House Stuff

I'll post a few pictures of the work that went on while the Shulers were here. Here is Uncle Colin, working his plumbing magic for us. WHAT A BLESSING!!!
James is playing with his new toy here--some router bits to create a beautiful edge for window sills, counter tops, etc.

Jacob was James' right-hand man while they were here. He is a perfectionist and a fast learner, so it wasn't anytime at all before he was working all alone with lots of tools he'd never seen before and doing things (including tricky angle cuts on the chair rail) without James there. He learned a little about electricity, too... the hard way. Ha! James just ASSUMED that he'd know not to grab the sides of an outlet to pull it through the beadboard. ;-)

This is what you call laying down on the job. Jake was touching up with the green paint after installing that green beadboard panel under the desk.

Poor Philip. He got all of the lonely, ungratifying jobs like scraping this door... for hours.

So he took a few breaks here and there--and who could blame him! I went into the bedroom and opened the closet door one time... and found Philip sitting on a chair, bound and gagged, hands wrapped tightly with this chain. Sam's doing, of course. I just closed the door and decided to mind my own business. As you can see, Phil was able to free himself. Then it was Sam's turn to be chained up. :-)

How many Pollocks does it take... ;-)

And that's about all of the work pictures I have. I did, however, walk around last night and take a few pictures of what things are looking like around here right now. Still got LOTS to do, but things are beginning to improve. Mom's been asking to see some pictures, so here we go...

James' office is coming together nicely. He got the ceiling fan in last week. As you can see, this is where all of the trim is being stained or painted, then stored until we need it in other places throughout the house.

This is the little half-bath on the main level--my bathroom. It makes me very, very happy. :-) Can't wait to get it finished!

And--gasp!--my DARK BLUE wall. I love it!!! :-) It just looks so sharp and crisp and clean with the white trim. And I love blue.
This is my ALMOST FINISHED utility room! :-) James laid the carpet squares last night and they look great. I can't see any seams anywhere. I do wish we would have found something a little lighter in color for that room... but I love it. I love having a finished floor in that room! Right now James is gone to Hoover, purchasing a washer and dryer to be delivered next Wednesday--then we'll be up and running! Wa-Hoo!!! The only thing left to do is poly the doors below the sink in there. I'll get that done today. Then we'll have TWO rooms finished: our master bathroom and the utility room. (Should I be saying "WA-HOO" or "It's about time!"??? Ha!)

And here is the half-finished kitchen. At least I hope we're half way there or more! We started hanging the cabinet doors last night and from this distance, they look terrific... so if you ever come over, please stand this far away to look at them. HA! I really do love them. The colors are so rich and pretty.

This is my desk area, already cluttered with miscellaneous items. I did find a few candles when I was unpacking the telephones last week. It made me happy to have SOMETHING cute to put on the shelves. :-)

That's it for now!

Gotta Blog

I don't have the time or the energy, but I've got to start blogging SOMETHING or I'll never get caught up! So here goes. All the way back to... who knows when! I've got notes from the last few weeks, but I think there are a few weeks that are completely lost forever. It's probably best that way. ;-)


On Thursday, February 2nd the Shulers headed to Moulton for revival and our family headed to the Powells’ house to work, work, work. It was our last two days there and there was TONS to be done. I was worried about getting all of our stuff out of there (what it it took several trips?!), but on Friday morning we loaded up the truck and the van, drove to the Monstrosity and unloaded, came back to the Powells' house and spent the rest of the day packing up the final boxes and cleaning. It took until about 8:00 that night, but when we finished we were able to fit everything else into the van with us (though Sam's head was framed by the dolly like the face mask on a football helmet--ha!) to drive back to town. When we got home I had another couple of hours worth of work unpacking and sorting and trying to find places to stuff all of our stuff.

Saturday the 4th we got up early and drove to Somerville for the Altar Ministry Workshop. There were so many good things shared. I took lots of notes. We enjoyed lunch with everybody and torpedo ball afterward. We left there and got a motel room in Decatur, got some rest that afternoon, then went to Revival in Moulton that night. Philip preached that night (first time I've ever heard him--I loved it!) on the Holy Ghost. The folks in Moulton are good to go to the altar and spend lots of time seeking the Lord. After much prayer and pressing, Josh Anders received the Holy Ghost! SOOOOOO EXCITING! Liz had received it a few months ago, for those who hadn’t heard. :-) We visited for a while after service, drove back to Decatur and stopped to get a late dinner at Steak ‘n Shake (wa-hoo!) before calling it a night.

Sunday morning, the 5th, we were back in Moulton and enjoyed another GREAT service. Jacob preached on growing in the Lord and being faithful to read the Word of God and pray every day. I can't really explain what was it was all about (I don't know!) but cried my heart out and sobbed in the altar for a while. ~whew~ It felt sooooo good. I’m so thankful that God loves us enough to give help and strength and grace and relief, even when we don't know what's going on and why we're feeling the way we are!

They had a wonderful pot-luck lunch after church and I loved fellowshipping with the girls (Liz, Kimmi, etc.)—and giving Brandon a hard time. :-) We ended up in the sanctuary after a while and James had a ball jamming with the Shuler guys--if you can call it that. He was teaching them all sorts of old church songs--all of the really corny ones that have no rhythm, to rhyme, and very poor or week lyrics. But they were written by Church members and they all mention the Church in one manner or another so James thinks they're all fantastic. Ha! The guys laughed a LOT. James even hopped in and tried to play Phil's big stand-up bass, then strummed a mandolin the way Uncle Colin does. It was great.

We finally left Moulton and made it back to Bessemer for service that night. We are going through the Body of Christ course--which I love--but I was soooooo tired. I had a horrible time bringing my mind into captivity for that one!

That day was our 12th anniversary, but we managed to make it through the day without being paraded up front and sang to or anything (I HATE things like that—ha!) – I threatened James profusely if he dared tell anybody it was our anniversary. ;-) Maybe someday we’ll get a chance to celebrate. There’s just way too much going on right now.

Monday and Tuesday, the 6th and 7th, were the only two days the Shulers didn't have anything booked so we hauled them over to the Monstrosity and put them to work. :-) Uncle Colin spent both days replacing all of the water shut-offs in the whole house (18 total), getting rid of all of the heavily corroded copper and sweating new copper in its place. He showed us how to do it and James and I both gave it a try. Very fun. :-) James also had him replace the water heater. Jake and Phil were busy painting and staining trim throughout most of the first day. After that Jacob worked side by side with James trimming out the kitchen, installing the freshly stained chair rail and door trim. It is soooooo pretty!!! They did SUCH a good job. Jake seemed to really enjoy it and said he thinks he could do finish-carpentry for a living. He’s a perfectionist and a quick learner. He’d be great at it. Philip kept ending up with all of the unpleasant, unrewarding grunt work—sanding down rough sheetrock, scraping multiple layers of paint off of a door, scrubbing wood with oil soap, things like that. He also ended up with a nice splinter deeply embedded in his finger. He was just grateful it wasn’t his plucking finger or he would have been in big trouble trying to play that giant bass of his! Anyway, we got a LOT done with the guys’ help. In between running around trying to find things for everybody (!) I was able to get the denim-looking wallpaper up on the bottom part of the half bath. I had papered the top half the week before. I LOVE THAT ROOM. It looks sooooo great! I just LOVE the yellow wall and the bright plaid wallpaper above and the denim down below. Blue and yellow always makes me happy. This will be far better than our blue and yellow bathroom in the last house. It’s closer to what we had in Andrews—my favorite bathroom ever. :-) Anyway, I also faux painted one wall in our bedroom, using green for the first time. It turned out really, really pretty but I’m not sure it really matches the wallpaper. Ha! It was perfect when I mixed it, but dried very differently. You'd think I would expect that. I think it will be close enough that it’ll work out okay. We’ll see. I might have to darken it or add some other color to it to make it work.

On Wednesday the 8th I painted my first really dark blue wall--in the foyer continuing way up high into the stairwell. I LOVE IT! In fact, it’s the first wall that I’ve painted or papered in this house and stood back and just wowed over. There are plenty of things that have turned out really nice and that I’ve been really excited about, but something about that blue wall made me almost giddy! I just LOVE it. It’s exactly what I had in mind—and things seldom actually turn out that way, you know?! You see something in your mind and it looks GREAT, then you try to do it and it’s horrid. Not this time—I think it’s FANTASTIC. I’m excited to finish the foyer and the stairwell now. And the half-bath and the master bedroom and the kitchen and the dining room… that’ll just be the main floor. Then we get to start the fun all over again upstairs. HA! Things are looking better and better all the time on this floor and we’re into the fun FINISH work now, so even though there’s still lots to be done, it’s finally the kind of work that shows results. I love working on the house and then at the end of the day being able to look and say THAT’S what I accomplished today and it looks great! We need more days like that. :-)

The Shuler boys worked with us through the morning, then left at about noon. We stayed and worked until about 3:00, then stopped to get ready to go to Collinsville for the service the Shulers were singing and preaching at there. We had a horrible time getting there, leaving a few minutes later than anticipated, getting all jammed up in bad traffic a few times, and then programming the GPS for County Road 5 instead of Country Road 3 (oops—my blunder!), landing us there about 20 minutes late! We felt sooooo bad. But we enjoyed the service, the singing, and the message Uncle Colin preached on forgiveness. So good.

Thursday, the 9th was sloooooooow moving. We intended to get to the Monstrosity bright and early, but spent the first few hours of the day in our pj’s at Sister Fender’s house! James worked on his stuff for the state paper (he was already 4 days late) and other miscellaneous things. We finally took the Shulers to Taco Bell for lunch, then went our separate ways—they to Alex City to preach and sing that night and the following, and we to the Monstrosity to work, work, work and see how much we could get done. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any more motivation once we arrived at the house than we had had at Sister Fender’s house that morning! James had errands to run and I had great intentions of getting lots done at the house while he was away. Instead, all I managed to achieve was getting the second coat of blue paint on the fantastic foyer/stairwell wall (I still love it!) and patching the wallpaper in the utility room where Uncle Colin had cut a hole in the wall to replace some pipe. When James got home we hung the light fixture in the stairwell, I had an epiphany about what to do with the rest of the stairwell and then spent some time with a tape measure, a level, and a pencil, doing some math and drawing some lines on the wall to see if I’d have enough wallpaper to do what I’d like to do. I’ll check my math one more time before starting just to be sure, but I think I’ll have enough wallpaper and that it’s going to look terrific. I love it when something just sort of slaps me in the face and I think, “THAT’S what I want to do there!” :-)

That’s about it. James hung some mini-blinds in his office. Joe and Sam talked to Isaac Hays on the phone, then James talked to Brother Dustin. They seldom do that and it’s good for all of them, so it made me happy. I joyfully went to bed early.

I had typed this up that night: "I am LOVING having the Shulers here and part of me wishes they could stay forever. But the other part of me is ready for the next phase: being able to be back down to just one house (our very own this time, even unfinished and all sleeping on the floor in one room! Ha!) instead of having to use Sister Fender’s house, though it has been a marvelous blessing to us during this time. I’m still having a great time working on the house (especially when we’re working with the Shulers... We laugh all day long when we’re with them--they are CRAZY!) but I’ve noticed that I’m beginning to wear down. I feel emotionally wiped out every two or three days… and I’m not an emotional person! I look forward to leveling out here one of these days. Hopefully sooner than later. The kids have been such troopers through all of this. Our lives are never rigidly scheduled anyway, but I’d say it’s been pretty much utter chaos at least 90% of the time for several weeks now. Even Sam told me a few weeks ago, “Mom, I need to get back to a normal life with a normal bedtime and stuff like that!” Proof of just how crazy it’s been. Ha!

Last Friday (one week ago today--look, I'm catching up!) we tried to get some more done on the house, but it seemed like we were just sort of spinning our wheels again. I hate days like that! The phone guy come out and got us all set up with our very own home phone again (wow—it’s been a while!) and Internet, so now I’ll be able to blog more often. Maybe. ;-) I think that’s the day that I put a coat of satin Polycrylic over the semi-gloss Polyurethane that we had decided we hated. Uncle Colin told me that there were flattening agents in it that would take out the shine of what was already there. Amazing! It doesn’t look perfect, but way better than it did before. Gloss finishes just showcase all of the flaws—and there are LOTS of flaws on these cabinets! I’m trying to find a finish that I’m really and truly happy with before I start doing the doors. It would be horrible to spend as much time working on something as we have those crazy doors and then have a splotchy finish when you’re all done, but I’m struggling (both with the regular Polyurethane and with the Polycrylic) to get a good, clean coat on. I keep seeing streaks and brush marks. I’m going to have to keep experimenting on the utility room doors until I find what will work for us, then I’ll do that on the kitchen cabinets.

We had hopes of making it to the service in Alex City that night, but just couldn’t pull it off. It sounds like they had fantastic attendance down there and a really good service. I think the Shulers said they sang 13 or 14 songs—some of them by request at the tail end of the service.

Sunday morning we got up early and drove to Goodwater to join the folks there for service. We really enjoyed it. We had a special sort of service with lots of prayer. The Hoffmans have been through so much physically and it was so good to be with them and all of the folks there. Fellowship is so good for all of us.

When service was over we learned that they were having a Valentines dinner in the back. I hate it when we bumble into a meal that I can’t contribute to! Seems like it's happened a few times here lately. Everything was sooooo good. We just LOVE eating food that somebody actually made in their own kitchen instead of burgers and chicken like we seem to eat all the time now! Ha! (Can't wait to have a kitchen again!) I really enjoyed visiting with the good folks there.

We stayed quite a while, but left in plenty of time to make it to Phenix City for service, even though they are on Eastern Time. (Weird-o’s. Ha!) That is, we would have gotten there in plenty of time if they hadn’t moved their service up to 5:00 instead of 6:00! Ha! Uncle Colin had sent James a text informing him so, but we had the ringers off on our phones and never got it. Oops. So instead of getting to church 10 minutes early, we came in 50 minutes late! We were there for the last two and a half Shuler songs, then a great message by Philip on being real Christians and really living what we claim. It was very, very good. We had a good time of prayer in the altar and Katie got down and really prayed and sought the Lord. I was blessed by that. :-)

We took a different route back to Bessemer than the Shulers that night, but our family stopped in Steak ‘n Shake in Prattville. Second time in two weeks we’ve had Frisco burgers. :-) YUM.

Monday was the Katie and Joe’s birthday and we had planned to take the day off and just spend time with the kids. Things never go as planned. Ha! The Shulers and James had some things that had to be done in the morning and none of them got back to Sister Fender’s house until nearly 1:00pm. When the crowd finally showed up we all headed to Hoover for the kids’ birthday lunch at Jim ‘n Nicks. Then we went to the Hoover library so the kids could stock up on new books. Joe wanted to go to Guitar Center to look around, then Katie wanted to go to Christmas Tree Shops to get a pink and black hat she'd seen and fallen in love with. We ran into Sam’s Club to pick up birthday cake for them, then went to Wal-Mart to get the stuff for fish tacos. By the time we got back to Sister Fender’s house it was almost 7:00pm. Lee Bear and his daughter showed up shortly thereafter and we all enjoyed Uncle Colin’s fish tacos. Well, not all of us enjoyed them. I think Joe started gagging before anything even touched his tongue. That kid got ALL of his taste buds from my Dad, I tell you! Meat and potatoes. Anything beyond that is weird and exotic and he has no interest in it. Sad. At least Katie tried hers and—for the sake of the Shulers, I’m sure—really tried to like it. She didn’t, but I appreciate the effort. Sam surprised all of us by truly LIKING them—especially the cabbage. Whoa! I think he had three tacos.

The kids migrated to the living room to try to watch Kung Fu Panda—the Shulers had insisted that we must see it and found it at the library earlier that day. Unfortunately the DVD was so scratched that it got stuck about half way through. I went downstairs with Jake and Phil and Lexie (Brother Bear’s daughter) and the kids and we all played Ninja for a little while. It was great. :-) We tried to watch the movie on a different DVD player downstairs, but it wouldn’t work either. Brother Bear and Lexie finally left sometime after midnight and the rest of us hit the hay shortly thereafter.

Tuesday morning we said our goodbyes to the Shulers… then went back to bed! Ha! Then we spent the day washing sheets and towels and vacuuming and doing dishes and trying to get everything at Sister Fender’s house all cleaned up and fresh and clean. I shouldn’t say we “spent the day” doing that. We did that off and on throughout the day, when we weren’t lounging around taking naps or watching Snowball Express—the other movie we had picked up at the library. Monday hadn’t been nearly as relaxing as we had hoped, so Tuesday seemed to be the day to catch up on some rest—though we still don’t feel caught up! It feels like we're still draggin'.

That afternoon we loaded up the last of our belongings and headed to the Monstrosity—TO LIVE! We hope. :-) I spent the rest of the evening working on my VLB service for the next night.

Wednesday proved to us that we are STILL not recovered from having been running full steam ahead for the past few weeks. We are having the hardest time getting motivated and finding the energy to work and get things done around here—and we so desperately need to! I touched up the red paint here and there where it was needed, sanded, re-stained and caulked around the new sink in the utility room that James and Uncle Colin had put in (yea!), toyed around with the Polycrylic and put a coat on the utility cabinets and shelves, then put the second coat of paint around all the trim areas in the bedroom… before crashing and taking a nap!

I was sooooo nervous about the VLB service that night. It was crazy. I’ve done this sort of thing lots of time and I always get nervous, but I felt almost sick this time. It was dumb! It was my first time to do anything like this here in Bessemer—maybe that’s what it was. I’m hoping I’ve made it past the hump and it won’t be so bad next time. ;-) Anyway, aside from my nerves, I think it went okay. I was so blessed by Kody playing a piano solo for us—he’s so shy and it was a HUGE thing for him to be willing to do that! It was beautiful. I led songs that nobody knew. All four of them, apparently. Ha! I really thought that SOME of the people would know SOME of the songs! Oh well, I think it was okay anyway. I have such strange feelings about teaching. I get nervous and I never, ever look forward to it. But when it's all over with I usually feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction or something--like I'm really glad I made myself do that and the hope that somehow something said was a blessing or a help to somebody. I like to feel purpose in my life. :-) Then there's moderating. I hate moderating! I'm horrible at it and I am utterly miserable the entire time--and never feel any sense of satisfaction afterward, just sheer relief that it's all over with! I should see if I can hire that part out next time... ;-)

After service we invited everybody to the back for cake and ice cream. We had half of Katie & Joe’s birthday cake left, along with a death-by-chocolate cake and butter pecan cake that Lee Bear’s wife had sent with him when he came to the house the other night, AND some red velvet cake Sister Robinson had sent home with us from the Valentines dinner in Goodwater on Sunday. And we had some left-over Blue Bell that we’d brought from Sister Fender’s house—so we had PLENTY for everybody to enjoy. It was the first time we had seen the Powells since they got back from Korea and we so enjoyed visiting with them. It’s so strange. We’ve spent so little time with them, but feel like we know them so very well and just love them to death. It really is like they are family. Such wonderful people.

Thursday was another slow moving day at the Monstrosity. I touched up paint here and there, tried some more methods of poly-ing cabinets, picked the one that we hate the least (it's sad when that's youre best option) and finished the upper doors from the utility room along with a few other odds and ends. James pulled away from the house projects to take care of our tax stuff for the year. I pulled away to proof the March edition of the Evening Light. There were some hilarious blunders in there this month and they gave us some good laughs. I'm hoping we caught them all and got them fixed. Dad found the very best one. In Brother O'Dell's testimony about his trip to Nicaragua he said that the people there gave him "a hammock and a Nicaraguan plague"--instead of plaque. The next sentence said that it left him absolutely speechless. Hahahahahaha! I think I'd be speechless, too. HA! I love it.

Today we got the doors hung in the utility room and hung three or four of the kitchen cabinet doors as well, touched up some more red paint (there will be TONS of touch-up to do in the coming days!) and... other things that I'm forgetting. Then we loaded up and headed to Hoover. We had several stops, but the biggest thing on the agenda was shopping for a washer and dryer. We'd been doing some research online and after checking out the sales and going to two or three stores I think we've settled on what we're going to get. The set priced really good right now but the sale goes off tomorrow morning at 10:00, so I think James is going to head down there in the morning. They will have to order the set in, but I think they said they will deliver them next Wednesday. That's exciting! Ah, yes--James also layed the carpet squares and the little clothes rod in the utility room today, so when I finish poly-ing the doors in there that room will be FINISHED and ready for a washer and dryer! Wa-Hoo!!! Life will feel sooooo much better when we have a washer and dryer. :-)

We had to hurry back from our afternoon errands to be able to make it to the kids' Valentine party at the Church tonight. It was lots of fun. I'm pretty sure the parents enjoy hanging out and visiting as much as the kids enjoy "their" party. :-) We had pizza and lots of adorable snacks ala Betty Dudley, then Sister Washburn had a devotion on love and lots of fun games for the kids to play. I think everybody had a blast.

We came home tonight, put the kids to bed, then spent quite a while hanging cabinet doors in the kitchen... six of them. Ha! It takes forever to get them adjusted just right where they look even and close smoothly and don't rub against each other or the cabinets themselves. And it's a little discouraging when I think of how many hours have been spent working on the cabinets, sanding, sanding, sanding, cleaning, painting, painting, painting, then painting trim (3 or four coats), James doing all of those angle cuts and attaching the trim... and after all of that there are soooooo many flaws!!! Ha! I'm almost ashamed to say that I sanded the doors and worked hard on them--there are problems all over the place! When you're working on them and hanging them you see ALL of the drips and runs and splotches and yuckiness. Then I stand back and look at them as a whole... and I love them. :-) It's just sooooo pretty! I worry about all of the extra lights we're putting in (four of them--that will shine down directly onto the cabinets)--I know they'll highlight yet more flaws and imperfections. But I still think I'm going to love them. I'm reminded that we're not professionals (our cabinets are proving it way more than I'd like--ha!), but I will still think they're terrific and will love them. At least I hope so. HA!

Well, lookie here! I'M ALL CAUGHT UP! Except for the pictures and videos I've been trying to upload all night. Can't get it to work at all, so I'll have to try that again another day. Right now I'm so tired I almost feel sick so I'm calling it a night!

Moving Day!

It's not nearly as exciting as it sounds. Ha! I just thought I'd give a short update since I've been gone from Blogland for so long. It looks like we will be "moving in" (that means leaving Sister Fender's house and going to stay at our own for good--we hope!) next Tuesday. Wa-Hoo!!! We'll all pile up in the communal bedroom (ha!) and stay there full time until we FINISH that crazy Monstrosity of ours. :-)

As of yesterday, we have Internet and phone service there (I'll try to send out e-mails with the new phone number soon), so that seems exciting!

Whoops--out of time. Headed back to the Monstrosity to get some work done, then we'll be in Phenix City for service in the morning, Goodwater tomorrow night, then A DAY OFF on Monday for the kids' birthday, then Tuesday the Shulers will head out and we'll get Sister Fender's house all put together and MOVE IN to the Monstrosity. Then we'll be able to work on it "full time." Riiiiiiiight. ;-)

Packing Break

It's an unreasonable thing to do, but here I am. I've had a real struggle with motivation today, the day that I really needed to be running on adrenaline for 16 hours straight. I've stayed busy throughout most of the day, but not nearly as speedily as I had planned. I felt the gears gradually slowing more and more throughout the day and at 5:00 this evening I finally laid down and took a 20 minute nap. That wasn't on the agenda! Ha! But it felt sooooo good and I was able to work much more efficiently afterward.

Tonight is our very last night at the Powells' house. Hhmmm. When I say it that way it makes me feel sort of sad! Ha! We have lived here for three weeks shy of a year, I think. What a blessing it has been!!! God bless Brother & Sister Powell for giving their lives to the cause of missions this past year--and their house to the cause of the homeless, as well! :-) I am, of course, anxious to live in my very own home but we now have a year's worth of great memories from this crazy little chapter of our lives. When we came here I remember thinking that I wanted to stay at the Powells' house "at least until the Assembly." That would get them 6 months into their mission trip and mean that they wouldn't have to worry about nobody being here to look after their house for the first half of their stay. I was worried James would have us moved out in 2 or 3 months. HA! Look at us now--scrambling to collect our belongings and put the house back together before they arrive almost a whole year later! I love how God has worked every detail of this situation so perfectly for the Powells and for us. His timing is amazing.

I can't believe how much stuff we have here. I've been filling the van every time we go to town (the past 4 or 5 trips) and now here we are at the end and there is a huge pile of boxes by the front door. In fact, it might be difficult to make it to the front door tomorrow! We'll manage. In the morning we'll load everything up and take it to the Monstrosity. I had hopes of making it in just one trip with the truck and van, but I'm not so sure that's possible. I'm just hoping we can make it in two trips now! Ha!

We've been enjoying the fellowship and services with the Shulers this week. I just love those guys. :-) I can say that I've been truly blessed by all of the messages and feel as if my soul has been fed--and I have some things to pray about. Uncle Colin preached about having faith and not doubting the first night, then Jacob preached a fiery message (no, really--he got loud and active there at the end!) about not judging by outward appearance but caring about all souls as Jesus does, then Uncle Colin preached... RATS. I can't think of it. I hate it when that happens! What did he preach the third night??? Anyway, the following night in Canaan (last night) he preached about not being lukewarm. I feel like the Lord spoke to my heart through all of the messages (even the one I've already forgotten--ha!) and, of course, I have thoroughly enjoyed the music. They sang it up last night in Canaan. They sang 8 and a half songs (he finally found the half song he couldn't find in Bessemer--ha!) before the message, then another 4 or so at the very end of the service, by request. The folks there just ate it up and the guys had a blast singing to them.

We've got minimal work done on the Monstrosity this week. We stayed in town to spend time with the Shulers instead of coming back to the Powells' house to pack up after service each night. That's the way I'm wired. I'd rather put myself under terrible stress and strain in order to be with people than do the sensible thing and be without them. ;-) It was worth it. Though I must admit I have felt stressed a few times this week. That's the wrong way to put it. I usually didn't feel stressed, but I could tell that I was. Like the time I went to tell James we needed a vacuum belt and instead found myself hugging him and crying for some completely unknown reason. Ha! I have felt like I'm on mental overload, but I think it's beginning to clear up. I keep remembering David's prayer, "Lord, let me never be put to confusion" and I've been praying it consistently! :-)

So tomorrow we vacate the Powells house once and for all (it will no doubt be an all-day venture), then on Saturday we'll be in Somerville for the Altar Ministry Workship followed by Revival in Moulton that night. Sunday isn't nailed down yet, but we'll be visiting a church somewhere up north. We'll have Monday and Tuesday back at Sister Fender's house, then take the Shulers to Collinsville on Wednesday night, send them to Alex City for Friday and Saturday (sadly, we can't make it to that one), then be with them Sunday morning in Phenix City before they head out of the state. Then we'll come back to Bessemer for VLB service that night since I'm in charge of it. ~gasp!~ I'm just as surprised as you are. ;-) I'm so excited and so nervous all at once! Praying God will guide me to just what He would have for us. I'm really out of practice with this sort of thing! I also need to have a Band Meeting sometime the following week if I can pull it off. And I also need to finish my utility room (we're so close!) so we can get a washer and dryer and then have no need to use Sister Fender's house anymore. I'd love to just mess up my own house for a change. Ha! How blessed we are to have access to everything we need in the meantime through generous Church-folk.

And one day, I'll blog again. It may be another week or two. But before long I'll be able to do it from the Monstrosity (we're set up to have phone and Internet there as of February 10th), so that will be nice.

Men's Retreat Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just Joshing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think I Can Do It???

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

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

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 28
Monday , January 2nd

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

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

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

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



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


The Monstrosity: Day 29
Tuesday, January 3rd

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

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

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 30
Wednesday, January 4th

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 31
Thursday, January 5th

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



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


The Monstrosity: Day 32
Friday, January 6th

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



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

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

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

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

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

Finishing December

The Monstrosity: Day 24
Wednesday, December 28th

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

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

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 25
Thursday, December 29th.

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

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

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

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 26
Friday, December 30th.

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

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

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

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

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


The Monstrosity: Day 27
Saturday, December 31st.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps We Should Fall Back & Regroup

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

So... our water problems:

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

The Good News Is...

I'm blogging because I have Internet!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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