Staying Caught Up

It doesn't feel like I have much to blog about, but I really don't want to fall behind again, so...

It STILL feels like we just can't get into high gear on the house. We've been spinning our wheels for a week now! We have high hopes and great aspirations each day, but it seems like we keep getting distracted with other things we weren't expecting or just running out of steam. James and I have both been so tired. That sure doesn't help.

On Saturday we hung a few more cabinet doors in the kitchen, finished poly-ing the doors in the utility room, surely did a few other things I'm forgetting (!), then headed to Best Buy to look at the fridges they had on sale. James had a gift card, so we decided to stop at Red Lobster on our way. Bad decision. They were WAY crowded and we knew we'd have to wait to be seate, but we were in no hurry. Our first mistake was sitting directly in front of the lobster tank. Surprisingly, it is Sam and not Joe who has a tender heart toward animals. He went and looked at all of the lobsters and one of them crawled up to the edge of the tank "and looked right at me" and all that. Then he sat back down and got to thinking about all of those nice lobsters being tossed into boiling water and cooked and eaten. It was more than he could handle. He pulled his hat down low over his eyes, sinched his knees up to his chest and hid the best he could while trying to choke back the tears. One of the employees grabbed the stick and pulled a lobster out of the tank and I thought Sam was going to totally lose it, but she was just showing it to a kid who had asked, then put him back in the tank. Needless to say, Sam was not in very good spirits for the duration of our meal. And nobody dared order lobster. Ha! We never have before, but there's no way we could have done it that day!

We were finally seated... and then finally had our drink order taken... and then finally had the drinks arrive... and then a long time later had the garlic cheese bisquits arrive... and then finally had some soup show up... and then finally (way after we should have already eaten and been gone) had the waitress show up to tell us they were out of one of the items we had ordered and we'd need to choose something else... shall I continue? Ha! We never did get the re-ordered meal. We didn't have an extra hour to wait for it. ;-) Needless to say, James spoke with a manager before we left. He made me stay at the table, but he assures me that he was nice. I really want to believe him... HA!

We stopped by Best Buy, but didn't find a fridge that will work for us. We decided to check Sears again since we were so close. We found one that I really, really like, but it’s a little pricey and has a shiny finish that is bound to scratch easily. The sort of bumpy finish that all refrigerators used to have seems to be on the way out. Anyway, we’re going to do some more shopping around and see what we can come up with.

For some unknown reason we decided to leave Sears and actually venture into the mall itself. Actually the reason is known. I just remembered it. James was really hoping to find an Orange Julius. Do they have Orange Julius around here??? This was my first time actually being in the mall here. On a Saturday. Evening. We’d only been walking through the hallway for a few minutes when I looked at James and said, “What are we DOING here???” I hate malls, but most especially on Saturdays and evenings, much less a Saturday evening. I just feel all gross and dirty and contaminated--like I just waded through a pool of worldliness and can't wait to go wash it all off! Ha! Of course, I found out today that the mall here has a Lego Store so we'll have to go there again some time (Sam will be in heaven!), but we'll be sure to do it on a Thursday morning or something--anything will be better than Saturday night!

Sunday School was interesting yesterday. First of all, we had to change classrooms. Apparently a mouse died in the wall or something because it stinks REALLY bad. It didn't seem too bad the first time I walked in, but it didn't take long to realize how bad it was. So we hauled a table across the hallway into a different classroom. I had Zack and Jackson for class--then Jacob and Jadyn showed up toward the end. I'm not sure any of them remember what we learned, but they DO remember the glue exploding. They were having a hard time getting it to come out of the bottle, so I was attempting to clear the tip for them. I finally turned it upright and gave it a little squeeze hoping to see where it was clogged up. You know the rest. The was a big POW and I was covered. It was all over my face and in my bangs. Ha!!! The kids just CRACKED UP. I had to laugh. It really was a grand explosion. I excused myself and went to clean up in the restroom, but was unable to do much with my hair. It wasn't regular school glue, it was heavy duty craft glue. Naturally. I ran into Brother Washburn on my way back to the classroom. He's our Sunday School Superintendant and I had aready run into him two or three times since Sunday School had begun, needing to run to the classroom to get this, or into the office to copy that, etc. I'm sure he was wondering if I ever actually go to the room where my students are. HA!

Sunday night we had Communion & Feetwashing service. That is always SUCH a blessing. I think I understand and appreciate it more and more as time goes on. We went with the Hopkins and Ridlespurges and Washburns to the Sunday night spot (McAlisters) after service.

Today we FINALLY succeeded in getting the rest of the kitchen cabinet doors hung. Is it exaggerating to say that it was a nightmare? We hung and unhung and rehung and switched doors and drilled new holes and pushed and pulled and stripped out screws and scratched paint all over the place and took doors off again and shaved them down with the saw and, oh, you name it. HA! It was CRAZY. But at the end of the day they are all ON, they are relatively straight, and they all open and close--some more easily than others, but there comes a time when you just have to call it good enough. James cut the rest of the sheetrock out of the ceiling space in the kitchen afterwards, so then I spent about 45 minutes cleaning powder and dust off of all of the newly hung doors. Tomorrow morning they'll be ready for me to do LOTS and LOTS of touch-up painting in red and green and yellow. Not sure how long that will take, but once it dries real good I'll start putting the poly on them.

The other accomplishment of the day was moving the children out of our room. WA-HOO!!! The community room was fun while it lasted, but it's time has passed. The room was trashed all the time--five people's beds and all of the STUFF they feel like they need stacked on the floor beside the beds. (By "beds" of course we mean sleeping bags and air mattresses.) And the kids stuff never stayed in stacks--it was continually scattered all around the room and it makes me batty to not have a clean place to go to, especially to try to read or pray or sleep. So this evening we hauled all of the kids' bedding and junk to the living room and got them set up out there, then cleaned our bedroom up. ~Aaahhhh~ It feels sooooo good. And I'm amazed at how BIG this room is now that all of that other STUFF isn't here anymore! Ha!

That's about it. I will post a few pictures of Sam before I go. The first is--obviously--his attempt to look like his Dad... with an electrical tape beard and "pokey-up" hair. In his Dad's glasses I think he looks like Melissa Hendricks' boy, Dan. Cute. :-)

And here he is sleeping in his bin. He found this a week or two ago and decided he wanted to use it for a bed. He's been sleeping in it (or at least paritally in it--ha!) ever since. Goofy kid!
I LOVE how he's sleeping in this shot. Hahahaha! CRACKS ME UP. Joe's sleeping position is good, too, but Sam's--I just have NO IDEA how a person can sleep like that! By the way, notice all of the STUFF everywhere??? THAT is why I had to move the kids out of our room. My sanity depended on it. ;-)