Low Expectations

I hope that's what you have, because this is just a pitiful little not-really-a-real-post kind of a post. It's stormy tonight and there are warnings and sirens and all that stuff so all of the computers are unplugged for the night. I don't have enough juice to blog very long, but I thought I'd at least write something and acknowledge the fact that I still have a blog. :-) I won't try to play catch-up (there is wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too much to cover); I'll just tell you about my day. Rats. I can't do that without playing catch up. ~sigh~ Okay, I'll start with when we arrived back in Alabama. We got in to Bessemer mid-afternoon Thursday, rested at the church for a few minutes (we parked the truck there to await assistance unloading the piano), drove around to look at a house (ha—couldn’t even get to it because the road leading to it was sooooo... "primitive," shall we say?), got back to church in time to unload some things from the truck so we could easily get to the piano. Our help arrived right on time. Brother Ridlespurge, his grandson Kody, and Will Cox had graciously agreed to help us unload the piano. We were worried about the heat and humidity doing serious damage to the piano if we were to leave it in a storage unit through the summer (it is over 100 years old and it was my mom's and it's the one I learned to play on--all that stuff), so Brother Hopkins told us we could keep it in one of the front rooms at the church. :-) It makes me very happy to think that I can still play it on occasion, even before we move into our own house. I've really been missing it this past month! Anyway, with the guys' help we had the piano unloaded and put in the proper room in just a few minutes. We then drove to our storage unit and parked the truck there overnight. Knowing we wouldn't have anything to eat at the house upon our arrival, we picked up some Little Ceasar's Pizza. I don't know if I've ever eaten Little Ceasar's before. It tasted like a frozen pizza to me. (Not Totino's--one of the more expensive ones, unfortunately. Ha!) I'm not picky with pizza. I think I like 'em all. We had dinner, unloaded van, sorted and started laundry, and got the kids put to bed after a very long day. I'm not sure what came over me at that point, but I then emptied everything out from underneath the kitchen sink and scrubbed everything up real good, then took all of my own cleaning supplies and "moved in" under there. It's strange... Sister Powell has cleaning supplies here of course... but they're not my supplies! Ha! And strangely enough, I feel so much more "at home" now that I have my stuff and I know how to keep things clean. :-) Must be some mental glitch of mine or something. After a late night Thursday we were up and at 'em pretty early on Friday. We arrived at our storage unit at 9:00 to start unloaded the big truck and packing the rest of our belongings away. It was slow going—trying to strategically pack everything tightly into the unit to be sure we had room for it all. I was amazed (and embarrassed) at how many more boxes of stuff we set aside to bring to the Powell's house, along with the biggest mountain of blankets I've ever seen! We had used all of our blankets to wrap furniture and such to protect things during the trip, so we just threw them all into a massive pile as we were unloading the truck. I can't believe 5 people could ever need so much bedding! Ha! Two of the Dudley boys, Thomas and Joshua, showed up after a while. They were a HUGE help and sped things along nicely. And they were good sports. They lugged all that furniture off the truck and put it where I told them, then happily moved it however many times I changed my mind. ;-) They are good boys and we really enjoy being around all of them. And I really appreciate the fact that they are heafty, burly boys who seem to enjoy lugging things around. That will come in real handy. Ha! When we finished the boys offered to take all of the boxes to the Powell's house for us, saving us several trips in the van doing it ourselves. They managed to get everything in the back of their truck except the MOUNTAIN of blankets, which we were somehow able to smash and squish and shove into the van. The children had a hard time digging down to any seat belts, but we were able to get all of them in. :-) We gassed up and then took the Dudley boys to Jim ‘N Nicks (James’ favorite bbq joint around here) for lunch, stopped by Wal-mart for the bare necessities, and drove through DQ because it was Happy Hour--and I discovered the Blizzard of the Month. I can't remember now, but I think it was some caramel toffee something-or-'nuther and it was soooooo good. :-) We finally came home and managed to squeeze through the living room—where the Dudley boys had unloaded the rest of the boxes and where I already had five piles of laundry sorted and lying on the floor. What a mess! We didn't get home until 3 or 4 o'clock and I spent the rest of the day working on laundry, unpacking boxes, and cooking up the very last of our elk steaks. We had been saving them for our celebratory meal when we finally sold our house, but by then I had already packed up my kitchen and couldn't cook them in New Mexico! So we bought a cheap Styrofoam cooler and brought the two most important things in the freezer along with us: our last pack of elk meat and our roasted chilies from the the Sotos. :-) The elk tasted soooooo good and the gravy was perfect. Our family loves elk gravy as much as the elk and I think we probably enjoyed everything more that usual knowing it might be "our last ever." ;-) I was so exhausted by that point, but I managed to make myself clean the nasty kitchen before taking a long, hot bath. ~Aaaaaahhhhh~ I'd been needing one of those for days. Not to say I hadn't been showering, of course. ;-) After my bath I came back downstairs to straighten up some more... But not nearly enough! I did some more laundry then went to bed in a house that was still trashed. It's so hard to sleep in a house like that, but I just didn't have any gusto left in me to do anything about it. On Saturday we got up with the goal of getting to Convention EARLY for a change instead of being barely on time. I thought we were doing well. But then it was suddenly time to leave and we couldn't find Sam's dress shoes anywhere amidst the boxes and mess. I just couldn't remember where I had packed them in New Mexico. In the end, we finally discovered one small suitcase that hadn't been unpacked yet and that's where the shoes were. We were running a titch behind, but were still going to be okay. We rushed out to the van... only to discover that it was still LOADED TO THE GILLS WITH BLANKETS!!! Aaaaauuuuugggghhhhh!!! We had forgotten all about them. ~sigh~ Stress. Even if the kids could have gotten to the seat belts (a major chore the day before) we didn't want to go to Convention looking like a band of gypsies, so we all spent the next few minutes grabbing armful after armful of blankets and slinging them into the bed of Brother Powells' truck that was parked next to the van! Ha! I kept silently praying that it wouldn't rain while we were away! We didn't unload all of the blankets, just enough to be able to get everybody comfortably in the van and hopefully keep everything below window level. ;-)Somehow after all that we still managed to slide into just before being “late.” Amazing. We had a great Convention. Unfortunately, I'm too tired at the moment to remember anything about it! If I could look at a program I'm sure I could remember. The only think I know for sure is that Brother Hopkins had put me on for a 5 minute Ladies' Retreat boost, second or third thing in the morning. If you have to be up front, that there’s the way to do it. :-) I managed to stay awake and alert and was feeling rather chipper, I thought, for all the craziness, hard work, lack of sleep, and driving we'd been doing the previous two weeks. But by the time the afternoon session hit my adrenaline had started to fade! I ate half a container of little sour candies in an effort to stay awake. I was clerking at the time. I ought to go read those notes sometime just for kicks. Ha! After Convention was over that afternoon (two sessions--aaaaaauuuuggghhhhh--it's so crazy!!! Ha!) James had to go to a finance committee meeting. The kids played basketball outside and I visited with some folks there. The time actually passed rather quickly, so that was nice. We went to dinner at yet another bar-b-que place (one we hadn't tried yet) with the Hoffmans and the Washburns. I sat with Sister Tammy. I remember enjoying visiting with her... but don't ask me what we talked about--I haven't a clue! Way... too... tired. We got home that night and got the kids busy hauling all of the blankets in from the truck and the van. I folded most of them, but before I could finish I got one of those so-tired-I-think-I'm-going-to-be-sick feelings. So I got my pj's on and crashed, wishing I could sleep in the next morning. But the next morning was Sunday and it's always worth it to not sleep in on Sunday. God blesses the faithful. :-) We actually got up super early to make sure we didn't have any last minute catastrophes that would make us almost (or truly) late--we're so tired of rushing and being stressed out on our way to church! The kids did great with the new plan. Sam was wearing his suit, complete with belt, tie, and shoes—the things we’re always searching for at the last minute—by 7:00, I think! Ha! Everybody was ready way early (James was the last one, truth be known) and we left about an hour and a half before service, stopped to pick up some flowers for Sister Hopkins, and made it to church 15-20 minutes early. ~Aaaaahhh~ Sooooo nice. :-) After Sunday School, James leaned over to me and said, "I think we're in the wrong class." He got to looking around and noticed that the Hawkins had left and gone to another class--and everybody around us was old. I laughed heartily. Mostly because we've been at several Sunday morning services in Bessemer... and we've been in the wrong class every time?! And we didn't know it?! And nobody told us??? Ha! That's great. :-) We sit on the second row so we don't see who else is there--they're all behind us--so how were we to know?! If we have been attending the old folks' class and there is indeed a young folks class we're supposed to be in, well, I'll have to have a few words with the Sunday School Superintendent about it. HA! We went to McAllister's for lunch after service, then around the corner to get a couple more $4.99 haircuts for the boys. After that we punched four addresses into Sean so we could do some drive-by's. We're looking at cheap-o fixer-upper houses right now. We're not in a hurry to buy anything at this point, but we'd love to get something super cheap and be able to live in the Powell's lovely home while we do all the nasty work fixing up our own. ;-) We drove all over tarnation trying to get to the four different places. We’re really hoping to find the perfect location, then make whatever house happens to be there into what we need it to be. None of the four houses we saw today really struck us as the perfect spot. The one we liked the best was really probably too far away—a good 30 minutes from the church. Can be done, of course, but we would love to be a little closer. We’re hoping to be able to have lots of company if we’re closer to the church. :-) We spent pretty much all afternoon house hunting, but didn't find anything great. We are, however, discovering certain areas that we really like and others that we really don't like. We're learning the directions we would like to travel to get to church and the roads and traffic we really want to try to avoid. So if nothing else we're gaining knowledge that will enable us to make a better decision when the time comes. (You have to tell yourself things like that otherwise you feel like a dummy for wasting all afternoon and all that gas. Ha!) We took the van to the $5 Car Wash with the super-duper vacuums (just about sucks the carpet out of your vehicle--I love it!) and got it all cleaned up before heading back to church. The Masons did their Family Camp boost at church that night. I love how much they love Camp. :-) I'm super excited about Camp, but we're trying to figure out how to make everything work for our family. We've only ever been to a Family Camp where everything actually works family-ish--the families stay together and the parents are responsible for their own children. Our Camp here is a family camp in the sense that it's open to all ages, but from what I can gather it really functions like a youth camp with all of the kids sorted by age group and under the supervision of a counsellor. That flurbs me out a little bit. Okay, it flurbs me out a whole lot. Ha! I have been asked to be a counselor for the teen girls at Camp. That sounds scary and exciting all at once! No, I really am pretty excited about it, though I have no idea how to be a counsellor. I'm sure I'll catch on. And I’ll try to remember to act like the adult there. ;-) We all visited after church for quite a while, got home late again, folded a few more blankets, and crashed. This morning I got up and hit it hard! I had had all I could take of an outrageously messy house. I unpacked all of the boxes upstairs, moved all of James' and my clothes into the closet and dresser (we just now brought our stuff from NM--we had been living on "just enough" clothes for the past month or more), brought all of the empty boxes downstairs, filled them with the folded blankets, and hauled them down to the basement. I have no idea how many boxes were sitting around the house today, but I got them all unpacked. Wa-hoo!!! I have done untold loads of laundry today (I intentionally didn't count--wasn't sure I could handle it), vacuumed the rug and swept and mopped all of the wood floors on the main level. ~Aaaauuugghhh~ I also picked three ticks off of children today (as well as one from the neighbor's dog), and did a thorough examination and combing over of everybody before their showers tonight. The kids will be showering every night for the rest of their lives, I think. I can't handle it otherwise. It's hot and muggy already (though I'm sure the natives would laugh and tell me that it is not) and the kids get all sweaty and smelly, besides the fact that I can't bear the thought of them having tick on them somewhere unnoticed! So we will have nightly tick inspections and showers around here. ~Bleagh~ The ticks creep me out royally. We've found dozens of them on us already--everybody but Charlie Dog has had at least one. He got a bath tonight too though, just in case. ;-) Along with all of the unpacking and hauling and housework, I managed to get the kids schooled today--something they've been without since before our New Mexico trip. It feels so good to have accomplished so much!!! And now I am sooooo tired. James had some running around to do in town tonight, so the kids and I celebrated our productivity with Totino's and popcorn (for them) and Blue Bell (for me). Makes it worth it all. Now I'm going to fall into a freshly made bed with nice soft, freshly washed sheets while wearing my nice smelling freshly washed pj's after a nice, hot shower. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ It will surely be a good night's sleep tonight. :-) In case you were wondering, the storm ended and I plugged my computer back in. I never would've been able to type so much otherwise. ;-) I'll try to back up and cover the two weeks I skipped sometime real soon.