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!