Much Better, Thank You!

I was able to go back to sleep after my wee-hour-of-the-morning blog and sleep until nearly 9:00, I think. Spent the morning cleaning house and getting things back in order after our trip, scarfed down some lunch and made it to horse lessons at 1:00. Daisy was there again, so it was another fun lesson with a great horse and lots of trotting. By the time we got home at 2:30 I was sooooo tired! So I sent the kids out to play and I was able to grab a wonderful, glorious hour of sweet sleep. ~Aaaahhhhh~ I felt worlds better when I woke up. :-) Fixed a smothered steaks for dinner (the only thing that could have made them better is if they would have been deer or elk instead of beef--oh, how I miss that!) and did evening school with the kids. :-)

Thanks for the prayers and advice on the stuffy nose thing. But... I'm pretty sure I couldn't make myself sniff salt water--or anything, for that matter! Ha! The very thought of it gives me the willies!!! And I'm happy to say that it doesn't appear as if I'm in need of any home remedies (greatly relieved, as well as happy once I learned of sniffing salt, Kasey!) anymore. I have been breathing clearly and easily all day long. Praise the Lord!

Anyway, about our trip...

We left Friday morning so we'd have time to stop in Carrizozo at the o-o-o-o-old soda fountain that James so loves stopping at. We got ice cream cones for the kids and milkshakes for us--and James ordered a cherry-limeade for the road. James LOVES soda fountains. :-) We were surprised by the cars that were parked all over the roads in town (there's not just a whole lot to Carrizozo--about 1,000 people, I think) until Roy (of Roy's Soda Fountain) explained that they're filming a movie with Denzel Washington there and it was their first day of filming. They've been building sets since December, I guess. We drove around to see what we could see, but it wasn't much. (I wouldn't know Denzel Washington if I bumped into him, I just recognize the name!) From what we could see of the sets, it appears to be a very depressing movie. Ha! Dark and glum--and tons of "extras" standing on a street corner in black and brown, dirty, smudgy clothes. Oh well, it was exciting for a few moments!

We had enough time to get to the motel and rest a bit before service that night. The theme of our Convention was "Come & Dine" and it was just sooooo good! The worship is always such a blessing when we get with our Spanish people. Brother Tanny preached that first night. The kids always love to hear him. They remembered last year's message when he preached about the three little pigs. He always leaves an impression! Ha!

On Saturday we had all of our boosts and a messages by Brother Soto, Brother Banuelos, and James. The Lord really blessed through the Word and it seemed that everyone was refreshed and receiving good things from the Lord. It was such a good Convention!

Here are a few pictures. This is a picture of (some!) of the Hatch group leading in worship.

As always, there is lots of food and lots of fellowship to be enjoyed when we go to Alamogordo! Those people just love to take care of you and are always so happy to provide a delicious meal to however many people attend the Convention. There are just a handful of members there, but they always feed the whole gang and have plenty of left-overs for later... although Brother Tanny isn't allowed to call them "left-overs" because it sounds bad. So he told us to come and enjoy "the food that was left." Ha! He and Sister Coyazo are quite the pair!

Brother Hector, Brother Olivarez, and Brother Banuelos. Oh, and there's Tayde back there, too!

I only got a picture of the last few people going through the line to greet the Coyazos (District Overseer). I always love Brother Tanny's cowboy garb. He's so cute! ;-)

Here's a picture of Erika and Amie. (Is that spelled right, Tayde???) She is a beautiful baby. Of course, Sam Kaufman said, "Wow, that sure is a neat lookin' baby!" I CRACKED UP!!! I've heard people call babies beautiful or pretty or gorgeous or precious (if necessary! Ha!)... but only SAM would say it's a NEAT LOOKING BABY! Ha!!!


And here he is... practicing. ;-) And this is the closest thing I got to a belly shot of Tammy. Ha!

Here he is again, embarassed at being caught digging in his wife's purse. Gotta love it!
HA! And for our last... Tammy was wanting a new profile picture for her blog, so she asked if I'd take a picture of her and Sam. GOOD GRIEF!!! It's easier to get three small children to sit still, behave, and pose for a picture than it is Sam Kaufman! I ended up with 11 pictures total and Tammy wasn't thrilled with any of them. I just kept clicking as fast as my camera would get ready for the next shot. These are just a few in the series...

It was great. :-)

We had a good time playing games with Sam & Tammy and even managed to squeeze one in after Convention on Saturday, before they headed back to Texas. Tammy was sure to gripe (and rightly so) at James a whole lot for scheduling the Convention on Daylight Savings weekend. Sam & Tammy are the only ones who have to travel back to Texas, so they lose an hour going home anyway, but because of this weekend they lost TWO hours going home!

After they left we loaded the kids up and went over to the Coyazo's house and visited until a little after 10:00, I think. ~sigh~ We just have the most wonderful people in the whole world out here! We SO enjoyed our time with them. They are such wonderful, sincere, funny people and we're so blessed to be "members one of another" with such people!

We got up on Sunday morning and leisurely got ready for church, packed up our stuff, loaded the van, and drove on over. We were surprised to see so many cars there so early (15 minutes or so before church) and were concerned that perhaps service started at 9:30 instead of 10:00 or something like that. We opened the door and saw Brother Tanny standing behind the pulpit, just smiling. Everybody was seated and just sort of turned and grinned at us as we walked in. Finally, Brother Tanny said, "Did you forget about the time change?" !!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?!

JAMES RICHARD HORNE FORGOT ABOUT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME AND WENT TO CHURCH AN HOUR LATE!!! Ha! Is that not the greatest thing you've ever heard?!?!? I was terribly embarrassed and apologized profusely... but the other half of me was so pleased that JAMES had forgotten about it. (It's not surprising at all that I forgot, but James?!)It was doubly great since there had been so much banter between him and Tammy about them losing TWO hours. In the end, we just decided to not observe it at all--now, if THAT won't make Tammy mad...! Ha! I was sure to slug James and say, "Why do you think I married you?!" He's just not good for much anymore, I tell ya'. He used to be sooooo on top of it. Never made silly mistakes or lost or forgot anything... I think it's all of the wonderful Smith influence he's had in his life for the past 9 years. He'll deny it 'til his dying day, but it's rubbed off on him just a bit. Wa-Hoo!!! Life is grand!

We were sorry to have missed Sunday School (!), but thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful message by Sister Coyazo. She is always such a blessing. I want to be like her in so many ways!

After service Brother Tanny insisted on taking us to the Golden Corral, as always. It's Joe's very favorite thing about going to Alamogordo! Ha! We had another nice visit with them before heading over to Hatch. We had a good service with them that night as well and were blessed by the wonderful spirit of prayer they have there. Afterwards we were able to go see Hector & Erika's house (it's looking great!), then go visit with the Banueloses for a while. It was great fun, as always. I just love those people! And, of course, Sister Banuelos fed us yet more good food. I love the kinship that we feel with all of the people out here. There is such a... I don't know how to describe it. When you walk into a Convention you just feel so... comfortable with everybody! So... at home. It's like you are walking into a room full of your very own family and it's just so good to see and be with ALL of them. You can't even pick any favorites (not that you should!) because everybody just loves EVERYBODY so much! It's wonderful.

We stayed at the marvellous Village Plaza Hotel in Hatch (Ha! -- Such great memories we've had at that place over the years!), then drove home yesterday. And that just about sums up our trip! It was a great one. God is so good to us and I always feel so very, very blessed when we get together with His people to rejoice and draw nearer to Him and to one another. There's just nothing to compare! I'm already looking forward to the next Convention. Just two and a half weeks away! :-)