Okay, let's pick up where we left off last week...
After going to bed at 1:30am, being awakened by the dog at 2:00am, then getting up at 6:00am to load the luggage into the van, clean the house a bit, make a green bean casserole and pull together all of the loose ends, we actually left on time for church yesterday morning! Wa-Hoo! We had planned to leave 15 minutes early and that effectively maneuvered us into leaving at the regular time--which worked out fine. Got to play those mind games with yourself every now and then if you have any chance of succeeding.
I enjoyed teaching Zack and Devon in Sunday School. Sam is now eight. That's old enough to go to the other class, though Brother Washburn said he could stay in the younger class if he wanted to. He thought he'd give it a shot over with the older kids and I assume he did okay. I was astounded to hear that he actually read the key verse aloud (can that be true?!) and I never heard from Brother Will that he caused any problems, so I can only assume that all was well over there.
Brother Hopkins preached on "A Thankful Heart" and I felt great freedom and fervency in worship. Love services like that. :-) After service we all headed to the back to enjoy our Thanksgiving pot-luck. There was sooooooo much food and it was all sooooooo good. Great food and fellowship. We sat with Brother & Sister Dudley and had a wonderful time visiting with them.
We left earlier than we would have liked, but we really needed to get on the road. We arrived about 40 minutes late for service at Zion Hill. As soon as we walked in the door I could feel the presence of the Lord, there was such a beautiful spirit. We slipped in the door and took a seat near the back, hoping not to be too big of a distraction. They were having communion and feet washing and I was so, so, so blessed! Folks don't seem to do that as often out here as they do out west and I do miss it. I'm so thankful that Jesus set that "as oft as ye do it" thing in place so that all of these years later we can take part in such a beautiful and sacred service. It reminds us of the awful price He paid for us and of our responsibility to truly partake of Him--in suffering and self-sacrifice and service. I love being reminded of those things through communion service.
We went to Fazoli's afterward with Mom & Dad and the Pimentels and had a great time visiting--and trying out the fancy new Coke machine that will mix 100's of different flavors! Well, I WOULD have enjoyed it if Mom hadn't busted it just before my turn. ;-) We had a lot of fun with Brother Oscar and Sister Amanda. They are such great people and we loved being able to visit with them--and learn that Sister Amanda's nickname is "The Hammer." HA! Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? ;-)
We went back to the house and got the kids bedded down, then Mom and I stayed up talking until way, way too late. But it was great. :-)
The next morning we drove the hour and a half up to Knoxville to go to this place where they sell wallpaper really, really cheap. Did you know that a roll of wallpaper can retail for upwards of $30? Way upwards of that in some cases! CRAZY. I've always considered paint the cheap and easy fix--and we'll be using lots and lots and lots of it at the Monstrosity one of these days. But the wallpaper at this junkyard of wallpapers (it's a salvage store, full and random and filthy, that sells just about everything--trim, faucets, doors, mirrors, light fixtures, knick-knacks...) you pay a whoppin' .99 cents for a double roll of wallpaper! WHOA! I'd never heard of such a thing! Naturally, most of the papers there are dog ugly. But some are not quite as horrid, some are decent, some are actually really nice. It was a battle not for the faint of heart, but after about two hours of looking and thinking and looking and thinking and looking and thinking we finally took our booty to the check-out table. The kids were soooooo miserable. I know they were bored out of their minds, but we really needed to do this. They were troopers right up until the end. That's when the whining intensified considerably and you could find Joe banging his head on the shelf saying, "Mom... just... paint!!!" Ha! At the end of the venture, we walked out with 32 rolls of wallpaper... for $32!!! WOW! I still can't get over it. Do the math. If you were the kind of crazy person who would actually pay retail prices for wallpaper throughout your entire house (do people like that really exist? I'm not sure I know any of them), it would add up to over $1,000 worth of paper--for $32. I've thanked God for it many, many times today. We're really needing to cut some corners and save everywhere we can on the Monstrosity and this ended up being way, way, way cheaper than paint. Of course, after those two hours of racking my brain trying to make decisions on what to buy, I can't remember anything that we got! I'm hoping that when we get home we'll still be happy with the decisions and not look at it and say, "Who picked THAT out--that's horrible!" Ha! But even if it is... it was CHEAP. And NOTHING has peacocks on it. Or pheasants. :-)
When we FINALLY left that joint we drove on to Pigeon Forge to tour the Titanic museum that James has been dying to go see. It was really, really, really neat. Definitely worth visiting. It takes the information you know about the Titanic and changes it from a historical event into a heartbreaking tragedy that happened to real, live people. You learn so much about some of the individuals on board--you're even given the identity of one of them at the beginning and learn a little about them, then at the end you learn if "you" lived or died. My name was Alice Johnson, I was 26 years old from Illinois, and I was on board with my four year old son, Harold, and my 18 month old daughter. That's as far as I read on my card before the tears came to my eyes! Can you imagine being on that boat with your two children at that age? Joe was also from Illinois, James and Katie were from England, and Sam was from Poland or someplace. There were little platforms to climb on that resemble the deck and railing of the ship tilted at different angles--so you can try to hang on and keep from sliding off, as the passengers were trying to do as the ship tilted more and more before going down. To kids it's like a playground, but when you're thinking about the REALITY of it all it's scary to imagine. At another place you are in the dark surrounded by cold air and even a huge chunk of "iceberg" that you can touch. Then you can lean over the railing and put your hand into the icy water, the same temperature as the water was on the night the Titanic sank. I held my hand in for as long as I could stand it, which wasn't long--it is sooooo painful. I just cried as I thought about what a horrible death it was for all of those people. Everything was just so touching, as lame as that sounds. There were wonderful stories of heroism and it's difficult to imagine in our day and age that it was the common thing for men young and old to willingly and instinctively lay their lives down with the motto of "women and children first." The founder of Macy's department store was on board, along with his wife and her maid. Before the ship went down he tried to put his wife on one of the lifeboats. She took her coat off, put it on her maid and told her to get on the lifeboat, then went and rejoined her husband on the deck and said, "We've been together all these years. Where you go, I go." They were last seen sitting in chairs on the deck, holding hands. There was the story of Reverend Harper who was last seen leaning on the railing, pleading with a young man to give his heart to God. He finally took his life jacket off and tossed it to the young man before the ship went down. It just makes you think about all of those people and what they truly experienced. How many were saved and how many were not? How many perhaps gave their hearts to the Lord in those last moments as the band continued to play "Nearer My God, to Thee"? It's just so thought provoking and it led to lots of discussion with the kids. What if a man had been a hardened sinner all his life, but cried out to God and found His mercy in the last few minutes of his life before freezing to death in the sea? How blessed he would be to die such an awful death but then go to heaven--far better than surviving, then living to a ripe old age and dying and going to hell. Anyway, it's an amazing experience, though much more sobering and solemn then your usual museum! In fact, after experiencing everything there was to experience I was almost offended at the gift shop. After feeling just a tiny bit of what those poor people experienced, it seems so distasteful (to say the least!) to have a gift shop full of key chains and mugs and t-shirts that say "I got hit by an iceberg!" It was nearly disgusting to me. In any case, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are very glad that we went. For the record, James is the only one who didn't survive. The rest of us survived, which goes way against the percentages.
You're not allowed to take pictures inside the museum (something about copyright privileges), so here are a couple from the outside.
When we left the museum we went walked around some gigantic Christmas village place, then went to the Old Mill for dinner. Here's Sam with a giant nutcracker. He's always thought they were so cool.
Honestly, I was still feeling too solemn and reflective after the Titanic experience to feel very much like looking at gay and sparkly Christmas decor or eating at a beautiful restaurant! In the big scheme of things, eternity is all that matters. The "extras" that we enjoy are nice and I don't want to take them for granted, but they're not necessary.
We stopped at a Christian bookstore outlet and enjoyed looking around there for a little while before stopping at our motel for the night.
We spent the next day driving north to Pennsylvania and arrived at James' folks' house just after 7:00pm, I think. Can't remember much about that night, but I remember that I spent most of the next day working on Christmas cards! That was my job while we were there. I had to get that all taken care of while we were away and unable to work on the Monstrosity! It's amazing how FUN it used to be to send out Christmas cards... and how much WORK it is now! Ha! It's just become too overwhelming and not nearly as personal as I would like.
I did make a run to Peight's with James one the morning. I love that little Amish store. :-) Got stocked up on poppy seeds, Christmas sprinkles and a few other odds and ends. It was dreary and rainy in Pennsylvania, so the kids weren't able to play outside much like they usually do. They still had fun playing with all the stuff Grandma keeps for them. And watching way too much Bonanza.
We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner. Everything turned out fantastic and James and I especially enjoyed his Mom’s homemade stuffing. I had her teach me how to make it so I can make it myself sometime. As if I’ll remember how. ;-) I didn’t really miss anything DURING dinner, but a few hours later when I strolled into the kitchen to grab something to eat I REALLY missed having hot rolls and pea salad—the two left-overs that I snack on for days after a holiday meal!
Most of us hadn’t finished eating Thanksgiving dinner before Katie and Sam cleared their plates, ran to the bedroom, then quickly reappeared wearing their Christmas shirts and singing "Jingle Bells." Ha! I keep trying to teach them to enjoy and appreciate Thanksgiving instead of jumping into Christmas mode ahead of time, but Thanksgiving is still just an interruption—a speed bump of sorts—to their Christmas celebration! Joe joined in after dinner (at least he waited until we were finished!) and played Christmas music on his guitar, then helped Katie and Sam make decorations out of construction paper to hang on the window. I love seeing them so excited and having so much fun.
James spent a lot of time down in the basement while we were in Pennsylvania. He gathered up some of his heathenistic Thundercats toys (can you believe our parents let us watch that stuff?!) because they are apparently quite the collector’s items and he’s found some buyers for them. Then he set up the Christmas village with tons of lighted houses. It looks great, but you have to go to the basement to see it because there’s no room upstairs! Ha! In the evening he hauled out the Christmas tree and all of his Mom’s decorations and got busy—with willing helpers in Katie and Sam. I spent most of my day working on Christmas cards and it did help me get a little more into the spirit when the kids cranked up the Christmas music. I do love Christmas music. :-)
Though I am an anti-Black Friday shopper who thinks people are out of their gourd to get up at ungodly hours to go stand in the cold in the middle of a maniacal mob of people who rush into stores to fight over STUFF... James did take me to town to do some shopping that day. We went to the Wallpaper Barn. Ha! We were, of course, the only ones there. :-) We finally found the perfect border for Joe's room--and it was on a 20% off Black Friday sale. Joe LOVED it.
When we got home I worked and worked and worked some more and finally finished up on the Christmas cards. Way, way, way too many Christmas cards.
We left the next morning at about 8:00am and drove to Cleveland. There were a few accidents just before Knoxville and it took FOREVER to get through there. It slowed us down by an hour and a half or more, so we didn't get to Mom & Dad's house until just after 8:00pm. But when we got there the house was all lit up with Christmas lights that were reflecting in the pond and it was sooooo pretty! I was shocked to walk in and find that Mom had the whole house all decorated and looking GREAT for Christmas. WOW! I wasn't surprised by the deer steaks that were waiting for us. I had requested that. ;-) They were soooooo good. And there was left-over pea salad and hot rolls from Thanksgiving! Wa-Hoo!!! And cherry pie! I was too full to have any pie that night, so I had a piece for breakfast the next morning. :-)
Mom and I stayed up way too late talking, but that's what we do. I love it. :-) James and I drove to Geraldine for service in the morning. Brother Grimes was there to do his CPMA boost and I was so blessed by it! It was wonderful. He preached about the rich young ruler who lacked "one thing." It wasn't anything sinful in his life, just something he was unwilling to give up when the Lord asked him to. Brother Grimes brought in the Advice to Members and how God--through His government--has asked us to give up some things through those advices. And it's not always a matter of whether or not something is a SIN. Are you willing to give it up just because Jesus asks you to, or not? And of course, there are reasons--solid, biblical reasons--for each piece of advice. Anyway, it was so good and thought provoking.
We enjoyed a dinner in the fellowship hall after service--that I think Sister Carr put on all by herself! It was great and we enjoyed the fellowship.
We drove back to Bessemer, stopped in at the Monstrosity for a few minutes, then went on to church. The Washburns' niece, Angie, who got saved a few weeks ago was baptized that night and it was such a blessing! It was a beautiful service.
We didn't home until very late that night. It was raining so we didn't unload everything from the van, just what we needed. We got to bed very late that night, then headed to the Monstrosity the next morning. That means...
The Monstrosity: Day Thirteen
It seems crazy to me that it's only been thirteen days of work. It feels like we've been there non-stop in the five weeks since we bought that house! Anyway, my day started like they all do. With scraping. That's who I am. That's what I do. I am a scraper. I scrape. I was working on the kitchen cabinets this time though, so it made it feel new and exciting. The impromptu decision was made as we were in the tool aisle at Wal-Mart mid-morning to buy an electric palm sander. It is my new best friend. :-) The painting in this house is horrendous. Just blobs and globs and streaks and runs and drips EVERYWHERE--and most of it is in gunky high gloss white. ~Bleagh~ I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the cabinets with the sander, first with some "paint stripping" sandpaper, then some "leveling" sand paper. It worked GREAT and the cabinets will paint up sooooo much nicer now!
Brother Hopkins came to do some more mud work, so that's exciting too. We're getting closer to paint every day! Although we have come to a sad realization. We're never going to have everything ready to paint in this house. It's just not humanly possible. There is always more and more and more and more to do. We're just going to have to QUIT one of these days, call it "good enough" and start painting. Maybe soon. Maybe not. Time will tell!
We had to quit working and clean up a bit to meet the Ridlespurges at the church at 6:00pm so we could spend a couple of hours searching through the state files for information that they'll be needing at the committee meetings in Moulton this weekend. It was a miserable job (!), but at least we had good company to make it bearable! Then we had good Mexican food with the good company. :-) Then we went back to the Monstrosity to sleep on the hard floor again. I doesn't make for a very good night's sleep, but it's doable every now and again.
The Monstrosity: Day Fourteen
I spent most of the morning CLEANING. The kitchen counters were covered in clutter and trash and supplies that all needed sorted out, as did the cabinet and drawers where we're keeping all the tools. We can't find ANYTHING and it's a royal pain to have to go searching for something in a house this large! Ha! So I thought it would help if we got it all cleaned up and sorted. It felt GREAT to get that done. We ended up at Sherwin Williams and then Lowe's--which took way too long. And in the end we spent nearly $300 and had forgotten the thing that was our REASON for going in the first place! ~sigh~ Remodeling is tough! Ha!
We got back to the house and I spent the rest of the afternoon sanding 24 cabinet doors and three drawers. Kody and Michael came over and ripped up the kitchen floor. Again. They already did that once, you know. The first time it was a layer of cushy, padded linolium. Today we had them bust up and remove the next two layers--another linolium that was glued down to a wood floor. There are two more layers of linolium (that's right--there were five layers of flooring in there), but we're not removing them. With the other layers gone it is now perfectly level with the dining room floor, meaning we can now have a continuous floor from one room into the next instead of having a divider and a higher and lower floor. Makes me very happy. :-)
Here's a picture of the "new" floor after the other was removed by hard working Kody and Michael. They have yet to wham the hundreds and hundreds of staples flat though. That's a job for another day. ;-)
And here's my new favorite toy. :-)
We came home tonight, unpacked (we pack and unpack every other day now, it seems), I took a hot shower, started a load of laundry, then sat down at my computer with some hot peppermint tea and a handfull of chocolate chips. Because it's what I needed. :-) Life is good and I'm still having fun working on this crazy house of ours. Most days. I sometimes think, "Who's the moron who prayed for this house?! This is insane!!!" And I regularly look forward to the day when we can downsize and get something smaller and more... us. But I believe that God opened the doors for us to have this house and I am so thankful for it. Someday... some glorious day... we'll be finished with it and it will be a GREAT house to live in. I really do love it, extra spaces and all. And it's fun to work hard on something and know that you're improving it and making a good investment. We're not just making it nice so we'll enjoy living in it, we're making improvements and increasing the value of the home. And it just feels good and "wise" or something like that. I get the same kind of feel-good rush that I used to get hauling firewood when I was a teenager. It just feels good and old fashioned and wholesome and invigorating. Love it.
Of course, next time I blog I will probably be back in "WHY DID WE BUY SUCH A HUGE HOUSE THAT NEEDS SO MUCH WORK?!" gear. ;-)
We are home tonight, but will be spending tomorrow and Thursday night back at the Monstrosity. So no blogging. It's not my fault.
By the way, did I fail to mention that my children are gone again?! We left them with Mom & Dad on Sunday. We'll pick them up this coming Sunday. Katie and Joe were thrilled. Sam was miserable. Ha! He doesn't much care for being away from his Mom and Dad, but it's good for him. They all seem to be having a great time--and I'm so thankful that they're able to spend time up there with their grandparents. It's wonderful. Of course, I have to fight off the waves of guilt over having left them for the second time in just a few weeks! We're trying to work, work, work at the Monstrosity this week while we know they're getting attention from Grandma. We've been too busy to really miss them, but I saw the picture of them on my screen earlier and thought, "Aw... those are my kids! Look how cute they are. I love 'em. When are they coming home?" :-)
One more thing... James got an e-mail from the collector dude and he's going to pay $150 for those Thundercats toys. Can you imagine?! James has a few more pieces and he's going to inquire as to how much the guy might pay for them, too. So with that little burst of extra $$$ and a few other agreements, I was able to sweettalk my husband into re-flooring the foyer area of the house where the hideous slate floor is! AND he found a flea market where he can buy trim super cheap so he has also agreed to buy chair rail and door trim for the kitchen. WA-HOO!!! Those were two HUGE accomplishments for Day Fourteen. :-)
A few random pictures of Charlie before I go. He "bites" at air. With his head out the window, at a blow dryer, standing over a heater vent--whatever. It's GREAT. :-)
Katie must have taken this picture. I just found it on my camera card tonight. Almost makes me miss the dog, too. Yes, my mom was crazy enough to DOG SIT again, too! Hahahahahaha!
2 comments:
So happy for the Day 14 accomplishments. =) Just keep ripping away and eventually you will get to the point the improvements will start SHOWING. It always has to get uglier before it can get better.
We're having fun with the kids. We went to Band Service last night and Joe provided the music. It's great! Katie sang a special. They're both on program for tonight's special Kid's Service at Zion Hill. --And the dog is keeping us entertained at home.
I still say you should take a mattress to the big house. It sure would make sleeping on the floor a lot more comfortable!
I would LOVE to take a mattress there! But we can't get TO the mattresses without moving all sorts of other stuff. I would love to move EVERYTHING up to the Monstrosity and store it in the garage. I have a feeling we'd find lots of tools and supplies and PAINT SWATCHES that we could really use at this point in the remodel! And of course I'd sleep much better at night. :-)
I love it when we go somewhere and Joe provides the music. A ministry for my nine year old! And Katie's singing is such a help when we're somewhere and James is gone and nobody else can sing well or loud. We can't get Sam to do anything publicly, so his ministry must be one of those behind-the-scenes things. :-)
Post a Comment