Christmas In Pennsylvania  

Posted by cokelady

Katie and Joe woke up at about 6:30, I think, and excitedly began waking everybody else in the house. This is the first year I recall the kids actually waking up first, so it was kind of exciting! This is the way it's supposed to be--not us dragging the kids out of bed at 7:00 or 8:00 and trying to get them awake enough to open presents like in years past! Ha! Kate and Joe were plenty awake and excited this year and it didn't take too long for Sam to join them.

We went into the living room and the kids were in awe of that ridiculous mountain of presents I mentioned last time. In our family, we always sort the presents and pass them all out, then open them. Around here the kids are supposed to just tear into 'em! So I left the camera work to James this year (I haven't looked to see what he got pictures of yet) and I kept my notebook handy. Still, it wasn't easy keeping up with three kids tearing into to things and writing down who got what and from whom! (It's difficult to send thank you cards if you don't know who to thank for what, you know!) Anyway, the kids had a truly grand time, of course, and got way more stuff than any kid should be allowed. Actually, it wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't for cousin Frankie. Those 10 or 15 gifts pushed it over the top, I would say! Ha! (She is SUCH a nice person and I know she means well... but I really wish something could be done about this!) James' mother gets LOTS of stuff for the kids, but at least a whole lot of it is practical. They all get new winter coats and pajamas and shoes and stuff like that, then toys, too. I always get the same excess/materialistic feeling with all of the "extra" presents, though. It's just not a good thing, you know?! There are so many of them that the kids run from one to another and then another, all in 3o seconds. There's no time for them to even appreciate any of it because there's just TOO MUCH. I can see why kids in "the good old days" felt soooooo blessed and soooooo lucky when they got their one or two Christmas presents--what a special thing to get a gift! But when you get 20, what's so special about it?! Anyway, this may sound terrible, but James and I actually picked out several things and set them aside to give away to charity before they're ever even out of the package. It's just not good for kids to have so many toys! They've still got way more than they could ever need, I assure you. And it's not that we're ungrateful for the gifts... we just want to do what's best for the kid-o's. And 28 new toys in one day ain't it. ;-)

Another weird thing they do around here is keep all of the presents under the tree. After they're opened, I mean. Now that I think of it, it's rather ironic. They don't put any of the presents under the tree before Christmas, but after you open them, then you have to shove them all under the tree and leave them there--for days! They say it's because in the days following Christmas all of the family around here (and there are TONS) will sort of mill around and visit from house to house and you can show them what everybody got for Christmas 'cause it's still right there under the tree. Drives me nuts. Not that I don't get the concept--that's what they do around here and I'm glad they have traditions of some kind!--but the mess just makes me batty. It seems especially bad this year, maybe because I've been in nothing but mess for the past few weeks with the move! Who knows. Anyway, we piled everything back under the tree (which wouldn't be so bad, but "under the tree" doesn't take long to be "strewn all across the living room and throughout the rest of the house!" and THAT'S what gets to me!) and I started the hot rolls at about 8:00, I think. James went back to bed (of all the nerve!) and left me to spend the next hour or two helping kids get stuff out of dumb plastic packaging requiring a chainsaw to penetrate (don't you HATE those?!) and dippy wires strapping every little thing to a second layer of cardboard hidden on the inside of the box and digging out screwdrivers and installing batteries and all of that fun stuff. We worked on the house and dinner and ate at about 12:30, I think. It was good, even without gravy. (Another weird thing up here! Ha!) We had a really, really good ham, potatoes, noodles (which they put on top of the potatoes in lieu of the missing gravy--I told you, they're weird!!!), corn, stuffing, leftover chicken, and my hot rolls. And I made cinnamon rolls, too. James' mother had made apple pies (she makes the very best) and pinwheel cookies and chocolate chip drop cookies and something else, so there was already plenty of desert... but it always helps it feel more like Christmas if you have some of the things you're used to having! Thus the hot rolls and cinnamon rolls. And punch.

The kids played long and hard all day long and James' folks spent quite a while "up the hill" with them. They kids each constructed their own "house," so I hear, out of miscellaneous stuff from the barn. They were gone long enough for me to get a good nap, which I was thankful for! And by the excited chatter when they got back I know they all had a great time. :-)

The boys both crashed out on the couches by about 6:00 that night. Katie managed to stay awake long enough to help me make Christmas cookies. (Another one of those things we didn't NEED, except to make Christmas feel "right"!) They turned out great! Yum. I've eaten way, way, way too many of them in the past 24 hours!

Sam woke up just a few minutes before bedtime (creep!), but Joe just slept right on. I got him into his pj's and carried him in to bed. Sam apparently couldn't get sleepy enough to go down easily, so he stayed up being bad. I know that because in the middle of the night sometime he woke up and decided to haul his blanket and pillow into our room to sleep on the floor, as he sometime does. But it wasn't the pitter-patter of little feet we heard coming to our room, it was the CLOMP-CLOMP-CLOMP of cowboy boots! I knew the sound instantly and told him to take those crazy boots off. It wasn't until this morning that I realized he was dressed in full cowboy garb--jeans, cowboy shirt and the new vest he got from Auntie Em for Christmas. That turkey! He had apparently got all his duds on after being sent to bed last night.

Due to his adventuresome night, Sam slept in until about 9:00 today! Wow! Katie and Joe were up bright and early though. It was a pretty quiet day around here today. Except for about an hour of it when that dumb dog ran away. Ggrrrr!!! Sometimes I could just KILL him! Long story short: Hershey ran away while no adults were around to stop him (he actually stops and comes back to us nowadays) and we looked all over tarnation for him for about an hour. Uncle Don came stolling in with him after about an hour. What a pain!!! But at least Hershey acts remorseful now. He used to come home from running away all giddy and proud of himself. Now he slinks around all hunkered over and won't look straight at you, just sort of glances up out of the corner of his eyes. And if you start telling him what a bad dog he is he drops flat on his back and puts all four paws in the air and looks away in that "please don't beat me" thing of his. Pitiful. Anyway, God brought that dumb dog back home AGAIN. And I'm thankful.

That was about it today. Nothing else exciting. Tim Reitler, a CoGoP guy from up here that James used to be pretty close to, came to visit today. I know James really enjoyed that. And that's it! I'm really wishing I would have brought a cross-stitch with me. It would be nice to have some handwork to do. Katie got a potholder kit for Christmas (two of them, actually) and she whipped out her first two potholders yesterday and another one today. She sold the "hunter one" (orange and green--because every hunter wants a potholder! Ha!) to Grandpa Norman for $2. Ha! What a racket! I made two potholders of my own today, too, although I don't intend to sell them for $2 a whack. ;-) It's actually kind of fun. We told Katie she can make a whole bunch of them and donate them to the Mission table or something. She was really excited about that. :-)

Okay, that's it from around here. I wanted to post before I got too far behind and couldn't remember anything. I know how this goes! More in a day or two, I'm sure.


~Bec~

7 comments

Christmas Eve  

Posted by cokelady

...and boy am I tired!!! We got a pretty early start today and had a good, non-eventful day of travelling, which was nice for a change! We stopped along the way to do our last minute shopping with the 8,000 other idiots at the Dollar Store and Wal-Mart. DUMB. But we just hadn't had a chance to take care of some things. Such as...
The kids' gifts for each other. Every December we let the kids "work" to earn some money so they can buy a present for the the other two. This year they've done lots of extra work (!), but we didn't have to pay them anything since they already had enough money. Sam just had a birthday, so he has plenty. Katie had a couple of dollars already, then she helped Tammy deliver papers a couple of weeks ago and earned $5 more. And all three kids got $10 in their Merry Christmas/Farewell cards from the Andrews church! Crazy. Anyway, we took them to the dollar store for the annual fiasco. Katie and Joe are starting to do much better about keeping secrets, but Sam is the worst we've ever had. He picked out a toy for Joe and hadn't even put it in the basket before he was yelling into the other aisle, "Hey, Joe! I got you a ternade (grenade)--will you share it with me?!" HA! It was only a few minutes before Katie was informed that she was getting a jump rope. The rat. Anyway, they got their shopping done and we were able to get some stocking stuffers, too.
Then we had to stop at Wal-Mart so I could pick up a few ingredients to make some things so it might actually feel like Christmas! I haven't been able to do any of the traditional baking this year and it's just wrong! But now I'm equipped to make hot rolls, cinnamon rolls and Christmas cookies tomorrow. I've got the punch mixed up and in the freezer so it'll be ready for dinner tomorrow. Those things should help.
We finally made it to James' folks house at about 4:00 this afternoon. Praise the Lord!!! It is soooooo good to finally land somewhere solid for a few days! James' Mom had a nice chicken dinner ready for us when we got here, so we enjoyed that then worked on getting the van all unloaded and cleaned out. I got everything looking good in the van and got all of our suitcases unpacked and everything in its place in the house. Gave baths to all of the smelly kids, then we hopped in the van with the whole crew (Grandparents included) and drove around Mount Union to look at the Christmas lights. We stopped by James' Aunt Grace's house and went in for just a few minutes to say hello to the crowd there. That was nice. I like Aunt Grace a lot--and I love her crazy daughter Amy!
We came home and let the kids open the gifts they had bought for one another (the only things they are allowed to open on Christmas Eve!) and play with them for a little while before having devotions and putting them to bed. Ooooooh, that's what I've been missing. In all of our travelling we haven't had a chance to really do devotions (our regular devotions, that is, with the usual Bible reading and prayer time) the past several days. I hate that! I miss it so much. I'm always so ashamed when this happens. I was able to get some "alone time" with God last night while I was driving and everybody else was asleep, so that was nice. I'm excited to actually BE somewhere and hopefully be able to find the time and a quiet place for the truly important things. :-) Anyway... Don't know where that came from!
We put the kids to bed sometime after 9:00 and I went to take my shower. A good, long, hot one. :-) Mixed up the punch and stuffed the kids' stockings. You want to hear something weird? When we got here today, there wasn't a single present under the tree. Not one! They were all piled up in James' folks' room. Weird! They wait until after the kids have gone to bed and then drag them all out. None of them are "from Santa," they're all just from Grandma or whoever, but for some reason they can't be under the tree until after everybody is asleep. We don't really do the Santa thing either way, but still... it's weird! Oh well. I saw James and his Mom make trip after trip into the living room with armfulls of gifts a few minutes ago. I guess that means the kids are finally asleep. And there is a mountain of gifts under the tree now. James' Mom just can't help herself. There are always wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too many gifts when we come up here! --James has got this cousin that shops for the kids and gets each of them 3 or 4 things usually!!! A cousin!!! It's so strange. I really wish folks would cut back. It's not that I'm ungrateful (really!), but it makes me feel terrible that they get so much for the kids--and it's just so unnecessary. Oh well. There's not much that can be done about it I guess!
I am sad that I don't have my diary. I used to actually write in it a little bit, but never could be faithful to it. Except on Christmas Eve. I always get it out and write for a little while on Christmas Eve after everybody else has gone to bed. But this year it's packed away in a box somewhere in a storage unit back in Texas! Oh well. At least I have my blog! I guess that will have to do this time.
I hope and pray that you all have a very, very Merry Christmas!!! I'll be looking forward to reading all about what you all did--and seeing lots of pictures. :-) Love you!

~Becki~

2 comments

Are We There Yet???  

Posted by cokelady

~whew~ What a trip! Yesterday was possibly the worst weather day we’ve ever had to fight. It was just nasty all day long. Things were already pretty slick in Amarillo before we got out of town. (We heard there was an 80 car pile-up there after we left.) We got a late start because… well, because we are TIRED! We got up and went down to the courtyard area and got our free breakfast. Eggs cooked to order, hash browns, sausage, toast and juice. Not bad! Especially for a $31 ratty motel! It’s much better in the daylight. ;-)

We had to stop at the Post Office so James could mail the car title and info back to Aunt Sue in Texas because she’s got a buyer for it. Got onto the interstate and discovered that James had forgotten to send the keys with the paperwork! Ha! I love it when he does things like that!!! :-) Oh well—we’ll have to worry with that later. Then we drove. And drove. And drove and drove and drove. Very slowly. The roads were slick all day long and we were in blizzard type conditions, but not good blizzard. There was never any accumulation on the ground, just whirling, swirling snow and whiteout conditions and very, very slippery roads. We kept praying and trudging on and FINALLY made it out of Oklahoma (that state felt every bit as big as Texas yesterday!) and into Missouri. Almost immediately things cleared up, the roads were just wet, not icy, and the snow stopped. We could actually SEE! Wa-Hoo! We stopped in Joplin for dinner at Steak and Shake. ~aaaahhhh~ What a great husband I have! Frisco Melt with extra Frisco sauce to dip my fries in (then Sam and Katie’s leftover fries, too) and an orange freeze. So it turned into a good day after all! ;-)

We filled up the tank and hit the road again, but only made it to Springfield because we were so worn out. So we stayed at a really nice Motel 6 there. It even had a bathtub (they usually only have a shower), which was a good thing since Hershey Dog needed a bath. Got the dog scrubbed up, dried off, and combed out, let the kids watch the non-scary parts of the Wizard of Oz and a few minutes of the Ewoks fighting the stormtroopers (again, gotta go non-scary! Ha!) before hitting the hay.

This morning we were on the road by about 8:00 and have had a much, much better day. It’s been nice and clear and dry, but because of our bad weather yesterday there is no way we’ll be able to make it to James’ folks’ house tonight. Unless we get a marvelous surge of energy that sees us through ‘til about 2:00am! So we’ll get as close as we can tonight, then ease on in tomorrow. It’s so strange to travel on a Sunday and not be in Church. It just doesn’t FEEL like Sunday, you know?! I read through two Evening Lights this afternoon so that helps a little, but it’s just not the same! It’s about 4:00 now and we’re driving through Indianapolis. Another 5 or 6 hours should get us within 4 more hours of the Horne home for tomorrow. We’ll see what happens. Until next time…

~Becki~

P.S.—Did I say this has been a good traveling day? HA! I take it back. Almost immediately after I wrote the above post we came to a dead stop on Interstate 70 just outside of Indianapolis. About 25 miles out, I think. We waited for over two hours before finally giving up and turning around and heading back a few miles to Greenfield. We grabbed a bite at KFC and filled up with gas again and now we’re trying to take Highway 40 east to the Ohio border. Us and about 1,000 other people who have given up on the Interstate, too! It is 8:46 right now. I think it was about 5:15 when we got held up. That’s quite a delay! So now we’re just hoping to make it to James’ folks’ house before Christmas Day!!! Still, we have sooooo much to be thankful for. All we know about the accident on I-70 is that at least 3 people were killed. We knew it had to be pretty severe to have traffic held up for so long, but I had been praying that somehow there wouldn’t be any fatalities. We saw cop cars galore heading to the accident and James says that at least three helicopters came and went while we were waiting. How awful to be in an accident anytime, but especially at this time of year. There are so many people on the roads headed home for the holidays. God is so good to keep His hand on us and I’m thankful that although late, our family is all safe and sound. I’ve been praying for those in the accident and their families. How awful. Wow—from where we are on Highway 40 we can see I-70 running parallel to us about 4 miles north. It is still completely clogged up with taillights as far as the eye can see. That must’ve been some accident! Please be in prayer for the survivors and the families involved. They will all need special grace from God. Perhaps souls can be saved through all of this tragedy.

P.P.S.—Made it to Zanesville, Ohio. It’s nearly 1:00am now. Would have driven on in to Wheeling, WV but the kids were shot. We’re checked into our hotel with “free high speed Internet,” but you have to go sit in the hallway next to the lobby in order to access it, so says the man at the front desk in a very thick foreign accent. At least I think that's what he said. No big deal. I’m going to bed anyway! I’ll post this when we get to Pennsylvania—hopefully sometime tomorrow!!!

1 comments

Take Two  

Posted by cokelady

I spent the longest time typing up a post yesterday while we were driving, only to lose the whole thing. So I’ll try again. We’ve been having issues with the laptop, so I hope I’m not wasting my time again!

Let’s see, the last time I blogged was Monday night. I think. Tuesday was a long and grueling day. James rented the U-Haul so we could empty the house and get everything over to the storage units on the edge of town. Everything started out well enough. I have discovered that I really like packing the truck. It’s like a giant puzzle and there’s a strangely fun and rewarding feeling when you can get all those boxed to fit just right. Furniture is a different matter entirely. It ended up being the kind of day where you are working and working and working, but when you look around there is still SO MUCH to be done and you just don’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything, you know?! I can’t remember what time we gave up and called it quits for the night. Tammy was there helping again, of course, and Aunt Sue took the kids home and fed them and gave them much needed baths and all the things their mother has been failing to do lately!

Hhmmm… There are sooooo many things I’m forgetting! My brain gave out a day or two ago and I can’t seem to remember anything or read a map or tell my left from my right or nuthin’! Ha! Anyway, Wednesday was another long, hard day of hauling stuff over to storage, but it went much better than the day before. Or maybe my spirits were just better! I kind of crashed on Tuesday and was just so DONE with all of this madness!!! But God helped me to recover quickly and we had a good day Wednesday. Aunt Sue and Tammy juggled the kids so James and I could work without distraction which was nice. Sam & Tammy left for their Christmas trip to Washington at about 3:00 that afternoon, I think. The kids helped us load some things up and Sam had a wonderful time riding his Big Wheels bike down the ramp of the U-Haul! Ha! I meant to get the video camera out and tape him for a minute or two, but never got around to it. It looked like such a blast though! If my knees weren’t so sore I would have wanted to try it. ;-)

I spent a large part of the day cleaning. I got the refrigerator all cleaned out, threw lots of stuff away and bagged up lots of other stuff for Tammy and Aunt Sue. Then I took all of the shelves and drawers out to give everything a thorough scrubbing. It will feel so nice to have a nice sparkly clean fridge whenever we get a new house! Same thing with the microwave. I had gotten mad at the toaster oven the day before and given it to Tammy. We were running low on boxes and it was an inch sort of fitting in every box that I tried. “Do you want this thing?!” “I don’t know what I’d do with it…” “It’s a toaster oven! You can make… TOAST! Or… bake… little things!” (Long pause…) “Okay.” “GREAT—I’ll put it with your stuff!” ;-) It felt good to be rid of it.

Moving is not conducive to marriage. I just thought I’d throw that out there in case anybody didn’t already know it. I’ll spare you all the gory details, I’ll just share what I told James. “If you ever die, I’m going to go find a nice, tidy, well organized garage… and I’m going to marry the man who owns it!!!” You can put the pieces together. ;-)

We finally got the very last load into the storage shed and James dropped me off back at the house at 12:15am. Then he went out to join the sleeping children at Aunt Sue’s house while I stayed and did all of the cleaning that only I can do. I’m sooooo glad we’ve been cleaning all along the way—or else I’d STILL be there working on it! Every time we would get a room totally packed up, we’d move everything out of it and I’d clean the ceiling fan and work my way down, walls, closet, windows, baseboards, then vacuum and shut the door. :-) All of the bedrooms were already done, and several other rooms were real close, so that helps. I had finished up in the toy room, my office, the den and both bathrooms earlier in the day, so all I really had left to do was clean the bottom half of the kitchen (cabinets inside and out), the kitchen floor, and the living room. I spent about 45 minutes scrubbing the kitchen floor, then collected all of the trash and set it by the back door, then got the living room all cleaned up and ~voila~ I was done!!! …At 2:15 in the morning. I was sooooo tired, but it felt sooooo good! The house looks fantastic. I wish other people would clean their houses when they move out like I clean mine when I do. I remember how gross that house was when we bought it. Nobody should have to move into a house like that! It feels so good to have it shining for the new owners. Makes me feel like a good steward or something!

I made it out to Aunt Sue’s and took a nice hot shower and slipped into bed just a few minutes before 3:00am. Boy, did I need that shower! I was sooooo achy! I counted bruises just for the fun of it. 25 on one leg. Then I was curious to see how many were on the other leg. 25! Weird. 50, just on my legs. I stopped there. James and I spent all the next day moaning and groaning and hobbling around. My back was killing me, my knees hurt, one ankle was giving me fits, the toe I kept stubbing at the storage unit felt swollen, my arms were sooooo tired and achy and my hands are banged up and dried out and ready to crack and bleed. James has his own list of ailments and I’m sure Tammy’s is probably just about as long! Ha! Pitiful. I’m glad it’s over!!! At least the first half is over.

We got up at about 8:30, I think, yesterday. Aunt Sue took James to return the U-Haul while I got the kids ready for the day. Then we went to Aunt Sue’s store to pick up a housewarming gift for our buyers. I found a little plaque/sign with a flower that says “This is Where I Belong” and a tiny little thing that has two sheep and a little house sitting on top of little letter blocks that say “Home Sweet Home.” We wrote out a card welcoming them to Andrews and told them that we hope they’re happy there and that the house will soon feel like home to them and provide lots of good memories for their family as it has for ours. We took it over to the house and left it on the kitchen counter, then went out back and gathered up the last of the trash and vacuumed out James’ office. Then we went back inside and walked through the house one last time. We laughed one last time in the house. We cried one last time in the house. We kissed one last time in the house. Why not?! We had fought one last time in the house the day before! Ha! It’s such a bittersweet thing. It’s exciting to go some place new and think of what all God may have in store for you there, but it’s always so sad to close a chapter of your life. I’m going to miss Andrews and I’m especially going to miss Sam & Tammy and the family I’m leaving behind. That part is sooooo sad!!! But when you follow God you’ll be happy, no matter where that takes you. And if you refuse to follow, you won’t be happy anyway—even if you stay right where you think you’ll be happy!

We ate lunch at Cassidy’s, my favorite sandwich shop in town, then ran by the bank and out to the storage place to dump off the vacuum cleaners. Then we hit the road! Headed west!!! That’s right, we’re going to Pennsylvania for Christmas… by way of Albuquerque! Ha! A slight detour. ;-) It just seemed like the wise thing to do to go look one more time for a house before heading east. After all, we are officially homeless now. :-) So we got in last night, used our Chili’s gift card and had a great dinner (thank you, Andrews church!!!), then went to the motel and crashed. We checked the online listings some more, but I really think we’ve pretty much exhausted all of the house possibilities around here! We have worked that poor realtor of ours to death!!! Jason has taken us all over Albuquerque and back several times and taken us in probably 20 houses or more (James thinks closer to 30) and spent untold hours doing research for us as well. Realtors get a fantastic commission when they sell a house, but this is the first guy I’ve ever seen who actually WORKS for it! Ha! He’s the best.

So this morning we got up and enjoyed our continental breakfast and headed out to meet Jason and look at the last of the possible houses for us. We looked inside 4 houses in Rio Rancho (a suburb to the northwest of Albuquerque), one of which is a definite possibility. Then we drove out to Edgewood to look in four more. One of them… well, it would take way too long to describe it in detail, but it is a log cabin in need of some serious TLC. Perfect!!! We’re having Jason check into some things and we’ll see if it’s a possibility. It’s the kind of place that would look scary to most folks. But it’s the kind of place that would be sooooo fun to fix up! It’s just so… ME! A very rustic log cabin up in the mountains… It was even snowing. ;-) Anyway, we’re still praying. Whatever God wants is most important. The houses we had originally considered to be possibilities in town seem to be falling through, so that means God must have something else in mind. I’m trying to keep myself from getting my heart set on the log cabin—but it’s tough, I’ll admit! Ha! Strangely enough, neither of us are feeling any pressure or anxiousness about the house situation. Even though we’re homeless. :-) It would be terrible to rush into a big decision like buying a home! So it’s an extra blessing that God is keeping our spirits calm and patient and… trusting. There are some nice extended stay motels in Albuquerque, so we may be calling one of them home for a little while until we can get moved into whatever God has for us out there. :-)

Okay, I started this blog hours ago, on the road. We’re now in our motel room in Amarillo. We had hoped to make it a little farther than this, but it’s been a very long couple of weeks with no break at all and we are wiped out! We’re staying at a motel that is strangely reminiscent of the Free Breakfast Inn from our BTI days. Only Erika and Mandie will understand that statement, since they were the ones to share that memorable experience with us! “Number 4 is ready, Ruth!” Okay, so we’re at the La Kiva Hotel and it’s just a little scary. Not as bad as the Free Breakfast Inn… but real close! Actually, I think it might have been an Embassy Suites in it’s former glory… but that was a long, long, long time ago! Ha! We usually stay at Motel 6 or La Quinta’s when we travel with the dog because they actually accept pets—with no extra charge. The La Quinta in town was full and the Motel 6 looked rough. We found a coupon in our travel guide for this place for $31 and it said pets were welcome. What were we to do?! I told James that it’s GOOD to have experiences like this every now and again. Life gets so mundane if you don’t experience a little adventure (and danger?!) on occasion. ;-) We’re locked securely in our room (that's one thing this has up on the Free Breakfast Inn--we had to shove a chair under the doorknob to "lock" the door there!) on the third floor (after lugging two suitcases, pillows, blankets, my purse, camera bag, laptop and miscellaneous other items up two flights of very rickety and rattily carpeted stairs) and expect to close our eyes to all around us and sleep well tonight. I think I’ll forego my shower in the morning and wait until the next motel. ;-)

Don’t know how far we’ll make it tomorrow. Map Point says we've got 1518.6 miles to go to get to James’ folks house. That equals about 22 more hours. We’ve come 670 miles from Andrews to Albuquerque to Amarillo. Good thing our kids are good travelers! I’ll check in again when I can. Until then…

~Becki~

7 comments

Too Tired to Think of a Title  

Posted by cokelady

~whew~ What a day. ~WHEW~ What a week! This has been a long and tiring, but strangly rewarding week. (By "week" I am referring to the past 7 days since we officially started moving.)

Sunday we... wait... was that just yesterday?! GOOD GRIEF! It feels like at least 3 days ago!!! Okay, so yesterday was a good day. !!! All I did in the morning was clean some things up. Like the kitchen that had previously been DEEP in... stuff. "Put it on the counter, Katie." "What counter???" It was bad. Then we all got cleaned up and went to church. That was sooooo nice! It felt so good to get everybody (me, most of all!) out of the grungies we've been wearing and into something NICE and have nicely fixed hair and actually feel clean for a little while. And church was so good. It felt sooooo good and relaxing to go and worship God for a little while. I've been very careful to not let this move "take over" and push God out of the way and have sat down with the kids every morning to do our devotions. I'm sure that's a BIG reason why I'm coping with all of this chaos so well! Speaking of chaos...

We found out Sunday morning (yesterday, right?!) that house #2 isn't going to work out either. That means we are homeless as of next week! Wow! I've never thought about being homeless before. The really, really strange thing is that it doesn't bother me in the least. I am sooooo not worried about it. Right now I am focused on one thing and one thing alone: get this house packed, everything moved into storage, and get the place shining for the new owners. That's three things. I'm focused on three things. :-) (Speaking of the new owners, I found out today that they are "a wonderful Christian homeschool family" from upstate New York and they sold their farmhouse to come here and were worried about what west Texas would have to offer. This was the second house they looked at and the wife said, "Show me no more--this is the house I want." They LOVED it and don't plan on changing a thing! WOW!!! It makes me sooooo happy! And it makes me sooooo glad that we took the time to pray for "the right buyers at the right time and all that." :-) Anyway...) Back to our being homeless, it's kind of like a new adventure for us. Neat, in a way. I'm sure it will get old, but maybe by that time God will have opened something else up for us! I was telling James how that I have a tendency to be so critical of other people and if I knew of a family in the situation we are now in I would be thinking, "Let me get this straight... You sold your house, you're uprooting your family, and you have NO PLACE to go?! That is sooooo irresponsible?! How could you have not PLANNED better than that and have SOMETHING lined up by now?!" Ha! Well, here we are! We've been TRYING to work something out, but nothing has panned out yet. We're doing the work! We're not slackers! ;-) In God's own good time. In the meantime, I'm kind of enjoying the novelty of it all. Fun! It's definitely going to be a Christmas we'll always remember. :-) And I thought of the scripture yesterday that says something like, "And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content." Shelter is optional apparently and not necessary in order for us to be content! Jesus didn't have a house and He was happy. We have food. We have clothes. And boxes. LOTS AND LOTS of boxes. (Optional, too!) And I feel sooooo... content. :-)

Let's see, where was I? Sunday. Yesterday. After church we grabbed a bite to eat, then headed home to get back to work. I honestly can't remember what all was accomplished last night and what happened today--it all runs together and feels like at least 4 days worth of work at this point! Ha! Sam & Tammy came over to help again and we made great headway in the living room and den.

Today has been another long, hard one, but with great things accomplished. Tammy was here for about... oh, 9 or 10 hours, working away again! She packs circles around me. I've always been sooooo bad about THINKING too much. I'll look at what needs packed and stand there and stare at it and work the puzzle in my brain of what needs to go where and in which box and with what else... And Tammy will have three boxes already done! Ha! (It's kind of like the lists I always used to make, right, Mom?!) Between the two of us, we got ALL of the living room and den finished, ALL of the Christmas stuff taken down and packed up (including the lights on the roof), and 95% of the kitchen. At this point there are just a few things left in the kitchen to pack up, then the computers and a couple of stereos and whatever miscellaneous junk is still lying around here and there.

We worked until nearly midnight tonight and only stopped then because we ran out of tape. Again. James bought 4 rolls this morning! We need one more. And we actually used that whole roll of newsprint!!! So now we're using my bathroom towels to "wrap" the rest of the kitchen stuff in! Ha! Guess we can't take showers at the new house (assuming we get one! Ha!) until we unpack the kitchen. ;-) We ran out of boxes earlier today and James went and picked some up from the dollar store. We ran out again tonight so at 9:00 James and I were rummaging around behind the Dollar General gathering up Depends underwear boxes and such. Homeless and already rummaging through the dumpsters! HA! In the morning we'll need just a few more boxes and packing material (and tape, of course) and we can finish up. James has a U-Haul reserved for tomorrow, so we plan on getting this house EMPTIED! Wa-Hoo! Then I intend to make sure everything is spotless for this "wonderful Christian homeschool family" and I want to fill all of the nail holes and get out all 14 colors of paint to touch up with. It's no doubt going to be a long day tomorrow! We'll be staying with Aunt Sue & Uncle Jerry. She's already promised us stew and cornbread for tomorrow night and I can't wait. I'm so ready for a nice homecooked meal! We've been living on sandwiches and pizzas for a week now.

When Sam & Tammy left tonight (Sam came over and helped, too, later on) I decided to make myself take the time to go soak in a nice hot bath. ~aahhhh~ It was sooooo nice. In my wonderful, marvellous, sparkly-clean, deep bathtub with the little ledge perfect for resting your elbows so you can hold your Reminisce magazine and read... ~sigh~ I knew I would always regret it if I didn't take the time to enjoy one last bath in there! I'm REALLY going to miss that tub. And everything else about that bathroom! That's the one we totally gutted and remodled and it's bright yellow and blue (sounds tacky--it's not, it's gorgeous!) and, and, and... I love it. :-) If James would let me I'd rip the tub out of there and take it with me. Ha!

And now I'm taking the time to blog. Not very smart, probably, but since this has become my diary, of sorts, I figured I would some day appreciate all of these things that I won't remember unless they're written down. But now it's nigh until 1:00am and I've GOT to get some sleep. Whatever the hot bath did to alleviate my aches and pains has now been lost due to sitting on the hard floor in my office typing away! My back has been getting a little more sore each day and I'm REALLY feeling it tonight. Tammy has been having her own crop of aches and pains, too. I accredit hers to "just getting old," but I choose to claim mine to be "an old plane crash injury." Ha!

Okay, I'm going to get some shut eye. Keep praying for us! God's been sooooo good and sooooo faithful through all of this and it's so wonderful to know that HE CARES for us and that He moves in answer to our prayers. We are just so very, very blessed. No proof reading again tonight and there are several words that my brain just blanked out on tonight. Don't laugh. Or do, but don't tell me about it! G'night all!

~Rebekah~

3 comments

The Most Wonderful Friend in the World  

Posted by cokelady

(Sung to the tune of "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year." Now if only I had time to WRITE it, we'd be in business. Ha!)

I'm referring, of course, to Tammy. What other friend would spend all day crying because you're moving away and all night helping you pack?! That's probably a slight exaggeration. I'm sure she doesn't sit and cry all day long about losing dear old me, but she has mentioned that she's had a weepy day here and there over the issue. (Me, too!) She came over again last night and worked like a Trojan (what exactly does that mean? How does a Trojan work, anyway?) for about 5 hours. She was working in the kitchen and she got all of my dishes and glasses packed up (we're living off of paper and styrofoam this week anyway), as well as all of the signs and Coke paraphanalia from the walls and shelves. Wa-Hoo! That enabled me to get Katie's room totally packed and scrubbed down. It put me far enough ahead that Tammy and I took time (while the kids were having a pizza party and watching The Toy that Saved Christmas) to have some Totino's and play a few rounds of Eternal Rummy. It's been a few months since we've had a chance to do that, what, with all the craziness. For the first time ever, I actually felt bad being 5,000 points ahead of her--simply because she is just the most amazing friend in the world and I feel like a heel blowing her out of the water month after month. She did gain about 1,000 on me last night, so that probably made us both feel better. Ha!

James has set to work out in his office and has a pile of boxes full of BOOKS, BOOKS, and MORE BOOKS stacked by the door. I think he's making pretty good progress out there.

We put an add the the paper to sell some of our furniture and such. The paper came out yesterday afternoon and we've already sold over half of what we advertized! Somebody bought our small table and four chairs (James has had it since college--we've recovered the seats on it twice and used it for a kitchen table, a computer desk, and everything in between) and the washer and dryer (--they evey agreed to let me keep it for a few more days so I'll have a chance to get some things clean and ready for our uncertain future!), and a wagon wheel they happened to spot outside. It wasn't advertized, but HEY, they offered. :-) We also sold the entertainment cabinet that we had bought from Alco, sanded down and painted green when we first moved here. We even mixed our own green for it because the green I BOUGHT for it was GREEN. I mean, like, PRIMARY green. The color of green you get in a set of fingerpaints for 1st Graders. So it needed some tweaking and we managed to come up with a tone we were happy with. ~sigh~ It's kind of sad when I think of all of the memories we've created in this place. I've managed to keep myself from thinking about it too much (being super busy helps!), but every now and again it creeps up on me. I do my best to shove it out of my mind and tell myself I'll have time to cry later. ;-) We also sold my great big clunky desk. ~sniff~ I love that desk! (There I go again!!!) But we're getting the same amount out of it that we paid for it, so it's served me well for the past four years. For free. :-) We were going to sell the changing table/dresser we bought when I was pregnant with Katie, too. That was making me sad, but we really have no use for it anymore. I feel much better about it now that Tammy has decided to take it off our hands. At least I know it's going to a good home. :-) And don't get any funny ideas--Tammy has no NEED of a changing table at this point in time, or even nine months from now as far as I know. No need to start calling her and slinging excited questions, okay?! I'm sure she'll let you all know if/when she has something grand and glorious to tell you! And I know she would appreciate your prayers that she WILL have something grand and glorious to tell you! ASAP! :-)

Okay, I'd best be going. The people are coming to pick up the entertainment cabinet today and the other people are coming to pick up my desk this morning. Then it's off to church! I think I'll enjoy church DOUBLE today. It will be so refreshing in the midst of all of this! (And it'll be great to just get out of this messy house for a little while! Ha!) Then it's home again and back to work. No rest on this day-of-rest! Ha! Actually, I may actually try to slip in a nap today. I could really use one.

I'll let you go. Keep us in your prayers--and have a wonderful, blessed Sunday!

~Becki~

No time to proof read again--just bear with me! :-)

4 comments

Wiped Out... Already!  

Posted by cokelady

I am soooooo tired! But I'm feeling good about my progress. :-)
Toy Room: CHECK
Office: CHECK
Bedroom: CHECK
Bedroom Closet: CHECK
Boys Room: CHECK
Boys Closet: CHECK
It probably seems strange that I'm counting closets just like regular rooms, but I've come to discover that they are at least as hard to pack as the rooms are! Probaby because of sorting through everything and making piles of clothes to donate, clothes to pack in boxes, and clothes to keep out and have on hand for the next however long until the boxes get unpacked who knows where. ;-) I also got Katie's closet sorted through tonight, but that's all. Just huge piles all over her room. I had to do it though because James is going to take the BAGS upon BAGS of "bless-somebody-else" clothes down to Goodwill in Odessa tomorrow morning. It feels sooooo good to have that out of the way! It feels GOOD to be rid of all the stuff we don't need and it feels GOOD to know that perhaps somebody else will get some use out of it. Oh--I'll have another little bag of the extra-cute stuff for Abbie, Em. :-)
Today was Tammy's solo bake sale. I helped her get set up this morning, then left Katie to help while I came back home and packed. Went back when she was ready to close up shop and we got everything loaded up and took the left-overs to city hall where Katie was THRILLED to find the city manager, Glen Hackler. She simply adores him and he seems to think pretty highly of her, too. And he's always very generous with his purchases and donations for the Church. :-) After that we headed over to the newspaper office where Sam works. In the end I think Tammy said her grand total was $310!!! WOWZERS! And all of that without me! She is AMAZING!!! Sara was able to help out with this one, but her folks were really itching for her to get on the road and get home, so she wasn't able to stay and help as long as she otherwise would have. Still, it was a great help! I know that Tammy just knocked herself out over this one and God truly blessed. Wa-Hoo!
Hhmmm. There was more I was going to say, but I can't think of what it was. Oh well. I am sooooo tired. It's only 9:30, but I'm completely wiped out. James ran to Sonic to get me a cherry-limeade, just because that's the kind of guy he is. I think he mentioned something about cheesesticks, too. I think I'll sit down and watch It's a Wonderful Life or something. Or at least I'll START watching it. Don't know how long I'll last!
Anyway, so far so good! :-)
Oh, and Mom & Dad and company made it to Costa Rica just fine and everything seems to be going great. Keep them in your prayers! God is sooooo good--I know He'll bless this trip as He does all the others. ;-)
Later!

~Bec~

--Too tired to proof read. Sorry about the mistakes--I'm sure there are a truckload of them! Ha!

4 comments

I'm Going to Regret This...  

Posted by cokelady

But I'm going to take the time to blog anyway! What about that?! :-)

I thought I'd stop by to give you a little update and hopefully post some pictures of our Albuquerque trip. Actually, I was packing away when I suddenly ran out of boxes and I didn't want to go out to the shed in the cold and dark of the night to get more, so I figured it was a good time to stop. I'm sure I'll have some late packing nights in the next week, but this ain't one of them. :-)

Yesterday the plan was to get up bright and early, unload the van from the trip and get everything put away, then start packing like a mad woman. Nope. We all slept in until 9:00, for starters! By the time I got everybody fed and dressed and had done devotions with them, there was a knock at the door. The inspector. (Insert "doom" sound effects there.) This is the guy who looks at every tiny little thing in and out of our house and decides what all we need to fix before selling. He actually turned out to be a very, very nice guy--with a terrific Texas accent, so I kept him talking all I could. :-) The kids have a hard time staying out of folks' way, so we thought it best to load up and go get lunch so the inspector could finish his job without so much distraction. We were gone for 30 or 40 minutes and the guy was still here when we got back! He was VERY, VERY thorough. Made me VERY, VERY nervous! Ha! He told us that there weren't any major problems, just a few little "easy" things here and there. We'll find out what that means later, I guess!

By the time he finally left it was after 1:00 and I had accomplished NOTHING. So I went to the toy room and dove in. Game closet first. I got it all sorted out and boxed up, then all the boxes stuffed back into the closet. Except three. I kept out I Buy, Catch Phrase and Balderdash. Just in case we have nothing to do this next week and decide to sit and play a game. HA! Things were going much, much slower than I had anticipated, but that's probably because the toy room is the one and only room of the house that I intend to "sort through" and GET RID OF stuff from. We have way, way, way too many toys and right now is a really great time to donate them, with Christmas coming up. Tammy came over and helped me for a couple of hours. WOW. That girl is a packing machine!!! She accomplished more in the two hours she worked than I had done all day! Ha! I finished up in the toy room while she started in my office. She got most everything packed out of my closet (you can't possibly know what a feat that was) and everything out of that huge desk of mine, too. WOW.

At about 10:00 I decided that I was totally burned out and was DONE working for the night. James ran to Sonic for dinner (I had fed the kids sandwhiches earlier, but didn't want to stop to eat) and Tammy called Sam and asked him to come over and play games for an hour. Can you believe that?! Ha! I'm SOOOOO glad I took the time for that, though. I needed the break (already--that can't be a good sign! Ha!) and the fellowship with Sam & Tammy. I am going to miss them soooooo much. I've tried not to think about it too much, but when they left Sam came back to the door and told me that they're really going to miss me. Oooooh. That did me in. I closed the door and just cried and cried. ~sigh~ I HATE this part of moving. But I have no right to complain. God has blessed me sooooo much by allowing me to live near my very dear friend and her great husband (who has become a very dear friend, too) for TWO WHOLE YEARS! We never expected that and it's been sooooo great. But now we've gotten spoiled on it and it's so hard to think of not being with them! But God knows. He'll help us all, I'm sure.

I got to bed at about midnight last night, then we all slept until 9:00 again! WHOA! That week in Albuquerque really did us in, I guess! We had devotions right away, then I got to work out in the office. And that's where I remained throughout the rest of the day! James took Joe to Odessa to do some running around (he got me a HUGE end roll of blank newsprint from the newspaper down there for only $5--I don't know how anybody moves without it!), so that left Katie and Sam here. They watched some Christmas shows and played some video games since they were going to receive no attention from their mother whatsoever. They seemed okay with that. ;-) I was able to get the office TOTALLY finished, packed, emptied, and cleaned from the ceiling fan down to the baseboards. :-) That feels sooooo good! The only things still in the room are my computer and stereo (on the floor now, but staying until the very end, I assure you!), the desk James is making me sell (I know it's huge and clunky, but I love it!) and the hide-away sofa that we can't decide if we're going to sell or not. Oh, and the changing table/dresser that we're going to sell, too. So here are a couple of pictures of The Move: Part One... :-)



This is the toy-room-turned-storage-room..


Our goal is to be done packing and have the house emptied (we rented a couple of storage units today) and shining by the 20th. If we can do that, then on the 21st we'll load up and head back east for Christmas. It's really our only chance of HAVING anything that feels like "Christmas" this year! I don't know how likely it is that we'll accomplish this goal, but we've got to try. :-) My current speed seems to be one room a day. I still have the kitchen/dining room, the den, the living room, the bathroom, Katie's room, the boys' room, our room, and the other bathroom. I'm scared to add 'em up--I don't think it would add up too well for our "leaving on the 21st goal." Actually, I have NO IDEA what the date is today. That's probably a good thing. I'm not going to look either. At least for a few more days. JERK! That creep was reading over my shoulder and just blurted out, "It's the 12th." Ggrrrr. I SOOOOO did not want to know that!!! I'm still not going to add up the rooms, though. :-)

Tomorrow morning after devotions I'm going to start packing up our bedroom, then the boys', then Katie's. I really have no idea what to anticipate. I'm hoping (or maybe it's just positive thinking?!) that the office is going to end up being one of the harder rooms to pack. Surely bedrooms can't be that bad. Right?! I guess I'll find out tomorrow!

Then tomorrow night we're going to be having the Christmas ABM Service/Party here. Yes, you heard right--I said HERE. I had forfeited that idea until James mentioned it today and indicated that he thought we could go ahead and do it. Wow! I'm soooo excited! I love having things at my house and this will give me one last chance to "host" before we leave. :-) That makes me sooooo happy! The living room, den, kitchen and bathroom are still intact (and decorated for Christmas, of course!), so it should be PERFECT since those are the only rooms we'll need for a "party." Wa-Hoo! ~sigh~ Life is grand. Makes me a very happy girl. :-)

Well, I told myself I wouldn't stay up too late (especially since I'm only blogging instead of working!), so I should probably post my pictures and call it a night. So here we go...

Brother Dustin preaching

Some of the Hatch folks who came and were SUCH a blessing to us!

When we got to the zoo, this was the first thing inside the gate. It's a, um..., a..., I think's it's an... Hhmmm. I don't have any idea what to call it. It's the most souped up nickelodian I've ever seen! Ha! It had a TON of instruments and James was in heaven. He LOVES stuff like that. We had to listen to three or four songs before we could even start looking for animals! Ha! It was pretty cool. We listened to a couple more songs before we left that day, too.

This is the other part of it--I've never seen one that would play a guitar and banjo! James had it play the Beverly Hillbillies theme and it was great!

Okay! Looking at some animals!!! Aleah was SO excited when she saw the orangutans (James spelled that, if it's wrong! Ha!), but by the time I got the camera ready it was just everybody else who was enjoying the moment!

Koalas! Very cool.

This is amazing--ALL of the kids are actually looking at the same time! And smiling!!!

Sam making faces at a monkey. Oh wait--or is it a monkey making faces at Sam?! So hard to tell! :-)

I never could get a good picture of this baby zebra, but he was awfully cute. ;-)

Ha! This ended up being the best part of the whole zoo--the playground! We had the place all to ourselves for 20 or 30 minutes and we made the best of it, even the big people. :-)


There was a terrific slide--a FAST one--but Joe was too gutless to go face first like all the other kids, so this was his alternative approach...

I missed the actual SLIDING, but from the looks of it I think it must've been fun!

Aleah enjoyed it as much as all the other kids!

Joe finally got it figured out!

I didn't get a picture of James coming down, but I think Jamey did. I guess we'll have to wait for her to post some pictures on her blog. HINT, HINT, HINT. ;-) I did get this one of Dustin though...

Halfway through the zoo we got on the train and rode over to the aquarium. Checking out the stingrays...

Neat tank, hu?!

Jellyfish...

This shark had the gnarliest teeth I've ever seen in my life!!!

Outside the aquarium there is a terrific botanical garden area. We didn't have time to go through all of it, but we did take the kids to the Fantasy something-or-another. Everything is HUGE. The kids love it. So do the adults. :-)

Here's Sam measuring himself...

Jamey checking out the giant bee hovering over her. It makes a buzzing sound when you walk under it. Creepy!


Inside the giant pumpkin. Gross, hu?!

In the giant vegetable garden...

Gingerbread kids...

Gingerbread... (ahem)... men???

James taking a nap on the train ride back to the zoo.

I LOVE the baby giraffes. So cute!

And this was one of the very, very cool parts of the zoo. This lion was roaring, ever so "softly." It wasn't exactly soft, but you could tell it was just a little roar compared to what he was capable of! I kept wishing he would just let a great big, mighty roar rip through the zoo, but he never did. No matter--it was still very cool!

Back to church--had to take a picture of Brother Dustin and Joe in their... stripes. I have a particular name for this type of suit, known to a select few people who will see this blog, so they'll enjoy it extra. :-)

Ah yes--this is a page in a notebook that I found a week or two ago. I thought you might enjoy it. I know Mom and Dad will! Ha!

Ha! What a rotten kid!

Well, now it's very late. But I got the pictures posted!!! If I didn't do it tonight they never would have made it to the blog.

Keep praying for us! The guy rejected the offer we made on house #1 and we don't feel like we can go much higher on it, so we're praying about Plan B. We're just wanting to be patient and take this one step at a time and make sure we're following God and using wisdom, not just rushing into a huge decision because we feel pressure, you know? I still feel totally at peace, although we have no idea where we're going to end up. God already knows and if He's got it covered then there's really nothing to fret over, right?! Besides, who has time to fret?! We're MOVING!!! :-)

I'll try to post again before 2008. :-)

~Rebekah~

5 comments

A Whirlwind of a Week!  

Posted by cokelady

~whew~ I’ll try to remember all I can about our time in Albuquerque, but right now it’s all just a great big blur. A good, happy, blessed, fun, busy blur. :-)

We got up early last Wednesday morning and headed down to the realtor’s office to sign the papers to sell our house. Got all of that taken care of. Learned that the closing date is supposed to be December 27th. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HO! HO! HEE! HEE! HEE! HA! HA! HA! (Are you sensing the maniacal tone there?) Is that nuts, or what?! So that means we may be having Christmas Joe’s way this year. He told me about a week ago that he wanted to have Christmas in a motel this year. Well… ! Ha!

We finished up at the realtor’s office and headed to Albuquerque. Got there in time to meet up with Dustin & Jamey and get settled in at the Days Inn before Revival that night. We had a very, very good Revival and Brother Dustin did a fabulous job. (You don’t know how it pains me to say that, but…!) Really, he is my kind of preacher. By that I mean that he preaches good, practical things that you can take home and apply to your life, not just a bunch of hoopla and churchy sounding clichés. There are always good, meaty things that make you consider your life and how it may need to change. Good stuff. He preached about being ready for what God wants to do in your life (like the man at the pool of Bethesda) and about being hungry for the Lord and about the verse that says to add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge, etc. He preached about all eight qualities in that verse and how they connect to each other and come in proper order—a progression, I suppose—for a reason. The one that spoke to me most was temperance—self-control—in every area of life. Ooooh. Lots to pray about! Brother Dustin didn’t preach all of the above on the first night, by the way, I just got ahead of myself. He is a bit of a long-winded preacher (his wife was about to give him the finger-across-the-throat signal that last night, but he cut it off just in time! Ha!), but even he wouldn’t attempt to preach all of that in one night. :-) Anyway, we had a very, very good Revival with good preaching, good worship, and good prayer all week long, and several visitors to boot.

On Saturday night we were soooooo blessed to have Brother Banuelos, Hector & Erika, Tayde, Luis & Keila and kids all drive up from Hatch to be with us. It was wonderful!!! They ministered to us in song and testimony and interpreting. They will never know how much they are loved and appreciated. I have never, ever been in service with them that I haven’t been deeply blessed by them. We’re so glad they came! We all went out to eat after service and had a great time of fellowship with them, too. Fun, fun, fun. I just love those people!

Okay, I am sooooo jumbled up and all out of order! I guess I just told you all about the week of Revival, so now I’ll go back and fill in the blanks in between!

On Thursday we spent 4 or 5 hours running all over Albuquerque with the realtor, looking at lots and lots of houses. It’s so fun to look at houses (I’ve always enjoyed doing that), but it does get old after a while! And they all start to run together. If not for the wonder of digital cameras I’d never have a chance of remembering which house is which!

On Friday we took the day off from the house hunt to spend some time with Dustin & Jamey and the kids. I’m so glad we did! It helps to take a break and get your mind clear from the houses for a bit—and we have sooooo much fun with the Hays! We went to the zoo and then rode the train that takes you over to the aquarium. It was very, very cool and cloudy, but never actually rained. It made for the perfect day at the zoo because we practically owned the place—there was hardly anybody there! And it’s a terrific zoo. They’ve got animals that I haven’t seen at very many other zoos—koalas and kangaroos (even a joey with it’s hind legs poking up out of it’s mama’s pouch) and HUGE double humped camels (are they dromedaries?) and a black panther (eerie—he almost looks evil!) and all manner of other cool animals. It was great.

The aquarium is small, but neat, and they have a really fun GIANT playland for the kids where everything is HUGE, making the kids seem bug-sized.

It was about 3:00 by the time we were done with our outing and we were starved, so we went to Golden Corral for lunch, then back to our motel rooms for a little nap before church time. What a great day!

Most nights after service the Hays would come over to our room and we’d make sandwiches or something and play games. The kids would play until they got too wild, then we’d bed them all down all over the place so we big people could keep playing. :-) I had brought three games, but the only one we ever played was Balderdash. Ha! Sooooo fun! We laughed so hard at some of the stupid stuff that Dustin and James came up with! I even kept some of the cards so I could blog them, but they’re not easily assessable right now so it’ll have to wait until another time. It was so great!!! We’ve never really had a chance to spend any time with Dustin & Jamey (without a crowd of other church folks, that is) and we so thoroughly enjoyed it. Fun, fun, fun.

Let’s see, where was I? Ah yes, Friday night. After the Hays left (midnight-ish, I think) I got down and prayed and begged and pleaded with God for a little while about our house situation. We’ve been praying and praying, but I was starting to feel a little desperate at that point. There were houses available that would work for us, but nothing that seemed like “it,” you know? And maybe one of them was “it,” but we needed to know which one! I then got online and started checking the online listings. Again. We’ve been doing that for months now, but I just wanted to make sure there’s nothing that we might have missed or nothing new that we didn’t know about yet. So I prayed and clicked and prayed and clicked and prayed and clicked… until 3:00am when I finally made myself go to bed.

On Saturday we met with Jason (our realtor) again to look at some more houses. Everything is such a blur and I can’t remember what houses we saw when, or even how many houses we went in (even Jason can’t remember—but we all agree it was a LOT!), but we ended up narrowing the field down to two houses that are possible contenders. The first house has all of the space that we would need and could be a very nice house, but it would need lots of remodeling—the same kind of work and $$$ we’ve put into the house in Andrews. Actually, it would be MORE work and $$$, but the same KIND of jobs. Just more of them. :-) In the end, it would be a really nice house. One of the bittersweet things about it is that there is a swimming pool in the back yard. I mean a really nice in-ground one. It’s beautiful… but it takes up most of the back yard! I love the idea of my kids having a chance to learn to be really good swimmers and I know they’d have a lot of fun with it. But I’d hate that they wouldn’t have much of a yard to play in—and that they wouldn’t be allowed out the back door unless they have life-jackets strapped on, even if they weren’t planning on swimming!

The second house is more $$$, but it needs no work whatsoever. Except maybe a little paint outside and some shutters to purty it up a bit. :-) It’s really not very attractive from the outside, but it is beautiful on the inside. Hardwood floors and new carpet and a nice kitchen and recently remodeled bathrooms—all of the work that we did ourselves on our Andrews house has already been done at this place. It has all the space we would need, plus some. In fact, the square footage on the paperwork says it’s close to our current house in size… but it feels HUGE. The papers have got to be wrong! Anyway, it is just beautiful and would be soooo perfect for entertaining. Bunches of people at once. That would make me very happy. :-)

So we had a decision to make and it’s a tough one. Part of me is drawn to the fixer-upper house simply because I like the idea of doing the work ourselves. There’s something that just feels sort of wholesome or something about taking a house that needs work and putting in the time and effort to make it into something nice. It’s rewarding—and turned out to be a very good investment for us in Andrews. On the other hand, it would be grand and glorious to be able to move into a house that’s already fixed up and not have to worry about disrupting our lives any more (for a while, at least!) with a bunch more big projects! It would be sooooo nice to be able to just get into some sort of “normal” life, whatever that is. So do we pay more $$$ for the really nice house, or less $$$ for the one that needs work, then put more $$$ into it and end up having close to the same amount in it in the end??? I’ll tell you in a few minutes. ;-)

We had a good service on Sunday morning. I was asked to teach the little kids’ Sunday School class, so we went to the classroom and I started digging around in the closet trying to find some construction paper or crayons or SOMETHING to use for class. There wasn’t anything like that at all, but there were costumes! Ha! Fun! So I dressed everybody up (Katie, Joe, Sam & Isaac) and read through the Christmas story a few times while they acted it out. When Sunday School was over we went to the sanctuary and did it for everybody else. I think it went pretty well, all things considered! It was probably the fastest, most thrown together and least rehearsed Christmas pageant of all time, but they did good! The best part was when Joe whipped out the roll of masking tape and set it on his head as a halo. (He had dual duty as Joseph and the angel.) It was great.

Had a nice lunch at Cracker Barrel with the Hays and then had some time to rest for a few minutes, then start cleaning up the room and get some packing done before service that night. Another good one. Afterwards the Hays crowd came to our room for another round of Balderdash. We’re going to have lots of great memories of that game, I tell you! In fact, we just bought that game a few weeks ago, but we ran out of the little sheets of paper that came with it! We thought to save one clean sheet of it and Dustin used his copier (the man travels with a copy machine!) and made us about 90 more slips. We used all of them, too, then used almost all of the BACKS of them by the end of the week! Ha! Great fun. :-)

This morning we had a hurried breakfast, bid the Hays adieu, threw our belongings in the van, and rushed off to meet Jason and take a look at the “Top Three” houses on our list again, plus one new one. We did some more praying, had lunch, then went to Jason’s office and put an offer in on the NICE house—the one that doesn’t need anything but a country touch. ;-) We offered quite a bit less than the asking price and we can come up just a bit if necessary, but not a whole lot. So now we pray. Some more, that is! If it is God’s will for us to have this house, I would be soooooo thrilled. It’s sooooo nice!!! But if it’s not God’s will, we’ll probably make an offer (a much lower offer) on the fixer-upper house with the pool. That would be great, too, just a lot more work! Whatever God wants is fine with me and I finally feel surrendered in the situation and I think I’ll be happy with whatever happens. I know I’ve done a lot of praying through all of this, so it’s been really good for me.

I do have one confession to make though. When we first began looking for houses in the Albuquerque area we were hoping to land up in the east mountains—it’s very Colorado-ish up there and I would LOVE to live there. We had one particular house that we really, really liked, but we weren’t in a position to make an offer since our Texas house wasn’t under contract. It has since sold, and I was fine with that—took it to mean that it wasn’t God’s will for us. Obviously! But on our way out of town we drove up into the mountains and James drove me past that house again. It was snowing really pretty at the time and we were listening to Christmas music and there was “my house” up there in the mountains… ~sigh~ I fought hard to choke back the tears for a few minutes, I have to admit. Oh, how I love the mountains!!! I asked James if he was just testing me—or teasing me—or tormenting me! Ha! I’m much better now, though. There are pros and cons to just about everything. As much as I love the mountains and that particular house, it is out of town about 10 or 15 miles and would take a lot longer to get to the church. The house we put an offer in on is in nicer condition and is only 11.5 miles from the church. So I’ll look at it that way. I’m so glad that I have God to pour my heart out to and that He cares about my feelings and can help me sort through them and be really and truly happy with whatever. And that’s what I want—whatever He has for us. Mountains or no mountains, I know I’ll be really and truly happy if I am where God wants us to be. And I could really, really love this house in town, too. I’m trying not to get too attached to it just yet, in case it doesn’t work out. But I do really, really, really like it! :-)

Okay, that’s about it. Actually, I’m sure there’s much more to tell, but this is quite long enough, don’t you think? Actually, we’re in the van right now, driving back to Texas. I figured this would be my best (and only!!!) chance to write since I’ve got to dive head first into moving once we get home. So if it’s not too late when we get home (it’ll be at least 10 or 11 o’clock, it looks like) I’ll try to add some pictures and post this sometime tonight. Please keep us in your prayers and pray for our house situation, that God will work it all out according to His will and give us the house of His choosing!

Talk to you later!!!

~Rebekah~

--Okay, so it didn't work out the way I was hoping! We didn't get home until nearly midnight last night and we were wiped out. Did a few necessary things, then hit the hay. I was hoping to add some pictures of our trip, but that will have to wait until another time. It's nearly noon now and I still don't even have the van unloaded yet! The man is here doing the inspections on the house right now, so I don't really want to start tearing stuff up while he's here--don't want to be in his way, you know! Still no word on the house we made an offer on in Albuquerque. We should hear something by 6:00 tonight. Pray!!! God knows best and I trust Him. I'll try to get some pictures up sometime. But don't bank on anything--who knows how life is going to be around here for the next couple of weeks! Ha! Keep us in your prayers, please!!!

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~Aaaaaauuuuuuggggghhhh!!!~  

Posted by cokelady

But more on that later. ;-)

We've had a very FULL couple of days since I last blogged. They've been great! Saturday is lost forever. I can't remember a single thing. But yesterday was great! Oh wait--the ironing. I did all of the ironing on Saturday. :-) Yesterday I got up and got all of the clothes put away and the house all cleaned up, then we were off to church. Good service again. God gives us lots of those here. :-)

Afterwards we loaded up and drove to Odessa and met Sam & Tammy and Sara and our new faithful "visitor" to church, Steven, for lunch at Chili's. Baby Back Bonus, you know. James loves it.

After lunch we all drove over to the hospital to see one of our old faithful "visitors" (meaning not a Church member... yet!), Sister Patsy, who just had hip surgery a few days ago. She had several family members there, but it was a pretty big hospital room so we all just went ahead and piled in! We stayed and talked and laughed and had a wonderful time. She is SUCH a neat lady, and her family seems to really enjoy the fellowship, too--they've got a good relationship with Sam & Tammy, naturally, so it's great! We had a lot of fun there and a good prayer before we left.

By the time we got out of the hospital it was starting to get dark, so we all drove over to Holiday Park. It's just a pathway that you walk and look and big lighted displays. It's pretty cool--and a lot of fun if you have the right crowd with you, as we discovered! The weather was perfect. Strange as it may sound (for west Texas!), it's usually SOOOOOOOO COLD that you practically RUN down the path and back so you can get back to your heater! This year was much more Texas-ish and the weather was great--nice and cool, but comfortable. We walked down the path on one side, then back on the other so we could take lots of pictures of everything on both sides. Not everything turned out good, but I was pleased for the most part. If you don't use the flash, the Christmas lights look great but you can't see the people. If you use the flash it helps you see the people, but destroys the affect of the lights. Oh well, here are some good/bad pictures of our night...
This is my favorite part of the whole park--the train! I just think it's really cool. That's why I took so many pictures of it. :-)



And here is the crowd WITH the train. Take special note of Sam and his bottle of water or soda or whatever it was. I don't know what was up with him, but he was sure to display it proudly in every picture taken throughout the evening! Ha!



Some giant poinsettias...

The Nativity... and just about the only display our party didn't invade!

The gingerbread house...

Sam & Tammy breaking into (or out of?) the gingerbread house...

Joe and a gingerbread boy...

Katie and a gingerbread girl...

After we had walked through the whole park--and listened to Sara complain about having to walk it instead of sitting in a nice, cushy seat in a heated automoble and driving through it (can you imagine?! What a notion!!!)--we decided to hoof it across the park to where they had this GIANT Christmas tree. Actually, it's not a tree, but it looks like one from a distance! Tammy and I decided Sara NEEDED to go the extra miile and perhaps the Christmas cheer of it all would seep through and she'd start to be a little more festive. Didn't work, but we had a great time anyway! :-)

Here's the crowd (see all those little shadows?!) in front of it...

And here they are again...

An interesting view of the Grinchly one--you can see all the way to the star at the top of the tree! Cool, hu?!

The first picture taken of James and me together since our wedding. (Ha! Not quite, but probably not too far off!)

And, of course, a picture of me with the dear friend that God has blessed me to be able to live near for two whole years once again (we never would have expected that!) and who I'm going to miss sooooooooo desperately when we move to New Mexico... :-(


We left the park and headed back to Andrews. Got the kids down at regular bedtime, which was great! James and I were sooooo tired, but we had invited the crowd over to play games. I almost called to cancel, but I'm so glad I didn't! It was so much fun!!! We played two games of Balderdash and we just laughed and laughed--what a fantastic game! I stink at it, but you don't have to be good to enjoy it. :-) And--GET THIS--I actually WON the first game! And TAMMY won the second one! Whoa!!! It was great fun. In fact, Tammy told me to post one of the cards we played...

Movie Title: Adventures of El Frenetico & Go Girl

For those not familiar with the game, everybody has to write their own definition for the word (or in this case, their own plot for this movie--it's a real movie), then you read through all of the selections and everybody tries to pick which is the REAL definition, or right answer. Tammy said to just post the title and let everybody leave a comment and try to come up with a good plot. We'll see if we get any response. I'll post the real plot next time. :-)

Anyway, it was a truly great day. Great church, great fun, great fellowship. What could be better?!

We finally got to bed at about midnight. At about 3:30am our bedroom door came FLYING open simultaneously with the most bloodcurdling scream I'd ever heard in my life, and a small child landing on top of me. It was Joe and he was in absolute hysterics. He's been scared before (he's the most skiddish of our three), but NEVER like this. The commotion, of course, woke up Sam and he appeared in our doorway seconds later, wrapped in his blanket, great big eyes staring into the darkness trying to figure out what was going on.

Before I continue, let me explain that we had let the kids watch Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol a couple of days ago. I was on the phone at the time and unable to really "monitor" the show like I otherwise would have. We're pretty particular about what the kids watch and have a rule of never letting them watch anything that we haven't previewed and approved ahead of time. Somehow we broke our rule this time--and we are now very sorry that we did! Ha! The cartoon "ghost" of Jacob Marley didn't seem too scary...to an adult. But apparently it was a little more than Joe could handle. When I finally got him calmed down enough to speak (which took some doing, believe me!) he explained that he had been lying in bed thinking of "that blue ghost" and he was getting more and more scared. So he decided to come to our room and tell us he was scared. But when he touched the doorknob, "it sounded like the ghost's chains!!!" That's when he lost it. He was already scared of the "ghost with chains" and was headed for Mom & Dad, but when he heard the chains he simply lost all control and slung the door open, screaming bloody murder and was on top of me in no time flat. Oh yeah--Hershey had heard Joe get up and just as Joe was reaching for the doorknob Hersh was coming down the hallway to investigate. So not only did Joe hear the doorknob, but he heard the "chain" on Hershey's collar which was coming down the hallway straight for him! Ha! Ha! Ha! Too much!!! I laughed, but only a little. It was truly funny (even at 3:30 in the morning!), but I recall all too well what it's like to be a kid in the dark with an over-active imagination. It is very, very real to a kid and it is very, very scary!

So I took Joe back to his room and talked with him and prayed with him for 10 or 15 minutes. I shared some Bible verses with him about fear and how it's not of God and how God doesn't want us to be afraid--and that we don't need to be afraid. When I made the statement that "there's nothing to be afraid of," Joe cut in and very adamantly voiced his opinion to the contrary. "You're wrong, Mom--there are a lot of things to be afraid of!!!" Then he started listing them off one by one! HA! They were all crazy things, of course, such as the afore mentioned "ghost." In fact, nothing he listed was even REAL. But to a five year old... !!! ~sigh~ I knew I was in for a long night. I try to be real careful to not baby the kids (the last thing I want are a bunch of sissies!), but sometimes it's just so hard to know what to do! Joe was genuinely scared out of his senses and I knew if I just put him back in bed and left that that imagination of his was going to be cranking out all sorts of "scary" things. So I got my pillow and laid down on the floor in the boys' room for a little while. I was thinking that I'd lay there a few minutes so he wouldn't be scared, he'd drop off to sleep, and then I could go back to my own bed. HA. I wish!!! About 40 minutes later I sat up to look at him and he was STILL wide awake! But he was nice and calm and rational, at last, and was fine with me going back to bed. ~whew~ I was sooooooo tired!

The only trouble now was that SAM was still wide awake, too! So for the next hour or so he had issues of his own. He was had to go to the bathroom ("then GO, for goodness' sake!"), he was thirsty ("Too bad--you can wait 'til morning!"), and so on. The last time was at about 5:45, I think. He appeared by my bed, wrapped in his blanket, grinning and saying, "Mom, I scared." I took one sleepy-eyed look at him and said, "YOU ARE NOT." "Yes, I am!" I gave him the look of death and told him to get back to his bed this instant, or else. ~sigh~ FINALLY got back to sleep at about 6:00. What a night!!! I think I stayed in bed until a little after 9:00 to try to make up for it. It didn't, but I had to try!

Just after I got up we got a phone call from the realtor. House showing at 10:30. ~SIGH~ I am soooooooo tired of this! When is my house going to be just MINE and I can stop having to get it all cleaned up for strangers that I never see and load my familiy up and GET OUT?! We got everything all straightened up again, beds made and whatnot, and headed out for brunch, of necessity.

Came home and spent all afternoon on the phone with the realtors. I will spare you the long, drawn-out story simply because I'm sick of telling it! Ha! It's been CRAZY and I'll never understand why all the jokes are about lawyers--realtors are AT LEAST as bad, if not worse. GOOD GRIEF. But in spite of their "failures," shall we say, I have news!!! This is where that ~Aaaaaaauuuugggghhhh!~ title comes in...

I said that we got an offer on the house on Friday. It was quite a bit lower than what we were asking. We prayed and felt like we needed to come down just a bit from our asking price ($4,900 less, rather than the $14,900 less the people had offered us.) They heard our offer and counter offered again. We prayed and just felt like we needed to stay right where we were. We got the call this evening that they are going to TAKE the price we gave them! So, in a very unofficial way, it looks like...


Our House is SOLD!!!


Whoa!!! Praise the Lord!!! And, of course, ~Aaaaaauuuuuggggghhhhh!!!~ NOW what do I do?! Ha! In all honesty, I have felt perfectly calm through this entire process (except for some definite frustation with dopey realtors) and have been pretty numb to any emotions in any of it. But I know that I SHOULD be feeling ~Aaaaaaauuuuuggggghhhh!~ Right?! I mean, this is CRAZY. I leave day after tomorrow for Albuquerque (we'll be gone for 6 full days), then I'll come home and try to get this house packed up and cleaned up and moved out of before January 1st, when these folks want to close on this house. No biggie, really, if there was no such thing as CHRISTMAS! I really think we're going to have to abondon the whole holiday this year. We know the TRUE meaning of Christmas and naturally that's the most important thing. But I think we're going to end up cutting out a lot of the extra "frills" of it this year! We're just not going to have TIME to do much celebrating, you know?! So much for the Christmas bake sale and the Christmas ABM party that was supposed to be here and the fun game nights with Sam & Tammy with Christmas music and punch and cookies and gingerbread... It's just such a terrible time to think of moving, you know?! But I have to believe that God has His reasons for working all of this out at this particular time, so I have to believe that it's all going to work out okay. We had hopes of going back east for Christmas to spend some time with James folks and mine, but that's looking very unlikely. Unless, of course, God perfoms some mighty big miracles and let's the packing of this house take place in record time! Ha! I guess we'll see. I'm really not worried about any of it right now. All we can do is take it a day at a time and do our very best. And for now, there's nothing I can do but pray because we're leaving for Albuquerque Wednesday morning! So I'm going to concentrate on having a really great Revival there this week, and THEN I'll start trying to figure the rest out when we get back home!

So there you have it. A great big, juicy post with lots of great pictures and Christmas lights, a terrific story about my scaredy-cat son AND great news about the (impending) sale of our house and the chaos that will now ensue. :-) We'll be signing the papers in the morning, then there will be 10 days for inspections and such (during which the potential buyers have the option to back out), then we're supposed to close sometime before the end of the month. CRAZY. Keep us in your prayers! Pray that God will work it all out smoothly and according to His will, and pray (most of all!) that He will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus--that we'll be able to work through all of this with peace and joy in our hearts and our home instead of stress and anxiety. So far, so good! Ha! And pray for God to lead us to the right house in Albuquerque. We'll be looking for it while we're there this week, so pray that God will open the doors for us and help us to find what He wants. Ah yes, Albuquerque...!

We'll be in Revival there beginning on Wednesday night and continuing through Sunday night. Brother Dustin Hays will be our evangelist and we are sooooo excited! James talked to one of the guys from the Albuquerque church tonight and he said he's been inviting everybody he knows to the Revival. :-) We are trusting God to do great things this week and beyond and we'd really appreciate your prayers. I'm sure Brother Dustin would, too. :-) The only BAD thing about this is that we won't be able to keep the Hays in our home since we don't have one there yet! We're shooting for adjoining motel rooms, but it's just not the same thing, you know?! So I'm feeling a little cheated that I can't truly "have company" during this Revival, but I guess I'll settle for "next door neighbors" since that's as close as I can get! ANYWAY...

This is wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too long and I really need to get some sleep. We had a good prayer with Joe before bedtime (and I heard him praying very hard!) and he went down with no problem. I'm trusting that he'll sleep straight throught the night with no problems. I need the sleep, even if he doesn't! Ha! Anyway, I wanted to be sure to blog all the latest since I'm not sure when I'll get a chance again. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. I'm sure I'll blog sometime during the Revival--you just never know 'til you get there! Anyway, now you're all up to date on the latest from around here. It'll last a little while, I hope. :-)

G'night!!!

~Bec~

Ah yes, a couple of pictures from last week...

Here is Pastor Sam on the day before his big 4-1 day!

And acting as every 41 year old should...



And the Christmas stuff on the top of my piano--don'tcha' love the train?! :-)


And forget it--after this ridiculously long post nobody is going to remember to submit their answers for our online Balderdash (!), so I'll just give you the real answer now!

Movie Title: Adventures of El Frenetico & Go Girl

Plot: A Zorro-type guy and his karate-kicking girlfriend fight a junk food mogul whose snacks turn people into zombies.

HA! HA! HA! Is that great, or what?! Who comes up with this stuff?! One thing is for sure--JOE sure won't be watching it if it has zombies!!! Ha! Later, y'all!

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