Low Expectations

I hope that's what you have, because this is just a pitiful little not-really-a-real-post kind of a post. It's stormy tonight and there are warnings and sirens and all that stuff so all of the computers are unplugged for the night. I don't have enough juice to blog very long, but I thought I'd at least write something and acknowledge the fact that I still have a blog. :-) I won't try to play catch-up (there is wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too much to cover); I'll just tell you about my day. Rats. I can't do that without playing catch up. ~sigh~ Okay, I'll start with when we arrived back in Alabama. We got in to Bessemer mid-afternoon Thursday, rested at the church for a few minutes (we parked the truck there to await assistance unloading the piano), drove around to look at a house (ha—couldn’t even get to it because the road leading to it was sooooo... "primitive," shall we say?), got back to church in time to unload some things from the truck so we could easily get to the piano. Our help arrived right on time. Brother Ridlespurge, his grandson Kody, and Will Cox had graciously agreed to help us unload the piano. We were worried about the heat and humidity doing serious damage to the piano if we were to leave it in a storage unit through the summer (it is over 100 years old and it was my mom's and it's the one I learned to play on--all that stuff), so Brother Hopkins told us we could keep it in one of the front rooms at the church. :-) It makes me very happy to think that I can still play it on occasion, even before we move into our own house. I've really been missing it this past month! Anyway, with the guys' help we had the piano unloaded and put in the proper room in just a few minutes. We then drove to our storage unit and parked the truck there overnight. Knowing we wouldn't have anything to eat at the house upon our arrival, we picked up some Little Ceasar's Pizza. I don't know if I've ever eaten Little Ceasar's before. It tasted like a frozen pizza to me. (Not Totino's--one of the more expensive ones, unfortunately. Ha!) I'm not picky with pizza. I think I like 'em all. We had dinner, unloaded van, sorted and started laundry, and got the kids put to bed after a very long day. I'm not sure what came over me at that point, but I then emptied everything out from underneath the kitchen sink and scrubbed everything up real good, then took all of my own cleaning supplies and "moved in" under there. It's strange... Sister Powell has cleaning supplies here of course... but they're not my supplies! Ha! And strangely enough, I feel so much more "at home" now that I have my stuff and I know how to keep things clean. :-) Must be some mental glitch of mine or something. After a late night Thursday we were up and at 'em pretty early on Friday. We arrived at our storage unit at 9:00 to start unloaded the big truck and packing the rest of our belongings away. It was slow going—trying to strategically pack everything tightly into the unit to be sure we had room for it all. I was amazed (and embarrassed) at how many more boxes of stuff we set aside to bring to the Powell's house, along with the biggest mountain of blankets I've ever seen! We had used all of our blankets to wrap furniture and such to protect things during the trip, so we just threw them all into a massive pile as we were unloading the truck. I can't believe 5 people could ever need so much bedding! Ha! Two of the Dudley boys, Thomas and Joshua, showed up after a while. They were a HUGE help and sped things along nicely. And they were good sports. They lugged all that furniture off the truck and put it where I told them, then happily moved it however many times I changed my mind. ;-) They are good boys and we really enjoy being around all of them. And I really appreciate the fact that they are heafty, burly boys who seem to enjoy lugging things around. That will come in real handy. Ha! When we finished the boys offered to take all of the boxes to the Powell's house for us, saving us several trips in the van doing it ourselves. They managed to get everything in the back of their truck except the MOUNTAIN of blankets, which we were somehow able to smash and squish and shove into the van. The children had a hard time digging down to any seat belts, but we were able to get all of them in. :-) We gassed up and then took the Dudley boys to Jim ‘N Nicks (James’ favorite bbq joint around here) for lunch, stopped by Wal-mart for the bare necessities, and drove through DQ because it was Happy Hour--and I discovered the Blizzard of the Month. I can't remember now, but I think it was some caramel toffee something-or-'nuther and it was soooooo good. :-) We finally came home and managed to squeeze through the living room—where the Dudley boys had unloaded the rest of the boxes and where I already had five piles of laundry sorted and lying on the floor. What a mess! We didn't get home until 3 or 4 o'clock and I spent the rest of the day working on laundry, unpacking boxes, and cooking up the very last of our elk steaks. We had been saving them for our celebratory meal when we finally sold our house, but by then I had already packed up my kitchen and couldn't cook them in New Mexico! So we bought a cheap Styrofoam cooler and brought the two most important things in the freezer along with us: our last pack of elk meat and our roasted chilies from the the Sotos. :-) The elk tasted soooooo good and the gravy was perfect. Our family loves elk gravy as much as the elk and I think we probably enjoyed everything more that usual knowing it might be "our last ever." ;-) I was so exhausted by that point, but I managed to make myself clean the nasty kitchen before taking a long, hot bath. ~Aaaaaahhhhh~ I'd been needing one of those for days. Not to say I hadn't been showering, of course. ;-) After my bath I came back downstairs to straighten up some more... But not nearly enough! I did some more laundry then went to bed in a house that was still trashed. It's so hard to sleep in a house like that, but I just didn't have any gusto left in me to do anything about it. On Saturday we got up with the goal of getting to Convention EARLY for a change instead of being barely on time. I thought we were doing well. But then it was suddenly time to leave and we couldn't find Sam's dress shoes anywhere amidst the boxes and mess. I just couldn't remember where I had packed them in New Mexico. In the end, we finally discovered one small suitcase that hadn't been unpacked yet and that's where the shoes were. We were running a titch behind, but were still going to be okay. We rushed out to the van... only to discover that it was still LOADED TO THE GILLS WITH BLANKETS!!! Aaaaauuuuugggghhhhh!!! We had forgotten all about them. ~sigh~ Stress. Even if the kids could have gotten to the seat belts (a major chore the day before) we didn't want to go to Convention looking like a band of gypsies, so we all spent the next few minutes grabbing armful after armful of blankets and slinging them into the bed of Brother Powells' truck that was parked next to the van! Ha! I kept silently praying that it wouldn't rain while we were away! We didn't unload all of the blankets, just enough to be able to get everybody comfortably in the van and hopefully keep everything below window level. ;-)Somehow after all that we still managed to slide into just before being “late.” Amazing. We had a great Convention. Unfortunately, I'm too tired at the moment to remember anything about it! If I could look at a program I'm sure I could remember. The only think I know for sure is that Brother Hopkins had put me on for a 5 minute Ladies' Retreat boost, second or third thing in the morning. If you have to be up front, that there’s the way to do it. :-) I managed to stay awake and alert and was feeling rather chipper, I thought, for all the craziness, hard work, lack of sleep, and driving we'd been doing the previous two weeks. But by the time the afternoon session hit my adrenaline had started to fade! I ate half a container of little sour candies in an effort to stay awake. I was clerking at the time. I ought to go read those notes sometime just for kicks. Ha! After Convention was over that afternoon (two sessions--aaaaaauuuuggghhhhh--it's so crazy!!! Ha!) James had to go to a finance committee meeting. The kids played basketball outside and I visited with some folks there. The time actually passed rather quickly, so that was nice. We went to dinner at yet another bar-b-que place (one we hadn't tried yet) with the Hoffmans and the Washburns. I sat with Sister Tammy. I remember enjoying visiting with her... but don't ask me what we talked about--I haven't a clue! Way... too... tired. We got home that night and got the kids busy hauling all of the blankets in from the truck and the van. I folded most of them, but before I could finish I got one of those so-tired-I-think-I'm-going-to-be-sick feelings. So I got my pj's on and crashed, wishing I could sleep in the next morning. But the next morning was Sunday and it's always worth it to not sleep in on Sunday. God blesses the faithful. :-) We actually got up super early to make sure we didn't have any last minute catastrophes that would make us almost (or truly) late--we're so tired of rushing and being stressed out on our way to church! The kids did great with the new plan. Sam was wearing his suit, complete with belt, tie, and shoes—the things we’re always searching for at the last minute—by 7:00, I think! Ha! Everybody was ready way early (James was the last one, truth be known) and we left about an hour and a half before service, stopped to pick up some flowers for Sister Hopkins, and made it to church 15-20 minutes early. ~Aaaaahhh~ Sooooo nice. :-) After Sunday School, James leaned over to me and said, "I think we're in the wrong class." He got to looking around and noticed that the Hawkins had left and gone to another class--and everybody around us was old. I laughed heartily. Mostly because we've been at several Sunday morning services in Bessemer... and we've been in the wrong class every time?! And we didn't know it?! And nobody told us??? Ha! That's great. :-) We sit on the second row so we don't see who else is there--they're all behind us--so how were we to know?! If we have been attending the old folks' class and there is indeed a young folks class we're supposed to be in, well, I'll have to have a few words with the Sunday School Superintendent about it. HA! We went to McAllister's for lunch after service, then around the corner to get a couple more $4.99 haircuts for the boys. After that we punched four addresses into Sean so we could do some drive-by's. We're looking at cheap-o fixer-upper houses right now. We're not in a hurry to buy anything at this point, but we'd love to get something super cheap and be able to live in the Powell's lovely home while we do all the nasty work fixing up our own. ;-) We drove all over tarnation trying to get to the four different places. We’re really hoping to find the perfect location, then make whatever house happens to be there into what we need it to be. None of the four houses we saw today really struck us as the perfect spot. The one we liked the best was really probably too far away—a good 30 minutes from the church. Can be done, of course, but we would love to be a little closer. We’re hoping to be able to have lots of company if we’re closer to the church. :-) We spent pretty much all afternoon house hunting, but didn't find anything great. We are, however, discovering certain areas that we really like and others that we really don't like. We're learning the directions we would like to travel to get to church and the roads and traffic we really want to try to avoid. So if nothing else we're gaining knowledge that will enable us to make a better decision when the time comes. (You have to tell yourself things like that otherwise you feel like a dummy for wasting all afternoon and all that gas. Ha!) We took the van to the $5 Car Wash with the super-duper vacuums (just about sucks the carpet out of your vehicle--I love it!) and got it all cleaned up before heading back to church. The Masons did their Family Camp boost at church that night. I love how much they love Camp. :-) I'm super excited about Camp, but we're trying to figure out how to make everything work for our family. We've only ever been to a Family Camp where everything actually works family-ish--the families stay together and the parents are responsible for their own children. Our Camp here is a family camp in the sense that it's open to all ages, but from what I can gather it really functions like a youth camp with all of the kids sorted by age group and under the supervision of a counsellor. That flurbs me out a little bit. Okay, it flurbs me out a whole lot. Ha! I have been asked to be a counselor for the teen girls at Camp. That sounds scary and exciting all at once! No, I really am pretty excited about it, though I have no idea how to be a counsellor. I'm sure I'll catch on. And I’ll try to remember to act like the adult there. ;-) We all visited after church for quite a while, got home late again, folded a few more blankets, and crashed. This morning I got up and hit it hard! I had had all I could take of an outrageously messy house. I unpacked all of the boxes upstairs, moved all of James' and my clothes into the closet and dresser (we just now brought our stuff from NM--we had been living on "just enough" clothes for the past month or more), brought all of the empty boxes downstairs, filled them with the folded blankets, and hauled them down to the basement. I have no idea how many boxes were sitting around the house today, but I got them all unpacked. Wa-hoo!!! I have done untold loads of laundry today (I intentionally didn't count--wasn't sure I could handle it), vacuumed the rug and swept and mopped all of the wood floors on the main level. ~Aaaauuugghhh~ I also picked three ticks off of children today (as well as one from the neighbor's dog), and did a thorough examination and combing over of everybody before their showers tonight. The kids will be showering every night for the rest of their lives, I think. I can't handle it otherwise. It's hot and muggy already (though I'm sure the natives would laugh and tell me that it is not) and the kids get all sweaty and smelly, besides the fact that I can't bear the thought of them having tick on them somewhere unnoticed! So we will have nightly tick inspections and showers around here. ~Bleagh~ The ticks creep me out royally. We've found dozens of them on us already--everybody but Charlie Dog has had at least one. He got a bath tonight too though, just in case. ;-) Along with all of the unpacking and hauling and housework, I managed to get the kids schooled today--something they've been without since before our New Mexico trip. It feels so good to have accomplished so much!!! And now I am sooooo tired. James had some running around to do in town tonight, so the kids and I celebrated our productivity with Totino's and popcorn (for them) and Blue Bell (for me). Makes it worth it all. Now I'm going to fall into a freshly made bed with nice soft, freshly washed sheets while wearing my nice smelling freshly washed pj's after a nice, hot shower. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ It will surely be a good night's sleep tonight. :-) In case you were wondering, the storm ended and I plugged my computer back in. I never would've been able to type so much otherwise. ;-) I'll try to back up and cover the two weeks I skipped sometime real soon.

Last One?

Don't know if I'll get a chance to post anything for a while, so I figured I should do it right now while I can.

We had a great weekend. :-) We left Friday morning for Anniston. We stopped by Shayla's house to drop off the Powell's mail. I just ran in with it "real quick." I'm ashamed to say how long James declares I was in there visiting with Shayla and the girls, but I'm sure he had to be exaggerating! I look forward to spending some time with them when we all have a little time to spend. :-)

From there, we fought the absurd traffic trying to make our way over to the fast food joints. The traffic here is ridiculous. In the west, if something is 60 miles away then you can give yourself about an hour to get there, give or take a few minutes. Out here you'd better allow two hours to travel the same distance--and hope for the best, at that! The roads (even little itty-bitty country roads) are swarming with traffic--and the speed limit is way lower, to boot. There are just way too many people here. Ha!

Anyway, we were finally able too get some lunch and get back on the road. We stopped at Bass Pro Shops and the boys were in heaven. It's a great store and we enjoy just looking around there. We played the shooting game and looked at the giant trout in the "pond" and just meandered around taking it all in. The boys were beyond ecstatic when James picked up some fishing poles and lures for them. They are soooooo excited and can't wait to go fishing--though they understand (we hope) that we can't squeeze that in just yet.

We left there and drove on to Sister Bishop's house in Anniston where we spent the weekend. We had such a great time there. She is such a blast to be around, and always such a blessing. I wanna be like her when I grow up. Well, in some ways. Ha! The kids all love her to death and even tried their very best (and succeeded for the most part) to eat potato salad simply because "Sister Bishop made it." She is a great cook. I tried my first bread pudding, my first chocolate cobbler, and my first muscadine jelly and enjoyed all of it.

That first night we just visited--and listened to Sister Bishop and the kids play different instruments. She taught Joe a few chords on the mandolin and I think he's in love. Sam said he thinks he'd like to trade the drums (his instrument of choice) in for the mandolin. I had no idea Sister Bishop could play the piano! She's so great. :-)


This was everybody's favorite. :-)
We had District Convention the next day (these one day Conventions are the strangest thing--I don't know if I'll ever get used to it!) and it was very good. I really felt the Lord there and was blessed and encouraged. I was so blessed by Brother Jeremy Wallace's VLB boost. He preached on covetousness and about getting the things of this world out of our lives and not letting the cares of this life hinder us. It was excellent.

When Convention ended that afternoon we went to an office supply store to buy the necessary equipment for James to get Sister Bishop set up with a wireless Internet connection at her house. Then it was more music and visiting for the evening. We had such a great time. I am always, always blessed when I'm with Sister Bishop. And I love it that the kids adore her so. I think Sam had tears in his eyes when he said goodbye to her the next morning. :-)

We got up early Sunday and drove an hour and forty-five minutes or so... to make it the 63 miles to Gerladine. Ha! I'm telling you--it's nuts! We were there in service with the Carrs and really enjoyed ourselves. Jonathan Carr's little kids sang He's Still Working On Me in a way I'd never heard before. "...to mayk may what I ort to bay..." Ha! It was sooooo cute. :-) A lady came in toward the end of Sunday School with an urgent prayer request. She pastored an Elders church for 22 years, but she said she felt like the Lord told her to come to this Church to ask for prayer; that these people could get ahold of God. :-)

The Masons were there to do their Camp boost. I've never heard of the Camp Directors traveling to all of the churches to give boosts, but they sure are working it hard! I'm sure God will bless all of their hard work and sacrifice.

After service we went out to eat with the Carrs, Nasha, and the Masons. We went to a Catfish place that had terrific hush puppies :-) and enjoyed visiting with everyone. Katie really hit it off with Sister Mason and I'm a little nervous about the situation. Sister Mason is soooooo quiet and Katie is soooooo not. There's no telling what all Katie rattled on about over at that side of the table! Ha!

I had printed out the Evening Light the night before and read just a couple of pages. I read some more on the way to Geraldine and finished up on our way from there back to Bessemer that afternoon. I was sooooo tired all day long that day (I hate the time change!), so if you find lots of blunders in the coming edition you can blame me. ;-)

I loved being at Convention and in the other churches over the weekend, but the strangest thing happened when we walked into the Bessemer church last night. I walked in and felt sort of at home. :-) It just felt comfortable to walk in and see some faces that are beginning to look a little familiar, and to walk up to "our" pew (though we've tried out a few before landing in this one--ha!) and find "our" spot, and to see "our" pastor up front. Tired as we were, we enjoyed visiting for a while after service. Until the food conversation came up. Everybody was freaking out that Sister Hopkins puts cheese on her pineapple and mayonnaise sandwiches... because it's a terrible way to ruin a good pineapple and mayonnaise sandwich!!! Can you imagine?! Throwing cheese into the mix is what freaked them out instead of the obviously disturbing combination of pineapple and mayonnaise! They then proceeded to list a number of... interesting food choices that are preferred around here. All I can say is, we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. I've already tried several new things since being here and so far, so good... but they've got me runnin' scared now! Ha! Sister Hopkins said they'll teach us to eat all the stuff they eat around here and we can teach them how to eat the things we like to eat out west. I told her I didn't know where in the world I was going to find an elk to cook for them. ;-)

We got home Sunday night and unloaded the van, then I stayed up 'til the wee hours of the morning working on Ladies' Retreat stuff. Got up yesterday and hit it hard! Although I'm still unprepared for my devotions, I can really feel the Lord helping me in my prayers and I feel "good" about them, if that makes any sense. And I KNOW He helped me to accomplish lots yesterday. I was able to get everything unpacked, all of the laundry done, all of the wood floors downstairs shined up real purty and get lots of Retreat stuff taken care of--called the campground, got the spreadsheet put together the way I wanted it, sorted out the TAP groups, finalized the schedule (should've been done weeks ago!), created, printed, and cut out the name tags (by hand since our paper cutters are in New Mexico--ha!), and a few other little things. Last night Katie helped me to make 5 batches of fruity staff gifts and it feels sooooo good to have that done! :-) Then I made little Ladies' Retreat labels to go on them. Wa-Hoo!!! It wasn't that big of a project, but for some reason it's the one that I've sort of been stressed out about doing so it is such a relief to have that finished!

James was wonderful and picked up pizza for us last night so I could keep working on all of my stuff. What a guy. :-) We had given the kids the day off from school and he'd taken the boys with him for a few hours earlier, leaving Katie with me. I let her watch I Love Lucy while I was working on the computer stuff. It felt so nice and relaxing. :-) Anyway, we let all the kids watch a show last night with their pizza and we just had a nice, fun evening. We told them that yesterday was their Spring Break. :-) Then I stayed up way too late again, working on more Retreat stuff. I've gotten so much done (thank the Lord--He's helped me sooooo much!) but there are still lots of things to do.

I wanted to blog while I can because I'm not sure I'll have another chance before Retreat, and after that things get really crazy! Here's the plan:

On Thursday morning we'll go up to the campground. I'll check it out (never been there before), drop my Retreat stuff off, and talk to the camp dude. Sister Bishop will meet us there, James will take the kids and go back home, I'll go with Sister Bishop to Atlanta TO PICK UP EMILEE from the airport!!!! I am sooooooooooo excited!!! She just decided this past week to hop on a plane and come join us. She's the best! I hate to be selfish, but I'm mostly glad for my own benefit that she's going to be here. Ha! I always get nervous being up front (moderating is the very worst--I hate doing that, and I'm horrible at it... not to discourage any ladies who are planning on attended Retreat--ha!), but it's twice as nerve-racking when you're in a strange place with people you don't know! It will be such a relief to have Mom AND Emilee there. I may not look at anybody else all weekend, just to keep from throwing up. HA!

Anyway, we'll get Em from the airport and then go back to Sister Bishop's house to spend the night. Does that sound fun, or what?! I'm so excited!!! The next day we'll head back to the campground for Retreat. When Retreat ends on Sunday James and the kids will be there to pick me up. We will leave directly from there to drive back to New Mexico, which means I've got to be packed for that trip ahead of time. I'm going to make a list of things for the kids to be able to pack themselves (sounds scary) and we'll see how it goes. We'll get back to New Mexico and pack up the rest of our belongings, load up the BIG moving truck, and--Lord willing--sign the final papers on the house and close on it on Monday, the 28th. WA-HOOOOO!!! We're really trusting that everything will go through without a hitch and we can be FINISHED with this move. Well, until we find a house out here. Then we start all over again. :-)

So there you have it. What's been going on and what we think will go on next. I won't be able to blog that week we're in New Mexico because we had the phone services cut off before we left last time. No Internet: no blog. But I'll be back. :-)

HOW Does That HAPPEN???

A week already since I blogged?! ~sigh~ What a loser. It has been so crazy since we've been in Alabama though. For starters, I am soooooooo tired. It can't still be the post-chaos "crash" at this point. I should be well over that by now. So I've wondered about the climate?! But that seems unlikely, too. It's not desperately hot or humid, though there has been a lot of rain. The weather has felt pretty mild and even a little cool (wa-hoo!) a few days. I've had a sore throat and my ears have been plugged up (making it rather difficult on an already hard-of-hearing girl!) and stuff like that, but I've never felt actually sick. Mostly I just feel exhausted and listless all the time, almost like I'm pregnant or something. (I'm not; don't start any rumors. Ha!) I get little spurts of energy, but usually I just feel tired and groggy and would love to curl up and take a nap. How sad. Then Mom goes and tells me that it probably IS the climate and (most of all) the elevation change. She said her ear was plugged up for a year after they moved to Virginia from Colorado. Greeeeeeeat. Ha! I'm trusting that won't be the case with me!

Let's see. I have been a royal failure with the camera since we got here for some reason. But I'll post the few sorry little pictures I have taken. Here is a robot Katie built with some blocks here at the Powell's house. And here is Joe, walking his lizard. All of the lizards get names and I'm sure he could tell me which one this is (Escape--pronounced "es-COP-ay"--, Exit, Frisky, Lightening, Flash...), but I think of this particular lizard as Terrified or Panic-Stricken. Ha!

Okay, time for some catch-up. I'll try to give you the short, fast version since I've been way too rambly about all of the details in my recent posts. (Recent being for the past 4 years or so. Ha!)

Friday morning we drove to Cleveland, got there in time to help Mom clean up her remodeling mess (the bathroom is looking sooooo much better!) and get ready for the Mission Crusade (Sister Bishop was preaching--it was so, so good), come home, crash, get up, have a power outage, finally get some juice again, get ready, go to a girls' birthday bash at Cracker Barrel while James was at a Ways & Means Meeting and Dad watched the boys, then arrive back at Mom and Dad's house at roughly the same time as James--who was ready to get loaded up and head back to Alabama immediately. It was a flyin' trip, but I'm still glad we were able to go. The boys were able to get in a little fishing, at least. That made 'em happy. Here is a bluegill that Sam caught on Friday...



They were wearing Granddad's jackets because they didn't think to bring any of their own.

We went to church in Bessemer Sunday morning (we want them to know that we know it's our home church... before we start gallivanting all over the rest of the state visiting churches!), then grabbed lunch at McAllisters, stopped by Christopher & Banks (found a great $14.99 deal) while James took the shaggy boys for haircuts, drove by a few houses for sale (though we're in no hurry to buy and move out of the Powell's house, hopefully for several months), went back to the church for a while so James could work on state stuff and I could work on Ladies' Retreat (the kids played instruments), left to go get and deliver a pounding to our pastor, then it was back to church for service. We had a good one and two were saved--one of the kids (Zack, he's 6) and one of the Dudley boys, Jonathan--he's 20, I think.

Ah, yes. The Dudley boys. They are worthy of mention here. :-) Brother & Sister Dudley are members in Bessemer and they only live about 10 minutes from the Powell's house--I'm hoping we can spend some time with them when things settle down a bit. I think they are terrific. :-) They have three boys, ages 20, 18, and 17--I think that's what she said. They are all great big, broad, strapping young men with lots of energy and big smiles, though some of them seem a little more shy than others. They are "southern" all the way and they just crack me up! I looked out the window after church last week and saw one of them riding (?) another one across the parking lot. They are kind and helpful and respectful, but they are just great big boys in men's bodies. I was visiting with Sister Dudley after service one night and all the sudden the boys gathered around her, towering over her, and said almost in unison--in deep, throaty voices--"We're HUNGRY!" Ha! I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to feed them. I think she told me when they have tacos she has to have 70 taco shells ready. HA! I'd love to have them over for dinner, but... What in the world would you cook--and how many portions would you make?! James says he'll just go pick up 100 burgers at McDonalds. ;-) Anyway, I don't really know them yet, but I already just love those boys! :-)

Back to Jonathan Dudley. Brother Hopkins preached a good message, gave a pressing altar call, then went back and worked with Jonathan until he finally convinced him to make his way to the altar. Several of the men gathered around to pray with him. After a while Jonathan got up and walked straight out the side door into the parking lot without saying a word to anyone. We weren't real sure what that meant (ha!), but in a minute he returned with some of his "sin" in his hands. He laid it on the altar and then got back down to pray some more. :-) I've been praying for him a lot the past few days. I keep looking around and seeing the possibilities of a fantastic, on-fire youth group around here (like the one I was so blessed to grow up in) and I'm praying for just that. I already love all these kids. :-)

The big event of Monday was that James wanted to go to Carino's for their Monday Night Family Platter Special. The food was terrific... but as I was asking for my first refill on my Italian Soda (switching from blackberry cream to raspberry), then waitress mentioned that the refills weren't free on them. ~GASP!~ THAT IS SOOOOOOOOO WRONG!!!!! That's the whole REASON I go to Carino's--the Italian Sodas with free refills! Who in their right mind is going to pay $2 for a soda when you only get ONE?! ~sigh~ I'm devastated. I drank water the rest of the night and just sulked. Ha! I'm done there. The truly disturbing thing is that we no longer have a soda fountain, so I can't even make a soda for myself anymore! I rarely did it when we did have the fountain, but I knew I COULD have one anytime I wanted. Now that I have to do without entirely (thanks to the greedy Carino's people) I feel so cheated! Strange how the mind works. And the taste buds. I'd like to have a raspberry cream soda right now, come to think of it...

Tuesday night we drove over to Phenix City (between 2 and 3 hours away) for Revival. Brother Grant is preaching there this week and that was the only night we were free to go join them. I enjoyed his message, but wondered if all of the Alabamians were confused when he said that in Alaska you can only drive to the villages once the river freezes. I wondered if they connected the dots and realized that he was saying you drive ON the frozen river. It would be a pretty foreign thought around here, I'm sure!

This is how Charlie travelled home that night...



I think we've successfully seen in through the "being stressed out in the car" stage. Ha!

It rains here. A lot. When we travelled back from Cleveland it rained hard the entire trip. Same thing from Phenix City and sometimes on our way home from church. Out west it rains, then passes over. If you're traveling and you hit a rainstorm, it's not too long before you're through it and have big blue skies again. Out here it just doesn't stop--it'll rain and rain and rain... I'm still enjoying it at this point. It's not HOT, so I'm happy. :-)

Last night we had Talent Night for our WMB service. You could pay $10 to hear so-and-so sing a song, or they could pay twice that amount to get out of it. It was great and I think over $300 was raised for World Missions. Some things are a little goofy, though much more reserved than would occur other places (ha!), and then some things are serious and "spiritual"--which kind of threw me for a loop! Ha! It seems strange to have a goofy "I'll pay ____ to see _____ do _____" format when the thing requested is for them to sing a good, spiritual song that you would hear in church. I was expecting things like, "I'll pay $5 to hear Steve Ridlespurge yodel while hopping on one foot, rubbing his belly and patting his head." Actually, come to think of it I'd pay a lot more than $5 to see that... HA! We had several special songs (by some folks who could sing, some who could not--which was the point), a few testimonies, two drum solos, stuff like that. I thought it was extra cool when all of the kids played a song on the instruments--Katie on piano, Joe on guitar, Dalton on bass, Michael on drums and Zack on tambourine. I thought it was neat that a bunch of kids 12 and under were able to get up there and play together on demand. They sounded great. :-)

We were able to "Skype" (video call) with the Powells last night. It was nearly midnight here and mid-afternoon of the next day there. It was great to "see" them and catch up a bit. They seem to be doing very well and are happy and excited about the work. They have such a burden to see souls saved and the Church grown over there in Korea and asked that everybody just pray; pray that God will be able to use them over there for His glory and the furtherance of the gospel. Brother Powell gets all choked up when he talks about the open doors and his desire to make a difference over there. What a blessing they are!

The only other noteworthy occurrence is that James got pulled over the other day. HA! I'm sure he'll appreciate my sharing that. ;-) We were trying real hard to get going earlier on Sunday morning (we keep sliding into church just barely before service time--we'd love to get there EARLY instead!) and we were doing okay... then we started running just a couple minutes behind, but no big deal. We're still having to take the dog with us right now (that's another story) and on our way out to get in the van I--for some unknown reason--put the dog down without a leash on!!! He doesn't take off like a grayhound like Hershey used to do, lickedy-split through the woods and disappear (thank goodness!!!), but he does run around and romp and play--and DOESN'T come back on command. So I spent 3 or 4 minutes chasing Charlie all over the yard while James and the kids watched from the van. I was finally able to snatch him up, and we were on our way...

As background: James does NOT speed. Doesn't matter if we're running late or not; he just doesn't do it. We were still set to get to church about 5 minutes before starting time after the dog incident, but we didn't have any time to spare. Well, we're new to the area and aren't familiar with all of the speed limits and they don't have signs posted very often on some of these little roads, so... :-) He couldn't have been going more than 5 over, but it was enough that a cop decided to nab him. The guy was merciful and let him off without a ticket, but we were stopped for probably a good 10 minutes--making us late for church. (Though they hadn't actually STARTED church when we arrived. Do they always start a few minutes late, Sister Tammy, or were they waiting on us?! Ha!) Anyway, as we drove the rest of the way to church James gave instructions concerning our NEW departure time on Sunday mornings so as to ensure this doesn't happen again. Good plan--and we obviously need it. He was also sure, however, to blame me and the dog (I do take full responsibility for my part in putting us behind, to be clear) for causing the present situation. I just wanna know how come it was my 4 minutes with the dog that made us late instead of his 10 minutes with the cop! ;-) I was wise enough to not say it like that at the time, but it's been several days now and I thought it might be okay to mention it on my blog. HA!

That's about it. I've been trying for days not to get caught up on the ironing, a little bit here, a little bit there. But today is the day! I will win. :-) Right now James has run to the store and all three kids are romping through the woods with Charlie and Brady. The house is still and quiet (~aaaaaahhhhh~) and I really need to take advantage of it and return a couple of phone calls.

On a side note... PLEASE PRAY FOR ME AND FOR THIS LADIES' RETREAT!!! We're a week away now and there is still so much to be done! I've tried a few times since being in Alabama, but haven't been able to make any headway on my devotions for retreat. We have something going every since night this week, so that makes it tough. I've been praying faithfully for the Lord to help me, to bless the retreat, to guide and anoint all of the staff--all that stuff. But I still feel like a failure for not being more prepared! There is a women's meeting of some kind at church tonight, but when I get home--no matter what time it is!--I intend to stay up and try to make some headway. I want to be fully prepared and focused and have God's full favor at this Retreat. I have had a terrible time getting focused since being here--I just feel distracted with so many different things. I'm a horrible juggler. Maybe one day I'll be more like my Mom. I hope so!

Ah, Yes!

I somehow failed to include the all important part of our trip here (last Tuesday???) when Jason called and said that the people DID agree to our counter-offer and have signed the contract! WE HAVE A CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!! Before we could even get to Alabama we got the phone call that we have a deal on the house. ~sigh~ God is so amazing. :-) I just love serving Him--it's so much more exciting than doing things without Him!

The septic inspection has already been updated and I think something else has already taken place. The home inspection and appraisal are both supposed to take place this Saturday. We're trusting and praying that all will go well with those. If everything goes through the way we're hoping, our closing date is set to be March 28th. Alabama Ladies' Retreat ends on the 21st. James will pick me up from Retreat and we'll leave from there to head back to New Mexico, then we'll have one week to pack up everything and have the house all nice and sparkly clean, get the next (and final) moving truck loaded up, and head back to Alabama on Tuesday. For good. :-) Of course, we'll probably be seeing some western friends during that time and the creeps will break our hearts all over again and have us all sad and weepy over leaving (they're really good at that), but right now I feel nothing but excitement and thankfulness. It feels so good to be completing this move God has called us to make. What a relief. :-)

Catching Up, Part 5

On Monday I spent… all… day… long… cleaning out the pantry and trying to get our food moved in there. Who knew it would be an all day job?! It was so confusing though. The Powells kept telling us to just eat the food. We will eat some, but I didn’t feel right about eating all of their stuff and having them come home to Korea with bare cabinets! So I ended up packing up everything that was unopened and that will not expire in the next year; I’ll put it all back into the pantry when we leave. We’ll finish off whatever was already opened or will go bad. I was afraid of getting all of our spices and things mixed up, too, so I packed hers away and got mine out—though there’s one more box James just brought from storage today to be unpacked.

Tuesday I woke up stiff and achy. Actually, I think I’d been waking up like that for several days, I just hadn’t had time to pay much attention. I got some more things packed and unpacked and put into place, then was able to haul some more boxes to the basement. I went to check out the boy’s room and reorganize their clothes a bit, though I didn’t touch all of the toys and junk that Sam had arranged in the closet area.

Our neighbor, Judy, stopped by again that day, bringing us some homemade lasagna and extra cheese and homemade sauce! I almost cried. Both because I was soooooo exhausted and thankful for a nice, home cooked meal that I wasn’t going to have time to get to myself, and because I was so ashamed of how the house looked—as well as myself! Ha! Besides the fact that the kids had accidentally let Brady in the house a few times and he is now taking advantage of the opportunity to barge in the door when he can. I’d already gotten on to the kids for it several times and then I turned around and there stood Brady in the kitchen, wagging his tale and looking quite pleased to have joined us. So I hollered good and loud, “WHO LET BRADY IN???” as I walked him back to the open front door, where Judy was standing with her lasagna! Ha! And besides the fact that I had been soooooo hot that day (in February… I’m going to DIE here come summer--or even spring!!! Ha!) and changed into one of James’ t-shirts because all of mine are in New Mexico. So I had my hair wrapped up and pinned on my head and I was wearing a big, baggy t-shirt that hung nearly to my knees, my rattiest denim skirt beneath that, yelling at the kids in front of the neighbor. ~sigh~ Is there a hole nearby to crawl into, please? I was too embarrassed to even try to explain. I just took the lasagna, hugged her, and thanked her profusely. Later that night Katie made some chocolate chip cookies all by herself so she could take some to Judy the next day. What a good, hospitable girl I have. :-) She only put in half the amount of butter the recipe called for, but it's the thought that counts, right?! We added a few things here and there before we discovered that was the problem and they turned out okay.

Yesterday I woke up not feeling very well at all. My achiness and stiff neck had intensified, I had a titch of a headache, as well as a sore throat. So I got some grape juice and then headed back upstairs and started day with a hot bath… and the discovery of a tick behind my knee. That’s a real good way to ruin the relaxing benefits of a hot bath, let me tell you. And do you have any idea how hard it is to control the panic reflex when there is a gross little bug with lots of legs on your body and it doesn’t flick off??? I don’t like bugs on my person, but I don’t consider myself to be a total scaredy-cat about it. I usually just flick them off. If I don’t succeed the first time I try again to flick them off. The third flick is usually accompanied by a bit of a scream and I suppose if a fourth flick is required I would be prone to some animated flailing about accompanied by more vocals in my effort to dislodge the bug. But none of that avails anything with ticks. Those little things have to be removed with tweezers (that’s what Google said) and even then it’s not easy. ~shudder~ It just gives me the heebie-jeebies to have a bug on me that is determined to stay! That’s just wrong!!!

Anyway, I decided it was time to give the kids and dog a thorough going-over. After all, if I—who never goes outside—had a tick, then what must the children who romp through the woods and hike down to the creek and back be infested with? One at a time I combed carefully through their hair, then stripped them down to their ghandi’s (at this age, the rest is up to them) and carefully inspected every inch of their bodies. And not a one of those little creeps had a thing on them! That is so wrong!!! How come the Mom, the only one around here who bathes regularly and practices any kind of personal hygiene is the one who had the nasty little bug stuck to her?! That’s just not right. In any case, at least I was able to rest easy knowing they were tickless. And they all smelled much better after their baths. ;-)

We got school done early in the day, then Katie and I stopped by Judy’s house to give her Kate’s cookies (and she sent some art stuff home with Katie) before we left early to go to town for church. We had several errands to run, then headed on to VLB service. Our VLB leader, Brother Chris Parker, had a real good lesson on the different kinds of suffering: Common Suffering, Carnal Suffering, and Christian suffering. He had lots of really good thoughts and I really enjoyed it.

After church we stood around to visit for a while, then stopped by Wal-Mart on our way home to pick up a tick collar (apparently I need one! Ha! Just kidding--it is for Charlie), among other things. We got home late again and I was just so, so, so, sooooo tired. My body is just feeling like it’s at the end. I haven’t had a complete crash, but the sore throat and achiness are like reminders that it’s coming if I don’t start getting better rest and some recupe time or something! But no matter how tired I was, there was to be no sleep for the weary—at least for an hour or two. The Charles had been locked in his box while we were gone for nearly 7 hours and he was WIRED. He played and ran and romped and pounced and growled and chewed on me for, oh, an hour or two. I felt so bad for him—I didn’t have the energy to do anything but just sit there and let him chew on me and maybe occasionally give him a shove as if I was playing. Ha! I knew there was NO WAY he was going to lay down and go to sleep in Katie’s bed and it wasn’t worth trying until he’d unwound a bit. So that meant another midnight night. Dumb.

Today I tried to sleep in a little bit, but woke up with my sore throat much worse, and feeling a little more sick and stiff. I don’t feel SICK really… not in-bed sick, just sooooo tired and out of it. I should pull out of it one of these days, right?!

I went out with Charlie this morning and discovered four big dogs outside. Brady had three friends over to play. They’re all very nice dogs, though I worry about Charlie because he’s so very little. Mostly they just look at him like they’re not sure what he is, but sometimes they play with him a bit. Onyx is a big black dog. We discovered this morning that he likes to fetch footballs… and chew on them. Which means the football we bought for the boys at Wal-Mart last night has several tooth punctures and is now flat. Dumb, happy dog.

Sam went with James this morning, but I can’t remember where they went. Katie and Joe worked on school while they were gone and I helped them in between napping on the couch and trying to keep from coughing. I hate that. I was able to empty out our very last box today, making us totally “moved in” here I guess. That feels good. After they finished school Katie and Joe went outside to catch more lizards. I went out one time and they were “walking” one of them. They had a string tied around the poor thing’s neck, "taking it for a walk." Ha! It was pretty funny. It’s suddenly a very, very scary thing to be a lizard around here, I’m sure. James and Sam came home this afternoon and I helped Sam with his school He finished up on two subjects in his book yesterday, so we're working harder on the three he has left now.

I made dinner here tonight for the first time—if that’s not pathetic! We made homemade “bowls” like KFC serves—mashed potatoes with corn and gravy and chicken and cheese. I overcooked the chicken a wee bit, so it was a little crunchy, but it still tasted good—and it felt good to have a nice, hot, homey meal. James had brought Blue Bell home for dessert, so that made it perfect. :-)

Now that we're all moved in, I helped the kids get packed up for our first trip tonight. Ha! We leave in the morning for Cleveland. James has to go to HQ to straighten out some Alabama paperwork that's not accurate, then he has a Ways & Means Committee meeting on Saturday. They are having a Mission Crusade with Sister Bishop at Zion Hill this weekend, so we'll be able to go to that. Our plan is to just stay tomorrow night, then come home after James' meeting on Saturday. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes at Mom & Dad's house--and the bathroom that I'm sure they'll have completed by the time we get there tomorrow. ;-)

And that’s it! I’m totally caught up now! Wa-Hoo!!!

Catching up, Part 4

We got in at 2:00 last Wednesday. Sister Dudley was here, delivering a delicious chocolate cake for us. :-) The Powells showed us around and we just visited for a few minutes, then we unloaded a whole bunch of stuff from the Budget truck that we’ll either be using or storing here, then unpacked enough to find our dress clothes (interpretation: threw open and rummaged through every bag and suitcase we had, completely covering our bedroom with things we didn’t need in search of those we did) and get ready for our first night of Revival. A neighbor lady stopped by to meet us and bring us some brownies. Wow! I’ve never had a neighbor do that before. I always take baked goods to everybody and introduce myself when we move into a neighborhood… then never see them again! Ha! Judy is our nearest neighbor here and she seems very neighborly indeed. :-) We were rushing to make it to church that night, setting the standard for all of the following revival services. Ha! We’re going to HAVE to stop rushing into church just before starting time—I hate that!

Thursday we met Mom & Dad and the Powells (because, of course, they didn’t have anything better to do with their last couple of days before shipping out to Korea for a year! –Crazy people! Ha!) at the storage unit and unloaded the rest of our stuff from the truck before returning it. We enjoyed a nice lunch with Mom & Dad at a BBQ joint, then they followed us back to the Powell’s house. We showed them around, then Dad crashed on the couch for a nap while Mom and I talked. They headed out and I had about an hour to start hauling boxes from the living room to their proper rooms and unpacking just a bit before it was time to get ready for service. Dad preached a great hellfire and brimstone (or is it “hell, fire and brimstone”?) message. :-) It was about the judgment of God and the terror of the Lord. The Hopkins’ daughter Karla was there with the man she’s married to, Rick. She is home from the hospital and everyone is rejoicing in the miracles God has performed in sparing her life and her recovery thus far. The prayers now are all for her soul, that she’ll give her heart to God. We’re thankful that they came out to service—it was wonderful to have them there and we pray they’ll be back soon.

Friday I was able to STAY HOME and get some more work done on the house. I unpacked several things and got the living room completely cleaned out. I hauled all of the boxes to their proper rooms and found places to unload several of the boxes into their temporary proper places, so that feels good. Sam unloaded all of the boxes I’d hauled up to their room and got all of their clothes and toys and books all put away the way he wanted them. I love that kid. :-) Katie did the same thing in her room, working hard and trying several different arrangements until she found the one that was just right. She did a great job. Joe? He was out catching lizards and anoles all day long. Ha! They have caught dozens and dozens of those things, sometimes having eight or ten of them at a time.

The Powell’s daughter-in-law Shayla (sp?!) and her three daughters came by to meet us on Friday. I really, really like them all a lot! I usually have a hard time feeling comfortable with people right off the bat (I just take a while to relax and really get to know people), but I felt so at ease with that lady. :-) I would love to spend time with their family and hope we’re able to do just that once things settle down a little bit.

Brother Powell insisted on washing his truck before going to Korea, as well as building that boat for the boys. Can you imagine?! He’s insane, but there’s no stopping him! Ha! What an amazing guy. The kids were “helping” wash the truck, but before long Katie and her bloody nose were being escorted to the house by Sister Powell. Apparently she and Sam were both wanting to be in the same place at the same time (the tractor seat, to be specific) and neither were willing to share or compromise in any way. The scuffle turned into one swift punch in the nose by Sam and a dramatic presentation of the horror of it all by Katie. Right in front of the Powells. ~sigh~ Those poor people! Now they’ve got to go to Korea thinking, “What in the world have we done??? We’ve got a bunch of little hoodlums living in our house while we’re away!” Ha!

By the time all of the unexpected things had concluded for the day, we had much less time to get ready for church than we had anticipated. Still, we made it just in the nick of time. We had a good service and GREAT message on leprosy from Leviticus 13 and 14—about it being in the house, in the garment, or on the person. Such amazing analogies out of that! And sometimes we wonder why God put all of those “boring” details in the Old Testament. ;-) It really was a wonderful service and alter call.

We came home that night and got to bed as soon as possible (still close to or past midnight, I think) because we had to get up at 5:45 to get ready for District Convention. We drove to Alex City, had a nice little two-session Convention (who ever heard of such a thing?! Ha!), enjoyed “dinner on the grounds” between to two sessions, met some new people and saw some we’d met before. I picked up a program when we got there and saw that I was on for a Ladies’ Retreat boost. Surprise! I’m thankful there was a flier on the bulletin board for me to snatch otherwise I would have been in deep trouble. I couldn’t even remember what the tuition was. Even with the flier I forgot to announce the guest speaker. I also learned from the program that Tammy Washburn is my co-director! Wa-Hoo!!! Who knew?! It’s such a relief to know that. ;-) I guess they’ve always had two people direct the Retreats around here and since I was having all of the applications sent to her (because I didn’t have an address yet) they just assumed she’s my joint leader. Cool with me. And she’s so excited she can’t stand it. :-)

Convention ended at about 4:30 and we made it out close to 5:00, giving just enough time to grab a bite to go, drive the two hours to Bessemer and make it just in time for Revival. Dad preached on the two women of Revelation: the harlot and the Bride. Mostly the harlot. It was about the false church(es) and doctrines so prevalent in the world today and the deception they bring. Good stuff. He finished up with the Bride the next morning. I always like that subject better. :-)

Sam had come to me during the Convention earlier in the day and said, “Hey, Mom… you know how at the end of service last night Brother Hopkins said he felt like there was somebody out there saying, ‘No, God, not now. I’ll pray some other time’?” Then his eyes got all teary and he choked out, “It was me! I didn’t want to pray, I just went to the bathroom then came back and sat down and relaxed—I knew I should pray but I just sat there.” I talked to him for a minute and we prayed together at Convention, but he brought it up again at the end of church on Saturday night. He came and prayed with me, but he just couldn’t seem to stop talking about it—the guilt was still nagging at him. I finally asked if he thought he needed to tell Brother Hopkins about it. Tears filled his eyes and he said yes, but he asked if I’d do most of the talking for him. So after service I went with him and explained it all to Brother Hopkins and Sam stood there and cried and then told him he was sorry. Brother Hopkins hugged him and I saw a thousand pounds drop off of Sam’s shoulders and he bounced away with a deep breath and a smile. ~sigh~ There’s just nothing like a clear conscience. :-)

After service we went to Cracker Barrel with the Hopkins and the Ridlespurges and Mom & Dad. We had a nice time visiting and stayed until nearly 11:00, I think. Why not? I don’t know if we’d gotten back home before midnight a single time all week. Why break the pattern now?
We got home and I ran a load of laundry because James was all out of dress shirts. Stayed up long enough to throw them in the drier and then fell into bed.

Sunday morning I got up and headed straight to the van to unload boxes. The Hoffmans just recently moved and gave us a ton of moving boxes at Convention. I got all of those unloaded, and hauled to the porch, then James took them down to the garage to store there until time to take them back to New Mexico. I gathered trash from the van (it was sooooo gross after this crazy week), came in and ironed shirts for James and both boys and a dress for Katie, then hopped in the shower. We were rushed and running late—like we have been all week. As with every other service, we made it just in time. ~whew~ We’ve GOT to get started earlier!!!

Brother Pendley taught our Sunday School class, Sister Tammy Washburn taught Sam’s class and said he fit in perfectly with the group (which concerns me since there were only two other boys in that class and I saw them wrestling and punching one another on their way into the room! Ha!), and I never saw or thought to ask who taught Katie and Joe’s class. Dad preached a good message on the Church, the Bride, but was obviously cutting a lot out of it due to time.
After service we had a big meal in the back—a ton of fried chicken and all sorts of things I didn’t recognize, but felt compelled to try. ;-) The food is different out here and I’m sure there are lots of things we’ll have to develop a taste for, but I can honestly say I enjoyed everything I tried today. Sister Tammy, blue ribbon chef of Bessmer ;-) made a carrot soufflé that I dared to try—and really liked. I liked the butter beans (at least that’s what mom said they were) and some strange pineapple casserole—it was really, really good.

We all hung around and visited for quite a while, then Brother Hopkins announced we would be cancelling our evening service. Typically I would be sooooo sad about that… but I’m sooooo exhausted right now and I must confess that it sounded wonderful to be able to just come home and crash!

We told Mom and Dad goodbye (“See you next weekend!” –How cool to be able to say that!) and headed home. James pulled off at an exit in Hoover to take us all to a HUGE used book store. The kids were in heaven, especially when he offered to buy them each a book if they found one they liked for $2 or $3. They each picked out a Garfield book, I picked out a Dilbert book (can’t be left out, you know) then Joe bought himself another Garfield book.

Then we came home to just RELAX. It was the first day since we got here last Wednesday that we haven’t had a ton of things to do, time pressures on us to do it in, and an hour drive each way to church and back every single night. That after the three day trip to get here and the crazy week before with very little sleep trying to prepare for the trip. Well, and those few nights we weren’t preparing anything, we were just partying with the Hays. :-) We got “home” at about 3:15 Sunday afternoon and I was in my pj’s by 3:20. Ha! I haven’t been seeing my pj’s until about 1:00am here lately, so it felt GREAT. I was anxious to get some more things done here around the house, but I just couldn’t make myself do any of them that afternoon. Or evening. Or night. :-) In fact, James put a movie on for the kids, then they sat around with their new Garfield books. I took a very late nap from 4:00 to 5:00—that’s crazy!—but I didn’t seem to have any choice. It just sort of overtook me. :-)

Katie cracked her face on the floor that night. She was crawling on the wood floor, chasing the dog, and her hand slipped out from under her causing her face to crash into the floor. She was bleeding quite a bit from the mouth and freaking out a little more than usual (never good) saying that her front teeth bent backwards and now they were loose. That didn’t sound good at ALL, but when I got her cleaned up a bit her teeth really didn’t feel loose—maybe just the tiniest bit, but not bad. Maybe it just jarred her head so much she thought so. Or may God heard my prayers and answered them before I had a chance to feel her teeth! Either way, I’m thankful she’s okay—and not toothless. :-)

Hhmmm. This is already way long. I’ll close out and create a separate post to get up-to-date. I have a feeling my Mom is the only one who will actually make it all the way through all of these—and she already knows it all! Ha!

Catching Up, Part 3

Sorry ‘bout the lapse. I’ve had high hopes of getting the blog all caught up, but it hasn’t come to fruition as yet. I’ll try to pick up where I left off last time: our arrival at the Powell’s house.

I had seen some pictures and James had told me about it, but I was still overwhelmed with how beautiful everything is! The Powells are such sweet and amazing people. He cracks me up. He is so on top of things—I can’t believe everything he made time for as they were preparing for their departure for a year long mission trip to Korea, including showing James how to build the fold-up boat (for real--does that sound scary, or what?!) for the boys! He is extremely thorough and had lots of (much appreciated) instructions that will help us be able to take care of things around here. He doesn’t seem to realize that THEY are the ones who are being such an unbelievable blessing to US. To listen to him, we’re doing them the biggest favor in the world by “being willing” to stay at their house and watch over things for them. Ha! I told James that I feel so spoiled. Most people who are in between houses stay in an apartment or an extended stay hotel or something like that. We have just moved into a fully furnished vacation home!

The house itself is beautiful, two story with a basement/garage below. As you walk toward the house you pass the prettiest little waterfall and goldfish pond. The front porch extends the entire length of the house. You come in the front door into a spacious living area, stairs to the left, kitchen, utility room and pantry to the right. The kitchen is gorgeous and the utility room is separate—I love being able to close off laundry mess! :-) They’ve got a great big, looooong dining table (I love it!) and some super comfortable couches. The couches make me very nervous because they are a neutral beige sort of color. I felt much better when the Powells told me they’re planning on replacing them when they get back from their trip! ~whew~ Kids are hard on neutral colored furniture! Ha!

There is a wood burning fireplace in the center of the room, separating the kitchen from the living room. The back wall of the living room is all windows along with glass doors leading to a deck with patio furniture and bird feeders that attract tons of beautiful birds—-the red cardinals being my favorite. They’re so bright and cheery looking. To the left of the living room is a beautiful little bedroom (that Katie has claimed for her own) overlooking the pretty waterfall and goldfish pond outside, an office for James, and a bathroom between the two rooms.
Upstairs is the master bedroom, complete with walk-in closet, large master bath, AND an extra sink and vanity area outside of the bathroom—-something I’ve already fallen in love with! It is sooooo nice and convenient to not have to wait on James to get out of the bathroom so I can fix my hair. HA! There is a walkway from that room across to another bedroom that has become the boys’ room. It’s a large room with a couch area on one end and a bed hanging from chains (it’s so cool!) at the other. Then there are stairs going to a loft area-—the place where the boys actually sleep since they’re not allowed to touch the hanging bed! I’m afraid they might get a little overzealous and crash into the wall. ;-)

The house sits on top of a steep hill, but has a nice paved driveway up from the road below. It feels very mountainish, even though I think I heard the highest point in Alabama is only 2,400 feet. HA! How sad. ;-) There is a creek way down the hill behind the house, a tree house on the other side, a lake within walking distance, and lizards and anoles galore. My boys are in heaven!!!

I’ll have to take pictures of the house one of these days. I really do feel like we’re living in a vacation home. Everything is so beautiful. We are so, so, so blessed to be here. It’s about an hour away from the Bessemer church, but we’re used to driving. :-)

The Powells have not only worked out an arrangement with James for us to have a place to stay right now, but they have also lent us their dog. :-) Brady is a great big, shaggy, happy, over-grown Benji sort of a dog and we’ve all fallen in love with him already. There are several other big dogs around here as well and they all roam free and go visit one another whenever they feel like it. It makes me nervous for Charlie, but so far everybody seems to either be very friendly with him or ignore him entirely. It’s been quite confusing for Charlie, however, and he seems to think he’s just like everybody else and should be able to hang out with the big boys and go wherever they go and do whatever they do. I have been extremely relieved to discover that Charlie is not a runner! At least not yet. :-/ He does very well off leash and though he doesn’t always come when called, neither does he take off like a grayhound (as Hershey was prone to do) and disappear. That is SUCH a relief!!!
Okay, so that didn’t actually pick up the story at all, did it. I’ll start a new post where I left off instead of adding it all here. :-)

Catching Up, Part 2

Okay, so Part 1 was way too long and should have been split up somewhere. At least it had pictures and video clips though, something the remainder of my posts will do without simply because I haven't TAKEN any more since then. I did, however, find these pictures on my camera, so I'll add them just so this post will have SOME pictures. :-)

This is where Charlie would rush to in our New Mexico yard to bark back at all of the neighborhood dogs when they would start talking.



And here he is, the mighty guard poodle silhouetted by the sunlight. ;-)




Okay, where was I? Australia. Yes, Australia. And you would have suspected I'd know the powder's origin, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. Sorry. Got carried away with that question. ;-)

The Hays helped us load a bunch of stuff into the truck, stayed for lunch, then headed back to Colorado. We kept working until about 4:00, then came in to sit down for a few minutes. The house was royally trashed from all of the packing and the MESS that accompanies it. James took Sam and went somewhere, though I can't remember where. That's when Jason called and said that young couple wanted to come and look at the house AGAIN. Right then. HA! The house was sooooo trashed. I warned him of that and he mentioned it to the couple, but they said it didn't matter--they'd like to come by again if we didn't mind. We had about 30 minutes until they arrived and Katie and Joe (on his gimpy leg) and I tore through the house at record speed, cleaning all we could and hiding all the rest. By the time Jason and the folks showed up the house had miraculously (really) transformed from a junk heap into a pretty decent looking place again! We had no vehicle to leave in, so we stayed at the house this time. I really like these people--they seem very nice. And not crazy. A definite plus when you're selling your house to someone. ;-) They love the house and they loved Charlie. :-) I tried to stay out of their way for the most part and just stood and visited with Jason while they looked around. When they left, he came back in the house--just as James got home--and told us that they would be getting with him the next night (Sunday night) to write up an offer on the house! WA-HOO!!!!

I don't remember much about the rest of the night. We went to Sunday School/VLB service the next morning, then rushed home to pack, pack, and pack some more--we had plans of leaving for Alabama the next morning and there was still sooooo much to be done.

Jason called with the folks' offer at 8:00-something that night. It was $20,000 less than our asking price. James took his time and countered their offer at $8,000 above that--$12,000 below the list price. He felt like that was the very limit of what he could come down to, but it seemed to be just a couple thousand above the limit that the other people could come up to! It's frustrating to be within $2,000 of selling your house and hit a brick wall, let me tell you! Ha! Actually, I never felt stressed about it. We just really, really prayed--for God to make a way for them to come up with the little bit of extra money, or to move on our hearts and let us to know we should come down the last bit. In the end, Jason called back to say that since Monday was President's Day they wouldn't be able to work with the lender until Tuesday and therefore wouldn't be able to get an answer back to us until then.

I had a sudden surge of adrenaline hit me late that night and ended up staying up until 1:00 packing the rest of the miscellaneous junk into the moving truck. I just pieced things here and there, whatever was the right size and shape to fit into the holes that remained--and in the end everything was nice and tight and snug. I love that. :-)

I got up at about 7:00 and started loading up everything that was to go into the van--all of our stuff for the trip, as well as suitcases full of shoes and clothes for the move. Then I cleaned the house up real good because we wanted it to be show worthy just in case this young couple didn't end up buying it and others might come to look. We headed into Albuquerque, grabbed lunch at Schlotzsky's, then went to Jason's office to sign the counter offer in hopes that the other folks would indeed agree to it. Came home, finished up on the last of the house cleaning, then loaded into the van and moving truck and headed east at about 2:00 that afternoon. On our way to Alabama!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!!

James drove the moving truck, of course, and I followed in the van. Everything went well, me just following, following, following... until suddenly James exited off where I didn't expect him to exit. I followed, wondering aloud why in the world we were taking this exit--we're supposed to be headed toward Amarillo, straight ahead, no exits! It was then that I realized the truck I was following was no longer blue and no longer said Budget, Car and Truck Rental, 1-800 followed by GO-BUDGET. It was now a huge white semi-truck that had red letters which read "Southern Refrigerated Transport." Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. There were other letters in small print down lower that no doubt said, "Specializing in trickery and leading people astray for 47 years" or something similar. About that time my phone rang. "Where ARE you???" I was only three miles behind James and promptly caught up to him, closing everything else out of my mind and my vision except for the blue truck, the word BUDGET, and the orange and white logo--for the rest of the trip. I was so successful at blocking everything else out that I never did see the sign announcing our entrance into Texas. Or into Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Missouri. I'm able to focus like that. In fact, I never had a CLUE where we were on this trip. I just knew I was following a Budget truck. Nothing else, just Budget.

We ate at Fazoli's in Amarillo because it's what we always do. I wasn't the least bit hungry, but ate 5 bread sticks with my lasagna because they were soooooo good and hot and fresh and greasy and crispy--some of the best ever. We had had a very, very long and tiring week with not a whole lot of sleep, so James said we'd just crash there in Amarillo for the night. That felt good.

It truly was a grand and glorious day. The biggest success was not that we signed papers with high hopes of getting a contract on our house, nor was it that I was clever enough to not follow the Southern Refrigerated Transport truck all the way to Nebraska before realizing something was amiss. No, the biggest success of the day is that the dog never got car sick!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!!! In fact, he did TERRIFIC on the whole trip. He has settled right in and decided (no doubt because of being served Blue Bell on several rides, despite the fact that all of you thought it was insane! Ha!) that the van is, indeed, a happy place. What could be happier than Blue Bell??? Unfortunately, it also proved that the crazy Internet people really were right about most dogs (at least mine) just being stressed out rather than actually having motion sickness. Weird. Either way, I’m a very, very, very pleased Charlie owner at this point. :-)

We left bright at early the next morning and had a long, long, long day of driving. We finally crashed at nearly 11:00 that night somewhere in Mississippi. We slept in just a little bit on Wednesday, then drove the rest of the way to Briarfield, Alabama, to the Powell's house--which will be our home for a little while.

Okay, I got two posts in and covered a week and a half! I'll try to write up Part 3 tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed--BEFORE MIDNIGHT! That's something I barely remember ever doing... G'night!

Catching Up, Part 1

Wow. I have fallen sooooo far behind! And after being so good to blog every single day. But it just hasn't been possible. I've picked my computer up a few times along the way, but usually only to haul it from one place to another.

It all started two weeks ago... Boy, are you guys in for a post that will be way, way, way too long! Ha! Maybe I'll break it up into sections. Yeah, I should do it that way. Here we go.

Two weeks ago, I started packing. We were uncertain of how the future would go, but James had decided to just get us all to Alabama and trust God to work out all of those uncertainties. We needed to leave the house show worthy with furniture and decorations all in place, so we just packed up all of the things you couldn't see: closet contents, dressers, cabinets, James' office, shed junk (including boxes and boxes of GARAGE SALE stuff--and James says he's not a hoarder!!!), and who knows what else. James arranged to rent a 16' moving truck for us to fill up and bring with us; we'll go back for the furniture and other stuff when the time comes.

So I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday packing up the kids' closets, the stuff under all of the beds, the kids' clothes, junk like that. It was sooooo confusing. I had to try to pack stuff to be stored indefinitely (we could be living in our temporary housing situation for a month, or for up to a year--we have no idea), then I had to pack things that we'll want to have with us for that month-to-a-year, then stuff that we'd need in the next week until we left, then stuff that we'd need FOR the trip and the first couple of days when we got there... ~whew~ Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too much brain work for me!

Wednesday I worked long and hard a-a-a-a-a-all day long, up until the Hays arrived at 11:00pm. That's right, the Hays! At our house!!! WA-HOO!!! Apparently they'd been needing some Horne time almost as badly as we'd been needing some Hays time, so they worked it out to come on town to spend a couple of days with us. ~sigh~ What great friends. It was terrific. They got their kids put to bed and we just sat and talked for quite a while that night. We did get in one game of I-Buy before we called it a night at 2:30.

Thursday morning James got up early and headed out to find more moving boxes. I spent the morning packing up the craft cabinet and school supplies and things like that--while visiting with our COMPANY. :-) I made up some chicken and noodles for lunch and it actually turned out good--no chicken glop this time! I've decided it's a GREAT meal. It comes together in 20 or 30 minutes, but it's so good and just feels like a nice, hearty, home cooked meal. Makes me happy. I did some more packing throughout the afternoon, Brother Dustin worked on fixing one of the puck lights that flurbbed out on us recently, and Joe began hobbling around the house pretty dramatically at some point. He said he'd tripped and fallen while he was running, but we really didn't think much about it. We all headed in for church that evening, enjoyed a good service, then went to Dion's for dinner afterwards. We came home, put the kids to bed, then got down to business with I Buy and Balderdash. I think we went to bed at about 1:30 that night, but we had some really great laughs before that time. I remember the word "barbellate" providing a good deal of amusement. It's amazing how varying pronunciations can create such differing possibilities for a word. :-)

I don't remember what we were laughing at at this point, but I'm fairly certain it had nothing to do with the head wrap. Brother Dustin was thus adorned throughout most of the evening, as I recall.

Friday morning started with waffles and rationed syrup (long story), followed by our noticing that Joe was still limping badly. I had asked him the night before if his ankle was swollen and he said he didn't think so. When he was still limping the next morning I had him take his socks off (no easy task on that one foot) so I could compare his feet. No question--that right ankle was way swollen! So we called Doctor Dustin (he used to be a first responder with the volunteer fire department or something like that) into the room to take a look. He diagnosed a sprained ankle and wrapped it up, then offered to carry Joe into the other room so he could sit down and elevate it for a while. Joe wasn't too thrilled about being carried like a princess, but the rest of us enjoyed it immensely. :-)



I spent most of Friday packing up the kitchen. It is amazing how much stuff is in a kitchen. I gave our deep fryer and toaster oven to Jamey. Tammy helped me pack last time and I think I gave her our toaster oven and punch bowl or something like that. You pack so much stuff and just get to the end--if James hadn't been around I probably would've given away a whole lot more! Ha! Anyway, by mid-afternoon we were all feeling pretty wiped out from our sleep deprivation, so we put a movie on for the kids and crashed all over the den, taking naps or fiddling on computers. Then it was back to the packing. We had some pretty fantastical ham and beans for dinner that night (along with cornbread and honey--which did NOT make me sick this time! I didn't heat it up this time and just had a little bit, with no adverse side effects or affects--whatever it is!--so wa-hoo!), then I packed a while longer. I declared I was done packing for the evening, but James didn't think it was time for me to call it quits yet so he came to "help." ~sigh~ I hate it when he does that. He drug Jamey into it as well and before too long all of the Tupperware had been packed up along with most of the pantry. That pretty well finished up the kitchen, and it really was nice to have it done.

That night we played I Buy, then Balderdash, according to tradition. It was still too early to go to bed, so we threw in another game of Balderdash. :-) I would tell you who won, but only God knows. The game pieces kept randomly roaming all over the board, my piece mysteriously moving backwards (an impossibility according to the point method) and Brother Dustin's piece sailing toward the finish line even when he had received no points. I'm simply not observant enough to catch him cheating every time but it really didn't matter. We don't play this particular game for points; we only play for the laughs. We don't need the game board at all except that it contains such great memories for us, what, with the spewed coke stains and all. ;-) Anyway, the crowd called it quits and headed to bed at about 2:00. My afternoon nap had kicked in and I wasn't the least bit tired so I stayed up and cleaned for a while and even packed another box or two. I headed to bed at about 3:00.

James, Brother Dustin, and Joe headed to town early the next morning to pick up the moving truck--and some Krispy Kreme's for breakfast. :-) We loaded up all of the boxes of stuff we'd been packing all week long, which consisted of everything from James' office, everything from the shed (including boxes and boxes of garage sale stuff--I've already told James that if we can't fit everything on the next moving truck I'm going to be a wee bit upset that he insisted we bring garage sale junk with us! Ha!), all of the kitchen stuff, all of the kids' clothes (except some hanging clothes), all of their toys and books and stuff, things from other cabinets and closets around the house--oh, just all sorts of junk. We also loaded up that giant chuck wagon table and a couple pieces of Granddad's wood. We were sure to load up all of the big or heavy things we needed help with while they Hays were still there, then we finished up on the rest later that night. We stopped for lunch, then loaded the soda fountain into the Hays' van and bid them adieu--no tears this time because we are holding out hope that we'll see them once more before this move is complete. Of course, I shed tears about an hour after they left when Katie discovered the little gift they had left us along with a card. She brought it out to me and I sat on a box in the back of the moving truck and cried as I read it. Jerks. Ha! We do thank God for the special friendship He's given us with that family. It must be something special when you consider the amount of destruction our children have wreaked on the other family's property--yet we're still friends! Ha! Since they were at our house this time, it put us way ahead. Lillie pushed through the screen door, Aleah took a hammer to the freshly stained shed as well as throwing rocks in the newly lined pond (we've had a history of torn pond liners from such rocks) and Isaac was found in the pond... ~Aaaaahhhhh~ I love it. :-) Of course, Sam was guilty of being in the pond along with Isaac, but still. Oh, and they did tell us that last time we were at their house Sam and Isaac were playing with their van door and somehow managed to break the automatic door mechanism. That is a BIGGIE, sure, but just a month or two later somebody backed into that very door and it had to be replaced--and works like a charm now. ~whew~ I'm glad they didn't tell us about it before insurance paid for a new door! ;-)

Anyway... As much as I truly love the Hays children (it's all about incriminating their Dad and them having more destruct-o points than we do, thus putting us "ahead" in this warped competition of ours), I couldn't NOT capture some precious memories from them:



Is that not the most pitiful thing you've ever seen??? Poor girl--it endears her to me all the more. :-) And next:



HA! If only Lillie could speak I'd have a clip of her apologizing for the screen door. ;-) For the record, there was really no harm done this time. The pond liner was fine after the rocks and one kid from each family had tromped through it, James took Aleah outside with a can of stain and the two of them had fun touching up the dings in the shed, and James was easily able to get the screen stretched back into the frame--something he's had to do because of his own children (and more often his wife) several times. Still, it's so much more fun when it's the Hays' kids doing that stuff instead of our own. Ha! Despite my blog (ha!), they really are good kids. They are a lot of fun and we truly love being with them. And I love it that Charlie took to Aleah so well. :-)



And to end, here are a couple of clips I took during Balderdash one night. The first is of Brother Dustin acting like a toothless old man--something that grossed his wife out to a degree I'd never seen before although, sadly, I didn't capture THAT on film. The second clip, well, I have no clue what was going on but it's what our time together is all about. :-)