December 13-18th:
Tuesday was a profitable day, but not exactly a work day at the Monstrosity, so we won’t count it. James had found a really pretty white bedroom set on Craigslist that we thought might work nicely for Katie’s room, so we drove to Inverness today to take a look at it. I knew before we ever got to the house that we’d be buying it, simply because of the neighborhood. It was NICE. The kind where people spend a lot of money on good quality furniture. The set is really heavy and solid and will be PERFECT for Katie’s room. It’s a sleigh bed (I’ve always loved those, but never had one!), a large dresser, and a highboy.
The other news of the day is that we went to the Foundry in search of pants for Sam, who has apparently had a huge growth spurt since ALL of his pants are humorously too short and just scream DORK. James never finds those things humorous though. ;-) We only found one pair of slacks, but it’s better than nothing.
The kids had play practice that night, then we headed home.
On Wednesday I managed to get the kids schooled, get caught up on ALL of the laundry and ironing (there was a BUNCH), make some Holiday Cream Cheese Bars (“they look so much cuter in the picture!”), a double batch of mint chocolate chunk cookies, and some nacho dip (that I later scorched while reheating). It was time for our church Christmas party!
The kids put on a nice little play—a living nativity sort of thing. All of the girls were dressed up as angels (which isn’t exactly biblical, but they can’t very well be wise men—ha!) and did Silent Night in sign language. Katie sang What Child is This while Joe played the guitar. Sam was Joseph. He behaved. ~whew~ :-)
After the service we went to the back and filled up on TONS of great little finger foods and desserts. Then we played Dirty Santa or Hallelujah Hand Over, depending on who you ask. Ha! When it’s your turn you can either take a gift from the pile, or steal something that somebody else already opened. But once an item has been stolen three times it’s “dead” and can’t be taken anymore. It was fun. Until Kody stole my knife. Ha! I was thrilled to have gotten something so practical, especially during this phase of our lives! But he took it, the little creep. ;-) So I got to choose a new gift and, lo and behold, it was another knife! HA! Kody stole that one, too. Jerk. HA! (Somebody had stolen the first one from him, so he took my second one.) It all ended well though because Joe’s turn came and he stole the knife from Kody. :-) Some other creep stole my flashlights after that. I finally ended up with a pack of Bendaroos—which gave me inspiration for my Band Meeting two days later.
Thursday I cleaned house, schooled kids, worked on ABM service stuff, and actually made a home cooked dinner (so rare!) of Chicken Parmesan. Then James came home and cut down a scraggly tree from the side of the hill, made a tree stand for it, and set it up in the living room. Katie strung a whole foot and a half of popcorn before giving out (ha!) and Sam made a great paper chain for it—though toward the end he got tired of linking the pieces of construction paper and just started taping the strips end to end. Add some lights, candy canes, candy CORN and who knows what else (whatever they could find!) and it made for the most hilarious Christmas tree ever! I thought it was sooooooo cute, but James was all weird about it and said I’m not allowed to post pictures of it. What a scrooge. Ha!
Friday was a busy, busy day, ending in our very first Youth Band Meeting. The whole crowd showed up: Laura, Kody, Katie, Michael, Dalton… and then SIX—count ‘em—SIX Dudley boys. ~whew~ Talk about a handful! Ha! I was soooooo excited that they all came. It is difficult to maintain order all the time with all those boys and though I try pretend like I’m in control of things (ha!) on the inside I couldn’t help but think about when I was their age. Jon & Johnny and all of their shenanigans and goofing off and constant talking and making a joke out of everything would finally push our teacher or youth leader—always a woman—to the limit and I recall more than one occasion when they (at least two different ladies come to mind) would burst into tears of frustration or throw their notes into the air and let them scatter across the room in surrender. HA! I loved being a teenager and now I love being old enough to have a chance to work with teenagers. It’s just so much fun. :-) Anyway, I feel like our band meeting went very, very well, all things considered. I started by having everybody use Benderoos to fashion the likeness of some special Christmas gift they received sometime in their life. Then we went around the circle and shared what we had made and why.
Joshua didn't even know what his creation represented, so don't ask. Ha!
Then we talked about the greatest gift we could ever receive, the obvious “for God so loved… HE GAVE.” We read from 1 Corinthians about all of the people who will NOT inherit the kingdom of God (adulterers, fornicators, liars, thieves, idolaters, etc.), then Paul said, “and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified…” Those evil, horrible people are the ones that God saved and transformed into pure, holy, sanctified Church of God members. “For when we were yet sinners… Christ died for us.” Then I passed out little gifts addressed to each of them with little cards inserted that said, “For the wages of sin is death, but THE GIFT OF GOD…” I really felt the Lord there during the devotion and I’m pretty sure I felt some conviction at work. I’m so thankful.
When we were finished with our devotional we broke out the chips, pop, and cookies. We just hung out for a little while, then I split them into two teams and we played some Christmas trivia for a little while. After that we played a game I remember playing when I was a teenager. We all sat in a circle around the table and took turns rolling a die, then quickly passing it to the next person. If someone rolled a six they had to jump up and run to the end of the table, put on a hat, scarf, and gloves, open a Hershey bar (a difficult task while wearing gloves), cut it with a plastic knife and take a bite of it with the fork. While they are endeavoring to do all of that, the die is continuously being passed around the table and if somebody else rolls a six, the first guy sits down and the new guy that rolled six has to start putting on all the stuff and working toward a bite of the chocolate bar. It was great to watch.
And we have a winner!
We had lots of fun. Well, I did. I hope the kids did, too! :-) I’m so excited about having our very first band meeting and I’m already looking forward to the next one. I will love it extra once our house is finished and we can start having our band meetings there. Oh, happy day. :-)
While we were having band meeting, James had our three kids and Madison at the house. Brother Will and Sister Kristal were out doing some shopping and Katie was soooooooooooo excited about being able to have Madison over to hang out for a while. When band meeting was over I took Dalton back with me to hang out at our house until their parents were ready to come pick them up. I’d told Sister Kristal to take their time and stay out as late as they wanted—our kids have had very few opportunities to just hang out and have fun together. I’m so glad it worked out the way it did! When Dalton and I got home everybody else—including James—was playing “Monstrosity Hide & Seek.” HA! Even without any furniture to hide behind or under, the house is so big that it’s a terrific place to play Hide & Seek. We joined in and played for a while, then the kids played football until Dalton and Madison had to go home. It was so much fun.
Saturday was a grand and glorious day. We had picked up a rental truck and met at the storage unit with Brother Ridlespurge, Kody and Michael (who had come with another trailer) and the four Dudley boys (one of the Dudley cousins is living with the rest of them right now) and loaded up a-a-a-a-a-all of our stuff to move up to the Monstrosity! :-) Wa-Hoo!!! It took two or three hours (including James & Brother Ridlespurge taking one full load on the trailer and unloading at the house, then coming back) to get everything all loaded up. The second trailer load, along with the moving truck, the back of Brother Powell’s truck, and the back of the van were all packed to the brim by about noon. The Dudley boys had to get back to work, so the rest of us drove the four vehicles up to the Monstrosity and spent the rest of the afternoon unloading everything into the two car garage. It’s amazing how EXCITING it was to move all of our stuff… into the garage! HA! It just feels so good to get it out of storage (and stop paying to keep it there!) and have it in our very own home, even if it is just in the garage. It just felt so, so, so good and even relieving somehow. It’s one more step closer to getting moved in to our very own place again. We’ve been trying to get moved to Alabama for almost a year and a half now and I’m so tired of “still moving.” It feels so good to actually OWN a home and actually have our STUFF there, even if we’re still a long, long way from being ready to move in. We’re closer now than we’ve ever been before and that is sooooo exciting! It just almost makes me feel all giddy.
It was a great day for me because we got all of my stuff moved to my house. It was a great day for Sam because he got to play with the Dudley boys all morning. It was one form of roughhousing to another. Sam was in the box and the boys would knock it one way, then lift it back up and throw it the other way--Sam loving every bit of it.
Let's see, looks like Thomas has got Sam's wrists and ankles bound with packing tape in this one...
The best part of the day was when we had everything all loaded up and were about to haul everything to the Monstrosity. We started counting heads and came up one short. Sam. Where's Sam? Sa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-am!!! We looked for a minute or two and finally a box on the trailer started jiggling. The Dudley boys had packed Sam up in it, loaded it onto the trailer (with Brother Ridlespurge's help, though he was oblivious to the contents!) and packed several things in behind it. And Sam was just as still and quiet as could be the whole time! HA! Here he is being unpacked and lifted to freedom once more.
After getting everything all unloaded we showed the Ridlespurges our half-way remodeled master bathroom and they were courteous enough to act impressed. Ha! I’m so anxious to get a mirror up in there and finish up on the cabinet doors and drawers and the few other odds and ends in there. It’s going to be GREAT to have a nice, neat, fresh, clean COMPLETED room—especially a bathroom.
That night we watched old Christmas shows on the laptop—Andy Griffith, I Love Lucy, and Honeymooners Christmas episodes. Our kids love those and it was a nice way to unwind after a long day of heavy lifting. I’m so, so, so thankful for the help of good church folks on days like today. We had been putting this off for a long time because things have been so busy and we finally just made it happen. I’m so glad we did.
Sunday morning we went to service in Bessemer, then lunch, then shopping for Dirty Santa, Round 2. ;-) They play the same game in Canaan and we were scheduled to visit that church and join them for their Christmas banquet. We had a nice little abbreviated service and James preached a mini-Christmas message. There was a good spirit there. Afterward we all headed downstairs and enjoyed some good, southern cookin’. There was ham and chicken and all manner of fixin’s, along with plenty of dessert. James tried something that had coconut on top and later learned that it was a buttermilk pie. We’d never heard of such a thing (must be a southern thing!) and he never would have tried it had he known what it was, but he loved it. We had to sit at a table up at the front, away from everybody else. That was weird. James says it’s because they are of the old fashioned mindset to show lots of honor and respect to leadership in the Church. It just makes me feel like a freak. HA! As soon as we were done eating we migrated to the tables where everybody else was sitting.
The Hallelujah Hand Over turned out well for us. I didn’t get a knife, but Joe did—again! He’s just rackin’ up on ‘em! Makes a mother proud. :-) James got some little candle thing (ha!), I made out with a nice, soft plaid (I love plaid) throw blanket, Katie got a black photo frame that will actually look nice in her Coca-Cola room, and Sam walked away with a wallet—that received a $10 donation by the end of the night! Brother Flippo (the elder) said it was sad to have a wallet with no money, so he filled it up. Then he said it was unfair for Katie and Joe, so they each got $10 as well! I tried to talk him out of it, but there’s no talking to old people who are bent on spoiling kids. Ha! We had a good time and were thankful to be able to join them. James had been to Canaan before, but it was a first for the kids and me. They gave us a beautiful fruit basket and lots of candy and popcorn and other goodies. They were so, so generous. What a blessing!!
More next time. :-)
3 comments:
YAY! Finally a post that isn't dated December 24! It's about time.
"it made for the most hilarious Christmas tree ever! I thought it was sooooooo cute, but James was all weird about it and said I’m not allowed to post pictures of it." Can we say "PRIDE"??? HAHAHAHA! I would LOVE to see a picture of that tree. It will be a "tree to remember" just like the one I made out of paper chains and taped to the wall when we were first married. I wish I had a picture of that one. :-)
Since you won't be spending all your time at the Monstrosity for a while maybe you can catch up on your blog. You've made a good start tonight. Keep the posts coming.
I'm glad Sam likes to be tossed around like a hacky sack. If not, we'd have to rescue him alot! He would have LOVED to have ridden in that box on the truck. Ha!
You're a brave woman to have your band meeting without another adult around!
I second the motion...I'd like to see a picture of your Christmas tree. ;-)
Your teens band meeting sounds like a lot of fun! I always enjoy the time I get to spend with our teenagers.
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