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...