Last One?

Don't know if I'll get a chance to post anything for a while, so I figured I should do it right now while I can.

We had a great weekend. :-) We left Friday morning for Anniston. We stopped by Shayla's house to drop off the Powell's mail. I just ran in with it "real quick." I'm ashamed to say how long James declares I was in there visiting with Shayla and the girls, but I'm sure he had to be exaggerating! I look forward to spending some time with them when we all have a little time to spend. :-)

From there, we fought the absurd traffic trying to make our way over to the fast food joints. The traffic here is ridiculous. In the west, if something is 60 miles away then you can give yourself about an hour to get there, give or take a few minutes. Out here you'd better allow two hours to travel the same distance--and hope for the best, at that! The roads (even little itty-bitty country roads) are swarming with traffic--and the speed limit is way lower, to boot. There are just way too many people here. Ha!

Anyway, we were finally able too get some lunch and get back on the road. We stopped at Bass Pro Shops and the boys were in heaven. It's a great store and we enjoy just looking around there. We played the shooting game and looked at the giant trout in the "pond" and just meandered around taking it all in. The boys were beyond ecstatic when James picked up some fishing poles and lures for them. They are soooooo excited and can't wait to go fishing--though they understand (we hope) that we can't squeeze that in just yet.

We left there and drove on to Sister Bishop's house in Anniston where we spent the weekend. We had such a great time there. She is such a blast to be around, and always such a blessing. I wanna be like her when I grow up. Well, in some ways. Ha! The kids all love her to death and even tried their very best (and succeeded for the most part) to eat potato salad simply because "Sister Bishop made it." She is a great cook. I tried my first bread pudding, my first chocolate cobbler, and my first muscadine jelly and enjoyed all of it.

That first night we just visited--and listened to Sister Bishop and the kids play different instruments. She taught Joe a few chords on the mandolin and I think he's in love. Sam said he thinks he'd like to trade the drums (his instrument of choice) in for the mandolin. I had no idea Sister Bishop could play the piano! She's so great. :-)


This was everybody's favorite. :-)
We had District Convention the next day (these one day Conventions are the strangest thing--I don't know if I'll ever get used to it!) and it was very good. I really felt the Lord there and was blessed and encouraged. I was so blessed by Brother Jeremy Wallace's VLB boost. He preached on covetousness and about getting the things of this world out of our lives and not letting the cares of this life hinder us. It was excellent.

When Convention ended that afternoon we went to an office supply store to buy the necessary equipment for James to get Sister Bishop set up with a wireless Internet connection at her house. Then it was more music and visiting for the evening. We had such a great time. I am always, always blessed when I'm with Sister Bishop. And I love it that the kids adore her so. I think Sam had tears in his eyes when he said goodbye to her the next morning. :-)

We got up early Sunday and drove an hour and forty-five minutes or so... to make it the 63 miles to Gerladine. Ha! I'm telling you--it's nuts! We were there in service with the Carrs and really enjoyed ourselves. Jonathan Carr's little kids sang He's Still Working On Me in a way I'd never heard before. "...to mayk may what I ort to bay..." Ha! It was sooooo cute. :-) A lady came in toward the end of Sunday School with an urgent prayer request. She pastored an Elders church for 22 years, but she said she felt like the Lord told her to come to this Church to ask for prayer; that these people could get ahold of God. :-)

The Masons were there to do their Camp boost. I've never heard of the Camp Directors traveling to all of the churches to give boosts, but they sure are working it hard! I'm sure God will bless all of their hard work and sacrifice.

After service we went out to eat with the Carrs, Nasha, and the Masons. We went to a Catfish place that had terrific hush puppies :-) and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Katie really hit it off with Sister Mason and I'm a little nervous about the situation. Sister Mason is soooooo quiet and Katie is soooooo not. There's no telling what all Katie rattled on about over at that side of the table! Ha!

I had printed out the Evening Light the night before and read just a couple of pages. I read some more on the way to Geraldine and finished up on our way from there back to Bessemer that afternoon. I was sooooo tired all day long that day (I hate the time change!), so if you find lots of blunders in the coming edition you can blame me. ;-)

I loved being at Convention and in the other churches over the weekend, but the strangest thing happened when we walked into the Bessemer church last night. I walked in and felt sort of at home. :-) It just felt comfortable to walk in and see some faces that are beginning to look a little familiar, and to walk up to "our" pew (though we've tried out a few before landing in this one--ha!) and find "our" spot, and to see "our" pastor up front. Tired as we were, we enjoyed visiting for a while after service. Until the food conversation came up. Everybody was freaking out that Sister Hopkins puts cheese on her pineapple and mayonnaise sandwiches... because it's a terrible way to ruin a good pineapple and mayonnaise sandwich!!! Can you imagine?! Throwing cheese into the mix is what freaked them out instead of the obviously disturbing combination of pineapple and mayonnaise! They then proceeded to list a number of... interesting food choices that are preferred around here. All I can say is, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I've already tried several new things since being here and so far, so good... but they've got me runnin' scared now! Ha! Sister Hopkins said they'll teach us to eat all the stuff they eat around here and we can teach them how to eat the things we like to eat out west. I told her I didn't know where in the world I was going to find an elk to cook for them. ;-)

We got home Sunday night and unloaded the van, then I stayed up 'til the wee hours of the morning working on Ladies' Retreat stuff. Got up yesterday and hit it hard! Although I'm still unprepared for my devotions, I can really feel the Lord helping me in my prayers and I feel "good" about them, if that makes any sense. And I KNOW He helped me to accomplish lots yesterday. I was able to get everything unpacked, all of the laundry done, all of the wood floors downstairs shined up real purty and get lots of Retreat stuff taken care of--called the campground, got the spreadsheet put together the way I wanted it, sorted out the TAP groups, finalized the schedule (should've been done weeks ago!), created, printed, and cut out the name tags (by hand since our paper cutters are in New Mexico--ha!), and a few other little things. Last night Katie helped me to make 5 batches of fruity staff gifts and it feels sooooo good to have that done! :-) Then I made little Ladies' Retreat labels to go on them. Wa-Hoo!!! It wasn't that big of a project, but for some reason it's the one that I've sort of been stressed out about doing so it is such a relief to have that finished!

James was wonderful and picked up pizza for us last night so I could keep working on all of my stuff. What a guy. :-) We had given the kids the day off from school and he'd taken the boys with him for a few hours earlier, leaving Katie with me. I let her watch I Love Lucy while I was working on the computer stuff. It felt so nice and relaxing. :-) Anyway, we let all the kids watch a show last night with their pizza and we just had a nice, fun evening. We told them that yesterday was their Spring Break. :-) Then I stayed up way too late again, working on more Retreat stuff. I've gotten so much done (thank the Lord--He's helped me sooooo much!) but there are still lots of things to do.

I wanted to blog while I can because I'm not sure I'll have another chance before Retreat, and after that things get really crazy! Here's the plan:

On Thursday morning we'll go up to the campground. I'll check it out (never been there before), drop my Retreat stuff off, and talk to the camp dude. Sister Bishop will meet us there, James will take the kids and go back home, I'll go with Sister Bishop to Atlanta TO PICK UP EMILEE from the airport!!!! I am sooooooooooo excited!!! She just decided this past week to hop on a plane and come join us. She's the best! I hate to be selfish, but I'm mostly glad for my own benefit that she's going to be here. Ha! I always get nervous being up front (moderating is the very worst--I hate doing that, and I'm horrible at it... not to discourage any ladies who are planning on attended Retreat--ha!), but it's twice as nerve-racking when you're in a strange place with people you don't know! It will be such a relief to have Mom AND Emilee there. I may not look at anybody else all weekend, just to keep from throwing up. HA!

Anyway, we'll get Em from the airport and then go back to Sister Bishop's house to spend the night. Does that sound fun, or what?! I'm so excited!!! The next day we'll head back to the campground for Retreat. When Retreat ends on Sunday James and the kids will be there to pick me up. We will leave directly from there to drive back to New Mexico, which means I've got to be packed for that trip ahead of time. I'm going to make a list of things for the kids to be able to pack themselves (sounds scary) and we'll see how it goes. We'll get back to New Mexico and pack up the rest of our belongings, load up the BIG moving truck, and--Lord willing--sign the final papers on the house and close on it on Monday, the 28th. WA-HOOOOO!!! We're really trusting that everything will go through without a hitch and we can be FINISHED with this move. Well, until we find a house out here. Then we start all over again. :-)

So there you have it. What's been going on and what we think will go on next. I won't be able to blog that week we're in New Mexico because we had the phone services cut off before we left last time. No Internet: no blog. But I'll be back. :-)