We'll be leaving tomorrow morning for Colorado! Our District Convention is in Craig this weekend and we are soooooooo excited. They've got a terrific District Overseer up there ;-) and I can tell that he's put a lot into this function. If we can wade our way through the snow (wa-hoo!!!) and make it all the way up there, I expect it to be a great Convention! Since Craig is about 16 hours from Andrews we'll be driving part way tomorrow, then finishing our trek on Friday.

Things here have been good. Yesterday I loaded the kids up and headed to Midland in search of school desks. (The kids drive me crazy when we're trying to do school at the kitchen table--sitting this way and that, legs hanging off the side of the chair, up on their knees, then back down again, then just standing because it's a better height for them when they're trying to write--it's quite a fiasco.) I had contacted a Christian School down there (the public schools are too "regulated" to be able to sell you a desk--crazy!) and they told me to come take a look. The maintainance man led me to a storage room off of the gym that was stacked high in old, banged up school desks. I picked out three that didn't have old wads of gum welded to them (ga-ross) and he loaded them up for me... for free! Is that great, or what?!

We did some more running around, then came home, scrubbed the desks up real good, and whipped out the paint. I let each kid pick what color he wanted (of the ones that would match my office, that is), then they each got to help me paint their own desk, Sam first, then Joe, then Kate. There's no way I would attempt an everybody-paint-at-once party. You'd have to be totally insane. I wondered about my sanity allowing even one at a time to help. No, they actually did great--even Sam. In fact, he did a lot better than Joe. Poor Joe. That kid is such a slob. All of my efforts went into trying to smooth out the blobs of paint he left in is wake. In the end, they turned out great! They were pretty beat up, but now they look nice and fresh and clean. ~aahhhh~ Feels great. And just think--it cost us nothing but a little drive to Midland and some painting time! The paint was all left over from different painting projects here at the house, so that was perfect. Katie has window-shutters red, Joe has Mom's-office-walls gray, and Sam has living-room-wainscotting blue. ;-) It was a very long and exhausting day, so I ended it with a nice, hot bath. ~ah, yes~ It's amazing how great that feels! I should do it more often.

I don't want to take the time to write out all the details and I'm sure you don't want to take the time to read them all, so let's just say that I waged war on those dopey desks all morning long. It had something to do with trying to adjust the adjustable (ha) legs on them and it included lots of hammering and clanging and banging and grunting and groaning and twisting and pulling and shoving and even praying... That was all before I gave up and tried to fix the problem that I had created. It went downhill from there. My salvation was this nifty little clampy wrench thing that I found out in James' shed. (Yes, it was bad enough I dared to enter--insert dramatic sound effect here, then use your best Mystery Theatre voice--James' shed). In about ten minutes I had the desk back to how it was before I so cleverly decided that I could improve upon it. The grass is always greener, you know? Anyway...

Rats. I'm racking my brain trying to come up with a kid story... I made mental notes of several dopey little things they did today, but apparently I can't read my own mental handwriting. Oh well. You're in luck--I'll cut this short.

Everybody have a great weekend and please remember to pray for the Colorado District Convention. The theme is "Fervent Charity"--I think it's going to be great. :-) We plan to be home Tuesday night. Until then... (or perhaps a day or two after then--you never know!)