Blogging Rather Than Ironing

Again. :-)

It's been a long, long day, so the ironing will have to wait until "tomorrow." I can't count how many days I've said that. I get a little bit done each day, but never can get it completed before I have to do more laundry and add to the pile again. I wish wrinkled was considered fashionable or at least acceptable. ;-)

Not much to report from yesterday. We left early for church as we do every Wednesday, though we didn't pack the day full and end up at church exhausted like we did last week. We stopped by the storage unit to pick up my old Gothard books (we're needing to do some review!) and a few other things, drove by another house (though I can't remember a thing about it, so it mustn't have been very impressive), then stopped by Penney's, Ross, and Target in search of some much needed items of clothing. We found nothing at the first two stops (and I don't think I'll be returning to Ross--it was a MESS), but hit the jackpot at Target: a pair of desperately needed slacks for Joe, a pair of white shoes for Katie to wear on Easter and beyond, and a few other odds and ends.

Then it was time for church. It was Brother Carpenter's CPMA service. I felt tired and a little distracted again, though we had tried real hard to not have too busy of a day knowing we'd be going in to church. I just have a hard time concentrating sometimes, I guess! I enjoyed the scriptures he was sharing about not being fearful but rather trusting in the Lord. I missed the last part of the service because of a phone call from a friend who wasn't aware what time zone we live in (silly girl--ha!) and thought we'd be out of church by that time. She was calling with a prayer request and I was glad I had stepped out to call her back (I had remembered to turn my ringer off in church for a change--thank goodness!), thinking it might be something of that nature.

Got home late again and way too tired to iron. Story of my life.

This morning we got up and around decently early so we could head out for a day on the town. First stop, Centreville so I could get my Alabama license. The lady wasn’t the friendliest ever, but it was relatively painless—though I did come out with a drivers license photo that fits the usual stereotype: hideous. I laughed when I saw it. Oh well. It’s not like it hangs on my wall or anything.

Then we headed up north and drove past several more “maybe, but probably not” houses. There were a few that look really nice and are in nice neighborhoods… but we don’t really want to be in a neighborhood! We’d rather have lesser house and more land—or at least some privacy that would make you feel like there’s more land. We might consider some of these houses, but only if we’re not able to find something in a nice, seclude setting. If these are still around a few months from now we might take a look, but until then we’ll keep searching for location, location, location. :-)

We stopped by a thrift store to search for some of the things we hadn't been able to find elsewhere. We ended up with a shirt for James a pair of shoes and another pair of slacks for Joe, a tie for the boys, a robe for Katie as well as a brand-new-with-tags-still-on white shirt that I think will work perfect with her Easter dress… if I can make the long sleeves into short sleeves without ruining it. ;-)

Afterward we stopped by Pizza Hut to redeem the kids last Book It! coupons for the year and also enjoyed freshly mixed cherry sodas there. Who knew? Cherry Dr. Pepper is actually pretty tasty. Especially with a couple of cherries at the bottom of the glass. :-)

We drove past two more houses on our way home, found another “maybe someday, but not until we're sure we can't end up with more land or privacy” house, then drove to Wal-Mart in Calera to fill our list: groceries, flea collar (just for Charlie, not the rest of us… yet—Charles finally had his first tick a few days ago), a toaster (but they were sold out), and who knows what all. It wasn’t very exciting until James decided to walk down the clearance aisle. He found all together too many great deals on all sorts of junk, mostly learning-type or craft kits and games. We got a $23 game for $3, some craft kits for the same, $14 kits for $1, and who knows what all. On top of all of that, each kid got a $50 scooter for $10… so we got all three for barely over half of what one would have normally cost. Part of me feels great about the bargains, and the other part wonders how much we spent saving so much money. Ha! My only real regret is that the kids were with us. It would have been better if James had discovered this treasure of savings all alone—we would have been all set for Christmas! Oh well, we came home with three very, very excited children tonight.

We got here, hauled all of our stuff in through the rain, then did our best to get the house straightened up a bit before everybody dug into the new loot. In the meantime, James built scooters. We hadn’t been home very long when a white truck came zooming up the driveway. The Dudley boys. :-) The two younger boys anyway, Thomas and Joshua. They had come to return Brother Powell’s chainsaw. We all stood outside and visited for quite a while—and I have now decided that my boys won’t be with Dustin Warren OR the Dudley boys without my supervision. Ha! Maybe I’m the weird one. I never knew you could use a nail gun for recreational purposes such as killing bats, small birds, squirrels—or just shoot it straight up into the air and then run for your lives before the nails come down, or… well, a whole lot of other things. I love teenage boys. :-)

After a while James told the boys to come on in the house and we’d try to call the Powells. Sure enough, they were home! The Dudley boys are really close to the Powells—even call them Grandmother and Granddad—and I know they really enjoyed being able to see and talk with them. Those boys just crack me up. They are so good natured and fun to be around. And they are just all boy—taking great pleasure in doing dumb guy things, wrestling and rough-housing, and taking their food very seriously. We were discussing the time difference between here and South Korea and the Powells said it was about 10:30 “tomorrow” morning over there. Joshua said, “Y'all are getting ready to have lunch and we’re just now getting ready to have dinner.” Then his face sort of fell and he said, “Hey… y'all are two meals ahead of us!” Thomas piped up and said, “Me and Joshua got some catchin’ up to do then, Granddad!” Ha! They don’t measure the difference by miles or hours, but by meals. :-)

James had some house things to discuss with the Powells, but it wasn’t so easy keeping the children under control. Joe picks at the Dudley boys non-stop when they’re around, just asking for trouble. He’s not just real bright picking on boys that size, but he’s in that stage where he’s got to prove how big and tough he is (do they ever grow out of that???) and thinks the Dudleys are a worthy challenge. I keep telling the boys that they are welcome to do whatever they need to do to our children—whatever they deserve. It pretty much turned into a free-for-all tonight and the chaos was beyond my realm of authority apparently because I wasn’t able to regain control at all. They all--three children and two teenagers--ran like a heard of elephants up and down the stairs and from one end of the house to the other, wrestling and laughing and squealing. Okay, well maybe the Dudley boys didn't squeal. ;-)

I went to check on things one time and saw one of my children being held over the edge of the balcony railing. I did what any good mother would do. I ran for my camera. Ha!



Thomas employed a tactic I probably wouldn't have thought of: using one boy to squish another one. :-)





I’m a little ashamed to post some of these pictures. Okay, a whole lot ashamed. The Powells visit this blog and I’d hate for them to see these pictures and think that we’re the kind of people you DON’T WANT living in your house! Ha! But there you see it. Not only is the house far from perfect, but there stands my son, ON the couch, preparing to hurl a pillow across the room. And the mother obviously approves because she’s using a camera at this moment rather than a switch. HA! To be clear, I do not approve. I just took a quick picture before making the little punk get off the couch and put the pillows back. ;-) I’m sure none of this is all that surprising to the Powells (though James will still probably make me remove this picture once he sees it—ha!) since they could hear all of the madness in the background while they were trying to talk to James.



That’s Joshua Dudley by the way (the youngest of the three brothers), being nice and calm, either playing with or tormenting the dog—I’m not sure which. ;-)

Not that it will be any great comfort of mind to the Powells, but I can honestly say that tonight is by far the wildest night this house has seen since our arrival here. I would start to regain a degree of control over the situation, but then somebody (kid or teenager) would do something tiny, like steal somebody else’s hat, and it would break loose into an all out brawl all over again, kids wielding plastic bats and hurling pillows at teenagers, teenagers wadding kids up into little balls and throwing them onto couches, the mother standing by helplessly wondering why nobody ever listens to her… And so on. Ha! We really did have a good time with the boys (though next time the chaos will be limited to the great outdoors, I hope!) and hope they come back very soon.

After the Dudleys left James had Joe help him haul all of the trash out to the road for pick-up in the morning. When the headlights of the tractor swept across the “field” Joe spotted lots of small movements out there. Upon further investigation he discovered frogs/toads (I never can remember the difference) in abundance. It was already way past bedtime, but the kids were sooooo excited. They’d been seeing frogs in the pond for a week or two now but had been unable to catch one, mostly because I had forbidden it. The last thing I want to deal with is a kid falling into the goldfish pond just before bed, which is when the frogs come out. Anyway, I told them I’d give them a few minutes to go catch frogs and it wasn’t long before they were hollering for us to come out to the porch and look.





What a happy day for the kids. We found a shirt that completes Katie’s Easter ensemble (making it possible for her to finally wear that hand-me-down jumper/dress thing she’s been dying to wear), got some new books at the thrift store, then new crafts for Katie, new building toys for Sam, and some night vision goggles for Joe (did I mention that?) due to a phenomenal clearance aisle—ah yes, and scooters for each of them… Then a wild night of having it out with the Dudley boys, shooting bb guns with them (Joe has to challenge everybody to see who can out-shoot who... he won), and then a chance to go catch frogs by the fistful. They should sleep well tonight. :-)

Me, too. G’night!

For Brother Hawkins

I told Cody/Kody (somebody help me out here--which is it?) that I had recorded his testimony (though I missed the first part) and asked if he wanted me to see that Brother Hawkins saw it. He said YES and acted like he would really appreciate that. So Mom, if your Internet connection is good enough over there in Africa could you please see that Brother Rob watches this? Thank you. :-)

Blog Rather Than Bed

Actually, the plan for tonight was to conquer the ironing. It's been piling up since we got home from New Mexico (how long has that been?!) and I've just been ironing a piece here and there as we've needed them. There is a pretty impressive pile now. It's crawling out of the basket up onto the couch. I thought if I brought it to the living room and set up my ironing board in here it would push me to finally get it done. No such luck. I worked on it for a while today, but had too many distractions like school, school, and more school.

So the new plan was to stay up late and do all of the ironing tonight while watching Assembly DVDs or something. But then James got a phone call, so the kids and I hung out watching YouTube clips of old Looney Toons and southern gospel groups, then reading stories and poems from The Book of Virtues while we waiting on James for devotions. About an hour past bedtime I finally prayed with them and put them down. Shortly thereafter James came in and we sat and talked for a good little while. Then I was too tired to think about ironing, so I decided to go to bed instead.

But then I read this thing from my Mom about how she's over in Swaziland and on her way to South Africa and struggling through horrible Internet connections, yet she's taking the time out of their busy schedule to keep us updated on things every day... but "her girls" are a bunch of losers and won't post anything new for her to read so she can know what's going on over here. (Those weren't her exact words, but the essence.) ~sigh~ She's right, of course. I hate it when she's right. ;-)

So here I am, blogging. I keep an on-going file of blog notes at all times so that when I do finally sit down to blog I'll have something to say. Unfortunately the list was somehow deleted so now I'm left with only my memory. This should be a very short post. (Ha. I don't have to remember what's been going on to be able to ramble aimlessly--we all know that.)

Last time I left off was when we finally left New Mexico and headed back to Alabama "for good." We had a good trip and I was surprised and relieved at how well we both did driving (James in the U-Haul, me in the van) the entire way without getting too tired--especially after all the adrenaline and hard work and sleep deprivation that had been going on.

The kids took turns riding in the different vehicles, but Katie was with me in the van all day long the second day and the boys were together in the truck with James. We had some really good girl talks and I was thankful for some nice, quiet time with her without interruptions. Well... time with Katie is never just real quiet, but you know what I mean. ;-) There were several things that I have been aware of for quite some time, but Katie didn't know that I knew about them--bad things that she had never confessed. I had really felt like just praying about it and leaving it with God, and trusting that some day Katie would come to me about them instead of me just declaring what I knew and punishing her. Well, our conversation led toward some of those subjects that day and I sort of opened the door and waited to see what would happen. She did, indeed, confess to the things I already knew about. I then told her that I already knew about these things and she was stunned and a little flurbed out by it. I told her that God loves her so much that He makes ways for her parents to know all of the things we need to know, even when she doesn't think we know. :-) Every time she would confess something I would follow it up by informing her that I was already aware of it and she would sort of spazz out on me. She is now fully convinced that God tells me everything so she should never try to keep anything from me. :-) I'm hoping that will work to our benefit in the coming years. Ha!

The next day Katie was riding with James and I had the boys with me. We had been talking and listening to Joe's southern gospel music when--out of the blue--he says, "Mom... I need to talk to you about something." And out pours a confession from him! Ha! Who knew that moving could be so revealing?! I guess we just need to move every few months so I'll know what my children have been up to. ;-) I had a good talk with Joe and we prayed and worked through all of the guilt he'd been struggling with. So now at least two-thirds of our children have clear consciences once more. :-)

I think I blogged a bit about after we made it back to Alabama, then there's a big gap in my blog notes, so I don't know anything up until the past week or so. You lucky dogs. :-)

We've been working real hard on school and on house stuff this week. The boys have been pulling weeds, Katie has been working on the Polar Regions unit that I had to reassign to her because she was doing so poorly the first time--that's taken up lots of her time (and mine) lately--and I've been working real hard trying to get some things taken care of around the house. I cleaned the master bathroom during a storm one night, scrubbing in the light sometimes, sometimes in the dark. :-) We've had a few good storms here and I know there were several killed by tornadoes in Alabama a few days ago, but I have a hard time getting real riled up over them as yet. I mean, every time it starts raining (which is frequently) the weather alarm starts going off and after a while you just sort of tune it out, you know? I've been around some pretty fierce storms (though they've been few) and I remember a couple of times in my life when we were under a tornado warning and piled up in a safe place to wait it out, but I haven't been in any storms here yet that have had me scared or feeling like it was bad enough to take everybody to the basement. So when the alarm sounds I don't think anything of it. I mean, if you took it seriously every time you'd spend your whole life sitting in the basement waiting to die! Ha! I can't live like that... no pun intended. ;-) It's like the "never cry wolf" thing. I'm already used to the sirens and don't take them seriously anymore; one day it'll be the real thing and I'll get blown to kingdom come because I'll be thinking "ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight" and won't prepare.

ANYWAY, I got all of the floors cleaned the other day--AT THE SAME TIME! Wa-Hoo! I have a terrible time accomplishing that. Of course, there's always that spiteful rug in the living room. Sister Powell says to just roll it up. Can't do that. It's the only patch of carpet in the house aside from up in the boys' room and I like having it there. Besides, I can't be beaten by a rug. I'm going to win. Even if I have to bleach the whole thing so you can no longer see little balls of fuzz and string and specks of whatever else it is. I'm only kidding of course, Sister Powell--I wouldn't actually bleach your rug. :-) On purpose anyway. I did that by accident one time years ago... Ha!

Sometime this past week James and I must've had a real hankering for Mexican food because he made cheese enchiladas for lunch and I made an enchilada casserole for dinner. Yum. :-)

I've done innumerable loads of laundry this week. It's amazing how much more we go through here! I haven’t had a chance to look for a drying rack yet but I’m under the assumption most people here use a towel once, then wash it. Someone was telling us the other day (you know who you are--ha!) that their kid used one towel during camp one year and "all the others were all still clean," thus proving he had only showered once (and is just as gross as everybody else's kids--ha!). So I did the math. You’d have to have 25 towels for a family of five for five days of Camp if everybody got a new towel every day! Plus wash cloths and hand towels?! Amazing. But then, around here I'm guessing that your towel wouldn't be DRY the next day if you used it the first. Crazy. I have so much to learn. ;-)

Last Wednesday was a long, long day. I got up at 6:30 and took my shower, did my devotions, cleaned house a bit, then vacuumed that fuzz collecting rug before we walked out the door just to see what tricks it might try to pull while we were away. We are praying about whether to trade our van in for one that will last us a while (we've put 38,000 miles on this one in the past year and it may not have another year or two in it) or just stick with what we've got and find out just exactly how long it will go. So we looked at some vehicles that day, drove a Honda Odyssey, then went to the Church to meet Laura (our Alabama realtor as opposed to Jason, our New Mexico realtor).

Laura hadn't arrived yet, so James decided to have everybody use the restroom there at the church so they wouldn't be asking to do it while we were looking at houses. He unlocked the church and tried to turn off the alarm, but he pushed a wrong button. Our church has a VERY IMPRESSIVE burglar alarm, let me tell you. :-) Our boys both just about jumped out of their skin and were across the parking lot and back in the van in what seemed like one swift motion. I called Sister Hopkins to ask how to shut it off, while the alarm company was calling Brother Hopkins to inform him that the alarm was going off and to inquire as to whether they needed to send the cops out or not. He said, yep, send the cops--haul 'em all off. :-) We finally got everything under control before Laura showed up.

We went to see five houses. Two are definite NO’s, 3 more are probably-not's, though we really love the land and setting of two of them, and the house itself but not so much the land and setting of the third. Any of them could be taken and made into HOME for us with enough money. Therein lies the problem. The "enough money" part at the end. ;-) Not that God hasn't blessed us; just that we want to be good stewards of all that He places in our hands and we never want to over-extend ourselves. We'll keep praying for wisdom and for the right house at the right time. Until then, we'll enjoy and be thankful for the blessing of being able to live in the Powell's beautiful home. God's timing is perfect. :-)

After our long day of housework, car shopping and house hunting, we went into church that night feeling so wiped out! It's really a bad idea to pack that much into a church day. I'll try to make a note of that for the future. I think it was VLB service that night (?!) and Brother Will was in charge. He did a GREAT job and I was so blessed by his message. No wait, maybe that was a different day. Whenever that service was I was blessed by it! :-) I do know that after last Wednesday's service Brother Hopkins had a called business conference. I must admit I cringed just a little bit. Ha! Only because a service or two before that I had sat through almost all of the longest business conference in the history of the world. Really—the Bessemer church should have a banner hung on the wall or a trophy on a shelf somewhere or something. HA! Did you notice I said I sat through almost all of it? At the beginning of the conference my kids noticed that all of the other children had quickly scrambled for the back door. They asked if they could go outside with the others and I had to give them one of those Mom lectures. "I know you don't understand this right now and business conferences seem boring to you, but this is The Church of God and the business of The Church of God is important--and it's important that you understand how it works because some day you'll be the ones up there, blah, blah, blah." I finally had mercy on them and escorted them out after about an hour and a half. Well, the two who weren’t snoring on the pew by then. Sam was a goner before the first hour was over. Ha! To be fair, this church has a whole lot more members than what I'm used to and therefore has a whole lot more money--along with a property that needs tended to--and there are simply a lot more things to discuss and make decisions about than what I'm used to. But now it's time to get used to it. :-) Still, I don't know what to do with the kids. I still feel it's important for them to be there... but I don't want them to end up hating Church business because it takes so long! Ha!

This past weekend we had our final District Convention up in Moulton. We left the Charles with Brother Will and Sister Krystal for the weekend. They have a little Yorkie puppy and we thought the two of them would have a blast playing together for a few days. No such luck. Sister Krystal declares that the problem was with both dogs, but from what I could tell Roxie wants to play real bad and Charlie is just cranky with her and wants no part of it. (He is soooooo much like Rusty, Mom!) Dumb dog. Anyway, they said he didn't misbehave there at all ~whew~ so I'm thankful for that! And I so appreciate them being willing to take care of him for us over the weekend!

We left on Friday in the middle of all of the storms. We saw some nasty, foreboding clouds and went through some pretty rough vision-impairing rain off and on, but got up there just fine. We had a good Convention on Saturday with several mini-sermons, which I thought was great. Each local church (five of them in that district) were on for a song and a sermonette by the pastor, along with all of the usual auxiliary boosts and such. They had a noon meal there at the church and I was able to visit with Liz and Josh Anders for a while--though Liz is now a DeNARD :-) not an Anders. It's so crazy that they (we) are all grown up and married now! I think they were about 10 and 12 years old when they came out to Colorado way back when. I was 17 or 18. I used to chase Josh down and kiss him on the cheek because it made him so mad. :-) And I don't know why, but I used to call Liz, Lizard Breath. (Elizabeth--Lizard Breath... can you hear it???) Now we're all grown up and have to try to act like it. Sad. Ha! Anyway, it was great to see them. Especially since they were among the few people that I recognized. Ha! At the other Conventions I knew several people and only had a few "new" ones to learn. At this Convention there were a lot more people I hadn't met yet and it was a little overwhelming. It will help a lot as we're able to visit each local church and I can learn who everybody is in smaller groups. :-)

When Convention ended on Saturday afternoon we went out to eat with the Rollins, the Warrens, and the Masons. I didn't get a chance to visit with the Rollins at all (they were sort of at the end of the table), but I so enjoy being with Sister Mason. And Brother Dustin Warren is FULL of strange, interesting and sometimes downright disturbing stories, most of which involve large and dangerous weapons, dead deer and almost dead deer, unsuspecting bystanders, and victims of heartless pranks. He's GREAT. :-) My boys would LOVE to go to his house and see his entire arsenal, learn to throw tomahawks, go meet his Indian chief--all that stuff. Of course, I have already decided that my children will have no contact with Dustin Warren unless I AM THERE to supervise. HA!

The next morning we visited the church in Russellville. It's a small church and they are currently meeting in a little store front building. It reminded me a whole lot of where the church in Merkel, Texas, used to meet--and it felt very much like "home" to me. :-) We had a good service with such a good, sweet spirit. Afterward we went out to eat with the Bordens at a fantastic Mexican restaurant, something I was thrilled to find. We've tried one other Mexican joint since we've been here and it wasn't very impressive. I'm glad to know there's at least one in the state. We'll keep looking for more. :-)

After lunch we followed the Bordens over to the Spires house to visit for a while. They are a neat old couple and so much fun to be with! He's got that adorable old man thing going on, so of course I loved him. And she is a riot. I don't know how old she is, but she certainly doesn't act it. :-) She's full of spunk and humor.

That evening we drove the 30 minutes or so over to Red Bay for service, wishing some of our western friends could have joined us there. ;-) Several of their regulars were out of town, but there was still a decent sized crowd there in my estimation. James preached on the Church, something he's been doing a whole lot of since we've been here. Okay, so he does a lot of that wherever we are (ha!), but he's done even more of it since we got here. I must confess... I had one of those "this again?" thoughts. Not in a BAD way, just in a "I'm having a hard time focusing on this because I've heard it all a lot recently" sort of way. But by the time it was over the Holy Ghost had really begun to move and this young man...




joined The Church of God!!!

I felt humbled and corrected of God. I'd better not ever get tired of hearing about The Church of God! This is a boyfriend of the pastor's daughter there and although I don't know much about him or his situation, it's obvious that he's been around the Church and has been considering joining for a while. And he just couldn't contain himself that night. :-) He danced and praised the Lord and had a wonderful time--as did several others--and finished it off by taking the covenant to join God's Church. It was beautiful. :-)

After service we went out to eat with the Pucketts, their two kids and Cody/Kody (the kid who joined the Church), and Brother and Sister Grimes. I sat with Sister Puckett and learned lots about her while James visited with the others. It was a nice evening and I so enjoy having a chance to get to know the people here a little bit.

I can't remember what time we left, but I know it was about 12:30am when we got to the Cox's house to pick up Charlie. Is it not CRAZY to go to somebody's house at that hour?! I was raised better than that, I assure you! Ha! But Brother Will is working the night shift this week and they all sort of get on that schedule with him, so they were awake and told us to come ahead. It was nice to visit with them for a few minutes. And see Charlie again. :-)

It was after 2:00am before I made it to bed Sunday night, so I slept in until nearly 9:00 yesterday. It was nice, but not nearly enough! I had a hard time accomplished much of anything all day. By the time evening hit I was ready to crash. In fact, I ended up on the couch and sort of napped between 8 and 9 o'clock last night, not actually going to bed only because we hadn't had devotions yet! We put the kids down and then I stayed up for a little while and headed to bed at 10:00. Pitiful.

Today has been a little more productive after getting a decent night's sleep. Still have that pile of ironing threatening to overtake me (!) but I did get lots of other things done including a nice meal for my family tonight: meatloaf, corn, peas, buttered carrots, baked potatoes, and a blueberry cake with blueberry glaze.



I have a real problem with my cakes "falling" and was hoping it was just an altitude issue that would solve itself once I moved to Alabama. No such luck. I looked up possible causes and cures after this cake came out with a big dent in it and I have an attack plan for next time. Either way, it tasted GREAT and made me feel like a good wife and mom. I like that feeling. :-)

And that's about it. I did it for you, Mom. Mom probably won't have Internet access for the next week. Ha! Oh well, it'll be here for her whenever she gets to it. :-)

One last picture. And he wants people to think he doesn't like the dog. ;-)

Back to New Mexico... One Last Time

James came to pick me up at the end of Ladies’ Retreat with the van packed to the hilt with flattened moving boxes the Hoffman’s had given to assist in our move, along with three kids, a dog, and enough clothes to last us about a week. Maybe.

We had been gone about 30 minutes when I decided to check for my cell phone. I often experience this surge of panic out of the blue and think “Oh, no. ~gasp!~ Where did I put ________?!” Could be my phone, my camera, my keys—oh, any number of things. Then I quietly scramble around trying to find it before James discovers that I’ve lost something. I HATE having to tell James that I lost something. 99% of the time (well, maybe 90% or 95%) I haven’t actually lost anything, I just have to check and make SURE that I haven’t lost it. Well, this time I looked and my cell phone was indeed missing from the purse pocket where I keep it. I looked everywhere and still couldn’t find it. I was certain that I hadn’t lost it however, so I told James I couldn’t find it and asked for his phone so I could call my own and we would hear it ring and discover where in our PACKED van it was hiding. Long story short: I called it but we never heard it ring, we looked some more but couldn’t find it, I called the campground to ask if they’d seen it, the dude said he’d go look for it. A few minutes later it James started wiggling around and then we heard my phone. He had been SITTING on it and felt it vibrate when the campground guy tried to call it! HA! I’m just so glad it was THERE. :-)

We had a good trip out west, though I can’t recall any details of it at all. Just as well, I suppose. We ate at Fazoli’s in Amarillo, of course, and got a room there in town—after going to Mardel and getting some FANTASTIC deals, like .69 cents for $20 books—WA-HOO!!!!!

The next day held some dramatic weather changes. In those last 5 hours from Amarillo on home we went from using the air conditioner to the heater. We stopped to get a bite to eat in Moriarty and actually saw some snowflakes in the air. God loves me so much. :-)

We got home at noon on Tuesday. It was a strange feeling to walk into the house. I suddenly felt “homesick” for it for the first time! We’d been away for a month and it just felt so nice to walk in to “my” home. God has worked out such miracles for us and blessed us so abundantly—and we can’t thank Him (or the Powells!) enough. But there’s still something so relaxing about walking in to your home, you know? It’s been the perfect house for us these past three years and we’ve been so very, very happy there. I’m so thankful God saw fit to allow us to have a little log cabin up in the mountains with lots and lots of snow, gorgeous scenery, breathtaking sunsets, fresh mountain air, a wood burning stove for crackling fires—all that stuff. I just feel so, so blessed to have lived out “my dream come true” for a little while. :-)

Like I started to say, we got home at noon on Tuesday. We unloaded the van and I got everything unpacked and put away. It felt really stupid to unpack just so I could start packing (!), but it had to be done. I managed to get the boys’ room completely packed up, bed taken apart, and sparkly clean (ceiling fan, window inside and out, blinds, baseboards—it makes me so happy!) that day. Not a bad start!

I spent all day on Wednesday packing up the den. It took FOREVER. I washed all sorts of things that I’ve never washed before, just wiped down—like James’ little antique trucks and cars. There’s no way you can get to all of the tiny little crevices, even with a q-tip. So I took them (and who knows what else!) to the kitchen sink and sprayed them all down, then laid them out to dry. ~sigh~ It feels so good to know that someday when we move into whatever house we find everything will be so nice and fresh and sparkly clean! :-)

Anyway, perhaps due to my obsessive cleaning along the way, things moved very, very slowly that day. It was late afternoon by the time I finished up that one room. I was doing the math in my head and knew that we were never going to get everything done in time at that rate! I HAD to get one more room done that day, at the very least. I headed to Katie’s room, but I was already sooooo tired and feeling frustrated with the lack of productivity. James turned things around for me however when he showed up to help. :-) Typically I refuse to let him help. Guys just don’t know how to pack and James is probably worse than most. So I gave him the job of wiping things down or dusting them, then putting them on the bed for me to pack. It’s amazing how much that sped things up! By the end of the night we had completed that room and had it all packed up, emptied out, and mopped.

On Thursday morning I hit it bright and early, starting in our bedroom. Unfortunately, it was slow going in there too because of all the things I “had to” spray down and clean—the pine greenery, the fake bush, and all the little mooses (I know it’s not a real word, I just really like to say mooses) and other little things. Still, I managed to get everything packed up (except the closet) before…

The Hays arrived mid-afternoon that day!!! Can you believe it?! ~sigh~ They are just the best. They drove the 5 or 6 hours to help us move in to this house three years ago—before any of us even knew what great friends we would become! Ha! Then they came and helped us pack up our first moving truck this February, and then came AGAIN to help us with the last of our packing, cleaning, and loading up the big truck in March. They are amazing and I can honestly say there is NO WAY we would have been able to get everything done without their help. We would have been in big, big trouble!

When the Hays arrived on Thursday afternoon Brother Dustin’s got busy fixing all of the electrical catastrophes he had created over the previous years that the inspector had thrown a fit over and ordered to be fixed. Okay, so that’s not exactly the story, but there were a few little glitches he was kind enough to take care of for us. I moved my work out to the living room so I could be with the people. Couldn’t stay cooped up in the bedroom working all alone, you know. ;-) Sister Jamey helped out by washing stuff for me as I packed up all the décor from off the walls.

Before long it was time to get cleaned up for church. It was so nice to be in church. I’d been at Retreat the previous weekend, but it had been a long, hard four days and it felt like ages since I’d been in service! I can’t understand why/how anybody can just skip church—especially when life is crazy and hectic and spinning out of control. You know, when you “don’t have time” to go to church! That’s when I need it the very most! It’s sooooo refreshing to be with God’s people and—most of all, for me—to sing and worship the Lord in that setting. I can just feel all of the stress and pressure drain away and I feel so refreshed and renewed afterward, like I’m suddenly strengthened and ready to go conquer whatever I felt like I was sinking under before. God’s amazing that way. :-)

Sister Shanna flew in to Albuquerque that night and the Clarksons had gone to pick her up at the airport. After service was over we all went out to Dion’s together—James’ favorite pizza joint that he’d already been missing in Alabama. We had a good visit, but Sister Shanna was soooo tired. We got back to the house that night, set the work aside, and played games. I don’t remember anything specific about it, except that it’s always grand. :-)

We got up Friday morning and got back to packing again. I can’t remember how far we got, but we stopped to go eat at Burger Boy, the same little burger joint we ate at with the Hays when they helped us move in to this house. ~tear~ Ha! We had a good time and the Frito pie was some of the very best I’ve ever had. They make their own chili fresh every day and it was fantastic, though it was HOT—I was on fire for quite a while!

After lunch the Hays headed on down to Hatch to get settled in for Youth Convention. ~sigh~ I had been holding to this crazy little dream of getting everything done in record time and being able to go to Convention, too. But alas, we’d been working dawn ‘til dusk (ha—way beyond dusk) every day trying sooooooo hard… but there was still sooooooo much to do and we were to close on the house on Monday—had to have everything packed up, loaded into the truck, and have the house shining by then. We were still sooooo far away from there—the house was a WRECK and there were still things to pack, much less clean. ~sigh~

Since we knew we couldn’t leave and go to Convention Friday… my new goal was to work like a madwoman in hopes of getting far enough along that perhaps we could swing down for part of the Convention on Saturday! I worked in a frenzy all afternoon, all evening, and into the night. I got up Saturday morning and rushed from one end of the house to the other at record speed working, working, working, thinking perhaps if I got everything packed we could rush down to the last service that night. I knew the house would be TRASHED, but maybe we would be able to get it all cleaned up and loaded in time anyway… maybe.

I figured we needed to leave by 3:00 if we were going to make it for church, so my goal was to get far enough along by 2:00 or 2:30 that we could all clean up (sort of) and get dressed and head down there. Didn’t happen, or even get close. So then I rethought it all and decided that maybe if we could leave by 4:00… ha! In the end, we never did get “far enough” along to consider going to Youth Convention.

But we went anyway!!! Ha! We just couldn’t NOT go. How in the world can you be three hours away from a Church Convention and just NOT GO?! So we got everybody looking decent, packed one bag, and headed to Hatch. We got there ten or fifteen minutes before the evening service, enough time to say our howdies and see all the purty faces. :-) Brother Clarkson and Sister Shanna were both on to preach that night and I was greatly blessed by both messages—and so thankful to have been there. Brother Clarkson preached about the peace of God from the verse, “Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” It was sooooo good! ~sigh~ I miss Brother Clarkson already! He is SUCH a blessing and I just liked it best when I'm in church with him all the time. ;-) Sister Shanna preached about the truth of God and had lots and lots of good thoughts taken mostly from 1 Samuel about the lives of David and Saul. Good, good stuff.

After service we were THRILLED to hear that there were left-overs from the noon meal! WA-HOO!!! It would be wrong to go to Hatch and miss out on the food. I got the very last tamale. :-) Life is grand. We enjoyed visiting with the folks that night, mostly the Shulers. We hadn't seen them in nearly a year and were really wanting to see them before we moved so far away. Philip had called that afternoon (while we were getting dressed to go down there!) to beg James to pleeeeeease come to the last session of Convention. James never let on that we were going to do just that, so it was fun to surprise them. I just love Philip. :-) Anyway, I think it was sometime between midnight and 1:00 when we made it to the motel in Truth or Consequences.

We crashed and slept well, then got up and left a little after 8:00 to drive back to Albuquerque. We got to service there in time to catch the tail end of Sunday School and the CPMA service that followed. The Clarksons had stayed over to visit the local church in Hatch, and most of the others were missing at church that morning, too, so it was just our family and the three ladies—Sister Grimes, Sister Bailey, and Sister Galaviz. It actually ended up being really special because of that. When we first went to Albuquerque, they were the core group that we started with and they are all pretty special to us. We all said our goodbyes and shed a few tears—even Sister Galaviz, who has a heart of stone. HA! It’s so not true, but I have to give her a hard time because she reads my blog. ;-)

We left the church, grabbed a quick bite at James' other favorite restaurant (known to us—thanks to Sister Shanda—as “The Crusty Chili”), then headed home again to get back to work. THERE WAS SOOOOO MUCH TO BE DONE and the house closing was THE NEXT DAY! The Hays arrived at the house just shortly after we did and we all worked like the wind. It is amazing, however, at the things we seem to have time for when we’re all together. HA! I’m not sure how or why it started, but Joe—who prides himself in being “Houdini, the Second” and is actually quite good (due to his Jell-o like physique, no doubt) at wriggling out of most any knot—insisted that he could escape from anything Brother Dustin could dish out. Brother Dustin, being no more mature than Joe (ha!), can’t walk away from a challenge like that, so...



After just a few moments Joe had freed his hands and was untying his feet.





Brother Dustin can't handle being beaten by a nine year old, so he decided to try a different approach. Charlie found the entire situation most interesting.



Alas, not only has Brother Dustin crushed my son beneath a massive boulder (just had to throw that one out there once more), but now he has also crushed his spirit. Joe was beaten, unable to loose himself despite his best efforts. The picture is too washed out to be able to show them well, but he had horrible rope burns on his arms, something that seemed to deeply disturb Brother Dustin (he doesn't often experience guilt or regret, but I believe we saw some that day), mostly because he worries about Joe's granddad finding out. What if there are terrible consequences for such an action?! Ha!



Even though we were still not completely packed (just a few things left to do in the utility room and our closet, stuff like that), we started loading up the big truck. James and I had run into town on Saturday morning to pick it up and he did an AMAZING job backing it up beside the house, with only inches to spare. I was so impressed. Anyway, the loading started off pretty slowly as we arranged, then rearranged, then re-rearranged, trying to get the "Mom's Attic" space filled up just right. We all decided that I'm obsessive about cleaning the house, Jamey is obsessive about packing the truck tightly with not a single square inch of space unused, and Brother Dustin is obsessive about the way his arms smell (don't ask). Loading a moving truck is hard work, but we were distracted by how much fun we were having along the way. That's the ONLY way to move, let me tell you! Brother Dustin is always sporting some weird head gear of some kind. This afternoon he was wearing one of the kids' fireman hats and an arm cover from the couch.



I couldn't not include these clips...





Those poor kids never did get a chance to ride, only the dads. Ha!

We worked and worked and worked and finally stopped once it got dark and fed the kids whatever was left in the house--ham and cheese, chips, Spaghetti-o's. Once we got them put to bed, the work continued for the adults. James insisted on going to Subway to get sandwiches for the adults (we really were running low on things to eat around there!) and I think it was nearly 10:00 when we finally sat down at the table to eat dinner. That's a new record for me--even with the Hays there. Ha!

After dinner we played one game of I Buy, but were just too bushed for Balderdash. A true tragedy. James is the one who made the call and said we'd be sure to play it the following night.

Monday morning we got up early and packed up the last of the stuff that was still not packed yet and got busy cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Jamey is AMAZING. She did most of the cleaning while I was packing up our closet contents and stuff like that. She mopped all of the tile floors and I don't even remember what all else she did, I just know that I'm sooooo glad she was there! I did scrub behind and under the stove and the freezer and the fridge, though James didn't want to pull the washer out for me--so we'll never know what gunk we left for the new people. I HATE THAT!!!

Jason knew that we still had a ton of stuff to do, so he was kind enough to bring all of the closing papers out to us instead of having us come into town to sign them. Is there another realtor in the world who would do such a thing??? ~sigh~ He's the greatest. :-) We signed the papers that morning, knowing that funding would go through and we'd need to BE OUT by 5:00 that afternoon. I think we finished up the last of the loading and cleaning at about 3:30. I had cleaned out and scrubbed the fridge and freezer a day or two before, but left one precious commodity: Blue Bell ice cream. I couldn't bring myself to throw it all away, so some of us grabbed plastic spoons (left out for just such a purpose) and ate what we could before disposing of the rest.



Then it was finally time to pull out, for the very last time. We were too tired and still enjoying being with good friends to get too emotional about it. ;-) I wish I would have thought to take a picture before James starting pulling out the U-Haul so you could see how tight it was getting that thing in there!



We drove into town, my vehicle stopping by the thrift store to drop off a few things, then the library to return the last of our books. We got to the hotel, hauled our stuff in, cleaned up, then went to meet the Clarksons at a park. We let the kids play for an hour or two while the adults visited and Brother Clarkson tormented unsuspecting kids at the park. I'd explain, but it wouldn't be funny here--you just had to be there!

Sister Jamey snatched my camera and got busy taking pictures. These were some of the best. :-)

Sliding Aleah



Swinging Lillie



Sandy Katie



Racing down the slide



These next pictures CRACK ME UP. The guys were discussing "getting fat" and how their fat feels. I found it especially amusing with Sister Shanda sitting there. Usually girls go and feel the pregnant lady's belly... but I'd never seen GUYS feeling one another's stomachs! Until now, that is. Ha! Couple of weird-o's. :-)





The Clarksons. I love 'em. :-)



I can't recall what he had done, but I have no doubt Sam deserved this. :-)



I was trying to remember the sequence of tooth events, but I can't remember when they all started falling out. I know Sam lost one of his front teeth just before we went to New Mexico. Then while the Hays were at our house before Youth Convention, Sam "assisted" Isaac (use your imagination) in loosing his first front tooth. The tooth had been loose for quite a while, so that's good! Sam loves Isaac to death and calls him his "bud" or his "chum." I thought it was cool that they were missing a tooth at the same time. Then during Sunday School on Sunday morning Sam ripped his other tooth out. (Really, he worked on it all through service and finally--after a few bloody tissues--presented the tooth, along with a huge gaping smile.) We were all amazed when Isaac woke up on Monday morning with his other tooth missing! He had somehow lost it during the night. So here we have a picture of the boys each missing a tooth...



And a picture of them missing BOTH teeth! Ha! I love it. :-)



When we left the park we took the Hays to the Olive Garden for a big "THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP--YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!!" dinner. :-) By the time we got back to the hotel and got the kids to bed we were feeling pretty tired ourselves. It had been a long, hard week, you know?! We made it through I Buy, but James--who declared we would have a great time playing Balderdash because we had missed it the night before--was fading fast. He was sooooo tired and needed to be roused on several occasions. I threatened several times and finally had to follow through... I rolled him off the bed.



It took a great deal of effort and was great fun but, as you can see, didn't really achieve the desired goal. ~sigh~ It was pitiful. He fell asleep several times throughout the game. While we did laugh a lot, most of our laughing was AT James and his condition. It was still fun, but a great departure from the usual formula.

The next morning we had breakfast together (Sandia Courtyard has the best motel breakfast I've ever seen), then loaded up the vans and said our final goodbyes. Of course, there was plenty of nonsense going on the whole time, mostly in the form of a pine cone war among the boys. ("The boys" being anyone under age 10... and Brother Dustin.) Sometime through it all Joe accidentally nailed Sister Jamey with a pinecone in his attempt to hit someone else. Brother Dustin saw fit to help him make his wrongs right.



We kept trying to get a decent picture of the kids together, but to no avail. I'm not sure how I uploaded so many of them here (slip of the finger?), but as long as it takes to upload I decided I'd just leave them here!



These boys crack me up. :-)







Katie took this picture of all the adults for us. Actually, she took several but we had a hard time making James behave himself. This was the best one we got.



And the guys together. ~sniff~ It's so touching. I think Jamey might have a picture of the two of them that's a LOT better than this one. I was too slow pulling the trigger. ;-)



And the girls.



Wish I could remember what was so funny...



James and Brother Dustin have formed a... unique friendship over the past several years and it's breaking their hearts to be separated. They get all emotional and blubber about it all the time. Well, that's what Brother Dustin does. James just cuts a check. HA! (Long story--I'll skip that one.) Anyway, we were really and truly LEAVING this time, MOVING to Alabama never to return again. The guys' goodbye was so touching we asked them to reenact it for the camera.



Okay, so maybe touching isn't exactly the right word. ;-)

~whew~ And that's it! We loaded up, and headed to Alabama "for good." What a bittersweet thing it is! Bitter to be leaving such good friends (ALL of them out west)... but sweet to be going to the place God has called you to be, still working among His wonderful people. Blessed. That's the word that keeps coming to me. We are just so, so, so blessed. :-)

I'm All Caught Up!!!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

What a scream. I just thought I'd see what it sounded like to say such a thing. At this moment, it's absolutely hilarious. No, not really. I'm not laughing. I'm sighing. I don't think I'm EVER going to be caught up--and I'm not even referring to my blog. We all KNOW I'll never get or stay caught up on that.

I'm talking about the house. I don't know what my problem is, but I just can't seem to GET THERE. It's like I work and I work and I work, but no matter what happens I just can't seem to get the whole house whipped into shape and looking good all at the same time. I conquer one thing (the floors or the laundry or the kitchen or WHATEVER), but then while I'm working on the next project the thing I just completed seems to self-destruct. Of course, a house doesn't wreck itself so I can only blame the actual culprits--MY CHILDREN. I'm going to hurt them all. We go through waves of this every so often where it's like they completely forget anything they've ever been taught and they live like a bunch of piggly little hoodlums who've had no upbringing whatsoever. It makes me crazy!!! I've obviously failed in this department of child training. And it seems like it's worse right now than it's ever been before. Either that or I have an extra hard time keeping up with a house that has more than one floor. Nah... let's blame the kids. :-)

Sister Powell is right. Her rug is horrible. It needs vacuumed eight times a day. Of course, I'm more likely to vacuum every eight days than I am to vacuum eight times a day. HA! Seriously, you vacuum this thing and within the hour--even if everybody is sitting still and not walking on it, it seems!--it just starts collecting STUFF again and looks like you haven't vacuumed in a week. Crazy. So not only do I have piggly children, but I also have a rug that seems to serve the sole purpose of making me feel like a failure as a house keeper even when I haven't been--which is rare enough already.

Then there's the laundry. I'm a once-a-week launderer. Monday is laundry day. In theory (!), I get all of the laundry done on Monday and all of the ironing done by Tuesday, then I'm all caught up for the week and don't think about it again until the following Monday. Not anymore. For one thing, I'm paranoid about the humidity here (which really hasn't been all that bad as of yet) and I just know that our clothes (or worse, the Powell's towels) are going to get all mildewy and smelly and nasty if I don't stay on top of things. I've noticed that the Powells don't have a lot of towel racks or hooks around. Does that mean that you are supposed to wash the towels after each use instead of hanging them to dry and use again? Besides that, the kids sweat and stink here. They've been starting to get smellier even before we came here, but now I smell dirty, sweaty little boys all the time. And their clothes feel damp and soggy so I feel like I have to wash those, too. So does this mean that I need to make the smelly children shower, then wash all of the towels they just used as well as their soggy, smelly clothes... EVERY NIGHT?! Surely not! I'm simply not that good of a mother, I can tell you now! No, I'm the kind of mother who DOESN'T do that every night, but then feels like a dismal failure because I didn't (at least the laundry part--the smelly kids DO have to shower) and wonders if the clothes or towels will be okay until I get to them. ~sigh~ It means I feel like a failure all the time. Like there are things that should have been done today that didn't get done. It was much nicer when I KNEW I didn't need to do any laundry until the next Monday, but now I feel like I OUGHT to be doing it every day--so there's never any way to get caught up and feel like you're on top of that job. You're just stuck with it being undone day after day after day--even if you DO it every day, there's still more that needs done. ~sigh~ I hate jobs that don't end. I have to feel like I'm ACCOMPLISHING something, like I'm WINNING and when we come to the END I will have CONQUERED the job and it will be OVER. It makes me mad to lose to the laundry. ~sigh~ It's just so wrong.

One area of success for me: I've been cooking for my family again! Wa-Hoo!!! I don't know why, but I've had a terrible time cooking since we've been here. We were here for three or four weeks before going back to New Mexico and I only cooked a few times! It's like I felt lost in somebody else's kitchen without my normal stuff. Apparently I'm not nearly as flexible a person as I've always thought I was. Ha! Anyway, since going to New Mexico, closing on our house, getting back here, and moving all of my cleaning supplies in under the sink (ha!), I suddenly feel SOOOOO much more at home here and have been functioning more like I'm at home than like I'm a guest at somebody else's house. I made lasagna a few days ago, homemade chicken and noodles yesterday, and Joe's favorite tostada casserole tonight. It feels good and "familiar" to be eating some of the things our family is used to eating. I even made dessert tonight and though it looks nothing like the picture (!) it tastes great. I've never tried this recipe, though I clipped it out of a magazine a year or two ago. I can't remember what they're called, but it's a layer of chocolate cake-type stuff on the bottom, then marshmallow in the middle, then the top layer is melted chocolate chips, peanut butter, and Rice Krispy treats mixed together. You chill 'em, then cut them into bars. They taste GREAT, but the marshmallow part is pretty chewy. I'm going to blame Sister Powell's marshmallows for that. Ha! The recipe called for mini-marshmallows (they melt quickly and easily), but Sister Powell had some GIANT ones here (really, I'd never seen anything like it--"They've got food as big as your head!!!" Ha!) so I tried to melt them and use them. Now I know better for next time. ;-) They still taste great, you just have to chew more. Ha!

Hhmmm. I was supposed to be writing and catching up on our New Mexico trip. ~sigh~ Don't know if I'm up for that tonight. I have LAUNDRY to do, you know. Wet towels in the washer needing to be transferred to the dryer. This is my second load today because I let the kids go "swimming" in the creek this morning. We got home and I made the boys strip down to their ghandi's so I could hose them off, then sent them inside to finish getting cleaned up and dried off, then had Katie come around to the back of the house for her hosing. I looked for ticks while I was hosing them, but Joe still found two later on. The ticks here are really grossing me out. Worst of all, this afternoon when I was sooooo tired and laid down on the couch to take a nap and was just about asleep... I felt something crawling on me under my shirt. Bleagh!!!! It was a tick, of course. I can't decide which creeps me out more, FEELING one crawl across me, or finding one later on that's already attached itself. ~shudder~ Either way, it's beyond nasty!!! I'm about ready to go with Sister Washburn's suggestion and go buy some tick collars in bulk at Sam's Club--we can all wear them around our necks and each limb of our bodies! Charlie is, to date, the ONLY one we've never found a tick on, so that little red collar of his must do the trick. I WANT ONE IN THE WORST WAY.

Anyway, back to the kids' adventure this morning... They all begged to go "swimming" because it was "so hot" this morning. Truth be known, they've been dying to have a chance to get in the water with permission so they won't have to be punished for it later, like they have been every other time. ;-) I figured this was as good a day as any. You can look wa-a-a-a-a-ay down from the back deck of the Powell's house and see the creek, but I'd never actually ventured down there personally. And I had no intention of it. Ha! It's a very, very steep hill, covered in leaves the whole way (making it very slippery--and providing good cover for venomous snakes to lurk in, something else that creeps me out if I think about it too much) and not very easy to get to. But the biggest reason I'd never gone is because I knew I would then have to climb back UP the hill, something that looked simply dreadful! Ha! So when the kids wanted to swim this morning I told 'em to go to it and be careful. I put Joe in charge, instructing the others that they'd better listen to him if he said they were getting too far away or into a dangerous area or something like that. We only have two life vests, but they said they'd take turns. Besides, my kids are such chickens around water I knew they wouldn't be brave enough to go anywhere even slightly dangerous anyway. Still, after they left James said something like, "I can't believe we just sent our kids down there to swim all alone without any supervision." ~sigh~ So now I'm not only failing as a house keeper, I'm also failing as a mother. I hate feeling like a failure!!! So what did I do??? Exactly what James knew I would do when he made the statement. I went trudging (actually slipping, sliding and grabbing desperately for tree limbs) down to the creek to check on the kids. There. Now I've succeeded at something. I'm suddenly a good Mom. :-) Besides, I thought to take my camera with me for a change (wow!), so now I have pictures to share. Not great pictures, but pictures nonetheless. And a video clip, though I'm sure it's probably quite boring for anybody except a grandparent. The creek isn't nearly as exciting as the kids seem to think it is (it's probably two feet deep at it's worst right now--ha!), but don't tell them that. They think it's a terrific adventure. I was laughing real hard on the inside at the thought of them wearing those life vests in such calm, shallow water. They'd have to try real, real, REAL hard to drown down there, I'm telling ya'! After a good storm the creek transforms into a raging river and is quite dangerous, I'm sure, but at this point it's nothing more than an overgrown kiddy pool. Perfect. :-)

When I first got down there I found all three kids hanging out on this fallen tree, talking. I love catching them getting along when they don't know I'm watching. :-)

Had to edit this picture a bit because Katie swims in her "bloomers." Since she doesn't wear them in public (they are below her knees, but still not decent to be seen in by the masses) I can't very well post her wearing them on my blog. I'm always surprised at the pictures people post on the Internet. "...All things decently and in order" comes to mind. :-)



I took the Charles with me to check on the kids. The hill was too steep for him and I had to carry him down most of the way (I know--pitiful), but he loved it once we got there. This is what he looks like all the time around here--loose, but dragging a leash behind him "just in case."

I'm so disappointed that this picture is so deceiving. I took this while standing down at the creek, looking up at the Powell's house. In the picture it looks like a nice, gentle slope. HA. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This picture captures the angle of the hill a little better. Brother Powell set up a rope path to assist in climbing back up to the house. I'm sooooo glad--I would've had to crawl on all fours if it wasn't for that rope! Ha!

Here's the video clip, though most of you might think it a bit boring. The greatest thing about it is watching Sam shiver (his bottom and legs were cracking me up!) and listening to Joe try to talk through chattering teeth. :-)

And one last shot before I go. This was taken on our way home from church one night recently. Sam was sooooo tired, but it's terrible trying to wake him up when we get home, then get him coherent enough to change clothes so he can go to bed. So I was trying real hard to keep him awake. I talked to him, teased him, tickled him, and took several pictures of him hoping the flash would wake him. He tried real hard to stay awake and would giggle here and there at my efforts, but he just couldn't handle it. We lost him before we made it all the way home.

And that's it. Got another long day planned tomorrow. We'll get up early and try to leave plenty early (takes real effort for us) for church, then after morning service we've got appointments set up to see two For Sale By Owner houses, as well as do about eight drive-by's of other houses to check out the settings and areas and all that stuff. That should fill our afternoon until time for evening service, after which we'll have a hard time keeping Sam awake until we make it back home again. Maybe I'll just join him and nap, too. :-)

Alabama Ladies Retreat

I feel like I need to throw out a few disclaimers before we begin.

#1 -- This Retreat took place over two weeks ago. Anyone who knows me at all knows it's way too long for me to be able to recall very much about... except for a thousand tiny details that don't matter. I remember dumb stuff, just not things of any significance.

#2 -- I didn't touch my camera all weekend, therefore I have no pictures from Retreat to share, or even to help prick my memory and aid in my recollection of the happenings.

#3 -- My brain was way, way, way overtaxed at the time and I had been working on overload for a few weeks, thus hindering my already meager mental faculties.

~whew~ Now that I've squashed any and all hopes you might have had about reading a thrilling report, let's begin. :-)

I know that I went into Retreat on very, very little sleep, but I felt like the Lord had truly helped me. I still felt unprepared in some ways, but like God had so helped me in my prayers that it would all work out. And it did, of course. :-)

On Thursday morning James and the kids took me to meet Sister Bishop at the campground. We unloaded all of our Retreat stuff there, then James and the kids headed back home and Sister Bishop and I headed to Atlanta to pick up Emilee from the airport. She had been there several times before, of course, but we all know how Sister Bishop's mind works. Way too much like my own. She is not to be trusted! Ha! I took our GPS, "Sean" with us just in case and it ended up being a good thing. We did what Sister Bishop thought half the time and what Sean thought the other half and between the two of them we finally ended up in the right spot. It was especially entertaining because Sean has the voice of Sean Connery and Sister Bishop couldn't understand what he was saying with his Scottish accent, nor could she remember his name. She kept calling him “Charlie Brown” and every time he would say in that thick Scottish brogue, "Take the motorway" she would say, "The WHAT???" "The INTERSTATE," I would say, "He means INTERSTATE." We had that dialogue at least 5 or 6 times. Ha!

We finally got to the airport and ended up in the wrong parking terminal. We begged our way out of having to pay to exit (then we felt the extreme satisfaction of saving $2... even though we wouldn't have had to owe it anyway had we only been in the right place to begin with--ha!) and were able to get parked in a good location, walked in, and sat on a bench to wait for Emilee. We had only been there a few minutes before she showed up. It was so good to see her!!!

As we were wondering through the parking garage wondering where the car was (we did amazingly well and found it with very little effort), we happened to see Herbie! Or at least a new bug that is painted like him. My kid love Herbie, so I had to have Em take my picture with him. :-)


We had a nice drive back to Anniston, though I really don't remember much about it. I was really beginning to feel the 3:00am bedtime the night before! We went to a thrift store, but didn't find anything great. We had a good time, however, and wished Haley was there to make it a truly grand time. Then we went to Western Sizzlin’... that closes at 6:00!!! Can you imagine a restaurant like that closing at that hour?! We got there at 5:58, so they had to let us in (ha!), then we pretty much got to enjoy the joint all alone because they turned everyone else away.

We stopped by the grocery store on our way back to Sister Bishop's house. We got unloaded and Emilee and I talked for quite a while. It was so nice. Neither of us are really phone people, so we pretty much keep up with each other by reading one another's blogs. It was great to be able to spend some time with her.

After a little while we went to the living room and spent the rest of the evening visiting with Sister Bishop while cracking pecans and watching the VLB and WMB programs from this past Assembly. It was such a great night! We went to bed at a decent hour, I think--something I desperately needed.

The next morning Sister Bishop tried to serve us tar for breakfast. Okay, not really, but that's what it looked like! She meant to put a jar of muscadine jelly on the table, but instead she had grabbed a jar of overcooked muscadine hulls. I'm not kidding when I say it looked like we could go patch the cracks in the street with it, but it really didn't taste too bad. Still, we were relieved when she brought out the jelly. :-)

Sister Bishop took a picture of Em and me in front of her house before we left for Retreat that morning. It's so pretty there. :-)


Two other ladies rode with us to Retreat, so as soon as the arrived we got loaded up and headed that way. I thought we were going to be there plenty early. And we were... but so was everybody else! Ha! Brother Ridlespurge worked himself to death setting up the audio and video equipment as well as the projector (nobody told him we moved it all after he left, right???) and chairs for us, doing everything exactly as we requested and he even put up with all sorts of grief about the chairs not being sorted according to color. He's a great sport. We had a terrible time getting the PowerPoint stuff up and running the way we needed it to, but after a phone call to Jon (I HATE having to do that!!!) it finally popped up... and Brother Ridlespurge jumped out of his seat and made a run for it quick before anything else went wrong! Ha!

All the while we were trying to get all of that stuff worked out the ladies just kept coming in by twos or threes or fives, needing to register. I'd say over half of them were there BEFORE the listed registration time. Bunch of crazy people--what is it with being so timely?! I've never heard of such a thing! HA!

Before we knew it it was time to start the evening service. I felt a surge of panic before getting up front the first time. Well… and every other time. Ha! But then God would immediately and effectively calm my nerves and I was FINE, perfectly and completely FINE. Who knew that was possible?! I am always such a nervous wreck when I'm up in front of people--even people that I know, much less people I've just met. I get all trembly and my voice gets weak and shaky. It's miserable. But I didn’t feel the least bit nervous or uptight throughout the weekend, I just felt completely at ease and relaxed. If that’s not a miracle, then nothing is. :-) All I can say is: GOD IS FAITHFUL AND HE ANSWERS PRAYER--and I’m so, so, soooooo thankful!!! I had prayed sooooo much for this Retreat and I know that He flooded me with His help. I could feel it. I love feeling that. :-)

I felt pretty good about my devotions there. For the most part. Aside from the fact that I think I repeated myself over and over again. But I guess that’s what happens when you take one thought and split it up into four little mini-thoughts. I did learn that (unless God makes me) I am not "together" enough to direct a Retreat AND be in charge of the devotions--at least not without feeling scattered and pulled too many directions. It just felt like way too much--gotta pare back and do some more delegating next time. ;-)

In all of my praying about staff for this Retreat I never could settle on a song leader so I finally decided I would do it myself along with my devotions. But God knew that Emilee would be coming at the last minute and would so graciously take over that duty for me. :-) It was great and I was so thankful to have her help. All of the ladies got in there and sang all sorts of songs they'd never heard before. It was a blessing.

Sister Bishop was our "guest" speaker. What can you say about Sister Bishop??? She was SUCH a blessing to this Retreat!!! I just so love her Spirit, her honesty, her sincerity, her purity of heart and her desire to encourage others toward new heights in the Lord. I love her relationship with the Lord. I learn as much from her example and just being around her as I do by anything she says in her messages, though they are always so anointed.

And at this point I make my confession... I have no clue what she preached or what the teachers taught! Isn't that horrible?! I mentioned that my brain was on overload earlier. Every time I would sit still and try to concentrate on what was being said I could feel everything sort of seize up in my head--like an engine choking, sputtering, then dying. Ha! Unfortunately, when I direct a Retreat I get nothing out of it. HA! I don’t feel so bad saying that since Emilee told me the same thing is true with her! And it’s really a poor way of saying it—I DID get lots of out it and was so blessed. But my brain felt so overloaded with everything that I know I didn’t really soak up and retain much from the classes and sermons. But we recorded all of those, so I’ll be blessed by this Retreat in due time. :-) There was such a good spirit there and I felt so free in the Lord, such liberty in prayer and worship. Sister Cox and Sister Hawkins both did fantastic with their classes (that was my limited impression, but I also heard so from others) and Sister Bishop was amazing, as mentioned. The Saturday night service was especially powerful and the message full of some pretty big challenges concerning the good ole’ days and how worldly things have taken the place of the dedication and devotion to the Lord that used to bring down the power of God and amazing blessings that our generation has yet to experience. Good stuff. We had a wonderful time of prayer in the altar that night, too. I already feel such a love for all of these people and I love being able to pray with them and be one of them. I am so blessed.

Along with all of the spiritual stuff, we had a whole lot of fun at Retreat. Some people had fun until 5:00am in the morning that first night, I heard. ~ahem~ ;-) Several of us went canoeing during free time on Saturday. That was great, but would’ve been more fun if Emilee and I (me, really) could’ve gotten some of the other girls to race with us.

Hide-Away Time was something new to the ladies out here (they'd never heard of it before) and Fun Time was something new to me. I mean, we certainly had fun times at Ladies' Retreat out west, but never thought of actually devoting time on the schedule to it. :-) It was great though. I was "volunteered" to be part of the first game. It was a rather barbaric approach to the traditional game of musical chairs, only in this version they selected 6 young and healthy girls to play while the others sat in folding chairs encircling the arena observing much like the Romans would watch people be ripped to shreds by wild animals. The setting itself probably induced some rather aggressive and combative feelings among the participants. ~ahem~ Along with the setting, we were to use buckets instead of chairs... and we were blindfolded. While the music played, little fiends would sneak around rearranging the buckets and when the music stopped we were all to scramble around on the floor until we located a bucket to sit on, claiming it as our own and thus securing our place as winner (or at least not losers yet) in the game. Now, some people just don't seem to care anything in the world about winning. I don't understand people like that. Frankly, I didn't know I cared anything about winning this particular game either. In the beginning I was groaning on the inside and wondering why I was going to have to play such a game. But I figured it was only right to try to be a good sport. The music stopped that first time and I dropped to the floor and started feeling around for a bucket. I found one, but then realized there was somebody already sitting on it. Suddenly I cared about winning. There had been no premeditation about it, but I suddenly found myself raring back and ramming into the girl full force with my shoulder, knocking her off the bucket and onto the floor. I can honestly say I was just as surprised as everybody else--I don't know where it came from, it just HAPPENED. In the seconds to follow I found myself thinking, "I have no idea who else is playing this game... Who did I just knock onto the floor?... Did I just knock some old lady's hip out of joint or something?!" These were followed with thoughts such as, "Oh, no... I think I saw people holding cameras before this game started" and "James is going to KILL me." The girl who had been knocked to the floor ended up being just as competitive as I (~whew~ what a relief!) and we had a nice little wrestling match over that bucket until I felt it starting to rip in two and forfeited the steal. I found out later who it was and was a little embarrassed that I had taken out a girl who isn't even a Church member. Still, I think she was okay with it. She was sporting a pretty good carpet burn, but I think she acquired it later in the game. ;-) It ended up being a lot of fun, though I think we only played three rounds. They were either getting bored watching us or figured they should stop us before somebody got hurt. ;-)

Yes, I did tell James I took out the new girl at Retreat. I knew he'd hear it from somebody and figured I should give him the full version with explanation (not that he was impressed) before people started embellishing the facts. Ha! He handled the news better than I expected. I think perhaps he’s finally giving up on me ever behaving the way he wishes I would. ;-)

I've mentioned Emilee quite a bit already, but I just have to say again that I am sooooo glad she was there! I felt comfortable around all of the ladies at Retreat and had a great time, but I know it wouldn’t have been nearly so easy if it weren’t for having such a good friend at my side. Being in a crowd of people who I don’t know but who all know each other is about my worst nightmare, so it was WONDERFUL to have Em there. We did lots of talking throughout the weekend and I needed her there. In fact, I’m pretty sure I need her there every time… ;-)

Well, I'm sure there is a TON of stuff I didn't think to write about. But surely I've written enough. ;-) We had a truly great Retreat and I feel so blessed to be here. I feel like God is working me right into the place He's chosen for me in Alabama and I'm thankful to be one of 'em. I feel guilty saying things like that sometimes for fear my western friends will think I just don't care anymore! I love them all dearly and nothing will ever replace my love for those people or for the west in general. I will always love it and them in a special way, but I feel so blessed that God has chosen to take us away from everything I was so comfortable with and make me set down roots in a new and different place with new and different people. I can feel the growth in my own life already. I've never handled change well, but change is good for us. It feels fresh and like I'm having to depend and rely on God in whole new ways--and I love that! And I love the people here already--I so look forward to building good, strong, lasting relationships with them, too. I'm so grateful that they all just seem to open up and take us right in as if we've been here all along. If it wasn't so cheesy and from the Girl Scouts (which I hated being part of), I'd burst into song right about now... ;-)

Okay, that's it for one night. Next edition: Back to New Mexico!