From Camp Until Now

Why is it so hard to blog nowadays, anyway?! I just can't seem to keep on top of it. I have, however, been keeping notes so I know what's been going on in our lives the past two weeks. Here we go...

Camp ended on Sunday. We came straight to church and made it at the tail end of Sunday School, so we were there for morning worship and the message. Two kids were snoring by the end of service and the rest of us weren't far behind, but God always, always blesses when we're faithful. Even if we're physically wiped out. :-)

I managed to get completely unloaded and unpacked that night and ran two loads of laundry before bed. Monday and Tuesday were spent finishing up on the laundry and preparing for VLB service Tuesday night.

Wednesday was when we started back to work on the house again--at long last, and with time 'til Convention quickly slipping away. I experimented with a few different things on Sam's wall, trying to figure out how we were going to "seal" all of the craft paper. I had several glitches, but finally came up with something we would be happy with. Actually, all along the way James has hated that room. He was just sure it looked horrible and was a big mistake. "I like to do things to IMPROVE the house and make it look BETTER than it did before, not worse!" Ha! I think it looks great. It's fun and different, but not too wild or crazy--and it's going to look TERRIFIC once we get it decorated with western stuff. And once I sealed the walls the paper darkened just a bit and has a little bit of a sheen to it and James seems to like it much better now. That makes us all happy. :-)

That was the 4th of July and we knew we had to work at the house, but we did take a few hours out of the day to celebrate. By that we mean that we ate and talked. :-) We went to the Ridlespurges house for some great grilled burgers and such. And I was introduced to the best grilled delicacy ever invented: pineapple. Sounds strange, no? It was soooooooo good! Brother Ridlespurge sliced it and grilled it up and put some honey on it... and I think I ate half of the pineapple all by myself! Ha! YUM. My mouth is watering just thinking about it again. :-)

We got home that afternoon and I was soooooooooo tired. I allowed myself a 30 minute nap before forcing myself to back to Sam's room to work some more. We picked up a few fireworks for the kids and had a good time with them that night. Though you wouldn't know it from the pictures. HA! The ones of James and Joe CRACK ME UP! At least Katie looks happy. When I see this picture of Sam I'm overwhelmed at how long and lanky he suddenly is!






Let's see... from what I can tell, in the time since Camp I have pretty much worked on the house, worked on the house, and worked on the house some more. Instead of taking you through the day by day of it all, I'll just list everything that we have accomplished since then. It'll be faster and easier for all of us that way. :-)

* Sealed Sam's walls
* Wallpapered the foyer
* Wallpapered Joe's room (with the worst wallpaper EVER! It had no glue at all--though it claimed to be pre-pasted--and it wrinkled and bubbled like CRAZY)
* Installed the bead board in the guest room (that was mostly James, I was only there to measure things and offer moral support--ha!)
* Painted trim and edges in the small bathroom
* Painted brown window sills and trim for Sam's room (then James installed it)
* Painted white window sills and trim for Katie's room (then James installed it)
* Then stained window seals and trim, plus chair rail, for Joe's room and the guest room (then James installed all of it)
* Painted the door and frame in Sam's room
*** Scrubbed the entire chapel-looking room (ceilings, beams, walls, doors, and all 36 bookshelves) with wood oil soap
* Stained the three doors and trim in the chapel room
* Touched up with white paint all over the house, upstairs and down
* Painted the closet door in the big bathroom, along with trim and edging the closet itself
* Touched up red paint the guest room, followed by blue paint (long story concerning the baseboards vs. no baseboards dilemma... I'll spare you)

And then just the general clean up and prep for carpet. You read that right: CARPET. :-) I'm sooooooooooooo excited!!! But more on that in a minute. In the midst of all of that progress, James has been killing himself with Church stuff and Convention prep (along with several house projects I didn't mention--installing a sink and such) and has been to visit Sister Sutton in the hospital a few times. And we made a trip to Anniston and stayed with Sister Bishop one night. Sister Ricker was there too, so the Alabama Trio could practice and practice and practice. All three of them just love to get together and sing. And they're pretty entertaining to watch, too. :-) Ah, yes--on our way home from Anniston we stopped at the flea market and then Bass Pro Shops. Look what was in the parking lot...



Joe had to go check and see if there was actually "someone" in there. There wasn't. --You know you were wondering the same thing! Ha!

Maybe it was just all the hard work we'd been involved in with more to come, but the visit to Bass Pro was sooooo nice! I just LOVE all of the woodsy stuff there and the logs and the simplicity and old-fashionedness of the structures and decor. (Not the products or prices--that would raise my stress level considerable if I looked at THAT stuff! Ha!) It was almost like a mini-vacation for an hour or so and it felt so soothing. And it makes me wonder... why in the world am I living in a giant brick house?! It's so not me!!! I belong in a little log cabin tucked up in the woods somewhere. But the answer is obvious--I live in this home because it's the one God reserved for us for this time in our lives. And I'm truly grateful for it. (Just feel the need to visit Bass Pro Shops on occasion to get a taste of LOGS and CHINKING and BARNWOOD--the things I truly love. Ha!) I drove the rest of the way home from there and it was raining, which I also found very soothing and therapudic. It kind of makes me wonder about my condition. I seem to be in great need of soothing and therapy right now! Ha!

As for the house, we have been working ourselves to death in an effort to be far enough along that we'll be able to keep people here during State Convention. James went ahead and scheduled the carpet to be laid this past Friday, so we worked in a frenzy to try to be ready for it. The kids pulled staples out of the floor for DAYS. They were such troopers! Sometimes we forget that they are KIDS and can't be expected to work like adults, but I found a system that worked out fantastic with them. I would have them work hard and solid for one hour, then give them 30 minutes off with which to do anything they wanted to do--watch a video or play a computer game (those are things they're not allowed to do very often) or ride bikes, WHATEVER. Then they'd work another hour to earn another 30 minutes of their choice. They were happy and cheerful and worked so good and hard under that arrangement! We got FAR more accomplished like that than on the days when we just make them keep working and working and working.

Anyway, the day before carpet was to be laid we just rushed from one project to the next and were trying so desperately go get everything accomplished. At one point in the afternoon I snuck away for a few minutes and asked God again to pleeeeeeeeease bless our efforts and our time and help us to accomplish everything that needed to be done. I was AMAZED at how much we were able to do with the rest of the day! It's the little things like that that make me feel so overwhelmed with what a mighty God we serve--that He takes the time and cares enough to answer the "little" prayers. :-)

That brings us up to this past Friday. The carpet guys showed up and got to work, then Josh Anders came and spent the day working on electrical stuff for us. :-) We enjoyed having him here and he accomplished grand things for us. We now have an outlet to plug the freezer into in the laundry room and one to plug the de-humidifier into downstairs (no more extension cords), he wired new lights for the upstairs bathrooms, then spent a considerable amount of time changing out old, nasty, painted-over light switches and outlets and putting nice, fresh new ones in for us.

I had spent the better part of the day staining the chapel room. ~sigh~ I don’t know what came over me. I was just going to touch-up the nail holes that had light-colored putty in them, but on a whim I just started re-staining everything. And once you start on that there’s no quitting--you have to follow through and do it all. It was after 9:00 when I finally had the entire ceiling, the beams, all of the walls, and all 36 bookshelves (can you imagine?!) stained. And I must say… that room looks terrific! What a change from how dusty and faded it had been before! The shelves were in REALLY bad shape, but even the walls and ceilings just look so fresh and shiny now. ~aaahhhhhh~ I told James that it’s all over. I have scrubbed every inch of those ceilings and walls and have now freshened them all up with new stain. From here on out, the only attention that room will be getting from me is coming in the form of a feather duster. Maybe. Ha!

So sometime after 9:00 I came downstairs, got all cleaned up, put my pj's on, and enjoyed some Totino's pizza, root beer, and kettle corn with the kids while playing a game of Phase 10 Dice. What a great way to end a long, hard day!

We had a very late family devotion (to follow our late dinner) and then let the kids take pillows and blankets (“AND NOTHING ELSE!!!”) up to their bedrooms (the only three rooms the carpet guys finished up there that day) so they could sleep on the floor in their very own bedrooms. They were so excited!!! The boys have always shared a room before, so having separate rooms is brand new for them. Their rooms are looking great and all of the kids are bouncing off the walls with excitement and gratefulness. I love the appreciation that this living-in-the-basement time has spawned in them. And it's been nearly a year and a half since we packed up their stuff in New Mexico (we've really been in one transition or another since that time)and they are sooooo happy about getting SETTLED again, in rooms of their very own. But as excited as they are, I’ve already told them that they are not allowed to move in to their rooms until after Convention next weekend. There is NO WAY I have time to finish getting the upstairs bathrooms finished (still lots of work to do up there!) and get their beds built and everything ready for company… and then try to clean up all of the mess and chaos that they would have introduced after having lived up there for 5 days! Ha!

Anyway, here they are, SOOOOOO HAPPY to be sleeping on their very own bedroom floors instead of the basement floor. :-)


This is Sam trying to hug his new room...
Bad picture of Sam, but decent lighting..
Good picture of Sam, but bad lighting... (I had a hard time choosing which one to post!)


Yesterday was another red letter day around here. We took care of a few odds and ends around the house, then hauled out the boxes in the front of the garage so we could better get to our STUFF out there. Then we started pulling out pieces of furniture—headboards, nightstands, dressers, mattresses, etc. We vacuumed, dusted, oiled, shined, de-scuffed, and bug sprayed each piece (not ALL of those steps on each piece; just the ones that applied!) and then hauled them UPSTAIRS!!!! :-) We managed to move everything without outside assistance this time, though there was one particular piece that nearly caused some permanent damage to my blue wall, my person, and most significantly my marriage (only kidding, of course--ha!), but after a great deal of huffing and puffing and lifting and twisting and pushing and pulling and prying and gasping and grunting and groaning… Katie’s big dresser FINALLY landed in place in her room. WA-HOO!!!!! I would have done a victory dance if I hadn’t been sprawled out on her floor gasping for breath and trying to let some life seep back into my limp appendages. ;-) In any case, it’s THERE and it looks terrific. I already warned her through. If we ever move from this house, we're selling that furniture with it! Ha!

It was a horribly hot and humid day around here, or at least it felt like it digging through the garage and hauling furniture. By the time we got everything in place, I was soooooo sweaty and miserable. ~Bleagh~ I had to stop and take a shower as soon as the last piece was in place. Then I helped each kid build their bed while James ran and picked up a couple of mattresses and some closet doors for Kate's room. James got the closet doors installed, I caulked both upper bathrooms, and the kids slept on their very own beds (not IN them because they're not actually made up with sheets--they just used sleeping bags!) for the first time. Another super exciting experience for them. :-)

So at this point there are three rooms upstairs that are carpeted and have beds and dressers in place. (Except for Sam's room--we still need to find a dresser for him.) We also moved all of the guest room furniture upstairs and just set it in Sam's room for now. Tomorrow (Monday) morning the carpet guys will be back to finish up the job--the upper foyer area, the chapel room, the guest room, and the stairs. Tomorrow night we'll move in a couple of pieces of furniture for the chapel room, then wait until after Convention before moving in any boxes and trying to unpack or decorate anything. It feels sooooooo good to be to this point! And I'm SO HAPPY that God has blessed and helped us to get far enough along to have beds for people to stay in and functioning bathrooms for them to use--we can keep company for Convention! Oh, happy day!!!

So there you have it. I've been working on house stuff during the day and miscellaneous computer projects at night. Anything but blogging. ;-)