BTI Babysitting, Day Four: Thursday

This video is completely random and is really better without any explanation, so it makes as much sense to post it here as anywhere...



Let's see, what happened today... The kids played together nicely most of the day. I know that "The Bad-Doers Gang” struck again first thing this morning, but I was in the shower and missed out on it. Then it was Isaac's turn to play Grandma. In fact, this is the only picture I have from today.



The kids wandered from one thing to the next keeping themselves happy and occupied for the most part. There was lots of train activity going on in the barn today, some fishing, scooters, and football.

I did laundry for my family today and--somehow--managed to get a whole lot of ironing done. We didn't have anything that needed ironed, but some of the BTI folk had things that needed done (they're up early, gone all day long, then come home late, exhausted--they don't have time to mess with stuff like that!) and Mom and Dad had a few things that needed done.

The only thing worthy of mention as far as mishaps today is when Aleah dumped her bowl of Ramen noodles... directly on top of the floor vent. Hahahahahahaha! There was a pile of noodles on top and several that had slipped down in between the slats and were draped across them, then several more--along with the juice--down IN the vent. I only wish I would have thought to take a picture of it before the two of us cleaned it up.

This afternoon the kids watched Bonanza, then went outside to play Bonanza. I heard them calling each other Adam and Joe (Joe played "Joe," of course) and some of the other characters from the episode they'd just seen.

I cooked a chicken this afternoon, then made some noodles this evening for dinner. My kids love homemade chicken and noodles--like soup, but with giant noodles. :-) Then we finished off the Berried Delight from the other night.

We got the kids put to bed, then Mom and Brother Dustin & Sister Jamey and Sister Kim and Brother Chris Thompson and I all stayed up and visited for a while. We watched part of the live service from Denver--where THEY were watching the video of this morning's devotion from BTI. :-)

We were having a good visit and enjoying ourselves, discussing all manner of miscellaneous topics when we came back to discussing this crazy rash that ALL of the kids have developed, some worse than others. We talked about all of the possibilities and marked them off one by one, but as we were talking again about what could have caused all seven of the kids to develop this condition but none of the adults we just kept coming back to one common factor: the hot tub.

So on a whim I grabbed my computer and Googled, "hot tub rash." Yeppers, there it was. EXACTLY what all of the kids have. The pictures were the same, the description was the same, the symptoms were the same. For the most part we were all satisfied and relieved (not to imply we were scared or worried about it; just curious and at a loss) to have finally identified WHAT the kids have. Of course, Brother Dustin took the opportunity to blame me for infecting his children. He's already been doing that since they were under my care when they developed the rash, but now he feels he can effectively say that I GAVE it to them.

So this rash is really nothing major. It usually goes away on it's own in seven to ten days. If you don't scratch it. And if it doesn't become further infected and form an abscess. Brother Dustin was already pleased to think of having evidence on his children's bodies for a whole week of what a horrible person I am. Then we read, "The rash usually resolves on its own in 7 to 10 days leaving a hyperpigmented lesion that resolves over months." Months??? I read and re-read that sentence a dozen times. It means, of course, that our kids could (will???) have pinkish spots on them even after the bumps go away. For months?!?!? That's insane! Brother Dustin threw both arms in the air straight above him, fists clenched in his best victory posture. Then, of course, he recalled that he will be taking his family to Canada for Family Camp just shortly after BTI. He declares that if they won't allow his children across the border because they look sick, he is blogging. (Even though real men don't, I assume.) Hahahahahahahaha!

So then we started looking up what we can do to treat this rash. Vinegar compresses for twenty minutes, two to four times a day. Do you have any idea how long that is going to take with seven children?!?!? Hahahahahaha! I'm glad I was able to be so productive today because I have a feeling I won't have time to do much of anything except change out warm vinegar clothes on red, splotchy children from here on out. There are nine days left in BTI. At least that's what Brother Dustin joyfully informed me. Jerk. It's going to be a long, long nine days. Hahahahaha!

And up until ten o'clock tonight I thought today was pretty boring and I'd have nothing to blog about. Should've known. I'm thinking boring would have been better than the discovery that the children developed a rash--under my care--that may leave little red spots on them for MONTHS. I just want to know why I am to blame for the kids getting this rash instead of my Mom. They got it in HER nasty, bacteria infected hot tub that was low on chlorine! ;-)

BTI Babysitting, Day Three: Wednesday

The BTI crowd stumbled out of the house a little slower today. And it's only the third day! They're in trouble next week. :-)

The boys were fishing bright and early again. Everybody played outside for a while because it was nice and cool--a welcomed relief. Katie was thrilled to catch her first fish in a year or more. She caught two bluegill. I missed the first, but this is the second.



Sam & Isaac have been spending some time in the barn loft playing with the trains.



Day One with the kids was great, but by the end of the day it already felt like it would be good to GO somewhere the next day. So we did. It was great, but after going out it felt like we should STAY HOME today. Ha!

I was up way too late last night and ready for a nap by 9:00. Ha! By 9:30 Joe and Isaac had come to me and yanked their shirts up, showing me hundreds of little red bumps with white centers. You know my first thought, of course. “FLESH EATING BACTERIA FROM THE POND!!!” Ha! I’m sure it’s nothing that serious—and the cuts on their feet seem to be healing nicely. (I know because I felt strongly impressed to check them after seeing the bumps all over. Ha!) Sarah, too, has some strange thing going on with her feet. The balls of her feet are real red and tough and puffy and super sore. The poor girl hobbles around real slow every time she tries to walk. Poor kids. They’re growing all sorts of problems under my care! Joe was concerned that perhaps he and Isaac had developed chicken pox. I had to laugh, just imagining how fun the next week or two would be with seven kids if THAT were the case! Hahahahaha! I’m sure it’s not—doesn’t look like chicken pox. I did some research on it the red bumps this morning, which is sometimes a dangerous thing. You start looking symptoms up on the Internet and you could go a thousand different directions. The only thing that was a possibility (from what I was able to find) was Swimmers Itch. It is caught by being in water infected with some sort of bacteria that exists in some conditions where snails are present. It caught my attention because first thing this morning Aleah found a snail on the sidewalk and carried it around for a while.

Ravioli and Ramen were on the menu for lunch. Shortly after lunch I noticed red bumps on Lillie's neck, so I went from kid to kid checking them out. Sure enough the spots are on EVERYBODY now! Sam and Sara don't have it as bad as the others, but all seven kids have them. That sort of rules out the Swimmers Itch thing since none of the girls were in the pond but they have the same spots as the boys. None of the kids seem to be itching and (though Drama Queen Kate insists that she is) I've never seen any of the kids scratch at them, so that's good. The only thing we can think of that all of the kids have in common is the hot tub. We checked the chemicals and have added a few things to bring it up to the proper levels. Until then, nobody's getting in and we'll hope the spots clear up in the next day or two. What a great adventure this babysitting thing has become. I knew it would be, but the particulars are always a surprise. :-)

I forgot to write about Isaac's dread fear of the pond. The other night (just after the boys had been swimming) Jamey was putting him to bed and said something to him about the pond. I'm not sure how she worded it, but everything seemed fine when she left the room. A few minutes later Brother Dustin came downstairs after checking on the kids and asked Jamey what in the world she had done to their son. Isaac was in bed near a nervous breakdown. His Dad asked him what was wrong and Isaac said through sobs and quivering lips, "Mom said my legs are going to fall off because I was in the pond!" Hahahahahahaha! Poor Isaac. He has NO interest in swimming here again. Or anywhere. Maybe ever. Ha!

I worked on some laundry and ironing, but I seem to struggle accomplishing much. This afternoon the girls were hanging out in the den when “The Bad-Doers Gang” came barging in, scattering the bag of balloons, cackling, dancing, acting like weird-o’s and declaring the name of the gang and their purpose (“to do bad unto girls”) and informing us that they could go and fetch “the mild-mannered Joe, Sam and Isaac” if we wanted them to clean up the mess. Here they are, wreaking their havok.




I caught them on their way out of the house and they were more than happy to pose for the camera.

After the boys put their gang apparel (ha!) away, they all came back into the house escorting Grandma Sam. :-)

I let the kids watch “Up” this afternoon. Sarah laughed and laughed. She is sooooo cute and funny. What a sweet girl. I really, really like her. :-) It feels so good to relax and have a "quiet time." ~Aaaaahhhhh~ Mom tells me that I'm working hard, but I'm pretty sure she's wrong. Watching 7 kids has felt soooooo much better than working myself to death on the Monstrosity! I guess either one is a lot of work, but this is different work--and homemakers work--and it is so nice and refreshing! I'm sure (I hope?) I'll be ready to get back to work on the house once we get home, but for now I am sooooooo enjoying my "time off" babysitting all the kids and cooking and cleaning (though not much) and doing laundry and ironing. And blogging. And going to fantastic services and seeing BTI PEOPLE and talking and praying with old friends and fellowshipping and laughing... ~sigh~ Yes, it definitely feels like a week "off" with all of the things that feel so refreshing to me--and with the complete absense of paint, wallpaper, and glue in my workday. :-)

I did a little more laundry and ironing in the afternoon, then raced to get the kids ready for church. Joe went with Mom & Dad, but Kate and Sam went along with me to eat dinner with the Hays. While we were at the restaurant we noticed some people staring at us rather strangely. Then it occurred to us. Brother Dustin was sitting there in his white shirt and tie, with two women and a whole crowd of kids. Mormons??? We had some good laughs about the particulars of that. James REALLY should be here!!!

I so enjoyed church service. But then, you knew that, right? I just feel blessed, so blessed, to be here. ~sigh~ Brother Horton was on to preach, but never got a chance. The Holy Ghost really blessed and moved during the song service, then again when the O'Dell family was singing a song--that turned into an altar call. Brother Dustin took of running with Brother Hawkins right on his heels, nearly colliding (but of course didn't) with John Harper coming the opposite direction. I love it when the guys get all happy and take off like that. :-) I hated to miss out on hearing the message , but was blessed by the opportunity to spend time in prayer. We heard they had an unbelievable service over at South Side. Chris T. received the Holy Ghost (how many years has it been???), and Zack Baldwin and Kody nearly did, too. I was sorry to have missed it. I had been praying for Kody throughout the service at Zion Hill and kept looking for him but never could find him. Then it occurred to me, "Where's Brother Chris? And the other Chris? And Aaron and the Baldwin boys??? Those jerks skipped service!" Ha! It was only a few seconds before I realized they must've gone to South Side. I'm glad they did. They would have had to hear about it when they got home, otherwise. ;-)

We got home and had some Blue Bell and visited, and visited, and visited some more. Can I say it again...

I LOVE BEING HERE!!!! I’m savoring every moment. Every song service and prayer and message, every opportunity to pray in the altar, every second of precious fellowship, the church discussions, and—of course—all of the laughs. I’ve thought this week of several verses that are so simple, but I feel like I’m consciously experiencing them. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…” (Prov. 17:22). “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord…” (Psa. 144:15). And this one, “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD…” (Deut. 33:19). I had some needs I wasn’t even aware of, but since being here I can FEEL that I’ve had some hefty doses of “medicine” and it has been so good for my soul. When I ache because of laughing I know that all is well. :-) So many things about the Church are so much more real to me than they’ve ever been before. In the past year God has been strengthening and clarifying my vision of the Church, but also my love and understanding and appreciation of it (even in the little things) and what an undeserved honor it is to be a part of it. There are riches and blessings to be found here—even in “light” things like fellowship—that simply cannot be experienced in the same sweetness and depth anywhere else. The bond of theocracy and oneness that comes from being in the Body of Christ, accepting and embracing and loving the doctrine and practices that God has given to His people ("walking by the same rule" and "minding the same thing" --Phil. 4:9)--there is just nothing to compare to it this side of heaven. Like the verse in Deuteronomy says, God’s people are HAPPY and “who is like unto thee?” No one. No one is like God’s people. For years now I’ve been overwhelmed by that realiztion at each General Assembly. It seems to grow stronger and stronger as time goes by. ~sigh~ I'm so blessed to know God, to know His Church, to be IN it, and to know His people and be bound to Him and them by covenant. And... I’m soooooooo happy to be here!!!

BTI Babysitting, Day Two: Tuesday

Joe was out fishing at 6:30. Freak. ;-) Just after everybody left at about 7:30 he landed a great big catfish and was sooooooo excited. He’d been fishing for bass, but was thrilled to nab a catfish instead—and to learn that that particular rod was “catfish worthy” and the line didn’t break. From what I could see, the fish didn’t actually bite the hook; it seemed to have grabbed him in the face and eye. :-/ From here on out you’ll always know if you catch the same fish again. Joe named him One-Eyed Louis. ;-)



Isaac and Sam were the late risers today. And Kody, judging by all the hollering for him this morning. “KODY!!!! We’re leaving!!!” Ha! (Don’t worry, Sister Ridlespurge—the guy yelling for him just likes to yell. HA! He was downstairs in no time.) I’m so glad Kody is here. I hope he has the time of his life. :-) Anyway, Isaac was able to nab a fish of his own once he did get up.



I can’t remember very much about the morning except that it was suddenly 11:00. (I didn’t take notes throughout the day today, so I haven’t a clue.) I fixed the girls’ hair and loaded up the seven little people to take them to Zion Hill for lunch. :-) I thought it would be fun to go and eat with the BTI crowd two or three times. It was GREAT. I love, love, love, love, love being with BTI people. It’s funny. They are regular people, people that I know, people that I am friends with, people that I love… but when they are also BTI people I love being with them even more. :-)

I counted to seven ;-) and left HQ to do some shopping before going back to the house. We had to stop at two stores for groceries on our way home (Aldi—strawberries were 99 cents, then Cooke’s—Blue Bell was buy one, get one free) and it was a BREEZE. I assigned every kid a partner and made Joe a “captain” of sorts. “Okay, everybody stay with your buddy… girls, stay with the group… don’t touch the crackers…” Katie hated it, but he did well and wasn’t too bossy. Everybody sang the whole way back to the house.

When we got there I let the girls get in hot tub, then the boys. I cleaned the kitchen and made Berried Delight, a fantastic recipe Jamey had found. It seemed like the day just flew by and I didn’t get hardly anything done that I had intended to. I did get Brother Clarkson’s pants fixed (a seam needed restitched—it took far longer to set up the machine as it did to actually do the work), but that’s about it. There’s always tomorrow.

The home crowd (Hays, Kim, Mom & Dad; as opposed to the go-out crowd—all the single or temporarily-wifeless guys) came home and we had ham and beans and cornbread for dinner, then migrated outside to watch all of the fellas fish. Isaac caught another big one.




I think Brother Clarkson caught two fish.



We had some great discussions and thoroughly enjoyed Sister Kim’s prototype of a certain useful tool that she demonstrated on Brother Chris T., much to the delight of the onlookers. I would share more details, but some things don’t relate well in written form. Just take my word for it—it was grand. :-)

Chris T. and Kody decided to take a spin around the pond in the paddle boat. The both walked out on the dock and stepped into the boat at the same time, accidentally thrusting it away from the shore. We watched as Kody’s legs spread wider and wider, one foot on the dock the other on the boat that we departing, until he finally leaped onto the boat and was able to crawl into place. Ha! One leg bothered him for the rest of the evening, but he assured me sometime later that he was fine—now that the feeling had returned. HA! It was great. Once he and Chris got in the boat they were cracking us up, paddling as fast as their legs could manage, but not going anywhere. :-) You have to paddle at a medium speed for it to work right. They finally figured it out, but they got some real good exercise first.

Dad enjoyed some fishing with the rest of the guys.
Then the grandest thing of all happened. We girls decided to take a ride in the paddleboat. Jamey and Sarah climbed into the back of the boat and Kim and I got into the front. It was poor planning on our part, getting into the boat like that while it was sitting on the slanted dock instead of stepping into it while it was floating flat on the water. Then it was REALLY poor planning that we allowed Chris T. to push us off. He put his foot on the boat and gave a mighty heave, shoving the boat off the dock and into the water--at the very same angle as the dock. This means, of course, that Jamey and Sara's end of the boat went straight down into the pond and filled up with water. Hahahahahahahaha! For a few moments Jamey was sitting in pond water up to her waist. There was lots of screaming followed by hysterical laughter for several minutes. I had handed my camera to Kody before getting in the boat and he got a few pictures, but not until the boat had righted itself and Jamey was no longer sitting in the pond. Too bad. HA! Either way, I can't look at the pictures without laughing--just remembering how hilarious it all was. :-)

Jamey went to get into some nice dry clothes and start some laundry (!), then we all sat and visited for a while. Pretty soon the Baldwin boys and Aaron showed up. I can't remember anything specific about the conversation, I just remember laughing a lot. Then Brother Clarkson turned it into a prayer meeting. :-) He started drilling all of the young guys, trying to learn about them and what they might need from the Lord while at BTI. "Who are you? Are you saved? Sanctified? How do you know? Do you have the Holy Ghost? Why not? What holds you back?" People who don't really KNOW Chris Clarkson might think by reading that that he is pushy and crass, but anyone who DOES know him knows that it wasn't like that at all. None of it was done in a critical way—oh, far from it! Just in an open, honest, real sort of way—wanting to find their hearts and how he might be able to help encourage and pray for them. He talked to them for a while, then led everybody in prayer. We had a good prayer, then some of us stayed up visiting about some spiritual needs, and heard some good counsel, God giving help and hope and direction. I loved it. :-) And it makes me remember all of the reasons why I love and miss the Clarksons so much. I'm always so blessed.

Along with all of the spiritual conversations and prayers, we had tons of fun tonight. My sides are sore from laughing. It’s only day two. I love it. :-) I’M SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!

So Far...

Opening Service last night was FANTASTIC. I was just so, so, so blessed. There was a good spirit throughout the night. I really enjoyed the message by Reed North—I mean Ed Clay. ;-) It was great fun hearing Brother Clay preach because some of his expressions and mannerisms—as well as some of the off the wall, oddball stuff that he says and the WAY he says them—make it sooooo evident that he sat under Brother North for a good while. Lest there be any confusion over that statement, I’ll clarify by saying that Brother North was my FAVORITE preacher when I was a kid and I was greatly blessed by his ministry. Anyway, what I enjoyed most was the altar call. It felt soooooooooooooooo good to be able to go and SPEND TIME in the altar tonight! Oh, how I needed it. And can’t wait ‘til next time! Of course we are to pray and seek the Lord every day, but there is something so powerful about gathering together with God’s people in the altar and seeking Him there, in His house. I love the freedom that I feel when I’m “lost in the crowd” of other seekers who are crying out to God and I’m able to just pour my heart out along side of them. God had spoken several things to my heart during the message and it felt so wonderful to be able to spend time in prayer there talking to Him about them. ~sigh~ I love it. And I need more of it. Have I mentioned that I am SOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL to be at BTI?!?!? Aside from the regular Zion Hill services the next two Wednesdays and Sunday morning, I will be able to be in BTI services on Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, then again next Friday night and Saturday afternoon. I’M SO HAPPY!!!!! Student or not, I fully intend to receive great things from the Lord and go home changed and nearer to Him and better equipped to serve Him after these two weeks. He’s already working in my heart and I love it. I just love it!

Several of us stayed up just past midnight, listening to and laughing heartily at Brother Clarkson’s stories. He’s always got plenty of them. It amazes me how one person can have so many bizarre experiences. It makes my life seem so very boring. Then it makes me happy that I have crazy friends with weird experiences so they can tell my “boring” self all about them. It is sooooooo good to be with him and the Hays and all of the other western folk that are here. It’s going to be a great two weeks. Just the first half-day was worth the trip about 100 times over. :-)

That takes us to…

BTI Babysitting -- Day One

I love this job. The boys were up and fishing first thing in the morning. By 8:00 they had caught several fish and one Yorkie. The neighbors' dog, Bells, was visiting (I’m pretty sure she thinks she lives here) and got real curious about the smelly hook lying on the ground while Joe was releasing a fish back into the pond. She hadn’t hooked herself too badly—thank goodness!—and I was able to free her pretty quickly.

A few minutes later we had our first casualty. All of the children are fine, but we lost one fishing rod. The boys were out in the paddle boat when *KER-PLUNK* one of them dropped his pole into the middle of the pond. I wouldn’t want to incriminate anyone, so we’ll just say one of the Hall kids did it. Hahahahahahaha! This is going to be a great week (two weeks, that is) for my blog. I am so happy to be watching the Hays kids, both because I love them and because I can give their dad such a hard time about the “entertaining” things they do. And I always win because he can’t/won’t blog (“real men don’t blog”) about any of the things MY kids do. :-)

By 9:00 it felt like we’d already had a full day, and one child was still sleeping soundly!

Here are some pictures of the fishing activity.

The rest of the morning consisted of girls playing in the costume bin…




And the boys went swimming. It’s exactly what I expected when Sam asked if he could go “wading.” I’ve never let the kids in the pond before, but boys are supposed to be able to swim in ponds and jump from rope swings and stuff like that, right? That’s what I thought. Until Mom called and told me about some girl in Georgia that has had to have lots of body parts amputated because of an infection that came from dirty pond water. Oops. :-/

Ironically, and after I had already typed everything above, I received the following text from Brother Dustin:

"Just so you know, if you give my son a flesh eating bacteria I am so blogging. Even if real men don't."

Hahahahahahaha! I love it that some things never change. :-)

I think Joe is the only one who had open wounds, so I poured peroxide all over them when he got out. My kids are such horrible sissies when it comes to peroxide. “I hate the sizzling sound; when I hear that sound I can FEEL it hurting—the sound makes me FEEL it!” Anyway, they all had a BLAST and were only scared for their lives one time. Isaac got out a little farther than he expected and lost his footing. He panicked slightly, but Katie was nearby in the paddle boat and came to the rescue, escorting him back to shore. It was one of those little tiny moments that will probably live forever in the kids’ memories as a HUGE ordeal and life-endangering moment. (I was sure to check everybody’s life jackets before they got in the water—they were all perfectly safe, rest assured!) The only cause for alarm is the flesh eating bacteria and the leeches. I didn't see it, but Joe declared--with great alarm--that he had one. "It's a leech. It HURTS--it's ATTACHED!!!!!!!!!!" Whatever it was (a leech or a leaf, we'll never know) seemed to come loose fairly easily and we all breathed a big sigh of relief. Anyway, here are some pictures of all the fun.











I made the smelly pond-water boys take showers, then we had devotions and spent a few minutes talking about RULES before lunch. :-) We had lunch out on the back deck. Here are the girls taking in the dinner show. It was akin to what you would see at Casa Bonita, though the atmosphere isn't quite as impressive. Ha!




This afternoon the boys went out to the paddle boat to fish, but not for fish. They had been commissioned by Granddad/Brother Smith to get the biggest hook, the heaviest weight, and the cheapest fishing pole they could find (ha!), and go drag the bottom of the pond with their line and see if they could fish out the pole they’d lost earlier. It was a good, but unsuccessful mission.

I decided last week that it would be best to have a "quiet time" each day. For my sake. HA! Today I let them watch the old cartoon Robin Hood and I was able to grab a few minutes of much needed nap. I did feel a titch guilty though, thinking of all of the BTI people who were doubtless as tired as I, but unable to nap. Or maybe they were. ;-)

The girls were wearing out, but never did nod off during the movie.

After the movie I let the girls get in the hot tub for a little while. It seemed much safer after learning of the dangers of pond water. HA!

We had a nice ham dinner tonight. There won't be many nights where I'll have opportunity to cook due to the services, so I figured I should take advantage of every chance I get. The Hays and Kim and Mom & Dad came home for dinner; the six guys (four single, two left-wife-at-home) didn't show up until afterward. Chelsei showed up on her scooter and visited for a while. Here's part of the crowd watching a video of Dad reading the latest chapter of his "book" at Couples' Retreat this year. :-)

Brother Dustin spent a good portion of his evening trying to fish for the sunken fishing pole. In this shot he happens to be looking wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay up into the tree where he slung his line over the limb and got it stuck. He's a marvellous help. HA! Needless to say, he didn't have any better luck than the boys did earlier.

We all sat on the porch and visited for a long time, the crowd slowly dwindling a little at a time. We stayed until it got too buggy (~bleagh~) and finally came inside to continue visiting. Mom gave up and went to bed by 11:00 or so, then the three of us who were left (take your best guess--ha!) called it quits at about midnight. Except for me. I'm blogging. Actually, I've been blogging off and on all day long, a minute or two here, a minute or two there. I just thought I'd finish it up before turning in.

As for my emotional state (HA! Jerk...), I can honestly say that I didn't missing going BTI at all today. Well, there was this one little twinge when I heard everybody else going out the door this morning (of course!), but it passed quickly. I had a lot of fun with the kids today and most of the day actually felt almost like a vacation. I've been working so hard painting and papering and doing all manner of remodeling work day in and day out for the past few weeks that it was WONDERFUL to sit on the porch swing and read and watch all of the kids playing. And today was the big YES day. "Can we get in the hot tub?" Yes! "Can we swim in the pond?" Sure! "Can we get out the games with dozens of tiny little pieces?" Why not! This was the YES day because it was the FIRST day. We're all happy and fresh and excited. By next week the conversation will be more like, "Sister Becki, can we--" "NOPE." HA! No, I hope we can keep having fun the whole two weeks. Today has just been so great. I loved being with the kids. I've always loved the Hays kids--and Sarah is SUCH a fun and happy little girl. She is so great to have here and adds in a whole new flavor with the others. It's a good mix and we're having a blast.

For the record, I just found out that certain kids not belonging to myself ripped the storm door off of Mom & Dad's house last year, but their dad BEGGED my Mom not to tell me about it. Hahahahahahaha! You know what that means, right? I win again, simply by virtue of the fact that he so desperately didn't want me to know about it. ~Aaaaaaahhhhh~ Life is good.

But I may be in danger of losing the impressive lead that I hold in the everlasting feud. I found out tonight that Isaac had some cuts on his feet, too, while playing in the scummy pond water. I'm now praying that this doesn't end in Brother Dustin blogging...

Recovery Post

Just to cover what's gone on the past several days. Before all of the really exciting stuff begins. :-)

Tuesday was a BIG productive day! I painted Katie’s walls black. Yes, you read that right. Black. B-L-A-C-K. Black is a very scary color. At least on a wall. Who ever heard of painting walls black anyway?! But it simply had to be done. It’s what was needed to make this soon-to-be-Coca-Cola room just right. Still, I gasped just about every time I’d make a swipe with the brush or roller and see BLACK paint spread across the wall! We had enough trim from some other project, so we went ahead and painted it white. It will one day separate the red and white striped wallpaper from the black wall beneath, but for now this is what it looks like.




It took two coats of black to cover well. Then I got out the blah brown color and painted the top half of Joe’s room and the bottom half of the upstairs foyer. I didn’t take any pictures because… well, because it’s just blah brown. It will look great once we get the wallpapers up in those rooms, but until then it’s just not anything grand. The thing that IS truly grand is that I am now FINISHED painting upstairs! I mean, there will still be trim and bathroom cabinets and things like that, but the WALLS are finished. WA-HOOOOO! That is soooooo exciting to me! It means that we CAN put carpet in whenever we need do, though there are lots of other things we’d LIKE to get done first.

Wednesday was spent mostly helping the kids with school. We are trying to finish up this year’s SoS. Joe is SOOOOO close (4 lessons and 1 test) and Katie is getting there, but we didn’t get it done before the trip. Oh well. It’s not going anywhere. We can finish after BTI. I did finally go upstairs to work for an hour or two, but accomplished very little.

James preached at church that night. I love hearing him preach. :-) After service we went out with the crowd—since I’ll be gone for two weeks. I’M SO GLAD I’M GOING TO BE GONE FOR TWO WEEKS!!! :-) The only thing I really remember about the outting is the conversations about Sister Tammy’s severe aversion to poodles. She is deeply scarred by some childhood experiences and it has caused some definite emotional imbalances. Unfortunately she seems to find relief in taking it out on sweet, loveable little dogs—especially poodles—instead of truly recovering from the trauma. HA!

Thursday I worked long and hard in Sam’s room… but at the end of the day I had only finished HALF of the room. You see, I’m trying this crazy thing up there where you rip up brown craft paper (like paper bags), crinkle it up, then glue it in overlaying patches all over the wall. It’s supposed to look a little like suede or leather or something and I thought it would be really cool for a western room. So far it just looks like paper bags all over the wall. HA! I like how it’s turning out and I think it will be neat with the cowboy stuff all over it, but it is definitely taking longer than I expected. I like it, but I’m pretty sure it’s not worth the time invested! Still, it’s a fun job. Like a giant paper mache. It’s like 1st Grade art class happening all over your walls. Fun. :-)



We had ladies’ prayer meeting that night. It was just Sister Ridlespurge and I, but I really enjoyed and needed it. I’m so blessed.

After that the Ridlespurges came by to visit (I basically told her that they had to—ha!) for a little while before my two week departure. They were gracious about the room with the paper bags glued all over the wall. ;-)

I had decided by the end of that day that I simply was NOT going back to Sam’s room again until after BTI. I originally had every intention of finishing that room before my trip, but I have been working sooooo hard on the house and I could feel my body just sort of fizzle out Thursday night and say, “Nope. We’re done for a while.” It was a good decision. :-) I spent the whole of Friday getting all caught up on the laundry and ironing, then packing for the kids and myself for two weeks. It’s amazing how much STUFF you have to take to BTI, even when you’re not attending!

Saturday morning we worked on getting the last of our things loaded up, then spent an hour or two cleaning house—putting things away, scrubbing the kitchen, sorting piles of stuff, vacuuming carpets and swiffering wood floors. We got everything looking nice and spiffy at about noon—right on schedule. We grabbed a bite to eat, then said our goodbyes to James before going to pick up Kody, who was riding up to Mom & Dad’s house with us. We had a happy and uneventful trip. I was sure to make Kody and the kids play the “I’m Going on a Trip” game. I told them it wouldn’t be a proper BTI trip unless we did. Of course, when I attended BTI we had to drive two days to get there, not three hours. Still, I made them suffer through to the very end of the game, the bunch of gripers. ;-)

We got in at about 5:00 and started unloading. Of course, Joe immediately started fishing. We got everything moved in, then I helped Mom make Sloppy Joes for dinner (they are soooooo much better with deer meat—yum!) and we were joined by Chris Thompson and Aaron Brooks. Tomorrow the rest of the crowd will come in: Chris Clarkson, Kim (Clark) Edmunds and her daughter Sarah, two Baldwin boys from Virginia, and the Hays family. That makes 17 of us staying in the house (Mom & Dad are in the trailer) for the two weeks of BTI. How fun. :-) I guess I should clarify since I’ve never mentioned it on here before… I have come to spend the two weeks here at Mom & Dad’s house so I can watch Sister Kim’s daughter and the Hays’ kids so they’ll all be able to attend BTI this year. Actually, that’s the excuse. Babysitting was my ticket to get to come BE HERE during BTI and I am soooooooo excited!!! Ha! I won’t be AT BTI during the days (unless I load up the 7 kids and take them in for lunch there a day or two), but I’ll be able to be involved in all of the weekend services and be here WITH some of the BTI people—and that’s close enough to make me very, very happy. And I’m thrilled to be able to watch the kids so Jamey and Kim can go. BTI is one of the bestest things EVER and everybody ought to be able to go to it one way or another. ~sigh~ I’m so happy to be here. :-)

Anyway, after dinner Sam caught two fish, one very large bass.



He and Katie got in the hot tub for a while, they played with all of the neighbor dogs, Sam caught a frog—Kody caught another and hurled it into the middle of the pond—I helped Mom with dishes and then tried to head to bed at a decent hour. I wanted to start the two weeks off with one good night’s sleep. It might be the only one I see. ;-)

NOTE: I wrote all of the above last night, but just now had a chance to post it. I am at General Headquarters. With BTI people. And I am ECSTATIC!!!!!!! Oh, I can't BEGIN to express how happy-happy-happy-happy-happy I am to be here! I have loved seeing all of the folks coming in to register and feeling the excitement. There is just NOTHING like BTI. It will be mildly painful for me to stay at the house with 7 kids while everybody else leaves to go to school each day, but I will still be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO thankful to just BE HERE and be able to be with the PEOPLE and take part in the SERVICES. ~sigh~ I belong here. That's all there is to it. I am a BTI person, and I belong at BTI. It's in my blood or something. I can't thank God and James enough for letting me come!!! :-)

I hope it's only mildly painful to stay home each day... ;-)

A Morning Blog?!

I never blog in the morning. Weird. But here I go. :-)

Sunday was a good day, though I don’t remember much about it. James and I stayed up wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too late Saturday night (he and the boys made it home from Pennsylvania at about 10:30) and I was sooooooo tired. After morning service we came home, scrounged around the kitchen and found things to eat for lunch, and then headed straight for a much needed Sunday afternoon nap… and slept all afternoon! It was a grand and glorious thing. ~Aaaahhh~

Even after the Sunday afternoon nap, Monday morning came way, way too soon. I had to drag myself out of bed. And somehow all of the motivation I had been sailing with the previous week had completely left me. I had devotions with the kids and got them going on school (they’re trying to finish up the last leg of this year’s computer curriculum), then forced myself to go upstairs and work on wallpaper. It was about 5:00 that night before I finished up in Katie’s room. I don’t know if it took so long because of my total lack of motivation, because I was moving in super slow gear, or because I was having to work with paper that was not pre-pasted and required extra work. In any case, I had hoped to accomplish more, but by the end of the day I was just so glad that I’d been able to accomplish ANYthing!

I got cleaned up and the whole fam loaded up for a trip to Wal-Mart for some necessary supplies: paint to finish Joe’s room, a new roller to paint Katie’s room (below the wallpaper), and craft paper to finish Sam’s room. Then we grabbed some dinner before stopping at the Ridlespurges’ house to check out their recent remodeling project. Their den is looking great. Fresh and clean and so non-cluttered! (It used to be a schoolroom… we all know how cluttery they can get!) And I LOVE the couch they picked out. If the 20+ year old couch in my living room ever gets replaced (I still love it and it only squeeks slightly at this point, so we’re good!) I could easily see myself ending up with that very couch. It’s plaid. :-)

When we got home from visiting them sometime just after 9:00 I was sooooo ready for bed! We took care of a few things, had devotions, and I think I was in bed right around 10:00. ~Aaaaaahhh~ I really needed that! I worked so hard last week. I need to do the same this week. The two weeks following that won’t be filled with remodeling work, but will be anything but restful, I’m sure! :-) In fact, as I was thinking about how our schedule is piling up and all of the house stuff to be completed in between events I found myself thinking yesterday, “I can’t wait until after the Assembly!” Seems like there probably won’t be much chance to take a breather until then. But, Lord willing (!), we’ll be done with the house by then (at least the big stuff ;-), right?!) and able to sip some hot cider and put a puzzle together and ENJOY living in my very own house again. In the fall. I love fall. It means winter is coming. :-)

In the meantime, there are lots of places to go and much to be done on the house when we're not on the go. I’m going to do my very best to enjoy it all. I’m so glad I’m doing FUN remodeling stuff instead of scraping and sanding for days on end. It’s fun to work all day and then look and see colors and patterns and a room that is one step closer to being clean and finished. :-) Speaking of which, I hope to make some serious progress upstairs today and maybe even finish Katie's room (minus trim)--wouldn't THAT be exciting?!

For the record, it’s really hard to discipline yourself to paint with plain ole white (and do non-rewarding touch-up work) after you’ve been painted big walls with bright and bold colors like red and blue. But it all has to be done. Friday started with an hour or two of painting ceilings (in the two upstairs bathrooms) and edging ceilings everywhere I had oopsed on them when painting other colors. After that I put two coats of burgundy on the accent wall in the boys’ bathroom.

Katie made hamburger pie for lunch and it was GREAT. None of our guys like it, but Katie and I think it’s terrific, so we decided to enjoy it while they were gone. Katie did a really good job and we both had several helpings—while playing Phase 10 Dice, of course. We do that at lunch time just about every day now. I love it. :-)

After lunch I headed back upstairs intending to start wallpapering Kate’s room, but I couldn’t find the bag of razor blades. The chapel room has become the new catch-all/tool room and it was getting thicker and thicker in there with piles of mess and STUFF stacked all over the place. I decided my only chance of finding the blades was the clean it all up. It really needed done anyway, so I spent the next hour or two cleaning and sorting and moving tools and collecting trash and finding a proper place for everything. Then I gathered all of the stuff that had been stacked on the stairs (“to be taken upstairs and put away next time somebody goes up”—riiiiiiight) and sorted it all out, too. It felt GREAT to get it all done, but I never did find the blades. THEN it occurred to me that perhaps they were in the junk drawer downstairs. Yep. But it was too late. It was close to 3:00 by that time and I was soooooo tired. I decided I was going to have to crash on the floor for a few minutes. I only slept about 15 minutes, but it worked wonders.

Then I went upstairs ready to hit it hard in Kate’s room and see how much wallpaper I could get hung before needing to stop at 4:30. Not much! When I put the very first strip in the water I could feel that something was way dreadfully wrong. There was no GLUE on the paper! I went and grabbed the packaging and sure enough it said nothing about being pre-pasted paper. I had heard that a lot of the more expensive wallpapers are not pre-pasted (how backwards is that--you pay more money and get no glue?!), but I’d never actually seen any before. We paid $5 for the whole room’s worth ($1 per roll), so how was I to know it was the expensive stuff?! It feels so 100 years ago to have to soak the paper for 5-10 minutes, then paint glue all over the back of it before you can slap it on the wall to start working with it. Ha! I’m pretty sure the peacocks or pheasants or whatever they are were probably manually glued, too. Anyway, I did happen to have some wallpaper glue mix on hand, so I gathered measuring cups and pitchers of water and spoons and whisks (can anybody else get all of the lumps out?! Mom, I’m talking to you—you’re the only other person I know who actually wallpapers! Ha!) and started mixing. I’m not sure I got the consistency right and nothing really feels very sticky. So far the strips haven't slid of the wall and into a heap on the floor, so I’m hoping they’re happy where they are. Truthfully though, I’ll feel a lot better once we get moved in up there and I nail things all over the wall. Having nails scattered about to help hold the paper in place will make me feel so much better about the likelihood that it’ll actually stay put!

Due to the unexpected No Glue hitch and needing to mix it up and then paint each piece of paper with it, I only got five strips up. And two of them were only a foot long—for above the window. Ha! Pitiful. Still, it’s exciting. That room sooooo does not match the rest of the house (country/primitive/rustic), but I am going to LOVE it. It’s just sooooo HAPPY!

While I was busy working upstairs all day, Katie was downstairs cleaning up the house for company and making goodies for the Band Meeting. She’s such a help! Though her baking efforts weren’t very rewarding this time. She started with chocolate chip cookies. I don’t know what she did wrong, but everything oozed into one super flat giant cookie mass all over the sheet and it was slightly overcooked. She scraped the first pan into a big pile and we got forks and munched on it throughout the afternoon. It tasted great, but was in no condition to be served to company—even just a bunch of kids. Ha!



I suggested she try a party cake next. It’s such a simple recipe—just dump everything into a bowl, mix it up, pour it into the pan, and bake it. ~Voila~ What could go wrong?! I don’t know WHAT went wrong, but something did! We didn’t know until we served it though. The cake looked beautiful. Nice and fluffy and moist. But it wasn’t very sweet at all (though Kate insists she put in the full amount of sugar) and had a funky, somewhat bitter taste to it. I don’t know if she forgot the sugar or didn’t put enough in (she could be wrong, you know) or if it had something to do with the coffee or the vinegar, but something was definitely not right. Still, the kids ate most of their cake and Kody insisted that he really liked it that way. What a guy. :-) Poor Katie. She tried so hard and nothing seemed to work out! Michael did have some of her left-over Hamburger Pie and said it was really good, so that helped her out a lot.

The Band Meeting went well, I thought. What a great group of kids we have here. I love having the privilege to work with them. We played a game about how well we know one another, then discussed how well we KNOW God. I talked about Tammy Kaufman and told the kids that I have known her for 20 years (did you know it’s been that long, Tammy?! Only OLD people can say things like that!) and that I could answer almost any question they could ask about her. I could tell you her favorite color (is it still green?), I could tell you about her personality and how she would act or react in certain situations, I could tell you about things in her past or what her goals are at this point in time, the things that make her happy or what irritates her, that she likes tuna fish and hates spaghetti, etc. Then I talked about another girl that I’ve known for almost as long, I think very highly of her and really, really LIKE her, but I couldn’t tell you any of the same things about her that I could with Tammy. I “know” her. But I don’t really KNOW her. The difference is in communication and in how much time is spent with one another. Some people only “know” God like I “know” the other girl. They might “know” Him for 20 or 30 years or more, but really not KNOW Him any better now than when they met him. How sad! We talked about getting to know God, read scriptures encouraging us to truly KNOW Him, and discussed the ways we can do it; namely getting into the habit of DAILY prayer and Bible reading. We wrote out prayer lists and talked about different options and methods to use for daily Bible readings. I asked the kids for permission to check up on them and make sure they’re being faithful to some personal time with God. Part of me felt bad about barging into their lives like that (ha!), but I know how I'm built and I do so much better with things like that when I’m accountable to someone. They all told me I could check up on them, some eagerly and others more reluctantly (ha!), so I’m glad for that. May God bless them all as they endeavor to KNOW Him. :-)

After our devotion we played Quelf, by unanimous agreement. They love that game. It’s especially fun when Kody decides to get involved. Most of the time he’d rather just take the penalty and move his marker backwards than do something that would make him look like an idiot. Some of the others are all too anxious to look like idiots, so I guess it all evens out. One of Kody's cards said that he had to construct a fort out of whatever was available and hide there until his next turn. If the fort collapsed he'd have to pay the penalty. Here he is trying to back in to his masterpiece.



And after somebody helped complete the fort with a blanket. This was taken about 3 seconds before he move and the cushions went tumbling--and he had to move his game piece back three spaces. :-)



When you land on a blue space you read a "Rools" card. It could be a personal rule that applies only to you, but if it's a global rule it applies to everyone and remains in place until the end of the game--or until another global rule is drawn to replace the first. Last night somebody drew a card that said we each had to draw a bullseye on a piece of paper and tape it anywhere on our person. Any time we caught somebody else looking at our bullseye they had to move back one space. Poor Katie Farr. She must've lost 15 spaces to that rule! Ha! Here is the crowd modeling their bullseyes while trying NOT to look at anybody else's.




We finished the game and started delivering kids back to their parents at about 10:30. It was a great night. I love having the young people to my house! And I LOVE having devotions with them. And I love playing games with them. How COOL that God laid it on our pastor’s heart to make me their Band/VLB leader so I get to do the very things that I LOVE to do with them. :-)

James and the boys traveled home from Pennsylvania today and got in at about 10:30 tonight. I had hoped to get some more work done upstairs today, but there was too much to be done down here today. It's okay though. I’m soooooo pleased with everything I’ve been able to get done upstairs this week. It has been a good and productive week, for sure. We’re well on our way up there! Wa-Hoo! It’s exciting. :-)

The Brother & Sister Ridlespurge dropped by for a few minutes tonight to visit and see the progress. It was great. It was even greater when the guys got home a few hours later. Joe was super tired and crashed on the couch. After a minute he looked up and said, "I smell Ridlespurge!" HA! Don't take that wrong--it's a good thing, not a bad thing. We all like Brother Ridlespurge's cologne or after shave or whatever it is. :-)

Katie and I had a great week together and so did James and the boys, but I think we're all happy to be back together again. :-) The guys were wiped out tonight, so we'll unload the van sometime tomorrow. That's when I'll find out about all the STUFF James brought back from his folks' house. The only thing I know of so far I am in FULL support of: a cooler full of deer meat. WA-HOOOOO!!! :-)

The Hap-Happiest Color of All!!!

It's red. Just so you know. It's been scientifically proven today. But more on that in a minute.

At church last night I MADE myself say out loud that we would have a Band Meeting on Friday because I’m such a slacker at PLANNING those things and I’ve let too many months slip by with no meeting at all. I have to make myself say it out loud, then I’m obligated to follow through and DO it. Things were so much easier when Band Meeting was a SCHEDULED service along with all of the other auxiliary services! It was automatically on the calendar: one week would say CPMA, one VLB, one WMB, and one ABM—each and every month. For that service the bands (assuming the church was large enough to have more than one band!) would split up and have their Band Meeting in different locations on that particular night—regular service night. It was just part of the schedule, you knew it was coming and planned for it. When I’m in charge of setting up my OWN Band Meetings?! It’s way too easy to procrastinate right through the month and out the other end. But not THIS month—not now that I’ve announced it. Ha! And God is so good. I was praying about it last night and felt like He laid some things on my heart and gave me some direction. ~whew~ And I’m SO excited because this will be our first band meeting at a HOUSE instead of the church. Better yet—MY house! :-) My band consists of the young people and they all still live at home (except for the world traveler who lives in Guyana and is preparing to move to Tokyo—crazy, hu?!), so that means I can have it at my home EVERY month now that the house is finished enough. Oh, happy day. :-) Though I won’t have time to make a bunch of goodies because…

PAINT! What else?! ;-) I’ve been painting, priming and painting some more. Which brings us to the title of this post. It's red. If you've ever wondered what the happiest color is, it's RED. Hands down. That's right, today we painted...

KATIE’S RED WALL!!!! I LO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OVE it!!! Oh, it just makes me so, so, so happy! I sometimes think that blue is my favorite color. I always like blue. Deep, dark, dramatic, country, primitive blue. It’s just so pretty and I love it. But when we started slapping the red paint on the wall today there is a whole other emotion that seems to overtake me. (I know, I know—EMOTIONAL again. Jerk. Ha!) It just makes me soooooooo happy!!! Katie and I just squealed about it the whole time we were working—it was a completely involuntary reaction, just the natural result of the happy, brilliant, bright, cheery red wall. Kate did all of the roller work and I brushed the edges. I’ve been sooooo scared we’d gotten the wrong red (don’t we always?) but it’s going to be PERFECT. And for clarification… I know I use the word “red” very loosely, like every time I refer to the color of my dining room walls and kitchen cabinets. I say “red” because it is in the red family and it just comes out that way, but that color in those places is actually a deep burgundy. What we did today—the color that is squeal inducing—is RED. Real, true-blue (ha—nothing blue about it) Coca-Cola RED. :-) Actually it is “Cranberry Zing.” Even the NAME sounds happy. ZING! It makes you smile, doesn’t it?! But for our purposes it is “Coca-Cola Red.” That makes me smile, too. Not CRY. Smile. Jerk. ;-)




Anyway, red is not the only accomplishment of the day, just the happiest. :-) Today I got two coats of blue on the guest room walls. After inspection, I’m calling them FINISHED!!! Wa-Hoo!!! Then Katie helped me with the one red wall in her room. While that was drying, she helped me put the first coat of brown on all of the upper walls in Joe’s room. It will need more, but we’ll have to buy more paint before we can continue. It feels good that we were able to complete the first full coat anyway. After that we went back and put the second coat on the happy, happy red wall. It would be a miracle if that’s all it took (red almost ALWAYS takes three full coats, sometimes four), but I’m hopeful—it’s actually looking pretty good. I feel GREAT about how much we got done today. What a great help Katie was! I have loved having some time with just her this week and have really enjoyed her company—and her help, of course! She’s turning into a pretty neat young lady. She’s getting old enough that she’s not JUST my daughter anymore; she’s also turning into my friend. I love that. :-)

I did talk to the guys today. James called from the Amish store to see what spices I needed. It was GREAT having him tell me everything that they had available while I could look in the cabinet and check for what I needed. It’s soooooo much cheaper to buy spices there than at a grocery store and you get lots more. Joe and Sam are having quite the adventure, it seems. They shot a groundhog the first day (“I think it was rabid, Mom, because it started chasing Sam!”), Sam found a fast turtle today (“I raced him… he won”), Joe caught 12 fish, and they both went in search of a snake down at the creek—and found one eating a 6” fish, or so they say. They shot and wounded the snake and watched it float down the creek. This morning they went to see Aunt Betty and play with her new yorki-poo puppy who fell in love with Sam and followed him all over the yard. I’m so glad they’re having such a great time!

It's been a good week for everybody around here. Much, much better than last week. And so much less emotional. ~whew~ (Jerk...) ;-)