Is it day four? I've lost track. But what a day it has been! We heard lots of rolling thunder throughout the wee hours of the morning and when we got up, opened the door and looked outside we were met with sheets of heavy rain, flashes of lightening and low, rumbling thunder. What were we to do? "Hey, kids! Let's all load up and go sit on some big metal bleachers surrounded by water!"

We headed on to Sea World, in spite of the odds. We got there when they opened at 10:00 and ran down to feed the dolphins right off the bat. SO COOL! But more on that later. My smart husband had had the foresight to purchase two more umbrellas last night (I talked him into getting one fun one!) and we were sooooooooo glad. After the first 30 minutes, we were soaked to the bone, even with the umbrellas. But we were happy!

We thoroughly enjoyed the killer whales (it is soooooo cool to watch the interaction with the trainers and everything they do together!), but most of the pictures didn't turn out very good. I think it's something that every kid should be able to experience at some point in time. Ours really enjoyed it--Sam was especially excited. I hope we can take our kids again, maybe when they're teen-agers.

The dolphin show was terrible. I mean, the dolphins were great, but we rarely saw them! They do a show that has all kinds of divers and acrobats and syncronized swimmers and all manner of craziness... and every now and then a dolphin or white whale would show up and jump or splash. But it was mostly weird people, dressed weird, doing weird things. A great disappointment. Still, the dolphins themselves were cool.

Afterwards, we headed back to the Dolphin Cove to see the bottlenose dolphins again when we wouldn't be so rushed and inhibited by the pouring rain. (It had let up by that time and only sprinkled off and on the rest of the day--perfect!) The kids all fed the dolphins and Katie and Joe were able to pet one, too. They were almost as excited as their mother was. ;-) (I've wanted to pet a dolphin my whole life. Maybe next time I'll hop in and swim with them... Ha! I wish!!!)

James and I saw a lot more of the zoo than the kids did, due to the rain. This is what they looked like through a great deal of it...

Kind of hard to see the animals like that, but I must admit that they weren't nearly as soggy as James and I were.

James decided we'd take the train ride on our way out of the zoo. It was only a couple of bucks, but it was such a great ride! It lasted about 20 minutes and took us all over the zoo and the golf course and through some wooded areas that were just beautiful. There was a nice, cool breeze and it was just such an enjoyable ride.

The kids loved it, too.

By the time we were done with the zoo and the train it was well past lunch time. James decided we'd head back downtown and go to the Tower of the Americas. It's the second tallest tower in the U.S., but I never stopped to ask anybody just how tall it is. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but here it is.

~WHEW~ What a day!!! I wouldn’t believe everything we’ve crammed into just one day if I weren’t feeling it like I am! I’m exhausted—and sore! We’ve walked miles today, I’m sure, but we’ve had such a great time.

Stop #1: The Alamo. We wanted to do this very first. We went this morning and watched a documentary type thing about the Alamo that showed what happened before, during, and after the siege. It was very well done and portrayed the events and men in such a way that you felt like you were really there—like you knew them and could feel what they were feeling. I know this will surely sound corny, but it was powerful. At the end I noticed heavy sobs coming from the seat next to me. It was Katie. Then Joe came and started asking questions with quivering lips, trying hard to fight back the tears. In the minutes that followed our whole family was in a little huddle out in the hallway, crying together and talking about life and death and liberty. Even Yankee Boy (James) cried. It was all just so moving. William Travis had sent several letters asking for help and assistance—more troops to come to the Alamo to help fight. Word finally arrived that no assistance would be coming (not in time, anyway). He took his saber and drew a line in the sand, then asked for all who were willing to fight and die along side of him to come on his side and stand with him. All but one crossed the line, even Jim Bowie who was deathly sick insisted that he be carried across the line on his cot. It’s such an overwhelming feeling when you realize that right then and there they had made their decision: they were going to die for the cause of freedom in Texas. The knew at that point that no assistance would be coming and that they were outnumbered nearly 10 to 1. Death and defeat wasn’t just a possibility, it was inevitable. Yet they stayed and gave their lives for all that they held dear and for the future of those who would follow after them. Amazing. That’s the part that really got the kids, too. We had wondered if all of this might be a little too much for them, but even though it was hard on them I think this was a really, really good experience for them. For all of us. I hope we've all learned a lot and hopefully even been changed by it. I asked Joe later on if he had been at the Alamo and had the choice, would he have stayed and fought and died with those men, or would he have fled and gone back home to his family. He thought hard, then said that he would've stayed and died there. Katie has been talking for weeks about how sad it is that those men died at the Alamo, but she's quick to follow it up with how proud she is that they fought for our freedom. I hope the lessons they're learning are really sinking in. I think they are.

After watching the history of it, we walked across the street to the Alamo itself. It is an amazing feeling—after you’ve just seen what happened there—to stand in that place and consider how significant it is. We were standing at the west side where the main entrance was. It’s the side where Davy Crockett and his men were defending the wall and we saw the spot where legend says he died.

The Alamo is a shrine and you’re not allowed to take pictures inside, but there was so much neat stuff in there. They had a vest that belonged to Davy Crockett and a knife that was Jim Bowie’s at one time, along with several more significant artifacts as well. :-) It was just sooooooooo neat. I can’t imagine anybody getting more out of it than our family did. I’m so glad we came here.

After the Alamo we walked across the street to a Davy Crockett Interactive Outpost or something like that. It had lots of big, animated characters and music and all things geared toward little ones.

It was way over-priced and was definitely a one-time thing for our family, but we were still glad we went this once. The kids enjoyed it. At the end they had a shooting gallery (where you try to shoot little sensors to make the barrel spin or the hat fly off, etc.) and other stuff that was fun.

Along with that ticket came one for the Guinness’ Book of World Records Museum. A total waste. It’s nothing but pictures and plaques, for the most part. Who wants to go stand around and read all day while on vacation??? We were definitely not impressed and reminded of how unimpressed we were when James and I went in a different Guinness museum a few years back. Don’t know why we thought this one would be any different. Anyway, if you ever see one, skip it!

We walked down the street and had lunch at some little whole in the wall joint. It was great! Then we went to the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Musuem and the Louis Toussaud’s Wax Museum. Now that was fun! Ripley’s has some kind of icky stuff that we marched the kids past kind of quick like, but 90% or more of it was just really, really interesting. This is a picture of James...as the "Heaviest Man." (The guy actually weighed over 1,400 lbs.)

And I couldn't not put this picture on here...

Surprise!!! I didn't warn you that I would be blogging while on vacation. Probably because I didn't know it myself until a little while ago. James whipped out the laptop and I thought, "Hhmmmm..." ;-)

So the first day has been great. Nothing monumental really, just such a nice, relaxing, enjoyable day. We left Andrews at about 10:00 this morning and have just kind of moseyed (mosied?!) our way south through most of the day. We came to a nice little town named Brady and James came across this huge...place. I have no idea how to describe it. James thought it was an antique store (that's why we stopped), but there were no antiques to be found. It was a full block's length of store--it just kept going and going and going... They had furniture of all types, from old victorian looking stuff and fainting couches to rustic western and truly Texas stuff, along with any and every item of decor imaginable. It was sooooo neat--especially all of the western stuff. My Dad would love it! There was a huge spiral staircase in the center of the store and at the top was a suit of armor (only $3999.00! Ha!) and tons of grandfather clocks and old-time wash basins and rare and interesting things of all kinds. Even the kids enjoyed it! It was great.

When we left Brady things got even better. A few minutes after leaving town we began noticing small blue patches along the side of the road. Texas Bluebonnets!!! I was soooooooo excited! I can't help but think of my Grandmother. She always loved the bluebonnets and she and Granddaddy always planned their trips to San Antonio this time of the year when they'd be in full bloom. I made James pull over so I could take a picture of my very first bluebonnets. :-)

One of the next towns we went through had a true-blue junk store, the kind James loves. You know, the kind that has a real once-in-a-lifetime treasure hidden somewhere in it... if you're willing to dig through the tons and tons (literally) of JUNK to unearth it. I hate places like that, but James just loves the hunt. I decided to wait in the van with the kids (one was asleep) and then I noticed that surrounding this junk store were more bluebonnets! And not just blue ones either--there were burgundy and even some white looking ones. Neat, hu?

This is a close up of the burgundy ones. They're kind of neat but...

There's just nothing that can compare to the original and traditional blue Texas Bluebonnet.

Actually, all you have to remember is that that's where I'm going. :-) I am sooooo excited!!! I've wanted to see the Alamo my whole life and it's actually going to happen! I'm even more excited after the "research" I've done on it the past week or two. The whole thing is just so fascinating--how 189 men held off nearly 4,000 bad guys (!) for so long and all of the reasons why and what happened next and what it meant for Texas and, consequently, for the states that weren't yet part of the Union... And did you know that William Travis (the guy who led the good guys at the Alamo) was only 26 years old?! Amazing. "Victory or death," he wrote to his family, telling them that he was determined to hold out as long as he could, and concerning his only son, "...if the country be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country." I can't wait to learn more and be able to actually see where this incredible battle took place--to be there. How cool is that?!

The kids are excited and I'm just hoping it lasts long enough for me to be able to enjoy it all before they get restless! It'll all be good. I'm excited to see some Texas Bluebonnets (will be another first for me) and the River Walk and all of the great things we keep hearing about San Antonio. And I'm really excited to be able to go see Adam in the hospital too, although it sounds really weird in the same paragraph with everything else. "Yeah, we're going to take in the Alamo, the zoo, the busted up guy at the hospital..." Ha! Do pray for the Lord to continue to work in Adam's heart and soften him. He needs God!!! And pray for God to give us wisdom. I want to say the right words in the right spirit--and only God can make that happen.

Sea World--I'm also sooooo excited about Sea World! We're saving that until last because I'm afraid if we went there first the kids would be bored silly with things like the Alamo. From what I've been reading, the park is somewhat separated; the animal attractions being on one side and the rides on the other. Perfect! We're going to see the animals and it'll be nice to not have to work our way through all the rest. I also read that they let you feed and pet the dolphins now (no charge)--something we didn't get to do when I went at age 11. That is sooooo cool! The kids are going to LOVE it. Almost as much as their mother. ;-) I could go on, but you're going to hear about all of the same things soon enough, only in past tense. I'm just so excited!!! (Have I mentioned that?!)

Seems like there was lots more to write about, but all I can think about at the moment is our trip. We've entered into the wee hours of the morning now and I really ought to get some sleep if I intend to be alert enough to enjoy myself on our journeys (!), so SO LONG!!!

Love You All,

~ Rebekah ~

Well, well, well. Where to start? The bake sale was, well... a lot of work! I don't know why, but I took this one sooooo much harder than the others! It just seemed so exhausting. It's always a lot of work, but on the day of the actual sale it's a breeze. This time even the sale day felt like hard work! This was the slowest sale we've ever had and in the beginning we were pretty concerned about how little we were selling--and how much food we would have left over! After about two ours Tammy and I decided: "We need a kid!" So I hopped in the van and went to Aunt Sue's store (she was babysitting for me) and picked up Joe, our best salesman. Just having him there helped a little bit, but things were still a little slow. We had TONS of peanut butter fudge and it wasn't moving at all, so I cut some up into little cubes and gave the plate to Joe. He stood in front of the table asking, "Would you like to try some fudge?" in his best Texas drawl. That helped, but still wasn't enough. I wasn't planning on having him at the bake sale so I hadn't dressed him "cute." So I ran home and got his cowboy duds! We shoved him under the bake sale table, stripped him down and changed him into all his gear: hat, boots, spurs (forgot the chaps), holster and gun. Every tactic we tried brought a little more success, it just felt like really slow going. We didn't think we'd done all that good and sales we're really slow at about 2:00 so we decided to take the sale on the road. We headed down to the City Administration Building and made the rounds in there. They bought some and sent us over to the police department, who sent us to the courthouse, who sent us to the annex building... We went to the library (I know most of the folks who work there) and the newspaper office (were Brother Sam works) and we had lots of good sales in those two places. We probably ended up with an additional $50 with the traveling bake sale. ;-) It was a beautiful day and felt good to get some exercise treking around down town. Our grand total was $328.57 and we were thrilled! In the beginning of the day we were thinking we'd be lucky to hit $200. God blessed and it was all good. Exhausting, but good.

That was Friday. Then yesterday came along. We're leaving for San Antonio this coming Tuesday so I got to thinking about what I'd be packing. That meant pulling all of my summer clothes out of the back of Katie's closet all of my sweaters and turtlenecks out of my closet and switching them. I was looking at my summer shirts and it suddenly occurred to me... SOCKS. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but... I have so many fun socks now that they won't all fit into my drawer (not easily, anyway!), so I pulled all of my summer socks (the ones with flowers and butterflies and such) out of the drawer in the fall to make room for the socks with autumn leaves and Christmas stuff. (Most girls have too many shoes; I couldn't care less about shoes, but can't pass up a pair of great socks!) ANYWAY, I couldn't find my summer socks. I'm going on a trip in three days, I have my summer clothes out, but no socks to wear with them! Aaauuuuuggggghhhhhhhhh! (Unless you're a sock enthusiast you can't possibly understand the frustration.) So I tore up everything in my bedroom trying to find them. I finally stumbled across them in Katie's closet (next to where the summer shirts had been, of course), but not before I had totally cleaned out and rearranged everything under my bed, in my pajama drawer, the top and bottom of my closet... So I got some extra cleaning done that I hadn't counted on! That felt good. Almost as good as finding my socks. ;-)

Along with the sock search and the cleaning and sorting it necessitated, I also moved everything out of the kitchen and did the big, ugly scrub job on the kitchen floor. It really needed it. I actually only got half of the floor done before I gave out. I ended up moving into the den and watching Bonanza while I ironed the mountain of laundry that I'd been doing all day. Finally finished that up and made it to bed at about 1:30am. This morning I got up and worked another hour or two on the other half of the kitchen floor and finally got it finished in time to get a shower and have everybody ready for Church. We had a good service, came home, ate left-overs, then I cleaned out the fridge and washed up all the dishes before dozing for a few minutes--I desperately needed a nap!!! It always feels sooooooo good when you've been working really hard and feel like you've earned it, you know?!

It started raining tonight, so James had me call Sam and Tammy and ask if they wanted to meet us at Tortas y Mas for dinner. Last year sometime we had a tornado warning in effect and we all went down there to eat. You have to understand: Tortas y Mas is a little itty-bitty building with no indoor seating at all, just two picnic tables out front on a little covered porch. Not exactly where the weatherman would recommend to take cover in the event of a tornado! Anyway, James thought of it tonight and wanted to do it again "for old time's sake" or something. We didn't last too long down there though 'cuz it was COLD once we started getting a little wet! So we brought the party back here to our house and played our Wheel of Fortune video game and then watched Moe and the Big Exit while playing Rummy. What a great night!

BUT... the thunder is picking up again and I need to get the computer shut down for the night. Have a great one--I'll try to post something tomorrow night since we'll be leaving Tuesday. I'M SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!

G'night!

~Becki~

I've been putting this off for a whole week now--the blogging thing. I just haven't been inspired to write anything. For starters, I know that nothing I could write will ever compare to that great video I posted last time and I kind of hate for the viewings to stop. I wish there was some way to set up a counter on that thing. I wonder how many times it's been watched now and by how many different people... Our family watched it 8 or 10 times a day for the first few days it was there. It was such a great way to start the day. "Do it again, Mom! Can we watch it again??? That's sooooooo funny!!!"

The other reason I haven't blogged is the "mood" thing. I just haven't been in it. Actually, I'm still not. The only reason I'm blogging right now is because we've got a bake sale coming up on Friday and I realize that if I don't do it now it'll be a few more days until I get to it and I don't want to have to start receiving all of those "Where are you, you slacker!" comments. So this is what you'd call preventative blogging. (Kind of like eating so that you won't get hungry instead of waiting until you're there already.)

Let's see, what news is there... We will soon be embarking on a family trip to San Antonio!!! I'm sooooooo excited! I've wanted to go see the Alamo all my life. I've always regretted that I never took a trip there with Grandmother and Granddad when I had the chance. I've been trying to get the kids all geared up for it and they seem real excited, too. We went to the library today and checked out lots of books about it and I've been reading to them and talking to them about it for the past few days. Joe was loving the whole thing until he found out that the Mexicans won the battle. "You mean they lost?! The good guys lost?!?!?" Not easy for me to accept either, but at least I can follow it up with, "Yeah, but those few Texans took out a whole slew of the bad guys and because they fought so long and hard Sam Houston was able to come along a few weeks later and beat the Mexicans and win independance for Texas!" And he wasn't happy at all when he found out Davy Crockett got killed there. I'm just releaved that Joe hasn't seemed to make any connection between the "bad Mexicans" at the Alamo and our precious Spanish people in the Church! Ha! Then I'd have to try to explain why some Mexican people are so wonderful and we love them sooooooo much, but that Santa Anna was just a really bad dude and how ruthless he was and how he didn't love God... Reality has got to be so confusing for a kid. Anyway (I got a little side-tracked!), we'll be leaving for San Antonio on Tuesday and will spend a few days taking in the sights (the Alamo, the River Walk, the zoo--maybe even the dolphins and killer whales!), then we'll be home Saturday. That's the plan, anyway! It's great 'cuz we'll be able to go see Adam Clifton and the Brooks while we're there. They don't know it yet (!), but I sure am looking forward to it! (Keep praying for Adam, please! And... does anybody know the latest???)

The most exciting event of the day around here is that Joe shot his cap gun!!! Once. 'Cuz Mom made him. He started asking about the caps this afternoon, so I put a roll in his gun for him. Then he backed out and wouldn't touch the thing. I asked if he wanted me to fire it a few times so he could get used to it. He said that sounded good. I asked him to tell me when he was ready. He quickly ran into the other room, covered his ears, peeked around the corner and said, "I'm ready!" ~sigh~ (He wouldn't have been much help at the Alamo!!! Ha!) I fired it a few times, then made him come into the room with me. I told him that I wanted him to fire it just one time--just once--then I'd let him leave. He came and took the gun, but then got scared and threw the thing down and ran out of the room crying. ~big sigh~ I ordered him back into the room and told him that he was going to shoot that gun one time and (this is so pitiful) that I would hold him while he did it if he needed me to. Realizing I was going to make him go through with it he sighed heavily, then put his hands over his eyes and sent up a quick but earnest prayer. "Dear Jesus, please help me to shoot that gun and keep me safe and don't let me get hurt and..." I don't remember everything he prayed, but I know there was more. He came over, crawled in my lap, picked up the gun and fired away. Handled it great. He then hopped down, left the room and hollered over his shoulder that I could take the caps out now and to let him know when they were gone and he could come back! Ha! That kid!!! I took the caps out and showed them to him. "Joe, it's paper. That's all it is--a strip of paper!!! It's got these little dots of gunpowder on it, but that's it--there's no way it could possibly hurt you!" After a while he brought me his gun and a long, narrow strip of paper that he had cut, colored red and drawn little circles on--fake caps--and asked me to put them in his gun. I chuckled, then loaded the gun. He was scared of it and wouldn't take it! Ha! Ha! Ha! I guess if the other strip was nothin' but paper and it went off, then why couldn't his homemade caps go off, too?! Ha! Crazy kid!

Well, I've got 12 little loaves of poppyseed bread (11 actually--I noticed one loaf is half eaten already) that need to be wrapped up and packaged for the bake sale, along with two pans of Reese's squares--assuming they turned out okay and aren't too mushy. Tomorrow Tammy will come over and we'll have our big baking day. I'll be making tons of chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, Rice Krispy treats, and maybe some lemon bars. I have no idea what Tammy is making. Last I heard, she had no idea either! Aunt Sue will provide all the fudge, as it's about the only thing she can make (best in the world!) and it's one thing that we absolutely cannot make! It works out well. :-) Anyway, there's some more work to do before calling it a night, so I'd best get back to it. I'll try to post something on Friday or Saturday and at least let you know how the sale went. Until then...

~Rebekah~

Please forgive my failure to blog these past few days. I've been working ever so diligently on trying to figure out how to put a video clip on here. I've spent a total of 4 or 5 hours working on this and even made a phone call to Alaska (thank you, Jenna!) and one to Denver. All for the sake of this video. I assure you, the phone call to Denver is never an enjoyable one. I don't know how Jon makes it as a computer tech. Sure, he's good, but he's such a creep! All I can figure is that he must treat his paying customers better than he does his family. Anyway, he worked with me long enough to get this thing up and going. I hope it works!!! He mentioned that it might not work on Mac computers. We'll see, I guess! ENJOY!!!

(The next post, that is -- don't know how that happened, but scroll down! You'll be glad you did!!!)

Yesterday started out as an ordinary day: breakfast, clean bedrooms, school. James had the 12-8:00pm shift at Mardel, so when he left at about 11:00 I loaded the kids up and drove over to Big Spring (60 miles) to go to an auction house to look for some chairs to go with their new school desks. Found just what we were looking for ($5 apiece), loaded them up, then drove around Big Spring a little bit just to see what's there. Nice little place, really. We ate at Wendy's--a rare treat (the one in Midland is gross and we never go there), then headed home.

We got here and I immediately set to work on their desks. The chairs were just slightly too tall for them to be used at the desks at their present height, so I extended the legs on the desks to make them just an inch or two taller. This, of course, means that each freshly painted desk leg now has an unpainted 1 or 2" ring! No matter. I need to paint the chairs now anyway, so I'll just slop some on the unfinished spots on the desks while I'm at it.

Tammy came over at about 5:00 and told me to load up the kids--we're going to the new arena! They've just completed construction on a gigantic arena here in Andrews to be used for rodeo events and all sorts of other things and yesterday was their opening day. The Cowboy Church (for real--there are tons of them out here) provided a chuckwagon dinner (bar-b-que brisket sandwhiches, cole slaw, beans and sweet tea) and they did team roping -- all for free. It was just local folks competing last night, but it was still a lot of fun to watch. There was even a kid--maybe 12 years old or so--that was the "hindermost" part of a team. ;-) (For those who know nothing about team roping: they release a calf and two cowboys on horses chase him down, the first cowboy ropes the calf's neck or around his horns, then the second cowboy ropes the calf's hind feet.) The kids were sooooooooo excited! Theyv'e never seen anything like this before and they thought it was terrific.

The only bad part about all of it is that Joe is still on his cowboy-stuff ban (it ends this next Wednesday) and so he wasn't able to dress up in all his duds like Katie and Sam did. It was really hard to follow through on that one and I almost cracked and let him wear them "just this one night," but James got me straightened out and we stuck to the rules. It was pretty hard on him (and me too!), but maybe it will get through to him all the more to watch his attitude an avoid future trouble because you just never know when you're going to be able to go see cowboys around here. Right??? ~sigh~ I sure hope so! Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the kids who were able to dress for the occasion...

The kids were thrilled to meet Rio, up close!

Rio was sweet, but rather nervous as you can see! His ears were layed straight back like that in all of the pictures! Ha! -- Notice the spurs and chaps Sam is sporting, compliments of Sister Clarkson. ;-)

It was a lot of fun and a great environment (it's smoke and alcohol free) and there were tons of little cowboys and cowgirls there! My kids were loving it!!!

I'm going to try to get motivated today to paint the new chairs for the kids. I'm running low on energy for some reason and would really rather loaf. We'll see what happens. The kids are out back playing right now. The only thing we've really accomplished today was devotions and even that wasn't a smashing success. Joe was cutting up and I had to get on to him. (So much for the cowboy ban helping his attitude! Ha!) After we were all done, he showed me the picture he'd been drawing. This time it was a monster with big, gnarly teeth thinking about me being in jail. For real--he'd drawn the thought cloud with little dots linking it to the monster's head, and in the thought cloud was a stick figure with long hair, frowning behind bars. That kid. Katie and Sam were released to go play and Joe had to sit and draw another picture (a nice one) before leaving, but somehow I don't think I'm winning with this kid! I notice that nobody out there had any suggestions on how to deal with the traps either. (Thanks a lot, you guys!) You know--after he gets in trouble for something he'll go around the house with that evil cackle of his, setting his "traps" right by my chair, or right in front of me while I'm walking, or wherever he thinks I might go next. Emilee, what would you do??? Or how 'bout some of you who have successfully raised your kids already?! Isn't there anybody out there who can help me???

Losing to a 5 year old,
~Becki~

Been a good one today, although it got off to a rather slow start. The kids and I didn't even have devotions until nearly 11:00! That's so bad. Afterward we loaded up and returned all of our books (due today) to the library. We didn't get anything new because James has been bringing home so many great kid books from Mardel that we've got a whole slew of them that we haven't had a chance to read yet! (Once stuff hits 75% off he starts combing through it. --He gets an additional 15% off of that price. If it hits 90% off he brings it home no matter what it is--it wouldn't matter if it was a pink elephant with a feather boa. "I just couldn't pass it up--it was such a great deal!!!" Ha!) Anyway...

We took lunch to Stacey (she was working Aunt Sue's store today) and visited with her for a little while, then ran to pick up a loaf of bread before heading home.

I spent the afternoon working on laundry and cleaning house. After a while I sent Katie out to clean up the toys in the backyard and had Joe cleaning up the living room. Sam wanted to help me clean the bathroom. I didn't know what I was in for. That kid never used to make a peep. He never shuts up now. It made me think of what Emilee was telling me about Abbie this past weekend and how she's turned into such a chatterbox. "I used to really like Abigail," she told Jon, "but she's driving me crazy!!! She talks all the time!" Ha! It's the same thing around here with Sam. He hardly took a breath the whole time we were cleaning. He was pretending to be Super Sam and using his best heroic voice the whole time. He was there to save the day, he kept telling me. "I'm strong! And I'm going to get all of those germs!," he'd say, while sloshing a wet rag across the floor. "Stand back, Mom! That's a da-a-a-a-a-a-a-angerous germ over there... I'll get it!!!" And on and on it went. I never knew that superheroes took such great interest in ridding the world of germs, but considering the task at hand, Super Sam found it appropriate. When he finally tired of of the killing-the-germs speech he burst into song... A lively rendition of "rocky a soul in a boogie of Abe-a-ham." Don't ask--I don't know. He's the only one of my children to ever sing it that way and I still can't figure out how it got started.

Sam finally tired of the bathroom project and went to find other adventures. Within minutes he was standing right outside the door, jabbering up a storm again. "I ate half a bad coconut, Mom--it was so bad!!! I ate half of it and it was yuck so I spit it out. It landed on my boot so then... [blah, blah, blah] ... it was my dessert, but...[blah, blah, blah]" Where is the duct tape when you really need it??? I finally decided that the "coconut" must've been a pecan from the back yard. He crushes them with his cowboy boot, then picks the pieces apart and eats the nut. He must've got a piece of the shell, thus the bad taste. I don't know when or why he started calling them coconuts.

Then there's poor Joe. He's been banned from cowboy stuff for the rest of the week and had to do without balls or weapons for the rest of the day today, too. I've found that it's more effective to take away favorite things than it is to spank, in some situations! However, nothing seemed to work very well today! He didn't really do anything all that bad, it's just the attitude he gets. I'm hoping that tomorrow will go better than today and he'll forsake the I-will-not-be-conquered attitude that we've been contending with.

Katie read her first "real" book on our Colorado trip--one without any pictures, just pages full of words. 56 pages, I think. So I got her a 100 page book to try--20 chapters. She started yesterday and she's on chapter 11. Wow. I must've been 10 or 12 years old before I had any interest in things like that! Crazy kid!

I finished up the 8th and final book in the series tonight. I've found that I can read a book easily enough in two nights if I want to. We've been watching very little tv lately and I've been doing so much more reading. I intend to lay off the novels for a while and do some more "spiritual" reading now. I've enjoyed these books and even been blessed by them, but I think I need to dive into some non-fiction for a while. It's felt so good to spend liesure time reading instead of watching the tube. We did, however, watch a Beverly Hillbillies episode tonight. (James brought home a couple of them from Mardel today. They'd gone on sale--what was he to do?!) It was great. The kids laughed and laughed and laughed. It's soooooo much fun to watch it with them!

Okay, I'm done rambling. Oh, I almost forgot--we went to sing at the nursing home tonight. Brother Sam was sick with a high fever (say a prayer for him, please!) and didn't want to take that to the nursing home and James didn't make it back from Midland in time, so that left just me and the kids and Tammy and Aunt Sue. We did our best and sang our hearts out (James is the one who usually carries us through any music around here!) and God blessed. We had Katie sing several songs tonight since she's the most talented among the bunch and that went well. It was good.

Wa-Hoo!!! I'm The Good One. ;-)

Yes siree, my boys are now the proud new owners of spurs. Real spurs. That loony Sister Clarkson is to blame and I think she's moved to a whole new level popularity with my kids. (As if they weren't crazy enough about her already!) She also made chaps for the boys (they are soooooo cute) and a dress for Katie! WOW! What a woman!!! Katie has already worn her dress and you can't strip the chaps off the boys for anything. The spurs have an "outside only" rule attached to them (compliments of Dad), so Joe has spent most of the morning in the back yard, jingle-jangling all over the place. ~Ah, yes~ This is how it should be. Now if they only had a horse... (Don't get any funny ideas, Sister Clarkson!!!)

The trip to Colorado was sooooooo great! We had to cancel District Convention because we couldn't fight our way into Little Siberia (aka Craig, Colorado) through all the snow they were getting up there. We were bummed about that, but as Emilee said--God knows. We don't have to know His reasons, we just trust that He knows best. :-) The Convention is rescheduled for May.

We spent most of the drive on Thursday reading (proof reading, that is) stuff for the Literature Review Committee. James has been on that committee for 7 years now and this is only the 3rd time he's received anything to review (!), so we figured we'd better get it done. Made the trip go a little faster, I think, so it was nice.

We got to Colorado Springs just after 6:00 that night, got our motel room ('cuz Brother Dustin was too rude to invite us to stay with him... Well, something like that! HA!), unloaded our stuff, combed our hair and washed our faces, and made it to Church just in time for service. Perfect! It was Sister Dodie's WMB service and it was very good. We really enjoyed it. Afterward we went out to Denny's with the Hays family and Sister Karen. It was so nice. I really wish we had more time to fellowship like that. I would love to have a chance to get to know Jamey better, even if it means having to put up with Dustin for a little while. ;-) And I always love being with Sister Karen--she's been a favorite of mine for a whole lot of years now.

Friday morning we woke up to snowy weather reports for the northern part of Colorado, thus the cancellation of Convention. (And believe me, it's got to be pretty bad for us to cancel anything out here--our westerners aren't wimpy when it comes to snow!) We loaded up and headed to Denver and took the kids to the Children's Museum. A bit of a let-down, really. There must've been 4,000 kids there and you just can't have fun when it's like that. I hate crowds like that. The kids did enjoy the building section. The is the robot James helped Katie make.

Next we met Jon & Emilee and Company at Casa Bonita. Now, that was fun! There were people there, but not hordes of them. :-) For those who don't know, Casa Bonita is a restaurant in Denver that is... well, it's hard to explain! It's like a giant cave with lots of differnt rooms and passageways and a big waterfall with a lagoon down at the bottom. They put on shows (the bad guy always gets shot and falls from the cliffs down into the lagoon at the end) and all kinds of great stuff. The food is mediocre at best, but the atmosphere makes it worth it--especially when you have kids with you! They all had sooooo much fun! Although Joe (you all remember Gunshy Joe, I'm sure) pert near took his Dad out when we first walked into the restaurant because the western show was going on and somebody shot a cap gun... But even he was able to enjoy the show after a while. It was just so great! It's probably the most fun I've ever had there. Here's a picture of all the kids, minus Zeke.

(You're welcome, Mom!)