At This Point

How do you even know HOW to blog when you haven't done it in so long??? It's been nearly a MONTH since I last posted--and even that was just a recap of sorts and didn't bring us up to date, even then. I've just been so, so super busy and most of my computer time has been given to computer-ish jobs that I've been way late on accomplishing, but that way outweighed the blog in terms of importance. But--finally--as of today I finished up the last one of THOSE projects. So now I can BLOG with my evening computer time instead of work. :-)

Backing up to July 16th...

It was a red-letter day for us because it's the day that the carpet guys completed the upstairs. Wa-Hoo!!! Soooo exciting! We had the usual moving committee over that night to assist in moving to big and tricky pieces upstairs to the chapel room. After much maneuvering and brainstorming and finally some sincere praying the green couch made it into place followed by the chuck wagon table--which had about 1" clearance on the sides of the doorway and 1/2" on top or something like that. I felt a Dustin Hays quote come over me as we slid it easily through. "Jesus loves me, this I know..." (Those close to him can finish it off. Ha!) Once the carpet was laid in that chapel room--even before any furniture was up there--it quickly became my favorite room in the house. It's just so, so pretty. And it's as close to cabin-ish that I'll ever get in this house, so it just makes me feel all comfy and cozy and RELAXED. I love it. :-)

Tuesday, the 17th, I sanded, primed, and painted both bathroom vanities along with ten doors and two drawers, all needing two or three coats of paint. I also managed to paint the inside of the bathroom closet and all of the shelves for in there and in the foyer closet. It was after 10:00pm before I finished.

Wednesday, the 18th, I applied two coats of poly to everything I painted the day before, I wallpapered the small bathroom, then lined the cabinets and drawers with paper.

Thursday, the 19th, I built two beds (the only upstairs beds that hadn't been assembled yet), washed LOTS of sheets and towels as I was moving them in from the garage, wrestled with three new memory foam mattress toppers (they come with zip-covers that are nice, but a royal pain to get on!), made up five beds (not including two to be done the next day--felt like a regular motel maid!), installed a monstrous mirror in the larger bathroom with James help (it's crooked, but it's UP!), helped him install the hand rail for the stairs, went shopping for LOTS of groceries for the weekend, and scrubbed both upstairs bathrooms. I get tired again just thinking about that day. Ha! It was the day before State Convention and there was still sooooo much left to be done. But I had really been praying that God would help us and bless our time and efforts. He absolutely answered and helped us to do way more than I would have thought humanly possible (for me anyway--not my Mom. Ha!) that week.

Friday, the 20th, I did lots of baking, cleaned the floors, wiped down the lower bathrooms, and then the Convention crowd started to arrive. :-) Sister Bishop stayed with Katie in her room, Brother Ard stayed in Joe's room, Bert & Valerie Schoonmaker stayed in Sam's room, and Brother & Sister Ricker, Janet Tally and her grandson Eli all stayed in the guest room. We were hoping to have one more couple/family stay with us but it didn't work out. Still, we had a great crowd and I LOVED having company at my house for Convention! It had been my goal for the past few months: get the house far enough along to be able to keep some folks that weekend. God helped us to get JUST THERE, building the final beds just in time for folks to come sleep in them. :-) I loved, loved, LOVED having a house full of company!!! With all of the high-gear house prep I didn't have time to do as much cooking and baking as I would have liked, but I managed barbeque pork and several goodies--lemon bars, raspberry cake, cookies, cinnamon rolls for breakfast... then cereal, lunch meat, chicken salad, chips, stuff like that. The whole crowd came back to the house and ate and talked and laughed and had a wonderful time together. It made me so, so, so, so, sooooo happy to have a house full of people eating and visiting. ~Aaaauuuggghh! I AM SOOOOOOOOOO BLESSED!!!

The Convention itself was wonderful. There was a good spirit, good unity, good worship, and good Word. Everybody LOVED having Brother Ard. He was in good form (ha!) and gave a stirring message/testimony/"Look What the Lord Has Done" sort of exhortation. It was followed by a prayer line and beautiful altar service. I also really enjoyed Brother Jeremy's VLB message that night. His message was entitled "Don't Blame the Manna" and addressed the way we sometimes grumble and complain about things in our lives without realizing that they are actually a blessing from God, sent to meet needs that we may not know we have. Excellent. Sister Washburn also gave an outstanding Sunday School boost.

There were lots of appointment changes this year, though only one pastoral change. (Jeremy Wallace is now pastoring the Somerville church.) Brother O'Dell had the nerve to show up at Convention Sunday morning after having just stolen Brother Grimes to pastor over in Mississippi. I think James called him a "preacher stealer" or something like that. After service he was standing there with his arms around two or three of our pastors, then called James and just grinned. James stomped over, grabbed him by the ear (for real!) and drug him a-a-a-a-a-a-all the way out of the church. It was GREAT. :-)

Even after that Brother O'Dell agreed to come to the house and visit for a little while before heading home. Richard Barnes also came over--actually delivered our State Convention pounding--and spent the night. We were sooooooo tired though. I'm sure we were pretty poor company. I think we were all in bed by about 10:00.

Monday, the 23rd, started off pretty slow. We finally got rid of Richard after lunch (ha!), the started sorting through the garage and hauling boxes in. The kids were sooooooooooo anxious to decorate their rooms--especially Joe, oddly enough. Our progress was stunted considerably when my washing machine tried to eat a sheet. I talked to my ever-smart Dad, then spent some time on Google and You Tube, then took the problem in hand and managed to get it fixed. Wa-Hoo! Makes you feel all smart and fulfilled to fix something yourself. (It wasn't anything horribly difficult, but I was thrilled nonetheless!)

We drew straws to see whose room would be decorated first. Sam won, so his room got all cowboy-ed up that night, Matt Dillon in the corner and all. :-) I LOVE his brown paper walls, too. I think the room is looking terrific.

We went to Wal-Mart that night so the kids and I could pick out a new game, just because James said so. We chose The Game of Life. :-) This version is way different than the one I grew up with, and even from the one we played a couple of months ago. I didn't know if the boys would like the game at all since it involves getting married and having babies, but Joe was totally on board once he learned that everybody has to pay you $5 or $10 every time you have a kid. (How is THAT like real life?!) He spent the rest of the game saying, "I just wanna have another BABY!!!" Ha! Sam was happy that his career turned out to be "hairstylist" so he could give people mohawks. And Katie just gets really angry when she loses her high paying job and has to take a lesser one. She is such a horrible loser. I can't imagine where she gets that from.

Tuesday, the 24th, Joe and I decorated his room (he was sooooo excited!), then I started on Katie's. The Ridlespurges showed up to check on our progress and I ended up talking everybody into going out to dinner together. Time had gotten away from me and I had nothing planned for dinner--and besides, it was my birthday. :-) James bought me new silverware for my birthday. Sooooo nice! We had somehow lost several pieces and were running low (it was especially noticeable during Convention when we had a crowd here all weekend) but after much searching I just couldn't find anything I liked as well as what I already picked out when we got married 12 years ago. So I did some searching and Oneida has discontinued that pattern but still had some available--and discounted. Wa-Hoo!

Wednesday, the 25th, I finished decorating Katie's room, then had to redo some of Sam's because James found a big dresser (what's it calle when it has doors on the top and drawers on the bottom?) and two nightstands at a flea market. It's pine and looks great with all the cowboy stuff. After church that night James and I moved beds and dressers around in circles in the guest room, trying every possible location for each item. We finally figured out what would work best after about half an hour. Ha!

Thursday, the 26th, I decorated that room. It took forever to figure out what to do and get started, but I LOVE IT now that it's finished. I've always just loved the Americana stuff. The colors are so rich and pretty. We had some work done on the car that day, too, making me a bit late for Ladies' Bible Study. :-/ But the car is well now, thank the Lord.

Friday, the 27th, I cleaned house a bit, ran some more laundry (still bringing in sheets and towels and blankets that had been packed away for a year and a half), and started unpacking things into the den/chapel room. James left for Cleveland that night because he had a committee meeting the next day.

Saturday, the 28th, I spent most of the morning working on the state paper--a new duty for me since Convention. Then I worked on the chapel room some more before loading the kids up and we went to Kayla Wallace's birthday party. It was nice. My favorite part was visiting with Brother Fender. I've always loved that man. James got home not too long after we did, so we worked on the chapel room some more that evening. I worked on the paper again that night, of course. I'm always a late-night computer work person. I just seem to get more done after the house is still and quiet.

Sunday, the 29th, I loved BEING IN Sunday School instead of TEACHING Sunday School. ~Aaaaauuugghhh~ It's so refreshing to be taught every now and then. :-) We came home for lunch and I was able to work on the paper for about an hour before we headed to Alex City for a Singin'. We've lived in the south for about a year and a half and this was my very first Singin'. Ha! It was great and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Sister Bishop and all of the good folks down there. Brother Brandon was also set forth as an evangelist that night and I was so blessed by his sincerity and how seriously he took it. He and his wife are always a blessing to me. Well... maybe not ALWAYS... ;-)

Monday, the 30th, I worked on the paper. Again. James brought home a new bed for Sam. He already had bunkbeds, but that room is just so BIG that it still looked empty and not-moved-into with all of the wide open floor space! So James found a SUPER cool rustic metal bed on Craigslist that came with a fabulous mattress (most comfortable in the whole house, I think) at a great price. Praise the Lord! Now a family of five could stay in that room and nobody have to sleep on the floor. God has blessed us with far, far more than our family could ever need; SURELY He's given it for the sake of being a blessing to other people. Lots and lots of other people!

Tuesday, the 31st, I worked on the paper by day and my VLB service by night.

Wednesday, August 1st, I worked on VLB service. That's about all I accomplished that day! I managed to pull off a last-minute skit using the VLBs. It wasn't nearly the catastrophe I expected it to be, but I was still glad when it was all over. :-)

Thursday, the 2nd... I have no recollection of whatsoever.

Friday, the 3rd, we went to a funeral viewing for a member from Anniston--Sister Campbell's father. We met Mom & Dad and Sister Bishop for dinner before going to the funeral home. It was good to see how God is blessing and comforting Sister Campbell and all of her family during this time and we were so glad that we'd made it over there. I especially enjoyed visiting with Brother Dupre. That's another old guy I have dearly loved for many years. :-) We were able to stop by Sister Bishop's house to enjoy a tasty watermelon with her before driving back home that night.

Saturday, the 4th... ~whew~ I'll leave that for a new post, I think! I'm ALMOST caught up. I'll save the rest for next time. I would say I'd find some pictures to post, but I don't remember taking any. I'll check though, just in case. :-)