Couldn't pass up this opportunity, what, with dear ole' Brother Jason ministering up in Canada and DENYING that this ever happened. Here's the proof:

Okay, so, in all fairness to the subject of this photo, I'll clarify: he wasn't officially giving dance lessons. Although we all learned a great deal about him during this particular session...

"And this year's Spring fashions are teeming with denim and khaki..." Really, doesn't he look like he's trying out for the cover of the JCPenney's catalogue??? I've always thought so.

This is the handful of people who were privileged to see Brother Jason at his best (debatable) at the Dairy Queen that night. Aaaaaahhhh... for the good ole' days. Right, Jason?!?!? :-)

I am soooooooo happy!!! Wanna know why?! There are so many reasons, the first of which is that I haven't had a paint brush in my hand ALL DAY LONG! Wa-Hoo!!!!!! That alone is enough to make me want to thow a party. What a relief to be free from that agony for a few days! Although, there are still little pangs to be suffered each time I step foot in the back yard and have to see all three shades of blue that WON'T work... That's right, people, we've now got three buckets of putrid blue paint here at the Horne home. In fairness to those innocent shades of blue, they're actually very nice blues... until you put them on a house. Then they do something similar to what happens to mild-mannered David Banner when he gets upset. "Don't make me angry... you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." (For my Mother's sake, I'll clarify: The Incredible Hulk. Remember???) Anyway...

We set aside the painting because we are already over a week past due on getting our Regional Paper formatted and sent out, lazy loafer that I am. So all else stopped and I got right to work on the paper today. Usually I spend two full days and about half of those nights (up 'til 2:00 or 3:00) to complete the formatting. But here it is, midnight on the very first day, and I'm DONE!!! I feel like doing a victory dance... if only I knew how to dance. (That's the trouble with being a Church of God girl...) Of course, our paper is only half as long as it usually is, so let me give credit to whom credit is due: A great big, hearty THANK YOU to all of you slackers in my Region who failed to send in your local church reports and auxiliary boosts.... *GASP!* Oh nooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

NEVERMIND!!!! It's OVER! My feeling of freedom and glee is GONE!!! Sitting right here on my desk -- right in front of me! -- is an auxiliary boost and a church report that I FORGOT to put in the paper!!!!!!! NOW what do I do?! Aaaarrrrgggg!!! Alright. Forget it. Let me plunge back into the depths of despair and go ahead and stay up 'til 2:00 or 3:00 anyway -- that's the norm, so why should it seem so shocking and depressing this time, you may ask? (You may ask...) Because I've been TEASED with the feeling of "Hey, I got it all done so EARLY this time! Wow, this is amazing!" Only to be slapped in the face with two articles that were submitted and therefore have to be printed. *sigh*

This is NOT MY WEEK. I gotta go.

~Bec~

Okay, I'm going to see if I'm smart enough to get some pictures on this page. Here goes!

Did it work??? If so (!), this is a picture of my littlest, Sam (on the right) with his most favoritest cousin in the whole world, Caleb. Caleb is 5 and Sam is 2, but for some reason they really seem to click!

The other picture is of Cowboy Joe, our 4 year old. I'll have to post a picture soon of the dearest love of his life: his new "real" guitar -- a brown one with a strap, "JUST LIKE JACOB'S!" (Jacob Shuler is Joe's idol, in case anyone is unaware!)

Okay, so how do you post pictures and figure out where they're going to show up on the page and where your typing is going to be?! What's the trick!!! Somebody help me out and I'll be sure to post some more pictures, but this is dumb having everything thrown sporadically all across the page!

Let's see, what's new... We just got back from Youth Convention in Hatch, New Mexico this weekend. Grace, you and your family were GREATLY missed!!! (Don't pull that on us again!) God blessed us with a really good Convention (yes, in spite of Dustin) and we enjoyed lots of good preaching and singing and praising the Lord. As always, the Spanish people just blessed my soul. I've never known such beautiful, precious, humble people and I thank God regularly that He's placed us in an area to be in fellowship with them! (But if Luis or Hector Banuelos ever heard I said so I'd have to deny it!)

Hhmmm. I know there was something I was going to write about next time I posted (which is now), but I can't think of what it is. Gggrrrr. I hate it when that happens.

We're going into a painting project in the morning. We live in a brick home, but there was an addition put on several years ago and the siding is in desperate need of fresh paint. We intend to paint the trim on the entire house along with the shutters on the front and James' office and the shed in the back... SOMEDAY (hopefully soon!), but we've GOT to get the addition painted before the siding rots away any more. It was 93 degrees here today. Ugh. Tomorrow and the next day are supposed to be the coolest this week, so I'm going to hit it hard and heavy and see if I can't get something accomplished before the agonizing heat returns.

Okay. Pretty boring. My head feels numb. I'm going to go put it in the bed with the rest of me and see if it feels any better tomorrow. Help me out with how to post pictures and captions in a sensible fashion so I can put some more pictures on here, okay?! Thanks!!!

~Becki~

Well, let's see... where to start? Our visit with Mom and Dad was fantastic, as expected. Jon & Emilee and Company were able to be with us for a few days, so that made things extra exciting! It was SO good to be able to spend some time with Emilee. She's the bestest sister-in-law in the whole world. (Are you reading, Em?) At least, she's MY best sister-in-law. :) And Jon, well, what can I say. He's Jon! We love him in spite of himself!

We took all the kids fishing one day and had a blast. They ALL caught fish, if only little 4"-ers. (Beat that, Mandie! Ha! I didn't even know they made fish that small!) We played lots of games and... ah, yes. The games. I'm sure you'll all be pleased to hear (as if you haven't already) that my Mom is the big winner. I still can't get over it. How can a 50 year old woman with NO CLUE keep on winning?! I've heard of dumb luck, but this goes way beyond that. It's really more like freakish good luck. Her defuct brain seems to be no factor at all, regardless of which game is being played. The chips just always seem to fall in her favor, no matter how oblivious she is to the rules, concepts, or strategies of a game. That woman has more luck than a leprechaun.

We took Katie, Joe and Sam out to fly kites -- their very first time -- on Mom and Dad's last night here. It was so fun! Joe's kite didn't seem to want to soar like the others. It was more interested in doing a rapid corkscrew, then nose-diving into the ground, or whatever person or tree was closest. Not the easiest to fly, but definitely the most entertaining of the three. The kids had SO MUCH FUN with all the family. I wish we could find a way to spend time together more often. It's hard to do when you're splattered across the country, as we are. (I know, I know -- but "splattered" sounded more colorful than "scattered." A little more gruesome, too, now that I think of it...)

My problems are gone! (No snide remarks are necessary, thank you.) My aches and pains have been all but alleviated and I THANK GOD! I was pretty miserable with whatever was going on, but God has had mercy and healed me! PRAISE THE LORD! And thank you for your prayers!

Let's see... that's about it. (You lucky dogs.) We'll be leaving for Youth Convention in the morning, over in Hatch, New Mexico. Dustin Hays is our guest speaker, but we're really looking forward to the Convention anyway. (Ha!) We plan to be home Sunday night, Lord willing. Until then, I'll be BLOGLESS. Oh! Whatever shall I do?!?!?!? Oh wait... I'M not addicted to BLOGGING like SOME pitiful souls who carry their laptop on their hip and seem to have a magnetic draw to the nearest Internet access... I think I'll be okay 'til Sunday. Until then!

~Bec~

So here I am again, after only 2 weeks of not posting anything! Sorry to say this won't be the thrilling update you've all been waiting for. You know, the one describing how disgusted I am over my mother's uncanny ability to win games she doesn't even know how to play... No, that will have to wait. For now, I NEED PRAYER!

I still can't figure out what's going on, but it's been over a week now since I began experiencing pain in my shoulder and neck. I was unable to turn my head for a few days, but the pain has gradually been subsiding, or so I thought. The affected area would change from day to day. It started in my right shoulder, then moved to my neck (for a few days), then my collarbone, and tonight it has decided to rest in my back (at the base of my neck) and shoot down my right arm, sometimes all the way through my forearm and into my hand and fingers. Weird. The pain has seemed to be letting up a little each day and my neck was feeling better and better. But tonight the pain is severe enough in my back and arm that I've tried to sleep, can't, tried a hot pad and then a hot bath, tried again to sleep, still can't, and I now find myself at my computer at 2:00am writing to plead, "Please pray for me!!!" I don't suspect any of you will be reading this in the next few minutes, but whenever you do happen to stumble across this -- please pray! I've had trouble sleeping several nights now (even when the pain would ease up during the days, it would return in the evenings) and I'm SO TIRED of this! I know that Jesus' suffered those stripes for our HEALING and I trust Him to care for me and all of my moving-from-place-to-place ailments. I know this is not nearly so great a need as those of Brad Moore and several others we've been praying for, but please whisper a prayer for me in between the others. I would appreciate it more than you know!

I expect to be posting a testimony of my healing along with all the fun events of the past week just as soon as I can find the time. Assuming I'm physically able, I've got a truckload of laundry to do tomorrow, a few batches of strawberry jam to make, some typing to do for my husband, and some general house cleaning. (Mom and Dad will be heading back to Colorado early in the morning.) Then I'll try to make it back to the computer tomorrow night. As for now, OUCH. Please pray! I'm going to go pray again and give sleep another shot.

Thanks in advnace for your prayers!,
~~ Becki ~~

Okay, okay, okay. Here I am, writing a new "post" for my BLOG. I actually started writing one last night, but my computer froze up. I was playing a game with Sam & Tammy and it was Sam's turn to deal, so I knew I had PLENTY of time (right, Bekah?!)... but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Hopefully I'll be able to get this one flung onto the page before something goes awry today.

Oops. Too late. Appears there's been an accident outside. A two year old being plowed down by an out-of-control four year old on a bike. No blood. They've all been sent back outside now.
Let's see. What's the latest from around here... James is GONE! For 3 whole days!!! WOW. I don't know what to do with myself! I used to think it strange when I was a kid and Mom would get so excited when Dad would go away for a Retreat or something. NOW I UNDERSTAND! When James worked a regular "job" and had to take a trip, I missed him. But now that he's around the house most every day, well, ... this weekend is PARTY TIME!!! We're going to break out the Coke and Totinos and eat in the den and watch Veggie Tales. (True, that wouldn't have been my idea of a "party" a few years ago... Actually, yes, it would have! That's exactly the kind of parties we had! The only difference is that I was surrounded by teen-agers instead of toddlers! Ha!) ANYWAY, I intend to have lots of fun with the kid-o's the next couple of days. -- And get with Sam and Tammy and play lots of games, of course! Wa-Hoo!!!

I was just reading through some of the comments on my last (and first) post. It was recommended that I need to "act cool and hip now" since I'll be blogging with all of the dippy teen-agers. Ugh. I just don't think I can pull it off. I live in TEXAS, so "cool" is out; and I've never had very big hips. Besides, all I really have to talk about is my kids. I can't imagine that writing about potty training and the fear of losing ones baby teeth could be considered "cool" or "hip." Anyway, it's my life, so I guess that's what I have to write about!

Katie is 5 now and reading everything she can get her hands on. Joe is 4 and is still our favorite guitar playing cowbody -- "MOSEY JOE." And Sam is 2 and nothing but trouble. At the moment all three of them are at the kitchen table with construction paper, scissors and glue. Every few seconds one of them will come running in here with some scraps glued together and say, "Look, Mom! For you!!!" I know you dippy teen-agers can't understand this, but there's just nothing better in the whole world!

Okay, gotta get something done around here. Hhmmm. I was going to add a picture or two, but I can't seem to make it work. Maybe I'll get a chance to add some later. Until then...

Later!

~Becki~

Hey, people! (I say that as if I actually expect anybody to read this!) This is my very first time "blogging" (who came up with that word, anyway?!) and I'm just kind of testing the waters. So many of my friends have these things up and going, so I got to feeling kind of left out. Not really. It's just that I never seem to be able to stay caught up on my e-mails and thought this would be a great way to "cheat" my way to being more "in touch" with my friends. Of course, that only works if they take the time to read it. So to those of you who are actually perusing this site, a big hearty THANK YOU! You are helping me to be a better friend! I could never do this without your support. While I'm at it I'd like to thank the Academy and my producer... (oh, brother).
I don't want to take too much time writing, since I'm not even sure how to shoot this message out into that vast abyss known as cyberspace. And I'm counting on YOU -- whoever you are -- to take the time to comment (even just this ONCE, if that's all I can get out of you!), just so I'll know whether I should continue blogging (there's that word again), or abandon the mission before take off. I'd hate to be neglecting my kids to BLOG my life away, all the while thinking that somebody out there is neglecting their kids to read it -- and just be deceiving myself the whole time.
So let me know if you're really out there! Or if I'm really out there. I feel so lost. Help me! Somebody, he-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-elp me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e!!!!!!!