Had to post some of Joe's artwork from the past week. I hope the pictures will enlarge enough for you to read the words...




Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Christmastime!

It has officially arrived for the Horne family--or at least it will have arrived in about an hour when we get in the van and head to Cleveland to spend the weekend with Mom & Dad. :-) I don't really have time to post, but thought I'd stop by to say Merry Christmas and say that I have been taking blog notes (ha!), so there's plenty to write about when I get the chance! I spent five or six nights at the Monstrosity and wrote a little for the blog each night, but had no Internet and couldn't actually post anything. Whenever I get the chance (don't ask when--things don't look very favorable for the blog right now! Ha!) I will go through and edit a little bit, add some pictures, and slap several posts up here. Until then, I hope everybody has a very, very Merry Christmas! We've not been able to do the usual things that we like to do and it's not felt very much like Christmastime around here (the balmy weather followed by RAIN certainly doesn't help!!! Ha!), but we are looking forward to getting away for a few days and having a great Christmas at Grandma and Granddad's house. :-)

Revival and Progress at the Monstrosity

That's what this last weekend was made up of.

The Revival was great. Brother Werkheiser preached his heart out (doesn't he always?) and I was blessed by every message. On Friday night he preached about looking again to see what God is doing/can do/will do, like Elisha's servant who was unable to see the horses and chariots of God surrounding them and protecting them from the enemy. Saturday he preached... oh, something great, but I can't remember right now and my notes are upstairs and I'm way, way, way too tired to go get them! Sunday morning was powerful. There was so much Holy Ghost conviction present and you could tell that God was really, really working on people's hearts. There was a fearful urgency and much prayer and weeping. It was one of those times when you don't SEE the results you'd like to see, but only God knows all of the needs that were there and what may have been going on inwardly that we were unaware of. Maybe seeds planted that will be reaped later on. I trust that the mercy of God continues to extend to those who seem so slow to respond! "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Sunday night... hhmmm. How could I be so blessed and already have forgotten it?! Ha! Because I'm EXHAUSTED, that's how. My brain shut down a few hours ago--right after my body did. That's why I can't make my aching self climb the stairs to retrieve my notes so I'd actually know what's gone on this past weekend to blog about!

As for the house...

The Monstrosity: Day Eighteen

It was a grand and glorious day, though I did discover my first blister. ("Stanley, how could you???") We moved in for the weekend, then got back to work in the master bathroom. By the end of that day I had done a first:

I PAINTED SOMETHING! With real paint! Actually, I'm not sure it qualifies as real paint. We're always schnookered into buying cheap paint, hoping to save money. It doesn't save any money to buy cheap paint because when you might have gotten by with one coat of decent paint, you have to use two coats of cheap paint, meaning it costs the same amount or more AND costs you valuable time, not to mention the physical fatigue that is already threatening to endanger our work (HA!), oh, and the frustration of it all. It's ridiculous to actually take the time to prime something with white primer, then paint over it with a cream color... and it not cover well enough to get by! One coat of primer and two coats of paint--when the colors are that similar??? Come on! That's just crazy. No more Wal-Mart paint or I quit. (James will read that... I wonder if he'll care... HA!) ANYWAY, I forget how much I got done on Friday, so I'll go ahead and add Saturday in here, too...

The Monstrosity: Day Nineteen

By the end of Saturday I had the bathroom ceiling painted as well as the door and trim and vanity (though the doors and drawers were removed weeks ago and will need to be sanded and painted, re-hinged and knobbed, and added later on) AND had hung the first five strips of wallpaper!!!! WA-HOO!!!! It was sooooo exciting to actually see PAINT and WALLPAPER coming together! And actually going ONTO a wall instead of being scraped OFF for a change. (Stanley has been feeling a little neglected the past weekend, but we'll spend lots of time together next week so I'm sure he'll forgive me.)

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty!!!

Today I finished up on the wallpaper in the bathroom. I'm DONE painting and wallpapering one whole room! Is that exciting, or what?! There's still lots to be done, of course. James went and bought light fixtures and all sorts of other goodies today. He installed the two wall sconces and then the two of us spent about an hour and a half trying to install the flush mount ceiling fixture--to no avail, mind you. Talk about a frustrating way to end an otherwise glorious day. If we had good sense we would have stopped after the first ten minutes and decided to wait until we could go purchase longer screws instead of coming to that conclusion after wasting so much time. But that's the way we roll around here. ;-)

What else? Oh, all of the fixtures we're putting in the bathroom have an "oil rubbed bronze" finish on them, so James bought some "oil rubbed bronze" spray paint. Crazy, hu? What won't they think of next. :-) We're keeping the green tile in the master bath and--believe it or not--it's actually going to look nice when it's all finished. But there were several things sticking out of the tile that were the same blah green as the tile itself--the toilet paper holder, some towel racks, a soap dish, things like that. Well, James tried the paint on the toilet paper holder this afternoon and it's amazing what a difference something like a can of spray paint can make! Everything is going to look sooooo much better. It already looks soooooo much better! I'm hoping one more day in there will find that room completely FINISHED, except for the floor. Of course, we haven't conquered that ceiling light yet... that might take another day or two all by itself. ;-)

I'm forgetting so much, I'm sure. Let's see...

Oh, Brandon and Kimmi (is it spelled that way?) Keel came and stayed with the Coxes over the weekend so they could be here for the revival. It was so great to be able to spend some more time with them! They're terrific. :-) They are such a great young couple and I just love being with them. Brother Brandon has a dry sense of humor that reminds me very much of the guys out west. And he's fun to mock. That's lots of fun for a person like me. ;-) Sister Kimmi is just sweet and fun and so pleasant to be around. I love her. :-)

Hhmmm... what else??? I know there's more, but it's just not happening tonight. I'm tired and sore and achy, even after I soaked in a nice, hot bubble bath a little while ago. It felt great at the time, but it wore off. ;-) It's back to town tomorrow, but not to work on the house (very much, if any) and we'll not be staying overnight. We'll probably do that on Wednesday night. We don't even put the suitcases away anymore. They are always in various stages of either being packed or unpacked, but never empty. I'm wondering how long I'll maintain my sanity living like this. So far it's going great, but I know me. I start to wig out after a life is chaotic for any length of time. I keep trying to remind myself to just take it ONE DAY AT A TIME. I can make it through TODAY and all of its responsibilities just fine, right??? I know that they only way I'll not go batty is to make sure I spend time with God every day, take time to read his Word, meditate on it, pray and talk to Him and stay in tune with him. And make sure to stop and enjoy my kids in the midst of the work every day, help them with school, talk with them, laugh at them. If I can manage that, along with taking time to communicate with my husband and cuddle with my poodle (which is soooooo therapeutic when things get stressful... the poodle part, not the husband part--HA!), I'm sure we'll all make it through just fine. We're still having fun working on the house so far. Amazing, isn't it? I've been running on lots of adrenaline and am banking on lots more of it in the weeks to come. :-)

Oh, wait--something else exciting! There was another first this weekend...

I took my very first Sunday afternoon nap at the Monstrosity!!! Wa-Hoo!!! It was glorious. I look forward to many, many more. :-)

Okay, just checked the camera and found some not-so-thrilling pictures I can add to the post. First off, here's our bedding situation at the Monstrosity. The kids' beds... And Charlie seems to think this is his bed. He loves tunneling through slick sleeping bags.
And James tries to act like he doesn't like the dog. Come on, everbody, "Aaaaawwwwwwwwwww!" Hahahahahaha!
I couldn't help but take a picture of this. Before James sprayed the oil rubbed bronze stuff on here, he taped it off, then we used Press 'n Seal (which is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world!) to cover a wide circle around it. It made me happy to look at it because it's HOLIDAY Press 'n Seal with colorful little stars and hearts and gingerbread men and all manner of cuteness. Ha! I thought it was great. :-)
And here is a less than flattering picture ~ahem~ that shows the very last little strip of wallpaper about to go up in our bathroom. :-) I know you can't tell in this picture, but those are little pinecones all over the wallpaper. It looks GREAT and--as was the plan--it makes it look like the tile was on purpose instead of like we bought a house with ugly green tile and couldn't afford to change it. We like playing little mental games like that. ;-) Anyway, you can also see the freshly sprayed paint on the toilet paper holder, though it looks less than beautiful with all of the overspray everywhere. It really did look good when we peeled the plastic and tape off--trust me!

Two Days at Home

~Aaaahhhh~

It was so nice. :-)

We got in from Cleveland on Monday night, got unloaded, and then I wrapped all of the little gifts we had bought for next week's Christmas party. I love wrapping presents. :-)

Tuesday we opted to just STAY HOME and have a nice, normal day. No scraping, sanding, ripping out, or fixing of anything. Just regular ole' devotions, school, and housework. I loved it! Nothing like a remodeling project to make you really enjoy and appreciate things like dishes and laundry. Ha!

James spent the day in town running errands and doing some Christmas shopping. I know he'd been scoping out some things and was anxious to actually have a day alone to pick them up. He enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as he would have if he hadn't checked the mail first. He found an unpleasant letter from our home owners insurance company. I'm praying and trusting that it can be worked out quickly and easily.

That night I stayed up and finished the last of the Christmas cards--the ones that I didn't initially have addresses for and had sent inquiries all over the Internet for. And by "the last" of the cards, I mean all of them except the ones for the Bessemer folks and my band members. Next week for those. THEN I'll be done. Except for when we get cards from people and gasp, "We didn't send them a card!" There are always a few last minute cards like that, aren't there?!

Here are a few pictures from our nice, NORMAL time at home. First of all, Brady. He's always happy when we come home. And it's always a very happy thing to come home to a happy dog. :-)


Look at the snow on the railing! That's right, snow...


And here are the children just a few minutes prior to the last picture, mixing up the snow with a pack of "Make Your Own Snow." It's sad. So, so sad. Emilee had pictures on her blog of her kids all duded up in winter gear head to toe, running and flopping into the deep snow in their back yard... and my kids are in the kitchen mixing up a cup or two of fake white stuff to put on the railing outside so we can pretend we've got snow! HA! Then I talked to Haley yesterday and while we were on the phone her son went and kicked his sister's snowman down. I explained how sad our predicament was and how wrong it was for her to allow her son to be so unappreciative of such a glorious thing as snow. "Spank him, Haley! Go spank him for me!!!" Hahahahaha!



And here's a picture of Sam's latest Lego creation. He's building a whole little town and has it all wired up with electricity. (If you look closely you can see a light on in the far left building.) It's even got a traffic light. I love it. :-)



We spent most of the day Wednesday here at the house, too. More normal things. Nice. :-)

We left in time to stop and get books at the library and get the boys' hair cut before church. They were sooooooo long and shaggy! Of course now they're super short and they look goofy to me, so drastic is the change. Oh well. Better too short than too long on a boy, ANY day. :-)

After church last night we went to Burger King with the Coxes and the Ridlespurges. I love how much we get to fellowship here. And the kids love it even more than we do, if that's possible. ;-)

We stayed at the Monstrosity last night and the kids LOVED it. It was the fourth or fifth time for James and me, but the first for the kids. We slept on the big air mattress, Katie on the small one, and the boys on the floor--all in the master bedroom because it's the only room clean enough to sleep in. I had found our cushy sheets in the basement a few weeks ago (rummaging for the ever elusive paint swatches, no doubt) so I washed them up and took them with us to the Monstrosity. It was sooooo nice to use them again! THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE USE OF YOUR AIR MATTRESSES, BROTHER POWELL!!! I think I may have to say that in every post from now on. It's wonderful to wake up feeling great instead of with a back screaming "Why did you DO this to me?!"

We got up this morning and hit it hard. Oh, that makes it...

The Monstrosity: Day Seventeen.

Got to keep track, you know. ;-) I did devotions with the kids in the bedroom, then stayed in there to work so I could help them with their school. I was using Stanley, of course. Did I tell you about Stanley? He's my scraper. We've spent so much time together in the past few weeks it only seemed right to give him a name. And "Stanley" is written on the handle so that made the choice pretty obvious. I don't often get attached to tools, but when remodeling a house (and in a shaky mental condition due to the fact you're remodeling a house) there are rare instances when an inanimate object seems to warrant naming. I still grieve over the loss of Maurice, may he rest in peace. He was my paint sprayer in Texas and New Mexico. He served us well and saved me untold hours (days? weeks?) of rolling and brushing, not to mention my sanity and perhaps my marriage. He gave his all and even in his death produced some beautiful dining room chairs for me, so faithful was he to the cause. Don't laugh. You never knew him. He was wonderful. ;-)

ANYWAY, I scraped and scraped... then James came in and we got to talking and decided, FORGET IT! This plan of doing the whole house at once is idiocy. Let's knock out ONE ROOM--just one little room--and then go back to the "whole house" plan. The master bathroom was the lucky winner of today's lottery. I cleaned the sheetrock dust off the walls and scrubbed the top row of tiles all around the room (the rest will get a thorough cleaning when we're done--but I needed the top clean to paint), then we removed the shower doors. I hate shower doors. They get all nasty and gunky and grimy--and there's no getting them clean down in the track. ~Bleagh~ Gunky things in kitchens and bathrooms are always gross but when it's other people's gunk--strangers' gunk--it's especially nasty and must be done away with. The doors came out easily enough, though we've spent a considerable amount of time scraping and scrubbing the scum and caulking and residue from the tiles and tub where the frame was attached.

But then a most exciting thing happened...

I got out THE PAINT TRAY!!! Wa-Hoooooo!!!!!!!! This feels like PROGRESS!!! I love to feel progress. Especially when we bought this house 48 days ago (yes, I really did just count) and haven't painted anything yet. In our silly little imaginations we had irrational hopes plinking around of being moved in to the house by now. Hahahahahaha! Is that hilarious, or what?! Hilarious for multiple reasons. First of all, because it's so irrational. Had we actually had 48 days to WORK on the house, yes, it would have been possible. In the 17 we've been able to devote to it? Not so much. Secondly, it's hilarious because things ALWAYS take longer than anticipated when you're working on a house. Way, way, way longer. And lastly, it's hilarious because we all know that God loves Brother Powell best. HA! It suddenly occurred to me last week when we were frantically trying to get tons and tons of things done at the house while the kids were away but nothing was going as planned... at all... "James, I get it. It doesn't matter if we stress out and kill ourselves trying to work, work, work to finish this house 'as soon as possible'... We can DO that, but it's not going to get done any more quickly than if we just take a deep breath, pace ourselves, RELAX, and do our best. The house isn't going to get done and we're not going to move into it until God says it's time. And that's going to be the week the Powells return from Korea!" HA! We had already discussed it and decided that even if we were able to finish the house and get moved in, we'd still divide our time between the Monstrosity and the Powells' house to help take care of things (most of all Brady, of course! :-) We love him.) until they get home. But I figure God's just going to work it out that we live there the entire year they are away--because he likes them best and seems to make their prayers priority. Hahahahaha! Sincerely, we have felt so, so, so, so, soooooo blessed to have such a beautiful place to stay this year. We have loved it and have thanked God for the rich blessing of being able--in the tiniest little way--to have a part in their missionary journey by keeping an eye on things for them while they're away. And scaring up their table... and breaking some dishes... and getting darts stuck in BOTH living room light fixtures now... and the alien is still on the ceiling in the dining room (we'd forgotten about it until Brother Dudley was here last week and asked, "What's that red thing hanging up there?!"), and who knows what all else. You know, all of those ways they are blessed to have us here. ;-) ANYWAY, the realization that every tiny detail--even the time frame of when we move into our own home--is in God's hands has caused me to relax and enjoy the ride a lot more than I was when I was trying (for some unknown reason) to work in a frenzy to GET 'ER DONE. I can say that I truly am enjoying working on this house. It's so fun to take something horrid and make it into something that you know (or at least hope!) will be beautiful. Me and Stanley. :-)

Wow. That last paragraph took a crazed path away from the PAINT TRAY it started with! So ANYWAY, I primed the ceiling and walls in the master bathroom today. YEAH!!!! It already looks and feels sooooo much better! I also scrubbed the inside of the cabinets so they'll be ready to paint. And I popped open our very first can of paint--real, true-blue PAINT!!! Wa-Hoo! Now if only it had been the right color... Ha! At Mom's house last week I took some paint samples from cans in her closet of three of the colors we'll be using. James took the Almond Tree (it's a light cream color) to Wal-Mart to have them color match it... but it's not exactly a perfect match! It's definitely darker and the tone itself seems very different to me. I'm not crazy about it, but we'll be okay to use it in the bathroom, then I'll use the rest of it up in closets. I have the actual code for Almond Tree, we'll just have to go to True Value to get it. It will be worth it to have the right color through the rest of the house. :-) Anyway, all I painted was the door trim in the bathroom, but it feels GREAT to have paint on something! Even though it will require a second coat. I was hoping one would be sufficient. Nope. Not going over that slick high gloss white! I had sanded it down a little bit, but the new paint still slides around on it a little bit. Bummer. Still, it felt great to PAINT something. :-)

We left the Monstrosity at 6:00 tonight and got home sometime after 7:00. We unloaded the van and took the suitcases upstairs. I unpacked them, then started packing them again since we'll be staying at the Monstrosity again this weekend! I personally think it would do us well to finish our closet along with the master bath. Then we could keep half of our clothes here and half of our clothes there in a finished closet. We could keep some basic toiletries at each house. And we could then stop packing and unpacking multiple times a week! Ha!

Tonight was great. James made some of his fantastical hot chocolate for all of us and built a fire, then the kids watched Garfield's Christmas, one of the very few Christmas shows that is actually worth watching. :-)

Tomorrow we'll be normal here at the Powell's house, at least until after lunch. Revival starts tomorrow night, so we'll go up, then stay at the Monstrosity for the weekend. We've been looking forward to and praying for the Revival with Brother Werkheiser! Glad it's finally here. :-)

I'm a Mom Again!

And it feels great. :-) I'm not a very good "misser" and we were way too busy to have a chance to really MISS the kids this past week anyway... but it really is great to be back together now. I think we may keep them for a while. ;-)

On Sunday morning we went to church in Lebanon. I think I enjoy being at that church as much as any church I've ever been to. :-) It just feels like home to me. It's so nice and simple and unpretentious--just like the folks in it. We had a good service and I truly felt the Lord there with us. James preached on the fear of the Lord and it was very good. After service we went to that great Mexican restaurant up there with the Cooks and visited for a long, long time. We had such a nice time with them! And some delicious Chili Colorado. :-)

When we left the restaurant we headed for Cleveland, arriving just a few minutes after service had begun. The Spirit was already moving and blessing in the song service and it was such a blessing to be able to join in. Sister Cox preached a wonderful message on making your calling and election sure. Good stuff. I love it when God speaks to my heart during a sermon and when it's all over I know what to go to the altar and talk to Him about!

The kids hadn't expected us to get in until late, so they were shocked when we arrived. I slid in the pew next to Katie and I thought she was going to squeeze my guts out when she hugged me. Sam was on the other side of Katie and my Mom, but the look on his face was priceless when he glanced over and saw us. Shock and then joy all mingled into one. :-) He's the one who gripes and complains and acts like being at Grandma's house is utter misery. Alcatraz, he calls it. HA! So he was extra thrilled to see us. Joe was playing the guitar for song service, so we didn't get hugs from him until after the service was over. I don't know what my Mom did to the boys and Charlie, but ALL of their hair grew about an inch while we were away--they are in dire need of haircuts!

We went to Steak ~n~ Shake with Mom & Dad after church. YUM. :-) Frisco melt with extra dipping sauce and a peppermint chocolate chip shake.

Mom and I stayed up way too late again--after 2:00am this time, I think. Then we were going to be up and headed back to Alabama "by 9:00," my husband had told me. HA. I was up and dressed by 8:00, but it took him a little longer to get rolling! And we had library books to locate and miscellaneous kid junk to gather from all over the house. Sam had already packed up all of his clothes and Joe's clothes the day before--he was ready to blow that joint. HA! Truthfully, he loves it there. He just doesn't like being ANYWHERE without me and/or his Dad. The first day they were up there this time I talked to him on the phone and he wanted to know how he could trust me that we wouldn't send them away again--we'd done it twice recently, you know. "How can I trust you, Mom???" Ha! Cracks me up. He griped at Grandma Vicki all week long (all in good humor--I think!) about being a prisoner there. :-)

Anyway, we stopped in Chattanooga and stopped by another salvage type store in search of great deals. We found a giant mirror for one of the upstairs bathrooms that's going to work perfect, I think--and it was way, way cheaper than we would have found anywhere else. Then it was Fazoli's for lunch before we headed back to Alabama.

When we got closer to home we had a whole serious of stops:

Guitar Center -- Joe played around on a 12 string guitar that he loves there and his Dad bought him some thumb picks since Jimmy Cox had let him borrow one and he thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Lifeway Christian Stores -- I can't remember what... but it was nice to look around!

Christmas Tree Shops -- Wrapping paper and lots of gifts for the Christmas party next week.

Carino's -- To enjoy Monday Night 1/2 price family platters... but we drove up and saw that it closed down last week. We knew it was just a matter of time. Sometimes we were the ONLY people in there and you just can't keep a business going like that. I'm sure it's because they were so stingy with their Italian sodas. ;-)

Jim `n Nicks was the Plan B--and it was a terrific one. :-)

Hobby Lobby -- For the kids to pick out their annual ornaments, which cracks me up. We're not having a Christmas tree this year, but we'll have new ornaments! Ha! Katie picked a Coca-Cola ornament, Joe got a bear on skis holding a gift, and Sam got a cowboy boot.

And then we FINALLY made it back home at about 7:30 tonight! ~whew~ It was a long day, but sort of nice to just dink around a bit and not worry about the Monstrosity OR things to be done at the Powell's house. It's been a great weekend. :-)

Monstrosity & ABM

We spent Wednesday morning at home trying to get caught up on things again. It's amazing how enjoyable the NORMAL things are when you're involved in a big remodeling project. I love it that our house is a WRECK and we can go and work and work and work... then come home to a house that ISN'T all torn up and just do normal things like paperwork and laundry. We're so blessed. :-)

We finally got to the Monstrosity at about 2:00. I tied a bandanna around my head to try to keep the dust out of my hair as I sanded (my hair was WAY more gray than usual the day before--ha!) and got some more work done on the kitchen cabinets. I've been working with a coarse "paint stripping" sandpaper, then moving to a smoother "leveling" paper to finish up with. It's making for lots more work, but the cabinets will look soooooo much nicer when it's all said and done.

I took the five big drawers out of the kitchen and sanded them down too, then got them cleaned and got all excited and primed them. :-) We had stopped at Lowe's before going to the house that day and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of primer and had it tinted gray since it will be going under all of the dark colors I'll be using all over the house. It felt sooooo good to pick up a paint brush and prime something. Those drawers already look and feel so much cleaner! I had to laugh when I realized how excited I was to PAINT something, even just with primer. It made me think...

There was a time in my life when I was FINISHED painting--forever! Ha! My Mom & Dad and Grandmother & Granddad had some arrangement worked out to invest in a giant house just up the hill from our house in the mountains of Colorado. They got it cheap and we all worked to get it cleaned up, fixed up, and freshly painted, then sold it. I was one of the primary painters. If my mind isn't playing tricks on me, it had seven bedrooms and three full stories. We painted and painted and painted... and painted... and painted........... and painted... HA! I remember thinking, "I'm DONE--I don't ever want to see a paint brush or roller again as long as I live!" I had probably painted more in one week's time than most people do in a lifetime. I don't know how long it took us to work on the house, but I'm sure it was weeks and weeks--at least. And by the end I was soooooo sick of painting and never, ever wanted to do it again.

And now I'm in another GIANT house... and I can't wait to START painting! Crazy. I have no doubt that the former feeling about "The Big House" (that's what we called it) will settle in soon enough once we get started painting. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the anticipation of painting and making things nice and fresh and clean and new. :-)

Kody and Michael came to the house to work again that day. They spent quite a while crawling all over the "new" kitchen floor (where they had ripped out two more layers the day before) and hammered the staples flat. There were tons and tons and tons of them. Michael actually counted as he went and he made it to 900 before he lost count. Ha! So they were beating the floor with hammers, I was using the electric sander, and James--of course--had the Christmas station cranked up on the radio. The boys went home and told their grandparents about how noisy it was there all day long. They said it was: WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! -- BBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! "HERE COMES SANTA CLAUSE! HERE COMES SANTA CLAUSE..." Ha!

We had CPMA service that night and closed by coming to the altar and praying for our upcoming Revival this next week. We went to Taco Bell afterwards and the Washburns joined us but only for fellowship, not food, since Brother Mike ended up in the ER last time he ate Taco Bell!

Then James and I went back to the Monstrosity and slept MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better since Brother Powell e-mailed and said to dig around in the bathroom closet and find the air mattresses to take with us up there. THANK YOU, BROTHER POWELL!!! :-)

Brother Hopkins showed up bright and early Thursday morning with a Spanish guy he'd hired to sand all of the sheetrock mud he's been slapping all over the house. It wasn't too long after that when Brother & Sister Cogburn and Sister Bishop showed up. They'd all come to help with the house, too! Wow!

I was still working on the kitchen cabinets, so we set up a bit of an assembly line. I sanded, Sister Cogburn wiped the dust off with a dry cloth, then Sister Bishop wiped them down with a soapy sponge. Before long we had all of the doors READY TO BE PRIMED! We never made it far enough to get the primer out that day, but it's exciting to know the doors are READY. :-)


Brother Cogburn is an electrician and he did lots of wonderful things all over the house that day. :-) Most importantly, he put a light in the living room where previously there was none. It makes me very, very happy to have a light in my living room. :-) As you can see, it required a few new holes in the sheetrock that Brother Hopkins has been working so hard to make pretty! Ha! Wouldn't you know it.


He also put in a receptacle in the odd location I had requested :-), put in boxes for ceiling fans in all of the bedrooms, removed the fluorescent lights from the kitchen, replaced them with a normal like, added four additional lights (after I FINALLY settled on four instead of five--that was an all day decision in the works!), and fixed three lights in the house that didn't work at all. Wa-Hoo!!! What progress.

The ladies also did another marvellous thing. They brought lunch! Nice, hot, home cooked lunch! Stew and beans and cornbread and apple cake and some sort of checkered chocolate/vanilla cake. It was all soooooo good. And fun to have company at my house for a meal again. HA! Well, sort of...


After we were finished with the cabinet doors I spent the afternoon sweeping sheetrock dust off the walls while the other ladies used the shop vac to clean the dust from the floors and stairs. Sister Bishop just wouldn't quit--it's tough to make that lady sit down and take a break!


In the meantime, the boys were outside raking up 30+ bags of pine needles again. Those boys are SUCH good workers. Hard and steady the whole way, never taking a break. They've done such a great job on everything they've been asked to do!


The crowd all left at about 6:00, I think. James and I had to run by the bank, get a bite to eat, and check our e-mail. We opted for MacAlister's since they have free Wi-Fi. Well, in theory they have free Wi-Fi. ;-) It wouldn't work, so we stopped by the Ridlespurges house to use their free Wi-Fi. We were still covered in sheetrock dust though and Sister Ridlespurge wouldn't let us sit on her couch before she spread a blanket out on it. Hahahahaha! Okay, so that's not exactly how it went, I just thought she'd enjoy seeing that on here should she happen to read this. ;-)

We went back to the Monstrosity and did some clean up, then called it a night--on that great air mattress! :-)

The next morning we got up and did minimal things around the house, then headed back to Brierfield. We stopped in Alabaster to do some grocery shopping (we were in serious need!), then had ham sandwiches that were delicious but WAY over priced at the Honeybaked Ham Store. Got home, unloaded the van, unpacked... and crashed in the chair with my computer for about an hour just because I could! It was great.

Then I got busy cooking and cleaning for company. Wa-Hoo!!! Things didn't start out very well though. I mixed up some gingerbread, put it in the cake, then sat down to copy the recipe over for Sister Dudley because she had asked for it. I got to nearly the last ingredient before I read "salt." ~GASP!~ Salt?! I didn't put any salt in! So I ran and grabbed the pan out of the oven, put the salt on top, stirred it up, and shoved it back in. Then when the timer went off nearly an hour later... it was still batter, though somewhat stiff. The oven had somehow gotten turned off! HA! I had to ad lib from there with the bake time, but it somehow turned out okay anyway.

The Washburns and all the Dudleys were coming for dinner and I was scared to death that I wouldn't have enough food! I have NO IDEA how to cook for that troop of Dudley boys! There are the three brothers as well as a Dudley cousin living with them now. I made two poppy seed chicken casseroles and the biggest pot of chicken and noodles I could manage, the pan of gingerbread and two pineapple upside-down cakes. Sister Dudley brought cornbread and a FANTASTIC "Death by Chocolate" dessert. Everything turned out great and in the end, there was just the tiniest bit of food left-over. I feel a very rewarding sense of accomplishment having cooked for the Dudley crowd and actually having left-overs at the end of the night! HA! And a whole new appreciation for Sister Dudley. I've always known she was amazing, but I have NO IDEA how it is humanly possible to cook that much food on a regular basis!!!

After dinner we moved to the living room to visit and ended up playing Catchphrase--which was hilarious. We had lots and lots of fun--I can't believe we've failed to have everybody over for dinner up until this point!



(Jonathan can't help but strike a pose when he sees a camera!)

It was a GREAT night. :-)

~whew~ I'm fading fast--I'll have to cut this short!

We got up at 4:30 this morning and drove to Moulton for the ABM workshop. Brother & Sister Zimmerman had come and she taught most of the classes. There was lots and lots of good information shared and I felt encouraged to be a much better Band Leader. :-) We enjoyed great fellowship and way, way, way too much food. :-)

We are now in a FANTASTIC motel in Gadsden. They were out of regular rooms, so upgraded us to a king suite at no extra charge. It's BEAUTIFUL. And nice and cozy. But I'm bushed. Tomorrow we visit the church in Lebanon, then hopefully Collinsville tomorrow night. Then on to Cleveland to pick up our children and go back home on Monday!

Oops. I didn't categorize. Wednesday and Thursday were Days Fifteen & Sixteen. :-)