Yesterday was a great day. :-) Jason had scheduled an Open House from 11:00-2:00, so we spent Friday night and Saturday morning getting the house all spic-and-span. That always feels so good--to have both bathrooms and the kitchen all sparkly and all of the floors vacuumed and mopped, things dusted and all of the clutter put away... Nice. I have a hard time getting the whole house clean at the same time except when I have proper motivation. So far the only things I've found that motivate me sufficiently are knowing that company is coming or that we're going to have a showing/Open House. Does that mean I'm more concerned with how clean other people THINK my house is than I am with how we actually live??? That could preach, if only I was a preacher. ;-)
Jason came and we left. Ran to town and stopped by K-Mart for a few things we hadn't been able to find anywhere else. We were in search of leggings for Katie. That girl's legs are beaten and bruised and bloody all the time. She doesn't exactly waft gracefully through life, you know. She more stumbles, bumbles, trips and splats her way through. ;-) Anyway, her legs are looking sooooo bad right now. She's started picked at the perpetual scabs, too, so we were hoping that perhaps if her legs were shielded by leggings (instead of her usual baggy bloomers) perhaps they'd be protected a little better and have a chance to heal. We'll see. I found a pair of leggings for myself, too, since it's COLD in this house nowadays! I prefer it that way, but the leggings will be nice. :-)
We took Charlie with us because we couldn't leave him at the house with Jason (I guess we could have... Ha!), and I made a little nook for him in the back of the van. He was sleepy when we got to K-Mart and was still curled up sleeping when we came back out. Good, Charlie! :-)
From there we went to the Clarkson's house (a.k.a. the Sandia Courtyard Hotel--are you praying they'll get into a house soon???) and let all the kids play in the grass with Charlie for a while. Then we went to eat together at Boston Market. We were there for a good, long while and then we were successful in talking the Clarksons into coming up to the house for a little while. :-) The kids played on the trampoline, the boys played cowboys and cops (with their official police dog--poor Charlie!) and all sorts of things, the girls sculpted with clay and had a tea party and all manner of girliness, and the adults sat in the living room next to a crackling fire (it was COLD outside) and visited. And we all enjoyed some of James' fantastical homemade hot chocolate. What a great afternoon/evening!
I don't remember what time the Clarksons left. I'm sure it was still pretty early in the evening (7:30ish?), but I was soooooo tired! Puppy care has been robbing me of my usual amount of sleep, you know. ;-) The boys had their showers and we all had left-overs for dinner. I went to bed sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 (that is quite early for me!) and Charlie slept solid until 3:00am. Good Charlie. :-) He went outside for a little while, then was playful--just like babies who wake up in the night! ~sigh~ I got a couple more hours of sleep before starting the day.
We had a good service this morning, but I felt distracted and had a hard time concentrating. Brother Clarkson preached such a cool message about the Good Samaritan--in a way I'd never heard it before--the Samaritan symbolizing Jesus, his beast being the Holy Ghost, the inn being The Church of God, the two pence being the price Jesus paid... So many interesting things I never would have considered. I love to hear Brother Chris preach--he's one of my all-time favorites. He has such a way of digging out deep things from the Word of God and the Holy Ghost helps him to deliver them with such power and anointing. Good stuff.
We had arranged to swap out kids today, so the Clarksons have all of the boys this afternoon and we have Katie, Naomi, Sadie and Karen. We took the girls to McDonalds for lunch, then came home. We had a very distraught puppy in the tub when we got here. ~sigh~ The girls all sculpted and painted for a while, then headed out to the trampoline. Katie made sodas for all of them and right now the four of them are piled up on the couch, crunching on popcorn and watching the Sweetpea Beauty Veggie Tales. Charlie is sleeping in my lap right now, storing up his energy so he'll be able to cry the whole time we're gone to church tonight. Ha! Crazy dog. We have a lot of work to do with the contentment thing with this pup, but I've been amazed at how well he's doing with the house training--and that's the MOST important thing to us around here! I know you'll think I'm crazy, but he seems to be "doing his thing" on command nearly every time we go outside! Whoa! What a good, good puppy! :-) We're a long way from being DONE with the training (even though he goes outside, I don't think he knows he SHOULDN'T do it inside--I just never give him a chance to! Ha!), but he's sure been easy to work with these first few days.
Tonight is ABM service, then tomorrow is back to the same old grind: laundry, ironing, all that stuff. We're still hoping and praying for God to do whatever it takes for us to find His favor and land ourselves in Alabama where we belong very, very soon. It is soooooo my heart's desire to be there! I find myself struggling to really enjoy things here. It's weird... The other day I was standing in my little log cabin up in the mountains, next to a crackling fire in the fireplace, and watching snow flakes flit through the air outside... and I couldn't even feel excited about it! I should be bouncing off the walls with giddiness, right?! But I'm supposed to be in Alabama, wishing I could have a fire and snow and mountains and all that! Ha! It's a strange feeling. I am supposed to be in Alabama, yet there's nothing that I personally can do to change the situation, so surely God wants me to be content right where I am for as long as I'm stuck here... but it feels wrong to try to be content here when deep down I want and need to be there. It's confusing. I just keep praying for God to work whatever miracles He needs to work (in hearts, minds, lives, circumstances--WHATEVER) to get us to Alabama. I honestly don't know how to pray anymore, but the Holy Ghost knows how to pray for us when we don't know what to pray AND we're assured that God knows what are needs are before we even ask. Good thing, 'cuz I'm at a loss at this point. ;-)
It's 'bout time to head back to church. I need to round up the girls and get them looking decent, then go put poor Charlie back into his bathtub prison for a few more hours. Sundays are going to be long, hard, lonely days for that pup. He'll survive though--and maybe wear himself out so he'll sleep even better tonight than he did last night! Nah, probably not. ;-)
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Sometimes It's Hard to Know What to Blog
Like right now. There are so many big things going on in my heart and mind right now, but nothing really to discuss. I will say that God has been good to me and I love feeling Him guiding, directing, and challenging me. I want to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith I am called... and a thousand other scriptures that have spoken to me this past week! Like, "REST in the Lord; WAIT PATIENTLY for him..." Waiting is so hard. And I keep reminding myself that God does not need my assistance to bring His will to pass. Sometimes we just need to wait and pray and trust. It's so much easier to DO something than to wait and trust! Ha! But God is helping me and I'm so thankful.
So aside from those sorts of things, the only other really NEW thing happening around here is Charlie. That's the name the puppy ended up with. I still think it would have been fun to name him Oh Henry and we could have called him Hank, but all three kids were in agreement about Charlie, so Charlie it is.
I knew a puppy would be a LOT of work... but I just don't remember Hershey being this much work! Ha! I am fully convinced that I got more sleep after having a new baby than I'm getting right now. In house training this pup, I watch him like a hawk all... day... long. Don't want to miss any signals, you know?! And due to my diligence and/or a puppy who is either very smart or just prefers to do that sort of thing out of doors naturally, we haven't had ANY accidents in the house since we got him home three days ago! Wa-Hoo!!! I say we didn't have any. There was one little puddle in the bathroom the first night after he'd been locked in there for several hours. Can hardly blame him for that one.
Ah, yes. Nighttime. Nighttime has not been fun around here! This is where the big difference comes in -- between Charlie and Hershey, that is. When James brought Hershey home we determined that he would spend his nights in the bathroom, bed in one corner, training mat in the other, until he was house trained. I remember telling James that first night, "He's going to whine and whimper and scream and cry and be soooooo pitiful--prepare yourself." And so on. I put Hershey to bed that first night, shut the door... and we never heard a peep out of him. Ever!!! Hershey, for all the ways he was very BAD (like running away--like the wind!), just NEVER cried. He was soooooo content and quiet. Well, Charlie isn't exactly like that. Ha! He was asleep in his bed that first night when I carried it into the bathroom at about 11:00. At midnight he woke up and started crying. And crying. And crying and crying and crying. Ha! James gave up after about 20 minutes and went to the den to try to sleep. (Are you imagining this?! When you think about it, it is CRAZY what people go through for the sake of a dog!) I lasted a bit longer and finally went to get my computer. I checked my e-mail and dinked around for a while, but Charlie was still going strong. Finally, at 2:00 in the morning I'm Googling, "my puppy cries all night" to see what should be done! Ha! The biggest thing I found was DON'T go get him! The last thing you want to do is reward his persistence. Ooooooookay. So???
I read all sorts of advice, but no need to share it all here. Let's just say I was rummaging through the shed at 3:00 in the morning in search of our port-a-crib! HA! Crazy. I found it, got it set up by my bed (this is getting more embarrassing all the time) and when the dog FINALLY stopped crying and had been quiet for several minutes, I went and got him out of the bathroom. Took him outside, then put his bed and pillow on one end of the crib and the pad on the other end. I think that was about 3:30. He was still extremely restless (first night away from mom has got to be tough) and woke up every 20 or 30 minutes until we got up at 7:00.
Last night he did MUCH better being next to our bed, but still woke up often during the night. I reached down and reassured him that he's not alone (this is so pitiful--I'm convincing Emilee that she will NEVER get a dog, I'm sure! Ha!) and he would settle down and go back to sleep--though I did take him outside twice when he was especially restless. Both outside ventures proved to be necessary.
So today I've been sooooooo tired. I took a little nap with Charlie on the couch this afternoon, but only for a few minutes. I intend to go to bed as soon as Charlie does tonight! Ha! And get this... my goal for tonight was to keep him awake for several hours before bed so he'd sleep longer tonight--just like people do with their babies! Ha! He was sooooo tired a little while ago and you can only torment him for so long, you know? So I decided to give him a bath to keep him awake--just like people do with babies, right?! Ha! It was quite traumatic for Charlie, I assure you. He wasn't happy with it at all, but when I turned the sprayer on to rinse him off (forgetting that the first water to come out would be very cold) he started screaming and flailing and never did quit. It was sad, but still funny. And I think he's going to be like Rusty, Mom. He holds a grudge. Ha! Hershey was happy ALWAYS, but Rusty held a grudge and could somehow even give you dirty looks. I think Charlie will be more like Rusty! He didn't handle the blow drier and brushing very well either. It's a rough life, being a dog. ;-)
He was cranky and cold for about 30 minutes after his bath, but then he was right back to being sooooo tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. ~sigh~ I finally decided to let him sleep for about 30 minutes, then I'll wake him up again. It's almost time. Then I've just got to keep him up until 10:00 and hope for the best! ~sigh~ This is soooooooo crazy.
Anyway, for all the trouble Charlie is, he's awfully cute. :-)
The whole family spends LOTS of time with him, but especially Katie. She spends most of her day either holding him or chasing him.
Here's Joe just after we brought him home on Wednesday. I love how HAPPY he looks here. When we went to look at the puppy Joe was almost depressed. He didn't want to look at any more dogs--"We're not going to GET one anyway." When we were at the lady's house and James whipped out his checkbook I asked the kids if they knew what their dad was doing. When I said he was writing the lady a check they all just stared at me in disbelieve for a few seconds, then they ALL started crying! They were sooooooooooo happy and excited! :-)
The kids fight over who gets to have the dog all the time. We sometimes set the timer and give them 10 minutes apiece. Ha! It was Sam's turn during school this morning.
Though he insists the dog doesn't belong to him ("I got him for you and the kids") and tries to act like he doesn't care about the dog at all and never will ("He's okay, I guess"), James is already suckered by him. He watches him and smiles a lot, and laughs at his puppy antics. I think James was shocked to discover how much he ended up liking Hershey and figures he'll probably end up feeling the same way about this dog.
And HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THIS GUY??? Even if he does keep you up all night. ;-)
And here are a couple of pictures of bath time...
How sad. A whole post about a dog. I'll do better next time, I hope. Unfortunately, the dog has been pretty much consuming my life and is all I really have to talk about right now!
Oh, yeah! Here's some good news. I got my glasses today! Wa-Hoo! What a relief! We'd been home from our Alabama trip a few days when I noticed that I couldn't find my glasses anywhere and couldn't remember the last time I'd had them. Long story short, the Baymont Inn in Longview, Texas is very accommodating. :-) I thanked them soooooo much that they were so helpful and willing to assist an idiot who left her glasses in a room there. The lady assured me that they have a great Idiot Recovery Program. I was a little offended that she agreed with the idiot thing so easily (ha!), but so thankful! The glasses finally arrived today and I didn't even have to pay for them--they paid for the shipping and all. Nice. :-)
Okay, that's it. A long post about a DOG--who just woke up! Wa-Hoo! Time to take him outside and then keep him awake for a couple more hours. Wish me luck. I really need some sleep! Pitiful. ;-)
So aside from those sorts of things, the only other really NEW thing happening around here is Charlie. That's the name the puppy ended up with. I still think it would have been fun to name him Oh Henry and we could have called him Hank, but all three kids were in agreement about Charlie, so Charlie it is.
I knew a puppy would be a LOT of work... but I just don't remember Hershey being this much work! Ha! I am fully convinced that I got more sleep after having a new baby than I'm getting right now. In house training this pup, I watch him like a hawk all... day... long. Don't want to miss any signals, you know?! And due to my diligence and/or a puppy who is either very smart or just prefers to do that sort of thing out of doors naturally, we haven't had ANY accidents in the house since we got him home three days ago! Wa-Hoo!!! I say we didn't have any. There was one little puddle in the bathroom the first night after he'd been locked in there for several hours. Can hardly blame him for that one.
Ah, yes. Nighttime. Nighttime has not been fun around here! This is where the big difference comes in -- between Charlie and Hershey, that is. When James brought Hershey home we determined that he would spend his nights in the bathroom, bed in one corner, training mat in the other, until he was house trained. I remember telling James that first night, "He's going to whine and whimper and scream and cry and be soooooo pitiful--prepare yourself." And so on. I put Hershey to bed that first night, shut the door... and we never heard a peep out of him. Ever!!! Hershey, for all the ways he was very BAD (like running away--like the wind!), just NEVER cried. He was soooooo content and quiet. Well, Charlie isn't exactly like that. Ha! He was asleep in his bed that first night when I carried it into the bathroom at about 11:00. At midnight he woke up and started crying. And crying. And crying and crying and crying. Ha! James gave up after about 20 minutes and went to the den to try to sleep. (Are you imagining this?! When you think about it, it is CRAZY what people go through for the sake of a dog!) I lasted a bit longer and finally went to get my computer. I checked my e-mail and dinked around for a while, but Charlie was still going strong. Finally, at 2:00 in the morning I'm Googling, "my puppy cries all night" to see what should be done! Ha! The biggest thing I found was DON'T go get him! The last thing you want to do is reward his persistence. Ooooooookay. So???
I read all sorts of advice, but no need to share it all here. Let's just say I was rummaging through the shed at 3:00 in the morning in search of our port-a-crib! HA! Crazy. I found it, got it set up by my bed (this is getting more embarrassing all the time) and when the dog FINALLY stopped crying and had been quiet for several minutes, I went and got him out of the bathroom. Took him outside, then put his bed and pillow on one end of the crib and the pad on the other end. I think that was about 3:30. He was still extremely restless (first night away from mom has got to be tough) and woke up every 20 or 30 minutes until we got up at 7:00.
Last night he did MUCH better being next to our bed, but still woke up often during the night. I reached down and reassured him that he's not alone (this is so pitiful--I'm convincing Emilee that she will NEVER get a dog, I'm sure! Ha!) and he would settle down and go back to sleep--though I did take him outside twice when he was especially restless. Both outside ventures proved to be necessary.
So today I've been sooooooo tired. I took a little nap with Charlie on the couch this afternoon, but only for a few minutes. I intend to go to bed as soon as Charlie does tonight! Ha! And get this... my goal for tonight was to keep him awake for several hours before bed so he'd sleep longer tonight--just like people do with their babies! Ha! He was sooooo tired a little while ago and you can only torment him for so long, you know? So I decided to give him a bath to keep him awake--just like people do with babies, right?! Ha! It was quite traumatic for Charlie, I assure you. He wasn't happy with it at all, but when I turned the sprayer on to rinse him off (forgetting that the first water to come out would be very cold) he started screaming and flailing and never did quit. It was sad, but still funny. And I think he's going to be like Rusty, Mom. He holds a grudge. Ha! Hershey was happy ALWAYS, but Rusty held a grudge and could somehow even give you dirty looks. I think Charlie will be more like Rusty! He didn't handle the blow drier and brushing very well either. It's a rough life, being a dog. ;-)
He was cranky and cold for about 30 minutes after his bath, but then he was right back to being sooooo tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. ~sigh~ I finally decided to let him sleep for about 30 minutes, then I'll wake him up again. It's almost time. Then I've just got to keep him up until 10:00 and hope for the best! ~sigh~ This is soooooooo crazy.
Anyway, for all the trouble Charlie is, he's awfully cute. :-)
The whole family spends LOTS of time with him, but especially Katie. She spends most of her day either holding him or chasing him.
Here's Joe just after we brought him home on Wednesday. I love how HAPPY he looks here. When we went to look at the puppy Joe was almost depressed. He didn't want to look at any more dogs--"We're not going to GET one anyway." When we were at the lady's house and James whipped out his checkbook I asked the kids if they knew what their dad was doing. When I said he was writing the lady a check they all just stared at me in disbelieve for a few seconds, then they ALL started crying! They were sooooooooooo happy and excited! :-)
The kids fight over who gets to have the dog all the time. We sometimes set the timer and give them 10 minutes apiece. Ha! It was Sam's turn during school this morning.
Though he insists the dog doesn't belong to him ("I got him for you and the kids") and tries to act like he doesn't care about the dog at all and never will ("He's okay, I guess"), James is already suckered by him. He watches him and smiles a lot, and laughs at his puppy antics. I think James was shocked to discover how much he ended up liking Hershey and figures he'll probably end up feeling the same way about this dog.
And HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE THIS GUY??? Even if he does keep you up all night. ;-)
And here are a couple of pictures of bath time...
How sad. A whole post about a dog. I'll do better next time, I hope. Unfortunately, the dog has been pretty much consuming my life and is all I really have to talk about right now!Oh, yeah! Here's some good news. I got my glasses today! Wa-Hoo! What a relief! We'd been home from our Alabama trip a few days when I noticed that I couldn't find my glasses anywhere and couldn't remember the last time I'd had them. Long story short, the Baymont Inn in Longview, Texas is very accommodating. :-) I thanked them soooooo much that they were so helpful and willing to assist an idiot who left her glasses in a room there. The lady assured me that they have a great Idiot Recovery Program. I was a little offended that she agreed with the idiot thing so easily (ha!), but so thankful! The glasses finally arrived today and I didn't even have to pay for them--they paid for the shipping and all. Nice. :-)
Okay, that's it. A long post about a DOG--who just woke up! Wa-Hoo! Time to take him outside and then keep him awake for a couple more hours. Wish me luck. I really need some sleep! Pitiful. ;-)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Don't Got No Ice Cream
That's right, folks:
Don't got no ice cream, no cookies, no strudel,
Don't got no ice cream, no cookies, no strudel,
But I'm yodel-aye-yodel-aye-yodel-aye-happy-hoo...
JUST HERE WITH MY POODLE!!!
That's right, WE'RE NUTS! But crazy people are often happy. :-)
This is the newest member of our family. No name yet. Right now the most votes are for either Hank (since I'll never be able to name a son Hank--ha!) or Charlie. We'll discuss some other options, I'm sure, before settling on a name. For now I'm spending my time scouring the Internet in search of what in the world you're supposed to do with a puppy!!! It's been several years since I've done this and I have no clue. It's kind of like somebody dumped a baby on my doorstep and I have no idea how to take care of it! Ha! Part of me keeps saying this is really, really bad timing. But then I think of when James brought Hershey home to me. I had two kids in diapers, I was pregnant with #3, AND we were about to move. So in comparison, this should be a cake walk, right??? I think Hershey was about 8 weeks old when we got him--the same age this little guy is. We can handle this, right??? He is sooooooooo cute! Even James keeps looking at him and smiling or giggling. :-) He's what they call dark apricot and has a little tuft of white on his chest. Our biggest problem is keeping three children from fighting over him. I guess I'll just have to keep him in my lap all the time to keep him safe. ;-)
Don't got no ice cream, no cookies, no strudel,
Don't got no ice cream, no cookies, no strudel,
But I'm yodel-aye-yodel-aye-yodel-aye-happy-hoo...
JUST HERE WITH MY POODLE!!!
That's right, WE'RE NUTS! But crazy people are often happy. :-)
This is the newest member of our family. No name yet. Right now the most votes are for either Hank (since I'll never be able to name a son Hank--ha!) or Charlie. We'll discuss some other options, I'm sure, before settling on a name. For now I'm spending my time scouring the Internet in search of what in the world you're supposed to do with a puppy!!! It's been several years since I've done this and I have no clue. It's kind of like somebody dumped a baby on my doorstep and I have no idea how to take care of it! Ha! Part of me keeps saying this is really, really bad timing. But then I think of when James brought Hershey home to me. I had two kids in diapers, I was pregnant with #3, AND we were about to move. So in comparison, this should be a cake walk, right??? I think Hershey was about 8 weeks old when we got him--the same age this little guy is. We can handle this, right??? He is sooooooooo cute! Even James keeps looking at him and smiling or giggling. :-) He's what they call dark apricot and has a little tuft of white on his chest. Our biggest problem is keeping three children from fighting over him. I guess I'll just have to keep him in my lap all the time to keep him safe. ;-)
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Weekend
There's a thrilling title. About as thrilling as our weekend, probably. :-)
After we put the kids to bed on Friday night I met up with Mandie for a 9:00 game night. Of course, she's in Montana and I'm in New Mexico, so that makes it a bit tricky. ;-) We played Rummikub online and it was great!!! We met up with very little problem, but I forgot to "lock" the game and after a while Lam Lam from Hong Kong (seriously--I didn't make that up) joined us. Nothing against Lam Lam, but we were wanting to play with... well, just us, you know?! So then ensued a great deal of confusion and a serious game of hide and seek all through the Rummikub game rooms until we met up again. At which point Caleb joined us. He was away on business, I understand, and so had nothing better to do than crash his wife's online game night. Ha! It was fun playing with the two of them. Except that Caleb is a creep and keeps slobbing up the board. Mandie and I are both very particular about what belongs where (I LOVE playing with her!) and he would jumble it all up just for the fun of it. He's not invited next time. ;-)
I'm ashamed to admit that we were playing Rummikub (and searching for each other so we COULD play) way, way, way too late. It was great fun and a very rare occurrence so I don't feel guilty about it--but I sure was feeling the lack of sleep the next day! We got up and got the house all cleaned up and show worthy (~sigh~) and headed into town at about 9:00 Saturday morning. James was wanting to hit some of the sales he'd seen advertised. I really think it's just his excuse to hear Christmas music. I won't let him play it here at the house until after Thanksgiving, but he knows that all of the stores are playing it so... ;-)
We headed up to the Cottonwood mall at the far end of town. It's so much nicer and everything you could possibly dream of is in that mall and the surrounding shopping areas. Like Krispy Kreme. :-) We started our day with a scrumptious doughnut hot off the rack and just through the wondrous waterfall of icing. Mmmmmmmm. From there we headed to the mall. James found a few shirts and a pair of shoes at Penney's, enabling him to redeem the 20% off coupon he was determined to get good use out of. I think he found a shirt for Sam there, too. It's strange to me. It's been a very long time since I've shopped at any REAL stores. I mean, I've looked here and there, but not actually SHOPPED at places like that because the thrift store had been supplying nearly all of our clothing needs for so long. But now that they're charging crazy prices we're back at the real stores again and it feels weird! Anyway... Sam's tennis shoes were falling apart so we went into Payless to look for a replacement pair. We left with a pair for him and a pair for Joe. Total: $10.11. Gotta love that. :-) We also stocked up on hand soap from Bath & Body works. We were down to our last bottle and they were running a really good sale. Perfect.
When we left the mall I ran into Sam's club to grab new school books for Sam since he's on the brink of completing his current book. Afterwards we were driving down some road that we rarely drive down (I can't even remember which one) and James decided to stop by a dog shelter we'd never been to before. We'd all but given up looking at dogs a few months ago--figured it would just be best to wait until we get moved and settled before considering that sort of thing. But somehow yesterday turned into a thinking-about-getting-a-dog day! Crazy. They had a white poodle there named Luther or something like that. We talked with the people who ran the shelter for a while and really, really liked the way they do things. They are set up sooooo much better than the city shelter, take really good care of their dogs, and have extremely reasonable fees to adopt them. After a while they finally talked us into "visiting" Luther and locked us all into a little cubical with him. We knew ahead of time that we really weren't going to actually adopt him (it would have to be the PERFECT dog for us to actually take one home with us at this point in time), but the shelter people said it's good for the dogs anyway to have some time to interact with people that way. So we just hung out with him for a while to give him some people time... and to give me some dog time. :-) He was a sweet fellow and very lovable, but didn't have as much personality as what we're used to. I'm sure he won't have any trouble finding a good home though. That makes me happy.
From there we actually drove down to the south side of town where the main branch of this dog shelter was located. Looked through all of their dogs and almost asked to see a couple of little terriers. They were obviously brothers and they were the happiest, most hyper (a little too hyper) little fellows in the world--with the fastest tongues west of the Mississippi. But as we were petting them through the cage Joe started to cry and just couldn't stop. I finally got down to the root. He soooooo wants us to get a dog, but he couldn't bare the thought of us (or anyone) adopting one of those dogs and leaving the other one there all alone. The idea of separating the two of them was just killing him. "If Sam and I were in a slave camp and somebody came and bought Sam..." and then he just shakes his head and starts crying. Sweet, sensitive Joe. He thinks and feels a lot like his Mom, I'm afraid. I had already decided that if we did get one of those dogs we would simply have to take both. Ha! Not sure how that would go over with James. ;-) It didn't feel like the right day or the right dogs, so we came on home.
It was about 5:00 by the time we got home last night and I was sooooo tired. The late night games with Mandie and the long day in town had done me in! I made myself stay up until a reasonable hour for bed because I knew a nap at 5:00 or 6:00 would be bad news. I was so excited about the time change last night! Perfect timing. :-) We pulled out a video called The Pineapple Story and watched it as part of our devotions before putting the kids to bed. It's the testimony of a man who was a missionary to a bunch of thieving natives somewhere off the coast of Australia for many years. It's really the story of learning to give your rights and possessions to God. It's so, so good. I feel like God speaks to be about something different each time I see it--once every two or three years. :-)
This morning we had a good Sunday School class on covetousness, though nobody in our church can pronounce it. Ha! I think we had three or four different variations--it was great. :-) After church we all went over to the motel where the Clarksons are staying (they are still houseless--please pray for God to open doors for them to find a home!!!) and Brother Chris baptized Karen in the pool there. :-) Afterward, we went and had lunch at The Crusty Chili. It's a little burger joint that has really cheap food (burgers, hot dogs and--what we go for--tortilla burgers) and is known for it's chili, red and green. It's actually called Burgers & More, but Sister Shanda hates it and thinks it's nasty and has dubbed it The Crusty Chili. Ha! We all really like it. James loves the chili, though I'm not sure he should be allowed to have it. Their green chili is super, super hot. James ate way too much of it today and his mouth was on fire and his tongue was totally numb... That was his excuse, anyway, when he took a drink of soda and then drooled all over himself! Ha! He insists that it's worth it, but after seeing that little display I'm not so sure. ;-)
We came home this afternoon and I took a nap (the extra hour of sleep last night just wasn't enough, apparently!) and I think I've finally recovered from my late night games with Mandie. ;-) Went back into town for Sister Bailey's WMB service, then ran to Radio Shack to pick up a cable James needed. The kids thought it was terrific in there--so many cool remote controlled cars and other nifty toys. Another stop or two just for fun, then it was home at last.
The end. :-)
After we put the kids to bed on Friday night I met up with Mandie for a 9:00 game night. Of course, she's in Montana and I'm in New Mexico, so that makes it a bit tricky. ;-) We played Rummikub online and it was great!!! We met up with very little problem, but I forgot to "lock" the game and after a while Lam Lam from Hong Kong (seriously--I didn't make that up) joined us. Nothing against Lam Lam, but we were wanting to play with... well, just us, you know?! So then ensued a great deal of confusion and a serious game of hide and seek all through the Rummikub game rooms until we met up again. At which point Caleb joined us. He was away on business, I understand, and so had nothing better to do than crash his wife's online game night. Ha! It was fun playing with the two of them. Except that Caleb is a creep and keeps slobbing up the board. Mandie and I are both very particular about what belongs where (I LOVE playing with her!) and he would jumble it all up just for the fun of it. He's not invited next time. ;-)
I'm ashamed to admit that we were playing Rummikub (and searching for each other so we COULD play) way, way, way too late. It was great fun and a very rare occurrence so I don't feel guilty about it--but I sure was feeling the lack of sleep the next day! We got up and got the house all cleaned up and show worthy (~sigh~) and headed into town at about 9:00 Saturday morning. James was wanting to hit some of the sales he'd seen advertised. I really think it's just his excuse to hear Christmas music. I won't let him play it here at the house until after Thanksgiving, but he knows that all of the stores are playing it so... ;-)
We headed up to the Cottonwood mall at the far end of town. It's so much nicer and everything you could possibly dream of is in that mall and the surrounding shopping areas. Like Krispy Kreme. :-) We started our day with a scrumptious doughnut hot off the rack and just through the wondrous waterfall of icing. Mmmmmmmm. From there we headed to the mall. James found a few shirts and a pair of shoes at Penney's, enabling him to redeem the 20% off coupon he was determined to get good use out of. I think he found a shirt for Sam there, too. It's strange to me. It's been a very long time since I've shopped at any REAL stores. I mean, I've looked here and there, but not actually SHOPPED at places like that because the thrift store had been supplying nearly all of our clothing needs for so long. But now that they're charging crazy prices we're back at the real stores again and it feels weird! Anyway... Sam's tennis shoes were falling apart so we went into Payless to look for a replacement pair. We left with a pair for him and a pair for Joe. Total: $10.11. Gotta love that. :-) We also stocked up on hand soap from Bath & Body works. We were down to our last bottle and they were running a really good sale. Perfect.
When we left the mall I ran into Sam's club to grab new school books for Sam since he's on the brink of completing his current book. Afterwards we were driving down some road that we rarely drive down (I can't even remember which one) and James decided to stop by a dog shelter we'd never been to before. We'd all but given up looking at dogs a few months ago--figured it would just be best to wait until we get moved and settled before considering that sort of thing. But somehow yesterday turned into a thinking-about-getting-a-dog day! Crazy. They had a white poodle there named Luther or something like that. We talked with the people who ran the shelter for a while and really, really liked the way they do things. They are set up sooooo much better than the city shelter, take really good care of their dogs, and have extremely reasonable fees to adopt them. After a while they finally talked us into "visiting" Luther and locked us all into a little cubical with him. We knew ahead of time that we really weren't going to actually adopt him (it would have to be the PERFECT dog for us to actually take one home with us at this point in time), but the shelter people said it's good for the dogs anyway to have some time to interact with people that way. So we just hung out with him for a while to give him some people time... and to give me some dog time. :-) He was a sweet fellow and very lovable, but didn't have as much personality as what we're used to. I'm sure he won't have any trouble finding a good home though. That makes me happy.
From there we actually drove down to the south side of town where the main branch of this dog shelter was located. Looked through all of their dogs and almost asked to see a couple of little terriers. They were obviously brothers and they were the happiest, most hyper (a little too hyper) little fellows in the world--with the fastest tongues west of the Mississippi. But as we were petting them through the cage Joe started to cry and just couldn't stop. I finally got down to the root. He soooooo wants us to get a dog, but he couldn't bare the thought of us (or anyone) adopting one of those dogs and leaving the other one there all alone. The idea of separating the two of them was just killing him. "If Sam and I were in a slave camp and somebody came and bought Sam..." and then he just shakes his head and starts crying. Sweet, sensitive Joe. He thinks and feels a lot like his Mom, I'm afraid. I had already decided that if we did get one of those dogs we would simply have to take both. Ha! Not sure how that would go over with James. ;-) It didn't feel like the right day or the right dogs, so we came on home.
It was about 5:00 by the time we got home last night and I was sooooo tired. The late night games with Mandie and the long day in town had done me in! I made myself stay up until a reasonable hour for bed because I knew a nap at 5:00 or 6:00 would be bad news. I was so excited about the time change last night! Perfect timing. :-) We pulled out a video called The Pineapple Story and watched it as part of our devotions before putting the kids to bed. It's the testimony of a man who was a missionary to a bunch of thieving natives somewhere off the coast of Australia for many years. It's really the story of learning to give your rights and possessions to God. It's so, so good. I feel like God speaks to be about something different each time I see it--once every two or three years. :-)
This morning we had a good Sunday School class on covetousness, though nobody in our church can pronounce it. Ha! I think we had three or four different variations--it was great. :-) After church we all went over to the motel where the Clarksons are staying (they are still houseless--please pray for God to open doors for them to find a home!!!) and Brother Chris baptized Karen in the pool there. :-) Afterward, we went and had lunch at The Crusty Chili. It's a little burger joint that has really cheap food (burgers, hot dogs and--what we go for--tortilla burgers) and is known for it's chili, red and green. It's actually called Burgers & More, but Sister Shanda hates it and thinks it's nasty and has dubbed it The Crusty Chili. Ha! We all really like it. James loves the chili, though I'm not sure he should be allowed to have it. Their green chili is super, super hot. James ate way too much of it today and his mouth was on fire and his tongue was totally numb... That was his excuse, anyway, when he took a drink of soda and then drooled all over himself! Ha! He insists that it's worth it, but after seeing that little display I'm not so sure. ;-)
We came home this afternoon and I took a nap (the extra hour of sleep last night just wasn't enough, apparently!) and I think I've finally recovered from my late night games with Mandie. ;-) Went back into town for Sister Bailey's WMB service, then ran to Radio Shack to pick up a cable James needed. The kids thought it was terrific in there--so many cool remote controlled cars and other nifty toys. Another stop or two just for fun, then it was home at last.
The end. :-)
Friday, November 5, 2010
Behind Again
Story of my life, right? My blog is named so appropriately. ;-)
Lucky for you, I've been taking notes all week. Wait... perhaps it's unlucky for you. Ha!
Monday night Haley called and talked my ear off for over two hours!!! Can you imagine?! Okay, so I did some of the talking, too, and it was one of those conversations I really, really needed. I've got a whole bunch of stuff jumbled up in my heart and mind that I've been trying to work through and Haley had so many good things to share, most of which came from her class at Ladies' Retreat. I felt truly blessed and encouraged when we finally hung up. Thank the Lord for good friends! He knows just what we need, when we need it. :-)
The kids finished school really early on Tuesday and it's a good thing since we ended up having to go to town. We finally got a check from our insurance company (to repair all of the hail damage) and it had to be endorsed by James, by me, AND by Bank of America (they carry our mortgage). After numerous phone calls on James' part we finally ended up in town at BoA so James could walk the teller through the process and we would actually be able to deposit the check at our own bank. What a mess. After we got that taken care of we grabbed lunch at Taco Bell (love feeding our family for $12) and then ran to the thrift store. Mom got Katie an adorable skirt a couple of months ago, but she can't wear it because she has no shirt to match. I've been looking and looking, but to no avail--and I was shocked and offended at the thrift store prices this time! It was CRAZY! We've done tons of shopping there the past three years, but they've suddenly upped everything considerably. No, thank you. These are USED clothes, you know.
James made baked spaghetti for dinner that night. :-) After the kids went to bed I spent the rest of the evening reading The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom. I'd heard the name for years, but never knew who she was. She and her family helped hundreds of Jews find safe hiding places during the Nazi invasion of Holland. They were finally captured and arrested, then hauled off to concentration camps, and then the dreaded extermination camp in Germany. It is an AMAZING story and I was truly blessed by the faith and courage and LOVE displayed by Corrie and especially by her older sister, Betsie. It makes you stunningly aware of how easy we have things (we don't have a CLUE what suffering is) and so very grateful--makes you want to never complain about anything again because we simply have no right to! And it lifts your faith to see the miracles that God worked even in the midst of such terror. It challenges you to get your priorities straight and begin to see the value of souls and lives and serve God wholeheartedly, come what may. Highly recommended.
The only thing out of the ordinary on Wedensday is that I took a walk with the kids. Sad that that's out of the ordinary, isn't it? Ha! Sad, but true. We all really enjoyed it, though I must say that some of the hills around here are not very kind. I'd probably look and feel a whole lot better if I'd climb them every day instead of once every month or two!
That afternoon I finally had all I could take. I plugged in the clippers, pulled up a stool, and hollered for the boys. I hate them in buzz cuts, but they're not patient enough for me to take the time to cut their hair with scissors (I'm not very good--it takes me forever!) and I just couldn't handle them being all shaggy anymore. So bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Got that taken care of.
That night Katie made tuna casserole for dinner. I was in the den and she yelled, "Mom, we don't have enough salt!" It took a minute for it to sink in. "What???" I went into the kitchen about the time she realized that the recipe called for a TEASPOON and a half of salt, not a CUP and a half. HA! She had a cup and a half of salt measured out into a bowl and ready to go. Wowzers, I can only imagine! Luckily she hadn't added it to anything else--it was still just salt. I was able to funnel it back into the container for future use. Crazy kid. She does pretty good for a 9 year old, but has a serious rushing-ahead problem (in every area of her life) and often fails to slow down and THINK about what she's doing. Or in this case, read the directions. Then she gets all flustered and thinks she's terrible at everything. "I can't cook! I'll never be able to cook, Mom!" It doesn't help matters when Sam chimes in with, "Yeah, she burnt the eggs this morning, too." Ha! But in the end we had a delicious casserole, thanks to Miss Rue. She's doing great. :-)
That night I decided to put off the pile of ironing that's been sitting there for days. What's one more night. I stayed up and finished my book instead. :-)
Yesterday we had another early school day so we could head to town. We left early in the afternoon and stopped by the Post Office and the cleaners, then went to the mall for the first time in forever. But since the thrift store has started charging department store prices... We found two shirts for Katie and a pair of jeans for each boy--brand new jeans for $4.88 at Penney's. Take that, thrift store. I'd rather pay that price for brand new ones that used ones. :-) Then we were off to Wal-Mart to grab a few groceries, then Sam's club to pick up cupcakes to share with the church folks in honor or Sam's birthday. We love any excuse to fellowship, you know. ;-) Sam opted out of the cupcakes and chose a huge tray of brownies instead. They were cheaper anyway, so we were cool with that.
By the time we finished at Sam's Club it was time for church. It was BTI service and Brother Chris taught all about the finances of the church and where they come from and where they go and all that stuff--with charts and diagrams of all kinds. James loved it and had plenty of input. I finally jabbed him and said, "If Brother Chris asks if there are any comments... YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MORE!" Ha! Not everybody finds the financial structure of the Church as riveting as James does. ;-)
After church we meandered to the back room to sing to Sam and enjoy his birthday brownies. It was great to hang out with the Clarksons for a while.
Lucky for you, I've been taking notes all week. Wait... perhaps it's unlucky for you. Ha!
Monday night Haley called and talked my ear off for over two hours!!! Can you imagine?! Okay, so I did some of the talking, too, and it was one of those conversations I really, really needed. I've got a whole bunch of stuff jumbled up in my heart and mind that I've been trying to work through and Haley had so many good things to share, most of which came from her class at Ladies' Retreat. I felt truly blessed and encouraged when we finally hung up. Thank the Lord for good friends! He knows just what we need, when we need it. :-)
The kids finished school really early on Tuesday and it's a good thing since we ended up having to go to town. We finally got a check from our insurance company (to repair all of the hail damage) and it had to be endorsed by James, by me, AND by Bank of America (they carry our mortgage). After numerous phone calls on James' part we finally ended up in town at BoA so James could walk the teller through the process and we would actually be able to deposit the check at our own bank. What a mess. After we got that taken care of we grabbed lunch at Taco Bell (love feeding our family for $12) and then ran to the thrift store. Mom got Katie an adorable skirt a couple of months ago, but she can't wear it because she has no shirt to match. I've been looking and looking, but to no avail--and I was shocked and offended at the thrift store prices this time! It was CRAZY! We've done tons of shopping there the past three years, but they've suddenly upped everything considerably. No, thank you. These are USED clothes, you know.
James made baked spaghetti for dinner that night. :-) After the kids went to bed I spent the rest of the evening reading The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom. I'd heard the name for years, but never knew who she was. She and her family helped hundreds of Jews find safe hiding places during the Nazi invasion of Holland. They were finally captured and arrested, then hauled off to concentration camps, and then the dreaded extermination camp in Germany. It is an AMAZING story and I was truly blessed by the faith and courage and LOVE displayed by Corrie and especially by her older sister, Betsie. It makes you stunningly aware of how easy we have things (we don't have a CLUE what suffering is) and so very grateful--makes you want to never complain about anything again because we simply have no right to! And it lifts your faith to see the miracles that God worked even in the midst of such terror. It challenges you to get your priorities straight and begin to see the value of souls and lives and serve God wholeheartedly, come what may. Highly recommended.
The only thing out of the ordinary on Wedensday is that I took a walk with the kids. Sad that that's out of the ordinary, isn't it? Ha! Sad, but true. We all really enjoyed it, though I must say that some of the hills around here are not very kind. I'd probably look and feel a whole lot better if I'd climb them every day instead of once every month or two!
That afternoon I finally had all I could take. I plugged in the clippers, pulled up a stool, and hollered for the boys. I hate them in buzz cuts, but they're not patient enough for me to take the time to cut their hair with scissors (I'm not very good--it takes me forever!) and I just couldn't handle them being all shaggy anymore. So bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Got that taken care of.
That night Katie made tuna casserole for dinner. I was in the den and she yelled, "Mom, we don't have enough salt!" It took a minute for it to sink in. "What???" I went into the kitchen about the time she realized that the recipe called for a TEASPOON and a half of salt, not a CUP and a half. HA! She had a cup and a half of salt measured out into a bowl and ready to go. Wowzers, I can only imagine! Luckily she hadn't added it to anything else--it was still just salt. I was able to funnel it back into the container for future use. Crazy kid. She does pretty good for a 9 year old, but has a serious rushing-ahead problem (in every area of her life) and often fails to slow down and THINK about what she's doing. Or in this case, read the directions. Then she gets all flustered and thinks she's terrible at everything. "I can't cook! I'll never be able to cook, Mom!" It doesn't help matters when Sam chimes in with, "Yeah, she burnt the eggs this morning, too." Ha! But in the end we had a delicious casserole, thanks to Miss Rue. She's doing great. :-)
That night I decided to put off the pile of ironing that's been sitting there for days. What's one more night. I stayed up and finished my book instead. :-)
Yesterday we had another early school day so we could head to town. We left early in the afternoon and stopped by the Post Office and the cleaners, then went to the mall for the first time in forever. But since the thrift store has started charging department store prices... We found two shirts for Katie and a pair of jeans for each boy--brand new jeans for $4.88 at Penney's. Take that, thrift store. I'd rather pay that price for brand new ones that used ones. :-) Then we were off to Wal-Mart to grab a few groceries, then Sam's club to pick up cupcakes to share with the church folks in honor or Sam's birthday. We love any excuse to fellowship, you know. ;-) Sam opted out of the cupcakes and chose a huge tray of brownies instead. They were cheaper anyway, so we were cool with that.
By the time we finished at Sam's Club it was time for church. It was BTI service and Brother Chris taught all about the finances of the church and where they come from and where they go and all that stuff--with charts and diagrams of all kinds. James loved it and had plenty of input. I finally jabbed him and said, "If Brother Chris asks if there are any comments... YOU DON'T HAVE ANY MORE!" Ha! Not everybody finds the financial structure of the Church as riveting as James does. ;-)
After church we meandered to the back room to sing to Sam and enjoy his birthday brownies. It was great to hang out with the Clarksons for a while.
This morning we got up and Sam helped me bake his cake. He had requested chocolate cake (been ages since I've used that party cake recipe!) with orange frosting, so we made some vanilla butter cream frosting and dyed it as far away from pink and peach as we could without making ourselves sick on food coloring. ;-) Then we did school, after which we realized we had somehow forgotten our morning devotions! How did THAT happen?! So we had devotions, then it was about time for lunch. Sam had offered to make Sam his birthday breakfast (eggs), but Sam's not much of a breakfast guy so I ended up eating his eggs for him. Joe made his birthday lunch: Ramen. Enough for the whole family, in fact. I love having kids who can fend for themselves a little bit. Especially when they're generous with their efforts. :-) Here's the crowd, enjoying Joe's specialty...
Sam scarfed his noodles down because he was so anxious to get into the PARTY thing. He had begged to do cake and presents after lunch instead of waiting until after dinner.
Here he is with his first gift from his Mom & Dad...
And his second gift
And the gift from Grandma Vicki
Joe had rummaged through his things to find something that he thought Sam would really and truly enjoy and appreciate. He have him his microscope and a pot holder Joe had made a few weeks ago. Knowing Sam, he'll probably find some ve-e-e-e-ery interesting use for the pot holder that has nothing to do with pots. Or even pot, Brother Dustin. ;-)
Joe wrote out a little card/note, too. Katie never could figure out what to give Sam, so she made him a card. I don't think I ever saw it though.
Here's the birthday boy, making use of his most action oriented present.
We bought a package of caps, too, Mom. He and Joe have spent all afternoon chasing each other all over the mountain just banging away. The pack came with 2400 caps. After shooting several hundred and then discovering that a few rolls had fallen out of their pockets somewhere, I think they're down to less than half of that amount! Ha! I won't be sorry when they run out. ;-)
I had Katie take a picture of me with Sam. I have far too few pictures of me with my kids. It breaks my heart to think that the days of Cowboy Sam will be coming to an end sometime in the not-too-far future. I've always loved cowboys. :-)
I don't know why, but this birthday has struck me very strange. I CAN'T BELIEVE my youngest is SEVEN YEARS OLD!!! That just doesn't seem possible. It's crazy how old people always tell you when you're young that the time just flies faster and faster the older you get. You always think, "Yeah, I know." But you don't really know! All of my kids are half grown. In a few months Katie will be half way to 20! It's all just so wrong!!! In some ways, I LOVE seeing them all grow up and turn into real people (ha!) and develop mentally and grow in the Lord and so many other things. But there's this other part of me that already so misses having little ones! We watched home videos a few weeks ago of when they were all 2 or 3 or 4 years old. They were sooooo cute and sooooo much fun! They still are, of course, but I still somehow miss that special age that just FLEW by. How did they all pass it up so quickly?! ~sigh~ No fair. ;-)
Sam has been playing with his new Legos and robot along with his cap guns, and now James has taken him to pick out a kid movie that we can watch tonight. The kids have been seeing Toy Story 3 stuff all over the place, but I refuse to let them watch it because we've never seen Toy Story 2. You can't watch #3 until you've seen #2--it's just wrong! We'll see what James and Sam come up with.
That's about it from around here. Still praying and trusting God to help us out with all of the "got to get to Alabama" stuff. Got good news about Karla yesterday, though! She is finally starting to wake up and from every initial indication, she seems to be perfectly coherent (no brain damage) which is the most important thing--it means her daddy can talk to her about her soul. :-) Please continue to pray for her healing, but most of all that if she hasn't already given her heart to the Lord that she'll do that. God has been so good and so merciful in this situation. What a wonderful God we serve that hears the cries of His people and answers their prayers just because He loves them! We are so blessed. :-)
Monday, November 1, 2010
Alabama Trip, Part 3
We left the hospital at about noon on Monday, headed back to Cleveland, loaded up all of our stuff, three children, and my mother (though technically she loaded me up--Katie and I rode with her), and headed back to Bessemer. Mom spent the next few days with us in the fifth-wheel since Dad had hauled their camper back home on Saturday due to the change of plans.
We spent all day Tuesday with our realtor down there, Laura, looking at houses that we had asked to see. Twelve of them, I think. We really, really, really liked one in particular. We called all of the others by their street name, but simply called this one "the yellow house." I think it was the third one we saw, but it remained our favorite throughout our search.
When we got back to the trailer that night there was a note on the door from the Ridlespurges telling us to go into the church--there was some barbeque and a jug of sweet tea waiting for us. How thoughtful!!! We called and invited them over for dinner (ha!), but they couldn't come because they were meeting with somebody in need that night in an attempt to minister to him. What wonderful people they are. HE is a little nutty. ;-) I like 'im a lot. We're really impressed with the whole family--and everybody else we've met down there so far. Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner, then called it a night. After a game of I Buy. :-)
We only had two houses to look at on Wednesday, down in the Pelham area. It's not all that far, really... but the Interstate convinced us we just didn't want to make that drive to go to church all the time. After seeing those two, Laura arranged for us to go see The Yellow House we'd fallen in love with the day before. We wanted to look at it one more time, just to make sure. That's when we found out that somebody else had just put an offer on it a few minutes before! CRAZY! We went ahead and looked at it anyway, not knowing if the offer would be accepted or not. It was sad looking at it this time, knowing it was most likely going to sell before we had a chance at it. And it did. Of course, it hasn't actually closed yet and anything could happen, but the people did accept the offer. So unless something strange happens, we'll have to find something else. To be perfectly honest, we loved the setting more than we loved the house. It wasn't too far from the church (about 15 minutes), in a nice, quiet area, not too close to the road, with 2 acres, and a beautiful, very, very private back yard with flat grassy areas and nice treed areas and a purty little split rail fence around the whole thing--they PERFECT yard for the kids and poodle. When we get a poodle. ;-) And everything about the house would work--the right amount of rooms and spaces, without being huge and oversized. Here it is:
But oh, well! I've decided that I can sell houses. All I have to do is decide which one I want and it's going to sell immediately--to somebody else! Ha! The first house we fell in love with (right after the Assembly) had been on the market for over two years. I decided it's the one I wanted and *wham-o* it sold. This one had been listed for 7 months. The very day that I decide it's "the one" *wham-o* it gets an offer. Crazy! Come to think of it, both houses were yellow. Maybe we ought to try for another color... ;-) Frankly, I think we just need to wait until we get THIS house sold.
Which is another story. Too long and too much of a drudgery to repeat. In the end, we still have no contract in sight. I began to wonder a few days ago if it's a hitch with US. You know, like maybe there's something we haven't surrendered or something God is wanting to teach us that we haven't learned yet. I've wondered it off and on for a few weeks now, but I'm wondering it a lot more strongly now! More than praying for the house to sell I've been praying that God would accomplish His purposes IN US through this. I feel like perhaps when He is able to do THAT the sale of the house will follow in quick order. Who knows?! I just want to be surrendered to Him, His will, His ways, His time--and learn gracefully all that He is desiring to teach us through this. But for the sake of our family and of all of Alabama, I am truly hoping we learn whatever we need to learn very, very quickly! Do keep us in your prayers.
We went to our home church for the first time on Wednesday night. It was Brother Powell's BTI service and he taught a great lesson about what "Let the Church be the Church" really means. There were three visitors that night. :-) After service we visited with some of the good folks there for quite a while and enjoyed it so much. Up until this point we have known by faith that we would be happy in Alabama. Now we know it by the little titch of experience we've had there. :-)
Thursday morning Mom headed to Anniston to spend a night with Sister Bishop and we headed west again. We were able to make it all the way into Texas, which was great since we got a bit of a late start that day.
The next evening we made it to Andrews, just in time for stew and cornbread at Aunt Sue's house. :-) Sue had been watching Jeremiah while Sam was at work and Tammy was at Ladies' Retreat (I don't want to talk about it!!!), so Sam came over after a while to pick up "the boy." He stayed and played I Buy with Aunt Sue and James and I before he left. It was great. :-)
Friday was such a nice, leisurely day. We were tired after the long trip and lack of sleep throughout the past week and it was great to have a day to just do nothing. We visited with Aunt Sue and Uncle Jerry for most of the morning, then Sue hopped in with us and we dinked around town for a while. We drove by our old house, then stopped by Cassidy's for lunch. We went to Sue's store and I stocked up on candles and more Blossom Bucket--I am SUCH a sucker for those little clay things. We took the kids to the park for a little while, then headed back to the house for a much needed nap. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Uncle Jerry wanted to take the kids to ride in the golf cart and James insisted that we ALL go along. We all went out to the golf course for an hour or so. Uncle Jerry let the kids take turns driving the cart all over the place and then trying to hit some balls. Aunt Sue and James and I just sat on a log and talked while we watched them.
When we got back to the house it was too late for a nap. BUMMER. We let the kids watch a couple episodes of Gunsmoke, then it was time for tacos for dinner. After a while Brother Sam showed up again (he'd been invited for dinner, but was an hour or two late--surprise! Ha!), so we got in another game of I Buy before bed. :-)
Sunday morning we headed out pretty early and hadn't gone too far when we got a call from my cousin Stacey saying that Uncle Jerry--while we were spending the night at his house the night before--had had another heart attack. He didn't tell anybody because he didn't want everybody trying to gather around him and pray and all that stuff. He's so cold and hard toward the Lord--so much bitterness in his heart. I guess the heart attack lasted for an hour and a half or something like that. He looked terrible that morning we he told us goodbye, but we just thought it was the lingering of the headache he'd had the night before. Please, please, please pray for him, that God will somehow soften his heart and help him to surrender his life to the Lord. He's a wonderful man and we all love him dearly, but he's so lost in pride and stubbornness and bitterness. He desperately needs to be saved--and his health keeps reminding us all (and surely himself, as well) of how soon and how quickly he could enter into eternity.
We set off that morning on our last section of the journey... and the longest one ever. This whole trip seemed long and hard to us. We are used to traveling and usually don't think anything of it, but we had a hard time this go around! I think it's because it's not according to our schedule. Usually this time of the year we drive 5 hours to Colorado for Ladies' Retreat (I'm not talking about it!), then maybe an hour or two to a church and then another, then 6 or 7 hours back home. So the 20+ hour trip (each direction), plus the added driving to Knoxville and back, is more than what we're used to--and not very long after the big Assembly trip. And that stretch of highway from Roswell up to Clines Corners is the longest, flattest, ugliest, slowest stretch of highway ever invented. It's TERRIBLE!!! We actually stopped in Vaughn for lunch because we couldn't take any more. Who knew there was even anything to stop at in Vaughn?! Vaughn is one of two little itty-bitty, junked up, run down, used-to-be towns in the 2 or 3 hours between Roswell and Clines Corners. But they actually had a really neat little diner sitting back off the road a ways and we so enjoyed watching the dude make all of our meals--which varied greatly--right in front of us: some sort of Mexican steak dish for James, a burger and fries for me, a taco, rice and beans for Katie, oatmeal and toast for Joe, and bacon, eggs, and toast for Sam. One guy did all of the cooking on three griddle areas within about a 6' stretch and he was AMAZING. Neat-o.
We made it home at 2:00 in the afternoon and discovered shingles and skylight pieces all over the yard. Apparently we had a major windstorm while we were away and our already torn up roof (from the hail last time) just got blown to smithereens. The boys busied themselves cleaning that up while Katie helped me unload the van and then she vacuumed it out. I got everything unpacked and put away, then separated and started the first of 6 loads of laundry before we left for church that night. Last night, I guess it was. Wow--it feels like longer ago than that! Ha! It was so good to be back in service here, which throws everything for a loop inside of me again. Ha! I get my heart set on Alabama and am so excited to be going there and anxious to get there and all that... then I get with the people out here and my heart breaks all over again to be leaving them! It wears you out, you know?! Anyway, it was good to be back in service and visit with Brother Chris for a while afterwards because Sister Shanda wasn't yet home from Ladies' Retreat--but I'm not talking about it!!!
Okay, I'm talking about it. It KILLED me to miss Ladies' Retreat!!! Even now the tears are coming back! Aaaaaauuuuugggghhhhh!!! I hate this!!! I had known for a while that I wasn't going to be able to be there and I was sad about it, but coping okay. Then Tammy called on Friday while she was with Emilee ON THEIR WAY to pick up Jamey and Karen and head up to Retreat, and I just lost it. And I think I've cried every time the subject has come up since then! Is that pitiful, or what?! It's just SO HARD to have missed out on everything--the girls, the classes, the services, the away-from-everything time, the games, the laughs, the craziness, just EVERYTHING. I've heard little blips about how great it was, though no details yet (patiently waiting here), and I'm sooooo glad. Every time I thought of the Retreat I would pray that everybody would have a FANTASTIC time and a GLORIOUS Retreat and that the services and speakers would be anointed and all of that stuff. Then I'd envy them all. Ha! Sad, but true. I've been way, way too emotional about it. But then, rumor has it it was an emotional weekend for Brother Dustin, too, though for different reasons. He's all mushy and gushy and feeling emotional like a woman and all sorts of sorry stuff. When I start feeling ashamed about how pitiful I am I just think of him and then I feel so much better about my own condition. At least I AM a woman. ;-)
Today I got the rest of the laundry done, got the kids back into school, got the house cleaned up, and fixed a nice homemade dinner of fried chicken. It was GREAT. I'm sooooo tired of eating out!!! ~sigh~ It's good to be home. I just wish home was in Alabama. Sometimes. Other times I still can't bear to leave here. I'm so confused. ;-)
And that's about it from here. I think that gets me all caught up. As a reminder of the important parts, please pray for:
Karla's salvation, as well as her physical recovery -- and her family; they need strength and grace to hold up through all of this
Uncle Jerry's soul and health
Our family's need to get to Alabama--that God will accomplish His purposes in us and sell our house and help us find a new one in Alabama--and not let it sell to anybody else! Ha!
We spent all day Tuesday with our realtor down there, Laura, looking at houses that we had asked to see. Twelve of them, I think. We really, really, really liked one in particular. We called all of the others by their street name, but simply called this one "the yellow house." I think it was the third one we saw, but it remained our favorite throughout our search.
When we got back to the trailer that night there was a note on the door from the Ridlespurges telling us to go into the church--there was some barbeque and a jug of sweet tea waiting for us. How thoughtful!!! We called and invited them over for dinner (ha!), but they couldn't come because they were meeting with somebody in need that night in an attempt to minister to him. What wonderful people they are. HE is a little nutty. ;-) I like 'im a lot. We're really impressed with the whole family--and everybody else we've met down there so far. Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner, then called it a night. After a game of I Buy. :-)
We only had two houses to look at on Wednesday, down in the Pelham area. It's not all that far, really... but the Interstate convinced us we just didn't want to make that drive to go to church all the time. After seeing those two, Laura arranged for us to go see The Yellow House we'd fallen in love with the day before. We wanted to look at it one more time, just to make sure. That's when we found out that somebody else had just put an offer on it a few minutes before! CRAZY! We went ahead and looked at it anyway, not knowing if the offer would be accepted or not. It was sad looking at it this time, knowing it was most likely going to sell before we had a chance at it. And it did. Of course, it hasn't actually closed yet and anything could happen, but the people did accept the offer. So unless something strange happens, we'll have to find something else. To be perfectly honest, we loved the setting more than we loved the house. It wasn't too far from the church (about 15 minutes), in a nice, quiet area, not too close to the road, with 2 acres, and a beautiful, very, very private back yard with flat grassy areas and nice treed areas and a purty little split rail fence around the whole thing--they PERFECT yard for the kids and poodle. When we get a poodle. ;-) And everything about the house would work--the right amount of rooms and spaces, without being huge and oversized. Here it is:
But oh, well! I've decided that I can sell houses. All I have to do is decide which one I want and it's going to sell immediately--to somebody else! Ha! The first house we fell in love with (right after the Assembly) had been on the market for over two years. I decided it's the one I wanted and *wham-o* it sold. This one had been listed for 7 months. The very day that I decide it's "the one" *wham-o* it gets an offer. Crazy! Come to think of it, both houses were yellow. Maybe we ought to try for another color... ;-) Frankly, I think we just need to wait until we get THIS house sold.
Which is another story. Too long and too much of a drudgery to repeat. In the end, we still have no contract in sight. I began to wonder a few days ago if it's a hitch with US. You know, like maybe there's something we haven't surrendered or something God is wanting to teach us that we haven't learned yet. I've wondered it off and on for a few weeks now, but I'm wondering it a lot more strongly now! More than praying for the house to sell I've been praying that God would accomplish His purposes IN US through this. I feel like perhaps when He is able to do THAT the sale of the house will follow in quick order. Who knows?! I just want to be surrendered to Him, His will, His ways, His time--and learn gracefully all that He is desiring to teach us through this. But for the sake of our family and of all of Alabama, I am truly hoping we learn whatever we need to learn very, very quickly! Do keep us in your prayers.
We went to our home church for the first time on Wednesday night. It was Brother Powell's BTI service and he taught a great lesson about what "Let the Church be the Church" really means. There were three visitors that night. :-) After service we visited with some of the good folks there for quite a while and enjoyed it so much. Up until this point we have known by faith that we would be happy in Alabama. Now we know it by the little titch of experience we've had there. :-)
Thursday morning Mom headed to Anniston to spend a night with Sister Bishop and we headed west again. We were able to make it all the way into Texas, which was great since we got a bit of a late start that day.
The next evening we made it to Andrews, just in time for stew and cornbread at Aunt Sue's house. :-) Sue had been watching Jeremiah while Sam was at work and Tammy was at Ladies' Retreat (I don't want to talk about it!!!), so Sam came over after a while to pick up "the boy." He stayed and played I Buy with Aunt Sue and James and I before he left. It was great. :-)
Friday was such a nice, leisurely day. We were tired after the long trip and lack of sleep throughout the past week and it was great to have a day to just do nothing. We visited with Aunt Sue and Uncle Jerry for most of the morning, then Sue hopped in with us and we dinked around town for a while. We drove by our old house, then stopped by Cassidy's for lunch. We went to Sue's store and I stocked up on candles and more Blossom Bucket--I am SUCH a sucker for those little clay things. We took the kids to the park for a little while, then headed back to the house for a much needed nap. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Uncle Jerry wanted to take the kids to ride in the golf cart and James insisted that we ALL go along. We all went out to the golf course for an hour or so. Uncle Jerry let the kids take turns driving the cart all over the place and then trying to hit some balls. Aunt Sue and James and I just sat on a log and talked while we watched them.
When we got back to the house it was too late for a nap. BUMMER. We let the kids watch a couple episodes of Gunsmoke, then it was time for tacos for dinner. After a while Brother Sam showed up again (he'd been invited for dinner, but was an hour or two late--surprise! Ha!), so we got in another game of I Buy before bed. :-)
Sunday morning we headed out pretty early and hadn't gone too far when we got a call from my cousin Stacey saying that Uncle Jerry--while we were spending the night at his house the night before--had had another heart attack. He didn't tell anybody because he didn't want everybody trying to gather around him and pray and all that stuff. He's so cold and hard toward the Lord--so much bitterness in his heart. I guess the heart attack lasted for an hour and a half or something like that. He looked terrible that morning we he told us goodbye, but we just thought it was the lingering of the headache he'd had the night before. Please, please, please pray for him, that God will somehow soften his heart and help him to surrender his life to the Lord. He's a wonderful man and we all love him dearly, but he's so lost in pride and stubbornness and bitterness. He desperately needs to be saved--and his health keeps reminding us all (and surely himself, as well) of how soon and how quickly he could enter into eternity.
We set off that morning on our last section of the journey... and the longest one ever. This whole trip seemed long and hard to us. We are used to traveling and usually don't think anything of it, but we had a hard time this go around! I think it's because it's not according to our schedule. Usually this time of the year we drive 5 hours to Colorado for Ladies' Retreat (I'm not talking about it!), then maybe an hour or two to a church and then another, then 6 or 7 hours back home. So the 20+ hour trip (each direction), plus the added driving to Knoxville and back, is more than what we're used to--and not very long after the big Assembly trip. And that stretch of highway from Roswell up to Clines Corners is the longest, flattest, ugliest, slowest stretch of highway ever invented. It's TERRIBLE!!! We actually stopped in Vaughn for lunch because we couldn't take any more. Who knew there was even anything to stop at in Vaughn?! Vaughn is one of two little itty-bitty, junked up, run down, used-to-be towns in the 2 or 3 hours between Roswell and Clines Corners. But they actually had a really neat little diner sitting back off the road a ways and we so enjoyed watching the dude make all of our meals--which varied greatly--right in front of us: some sort of Mexican steak dish for James, a burger and fries for me, a taco, rice and beans for Katie, oatmeal and toast for Joe, and bacon, eggs, and toast for Sam. One guy did all of the cooking on three griddle areas within about a 6' stretch and he was AMAZING. Neat-o.
We made it home at 2:00 in the afternoon and discovered shingles and skylight pieces all over the yard. Apparently we had a major windstorm while we were away and our already torn up roof (from the hail last time) just got blown to smithereens. The boys busied themselves cleaning that up while Katie helped me unload the van and then she vacuumed it out. I got everything unpacked and put away, then separated and started the first of 6 loads of laundry before we left for church that night. Last night, I guess it was. Wow--it feels like longer ago than that! Ha! It was so good to be back in service here, which throws everything for a loop inside of me again. Ha! I get my heart set on Alabama and am so excited to be going there and anxious to get there and all that... then I get with the people out here and my heart breaks all over again to be leaving them! It wears you out, you know?! Anyway, it was good to be back in service and visit with Brother Chris for a while afterwards because Sister Shanda wasn't yet home from Ladies' Retreat--but I'm not talking about it!!!
Okay, I'm talking about it. It KILLED me to miss Ladies' Retreat!!! Even now the tears are coming back! Aaaaaauuuuugggghhhhh!!! I hate this!!! I had known for a while that I wasn't going to be able to be there and I was sad about it, but coping okay. Then Tammy called on Friday while she was with Emilee ON THEIR WAY to pick up Jamey and Karen and head up to Retreat, and I just lost it. And I think I've cried every time the subject has come up since then! Is that pitiful, or what?! It's just SO HARD to have missed out on everything--the girls, the classes, the services, the away-from-everything time, the games, the laughs, the craziness, just EVERYTHING. I've heard little blips about how great it was, though no details yet (patiently waiting here), and I'm sooooo glad. Every time I thought of the Retreat I would pray that everybody would have a FANTASTIC time and a GLORIOUS Retreat and that the services and speakers would be anointed and all of that stuff. Then I'd envy them all. Ha! Sad, but true. I've been way, way too emotional about it. But then, rumor has it it was an emotional weekend for Brother Dustin, too, though for different reasons. He's all mushy and gushy and feeling emotional like a woman and all sorts of sorry stuff. When I start feeling ashamed about how pitiful I am I just think of him and then I feel so much better about my own condition. At least I AM a woman. ;-)
Today I got the rest of the laundry done, got the kids back into school, got the house cleaned up, and fixed a nice homemade dinner of fried chicken. It was GREAT. I'm sooooo tired of eating out!!! ~sigh~ It's good to be home. I just wish home was in Alabama. Sometimes. Other times I still can't bear to leave here. I'm so confused. ;-)
And that's about it from here. I think that gets me all caught up. As a reminder of the important parts, please pray for:
Karla's salvation, as well as her physical recovery -- and her family; they need strength and grace to hold up through all of this
Uncle Jerry's soul and health
Our family's need to get to Alabama--that God will accomplish His purposes in us and sell our house and help us find a new one in Alabama--and not let it sell to anybody else! Ha!
Alabama Trip, Part 2
The first night of Minister's Convention was great. The only part I can recall specifically, however, is Dad's message. The theme was "When Zion Travails" and he preached that night on travailing in prayer. It was one of those wonderful, step-all-over-your-toes kind of messages that had you sitting on the edge of your seat, anxiously awaiting the altar call that you desperately needed, you know?! The Lord blessed us with a wonderful time of prayer and travailing in the altar that night. It was rich and deep. I felt a special burden for my Uncle Jerry that night and was able to pray deeply and earnestly for him to a degree that I haven't for quite some time.
Early the next morning we got the news that the Hopkins' eldest daughter, Karla, had been in a 4-wheeler accident and was in critical condition at hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Hopkins had gotten the news at 3:00 in the morning and headed up there immediately. Although the rest of the Convention was good, I honestly can't remember much about it. You could sense that everybody was really feeling and carrying a heaviness over the Hopkins and their daughter. I can't even remember how many times we stopped to pray for her throughout the day. Karla is not saved and although there were definite prayers for God to touch and heal her and spare her life, the greatest agony was over her soul. More on that in a minute...
The ladies had prepared a meal to raise money for October World Missions, so we enjoyed chili dogs (three pots of homemade chili) and all the fixin's, along with a plethora of desserts--most of which, I learned, were made by one lady there in Bessemer. Amazing. It was a nice relaxing meal with good food and fellowship.
After the meal some folks headed home while the ministers and state leaders gathered for the final session. Katie, Joe, and Sam enjoyed playing with the kids they had met and made instant friends with. They had been a little bit nervous about making new friends, but they had no trouble at all--even Sam. He's the one that usually gets all shy and awkward, then acts up and turns creepy when he feels uncomfortable or out of place. I was AMAZED at how at ease and outgoing he was, with kids and adults alike. All three kids will miss the Clarkson bunch (they were SO happy to see each other at church last night!), but they are thrilled to have some new friends waiting on them in Alabama. I don't know how I managed this, but the ONLY pictures I took (other than hundreds of pictures of houses) on this trip was the one of the church sign and this one of Katie and Katie... Wish I would have got one with Madison, too, but I think she was already gone. I think the three girls will be great friends. Makes me very happy, but not nearly as happy as it makes Kate!
Early the next morning we got the news that the Hopkins' eldest daughter, Karla, had been in a 4-wheeler accident and was in critical condition at hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Hopkins had gotten the news at 3:00 in the morning and headed up there immediately. Although the rest of the Convention was good, I honestly can't remember much about it. You could sense that everybody was really feeling and carrying a heaviness over the Hopkins and their daughter. I can't even remember how many times we stopped to pray for her throughout the day. Karla is not saved and although there were definite prayers for God to touch and heal her and spare her life, the greatest agony was over her soul. More on that in a minute...
The ladies had prepared a meal to raise money for October World Missions, so we enjoyed chili dogs (three pots of homemade chili) and all the fixin's, along with a plethora of desserts--most of which, I learned, were made by one lady there in Bessemer. Amazing. It was a nice relaxing meal with good food and fellowship.
After the meal some folks headed home while the ministers and state leaders gathered for the final session. Katie, Joe, and Sam enjoyed playing with the kids they had met and made instant friends with. They had been a little bit nervous about making new friends, but they had no trouble at all--even Sam. He's the one that usually gets all shy and awkward, then acts up and turns creepy when he feels uncomfortable or out of place. I was AMAZED at how at ease and outgoing he was, with kids and adults alike. All three kids will miss the Clarkson bunch (they were SO happy to see each other at church last night!), but they are thrilled to have some new friends waiting on them in Alabama. I don't know how I managed this, but the ONLY pictures I took (other than hundreds of pictures of houses) on this trip was the one of the church sign and this one of Katie and Katie... Wish I would have got one with Madison, too, but I think she was already gone. I think the three girls will be great friends. Makes me very happy, but not nearly as happy as it makes Kate!
When the Convention ended on Saturday afternoon, we packed up some clothes and followed Mom and Dad back to their house. That hadn't been part of the initial plan for this trip. We had intended to stay in Bessemer the whole time, attend church on Sunday, then spend a few days looking at houses in the area. But we wanted to go be with the Hopkins in the hospital in Knoxville and Cleveland was on the way. We left Mom and the kids there and Dad and James & I drove on up to the hospital that night. I think we got there at about 10:00 or 10:30 that night. The Hopkins were so broken and already so exhausted--but so full of faith and hope. The doctor had not given them any hope at all that Karla would pull through. He just kept telling Brother Hopkins that he was sorry--so, so sorry. He asked if Brother Hopkins knew anybody who knew how to pray and said if he did, it was time to be calling them (of course, there were already people praying all over the country) because there was simply nothing else the doctors could do for Karla. The had no expectation that she would live even 12 hours. Throughout the night different groups of people would go into Karla's room with Brother Hopkins and pray and pray and pray again. The Powells and the Ridlespurges had also made the trip from Bessemer (4 or 5 hours, I think) to come be with them, as well as Shawn (Sean?) Womack from Virginia. We stood in the hallway and prayed and talked and prayed some more. Kristal was there (the youngest of the Hopkins kids and the only one we knew) as well as another sister, Gina, and a brother, Steve--both unsaved. While we were singing Reach Out and Touch the Lord in the hall that night Gina prayed and repented and gave her heart back to the Lord. Praise God for that! God has so much more in mind than just the circumstances themselves, you know? And I so admire Brother Hopkins for his priorities in all of this. He loves his kids so much, but he makes no compromises for them--tells them with such love and concern and authority exactly what God requires of us all. He was so broken and so devastated, but so full of faith at the same time. The tears would just pour down his face and he would sob and cry out to God not just for Karla's life, but for her soul. He said he could release her to heaven if he had to, but he just couldn't release her to hell. He prayed some of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard, begging and pleading with God for her soul. He just wanted her to wake up so he could talk to her one more time about her soul. Nobody knew her true condition (she was heavily sedated and in a coma), but he would talk to her and tell her to talk to Jesus, to cry out to God, to give her heart to Him. Over the next few days there were lots of ups and downs, but when there would be definite improvement (obviously in answer to prayer--there was no other explanation) the tears would just pour down Brother Hopkins' face again and he would beg God to please, please accept his thanks for all that God and all of heaven had done. It was just so precious and so beautiful. His prayers, though distraught, were so full of faith and hope--I feel like I learned so much from him and was sooooo blessed by his response to this agonizing situation. And here I'd been nervous about what my new pastor would be like. Shame on me. I already love him dearly and have such respect and appreciation for him. It was one of those situations when you go and try to be a blessing to somebody else, but in the end you come away being the one who was blessed.
We spent a few hours in the room and the hallway, then a few more down in the lobby area visiting with the Powells and the Ridlespurges and Kristal, while the Hopkins tried to sleep a little bit. We finally left at about 4:30, I think, and made it back to Mom & Dad's house at about 6:00am. I laid in bed wide awake until about 6:30 (what's that all about?!), but was able to get a couple hours of sleep before getting up and heading to church at Zion Hill. We enjoyed a good service that morning, followed by lunch and a much needed Sunday afternoon nap, and then another good service that night--really enjoyed Brother Anders' message on feeding the spiritual man as well as we feed the physical. Good stuff.
Monday morning we headed back up to Knoxville to go to the hospital again. Karla had taken a definite turn for the better and for the first time the doctors began to give some hope that she might live. There is no doubt that God had moved in answer to prayer. Like I said, there have been a lot of ups and downs since then--which is so, so, so exhausting on the family. The Hopkins are totally exhausted physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It just drains you completely. Please, please, please keep Karla in your prayers. She is still in the coma and has lots of fluid they're trying to get rid of now, as well as some other issues. If you're interested, you can check her progress at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/karlahopkinstrammell Pray for her body, pray for her soul, and pray for her family--they all need strength and grace from God.
Look for post #3 shortly... :-)
Alabama Trip
We left on Wednesday. I think it was a Wednesday... We drove and drove and drove and made it into Arkansas, then on into Bessemer the next day. We were scared (heard horror stories from my Mom) about the rush hour traffic on the Interstate, so we took some smaller highways and dropped into town from the northeast side. I love the roads there. The trees are changing colors right now and they line the winding roads and cast tall shadows. Just like on TV. ;-) The drive was very pretty and leisurely.
We found the church without a problem--and were amazed at how close we had been to it when we were in town after the Assembly, and had no idea! It is BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful it was a little overwhelming for us poor western folk who are used to meeting in store fronts and daycare centers! Ha! Inside and out, it is just so nice. HUGE and beautifully finished, but not fancy and intimidating. Still, I wondered how long it would take me adjust to such a change! Can God move in beautiful church buildings like He does in the little corners we're used to meeting in??? Of course He can. :-) I didn't think to take any pictures of the building itself, but James took this one of the sign out front when we drove up:
Is that not the coolest thing?! We felt so welcome, right off the bat. :-)
Then in the fellowship hall, where they have a section partitioned off for Children's Church there was hand colored banner that the kids there had made that said, "Welcome Katie, Joe & Sam." I intended all weekend to take a picture of the kids with it and somehow managed to fail! They were sooooo excited when they saw it--that that was just the neatest thing ever. :-)
When we got to the church Brother and Sister Powell had just arrived with their fifth-wheel and were busy getting it all set up, hooked up, plugged in and everything else there is to do. It's amazing how much work is involved in the convenience of a camper! Ha! They kept insisting it was no trouble at all, however, and in a little while we were unloading the contents of our van and getting settled into our new home for the coming week.
The Powells were still getting the trailer set up when our new pastor and his wife, the Hopkins, arrived. They had introduced themselves after the Assembly, but things were so crazy and rushed (and I couldn't see them well through all of the tears--ha!), so this felt like the first time we'd met them. They just stopped by to see that we'd made it in safely and ask if there was anything that we needed. How thoughtful!
The next morning we drove down to Vance so we could check out a house we'd found online that James just loved. It was a beautiful house and a nice drive, though a little long. Unfortunately, the house was surrounded by not-so-nice houses, making it a risky venture. We always try to keep resale value in mind. We wandered around a little bit on our way back to Bessemer, checking out some areas and getting a feel for things down there. We went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and happened to run into Sister Ridlespurge. They are nosy people and had been driving past the church to see if we'd made it in yet or not... but I don't think they were actually stalking us to Wal-Mart. HA! They are GREAT people--we love them already. They're the ones who told us they're nosy, by the way--I'm only repeating their confession. ;-)
That afternoon James needed some time alone, so I loaded up the kids to do some drive-by's of several houses on our list. Katie enjoys looking at houses with us, but the boys are always bored out of their gourds. They were both asleep by the third or fourth house. We marked several off the list that day--in fact, I think we only had one that we actually went back to see with the realtor later on. It's good to drive by and see what won't work (just judging by the area and whatnot) before you haul a realtor all over the county with you. ;-)
By the time we got back to the church Mom and Dad had arrived with their own camper and were setting up next door to us. :-) We visited for a little while and played a little croquet with the kids, then it was time to go get ready for service--the first service of Minister's Convention.
But that will have to come in another post. More later...
We found the church without a problem--and were amazed at how close we had been to it when we were in town after the Assembly, and had no idea! It is BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful it was a little overwhelming for us poor western folk who are used to meeting in store fronts and daycare centers! Ha! Inside and out, it is just so nice. HUGE and beautifully finished, but not fancy and intimidating. Still, I wondered how long it would take me adjust to such a change! Can God move in beautiful church buildings like He does in the little corners we're used to meeting in??? Of course He can. :-) I didn't think to take any pictures of the building itself, but James took this one of the sign out front when we drove up:
Is that not the coolest thing?! We felt so welcome, right off the bat. :-)
Then in the fellowship hall, where they have a section partitioned off for Children's Church there was hand colored banner that the kids there had made that said, "Welcome Katie, Joe & Sam." I intended all weekend to take a picture of the kids with it and somehow managed to fail! They were sooooo excited when they saw it--that that was just the neatest thing ever. :-)
When we got to the church Brother and Sister Powell had just arrived with their fifth-wheel and were busy getting it all set up, hooked up, plugged in and everything else there is to do. It's amazing how much work is involved in the convenience of a camper! Ha! They kept insisting it was no trouble at all, however, and in a little while we were unloading the contents of our van and getting settled into our new home for the coming week.
The Powells were still getting the trailer set up when our new pastor and his wife, the Hopkins, arrived. They had introduced themselves after the Assembly, but things were so crazy and rushed (and I couldn't see them well through all of the tears--ha!), so this felt like the first time we'd met them. They just stopped by to see that we'd made it in safely and ask if there was anything that we needed. How thoughtful!
The next morning we drove down to Vance so we could check out a house we'd found online that James just loved. It was a beautiful house and a nice drive, though a little long. Unfortunately, the house was surrounded by not-so-nice houses, making it a risky venture. We always try to keep resale value in mind. We wandered around a little bit on our way back to Bessemer, checking out some areas and getting a feel for things down there. We went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and happened to run into Sister Ridlespurge. They are nosy people and had been driving past the church to see if we'd made it in yet or not... but I don't think they were actually stalking us to Wal-Mart. HA! They are GREAT people--we love them already. They're the ones who told us they're nosy, by the way--I'm only repeating their confession. ;-)
That afternoon James needed some time alone, so I loaded up the kids to do some drive-by's of several houses on our list. Katie enjoys looking at houses with us, but the boys are always bored out of their gourds. They were both asleep by the third or fourth house. We marked several off the list that day--in fact, I think we only had one that we actually went back to see with the realtor later on. It's good to drive by and see what won't work (just judging by the area and whatnot) before you haul a realtor all over the county with you. ;-)
By the time we got back to the church Mom and Dad had arrived with their own camper and were setting up next door to us. :-) We visited for a little while and played a little croquet with the kids, then it was time to go get ready for service--the first service of Minister's Convention.
But that will have to come in another post. More later...
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Just a Note
...to say we have had a good day of travel today and we did, as hoped, make it into Arkansas. Not far into Arkansas, but across the state line anyway. I think we're just barely past Fort Smith. The house is nice and sparkly clean, ready for Jason to show it to lots of people (ha!) while we're away. We had a good, enjoyable drive today. All but the frequent invasions of unfriendly odors, that in. This is the smelliest trip we've ever taken! There have been skunks and cows and numerous unknown scents plaguing us the entire day. Crazy! Hopefully things will smell better when we get to Alabama tomorrow. :-)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Ready to Go!
...to Alabama, that is! Of course, we've been READY to go to Alabama for some time now. ;-) Unfortunately, we're only making a trip to Alabama this time.
Yesterday I had a great big list of things to do that would make today a much easier day. Unfortunately, all I accomplished yesterday was all of the laundry and ironing. Oh, well. It was a start.
Today was the big septic inspection day. I really, really like the guy who came out. I stood and chatted with him (over that nasty smelling stuff--bleagh!) most of the time he was here. He was so, so nice and I was able to talk with him about the Lord just a bit. He told me He found the Lord a few years ago and his life has just never been the same. I asked how he found the Lord and he said that he found the Lord sitting on the couch one day. HA! I didn't ask for clarification. "Did you find THE LORD sitting on your couch?! Or you found Him while YOU were sitting on the couch???" ;-) Anyway, I wasn't real sure what to do with the conversation after that, so I ended up giving him a Saved to the Uttermost tract. Ha! Actually, the conversation sort of veered after that, so I gave him the tract because I had been unable to clarify if he had actually repented of his sins and all that. I wrote Brother Chris' phone number on the back and he acted like he really appreciated it. Pray for Bill. :-)
As for the inspection itself, he hasn't actually completed it yet. It's a long, grueling story and I'm sick and tired of long grueling stories about this house. In the end, the septic tank is not in the greatest shape, but Bill thinks he's got a relatively cheap and easy fix for us that will enable us to avoid replacing the whole shabang (at $14,000, remember!)... so now we do some more waiting and praying and hoping for the best! He'll work on it this week while we're away, then send off the paperwork to make sure the county approves it for the sale of the house.
The other major project of the day was eating as many leftovers as possible. ;-) That project actually started yesterday. We're trying to eat everything that would spoil, turn green, or grow legs while we're away on our trip. Sounds appetizing, hu?! Ha! We did well. I glanced in the fridge a few minutes ago and all I found was half a tub of whipped cream and a few odds and ends. That left me with no choice but to open the freezer and dish out some Blue Bell Cookies and Cream. After all, it might grow ice crystals while we're away so it's only my duty to eat some before we go. ;-)
Got to make sure the house is show worthy while we're away (so tired of that!), so I got the den and the boys' room vacuumed, the wood floors swept and swiffered, and both bathrooms shining. I'm washing the towels and bath mats right now. I got everybody packed and even persuaded James to pack earlier (he usually waits until LATE on the night before we leave, or early the next morning) so I was even able to load the van! Wa-Hoo! Love that. :-) The only thing left to do (aside from folding the towels and throwing down the mats) is vacuuming our room. I can't decide if I'm going to do that tonight or in the morning. It probably depends on whether James is in bed or not when I go in there. If he is, I'll wait until morning and use the vacuum as his wake up call. :-)
So we'll leave tomorrow for Alabama. We'll stay in a hotel somewhere along the way, though we have no idea where. We'll get to Bessemer sometime on Thursday, but we have no idea when. We've never made this trip before, so we're planning loosely with all of that "no idea" stuff. ;-) The Powells, some members there in Bessemer, have been so kind as to allow us the use of their fifth wheel while we're there. It will be parked at the church next to Mom & Dad's camper. FUN. :-) I think I mentioned this last time, but we are soooooo excited about this trip! It's about time we made it. ;-) I have serious doubts about there being wi-fi available in the church parking lot, so I don't know if I'll be able to get online while we're away. If not, we'll be back... oh, sometime! Probably Friday or Saturday of next week. If you don't hear from me before then, you'll know why. :-)
Yesterday I had a great big list of things to do that would make today a much easier day. Unfortunately, all I accomplished yesterday was all of the laundry and ironing. Oh, well. It was a start.
Today was the big septic inspection day. I really, really like the guy who came out. I stood and chatted with him (over that nasty smelling stuff--bleagh!) most of the time he was here. He was so, so nice and I was able to talk with him about the Lord just a bit. He told me He found the Lord a few years ago and his life has just never been the same. I asked how he found the Lord and he said that he found the Lord sitting on the couch one day. HA! I didn't ask for clarification. "Did you find THE LORD sitting on your couch?! Or you found Him while YOU were sitting on the couch???" ;-) Anyway, I wasn't real sure what to do with the conversation after that, so I ended up giving him a Saved to the Uttermost tract. Ha! Actually, the conversation sort of veered after that, so I gave him the tract because I had been unable to clarify if he had actually repented of his sins and all that. I wrote Brother Chris' phone number on the back and he acted like he really appreciated it. Pray for Bill. :-)
As for the inspection itself, he hasn't actually completed it yet. It's a long, grueling story and I'm sick and tired of long grueling stories about this house. In the end, the septic tank is not in the greatest shape, but Bill thinks he's got a relatively cheap and easy fix for us that will enable us to avoid replacing the whole shabang (at $14,000, remember!)... so now we do some more waiting and praying and hoping for the best! He'll work on it this week while we're away, then send off the paperwork to make sure the county approves it for the sale of the house.
The other major project of the day was eating as many leftovers as possible. ;-) That project actually started yesterday. We're trying to eat everything that would spoil, turn green, or grow legs while we're away on our trip. Sounds appetizing, hu?! Ha! We did well. I glanced in the fridge a few minutes ago and all I found was half a tub of whipped cream and a few odds and ends. That left me with no choice but to open the freezer and dish out some Blue Bell Cookies and Cream. After all, it might grow ice crystals while we're away so it's only my duty to eat some before we go. ;-)
Got to make sure the house is show worthy while we're away (so tired of that!), so I got the den and the boys' room vacuumed, the wood floors swept and swiffered, and both bathrooms shining. I'm washing the towels and bath mats right now. I got everybody packed and even persuaded James to pack earlier (he usually waits until LATE on the night before we leave, or early the next morning) so I was even able to load the van! Wa-Hoo! Love that. :-) The only thing left to do (aside from folding the towels and throwing down the mats) is vacuuming our room. I can't decide if I'm going to do that tonight or in the morning. It probably depends on whether James is in bed or not when I go in there. If he is, I'll wait until morning and use the vacuum as his wake up call. :-)
So we'll leave tomorrow for Alabama. We'll stay in a hotel somewhere along the way, though we have no idea where. We'll get to Bessemer sometime on Thursday, but we have no idea when. We've never made this trip before, so we're planning loosely with all of that "no idea" stuff. ;-) The Powells, some members there in Bessemer, have been so kind as to allow us the use of their fifth wheel while we're there. It will be parked at the church next to Mom & Dad's camper. FUN. :-) I think I mentioned this last time, but we are soooooo excited about this trip! It's about time we made it. ;-) I have serious doubts about there being wi-fi available in the church parking lot, so I don't know if I'll be able to get online while we're away. If not, we'll be back... oh, sometime! Probably Friday or Saturday of next week. If you don't hear from me before then, you'll know why. :-)
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