The Stove Story

I've long wanted a double oven, but they are soooooo expensive. If you find one on a super-duper sale for anywhere under $1,000 you're doing really, really good. But that is sooooo much money! I just mentioned it to the Lord, but knew it wasn't important enough to really agonize over. ;-) We found one on Craigslist for $300--and it was even white. WOWZERS. When we went to look at it, it was in a storage unit so there was no way to test anything, but it looked to be in really good shape with only a few minor dings. The inside of the ovens looks practically brand new. Dude told us it was about 3 years old. I had already spoken with an appliance repair guy and he told me WORST CASE scenario to get it fixed if it had big, bad, ugly problems would be $450, putting our total at $750. Still a lot of money, but a good price for a double oven.

We bought it, in hopes that we wouldn't encounter worst case scenario. :-)

When we got it home and plugged it in it started speaking French and beeping continuously--wouldn't respond to any of the buttons at all. This was worst case scenario. :-/ The computer was just fried. No fixing it; it needed replaced. The piece alone cost $300+ dollars. ~sigh~

We called an appliance repair man who shall hereafter be referred to as Stove Guy simply because Dirty Rotten Crook doesn't sound very gracious. ;-) He came and looked at the stove, told us we needed a new touchpad and computer board (it's one piece), took $150 (half of the price of the part he needed to order)... and disappeared. About the day he had told us the parts would arrive is when he stopped calling us and stopped answering any of our phone calls--until I would call from a different phone number. THEN he'd answer and be full of excuses:

"Sorry I didn't come this morning like I said--I lost my keys and..."

"Yes, Ma'am--I should have called and told you--I stepped on a nail last night and spent a few hours in the Emergency Room..."

I was already thinking that this guy is either a liar, or he's got really, really bad luck. The clincher though:

"I can't come tonight because I've got to drive to Hunstville and pick up my fiance from the airport."

To which I replied, "Wait a minute... didn't you tell me you drove to Hunstville yesterday to pick her up???"

He then told me that the weather was really bad in Oregon and her flight had been cancelled the day before, so he was driving up again to get her when her new flight arrived... completely forgetting that he hadn't just told me he was going to pick her up, his actual words the previous day had been, "Yeah, I just picked her up and we're headed back to Birmingham now..." Hahahahahaha! It wasn't worth arguing with him--he was obviously a chronic liar.

It was THEN that we got wise and started trying to look up reviews on the Internet. You guessed it--there were SEVERAL of them, all saying the same thing. "The jerk took my money and ran--he won't answer or return my calls. I'm calling the cops!" Of course there were two posted that were just praising how honest and efficient the guy was... but of which had been posted that very week, obviously by Dirty Rotten Cr--I mean Stove Guy himself. ;-) I KNOW how he'd been treating his customers that week, so there's no doubt about the fact that it wasn't a true customer writing anything complimentary. ~sigh~ Live and learn. We obviously got burned.

I was going to call him and tell him that I was going to call the cops on him... but before I made the call I had a change of heart. I certainly wanted to have a working stove and I certainly did want my money back, but he has a SOUL and that is sooooo much more important than my stove or money. I finally decided that I was going to call and talk to him about his soul and how God loves him and wants to save him. I knew he wouldn't answer my call because I was out of new phone numbers to use (!), so I was all prepared to leave a message on his voice mail telling him everything I thought I should tell him about how to get saved and why he needed to.

I called him up... and got a message saying his voice mailbox was full. Hahahahahaha! OF COURSE it's full--of complaints, no doubt!!! So I took that as my answer from God to just let it go.

A few minutes later, Stove Guy CALLED ME BACK. Whoa!!! That hadn't happened in a couple of weeks! He called and told me that he was going to send my money back. I was SO unprepared for him to actually call me and it totally threw me off my game. I completely forgot about my little salvation speech, just stammered a "thank you" and managed to think to tell him that I was praying for him before he hung up.

I didn't actually believe that he'd send the money back, it it's always good to hope, right? :-)

He didn't.

It's been nearly two weeks since then. James and I decided that it was only right to call the police and report the dude. But I also felt it was only right that I inform the guy that I was going to have to do that. Talk about an awkward phone call! He didn't answer when I called this morning, of course, but he did call me back a few minutes later. He had some great excuses this time about an ex-girlfriend who's in a coma and whose kidneys are failing because she took too many children's Tylonol after having cancer, etc. I then thought how very sad it would be if it really was a true story. Sad because of the situation itself, but also sad because I had no reason to believe that such a person even exists and couldn't even muster a sincere prayer. How sad to be a liar and have everything you say doubted, even if you're telling the truth! ANYWAY, he insisted that he will put a check for $150 in the mail today and I told him that I would really like to believe that, but...! I told him I wouldn't call the police until after I'd checked the mail on Wednesday. I kept praying for God to give me wisdom and an opportunity to talk to the guy about his sould, but he rarely gives you a chance to say ANYTHING and I never did get to address the subject. I have prayed for him several times though, asking God to send somebody who can make him shush and listen (!) or somehow prick his heart and help him to search out the truth and find God.

ANYWAY...

In the meantime...

I called Maytag about two weeks ago, when I finally gave up on Stove Guy ever showing up to fix my oven or give my money back. Upon doing some investigation we discovered that this stove is 10 years old, not 3 years old. I'm good at finding liars, it seems. ;-) I couldn't believe it--this stove looks soooooo nice and like the ovens have just barely been used at all. I was disappointed and a little embarrassed to fine out it was so old. But then I also found out that it had a recall on it. Good news? Bad news? We received the parts in the mail last week and opened the box to discover some pieces of venting that needed replaced AND the entire computer/touchpad that was shot! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! The repair guy (a real one, not a crook) showed up the next day and fixed the oven for us--all free of charge--meaning all we had to do was hook it up to gas and we'd be rarin' to go. God is soooooo good and soooooo merciful!

Having never had a gas oven before and having never done anything with gas lines we were a little bit nervous, but didn't want to pay a plumber $100 to do a 15 minute job. We bought the kit, shut the gas off, hooked it all up, checked for leaks... but kept thinking we were smelling gas. James and the boys left for Cleveland immediately afterward (I had really pushed to get the stove hooked up so we could have a pizza party while they were gone--ha!), leaving him to worry if we'd all be gassed to death while he was away. :-/ Even worse, Katie had arranged for Katie Farr to spend the night, so we were putting her life in peril, too. (Not really--if I REALLY THOUGHT anyone was in peril I never would have brought another girl into the house; I just couldn't help but be NERVOUS about it, just in case, you know?!) When we picked Katie up I got to talking to the Ridlespurges about hooking the gas up to the stove... and after an hour or two they couldn't take it any longer and came over to see if they could detect any gas leaks. After all, their granddaughter's life was hanging in the balance. ;-) I didn't THINK I was smelling gas any more, but my smeller has never been the greatest and I did feel much better when they brought their noses over and assured us that they weren't smelling any gas at all either. So since we checked for leaks and didn't find any and we had several noses not detecting any smell, we decided we must be alright. That's when we headed to the office and took those great pictures of Brother Ridlespurge. :-)

And we cooked pizzas that night. And brownies. And have used the range to heat up soup and make some Ramen. Nothing actually homemade yet, but it's just soooooo great to actually be able to do stuff like that! It was so exciting to get a refrigerator, then twice as exciting to finally get a microwave. Now that we have a working stove we're just ecstatic!!! And it cost us $450. If Stove Crook sends our money back it will have cost only $300 and I wouldn't even know what to do with myself. :-)

So there you have it. I've thanked God soooooo many times for how he worked all of this out. I'm just so excited and so, so grateful. I have a double oven! And it WORKS! Oh, happy day!!!

In other news, the Katie & Katie party was fun. I played Quelf with them, then they wanted to watch Fiddler on the Roof... at 10:00 at night! Do you have any idea how long that movie is?! Crazy. They roller skated downstairs lots the next day, turning the whole basement into an obstacle course. They had to jump over some things, skate around others, then squat down real low and skate through a big box that was laying on it's side, open at both ends. FUN. Made me wish I had some skates!

The girls also helped me built my bed. I've been DYING to get it done all week, but it just never happened. Between the three of us, all three volumes of Upon This Rock and a History of the Old Testament book (!) we got it together pretty quickly and painlessly. And that meant I could unpack and decorate my bedroom. WA-HOO!!! I got all of that done and cleaned up Saturday afternoon. Keep in mind that we haven't yet installed the trim between the paint and wallpaper--that's still to come. But I figured my decorations wouldn't be in the way. Too much. :-)



It's strange... I like my house in person, but when I put pictures on the blog it just doesn't seem to look all that great. HA! Mostly I keep seeing all of the naked windows in need of curtains, I think. Oh well. Some day. :-)

Today I got all of James' grandmother's dishes put away. We brought them back from Pennsylvania at Thanksgiving time last year. She had servings for TWENTY-FOUR PEOPLE of blue and white Currier and Ives dishes. Can you imagine? 24 plates, 24 bowls, 24 dessert plates, 24 saucers, 24 coffee cups... Amazing. I built (I use the term "built" very loosely) two racks with hooks for the cups to hang from and got everything all put away and arranged in the hutch this morning. Unfortunately, that's about all of the house accomplishements for the day. I helped children with school quite a bit, then this evening we went to Hoover to do some running around. Picked up a dress for Katie and a suit for Joe at the thrift store, went to Christmas Tree Shops in search of something to put on the dining room walls (I've never had a dining room before and therefore have nothing to hang in there--and didn't have any luck in our search today) and accidentally found a few other things instead, stopped for pizza, then went to the library so I could pick up some girl movies in hopes that if I have something new (meaning I haven't seen them in years) to watch I'll make myself iron... and iron... and iron. I haven't gotten the ironing caught up since we moved out of the Powell's house. I'm really, really hoping this will be the week I make it happen. Of course, I think I've hoped that every week for the past two months. ;-) It's been a nice day, but we're missing Joe already. He's staying at Mom & Dad's house for the week. I'm so happy for him. He's soooooo excited and it sounds like he's having a terrific time. I'm still wondering if he'll enjoy it the whole way through, or start to get lonely for siblings to play (and fight) with after a few days. Time will tell. :-)

Pictures!

Don't get excited--there really aren't that many house pictures to share yet. But I was finally able to upload the pictures that wouldn't upload with my post last night.

I had to laugh at how different Ken Ham looked from when I first saw him... 21 YEARS AGO. I'm sure I probably look a little different, too.

The church he was speaking at was AMAZING. Look at all of those pipes! My kids are pretty sure this is where the Assembly should be held. :-)
Okay, Mom -- LIVING ROOM! My VERY OWN living room! ~Aaaaahhhhhh~ It feels like HOME. :-)
It's strange... I don't notice so much in person, but in this picture all I can see is that great big, ugly window that needs curtains of some kind. Ha!
That's it, Mom. I took a picture of the mantle wall, too, but it looks so silly with the mantle just leaning against the wall so I figured I'd wait until we enact my mantle plan and get it attached to the wall. Besides, the walls are mostly naked over there and I need to come up with something to fill them with. Some day. :-)

But HERE! Here is my kitchen sink. I LOVE IT. :-) It's just soooooooo nice to have a kitchen sink after all this time! And I really, really like the faucet we found at that salvage place in Chattanooga. I think it's perfect.
And then there are these pictures... I just couldn't NOT post these pictures. Hahahahahaha! James is in Cleveland right now and the Ridlespurges had to come over last night because our lives depended on it (no, really--I'll explain next time!) and I took them to see James' nearly finished office. They've been so excited to see it and we've all given James such a hard time about the great big, hoity-toity "overseer's desk" that he got real cheap recently. Brother Ridlespurge couldn't help himself--he just at to try it out...


Hahahahaha! I love it. We laughed a LOT. :-)

Progress

Slowly, slowly, slowly... but surely. And I'm thankful for every bit of it. But first, a short (no, really--I'll try to keep it short) recap of what all I've failed to blog.

We had a very good District Convention in Moulton, then visited the churches in Russelville and West Lawrence the next day. Things didn't go as we had planned and we got to the church in West Lawrence much earlier than we expected--and right on time for James to go in and help Brother Dustin and several of the other ministers pray for a young man who was devil possessed. In the end, the young man was delivered and saved and sanctified. Praise the Lord!

We got home late that night, but got up early the next day so the kids and I could drive to Vestavia Hills to attend one session of a Ken Ham seminar. He's always been my favorite Creation Science speaker and I've always thoroughly enjoyed hearing him. In fact, I remember hearing him speak at a Creation Seminar in Colorado Springs when I was about 13 years old. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO?! That is sooooo crazy! My kids really enjoyed hearing him, too, but since we've already exposed them to lots of Creation books and DVD's it wasn't really anything new and enlightening to them. Once it was too late (!) I REALLY wished that I would have tried to get some of the other church kids there. It would've been great for them to hear and (if they're anything like me) they would have thought it was the coolest thing ever.

The next day we bought our kitchen sink. Actually, we returned the one that we'd bought previously (took it out of the box and found it chipped) and bought a different one. One that I love, but that cost way too much money. :-/ But when you're already paying a crazy amount for a sink (has anybody priced cast iron sinks lately?!) I figured I'd go ahead and pay $13 more for the one I really wanted. Though we scarred up the countertop a little bit getting it in (those things weigh sooooo much!), we got it installed that night and--miracle of miracles--there were NO leaks. I mean, on the very first try! NOTHING leaked; not the sink, the dishwasher, the ice maker--nothing! Wa-hoooo! I didn't even know that was possible. :-)

Let's see, what else... I did my VLB service this month on the 7 Motivational Gifts found in Romans 12. I've always LOVED that study, but was a little nervous about presenting it here. In the end it seemed like everybody enjoyed it, though they were fighting over who was what after service. Ha! The "Prophets" and the "Mercy's" are always the easiest to spot. :-)

Last Friday the kids and I drove to Fort Payne to meet Mom & Dad for lunch. It's so cool that we live close enough to do that now! Mom had made a DARLING Easter dress for Katie, so we needed to pick it up. (Unfortunately Easter wasn't very nice for us this year, what with losing Charlie, and I didn't get a good picture of her in it! Next time she puts it on I will.) Anyway, we had a nice lunch at Western Sizzlin', then we all went to a few stores before parting ways.

Yesterday Brother & Sister Powell called and asked if they could bring Brady up for the kids to play with for a little while. I cried at the when James told me! They are so sweet and thoughtful. They came and we all walked all over the property (they've never been here in the daylight) while Brady drug Katie all over tarnation. :-) It was great to see them. And Brady.

As for the house, I was able to get some work done in the half bath. Painting and polying the vanity, finishing the countertop, and laying the wood floor. Aside from that, we've been working on unpacking and finding places for all of the stuff we got moved in this past Saturday. I found places for everything in the kitchen (I was worried when I saw how many boxes said KITCHEN on them!), I've gotten the living room all unpacked and decorated (except for a few things that will have to be done later), and James has his office all set up and moved into. Those three rooms are looking great, but everything else is TRASHED! I keep thinking "tomorrow" I'll get the rest of the house under control, but so far "tomorrow" has been very evasive.

There is other grand and glorious news, but I'll save it for another time because it deserves attention all to itself instead of just being tacked on to the end of an already long post. :-) For now, I'll just put on a few pictures of the house.

Actually, I won't. HA! I'm so sorry, Mom--I've tried and tried and tried again, but Blogger just keeps getting STUCK. I will try again tomorrow. :-)

Doing Much Better

That last post was still pretty grim, so I thought I'd put an update on here tonight. Today has been a much, much, better day. I haven't had children spontaneously sobbing and coming for hugs and I never broke down and cried until I got to church tonight and a "Mercy" guy asked with great compassion in his eyes and voice how I was doing. But then his "Prophet" wife showed up and confessed that she couldn't leave a comment on my blog because nobody would believe it was sincere. Ha! I love them both so much. :-)

Truthfully, I feel like God really helped us and gave us relief and rest from the deep grief today. I know that sounds silly and way over dramatic to non-dog people (!), but we've truly been grieving around here. But today I've felt peace and not that deep, sick, heavy feeling that had tugged persistently at my heart since Sunday. I still miss Charlie tons and I know that we will for a long time, but I think we're all feeling so much better than we were yesterday. I'm sooooo thankful. And despite what some people think (you know who you are--ha!), it IS worth it to go through the grief. I agree emphatically with Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." It's true.

In house news, I LOVE having the kitchen all unpacked! I've still got some odds and ends to work out and I'm sure I'll rearrange things a little bit here and there to see what works best in this kitchen, but it just feels sooooo good to have all of my own pots and pans and Tupperware and... oh, just everything. I can't wait to use it!!! If only I had a stove. Ah, yes, The Stove Story is still in progress, but I sincerely hope to have a conclusion sometime very soon (this week???) and then I'll tell you all about it. I'm still praying for a happy ending. :-)

Today I got the living room furniture all arranged the way that I want it (I think) and leaned the mantle on the wall where it's going to go, even though there's no fireplace there. James thinks it's horribly corny to have a mantle with no fireplace, but it was my Grandmother's mantle and I love the memories and refuse to just shove it in a corner of the garage or basement. I've been looking and gathering ideas and I think I have a plan now. James may even end up liking it in the end. Only time will tell. He's mighty hard to please sometimes. ;-)

Anyway, just before church I busted open a big box that said "Living Room" and started pulling things out to see what I've got. It's been over a year since I boxed up all of our belongings in New Mexico and it's so exciting to start seeing all of the things I had forgotten about! I hit the jackpot with this box. It had most or all of my framed prints--primitive houses or old timey stitch prints with scriptures on them. It made me feel all warm and cozy and homey just pulling them out of the box--I can't wait to hang them on the walls! :-)

No pictures yet, Mom. Soon. :-)

That's about it from here. The house is coming together, slowly but surely, and we're all going to survive losing Charlie. I'm sure there will be some more really rough days, but I'm so, so, so thankful for the relief we experienced today. God is good to us. :-)

Doing Okay

I thought it would be best to post an update, just so folks know that we're going to survive. ;-)

Sunday night was really tough. I'm a little bit ashamed to admit just HOW badly I felt after Charlie's funeral. I tried to listen to some nice soothing worship music before bed, but everything that came on just sounded so melancholy and mournful! I'm pretty sure on any other day I wouldn't have thought so, but that's sure how it sounded that night! I finally gave up and went to bed, trying to put words to the horrible feeling I was experiencing. I finally settled on a word that I was embarrassed (and still am) to choose: depressed. I just felt sooooo down and sad and hopeless and all manner of feelings that God doesn't intend for us to live with and that I'm sooooo unaccustomed to feeling! I know that it was mostly due to losing Charlie, but I'm sure it was compounded by the major lack of sleep over the previous two or three days, the stress of caring for a very sick dog, the physical exertion of "moving in" (such as it was) on Saturday, as well as a few other physical issues at the time--everything piled up together just threw me totally out of whack! But God is good and faithful to hear and answer prayers. He gave me such good and solid rest that night and I did awake feeling much better.

Yesterday was pretty tough. As long as they stay busy, the kids do pretty well. But when a lull comes during the day the tears aren't far behind. I don't know how many times throughout the day I would hear the kids playing or doing school in the other room, and then one of them (usually Sam) would walk around the corner with tears just streaming down his face, coming to hug and cry. (They know they can count on me to break down and cry with them every time, I guess!) Then they tell me what it was that made them think of Charlie. Sometimes they happen to see something he loved to play with, or sometimes they'll look under the table to see if he's there--just out of habit, or sometimes they'll drop a piece of food on the floor and he's not there to come and get it. It's amazing, the thousand and two things that make you think of a dog once he's not there anymore.

I was really dreading a long and teary night with three heartbroken kids, but then the Ridlespurges showed up! They had seen what a wreck we were at church the night before (or was it mostly just me???) and they wanted to come by just to check on us and make sure we were doing okay. Most folks wouldn't think to do that after a dog dies (!), but it meant sooooo much to us! We visited for a few minutes, then they tried to leave--insisting that they didn't want to barge in or keep us from our work--but we managed to talk them into going out to eat with us first. James and I agreed to let all of the kids ride in the back of the Ridlespurge's truck (apparently that's not illegal in Alabama??? Crazy!) and on a whim we hopped out of the van and climbed into the back of the truck with the rest of 'em. It was great. :-) Except that I think my husband scares Katie Farr. He's always so WEIRD when she's around and I think it freaks her out a little bit. Ha!

Since we had bummed a ride, the Ridlespurges had to take us back home. When we got there, the kids were all saying things like, "Okay, Mom... Do your thing--keep 'em talking!" They were wanting some more time to play and hang out with the kids. After a good bit of effort we were able to persuade Brother & Sister Ridlespurge to come in a visit just a little while longer. The kids all went to the basement and had a BLAST. I went to check on them a few times. The girls spent a lot of time on the roller skates and the boys were having a fantastic dart gun war with cardboard box "tanks" and cannons and who knows what all. It was sooooo nice to see them all laughing and having such a great time. We so, so, soooooo needed the distraction and it was such a blessing to not just sit and cry all night! And I think it gave the kids some hope that they'll be okay and they'll make it through this thing and not just spend the rest of their lives sad and teary.

Today has been much better, for the most part. It was late this afternoon before I broke down and cried. :-) I suddenly felt a strong urge to stop working and pick up a poodle and cuddle for a few minutes. It was something I used to do several times every day, explaining to Charlie that I needed poodle therapy. “Poodles are good for people, you know that, Charlie? They are. It’s just soothing and relaxing to cuddle with poodles. That’s why God made them…” I’m sure he knew the speech by heart. ;-) I really could've used some poodle therapy today. But the reason I really needed it is because… ~sigh~ …because I don’t have a poodle. So since I was all teary anyway I went on out to his grave to cry for a little while. You can’t just stand and cry without praying, so I thanked God for the time we had with Charlie and what a great little dog he was for our family, and then I asked Him again (as I have dozens of times already) to help our hearts to heal. It doesn’t take very long to run out of words, so I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over, but it felt good to go cry about it for a few minutes anyway. I remember James asking me after Hershey died if it was really worth it to have a dog and then suffer so horribly over losing them. The answer was an obvious YES, it is soooooo worth it! And I would say the same thing again after losing Charlie, but if I would have KNOWN ahead of time that we’d only have him for a year and a half before going through this…!? I'm sure I still would have agreed. He was such a great dog and had such fun little quirks that we'll always remember. Like the way he loved to crouch down and crawl slowly toward you, then pounce at you. Or that his favorite toy was a plastic bag. How much he loved air blowing and would stand over a heater vent and lick at it--or come running when he heard the blow dryer. He was just so fun. I’m THANKFUL that we had him for the time we did and I certainly don’t regret it, but a year and a half just isn’t nearly long enough to love and enjoy a dog before going through the hurting/grieving thing again. It almost makes me hesitate to think of getting another one down the road. I would feel much better if I had at least a 3 year guarantee (though I’d prefer a 10 year guarantee!) that they’d be with us and in good health that long! Too bad it doesn’t work like that. Oh, I did thank God again for how merciful He is to have only ever chosen to take poodles from us. We’re soooooo blessed for the health and protection He’s always provided for James and the kids and myself.

Tonight the kids went to bed without any tears. ~whew~ That's such a relief! Thank the Lord. :-) And I'm feeling really good for the most part, too.

We've been busy trying to unpack and get moved in, but I'm amazed at how little we've accomplished in the past two days! James is making good progress in his office and, as of tonight, I'm pretty well moved in to the kitchen. And get this... a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-all of those kitchen boxes have been unpacked and everything actually found a place! I was so worried that I'd run out of room and still have 5 boxes to unpack (ha!), but it looks like it's all working out just right. The pantry is a WRECK, but aside from that things are looking good. I'll post pictures soon.

Tomorrow is a fresh day. I expect it to be a good one. I just can't help but feel so blessed. Our family feels closer. I love that. :-)

Charlie Dog

~sigh~

I so dread writing this post, but it must be done.

Charlie had a long and miserable week, and finally left us this afternoon. We are so heartbroken, but truthfully after what he's been through I must say that I am also relieved. For the past day or two we've been begging God to either heal Charlie and make him well again, or to have mercy and just let him die. God answered our prayers today and we are genuinely thankful, though it certainly wasn't the answer we were hoping for.

We had to board him last weekend while we were traveling. We left a healthy dog and came home to a sick one. I talked to my cousin tonight (a serious dog lover) and she says it sounds like perhaps it was Parvo. He had stopped eating and was having horrible symptoms, especially the past two or three days. He was so miserable and unable to sleep or get comfortable or take anything at all into his body aside from water. He was in pretty bad shape when we left him this morning, but when we got home from church things were sooooo much worse. I actually thought he was dead to begin with. He was completely limp and couldn't/wouldn't hold his head up or anything. Due to some of his horrible symptoms he was filthy so I laid him in the utility sink and got him all cleaned up, then wrapped him up in towels and the kids all took a turn sitting in a chair and holding him and crying and talking to him and saying goodbye--it was obvious that there would be no recovery unless God worked a miracle. It was so hard, but the kids were so grateful to have that time with Charlie and have told me how merciful it was of God that he didn't die while we were gone and that they all got to see him and love on him and say goodbye. They are thankful that Charlie knew we were there and that he was loved. It thrills me when I hear them say things like that and when they find ways to be thankful to the Lord even in the really hard things.

I intended to stay home and just hold Charlie until the end, but James thought it best if I went with the rest of the family to eat at the Hopkins' house. I was just sick over leaving Charlie, but then I remembered that he'd been trying to go hide all alone in dark, private places out in the woods for days. It's what dogs do when they're ready to die. Maybe my being here was actually preventing him? So I wrapped him in the towels and laid him on the floor in our closet, one of the places he'd gone to try to get rest earlier in the week.

When we got home after about two hours I was just sure he would either be healed (we weren't ready to give up hope and we hadn't stopped praying!) or dead--I just didn't see how he could have made it that long. He was still alive, but no longer conscious and his breathing was heavy and labored. It was worse to see him that way than peaceful and lethargic, but the kids insisted on saying goodbye one more time. While Katie was in the closet with him she lifted his head onto her lap. She said he opened his eyes and moved his head a little bit, and then he stopped breathing. Finally, the end. We were all devastated, but so very relieved that he is no longer sick. It's far worse to have a dog that you love laying there in such horrible shape and be unable to do anything to make him better.

I would have been crying anyway, of course, but the kids make it so much worse! I HATE seeing them so torn up! They just sobbed and heaved and the tears just flowed like a river. Katie and Sam are having a harder time accepting it, but Joe amazes me with his ability to see things from a mature and spiritual perspective. He sobs as hard as anybody, but he says that God knows best and that He must have His reasons for not healing Charlie; and that He still loves and trusts God just the same. In a strange kind of a way, I wonder if our kids won't end up loving and trusting God even MORE through this experience. When your heart is grieving you cry out to God in ways that you aren't able to do otherwise and you find Him so real and so near. I've been praying for God's will to be done and for God to somehow receive glory through this situation whichever way it went, and for us to make wise decisions and learn whatever God may wish to teach us through this. Right now everything is still such a blur and our hearts are so heavy and we feel that horrible emptiness of LOSS, so it's hard to really think of what we've learned. I know that my children have cried out to God from the depths of their hearts. That is a beautiful thing. Just a few minutes before Charlie died today I was walking down the hallway and I heard Joe's voice coming from the utility room. I stepped in the door and could hear him from around the corner. He was praying, "God, please, please, please heal my dog. You know what's best and I trust You, God, but I'm asking you, Lord, if it's okay to please heal him." As heartwrenching as it was, I was so blessed to hear him praying with so much passion and faith and even surrender.

Ah, yes. This morning when we got in the van to leave for church James didn't put the van into gear, he said he wanted to talk to us for a few minutes first. He said that he wanted our family to have a prayer together for Charlie and just give him to the Lord. He said we would pray for Charlie to be healed with faith believing that God can do just that. But that we would also pray that if God knew of some reason why it should be Charlie's time to go, that we would ask Him to please take him quickly and not let him suffer any more. The kids (and I, of course) just sobbed, but we had a good prayer and I could hear all of the kids praying sincerely just as their Dad had instructed. I pray that somehow it brings joy to the heart of God to see the kids "giving" Him something they hold so dear. They still have their "why" questions, of course, but they're genuine questions, not accusing questions. I'm pretty sure that kind are okay. :-)

I could ramble on and on. Everything is all hazy in my head, but none of it really matters at this point.

Charlie passed late this afternoon. I got him wrapped up and ready to bury while James and Sam started digging a hole out back. We didn't have time to finish before church, so when we got home tonight the boys and James finished digging and then we had a little graveside service. James asked the kids if they each wanted to say something. Katie talked about remembering the very first time she saw him and how cute it was, and she thanked him for choosing to be with her when he died. Joe thanked him for being such a great dog and for being our "Snarly Charlie" and all of the memories. Sam said about the same thing, but added a thanks for all of the biting times. (Sam and Charlie played ROUGH with each other!) We all cried and said a prayer, thanking God for letting us enjoy Charlie for the time that He did. A year and a half doesn't seem like nearly enough time, but he's truly been good for our family and we've been blessed to have him.

This may or may not seem weird--I don't know. I know that I didn't take any pictures of Hershey's funeral because I thought it would be really weird, but then later for some reason I regretting not having any. So I took a couple of pictures this time. If you think it's weird, don't look. ;-)





I know we'll be hurting and grieving for a while. The first few days and weeks are so tough. But I know that it pales in comparison to losing a family member (the human kind--all good dog owners consider their dogs to be family members!) and so many other things that are so much more tragic. I hate how EMPTY your home feels after you're used to having a happy, playful dog there with you all the time. We'll be feeling that emptiness all of the time for a while and do plenty more crying I'm sure, but time will ease things and we'll all survive and be okay. We're blessed. And we know it. I've been blessed by my husband's care for his family today. And I've been blessed by my children's sincere prayers and trust in God today. I feel heartbroken. But blessed. I love how much God loves us. :-)

Easter, Moving, & a Very Sick Dog

I'm thankful that we'll be going to church in a few hours and will be celebrating the Resurrection and thanking Jesus anew for the sacrifice He made for us. That's what Easter is all about.

For us, the extra festivities will probably have to wait. I don't have a functioning stove yet so I can't cook Easter dinner (some day I'll post The Stove Story, but I'm waiting to see how it ends before I devote that much time to it--ha!), I'm not sure my kids have clothes ironed and ready to wear (have no idea what anybody will be wearing--my goal is to just find dress clothes of any kind that are already ironed, which would be a miracle), and we never colored any eggs. Literally didn't have the time... and don't have a stove to boil them on anyway. ;-)

The good news is: My house is now covered with furniture and piles of boxes. It's a WRECK, but it's a very exciting wreck because it means that we are finally getting MOVED IN on the first floor. Wa-Hoo!!! I'm especially excited about busting in to all of the boxes that say "Kitchen." Though I must admit I'm wondering where I'm going to PUT all that stuff--there are a TON of boxes labeled for that room. It will be sooooooo exciting to open them!

Oh, other super-duper exciting thing: I HAVE MY PIANO. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ It feels sooooo good to have my piano again! We've been keeping it at the church (scared to put it in a storage unit or the garage) all this time, so now--after over a year without it--it sits in my living room again. I can play it any time I want. I may actually learn how to play again! :-) Soooooo thankful that it's here and for those who had a hand in getting it to its current resting place--along with all of the boxes and furniture all over my house. GOD BLESS THEM. :-)

The bad news is: We have a very, very sick dog. Charlie has been sick all week, but has gotten progressively worse the past three days. He hasn't eaten a single bite of anything and he is sooooo miserable with constant evidence of sickness in every possible way. (I'll spare you the gory details. You're welcome.) I was up with him most of the night last night and then up for good by 5:00am and haven't had high hopes of getting much more rest tonight tonight (Saturday night/Sunday morning), judging by how miserable and restless he is. I am SO thankful he and I both got a little over two hours of sleep before he woke me up a little while ago. I desperately needed it, so I KNOW he needed it. And God blessed me to actually feel quite rested by it. I'm hoping Charlie will be able to settle down and go back to sleep for another few hours, or maybe even all night? He's extremely sick. Way too sick. He crawled off into the woods several times today to go hide, which scares me to death. It's a miracle we even found him the last time. We're doing our very best to take care of him and have been praying (and as of today, praying with tears!) a whole lot. Joe told me before bed that he felt like Charlie is going to be okay--that he had prayed and really felt comfort about it. I'm leaning heavily on those prayers :-)--and now praying fervently that God will answer my son's prayers and increase his faith in God and in the power of prayer! Some times I feel like he'll pull through and everything will be fine, and other times I get really, really worried that he won't. He's just so, so bad. ~sigh~ For the most part, I feel very hopeful and even expectant that he'll get better, but I think it will be the grace of God alone if he does. I always have such mixed up feelings about praying for a dog... SO THANKFUL that God cares for our every need and that He cares about the things that are important to us... and yet always a little ashamed at how fervently I can find myself praying over a dog when I somehow struggle to really bear the burden in prayer for souls that I should! But then, I was reminded yesterday at how easily I feel guilt over things. ;-)

Anyway, there are grand and glorious things going on here and lots to update, but the joy of all of that has definitely been skewed by Charlie being in such horrible shape. In the end, we'll all be okay one way or another and be able to thank God for His goodness and His mercy and His omnipotence. Until then... if you're a dog person at all... or even if you're not, but you love me or my kids (ha!), please whisper a prayer for Charlie. Even if you feel silly doing it. It won't hurt you. ;-)

It's Starting to Look Like a HOUSE

Not a HOME yet (no furniture or decor), but a HOUSE. That is a HUGE improvement over looking like a construction zone or, at times, a demolition zone. ~Aaaaahhh~ Life is grand. :-)

We had a great Sunday. My Sunday School class involved paper chain caterpillars ("old things are passed away") and ink blot butterflies ("behold, all things are become new"). FUN. :-) Brother Hopkins preached a fantastic message that day; possibly the best I've ever heard him preach. Or perhaps it just spoke to MY heart. I felt some definite conviction and refocusing going on in my heart and was so thankful for the opportunity to talk to the Lord about it in the altar. I love those times and need them regularly.

After service we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, then back to the church to do our cooking for the Mission Pot-Luck to be held after service that night. James had opted to cook up the last of his frozen green chilies from Hatch to make some enchiladas. Since our oven STILL isn't up and running (lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong story) we had to go to the church to make them. Brother Washburn showed up to take care of some BTI stuff and Katie helped him address envelopes while Sam commandeered his phone and played games on it. Brother Washburn was also so kind as to help Joe bust open the coconut James had agreed to buy for him. It was quite an endeavor and I really wish I'd taken a few pictures of it.

We were able to get a little bit of rest before returning for the evening service and dinner. We had a great meal--always do here--and enjoyed the fellowship. We sat with the Booths and the Carpenters and had a good time. We stayed around and visited with the Coxes and the Hopkins after everybody had left and ended up standing in the parking lot and visiting with the Coxes until nearly 11:00, I think!

On Monday I helped kids with school for most of the morning, then I painted yet one last coat of blue in the foyer. That's a long story I'll spare you from. In the end, I'm very happy with how it turned out. I LOVE having a dark blue foyer with white trim and doors. It looks fantastic.

Monday was also a red letter day for the kids. They moved out and into their own apartment. Not exactly, but that's what it feels like! We had intended to move them upstairs to camp out in the chapel room, but they all begged and pleaded to move to the basement instead. The more I thought about it, the more benefits I saw to the idea. James agreed and the kids were thrilled. We cut the carpet out of our bedroom into three big squares, one for each kid, and hauled them to the basement. Once they finished school the kids spent the rest of the afternoon moving their bedding and all of their belongings out of the living room and down onto their squares in the basement. They still seem to be loving the arrangement and for the most part so do I. But there is much less supervision when they're down there (thus the feeling that they've moved out!) and that scares me. HA! They spend most of their time up here with us anyway and when they ARE in the basement we're able to hear pretty much everything that goes on through the vents in the floor, so I guess it should be okay. :-)

We moved everything out of the living room, foyer, hallway (James' favorite place to keep that obnoxious compressor of his--ha!) and our bedroom and closet--in anticipation of NEW CARPET the next day. :-) That night the Ridlespurges came by to see our progress and see the joint one last time before it got its new carpet. We had to FORCE them to stay and eat dinner with us. Probably because "dinner" consisted of sandwiches and left-over enchilada from the pot-luck. HA! We had a good time with them, as always.

Tuesday morning was thrilling. The carpet guy came! On time!!! EARLY, even! And he had carpet. Lots and lots of carpet. ~sigh~ Oh, happy day. :-) James had some appointments and errands to take care of that day, but the kids and I enjoyed a nice, quiet day at the house, mostly just hanging out and playing some games while Larry worked away on the floors. At the end of the day the slate floor in the foyer had been prepped, and we had carpet--new, fluffy, cushy, pretty carpet--in the living room, our bedroom, and James' office. Wa-Hooooo!!!

That night James went to the auction while I stayed home and finished wallpapering our bedroom. :-) James came home with a game table for the kids to keep in the basement. They were bouncing off the walls with excitement and have been having a blast with it ever since.

Wednesday was a grand and glorious day because Larry FINISHED our carpet!!! It looks so WEIRD in the foyer and the hall because I've never seen carpet there before, but I LOVE it. It's the carpet that made all the difference in things looking like a HOUSE instead of a work zone here.

I spent a good portion of my day trying to teach Joe how to work with fractions. It will surely be the death of me. As I was ever so patiently ~ahem~ reminding him for the umpteenth time that the fractions must have common denominators before they can be added, I couldn’t help but hear my mother’s voice screaming at me from 20+ years ago, “’OF’ IS A PREPOSITION!!!!!!!” Prepositions were my weakness. Apparently fractions are Joe’s. I actually called a teacher recess that day for about an hour. I NEEDED it. Ha!

Once Larry was finished with the carpet and gone, I moved everything out of the utility room (lots of things had been crammed in there since it wasn't being carpeted) and back into the closet, cleaned it up, ran some laundry, and moved ALL of the kid's clothes down to their apartment. ;-) Though we now have carpet, we are still on the air mattress for right now—got to finish this house up so we can MOVE IN to this floor!!! Soon. Please… soon. :-)

Last night was CPMA service, then Bojangles with the Washburns. We had a great time with them and stayed out way later that we had planned. It was fun and we learned some things we didn't know before about them. DID YOU KNOW THAT TAMMY WASHBURN WAS HOMECOMING QUEEN????? I love it! ;-)

Today has been a real bust as far as progress on the house goes. But still a success, really. I've been spending more time with the kids and their schooling this week and it just feels so nice. It's so much better for them AND for me! Katie and I have been playing a game of Phase 10 Dice over lunch each day and tonight the whole family played I Buy. (It did occur to me that we must be OLD; all of our kids are old enough to play I Buy with us now?!) The only thing we really got done on the house was shaving down four doors that were scraping too tightly across the new carpet. We've got some work to do on the front door yet, but we'll get it figured out one of these days. I did managed to put a coat of polyurethane on the countertops tonight, as well as the dining table (it was in need of a fresh coat or two) and the bead board. Did I mention that we ran out of beadboard for the backsplash about four feet shy of completing it?! James bought a small pack and I stained the boards a couple of days ago and finally got some poly on them tonight. One more coat and they'll be good to go.

And now--at long last--some pictures!

Joe was all weird about me posting pictures and video of the Skate Show he and Katie put on for us the other day, so I thought I'd just put this one shot--the one that's so far away you can't possibly see that his skates have pink wheels. ;-) Mostly, it just shows the fantastic area they have to skate in. So fun!

At the other end of the basement was Sam's concession stand. He had cookies and granola bars and juice and water--and even pellet guns for rent. He is his father's son. Ha! He had everything all written up on his sign and ready to go.
Joe has had big plans for the Horne Gazette this past week, though I can't recall the last time he actually wrote a new edition...
I found these pictures that James took out back a few days ago. They really don't begin to show how pretty everything is. That bush in the left of the picture is COVERED with pink/white flowers now. It's amazing.
We have several dogwood trees on our property and they have white blooms all over them now. I love it when the wind blows and hundreds of them float through the air to the ground. It's the Alabama way of snowing. ;-) They are beautiful.
Ah, yes. The kids' apartment. ;-) This is Sam's square. That huge pile is the cave he created. He sleeps there and stores most of his junk there, too.
Looks like Joe is just hoping somebody dares to trespass on his square. ;-)
I didn't get any pictures of Katie's square because she was still arranging all of her stuff and didn't wasn't ready. I finally gave up and went back upstairs before she finished.

Katie and Sam were sooooooo excited about the new carpet. It wasn't even installed yet--just rolled out in the living room--but they rolled all over it like a couple of wet dogs trying to dry themselves. Oh, happy day!

And I thought I'd post these since Mom is so anxious to see how things are looking. I almost hesitate to do it because the color looks so funky. This is our bedroom. The upper part of the walls is a nice brown color--nothing mustardy like in the pictures. And the green wall doesn't clash with the wallpaper nearly so bad in person as it does here. HA!

Since those pictures were taken James has installed our ceiling fan. ~Aaaaaahhhh~ I LOVE IT. I am a very strong advocate of ceiling fans in bedrooms. I have a hard time sleeping without one, even in the winter when James won't let me run it. Ha! I like to be bundled up under plenty of covers in a nice cool room with the fan blowing the chilly air around. He has no appreciation for that at all. But this time of year I'm allowed to use it and I love it! I'm so thankful to have it.

When we were getting ready to leave for church on Wedensday I went into the utility room and walked around the corner to find this...

A strange place to curl up for a nap I thought, but he was out cold and snoring happily.

And one last picture--of my fantastic blue and white foyer :-) and into the hallway--these are floors that have never seen carpet before. ~Aaaaaaahhhh~ It just feels so nice and cozy and homey this way. And soooooooo much cleaner than the nasty floors that we've been living with all this time! It's a grand and glorious thing--new carpet. :-)

Staying on top of things...

Not in real life; only on my blog. :-) I thought I should write a little something tonight so I don't fall behind and write a WHOPPER of a post to catch up again.

You're welcome. ;-)

Yesterday morning we STILL hadn't heard back from Home Depot. They don't want our business and I'm tired of trying to force it upon them. ;-) So I made a phone call to the carpet outlet in northern Birmingham that Sister Washburn had told us about. The very nice, very informative and knowledgeable lady who answered the phone had some very promising sounding possibilities. After several questions she described a carpet that sounded very much like what we're looking for and it was within our price range. So all of our plans for the day got tossed aside and we all piled into the fan--Charlie too--for a drive up north. (We've seen more and more nasty little creepy crawlies the past week or two so we took Charlie with us so he wouldn't die when James set off TONS of bug bombs all over the house.) Indeed, we liked the carpet, we liked the price, we liked the people, we liked the terms--and they actually LET US BUY IT; something Home Depot had serious qualms with, apparently. ;-) Soooooo, the new carpet plan (as if...) is that our carpet dude will go pick up the carpet on Tuesday morning, bring it down to our house, and get to work then. WOW!!! It's sooooo exciting to be to this point! Even though we are still not ready for it. Ha!

The rest of my afternoon was spent in preparation for Band Meeting that night. I decided to give the kids the temperament test. :-) I always loved studying stuff like that and it's helped me sooooo much to understand other people and appreciate their quirks instead of being annoyed at them. Well... sometimes. HA! I'm only kidding, of course. :-) Anyway, we had a very small group last night--only four of the kids could make it--but we had a really good time. I gave them all the 80 question test and graded them and told them what they were and what it meant, then shared several verses about not rejecting the way God made us (like the vessel complaining to the potter, "Why did you make me like this?!"), but rather realizing that our differences and personalities are a specially picked GIFT from God to each of us (fearfully and wonderfully made--curiously wrought in the mind of God before time began). We had cookies and milk and a good time in discussion. Afterward we played Quelf, the game that I had bought earlier in the day in case we had time and wanted to play a game. Jacob and Philip had told me how much fun it was so I thought we'd give it a try. It is CRAZY and the kids seemed to have a blast. It would take too long to describe and I would have to say it's not for every crowd, but for young people (or wacked out ladies at a Ladies' Retreat?!) it's perfect. And our little group will be hollering "PIZZA PARTY!!!" every time a doorbell or phone rings for a very long time. :-)

When I got home just after 10:00 last night James was playing I Buy with the kids. Some day we'll get back to normal bedtimes for them (when they get bedrooms again?), but I'm so glad they had a chance to sit and play a game with their Dad. :-) I cleaned up the kitchen and put coat #2 of poly on the countertops. I seem to be on an every-other-night routine with that.

Today James and I spent the morning framing in the box around the ceiling in the kitchen (I won't try to describe it--I'll just post pictures some day) and he also finished out some trim work and installed quarter-round around the edges of the wood floor. It looks sooooo good! We went to Lowes in search of a few things and came home with nothing (when does that ever happen?!) and then I finally got busy doing some painting in the foyer. One thing can be said for these dark, beautiful colors I like to paint with... they are not very forgiving! I LOVE the blue, but we've got some issues with getting a good, clean coat in there. Not sure whether to try once more or just call it quits and hang lots of decor in there and hope nobody notices. Ha! I'm running out of time to make that decision because the carpet comes Tuesday--if I'm painting blue any more I've got to do it before then!

This evening--completely on a whim--I went to our bedroom and started wallpapering. Whoa! "I'm just as surprised as you are!" There are still so many odds and ends to be done around here and I don't know how that one suddenly ended up in the mix, but I was able to get about half of it done tonight. And I so thoroughly enjoyed it. I really like wallpapering. It's just a nice, clean job that is instantly rewarding. I love how it's looking in there. It's going to be so nice. :-)

The highlight of the day today is when the kids sold us tickets to "The Katie & Joe Skating Show" in the basement. :-) The basement is the perfect place to roller skate and the kids have been making good use of it this week. Katie picked up some o-o-o-o-o-old skates at the thrift store a few days ago and she's loving them. The boys use her old pink skates. :-) Anyway, Katie and Joe did lots of amazing tricks and we laughed a lot. Sam sat at the other end of the room behind the makeshift concession stand he had put together--he sold refreshments to us during the show. It was so great. The kids said they'll put on a show of some kind for us every Saturday. I hope they do--it was by far the best part of the day. :-)

How Many Laughed?

No, really--I want to know how many people laughed when I posted last night about my stove being fixed today and costing so little and all that. And WHY didn't you take the time to leave an itty-bitty comment warning me--reminding me--that things don't always (read: EVER) turn out the way I blindly expect them to turn out?!

So the repair guy came this morning... and my beautiful double oven doesn't need a new ignitor. Well, it MIGHT, but we don't know that yet. What we do know is that it needs new brains. The computer is all scrambled. When you plug it in it begins beeping and speaking French (no, really--lots of French words scroll across the screen) and it doesn't respond to any of the buttons. It's a strange thing, hope. What is that verse in Proverbs... "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." I hadn't thought of that verse until right now, but it's definitely what happened here today. HA! Before we bought this stove I called up a repair guy, told him I was going to look at a used double oven and wanted to know what the worst case scenario would be if it had major problems and needed fixed. He told me, asked how much we would be paying for the stove, and he and I both agreed that it would still be a worthy investment considering the value of the stove--it's a higher end model and it is, after all, a double oven. Well, I was all prepared for "the worst case scenario" and perfectly mentally prepared to be happy paying that much, knowing we'd still be getting a good deal all in all. But then yesterday I talked to the repair guy on the phone and he felt convinced all we needed was a new ignitor and it would be a cheap fix. Then we plugged the stove in today and it began speaking French and beeping sporadically and refusing to respond to any efforts to communicate with it. This was "the worst case scenario." So how come it was soooooo sad today--such a bummer--when I found out we'd have to pay what I was perfectly prepared to pay up until yesterday when my heart was filled with hope?! Because hope deferred maketh the heart sick, that's why! ~sigh~ Anyway...

I will have a functioning stove next week, Lord willing. The new brains will arrive on Monday or Tuesday and the guy will come and get us all hooked up and ready to cook--assuming we don't encounter any more unexpected kinks in the road between here and there. You know, the kind we've encountered with the carpet...

Home Depot is NOT performing very well in the customer service department, just so you know. All I want to do is give them a very large sum of money in return for their giving me a simple "stock carpet," the kind they're supposed to have available there at the store all the time. You'd think they'd be happy to facilitate such and arrangement, but they seem to have very little interest in it. I had my carpet guy all ready to start working tomorrow but it's tough to do much without carpet. I'll call again in the morning and hope to avoid slipping into the black hole of elevator music intermingled with the "Your call is very important to us... Please hold for the next available associate..." mumbo-jumbo. HA! At this point we're hoping to start working on the floors next Tuesday. I should back my expectations up to at least Thursday or Friday then, right??? ;-)

In other news, I began moving all of the junk out of the foyer today. That's where we've been keeping EVERYTHING--all of the paint and paint supplies and tools and ladders and shop-vac and all of the other equipment we are in need of during this project. I hauled most of it upstairs for the day we resume work up there, leaving only the items that we'll be needing in the remainder of our main level projects down here. I'm not finished yet, but I've got most everything cleared out and it feels great. :-)

That project led into another unexpected one: cleaning out the cabinets in the utility room. Those pretty red cabinets in there have been the catch-all for all sorts of miscellaneous items and it was driving me crazy. So Katie and I went and sorted through all of the mess, finally making sense of everything and finding the proper place for each item. ~aaaaahhh~ I love it when things have a proper place. :-)

This evening James and I were going to work on the kitchen ceiling (still needing to trim things out in there!), but he wasn't feeling all that great and suggested we take the evening and have a nice family night instead. We changed out of our grubbies and headed to Hoover. James had two Olive Garden gift cards so we made use of them and it was soooooo good. :-) Then we took the kids to the giant library down there and they had a fantastic time picking out new books. A stop at Krispy Kreme topped the evening off just right. :-) We enjoyed the rest of our evening too and didn't get home until nearly 10:00. Since then I've been finishing up on the utility room sort-through project (it's finally FINISHED and feels a thousand times better!) and pondering on the topic for my Band Meeting tomorrow night. I think I've got it down. :-) I love Band Meetings. I really should have them more often. ;-)