by the wind and trickled down onto his head, around his ear and into his face. Ha! That almost made it worth the hassle and mess we had to clean up. :-)
I hauled everything back to the van and let the kids climb up and down all over the mountain for an hour or more. They would show up every few minutes telling me all about the mountain lion tracks they saw (dog tracks, no doubt) and how Sam thought he saw something moving in the bushes and all that stuff. Then they'd forge back into the woods to investigate further, enjoying every minute of their overactive imagination exercises.
I hadn't thought of it before, but you're supposed to pay a fee to picnic in the National Forest. I think it's CRAZY, but being the honest person that I am I started digging around for the three dollars I owed. Won't they be pleased when they pull the envelope out of the little box and find a dollar bill, six quarters, four dimes, a nickel, and five pennies. :-) I think you're only supposed to use cash or checks, not coins. But I only had that lone dollar bill and I certainly wasn't going to put a $5 in! Anyway, when I went to deposit my envelope in the tube I saw the warning sign posted about cougars being in this area along with the instructions for what you're supposed to do should you encounter one. None of the instructions ever include "Scream like a banshee while you high-tail it outta there" even though you know it's what any rational person would do. It did, however, say to keep children within arm's reach should you decide to explore the woods and if you see a cat you're to pick the children up immediately. So I told the kids that if they saw anything they were to get in the biggest pile they could manage and do their best to look like one big person instead of three little ones. Ha! I love the picture my head produces when I think of that. :-) Joe had a stick and was all set to defend the family. He's a good boy. Of course, we all know that his leadership would have been setting the example of screaming and flailing wildly as he tumbled down the mountain. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing I would do if I was put in that position. But God was good to us and the only cougars encountered today were in the minds of youngsters. :-)
When everybody was ready to go I put the dog in his box. We had taken it with us just because too much dog stuff looks cluttery sitting around the house when you know (or hope) people are going to be looking at it. I wasn't taking any more chances and figured it would be best if the sick-o was completely confined. Amazingly enough, he didn't cry or fuss at all. He usually wails like he's dying as soon as you shut the door, but he was either too sick to care or actually comforted by being in a familiar place.
We still had an hour before we could return to the house and there's not just a whole lot to do up here, so I did something I hardly ever do--though I did it last time James was away, too. I went to the little mountain video rental place. We looked around the kid/family section and came away with an old Dean Jones movie (I love him) called The Ugly Dachshund, as well as Homeward Bound. I'd never seen the first one and the kids had never seen either.
We headed home, but still had 30 or 40 minutes to kill. So I dumped the kids off at the head of the bike/walking trail. It's about two miles long, I think, so I figured that would take up some time and keep them occupied. Sam ran pretty much the whole way. Katie and Joe wore out and hopped in the van, amazed at how Sam just keeps on going. He was always wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay ahead of them. They met three people and a dog along the way, one lady very concerned and inquiring whether Sam (who was "alone" because he was ahead of the others) was lost. She probably thought he had a terrible mother letting him out there all alone--then there was a van stalking him. Ha!
When we got home there was a young couple here talking with Jason. They left after a few minutes and he gave me the low-down. Three couples came during the three hours and they all loved the house. Blah, blah, blah. Are you tired of the same old story?! I am! The last couple just moved into the state and are currently staying in an apartment in the city, but they hate it. They are country people from Ohio and really want to get out of town. They loved the house, but it's also the very first one they've been in. So who knows. Another couple said they had friends who are looking to move up here and they thought they'd look at the house for them. They loved it and said they'd tell the friends all about it... so they're not even "lookers" themselves. The other ones... I can't remember what he said. I know they liked it too and I know that Jason was going to be calling somebody (the first couple? the last couple?) on Monday and trying to take care of some business for them. It's all a blur now. I really don't get too wound up about anything any more. I think I'll start to get excited about something whenever we actually put pen to paper and sign a contract. Even then it can fall through, but at least it would be new territory for us instead of deja vu. Ha!
We had french fries and fried hot dogs for dinner tonight. It's been ages since we've done that, so it tasted extra good. Especially since I still have just a tiny bit of fry sauce left. :-) Then after all of the kids had their showers we watched The Ugly Dachshund. It was cute and the kids really enjoyed it. I was sure to get them to bed at a decent hour since we have church in the morning.
Oh yeah--and Charlie had to have another bath. Third day in a row he's taken a care ride and third day in a row we've been sorry. I Googled it tonight and was blown away to read that 95% of the time dogs that get carsick do so because of stress, not motion sickness. Really?! Come on!!! I just have a hard time making myself believe a lot of the dog advice that's out there nowadays. Stress??? That is so ridiculous! They say to take your dog for little short rides (5-10 minutes) to happy destinations (the park), soothing them throughout the ride, having a grand time with them when they get there, then doing the same thing when they return home. And to do this 5 times a day. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I've got to draw the line somewhere. I've done a lot of crazy things for the dumb dog, but get real! I'm going with the other counsel I found online that said to give your dog a spoon full of vanilla ice cream before you get in the car because it settles their stomach. That's more my speed. Now I'll HAVE to go buy some Blue Bell... ;-)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Home Alone, Day One
This morning we all loaded up to take James to the airport. For some unknown reason James said we would take the dog along. I’m guessing he wanted to have Charlie with him until the very last possible moment, so greatly he will miss the little fuzzball while he’s away. :-) I kept the dog in his bed, cuddled up with a blanket, on my lap the entire time. I was hoping that if he was sitting still instead of being restless and wandering all over the van it might help him to relax—and if there was any chance of him getting carsick it would surely alleviate it, right? Besides, some people get sick riding in the back but are perfectly fine up front. So I kept him up front in my lap and was sure to tell him to look out the window frequently. Ha! Well, you guessed it. About the time we got to the airport the creepy little dog suddenly horked all over my sleeve and the blanket. Bleagh!!! That is just soooooooo wrong on so many levels!!! I cleaned it up as well as I could, secretly wishing we had a baby so that I would have some wet wipes on hand (ha!), hugged my husband goodbye with one arm…
Then went shopping with a pukey arm. Gross!!! But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I was wearing a dark brown fuzzy sweatshirt and it’s not like anybody could tell, but the principle of the thing really bothered me. That’s just so wrong! ~sigh~ I left Katie in the van with the dumb sick dog (in case he had any more trouble—I made sure she kept him IN HIS BED to cut down on things to have to wash and clean up later) and the boys went into Albertson’s with me. We had failed to buy everything we needed when we were there yesterday, so it was necessary that we stop and pick up a few essentials. I must say, however, that it was a bizarre feeling standing at the register. I didn’t know it was possible for a girl to feel like a bachelor, but as I looked at the contents of my cart that’s exactly how I felt: frozen pizzas, four cases of coke, and two boxes of microwave popcorn. HA! It was great. :-) It’s exciting to have a selection of soda again after so long. We now have regular Coca-Cola, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and root beer. Pizza parties, here we come!
We got home and I changed clothes and, obviously, had to do a load of laundry I hadn’t been planning on doing. Dumb dog. And, of course, the dog’s face may have been perfectly clean but the thought of it still being nasty grossed me out so I had to give him a bath. While I was blow drying him I decided that the “poof” on his head was just way too long and shaggy (won’t even stand up any more; it sort of parts and falls to the sides in all directions, leaving a little bald spot on the top of his head—Ha!) and I should cut it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Why in the world would my kids let me decide to do such a thing?! I went a little crazy and, of course, when you’re giving a bad haircut you keep clipping a little more and a little more trying to fix it. Let’s just say the dog has NO poof now and looks royally stupid—even more stupid than a poodle usually looks. Of course, he does deserve it. Dumb dog. I should’ve given him a Mohawk.
The house was getting pretty chilly so I built a nice little fire (it makes me so happy to have a fire) before we dove into school, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual today but I’m sure it’s only because we got such a late start.
5:30 finally came around. Time for our first pizza party. :-) So we all crashed in the den with our Totino’s, sodas and popcorn, and watched Up. I like that movie. Dug reminds me so much of Hershey. The happy-go-lucky, not-so-bright kind of dog. I love that kind. Today I’m pretty sure that I love that kind a whole lot more than the dopey carsick kind. Ha!
We had our devotions tonight and read something that filled the kids with questions for which I had no answers. I kept reading and re-reading, thinking there must be a typo. HA! Not possible when you’re using the Bible as your devotion book. ;-) I called Mom for help, but she doesn’t know either—though she did at least have some ideas to build on. It was when Moses took his wife and kids and headed to Egypt after God appeared to him in via the burning bush. While they were on their way there, it says, “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.” Oooooooooooookay. ?! Any ideas??? Tomorrow I’m going to look and see what some commentators have to say about it. It’s always interesting to me when there is something that you just don’t “get,” knowing that this is part of the divine Word of God and He put it there for a reason. He intends for us to read it and to understand it.
After devotions I told the kids I’d let them stay up and we’d play a game. After all, it is Friday and it is the first “party night.” I don’t know what came over me, but I agreed to teach them how to play Monopoly. They’ve been asking about it this past week and it somehow seemed like the right time. When James called at 10:00 we were just starting to get some houses and hotels on the board, Joe and Sam set to annihilate us girls in quick order, probably. I quietly motioned the kids off to bed so as to not freak James out too badly. “What in the world are the kids still doing up?!” I could hear it all in my head. Ha! He’ll know now, of course, because he’ll be checking on my blog for all of those things that I tell the general public instead of telling him directly. It makes things more fun that way. :-)
Now it’s nearly 11:00, all three kids and the dumb dog are sleeping soundly, and I’m thinking I’ll head that way myself. In the morning we’ve got to get the house all sparkly clean again because Jason will be here for an Open House from one until four o’clock. What in the world am I going to do for three hours with three kids and a CARSICK PRONE DOG??? If Jason was a girl instead of a guy I’d just stay here. When people showed up we could just walk around the house as if we’re here to check it out, too. “Oooooh, look at this place—it’s beautiful! How much are they asking? Wow, what a steal!” Ha! But alas, Jason isn’t a girl so I’ve gotta clear out. Think, think, think… I’ll come up with something to do. On the bright side, we have an Open House tomorrow! I know it’s the same subject and I’m acting as if it’s a new one, but this time I’m bringing it up as a good thing rather than an inconvenience. ;-) I sort of gave up praying for specifics a long time ago because I just DON’T KNOW what God’s plan is and I have no clue about His time table and what He wants to do when and all that. It’s obviously not in sync with my plans and time table! That means I’ve had it all wrong, I guess. God’s ways are better than my ways whether I ever understand the “why’s” or not. And I must say that there are soooooo many things that I have been learning through this “stuckness” that I wouldn’t have learned had this move been fast and easy like I expected. Anyway, it’s in God’s hands but it still seems like the right thing to do to pray for God to bless the Open House tomorrow and bring lots of people by and, if be His will, to bring “them”—the ones who will actually BUY this place. :-)
Then went shopping with a pukey arm. Gross!!! But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I was wearing a dark brown fuzzy sweatshirt and it’s not like anybody could tell, but the principle of the thing really bothered me. That’s just so wrong! ~sigh~ I left Katie in the van with the dumb sick dog (in case he had any more trouble—I made sure she kept him IN HIS BED to cut down on things to have to wash and clean up later) and the boys went into Albertson’s with me. We had failed to buy everything we needed when we were there yesterday, so it was necessary that we stop and pick up a few essentials. I must say, however, that it was a bizarre feeling standing at the register. I didn’t know it was possible for a girl to feel like a bachelor, but as I looked at the contents of my cart that’s exactly how I felt: frozen pizzas, four cases of coke, and two boxes of microwave popcorn. HA! It was great. :-) It’s exciting to have a selection of soda again after so long. We now have regular Coca-Cola, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and root beer. Pizza parties, here we come!
We got home and I changed clothes and, obviously, had to do a load of laundry I hadn’t been planning on doing. Dumb dog. And, of course, the dog’s face may have been perfectly clean but the thought of it still being nasty grossed me out so I had to give him a bath. While I was blow drying him I decided that the “poof” on his head was just way too long and shaggy (won’t even stand up any more; it sort of parts and falls to the sides in all directions, leaving a little bald spot on the top of his head—Ha!) and I should cut it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Why in the world would my kids let me decide to do such a thing?! I went a little crazy and, of course, when you’re giving a bad haircut you keep clipping a little more and a little more trying to fix it. Let’s just say the dog has NO poof now and looks royally stupid—even more stupid than a poodle usually looks. Of course, he does deserve it. Dumb dog. I should’ve given him a Mohawk.
The house was getting pretty chilly so I built a nice little fire (it makes me so happy to have a fire) before we dove into school, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual today but I’m sure it’s only because we got such a late start.
5:30 finally came around. Time for our first pizza party. :-) So we all crashed in the den with our Totino’s, sodas and popcorn, and watched Up. I like that movie. Dug reminds me so much of Hershey. The happy-go-lucky, not-so-bright kind of dog. I love that kind. Today I’m pretty sure that I love that kind a whole lot more than the dopey carsick kind. Ha!
We had our devotions tonight and read something that filled the kids with questions for which I had no answers. I kept reading and re-reading, thinking there must be a typo. HA! Not possible when you’re using the Bible as your devotion book. ;-) I called Mom for help, but she doesn’t know either—though she did at least have some ideas to build on. It was when Moses took his wife and kids and headed to Egypt after God appeared to him in via the burning bush. While they were on their way there, it says, “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.” Oooooooooooookay. ?! Any ideas??? Tomorrow I’m going to look and see what some commentators have to say about it. It’s always interesting to me when there is something that you just don’t “get,” knowing that this is part of the divine Word of God and He put it there for a reason. He intends for us to read it and to understand it.
After devotions I told the kids I’d let them stay up and we’d play a game. After all, it is Friday and it is the first “party night.” I don’t know what came over me, but I agreed to teach them how to play Monopoly. They’ve been asking about it this past week and it somehow seemed like the right time. When James called at 10:00 we were just starting to get some houses and hotels on the board, Joe and Sam set to annihilate us girls in quick order, probably. I quietly motioned the kids off to bed so as to not freak James out too badly. “What in the world are the kids still doing up?!” I could hear it all in my head. Ha! He’ll know now, of course, because he’ll be checking on my blog for all of those things that I tell the general public instead of telling him directly. It makes things more fun that way. :-)
Now it’s nearly 11:00, all three kids and the dumb dog are sleeping soundly, and I’m thinking I’ll head that way myself. In the morning we’ve got to get the house all sparkly clean again because Jason will be here for an Open House from one until four o’clock. What in the world am I going to do for three hours with three kids and a CARSICK PRONE DOG??? If Jason was a girl instead of a guy I’d just stay here. When people showed up we could just walk around the house as if we’re here to check it out, too. “Oooooh, look at this place—it’s beautiful! How much are they asking? Wow, what a steal!” Ha! But alas, Jason isn’t a girl so I’ve gotta clear out. Think, think, think… I’ll come up with something to do. On the bright side, we have an Open House tomorrow! I know it’s the same subject and I’m acting as if it’s a new one, but this time I’m bringing it up as a good thing rather than an inconvenience. ;-) I sort of gave up praying for specifics a long time ago because I just DON’T KNOW what God’s plan is and I have no clue about His time table and what He wants to do when and all that. It’s obviously not in sync with my plans and time table! That means I’ve had it all wrong, I guess. God’s ways are better than my ways whether I ever understand the “why’s” or not. And I must say that there are soooooo many things that I have been learning through this “stuckness” that I wouldn’t have learned had this move been fast and easy like I expected. Anyway, it’s in God’s hands but it still seems like the right thing to do to pray for God to bless the Open House tomorrow and bring lots of people by and, if be His will, to bring “them”—the ones who will actually BUY this place. :-)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Catch 22
That's what it is. I WANT to be a better blogger, but I have NOTHING to blog So what's to do??? Ramble aimlessly, of course. If I can only get started I usually don't have any problem with that.
Tuesday was library day. Nothing new about that. Katie and Joe came away saying that they hit the jackpot this week... just like they do every week. The librarians think our kids are the greatest. One guy, Scott, even recommends books that he thinks we'd enjoy reading together as a family, like "The Great Piratical Rumbustification." How can you go wrong with a title like that?! I let the kids cut down on their school time that day since they had new books they were dying to get to.
Ah, yes. I was so envious of Emilee recently when she talked about how she had revamped her kids' school schedule and how it was working out so much better for all of them. I asked her to please share her secrets for making school last a little longer for kids who whizz through way too fast and need to have some more constructive learning time. She didn't have any good ideas for me. HA! That's not true of course, but most of all it got the wheels to turning and we've been able to add a few things to the kids' school day. Most significantly, they now have 30 minutes of typing lessons and 30 minutes of music practice. Katie works on her keyboard and tries to learn a new chorus each day that she can play for us in our evening devotions. Joe's music lessons right now consist of turning on some Cathedrals music (his new favorite thing to do anyway) and playing along on his guitar. Sam's electric drums have way too many functions and he's learned to use way too many of them already. So his music time usually consists of him setting it to some crazy jungle music then, instead of playing along, he stands up and dances to it, most often something that resembles the hula. But it keeps him busy and occupied, right?! Ha!
Yesterday... Nope, can't remember a thing. Last evening, however, we got a call from Jason saying there was going to be a realtor's tour up in the mountains this morning and that he'd arranged for our house to be one of the stops. So we did some cleaning, but I had done such a good job on Monday there really wasn't a lot of work involved. Wa-Hoo for Cleaning Day Mondays! :-)
The realtors were scheduled to to arrive sometime after 9:00 this morning, so we loaded up and went to Wal-Mart. Grabbed breakfast at the McDonald's there, then did our shopping and headed home. We took Charlie with us, of course, because you can't exactly leave a puppy locked in a box when people are coming to check out the house. Especially one who screams bloody murder the whole time. He's not been in the car very much and he just can't seem to relax at all. On our way home, he got sick. This is so not right. I love Charlie, but we are NOT the kind of people who can have a dog who gets car sick! Children and dogs are simply not allowed to get car sick around here--we do way too much traveling for that. He'll grow out of this, right? We just need to take him more often and let him get used to it. Right??? ~sigh~ Dumb dog. At least he has a nice, fluffy, freshly washed dog bed thanks to the trip to town today.
James spent the rest of the day getting ready for his Alabama trip and I helped the kids with school. I did very little sleeping last night (I don't know what's wrong with me--I just LAY THERE and can't fall asleep!), so I laid down with the cuddly poodle for a little while this afternoon. He'd had a rough morning and was ready for a nap, too. :-)
Brother Juan preached about sanctification and several other things tonight. He made some statements that really blessed me. I love church. :-)
We got word tonight that all of the realtors really liked the house and they think all we need is more exposure. So Jason is setting up an Open House for this Saturday. James didn't tell me that; I learned it from his post on Facebook. Gotta love marital communication, I tell ya'! ;-) Anyway, the general consensus is that we just need to get people INTO this house and it should sell easily enough. In other words, we have no new information because we already knew that. Ha! No, in all actuality, none of that matters in the big scheme of things. In God's time, He is able to sell this house at the drop of a hat--even if no real estate had sold in this area for 10 years. I appreciate the realtors' input, but we know it's in God's hands to work the miracles and, when He has accomplished His purposes, bring the right people to buy the house.
Tomorrow morning we take James to the airport, then stop by the store to pick up the things we need to party properly while he's away: more pizzas (James only bought three today... HA, I say), more popcorn, and soda. Albertson's has four 12-packs for $10 right now, so we're going to be set good! Ha! We haven't bought coke in quite a while because it just hasn't been on sale. That'll make our Cherry Coke and Root Beer taste extra good with our Totino's. First party is tomorrow night. Anybody want to come??? James seems to take offense to the fact that his family is so happy when he leaves. I tried to explain to him that we're not celebrating that he's gone... we're filling the Dad gap and trying to do all we can to have fun even though he's not here. I almost kept a straight face. Then the kids started cracking up and I was a goner. Ha! It's just what you're supposed to DO when one parent is away, you know?! My explanation really is at least partially true--you try to make it a special time when it's "just you" and the kids. He does the same thing when I'm away at Ladies' Retreat, he just doesn't like it very well when he's the one leaving and everybody's all chipper and looking forward to a great time.
And that's it. I'll try to get the camera out in the next few days. Maybe it'll help me blog better. Or maybe not...
Tuesday was library day. Nothing new about that. Katie and Joe came away saying that they hit the jackpot this week... just like they do every week. The librarians think our kids are the greatest. One guy, Scott, even recommends books that he thinks we'd enjoy reading together as a family, like "The Great Piratical Rumbustification." How can you go wrong with a title like that?! I let the kids cut down on their school time that day since they had new books they were dying to get to.
Ah, yes. I was so envious of Emilee recently when she talked about how she had revamped her kids' school schedule and how it was working out so much better for all of them. I asked her to please share her secrets for making school last a little longer for kids who whizz through way too fast and need to have some more constructive learning time. She didn't have any good ideas for me. HA! That's not true of course, but most of all it got the wheels to turning and we've been able to add a few things to the kids' school day. Most significantly, they now have 30 minutes of typing lessons and 30 minutes of music practice. Katie works on her keyboard and tries to learn a new chorus each day that she can play for us in our evening devotions. Joe's music lessons right now consist of turning on some Cathedrals music (his new favorite thing to do anyway) and playing along on his guitar. Sam's electric drums have way too many functions and he's learned to use way too many of them already. So his music time usually consists of him setting it to some crazy jungle music then, instead of playing along, he stands up and dances to it, most often something that resembles the hula. But it keeps him busy and occupied, right?! Ha!
Yesterday... Nope, can't remember a thing. Last evening, however, we got a call from Jason saying there was going to be a realtor's tour up in the mountains this morning and that he'd arranged for our house to be one of the stops. So we did some cleaning, but I had done such a good job on Monday there really wasn't a lot of work involved. Wa-Hoo for Cleaning Day Mondays! :-)
The realtors were scheduled to to arrive sometime after 9:00 this morning, so we loaded up and went to Wal-Mart. Grabbed breakfast at the McDonald's there, then did our shopping and headed home. We took Charlie with us, of course, because you can't exactly leave a puppy locked in a box when people are coming to check out the house. Especially one who screams bloody murder the whole time. He's not been in the car very much and he just can't seem to relax at all. On our way home, he got sick. This is so not right. I love Charlie, but we are NOT the kind of people who can have a dog who gets car sick! Children and dogs are simply not allowed to get car sick around here--we do way too much traveling for that. He'll grow out of this, right? We just need to take him more often and let him get used to it. Right??? ~sigh~ Dumb dog. At least he has a nice, fluffy, freshly washed dog bed thanks to the trip to town today.
James spent the rest of the day getting ready for his Alabama trip and I helped the kids with school. I did very little sleeping last night (I don't know what's wrong with me--I just LAY THERE and can't fall asleep!), so I laid down with the cuddly poodle for a little while this afternoon. He'd had a rough morning and was ready for a nap, too. :-)
Brother Juan preached about sanctification and several other things tonight. He made some statements that really blessed me. I love church. :-)
We got word tonight that all of the realtors really liked the house and they think all we need is more exposure. So Jason is setting up an Open House for this Saturday. James didn't tell me that; I learned it from his post on Facebook. Gotta love marital communication, I tell ya'! ;-) Anyway, the general consensus is that we just need to get people INTO this house and it should sell easily enough. In other words, we have no new information because we already knew that. Ha! No, in all actuality, none of that matters in the big scheme of things. In God's time, He is able to sell this house at the drop of a hat--even if no real estate had sold in this area for 10 years. I appreciate the realtors' input, but we know it's in God's hands to work the miracles and, when He has accomplished His purposes, bring the right people to buy the house.
Tomorrow morning we take James to the airport, then stop by the store to pick up the things we need to party properly while he's away: more pizzas (James only bought three today... HA, I say), more popcorn, and soda. Albertson's has four 12-packs for $10 right now, so we're going to be set good! Ha! We haven't bought coke in quite a while because it just hasn't been on sale. That'll make our Cherry Coke and Root Beer taste extra good with our Totino's. First party is tomorrow night. Anybody want to come??? James seems to take offense to the fact that his family is so happy when he leaves. I tried to explain to him that we're not celebrating that he's gone... we're filling the Dad gap and trying to do all we can to have fun even though he's not here. I almost kept a straight face. Then the kids started cracking up and I was a goner. Ha! It's just what you're supposed to DO when one parent is away, you know?! My explanation really is at least partially true--you try to make it a special time when it's "just you" and the kids. He does the same thing when I'm away at Ladies' Retreat, he just doesn't like it very well when he's the one leaving and everybody's all chipper and looking forward to a great time.
And that's it. I'll try to get the camera out in the next few days. Maybe it'll help me blog better. Or maybe not...
Monday, January 24, 2011
Recuperating
...from my horrible non-blogging rut. I'm trying to better, really I am... it's just that I can't think of a single thing of interest to talk about!
I'm trying REAL HARD to remember anything at all about Saturday. Oh! I know. I worked on Ladies' Retreat stuff, Alabama minister's stuff, and my address book all day long. I typed up a directory, of sorts, that will be easily accessible for both James and myself (it's probably teeming with mistakes--I'm horrible at typing in addresses) and got my entire address book typed into a directory in my computer, at long last. I've been meaning to do that for ages.
Yesterday was a good day. Brother Chris preached another great message and I really felt the Lord speak to my heart. Love that. :-) After service we went to KFC and came away with the determination to never again walk through their door. We like KFC, but this one is horrible. There was one other guy in there, but it took them FOREVER to get our food to us. When they finally did, the lady told me it would take a few more minutes for them to get Joe's "snack size bowl" out. I didn't have very high expectations because it had taken so long to get everybody else's food in the first place, but she assured us: "Two minutes to cook the chicken and one more minute to bring it out to us." When we had all finished our food 10 or 15 minutes later, I went back up to the counter and had to holler to get somebody's attention, and asked for a refund. In the end, she refunded us for the bowl and then actually went to the back and made it up real quick and gave it to us for free, but still--I'm done there. I'm glad they made it right, but the service there is always awful so why go through it again? Joe was delighted to actually get his lunch and happily horked it down in the van on the way home. Oh yeah--we noticed later that James' KFC cup actually said KGC on one side of it! HA! Something is definitely wrong here!!!
Can't remember much about the day yesterday except that I played a game of Sorry! with the kids. Then Sister Galaviz taught a really good CPMA lesson on holiness last night. Even though we'd already gone out to eat for lunch, we did it again after service last night! We haven't gone out with the Clarksons in a while and they were up for it, so we went to the Crusty Chili. That's always memorable :-)
Today has been a long and busy day, but I'm thrilled to say that I came, I saw, I conquered. We had a double-day devotion (we fell behind on Saturday), I helped the kids with lots of their schoolwork, we got the Ladies' Retreat applications printed, cut, packed up and mailed (thanks to James' help), the bathrooms got a thorough cleaning, all of the floors were swept, vacuumed, mopped--whatever, all of the laundry AND ironing got done (be still, my heart!), the dog got bathed, blow-dried and brushed, and I reworked some left-overs and made a nice dinner tonight--all that and I received two phone calls today that took more than just a few minutes (talking to good friends is a privilege, not a hindrance... Just to be clear in case they read this--ha!) and a too-short phone call to my Mom. Wa-Hoo! Tomorrow would be a GREAT day for a house showing. :-)
Hopefully I can get some other things accomplished this week since I have the house well under control at the moment. I've really got to settle on staff for Ladies' Retreat and start asking people! I already found a semi-willing volunteer (ha!) to help out with receiving the applications and who-knows-what-all she'll be doing for me before it's over with. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! ;-) I've had a real struggle getting any DEFINITE direction about who to ask to teach and to TAPs and all that stuff. I have lots of ideas, but I'm having a hard time getting one of those light-streaming-from-heaven-and-choir-singing-in-the-background sort of confirmations, you know?! I don't want to just go with my ideas, I want to find what God has for us. If you have any prayers to spare, you could apply them to that end. :-)
Hhmmm. Guess that's it. Just checked the camera. ~sigh~ Sorry, Mom. Nothing but the dog again.
I'm trying REAL HARD to remember anything at all about Saturday. Oh! I know. I worked on Ladies' Retreat stuff, Alabama minister's stuff, and my address book all day long. I typed up a directory, of sorts, that will be easily accessible for both James and myself (it's probably teeming with mistakes--I'm horrible at typing in addresses) and got my entire address book typed into a directory in my computer, at long last. I've been meaning to do that for ages.
Yesterday was a good day. Brother Chris preached another great message and I really felt the Lord speak to my heart. Love that. :-) After service we went to KFC and came away with the determination to never again walk through their door. We like KFC, but this one is horrible. There was one other guy in there, but it took them FOREVER to get our food to us. When they finally did, the lady told me it would take a few more minutes for them to get Joe's "snack size bowl" out. I didn't have very high expectations because it had taken so long to get everybody else's food in the first place, but she assured us: "Two minutes to cook the chicken and one more minute to bring it out to us." When we had all finished our food 10 or 15 minutes later, I went back up to the counter and had to holler to get somebody's attention, and asked for a refund. In the end, she refunded us for the bowl and then actually went to the back and made it up real quick and gave it to us for free, but still--I'm done there. I'm glad they made it right, but the service there is always awful so why go through it again? Joe was delighted to actually get his lunch and happily horked it down in the van on the way home. Oh yeah--we noticed later that James' KFC cup actually said KGC on one side of it! HA! Something is definitely wrong here!!!
Can't remember much about the day yesterday except that I played a game of Sorry! with the kids. Then Sister Galaviz taught a really good CPMA lesson on holiness last night. Even though we'd already gone out to eat for lunch, we did it again after service last night! We haven't gone out with the Clarksons in a while and they were up for it, so we went to the Crusty Chili. That's always memorable :-)
Today has been a long and busy day, but I'm thrilled to say that I came, I saw, I conquered. We had a double-day devotion (we fell behind on Saturday), I helped the kids with lots of their schoolwork, we got the Ladies' Retreat applications printed, cut, packed up and mailed (thanks to James' help), the bathrooms got a thorough cleaning, all of the floors were swept, vacuumed, mopped--whatever, all of the laundry AND ironing got done (be still, my heart!), the dog got bathed, blow-dried and brushed, and I reworked some left-overs and made a nice dinner tonight--all that and I received two phone calls today that took more than just a few minutes (talking to good friends is a privilege, not a hindrance... Just to be clear in case they read this--ha!) and a too-short phone call to my Mom. Wa-Hoo! Tomorrow would be a GREAT day for a house showing. :-)
Hopefully I can get some other things accomplished this week since I have the house well under control at the moment. I've really got to settle on staff for Ladies' Retreat and start asking people! I already found a semi-willing volunteer (ha!) to help out with receiving the applications and who-knows-what-all she'll be doing for me before it's over with. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! ;-) I've had a real struggle getting any DEFINITE direction about who to ask to teach and to TAPs and all that stuff. I have lots of ideas, but I'm having a hard time getting one of those light-streaming-from-heaven-and-choir-singing-in-the-background sort of confirmations, you know?! I don't want to just go with my ideas, I want to find what God has for us. If you have any prayers to spare, you could apply them to that end. :-)
Hhmmm. Guess that's it. Just checked the camera. ~sigh~ Sorry, Mom. Nothing but the dog again.
Friday, January 21, 2011
God is Good
I don't have a title for my post, so I just put the first thing that came to my mind. It's true all the time, of course, but I must say that I've been blessed to FEEL it a lot in the past week or so. God has been helping me in so many ways--in my prayer life, in my relationships, WITH MY MOUTH (I've been praying every morning, "God, set a watch before my mouth and keep the door of my lips!"--and He is miracle working God!!! Ha!) and even with my face, I hope. I've gotten better over the years about holding my tongue, but have still had little to no control over my facial expressions. (Another one of those gene things. Thanks, Mom--HA!) And the Lord has really been helping me be more diligent and make better use of my time. Nevermind the fact that I'm blogging and that I have a new template... Ha! Really, He's been helping me and I'm so, so, soooooo thankful.
I've been able to scratch several things off of my "to do" list this week and it feels sooooo good. It's the best idea in the world to get all of the house cleaning, laundry and ironing done on Monday (and in my case Tuesday and sometimes on into Wednesday--ha!) and then you have the rest of the week to ACCOMPLISH things and simply "maintain" the house. I finally sat down and wrote in our Christmas Memories book... for 2009 and 2010! I'm SUCH a slacker! Ha! I had to go to my blog entries from December 2009 to refresh my memory so I'd know what to write about. It was nice to remember what a fantastic Christmas we had with Mom and Dad last year--"wrapping" them in that giant box for the kids to open, watching movies, doing puzzles and playing games with Mom, fixing broken bows and restringing guitars with Dad... I love memories like that. :-) So now I'm actually CAUGHT UP on that book and I can't possibly fall behind again for almost another year. Wa-Hoo! That feels GREAT. :-)
I also sat down and wrote out thank you cards for the Christmas gifts and offerings we received. Well... most of them. Hopefully all of them, but I just don't know. I had been recording everything in my "Christmas 2010" file (the list of who we sent cards to, who we received cards from, what gifts we got and who to thank for what...), but when I pulled it up today it was incomplete. It was THERE, but not the finished version of it. I had gone through the stack of cards after Christmas and made note of who we received from as well as the gifts we got, but the finished list is GONE. All I have is the list I had begun in early December--with about 8 names on it. Oopsie. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, I really THINK that I got thank you cards to everybody I was supposed to... but now there's no way to be certain. If you did anything wonderful for me or my family and don't get a card, THANK YOU!!! Ha! Can I blame the computer for it???
I also made up Ladies' Retreat applications today. :-) It seems like it's been ages since I've done anything like that. I just love jobs of that nature. I like to dink around on the computer and it makes me feel good to be able to do it for a Church reason. Is that selfish? That I like to do it because it makes me feel good?! Ha! Anyway, I'm waiting on one little bit of information. I'm hoping to get the apps and fliers finished up, printed, and in the mail tomorrow. We're less than two months away now!
Let's see... what else? Last week sometime we discovered that we had an "extra" stereo up in the attic. It's one I used in my office in Texas, but we didn't have a place for it here. I pulled it down and put it in the boys' room because they're always wanting music in there. I got it all cleaned up and super glued (long story), set up just right, speakers plugged in... and then we discovered that the CD player doesn't work. It won't even open. (No, I wasn't using any super glue around that area.) So I pulled out a stack of my old Cathedrals tapes. Joe was soooooo excited. He loves the Cathedrals. He was thrilled to suddenly have access to a bunch of songs he'd never heard before and I've really enjoyed hearing some that I hadn't heard in many years. Tapes. My kids love tapes and records.
One other thing. I told Mom about it the other day, but I really wasn't sure how well it would blog, you know?! We were in town last week and Sam saw a VW Bug painted yellow with giant round "ears" strapped on top and a "tail" coming out of the back of it. He asked why it was "dressed" like a mouse and I explained to him that those cars belong to an extermination service. If you have mice or rats or bugs or snakes, you can call that company and they'll come to your house and get rid of them for you. There was a long silence before he finally ventured, "So... if the mice see that giant car dressed like a mouse, does it scare them away?" HA! HA! HA! Apparently I hadn't been clear in my explanation that the car was dressed like a mouse for the sake of advertising--to get your attention and make you remember their company so you'd know who to call when you needed an exterminator. He was trying real hard, in my failure to explain the necessary aspect of it, to come up with a reason why the car would look like a mouse. Once I explained further he started laughing, finding great humor in his own question. "Maybe it would scare them away! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's so great!" I love that kid so much!!!
Okay, that's it. All the news around here. Not very exciting, but it's what I've got. :-)
I've been able to scratch several things off of my "to do" list this week and it feels sooooo good. It's the best idea in the world to get all of the house cleaning, laundry and ironing done on Monday (and in my case Tuesday and sometimes on into Wednesday--ha!) and then you have the rest of the week to ACCOMPLISH things and simply "maintain" the house. I finally sat down and wrote in our Christmas Memories book... for 2009 and 2010! I'm SUCH a slacker! Ha! I had to go to my blog entries from December 2009 to refresh my memory so I'd know what to write about. It was nice to remember what a fantastic Christmas we had with Mom and Dad last year--"wrapping" them in that giant box for the kids to open, watching movies, doing puzzles and playing games with Mom, fixing broken bows and restringing guitars with Dad... I love memories like that. :-) So now I'm actually CAUGHT UP on that book and I can't possibly fall behind again for almost another year. Wa-Hoo! That feels GREAT. :-)
I also sat down and wrote out thank you cards for the Christmas gifts and offerings we received. Well... most of them. Hopefully all of them, but I just don't know. I had been recording everything in my "Christmas 2010" file (the list of who we sent cards to, who we received cards from, what gifts we got and who to thank for what...), but when I pulled it up today it was incomplete. It was THERE, but not the finished version of it. I had gone through the stack of cards after Christmas and made note of who we received from as well as the gifts we got, but the finished list is GONE. All I have is the list I had begun in early December--with about 8 names on it. Oopsie. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, I really THINK that I got thank you cards to everybody I was supposed to... but now there's no way to be certain. If you did anything wonderful for me or my family and don't get a card, THANK YOU!!! Ha! Can I blame the computer for it???
I also made up Ladies' Retreat applications today. :-) It seems like it's been ages since I've done anything like that. I just love jobs of that nature. I like to dink around on the computer and it makes me feel good to be able to do it for a Church reason. Is that selfish? That I like to do it because it makes me feel good?! Ha! Anyway, I'm waiting on one little bit of information. I'm hoping to get the apps and fliers finished up, printed, and in the mail tomorrow. We're less than two months away now!
Let's see... what else? Last week sometime we discovered that we had an "extra" stereo up in the attic. It's one I used in my office in Texas, but we didn't have a place for it here. I pulled it down and put it in the boys' room because they're always wanting music in there. I got it all cleaned up and super glued (long story), set up just right, speakers plugged in... and then we discovered that the CD player doesn't work. It won't even open. (No, I wasn't using any super glue around that area.) So I pulled out a stack of my old Cathedrals tapes. Joe was soooooo excited. He loves the Cathedrals. He was thrilled to suddenly have access to a bunch of songs he'd never heard before and I've really enjoyed hearing some that I hadn't heard in many years. Tapes. My kids love tapes and records.
One other thing. I told Mom about it the other day, but I really wasn't sure how well it would blog, you know?! We were in town last week and Sam saw a VW Bug painted yellow with giant round "ears" strapped on top and a "tail" coming out of the back of it. He asked why it was "dressed" like a mouse and I explained to him that those cars belong to an extermination service. If you have mice or rats or bugs or snakes, you can call that company and they'll come to your house and get rid of them for you. There was a long silence before he finally ventured, "So... if the mice see that giant car dressed like a mouse, does it scare them away?" HA! HA! HA! Apparently I hadn't been clear in my explanation that the car was dressed like a mouse for the sake of advertising--to get your attention and make you remember their company so you'd know who to call when you needed an exterminator. He was trying real hard, in my failure to explain the necessary aspect of it, to come up with a reason why the car would look like a mouse. Once I explained further he started laughing, finding great humor in his own question. "Maybe it would scare them away! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's so great!" I love that kid so much!!!
Okay, that's it. All the news around here. Not very exciting, but it's what I've got. :-)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
It's Been Half a Week
But I thought I'd go ahead and post again anyway. :-)
Saturday was a great day. James came to me and asked if I'd like a little time alone. ?! Is there a reason he would need to ask??? ;-) He took the kids and headed to town--and they were gone for about 5 hours!!! WOW! I didn't know what to do with myself!!! So I dusted. What's up with that?! I don't know what came over me, but that was the first thing I did. I hadn't dusted our bedroom in who knows how long and it was pretty thick and nasty. After the dusting I decided to vacuum the whole house. Once I had the house looking and feeling nice and clean I headed to the bedroom to work on Ladies' Retreat stuff for a couple of hours. It was soooooooo nice!!! Even Charlie was good for me and slept the whole time I was doing the "spiritual" stuff. ~sigh~ What a grand and glorious day. I'm feeling like I'll probably do the devotions at Retreat myself and I was able to get some thoughts and scriptures put together--which sort of freaks me out. Retreat is two months away. I'm NEVER prepared early. I'm far from done, of course, but I usually don't even BEGIN until way closer--regardless of all my good intentions to plan ahead. Anyway, it feels good to know that I've BEGUN. And I just got confirmation tonight that Sister Bishop will indeed be our Special (even though she's not exactly a "guest") Speaker. I think that's how I'll put it on the applications. ;-) I know it's weird to have her do it because she's FROM Alabama, but she's really the only one that kept coming back to my mind that I kept feeling real good about. That means one of two things. 1) She's the one God has for us this year. 2) I need to meet more people. HA!
Sunday we only had a morning service. Since Brother Chris was away at Men's Retreat we had our Sunday School and morning worship, then Sister Yolanda did her VLB service (that had been scheduled for that night) immediately afterward. After service we went to the Whole Hog Cafe. James was not impressed. They have one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I've ever had, but after trying James' brisket I understood why he didn't think it was so great. Oh well.
We came home and had the rest of the day free, which always feels a little weird on a Sunday. I told James that my #1 priority was to FINISH THE PUZZLE!!! Before laundry or ironing or anything else, I was going to finish that crazy puzzle that I started, when?, the day after Christmas or something?! It's been sitting out in the den, then rolled up and put in the chuckwagon table, then sitting on that table, for at least two weeks, I'm sure. It is soooooo pretty, but a CRAZY difficult puzzle! So that's what I did with my Sunday evening. And I did succeed. Wa-Hoo!!! Don't know if I'll ever try that one again though--at least without Mom around to help out. :-)
Yesterday must have been a pretty regular day because I can't remember much about it. Brother Chris and Carlos worked on the replacing the pond liner. James made lunch for everybody--chicken enchiladas and homemade, super greasy tacos. Yum. :-) We weren't hungry at dinner time, so we let the kids scrounge. Left-overs or sandwiches--whichever. When James and I finally got hungry at about 9:00 I cooked up some scrambled eggs and we had scrambled egg sandwiches just like Dad used to make. :-) Then a bowl of cereal for dessert. HA! I almost felt like a real failure of a housewife over that one... ;-)
Today was a great day for the kid-o's. We had devotions, then spend the morning doing housework. We left late-morning and headed for the library--always the highlight of the week around here. From there we went to Pizza Hut to get the kids free pizzas for being such great readers (BookIt!), and then to Krispy Kreme with the report cards I had printed out a few days ago. Did you know that they give a free doughnut for ever "A" on a report card?! Katie has 6 subjects and the boys each have 5 -- and they have all been very successful in all -- so that means we came away with 16 free doughnuts today! Whoa!!! James says we ought to print out a report card for them every week. HA! That's so wrong. Anyway, it was GREAT.
When we got home today I got a call from Mom saying she'd just finished up on the E.L. and needed it proofread pronto. So I devoted the rest of my day to that, in between taking the VERY WELL TRAINED PUPPY outside (he's been perfect for... oh, I don't know--a week or two?) and helping kids with school stuff. Katie was kind enough to make dinner for us tonight so I wouldn't have to stop for that. She made tuna noodle casserole, peas, and brownies ALL by herself. I love that girl. :-) Her only mishap this time was accidentally grabbing the wrong measuring cup and putting twice as much Parmesan cheese in the topping (Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and melted butter) but, hey, it's hard to have too much Parmesan. :-) It was GREAT.
The other excitement around here is that James bought a typing program for the kids a few days ago. I've been wanting to get them one so they can work on using the proper fingers for the right keys and all that. They LOVE it and, truth be told, so do I. :-) My best score was 86 WPM last night, but it was a total fluke. I'm much more consistently about 65 WMB. And when they throw in a bunch of weird symbols (on the number keys) I go way down to about 45 WPM. Ha! But it's lots of fun. Even Sam has been doing it. I figure it will make things that much easier for him when he starts into computer school. He's doing GREAT with his reading, by the way. ~sigh~ All my kids are getting so grown up! Katie keeps saying she thinks I should join the Pregnant Overseer's Wives Club. Joe heard her the other day and said, "That's dumb, Katie--she can't join that! She's not pregnant!" HA! Nuthin' gets past that kid, I tell ya'. ;-)
Saturday was a great day. James came to me and asked if I'd like a little time alone. ?! Is there a reason he would need to ask??? ;-) He took the kids and headed to town--and they were gone for about 5 hours!!! WOW! I didn't know what to do with myself!!! So I dusted. What's up with that?! I don't know what came over me, but that was the first thing I did. I hadn't dusted our bedroom in who knows how long and it was pretty thick and nasty. After the dusting I decided to vacuum the whole house. Once I had the house looking and feeling nice and clean I headed to the bedroom to work on Ladies' Retreat stuff for a couple of hours. It was soooooooo nice!!! Even Charlie was good for me and slept the whole time I was doing the "spiritual" stuff. ~sigh~ What a grand and glorious day. I'm feeling like I'll probably do the devotions at Retreat myself and I was able to get some thoughts and scriptures put together--which sort of freaks me out. Retreat is two months away. I'm NEVER prepared early. I'm far from done, of course, but I usually don't even BEGIN until way closer--regardless of all my good intentions to plan ahead. Anyway, it feels good to know that I've BEGUN. And I just got confirmation tonight that Sister Bishop will indeed be our Special (even though she's not exactly a "guest") Speaker. I think that's how I'll put it on the applications. ;-) I know it's weird to have her do it because she's FROM Alabama, but she's really the only one that kept coming back to my mind that I kept feeling real good about. That means one of two things. 1) She's the one God has for us this year. 2) I need to meet more people. HA!
Sunday we only had a morning service. Since Brother Chris was away at Men's Retreat we had our Sunday School and morning worship, then Sister Yolanda did her VLB service (that had been scheduled for that night) immediately afterward. After service we went to the Whole Hog Cafe. James was not impressed. They have one of the best pulled pork sandwiches I've ever had, but after trying James' brisket I understood why he didn't think it was so great. Oh well.
We came home and had the rest of the day free, which always feels a little weird on a Sunday. I told James that my #1 priority was to FINISH THE PUZZLE!!! Before laundry or ironing or anything else, I was going to finish that crazy puzzle that I started, when?, the day after Christmas or something?! It's been sitting out in the den, then rolled up and put in the chuckwagon table, then sitting on that table, for at least two weeks, I'm sure. It is soooooo pretty, but a CRAZY difficult puzzle! So that's what I did with my Sunday evening. And I did succeed. Wa-Hoo!!! Don't know if I'll ever try that one again though--at least without Mom around to help out. :-)
Yesterday must have been a pretty regular day because I can't remember much about it. Brother Chris and Carlos worked on the replacing the pond liner. James made lunch for everybody--chicken enchiladas and homemade, super greasy tacos. Yum. :-) We weren't hungry at dinner time, so we let the kids scrounge. Left-overs or sandwiches--whichever. When James and I finally got hungry at about 9:00 I cooked up some scrambled eggs and we had scrambled egg sandwiches just like Dad used to make. :-) Then a bowl of cereal for dessert. HA! I almost felt like a real failure of a housewife over that one... ;-)
Today was a great day for the kid-o's. We had devotions, then spend the morning doing housework. We left late-morning and headed for the library--always the highlight of the week around here. From there we went to Pizza Hut to get the kids free pizzas for being such great readers (BookIt!), and then to Krispy Kreme with the report cards I had printed out a few days ago. Did you know that they give a free doughnut for ever "A" on a report card?! Katie has 6 subjects and the boys each have 5 -- and they have all been very successful in all -- so that means we came away with 16 free doughnuts today! Whoa!!! James says we ought to print out a report card for them every week. HA! That's so wrong. Anyway, it was GREAT.
When we got home today I got a call from Mom saying she'd just finished up on the E.L. and needed it proofread pronto. So I devoted the rest of my day to that, in between taking the VERY WELL TRAINED PUPPY outside (he's been perfect for... oh, I don't know--a week or two?) and helping kids with school stuff. Katie was kind enough to make dinner for us tonight so I wouldn't have to stop for that. She made tuna noodle casserole, peas, and brownies ALL by herself. I love that girl. :-) Her only mishap this time was accidentally grabbing the wrong measuring cup and putting twice as much Parmesan cheese in the topping (Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and melted butter) but, hey, it's hard to have too much Parmesan. :-) It was GREAT.
The other excitement around here is that James bought a typing program for the kids a few days ago. I've been wanting to get them one so they can work on using the proper fingers for the right keys and all that. They LOVE it and, truth be told, so do I. :-) My best score was 86 WPM last night, but it was a total fluke. I'm much more consistently about 65 WMB. And when they throw in a bunch of weird symbols (on the number keys) I go way down to about 45 WPM. Ha! But it's lots of fun. Even Sam has been doing it. I figure it will make things that much easier for him when he starts into computer school. He's doing GREAT with his reading, by the way. ~sigh~ All my kids are getting so grown up! Katie keeps saying she thinks I should join the Pregnant Overseer's Wives Club. Joe heard her the other day and said, "That's dumb, Katie--she can't join that! She's not pregnant!" HA! Nuthin' gets past that kid, I tell ya'. ;-)
Friday, January 14, 2011
The Friday Update
Another whole week since I blogged?! ~sigh~ What a loser.
Okay, what's gone on in the past WEEK... Well, on Saturday we went into town to meet Erika & Tayde for lunch! They were here to do some Chili Fanatic business (and bring us some chili, the dears) so we met at Dion's for pizza. It was so nice seeing them and catching up!
That night I made fried chicken, potatoes, corn, and the BEST gravy ever!!! I know that probably doesn't seem blog worthy to most people, but for me it is a major accomplishment. I have real problems with gravy--you just never know how it's going to turn out. But this was PERFECT and oh-so-tasty. If only I could do it again...
That night James started shuffling through all of his old vinyl records and--for some yet undetermined reason--he pulled out his old Mousercize album. (The more I've thought about it the more disturbed I've become over the fact that he EVER owned such a thing...) He put it on and had Katie and Joe "work out" with him. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I laughed sooooooo hard--and was soooooo embarrassed! (The most embarrassing things are when other people don't have the good sense to be embarrassed for themselves. ~ahem~) Poor Joe. Katie, uninhibited soul that she is, jumped right in there and had a blast, but Joe was totally mortified. He begged and pleaded with James with all his might ("Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Dad! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't make me do that!!! Spank me if you have do, but PLEASE, PLEASE don't make me!!!!"), but to no avail. He was forced to participate a little bit. My heart was breaking for him--I know the dread and humiliation he was feeling! Joe's a much better sport than I am though and managed to not burst into tears OR get a spankin'--things I'm not sure I could have pulled off at that age. Ha! I don't know where Sam was, but he managed to miss the entire ordeal, so at least one family member won't be scarred for life by the experience of watching their Dad "exercise" to Mickey Mouse's instructions. :-)
Sunday... I don't remember much about Sunday, just how much I'm enjoying the Sunday School lessons. I especially enjoyed the story about Jack the sheep who just kept breaking through the hedges and running away and putting himself in great danger; the shepherd finally--because of his love for the sheep--had to break his leg, then carry the sheep until he was healed. In the end, Jack straightened up and became the most loyal sheep he ever had. I wonder how many times I fail to learn my lesson and continue to make the same mistake. Sometimes God has to "break our legs" and bring some deep suffering into our lives--but oh, the love of God that would cause Him to do that for us!!! I pray I will always respond correctly when God loves me enough to chasten me.
Monday was a great day because I had all of the laundry AND ironing done by noon. Wa-Hoo! I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a first in my lifetime. Scrubbed bathrooms that day and who knows what else.
On Tuesday Brother Chris brought Cainan with him to work here at the house. The kids thought that was fantastic. :-) We took Cainan with us and headed to town at about noon, went to the library, used our McDonald's gift card (so glad to be done with THAT!), then went to Penney's to pick up Sam's new helicopter that had come in. The one he got for Christmas was defective, so we returned it and they had to order a new one. From there we made another stop or two on our way to Sadie's birthday party at 3:00 at the Clarkson's house. We had a lot of fun, but I'm not sure Sadie did. She spent most of the day getting herself in big trouble and suffering the consequences for it. Not a good way to have your own party! In the end, we all had cake and ice cream, Sadie opened her gifts, and we had time to squeeze in a couple of games before we left.
Wednesday was a regular ole day around here, save the haircuts. I cut all three kids' hair--they were all looking horrible and were way past due. I've never trimmed Katie's hair before (just bangs), so I watched a tutorial on YouTube to figure out how you're supposed to do it. Ha! I'm not sure it helped. I ended up taking off way more than I intended and way, way more than Katie was prepared to loose! She shed lots of tears over it and handled it in her typical "the world is coming to an end" drama-queen sort of way. I would say it still classifies as long hair easily enough (it HAD been all the way down to her rump), but since I took 6-8" I'm wondering why I didn't just go ahead and take 10" and send it to Locks of Love--then at least Katie would feel there was some purpose in her losing her glory. ;-) I'm just happy that I can actually get a brush through it again. It looks and feels sooooo much better.
Yesterday we pulled Brother Chris in from his work and made him help clear out the left-overs we were trying to get rid of. He did a great job and we enjoyed the fellowship, as always. He's such a goofball and keeps us laughing!
We left early for church yesterday so we could return Sam's new helicopter to Penney's. Sad, isn't it? The first one had a defective power charger outlet thingie (technically speaking) and this one's lower propeller stopped working almost immediately. It's such a shame--it was a COOL toy and Sam was so crazy about it. But rather than try a third one we just took the money and ran. I hate it when Sam has money. He reminds of of the Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight, a super villain in a certain animated TV show we've seen. He tries to act normal and low-key so as to not get caught, but he's so bad he just can't pull it off: "Who, me? I'm just washing my hands and I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA BLOW THIS PLACE UP, BABY! IT'S GONNA BLOW! HA! HA! HA!" Sam starts out well, but just can't seem to stick with it. "I'm going to put my money into savings and then I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA SPEND IT, BABY--SPEND IT ALL TODAY!!!!" --Whatever happens to be for sale right in front of him is what Sam simply HAS to have. If you manage to walk him around to another aisle his passion changes and he must now blow his money on whatever is in front of him there. He has no self control whatsoever. It's exhausting for practical parents! Ha!
This morning James went into town to take a bag of stuff to Brother Chris. I forgot until we were at church last night that I had some things to send up to Colorado to be passed along to the Smiths. So last night I dug through Katie's closet and dresser in search of clothes that are too small that could be sent to Abbie. I stuffed everything into the biggest, froofiest, girliest bag I could find in hopes that Brother Chris will actually remember to give it to Jon. Surely he'll be anxious to get rid of it, right?!
And that's about it, except for pictures. I finally pulled the pictures from my camera--first time in two weeks or more. Crazy. Let's see what I've got...
Uh-oh. As I'm sure you feared, most of the pictures are of the dog. ~sigh~ Sorry! If he'd stop being so stinkin' cute I'd stop taking so many pictures of him! I'll tell the kids they're going to just have to step up their own cuteness a few notches so as to not be outdone by Charlie. ;-) Anyway, here we go!
First we have the boys engaged in a deep and serious battle of wits. Looks like Sam had been playing cops that day. I love it when he dresses up. :-)
Okay, what's gone on in the past WEEK... Well, on Saturday we went into town to meet Erika & Tayde for lunch! They were here to do some Chili Fanatic business (and bring us some chili, the dears) so we met at Dion's for pizza. It was so nice seeing them and catching up!
That night I made fried chicken, potatoes, corn, and the BEST gravy ever!!! I know that probably doesn't seem blog worthy to most people, but for me it is a major accomplishment. I have real problems with gravy--you just never know how it's going to turn out. But this was PERFECT and oh-so-tasty. If only I could do it again...
That night James started shuffling through all of his old vinyl records and--for some yet undetermined reason--he pulled out his old Mousercize album. (The more I've thought about it the more disturbed I've become over the fact that he EVER owned such a thing...) He put it on and had Katie and Joe "work out" with him. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! I laughed sooooooo hard--and was soooooo embarrassed! (The most embarrassing things are when other people don't have the good sense to be embarrassed for themselves. ~ahem~) Poor Joe. Katie, uninhibited soul that she is, jumped right in there and had a blast, but Joe was totally mortified. He begged and pleaded with James with all his might ("Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, Dad! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't make me do that!!! Spank me if you have do, but PLEASE, PLEASE don't make me!!!!"), but to no avail. He was forced to participate a little bit. My heart was breaking for him--I know the dread and humiliation he was feeling! Joe's a much better sport than I am though and managed to not burst into tears OR get a spankin'--things I'm not sure I could have pulled off at that age. Ha! I don't know where Sam was, but he managed to miss the entire ordeal, so at least one family member won't be scarred for life by the experience of watching their Dad "exercise" to Mickey Mouse's instructions. :-)
Sunday... I don't remember much about Sunday, just how much I'm enjoying the Sunday School lessons. I especially enjoyed the story about Jack the sheep who just kept breaking through the hedges and running away and putting himself in great danger; the shepherd finally--because of his love for the sheep--had to break his leg, then carry the sheep until he was healed. In the end, Jack straightened up and became the most loyal sheep he ever had. I wonder how many times I fail to learn my lesson and continue to make the same mistake. Sometimes God has to "break our legs" and bring some deep suffering into our lives--but oh, the love of God that would cause Him to do that for us!!! I pray I will always respond correctly when God loves me enough to chasten me.
Monday was a great day because I had all of the laundry AND ironing done by noon. Wa-Hoo! I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's a first in my lifetime. Scrubbed bathrooms that day and who knows what else.
On Tuesday Brother Chris brought Cainan with him to work here at the house. The kids thought that was fantastic. :-) We took Cainan with us and headed to town at about noon, went to the library, used our McDonald's gift card (so glad to be done with THAT!), then went to Penney's to pick up Sam's new helicopter that had come in. The one he got for Christmas was defective, so we returned it and they had to order a new one. From there we made another stop or two on our way to Sadie's birthday party at 3:00 at the Clarkson's house. We had a lot of fun, but I'm not sure Sadie did. She spent most of the day getting herself in big trouble and suffering the consequences for it. Not a good way to have your own party! In the end, we all had cake and ice cream, Sadie opened her gifts, and we had time to squeeze in a couple of games before we left.
Wednesday was a regular ole day around here, save the haircuts. I cut all three kids' hair--they were all looking horrible and were way past due. I've never trimmed Katie's hair before (just bangs), so I watched a tutorial on YouTube to figure out how you're supposed to do it. Ha! I'm not sure it helped. I ended up taking off way more than I intended and way, way more than Katie was prepared to loose! She shed lots of tears over it and handled it in her typical "the world is coming to an end" drama-queen sort of way. I would say it still classifies as long hair easily enough (it HAD been all the way down to her rump), but since I took 6-8" I'm wondering why I didn't just go ahead and take 10" and send it to Locks of Love--then at least Katie would feel there was some purpose in her losing her glory. ;-) I'm just happy that I can actually get a brush through it again. It looks and feels sooooo much better.
Yesterday we pulled Brother Chris in from his work and made him help clear out the left-overs we were trying to get rid of. He did a great job and we enjoyed the fellowship, as always. He's such a goofball and keeps us laughing!
We left early for church yesterday so we could return Sam's new helicopter to Penney's. Sad, isn't it? The first one had a defective power charger outlet thingie (technically speaking) and this one's lower propeller stopped working almost immediately. It's such a shame--it was a COOL toy and Sam was so crazy about it. But rather than try a third one we just took the money and ran. I hate it when Sam has money. He reminds of of the Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight, a super villain in a certain animated TV show we've seen. He tries to act normal and low-key so as to not get caught, but he's so bad he just can't pull it off: "Who, me? I'm just washing my hands and I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA BLOW THIS PLACE UP, BABY! IT'S GONNA BLOW! HA! HA! HA!" Sam starts out well, but just can't seem to stick with it. "I'm going to put my money into savings and then I, uh... I'm, um... I'M GONNA SPEND IT, BABY--SPEND IT ALL TODAY!!!!" --Whatever happens to be for sale right in front of him is what Sam simply HAS to have. If you manage to walk him around to another aisle his passion changes and he must now blow his money on whatever is in front of him there. He has no self control whatsoever. It's exhausting for practical parents! Ha!
This morning James went into town to take a bag of stuff to Brother Chris. I forgot until we were at church last night that I had some things to send up to Colorado to be passed along to the Smiths. So last night I dug through Katie's closet and dresser in search of clothes that are too small that could be sent to Abbie. I stuffed everything into the biggest, froofiest, girliest bag I could find in hopes that Brother Chris will actually remember to give it to Jon. Surely he'll be anxious to get rid of it, right?!
And that's about it, except for pictures. I finally pulled the pictures from my camera--first time in two weeks or more. Crazy. Let's see what I've got...
Uh-oh. As I'm sure you feared, most of the pictures are of the dog. ~sigh~ Sorry! If he'd stop being so stinkin' cute I'd stop taking so many pictures of him! I'll tell the kids they're going to just have to step up their own cuteness a few notches so as to not be outdone by Charlie. ;-) Anyway, here we go!
First we have the boys engaged in a deep and serious battle of wits. Looks like Sam had been playing cops that day. I love it when he dresses up. :-)
This must have been a day when Katie was sick because she never misses out on a chance to play in the snow, but I only have pictures of the boys. They were sledding on cardboard boxes. :-)
Charlie LOVES the snow. It's so funny to watch him bound through it, grabbing mouthfuls of it with every landing.
When I was doing the big un-decorating for Christmas thing (a two day project with the deep cleaning that accompanies it) the kids went through a huge stack of James' old book and record sets and thought they were the coolest thing ever. They listened to these ALL DAY LONG. I think everybody's favorite one is Lazy Jack. They also like the Flintstones, Popeye and Swiss Family Robinson.
Ha! This was taken on a Monday night sometime. It's Joe's job to gather all the trash every Monday night, get it into the dumpster, then haul the dumpster down to the street. He usually tries to get it done before dark, but he failed this time and needed a flashlight to find his way. With both hands pushing the dumpster he had none left for a flashlight, so Katie let him borrow her book light. So here we have Joe sporting the angler fish look. :-)
And finally, Charlie doing what he does best: wreaking havoc and interfering with whatever anybody is trying to do. When he thinks he needs attention, he needs it NOW. :-)
Joe had great plans with this length of yarn--it was to be a rope of some sort, no doubt to be used in creating a booby trap of some sort... if only Charlie would leave it alone. :-)
Looks like that's about it for the pictures.
This weekend my goal is to NOT think about the guys being a Men's Retreat in Colorado (not James this time, of course) and how it's the weekend of The Girl Party that I love so dearly. ~sigh~ I was doing great and actually hadn't even had a twinge of "wish I could go" at all until Jamey called me last night--then it was suddenly killing me that I'll be missing it again! Ha! I hope they have a GREAT time and that the guys have a fantastic Retreat. I know I'll hear more about the Retreat than all of the girls who actually have husbands there because Brother Chris will be coming back here--and he shares more than all of the rest of the guys combined. :-) I'll have to depend on Emilee to fill us in on The Girl Party (even though it's just the Emilee & Jamey Party this year) on her blog. I would say that was a reminder for her, but I'm sure she gave up long ago on this blog--I ramble way too much to keep her attention to the very end! :-)
Friday, January 7, 2011
Blogless
Not to say I no longer have a blog. Just that I am "less" anything to blog. Can't think of a thing. I hate it when that happens.
The only news of consequence is that I am now the director of Ladies' Retreat in Alabama. I've actually known that since sometime in December, but in the past week or two I've really been trying to focus on it and get some direction. I've just been trying to hone in on a theme and a guest speaker, figuring that would be the starting point. So far it's yielded no results whatsoever. Ha! I'm already starting to feel some excitement about it... just no direction. :-) It's tricky, too, because I don't know anybody in Alabama. So trying to think of who to use for staff leaves me a little dumbfounded. That means that the few people I know are doomed. You know who you are. ;-)
We had a house showing today. One of those really frustrating ones. Jason called and said they'd be here in 45 minutes. The house was NOT show-worthy, so I spent that time running in circles getting things put away and floors mopped and vacuumed and all that stuff. I was still at it when they arrived--though things were looking good by then. I opened the door and saw three men. A realtor, the client, and a friend. Men. Three men. I went on a mad cleaning frenzy for three men!!! They were in and out pretty quick. Jerks. Ha! Who knows though. There have been plenty of people go through the house and take their time and declare how much they loved it, and nothing has come from it. Maybe the jerks who breezed through with smirks on their faces and had no questions about it whatsoever will surprise us with an offer, right?! Ya' just never know. I can't very well pray and ask God to send people to look at the house, then be skeptical when He answers because they don't fit my mind's picture of the kind of people who would like the house! Ha!
In other news, Brother Chris is now finished with the roof and it looks terrific. He replaced the boys' broken winder (I caught that typo, but thought it appropriate to leave it since we'll be Alabians soon--ha!) a few days ago and now he's staining the house, office, and shed. We're so used to having him outside here it's going to feel a bit strange when he's not there anymore! :-) He's doing a great job and it's fun to watch him work because he is SUCH a perfectionist. And the kids just love having him around. They spend lots of their day outside talking to him and (probably) harassing him. Most days we're able to talk him into coming in for lunch so we all get some fellowship time. :-)
James is in the market for another vehicle. We've been without a second vehicle for over a year and a half now, if I remember correctly. Most of the time it's been okay, but it's certainly not ideal. Since it's looking like James is going to have to take one more trip to Alabama before taking the whole family with him (bummer), it seems like it would be a really good time to get another vehicle. We went to town and looked at a few things this afternoon and James will be going back in the morning to do some haggling over the one or two that he's got his eye on. We'll see what happens. Praying for God's will on that one.
We're doing something a little different with our morning devotions now. I'm doing one of those read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year things with the kids. I read to them from the New Testament, the Old Testament, then a couple of verses from Proverbs, then Katie and Joe get their Bibles and go to their rooms to read the passage from Psalms and pray while Sam and I read it together and pray. I'm loving it and the kids seem to be enjoying it, too. I have Sam do as much reading as he can in the Psalm and he's doing great. So far it's a hit with all of us. :-)
The Charles is doing well. We now leave him in The Box (his little dog crate) when we leave the house. I hate doing that, but he totally spazzes out when we lock him in the bathroom. He shreds the pad I leave out for him--or toilet paper if he can reach it--and just makes a royal mess of the room. It's like he panics when we leave him alone and decides to tear up jack. I'm sure he panics just the same in The Box, but he doesn't have anything to tear up in there! He cries when we put him in, but I'm supposing he gets bored quickly and gives up a lot sooner. He's always quiet when we come home, so that's a definite plus. The house training is going well. He had that one terrible lapse last week, but has done terrific since then. He's jingling the bells (yes, I left them up when I took the Christmas stuff down!) to go out most all of the time and has been perfect in the house for several days now. Good puppy. Aside from that, he is a MESS! That dog cracks me up. He has just discovered Sam's hacky-sack and thinks it's the best thing ever. He "fetches" it when you throw it, then darts around you and retreats to his bed with it. Right at this moment he wants to play in a serious way and is driving me nuts. I've stopped several times and wrestled with him and let him chew on my hands and thrown him around the room, but apparently it's not enough. I've given him a ball, a slipper, a cardboard tube--all of which have held his attention for about 30 seconds, then he wants me again. Right now he's jumping up at my chair and giving a "woof" every 10 seconds or so. Pitiful. But, of course, he'll win and I'll pick him up momentarily. He has me well trained. :-) This means he's almost ready for bed, thank goodness. He always gets really hyper and wants to play a LOT just before he crashes at night.
Rats. There I go again, rambling on about the dog. He commands so much of my attention--even on my blog! Ha!
Back to the house thing, Jason told James today that the market is starting to pick up again now that the holidays are over, so we're trying to have high hopes that it will mean good things for us. I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo ready to be in Alabama. Beyond ready. God knows. So help us pray, pray, pray! I want to be where God wants us to be. :-)
That's it. I would check to see if I have any new pictures, but my camera is at the other end of the house and it's just not worth it. Maybe next time.
The only news of consequence is that I am now the director of Ladies' Retreat in Alabama. I've actually known that since sometime in December, but in the past week or two I've really been trying to focus on it and get some direction. I've just been trying to hone in on a theme and a guest speaker, figuring that would be the starting point. So far it's yielded no results whatsoever. Ha! I'm already starting to feel some excitement about it... just no direction. :-) It's tricky, too, because I don't know anybody in Alabama. So trying to think of who to use for staff leaves me a little dumbfounded. That means that the few people I know are doomed. You know who you are. ;-)
We had a house showing today. One of those really frustrating ones. Jason called and said they'd be here in 45 minutes. The house was NOT show-worthy, so I spent that time running in circles getting things put away and floors mopped and vacuumed and all that stuff. I was still at it when they arrived--though things were looking good by then. I opened the door and saw three men. A realtor, the client, and a friend. Men. Three men. I went on a mad cleaning frenzy for three men!!! They were in and out pretty quick. Jerks. Ha! Who knows though. There have been plenty of people go through the house and take their time and declare how much they loved it, and nothing has come from it. Maybe the jerks who breezed through with smirks on their faces and had no questions about it whatsoever will surprise us with an offer, right?! Ya' just never know. I can't very well pray and ask God to send people to look at the house, then be skeptical when He answers because they don't fit my mind's picture of the kind of people who would like the house! Ha!
In other news, Brother Chris is now finished with the roof and it looks terrific. He replaced the boys' broken winder (I caught that typo, but thought it appropriate to leave it since we'll be Alabians soon--ha!) a few days ago and now he's staining the house, office, and shed. We're so used to having him outside here it's going to feel a bit strange when he's not there anymore! :-) He's doing a great job and it's fun to watch him work because he is SUCH a perfectionist. And the kids just love having him around. They spend lots of their day outside talking to him and (probably) harassing him. Most days we're able to talk him into coming in for lunch so we all get some fellowship time. :-)
James is in the market for another vehicle. We've been without a second vehicle for over a year and a half now, if I remember correctly. Most of the time it's been okay, but it's certainly not ideal. Since it's looking like James is going to have to take one more trip to Alabama before taking the whole family with him (bummer), it seems like it would be a really good time to get another vehicle. We went to town and looked at a few things this afternoon and James will be going back in the morning to do some haggling over the one or two that he's got his eye on. We'll see what happens. Praying for God's will on that one.
We're doing something a little different with our morning devotions now. I'm doing one of those read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year things with the kids. I read to them from the New Testament, the Old Testament, then a couple of verses from Proverbs, then Katie and Joe get their Bibles and go to their rooms to read the passage from Psalms and pray while Sam and I read it together and pray. I'm loving it and the kids seem to be enjoying it, too. I have Sam do as much reading as he can in the Psalm and he's doing great. So far it's a hit with all of us. :-)
The Charles is doing well. We now leave him in The Box (his little dog crate) when we leave the house. I hate doing that, but he totally spazzes out when we lock him in the bathroom. He shreds the pad I leave out for him--or toilet paper if he can reach it--and just makes a royal mess of the room. It's like he panics when we leave him alone and decides to tear up jack. I'm sure he panics just the same in The Box, but he doesn't have anything to tear up in there! He cries when we put him in, but I'm supposing he gets bored quickly and gives up a lot sooner. He's always quiet when we come home, so that's a definite plus. The house training is going well. He had that one terrible lapse last week, but has done terrific since then. He's jingling the bells (yes, I left them up when I took the Christmas stuff down!) to go out most all of the time and has been perfect in the house for several days now. Good puppy. Aside from that, he is a MESS! That dog cracks me up. He has just discovered Sam's hacky-sack and thinks it's the best thing ever. He "fetches" it when you throw it, then darts around you and retreats to his bed with it. Right at this moment he wants to play in a serious way and is driving me nuts. I've stopped several times and wrestled with him and let him chew on my hands and thrown him around the room, but apparently it's not enough. I've given him a ball, a slipper, a cardboard tube--all of which have held his attention for about 30 seconds, then he wants me again. Right now he's jumping up at my chair and giving a "woof" every 10 seconds or so. Pitiful. But, of course, he'll win and I'll pick him up momentarily. He has me well trained. :-) This means he's almost ready for bed, thank goodness. He always gets really hyper and wants to play a LOT just before he crashes at night.
Rats. There I go again, rambling on about the dog. He commands so much of my attention--even on my blog! Ha!
Back to the house thing, Jason told James today that the market is starting to pick up again now that the holidays are over, so we're trying to have high hopes that it will mean good things for us. I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo ready to be in Alabama. Beyond ready. God knows. So help us pray, pray, pray! I want to be where God wants us to be. :-)
That's it. I would check to see if I have any new pictures, but my camera is at the other end of the house and it's just not worth it. Maybe next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
