What could be better? Sister Marcia Brooks called last week to ask if she and Sara and Aaron could spend the night with us on Thursday on their way to Convention. Then they would be on their way to spend the week in Arizona and be at Grace's graduation party! Fun!!!

I was so thankful to have company. For starters, it got me motivated to pick up where I'd left off on that thorough house cleaning I was doing about a month ago. I never did make it to the bedrooms (I burned out after my office...), so this was the nudge to get me going again. I started at Katie's ceiling fan and worked my way down and voila -- a perfectly clean room!!! ~aaahhhhh~ Feels so good. The company wouldn't have really known the difference, but I know. It's a grand and glorious thing. ;-)

A clean room isn't the only benefit to having company, of course. I actually enjoy the company itself, believe it or not! :-) We get far too little of it since moving to West Texas, let me tell you. Sister Marcia and family (minus Jimmie--the bum) got here Thursday afternoon in time to do some relaxing and give me a chance to whip up a nice, home cooked dinner before church. Sister Marcia preached for us that night and we sooooo enjoyed it. Our visitors, Kenneth and Clovis, were back and seemed to enjoy the service as well. Afterwards we invited Clovis (the 15 year old son of Kenneth) over to the house to play games for a little while. We mostly just ate (I had made cinnamon rolls that afternoon), but we eventually squeezed in a game before he had to leave. It was great to have him join in the fun and I think he enjoyed it. Sam took him home and then went on home to study, but Tammy stayed and played games with the rest of us until way too late. It was great!

Friday we drove on over to Alamogordo for the Arizona, New Mexico & West Texas District Convention. It was such a blessing. The first night especially was just so very, very good. Such a wonderful spirit and good preaching of God's Word and--as always when we're with the Spanish people--such wonderful worship. I have never been in a service with our Hatch or Alamogordo people and gone away not blessed. Even the ones that know little or no English, thus inhibiting our communication, I just love them soooooo much. When they sing and worship and I don't know what they're saying, my spirit knows and I can feel the love and worship welling up within me. They are so wonderful.

The VanDeventers and the Clarksons made the long trek from Colorado to join us in Convention and give their auxiliary boosts. What faithfulness! And, as always, we enjoyed their company as well. After the Convention ended on Saturday we all (Marcia and family, the Clarksons, the Vans, Sam & Tammy, the Shulers, and our family--22 in all, I think) went out to Denny's... for a few hours! It was so much fun!!! Brother VanDeventer came down to our end of the table to visit for a while and I so enjoyed his company. I've always loved him so very much, but rare are the times when I get a chance to actually visit with him. He is just so loveable and admirable in every way. So honest and even blunt sometimes, but it never feels harsh or stabbing--everything he says and does comes from pure truthfulness and genuine love. Oh, to have a thousand more Virgil VanDeventers! :-)

I'm rambling. I really don't have time for that tonight. Tomorrow is Katie's 6th birthday and Joe's 5th. They requested a strawberry cake just like Sam had on his birthday, so it's in the oven right now. James has to work 12:00-8:00pm tomorrow night, so that means any birthday party will have to take place before he leaves at 11:00am. We're shooting for 10:00.

Back to Convention, it was sooooooo good to be with the Shulers. I wish we lived closer and had more opportunity to be with them. It's amazing how much those kids are growing up. It's just WRONG, really (!!!), but kind of neat, too. Grace isn't a kid at all anymore (you did GREAT on your boost, Grace--by the way!) and Jacob is turning into quite the manly man. (Although if anyone tells him that I'll have to deny it--he's going to have enough problems with his ego! Ha!) He's a bit of a ding-bat, though, so that's good. He's not all muscles and deep voice... yet! And Philip. I've always loved Philip so much! That kid is one in a million -- and soooooooo cute. Sara and Megan are getting so grown up and are a lot of fun to be around. And Tommy... to tell you the truth, I never saw Tommy! I mean, only for a moment here and there throughout the weekend. He was just never around. But I'm sure he's great! ;-) And, of course, it was great to be with Aunt Kay & Uncle Colin, too. I always enjoy our time with them and just wish we could have more of it. What a terrific family. I'm glad they're part of mine!

We stayed over in Alamogordo Saturday night and James preached there yesterday morning. We went to Golden Corral with the Coyazo's afterward (the usual routine!) before heading home. We actually stopped at K-Mart on our way out of town and are soooooo glad we did. James was able to get Joe's birthday present for half price! Wa-Hoo! We made it home at about 8:30 last night, I think.

Today has been a good day, however not very productive. Just can't seem to get things in gear! Maybe I'll be more successful tomorrow. After our 10:00am birthday party, that is. I've got a mountain of laundry waiting for me and it's sister mount of ironing will be growing yet more as the laundry comes to an end... ~ugh~ I hate it when I let it get like this. I guess that's about it from here. Oh, I finished up the 4th book of the Love Comes Softly series on the drive to Alamogordo. Sooooooo much better than the movie. Actually, it baffles me how they can even name the movie after the book. The only thing they had in common at all was the names of the characters--and only some of them, at that. Weird. Anyway, I'm outta here! At least my next post should have some birthday pictures instead of a bunch of boring rambling. (Or perhaps along with a bunch of boring rambling...)