Catching Up, Part 5

On Monday I spent… all… day… long… cleaning out the pantry and trying to get our food moved in there. Who knew it would be an all day job?! It was so confusing though. The Powells kept telling us to just eat the food. We will eat some, but I didn’t feel right about eating all of their stuff and having them come home to Korea with bare cabinets! So I ended up packing up everything that was unopened and that will not expire in the next year; I’ll put it all back into the pantry when we leave. We’ll finish off whatever was already opened or will go bad. I was afraid of getting all of our spices and things mixed up, too, so I packed hers away and got mine out—though there’s one more box James just brought from storage today to be unpacked.

Tuesday I woke up stiff and achy. Actually, I think I’d been waking up like that for several days, I just hadn’t had time to pay much attention. I got some more things packed and unpacked and put into place, then was able to haul some more boxes to the basement. I went to check out the boy’s room and reorganize their clothes a bit, though I didn’t touch all of the toys and junk that Sam had arranged in the closet area.

Our neighbor, Judy, stopped by again that day, bringing us some homemade lasagna and extra cheese and homemade sauce! I almost cried. Both because I was soooooo exhausted and thankful for a nice, home cooked meal that I wasn’t going to have time to get to myself, and because I was so ashamed of how the house looked—as well as myself! Ha! Besides the fact that the kids had accidentally let Brady in the house a few times and he is now taking advantage of the opportunity to barge in the door when he can. I’d already gotten on to the kids for it several times and then I turned around and there stood Brady in the kitchen, wagging his tale and looking quite pleased to have joined us. So I hollered good and loud, “WHO LET BRADY IN???” as I walked him back to the open front door, where Judy was standing with her lasagna! Ha! And besides the fact that I had been soooooo hot that day (in February… I’m going to DIE here come summer--or even spring!!! Ha!) and changed into one of James’ t-shirts because all of mine are in New Mexico. So I had my hair wrapped up and pinned on my head and I was wearing a big, baggy t-shirt that hung nearly to my knees, my rattiest denim skirt beneath that, yelling at the kids in front of the neighbor. ~sigh~ Is there a hole nearby to crawl into, please? I was too embarrassed to even try to explain. I just took the lasagna, hugged her, and thanked her profusely. Later that night Katie made some chocolate chip cookies all by herself so she could take some to Judy the next day. What a good, hospitable girl I have. :-) She only put in half the amount of butter the recipe called for, but it's the thought that counts, right?! We added a few things here and there before we discovered that was the problem and they turned out okay.

Yesterday I woke up not feeling very well at all. My achiness and stiff neck had intensified, I had a titch of a headache, as well as a sore throat. So I got some grape juice and then headed back upstairs and started day with a hot bath… and the discovery of a tick behind my knee. That’s a real good way to ruin the relaxing benefits of a hot bath, let me tell you. And do you have any idea how hard it is to control the panic reflex when there is a gross little bug with lots of legs on your body and it doesn’t flick off??? I don’t like bugs on my person, but I don’t consider myself to be a total scaredy-cat about it. I usually just flick them off. If I don’t succeed the first time I try again to flick them off. The third flick is usually accompanied by a bit of a scream and I suppose if a fourth flick is required I would be prone to some animated flailing about accompanied by more vocals in my effort to dislodge the bug. But none of that avails anything with ticks. Those little things have to be removed with tweezers (that’s what Google said) and even then it’s not easy. ~shudder~ It just gives me the heebie-jeebies to have a bug on me that is determined to stay! That’s just wrong!!!

Anyway, I decided it was time to give the kids and dog a thorough going-over. After all, if I—who never goes outside—had a tick, then what must the children who romp through the woods and hike down to the creek and back be infested with? One at a time I combed carefully through their hair, then stripped them down to their ghandi’s (at this age, the rest is up to them) and carefully inspected every inch of their bodies. And not a one of those little creeps had a thing on them! That is so wrong!!! How come the Mom, the only one around here who bathes regularly and practices any kind of personal hygiene is the one who had the nasty little bug stuck to her?! That’s just not right. In any case, at least I was able to rest easy knowing they were tickless. And they all smelled much better after their baths. ;-)

We got school done early in the day, then Katie and I stopped by Judy’s house to give her Kate’s cookies (and she sent some art stuff home with Katie) before we left early to go to town for church. We had several errands to run, then headed on to VLB service. Our VLB leader, Brother Chris Parker, had a real good lesson on the different kinds of suffering: Common Suffering, Carnal Suffering, and Christian suffering. He had lots of really good thoughts and I really enjoyed it.

After church we stood around to visit for a while, then stopped by Wal-Mart on our way home to pick up a tick collar (apparently I need one! Ha! Just kidding--it is for Charlie), among other things. We got home late again and I was just so, so, so, sooooo tired. My body is just feeling like it’s at the end. I haven’t had a complete crash, but the sore throat and achiness are like reminders that it’s coming if I don’t start getting better rest and some recupe time or something! But no matter how tired I was, there was to be no sleep for the weary—at least for an hour or two. The Charles had been locked in his box while we were gone for nearly 7 hours and he was WIRED. He played and ran and romped and pounced and growled and chewed on me for, oh, an hour or two. I felt so bad for him—I didn’t have the energy to do anything but just sit there and let him chew on me and maybe occasionally give him a shove as if I was playing. Ha! I knew there was NO WAY he was going to lay down and go to sleep in Katie’s bed and it wasn’t worth trying until he’d unwound a bit. So that meant another midnight night. Dumb.

Today I tried to sleep in a little bit, but woke up with my sore throat much worse, and feeling a little more sick and stiff. I don’t feel SICK really… not in-bed sick, just sooooo tired and out of it. I should pull out of it one of these days, right?!

I went out with Charlie this morning and discovered four big dogs outside. Brady had three friends over to play. They’re all very nice dogs, though I worry about Charlie because he’s so very little. Mostly they just look at him like they’re not sure what he is, but sometimes they play with him a bit. Onyx is a big black dog. We discovered this morning that he likes to fetch footballs… and chew on them. Which means the football we bought for the boys at Wal-Mart last night has several tooth punctures and is now flat. Dumb, happy dog.

Sam went with James this morning, but I can’t remember where they went. Katie and Joe worked on school while they were gone and I helped them in between napping on the couch and trying to keep from coughing. I hate that. I was able to empty out our very last box today, making us totally “moved in” here I guess. That feels good. After they finished school Katie and Joe went outside to catch more lizards. I went out one time and they were “walking” one of them. They had a string tied around the poor thing’s neck, "taking it for a walk." Ha! It was pretty funny. It’s suddenly a very, very scary thing to be a lizard around here, I’m sure. James and Sam came home this afternoon and I helped Sam with his school He finished up on two subjects in his book yesterday, so we're working harder on the three he has left now.

I made dinner here tonight for the first time—if that’s not pathetic! We made homemade “bowls” like KFC serves—mashed potatoes with corn and gravy and chicken and cheese. I overcooked the chicken a wee bit, so it was a little crunchy, but it still tasted good—and it felt good to have a nice, hot, homey meal. James had brought Blue Bell home for dessert, so that made it perfect. :-)

Now that we're all moved in, I helped the kids get packed up for our first trip tonight. Ha! We leave in the morning for Cleveland. James has to go to HQ to straighten out some Alabama paperwork that's not accurate, then he has a Ways & Means Committee meeting on Saturday. They are having a Mission Crusade with Sister Bishop at Zion Hill this weekend, so we'll be able to go to that. Our plan is to just stay tomorrow night, then come home after James' meeting on Saturday. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes at Mom & Dad's house--and the bathroom that I'm sure they'll have completed by the time we get there tomorrow. ;-)

And that’s it! I’m totally caught up now! Wa-Hoo!!!