Story of my Life

Men's Retreat Weekend

2012-01-28T21:17:00.003-07:00

Men's Retreat started yesterday. That means that right now there should be a house full or two of wives and children partying away. Nope. Didn't happen. ~sigh~ How sad. NEXT YEAR! Unless God throws us a curve ball, I'll have the perfect house for it. I thought of the Girl Party at Jamey's house in Colorado all weekend when I knew their Men's Retreat was going on a week or two ago. I never heard anything about it, but I know them well enough to know they did it and they had a terrific time. I'm just going to have to teach the girls around here that that's what Men's Retreat is really all about. Ha! ...Next year.

This year is just WAY too crazy. I am feeling a little more sane than I was a day or two ago. I had one day that felt so out-of-control for me. Things weren't out of control, it just felt like it. In the process of moving out of the Powells' house into the Monstrosity while still using Sister Fender's house as the company and laundry house I just started feeling LOST, like I don't know where to find anything anymore! Where are my black dress shoes? Which house did I leave my overnight bag at? Did I remember to bring my Sunday School stuff with me back to this house, or leave it at the last one? Even now, I'm typing on Joe's computer because I forgot my laptop at House #3 when I left to come back to House #1. My little brain is just smokin' and whirlin' and about to blow a fuse trying to keep everything figured out! But like I said, things feel much better today than they did before. Everything is good and I'm sooooo thankful for all of the houses that God has provided for us to use at this point in time as well as the generous people who have made them available to us. Still, for my mental stability, it will be best when we can start living in just ONE house again. Ha!

After leaving Sister Fender's house yesterday the kids and I stopped to try to help a lost dog that almost got hit on the highway (he made it home okay), then stopped at the store to pick up milk, cereal, bread, lunch meat, and Totino's pizza--our complete menu for the weekend in Brierfield! We got here and I got busy right away. I can't remember the sequence of events, but since yesterday I've been able to get everything upstairs FINISHED. All of our belongings have been vacated and everything is sparkly clean. I made the new rules sufficiently clear to the children, I think: Anyone who steps foot on the stairs dies. HA! Sam got the message loud and clear. He posted a sign on the stairs that says: KEEP OUT! MOM'S ORDERS. It also has a picture conveying exactly what will happen if the warning is not heeded. ;-) I wish I could post a picture of it, but Joe's computer doesn't have a slot for my camera card. There are several things I'd like to post, but can't!

Hhmmm. What else... Sam called his buddy Isaac tonight. Made him very, very happy. Katie and Joe were able to talk to the Clarkson kids last week, so Sam figured he should have a chance to talk to his friend, too. Our kids very seldom get to talk on the phone, but it cracks me up listening to their oh-so-important conversations when they do. Sam was telling Isaac how crazy he is that he lives so close to Texas but he's only been there once. He actually lives 10 or 12 hours away from Texas (the part Sam refers to), which folks out here would think is a trip to the moon and back, but to our kids it's "only" 12 hours.

I've been too busy and mentally stretched to be able to do school with the kids the past day or two, though Katie and Joe sometimes pull their computers out and do school without even being told. I'll have to sit down and get things all sorted out and graded and revamped sometime next week, that's for sure!

All of the kids have been enjoying the great outdoors as much as possible. They're really going to miss this place. They've walked down to the lake a time or two, fishing rods in tow and Brady wagging along beside them. Today they all went leaf sledding. Ha! It still makes me laugh... then feel like crying! So sad. The Dudley's gave us a terrific old sled, but with no snow the kids just pick a good slope covered deep in leaves and go at it. They come in all bloody and bruised sometimes (it's tough to do that in the snow, even if you crash), but I guess you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

We've enjoyed pizza parties last night and tonight--the closest thing to "partying" during Men's Retreat that we could pull off this year. Last night we watched some Wanted: Dead or Alive (one of our favorite old black-and-white westerns, starring Steve McQueen) and tonight they picked Wall-E.

After the movie we had devotions and the kids went to bed I worked some more on rummaging through the kitchen trying to find anything of ours that might have gotten mixed in with the Powells' stuff. There are several cabinets that I never did explore in the year we've lived here. I always intended to empty them out and clean the cabinets real good, then organize them nice and neat for Sister Powell. It's one of those jobs you never have time to do, so I was going to do it for her. Hahahahaha! Apparently I don't have time either! Oh well. It was a nice thought, right?! I feel bad knowing that the Powells will have a hard time finding what they're looking for when they get home. I tried to keep everything marked--even had post-it notes on little totes saying "Drawer #1," "Drawer #2," etc., so I'd be able to put things back where they used to be. I found the totes, but the notes are GONE. Oops.

It's nearly 11:00 now and I'm tired. I'm a little worried about oversleeping in the morning. I packed up the last alarm clock today (good thinking, right?) so I tried to set the alarm on my phone, but I've never done that before. I hate trusting things that I haven't tried out! I probably won't sleep well anyway since I'll be sharing Katie's bed with her. The upstairs is off limits, remember?! ;-) She kicks. And flops. And flails. And gets angry if you disturb her, right, Mom? Ha! In any case, I'd better try to get some sleep. Looking forward to Sunday School, and then the beginning of our Revival with the Shulers tomorrow night. Pray for us! :-)

Just Joshing

2012-01-26T18:14:00.002-07:00

Who was I kidding? The Shulers are here. Why in the world would I take time to blog??? I'm only here right now because the guys are gone to the Powells' house with James. They'll be back any time now and we'll eat the taco soup I made for Men's Retreat (bad planning--I'll have to make more tomorrow so there'll be enough to send up there!) and then... who knows. If it's anything like this morning it will be an all-out war with the dart and disc guns. Uncle Colin and Sam sleuthed around the circle (living room / dining room / kitchen / back to living room) at Sister Fender's house this morning chasing one another and blasting away. With Joe and Jacob and Philip in the mix it was pretty chaotic for a while. It fills me with pride to know that we'll be leaving our mark on not only the Powells' house, but Sister Fender's as well. They'll probably still be finding darts and discs a year from now! We've searched high and low to locate them all, but you never find them ALL. At the Powell's house there is a dart in EACH of the way-up-high light fixtures. I have NO IDEA how to get up there (matching the no-desire element) so I think I'll leave them there to remember us by. I did manage to peel the red, sticky alien off of the dining room ceiling last week. And the boys hung precariously through the railing in the loft (I didn't know about it--they told me later) to reach miscellaneous objects that had made their way into the light fixture in that room. Good boys. Good, reckless boys. I'm glad I didn't know about it. I wouldn't have been able to watch.

I can't remember enough to play catch-up right now and have no notes (I did write a few things down in a notebook, right??? Where IS that notebook?), so we'll just pick things up at the beginning of this week and try to fill in the holes later.

On Sunday I had three boys in my Sunday School class: Zack, Devon, and Jackson. Sam graduated to the junior class when he turned 8 last November. He's doing amazingly well in there from what I hear. I was a little worried about it, but he's doing great and seems to have been so much better behaved on the whole since then. Like he's growing up or something horrible like that. I'm enjoying certain aspects of it, but really bothered by the idea in general!

We had some shopping to do so we headed to Hoover after service. We ended up at Johnny Rocket's for lunch, enjoying the food, service, and atmosphere, but shocked and appalled and the prices. That last part happened too late. Then we did our shopping before going to the Monstrosity to load up our laundry and a few things to take back to the Powells' house. It's ironic that the "few things" FILLED the back of the van with stuff to take to the Powells' house so that we could move everything out of the Powells' house.

Ah yes, while we were out shopping Mom called... FROM ISRAEL!!! It's sooooo crazy. It just baffles my mind to think of my parents being in Israel--and on their way to Turkey and India! WILD. It sounds like they were already having a GREAT trip and so overwhelmed at the thought of being so many places that Jesus walked while here in the flesh--as well as Elijah and Solomon and Paul and so many others. SO COOL. I can't wait to see all of the pictures and hear all about it when they get home. That's if they survive the last half of the trip. Ha! They'll be visiting with Brother Jones and his daughter while in Turkey (our only members there), then going on to the National Convention in India, a not-so-friendly place where everybody who visits gets super sick. Say a prayer for them, please. God is more than able to break the have-to-get-sick-there rule. :-)

We went home to Brierfield that night so I could spend Monday and Tuesday beginning the big pack-up-and-move-out project at the Powells' house. I sorted through all of the boys' clothes and came up with plenty that they've outgrown to donate. Sam spent a couple of hours packing up all of their other belongings. He is SUCH an amazing help with stuff like that. He does a terrific job, works long and hard with no breaks, and doesn't ask questions--just sees what needs done and does it. I love that kid. :-) I managed to do 5 loads of laundry that day, clean out the front closet, under the kitchen sink and under the utility sink--and return all of the Powells' things (I hope) that belong in those places.

UPDATE: The guys just got back from Brierfield with three darts. Apparently Jacob CRAWLED OUT ON THE BEAM to retrieve the dart from the light fixture nearest the front door. THEN went to get a ladder (from where? I don't remember seeing one that tall anywhere!) for the second dart. Just like a teenager. One thing is for sure... you have to have a camera ready every moment when those boys are around. Too bad I hadn't sent it with James. I'm not sure where they found the third dart. Right now they're sticking all over Siste Fender's TV screen. The guys have also put on quite a show with all of the fun goblets they found in the kitchen.

Okay, it's now way, way too late and James and I are still sitting here with Jake and Phil. My sides hurt from laughing. I just love these boys. If they ever go off the road, I want them to move in with us. If only. :-) Anyway, I'll finish catching up THIS week...

I packed. I cleaned. James found a bedroom set for Joe on Craigslist. Katie baked up a storm--chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, and a cake. We filled the truck with boxes of stuff and James dropped it off at the Monstrosity on his way up to Sister Pruitt's funeral (she passed away Sunday), then I stuffed the van snake-in-a-can style and unloaded up there the next day. The Shuler men got here at 6:00 last night, about 30 hours after leaving Arizona. They pretty much crashed once they arrived. Today we took them to the Monstrosity and Uncle Colin inspected our plumbing while the kids showed the boys around. Then James took the Shuler three and headed to Brierfield to get what he needed for Men's Retreat (and risk life and limb to remove darts from light fixtures) while the kids and I went back to Sister Fender's house to clean some things up and make the soup. And we've spent the rest of the evening just hanging with the Shulers--something I could do every night. :-) Unfortunately, it's nearly 2:00am now and I don't have time or energy to upload pictures or videos. Maybe some day. :-)

Think I Can Do It???

2012-01-24T17:47:00.005-07:00

Think I can get all caught up on my blog tonight???

Nah, me either. And I have no business blogging. I've got way too much to do. I'm supposed to be moving out of the Powell's house right now. I have a total of 4 days to have a-a-a-a-a-a-all of our stuff moved out (we've been here for just shy of a year and it's amazing just how much we've moved in!) and endeavor to have the house nice and clean (or at least decent and presentable--ha!) for it's rightful owners. They'll read this and say, "Oh, don't worry about it! Just do what you have time to do and you can always come get the rest of your belongings later--and there's no need to have the house all spick-and-span, it'll be fine..." That's what gracious people like them would say. Deep down we all know they're hoping I can succeed in ridding their house of foriegn clutter and grime before they get home. ;-)

That being said... I'm not packing, I'm not cleaning. I'm blogging. I seem to have hit a bit of a speed bump. I've gotten a decent amount accomplished and--though there's still TONS more to do--I keep wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do next. So I'm taking a break, hoping that when I resume my work I will have refocused and discovered some mystery motivation. It's worth a shot, anyway.

Okay, let's play catch-up. Here are some of the things I wrote up about three weeks ago.

The Monstrosity: Day 28
Monday , January 2nd

Work, work, work! I knew Mom was coming that afternoon and we still had sooooo much to do to be ready for her. I was running on pure adrenaline from the moment I woke up! I packed the bedroom away in the closet. Sam and I deflated mattresses and put them and a-a-a-a-a-a-all of our stuff away so we’d be able to use the paint sprayer in the bedroom. A shut off valve in the half bath broke while James was removing the old, grimy sink so we had to have plumbers out to fix that. THAT wasn’t on the agenda! It was a quick easy fix at least.

About lunch time some dear ladies had us meet them at the church to enjoy the home cooked meal they had brought with them. Sister Bishop and Sister Fender had brought brisket and buns and beans and fruit salad and all sorts of goodies including some great little cake-like things that Sister Bishop makes and I always forget the name of. We are sooooo thankful to have anything home cooked! We enjoyed the food and the fellowship. And Joe enjoyed showing his new mandolin to Sister Bishop. The two of them jammed for a little while before we left.

When we got back to the Monstrosity Mom was already there waiting on us. We rushed to do the last of the paint prep but I have no idea anymore what that included. But then we start spraying!!! Ah, yes. We unboxed Maurice (that’s what our last paint sprayer was named—he was very dear to me) and I went from room to room with James taking care of who-knows-what while James sprayed primer on EVERYTHING: ceilings, walls, doors and trim. It was a foggy mess in the house and we were caked with overspray. There was nothing anybody could do in the house while all that was going on, so everybody who was around gathered together and hid out in our bedroom with the door closed. I find it very unfair that there was a group of people hanging out in my house fellowshipping… without me! HA! Before too long Sister Bishop and Sister Fender made a mad dash through the fog and back out to their car to leave. Sister Fender offered to let us stay at her house about 7 miles away. With the present condition of our house, we gratefully accepted! WHAT A BLESSING!!! It took 3 or 4 hours, but we got the whole main floor primed that night. How exciting!!! Can you imagine how long it would have taken to go room by room and prime every ceiling, ever wall, every door and all of the trim with just brushes and rollers?! Thank the Lord for Maurice! What a glorious invention!!!

Mom had taken the kids and headed over to Sister Fender’s house and James and I headed over when we finished up with the primer. They had made some homemade soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and peach cobbler for dinner and there were lots of left-overs waiting for us. Of course, we HAD to have a shower before we could think of sitting down to eat. This is what we looked like…

We each showered. And showered and showered and showered! Ha! We finally got all of the primer out of our hair and eyelashes and most of it off of our skin. It’s amazing how wonderful a shower can feel after a day like that!

The Monstrosity: Day 29
Tuesday, January 3rd

Sister Fender made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We felt so spoiled. Three home cooked meals in a row?! WOW! James and I went to Lowe’s to pick up some necessities—and I gathered more paint swatches. Because of circumstances that would take way too long to relate, we were unable to get the dark red color (Foxtail) that we had tried so hard to hunt down. So I got lots and lots of red paint swatches to look at. When we got back to the Monstrosity I pulled a dining room chair out of the garage and when we threw one of the paint cards on it and it sort of disappeared, we knew we had something close enough to Foxtail to proceed! Or at least hoped so. I was still panicked about it for quite a while (reds are so scary!), but I’m satisfied now. :-)

Anyway, job #1 for the day involved Maurice again. This time we sprayed flat ceiling paint on a-a-a-a-a-a-all of the ceilings on the main floor. Yeah!!! It’s so exciting to get something FINISHED! Now the ceilings are FINISHED! Ha! And they look GREAT. You can’t see any of the places where Brother Hopkins patched holes for us. He did a fantastic job and everything looks so good.

After the ceilings we got out the new red paint that we chose (Chipotle Paste from Lowe’s just for the record) and sprayed the kitchen cabinets and a-a-a-a-a-all of the cabinet doors—they had been removed and lined up in the dining room awaiting a paint job. After FINALLY getting all of the red rinsed out of the sprayer (not an easy job!) we got the creamy/white color (Bleached Linen) and sprayed all of the doors and trim along with a few walls. Meanwhile, Mom was finally able to start putting up wallpaper in kitchen! ~SQUEAL!~ This is the part I’ve been waiting for! The part where pretty things start happening instead of just more and more ugly! Ha!

After our work was finished for the day we went to stay at Sister Fender’s house again, though she and Sister Bishop had left on a trip together. She gave us a key to the house and we ended up staying there every night that week but one, due to paint and water issues! We had leftover soup and cornbread for dinner. We were SO HAPPY and felt SO ACCOMPLISHED having gotten all of the ceilings, doors, and trim painted and all of the other surfaces ready for paint or paper. But we were REALLY concerned with how everything was turning out. I think we learned a very valuable and painful lesson about oil and latex. Apparently you’re not supposed to paint over oil based paint with latex paint—something I’ve never dealt with before. It just doesn’t stick. Apparently what had been in the house before (at least on the doors and trim) was oil paint. We didn’t know that and wouldn’t have known it would matter anyway. The latex paint we were using just sort of slid around on all the doors and trim and it looked like there were masses of paint just sort of oozing down them all over the place! I was sick over it. We spent the longest time going around with paint brushes after we sprayed, just trying to catch all of the oozes and drips and smooth them out. And regretting how critical I’ve been over the people who painted in this house before me who left paint drips all over the place! Maybe it wasn’t really their fault—maybe they didn’t know anything about painting latex over oil either! Maybe I AM one of those people who should be drug out to the street and shot! HA! Anyway, we did our best to fix what we could, but finally just had to call it a night. It was sooooo disappointing to think of the hours upon hours that I had spent scraping and sanding down a bad paint job… only to goop it up the same way in one night! I felt sick over it and prayed all night long asking God to please not let all of our work be in vain and to please somehow help it all to come out okay!

The Monstrosity: Day 30
Wednesday, January 4th

When we got back to the Monstrosity I was sooooo relieved to find that the paint actually looked good! REALLY good in most places! There are some flaws and drips (a few really bad ones!), but most of them were things that were already there that I was unable to fix. PRAISE THE LORD! I spent most of that day thanking God for being merciful and caring about such silly things as paint! He is soooooo good to me. :-)

As for our work that day, we refer to that as the slowpoke day. Ha! We worked and worked and worked, but never seemed to accomplish a whole lot! Mom started in on the red doors. They’d been sprayed red which gave us a wonderful head start, but needed all of the edges painted, then double coats on the front and back. She’s pretty sure the doors kept multiplying as she worked, sort of like the Tribbles on Star Trek. I had a very, very slow go of it trying to wallpaper in the kitchen for some reason. About the time I finally hit my groove we quit to get ready for church. We had a Bible study on the Church and covered just about every aspect possible (ha!), then went to Taco Bell with some of the crowd. We had a great time visiting, then went back to Sister Fender’s house for one last night.

The Monstrosity: Day 31
Thursday, January 5th

I finished upon the kitchen wallpaper (wa-hoo!!!) while Mom “cut in” (brushed all the edges of the room—corners and around ceiling moldings, door trim, and baseboards) in the hallway—there are lots of doors there) and the living room. Then she started wallpapering the laundry room. It is going to be one of the happiest rooms in the whole house.

I LOVE the wallpaper we found for that room. Fun. :-) I started faux painting the hallway. That meant two rooms and a hallway had begun taking on some color and character and I had JUST said, “Man, I wish somebody would come by and look at the house NOW”—when there was a knock at the door! The Ridlespurges had stopped by to check on our progress. Wa-Hoo!!! We had mentioned to the church folks the night before that they were all welcome to come over and I’m so glad some of them did. It’s rewarding to see your own accomplishments, but more fun to have somebody else appreciate them, too. ;-) The oohed and aahed just like they were supposed to, then somehow things took a turn and they were in the office with paint brushes, filling in the grooves in the paneling. That’ll learn ‘em. Bet that’s the last time they stop by to check on things! Ha! After the crowd left we hauled all the stuff out of the closet, aired up the mattresses, and made the beds. We slept at our very own house that night! Wow. :-)

The Monstrosity: Day 32
Friday, January 6th

Mom finished up on the laundry room, then did some priming and brushwork and I can’t remember what all. I was able to the get living room faux painted, as well as James’ office. We had Roto Rooter out in hopes that THAT would fix our water problems. We already had the septic tank pumped. Things were still backing up. Roto Rooter didn’t work either, but the guy who came out was a really nice backslidden holiness preacher boy and James was able to visit with him a little bit. Pray for Kelly. :-) Anyway, once he cleaned out the main pipe and loosened all of the muck in it things were backing up REALLY fast and we knew there would be no flushing of the toilets or anything that night, so we loaded up and went back to Sister Fender’s house for the night! But not before a FANTASTICAL dinner and some great fellowship. The Washburns brought dinner to us! Sister Tammy had made her blue ribbon white chicken chili (did I get all that right?!), some tasty beef enchiladas, some sort of Mexican creamed corn with crumbled bacon on top, and these dainty little gingerbread cookies with a cream cheese/whipped cream/marshmallow cream/brown sugar/chocolate chip dip—wowzers! Everything was sooooooo good. And she says she can’t cook. BALONEY. (Can you cook bologna too, Sister Tammy???) We had a great time with them, then enjoyed a few rounds of Bananagrams. Fun. :-)

It really is amazing how perfectly everything worked out that week, beginning with Sister Bishop and Sister Fender being there on Monday when we started the spraying, thus causing Sister Fender to insist that we come stay at her house! And then that the water situation held out all week long until we had completed our work on Friday evening before worsening to the point where we can’t keep working (because we can’t clean paint brushes, etc.) Perfect!

We spent Friday night back at Sister Fender’s house, then slept in a little bit on Saturday—which felt sooooo good! We drove to Hoover and took Mom to the Olive Garden as a “thank you” before sending her off to Cleveland. –And we took her by the Christmas Tree Shops, too. Found a few good bargains, like we always do.

James had business that afternoon, so the kids and I went to Big Lots to buy a couple of shovels, then Wal-Mart to buy a dress shirt for Joe--so he wouldn’t have to look like an Oompa Loompa again this week wearing one of Sam’s way-too-little shirts. He was so relieved. We went back to the Monstrosity and Sam and I spent quite a while digging down to the septic tank. We got a pretty good head start on the hole before going into the house and getting things cleaned up and organized in there. I pulled a few shelves in from the garage to keep kid clothes on in there, hoping things will stay neater now. Riiiight.

When James got home we drove to Sister Fender’s house to enjoy some left-overs from Sister Washburn’s gourmet meal the night before, get showers, and hit the sack.

And it appears that's all of the notes I have saved on my computer. So more catch-up later. I should have Internet the next few days, so maybe I really and truly can get caught up this week, in the midst of all the chaos. Blogging is therapudic for me and seems to sort out all of the insanity. I should definitely do it more often. ;-)

Finishing December

2012-01-13T22:28:00.002-07:00

The Monstrosity: Day 24
Wednesday, December 28th

Hhmmm. I didn’t take notes at the end of the day and now I can’t remember what we did—even though it was just yesterday! [Remember that I’ve been “blogging” all along, just haven’t had time and/or Internet access to edit or post anything!] I do remember that Haley had her baby! Joshua. Looks just like her little Sam. Mom and baby are doing well, so praise the Lord!

I also remember putting a couple of coats of Polyurethane on the bathroom cabinets… OH! And scrubbing the tile floor in the bathroom. I mean really, really scrubbing. James had used a leveler of some kind on it and it dried like grainy cement. It had to be scrubbed off the tiles (leaving only the parts that would “level” the grout lines) and it took a long, long, long time and lots and lots of grunting and groaning. I told James he’s not allowed to work on tile anymore. It always seems to create an exorbitant amount of work for me. ;-)

We had a Bible study at church that night on “A New Beginning” and I thoroughly enjoyed all of the scriptures and thoughts that were shared by everyone. Afterwards we went to MacAlister’s with the Washburns for some good food and fellowship. Sam left Brother Washburn speechless with his quick wit and a stranger came and told us we win the best looking family of the year award (no doubt assuming the Washburns were the parents/grandparents of the rest of us), so I guess it was a successful evening.

When we got back to the house the kids and I went to bed and James started laying the new floor in the bathroom. Oh, happy day!!! Yes, we’re STILL working on that silly little bathroom. Will it ever end?! Ha! Of course, we’ve been working on lots of other things, too, but still...

The Monstrosity: Day 25
Thursday, December 29th.

I began the day by oohing and aahing over the new floor (over half done) in the bathroom. I LOVE IT. I absolutely love it. I love it because it’s so rustic looking… I love it because the old nasty tile floor is gone… I love it because it’s fresh and clean—and now (at the end of the day) I love it because it’s finished! :-)

My day’s work started with putting new hardware on the doors and drawers for the bathroom, with some good assistance from Sam. Then I put all of my energies into paint prep. It was a long day full of a thousand different little tasks, but at the end of the day I have two rooms completely ready to paint and two others well on their way. I didn’t get as far along as I would have liked, but you can only do what you can do, you know?

Hhmmm. Other news today… Nope, can’t think of any. Except that James wanted to take us out for a decent dinner (we’re all sooooo tired of fast food and CAN’T WAIT to have a kitchen here!), so we ended up at Cracker Barrel. I got mashed potatoes, corn, dumplin’s and applesauce—just like I did when we were living in a motel in New Mexico and had been without our own home (and kitchen) for two months! Ha! Living in a motel with a four year old, a five year old, a six year old and a super hyper poodle—for a month. We have good memories from that crazy time in our lives. We’ll have more good memories of THIS crazy time in our lives. :-)

Ah, yes, there is one other bit of news. The air mattress didn’t make it through the night last night—we woke up on the floor this morning. We had noticed that it wasn’t as tight as it originally was and we intended to fill it up today anyway. Unfortunately when we did fill it up it started leaking rapidly. Upon further investigation we discovered a small slit where the side of the mattress had begun to separate from the valve. We had become quite fond of that air mattress and even considered it more comfortable than most regular beds, so we were especially sad to see it go. Not to mention the fact that it didn’t belong to us—it was the Powells’! No worries, though—we saw that it was a Coleman mattress and had replaced it with a new one before the day was out. Otherwise we would have had to sleep on the floor again. My back said no way. :-)

I started proofing the Sunday School literature we were sent, but only made it through the Introduction and Lesson One. Then I wrote out all of my thank you cards for Christmas before hitting the hay.

The Monstrosity: Day 26
Friday, December 30th.

We had hopes of painting today. Silly little hopes. They keep meandering their way into our lives, then shattering all over the dusty floor. All I can say is that I’m doing my very, very best. We got home from Cleveland Monday night, we came to the Monstrosity on Tuesday, and I have been working 12-14 hour days since then, along with schooling the kids. There’s just sooooo much to do! This is one of those days when I find myself thinking, “What kind of idiots buy a house so BIG?!” Our kind, apparently. ;-)

It’s 10:30pm right now. I worked as long as I could make myself work, took a quick shower, got my pj’s on, and crawled into bed with my laptop for a few Internetless minutes. I didn’t get as much done today as I wanted to (do I say that EVERY day???), but I still feel some sense of satisfaction in the simple knowledge of how hard I’ve been trying. I worked on the kitchen cabinets today, then the stairwell and foyer, the utility room, and all of the doors on this floor. Unless I spend another week working on them (I don’t have another week to spend on them even if I wanted to!), the doors are just never going to be as pretty as they should be. The last painter who graced this house ~ahem~ was proficient at the drip and run style of painting and they used all thick, high gloss paint to ensure it would last a lifetime. Perhaps several lifetimes. How thoughtful of them.

Along those lines, Mom reminded me today about Nancy. She was the old lady who taught us how to quilt when I was a teenager. She always told us that if something didn’t turn out just right or had some imperfections, DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT. “From a galloping horse,” she would say, “nobody will ever see it.” I never had the heart to tell her that most people don’t look at quilts while riding the range; they’re usually standing still or even sitting. Nevertheless, for my sanity’s sake I am going to have to adopt her philosophy. I could scrape and sand for the rest of my life and never smooth out ALL of the flaws in this house. So after getting all OCD and COMPLETELY scraping one side of one of the six remaining doors, I thought of good ole’ Nancy and her galloping horse. I put down my scraper, grabbed my electric sander, laid aside the course paint stripping sand paper and grabbed a sheet of smoother “leveling” paper, and gave all of the doors a quick once-over. There are still paint drips, but they’re more “level” than they were before, or at least I’m choosing to believe so. I’ll just have to tell anyone who travels this hallway that they’re not allowed to slow their horse below a swift canter. ;-)

We decided tonight to rip out another floor. Oh, why not? God has provided lots of good help for us through this project and the floor was gone in short order. The utility room is now rid of the cushy, water damaged linoleum and level with the floor in the hallway, which will make for a much nicer transition.

We were supposed to go home tonight. We were going to spend tomorrow “recuping.” That means I would work at THAT house instead of this one, but it would be normal work—laundry and stuff like that. But I don’t have time to go home—there’s too much to do before Mom comes! Did I mention Mom is coming? She’ll be here Monday and (if we are far enough along and able to get ready for it!) will help me with paint and wallpaper. Anyway, there is still sooooo much to do to get ready. So tonight I sent James and Katie and Sam—and Charlie—home and Joe and I are staying at the Monstrosity. The Brierfield crowd will take care of Brady and the house, then come back tomorrow bearing extra underwear, fresh towels, and a list of other odds and ends to see us through the coming week. Work, work, work! But it’s a good thing. I keep thinking things are going to start getting exciting around here any day now. I think I’ve been thinking that since we bought this house over two months ago. I’m glad I don’t have sense enough to be realistic. It would be too depressing. I prefer the blindly optimistic approach to life. ;-)

The Monstrosity: Day 27
Saturday, December 31st.

~whew~ That’s all I have to say at the end of this day. It’s been a doosy. A good doosy, for the most part. It was full of paint prep. Lots and lots of paint prep. That is, of course, what I’ve been doing ever since we bought this place, but in ultra high gear this week. We still haven’t unboxed the paint sprayer, but we’re getting so close I can smell it. :-)

After all of our hard work throughout the day we discovered water in the basement again. James had sent some “Emergency Care” chemicals down the drain a few days before and we’d let them sit while using as little water as possible, but my shower yesterday proved that it didn’t fix the problem. So here we are on Saturday night… I’ve been working like crazy and I’m all nasty… I caught a whiff of Joe earlier when he walked by (a very bad sign)… we have church in the morning… and no way to shower. ~sigh~

I called the Ridlespurges and asked if we could come shower at their house. I was embarrassed to do it, but assured them that they—and the entire church in Bessemer—would be glad come morning. Ha! We showed up on their porch a little while later singing a few lines from one of our favorite songs:

Our pipes are corroded, the water won’t drain
Our toilet exploded, we’re flushing in vain!!!

We were so thankful for the use of their plumbing! GOD BLESS THEM! :-)

That was New Year’s Eve. We were exhausted and asleep on our air mattresses at the Monstrosity by 10:30! Ha! Pitiful. We did wake up at midnight when the fireworks were going off all around us. Folks are serious about the fireworks here.

On Sunday we went to church, then a different Mexican joint than usual with the crowd—the Washburns, Parkers—I can’t remember who all. Then we went to visit old Brother Parker who hasn’t been well enough to come to church for a few months now. We sure miss having him there. It was nice to visit with him and have a good prayer with him. And I just love being with Sister Parker. She is the neatest lady—and she cracks me up!

Even after all of that I still had time to get a nice Sunday afternoon nap. Have I mentioned that I am going to LOVE living a mile and a half from the church?! :-) After service that night we undecorated (all the Christmas stuff) in ZOOM fashion with Tammy Washburn leading the way. Ha! She doesn’t waste time, let me tell ya’! Then it was off for another kids-eat-free night at McAlister’s.

Perhaps We Should Fall Back & Regroup

2012-01-13T17:12:00.004-07:00

That's what we're doing right now. Taking a breather at the Powell's house. ~Aaaaaahhhhh~ It feels nice, though we'll only be here for this evening and tomorrow. It's just nice to come to a house that has furniture and a refrigerator, a washer--things like that--every so often.

So... our water problems:

About three weeks ago the basement toilet started overflowing all over the floor--this seemed to happen in conjunction with finishing the master bathroom--when we began using larger amounts of water (showering) there. Because things were backing up, we thought perhaps the septic tank needed pumped. We paid to have that done. It was a good thing to do anyway, but it didn't cure our problem. James then poured some emergency care stuff down the pipes hoping it would eat away whatever blockage was causing things to back up through the toilet down there. Nope, didn't work. So then we tried Roto Rooter--the main line from the house to the tank must be clogged. Didn't work. In fact, from the moment the Roto Rooter dude ran the snaky metal thing down the pipe things got way, way worse. Now we couldn't flush toilets or wash hands (much less paint brushes) without the basement toilet spilling out and spreading all over the place. That was a week ago. Things still overflowed even when we weren't using water, baffling us to no end. We left Sunday night to go back to Brierfield, turning the main water line to the house OFF at the Monstrosity before we left. When we got back Tuesday evening, IT HAD OVERFLOWED AGAIN!!! What???? How is that possible and where is this water coming from????? We cleaned up all of the mess AGAIN (we are sooooooo tired of mopping that floor!), stayed at Sister Fender's house that night, then went back to the Monstrosity the next day to mop up the perpetual puddle made by the magic toilet--and it wasn't there! For the first time in a week the toiled had NOT overflowed. I wanted to be excited about it, but it still didn't explain WHY it was doing it before, so we knew it wasn't fixed.

Thursday morning we got a plumber out to look at it. He felt certain that the pipe from the house to the tank must be clogged, completely confident that it's the only thing it COULD be. It felt reassuring to have someone who felt confident about something for a change! (Up until this point we just kept getting more and more confused!) It made sense that it would cause the toilet to overflow (it's the lowest spot in the house, of course), but still didn't explain where all of the water was coming from--even when the water to the house was turned off! Mr. Plumber (I should learn his name--I have a feeling we'll be good friends with him for as long as we live in this house; we've seen him twice in the past week) said that there could be as much as 60-80 GALLONS of water still in the pipes throughout the house after the water is shut off! I had noooooo idea there could be that much! That would explain where the water was coming from (and also allows me to know just how much we've been mopping for the past week--especially since it was that much just SINCE we turned the water off) and why it finally stopped overflowing... after two or three days it had finally oozed all 60-80 gallons all over the floor and run dry.

ANYWAY, he tried to do the Roto Rooter thing again (he has the same machine), but to no avail. He told us that the line was full of sludge and when they pull the snaky metal thing back out the sludge would just close up around it, clogging things up again. He said we needed to call Roto Rooter back and have them bring out a "jetter"--a machine that blows 4,000 lbs. of pressure and blasts the sludge out the other end. So that's what we did. Why didn't the plumber warn me how much it costs to do such a thing???? *OUCH* But we didn't feel we had any option--and it was still much cheaper than if we would have had to replace the septic tank and redo the leach field or something like that, so we're definitely counting our blessings.

We went to the new Chinese restaurant for lunch and my fortune cookie said, "You will have no problems in your home." Hahahahahahahaha! Best one I've ever gotten! Feeling encouraged (ha!), we called Roto Rooter again and asked them to send a jetter out.

It is an amazing thing, the jetter. A $60,000 machine that can blow sludge--thick, black, oozy, smelly, slimy sludge--out of a pipe when nothing else can make a dent. Actually if you made a dent in sludge it just fills back in, so dents don't help anyway. At the end of the day:

Meet Mike! He's the answer to our prayers. The man who God sent to finally--at long last!--solve our water-pouring-out-of-the-basement-toilet-ALL-THE-TIME dilemma. Yes. I did ask a total stranger if I could have my picture taken with him. Yes. It is weird. But it's not often that a Roto Rooter man gets to feel like a celebrity or have somebody appreciate his work so much they ask for a picture--I probably made his day. Hahahaha! Yes, I'm holding my "You will have no problems in your home" fortune, too. And yes, I did explain to the man that I don't believe in fortunes, I believe in prayer--I just found it funny and ironic that I should get such a "fortune" on that very day. HA!

So now we are THANKING THE LORD that this particular problem seems to have been solved. I went upstairs and started flushing toilets and running faucets all over the place before Mike left, just to be sure. Noooooooooo water came up in the toilet at all. PRAISE THE LORD!!! It's amazing how much you appreciate things (like being able to use sinks, toilets and tubs in your own house) when you go without them for a week or two. The kids were ECSTATIC at the news. They STILL ask us each time though, "Is this toilet usable???" just to be sure. Ha!

The Good News Is...

2012-01-11T21:50:00.002-07:00

I'm blogging because I have Internet!

The bad news is...
I have Internet because we're staying at Sister Fender's house again.

The good news is...
Sister Fender is a dear and wonderful lady and has opened her home to us anytime we need it.

The bad news is...
We're having to take her up on it because we can't use the water (showers, toilets, etc.) at the Monstrosity right now.

The good news is...
We've been talking to lots of knowledgeable people to try to come up with a solution.

The bad new is...
At the end of the conversation, they're all left scratching their heads and saying, "I don't have a CLUE what's going on."

The good news is...
The toilet in the basement actually WASN'T overflowing all over the basement floor when we went by to check it this evening.

The bad news is...
We don't know why it WAS overflowing, why it ISN'T now, what caused it to START, what caused it to STOP, WHEN it might happen again, and what we can DO to fix it so it doesn't.

That's our life in a nutshell. Not really. That's only the Monstrosity part of our life. Sometimes other things flood in and make the house stuff seem pretty small. It's just a thing, you know. I thank the Lord for sending those reminders to me on occasion. Still, we'd love to find a way to keep the water in the pipes and off the floors. The only time I've ever spent in our basement has been mopping up water or sucking it up with the Shop Vac. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care if I ever go to the basement again. I've never had a good time down there. It's funny how your perception can change like that. I used to think about how enjoyable it would be to spend time in the basement on occasion, playing ping pong or something like that. Nah. This basement doesn't hold any games. Just water. On the floor. Most of the time for the past two weeks. It's not fun at all down there like it's supposed to be. In fact, I would just as soon never go to the basement again. Ever.

I'm not actually discouraged, though it may sound so. We just feel sort of at a loss as for what in the world can be causing our problem so we can figure out how to fix it. We're trying to talk to plumbers and septic people to work toward a solution. I'm too tired to do much blogging (no catching up tonight), I really just wanted to put a blip on here and request prayer. I'm beginning to think that our pipes are possessed, but James says this is not a spiritual problem (ha!)--but I would still appreciate any prayers for our pipes! :-) THANK YOU.

More December

2012-01-09T20:17:00.019-07:00

Yesterday and today have been good days. Had a good, prayerful church service yesterday morning, then a quick lunch at Bojangles with Richard Barnes who had joined us for service. Then we went back to Sister Fender's house so I could wash up all of the sheets and towels that we'd used last week and make the beds up, then on to the Monstrosity to figure out what needed to stay there and what needed to go home to the Powell's house. Evening service at 6:00, then a great time of fellowship at McAlister's with the Ridle-Hop-Wash-Hornes crowd. :-)

Last night we came home to the Powell's house--first time I'd been here in two weeks! I finally started feeling the big wind-down from all of the work we've been doing. I slept hard--and late! It was nice. :-) We had a lazy morning and let the kids just spend some time playing outside (Joe has a target he'd gotten for Christmas that he's been dying to try out!) before having Frito pie for lunch and getting into school in the afternoon. I managed to get a load and a half of laundry done. Pitiful, hu?! I just can't seem to get it in gear today. Tomorrow evening we head back into town, so I'm really hoping I have more motivation in the morning than I did all day today!

And now for the old news...

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-One (Monday, December 19th)

I had high expectations for today. Of course, none of them came to fruition.

Today was the day that we were bested by the bathroom. It’s a sad thing. It’s such a small room. And we’ve put sooooooo many hours of work into it and it had begun to look soooooooo good. Today was the day it decided to fight back.

All we wanted to do was re-grout the tile a little bit, just to freshen it up in any discolored places. Is that too much to ask? James used the product just like the instructions said, but it didn’t “wipe off with a soft, dry cloth” at all. In fact, I’m pretty sure whoever wrote those directions was laughing like a madman as he penned the words, thinking of the poor saps like us who would spend hour upon hour scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing that which was supposed to “wipe off with a soft, dry cloth.” Even with a wet, scratchy sponge, Stanley the Scraper, and all the elbow grease we had to offer it was an all-day job getting rid of the excess grout and residue. Seriously, it was after 10:00pm when I got the last of it cleaned up—not including the floor.

We had silly little hopes of finishing the bathroom, or coming very, very close day, but we ended up giving all of our time and energy to the grout project. Actually, I had intended to accomplish other grand and glorious things today, but was all consumed with the grout clean-up job. So frustrating.

James decided we’d feel better if we accomplished something other than just scrubbing grout all day (!), so he set out to remove the old faucet and install the new one. Ha. If only. That’s supposed to be an easy little project, right?! He’s done this several times before and it’s not like it’s something big or difficult. Usually. ~ sigh~ We fought and wrestled and fought and wrestled some more to get everything unhooked under the sink and while we were giving it a mighty heave-ho something finally popped loose… but it wasn’t the pipe we were working on, it was the sink itself! HA! The whole sink just popped out! We were amazed—and did thank God!—that it didn’t break any of the tiles on the countertop. We put the sink upside down on the bedroom floor and were finally able to get all of the pipes loose from that angle, but then one thing led to another and in the end we’re going to have to replace the whole sink, not just the faucet. Oh, brother! So instead of having a finished bathroom at the end of the day, it looks far worse than when we started this morning! There are still no doors or drawers in the vanity, there is a hazy residue on the tiles (even after all of our hours of scrubbing), the countertop that used to hold a decent sink is now just a gaping hole, and there is a nasty old sink sitting on our bedroom floor. Not exactly what we had planned for the day. HA!

You win some, you lose some.

We lost big today.

There’s always tomorrow.

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-Two (Tuesday, December 20th)

~whew~ It’s been a long one today! It’s been both frustrating and rewarding. James got a new sink put in this morning, but struggled with some leaks due to the cheaply made parts. I think he’s got it under control now. He’s good at stuff like that. :-)

I had primed the vanity doors and drawers and miscellaneous things in the closet, including the door itself, and managed to have all of the kids fully schooled before noon. And that with several trips to help the guy under the sink. “Turn it on… and back off… on again…” You know the routine.

Once the sink was installed it was time to hang the mirror. The mirror!!! We’re going to have a bathroom with a mirror! Downstairs! That’s not covered in sheetrock dust!!! You can’t possibly understand how exciting that is. :-) We had found a mirror that will match just right at Home Depot the other day, so we used a gift card from some dear friends and bought it and the other remaining items needed to complete the bathroom. I’ll have to send them a thank you card informing them that THEY finished our bathroom for us and I love them dearly for it. :-) Anyway, James had picked up some wicked looking hook thingies that would be strong enough to hold a heavy mirror to a wall and we knew we had one shot to get it right so I measured and measured and measured again—the mirror itself, the space on the wall, from the bottom of the mirror up to the hooks, from one hook to the other, from the tooth end of the hanging hook to the hanging end of it, etc. James had a headache and wouldn’t even attempt to help out with the brainwork, he just sat on the edge of the tub and watched… and watched… and watched. Ha! It probably took me 20 minutes or better to feel confident enough to actually set the first hook in the wall. But apparently it was worth it because the mirror is spaced just right and is perfectly level—on the very first shot! I didn’t know that was even possible, except for on TV! It looks GREAT and goes so nicely with the wall sconces and the faucet and all of the stuff James is spraying “oil rubbed bronze.” I love it. :-)

Then it was time to caulk. That’s when things went south. I would love to blame the caulk itself since it’s different than what I’ve used in the past, but I don’t KNOW that it’s the caulk instead of the caulker that caused the problem. I just know that my first attempt was horrific. So bad that I went back to the bathroom about 20 minutes later with a razor blade and some Goo Gone and spent the next 30 minutes scraping and scrubbing to get as much of the caulk off as possible so I could try again! Take 2 wasn’t much better and I wiped it off while it was still wet. I’m not sure Take 3 was much of an improvement either, but if you’ve given it your best three times in a row you’ve just got to be able to walk away—you’re obviously not going to be able to do any better the next time! Things went okay around the tub, just not the sink. You know, the really obvious location.

James left this afternoon to do some shopping, then go back to Brierfield to take care of Brady and bring back some extra clothes for the rest of us since we’ll be staying again. He’ll spend the night there, then come back in the morning. The accomplishments since he left don’t sound impressive, but they sure took a lot of time! I got the bathroom all cleaned up and ready for the next step, whatever that is. I also painted the ceiling in the closet as well as the shelves and trim. Then I painted all of the doors and drawers for the bathroom that I had primed this morning. Before calling it quits at 11:00pm I also put some wallpaper in the bottom of the bathroom drawers and cabinets. It just feels so much cleaner that way—and when you can buy wallpaper for $1 per roll you just can’t lose!

I let the kids veg out a little bit tonight. James was gone, so we ate left-over Little Caesar’s pizza and watched Christmas shows on the laptop. Well, they watched and I listened while I painted in the closet. Tomorrow is our last day to work until after Christmas. I’m excited to see what we can get done… and then I’m excited to think of taking a break from all of it for a few days!

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty-Three (Wednesday, December 21st)

Today was a day of great triumph! After being beaten by the bathroom yesterday, I made the strategic move to transfer my energies to a different room and just pretend like the bathroom doesn’t exist. And I got it FINISHED! Did you hear that??? I FINISHED OUR VERY FIRST ROOM TODAY!!!

It was the master closet. ;-)

But it still feels like a glorious thing to have completed SOMETHING at that crazy house! Ha! After having completed all of the painting last night I was ready to wallpaper bright and early this morning. I had it papered by about 3:00 this afternoon. WA-HOO!!! I know it’s crazy to take time to wallpaper a closet of all things (!), but it really does feel so nice and fresh and clean in there. Wallpaper in closets may be weird, but it’s just so, so, so nice. Especially when your closet doubles as your devotion location. It’s great to have some place fresh and clean and even cute to go to be alone! :-)

I realize that even the "after" picture isn't all the impressive here, but for the record...

I know you can't tell from the picture, but the wallpaper is a little splotchy (creams and browns) with a little cabin and a whispy little tree standing next to it. It cost a total of $6 or $7 to complete this room, paint, paper and all. I wish that would be the case with all of the rooms! Hahahahaha! If only...

Those are the freshly painted doors and drawers for the bathroom resting on the floor in the closet to dry, just so you know.

Having COMPLETED MY VERY FIRST ROOM (did I mention that already?), I started cleaning and sorting and trying to get all of our things gathered up or put away. The kids and I had spent the previous 5 nights at the house so we had plenty of stuff to sort through and repack. We brought home a MASSIVE bag of dirty clothes to be tended to along with three suitcases, two overnight bags, a duffle bag, a bag full of Christmas DVD’s, four laptops, some hanging clothes, a bag full of Christmas presents to be wrapped, a guitar, a giant fruit basket, a popcorn tin, a bag full of other food items, dog food, dishes and leash, and who knows what else. Aside from the fruit basket, popcorn and presents, that’s the regular list of what we haul back and forth from one house to the other every few days. Crazy, hu?!

We did have a water issue today. James discovered that the basement was flooded this evening. Not totally flooded, but there was water on the floor in a whole lot of places. The Ridlespurges came and helped us mop it all up because that's just the kind of people they are. :-) We're not sure what caused the problem, but we know it has to be in connection with the fact that we're showering at the house now. We've used minimal water up to this point (sinks and toilets) but now we've got a bathroom in shape and took four showers in a row before heading to church... Things are backing up through the toilet in the basement. It sort of put a damper on an otherwise very exciting and productive day (having FINISHED the closet and all!), but that's okay. I'm sure we'll get it all worked out.

Thursday, December 22nd

Was spent at home in Brierfield, doing laundry and packing for our Christmas weekend. James took the kids away for a little while so I could wrap presents that were still hidden in bags around the house. I always enjoyed it, but it was hard to feel very Christmassy and festive when it's RAINING outside! Alabama doesn't know how to do Christmas--that's for sure! Ha! James bought the Muppet Christmas Carol while they were out and I sat down with the kids and watched it that afternoon. I think it's one of the very best versions of A Christmas Carol ever and I love the amazing human/puppet choreography and filming. Amazing.

Joe decided that he was going to start publishing a family newspaper. Here's the first edition...

Friday, December 23rd

Let Christmas begin! Though it never really felt like Christmas to me this year. Just too distracted with our crazy lives, I guess. Christmassy or not, it DID feel like a wonderful little vacation away from it all and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

We got to Mom & Dad’s house at about 3:00, I think. Shortly after we unloaded, Mom and I hopped in the car to go do some shopping. I had had NO opportunity to shop for James at all. I’m with him everywhere I go, especially these days (!), and I spend most of my time at the Monstrosity now (where there is no Internet) so shopping online is out. Anyway, we ended up with a few great buys for James after all. HA! Not really, but at least one of them was really fun to give him. :-) The only thing I KNEW I wanted to get for him were some new Rook cards—it’s what you use to play I Buy with. Ours have been in bad shape for a long time and are too sticky to shuffle or deal without great effort. They were out of Rook cards at Wal-Mart. So we tried Target. They were out, too. Kohl’s didn’t carry Rook cards, and Walgreens was sold out like the other stores. Crazy! Who knew they were such a hot item? It was frustrating to have the ONE item I knew I wanted to buy unavailable.

I can’t remember what else we did that night. I remember that James was very gracious when Dad and the kids watched The Rifleman instead of a Christmas show. Ha! In our crazy world there has been a remarkable lack of Christmas shows viewed this season. James usually watches them ALL—at least once—and he just hasn’t had a chance this year.

Saturday was Christmas Eve. Mom and I spent the day cooking and baking for the evening’s festivities and for our Christmas dinner the next day.

That night we had a Christmas Eve service there at the house. I think there were 20 present and it was just so nice. I LOVE Christmas Eve services. If we’re at our own house for Christmas next year we’ll be sure to have one of our own! I loved singing the Christmas carols and the fun little Christmas trivia games and the Christmas mini-sermon—oh, just everything. Then there’s the food and fellowship. :-) There was sooooo much food there! Everything was so pretty and festive and tasty.

When the crowd left we watched It’s a Wonderful Life, our Christmas Eve tradition. It’s also traditional to have clam chowder that day—we did that at lunch time and it was delicious. Though there was probably enough chili we wouldn’t have had to make the soup, right Mom??? HA! When we arrived there the day before Mom was in the kitchen making the hugest pot (gigantic roasting pan, plus overfill in a separate big pot) of chili I’ve ever seen in my life. The recipe was to feed 20, but I think they left off a zero! There were probably 25 quarts of chili by the time she was done!!! Hahahahahaha! It was quite tasty, but who can eat that much chili?! She was really hoping Dad had come through with the pressure canner she had asked for so she could “put up” several quarts of it for a later date. (He did. It was the beautifully "wrapped" gift in the big blue bag.)

Katie was actually the early riser on Christmas morning this year, something more remarkable than most people could imagine. (She is NOT a morning person!) She was going from room to room waking up the rest of the household (except Dad, of course—who knows how long he’d been up!) at 6:30. We piled into the living room for the action to begin. We are so blessed. Christmas always seems overwhelming to me. We already have so much more than we need— so, so, so abundantly blessed—and then on Christmas we receive even more! I don’t want to be materialistic and have to have more and more STUFF, but I don’t want to take for granted how marvelously God has blessed our family. I want to always be grateful. And I must say that the kids showed lots of gratitude over every single gift they received this year—lots of, “WOW!!! THANKS, DAD!” happening. :-)

Here's a picture of the Charles sleeping with the gifts before all the action began.

The boys were sooooo excited about the stick-on mustaches they found in their stockings. I love those things. :-)
Sam got Legos and more Legos for Christmas this year. And batteries. And a battery charger. He was ecstatic.
Katie Rue... She got lots of nice goodies--an art set, a polka dot bedspread for her new room at the Monstrosity (whenever we finish it!), a nightgown and cap made by her Grandma, and I can't remember what all.
Joe's most exciting gift was a mandolin. He's been a-pickin' and a-grinnin' ever since. ;-) It amazes me how quickly he catches on to all things stringed. He's loving the new instrument and is still trying to think up a proper name for "her."
Here's Dad with a framed picture of Joe and the catfish he caught in Dad's pond a few months back.
And James with his oh-so-thoughtful gift from me: PLUNGERS! Don't laugh--he's already used them several times at the Monstrosity while our water problems continue! (Still no end in sight...)

I don't have any pictures of myself, of course, but my wonderful husband got me a new laptop for Christmas! My old one had been hobbling along for a long, long time and we were worried about a crash any day now, so I was sooooo excited about that gift. And I LOVE it. It's so much nicer than the last one. :-) He also got me some fantastic silky pajamas (red with black polka dots--I LOVE THEM!) and new slippers. Mom got us some nice bath towels for our nearly completed bathroom and some Moody Science videos.

After opening all of the gifts we cleaned up the living room, then Mom and I headed to the kitchen again. She made a couple of pies and started the rolls while I made corn pudding and something else I can’t remember. Here's Mama, working away...

And Sam fast asleep by 9:00! Ha!

Then it was time to get everybody ready to go to church at Southside. They had a service from 11:00 to 12:00 and it was wonderful! We always enjoy being with Brother Ammons and he had lots of good things to share. Again, I enjoyed the Christmas songs and there was just such a sweet and worshipful spirit there. I LOVED having church on Christmas Day! It was a little more difficult to plan out the day (only because you’re used to staying home all day), but what a wonderful blessing to take time to go to the house of God and spend some time focusing on what we REALLY have to be thankful for rather than just the festivities at home. I would love to have church on EVERY Christmas, whether it’s on a Sunday or not!

By the time we got home we were a little behind schedule for our 2:00 Christmas dinner. Brother Oscar and his family came to join us and in the end we had a wonderful meal (everything turned out so good!) and great fellowship. I almost fell asleep at the table there at the end (our “vacation” had been filled with late nights, early mornings, and plenty of cooking and baking and shopping in between!), but got my second wind before long. Most of the crowd enjoyed the very non-Christmassy weather outside for an hour or two. I love the bounding Charlie-blur in this picture.

Sam's turn on the pogo stick. He's starting to catch on but for now Joe is still the expert. Last time we were in Cleveland he wanted to show us how well he could do. He jumped 99 times, then lost control before hitting 100! Ha!
The Pimentel girls are scared of dogs, but trying to work through it. In the end, they got used to the big dogs, but were still afraid of Charlie. HA! Dad loves the neighbors' dog Ralphie--the one being petting. He and his mom Maxie come to visit all the time. If Dad can't have a dog of his own I'm happy that he can enjoy the neighbors' dogs on a regular basis! He likes dogs and they are so therapudic.

We watched The Nativity Story that night and it was very good and very thought provoking. Of course there were some fictional things added in to “fill the gaps,” but it helps you to view everyone as real PEOPLE rather than characters in a story. I really enjoyed it.

We then went to church in Aurora with my brother. :-) Via live webfeed, that is. They had a nice little Christmas service and we enjoyed joining them, then seeing lots of the folks wave at the camera for us afterward. I especially enjoyed seeing a very pregnant Haley! Due any time now. How exciting. :-) UPDATE--Joshua was born on December 28th, happy and healthy! :-)

I played a couple of rounds of Bananagrams with Mom and Katie while James transferred all of my programs and files from my old laptop onto my new one (wa-hoo!), then we put the kids to bed and Mom and James and I played a game of I Buy with MY new Rook cards that James had bought for ME! Ha! Then I started on my new puzzle—a Noah’s Ark puzzle this year.

James had wanted to leave first thing in the morning on Monday, but after seeing how the weekend really wasn’t all that relaxing for us ladies who were working through most of it (that’s the story of all holidays, isn’t it?!) he was gracious enough to let us hang around throughout the day so I could just RELAX. I packed everything up in the morning, then Mom and I worked on the puzzle while watching The Star of Christmas. I love that show. :-) Then we put on The Lemon Drop Kid and worked the puzzle through that one, too. It was GREAT.

I think it was nearly 5:00 by the time we left. With the time change we were able to make it home to Brierfield by 8:00. We got all unloaded… just in time for the power to go out! I had taken a nap on the drive home and wasn’t nearly tired enough to go to bed, so I sat at the kitchen table and built Sam’s new lego kit by lantern light. It was so fun! I’m not creative enough to take Legos and make anything grand, but I LOVE having the instruction sheets and putting cool stuff together piece by piece. :-)

Tuesday morning we unpacked and had devotions and did school, then repacked. It’s Monstrosity time again, you know! We left after noon sometime and stopped at the Olive Garden in Alabaster to use up a gift card or two. It was sooooo good! Then James went to Great Clips for a haircut and I went to Christopher & Banks. The good news is that I got 3 shirts and a skirt for $20. The bad news is that I got them for that price because the store is going out of business—along with over 100 others! I hate that!!!

Then it was on to Hoover. First stop: Barnes & Noble to pick up a 2012 calendar at 50% off. Found a cute one, so I’m happy. Then it was to Sears to shop for appliances. We’re needing EVERYTHING and thought the post-Christmas sales might help us out a little bit, even though we’re still far from being ready to actually put anything in our new kitchen. Then it was on to HH Gregg, a store I’d never heard of before. They sell appliances, mattresses, and electronics and it is a GREAT store with tons of friendly and helpful employees and very competitive prices. I talked to a salesman and asked what kind of super-duper discount they give if people come in and buy every appliance in the book. :-) We need a washer, dryer, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, and microwave. ~whew~ It almost makes me nauseous to think of having to buy all of that stuff at once! Anyway, we went around and picked out one of each of the six items I just listed. They have better prices to begin with on most things, but they look up each item individually and if there is another store in town that sells it for less they will drop their own price lower than the other guy. Nice. The price he quoted us is still a pretty chunk of dough (!), but less than what we’d been bracing ourselves for. We want to check out a few other appliance stores, but I don’t know that we could beat what we found tonight. We'll see. The kids hate this kind of shopping. This is what the boys looked like LONG before the end of the night. Ha!

We then went to Payless to get some new play shoes for Joe. He had three toes hanging out of the other shoes before we even knew they were getting worn out. Why doesn’t he just TELL us when they start to fall apart?! Then it was to 2nd & Charles for Katie to blow the $15 gift card she had received for Christmas. She was kind enough to buy a book for each of the boys along with what she got for herself. What a gal. :-) Then we went to Lifeway and found a few good bargains, then to the Payless in Bessemer. James had found some boots for Katie at the first Payless, but since they didn’t have them in her size they gave a $4 off coupon and told us they had the boots in Bessemer—and then when you tack on the AAA discount he paid all of $7 for them! Happy Katie, happy Dad. Then it was finally time to go to the Monstrosity. I moved us in to the closet and made up the beds with fresh sheets. ~Aaahhh~

That's probably enough for tonight, but here's one last picture before I go. This is Sam, modeling Charlie's new Santa hat and jingle bell collar in an effort to convince him that they're really not that bad and he really ought to keep them on. HA! (Charlie wasn't impressed.)

Remember Me???

2012-01-07T18:55:00.012-07:00

I knew it had been a long, long time since I'd blogged, but I didn't realize it had been nearly a month since I'd blogged any more than a blip! WHOA. I'll give you the general excuse now, then make up for it later. ;-) I spend lots more time at the Monstosity now than at the Powell's house (where there is Internet) and when I am at the Powell's house I'm so busy playing catch up that I haven't had time to blog! We went to Mom & Dad's house for three nights over the Christmas weekend, came home on Monday, went to the Monstrosity the next day... and I've not been home since then! That's means I've been at the Powell's house (with Internet) one night out of the past fifteen. James goes down every few days to take care of Brady and check on things, but I've been working sooooo hard at the Monstrosity preparing for Mom to come and then working with Mom this past week, I just didn't have time to go! Anyway, I've been blogging most nights, just without Internet (ha!), so I'll start going through what I've written and adding pictures as I have time. Not sure how long it will take me to get all caught up, but I'll start tonight. We've got to back up quite a bit to start with, but here we go!

December 13-18th:

Tuesday was a profitable day, but not exactly a work day at the Monstrosity, so we won’t count it. James had found a really pretty white bedroom set on Craigslist that we thought might work nicely for Katie’s room, so we drove to Inverness today to take a look at it. I knew before we ever got to the house that we’d be buying it, simply because of the neighborhood. It was NICE. The kind where people spend a lot of money on good quality furniture. The set is really heavy and solid and will be PERFECT for Katie’s room. It’s a sleigh bed (I’ve always loved those, but never had one!), a large dresser, and a highboy.

The other news of the day is that we went to the Foundry in search of pants for Sam, who has apparently had a huge growth spurt since ALL of his pants are humorously too short and just scream DORK. James never finds those things humorous though. ;-) We only found one pair of slacks, but it’s better than nothing.

The kids had play practice that night, then we headed home.

On Wednesday I managed to get the kids schooled, get caught up on ALL of the laundry and ironing (there was a BUNCH), make some Holiday Cream Cheese Bars (“they look so much cuter in the picture!”), a double batch of mint chocolate chunk cookies, and some nacho dip (that I later scorched while reheating). It was time for our church Christmas party!

The kids put on a nice little play—a living nativity sort of thing. All of the girls were dressed up as angels (which isn’t exactly biblical, but they can’t very well be wise men—ha!) and did Silent Night in sign language. Katie sang What Child is This while Joe played the guitar. Sam was Joseph. He behaved. ~whew~ :-)

After the service we went to the back and filled up on TONS of great little finger foods and desserts. Then we played Dirty Santa or Hallelujah Hand Over, depending on who you ask. Ha! When it’s your turn you can either take a gift from the pile, or steal something that somebody else already opened. But once an item has been stolen three times it’s “dead” and can’t be taken anymore. It was fun. Until Kody stole my knife. Ha! I was thrilled to have gotten something so practical, especially during this phase of our lives! But he took it, the little creep. ;-) So I got to choose a new gift and, lo and behold, it was another knife! HA! Kody stole that one, too. Jerk. HA! (Somebody had stolen the first one from him, so he took my second one.) It all ended well though because Joe’s turn came and he stole the knife from Kody. :-) Some other creep stole my flashlights after that. I finally ended up with a pack of Bendaroos—which gave me inspiration for my Band Meeting two days later.

Thursday I cleaned house, schooled kids, worked on ABM service stuff, and actually made a home cooked dinner (so rare!) of Chicken Parmesan. Then James came home and cut down a scraggly tree from the side of the hill, made a tree stand for it, and set it up in the living room. Katie strung a whole foot and a half of popcorn before giving out (ha!) and Sam made a great paper chain for it—though toward the end he got tired of linking the pieces of construction paper and just started taping the strips end to end. Add some lights, candy canes, candy CORN and who knows what else (whatever they could find!) and it made for the most hilarious Christmas tree ever! I thought it was sooooooo cute, but James was all weird about it and said I’m not allowed to post pictures of it. What a scrooge. Ha!

Friday was a busy, busy day, ending in our very first Youth Band Meeting. The whole crowd showed up: Laura, Kody, Katie, Michael, Dalton… and then SIX—count ‘em—SIX Dudley boys. ~whew~ Talk about a handful! Ha! I was soooooo excited that they all came. It is difficult to maintain order all the time with all those boys and though I try pretend like I’m in control of things (ha!) on the inside I couldn’t help but think about when I was their age. Jon & Johnny and all of their shenanigans and goofing off and constant talking and making a joke out of everything would finally push our teacher or youth leader—always a woman—to the limit and I recall more than one occasion when they (at least two different ladies come to mind) would burst into tears of frustration or throw their notes into the air and let them scatter across the room in surrender. HA! I loved being a teenager and now I love being old enough to have a chance to work with teenagers. It’s just so much fun. :-) Anyway, I feel like our band meeting went very, very well, all things considered. I started by having everybody use Benderoos to fashion the likeness of some special Christmas gift they received sometime in their life. Then we went around the circle and shared what we had made and why.

Joshua didn't even know what his creation represented, so don't ask. Ha!

Then we talked about the greatest gift we could ever receive, the obvious “for God so loved… HE GAVE.” We read from 1 Corinthians about all of the people who will NOT inherit the kingdom of God (adulterers, fornicators, liars, thieves, idolaters, etc.), then Paul said, “and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified…” Those evil, horrible people are the ones that God saved and transformed into pure, holy, sanctified Church of God members. “For when we were yet sinners… Christ died for us.” Then I passed out little gifts addressed to each of them with little cards inserted that said, “For the wages of sin is death, but THE GIFT OF GOD…” I really felt the Lord there during the devotion and I’m pretty sure I felt some conviction at work. I’m so thankful.

When we were finished with our devotional we broke out the chips, pop, and cookies. We just hung out for a little while, then I split them into two teams and we played some Christmas trivia for a little while. After that we played a game I remember playing when I was a teenager. We all sat in a circle around the table and took turns rolling a die, then quickly passing it to the next person. If someone rolled a six they had to jump up and run to the end of the table, put on a hat, scarf, and gloves, open a Hershey bar (a difficult task while wearing gloves), cut it with a plastic knife and take a bite of it with the fork. While they are endeavoring to do all of that, the die is continuously being passed around the table and if somebody else rolls a six, the first guy sits down and the new guy that rolled six has to start putting on all the stuff and working toward a bite of the chocolate bar. It was great to watch.

And we have a winner!

We had lots of fun. Well, I did. I hope the kids did, too! :-) I’m so excited about having our very first band meeting and I’m already looking forward to the next one. I will love it extra once our house is finished and we can start having our band meetings there. Oh, happy day. :-)

While we were having band meeting, James had our three kids and Madison at the house. Brother Will and Sister Kristal were out doing some shopping and Katie was soooooooooooo excited about being able to have Madison over to hang out for a while. When band meeting was over I took Dalton back with me to hang out at our house until their parents were ready to come pick them up. I’d told Sister Kristal to take their time and stay out as late as they wanted—our kids have had very few opportunities to just hang out and have fun together. I’m so glad it worked out the way it did! When Dalton and I got home everybody else—including James—was playing “Monstrosity Hide & Seek.” HA! Even without any furniture to hide behind or under, the house is so big that it’s a terrific place to play Hide & Seek. We joined in and played for a while, then the kids played football until Dalton and Madison had to go home. It was so much fun.

Saturday was a grand and glorious day. We had picked up a rental truck and met at the storage unit with Brother Ridlespurge, Kody and Michael (who had come with another trailer) and the four Dudley boys (one of the Dudley cousins is living with the rest of them right now) and loaded up a-a-a-a-a-all of our stuff to move up to the Monstrosity! :-) Wa-Hoo!!! It took two or three hours (including James & Brother Ridlespurge taking one full load on the trailer and unloading at the house, then coming back) to get everything all loaded up. The second trailer load, along with the moving truck, the back of Brother Powell’s truck, and the back of the van were all packed to the brim by about noon. The Dudley boys had to get back to work, so the rest of us drove the four vehicles up to the Monstrosity and spent the rest of the afternoon unloading everything into the two car garage. It’s amazing how EXCITING it was to move all of our stuff… into the garage! HA! It just feels so good to get it out of storage (and stop paying to keep it there!) and have it in our very own home, even if it is just in the garage. It just felt so, so, so good and even relieving somehow. It’s one more step closer to getting moved in to our very own place again. We’ve been trying to get moved to Alabama for almost a year and a half now and I’m so tired of “still moving.” It feels so good to actually OWN a home and actually have our STUFF there, even if we’re still a long, long way from being ready to move in. We’re closer now than we’ve ever been before and that is sooooo exciting! It just almost makes me feel all giddy.

It was a great day for me because we got all of my stuff moved to my house. It was a great day for Sam because he got to play with the Dudley boys all morning. It was one form of roughhousing to another. Sam was in the box and the boys would knock it one way, then lift it back up and throw it the other way--Sam loving every bit of it.

Let's see, looks like Thomas has got Sam's wrists and ankles bound with packing tape in this one...
The best part of the day was when we had everything all loaded up and were about to haul everything to the Monstrosity. We started counting heads and came up one short. Sam. Where's Sam? Sa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-am!!! We looked for a minute or two and finally a box on the trailer started jiggling. The Dudley boys had packed Sam up in it, loaded it onto the trailer (with Brother Ridlespurge's help, though he was oblivious to the contents!) and packed several things in behind it. And Sam was just as still and quiet as could be the whole time! HA! Here he is being unpacked and lifted to freedom once more.

After getting everything all unloaded we showed the Ridlespurges our half-way remodeled master bathroom and they were courteous enough to act impressed. Ha! I’m so anxious to get a mirror up in there and finish up on the cabinet doors and drawers and the few other odds and ends in there. It’s going to be GREAT to have a nice, neat, fresh, clean COMPLETED room—especially a bathroom.

That night we watched old Christmas shows on the laptop—Andy Griffith, I Love Lucy, and Honeymooners Christmas episodes. Our kids love those and it was a nice way to unwind after a long day of heavy lifting. I’m so, so, so thankful for the help of good church folks on days like today. We had been putting this off for a long time because things have been so busy and we finally just made it happen. I’m so glad we did.

Sunday morning we went to service in Bessemer, then lunch, then shopping for Dirty Santa, Round 2. ;-) They play the same game in Canaan and we were scheduled to visit that church and join them for their Christmas banquet. We had a nice little abbreviated service and James preached a mini-Christmas message. There was a good spirit there. Afterward we all headed downstairs and enjoyed some good, southern cookin’. There was ham and chicken and all manner of fixin’s, along with plenty of dessert. James tried something that had coconut on top and later learned that it was a buttermilk pie. We’d never heard of such a thing (must be a southern thing!) and he never would have tried it had he known what it was, but he loved it. We had to sit at a table up at the front, away from everybody else. That was weird. James says it’s because they are of the old fashioned mindset to show lots of honor and respect to leadership in the Church. It just makes me feel like a freak. HA! As soon as we were done eating we migrated to the tables where everybody else was sitting.

The Hallelujah Hand Over turned out well for us. I didn’t get a knife, but Joe did—again! He’s just rackin’ up on ‘em! Makes a mother proud. :-) James got some little candle thing (ha!), I made out with a nice, soft plaid (I love plaid) throw blanket, Katie got a black photo frame that will actually look nice in her Coca-Cola room, and Sam walked away with a wallet—that received a $10 donation by the end of the night! Brother Flippo (the elder) said it was sad to have a wallet with no money, so he filled it up. Then he said it was unfair for Katie and Joe, so they each got $10 as well! I tried to talk him out of it, but there’s no talking to old people who are bent on spoiling kids. Ha! We had a good time and were thankful to be able to join them. James had been to Canaan before, but it was a first for the kids and me. They gave us a beautiful fruit basket and lots of candy and popcorn and other goodies. They were so, so generous. What a blessing!!
More next time. :-)

2011-12-24T07:57:00.004-07:00

Had to post some of Joe's artwork from the past week. I hope the pictures will enlarge enough for you to read the words...

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Christmastime!

2011-12-23T06:28:00.003-07:00

It has officially arrived for the Horne family--or at least it will have arrived in about an hour when we get in the van and head to Cleveland to spend the weekend with Mom & Dad. :-) I don't really have time to post, but thought I'd stop by to say Merry Christmas and say that I have been taking blog notes (ha!), so there's plenty to write about when I get the chance! I spent five or six nights at the Monstrosity and wrote a little for the blog each night, but had no Internet and couldn't actually post anything. Whenever I get the chance (don't ask when--things don't look very favorable for the blog right now! Ha!) I will go through and edit a little bit, add some pictures, and slap several posts up here. Until then, I hope everybody has a very, very Merry Christmas! We've not been able to do the usual things that we like to do and it's not felt very much like Christmastime around here (the balmy weather followed by RAIN certainly doesn't help!!! Ha!), but we are looking forward to getting away for a few days and having a great Christmas at Grandma and Granddad's house. :-)

Revival and Progress at the Monstrosity

2011-12-12T21:36:00.006-07:00

That's what this last weekend was made up of.

The Revival was great. Brother Werkheiser preached his heart out (doesn't he always?) and I was blessed by every message. On Friday night he preached about looking again to see what God is doing/can do/will do, like Elisha's servant who was unable to see the horses and chariots of God surrounding them and protecting them from the enemy. Saturday he preached... oh, something great, but I can't remember right now and my notes are upstairs and I'm way, way, way too tired to go get them! Sunday morning was powerful. There was so much Holy Ghost conviction present and you could tell that God was really, really working on people's hearts. There was a fearful urgency and much prayer and weeping. It was one of those times when you don't SEE the results you'd like to see, but only God knows all of the needs that were there and what may have been going on inwardly that we were unaware of. Maybe seeds planted that will be reaped later on. I trust that the mercy of God continues to extend to those who seem so slow to respond! "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Sunday night... hhmmm. How could I be so blessed and already have forgotten it?! Ha! Because I'm EXHAUSTED, that's how. My brain shut down a few hours ago--right after my body did. That's why I can't make my aching self climb the stairs to retrieve my notes so I'd actually know what's gone on this past weekend to blog about!

As for the house...

The Monstrosity: Day Eighteen

It was a grand and glorious day, though I did discover my first blister. ("Stanley, how could you???") We moved in for the weekend, then got back to work in the master bathroom. By the end of that day I had done a first:

I PAINTED SOMETHING! With real paint! Actually, I'm not sure it qualifies as real paint. We're always schnookered into buying cheap paint, hoping to save money. It doesn't save any money to buy cheap paint because when you might have gotten by with one coat of decent paint, you have to use two coats of cheap paint, meaning it costs the same amount or more AND costs you valuable time, not to mention the physical fatigue that is already threatening to endanger our work (HA!), oh, and the frustration of it all. It's ridiculous to actually take the time to prime something with white primer, then paint over it with a cream color... and it not cover well enough to get by! One coat of primer and two coats of paint--when the colors are that similar??? Come on! That's just crazy. No more Wal-Mart paint or I quit. (James will read that... I wonder if he'll care... HA!) ANYWAY, I forget how much I got done on Friday, so I'll go ahead and add Saturday in here, too...

The Monstrosity: Day Nineteen

By the end of Saturday I had the bathroom ceiling painted as well as the door and trim and vanity (though the doors and drawers were removed weeks ago and will need to be sanded and painted, re-hinged and knobbed, and added later on) AND had hung the first five strips of wallpaper!!!! WA-HOO!!!! It was sooooo exciting to actually see PAINT and WALLPAPER coming together! And actually going ONTO a wall instead of being scraped OFF for a change. (Stanley has been feeling a little neglected the past weekend, but we'll spend lots of time together next week so I'm sure he'll forgive me.)

The Monstrosity: Day Twenty!!!

Today I finished up on the wallpaper in the bathroom. I'm DONE painting and wallpapering one whole room! Is that exciting, or what?! There's still lots to be done, of course. James went and bought light fixtures and all sorts of other goodies today. He installed the two wall sconces and then the two of us spent about an hour and a half trying to install the flush mount ceiling fixture--to no avail, mind you. Talk about a frustrating way to end an otherwise glorious day. If we had good sense we would have stopped after the first ten minutes and decided to wait until we could go purchase longer screws instead of coming to that conclusion after wasting so much time. But that's the way we roll around here. ;-)

What else? Oh, all of the fixtures we're putting in the bathroom have an "oil rubbed bronze" finish on them, so James bought some "oil rubbed bronze" spray paint. Crazy, hu? What won't they think of next. :-) We're keeping the green tile in the master bath and--believe it or not--it's actually going to look nice when it's all finished. But there were several things sticking out of the tile that were the same blah green as the tile itself--the toilet paper holder, some towel racks, a soap dish, things like that. Well, James tried the paint on the toilet paper holder this afternoon and it's amazing what a difference something like a can of spray paint can make! Everything is going to look sooooo much better. It already looks soooooo much better! I'm hoping one more day in there will find that room completely FINISHED, except for the floor. Of course, we haven't conquered that ceiling light yet... that might take another day or two all by itself. ;-)

I'm forgetting so much, I'm sure. Let's see...

Oh, Brandon and Kimmi (is it spelled that way?) Keel came and stayed with the Coxes over the weekend so they could be here for the revival. It was so great to be able to spend some more time with them! They're terrific. :-) They are such a great young couple and I just love being with them. Brother Brandon has a dry sense of humor that reminds me very much of the guys out west. And he's fun to mock. That's lots of fun for a person like me. ;-) Sister Kimmi is just sweet and fun and so pleasant to be around. I love her. :-)

Hhmmm... what else??? I know there's more, but it's just not happening tonight. I'm tired and sore and achy, even after I soaked in a nice, hot bubble bath a little while ago. It felt great at the time, but it wore off. ;-) It's back to town tomorrow, but not to work on the house (very much, if any) and we'll not be staying overnight. We'll probably do that on Wednesday night. We don't even put the suitcases away anymore. They are always in various stages of either being packed or unpacked, but never empty. I'm wondering how long I'll maintain my sanity living like this. So far it's going great, but I know me. I start to wig out after a life is chaotic for any length of time. I keep trying to remind myself to just take it ONE DAY AT A TIME. I can make it through TODAY and all of its responsibilities just fine, right??? I know that they only way I'll not go batty is to make sure I spend time with God every day, take time to read his Word, meditate on it, pray and talk to Him and stay in tune with him. And make sure to stop and enjoy my kids in the midst of the work every day, help them with school, talk with them, laugh at them. If I can manage that, along with taking time to communicate with my husband and cuddle with my poodle (which is soooooo therapeutic when things get stressful... the poodle part, not the husband part--HA!), I'm sure we'll all make it through just fine. We're still having fun working on the house so far. Amazing, isn't it? I've been running on lots of adrenaline and am banking on lots more of it in the weeks to come. :-)

Oh, wait--something else exciting! There was another first this weekend...

I took my very first Sunday afternoon nap at the Monstrosity!!! Wa-Hoo!!! It was glorious. I look forward to many, many more. :-)

Okay, just checked the camera and found some not-so-thrilling pictures I can add to the post. First off, here's our bedding situation at the Monstrosity. The kids' beds... And Charlie seems to think this is his bed. He loves tunneling through slick sleeping bags.
And James tries to act like he doesn't like the dog. Come on, everbody, "Aaaaawwwwwwwwwww!" Hahahahahaha!
I couldn't help but take a picture of this. Before James sprayed the oil rubbed bronze stuff on here, he taped it off, then we used Press 'n Seal (which is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world!) to cover a wide circle around it. It made me happy to look at it because it's HOLIDAY Press 'n Seal with colorful little stars and hearts and gingerbread men and all manner of cuteness. Ha! I thought it was great. :-)
And here is a less than flattering picture ~ahem~ that shows the very last little strip of wallpaper about to go up in our bathroom. :-) I know you can't tell in this picture, but those are little pinecones all over the wallpaper. It looks GREAT and--as was the plan--it makes it look like the tile was on purpose instead of like we bought a house with ugly green tile and couldn't afford to change it. We like playing little mental games like that. ;-) Anyway, you can also see the freshly sprayed paint on the toilet paper holder, though it looks less than beautiful with all of the overspray everywhere. It really did look good when we peeled the plastic and tape off--trust me!

Two Days at Home

2011-12-07T12:46:00.005-07:00

~Aaaahhhh~

It was so nice. :-)

We got in from Cleveland on Monday night, got unloaded, and then I wrapped all of the little gifts we had bought for next week's Christmas party. I love wrapping presents. :-)

Tuesday we opted to just STAY HOME and have a nice, normal day. No scraping, sanding, ripping out, or fixing of anything. Just regular ole' devotions, school, and housework. I loved it! Nothing like a remodeling project to make you really enjoy and appreciate things like dishes and laundry. Ha!

James spent the day in town running errands and doing some Christmas shopping. I know he'd been scoping out some things and was anxious to actually have a day alone to pick them up. He enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as he would have if he hadn't checked the mail first. He found an unpleasant letter from our home owners insurance company. I'm praying and trusting that it can be worked out quickly and easily.

That night I stayed up and finished the last of the Christmas cards--the ones that I didn't initially have addresses for and had sent inquiries all over the Internet for. And by "the last" of the cards, I mean all of them except the ones for the Bessemer folks and my band members. Next week for those. THEN I'll be done. Except for when we get cards from people and gasp, "We didn't send them a card!" There are always a few last minute cards like that, aren't there?!

Here are a few pictures from our nice, NORMAL time at home. First of all, Brady. He's always happy when we come home. And it's always a very happy thing to come home to a happy dog. :-)

Look at the snow on the railing! That's right, snow...

And here are the children just a few minutes prior to the last picture, mixing up the snow with a pack of "Make Your Own Snow." It's sad. So, so sad. Emilee had pictures on her blog of her kids all duded up in winter gear head to toe, running and flopping into the deep snow in their back yard... and my kids are in the kitchen mixing up a cup or two of fake white stuff to put on the railing outside so we can pretend we've got snow! HA! Then I talked to Haley yesterday and while we were on the phone her son went and kicked his sister's snowman down. I explained how sad our predicament was and how wrong it was for her to allow her son to be so unappreciative of such a glorious thing as snow. "Spank him, Haley! Go spank him for me!!!" Hahahahaha!

And here's a picture of Sam's latest Lego creation. He's building a whole little town and has it all wired up with electricity. (If you look closely you can see a light on in the far left building.) It's even got a traffic light. I love it. :-)

We spent most of the day Wednesday here at the house, too. More normal things. Nice. :-)

We left in time to stop and get books at the library and get the boys' hair cut before church. They were sooooooo long and shaggy! Of course now they're super short and they look goofy to me, so drastic is the change. Oh well. Better too short than too long on a boy, ANY day. :-)

After church last night we went to Burger King with the Coxes and the Ridlespurges. I love how much we get to fellowship here. And the kids love it even more than we do, if that's possible. ;-)

We stayed at the Monstrosity last night and the kids LOVED it. It was the fourth or fifth time for James and me, but the first for the kids. We slept on the big air mattress, Katie on the small one, and the boys on the floor--all in the master bedroom because it's the only room clean enough to sleep in. I had found our cushy sheets in the basement a few weeks ago (rummaging for the ever elusive paint swatches, no doubt) so I washed them up and took them with us to the Monstrosity. It was sooooo nice to use them again! THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE USE OF YOUR AIR MATTRESSES, BROTHER POWELL!!! I think I may have to say that in every post from now on. It's wonderful to wake up feeling great instead of with a back screaming "Why did you DO this to me?!"

We got up this morning and hit it hard. Oh, that makes it...

The Monstrosity: Day Seventeen.

Got to keep track, you know. ;-) I did devotions with the kids in the bedroom, then stayed in there to work so I could help them with their school. I was using Stanley, of course. Did I tell you about Stanley? He's my scraper. We've spent so much time together in the past few weeks it only seemed right to give him a name. And "Stanley" is written on the handle so that made the choice pretty obvious. I don't often get attached to tools, but when remodeling a house (and in a shaky mental condition due to the fact you're remodeling a house) there are rare instances when an inanimate object seems to warrant naming. I still grieve over the loss of Maurice, may he rest in peace. He was my paint sprayer in Texas and New Mexico. He served us well and saved me untold hours (days? weeks?) of rolling and brushing, not to mention my sanity and perhaps my marriage. He gave his all and even in his death produced some beautiful dining room chairs for me, so faithful was he to the cause. Don't laugh. You never knew him. He was wonderful. ;-)

ANYWAY, I scraped and scraped... then James came in and we got to talking and decided, FORGET IT! This plan of doing the whole house at once is idiocy. Let's knock out ONE ROOM--just one little room--and then go back to the "whole house" plan. The master bathroom was the lucky winner of today's lottery. I cleaned the sheetrock dust off the walls and scrubbed the top row of tiles all around the room (the rest will get a thorough cleaning when we're done--but I needed the top clean to paint), then we removed the shower doors. I hate shower doors. They get all nasty and gunky and grimy--and there's no getting them clean down in the track. ~Bleagh~ Gunky things in kitchens and bathrooms are always gross but when it's other people's gunk--strangers' gunk--it's especially nasty and must be done away with. The doors came out easily enough, though we've spent a considerable amount of time scraping and scrubbing the scum and caulking and residue from the tiles and tub where the frame was attached.

But then a most exciting thing happened...

I got out THE PAINT TRAY!!! Wa-Hoooooo!!!!!!!! This feels like PROGRESS!!! I love to feel progress. Especially when we bought this house 48 days ago (yes, I really did just count) and haven't painted anything yet. In our silly little imaginations we had irrational hopes plinking around of being moved in to the house by now. Hahahahahaha! Is that hilarious, or what?! Hilarious for multiple reasons. First of all, because it's so irrational. Had we actually had 48 days to WORK on the house, yes, it would have been possible. In the 17 we've been able to devote to it? Not so much. Secondly, it's hilarious because things ALWAYS take longer than anticipated when you're working on a house. Way, way, way longer. And lastly, it's hilarious because we all know that God loves Brother Powell best. HA! It suddenly occurred to me last week when we were frantically trying to get tons and tons of things done at the house while the kids were away but nothing was going as planned... at all... "James, I get it. It doesn't matter if we stress out and kill ourselves trying to work, work, work to finish this house 'as soon as possible'... We can DO that, but it's not going to get done any more quickly than if we just take a deep breath, pace ourselves, RELAX, and do our best. The house isn't going to get done and we're not going to move into it until God says it's time. And that's going to be the week the Powells return from Korea!" HA! We had already discussed it and decided that even if we were able to finish the house and get moved in, we'd still divide our time between the Monstrosity and the Powells' house to help take care of things (most of all Brady, of course! :-) We love him.) until they get home. But I figure God's just going to work it out that we live there the entire year they are away--because he likes them best and seems to make their prayers priority. Hahahahaha! Sincerely, we have felt so, so, so, so, soooooo blessed to have such a beautiful place to stay this year. We have loved it and have thanked God for the rich blessing of being able--in the tiniest little way--to have a part in their missionary journey by keeping an eye on things for them while they're away. And scaring up their table... and breaking some dishes... and getting darts stuck in BOTH living room light fixtures now... and the alien is still on the ceiling in the dining room (we'd forgotten about it until Brother Dudley was here last week and asked, "What's that red thing hanging up there?!"), and who knows what all else. You know, all of those ways they are blessed to have us here. ;-) ANYWAY, the realization that every tiny detail--even the time frame of when we move into our own home--is in God's hands has caused me to relax and enjoy the ride a lot more than I was when I was trying (for some unknown reason) to work in a frenzy to GET 'ER DONE. I can say that I truly am enjoying working on this house. It's so fun to take something horrid and make it into something that you know (or at least hope!) will be beautiful. Me and Stanley. :-)

Wow. That last paragraph took a crazed path away from the PAINT TRAY it started with! So ANYWAY, I primed the ceiling and walls in the master bathroom today. YEAH!!!! It already looks and feels sooooo much better! I also scrubbed the inside of the cabinets so they'll be ready to paint. And I popped open our very first can of paint--real, true-blue PAINT!!! Wa-Hoo! Now if only it had been the right color... Ha! At Mom's house last week I took some paint samples from cans in her closet of three of the colors we'll be using. James took the Almond Tree (it's a light cream color) to Wal-Mart to have them color match it... but it's not exactly a perfect match! It's definitely darker and the tone itself seems very different to me. I'm not crazy about it, but we'll be okay to use it in the bathroom, then I'll use the rest of it up in closets. I have the actual code for Almond Tree, we'll just have to go to True Value to get it. It will be worth it to have the right color through the rest of the house. :-) Anyway, all I painted was the door trim in the bathroom, but it feels GREAT to have paint on something! Even though it will require a second coat. I was hoping one would be sufficient. Nope. Not going over that slick high gloss white! I had sanded it down a little bit, but the new paint still slides around on it a little bit. Bummer. Still, it felt great to PAINT something. :-)

We left the Monstrosity at 6:00 tonight and got home sometime after 7:00. We unloaded the van and took the suitcases upstairs. I unpacked them, then started packing them again since we'll be staying at the Monstrosity again this weekend! I personally think it would do us well to finish our closet along with the master bath. Then we could keep half of our clothes here and half of our clothes there in a finished closet. We could keep some basic toiletries at each house. And we could then stop packing and unpacking multiple times a week! Ha!

Tonight was great. James made some of his fantastical hot chocolate for all of us and built a fire, then the kids watched Garfield's Christmas, one of the very few Christmas shows that is actually worth watching. :-)

Tomorrow we'll be normal here at the Powell's house, at least until after lunch. Revival starts tomorrow night, so we'll go up, then stay at the Monstrosity for the weekend. We've been looking forward to and praying for the Revival with Brother Werkheiser! Glad it's finally here. :-)

I'm a Mom Again!

2011-12-05T21:08:00.002-07:00

And it feels great. :-) I'm not a very good "misser" and we were way too busy to have a chance to really MISS the kids this past week anyway... but it really is great to be back together now. I think we may keep them for a while. ;-)

On Sunday morning we went to church in Lebanon. I think I enjoy being at that church as much as any church I've ever been to. :-) It just feels like home to me. It's so nice and simple and unpretentious--just like the folks in it. We had a good service and I truly felt the Lord there with us. James preached on the fear of the Lord and it was very good. After service we went to that great Mexican restaurant up there with the Cooks and visited for a long, long time. We had such a nice time with them! And some delicious Chili Colorado. :-)

When we left the restaurant we headed for Cleveland, arriving just a few minutes after service had begun. The Spirit was already moving and blessing in the song service and it was such a blessing to be able to join in. Sister Cox preached a wonderful message on making your calling and election sure. Good stuff. I love it when God speaks to my heart during a sermon and when it's all over I know what to go to the altar and talk to Him about!

The kids hadn't expected us to get in until late, so they were shocked when we arrived. I slid in the pew next to Katie and I thought she was going to squeeze my guts out when she hugged me. Sam was on the other side of Katie and my Mom, but the look on his face was priceless when he glanced over and saw us. Shock and then joy all mingled into one. :-) He's the one who gripes and complains and acts like being at Grandma's house is utter misery. Alcatraz, he calls it. HA! So he was extra thrilled to see us. Joe was playing the guitar for song service, so we didn't get hugs from him until after the service was over. I don't know what my Mom did to the boys and Charlie, but ALL of their hair grew about an inch while we were away--they are in dire need of haircuts!

We went to Steak ~n~ Shake with Mom & Dad after church. YUM. :-) Frisco melt with extra dipping sauce and a peppermint chocolate chip shake.

Mom and I stayed up way too late again--after 2:00am this time, I think. Then we were going to be up and headed back to Alabama "by 9:00," my husband had told me. HA. I was up and dressed by 8:00, but it took him a little longer to get rolling! And we had library books to locate and miscellaneous kid junk to gather from all over the house. Sam had already packed up all of his clothes and Joe's clothes the day before--he was ready to blow that joint. HA! Truthfully, he loves it there. He just doesn't like being ANYWHERE without me and/or his Dad. The first day they were up there this time I talked to him on the phone and he wanted to know how he could trust me that we wouldn't send them away again--we'd done it twice recently, you know. "How can I trust you, Mom???" Ha! Cracks me up. He griped at Grandma Vicki all week long (all in good humor--I think!) about being a prisoner there. :-)

Anyway, we stopped in Chattanooga and stopped by another salvage type store in search of great deals. We found a giant mirror for one of the upstairs bathrooms that's going to work perfect, I think--and it was way, way cheaper than we would have found anywhere else. Then it was Fazoli's for lunch before we headed back to Alabama.

When we got closer to home we had a whole serious of stops:

Guitar Center -- Joe played around on a 12 string guitar that he loves there and his Dad bought him some thumb picks since Jimmy Cox had let him borrow one and he thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Lifeway Christian Stores -- I can't remember what... but it was nice to look around!

Christmas Tree Shops -- Wrapping paper and lots of gifts for the Christmas party next week.

Carino's -- To enjoy Monday Night 1/2 price family platters... but we drove up and saw that it closed down last week. We knew it was just a matter of time. Sometimes we were the ONLY people in there and you just can't keep a business going like that. I'm sure it's because they were so stingy with their Italian sodas. ;-)

Jim `n Nicks was the Plan B--and it was a terrific one. :-)

Hobby Lobby -- For the kids to pick out their annual ornaments, which cracks me up. We're not having a Christmas tree this year, but we'll have new ornaments! Ha! Katie picked a Coca-Cola ornament, Joe got a bear on skis holding a gift, and Sam got a cowboy boot.

And then we FINALLY made it back home at about 7:30 tonight! ~whew~ It was a long day, but sort of nice to just dink around a bit and not worry about the Monstrosity OR things to be done at the Powell's house. It's been a great weekend. :-)

Monstrosity & ABM

2011-12-03T20:31:00.008-07:00

We spent Wednesday morning at home trying to get caught up on things again. It's amazing how enjoyable the NORMAL things are when you're involved in a big remodeling project. I love it that our house is a WRECK and we can go and work and work and work... then come home to a house that ISN'T all torn up and just do normal things like paperwork and laundry. We're so blessed. :-)

We finally got to the Monstrosity at about 2:00. I tied a bandanna around my head to try to keep the dust out of my hair as I sanded (my hair was WAY more gray than usual the day before--ha!) and got some more work done on the kitchen cabinets. I've been working with a coarse "paint stripping" sandpaper, then moving to a smoother "leveling" paper to finish up with. It's making for lots more work, but the cabinets will look soooooo much nicer when it's all said and done.

I took the five big drawers out of the kitchen and sanded them down too, then got them cleaned and got all excited and primed them. :-) We had stopped at Lowe's before going to the house that day and picked up a 5 gallon bucket of primer and had it tinted gray since it will be going under all of the dark colors I'll be using all over the house. It felt sooooo good to pick up a paint brush and prime something. Those drawers already look and feel so much cleaner! I had to laugh when I realized how excited I was to PAINT something, even just with primer. It made me think...

There was a time in my life when I was FINISHED painting--forever! Ha! My Mom & Dad and Grandmother & Granddad had some arrangement worked out to invest in a giant house just up the hill from our house in the mountains of Colorado. They got it cheap and we all worked to get it cleaned up, fixed up, and freshly painted, then sold it. I was one of the primary painters. If my mind isn't playing tricks on me, it had seven bedrooms and three full stories. We painted and painted and painted... and painted... and painted........... and painted... HA! I remember thinking, "I'm DONE--I don't ever want to see a paint brush or roller again as long as I live!" I had probably painted more in one week's time than most people do in a lifetime. I don't know how long it took us to work on the house, but I'm sure it was weeks and weeks--at least. And by the end I was soooooo sick of painting and never, ever wanted to do it again.

And now I'm in another GIANT house... and I can't wait to START painting! Crazy. I have no doubt that the former feeling about "The Big House" (that's what we called it) will settle in soon enough once we get started painting. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the anticipation of painting and making things nice and fresh and clean and new. :-)

Kody and Michael came to the house to work again that day. They spent quite a while crawling all over the "new" kitchen floor (where they had ripped out two more layers the day before) and hammered the staples flat. There were tons and tons and tons of them. Michael actually counted as he went and he made it to 900 before he lost count. Ha! So they were beating the floor with hammers, I was using the electric sander, and James--of course--had the Christmas station cranked up on the radio. The boys went home and told their grandparents about how noisy it was there all day long. They said it was: WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! -- BBBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! "HERE COMES SANTA CLAUSE! HERE COMES SANTA CLAUSE..." Ha!

We had CPMA service that night and closed by coming to the altar and praying for our upcoming Revival this next week. We went to Taco Bell afterwards and the Washburns joined us but only for fellowship, not food, since Brother Mike ended up in the ER last time he ate Taco Bell!

Then James and I went back to the Monstrosity and slept MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better since Brother Powell e-mailed and said to dig around in the bathroom closet and find the air mattresses to take with us up there. THANK YOU, BROTHER POWELL!!! :-)

Brother Hopkins showed up bright and early Thursday morning with a Spanish guy he'd hired to sand all of the sheetrock mud he's been slapping all over the house. It wasn't too long after that when Brother & Sister Cogburn and Sister Bishop showed up. They'd all come to help with the house, too! Wow!

I was still working on the kitchen cabinets, so we set up a bit of an assembly line. I sanded, Sister Cogburn wiped the dust off with a dry cloth, then Sister Bishop wiped them down with a soapy sponge. Before long we had all of the doors READY TO BE PRIMED! We never made it far enough to get the primer out that day, but it's exciting to know the doors are READY. :-)

Brother Cogburn is an electrician and he did lots of wonderful things all over the house that day. :-) Most importantly, he put a light in the living room where previously there was none. It makes me very, very happy to have a light in my living room. :-) As you can see, it required a few new holes in the sheetrock that Brother Hopkins has been working so hard to make pretty! Ha! Wouldn't you know it.

He also put in a receptacle in the odd location I had requested :-), put in boxes for ceiling fans in all of the bedrooms, removed the fluorescent lights from the kitchen, replaced them with a normal like, added four additional lights (after I FINALLY settled on four instead of five--that was an all day decision in the works!), and fixed three lights in the house that didn't work at all. Wa-Hoo!!! What progress.

The ladies also did another marvellous thing. They brought lunch! Nice, hot, home cooked lunch! Stew and beans and cornbread and apple cake and some sort of checkered chocolate/vanilla cake. It was all soooooo good. And fun to have company at my house for a meal again. HA! Well, sort of...

After we were finished with the cabinet doors I spent the afternoon sweeping sheetrock dust off the walls while the other ladies used the shop vac to clean the dust from the floors and stairs. Sister Bishop just wouldn't quit--it's tough to make that lady sit down and take a break!

In the meantime, the boys were outside raking up 30+ bags of pine needles again. Those boys are SUCH good workers. Hard and steady the whole way, never taking a break. They've done such a great job on everything they've been asked to do!

The crowd all left at about 6:00, I think. James and I had to run by the bank, get a bite to eat, and check our e-mail. We opted for MacAlister's since they have free Wi-Fi. Well, in theory they have free Wi-Fi. ;-) It wouldn't work, so we stopped by the Ridlespurges house to use their free Wi-Fi. We were still covered in sheetrock dust though and Sister Ridlespurge wouldn't let us sit on her couch before she spread a blanket out on it. Hahahahaha! Okay, so that's not exactly how it went, I just thought she'd enjoy seeing that on here should she happen to read this. ;-)

We went back to the Monstrosity and did some clean up, then called it a night--on that great air mattress! :-)

The next morning we got up and did minimal things around the house, then headed back to Brierfield. We stopped in Alabaster to do some grocery shopping (we were in serious need!), then had ham sandwiches that were delicious but WAY over priced at the Honeybaked Ham Store. Got home, unloaded the van, unpacked... and crashed in the chair with my computer for about an hour just because I could! It was great.

Then I got busy cooking and cleaning for company. Wa-Hoo!!! Things didn't start out very well though. I mixed up some gingerbread, put it in the cake, then sat down to copy the recipe over for Sister Dudley because she had asked for it. I got to nearly the last ingredient before I read "salt." ~GASP!~ Salt?! I didn't put any salt in! So I ran and grabbed the pan out of the oven, put the salt on top, stirred it up, and shoved it back in. Then when the timer went off nearly an hour later... it was still batter, though somewhat stiff. The oven had somehow gotten turned off! HA! I had to ad lib from there with the bake time, but it somehow turned out okay anyway.

The Washburns and all the Dudleys were coming for dinner and I was scared to death that I wouldn't have enough food! I have NO IDEA how to cook for that troop of Dudley boys! There are the three brothers as well as a Dudley cousin living with them now. I made two poppy seed chicken casseroles and the biggest pot of chicken and noodles I could manage, the pan of gingerbread and two pineapple upside-down cakes. Sister Dudley brought cornbread and a FANTASTIC "Death by Chocolate" dessert. Everything turned out great and in the end, there was just the tiniest bit of food left-over. I feel a very rewarding sense of accomplishment having cooked for the Dudley crowd and actually having left-overs at the end of the night! HA! And a whole new appreciation for Sister Dudley. I've always known she was amazing, but I have NO IDEA how it is humanly possible to cook that much food on a regular basis!!!

After dinner we moved to the living room to visit and ended up playing Catchphrase--which was hilarious. We had lots and lots of fun--I can't believe we've failed to have everybody over for dinner up until this point!

(Jonathan can't help but strike a pose when he sees a camera!)

It was a GREAT night. :-)

~whew~ I'm fading fast--I'll have to cut this short!

We got up at 4:30 this morning and drove to Moulton for the ABM workshop. Brother & Sister Zimmerman had come and she taught most of the classes. There was lots and lots of good information shared and I felt encouraged to be a much better Band Leader. :-) We enjoyed great fellowship and way, way, way too much food. :-)

We are now in a FANTASTIC motel in Gadsden. They were out of regular rooms, so upgraded us to a king suite at no extra charge. It's BEAUTIFUL. And nice and cozy. But I'm bushed. Tomorrow we visit the church in Lebanon, then hopefully Collinsville tomorrow night. Then on to Cleveland to pick up our children and go back home on Monday!

Oops. I didn't categorize. Wednesday and Thursday were Days Fifteen & Sixteen. :-)

Am Not!

2011-11-29T20:01:00.007-07:00

That's directed at anyone who may think I've been neglecting my blog. The dial-up connection in Pennsylvania is wa-a-a-a-ay too slow to blog. And I was buried in Christmas cards and didn't have time. The night I was at my folks' house I couldn't blog because... well, because I'd rather stay up late talking to Mom than blog. :-) The night we got home we didn't get to bed until way past midnight and last night we stayed at the Monstrosity--where there is no Internet connection. But I'm mentally blogging all the time. ;-)

Okay, let's pick up where we left off last week...

After going to bed at 1:30am, being awakened by the dog at 2:00am, then getting up at 6:00am to load the luggage into the van, clean the house a bit, make a green bean casserole and pull together all of the loose ends, we actually left on time for church yesterday morning! Wa-Hoo! We had planned to leave 15 minutes early and that effectively maneuvered us into leaving at the regular time--which worked out fine. Got to play those mind games with yourself every now and then if you have any chance of succeeding.

I enjoyed teaching Zack and Devon in Sunday School. Sam is now eight. That's old enough to go to the other class, though Brother Washburn said he could stay in the younger class if he wanted to. He thought he'd give it a shot over with the older kids and I assume he did okay. I was astounded to hear that he actually read the key verse aloud (can that be true?!) and I never heard from Brother Will that he caused any problems, so I can only assume that all was well over there.

Brother Hopkins preached on "A Thankful Heart" and I felt great freedom and fervency in worship. Love services like that. :-) After service we all headed to the back to enjoy our Thanksgiving pot-luck. There was sooooooo much food and it was all sooooooo good. Great food and fellowship. We sat with Brother & Sister Dudley and had a wonderful time visiting with them.

We left earlier than we would have liked, but we really needed to get on the road. We arrived about 40 minutes late for service at Zion Hill. As soon as we walked in the door I could feel the presence of the Lord, there was such a beautiful spirit. We slipped in the door and took a seat near the back, hoping not to be too big of a distraction. They were having communion and feet washing and I was so, so, so blessed! Folks don't seem to do that as often out here as they do out west and I do miss it. I'm so thankful that Jesus set that "as oft as ye do it" thing in place so that all of these years later we can take part in such a beautiful and sacred service. It reminds us of the awful price He paid for us and of our responsibility to truly partake of Him--in suffering and self-sacrifice and service. I love being reminded of those things through communion service.

We went to Fazoli's afterward with Mom & Dad and the Pimentels and had a great time visiting--and trying out the fancy new Coke machine that will mix 100's of different flavors! Well, I WOULD have enjoyed it if Mom hadn't busted it just before my turn. ;-) We had a lot of fun with Brother Oscar and Sister Amanda. They are such great people and we loved being able to visit with them--and learn that Sister Amanda's nickname is "The Hammer." HA! Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? ;-)

We went back to the house and got the kids bedded down, then Mom and I stayed up talking until way, way too late. But it was great. :-)

The next morning we drove the hour and a half up to Knoxville to go to this place where they sell wallpaper really, really cheap. Did you know that a roll of wallpaper can retail for upwards of $30? Way upwards of that in some cases! CRAZY. I've always considered paint the cheap and easy fix--and we'll be using lots and lots and lots of it at the Monstrosity one of these days. But the wallpaper at this junkyard of wallpapers (it's a salvage store, full and random and filthy, that sells just about everything--trim, faucets, doors, mirrors, light fixtures, knick-knacks...) you pay a whoppin' .99 cents for a double roll of wallpaper! WHOA! I'd never heard of such a thing! Naturally, most of the papers there are dog ugly. But some are not quite as horrid, some are decent, some are actually really nice. It was a battle not for the faint of heart, but after about two hours of looking and thinking and looking and thinking and looking and thinking we finally took our booty to the check-out table. The kids were soooooo miserable. I know they were bored out of their minds, but we really needed to do this. They were troopers right up until the end. That's when the whining intensified considerably and you could find Joe banging his head on the shelf saying, "Mom... just... paint!!!" Ha! At the end of the venture, we walked out with 32 rolls of wallpaper... for $32!!! WOW! I still can't get over it. Do the math. If you were the kind of crazy person who would actually pay retail prices for wallpaper throughout your entire house (do people like that really exist? I'm not sure I know any of them), it would add up to over $1,000 worth of paper--for $32. I've thanked God for it many, many times today. We're really needing to cut some corners and save everywhere we can on the Monstrosity and this ended up being way, way, way cheaper than paint. Of course, after those two hours of racking my brain trying to make decisions on what to buy, I can't remember anything that we got! I'm hoping that when we get home we'll still be happy with the decisions and not look at it and say, "Who picked THAT out--that's horrible!" Ha! But even if it is... it was CHEAP. And NOTHING has peacocks on it. Or pheasants. :-)

When we FINALLY left that joint we drove on to Pigeon Forge to tour the Titanic museum that James has been dying to go see. It was really, really, really neat. Definitely worth visiting. It takes the information you know about the Titanic and changes it from a historical event into a heartbreaking tragedy that happened to real, live people. You learn so much about some of the individuals on board--you're even given the identity of one of them at the beginning and learn a little about them, then at the end you learn if "you" lived or died. My name was Alice Johnson, I was 26 years old from Illinois, and I was on board with my four year old son, Harold, and my 18 month old daughter. That's as far as I read on my card before the tears came to my eyes! Can you imagine being on that boat with your two children at that age? Joe was also from Illinois, James and Katie were from England, and Sam was from Poland or someplace. There were little platforms to climb on that resemble the deck and railing of the ship tilted at different angles--so you can try to hang on and keep from sliding off, as the passengers were trying to do as the ship tilted more and more before going down. To kids it's like a playground, but when you're thinking about the REALITY of it all it's scary to imagine. At another place you are in the dark surrounded by cold air and even a huge chunk of "iceberg" that you can touch. Then you can lean over the railing and put your hand into the icy water, the same temperature as the water was on the night the Titanic sank. I held my hand in for as long as I could stand it, which wasn't long--it is sooooo painful. I just cried as I thought about what a horrible death it was for all of those people. Everything was just so touching, as lame as that sounds. There were wonderful stories of heroism and it's difficult to imagine in our day and age that it was the common thing for men young and old to willingly and instinctively lay their lives down with the motto of "women and children first." The founder of Macy's department store was on board, along with his wife and her maid. Before the ship went down he tried to put his wife on one of the lifeboats. She took her coat off, put it on her maid and told her to get on the lifeboat, then went and rejoined her husband on the deck and said, "We've been together all these years. Where you go, I go." They were last seen sitting in chairs on the deck, holding hands. There was the story of Reverend Harper who was last seen leaning on the railing, pleading with a young man to give his heart to God. He finally took his life jacket off and tossed it to the young man before the ship went down. It just makes you think about all of those people and what they truly experienced. How many were saved and how many were not? How many perhaps gave their hearts to the Lord in those last moments as the band continued to play "Nearer My God, to Thee"? It's just so thought provoking and it led to lots of discussion with the kids. What if a man had been a hardened sinner all his life, but cried out to God and found His mercy in the last few minutes of his life before freezing to death in the sea? How blessed he would be to die such an awful death but then go to heaven--far better than surviving, then living to a ripe old age and dying and going to hell. Anyway, it's an amazing experience, though much more sobering and solemn then your usual museum! In fact, after experiencing everything there was to experience I was almost offended at the gift shop. After feeling just a tiny bit of what those poor people experienced, it seems so distasteful (to say the least!) to have a gift shop full of key chains and mugs and t-shirts that say "I got hit by an iceberg!" It was nearly disgusting to me. In any case, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are very glad that we went. For the record, James is the only one who didn't survive. The rest of us survived, which goes way against the percentages.

You're not allowed to take pictures inside the museum (something about copyright privileges), so here are a couple from the outside.

When we left the museum we went walked around some gigantic Christmas village place, then went to the Old Mill for dinner. Here's Sam with a giant nutcracker. He's always thought they were so cool.

Honestly, I was still feeling too solemn and reflective after the Titanic experience to feel very much like looking at gay and sparkly Christmas decor or eating at a beautiful restaurant! In the big scheme of things, eternity is all that matters. The "extras" that we enjoy are nice and I don't want to take them for granted, but they're not necessary.

We stopped at a Christian bookstore outlet and enjoyed looking around there for a little while before stopping at our motel for the night.

We spent the next day driving north to Pennsylvania and arrived at James' folks' house just after 7:00pm, I think. Can't remember much about that night, but I remember that I spent most of the next day working on Christmas cards! That was my job while we were there. I had to get that all taken care of while we were away and unable to work on the Monstrosity! It's amazing how FUN it used to be to send out Christmas cards... and how much WORK it is now! Ha! It's just become too overwhelming and not nearly as personal as I would like.

I did make a run to Peight's with James one the morning. I love that little Amish store. :-) Got stocked up on poppy seeds, Christmas sprinkles and a few other odds and ends. It was dreary and rainy in Pennsylvania, so the kids weren't able to play outside much like they usually do. They still had fun playing with all the stuff Grandma keeps for them. And watching way too much Bonanza.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner. Everything turned out fantastic and James and I especially enjoyed his Mom’s homemade stuffing. I had her teach me how to make it so I can make it myself sometime. As if I’ll remember how. ;-) I didn’t really miss anything DURING dinner, but a few hours later when I strolled into the kitchen to grab something to eat I REALLY missed having hot rolls and pea salad—the two left-overs that I snack on for days after a holiday meal!

Most of us hadn’t finished eating Thanksgiving dinner before Katie and Sam cleared their plates, ran to the bedroom, then quickly reappeared wearing their Christmas shirts and singing "Jingle Bells." Ha! I keep trying to teach them to enjoy and appreciate Thanksgiving instead of jumping into Christmas mode ahead of time, but Thanksgiving is still just an interruption—a speed bump of sorts—to their Christmas celebration! Joe joined in after dinner (at least he waited until we were finished!) and played Christmas music on his guitar, then helped Katie and Sam make decorations out of construction paper to hang on the window. I love seeing them so excited and having so much fun.

James spent a lot of time down in the basement while we were in Pennsylvania. He gathered up some of his heathenistic Thundercats toys (can you believe our parents let us watch that stuff?!) because they are apparently quite the collector’s items and he’s found some buyers for them. Then he set up the Christmas village with tons of lighted houses. It looks great, but you have to go to the basement to see it because there’s no room upstairs! Ha! In the evening he hauled out the Christmas tree and all of his Mom’s decorations and got busy—with willing helpers in Katie and Sam. I spent most of my day working on Christmas cards and it did help me get a little more into the spirit when the kids cranked up the Christmas music. I do love Christmas music. :-)

Though I am an anti-Black Friday shopper who thinks people are out of their gourd to get up at ungodly hours to go stand in the cold in the middle of a maniacal mob of people who rush into stores to fight over STUFF... James did take me to town to do some shopping that day. We went to the Wallpaper Barn. Ha! We were, of course, the only ones there. :-) We finally found the perfect border for Joe's room--and it was on a 20% off Black Friday sale. Joe LOVED it.

When we got home I worked and worked and worked some more and finally finished up on the Christmas cards. Way, way, way too many Christmas cards.

We left the next morning at about 8:00am and drove to Cleveland. There were a few accidents just before Knoxville and it took FOREVER to get through there. It slowed us down by an hour and a half or more, so we didn't get to Mom & Dad's house until just after 8:00pm. But when we got there the house was all lit up with Christmas lights that were reflecting in the pond and it was sooooo pretty! I was shocked to walk in and find that Mom had the whole house all decorated and looking GREAT for Christmas. WOW! I wasn't surprised by the deer steaks that were waiting for us. I had requested that. ;-) They were soooooo good. And there was left-over pea salad and hot rolls from Thanksgiving! Wa-Hoo!!! And cherry pie! I was too full to have any pie that night, so I had a piece for breakfast the next morning. :-)

Mom and I stayed up way too late talking, but that's what we do. I love it. :-) James and I drove to Geraldine for service in the morning. Brother Grimes was there to do his CPMA boost and I was so blessed by it! It was wonderful. He preached about the rich young ruler who lacked "one thing." It wasn't anything sinful in his life, just something he was unwilling to give up when the Lord asked him to. Brother Grimes brought in the Advice to Members and how God--through His government--has asked us to give up some things through those advices. And it's not always a matter of whether or not something is a SIN. Are you willing to give it up just because Jesus asks you to, or not? And of course, there are reasons--solid, biblical reasons--for each piece of advice. Anyway, it was so good and thought provoking.

We enjoyed a dinner in the fellowship hall after service--that I think Sister Carr put on all by herself! It was great and we enjoyed the fellowship.

We drove back to Bessemer, stopped in at the Monstrosity for a few minutes, then went on to church. The Washburns' niece, Angie, who got saved a few weeks ago was baptized that night and it was such a blessing! It was a beautiful service.

We didn't home until very late that night. It was raining so we didn't unload everything from the van, just what we needed. We got to bed very late that night, then headed to the Monstrosity the next morning. That means...

The Monstrosity: Day Thirteen

It seems crazy to me that it's only been thirteen days of work. It feels like we've been there non-stop in the five weeks since we bought that house! Anyway, my day started like they all do. With scraping. That's who I am. That's what I do. I am a scraper. I scrape. I was working on the kitchen cabinets this time though, so it made it feel new and exciting. The impromptu decision was made as we were in the tool aisle at Wal-Mart mid-morning to buy an electric palm sander. It is my new best friend. :-) The painting in this house is horrendous. Just blobs and globs and streaks and runs and drips EVERYWHERE--and most of it is in gunky high gloss white. ~Bleagh~ I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the cabinets with the sander, first with some "paint stripping" sandpaper, then some "leveling" sand paper. It worked GREAT and the cabinets will paint up sooooo much nicer now!

Brother Hopkins came to do some more mud work, so that's exciting too. We're getting closer to paint every day! Although we have come to a sad realization. We're never going to have everything ready to paint in this house. It's just not humanly possible. There is always more and more and more and more to do. We're just going to have to QUIT one of these days, call it "good enough" and start painting. Maybe soon. Maybe not. Time will tell!

We had to quit working and clean up a bit to meet the Ridlespurges at the church at 6:00pm so we could spend a couple of hours searching through the state files for information that they'll be needing at the committee meetings in Moulton this weekend. It was a miserable job (!), but at least we had good company to make it bearable! Then we had good Mexican food with the good company. :-) Then we went back to the Monstrosity to sleep on the hard floor again. I doesn't make for a very good night's sleep, but it's doable every now and again.

The Monstrosity: Day Fourteen

I spent most of the morning CLEANING. The kitchen counters were covered in clutter and trash and supplies that all needed sorted out, as did the cabinet and drawers where we're keeping all the tools. We can't find ANYTHING and it's a royal pain to have to go searching for something in a house this large! Ha! So I thought it would help if we got it all cleaned up and sorted. It felt GREAT to get that done. We ended up at Sherwin Williams and then Lowe's--which took way too long. And in the end we spent nearly $300 and had forgotten the thing that was our REASON for going in the first place! ~sigh~ Remodeling is tough! Ha!

We got back to the house and I spent the rest of the afternoon sanding 24 cabinet doors and three drawers. Kody and Michael came over and ripped up the kitchen floor. Again. They already did that once, you know. The first time it was a layer of cushy, padded linolium. Today we had them bust up and remove the next two layers--another linolium that was glued down to a wood floor. There are two more layers of linolium (that's right--there were five layers of flooring in there), but we're not removing them. With the other layers gone it is now perfectly level with the dining room floor, meaning we can now have a continuous floor from one room into the next instead of having a divider and a higher and lower floor. Makes me very happy. :-)

Here's a picture of the "new" floor after the other was removed by hard working Kody and Michael. They have yet to wham the hundreds and hundreds of staples flat though. That's a job for another day. ;-)

And here's my new favorite toy. :-)

We came home tonight, unpacked (we pack and unpack every other day now, it seems), I took a hot shower, started a load of laundry, then sat down at my computer with some hot peppermint tea and a handfull of chocolate chips. Because it's what I needed. :-) Life is good and I'm still having fun working on this crazy house of ours. Most days. I sometimes think, "Who's the moron who prayed for this house?! This is insane!!!" And I regularly look forward to the day when we can downsize and get something smaller and more... us. But I believe that God opened the doors for us to have this house and I am so thankful for it. Someday... some glorious day... we'll be finished with it and it will be a GREAT house to live in. I really do love it, extra spaces and all. And it's fun to work hard on something and know that you're improving it and making a good investment. We're not just making it nice so we'll enjoy living in it, we're making improvements and increasing the value of the home. And it just feels good and "wise" or something like that. I get the same kind of feel-good rush that I used to get hauling firewood when I was a teenager. It just feels good and old fashioned and wholesome and invigorating. Love it.

Of course, next time I blog I will probably be back in "WHY DID WE BUY SUCH A HUGE HOUSE THAT NEEDS SO MUCH WORK?!" gear. ;-)

We are home tonight, but will be spending tomorrow and Thursday night back at the Monstrosity. So no blogging. It's not my fault.

By the way, did I fail to mention that my children are gone again?! We left them with Mom & Dad on Sunday. We'll pick them up this coming Sunday. Katie and Joe were thrilled. Sam was miserable. Ha! He doesn't much care for being away from his Mom and Dad, but it's good for him. They all seem to be having a great time--and I'm so thankful that they're able to spend time up there with their grandparents. It's wonderful. Of course, I have to fight off the waves of guilt over having left them for the second time in just a few weeks! We're trying to work, work, work at the Monstrosity this week while we know they're getting attention from Grandma. We've been too busy to really miss them, but I saw the picture of them on my screen earlier and thought, "Aw... those are my kids! Look how cute they are. I love 'em. When are they coming home?" :-)

One more thing... James got an e-mail from the collector dude and he's going to pay $150 for those Thundercats toys. Can you imagine?! James has a few more pieces and he's going to inquire as to how much the guy might pay for them, too. So with that little burst of extra $$$ and a few other agreements, I was able to sweettalk my husband into re-flooring the foyer area of the house where the hideous slate floor is! AND he found a flea market where he can buy trim super cheap so he has also agreed to buy chair rail and door trim for the kitchen. WA-HOO!!! Those were two HUGE accomplishments for Day Fourteen. :-)

A few random pictures of Charlie before I go. He "bites" at air. With his head out the window, at a blow dryer, standing over a heater vent--whatever. It's GREAT. :-)

Katie must have taken this picture. I just found it on my camera card tonight. Almost makes me miss the dog, too. Yes, my mom was crazy enough to DOG SIT again, too! Hahahahahaha!

HELP!

2011-11-19T23:04:00.007-07:00

I've fallen behind and I can't get caught up!!!

But it's my duty to try.

The Monstrosity: Day Eight

According to my notes (which is the only reason I have ANYTHING to blog), Day Eight was much more productive than Day Seven. Day Seven was one of those days when I wandered from room to room, scraping my life away but only seeing more and more things that needed scraped. I didn’t conquer a single thing.

Somehow from the time we arrived on Day Eight things looked a little brighter. I went upstairs to begin scraping and sanding some more and as I walked from room to room taking inventory of what needed done I began to think, “Hey… there’s really not all that much left to do up here!” To be clear, there are TONS of things to do up there, but there’s not so much left to do to get us ready to PAINT, which is my #1 goal in life right now, right after serving God, being a good wife, and being a good mom. I guess that makes it my #4 goal in life right now. I’ll love it when we’re finished and I no longer have to have goals that involve silly, temporal things such as paint. :-)

Kody and Michael came back to work some more that day. I got them busy scraping peel and stick tiles out of the drawers and cabinets of the upstairs bathrooms. Ah, yes. Remember all of those people who should be shot for wallpapering a fourth layer on top of the others? They should only be shot AFTER all of the people who affix peel and stick tiles to the inside of drawers and cabinets have been shot. I’m all about proper priorities. ;-)

I’ve got minimal scraping left to do upstairs, a little bit of sanding, and then I just need to CLEAN everything. And we’ll be ready to paint!!! How exciting is that?! Of course, then there’s the downstairs… But really, we can’t be very far away from being ready to paint there either. I’m thinking just another few days of work and we’ll be all set to go. WOW. That would be amazing.

The boys had done all they could do with the drawers and cabinets, so James got them busy pulling up carpet. Two of the upstairs rooms were de-carpeted by the end of the day. Wa-Hoo! That nasty, smelly stuff is gone and it makes me sooooo happy! Someday we will install fresh, new, non-smelly carpet. Oh, happy day!

The Ridlespurges hadn't seen the house since Day Two, I think, so they stopped in that night to check out the progress. They insist they see some. They are too kind. HA! Anyway, we were able to convince them to stay and join us for dinner. Look!!! Our first dinner guests!!! How exciting is that?!

Ha! Okay, so maybe it's a little pitiful. But at least we've got a table there now and don't have to sit on the floor to eat anymore. And we fed them Little Caesar's pizza. Talk about pitiful! HA! It was fun anyway. :-)

The big news of Day Eight was the HUGE money we spent that we were really hoping to NOT have to spend. The furnace and AC units were very, very old. We knew that. We were just hoping that they would tough it out for another year or two or three. Nope. One unit HAD to be replaced and the others were going to need it in the very near future anyway, so we just thanked God that we had the money to take care of it all right now and had it done. And tried real hard not to think about the fact that we just spent about half of our remodeling budget in one swift move. Ha! I’ve been trying to mentally make the adjustment and see what we can live with that we didn’t used to think we could live with. ;-)

Anyway, though it was a huge chunk of money to dish out in one day (OUCH), it does feel good to know that we’ve got brand new units under warranty and no longer have to wonder (as we already have been), “Hhmmm… I wonder when these things are going to go out on us?” It’s almost relieving to just have that upgrade done with. So far the only time we actually SEE improvement at the house is when we pay other people large sums of money. The come, they rip out old stuff and slap shiny new stuff in it’s place, and they’re DONE. Boy, I wish I could do that!

The Monstrosity: Day Nine

That was last Wednesday. We got there to find Brother Hopkins and two Mexican guys slapping sheetrock up all over the house. Actually, the other guys slapped it up and Brother Hopkins followed behind them to do the finishing work. He is sooooo fun to watch. Before long the heat and air dude was back to finish hooking up the heat pumps and whatnot to the new systems. Then Kody and Michael showed up to start ripping out carpet with James again. With everybody zipping this way and that all through the house I felt like I was in the way wherever I went, so I just went to the bedroom and pulled out the kids’ computers. I sat there and graded and checked all of the schoolwork I’d not been staying on top of for the past two weeks or so. That took a while! But it felt good to have it done and get the kids’ work all sorted out again.

The most thrilling news of the day can be contained in one word (though you know it won’t be): FOXTAIL!!! I finally talked to Robert. He’s the mountain man who owns the True Value Hardware in the little town where we lived in New Mexico. I told him that I used to call once or twice a year (though not in the past two years at least!) to have him mix up paint for me, that I had tried everything I could think of to locate the colors (though I spared him all the gory details) and was wondering if perhaps he could help me—and that the main color I was concerned with was a dark red we called Foxtail. He remembered. :-) After a few minutes he called me back and said he had found my old code for Foxtail!!!! Wa-Hoo!!!! “Thank you sooooooooooo much! I can’t tell you how much this means to me! I LOVE YOU, ROBERT!!!” Red is the absolute scariest color to choose—it’s sooooo easy to pick a horrible one when you think you’ve found something beautiful—so I was THRILLED to have the code for a red that I already know I like instead of spending money on several shades that end up being hideous. If Robert would have been nearby I probably would have kissed him on his big white bushy beard. Ha! No... probably not.

So Day Nine was a good day. By the end of the day we had our new heat and air units fully functional, lots of nasty carpet removed (though we’ll be able to re-use some of the pad and save some money—thank the Lord!), we had ALL of the sheetrock installed in the necessary places all over the house (the peacocks or pheasants or WHATEVER they were are GONE!), and FOXTAIL—we have Foxtail! And all I did was sit with a computer or a phone all day long. I really think I’m seeing a pattern develop here. ;-)

When we got home that night I had lots of cleaning, baking, studying, and laundry to do. There was more of the same to be done Thursday morning. James and I drove to Cleveland that afternoon and arrived about dinner time. We were very happy to see our children and I think they were happy to see us, too. Charlie sure acted happy to see me anyway. :-) Dad was still away on his hunting trip to Colorado so we didn't get to see him, but Sister Bishop and Sister Fender were there. Sister Bishop, being the coolest old lady in the world, had acquired quite a shiner while playing with the kids. We'll just say she pulled a Matt Barnes.

We had a good time visiting that night and helping Mom with a few last minute details for the Ladies’ Retreat, though she had things pretty much under control by the time we arrived.

James and the kids spent the weekend at Mom & Dad's house--and Dad arrived sometime on Friday so the kids were thrilled to be able to see him at last after having been at his house for over a week! James and the kids went to Fields of the Wood on Friday and it sounds like they had a good and memorable trip. That makes me happy.

We ladies had a FANTASTIC Retreat. It was just so, so, so, so, so good! I LOVED being there and was so blessed by so many things. It's just incredible how God tailors each Retreat according to the ladies and specific needs that will be there. This one was sooooo different from the Retreat we had in Alabama a few weeks ago, but both were so beautiful. There seemed to be an unexpected theme of divine healing--physical healing, spiritual healing, mental healing--throughout the weekend and I was overwhelmed with how blessed we are to serve such a loving and powerful God. (I say unexpected simply because it was never taught or preached about--just experienced.) Sister Bishop was the guest speaker and was a wonderful blessing, as always. Melanie Hogan did the devotions and music and had baskets full of rotten, smelly, fly infested fruit (with the cutest little homemade flies you ever saw), then an empty basket finally rid of the nastiness, and at last a basket full of bright, shiny, ripe fruit--ALWAYS ABOUNDING being our theme for the weekend. Allene Cox taught a GREAT class on intercessory prayer and I taught a class on Jekyll and Hyde. Okay, so the class was actually on hypocrisy, but I LOVE Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and all of the fantastic spiritual parallels that are to be found in it, so it was the main illustration used. We had lots of good fun and fellowship, as any self respecting Ladies' Retreat does, and I was privileged to get to know some girls a little better than I did before. And I fell in love with Mary Shelton--she is the neatest lady ever! Ha! I've never really been around her before, but I think she is just fantastic. One in a million. :-) I found these pictures on my camera when we got home. It's that crazy game where everybody stands in a circle and then reaches into the middle and grabs hands with other people from the other side of the circle--then you're supposed to untangle yourselves without letting go. Riiiiiiiight.

I'm sure there are a whole bunch of things I'm forgetting, but that seems to be what I do of late--forget. More than usual. Scary.

We got back to Mom's house Sunday afternoon. It was nice to see Dad for a few minutes before we loaded up and headed back to Alabama. He had shot a real nice buck while in Colorado and insists that he's mounting the antlers. Mom insists they are not going in her house. I am definitely with Dad on this one! I wouldn't want to have dead creatures hanging all over my walls, but one set of antlers wouldn't hurt anything. And look how big and broad they are--she ought to let her man show off his trophy, don't you think??? :-)

When we got home late that night Sam was finally able to open his other birthday present: a remote controlled helicopter. He went through two of them last Christmas and though they both broke almost immediately upon revving them up (we were able to return them and get our money back), he just can't help but love them. He was soooooo excited.

This chopper is a lot better quality than the one he had last year (it was 70% off and cost the same amount as the cheaper one) and it has been a BLAST! Sam is getting the hang of flying it, though he crouches and ducks and sways the whole time. HA! James plays with it quite often, too. "It's my turn!!!" he keeps telling Sam. He flew it into the back of Katie's hair today. That was a royal mess! It got all tangled up there and it took me a while to dislodge it, then remove the loose hairs that were tightly woven around the blades. I really should have taken a picture while it was still stuck to the back of Kate's head. HA!

The Monstrosity: Day Ten

We stumbled upon a wallpaper store in Alabaser that we'd never noticed before, so we stopped there on our way to the Monstrosity Monday morning. We spent a very long time there thinking and pondering and re-pondering and doing some math--and finally left with two wallpapers and some fresh ideas. We worked at the house the rest of the day but at the end it was another one of those “What have we accomplished today?” days. At least we had wallpaper.

The Monstrosity: Day Ten and a Half

We only worked in the morning. I scraped and scrubbed in Sam’s room. An idea is growing in my mind of what I’d like to do in there, but it sounds NUTS and I’m not saying it out loud. Or maybe ever. If I get guts enough to try it I’ll just take pictures when it’s all over with. But only if it turns out well. ;-) Anyway, all of the trim and baseboards and walls have been wiped or scrubbed or scraped (or all of the above) and are now ready for whatever future awaits them.

We left at noon-ish, went to the church to clean up and change clothes, then headed east. We stopped at Bass Pro Shops and enjoyed all sorts of free stuff (duck shoot, toy train, remote controlled trucks, laser shooting gallery, etc.) that they have set up because it's Christmastime. It was GREAT.

We got to Sister Bishop's house and brought our things in, then went to the Revival with her that night. Brother Ammons was preaching in Anniston this past week and we enjoyed going to be with them for the service. Just after the dismissal prayer the Washburns arrived. Ha! They thought service started at 7:00 and they'd only be 30 minutes late. It started at 6:00. Sister Bishop invited them over to the house along with the Cogburns and Brother Ammons. We enjoyed some sandwiches and some DELICIOUS soup (was it delicious because I haven't been cooking because we're always at the Monstrosity and I'm starved for some home cooked food, or because Sister Bishop is just a fantastic cook??? Probably BOTH!), and then enjoyed lots of stories and singing--until after midnight. I was soooooo tired, but certainly enjoyed the fellowship.

I discovered that I didn't have my bathroom bag with me--the one with my shampoo and brush and all manner of necessary things. Sister Bishop had an extra toothbrush (a new one, to be clear!) and I soaked my contacts in a cup of water overnight, but everything else just had to wait. ~Bleagh~ I had left my bag at the church in Bessemer when we changed there. Dumb.

Sister Bishop cooked us a wonderful breakfast, after which we intended to leave. But we couldn’t leave because of a tornado (the week before Thanksgiving?!) in the area. We finally got back to the Monstrosity just after lunchtime--and Sam and I scraped his bedroom door entirely. I didn't know it was possible, but we got it done--and I feel so much better. People who don't care enough to paint RIGHT shouldn't paint at all.

We were only there for a few hours, so we’ll call that Day Eleven with the half a day left over from before. ;-) Brother Hopkins also came and slapped mud all over the walls again. It's lookin’ good!

I had proofread some of the Evening Light on our way home from Anniston, but my computer ran out of juice (I couldn't print it out and had to just do it on the screen) so I only made it to page six. I hate it that I failed to do my job this month! It is a joy and a privilege to be able to do anything for the Church and I usually try to set all else aside when Evening Light time comes, but I just couldn't get it done this time. We didn't get to bed until about midnight that night--and I was soooooo tired I knew I wouldn't be any good even if I did try to stay up and read the rest of the paper. After that it was too late to get the corrections in.

The plan was solid for the next morning: SLEEP IN. I could almost feel a crash coming on and felt like my body was warning me--"Get me some rest, or else." The bed felt so, so good. ~Aaahhhh~

When we finally got the day rolling we did devotions and school, just like what "normal" used to be for us. The kids were so happy to have a regular day. Even Charlie seemed happy to just be home and was so much more playful. Sam made tomato soup for lunch, the kids swept and mopped the floors, I ironed and packed again. We tried to go to Revival in Anniston again that night, but there was an accident and we weren't able to get through. I hate getting everybody looking and smelling pretty and all loaded up--for nothing! Ha!

The Monstrosity: Day Twelve

I got Sam’s room FINISHED and Katie’s room FINISHED. (That just means they're ready now for paint or wallpaper or whatever.) I found a surprise in Katie's room. More wallpaper! I had taken a border off of the top of the walls there already, but there was another border that had been painted over. At least it was just on one wall. And it wasn't nearly as disturbing as the surprise that we found in Sam's room: a floor vent full of Cap'n Crunch. GROSS.

After finishing those two rooms I cleaned the upstairs bath enough that we'll be able to use it to get ready for church and such (it's the only bathroom with a mirror at this point). We were able to make it to Anniston for revival and were blessed to be there. After service we went to Wendy’s for Frostys with Sister Bishop, then drove on home--after picking up the suit jacket James had left and the chorus book I had left the other night. We are soooooo not with it right now!

That brings us up to today. I had sooooo much to do, but it was sooooo nice to be home! So nice that it was hard to get motivated. James and Joe went to run errands and were gone for a few hours. Katie and Sam wondered over to the other side of the mountain and met neighbors (and were in HUGE trouble when we found out they’d actually gone into the people’s HOUSE. What were they thinking?! We don’t even know who these people are!!!), I made lots of deviled eggs that really didn’t turn out all that great, two pumpkin pies that look terrific (all for the Thanksgiving pot-luck tomorrow), spaghetti and Emilee’s cheese bread (James is addicted) for dinner, did laundry, ironing, prepared our family Christmas letter (so hard to get into the spirit of that!) and labels, gathered the cards and other supplies, cleaned, packed, got ready for Sunday School... and that's all I can remember.

Just to give you a heads up, I probably won't be able to do much blogging this next week either. We will be going to church in Bessemer in the morning, then after the pot-luck we'll head to Cleveland--maybe going to one of our Alabama churches on the way. We'll stay at my parents' house, then go to Knoxville and do some shopping, then on to Pigeon Forge so James can FINALLY go to the Titanic museum. We'll get to Pennsylvania late Tuesday night. We'll leave there Saturday morning and get home late, late that night. I'm REALLY looking forward to this trip, though I'm so tired I don't know that I'll be much help driving. I had to laugh when we were talking about the 13 hour drive earlier today. Sam said, "Finally!!! A real trip. It's been way too long, Mom!" Ha! You can tell he was raised out west, for sure!

The Monstrosity: Day Seven

2011-11-07T21:32:00.003-07:00

Was a total bust. I completed nothing. I can't even tell you what I DID all day. I know I was busy working all day, but I can't think of a single thing that actually GOT DONE. I keep thinking one of these days we're going to make it over the hump and actually start SEEING some progress. As of now, it's still looking pretty bleak. And then I look at my blog title. This is only the seventh day we've worked on this giant house! It's unreasonable to actually think that we should be farther along. We just WANT to be farther along. Right now there are lots of door knobs to be removed, dried paint drips to be scraped and sanded, trim to be re-affixed, surfaces to be cleaned and scrubbed--all of the things that make up the pre-paint stage. It's a very unpleasant stage. Painting will be lots of work in a house this size, but at least it's rewarding to look behind you and see progress. I have yet to do that!

I really don't have time to blog but I thought I'd write for a few minutes while I wait for the dryer to finish so I can fold the clothes. I'm sooooo tired and my throat is scratchy and I just want to go to bed, but I need to finish up the laundry and work on my class for this weekend. I'm on my second cup of hot peppermint tea. Can't tell if it's helping my throat, but it tastes delightful. It feels weird to use that word (too sissy-ish for me?!) but it seems the most accurate.

More important than any of the goings on with the house...

We had a WONDERFUL Youth Retreat! :-) I loved it. It was just so, so, so good. I was so blessed by our guest speaker, Brandon Allen. He has an amazing testimony about what God has delivered him from--and it makes his ministry so affective. He knows firsthand the difference between darkness and light and he is so passionate about serving God and so repulsed by worldliness. It's beautiful and God used him mightily to speak to our young people about their music and clothing and entertainments, etc. The Sunday morning service was especially powerful and I know God was really speaking us and working in our hearts. I love to feel conviction and I love that God cares so much about us that He continues to send it so that we can take the next step and grow closer and closer to Him, more and more like Him. It's so exciting to see what God is doing in these young people and I am so thrilled and so blessed to be able to be here to watch them grow in the Lord!

We had lots of fun at Retreat, too. The campground was fantastic. I didn't get to stay with the girls (so sad) but the room James and I were in had a double bed, a twin bed, a couch, a closet, a lamp, and a ceiling fan. Wow! I was SO thankful for the ceiling fan. Brother Grimes stayed in the same building and he had the heat cranked up to 70-something (I know, I know--that's normal for most people; I'm the weird-o here) and I was about to die! I opened our window and turned the fan on high and it got nice and cool in our room. ~Aaaaahhhh~ I was happy, Brother Grimes was happy. :-)

The campground had lots of great stuff to do--a pool table, ping pong, air hockey, Foosball, horseshoes, volleyball, even an 18 hole putt-putt course! It was GREAT. We played mini-golf with the Washburns two or three times and learned that Sister Tammy is fantastic in the dark. She got a hole in one FOUR TIMES when we played after church one night. We're thinking her crooked putter helped her out, too. She didn't do nearly as well with a straight putter in the daylight. Ha! It was great fun.

My sport of choice ended up being ping pong, which surprised me. I thought I liked pool better. I was wrong--I definitely prefer ping pong. Faster is funner. :-) I loved playing with Brother Washburn and Brother Will because they seem to be about as competitive as I am. But I probably loved it most because I beat them both. :-) Poor Brother Washburn. My son de-throned him as the checkers king and now he's lost to a girl (four times ~ahem~) at ping pong. Tsk, tsk. What a shame. Hahahahaha! He was worried about me blogging about my wins and his losses and was all concerned that I would embellish the truth and or something. I told him that if he wants to tell it his way he'll have to get his own blog. Around here, I get to tell the stories. (And the honest truth is that he won two games, I won four. Which means I'm the WINNER and he's the LOSER. Don't you just love TRUTH??? I do. This time. Ha!) Anyway, I loved playing and if we ever finish this crazy house I am definitely going to be searching Craigslist for a ping pong table to put in our basement. :-)

Let's see, what else... We played Apples to Apples on Saturday night with about 15 people. That was a little crazy. By the time you finished reading through all of the red cards you'd forgotten what the green card was! It was fun anyway, though the only thing I can really remember about the game is how many times "dead fish" resurfaced!

We left Retreat and made it home at about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. We brought our suitcases in and unpacked/repacked, then went to Alabaster to dig through the storage units before church. We were in search of--what else--paint swatches. ~sigh~ Still no luck. We keep getting this nagging feeling that they are somewhere at the Powell's house, not in storage. Even James says he thinks he remembers us having them here. I try not to talk about it though because then I get the lecture. "Why didn't you just give them to me? I would have taken them and filed them and we'd HAVE them now that we need them..." And it just cracks me up. Who in the world (other than James, of course) would ever think of FILING paint swatches?! HA! Actually, he's been really good to not nag too much. He just gives me that look. The one that says, "I can't believe you lost the paint swatches, you ninny." That look. And I can live with the look better than if he actually speaks the words aloud, so we're good here. :-)

We had a good service last night in Bessemer, followed by a nice time of fellowship in honor of Sister Hopkin's 26th birthday... or something like that. Afterwards we drove 3 minutes instead of the usual 50 minutes (what a change!) and spent our very first night at the Monstrosity. We still had our pillows and sleeping bags from Retreat and we'd thrown in a memory foam mattress topper as well. I vacuumed the bedroom floor and we made our "bed" and slept... horribly. Ha! James didn't have any complaints, but I discovered that sleeping on the floor (even with a mattress topper) is not nearly as fun as it used to be. I woke up sore and rolled over dozens of times throughout the night. It was a relief to get up this morning! Ha!

Then we got to work but, as I said, I don't know what I did. Can't tell any change after today's labor at all. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

We left at 4:00 this afternoon so we could get home early. Riiiiiight. We went to the Post Office, then Sam's Club, then dinner at Carino's (Monday = half-priced appetizers, half-priced family platters, and half-priced beverages--which means I got three raspberry cream Italian sodas for the price of one and a half! HA!), then it was off to Home Depot, then Hobby Lobby, and finally home at nearly 9:00.

I picked up paint swatches at Home Depot. Dozens and dozens of them. It makes me sick to look at them. Some colors are so nice and I'm just sure that they'll work beautifully. Except that I've been through this before and I know that those little cards are liars. I hate them all.

I don't think I'll have time to blog again this week. We'll be working on the Monstrostity by day and I'll be working on my Ladies' Retreat class by night. I may be able to drop by sometime... but don't count on it. ;-)

The Monstrosity: Day Six

2011-11-04T07:50:00.005-06:00

That would have been Wednesday. It was day three of stripping wallpaper in that same guest room. I finally started getting down to the wall itself, but the end product wasn't just real pretty. Brother Hopkins was there that day so I took him upstairs to show him what it looked like. He said he COULD just skim the whole wall once I finished stripping everything and it would look okay... but it would be a whole lot easier and look lots better if he were to just cover those walls with 1/4" sheetrock like he's doing to the peacocks--that AREN'T peacocks after all, they have been PHEASANTS all along! Hahahahahaha! Anyway, Brother Hopkins grabbed his pencil and scribbled some figures on the wall, then said how much it would cost us to just cover the walls instead of continuing to strip them. I don't mind continuing to strip them, but it would take another full day or two to finish--and then it's going to be more work for Brother Hopkins than putting up the fresh stuff and it won't look quite as good in the end. The number he gave us was pretty modest... so we're going with it! Wa-hoo! No more wallpaper stripping!!!

So... now what??? My one goal in life has been to rid ourselves of wallpaper and now I'm not real sure what the next step is. I guess we need to shift gears and go over every inch of the house (that'll take a while!) and make sure everything is scraped and scrubbed and clean and ready for paint or (can you believe this--) more wallpaper. That will be a lot more time consuming than what one would expect, believe me. I've already been scraping paint drips off of closet doors and ripping tile window seals out as I go along, but there is going to be a LOT of prep work before we can paint.

We also have to either find paint swatches or get gutsy and choose new colors before we can paint anything. The latter option scares the bejeebers out of me. I remember the leapfrog green door in Andrews. And the deceitful blue that looked so pretty on the card but was so horrid on the trim of our yellow brick house. Or the Barbie Doll PINK paint that we ended up with when we were trying to paint a RED Coca-Cola kitchen. At least that last one wasn't my fault. I had picked a good red, but the paint store couldn't mix it for some reason--they just kept giving us hot pink. I don't think so.

Kody and Michael came back to finish the yard job James had wanted done, along with Joe's help. In the end, I think there were 38 big black trash bags full of pine needles and debris that they removed from the driveway and edges!

James spent some time in the basement tearing out paneling to check on our mold situation. He is so relieved to find that the two places where the mold exists are very easy to access and should be pretty simple to remedy.

Still haven't looked into the termites. Got to get to that while the moldy areas are still torn open, since that's where there's a possibility of termites, too. Hey... how come mold doesn't kill termites? It's the least it could do, really.

And THIS is the most exciting thing that happened on Wednesday, Day Six at the Monstrosity. Brother Hopkins... My hero. :-)

When Mom came down yesterday she looked at the peacocks that are uncovered as yet (Brother Hopkins was only able to stay a few minutes--he'll be back to cover the rest as he has opportunity) and said, "Hey... those aren't peacocks! Those are Chinese Pheasants!" Mr. Ornithology (that's James) had somehow allowed us to call them peacocks all this time and never corrected us. Not that it matters. I don't like them any more as pheasants than I did as peacocks. In fact, I think I like pheasants less. Either way, they're on their way out now and it makes me very happy.

Back to yesterday. I got up and got busy packing the boys up for their week at Grandma's house. We left at about 10:00 and went to buy new tennis shoes for Katie. Her feet just won't stop growing. HA! --Get this! She can't wear blanket sleepers anymore because her feet are too big! Who ever heard of somebody's feet being too long to fit in the feet of a blanket sleeper?! Anyway, she has new tennis shoes now and she looks like a cartoon character--scrawny little chicken legs with GREAT BIG clown shoes. :-)

After that it was Chow Town and Krispy Kreme for Sam's birthday. Here he is with three of his favorite things: His new bug vacuum, fresh Krispy Kreme's, and his mother. :-)

I laughed HEARTILY when I read his birthday card from Auntie Em and family...

It's from Uncle Jon, Auntie Em, all those kids, "and many, many more." Got something you want to share, Emilee??? ;-) Hahahahahaha!!!

Katie has been complaining non-stop about being cold (she has no blubber, you know) so we finally made it to The Foundry yesterday, a big thrift store in Bessemer. She hit the jack-pot! We found lots and lots of nice, pretty, warm clothes for her to wear. She's so excited. Except that she was already packed for Grandma's house and I brought her new clothes home with me to launder. James also got a dehumidifier for super cheap there. He's hoping it works (!), but for the amount he would save not buying a new one he had to risk it. It powered up just fine and I'm sure it'll work great.

We met Mom at the house at about 2:00 and spent a couple of hours showing her everything, talking about our plans, and asking her for ideas. She didn't have nearly as much input as I would have liked. Ha! She does say we're crazy for removing the fluorescent lighting from the kitchen. It gives GREAT light and she does have me worried about how dark it's going to be in there--especially after I paint everything with those dark, rich colors that I love. But the fluorescents were so ugly! (Besides that, James already ripped down all of the drop ceiling rails and says it's too late to change our minds now!) So I'm coming up with other ways of still making the PRETTY ceiling that I want to make, but also allowing for plenty of light everywhere. But James doesn't sound real crazy about those ideas either. Brother Dustin--we need you here!!! Lights! We need lots and lots of lights in our kitchen but so far all we've done is rip a bunch out--and we can't agree on what to put in. This is your cue, dude--where are you??? We need you for the lights and for that great "buffer" thing that you do! ;-)

We all left the house and went to Lowe's to look around and try to get some ideas for some of the areas of the house that we're still stumped on. I think it was profitable, though everything runs together in my mind right now. Sometimes I feel like things are coming together (just in my mind--nothing at the actual house yet!) and other times I just feel like there are too many things to think about and decisions to make and I'm just on overload. It's EASIER (mentally) to do things one room at a time instead of a whole house in one sweep. But this way is much more convenient and I LOVE the idea of just getting it over with, then moving in and enjoying it instead of continually ripping up one room after another to remodel.

After Lowe's we drove all the way out to Schlotzky's on Highway 280 to eat together before saying our goodbyes. James had a real hankerin' for Schlotzky's and I'm so glad--it's been a long time and it was sooooo good.

We hugged Mom and the kids goodbye and the shoved off for Sister Bishop's house to spend the night before going back to Cleveland tomorrow. James and I came home all sad and lonely and feeling horrible about not having our kids with us. Or even our dog. Yeah, I roped Mom into dog sitting, too. At least Brady was here. Don't tell the Powells ;-) but I let him inside and he crawled into my lap (on the floor, Sister Powell, not the couch! Ha!) and let me love on him for a minute or two before sending him back out. That helped some. :-)

And I feel much better today. I'm aware that the kids and the Charles are gone, but I'm also aware that the house is still nice and clean from when I went on a mad cleaning spree when we got home last night. The cabinet doors and drawers are all closed instead of gaping, there aren't rubber bands laying all over the floor from the latest battle, the milk isn't sitting on the counter after breakfast and dirty dishes here and there, there aren't books scattered about the couches and floors or piles of shoes by the door. It's amazing how much MESS my kids carry around with them. Sorry, Mom--it's going to be an ugly week at your house. Ha! I don't know how I've tried so hard to train them to be decent little human beings and clean up after themselves but have still failed so miserably. In any case, I have a much cleaner house, but no children. Though I'm not missing them this morning like I was last night, it's so obvious that as a permanent situation it's much, much better to have children and big messes to cope with than to have a sparkly clean house and no children. How sad would that be?! But this week... I'm going to enjoy the clean. :-)

But right NOW I'm going to go pack for Youth Retreat! I'm so excited to be going to a Retreat and have nothing to do but sit back and soak it in. ~Aaaaahhhhhh~ I'm so excited! :-)

I Feel Lost

2011-11-03T20:04:00.002-06:00

As of about two hours ago I am childless and poodleless. And it feels soooooo weird. I'm really not sure I like it at all.

Mom came and picked up the kids today so she can watch them while James and I are at Youth Retreat this weekend. She'll keep them at her house for a week, then James and I will go to Cleveland and he'll stay with the kids at Mom's house while I go with her to Tennessee Ladies' Retreat. We've been trying to work out the details of this plan for a couple of weeks now and it finally all came together yesterday. But it never sunk in until tonight. I know it sounds all weird and sappy, but...

I miss my kids!!!

Is that weird, or what?! I don't DO that. I've never been a misser. I just don't miss people. I don't miss my husband when we're apart, I never missed my parents when I was away from them as a child, I don't typically miss my friends, and I don't miss my kids when I'm away. I love all of those people dearly, I'm just not one of those emotional people who feels sad and lonely when I'm not with them every moment.

But tonight, I'm one of those people. It's miserable to be one of those people. If you are one of them, how do you live with yourself?! Get over it already--it's pitiful to go around feeling this way! I mean that way...

Don't get the wrong impression. I'm not devastated or anything, just strangely affected by being childless. I usually don't blink an eye when I leave the kids to go to Ladies' Retreat or something. All I can figure is that I just wasn't mentally prepared for this or something lame like that. It was part of the plan. We've had so many things to plan and prepare for and so many details to try to work out in the past weeks. This was just one of them: have to work out something to do with the kids while we go to Youth Retreat. So we found a solution for that one, but never actually thought through the part about not having children for a whole week! It's had the very same affect on James, too. When we said goodbye to them tonight we got in the car--all alone, just the two of us--and drove home in almost complete silence. As we pulled up to the house I mentioned how strange it was that the kids aren't here and James had this disturbed look on his face and said, "I know--I don't like this at all. I really don't. It just doesn't feel right!"

Of course it didn't help that we had listened to a CD of Katie, Joe and Sam from when they were 5, 4, and 2 years old on our way home. I had recorded them singing several different songs and burned them onto a CD to sent to Mom and Dad. She had it in her car tonight so I grabbed it and we listened to their adorable little kiddy voices sing and talk and giggle and say how much they loved and missed Granddad... oh, and Grandma, too. It was soooooo cute! ~sigh~ It made me cry.

I've tried so hard to not miss a moment with my kids. From the moment Katie was born I've tried to soak it all in. I have blog entries full of their crazy antics, thousands of pictures, hours of video clips, and memories galore of all of their different stages and quirks and favorite things. And yet it's still speeding by way too quickly.

We celebrated Sam's 8th birthday today. His birthday is on Saturday but we'll be at Retreat and he'll be in Tennessee. Mom will make a cake for him up there, but we won't be there. He chose Chow Town for his birthday lunch today (it's a giant Chinese Buffet), then Krispy Kreme for dessert instead of cake since he'll be getting one of those on Saturday. We sang to him and he opened his present (a bug vacuum--he's sooooo excited)... and for all practical purposes my "baby" is 8 years old now.

And I don't like it at all.

For whatever reason, I started taking birthdays really hard as of his 7th birthday! I remember crying then and crying the night before Katie and Joe's birthday in February. What's up with that?! I just DON'T LIKE the fact that they are growing up. It's all happening way, way, way too fast. When I heard their little voices in the CD tonight I just cried and missed them being that age. Part of me wishes so badly that I could hold on to that forever.

And then I realize how selfish that is. My children aren't just here for me to enjoy. They're not our little playthings for us to cuddle with or laugh at or enjoy for our own pleasure--though any good parent wouldn't miss out on those things for the world. They are souls. Eternal souls that God has created and placed in our home for a very short time. We are so blessed and so privileged to be able to love and enjoy them the way that we do. But they're not here just for my enjoyment and it's selfish of me to wish they could stay this age forever. There is a purpose for their lives far greater than just entertaining me and making my life full and fun. It is God's will for them to grow up and mature and find who God has created them to be, where He wants them to be and what He wants them to do for Him. It's my privilege to help them get started on their journey. But their purpose in life extends far beyond the few short years they will be here with us. When I think of them leaving some day I wonder what in the world I'll do without them. But I want to realize all along the way that my purpose in life is not to horde my children and try to stifle them and keep them little or young, but to allow them to grow into a beautiful young woman and handsome young men who will spend their strength and energies fulfilling God's calling in their lives.

But tonight... I miss them! ;-)

The Monstrosity: Day Five

2011-11-01T22:10:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I know we were there yesterday so this would technically be Day Six. But we were there for so short a time period and accomplished so very little that I can't make myself count it as a day.

I didn't accomplish much today either, but after our day yesterday I knew what I would be dealing with and was mentally prepared to accomplish nothing today--so I feel much happier about it. :-) We had several things to do here at the house this morning so we didn't even get to the Monstrosity until about noon. I spent a-a-a-a-a-a-all afternoon scraping wallpaper in the guest room. Yep, just that one room. And I'm a long way from being done, but I was prepared for that so it's all good. :-) I was working on the upper layers that didn't require a steamer, just a scraper and a lot of commitment. That's all I did today. Tomorrow I'll crank up the steamer and spend all day trying to get down everything that is still there after the initial scraping. Yesterday was maddening because it simply should not take that kind of time to remove wallpaper from one room. Today I knew I had no chance of finishing. I'm hoping to finish tomorrow... so that sets me up for failure and frustration again. I should know better than to have silly hopes like that. Some people never learn. I mean after all, it will only have been THREE DAYS in that ONE ROOM trying to get rid of WALLPAPER. Hhmmm. It does make me feel a little insane when I think about it. I think I can feel my eye twitching a little bit... ;-)

James put up the new mailbox today. Yeah! We accomplished something!

AND...

The gutter guys came today! They ripped down all of the old gutters, replaced a few panels of wood that had rotten out, and installed the brand new super clean and spiffy looking "wicker white" gutters. Gutters aren't usually something that would excite me. But this was exciting because all we've done so far is rip stuff up and tear stuff out. We haven't actually starting the other side of the process--you know, where you make something look better or actually finish something. These guys came, they tore down, they improved, and they are finished. What a concept!!! It's also exciting because the color of gutters that we chose inspired me for how I want the trim and facings and pillars on the house painted someday. Inspiration! I haven't had much of that.

Though it's coming in waves now. I saw a guy at Pizza Hut today. I looked at his plaid shirt and thought "THAT'S the wallpaper I want in the larger bathroom upstairs!" That'll be a tricky one to pull off (ha!), but at least I have an idea for what I think we'll look really good there if I can find something similar. I wish inspiration would hit me in ways a little more practical than some dude's flannel shirt that I'll never be able to match in a wallpaper. I have heard of people using starched fabric as wall coverings, however. Hhmmm. No, that just seems wrong in a bathroom.

I dreamt last night that I found the paint swatches. With renewed hope, I got up and headed to the basement and dug through every single box that we've got down there--thoroughly. I also checked all through our closet, our dresser, under the bed, in the bathroom cabinets (?!), in the boys' closet, in books that are sitting next to the bed, under the kitchen sink with our cleaning supplies and some tools, in the drawer where we keep craft stuff, in the other cabinets where things sometimes get crammed, in the junk drawers, on top of the fridge, under the utility sink, in the bin on the shelf, in the top of the coat closet and in all the boxes down below.

They STILL weren't in any of those places. Just like when I looked all of those places last week. Bummer.

James asked if perhaps they may have been put in the van. That's a horrifying thought. We have a new van since we moved. If they were in the old van and never got transferred to the new one... ~ugh~ Let's not think that way. I did look in the new van, just to be sure. Nope.

They've GOT to be some place "smart" in storage. Maybe I'll get a chance to go look again there in the next day or two.

After not finding them anywhere again this morning I looked up the phone number for the little hardware store in the mountains where we lived in New Mexico. I was hoping to speak with Robert. I never went to the store, I would just call him on the phone and say, "This is Rebekah Horne--I call you once or twice a year about paint." He would immediately know who I was and mix up just what I wanted, then James would go pick it up for me. Robert wasn't there today, but the girl I talked to said she couldn't find us in the system. I wanted to see if they had record of the color codes that they've mixed up for us. Apparently they don't. Though I may call again in a few days and see if I can talk to Robert, just to be sure.

The next course of action--only after I can't find the paint swatches in storage again--will be to try to contact the people who bought our house in New Mexico. We left some paint in the shed there in case they needed to touch anything up. The cans should have the paint codes on them. I don't think they would have all of the colors we need, but anything would be helpful.

So my dream was not prophetic. ~sigh~ I can't even remember where I found the cards in the dream. I just remember how excited and relieved I was. I would love to feel those two emotions. HA!

In spite of my continued failure to locate the paint swatches OR to really accomplish anything at the house today, it's been a GREAT day. I feel blessed today and totally refocused and relaxed. Took time to enjoy the kids and the dog here at there throughout the day--and the kids were great to help out at the Monstrosity again, pulling nails and removing switch covers and stuff like that. Then tonight Kody and Michael came over to help rake and bag up TONS of pine needles and debris that the gutter guys had blown off the roof. Joe went out to help them and they had a great time working together. When it got dark and we had to quit, we called the Ridlespurges to ask if they wanted to join all of us at Wendy's since we were taking the boys out for dinner. You know what her answer was? "No, because I'm dirty." Hahahahahaha! Michael had called to ask her, then relayed the message. I picked up the phone and called her back to ask if she was really serious. Did she realize who she was speaking with and what we had been doing all day long and how dirty WE were??? HA! I didn't mind if they didn't feel like going out, but I wasn't about to settle for some lame excuse like that!

We had just gotten our food when they showed up. :-)

So now we're back home again, prepping for another full day of work tomorrow. We'll leave in the morning and take church clothes with us for tomorrow night. I call dibs on the one mirror in the house when it's time to get ready! :-)

A GOOD Day

2011-10-31T22:38:00.003-06:00

I posted about my bad day today. Now I'll post about our GOOD day yesterday. :-)

Sunday School went well with Sam & Zack and we made lots of fun little fall-leafy-crafts. Not sure they ever got the CONCEPT I was shooting for with the lesson, but I know I tried hard! At least we had crafts... ;-)

James had been asked to preach yesterday morning and he preached a great message. I was so blessed--and felt like perhaps God was giving me some direction and inspiration through it for the class I'm supposed to teach next weekend! Wa-Hoo!

After church we had a pot-luck to raise funds for World Missions. I had been asked to bring lasagna, so I did. James had been dying to make a green chili chicken enchilada to take to a pot-luck here and this was finally his chance! We got there and found that there were two or three pans of lasagna, several pots of spaghetti, garlic bread, salad fixings... and enchilada. HA! Nobody said anything about it being an ITALIAN meal, so James didn't know any better. :-) It didn't seem to matter though--there were no enchilada left-overs.

After the meal there were several of us that just stayed at the church for most or all of the afternoon. It was so nice! I really should have taken play clothes for my family to play in, but I somehow didn't realize that we'd need them. No matter. My boys played football all afternoon in full suits--until I finally stripped their jackets off of them. They looked ready for the game in their shirts and ties then. Ha!

I took very few pictures--though I did take some this time and that's an improvement! Maybe even a first around here, I'm not sure. Brother Washburn somehow got roped into playing kickball with Katie, Katie, and Madison. The two Katie's were team captains and chose took turns choosing their teams. HA! It was hilarious! Katie F. went first and chose Madison, leaving my Katie only one choice: Brother Washburn. "Uummm... okay, I guess I'll pick you!" ;-) I don't know how they kept up with the game with all of the "ghost runners" on the bases all the time, but Brother Mike was kept pretty busy kicking and running there for a while. I was worried he might have a heart attack or something! Ha! It was a great game to watch.

Here are the boys playing flag football and Sister Washburn walking around in the foreground searching for the pipes in the ground so the volleyball net could be put up. Nobody ever found them, though they searched and searched and searched--metal detector and all.

I somehow got roped into a game of horseshoes. I haven't played horseshoes in years--if I've ever played a real game. Brother Ridlespurge gave us some pointers. Here he is showing James how it's done. Look at that form...

Sister Ridlespurge and Brother Booth playing at the opposite end...

And good form or not, check out this shot. :-) He's pointing to his horseshoe that used to be a ringer and I'm pointing to mine--that knocked his out of the way. Oh, happy day. Playing horseshoes is fun, after all!

Thanks to Brother Carpenter scoring lots of points, we won. It was much more fun than I would have expected, being an old man game and all. ;-)

We watched the WMB video in church last night and I was so blessed--again. I just love those. It felt so good to just be in church and with church people all day yesterday. It was a wonderful break from the Monstrosity and I loved being able to just get away--mentally more than physically--and it felt like everything was just so refreshing to me.

Ah, yes. Speaking of the Monstrosity... Sam decided to build it out of Legos a few days ago. Ha! I know you can't really tell in the pictures, but his model has a full basement, a first floor--complete with a light rigged up to a battery pack, and an upstairs. It also has four pillars out front and the muscadine awning thing off the end of the house. :-)

You Win Some, You Lose Some

2011-10-31T18:18:00.009-06:00

Today I lost.

I hate it when people get on the Internet and throw out little blips about how horrible their day is. I'd rather do an all-out rant. Naw, not really. It hasn't been a bad day. It just felt like it. Ha! Or perhaps "worthless" would be a better description than "bad."

James mentioned just staying home today instead of going to work on the Monstrosity. I said I figured we really ought to go work while we can since we'll be gone to Youth Retreat this weekend and I'll be at Tennessee Ladies' Retreat next weekend. The house isn't going to get ready for us to move in all by itself, you know. It needs TONS of work and we really ought to take every opportunity we have to get things accomplished there. ~sigh~ It all sounded good in my head and even when it came out of my mouth, I thought.

James said yeah, I was probably right. He didn't feel like going to town (none of us really felt like it...), but we loaded up and went anyway. I can't remember what James worked on, but my one and only goal was to finish getting all of the wallpaper out of the house. Except the peacocks. We all know they'll be with me forever. Aside from them, the only remaining paper was in the chapel/den/library room (because somebody who needs to be shot put a world globe border on top of beautiful tongue and groove wood) and then the entire guest room.

The border in the library room came down okay, though I'll have some residue to remove at some point.

Then it was time for the bedroom. It was another one of those "~sigh~" experiences. Only two layers of wallpaper that I'm sure of, as well as two layers of paint thrown into the mix. The maddening thing is that there was a really thick, heavy wallpaper at some point, then somebody stripped pieces of it, but left other huge chunks on the wall... and then papered over all of it! Then painted it bright pink. Where's my gun... Along with the usual seams in the wallpaper, there are LUMPS all over the walls from the pieces of the first wallpaper that is here and there. I finally discovered that it was faster to remove most of the upper layers without the steamer, then steam the last layer. It tears up the sheetrock a little bit in places, but nothing like what was happening under the peacock stuff. I think these walls will still be usable, but it's taking for...ev...er to get them stripped. It occurred to me that there's a possibility that we might cover the lower section of that bedroom with beadboard or some such thing--and it would be insane to spend all that time stripping paper if I don't need to. (If I can live with peacocks under my new walls, why couldn't I live with pink paper on yellow paint on chunks of black and yellow butterfly paper under that?)

I talked to James and we decided that maybe we should stop that project and take some time to do some pondering and shopping and pricing and--mostly--searching for inspiration. I have vague ideas of what I'd like to do in this house, but very few things that I feel solid about. I'm used to living in a place for several months and encourtering those "Aha!" moments when it suddenly occurs to you that THAT'S what you need to do in that room. This go-round we're needing to just DO everything and it's a simple fact that you can't rush inspiration. And it hasn't hit yet. I've seen little glimmers of something akin to it, but they've been fleeting most of the time.

Anyway, we loaded up and went to a big... store. Can't think of how to describe it. We were looking for inspiration. Instead I found more discouragement. We were looking at things that would be nice to decorate a finished house with. I don't have one of those. It was just adding insult to injury. Like pouring lemon juice into an already acutely painful paper cut. (Don't you just love it when I get all dramatic like that??? HA!)

We left there and went to Home Depot in search of inspiration. We walked out with a mailbox. It wasn't very inspiring. I wanted to price beadboard and different types of wood siding. I really don't like the prices. They're okay for a sheet or two, but we bought a BIG house. Got to limit that kind of stuff. Wallpaper is crazy expensive too, which is really why I wanted to price some of the other options. I hate having just paint. I like having mostly paint (it's much cheaper than anything else--and other people don't feel like shooting you later--unless of course you're painting on top of wallpaper), but I like something a unique and different here and there. Something with some pizazz, you know? But pizazz appears to be pricey. I like pizazz. I don't like pricye. James really doesn't like pricey.

A mailbox. No pizazz. No great "I've got it!" revelations. Just some expensive wood and trim and whatnot. Home Depot was another bomb.

Then we went to Big Lots so James could pick up a couple of rakes. They didn't have any.

My daughter's shoes are too small and hurting her feet. She also suddenly has very few sweaters or long sleeved shirts to wear in the cooler weather.

I didn't think about any of that until we'd passed both thrift stores.

The stores that we did go into I was embarrassed to go into because I looked so rough. Still had my work skirt on--that was covered in wallpaper schmazz. I had changed from my sweatshirt that was also covered with schmazz into James' extra fleece thinking I wouldn't look quite so tacky, but I think I was wrong. I had to roll the sleeves twice to keep my fingers in view and the shirt itself reached almost to my knees making me feel like I was wearing a fuzzy nightgown and should NOT be seen in public.

My sunglasses are broken.

I made a soup on Saturday for us to eat today. I did well and remembered to take it to the Monstrosity. Lunchtime came and we discovered that I forgot to plug the crock-pot in and the soup was cold, so we ended up with Sonic for lunch.

~sigh~

~SIGH~

~BIG SIGH~

I'm not sure I did anything right or worthwhile at all today.

But I'm saved. Jesus loves me. I have a husband who loves me, loves my children, and loves the Lord and His Church. I have the three best kids in the world. They desire to be good and do right, and they keep me laughing. I've got a puppy to cuddle with when I feel stressed. Clothes to wear, food to eat, good health, the best friends and family in the world... And a brand new day awaiting me tomorrow. It's going to start by spending some time with God... and then saying, "James, you were SO RIGHT yesterday--we should have stayed home. Let's do that today instead, okay???" ;-)

The Monstrosity: Day Four

2011-10-28T20:40:00.015-06:00

But before we get to that, here are the pictures from the day before now that Blogger is willing to cooperate.

First of all, the hole in the wall! (In the APPROPRIATE place, Brother Dustin. Novel idea.) This is taken from the kitchen side. That white door dead ahead leads to the dining room. No, no, no, no, no. It must be OPEN. I don't like feeling all closed in. Especially if I'm working in the kitchen and company is sitting at the table. I should at least be able to hear them--and preferably see them. Sooooo...

Big opening! I know, I know. You're thinking the first picture looked better. That's only because I stripped all of the red wall paper (actually the red paint on top of wall paper that was on top of the first wall paper) and now you see splotchy drywall everywhere. And we yanked out the panels above to fluorescent lights and took the cabinet doors off as well, so everything looks bare and ugly. Stop looking at that! The hole in the wall--you're supposed to be looking at how wonderfully the new and improved hole opens up the whole feel of the room. ~Aaaahhhh~ Isn't that nice?

Same hole, different view. This picture is taken while standing in the corner of the living room, looking through the dining room into the kitchen. As you can see, the Hall of Mirrors was still intact at this point.

Voila! No more mirrors, which is a huge improvement all it's own, but just look at how much this little change opened things up from the living/dining room view! I love it. :-)

I didn't take any pictures of the never-ending project in the half-bath. There just wasn't that much to show.

This is the master bathroom. I was thrilled ~ahem~ to discover that they had put a border on top of another border. Nothing like going from ugly to ugly in one swift glue job. There's still papery residue from the first border that I'm going to have to go work on some more one of these days.

Katie took this picture of me steaming away. Okay, so I was posing in between steams.

Sam was busy working on school while I steamed away, Joe removed switch and socket covers, and Katie apparently played with my camera.

Ah, yes! The best part of the day! The border around the master bedroom just peeled right off. That was glorious, but not a HUGE project so not as rewarding as THIS was. These are the stairs leading down to the laBORatory--I mean basement. The walls were covered in this re-e-e-e-e-e-eally old and nasty wall paper. It needed to go, but anything concerning the basement or the road traveled to get there is LAST on my priority list. If we ever get the rest of the house really and truly finished, then I'll think about doing something with the basement. Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, for some unknown reason I scraped up a corner of this wall paper and pulled. And pulled. And pulled and pulled--and it just kept coming and coming! Every single sheet came down perfectly whole and intact, leaving the walls READY FOR PAINT! Wa-Hoo!!! Here's Joe, tugging away.

And half buried in filthy, nasty, stained, smelly--but glorious because it came down willingly--wall paper.

Okay. Are you ready for this?

Brace yourselves.

Deep breath...

Here we go--to the foyer...

Meet...

THE PEACOCKS!!!

And more of them...

And some more...

No, wait--there's still more...

This isn't all of them. This is taken from the top of the stairs. The stairs continue down around the corner to the left... and the peacocks continue up high--way, way up high. And you thought I was exaggerating when I said hundreds. I really ought to make the kids count them all next time we go to the house. It would be interesting, though rather disturbing, to know exactly how many peacocks live in this house.

And this is the glorious wall paper that I discovered UNDER the peacocks.

This is what the wall looked like after I had spent a very, very, very long time removing all of the peacocks and getting down to the red and gold...

And though you can't possibly appreciate how unusable it is, this is what the sheetrock looked like after removing the red paper.

~Bleagh~ That was a bleak day a the Monstrosity, let me tell you. Especially because before Brother Hopkins came to the rescue I was still groaning over the possibility of having to spend weeks removing the rest of that wall paper. A-a-a-a-a-a-a-all of that horrible wall paper. ~Shudder~ I haven't mentioned yet how much I love and appreciate Brother Hopkins, have I???
Okay, here we go--Day Four.

Day Four got off to a very slow start. We left the Powells' house a little late to begin with and then we were still sooooo tired. I think I actually dozed off on the way to town. We got to the Monstrosity and I did devotions with the kids and then gladly helped Sam with school for the first hour or so. I was so worn out and had no motivation at all to actually work. But soon enough that luxury ended and I grabbed my steamer and headed upstairs--because I'm DONE steaming downstairs!!! The only thing that remains are the peacocks that Brother Hopkins is going to take care of for me. I love him. :-)

At the top of the stairs is this little... "square." :-) I don't know if there are names for spaces like this in houses or not. It's not really a room, it just has doors--lots and lots of doors. The door on the left leads to Sam's room, the right is Katie's room and the middle is Joe's. He said he wanted a small bedroom so we gave him the long skinny one. Of course I'm just joking--that's a closet. :-) The door to his room on the opposite wall across from Katie's room. There is a bathroom on the left, a bathroom on the right, and the doorway leading to the beautiful little chapel room on the left as well. As I said a lot of doors.

And shortly after this picture was taken, there was no border at the top either. :-) It came down well with the steamer.

Then I headed to Katie's room to attack her border. The print lifted off, then the backing steamed and scraped off easily. Another score for the steamer!

Then it was off to Sam's room. I took a picture there too, but it didn't turn out. His room has wood paneling and somebody had put up a football border on one wall. People who put borders on paneling should be drug out to the street and shot with all of those other people I mentioned the other day.

The steamer took the border down okay, but may have discolored the paneling a little bit. We'll see what we can do with it.

In the meantime, Sam was helping James pull up the flooring from the chapel room. Whoever laid it bought almost enough to finish the room, but not quite. He should probably be drug out to the street... well, you know. The flooring is in good shape so the guys took it apart and we'll use it in a smaller room.

And then... Hahahahahaha! THIS CRACKS ME UP! This is the bathroom on the left, though the other one looks so similar you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. The tile is all very nice and we'll be able to just clean it up and keep it. Yeah! Except, of course, those red tiles that somebody slapped on that closet door all crooked like--I pried those off right quick. But look at the choice of colors here--isn't it GREAT? Ha! Black and white tile... and then gold-ish paint with a red and gold border. The gold paint, of course, is over wall paper. Because that's what the previous owners seemed to do best. Layer things. Lots of them. As you can see in the bottom right corner of the picture, beneath the wall paper that was painted gold is ANOTHER wall paper, sort of greenish and swirly.

This means, of course, that there was another wall paper border beneath the first. Lovely, isn't it? You can see the section of red wall that I had scraped the green wall paper off of AFTER I scraped the top wall paper that was painted gold. But wait--that red isn't actually wall! No, that's red paint on TOP of ANOTHER LAYER OF WALL PAPER!!!!! Hahahahahaha!

And look what I found in another corner--yet another border! And see those stripes on the wall, white with blue? That's MORE wall paper! In the end, I discovered at least five wall papers and at least three borders and two colors of paint all on top of each other!!! COULD YOU DIE?! What is WRONG with people?!?!?!? Hahahahahaha!!! I laughed sooooooo hard--even though it meant more work. It's nice to have humor in the midst of work. But wait. It gets even better. :-)

The BOTTOM layer of wall paper that had been painted... There were only a few sections in the room--all narrow strips in the corners--where the paint and other wall paper came off of it so it could be seen, but just look! Hahahahahahaha!!! I LOVE IT! I laughed and laughed and tried to imagine what it must have looked like all over the walls in there. Judging from the findings of my archaeological dig in that room (!), THIS is what was originally installed--to match the black accents in the tile, I suppose. I would have LOVED to have seen these bathrooms like that! Hahahaha! It's so great. As I've been working on the house I just keep picturing what it must have been like when it was built in 1969. I know it's not THAT long ago as houses go, but I wish there was some way I could see pictures of how everything was in the very beginning and how the owners had it decorated. It would be sooooo fun to know all of that. But I'll just settle for this picture of these little scraps of wall paper. I can't look at them without smiling. :-)

So there you have it. The accomplishments and findings of Day Four. :-)

The Cox family came over to take a look at the house in the afternoon that day. It was a welcomed break from the wall paper fiasco in the bathrooms--it was when I still thought the red was the bottom layer. Silly me. The kids played outside and had a blast throwing golf balls around and shooting bb guns. We showed Brother Will and Sister Kristal all around the house and they were real gracious and didn't say, "What is WRONG with you people?! Why in the world did you buy this crazy house???" At least until they got in the car. Ha! Just kidding. :-) It's great to have people come and look at the house. It's so much fun. Though I got to thinking about it and it's probably akin to people going to see the bearded lady at the circus or something. We're just another freak show. "Hey, Mom--can we go look at the Monstrosity today? Huh? Huh? Huh???"

Today we stayed HOME. Got to get caught up on laundry and ironing sometime, right? Of course, the last load of laundry is still in the drier. And I haven't ironed a thing. I think it can wait until next week. I did manage to dye some rice for Sunday School tomorrow (if the craft turns out cute instead of a disaster I'll try to remember to take a picture--before I vacuum up rice from all over the church building... some people are just gluttons for punishment--the houses they purchase can usually be a good indicator...), made a double lasagna and some poppy seed bread for the Mission Dinner after church tomorrow (James made some enchiladas with the last of his frozen green chilies from Hatch), I made some taco soup for lunch/dinner at the Monstrosity on Monday (trying to think ahead so we don't have to eat out!) and got the house pretty clean, to boot. I bathed the Charles last night, so we no longer have a smelly poodle. Poodles should not smell. They should smell clean and be soft and fuzzy so you can cuddle with them. (Yeah, I said that just for you, Sister Tammy. HA!)

I've been wondering about the women out there who work jobs away from the house. How in the world do they actually keep up with a job AND taking care of things around the house? I might be able to manage okay for a time while we're fixing up the house, but as a permanant arrangement?! No way! There's no way you can possibly be gone working hard and wearing yourself out all day long and then come home and put your heart into caring for your home and family. I am so, so, sooooo blessed. I don't want to take it for granted. God is so good to me. And to my family. :-) I'm sooooo thankful!!!

The Monstrosity: Day Three... Really This Time

2011-10-27T20:30:00.003-06:00

This actually counts as Day Three because we actually went to the house to work. Actually. :-)

I spent the first half of my day developing a very strong conviction that people who wall paper straight to sheetrock and then wallpaper on top of the first wall paper and then paint over all of that... should be drug out to the street and shot.

I spent the last half of my day trying to figure out a way to see this imperative justice put into action.

Yes, Day Three of working on the Monstosity has done it's best to bring me to my knees screaming out, "WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! Why in the world did we buy this giant house with sooooooo much work to do???" It didn't succeed I'm glad to say. I'm holding off until Day Four before I actually consider sitting down to cry. I sat in this living room and cried once a couple of months ago because the house wasn't ours. All is fair in love and war and house remodeling.

Truthfully, I have felt perfectly balanced emotionally throughout the day in spite of the unfriendly twists I have encountered. And despite my desperate sounding rant above. ;-)

James went to pray for Sister Hoffman in the hospital this morning. She was having surgery on her neck and it went well, they say, but are concerned because her blood sugar is high right now. Do remember her in your prayers.

After that he headed to Collinsville to attent the funeral of one of our deacons who passed away this week, Vester Jackson. Unfortunately, the Interstate was closed and James was unable to actually get there! He wasn't on to do anything at the funeral, just going to show love and support, but he was still disappointed that he couldn't get there.

In the meantime, I loaded the kids up and headed to the Monstrosity. We got there and had our devotions, then I got them going on school while I took the wall paper steamer into the half bath on the main floor. Some of the wall paper was bubbled up and not attached to the wall at all, so I expected an easy stripping job. HA. Nothing is easy when you expect it to be easy, have you ever noticed that about houses? They always sneak up on you like that. I have no idea how long I was in that itty-bitty room working on the wall paper a tiny little bit at a time. The paper had been painted over with a thick, high gloss faux finish and it came off in layers. Paint first, then the top of the paper, then finally the back. Crazy.

Finished up in there and took the steamer to the master bedroom to start working on the border that went the entire way around the ceiling. To my surprise--and great joy--the border just ripped right off nice and clean with no steaming necessary! It was a 60 second job. Wa-Hoo! Almost made up for all the time I'd spent in that little bathroom.

I was hoping for the same easy job in the master bath since it had no wall paper, only border. There I go again, expecting something easy. I should know better. I discovered a tacky seashell border underneath the tacky elegant-swirly-flowery border. That means stripping one layer after another again. And I never could get it all off. There's still papery feeling stuff on the wall. I'm going to try to scrub it off tomorrow. If I can make myself go back to the house again after today. HA!

I opened the door to the basement and saw the horrid wall paper going down the stairwell. I figured that would be a real nightmare, too. I managed to find and edge and peel it up... and the entire sheet peeled right off as I pulled! I had to pull hard, but it came off perfectly clean in one piece!!! WHOA! I was sooooo thrilled! It was a different kind of paper, much heavier and almost looked like linen on the back. Joe came to help and the two of us ripped down one sheet after another and had the whole stairwell done in about five minutes. Wa-Hoo!!! Another happy surprise like the border in the master bedroom. :-)

Then. Oh, then. It was time to take the steamer to the foyer to meet the peacocks. I didn't dare to hope for an easy job this time, but I surely wasn't braced for how bad it would be. For starters, the peacock paper was NOT original to the house. Can you imagine somebody SINCE 1969 thinking that wall paper like that actually looks good?! It was bad enough thinking that somebody 42 years ago thought it was attractive, but much more difficult to make excuses for anybody since that time. What was underneath was a dark, heavy print of red and gold. I've tried several times to upload pictures (I did remember to take my camera today), but Blogger isn't allowing it tonight. Anyway, I worked for a very, very, very long time... stripping just the peacocks off of one wall. Then I went back and started stripping the original wall paper off. It was NOT easy and the results were, oh, let's say "less than desirable." When you scrape wall paper off of sheetrock (when there is not a layer of paint in between--just the paper straight to the rock) it also scrapes up portions of the sheetrock itself. It tears it and punctures it and sometimes rips a whole thin layer off the face of the sheetrock, leaving it sort of fuzzy feeling. NOT a surface that can be painted, or even wall papered.

I could tell we were in big trouble. I know it's just a foyer, but it's still a big room--and it extends all the way up the stairs to the second floor. That's a lot of peacocks. Hundreds and hundreds of peacocks. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH THEM??? I can't paint over them and have wall paper seams showing through, besides the places where the wall paper is peeling up off the wall--you can't paint over it when it's like that! But the peacocks must go. They simply cannot stay. The situation was desperate and I tried momentarily to imagine that maybe it would be possible to get attached to the peacocks and not hate them so badly if I gave them all names. But I would never remember THAT many names. No, they've just got to go. What to do, what to do, what to do...

James was still traveling back from almost making it to Collinsville when I picked up the phone and called my pastor. He's not only my pastor, but rumor has it he's a fantastic sheetrock man. I was hoping that perhaps he would know of a cure for my wall disaster. Maybe once all of the wall paper is gone the torn up sheetrock could be mudded and sanded and smoothed and then painted??? I had done the math on how long it took me to clear the tiny percentage of wall that I worked on today and figured it would take me well over a week to get all the paper off the walls, but if they could be smoothed out and used I guess (???) it might be worth it. NAH. Is there anyway to sand down the seams of the wall paper and smooth things out and paint over all of it??? I didn't know what I was expecting him to say, I just knew I needed his advice.

"Brother Hopkins, are you busy tonight? ...Do you have a few minutes that you could spare?... I have a problem... It's a bit of an emergency, but it's not urgent--it could wait if tonight is not a good night... It involves sheetrock and peacocks... hundreds and hundreds of peacocks... You'll just have to come see--please don't make me explain..." And so on.

Being the generous (and perhaps curious--ha!) man that he his, he showed up at the house just after James did. We brought him through the back door and talked about our plans for the kitchen and dining room, then asked him if he wanted to see our real problem. :-) We walked into the foyer and he laughed when he saw the peacocks, though he seemed relieved that my emergency didn't involve REAL peacocks. Though they would probably be easier to get rid of, now that I think of it.

He took one look at the wall I'd been working on--the wall that had no peacocks, but was still mostly covered in the red and gold paper with a section across the middle where that too had been removed, along with the top layer of sheetrock. He looked rather horrified for a moment, then began sharing a story about a young wife who called him in tears one day because of the very same thing--removing wall paper and discovering the sheetrock was destroyed when she did so. The short version is that her marriage was about to be wrecked over the situation and I figured I might be in the same boat soon enough if we didn't get help. HA! James hadn't said a word--he was just hoping, as I was, that Brother Hopkins had a secret cure-all fix for our predicament. He explained that you CAN'T resurface the sheetrock. When it gets torn up like that it just bubbles up anytime to you try to put mud or anything on it--it simply won't work. In other words, your only options are:

1. Keep the peacocks.

2. Sheetrock over what is already there.

Number one just isn't a possibility. I just can't. Peacocks??? Hundreds and hundreds of them??? If only I could add a picture here you would understand. They simply must go.

But number two... whoa--that's a lot of sheetrock! And that adds up QUICK. And that was NOT in our budget when we bought this joint. The words "money pit" kept clanking around in my head. Ha! But Brother Hopkins said that he could just put 1/4" sheetrock over what is already there and that it is actually pretty cheap. He added up how many pieces we would need and we were relieved that he was right. And I can guarantee you that the price is we-e-e-e-e-e-e-ell worth it for me to just be DONE with the peacocks and not have to work on them or worry with them anymore!

So that's the new plan. It wasn't part of the plan, but James handled it amazingly well (he doesn't generally find joy in unexpected expenses) and I am just so, so, so relieved.

Though I wonder if I'll think about the peacocks when I walk into the foyer or come down the stairs. Will I still "see" them there and wonder if they're looking at me through the 1/4"??? They won't actually be GONE like I wanted. They'll always BE there, just covered over. They probably won't be very happy.

I can live with that. :-)

Have I mentioned lately that I love Brother Hopkins? That he his my hero? That he has saved my sanity and possibly my marriage?

The Monstrosity: Day Three

2011-10-26T22:00:00.005-06:00

Not really. We didn't go work today. We stayed home this morning, ran a load of laundry (work clothes), did a little house work around here... Then drove wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay up north to a discount wall paper store in the farthest part of Birmingham. They had lots of cheap stuff, most of it dog ugly--but that was to be expected. They did have several things that we thought, "Eh... that might be workable." I took a few pictures of the maybes so I can keep them in mind as I think, think, think about what to do where in this house. Right now I just feel way overwhelmed by how many decisions there are to make and it's like they all pile up into a serious log jam in my head when I try to concentrate on them.

They're not the only things that are jamming in my head lately. A few days ago I insisted that my Mom had only sent me the regular Ladies' Retreat application and not the additional staff application. I was sure of it and had Mom questioning her own sanity since she had been so sure that she had sent it. Of course when we got home from the Monstrosity that night I looked and there it was, with the envelope. And I thought, "Oh, yeah--I do remember seeing that."

I filled out the regular application and what I could of the staff application--the entire back side of the paper had to be filled out by my pastor. What's the deal with all that stuff, anyway? You have to give your life history and have a background check and all sorts of weirdness to be able to work in Tennessee. I'm wondering if I'll be blindfolded and interrogated next. Ha! Anyway, I took the application to church tonight and Brother Hopkins filled out the pastor stuff for me. I didn't read everything he wrote, but he did check "excellent" on all of the boxes (there were choices of excellent, good, fair, and poor or something like that -- just like when you go to a restaurant! HA!) as any gracious pastor would do. I mean, come on. What kind of a pastor is going to say a member has a "fair" attitude or is "poor" in their church attendance--when they KNOW the person is going to be reading their review! Ha! It's crazy.

ANYWAY, when I looked at the regular application that I had filled out a few days ago it said "Rebekah L. Smith." I didn't even catch it until I read down at the bottom where I had requested to stay in a room with Vicki Smith. When I saw her "Smith" I realized that I'd seen it somewhere else recently and started pondering where it could have been. I glanced at the top of the application and saw that I had signed my name that way. I've only been married for eleven and a half years, you know--it's easy to forget the new name. ~sigh~ It takes eleven jears! Thank you, Rosa.

Then there was the notebook that I had the entire Ladies' Retreat delegation searching for. I was certain that I'd had it with me and used it up until Saturday afternoon when it mysteriously vanished. When I got home I discovered it sitting by my chair. And then I remembered that before the Retreat I had thought, "I should consolidate all of my notes and information and get them into ONE notebook so I won't have to worry with keeping up with two." It was a good idea and I did enact it. I just FORGOT that I had ever thought or enacted it and spent half of the weekend searching for the all-important notes that I was sure were in the missing notebook.

And of course there are the missing PAINT SWATCHES!!!!!!!!! But we won't go there. I'm not sure I can handle that one right now since it is unresolved as yet--and acutely painful that the timing is what it is.

My mother amazes me at times like this. She always laughs and acts like I'm so pitiful or something. She reminds me of the time when I was a teenager and I went to make a tuna sandwich. I took the can of tuna, walked over to the sink, held the can under the faucet and thought, "Now... how do you work this thing?," thinking it was the electric can opener. That was bad enough, but far worse when Dad came in hungry and I went to get another can of tuna, walked right back to the sink, looked at the faucet and thought, "I just did this! How could I have forgotten how to work this thing already???"

Mom reminded me of that little incident tonight. And of the many times when she would send me to the pantry for a can of green beans or something and I would come back insisting that we were out of them. And truly, I had searched everywhere, looking at and sometimes even moving every can (green beans included), but somehow never saw them.

She reminds me of these things and acts like I'm some sort of pathetic freak of nature. Forgetting the times that she has made coffee without the coffee... and without the water... and without the pot (that was a messy one...) and a-a-a-a-a-a-a-all of the other scatterbrained things that SHE has done over the years... that a person like me has no shot of recalling at times like this when they would come in really handy. That's no testament to her sanity, obviously.

My Grandmother on Dad's side had multiples of most of her groceries with several boxes or bottles or jars of the same thing open at once--because she didn't think she already had that item and bought and opened more when there may have already been two or three half used sitting there. She did other strange things, too. She would sometimes put the butter dish in the dishwasher. I mean, with the butter still in it--thinking it was the fridge. Stuff like that.

Dad himself isn't known for being just real sharp all the time. He loses things regularly and can commonly be heard having conversations like this, under his breath of course: "Now, Steve, you had it last night... you were sitting right here... and then you thought 'I know what I'll do. I'll put it on the counter so I'll remember it in the morning.' Then what did you do, Steve? You've got to think. Think, think, think..." He's worn socks that were mismatched so many times they can't be numbered, sometimes badly mismatched. He used to have a safe under his desk. He taped the code to the front of the safe because he knew he'd never be able to remember it--or find it if he put it somewhere else. HA! That one just KILLED James. :-) As did the "Top Secret Information" that used to be on a clipboard next to Dad's computer with all of his important passwords and stuff like that. Hahahahaha!

In other words, I come from a very unkind gene pool. I prefer to think that we just save up our brains for the truly useful things and that's why the simple things like can openers, butter dishes, and matching socks so frequently confound us.

I was thinking the other day about how clueless Joe is most of the time. I remember the time when he was three or four years old and he came strolling out of the bedroom in a t-shirt, socks, and his ghandi's. "Joe!" I said, shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Larry in a towel (you've got to be in the loop to understand that one), "Go put your pants on!" To this day I can still see his bewildered little face as he said, "I did put my pants on." I was adamant that he hadn't (!) and curiosity finally got the best of him. He looked down and was genuinely shocked. "Oh. Oops. I'll be right back, Mom." Keven Lewis, who works with kids all the time, once watched Joe doing his school work. He told me later that if that kid was in public school they'd have him on some drug for ADHD in no time flat. Ha!

In any case, I come by my mental issues honest and find it rather degrading (not to mention hypocritical!) when Mom rolls her eyes and otherwise treats me with scorn--OVER THE GENES THAT SHE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E WAS SO GENEROUS AS TO SHARE WITH ME! Okay, so a whole lot of the head genes came from Dad's side. --But certainly not all! She shared, too! I just wonder why I got all the bad stuff from both sides of the family and none of the strengths. How cruel is that?! ;-)

I say all of this now because I think Mom will be in Nicaragua and unable to read this post until sometime next week. By then I will have forgotten about it. :-)

Okay, pictures. I don't have anything new of the house, so here are a few that I found on my card tonight.

Nothing better than cuddling up with cozy blankets and a sleepy poodle. Don't let Tammy Washburn tell you any different. ;-)

This would have been much better as a video. I love watching Sam shinny up this tree! It's his favorite. :-)

And here we have Fort Powell. That's what the boys named this contraption. They worked on it for two days and had it totally destroyed within an hour of completion. Ha! They even pulled a bunch of weeds that James wanted rid of to use on their roof. Made him happy, made them happy.

The Monstrosity: Day Two

2011-10-25T20:22:00.003-06:00

Day Two didn't seem nearly as productive as Day One. I was expecting days like that, but not quite so soon as Day Two! Part of the trouble is that there is just so much to be done. You barely begin on one thing before you get distracted with something else. Besides all the time you waste walking around the house THINKING and trying to imagine what needs to be done where and what colors and special touches and all that. There are sooooo many decisions to make it just seems overwhelming. But still fun. So far.

We bought a wall paper steamer yesterday to assist in our efforts to remove all of the paper throughout the entire house. I once thought there wasn't much. I was wrong. The foyer alone is just way too big. That's the room with the lovely ~gag~ green and yellow pheasant wall paper that, upon further study, is actually peacock wall paper. Not that that's an improvement or anything. And the foyer just happens to extend up the stair way. Way, way, way up high... and the peacocks go the whole way. Hundreds of them. After spending all day long stripping the wall paper from the kitchen (I finally got the last of it down so we can say I finished something today!) I'm really, really wondering if there's any way we can get by without actually stripping all of the peacocks. I hate it when people paint over wall paper and you can see all of the seams. But I don't really want to wall paper over it either--it would cost a fortune and be an enormous and potentially life-threatening project. Still working through the possibilities on that one.

ANYWAY, what we did accomplish today is stripping all of the wall paper and border from the kitchen. (What kind of a person clips all of her fingernails down to the nubs the night before stripping wall paper??? Dumb.) I found myself standing on a step stool with a steamer in one hand and a scraper in another--after several hours of being in that position--HATING wall paper and wondering what kind of an idiot PUTS the ugly stuff in their house anyway. Of course, 20 or 30 years from now, should time tarry, there will be some other woman standing on a stool with a steamer taking down MY wall paper while thinking the same unkindly thoughts. Ha! It looks horrid in there now (worse than before, believe it or not), but it's great progress. The kids helped a lot with different stages of that job. Katie loves working the steamer, Joe likes rolling the little scoring tool all over the wall, and Sam loves helping peel paper. I just love it that they're old enough to help. This is the third house we will have remodeled (we're not old enough or been married long enough for that!), but the first one the kids have been old enough to actually help with. It makes it much, much easier. And I feel like a good Mom for working along side of my kids or watching James work with them and teach them valuable skills that will be useful to them if they grow up to be the kind of people who buy ugly things cheap to make them pretty and more valuable... instead of a bad Mom who is neglecting her kids and leaving them to themselves (that brings a mother to shame--never a good thing!) while she is all wrapped up in wall paper and paint.

The question for today is... how badly do I want wood trim in the kitchen??? There is beautiful wood chair rail around the wall in the kitchen, as well as door trim in three places. No wait... four. But the beautiful wood has three coats of paint on it, the last of which is a super thick and goopy high gloss white. That layer peels up easily in some places, but not so much in others. I've considered painting it again, but it's already too thick and goopy for yet another layer. I WANT it stripped down to the natural wood, then stained. That would be sooooo pretty in this room. But that would be sooooo much work, wouldn't it?! I need to Google. James bought some stripper stuff today and we gave it a try. It worked, but it still requires a LOT of time and scraping to get all of the paint--that turns into a sticky goo--off of the wood. I know I would prefer to have the wood clean and paint free... but is it really worth all that time and work when there is so much else throughout the house that needs to be done??? And the follow-up question is... if I delegate that project to my children, is there any way they would actually be capable of properly stripping all of that wood FOR me??? :-)

And now for the most exciting happening of the day. James ripped down a wall. :-) YEAH!!!!! I am sooooooo happy. He was not happy about it, but even he can admit that it was a good decision now that he can see the difference. Actually, it wasn't a whole wall, it was just a portion of the wall between the kitchen and dining room. There was a narrow door way (with a pocket door) to begin with and it just made the kitchen feel all closed in. But now it feels so much more open and roomy from both sides. I wanted the whole wall gone (ha!) but James is always worried about silly little things like structure and supports and stuff like that. ;-) But since there was a pocket door we knew there was no support there anyway, so he took out the "pocket" area and doubled the size of the opening. It's going to be GREAT.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera with me today. How did I manage that??? I'll have to take pictures of our new progress next time. I don't think it will be tomorrow though. Got some other stuff to tend to.

We just got the biggest part of the mess cleaned up this evening (the whole kitchen had been about a foot deep in wall paper scraps and sheet rock from the demo job) when the Washburns showed up to take a grand tour of the Monstrosity. :-) It was great fun showing them around and hearing their thoughts and seeing Sister Tammy's face when I kissed the dog. HA! They then treated us to Milo's for dinner, complete with fried lemon pies. YUM. We had such a great time visiting with them. We always do.

On our way home we made an unscheduled pit stop at the house of some serious hoarders and caught them off guard, just for the fun of it. HA! We were only there for a minute or two, but it was quite fun. :-)

And now we're home and glad to be away from the mess of the Monstrosity. I LOVE IT that we can trash that house and then come home to a clean one. Well... pretty clean. At least it's not covered in remodeling mess. ;-)

The Monstrosity: Day One

2011-10-24T20:34:00.007-06:00

But first, a recap of our weekend.

Friday: Close on the house. Come home sooooo exhausted.

Saturday: Accomplish lots of wonderful things around the house in preparation for neglecting it all in the coming week since we'll be spending most of our time at the Monstrosity. I said I didn't want to blog about laundry and ironing anymore, so I won't mention that I got it ALL done on Saturday, got the house in pretty good shape, made a great big dinner for my family, the left-overs of which were immediately put into a crock-pot and added to in order to make a scrumptious dinner to take to the Monstrosity today so we'd have something good and healthy and tasty and CHEAP to eat. I'm so proud of me! :-)

Sunday we got up and drove down to Alex City for service. It was sort of an impromptu trip, but a necessary one. The folks there find themselves without a pastor at this point and we needed to go and be in service with them. We had a wonderful time there and were blessed by the good folks and their sweet spirits. We've been doing lots of praying for that church here lately and will now be praying for God to send them a pastor. I know He can do that.

We made it back to Bessemer with some time to spare, so we stopped in at the Washburns' house fore the sole purpose of praying for Sister Tammy who is sick. ~ahem~ ;-) We enjoyed our visit with them, though apparently a little too much since we were a minute or two late for church. They hadn't actually started yet, so maybe that doesn't count...

I was sooooo tired during service--all day yesterday, really. And dreading having to go and work at that great big giant house! Ha! That is a horrible way to go into this chapter of our lives so I really began praying for God to give me some strength and energy--and He did. :-)

We loaded up lots of drinks and paper towels and cleaning supplies and left the house at 8:00 this morning to go put in a full day at the Monstrosity. The kids had done school on Saturday so they'd be free today and wouldn't have to worry with it. For a long time it felt like we weren't accomplishing much. The house is so BIG and every time you turn around you see something that needs done and start on it, only to be distracted by something else that needs done. I fear it may continue this course for quite some time. Ha! And on the other hand, sometimes I look around and think, "You know, there's really not THAT much to do here to get it ready to paint and wallpaper!" And once we get to the paint and wallpaper stage all that will remain are the floors. Of course, painting and wallpapering this place isn't going to be a project for a lazy afternoon. But I'm already formulating my plan to make things more efficient. We'll see if I can pull if off. ;-)

I spent most of my time in these two rooms today. The half bath...

And the kitchen. Don't worry. It will be beautiful when we're finished with it. ;-)
Charlie thoroughly enjoyed his first day at the Monstrosity. He spent the first hour or so running from one room to the next to the next to the next, investigating EVERYTHING. He romped outside and explored the woods with the kids quite a bit, too. But by mid-afternoon he had found himself a nice cozy sunbeam to claim. I was jealous.
The first thing to go this morning: the crazy cornice from the hall of mirrors, otherwise known as the dining hall. Ha!
The kids were great to pitch in and help off and on all day today--when they weren't outside exploring their new 3 acres and collecting golf balls from all over the property. Did I mention this house sits right next to a golf course?! It will provide us with lots of memories, I'm sure. ;-) Anyway, here's Joe removing cabinet doors and their handles in the master bath...
The Ridlespurges stopped by for a few minutes this evening with a WMB question for James, but while they were here Brother Ridlespurge got roped into helping with our demolition projects. ;-) James was having a horrible time trying to get the stove hood out. He had unscrewed and disconnected everything he could see, but it still wouldn't budge. Brother Ridlespurge went and slammed his fists down on it gorilla style, sparks flew everywhere (it was still wired up!!!), and it was soon in the dumpster where it belonged. Guess what had been holding it up... DUCT TAPE. Hahahahahaha! I love this house. :-) By the way, there are wire nuts on those electrical wires now--no more sparks. James picked this up and said, "Am I working on an oven hood or a car???"
Kids hard at work...
And Sam's feat must be recorded. James had to run lots of errands today (get the utilities switched into our name, pick up supplies for me, etc.), so he took Sam to the dining room... the room that is COVERED, ceiling to floor, with these hideous gold marbled mirror tiles. He gave him some gloves, goggles, and a screwdriver and got him going...
Sam worked non-stop for about two hours, first taking out the bottom four rows of tiles all the way around the room, then finding a step stool so he could finish the upper half--the top row on his tip-toes. That kid is SUCH a good, hard worker!
Very... last... tile...
Ta-ha!!! Somebody do the math for me. 16 tiles long by 8 tiles high times two walls (minus a regular sized doorway) and then the other two walls (one with a large double door opening) and the other with a window--these walls are 10x8. My brain's not up for it, but that's a whole mess of tiles!
We had our left-over stew for lunch today and everybody loved it. I think we even have enough for lunch tomorrow. I was more efficient than I thought on Saturday! :-) By 5:30 we were all starving, but not ready to quit work yet. James went and picked up some Little Caesar's Pizza for dinner and it tasted great. That means we really were hungry. ;-)

I got all of the kitchen cabinets vacuumed and scrubbed out and ready to paint today, though I'm not finished prying all of those stupid press and stick tiles out of the drawers in the corner. What kind of a weird-o puts press and stick tiles in drawers?! I've got at least another hour's worth of work just to get the rest of them gone. Four and a half drawers to go.

In the process of cleaning out cabinets I found two interesting items: A cruddy McDonald's pot-holder and a little case of food coloring. Wonder how old they are... And then I removed a drawer from a desk station in the kitchen and found all sorts of little treasures that had fallen out of the drawer and into the casing years ago...

The S&H Green Stamps were by far the coolest (Mom says she bought her first set of dishes with Green Stamps!), followed by the Interstate Insurance card with the band-aids inside. I was wondering aloud what else we might find when James piped up, "Why don't you find a few wads of hundred dollar bills next time." Ha! Wouldn't that be nice. ;-)
We finally called it quits at about 6:45 and headed home to the Powells' house. This is what the crowd looked like before we were even half way home. They'd worked hard and had a full day!
The plan for tomorrow is the same as today, except we'll find a way to throw school into the mix.

We found out tonight that there is a discount wall paper outlet in Birmingham. The Powells also gave us lots of good tips for where to find what in just about every category we could need. That will be sooooo helpful. I'm anxious to get everything out of the house that we'll be replacing and get everything all cleaned up and scrubbed down so then we can start doing the fun work--making things look good instead of worse! Ha!

Started on the House!

2011-10-22T19:59:00.002-06:00

I have completed the first four hours of work on the new house! Wa-Hoo!!! But before I get into that, let me ask a question.

IF...

...a person was to be moving… and she knew from experience that they were the kind of family who would buy a real cheap house that needed lots of work… and that they’d have the privilege of living in a beautiful home while they fixed up the one they bought… and that they would need access to important things like PAINT SWATCHES in order to fix up said house… and IF said person had thought while packing up the previous house, “Hhmmm, I’d better pack these paint colors in a place where I know I will have easy access to them and be able to find them right away when we need them—and make sure they’re not stuffed somewhere that will only be discovered after the renovation is completed and we’re moving in”… and IF said person is SURE that she packed these paint swatches with such a thought in mind…

BUT said person has gone to the storage unit and looked in the two places she was sure they would be (the box with the contents of the junk drawer and the big blue bin full of paint and wallpaper supplies) and was saddened to learn that they weren’t there… and then said person had an epiphany and rushed home to look in the two little plastic bins in the top of her closet—the ones that were the “catch all” at the end of the move—just sure that the swatches must be there (but of course they weren’t)… and then said person looked through the dresser where she keeps some of her important books and things… and then in the utility room with some cleaning supplies… and then in the drawer by the bed… and then in her laptop case (would’ve found ‘em if I’d thought to be ‘em there)… and then in the little box of her desk supplies that was in the back corner of the boys' closet... and then went to the basement and rummaged through dozens of boxes of miscellaneous junk… then came and emptied out the front closet and dug through all of those boxes… then started looking in the Powell’s junk drawers just in case… then on top of the fridge and underneath the couches because she’s running out of ideas…

But if this person is still sure that she packed the dumb paint swatches in a SMART PLACE where she was SURE she would FIND THEM…

WHERE SHOULD SHE LOOK NEXT????

Now that I’ve asked my question, back to the subject at hand. I’ve spent the first four hours devoted to the Monstrosity in the futile pursuit of paint swatches. Why, you may ask, is it so important to locate those colors? Why not just pick new paint colors? In fact, said person’s daughter did ask such a question. She was answered with maniacal laughter, flailing arms and colorful stories about purchasing many, many buckets of paint that were beautiful on the dippy little card but gag inducing on a wall. When you finally acquire a color that you love in your house instead of on the card it is vital, yes, even sanity saving, that you not lose it. Especially when you have just bought a HUGE house that needs paint. Everywhere. Desperately. So the search continues…

But I am TOTALLY out of ideas. No clue where to search next. Maybe they’re in the crock-pots that I couldn’t find a week or two ago. Or maybe…

WE OWN THE MONSTROSITY!!!

2011-10-22T08:38:00.003-06:00

I'm still in a state of mixed thankfulness and shock. Now I'm sort of regretting that I haven't recorded ever single detail along the way because it is way, way, way, way, wa-a-a-a-a-ay miraculous that this actually happened! I'll just share the last little miracle.

Yesterday morning we got a copy of the termite inspection report that was done in August. We had to laugh when we saw that it was done by a man whose ministers license James revoked last year. Not that the last part is funny (!), just that it was crazy that he was the one to inspect the house that we would later buy. Anyway, the report showed that there was evidence of possible infestation in two locations in the house--both of which were near places where the gutter was broken and there was some water damage that needed replaced anyway. So we felt good about proceeding.

We did devotions and school, had brunch, then headed to Sam's Club for the first of our errands. While standing in the aisle looking at a dehumidifier to put in the moldy basement, Laura called. Insert dramatic music here. She was calling to say that the attorney who was doing the closing said that he had to submit the termite inspection report to our bank for approval. Uh-oh. Bad, bad news. It didn't make sense to us because a termite inspection is not required by our bank and we had not ordered one--this report is from when an inspection was made by the last guy who tried to buy the house. Why would it be sent to our bank??? Because as soon as they see it, it's all over. They are never going to give us a conventional loan on a house that has mold (that was miraculous enough) AND "an active infestation." (Is it freaking anybody out that we WANTED to by a moldy, infested house?! Ha!) The bank has been sooooooo picky about everything and has required sooooooo much--there's just no way. This new report was going to sink the deal.

We hung up, sighed, left the de-humidifier aisle (wouldn't be needing one of those now) and went to get a pretzel and a slurpy at the front of the store. To celebrate? Ha! I was disappointed, but didn't sense any tears coming on--I think I cried it out last time we lost this house, or thought we had. Laura called back and James (with his best poker face) just said "uh-huh" a lot. I just prayed. "God, you know that I want this house. But I really and truly do mean it from the bottom of my heart when I say that I only want it if it's what YOU want for us--and if it's not then thank you soooooo much for taking it away from us." It felt so good to just surrender and give it up one more time. James hung up and I fully expected him to say that it was all over. Instead he said, "The bank doesn't care about the termites. We're good to go."

WHAT?!?!? Are you KIDDING me????? What kind of a lousy bank loans on a house full of moldy termites?! HA! I don't know, but I'm soooooo thankful! It just AMAZES me how many things God has worked out for us on this place.

And for those of you who are creeped out, we are going to have the mold and termites tended to right away--we don't have any intention of living with either.

So we went ahead and bought the dehumidifier, stopped at the bank to get a check for the down payment, met Laura at the house for one final walk-through, headed to the title office, signed our lives away for about an hour (was it that long? It seemed like forever!), then sat in the lobby and waited and waited and waited to get word that the attorney had received the signed documents from the sellers (of course--they would have to be late with that! Why break the pattern now?!) and FINALLY got the congratulative hand shake and went back to the house to claim our set of keys from the lock box--and give the grand tour to the Ridlespurges. We had texted several people, but they were the only ones who could join us. It was so great showing it to them. They were all giddy and excited and seemed to be close to shedding tears of joy--they were at least as excited as we were! Ha! It's because they've helped us pray and pray and pray over this house, I'm sure. I'm so happy that they already feel at home there. We hope to be the hang-out for all of the church folks once we get settled. :-)

When it was all said and done I felt soooooo exhausted. I couldn't decide if I was just slap wore out from the months of praying and thinking and hoping and praying and wondering and praying and... well, you know. Or if I was exhausted just thinking about all of the work to be done in the coming months! Ha! It's going to be GREAT. :-)

To all those who have helped us pray,

THANK YOU!

The Suspense is Killing Me

2011-10-21T06:37:00.004-06:00

Okay, so it's probably not THAT bad but it did keep my mind spinning and hinder my ability to fall asleep for a good long while last night.

Disclaimer: This is not one of those fun kid posts I said I needed to get back to. This is another this-is-what's-going-on-in-our-lives posts. ~sigh~ Sorry.

We are very, very, VERY close to closing on the Monstrosity. As in, about 8 hours away from closing. We have been told by our bank that everything is set and in order and we are READY to close. ~gasp!~ I've been experiencing varying degrees of "I knew God could do this!," "WHAT?! NO WAY!," "Are you kidding me--is this some kind of a cruel joke???," and just plain, "Na-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-w-w-w-w..." throughout the past week. Isn't it strange how we can pray and pray and pray for something and really and truly believe that God is able to answer miraculously, and then still feel surprised when He does?! Ha! Makes me think of the Church praying for Peter when he was in jail. An angel set him free, he went to the house where they were gathered together to pray (and no doubt he was included in their prayers), Rhoda was so excited she left him outside and rushed to tell the others... and everybody told her she was crazy. Ha! We are sooooo much like that.

The house has mold. We knew that all along. We thought the bank would put the kibosh on the whole thing when they learned that. They didn't. It was noted that it is present, but that the house is livable. (Of course, by now it may have carried the house away--I've never dealt with mold before, but it is nasty stuff. We intend to take care of that muchos prontos after closing.) The latest twist is that as of last night (now that we have the final "go ahead--we are READY TO CLOSE!" from our bank), the crazy real estate company lady e-mailed Laura to tell her that a termite inspection was done in August on this house and found that there was "an active infestation." Hahahahahaha! Of course! Not only is there soggy, smelly growth that rots your house away here, but there are also little bugs who nibble away at it until there's nothing left but a pile of sawdust. The south is a strange and sometimes frightening place, let me tell you. I don't even know if you can GET mold and termite inspections out west. Mold is only ever seen on cheese that's been in the fridge too long and termites are reported about as often as Bigfoot. But in Alabama...

Not that I'm complaining. I'm just still adjusting. ;-)

So now we find ourselves in an interesting predicament. We CAN buy this house. Everything is set and in place. All we have to do is show up and sign the papers. But since we just learned this new bugs-live-in-and-dine-on-your-house information last night, there's probably not time to have it checked out to see how serious it is. Termites live here. It's a fact of life. And if you're hoping to buy a house that doesn't have mold, well, good luck. If it's vacant, it's moldy. We feel prepared to deal with the mold. And if it is a mild to moderate termite infestation, that can be handled, too. But what if it's really, really bad??? James has been reading horror stories (as he's prone to do at times like this--it drives me crazy!!! But I am LOVING and SUBMITTING to him, Ladies' Retreat Ladies--not clamoring at all. Ha!) about house deals gone bad. He read about one yesterday where the mold was so bad and extensive it took $80,000 to fix. I don't see how that's even possible but if such a horrible thing happened to somebody rest assured James knows about it. He also knows that Brother Horton bought a house one time and then learned that it was infested with termites and the entire floor had to be taken out and replaced. OUCH. Mom knew that story, but was surprised to learn that James knew it. I had to laugh. James knows all of the bad things that have ever happened to anyone. How else would we properly brace ourselves for the worst--since it's bound to happen to us too, you know. Thus my optimistic personality once again butts up against James' dismal, pessimistic one. HA! Okay, so it's not really that bad. Truth be known, he's probably much more realistic than I am. I live in a happy little make-believe world where you always expect the best from everyone, think them all to be trust-worthy and out to help you (okay, except for those realtors over at Bentley), and just sort of blindly assume that all will be well at the end of the day. You should visit sometime. It really is quite nice. :-) James, on the other hand, lives in a world riddled with criminals and natural disasters who alternately attack your home and family and there is little to no hope of avoiding catastrophic conclusions to most business dealings. Okay, okay, so he's not THAT bad... but you get the point.

And he is almost that bad. ;-)

I'm a little off the subject. The house. Do we buy? Do we not buy? We've been doing a lot of praying about it last night and today but frankly there are a lot of other things going on right now of much greater and eternal significance, so our attentions haven't been exclusively on this house stuff--which is the way it should be anyway. We are going to try to get a copy of the report from whoever did the inspection in August (no doubt for the guy who was trying to buy this house before I started praying that God would take it from him and give it to us... Or perhaps before he learned that little critters have eaten the innards out of it...) and see if we can learn how bad it is. If we CAN'T get a copy of the report and if we CAN'T get a termite dude out to look at it on such sort notice, well, then we just have to make a blind decision: buy and hope it's not too bad, or don't buy and wonder if we blew it. Neither is a comfortable decision to make.

So if anybody reads this post before 4:00pm whatever time zone Alabama is in (it must be Central, right???), please pray for God to give us wisdom and help us know the right decision to make. I've asked Him for this house. And a-a-a-a-a-a-a-all along the way it seems like He has moved mountains--many of them--to get us to this point. But as I've prayed and asked Him for it, I've also thrown in the disclaimers: "UNLESS You see that it would somehow be a detriment to us spiritually or financially..." I'm still feeling like it's the right thing to proceed. But then, in my happy little imaginary world everything always turns out well. ;-) I think even James is ready to proceed (unless we learn that the joint is about to crumble because of the little intruders), but I know that we both just want God to direct our path. He sees the end from the beginning. And we want the ending He's chosen for us. Please pray that He'll help us to find it. Thank you!

What a Blog Ought to Be

2011-10-19T12:01:00.002-06:00

I just picked up Becki's Book of Blog and read the last two pages. I started blogging in 2006 and at the end of the year I printed all of the entries out to keep as a journal with the intention of doing the same thing at the close of every year. I'm only 5 years behind now. ;-) But as I read the last page I was reminded how much FUN it used to be to blog! I didn't write about the dumb hum-drum things like which day I did laundry and all of that unimportant, boring stuff that's not worth remembering (like I blog about now)--I blogged about my KIDS and about the fun and crazy and embarrassing happenings of our lives. When I read through all of those little memories that seemed insignificant at the time I'm amazed at how much I enjoy remembering how life and my kids were at that particular time. They've gotten older, but they still make me laugh all the time over the dumbest little things--but I fail to blog about most of them! I've got to get back to it. THAT'S what I want to remember in years to come. Not laundry.

So as a sample of what a blog is really supposed to be like, let me submit a section of my entry from the last page of my 2006 blog, nearly five years ago:

The other day we were all sitting at the table and Joe was absentmindedly nibbling on his toast. He glanced down at it and was shocked at what he saw. "Hey, Mom! My toast looks like Virginia!!!" Strange thing for a 4 year old to say. Stranger yet: he was right--his toast was in the perfect shape of Virginia. Strangest of all: he knew it. Katie wasn't to be outdone, so she began nibbling away at her own toast. "Look, Mom! I made Tennessee!" Did a pretty good job of it, too. Forming states out of their food has been a regular mealtime activity since that day. It got me to wondering if other children out there spend the lunch hour whittling away with their teeth in an attempt to create the shape of Texas out of their sandwiches. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "Texas toast," hu?! (Ba-dum-bum-ching! Sorry, couldn't pass that one up!)

The kids helped me make cinnamon rolls a few days ago. Whoever said that letting your kids help with such things will save you time in the long run (because they'll learn helpful skills earlier on, blah, blah, blah) was out of their gourd. I do my best to include the kids in things like this, but I must confess that it's often because I know I should include them, not because I want to. While I was rolling out the dough Katie started saying, "Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!" and running in circles to an unknown destination. She finally found what she was looking for: the napkins. She had to sneeze and knew that if she sneezed into her hands I would make her go wash them... for the 8th time. So she picked up the entire stack of napkins and sneezed into them, rather than just the top one. I was trying to not overreact to that when I turned around to see Joe running the rolling pin up and down his forehead. "JOE!!!! What are you doing?!?!?! Give me that rolling pin! I'll take care of that, you go wash up again..." That's when I noticed Sam, who had both fists full of my freshly rolled out dough. I was about to tell him to unhand the dough before I broke his precious little fingers when I saw Joe (on his way to wash up) step on one of the plastic placemats that had been dropped on the floor and *whoosh* his cowboy boot went straight up in the air in front of him and he landed flat on his back with a mighty thud. Mind you, all of this happened in the span of about 30 seconds. What had begun building as frustration in me suddenly came out in the form of teary laughter and I suddenly realized that, yes, indeed, it is absolutely more fun to make cinnamon rolls with the kids than without them. It is NOT easier. But it is certainly more fun. And that makes it worth it all. And somehow, the cinnamon rolls turned out perfect!

Katie has had a particularly clumsy week, even for her. There was one day that seemed to be especially bad. She tripped over the same 4" step from the den into the living room numerous times, each incident ending with a long and lanky girl lying spread eagle in one room or the other. (We've lived here for 3 and a half years; you'd think at some point she'd learn to look out for her usual danger zones.) Same thing happened on the kitchen floor once that day, too--and there's no step there. She hurt her knee doing something or another and who knows what else. Then she and Joe were playing in the utility room (don't ask--I don't know why) and I heard a bad scream. Katie screams frequently and I've learned to judge the differences in tone and pitch pretty well. There's the "Hey, you took my toy" scream. Then there's the, "Ouch, I just did something painful" scream. There's the "I'm just crabby and need a good spankin' and maybe a nap, too" scream. And so on. The scream I heard in this particular incident was an "I'm REALLY hurting this time" scream. I could tell it was the real deal and was going to check on her when she suddenly came flying through the room--I mean right through, and kept on going--wailing all the way. She made another appearance and departure before I could even get my first words out. She continued her running and jumping and screaming and pretty soon I had joined in on the screaming part: "KATIE!!! Come in here and tell me--or at least show me!--what is wrong!!!!" "I ca-a-a-a-a-a-a-an't!" said the blur as it passed once more. I kept yelling at her to come to me and she just kept sailing through the room at warp speed saying "I can't!!!! It hu-u-u-u-u-u-u-urts!!!!!," her voice trailing behind her speeding body. I began to wonder if something might be broken or perhaps even severed--though obviously not a leg. It seemed like a long time (although it retrospect it was probably 20 seconds or less) until she was finally able to come to me and show me the fingers that had been smashed in the hinge side of a closing door. (No serious injuries, in case you're wondering.) The whole ordeal was frustrating, a little frightening to begin with, and all-in-all quite fascinating. I just kept wondering... What must it be like to have absolutely no control whatsoever over one's own body? I don't think I've ever experienced that before. Is it something that training can cure?! If so, how do you set up that training session??? I would really like to be able to help this child out, but there are so many times when I find myself shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders. I don't have a clue what to do with her! Help???

Then there's Sam. I was making lunch the other day and turned around to find him down on his hands and knees, licking the kitchen floor. "Sam!!!" I said, "What are you doing?!?!?" His expression showed a little confusion and a twinge of annoyance as he replied, "I spilled my juice." He was looking at me like I was some kind of a freak for asking such a dumb question--wasn't it obvious?!

*sigh* So the big question of the day is... WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!?!? I'm raising a bunch of little hoodlums who seem to think I'm weird for not understanding when they lose any and all self-control of their own person--or lick their juice up off the floor. ?! I'm doing the work--really! I'm not a slacker!!! I'm really, really, really trying to make decent human beings out of these kids, but I think they're about to whip me. They probably have secret meetings during nap time, planning their next strategic maneuver. "Okay, Joe--it's your turn. Maybe you should tie your bedsheet to the ceiling fan and..." All in an attempt to make Mama snap and end up in the loony bin so they can have free reign of the house.

It's late and I'm bushed. All the more after recounting the events of the past few days. I think I'm going to bed. Right after I go check on those little angels of mine... and make sure they're securely hand-cuffed to their beds until morning! HA!

See? Wasn't that so much more fun than, "I did laundry today... cooked soup... scrubbed a floor... blah, blah, blah..." I've tried a few times to amend my poor blogging habits, but have failed to ever get back to the JOY of blogging and creative writing. I did pull out a McManus book last night though, Mom, so maybe that will get my creative juices flowing and help me out. ;-)

Alabama Ladies Retreat 2011... Again

2011-10-18T10:10:00.004-06:00

Having two Ladies' Retreats in one year is the best idea anybody ever had. Of course, a week ago I would've hurt anybody who dared to suggest such a thing. HA! It's a ton of work, but it's always so, so, sooooo worth it. :-)

My last post was entitled "Spare Time." HA. I quickly ran out of that. Thursday was a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong day of Retreat prep, mostly baking: cinnamon rolls, poppy seed bread, marsh bars, Clark crackers, cheese bread, and something else I’m forgetting. That night I had to finish up on my lesson… again. I never did get to the place where I felt the big “That’s it” sigh of relief, but I knew I had put lots and lots of prayer and time into it and just had to go in with the hope that God would help me. As it turns out, even during and after the class I never felt just real great about it—Mom felt like she blew it with her class, too—but several people came and thanked us both and asked for our notes, so I guess it couldn’t have been as bad as we had imagined! Ha! I know I put my heart into it and did my best. I just enjoy it a lot more when I can really FEEL the Lord blessing and guiding me while I teach. He was laying low this weekend. ;-) Anyway…

I also worked on a slide-show to accompany my class that night. Got about half done with it before switching gears and trying to come up with some definite decisions about Fun Time. The main criteria: little preparation and no cost! :-) I can’t remember what all else I had to work on that night, but I finally made myself go to bed at 2:00am because I knew it would be dumb to go into a Retreat any more wasted than that. I had been up until 3:00am working on my class the night before and I was already really feeling it!

Friday morning James was a dear and started cooking while I sliced and diced—sausage, bacon, potatoes, eggs, onion, bell pepper… Throw in some cheese and 30 tortillas and you’ve got a pretty big pile of breakfast burritos = brunch for Ladies’ Retreat, along with the fruit salad I threw together, the cinnamon rolls, and these great little banana nut mini-muffins Sister Tammy made. James did all of the cooking for the burritos--all I did was slice and dice and then roll them up and wrap them.

I finally started packing for Retreat (!) and had everything marked off the list in short order. Before I knew it it was 1:00, time to leave. I slapped together a half a peanut butter sandwich and hopped in the van with it. I had been looking forward to driving myself to Retreat and having some nice, peaceful, quiet ALONE time on the way. I had just started to settle in when *wham-o* there was the exit to the campground! I think it took less than an hour and a half to get there and it just wasn't nearly long enough. I had to laugh when I heard some of the gals at Retreat say on Saturday night, "I'd better get to bed--I have to drive home tomorrow." HA! Everything is so CLOSE here. I don't know how you'd even have a chance to get sleepy before reaching your destination, but I guess it's all in your frame of reference. ;-)

I got to the campground an hour or two before registration was to begin, found Campground John, toured the lodge we'd be using, and got busy hauling things in and setting up. Before long Brother & Sister Ridlespurge showed up and he commenced getting the sound system all set up--and taping a cord to the floor so nobody would trip and get hurt. His tape was almost the death of me several times throughout the Retreat, but I know his intentions were good so I forgive him. Ha! The campers started filing in a few at a time and sifting out to either the Talkers room or the Sleepers room--which I heard was actually the Snorers room.

That first night was the same for me as the first night of every other Church function--I felt distracted. I hate that! Especially when I'm supposed to be in charge! I am a horrible moderator and am extremely uncomfortable doing it, but it's ten times worse when I feel distracted and out of it. I decided early on that I'd do as little moderating as possible! Ha! I just handed it over to the devotion and music lady (Sister Allene Cox) and asked her to hand the service over to the guest speaker (Sister Amy Anders) when she was finished. ~whew~ That's relieving. They both did an AMAZING job.

Sister Cox passed out paper that had been aged (I kept sniffing mine to enjoy the coffee smell that still lingered), rolled, and tied with a ribbon. Our theme was "The Knowledge of His Will" from Colossians 1:9 and she spoke of His will as a last will and testament--the things that He has given to us... IF we meet the trust stipulations. Wow! She is so amazingly creative and the things she had to share were so, so, sooooo good. The first night she talked about God granting us peace from our past failures (forgiveness) IF we practice forgiveness ourselves. The next devotion conveyed the promise of joy in our homes IF we keep our homes free from pollutants from without and within. The third promised total access to God's wardrobe and collection of apparel IF we yield our own thoughts and desires concerning fashion to Him. And the fourth devotion promised the victory of the Lord and peace to sleep restfully knowing that no enemy can penetrate the perimeter of our home and family IF we place our trust in His strength, adorn ourselves with it, and apply His principles to our lives and families.

She shared so many things that were sooooo... convicting! She talked a lot about our relationship with our husband and our duties to him. She read and excerpt from a 1950's home economics textbook teaching girls how to be good housewives. I just now Googled it and copied it from the blog she was reading from:

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you’ll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
• Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
• Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
• Be happy to see him.
• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
• Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
• Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
• Your goal: To try and make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquility where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
• Don’t greet him with complaints and problems.
• Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
• Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
• Don’t ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
• A good wife always knows her place.

And here’s an excerpt of the “modern” Good Wife’s guide, written by a reader of the woman’s blog. She thought she was very clever, too:

• Be sure he has good, easy to follow directions to the quality restaurants that deliver curbside. This way when he arrives home he’ll have exactly what he wants for dinner and it will be ready when he arrives and you get fed too. You can be a dear and call in the order. We know how he doesn’t like to do that.
• Prepare yourself…a good cocktail will work.
• Be a little gay (we now know this means happy) The cocktail will relax you and you’ll appear to be happy when he arrives
• Clear away clutter today this means turn the computer off and the tv on and kick stuff out of the way to make a straight path to the tv. That’s all he’ll notice.

Do I even need to continue? Doesn’t the love and respect for her husband just ooze out? Here’s a few more just to drive the point home…

• Be happy to see him.. This may take several cocktails.
• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him….more cocktails.
• Listen to him. This should be getting easy now after several cocktails.
• He’s coming home with a great dinner and if he’s late make sure he knows how to use the microwave to reheat; if he really comes home late and without dinner have your dinner delivered and eat without him (just be sure he pays for your dinner when he does get home). No need to try to understand his world of strain, you were out there all day too.

Of course, as Sister Cox was reading the 1950's version there was plenty of laughter. It all seems a little extreme, doesn't it? Even for the ladies who truly try to be good, submissive wives--by the time she got to the "fluffing his pillow" part toward the end--well, we were all goners! Ha! But as she began reading the modern version and you see the contrast not only in the duties (or lack of them) but in the spirit that drives them, suddenly the first list didn't seem quite so ridiculous after all. The whole outlook and philosophy about women and wives has changed so much in the past few decades and digressed from (like it or not) a much more biblical, reverent attitude to a selfish, lazy, irreverent one. The latter would disgust any woman with a heart for God who knows anything at all about what the Bible has to say about marriage. Needless to say, there was plenty of conviction floating around in the room by the time that devotion was over with! Ha! It's strange. Upon hearing the words submit, honour, reverence, and obey (the words used in the Bible) in connection with our husbands, the initial response is to feel like it just isn't fair. But we saw over and over again throughout the weekend--scripturally--that it is not only our duty before God, but also our honor and privilege to do so! And we were shown the great joy that comes when we fulfill the "trust stipulations" and yield our will and our way to GOD'S will and GOD'S way.

One lady (you can guess who--HA!) said to me, "So, you're telling me we all paid good money to come up here and feel like dirt?! My husband never feels like dirt when he comes home from Men's Retreat!" I told her I'd mention that last part to my husband and see if he can pull some strings and do something about that. HA!

There was also good instruction on raising your kids--and reminders of the promises of God when we do things as He has outlined in His word for us to do. Sister Cox shared that there are three important elements involved in training: 1) Tell them; 2) Give it to them in writing (Bible); and 3) Show them by example. She also reminded us that every moment of the day we are programing our children. WOW. God, help me to do so much better!!! I want to be a better wife and a better Mom. I NEED to be.

Okay, it's all jumbled up but those are actually things that were shared all throughout the Retreat, not just in Sister Cox's devotions.

Sister Amy preached such good, solid, anointed messages throughout the weekend. She took the approach that in order to be find the knowledge of God's will, we must first be on His wheel--her first message was about the potter cleaning out the middle portion of a vessel as He molds it (getting rid of our own will) and making it into what He wants it to be, the second was on going through the fire and allowing the trials and hard times to make us stronger and able to endure and shine better for the Lord just as a vessel benefits from the fire, and the third was about being used of God to accomplish His purposes just as a vessel isn't intended to just sit empty, it is intended to serve a purpose. Good, good stuff.

I taught a jumbled up class about a wide assortment of disjointed thoughts (ha!), the main thrust (I think?) being the difference between the clamorous woman mentioned in Proverbs and the meek and quiet spirited woman mentioned in 1 Peter. Mom's class was on the Titus 2 woman and detailed all of those touchy women subjects that Sister Cox was already pouncing all over--being a keeper at home (yes, we learned about our responsibilities around the house and that we should always be within just a few minutes of being company ready. Oops. Gotta do better on that one, too!), and about loving your husband and being obedient to him, loving your children and the proper way to really do that (the two points I most recall are that you love them by loving and honoring their dad and you love them by practicing biblical discipline--that does not include "time out," but does include the old fashioned way!), oh, all kinds of good stuff. By Saturday afternoon I was already feeling sort of like I was on overload. There had been so much good information and teaching and preaching and so many things to absorb and that need to be applied to my life--it's like I wasn't sure I could take any more in at all, but it just kept coming. I was so thankful that I had opted to go for Prayer Groups this time instead of TAP Groups (best idea ever, Emilee--thank you!!!) because it cut down on having any more instruction and information and provided more time to pray and talk to God, which is really what we needed.

I found it amazing that in this Retreat that focused so much on marriage and families, it applied to each and every lady there. In fact, the ONLY unmarried person there was our guest speaker--and God used her to bless us all. There were no widows there or people in situations that would have made the things taught irrelevant. And I was sooooo blessed to hear the testimonies about how the different ladies were touched and convicted and blessed by the Retreat. One girl told me as we were leaving, "Best Retreat ever!" I've heard several more echo that sentiment and it just makes me so happy! I love it when God really and truly speaks to our hearts and shows us our failings and what He expects of us--and when we are sensitive to it and respond in humility and repentance. ~Aaaaaaahhhh~ It just feels so good. And it's SO EXCITING to see a whole little group of ladies responding like they did! They would testify one at a time about how "this whole Retreat was JUST FOR ME." There were only 19 of us there, but it really felt like God just sort of hand-picked each one for such a special and life-changing weekend. It was GREAT.

Let's see, what else... Fun time was one of those things I never asked anybody to do so I ended up doing it myself. As much as I love HAVING fun, I'm very poor at organizing it! The last game wasn't nearly as fun as the write-up implied it would be, but the first three were good. :-) We did a Bingo-type game where you had to mill around and find people who fit each category. Then we had two teams of five do a caterpillar race. They stand in a line with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. The girl in front hops, then the next girl, then the next until they get to the end of the line. When the last girl hops she shouts the team name and they all hop once together, then start again one at a time. I'm not sure it was every played properly and according to the rules, but it was great fun to watch anyway!

(I managed once again to take NO pictures of Retreat, so I stole some that Sister Emily posted on Facebook and I'm hoping she doesn't sue me. HA!) Here are a few shots of the Caterpillar Races...

Then we had two teams of five who had to line up quickly in order of whatever we shouted (age, shoe size, birthday, height)--but they were all blindfolded. HA! That was great, too, especially because one team one EVERY time (I didn't realize Cindy Anders and both of her daughters were on one team, along with a sister-in-law, making it much easier for them) and the other team ALWAYS just stood there for a few minutes looking completely bewildered and confused--especially Emily Wallace. My Mom was cracking up over it and finally demonstrated "The Emily Face" for her so she'd know what she looks like. She said it's her thinking face. HA! We didn't get any pictures of Sister Emily actually doing "The Emily," but these are fun anyway...

Sister Marie seemed to totaly misplace her team and Mom was helping her get back into line. :-)

This is a picture of some of the girls who climbed the mountain. Some of them do this every year during free time on Saturday afternoon. I share the picture not because I was there (I wasn't... I'd been looking forward to that nap for three or four days! Ha!), but because I think it's a great shot. And I'm hoping it will inspire me to join them next year. :-)

Saturday night after service we played Guesstures all the way through TWICE, with six or seven players on each team! That takes a while (!), but everybody was having a blast and laughing a whole lot. All I can say about that one is that Marie Warren is CRAZY!!! Ha! She was the one who really struggled with the idea of leaving her husband and little boy at home to take care of one another. She finally got over that and was determined to come. And I'm pretty sure she'll never miss another Ladies' Retreat as long as she lives. Ha! It was great having her there.

Some of us also played Bananagrams and I think I'm addicted. I must have that game. I've seen on Facebook and blogs that other people had it and seemed to love it, but it really looked too much like Scrabble to be much fun. I was wrong. I love it. Must have it. And must find other people who like fast-paced word games to play it with me. Like, every day. HA! Maybe Katie and Joe will fall in love with it, too. :-)

Hhmmm. Seems like there are a bunch of other things I could share about the Retreat, but this is already way, way long. To sum up: it was fantastic. :-) And I am feeling more and more at home all the time here. I still miss the folks out west (especially when I think about the fantastic Ladies' Retreat THEY'RE going to have in a few weeks... without me!!!), but I'm so thankful that God has placed me in a location with so many wonderful people who are hungry for God and His ways. I was even thinking about how great it was that we had these two Retreats 6 months apart instead of having to wait a whole year like normal--because it enabled me to spend some more time with the ladies and really get to know them better. I'm feeling a little more like one of them. And I love that. I hate being the new kid and like things so much better when I'm just one of the girls! :-)

~whew~ Ramble, ramble, ramble.

Sister Ridlespurge rode home with me because we realized I could get all the sound equipment in my van and it would be silly for her husband to drive all the way up there to get her (a whole hour--ha!) when I could just take her and all the stuff with me. We had a nice trip home and confessed all of our wifely faults to each other (Mom said at Retreat that we had to confess or we'd most likely forget and not follow through with what God laid on our hearts, so we got right to it--ha!) and met up with our families--and Brother Grimes--at Bojangles. It felt so good to eat some real food instead of JUNK. I ate sooooo much junk this weekend! ~Bleagh~

I was soooooo tired Sunday afternoon. Brother Hopkins had us Retreat ladies testify that night and I have no clue what I said (I can't sort things out that quickly after getting home--and I was too exhausted to think anyway!), but was so blessed by hearing Sister Washburn and Sister Ridlespurge testify. After church we all waited around for a while until the men were done with their meeting (better than a business conference--we girls could sit and talk this way! Ha!), then we finished off the rest of the breakfast burritos that were left over from Retreat and some more of the junk food we'd brought home. We made it home at about 10:30, but it felt way, way later than that! By the time we got all unloaded and had checked e-mail and all of that I think it was midnight.

Our whole family slept in on Monday and I was soooooo glad! (So much for Day 1 of being a better wife and mom! HA!) I finally got up, but took a while to get rolling. I stripped the sheets, got the laundry going, and started cleaning the bathroom, then we finally started school after lunch. Easy day for Katie and Sam, not so much for Joe. But then, Joe is way too easily distracted and could have been finished much sooner if he would just concentrate!

I did manage to make a nice dinner for my husband and kids (would've felt backslidden after this Retreat if I didn't at least do that much! Ha!)--parmesan chicken and spaghetti. There were still lots of goodies left over from Retreat, so no need to make dessert. Later that night I sat down with a piece of warm homemade gingerbread topped with whipped cream and a cup of hot spiced cider. ~Aaaaaahhhh~ And all was right with the world. :-) It's what life should be like in the fall. Now to start praying for some snow... (I said that for Sister Washburn's sake! Ha!)

Today has been a nice day. James has gone to pray with somebody at the hospital. The kids are finished with school, Katie is crafting something in her room, the boys are outside with a saw, some sort of hedge clippers, a boulder and lots and lots of fallen tree branches--forming a little fort or house of some kind. Charlie keeps disappearing into the woods with Brady, being gone for lo-o-o-o-o-ong periods of time. I can go out and start calling for them and after a few minutes the two of them will burst out of the woods and across the field at warp speed, ears flopping happily behind them. They are such an unlikely pair and it just cracks me up the way the hang out together! Sometimes I see them laying out in the sun, napping together. They'll probably miss each other whenever we move into our own house.

Ah, yes! The house situation! It just won't end. HA! It's amazing and miraculous that it HASN'T ended dozens of times already! Technically, yesterday was the day we were supposed to close on the house. But we learned that the real estate company the house is listed with had the place winterized before the appraiser went out there (HA! --What will they screw up next?!) so he couldn't check any of the utilities. Hahahahaha! It's just incredible. Laura says she has NEVER seen anything so crazy in her life, that this house ordeal is one in a million. So we applied for an extention of the closing date (surely they'll accept it since it was THEIR fault we can't close, not ours???) and ordered a rush on the final appraisal. Though anything is possible and it's not a done deal until the ink is dried on the papers on the very last day (!), every indication is that the bank IS going to loan to us in spite of the mold and other little issues that need taken care of. Wow!!! More miracles?! If only the water will run, the water heater will heat, the furnaces will blow and the lights will turn on, we should be all set. As far as we know. ;-) The crazed real estate company DID to an amazing thing by having the house de-winterized the day after we found out about it having been done in the first place (wow!) and rumor is that the appraiser is supposed to be out there TODAY and get his report back to the bank right away. Sooooo... we're still praying and trusting and waiting. And for the first time I actually feel expectant rather than just hopeful. Either God really and truly is going to place this amazing house with three acres a mile away from the church into our hands (!), or He's going to teach me some more lessons through allowing it to fall through all over again. Cool. I'm game for either one. Though I would certainly prefer option #1. :-)

Oh, wait! I almost forgot the best Ladies' Retreat picture of all! This is the whole group (minus Susan Mason, who took the picture) demonstrating "The Emily"... HA!

Spare Time???

2011-10-11T19:16:00.002-06:00

Ladies' Retreat starts in less than three days. The laundry is completely caught up. So is the ironing. The bathrooms are clean. And the floors. The kitchen is spotless. There is no clutter around the house. The rugs are vacuumed. The children who helped with this incredible endeavor are happily seated on the couch with bowls of ice cream, watching a 3o minute western. And I have spare time to blog. How cool is that?!

We had a good Sunday here. Good services and good fellowship, just as it ought to be. :-) After lunch that day we headed to Hoover to do some shopping. I needed staff gifts for Ladies' Retreat and had a feeling that we might be able to find something at Christmas Tree Shops. Sounds crazy, hu? It's this place that just opened up and James insisted on checking out, against my protests. (It was only September--he's always wanting to jump into Christmas way early!) Come to find out, the store is not filled with Christmas paraphernalia. In fact, there are only a few Christmas items right now. It does have lots of decor, mostly fall stuff right now. It also has regular house stuff--throw pillows and sheets and shower curtains and cutesy little nick-nacks. It's got dishes and cooking stuff, some non-perishable food items, toiletries, toys--oh, it's just a crazy hodge-podge of all kinds of stuff. And most of it is CHEAP. We'll be making a few trips there whenever we get moved into a house of our own, I'm sure. :-) Anyway, we did find at least the good beginnings of staff gifts, so that made me very happy.

After church Sunday night we had another business conference to discuss lawn mowers some more. Hahahahahaha! We miraculously made it out of that one in less than an hour, even with the air-conditioner-in-need-of-repair discussion thrown in. And we finally decided on mowers, so I'm thinking we're done with that subject for a little while. ;-)

It was kids-eat-free night at McAlister's, of course, so that's where we ended up after church. Again--good food, good company. :-) We got home pretty late that night, but I had some proof-reading to do. At least I thought it had to be done. There was no rush on it, after all, but I didn't know until I was finished. At least I got it done!

I read until sometime after 1:00am when I finally decided that I was in no condition to catch any mistakes. I went to bed, then got up at 6:30 to finish proofing so I'd have the corrections ready bright and early. Even though it ended up not being urgent, I'm glad that I got that little chore knocked off of the to-do list for the week.

Yesterday was spent mostly on Ladies' Retreat stuff. I crunched lots of numbers to figure out all of the possible ways things could go wrong (ha!) and try to come up with ways of making things work. I was finally able to talk to the campground lady (Campground Bob resigned a few months ago!), but she couldn't really give me any answers until today. I made a list of the goodies I'm going to make to take to Retreat and the ingredients I'll need to buy, worked on name tags, and a few other odds and ends. I got tied up working on some other things in the morning and when we hadn't started school by about 11:00 I knew I was going to call it off for the day! Before too long James mentioned something about it being Columbus day. Bingo!!! "Columbus Day??? Do kids go to school on Columbus Day?" He said they didn't. "Wa-Hoo!!! We don't either!" :-) It just made me feel better about the decision I'd already made to cancel school for the day. It's interesting how we homeschoolers choose when we're going to play by public school rules and when we're not. This time I was all for it!

The kids were thrilled to get the day off and spent almost all day outside enjoying the beautiful fall weather. I don't know what all they did out there, but I do know they spent a considerable amount of time hunting scorpions. Sam wasn't interested in catching them this time (since getting stung by one Saturday night)--now it was all about finding them so they could be stomped on or bludgeoned to death with a stick. Then they switched to catching lizards. When they brought the little insect cage to me I counted 15 lizards in it! It was a grand day at the Powell's house for the kids.

Last night we went to Carino's AGAIN. This time the Parkers, the Coxes, and the Ridlespurges all came, too. :-) It was great fun and the Italian sodas were fantastic. We had the same lovely waitress that we had last time--who gave us a few free refills because she's so nice. Or maybe because we were there last week, then came back this week with 14 additional people in tow. Ha! Either way, we enjoyed some great food, ate LOTS of bread and emptied lots of dishes of that oil stuff with the tasty little crunchies in it (that we all fought over--Kody is the crusty king), and just had a good time being with everybody.

The late night/early morning was catching up to me by the time we got home, so I just took care of a few things and managed to make it to bed before 11:00.

I guess everybody must've been tired because we all slept a little late today. We did our devotions and worked on school off and on all day long while working on house stuff and Retreat stuff in between. I finally got some answers from the campground today and it was good news. ~whew~ What a relief! They have agreed to move us to a smaller lodge that has a lesser minimum requirement and--as a perk--is also cheaper. That will be a blessing! I was on the verge of having to cancel with the campground and just have the 20 ladies come here to my house to retreat for the weekend. (James keeps telling me that I don't have a house--it's Sister Powell's house and I'd have to ask her! He's right, of course, but I feel pretty certain of what her answer would have been. ;-) It will be much easier to have it at the campground, however, and I'm so thankful that it worked out.

House update. I wish I had one. HA! Our closing date is next Monday. Six days from now. We STILL don't have the appraisal report back and we don't know what it will say when it does come back. At this point, the bank is REALLY pushing it to be able to get everything ready and completed by closing even if they are happy with the appraisal whenever it comes in. I'm still holding to the hope that everything will work out and that this house will be the one. Hoping against all hope perhaps, but hoping nonetheless. ;-) I am fully persuaded that God is able to work it out. He who holds the heart of kings and directs the rivers of water, and who is the judge that puts down one and sets up another, is capable of arranging all of the necessary details to secure this house for us. And that is what I'm still hoping and praying for... IF it is pleasing to Him and would prove to be a blessing to us and to the Church here rather than a hindrance. And I know that all things must fall into His timing as well. He knows best. I love it that He does. :-)

Looks like it's time for devotions around here. The kids will be in bed at a decent hour and I'll have a nice, quiet, clean house in which to study for Retreat some more. ~Aaaaahhhh~ Life is grand. :-)

And after that...

2011-10-08T08:35:00.007-06:00

Let's see... nothing monumental to report from the next several days, just regular house stuff. Until the day I finally agreed to let Joe go down to the creek to fish. He had just left a few minutes before when he called back on the walkie-talkie. I was on the phone with James, but I heard his excited voice on the walkie-talking, then Katie came rushing to me, white as a sheet, holding the walkie-talkie, saying that Joe had been bitten by a water moccasin. I told James to hold on, slammed the phone on the table, snatched the walkie-talkie, and called for Joe. He asked who he was talking to, I told him it was his mother, and he started laughing and said, "Oh, I'm just kiddin', Mom." I was quite... unhappy, let's say. I told him to get himself to the house NOW. In the meantime, Katie had run out the door and was on her way racing down the mountain, crying and calling for Joe. When he heard her, he got scared (crazy how that works--ha!), and they both walked in the door a few minutes later, Katie mad and Joe confused. I had had time to collect my wits, but I also wanted Joe to know how much he had scared us all and I wanted him to feel how not okay it is to kid around about things like that. I know he's just a kid and he didn't think things through far enough to realize that it's not funny to joke about stuff like that; it's scary. The whole "never cry wolf" thing. I explained all of that to him rather passionately, and he was about to make it out with his life until he said, "I thought you could take a joke. I guess I was wrong." Not the right thing to say at that moment, I assure you. He was ashamed and embarrassed about having done something so stupid, but opted to shift the blame rather than admit his mistake. THAT'S what cost him. But in the end, I'm pretty sure we all learned from the experience and I doubt we'll encounter any more jokes of that nature around here. :-)

On Friday night we had a Children's Church/Youth Night at the Church. It was GREAT. :-) I had made popcorn balls and lots of leaf and pumpkin shaped sugar cookies with fall sprinkles (makes me happy) and we grilled hot dogs and just ate and had a great time. We played some group games (I tried to teach them how to play Electricity, Tammy, but I'm not sure it ever actually worked right! Ha!) and then Sister Washburn had a devotion with them on why we need to have the Holy Ghost. It was great and we're hoping to do something like this once a month or so.

That night we brought Zack home with us to stay the night. We'd been meaning to do that since back in June when the other kids stayed. We still need to get Dalton here one of these days--he never has made it down. Maybe soon.

The kids were up EARLY on Saturday. (Like, walking through our bedroom--they have to in order to get downstairs--at 6:30!) Katie was deemed head chef and made bacon and eggs for all the boys, then they all headed down to the creek to play in the chilly water. A while later they showed up on the front porch, but Sam had no shoes. He said he couldn't find them and nobody would wait for him--and he wasn't about to be left down there all alone! So I made the whole troop of them go back down and stay until they could ALL come back with shoes. They had taken Charlie with them and Katie put him on a rock in the middle of the pond, then left him there and crossed to the other side. He couldn't stand it and jumped off the rock and swam to them--which they thought was the cutest thing ever, but meant that we had a filthy, wet, smelly dog that needed bathed along with all the kids who needed showers. Ha! Oh well, he probably needed a bath anyway.

The kids went out to ride bikes that afternoon and it wasn't too long before Zack came in with his elbow all scraped and bloody, just like his brother did when he stayed the night! Their mother came and asked me about it the next day--was I just pushing her kids down the hill, or what?! Ha!

That afternoon the kids and I loaded up and drove Zack home, then turned around and came home so I could get busy transcribing my session of the Assembly for the Assembly Minutes. I got about 3/4 of it done that night before I needed to stop and finish getting ready for Sunday School and for Sam's little devotional for Children's Church. He had constructed a tank with a motor and battery pack, so the devotional was based on Psalm 60:12, "Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies." The two batteries that powered the tank represented the Word of God and prayer and once they were both in place the tank moved forward and knocked down several little Lego men, representing the things we need to conquer in our lives--bad attitudes, laziness, disobedience, selfishness, etc. The entire devotion and demonstration took all of about two minutes, but that's probably just right for kids. Especially Sam. :-)

After service that morning all of the restaurants were PACKED, so some of us just went back to the church and the guys brought pizza and soda back to the fellowship hall and we just ate there. It was really so much better than going to a restaurant anyway, simply because it was nice and quiet and relaxing, the kids could run and play without disturbing anybody, we didn't have to wait for them to find seating for 15 or 20 people, and it was cheaper. Why haven't we done this before??? We ended up just spending the entire afternoon there visiting, the kids playing outside, the some of the guys (and later kids) playing the instruments and singing. It was so nice.

We had a good service that night with a good, sweet spirit moving throughout the worship. Probably preparing us for the business conference that was to follow. HA! I do declare, Bessemer has the longest conferences I've ever been in in my life--even under a Clarkson. ;-) I made the kids stay as long as I could. Once we hit the one hour mark I finally felt like I had to give them a break. There's simply more business to discuss here than what I'm used to and I'm amazed at how much time it takes. I do truly appreciate our men in the Church and their desire to do good business and make wise decisions, right down to the purchase of lawn mowers. I’m thankful for the way God set things up in the Church and I’m SO thankful that women have no part in the business of the Church other than asking questions of their husbands in private, and praying for the men as they work through conference. We give them a hard time about how long they take, but talk about a TRUE disaster—hand it over to the ladies!

This week has been full of school, housework, and Ladies' Retreat prep. James bought a microscope for the kids so they could do the science projects they'd been held up on. They've been enjoying that--and suddenly studying cells makes a little more sense than it did before.

I took Charlie to the groomers out in Calera the other day and we ended up taking the scenic route. :-) I had mapped the best way to go, but managed to miss a turn or two. On the way home, however, I found the right road and it did feel like it cut several minutes off of the usual trip. You learn something new every day.

James was gone most of the day yesterday, at the hospital with Sister Hoffman who was to have a heart catheterization. He made it home in time for dinner (grilled cheese and tomato soup--I outdid myself) and we got a call that all had gone well during the proceedure.

I've spent the last two nights working on my class for Ladies' Retreat. It starts NEXT FRIDAY (I can't believe how quickly it's sneaking up on me!) and I have so many things to get done, I wanted to at least have a good head start on my class before getting into all the other prep stuff. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I hope I still feel good about it a week from now! I hate it when I prepare something and think it's just right, then look at it later and think, "What??? This doesn't even make sense!" Ha! We're providing brunch on Saturday this year--and doing it ourselves instead of having the campground do it--so I've got to figure out what we're doing for that. Google has been my best friend for this decision. :-) I've got some ideas, just need to settle on which ones. And it's difficult not knowing how many ladies to expect. Which leads into the other dilemma. Our numbers are way lower than what we are obligated to pay the campground for. Not good. I need to call and talk to Campground Bob about it, but was hoping to get a few more applications in before I did. ~sigh~ I need about 12-15 additional ladies to show up JUST to be able to cover our costs. Any takers??? ;-)

I also never settled on anybody to do Fun Time at Retreat, so I guess that leaves me. :-) And staff gifts. I'd love to come up with something nice (but CHEAP--for obvious reasons! Ha!) for our staffers. And Hide-Away time. I'd like to prepare some sort of hand-out for the ladies to use during that time. I really ought to look over my program and make sure I'm happy with all of the time allotments and such. Then I'll format name tags for the 20 Retreaters I have registered. And take 15 blank name tags for the ladies I'm hoping will show up there unannounced! Ha!

For today, it feels good to have the house in decent order and a little bit of a head-start on my Sunday School class for tomorrow. We'll be leaving shortly to go to the Fall Fest at the church in Goodwater.

Ah, yes. Pictures. I have just a few random shots from here and there. Here's the boy and his very first catfish...

Sam and Granddad. I love pictures like this. :-)
And another frog. I've taken more pictures of frogs since we've lived here... :-) This was a bright green tree frog that Sam nabbed off of a back window one night. He was pretty cool.
And this is what has been occupying the kids for several days now. James came home with little toys for everybody from the dollar store. Joe's was a sling shot that came with these stretchy, sticky little aliens. He's been shooting them EVERYWHERE. And of course they stick to whatever they hit, which is occasionally the ceiling. Then he has to either exercise a great deal of patience and self-control and wait for them to drop on their own (they have been known to hang on for several hours--one I'd forgotten about almost dropped in my soup last night! Ha!) or take matters into his own hands...
But he usually doesn't actually knock the aliens down, he just looses more and more rubber bands. :-)

So then...

2011-10-07T13:46:00.003-06:00

It was time for Minister's Convention. I was so glad when it finally arrived because it meant that we'd "made it" and would probably live through it. Ha! It seems like as much--no, MORE time and work and preparation goes into this Convention (on my part--don't know about James) than State Convention. I really do enjoy it all, but there for a few days I was working hard to keep my head above water and found myself wondering, "Is it wrong to enter a Church function with your strongest feeling being: I'll be glad when this is over!" HA! Of course, once we got INTO Convention I didn't feel that way at all--I enjoyed every bit of it.

We were to have a pot-luck on Saturday of the Convention as well as Sunday night up in Moulton, so that meant lots of cooking and baking to be done before and during Convention. It felt so good to actually be able to participate and bring some things to a pot-luck. Made me very happy. :-)

There was so much to be done that I actually let James go pick Brother Dustin up at the airport without me. Under normal circumstances, that would NEVER happen. I'm going to BE with the company--whoever they are--and the thought of staying home doesn't set well at all. But it was just Brother Dustin (*ahem*) and there was still too much to be done. ;-) I sent the boys with James, and Katie and I stayed here to cook and clean and change sheets and all that jazz. We did load up and meet James, Brother Dustin, and the boys at Jim 'N Nicks for lunch. Couldn't miss out on THAT. :-)

We came home and got Mr. Guest Speaker all settled in, got ready for church, put some raspberry glaze icing on the almond cookies (yeah--they're as good as they sound), and headed to Bessemer for the first night of Convention.

Sister Bishop preached on Preparing to Feed Our Flock, then Brother Dustin preached on Ministerial Priorities--and neither pulled any punches. ;-) We heard some good, solid, straight preaching that night, the kind that makes you stop and examine yourself and see if you're measuring up and where you might be failing. Good stuff. I hope it "takes." ;-) In all of us.

When we got home that night I frosted the pumpkin roll while we hung out and talked, then stayed up going over my class until about 1:30.

The first thing on program the next morning was the class time: Brother Dustin taught the Pastors' Class: Conflict Resolution; I taught the Pastors' Wives-Turned-Anybody's-Wives Class: Fulfilling Our Ministry; and Brother Jeremy taught everybody else: Every Member a Worker and a Special Work for Every One. I would have liked to have listened in on both of the other classes. I felt like mine went well, all things considered. I learned some things while studying it and they've stuck with me and affected my life, I think. I need more of that. :-) I want to be a good wife, an encouragement to my husband and a benefit to him in his ministry, not a hindrance in any way.

I missed part of Brother Hoffman's class, though I can't remember why. I thoroughly enjoyed the part that I heard, however, regarding the differences between guile and integrity, which he defined as opposites. He likened integrity to when you bite into a big juicy red apple and you get just what you expected, pure and tasty apple the whole way through. Guile is when you expect that, but you end up with a worm or a bad spot--it's when something (someone) appears to be one thing, but it's feigned; deep down they are something else, something other than what they appeared to be. It was another one of those "examine yourself" moments for me.

Our pot-luck at lunch time turned out nice and we enjoyed the fellowship. Since we were having a soup dinner (with sandwiches), I took corn chowder and a BIG pot of taco soup (which was devoured), along with the goodies I couldn't keep myself from making--snickerdoodles, chocolate-peanutbutter-marshmallow-krispy bars, pumpkin roll, and raspberry almond cookies. We finally got a chance to try Sister Hopkins' five-bean soup that we keep hearing about (it was very good), but didn't get a chance to try all of the other soups the other ladies' brought. That's the trouble with soup pot-lucks. It's tough to try a little of everything!

The afternoon session was excellent from the very beginning when we had our song service. The Lord was really moving and James switched up the schedule a bit and we headed straight into our prayer groups before going on to the class and "Overseer's Time" that was to follow. By the time we made it through the prayer worship, prayer time, and auxiliary mini-boosts, James' time was running low so he told us he'd just "hit the high points." His pal Brother Dustin was sure to point out that all of his points were apparently "high points" because looking at his outline we couldn't see what he had skipped over. HA! Still, it was good. He does so well at "directing," if that makes any sense. He sees the needs or deficiencies, sets a plan of action to remedy them, and then gives focused directions on how it should be done, but without (I hope--ha!) appearing too pushy or bossy. Every now and again, he makes me proud. ;-)

After the Convention ended we had to wait around for quite some time until the "very short committee meetings" (we all know there is no such thing) ended. Then we still visited for a while before heading to the Mexican restaurant with some church folk for some more visiting. :-) James kept looking at all of the strange looking people coming and going and finally asked what in the world was going on. "It's like it's Halloween or something--what is wrong with these people?" There was an Alabama game that day and everybody was covered over in red and white, head to toe, skin included. Weird-o's. Surely... surely we Bronco fans weren't so weird and obsessive back in the day! Ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease tell me we weren't...

We got home at about 9:00 that night. We played a game of I Buy, but it just wasn't the same without Jamey. For starters, we kept getting distracted talking about serious stuff. That's no way to play a game! (We really, really needed you here, Jamey!) After the game we visited a while longer, then I finished putting my Sunday School class together before heading to bed--at 1:30 again.

Sunday morning I got up and made a dump cake to take to the Moulton pot-luck (along with the left-over cookies from the first pot-luck) and we STILL beat the Ridlespurges to church. HA! We love it that we pass their house on the way. Especially if they're just getting into the truck and we can honk at them as we pass and wave. ;-)

I taught the kids about the body of Christ and being members in particular. It was a fun one. :-) Brother Dustin preached a good message that day on the fire of God and how it consumes you in one way or another, good or bad. We went to Bojangles for lunch with the Washburns and Ridlespurges and sat and visited for a good long while, mostly because Brother Dustin was sharing the merger story. HA! It started out simple enough, but then the details started coming out and it went on and on... and on... and on... Poor Brother Washburn was all glazed over and about to slide right out of his chair onto the floor. We finally pulled Brother Dustin out the door still rattling on about it so we could shove him in the van and get him to Moulton in time for service. Okay, so it didn't happen exactly like that, but it was the beginning of LOTS of laughs about the never-ending Merger Story. Yes, let's capitalize it as a title. It's earned it. (The Colorado Springs and Pueblo churches were recently merged into one church that will now be meeting in Fountain, Colorado. That's the basis of the Merger Story.)

We left in plenty of time to make it to Moulton. If there hadn't been an accident on the Interstate in Bessemer that traffic backed up for quite a while. And then another accident north of town that had everything at a dead stand-still for miles. I always try to pray for the people involved in accidents when I'm stuck in traffic like that. And then you get to wondering if perhaps you would have left a little sooner if you might have been involved in it. Could it be that the Merger Story might have saved our lives??? Ya' never can tell, I guess. ;-)

This was the stationary scene we stared at for a long, long, long time...

Brother Dustin walked back to the trucker behind us to see if he knew what was going on and why everything was at a stand-still. Truckers know everything.

Enjoying a nice, little chat. It seemed to go on and on and on. (I wonder if he broke out the Merger Story to use on the poor guy???)

Out of the blue the traffic started moving and we had a decision to make. We decided not to wait for Brother Dustin to catch up--we just left him back there with the trucker and rushed to keep the flow of traffic moving. Ha! It was great fun watching him race back to the van. I couldn't get to my camera soon enough to get any good pictures, but this is when he finally caught up to us. Then everything stopped and we had a while longer to wait before it really broke loose for good.

We had to call Brother Rollins and keep him updated on our progress, or lack of it. They went ahead and started the service at 5:00 as scheduled. Things finally started moving for us again, but we were about an hour late making it to Moulton. They had just been singing and testifying and singing some more, waiting for the guest speaker to arrive. I can't imagine having to walk into the building and straight to the pulpit to preach without being able to get your thoughts together or anything, but that's pretty much what Brother Dustin had to do. I was so, so, so blessed by his message that night. His message was entitled "I Want it All" and he read from the passage in 2 Peter that says to add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, etc., then from Ezekiel about the waters flowing from the altar, first up to his ankles, then his knees, then his loins, then waters to swim in. He preached about digging in and going the next step with God, then the next, then the next--and that there will always be a next step, something deeper, something richer, something more than what you've already experienced. I was dumbfounded. I'd been feeling soooooo overwhelmed with the goodness of God, the Spirit and presence of God, the love and mercy of God, the fellowship of the saints in His Church--like what I expressed from that night at IYC--and feeling like God is just SO GOOD to me that I'm just going to explode; I can't possibly handle any more. And then to think... there's MORE??? I know--easy concept that shouldn't be new to a Church girl (!), but something about it just sort of engulfed me and I again felt so little, so unworthy, so overwhelmed by God's love and so, so, soooooo thankful! I have grown to love the Lord so much more these past few months, through varying experiences. And to think... there's more. Incredible.

We had a wonderful time of prayer that night that lasted a good while. In fact several people had to leave before it was finished. (The service had been opened up for all of the churches in the Northern District to attend since the General VLB guy was on to preach.) When we finally ended those of us who were left went to the fellowship hall to enjoy the pot-luck. Good food, good fellowship. We enjoyed ourselves and I was happy to meet Josh & Britney Anders' new baby girl, Addison, though I missed seeing Josh there that night. :-) And the boys enjoyed catching slimy little green tree frogs outside. Nice. I got a few more Ladies' Retreat applications that night (wa-hoo! Need some more of them SERIOUSLY about now! Ha!) and we headed home about 10:00, I think, getting us here sometime after midnight. We put the kids to bed, played a game of I Buy, then moved to the living room and talked and talked and talked until way, way, way, way, way too late. Or too early. Or not so early at all. Whatever. I'm actually ashamed to say how long we were up. We're not as young as we used to be, but judging by who fizzled out first I'm obviously much younger than Brother Dustin, despite what our birth certificates may say. ;-)

Monday morning I managed to do some house cleaning before we left at 9:30 to take Brother Dustin to the airport. It was quite a fiasco trying to locate a lunch location and we finally ended up just going to the airport and paying an arm and a leg to eat there just outside the security gate. It was more expensive, but nice and quiet and relaxing--and we didn't have to worry about getting him anywhere on time because we were already there. Good choice. We had a round of somber goodbyes and I'm pretty sure I could hear Brother Dustin sniffling in the security line as we walked out. ;-) Maybe it was the lack of sleep that had affected us, but it was a very un-fun goodbye--I know that much. For starters, I HATE dropping people off at the airport. It always seems so final or something. ~Bleagh~ And then there was the letter that Sam wrote to Isaac the week before, in which he said, "I can't wait to see you at the Assembly next year." Our sons had realized something that the rest of us hadn't consciously thought of before. The Assembly next year?! Might it be that long??? It's suddenly HORRIBLE to think of all of the people I love so much that I might not see for that long! Then I think of the Powells... and I just can't make myself complain or feel any self-pity at all. :-) We're blessed. But still--the goodbyes are a real drag! Ha!

We stopped at the Christian bookstore on our way home. We had to. Christmas cards were on sale and it was September--we HAD to buy some. :-) We should be all set for this year. I talked to Mom and on the phone while we were at the store and on our way home, trying to catch up since we'd barely spoken for several days due to the crazy schedules.

We got home and I crashed on the couch for a nice, long, much-needed nap. It's been a long time since sleep felt that sweet. :-) We had left-over corn chowder for dinner and did a few house things, and I made it to bed by about 10:00 that night and slept good and sound all night long. ~Aaaahhh~ And that seemed to perfectly make up for the extreme lack of sleep from the previous several days.

No Catching Up Now

2011-10-06T19:46:00.004-06:00

I'd might as well give up. I keep thinking I'll actually post about everything that has been going on in our lives, but I'm still over a month behind. And I've got way too much going on right now and in the next week and a half (at least) to even think about devoting much time to blogging. So I'm going to try to hit the high points in super high gear. We'll see how that goes.

After our post-Assembly vacation with Mom & Dad and the Hays, we drove to Pennsylvania to spend several days. While there the kids did lots of fishing and riding bikes, James ate lots of Danny's Pizza, and I did not just lots, but ALL of our Assembly laundry and ironing. Yes, you read that right. It was the best decision I've ever made in my whole life and made going home sooooo much easier! The worst decision we made that week was not driving two or three hours on Sunday to get to the nearest Church, but deciding rather to attend something other than The Church of God--James' old church that used to be the Church. While we were getting ready Sam said with great disgust, "Mom, why are we going to a false church?" Ha! Joe was BEGGING in the middle of the service for me to ple-e-e-e-e-e-ease just let him go out to the van and read his Bible. They were so disturbed by people who were obviously sinners testifying and leading in worship and just being so fake. It was soooooo miserable, but I think it was somehow good for the kids. They have a new and deeper appreciation for God's Church after this. We ALL do. And we're never going back. Of course, we said that the last time we went, three or four years ago.

We visited with Frankie and Pauline and Larry and Mary Ann (all cousins) while in Pennsylvania, watched Bigfoot documentaries and Bonanza on TV, and went shopping at the Peight's (the Amish store we go to) for spices. Lots and lots of super cheap spices.

The last day we were there Katie fell on a trailer hitch while playing in the barn and split her knee open. It wasn't a huge gash, but it was pretty wide. She was adamant about no stitches, so we cleaned it up real good and sealed it shut with some butterfly bandages, then wrapped her leg to keep her from bending her knee. She hobbled around and made the biggest scene and told her story to anybody who would listen for DAYS. ;-) It healed up nicely, though she'll have a scar for the rest of her life I'm sure. No matter. It's on her knee. Nobody will be seeing her knees anyway. ;-)

After six days in Pennsylvania, we drove to Tennessee and spent two nights with Mom & Dad. Joe caught his first catfish while we were there, I was FINALLY able to get a Frisco Melt from Steak 'N Shake, Mom made some memorable burgers (ha!), the kids got in the hot tub, we played some I Buy, did some housework, spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with Laura trying to work out house stuff, got a contract on the Quinncrest Monstrosity, and stayed up past 2:00am talking with Mom. It was a great time. :-)

Ah, yes. I forgot to mention that we obtained a Buick from James' folks while in Pennsylvania (I'm sooooo thankful to have a second car again--it's been so nice!), so James and I each had a vehicle to drive home. I was super tired after my late night with Mom, but we finally made it home that Saturday afternoon, got the vehicles unloaded, and I got everything completely unpacked and put away in an hour and a half! From a three week trip! ~Aaaaaahhh~ It was all thanks to doing the laundry and ironing in Pennsylvania. Brilliant.

There were some kitchen things that didn't get completely put away. And the kids started spreading mess pretty quickly--and I was too tired to oversee any clean-up. And the next morning we were tired and rushed and running behind when we left for church, so the house was pretty well trashed. And when we got home that night we realized that Spencer and Shayla had been here to drop off the truck and pick some things up from the house! I was sooooooooo embarrassed!!! ~sigh~ Oh well. You win some, you lose some. ;-)

The night we got home I got to work on Ladies' Retreat stuff, realizing that it really should have been done a week or two before--but we were at the Assembly at the time.

We started this year's school on September 12th. There were plenty of tears from Katie. She'd been so excited, but suddenly found herself overwhelmed with work that was more difficult than what she had expected. We've had several days of tears since then and several days of smiles. Sam has been whizzing through his 2nd Grade book and is now entering a pre-3rd Grade book. (Don't ask me what that is supposed to mean.) Joe is doing well, seems to enjoy History more than the other subjects, and struggles with science.

I spent lots and lots of time working on stuff for Minister's Convention at the end of September. I LOVED putting together a State Planning Guide, though it wasn't fun ALL the time. ;-) I so rarely get to design anything any more, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's like an art project and a puzzle all rolled into one. Makes me happy. :-) I also did way too much manual tallying of minister's reports and each individual field. (Going to get started on the McGriff program here soon to ease that load next time!) And prepared a class that was supposed to be for the pastors' wives, but ended up being for just any ole' wives. ;-) I felt pretty dumb trying to teach a wives class to people who have been wives--and minister's wives--since before I was born! Ha! But I felt like the Lord helped me and I was so blessed to be able to prepare and teach again. It's strange. I hate being up front. Yet, I feel unfulfilled when I go months and months without doing anything. I loved being with the teen girls at Camp and doing devotions with them. It was such a blessing to ME and I love feeling that sense of purpose, like maybe--just maybe--God can use you to somehow be a blessing to someone else. And I found myself really loving and caring about these strange teenagers. HA! I dread the responsibility of teaching, but I find that I'm happier when I'm forced to do something like that every now and then. Of course, since Minister's Retreat I'm feeling LOTS of purpose and have considered going into a panic over it (Ladies' Retreat coming up, full-time Sunday School teacher now, and newly appointed Band Leader for the teens and youth in our Church--something I am soooooo excited about!), but I'm sure the Lord will help me one step at a time. Especially since that's all I can focus on: one step at a time. ;-)

Let's see... we had a sick dog for about a week and a half, though he never ACTED sick--just ran and romped and pounced and played like always, and never lost his appetite. After plenty of research I determined he was regurgitating rather than vomiting (isn't this a nice blog topic?) one to three times a day. So I found myself praying for a DOG again. ~sigh~ I always feel dumb doing that simply because there are so many things to pray about that are so much more important! Yet, when I have a dog and he's lost or sick, this is what I do. And I have a sick, miserable feeling worrying about him until he's home safe or all better. Dumb. But I've thanked God several times that Charlie seems to be perfectly well now and we no longer call him "Gurge" around here. :-)

Joe broke his first guitar string.

I dug around in our storage unit looking for my crock-pots. Couldn't find them. I miss them. And my loaf pans. And Tupperware. But it's okay. I'm coping. ;-) No complaints here--God has been good to us! And it's really for the best that I couldn't find anything. The last thing we need to do is move MORE stuff into the Powell's house!

More random thoughts...

I walked into church one night and one of the ladies took a whiff and in essence told me that I reeked of Milo's (a burger joint here). HA! Not exactly, but she might read this so I thought I'd add it. ;-)

I fell down the stairs. I think I mentioned that. Actually, I fell ON the stairs not DOWN them as my mother would have done. Then she would have made a sharp right and rolled out the door and off the porch. Just ask her.

We still have a contract on the Monstrosity, but we still have no idea what to expect. I had a glimmer of hope today that things looked favorable, but it had faded back to unlikelihood within a few hours. Ha! I'm still hoping and praying for God to work it out, if it's pleasing to Him. I was reminding myself earlier that faith is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED FOR and the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN. If it's apparent that something is going to work out, there is no faith involved. Much more precious to be able to exercise FAITH and allow God to work on your behalf, regardless of the outcome. It's a blessing to put things in God's hands and ask and trust. I'm still learning so much through this whole house thing and I'm thankful.

And still hoping beyond hope that we can call that big ole' crazy house ours. :-) We should know very soon whether or not that will be the case.

Okay, that's surely enough for one night. I'll try to blog about the Minister's Convention next time and get everything else all caught up to date. You have no idea how much I've skipped over tonight. Blessed. Consider yourselves blessed. :-)

Pictures. I do have a few pictures, though nothing grand. I'll try to post them next time, too.

Vacation Videos

2011-09-29T21:26:00.003-06:00

This is just a random clip of Mom & Dad being... well, being Mom & Dad! I obviously didn't start recording early enough, but it's still enjoyable.

Game time! We played Guesstures one night. I recorded a few of the rounds. Mom first:

And Dad...

And finally, the best of all. Keep in mind, the guys had us beat. They only needed 5 points (two cards) for a very easy win. I can't tell you how many times I've watched this and I think I still laugh right out loud every time... :-)