More December

Yesterday and today have been good days. Had a good, prayerful church service yesterday morning, then a quick lunch at Bojangles with Richard Barnes who had joined us for service. Then we went back to Sister Fender's house so I could wash up all of the sheets and towels that we'd used last week and make the beds up, then on to the Monstrosity to figure out what needed to stay there and what needed to go home to the Powell's house. Evening service at 6:00, then a great time of fellowship at McAlister's with the Ridle-Hop-Wash-Hornes crowd. :-)

Last night we came home to the Powell's house--first time I'd been here in two weeks! I finally started feeling the big wind-down from all of the work we've been doing. I slept hard--and late! It was nice. :-) We had a lazy morning and let the kids just spend some time playing outside (Joe has a target he'd gotten for Christmas that he's been dying to try out!) before having Frito pie for lunch and getting into school in the afternoon. I managed to get a load and a half of laundry done. Pitiful, hu?! I just can't seem to get it in gear today. Tomorrow evening we head back into town, so I'm really hoping I have more motivation in the morning than I did all day today!

And now for the old news...

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-One (Monday, December 19th)

I had high expectations for today. Of course, none of them came to fruition.

Today was the day that we were bested by the bathroom. It’s a sad thing. It’s such a small room. And we’ve put sooooooo many hours of work into it and it had begun to look soooooooo good. Today was the day it decided to fight back.

All we wanted to do was re-grout the tile a little bit, just to freshen it up in any discolored places. Is that too much to ask? James used the product just like the instructions said, but it didn’t “wipe off with a soft, dry cloth” at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure whoever wrote those directions was laughing like a madman as he penned the words, thinking of the poor saps like us who would spend hour upon hour scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing that which was supposed to “wipe off with a soft, dry cloth.” Even with a wet, scratchy sponge, Stanley the Scraper, and all the elbow grease we had to offer it was an all-day job getting rid of the excess grout and residue. Seriously, it was after 10:00pm when I got the last of it cleaned up—not including the floor.


We had silly little hopes of finishing the bathroom, or coming very, very close day, but we ended up giving all of our time and energy to the grout project. Actually, I had intended to accomplish other grand and glorious things today, but was all consumed with the grout clean-up job. So frustrating.

James decided we’d feel better if we accomplished something other than just scrubbing grout all day (!), so he set out to remove the old faucet and install the new one. Ha. If only. That’s supposed to be an easy little project, right?! He’s done this several times before and it’s not like it’s something big or difficult. Usually. ~ sigh~ We fought and wrestled and fought and wrestled some more to get everything unhooked under the sink and while we were giving it a mighty heave-ho something finally popped loose… but it wasn’t the pipe we were working on, it was the sink itself! HA! The whole sink just popped out! We were amazed—and did thank God!—that it didn’t break any of the tiles on the countertop. We put the sink upside down on the bedroom floor and were finally able to get all of the pipes loose from that angle, but then one thing led to another and in the end we’re going to have to replace the whole sink, not just the faucet. Oh, brother! So instead of having a finished bathroom at the end of the day, it looks far worse than when we started this morning! There are still no doors or drawers in the vanity, there is a hazy residue on the tiles (even after all of our hours of scrubbing), the countertop that used to hold a decent sink is now just a gaping hole, and there is a nasty old sink sitting on our bedroom floor. Not exactly what we had planned for the day. HA!

You win some, you lose some.

We lost big today.

There’s always tomorrow.


The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-Two (Tuesday, December 20th)

~whew~ It’s been a long one today! It’s been both frustrating and rewarding. James got a new sink put in this morning, but struggled with some leaks due to the cheaply made parts. I think he’s got it under control now. He’s good at stuff like that. :-)

I had primed the vanity doors and drawers and miscellaneous things in the closet, including the door itself, and managed to have all of the kids fully schooled before noon. And that with several trips to help the guy under the sink. “Turn it on… and back off… on again…” You know the routine.

Once the sink was installed it was time to hang the mirror. The mirror!!! We’re going to have a bathroom with a mirror! Downstairs! That’s not covered in sheetrock dust!!! You can’t possibly understand how exciting that is. :-) We had found a mirror that will match just right at Home Depot the other day, so we used a gift card from some dear friends and bought it and the other remaining items needed to complete the bathroom. I’ll have to send them a thank you card informing them that THEY finished our bathroom for us and I love them dearly for it. :-) Anyway, James had picked up some wicked looking hook thingies that would be strong enough to hold a heavy mirror to a wall and we knew we had one shot to get it right so I measured and measured and measured again—the mirror itself, the space on the wall, from the bottom of the mirror up to the hooks, from one hook to the other, from the tooth end of the hanging hook to the hanging end of it, etc. James had a headache and wouldn’t even attempt to help out with the brainwork, he just sat on the edge of the tub and watched… and watched… and watched. Ha! It probably took me 20 minutes or better to feel confident enough to actually set the first hook in the wall. But apparently it was worth it because the mirror is spaced just right and is perfectly level—on the very first shot! I didn’t know that was even possible, except for on TV! It looks GREAT and goes so nicely with the wall sconces and the faucet and all of the stuff James is spraying “oil rubbed bronze.” I love it. :-)

Then it was time to caulk. That’s when things went south. I would love to blame the caulk itself since it’s different than what I’ve used in the past, but I don’t KNOW that it’s the caulk instead of the caulker that caused the problem. I just know that my first attempt was horrific. So bad that I went back to the bathroom about 20 minutes later with a razor blade and some Goo Gone and spent the next 30 minutes scraping and scrubbing to get as much of the caulk off as possible so I could try again! Take 2 wasn’t much better and I wiped it off while it was still wet. I’m not sure Take 3 was much of an improvement either, but if you’ve given it your best three times in a row you’ve just got to be able to walk away—you’re obviously not going to be able to do any better the next time! Things went okay around the tub, just not the sink. You know, the really obvious location.

James left this afternoon to do some shopping, then go back to Brierfield to take care of Brady and bring back some extra clothes for the rest of us since we’ll be staying again. He’ll spend the night there, then come back in the morning. The accomplishments since he left don’t sound impressive, but they sure took a lot of time! I got the bathroom all cleaned up and ready for the next step, whatever that is. I also painted the ceiling in the closet as well as the shelves and trim. Then I painted all of the doors and drawers for the bathroom that I had primed this morning. Before calling it quits at 11:00pm I also put some wallpaper in the bottom of the bathroom drawers and cabinets. It just feels so much cleaner that way—and when you can buy wallpaper for $1 per roll you just can’t lose!

I let the kids veg out a little bit tonight. James was gone, so we ate left-over Little Caesar’s pizza and watched Christmas shows on the laptop. Well, they watched and I listened while I painted in the closet. Tomorrow is our last day to work until after Christmas. I’m excited to see what we can get done… and then I’m excited to think of taking a break from all of it for a few days!


The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-Three (Wednesday, December 21st)

Today was a day of great triumph! After being beaten by the bathroom yesterday, I made the strategic move to transfer my energies to a different room and just pretend like the bathroom doesn’t exist. And I got it FINISHED! Did you hear that??? I FINISHED OUR VERY FIRST ROOM TODAY!!!

It was the master closet. ;-)

But it still feels like a glorious thing to have completed SOMETHING at that crazy house! Ha! After having completed all of the painting last night I was ready to wallpaper bright and early this morning. I had it papered by about 3:00 this afternoon. WA-HOO!!! I know it’s crazy to take time to wallpaper a closet of all things (!), but it really does feel so nice and fresh and clean in there. Wallpaper in closets may be weird, but it’s just so, so, so nice. Especially when your closet doubles as your devotion location. It’s great to have some place fresh and clean and even cute to go to be alone! :-)

I realize that even the "after" picture isn't all the impressive here, but for the record...

I know you can't tell from the picture, but the wallpaper is a little splotchy (creams and browns) with a little cabin and a whispy little tree standing next to it. It cost a total of $6 or $7 to complete this room, paint, paper and all. I wish that would be the case with all of the rooms! Hahahahaha! If only...

Those are the freshly painted doors and drawers for the bathroom resting on the floor in the closet to dry, just so you know.

Having COMPLETED MY VERY FIRST ROOM (did I mention that already?), I started cleaning and sorting and trying to get all of our things gathered up or put away. The kids and I had spent the previous 5 nights at the house so we had plenty of stuff to sort through and repack. We brought home a MASSIVE bag of dirty clothes to be tended to along with three suitcases, two overnight bags, a duffle bag, a bag full of Christmas DVD’s, four laptops, some hanging clothes, a bag full of Christmas presents to be wrapped, a guitar, a giant fruit basket, a popcorn tin, a bag full of other food items, dog food, dishes and leash, and who knows what else. Aside from the fruit basket, popcorn and presents, that’s the regular list of what we haul back and forth from one house to the other every few days. Crazy, hu?!

We did have a water issue today. James discovered that the basement was flooded this evening. Not totally flooded, but there was water on the floor in a whole lot of places. The Ridlespurges came and helped us mop it all up because that's just the kind of people they are. :-) We're not sure what caused the problem, but we know it has to be in connection with the fact that we're showering at the house now. We've used minimal water up to this point (sinks and toilets) but now we've got a bathroom in shape and took four showers in a row before heading to church... Things are backing up through the toilet in the basement. It sort of put a damper on an otherwise very exciting and productive day (having FINISHED the closet and all!), but that's okay. I'm sure we'll get it all worked out.


Thursday, December 22nd

Was spent at home in Brierfield, doing laundry and packing for our Christmas weekend. James took the kids away for a little while so I could wrap presents that were still hidden in bags around the house. I always enjoyed it, but it was hard to feel very Christmassy and festive when it's RAINING outside! Alabama doesn't know how to do Christmas--that's for sure! Ha! James bought the Muppet Christmas Carol while they were out and I sat down with the kids and watched it that afternoon. I think it's one of the very best versions of A Christmas Carol ever and I love the amazing human/puppet choreography and filming. Amazing.

Joe decided that he was going to start publishing a family newspaper. Here's the first edition...

Friday, December 23rd

Let Christmas begin! Though it never really felt like Christmas to me this year. Just too distracted with our crazy lives, I guess. Christmassy or not, it DID feel like a wonderful little vacation away from it all and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

We got to Mom & Dad’s house at about 3:00, I think. Shortly after we unloaded, Mom and I hopped in the car to go do some shopping. I had had NO opportunity to shop for James at all. I’m with him everywhere I go, especially these days (!), and I spend most of my time at the Monstrosity now (where there is no Internet) so shopping online is out. Anyway, we ended up with a few great buys for James after all. HA! Not really, but at least one of them was really fun to give him. :-) The only thing I KNEW I wanted to get for him were some new Rook cards—it’s what you use to play I Buy with. Ours have been in bad shape for a long time and are too sticky to shuffle or deal without great effort. They were out of Rook cards at Wal-Mart. So we tried Target. They were out, too. Kohl’s didn’t carry Rook cards, and Walgreens was sold out like the other stores. Crazy! Who knew they were such a hot item? It was frustrating to have the ONE item I knew I wanted to buy unavailable.

I can’t remember what else we did that night. I remember that James was very gracious when Dad and the kids watched The Rifleman instead of a Christmas show. Ha! In our crazy world there has been a remarkable lack of Christmas shows viewed this season. James usually watches them ALL—at least once—and he just hasn’t had a chance this year.

Saturday was Christmas Eve. Mom and I spent the day cooking and baking for the evening’s festivities and for our Christmas dinner the next day.

That night we had a Christmas Eve service there at the house. I think there were 20 present and it was just so nice. I LOVE Christmas Eve services. If we’re at our own house for Christmas next year we’ll be sure to have one of our own! I loved singing the Christmas carols and the fun little Christmas trivia games and the Christmas mini-sermon—oh, just everything. Then there’s the food and fellowship. :-) There was sooooo much food there! Everything was so pretty and festive and tasty.

When the crowd left we watched It’s a Wonderful Life, our Christmas Eve tradition. It’s also traditional to have clam chowder that day—we did that at lunch time and it was delicious. Though there was probably enough chili we wouldn’t have had to make the soup, right Mom??? HA! When we arrived there the day before Mom was in the kitchen making the hugest pot (gigantic roasting pan, plus overfill in a separate big pot) of chili I’ve ever seen in my life. The recipe was to feed 20, but I think they left off a zero! There were probably 25 quarts of chili by the time she was done!!! Hahahahahaha! It was quite tasty, but who can eat that much chili?! She was really hoping Dad had come through with the pressure canner she had asked for so she could “put up” several quarts of it for a later date. (He did. It was the beautifully "wrapped" gift in the big blue bag.)

Katie was actually the early riser on Christmas morning this year, something more remarkable than most people could imagine. (She is NOT a morning person!) She was going from room to room waking up the rest of the household (except Dad, of course—who knows how long he’d been up!) at 6:30. We piled into the living room for the action to begin. We are so blessed. Christmas always seems overwhelming to me. We already have so much more than we need— so, so, so abundantly blessed—and then on Christmas we receive even more! I don’t want to be materialistic and have to have more and more STUFF, but I don’t want to take for granted how marvelously God has blessed our family. I want to always be grateful. And I must say that the kids showed lots of gratitude over every single gift they received this year—lots of, “WOW!!! THANKS, DAD!” happening. :-)

Here's a picture of the Charles sleeping with the gifts before all the action began.

The boys were sooooo excited about the stick-on mustaches they found in their stockings. I love those things. :-)
Sam got Legos and more Legos for Christmas this year. And batteries. And a battery charger. He was ecstatic.
Katie Rue... She got lots of nice goodies--an art set, a polka dot bedspread for her new room at the Monstrosity (whenever we finish it!), a nightgown and cap made by her Grandma, and I can't remember what all.
Joe's most exciting gift was a mandolin. He's been a-pickin' and a-grinnin' ever since. ;-) It amazes me how quickly he catches on to all things stringed. He's loving the new instrument and is still trying to think up a proper name for "her."
Here's Dad with a framed picture of Joe and the catfish he caught in Dad's pond a few months back.
And James with his oh-so-thoughtful gift from me: PLUNGERS! Don't laugh--he's already used them several times at the Monstrosity while our water problems continue! (Still no end in sight...)


I don't have any pictures of myself, of course, but my wonderful husband got me a new laptop for Christmas! My old one had been hobbling along for a long, long time and we were worried about a crash any day now, so I was sooooo excited about that gift. And I LOVE it. It's so much nicer than the last one. :-) He also got me some fantastic silky pajamas (red with black polka dots--I LOVE THEM!) and new slippers. Mom got us some nice bath towels for our nearly completed bathroom and some Moody Science videos.

After opening all of the gifts we cleaned up the living room, then Mom and I headed to the kitchen again. She made a couple of pies and started the rolls while I made corn pudding and something else I can’t remember. Here's Mama, working away...


And Sam fast asleep by 9:00! Ha!


Then it was time to get everybody ready to go to church at Southside. They had a service from 11:00 to 12:00 and it was wonderful! We always enjoy being with Brother Ammons and he had lots of good things to share. Again, I enjoyed the Christmas songs and there was just such a sweet and worshipful spirit there. I LOVED having church on Christmas Day! It was a little more difficult to plan out the day (only because you’re used to staying home all day), but what a wonderful blessing to take time to go to the house of God and spend some time focusing on what we REALLY have to be thankful for rather than just the festivities at home. I would love to have church on EVERY Christmas, whether it’s on a Sunday or not!

By the time we got home we were a little behind schedule for our 2:00 Christmas dinner. Brother Oscar and his family came to join us and in the end we had a wonderful meal (everything turned out so good!) and great fellowship. I almost fell asleep at the table there at the end (our “vacation” had been filled with late nights, early mornings, and plenty of cooking and baking and shopping in between!), but got my second wind before long. Most of the crowd enjoyed the very non-Christmassy weather outside for an hour or two. I love the bounding Charlie-blur in this picture.

Sam's turn on the pogo stick. He's starting to catch on but for now Joe is still the expert. Last time we were in Cleveland he wanted to show us how well he could do. He jumped 99 times, then lost control before hitting 100! Ha!
The Pimentel girls are scared of dogs, but trying to work through it. In the end, they got used to the big dogs, but were still afraid of Charlie. HA! Dad loves the neighbors' dog Ralphie--the one being petting. He and his mom Maxie come to visit all the time. If Dad can't have a dog of his own I'm happy that he can enjoy the neighbors' dogs on a regular basis! He likes dogs and they are so therapudic.


We watched The Nativity Story that night and it was very good and very thought provoking. Of course there were some fictional things added in to “fill the gaps,” but it helps you to view everyone as real PEOPLE rather than characters in a story. I really enjoyed it.

We then went to church in Aurora with my brother. :-) Via live webfeed, that is. They had a nice little Christmas service and we enjoyed joining them, then seeing lots of the folks wave at the camera for us afterward. I especially enjoyed seeing a very pregnant Haley! Due any time now. How exciting. :-) UPDATE--Joshua was born on December 28th, happy and healthy! :-)

I played a couple of rounds of Bananagrams with Mom and Katie while James transferred all of my programs and files from my old laptop onto my new one (wa-hoo!), then we put the kids to bed and Mom and James and I played a game of I Buy with MY new Rook cards that James had bought for ME! Ha! Then I started on my new puzzle—a Noah’s Ark puzzle this year.

James had wanted to leave first thing in the morning on Monday, but after seeing how the weekend really wasn’t all that relaxing for us ladies who were working through most of it (that’s the story of all holidays, isn’t it?!) he was gracious enough to let us hang around throughout the day so I could just RELAX. I packed everything up in the morning, then Mom and I worked on the puzzle while watching The Star of Christmas. I love that show. :-) Then we put on The Lemon Drop Kid and worked the puzzle through that one, too. It was GREAT.

I think it was nearly 5:00 by the time we left. With the time change we were able to make it home to Brierfield by 8:00. We got all unloaded… just in time for the power to go out! I had taken a nap on the drive home and wasn’t nearly tired enough to go to bed, so I sat at the kitchen table and built Sam’s new lego kit by lantern light. It was so fun! I’m not creative enough to take Legos and make anything grand, but I LOVE having the instruction sheets and putting cool stuff together piece by piece. :-)

Tuesday morning we unpacked and had devotions and did school, then repacked. It’s Monstrosity time again, you know! We left after noon sometime and stopped at the Olive Garden in Alabaster to use up a gift card or two. It was sooooo good! Then James went to Great Clips for a haircut and I went to Christopher & Banks. The good news is that I got 3 shirts and a skirt for $20. The bad news is that I got them for that price because the store is going out of business—along with over 100 others! I hate that!!!

Then it was on to Hoover. First stop: Barnes & Noble to pick up a 2012 calendar at 50% off. Found a cute one, so I’m happy. Then it was to Sears to shop for appliances. We’re needing EVERYTHING and thought the post-Christmas sales might help us out a little bit, even though we’re still far from being ready to actually put anything in our new kitchen. Then it was on to HH Gregg, a store I’d never heard of before. They sell appliances, mattresses, and electronics and it is a GREAT store with tons of friendly and helpful employees and very competitive prices. I talked to a salesman and asked what kind of super-duper discount they give if people come in and buy every appliance in the book. :-) We need a washer, dryer, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, and microwave. ~whew~ It almost makes me nauseous to think of having to buy all of that stuff at once! Anyway, we went around and picked out one of each of the six items I just listed. They have better prices to begin with on most things, but they look up each item individually and if there is another store in town that sells it for less they will drop their own price lower than the other guy. Nice. The price he quoted us is still a pretty chunk of dough (!), but less than what we’d been bracing ourselves for. We want to check out a few other appliance stores, but I don’t know that we could beat what we found tonight. We'll see. The kids hate this kind of shopping. This is what the boys looked like LONG before the end of the night. Ha!



We then went to Payless to get some new play shoes for Joe. He had three toes hanging out of the other shoes before we even knew they were getting worn out. Why doesn’t he just TELL us when they start to fall apart?! Then it was to 2nd & Charles for Katie to blow the $15 gift card she had received for Christmas. She was kind enough to buy a book for each of the boys along with what she got for herself. What a gal. :-) Then we went to Lifeway and found a few good bargains, then to the Payless in Bessemer. James had found some boots for Katie at the first Payless, but since they didn’t have them in her size they gave a $4 off coupon and told us they had the boots in Bessemer—and then when you tack on the AAA discount he paid all of $7 for them! Happy Katie, happy Dad. Then it was finally time to go to the Monstrosity. I moved us in to the closet and made up the beds with fresh sheets. ~Aaahhh~

That's probably enough for tonight, but here's one last picture before I go. This is Sam, modeling Charlie's new Santa hat and jingle bell collar in an effort to convince him that they're really not that bad and he really ought to keep them on. HA! (Charlie wasn't impressed.)