More of BTI

Our Alabama Banquet was on Monday night. I remember when I was in BTI as a teenager. I hated all those crazy banquets! We never could understand why you would go to BTI and actually have a chance to be with other Church folks from all over the country--old friends and brand new ones--and then designate a night to go out with... all of the people you're with all the time at home?! That's nuts! ;-) We never had one of our own and we finally began crashing some of the "big" state's banquet, like Tennessee or North Carolina. So that's sort of how we approached the Alabama Banquet this year. More of a free-for-all rather than a strictly-Alabama folk thing. :-) As it turned out, aside from a few western tag-alongs :-) everybody there was either from Alabama or formerly from Alabama--the Hawkins, the O'Dells and the Womacks. It was GREAT.

We wanted to continue on with the BTI Box tradition, but we didn't have to mail it this time--we just took it to the Banquet and hand-delivered the goods. :-) We weren't sure how it would go over (we only know how to put together super corny gifts), but apparently it was a hit. I don't remember all that we got, but I stole some pictures from Facebook (that's not illegal, is it?) and had a few of my own, too, so here we go.

This is Taylor and Tarin Puckett, the pastor's kids from Red Bay. We got him a bib because he was our youngest BTI-er from Alabama. He wore it with pride, as you can see. (I love teenagers.) We got Taylor a glow stick wand because... well, because we don't know her well enough to know WHAT to get her--but who doesn't like glow sticks?! :-)



We got the clown nose and glasses for Matt Barnes because we DID know him well enough.



Everybody had fun with the glasses. :-)



Sister Tammy got the Annual Ammons Disguise this year. --It made the rounds too, as you'll see in a moments. We got googly eyes for everyone to glue to their eyelids when they are too tired to stay awake in class, so their instructors won't know. ~ahem~ Sister Tammy actually taped them on to her own reading glasses--they looked great! Ha!



Okay, I know there are a lot of pictures of the same thing here, but I just couldn't decide what to post and what not to! I'll start by a video clip that's not nearly as great as all of the things I didn't record, but still enjoyable...



Brother Chris was cracking everybody up, but I really thought Brother Rob was going to hurt himself. He got to laughing sooooo hard. His face turned beet red and he was almost completely out of his chair, leaning over on Sister Missy, gasping for breath. HA! It was so great! It was hilarious!!!











After a while, Brother Matt decided to take a turn. He was giving his best Brother Ammons impersonation here, rehearsing his testimony about being kidnapped in Africa. He does a GREAT Brother Ammons--as you can tell from Brother Chris' response. Ha!





We had a great time. I'm pretty sure there wasn't quite so much cuttin' up at the other state banquets. HA!

The next morning we got the whole family up and headed in for BTI morning devotions. :-) We all hung around Headquarters for a while, just visiting and snooping around the "exciting" classrooms. 1st Term and LPD classes were right next to each other, meaning that if one class started to pray and get loud the other class couldn't hear their instructor and continue. So they'd just start praying too and before long somebody would through open the door and everybody would be in one classroom all together, praying. This particular day it lasted for two or three hours, I think.

There are a lot of things I could say about this picture. I was so blessed by this entire prayer time. I hate to post this where I know he will see it (skip this part, D.T.!!!)... but I was just so, so, so blessed to see our VLB leader setting such a wonderful example for all of our young people of praying and persevering until the victory came. Brother Dustin stayed in this one spot for hours, seeking and seeking and seeking--because he was in need of something from the Lord. It's so easy to pray a little while and then get up or go pray for someone else, but we've got to learn how to pray things through--and I love that God is giving us leaders in The Church of God who don't just tell us what to do, but show us--without even realizing it. And, by his own testimony, Brother Dustin got saved that day. ;-) I, for one, am still waiting to see the fruit of it but...



There was a different spirit entirely in this room. HA! I can't expound, but these girls had come to Mom's office to beg--I mean really beg--for her to help them with some... personal problems, we'll say. Ha! Of course, Mom could do nothing for them, so what were they to do?



Blame the next guy to walk into the room, of course! Ha! I wish I could have gotten a picture when they were glaring him down as he approached the room. :-)



James had some running around town to do that day, so the kids and I just hung out at Headquarters until after lunch. Katie is SUCH a people person (she has all the social needs I ever did, only with none of the inhibitions!), so she was great with it. Joe was beginning to get bored and itching to get back to Granddad's house to fish some more, but then Jimmy and Daniel Cox showed up. That fixed that. :-) They went into the church and jammed on all the instruments for a while. Sam tagged along and seemed to have a great time, as well.

That night we went to Golden Corral with the western folks for their Banquet. It wasn't nearly as exciting as the Alabama Banquet had been (ha!), but that's probably just because we'd all worn ourselves out the night before laughing so hard!

We got back to the house decently early that night and everybody had a chance to enjoy a nice evening outside.

Joe and Isaac hung out on the swing for a while with some Calvin & Hobbes books.



Sam and Aleah took turns pulling each other up and down the hill. :-)





And pretty soon the whole crowd was out there, fishing, riding scooters and wagons, sitting on benches and visiting, just whatever.



Some of the fishermen...





And some of the riders...



Though a great many of you have already seen this video, it seemed worth posting again. :-) Good ole' Matt.



This was taken immediately following the accident, before his eye swelled up and blackened. And really, the picture doesn't show the severity of the cuts and scrapes either. But no matter--it was just another excuse to pose for Matt!



In the meantime, the others kept on fishing.



And giving rides to a VERY compliant poodle (he amazes me!) with Head Wound Barnes looking on.





Charlie just amazes me. These girls held him and toted him everywhere all week long. You'd think he'd get tired of it and start getting testy. He did run and hide a few times (ha!), but most of the time he'd follow them around and even go looking for them. And he'd just happily put up with whatever they had in mind for him, seemingly enjoying all the attention. What a good dog. :-)





James and Matt took Sam and Isaac out for a ride in the paddle boat--always a hit with the kids.



And that's about it for that night. This video clip was taken a few days later, as a follow up to the "Magnificent Matt" clip. :-)



That night Brother Dustin, Sister Jamey, Brother Chris, Brother Matt, James and I all stayed up and played I Buy. It was great, but not nearly as great as all of the impersonations that went on. I laughed until my sides were just aching. I love that. :-)

Wednesday morning James got up and headed back to Alabama. On his way he got a phone call informing us that our plans to buy that house were in serious trouble. Hhmmm. This is an interesting turn! I won't bore you with all of the details right now, but in the end: tomorrow is June 15th, the day we are set to close. We haven't heard anything yet informing us that matters have changed and that we will be able to buy it. Somehow I still feel like this is the right place and I expect that God will work it out one way or another. But we all know better than to trust in feelings. :-) God knows best and we just keep praying and putting it in His hands, trusting that He'll work all things according to His perfect will.

And it looks like this is where I run out of steam for the night! I'll finish up one of these days. :-)