So... It's Okay Then?

Posted by cokelady

I'm taking my cue from Gracie and Emilee. Nobody out there has really been in the mood to blog this week--and it seemed insensitive to do it for a little while. We're all bearing the sadness of Kasey's loss. Our hearts are breaking for her and I know everybody is really praying for her. It just seemed callous to start blogging about our every day lives when we know that her life isn't "going on" right now--she's in that terrible "lost" stage, trying to work her way through things. I know everybody is still holding her up in prayer and will continue to do so. How wonderful to have The Church of God as your friends and family at times like this!

Things here have been pretty hectic this week. I'll never understand how Emilee can skip a few days of blogging, then sit down and write all about what she's been doing. I can't remember what I did yesterday unless I had the forethought to take notes! Let's see what I can come up with...

The only thing I recall about Tuesday is the phone call about Damon and the prayers that followed it. And the dog got a haircut. Came home and swiped some chicken bones (we had Pizza Hut for dinner--with buffalo wings) and actually ATE a few of them. Dumb dog. I was going to be really mad if he killed himself right after we paid to have him groomed.

Wednesday was Aunt Eunice's funeral. Aunt Sue picked me up at 4:30 in the morning. Do you know what an injustice it is to have to get up at 4:00am and try to look good? You ought to at least be able to throw on a t-shirt and jean skirt and pull your hair into a pony tail. But I have more decency than most people who attend funerals nowadays. Have you noticed how some people dress at funerals and weddings?! It's disgraceful! At this funeral I saw a guy with blue hair and was greatly relieved to find that he wasn't kin. But then a girl walked in with brown, yellow and pink hair and came and sat in the family section. I'm guessing she was a 6th cousin at the very least and it hardly counts as family at that point. Actually, I'd never really thought of it before this funeral, but I formed some definite opinions on the subject while there. Aunt Eunice had been attending a Baptist church and the pastor conducted the funeral. I have never been so glad to not be a Baptist in my whole life. No offense is intended (there are lots of very nice, sincere Baptists out there, I'm sure), but this was the driest service I've ever been in. By the time he finally shut up just about everybody there looked eerily similar to Aunt Eunice. The only person I knew in the entire building was Aunt Sue. We were really banking on some more from our branch of the family to show up, but they all balked. Aunt Sue was mad. "Our family's nothin' but a bunch of liars--every one of 'em! They're always sayin' they're gonna go somewhere and do somethin' and then they don't show up! They're nothin' but a bunch of liars!" I said, "You're one of 'em--you just told that lady back there that I was your daughter." "I didn't have time to explain!!!" she screamed. Ha! She's so wacked out. To her credit, she did go back and clarify our relation later on when she had the chance.

The funeral itself was a struggle to endure, but I was really thankful for the time with Aunt Sue and we did have a really good visit. I don't get that opportunity very often. And it was so nice to be able to go to the cemetery where Grandmother and Granddaddy are buried. It's been 3 years since I've been there, I think, and I've been wanting to go for quite some time. It's amazing how just being there seems to transport you back in time 7 years. All of the same thoughts and feelings that coursed through your mind and heart right after losing them are brought back soooooooo strongly. The pain is so sharp and seems to pierce to your very core... but the peace is so real, too. Life and death is such a mystery and our human selves just can't really grasp it in its entirety. I thought of Kasey while I was there and prayed that God would give her the same strength and hope that we feel--even in the midst of the heartwrenching agony--that enables you to look to a bright and glorious future with no more pain, no more suffering, no more parting, no more death. I can't wait until those graves burst open and we're all together once again, forever to be with our Lord and free from the heartaches of this world!

We took new flowers to put on Grandmother and Granddaddy's grave, along with my Great-Grandmother Fields and some uncles. It's all so pretty now. I thought about posting pictures--but that seems like the strangest thing to put on a blog! Somehow it just makes us feel better to know that their graves are as beautiful as possible. It's like a way of honoring them and showing respect and love, even yet. Maybe we're just weird, but our whole family seems to feel the same way about it and I just love the gravesite--it's beautiful, no matter how much it hurts to go there.

~whew~ Enough of that kind of talk. There's got to be something fun to talk about! Hhhmmm... After the funeral Aunt Sue and I went to eat at Braums! That was fun! I got a peanut butter hot fudge sundae. WOW. They used actual peanut butter ice cream with chocolate chunks in it, covered with PB and hot fudge. It was soooooooooo good, but too rich even fore me. I couldn't finish it off, but I came close. ;-)

It was a lo-o-o-o-o-ong day (I had a whoppin' 3 hours of sleep the night before) and we got home just in time for nursing home service that night. Tammy was gracious enough to watch the kids all day so I could go to the funeral and James could get some things done for Camp and Convention. James has had some things dropped on him just recently that really added to the load, but God is faithful and I know he's been feeling the help and direction that's been needed. We are really looking forward to these upcoming functions and all that God has in store for us this coming year. :-)

Yesterday was spent trying to get some things done here around the house. And I've somehow been able to get some study time in during the day a few times this week. That never happens. I usually can't get anything like that done until the kids are down for the night, but God's been helping me too! I've got the beginnings of my adult class for Camp and last night I was finally able to get some inspiration for my Children's Church service. What a relief!!! So tonight I'll do the finishing touches on that and make sure I've got all the stuff I need, then I'll spend the rest of the night trying to complete the class for the adults. I've got lots of jumbled up notes, but I have no idea how it's all going to turn out in the end! Say a prayer for me--I don't want to blow it! I've decided to hold off on trying to think of anything for my regional paper boost at the Convention. Maybe I'll work on it while I'm at Camp. If not, I've got a day between the end of Camp and the beginning of Convention, so I'll be able to pull something together just fine. I have a hard time taking that particular responsibility too seriously anyway! (Boosting a paper just doesn't seem too awful spiritual to me and I've never even tried to make it sound that way--I assume this year will be no different.)

Today we loaded up and went to Odessa to pick up my supplies for Children's Church and take care of a few other last minute details including haircuts for the whole family. Stacey trimmed bangs for Katie and me, then gave regular cuts to James and the boys. Albert showed up for a haircut, too, so after she was done with him we all loaded up and went to McAlister's together. It was fun, except that Katie is sick today. She started complaining about not feeling well before the haircuts started and she just kind of went downhill from there. She had a few false alarms where she thought she was going to lose her lunch--at the hair salon and at McAlisters. She took two little nibbles of a cracker and a few sips of Sprite, but that was it. She laid on my lap the whole time and slept. We put her in the van afterwards and she slept the whole way home. She walked in the door and went straight to the bathroom and lost the lunch she didn't eat (!), went to her bedroom and has been sound asleep ever since. It's been about 2 hours and she's still out cold. I don't know what's wrong with her, but I'm really praying that she's feeling better before we leave for Camp on Sunday morning--and that she doesn't decide to share whatever she's got with anybody else! The last thing we need is to take a bunch of sick-o's to Camp! (I'm sure all of the other mothers agree!) So please pray for her.

I guess that's it from here. I'm going to get back to the laundry (last load!) and start in on the ironing. The boys are busy watching Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century. I love that one! It's help the ironing go faster, too. ;-) Then I hope to get a good start on the packing. Hopefully by the time the kids go to bed I'll have all of those things well in hand so I can concentrate on my classes. I'm getting excited!!! I love Camp. And Convention. :-) Please, please, please, please, please pray for Stacey and Albert--they're still planning on coming and Camp is just the place for them to receive the miracles they are so much in need of!!! GOD IS SOOOOOOOO ABLE and it's SOOOOOOOOOOO obvious that's He's really been at work in this situation lately. We're excited and hoping and praying for the very best!

If I don't get a chance to write tomorrow night it'll be late next week (at the earliest) before I get a chance. Sister Marcia and Sara and Aaron will be here tomorrow to stay the night, then follow us up to Camp Sunday morning. They'll follow us home on Monday of the next week and stay again. Fun! Be praying for God's blessings on these functions--we're expecting great things from Him! Brother Wantulok is our guest speaker for Camp and he and Brother Byers are our speakers for Convention--we are soooooooo excited! I'll be sure to post lots of pictures as soon as I can.

~Becki~

UPDATE: Katie just woke up and is still feeling as sick as before. She had another false alarm and is now watching Daffy Duck with the boys--and holding tightly to a bowl, just in case. Pray for her, please! Thank you.

3 comments

Posted by cokelady

This will be very short tonight. It just doesn't seem fitting to write about the everyday happenings of life when I know that so many are suffering such great loss today. Most anybody who comes to this blog knows already about Kasey's husband, Damon, passing away today. My heart just aches for her. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be so young and to lose your husband so unexpectedly. It is an agony of the most acute kind, I'm sure. Thank goodness for a God who feels our hurts and promises to be "the God of all comfort" in these times when there is nothing anybody else can do to relieve the pain. We're praying for God's amazing grace to give Kasey the strength and comfort that she will need.

I will be leaving at 4:30 tomorrow morning with Aunt Sue to make the journey to Stinnett for Aunt Eunice's funeral. I'm praying that God will give us a safe trip and help us to somehow be a blessing there.

~Rebekah~

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Swamped

Posted by cokelady

I'm sure you've all experienced that terrible heavy feeling of pressure when there are so many things to do and not nearly enough time to do them all. James and I were sitting in the den this afternoon discussing all that needs to be done this week before Camp and Convention and the longer we talked the more weight we felt. There's no way we'll get it all done, it seems! And have you ever felt so overwhelmed by all of it that you just couldn't figure out where to even start, so you just sat down and watched the last half of Family Feud?! Ha! That's what we did today! In fact, most of the rest of the day has been pretty fruitless, too.

I must say, however, that I love how James is handling the pressure so far. He's sooooooooooooo very Choleric (98% to be exact) and Cholerics tend to get... rather tense, shall we say?! Well, he's kind of gone the other direction this time and it's soooooooooooo nice! He spent the 30 minutes I was cooking dinner chasing the kids all over the house and acting much worse than the three of them put together. I'm not sure what all was going on, but all three kids came into the kitchen to tattle on him numerous times. "Mo-o-o-o-o-om! Dad's hurting me!!!" "Mo-o-o-o-o-om! Dad won't leave me alone!" "Mo-o-o-o-o-om! Dad put my head in the toilet!" Of course, they were giggling while they were doing their tattling. The last one was just too much though and pretty soon I was forced to play the Mean Mom. "JAMES!!!!!!" He came sauntering in with an easy grin and assured me that nobody's head actually made it into the toilet.

We had chicken parmesan tonight. James actually started the chicken and thoroughly enjoyed nagging at me that we didn't have enough bread crumbs for this meal. (It was my suggestion and I thought we were well equipped for it.) I finally shooed him out of the kitchen and got the spaghetti going. I had to go to James after a few minutes and ask just how upset he'd be if we didn't happen to have any mozzerella cheese to top the chicken with! Ha! And I thought I had everything we needed for this meal. Oh well, we just used some extra parmesan and called it good. The kids horked it down, so I guess the meal was still a success.

After dinner the whole family headed out back to play in the Blob for a while. That was a first! (There's nothing like a truckload of responsibility to make you want to go play for a spell!) There's not exactly a whole lot of room to play once all five us us get in (!), but it was great fun anyway. The kids crawl onto James' back and he gives them rides. It is hilarious!!! I only thought the pool was warped before. You should see the tricks it does when James is bouncing up and down in it! Oh, that I had the words to describe it. Actually, we all got rides tonight. I was trying to relax in the green floaty ring, but it felt more like I was riding the rapids. Ha! Fun!!! James thought the pool looked a little low, so he got the hose and added a little too much water. After a while somebody crashed into the dangerous side of the pool and it did that same drop-to-the-ground-and-flood-the-backyard trick it pulled the other day. I was able to grab it and pull it upright again, but not before it had created a mud wrestling arena next to James' office. (Maybe we should try that for our next tension-dodging family night! HA!) Anyway, it was great fun and a terrific stress reliever.

We got everybody dried off, had family devotions and got the kids to bed. James headed out to his office for a while and I've been piddling my evening away in here. Didn't accomplish anything, it seems. I hate that! I have known for a few weeks that I'm going to be doing Children's Church one night at Camp, but I still have nothing. I have to do a boost for the regional paper at Convention (I hate that job!!! --Boosting, that is), and I just found out yesterday that I need to teach the adult class one day at Camp. And I have nuthin'!!! N-u-t-h... you know--nuthin'! But then, I usually don't. I've always been one of those people who really struggles to get any inspiration until the last minute. Oh, how I hate that!!! How wonderful it must be to feel completely prepared and at peace with what you're going to be doing a week or two in advance. I can only imagine, since I've never experienced that personally. ~sigh~ Anyway, I know there are a lot of people out there who have a whole lot more on their plate than I do, but I take things pretty hard so say a prayer for me anyway! Ha! Really, I know I have no right to complain--I'm thankful to be able to do whatever I can to help out. But it takes me sooooooooo lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong to get a class put together and I'm running low on time now!

And my Aunt Eunice passed away yesterday morning. She would have been 102 years old tomorrow, I think. She lived 5 or 6 hours north of here, in the panhandle. Aunt Sue is going to be driving up for the funeral on Wednesday and I'm going to go with her. I only recall meeting Aunt Eunice once (I can't even remember if she was my great-great-aunt, or if it was a triple-great!), but I don't want Aunt Sue to have to make the trip all by herself. And my Grandmother and Granddaddy are buried up there and I've been wanting to make a trip to the cemetery anyway. It's going to be tough to lose a whole day this week (we'll leave at 4:30am and get home at about 7:00pm, we think) with so much to be done, but it just seems like the right thing to do.

As for what's been going on around here lately... Let's see. The Sno-Cone Sale on Saturday was great! We made $105, I think--which is fantastic! Then Sam & Tammy went back yesterday after church and made about $80. That means we have enough to pay Camp tuition for Sam & Tammy and all of my family, and and $80+ to help toward Stacey and Albert's tuition. Yes, you heard right--Stacey and Albert are planning on being at Camp!!! PRAISE THE LORD!!! Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray!!! This is a huge miracle already, but we need the one that will see Albert saved!!!

I got James a tie with a picture of kids on it for Father's Day and Tammy and Aunt Sue had made up great Father's Day gifts to pass out at church: a six-pack of Coca-Cola bottles with beef jerky and mini-cholocate bars. :-) After church we came home and let the kids run for about an hour before loading up and heading to Big Spring for the Greater Vision concert. We went and picked up Sister Patsy and took her with us. She came to church for the first time about 2 months ago and I think she's only missed 2 services since then. She's a sweet, old fashioned lady who enjoys good, doctrinal preaching. James had told her about a big sale they were going to be having down at Mardel on Saturday (all Gaither DVD's were on sale for $10, along with several other things) and she went down and bought 11 of them! HA! I told her that anybody who would buy 11 Gaither CD's in a single day would love this concert and that she should go with us. It wasn't too hard to talk her into it, and we had a great time! The concert was soooooo good. You know it's going to be a good night when they start off singing He Set Me Free. :-) Next they sang Tell Me the Story of Jesus, then I Love to Tell the Story, We Are so Blessed and so many more good oldies. And I'm always so struck by Gerald Wolfe's humility. He is so immensely talented, but he just seems so genuinely humble and down to earth. He skips most off the showmanship that is offered at other concerts and he doesn't at all flaunt his abilities. To the contrary, you get the impression that he's really capable of much more than what he gives you! Anyway, it was a really nice, fun night--and a blessing, too. And Sister Patsy didn't get out of the building without spending another $40 of the package deal they were offering! Ha!

Well, I should go. But first, I'll give you a pictoral tour of the past few days. I didn't feel up to organizing all of the pictures tonight, so I'll just slap 'em all up there here at the end!

This is a picture of our well-established flowers. These are the ones I was just sure we were going to lose right after we planted them. They get the afternoon sun and looked to be completely scorched and withered by the end of the first week. I guess they pulled through okay!

This is the craziest rose bush I've ever seen. Notice the color of the small bud on the lower left. It's a deep peachy-orange kind of a color. That's why I selected this bush--I just loved how bright and unique it was. But when the roses bloom they turn into a very definite PINK. Weird!

I don't know what this little flower is, but it sure is pretty!

And I forget one kind of flowers these are (I'm sure somebody out there can help me out!), but aren't they gorgeous?! We found the planter at the dollar store and James picked out some purty little things to fill it. :-)

This little guy was on our back screen door the other night. The kids would've been so excited, had they beed awake.

Look!!! The cowboy stuff/weapons ban is over!!! These pictures were taken bright an early on the first morning they were allowed to touch the goods again after a whole week without.

While I was giving Sam a bath on Saturday night I noticed that he had a huge blue bruise in the middle of his forehead, mostly covered by his hair. He has no idea where it came from and it just barely shows up in the picture for some reason, but he's so cute I hate to post it anyway. :-)

And just a couple of pictures from our concert last night. We were able to secure a second row seat over on the side. Nifty! And the kids were perfect angels throughout the entire 2 hours--they did great!!! Sam got a little restless there at the very end, but they were all soooooooooo good and really seemed to enjoy all the music. They've been listening to the new Greater Vision CD's (Patsy wasn't the only one who walked away with the package deal!) all day.

Well, I'd best do something that will benefit my family and the upcoming Camp more than this blog will. ;-) Have a great night! I'll try to be faithful to post this week, but you just never know. If I need a break, I'll be here. If I'm being a good, diligent little girl and doing the things I'm supposed to be doing, you may not hear from me. Only time will tell!

~Becki~

6 comments

It's Me!!!

Posted by cokelady

I'm back!!! That means nothing to the rest of you, I'm sure, but I am quite happy with the fact. I've been stuck with a case of the blah's for the past few days and had a terrible time breaking out of it. I haven't been sad or sullen, just not really myself. I hate it when that happens! I woke up this morning not feeling very well physically and by noon found myself in desperate need of a good long soak in a hot bath tub. ~aaaahhh~ Fixed me right up. I feel great! And for the first time in days I feel like myself again--and I even had a burst of energy and was able to accomplish some household chores that have been looming over me for the past few days. Everything is vacummed and the kitchen floor clean, the sheets changed and bedrooms straightened up. Even the bathrooms are in pretty good shape. Feels great!!! And best of all, I feel like my usual mouthy self again. I hate it when I feel too blah to be mouthy. It takes so much of the fun out of life! But I'm in the mood to write, to read, to create crazy poems, to jump out of the closet for the sheer pleasure of scaring the bejeebers out of a trio of little people... It just feels so good to feel like ME again!

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday. What did we do on Wednesday? It seems that day is completely lost. All I remember is that we had nursing home service that night. Not a single soul from the home was waiting for us when we got there (first time we've had no audience at all!), but they finally started to drizzle in after we started singing. We were a bit hindered, however, when James suddenly knocked the sustain bar loose in the middle of The Hallelujah Side. We summoned Katie to sing a special so we'd have a few minutes to try to fix it, but it just wasn't enough time. So we muddled through the rest of the service with a choppy sounding piano which, I'm sure, bothered James much more than anybody else in the building. When the service was over James manoeuvered things through the top of the piano while I assumed my best mechanic's pose underneath it and we managed to get everything put back together so it'll be ready for us next time.

Oh, I remember--we bought new mattresses for the boys' beds on Wednesday. The ones that came with their beds are the super, super cheap-o kind that allow you the privilege of knowing of a surity that it has the proper number of springs--because you can feel each one piercing into your body when you lay down. Not that kids would know the difference, but James would hate to someday have to ask company to sleep on such contraptions. Anyway, we went to the local furniture store to check things out (the new mattresses were delivered within the hour--what service!) and while we were milling around Katie spotted the book Pride and Prejudice sitting on a table. She recognized the title as "the new movie Mom got" and all she knows of it is that it's "a girl movie" and she's dying to see it. I told her that it's a lo-o-o-o-o-ove story (only those who know my cousin Stacey can pronounce that the way it is intended to be pronouced) and I just wasn't sure we were ready to introduce her to such things! (Like we don't have enough problems with Little Miss Emotions already!) In any case, she took the book up to her Dad and asked if he'd buy it for her. He said he didn't think it was for sale and the owner of the store said it wasn't--she could have it. ~sigh~ So she begged me into reading the first two chapters to her that night. I've decided that we're going to finish the Anne book before we go any farther though, so that should delay us at least until after Camp and Convention. Besides that, Katie might miss most of the happenings in the book simply because of the style in which it is written. I have to re-read parts of it, myself, to make sure I'm understanding it correctly and not missing anything! Still, it must have the greatest opening line of any piece of classic literature: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." It just doesn't get any better than that! ;-)

Thursday. That was yesterday. Hhmmm. Blah. That's all I can remember. And then James and I had our joint CPMA/WMB service last night. It went rather well, I thought. Since it was Flag Day and the day after the Arise, Shine, we went with a flag theme. Tammy had asked about a service I had done in Salida about 5 years ago, so that was what we worked around. I was amazed by some of the things I had forgotten that I had learned when I studied up on this the first time around! We took our big flag set from James' office and I talked about the colors and symbols of both the American flag and the Church flag. James had a poem and some other things, as well--and we sang flag and battle songs: God's Got an Army, Keep on the Firing Line, A Glorious Church... and God Bless America and even It's a Grand Old Flag! It was great!!! I wanted to do I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, but James thought it might be a little too much. (~sigh~ Cholerics!) It all turned out well and our two visitors seemed to really enjoy it, so that's good.

Today, like I said, started out not so good, but improved drastically after my hot bath. Right now I'm watching the kids out my office window as they're splashing and playing in the Blob. Katie and Joe have finally mustered up the guts to go down the slide without any floaties and are loving it. They've also been holding their noses and putting their heads under the water--something they are not modestly proud of. Right now Sam is standing in the Blob with a rod of some kind, beating the tar out of the slide while singing something at the top of his lungs. Katie keeps backing up to the edge of the pool, then taking a flying leap and bellyflopping into the middle of it, all the while screaming and laughing. The neighbors must hate swim time at the Horne house. They can't see it, but there's no doubt as to their hearing it loud and clear.

It's been an interesting week for the boys since they've both been banished from using any of their cowboy stuff or weapons--due to the incident ending in Sam's injured eye last week, of course. They hardly know what to do with themselves, so they've been doing their playing vicariously through Katie. They'll dress her up in all of their cowboy attire and let her throw them in jail and suchlike. Yesterday I saw her all duded up in Joe's gladiator gear, slashing them with the sword they're not allowed to use. They stand back and give her instructions on the proper use of weapons and how to attach the sword to her breastplace and the right way to locate and capture criminals and anything else that comes to mind. I can't imagine their excitement when they'll be able to play for themselves once more, this coming Sunday. Katie will probably feel greatly left out at that point! She's been revelling in all the attention.

We have a Sno-Cone sale planned for tomorrow, so help us pray for a successful one! Especially since our sale time will be cut short on Sunday 'cuz we're skipping town. Greater Vision will be singing at a Baptist church over in Big Spring on Sunday night, so Sam & Tammy and our fam are going to drive over there (an hour from here) to see them. It's been several years since I've been to a good concert (don't get many southern gospel groups--or anybody else, for that matter!--down this way) and I've been anticipating this for the past two months. It'll be so fun!!!

Well, it's now 7:45, we've had a nice, homecooked meal (first one in a while--it's been way to hot to think about cooking!), James is soaking in the pool and the kids are working at their desks. In a little while we'll have devotions and put the kids to bed, then I'm going to head over to Sam & Tammy's house for some games. It's been a while since we've been able to get together and we've been missing it! I'm soooooooo ready to whip up on Sam. In anything. :-) It will be the perfect ending to a great day at the end of a series of blah days. But first I'm going to check and see if there's any new excitement over on Mama's blog. It's been so fun there the last day or two! ;-) Ah yes, Life is Grand!!! Hope you're all doing as well. Until next time...

~Rebekah~

6 comments

Plumb Tuckered

Posted by cokelady

That's me. Don't ask what I've been up to though--I can't seem to remember much. I guess that's not entirely true. I was able to get caught up on all of the laundry and ironing that I'd only been chipping away at periodically for the past couple of weeks--and it was certainly "much"! Enough to keep me up until 3:00am last night. I know, I know. That is soooooooooooo dumb. But it had to be done. It just wasn't going to happen in the daylight hours and everybody was out of clothes. And I wasn't just ironing until that hour, I was also tending to Sam from time to time up until 3:00 when he finally gave out for the night. He, on occasion, wakes during the night crying and usually tells me that his feet or legs hurt. Growing pains, I assume. He's been having nights like that here lately and last night was one of the worst. This, of course, is why I'm so wiped out today.

Last night James got the garden space all ready for us and the whole family headed out back to plant! How fun, hu?! Don't know how successful we'll be, but it'll be fun trying anyway. We planted some corn, watermelons, pumpkins, carrots and bell peppers. I'll have to post pictures of it one of these days--James built a cute little split rail fence around the area in hopes of keeping the kids and dog out of it. We'll see.

The kids and I went to lunch with Tammy today just for the fun of it. That was nice. Came home and put the kids down for a nap for a little while and I cleaned things up a little bit. Afterward we went out back to play ball for a while. We threw Joe's football around a little bit, then they got out the big, fat plastic bat and the tennis ball. I was tossing the ball to them and Katie and Joe were both hitting really good tonight, so I told them I'd teach them how to really play baseball. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. No matter what you say, kids in their first attempt to learn the sport really don't attempt to learn anything at all. There's no way to make them do things right. The first several times they they hit the ball they took of running with the bat still in hand. I finally got them talked into dropping the bat, but that only produced a worse situation. They then began a swing/drop-the-bat combo move that translated into slinging the bat wildly across the yard (usually at the pitcher) whether they even hit the ball or not. And it doesn't matter how many times you map out the simple 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Home route to them, they are bound and determined to forge a new trail. Katie hit the ball and commenced weaving wildly about the entire yard, through the swing set, around the back of the pool--all the while giggling uncontrollably. Then the first time I tagged her "out" she crumpled into a ball on the grass and started crying. "But Mom, why do I have to be out???" She doesn't even know what that means. I told her that baseball players do not cry when they get "out" and to quit it or she'd have to go inside. She did better after that, but hoooo-ey, it is exhausting to take on such challenges. Why would anybody ever agree to coach Little League?!

We were all hot and sweaty and tired, so we sat down with some popsicles, then hopped in the pool for a little while. Hershey jumped up on the bulge (it's bulging more than ever for some reason and provides a perfect ledge for him to come investigate what's going on inside), then he stepped up onto the inflatable ring at the top of the pool. Have I ever mentioned that he's not the brightest dog in the world? Naturally, he slipped off and fell into the pool. ~sigh~ He hated it, of course, and was out in no time giving a great illustration of "the rips." You know, that ritual dogs do when they're wet and hyper--running at Mach 4 in and out and over and under and around and through whatever happens to be there. Then he pulled the ole' drop down and roll in the dirt and grass move. Just what you want your wet dog to do. Dumb dog.

Before I forget, I was going to tell you about the punk kids the other night. Not my own this time--somebody else's. I was sitting at my computer at about 10:00pm and suddenly heard some commotion coming from out back. I peeked out the blinds and saw a flurry of teenagers--in our back yard!!! They were already headed for the back fence, but when James and I slung the back door open they began their own attempt at "the rips." Remember, we have an 8' cinderblock privacy fence out back. There were a couple of girls who managed to get the gate open, but all of the guys went scurrying over the top of the fence as if it was a speed bump. Amazing!!! We still can't figure out what they were up to, but it was quite exciting. I was already almost giggling as we slung the door open, just imagining their panic at being "caught." Ha! Boy, did they skedaddle quick! I can't imagine they were up to any real mischief (not that many of them together, making that much noise--and having that much fun), probably just kids being kids, and I thoroughly enjoyed giving them that extra little rush of adrenaline. :-)

Our own kids have been keeping us on our toes this week as well. A few days ago the boys were suddenly getting very rowdy in the bathtub, so I went to investigate. There were big blobs of bubbles all over each of them, all over the shower walls, and some in various other places around the bathroom. Their explaination? "Snowball fight." That was almost as good as Katie's explanation when Joe said she hit him with a rock today. "I didn't throw it at him, I just dropped it gently on his head." Oh, that's soooooooo much better.

I told Joe to go clean his room up before bedtime the other night and he started moaning and groaning about it. I told him he could either clean it up happily, or he could be spanked for his bad attitude, sent to bed early, then clean it before breakfast the next day. He pondered that for a few seconds then asked, "How many licks would it take?" That kid!!! I said, "Joe... CLEAN YOUR ROOM!" He called my bluff, I guess. There really wasn't an option--he was going to do it before bed! And he did. :-)

Oh, and I can't leave this one out. We were getting ready for church on Sunday and Joe came to me very concerned and said that Sam was saying that he didn't like God. I told him I'd be there in a few minutes and he went back to the bedroom with Sam. Joe came back a couple of minutes later and said that he had talked to Sam and that it's all okay now--Sam says he loves God after all. Then Sam came out and told me, "If ya' don't like God He'll kill ya'. So I like 'im." HA! I told him that that wasn't exactly the case, but close--but that I was glad he liked Him either way. Make me wonder what kind of counselling he was getting from his big brother! Ha!

Okay, I should go. I'm going to try real hard to be alseep by 11:00 tonight. I think I've done that really dumb thing that I do, though. I had a window of opportunity at about 9:00 (about the time I started this post, I think--before several interruptions) when I was really feeling the lack of sleep from last night and was just sooooooooo tired. I didn't go to bed then and now it's 10:40 and I'm wired. I always get my second wind when I really need to be turning in for the night. I've been that way since I was a teenager, as any girl who ever had the misfortune of staying with me can attest to. Will I ever grow out of it?! ~sigh~ Not tonight, I'm afraid. But I'm going to try to talk myself into being tired anyway or I'll really regret it tomorrow!

~Becki~

6 comments

"I'll Blog Today if You Will"

Posted by cokelady

Now, why would I go and say something stupid like that? I know better than that! But I did say it. And she blogged. So here I am, at 10:00, blogging. When I should be cleaning the house and doing the laundry! I've spend most of my life outside this past week and although the yard is looking better and better all the time, the house has suffered tremendously. I just can't seem to get back on top of things in here! That's okay though--I'll just BLOG my night away instead of working. I'm sure James will appreciate it. It's all your fault, Mom! How could I have known that you'd really blog tonight?! You sounded so tired, I was just sure you'd drop off before you had a chance. Thanks a lot, Ma. ~sigh~ I lose.

But my loss is Blogland's gain, right?! HA! I know you've all been anxiously awaiting pictures of my red "barn" and The Blob, as we affectionately call our swimming pool. There have been lots of exciting happenings to report, too. If only I could remember them!

Let's see, Monday was spent spraying the fence and barn. Tuesday was spent doing all of the trim work for the barn and James' office and everything else. Wednesday... I don't remember Wednesday. I know we spent a few more hours outside, planting more flowers--in the same bed as the rose bushes this time. It filled things in rather nicely and will look really good if these flowers do as well as the first ones we planted. Thursday... Hhmmm. I can't remember Thursday either. Seems like something happened Thursday... Ah yes! We decided to forego regular school that day to devote our time to learning to tie shoes!!! Okay, okay, go ahead. Let it all out. "What?! You mean to tell me that your kids didn't know how to tie their shoes yet?! And how old are they?! What kind of a rotten Mom are you, anyway?!" It's the same conversation I've been having with myself for a year or two now. But somehow I never thought of tying shoes until it was time to load up and go somewhere and in such instances there isn't time to teach them to do it themselves. So we actually scheduled it. Is that pitiful, or what?! But it was well worth it, as Katie is now an expert tie-er and Joe is honing his skills as well. Sam wasn't invited to class, which was okay with him. "I don't wanna learn," he kept saying. "No worries," I kept saying, "I have no intention of putting myself through that today!" ;-) I know it's nothing to be proud of (they are 5 and 6 years old!), but one of these days I'm going to teach them to ride their bikes, too, and then I can pass the Worst Mom in the World award on to some other procrastinating dope of a Mom.

We had a good ABM service that night (2 visitors), then stayed and discussed our building situation for a while afterward. We had a good discussion and a really good prayer and are going to take the next week or two really exploring our options and praying for God to open the right doors for us. That little Church of Christ building I mentioned (the one that has always felt like it should be ours!) doesn't seem like a possiblity, but we're really praying about it. Tammy talked to the owner about letting us rent it; something she's never been willing to consider before. She didn't seem too thrilled with the idea this time either, but at least she agreed to pray about it for a few days before saying no. ;-) So we're trusting that the God who holds the king's heart in His hands and turns the rivers of water withersoever He will, will work HIS WILL in this situation, whatever that may be. Thank you all for the prayers--I know that lots of our churches are in the same situation right now. It feels so good to pray for one another and help take each other's needs to the Lord in prayer!

Yesterday we drove to Odessa to have Stacey cut the boys' hair. They were starting to look like a couple of hippies. Gross. I was trying to hold off until just before Camp and Convention, but they just couldn't wait another two weeks! After the haircuts we always go to lunch with Stacey. This time it was McAllister's Deli. Yum. We got home in the evening and I sent the kids out to play in the backyard for a little while before bedtime. It wasn't too long before I heard a Sam scream--a real one. (You can always tell the difference between a "Hey, I've been mistreated and I don't like it" scream and a "Hey, I've got a serious injury here!" scream.) I headed out back and was not prepared for what I saw. Sam was walking toward me, still screaming and crying, and all I could see was blood coming from the area of his left eye. It wasn't gushing--thank the Lord!--but even just a slow drip from a kid's eye is pretty scary! I was on the phone with Mom and told her to pray and I'd call her back, and I started praying--hard! He had a cut just above his eyeball and another below it, and the area below was dark, dark purple and already swelling up pretty big. I took him inside and got a wet rag to wipe away the blood and assess the injury. We prayed hard and kept the cold rag and some ice on him for a little while. I was amazed at how much better it looked in just a few minutes!!! I'm still amazed. I know that God touched him--and that He protected him from a much worse injury! Those dumb boys had been playing outside and started throwing chunks of wood at each other!!!! That's how this happened. You know what that means. Big, big punishments--including another week-long weapons ban for poor Joe. I tell ya', that kid just barely makes it through one probation period before another one begins! Anyway, I'm soooooooo thankful that Sam's eye is okay--God is good to us!!!

Today was a good, fun day. There is a ventriloquist lady who comes to Andrews once a year and puts on a great show for the kids at the library. She is soooooo good and the kids laugh as hard or harder as I've ever seen them. This was our third year to see her and we wouldn't miss it for the world! The lady's name is Nancy and she's got four "kids": Charlotte, a monkey girl; Waco and Lily, both weasels; and Larry the crocodile--always the kids' favorite.

After the show the library gives out free hot dogs and bottles of water, so we took ours and went to Aunt Sue's store to sit down and enjoy them as well as a nice visit with Aunt Sue! Afterwards we came home and I put the kids down for nap time. James got home from Odessa after a little while and we all headed out to the back yard again! The kids swam while I added mulch to all of the flower beds and James conquered dozens of miscellanious chores including building a "box" around the air conditioner out back (it's quite an eyesore) and building a miniature split rail fence around what will be our garden area and getting a tarp strapped down over the swamp cooler on the roof and I don't even know what else. I just know he was out there for a long, long time working very, very hard. What a guy!

That's about it from here. Not really, but I'm sure I've posted enough now to make you wish I'd stop, so I'll do just that! Just remind me to tell you about the punk teenagers next time. It was the most exciting thing to happen around here in a long, long time. Well, next to having a Blob for a pool and a kid almost lose an eyeball and... well, you know. ;-) Have a great Sunday!

Ah yes, and here are a whole slew of pictures. I've been uploading them while I've been typing and I really don't want to take the time to organize them and put them in place, so I'll just slap them up here and try to explain along the way. Here we go!

This is, of course, Nancy and Larry

And this is Joe enjoying Nancy and Larry!

And Sam sporting his best boxer's look. (You can't possibly imagine by the looks of this picture how bad it looked yesterday!!!)

Here are the kids in the Blob for the very first time. The pictures don't do justice here, either. It looks so much worse in person! (I wish I could get an aerial view of it! Ha!)

Following is a series of before and after pictures of the backyard. James didn't really want me to put any of these up yet because we're not finished yet, but I just couldn't help it! Sure, there's more to do (like one more coat of paint on the fence to rid ourselves of the streaks that we weren't aware of until the next day! Ha!), but I'm already so proud of us!!! Just look...

Ah yes, did I mention that we moved the pool??? We drained the thing and relocated it several feet hoping to convince it to take on the nicely rounded shape that the picture on the box indicates it should be. But it really didn't improve things very much. I think it had been stretched out into it's amoeba shape so long that it just doesn't know what else to do now!

And one more of "the barn"! Dontcha' love it?! :-)

This is a little diagram on the side of the pool indicating that you really shouldn't set it up on a slanted surface. We, of course, didn't notice this little illustration until after the pool was set up--and when we did notice it, the picture was half hidden "under" the pool because it was so warped! Ha! I took this picture after we relocated the pool and it's actually much better than it used to be. :-)

Oh! I've got to share! When we set the pool up the second time (thinking it would be level and perfectly circular--ha!) we began filling it, then left the house. When the kids and I got home and went to check on it, it had already filled up a litle bit too far. It's only supposed to come up to the very bottom of the inflatable ring at the top, but on the slant side of the pool (!) it was already up a couple of inches onto the ring. (The other side of the pool had several inches to go before the water would even reach it!) No biggie, I thought. Then I had the great idea of setting the swing set up really close to the pool (I'm sure you noticed in the pictures) so the kids would be able to swing and jump off into the pool. Would that be fun, or what?! Great idea!!! But I seemed to overlook the fact that my kids are a bunch of chickens. No way are they jumping into the pool. (I can't even get them to go down the slide I put in for them without a floaty on!) After a while I saw Katie on the swing and I got real excited thinking this was going to be a lot of fun--so I ran outside to watch her. I made a special point of telling her, "DO NOT land on the side of the pool--make sure you land out in the water." Incidently, I happened to set the swing set up on the side of the pool that was on the downward slope, thus the side where the water was already halfway up the inflatable ring. Katie worked up her courage, then promptly lost it when the time came to jump. She pretty much dropped straight down off the swing and directly onto the inflatable ring, pushing it down. The water began overflowing. And I don't mean dripping--we're talkin' pair 'em up, Noah, one more time!!! That whole half of the pool dropped down and began a torrential river threatening to wash away the eastern half of our yard. I had no shoes on and happened to be wearing my favorite pair of summer socks and wasn't about to take a chance of ruining them in the mud (I'm banking on you to back me up on this one, Em!), so I turned and ran into the house to fetch the shoes that were just inside the door--leaving Katie standing in the middle of the collapsing pool screaming bloody murder--

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!,"

...over and over again. By the time I got back outside (less than 10 seconds since Katie's fateful drop from the swing) the pool was beginning to right itself and all was well. Except for a still trembling and screaming child in the middle of the Blob. At that point it all suddenly became hilariously funny and I have enjoyed playing the entire scene over and over in my head since then. James didn't find it quite so amusing as I did (Cholerics miss out on so much!) and has since moved the swingset to a new and very distant location in relation to the pool. But it was a truly great memory that I intend to cherish always. :-)

Okay, that's really it! G'night again!!!

~Bec~

5 comments

Ouch!

Posted by cokelady

That's the word from my arms, my feet, and my back. Sissies. They used to hold up to about anything, but these days they seem to be turning into a bunch of big whiners. Wish I could figure out how to get them to straighten up and just do their job without all the fuss! My arms are sunburned, my ankles and feet are swollen (they look like my Mom's pudgy feet... just a lot longer! Ha!), I have a blister on my toe, and my back is pulling that silly trick where it makes me walk like Quasimodo for the first 10 or 12 steps when I get up from a chair. The bunch of bozos.

But complain as they may, they were unable to deter me from the task at hand and I was able to complete the painting in the backyard today! YEAH!!!! Thank you, thank you--you may all be seated now. Oh, thank you. Yes, yes, thank you. ~sigh~ It feels sooooooooo good. Actually, I guess it doesn't exactly feel good (as was discussed in paragraph #1), but it sure looks good! And don't go nutty on me, Kasey--I'll have some pictures up here soon enough. ;-) Anyway, I spent all day doing the trim work on the shed, James' office, and touch up on other miscellanious locations round about the house.

The kids spent a lot of time in the pool again today, especially Katie. She and I both got a little too much sun on our arms. But due to that Cherokee blood we inherited (thanks, Dad!), we didn't burn badly and it will just settle into a brown in the next day or two. It's so nice not to have to worry about burning and peeling! Joe is our little albino boy; the one who will have the most woes with the sun. He got a little burnt today, too, but it must not be bothering him because he hasn't mentioned it. Anyway, I started painting just after 9:00 this morning and I think I finished up at about 4:30. I never even stopped for lunch (I did grab a pickle on my way back from the bathroom once...weird) because I just wanted to get it done! Trim work always takes so much time. For me, anyway. But in the end it's worth it all and I love our "new" backyard! When James and I got everything cleaned up I climbed into the pool to cool off for a few minutes. It's amazing how good that feels!!!

When I got out, we decided it was time to pull the plug on the infamous amoeba pool. We emptied it out all over the yard (hope the pecan tree likes chlorine!) and will set it up in a new, more level location tomorrow. Don't worry--I have pictures of the bulging mass from a few days ago. I'll post them together with whatever else happens to be on my camera. Maybe tomorrow. Only time will tell. I know better than to make any promises.

We had Ladies' Bible Study tonight and another brand new visitor joined us! This is sooooooooo exciting!!! In the past month or so, we've had 10 brand new visitors!!! WOW!!! It is just sooooooooo exciting!!! And two of them have barely missed a service since they're first service with us several weeks ago. God is doing something so special here in Andrews and I just can't wait to see what's next! Speaking of which...

I mentioned this briefly in my last post, but pleeeeeeeeeeease pray for us to find God's will concerning a location for our services!!! We've been renting the First Christian church for the past year or so. It has worked pretty well for us and we're thankful to have had it, but it is a huge building (it kind of swallows up our group right now!) and it only has a swamp cooler. In Texas, that's a bad, bad thing! It is almost unbearably hot in the summertime and the cooler is so loud that it's extremely difficult to hear what's being said in service. Those are two very bad things. So...

This past Saturday, James and I noticed a store front building that was available for rent. It's really rather small (we could fit, but wouldn't have any extra room at all) and the rent is a little higher than what we're paying right now. It would be wonderful to have our very own place so we could start having regular service times (right now we meet from 12:00-2:00 on Sundays and at 7:00 on Thursdays) and be able to have our own sign and flags and song books out all the time and ready to go. But the guy wasn't willing to budge on the price and was wanting quite a bit up front--he really didn't act like he wanted us there anyway. And then if we did get it, we'd have to find some way to furnish it with chairs and a pulpit and all that stuff! Besides that, he wants a 1 year lease. We're hoping that we keep growing and won't even be able to fit in that little building a year from now! So that one isn't looking real promising.

But... at the Sno-Cone sale on Sunday afternoon the pastor of a little Methodist church came by and started talking to Sam & Tammy. He said that his congregation might be willing to rent their building to us--he'll be talking to them tomorow night to find out. We all went over and looked at it tonight. The building itself is perfect. The sanctuary is much smaller than where we are now and would fit us better, but still give plenty of room to grow. There is a beautiful kitchen and nice fellowship area and three very nice Sunday School rooms. We could probably even move our service time up an hour on Sundays, which would help. It has refrigerated air, so that eliminates the heat and noise problem that we have in our current location. In fact, the only really bad thing about it is the sanctuary itself. I mean, it's really nice, but... it's just sooooooooooo not Church of God!!! It's got two pulpits, one on the left and one on the right. (This building we're in right now is the same way--weird!) and it's got lots of big, shiny banners hanging here and there, some funky stained glass windows, a big Christian flag in the front along with lots of ornate stuff--a big shiny gold cross and suchlike sitting on a table up on the platform. And it has alters up front, but they're not the kind that anybody would really pray at. They have a pad of some kind down low, then a slat of wood that is up high. Makes me think formal and Catholic or something. It just doesn't look like the kind of altar that you could picture somebody crumpled on the floor in front of, tears streaming down their face, pouring their heart out to God! The whole thing just feels so stuffy and not us. ~sigh~ The pastor is extremely nice and everything about the building itself is perfect. But... It's so hard to know what to do. I know that you can worship anywhere, but we would so love to be able to have our own place and be able to make it look and feel like The Church of God in there, top to bottom! God knows our heart and He knows our need. He also has the answers. Ah yes, that reminds me!

The Church here owns a little lot on the north end of town and we've had it up for sale off and on for a couple of years. We've never had any interest in it. Until today. We received two different offers on it today!!! Is that just too weird, or what?! The land isn't worth very much money, but it's not usable for us and it's not doing us any good just sitting there, so any money at all is better than nothing. And it just seems so strange for this to be happening right now--while these different building opportunities are presenting themselves and while we're having all of these visitors coming. What is it that God is trying to do??? We want to know so bad it's killing us! There is a little Church of Christ building that is soooooooooooo Church of God looking (we've been inside of it) and it's been sitting vacant since before we moved here four years ago. The owner wants a ridiculously large amount of money for it (twice it's value, probably) and it's way out of our range. (Even at it's true value! Ha!) But we've always just kind of felt like it should be ours, you know?! Is that bad??? ~sigh~ Anyway, we are in desperate need of God's will here right now and I know that He's working something out for our good. We just want to be careful not to jump at one thing when He may have something else planned! So please help us pray.

Ooooh. I did it again. I clogged up my own blog with "serious" talk instead of goofiness. Sorry! But I couldn't help it this time--we would soooooooo appreciate any extra prayers we can get on this matter!

I'll spare you any more. Let me just say again... my backyard looks terrific!!! That means, of course, that my house is trashed. ~sigh~ Why can't it all be nice at the same time?! As of tomorrow, I'm hoping it will be. Wish me luck! Later, ya'll!!!

~Becki~

9 comments

Just Another Day

Posted by cokelady

Not hardly!!! Actually, it started off normal enough. I woke up a little bit earlier than usual, which was wonderful. I've been stuck in this terrible rut of being wide awake until 2:00am or so each night (!!!) and then I'm sooooooo exhausted when the kids wake up early the next day. Anyway, it was great to finally wake up feeling good and energized. So energized, in fact, that while the kids were eating breakfast I decided to do some serious cleaning in the bathroom. I emptied everything out of the shower and spent a while giving the walls and tub a good scrubbing, then the toilet, then I emptied out the medicine chest (don't worry, that's just a token name for it around here! ;-) Ha!) and got everything cleaned up and in it's rightful place once more.

That's as far as I got before I decided to stop and have devotions with the kids. Then we were able to get all of their school done before lunch time. Made grilled tuna sandwiches and ramen noodles. It was great! :-) After lunch we had the kids clean the house, then threw them into that blob of a pool we've got out back. James and I were discussing it's problems and taking note that it's shape continues to change and it seems to be getting more and more oblong and the bulge is growing... it may make it all the way to the fence by the end of the week! We're afraid it's putting way too much pressure where there wasn't intended to be so much and our only real option is to empty the thing out and move it to more level ground. But the level ground happens to be right by the fence. But we can't put anything right by the fence because we haven't had a chance to paint the fence yet. That's when it occurred to James: "Let's paint it, then!!!" See, we've been waiting for a nice day with no rain (we've been under constant thunderstorm or tornado watches for weeks now) and no wind--very hard to come by days like that in West Texas. But today it was nice and sunshiny and there was only a very small breeze. And amazingly enough, it wasn't unbearably hot today. Perfect!!!

So we drug the paint sprayer out of the shed. Problem. There's no spray nozzle and no instruction manual. Where could they be?!?!? I spent the next hour (very possibly more) cleaning out the shed (it was in desperate need of it anyway), then cleaning out every closet where we've ever kept paint stuff. (As much painting as we've done around here, we've used several closets!) I was just about to snap when the nozzle and manual just kind of dropped out of nowhere into my lap and it was really rather frustrating that I hadn't found it right away. ANYWAY, by this time it was about 2:30 in the afternoon. We got the thing put together and started to work! We sprayed a second coat of cream paint on James office (we'd done the first coat last year), then switched to brown for the fence. I ran to the hardware store and picked up some red (burgundy, really) so we could paint the doors and shed. We got it all done!!!! It feels sooooooo good!!! Of course, when I say "all done," I don't really mean all done. You're never all done when it comes to painting. I've learned that quite well. I've probably got a full day's worth of brush work to do tomorrow to trim everything out. But then maybe, just maybe, we'll really and truly be done. You think?! Nah, me either.

So the kids. We left 'em in the pool pretty much all day. They'd shrivelled up until they could shrivel no more and we finally took them out for "nap time." We went back to painting, then came and got them up after a while and threw them back in the pool again! Joe looks a little red, but not really burnt. Katie and Sam have a darker complexion to begin with and I figure they'll look like regular beach bums by the end of the summer! The kids had been neglected all throughout the afternoon, but they didn't seem to notice. They love our retarded pool. But at about 6:00 I called Tammy and asked if she could come over and keep an eye on them for a little while so we could finish up. She, being the wonderful, marvellous, amazing friend that she is, said yes. :-) She came and pulled our wrinkly kids out of the pool, fixed some pizzas for them, and let them sit in the den and watch Paladin while she cleaned up my atrociously filthy kitchen. There were pots and pans and dirty dishes all over the place--I hadn't even had a chance to clear the dishes from lunch time! I was so embarrassed. But I must tell you, they just don't make friends any better than Tammy. Not in all the world. She's the greatest. :-)

When we finished painting I sat down to enjoy my own pizza and visit with Tammy for a little while. We put the kids down and she stayed until about 9:00. Then I went out to clean up some of the paint mess in the backyard and James decided to enjoy a nice, cool soak in the pool. I tried to take a picture of him, but the batteries in the camera died. It's probably a sign. I know I shouldn't put pictures of such things on my blog, but it sure would have been tempting. He was wearing a t-shirt and his pajama bottoms and was completely submerged in the water up to his neck. He had that green floaty ring around his neck and all you could see was his head peeking through the middle of it--and he had the big floaty stick things sticking up out of the water, spinning them around and around like crazy legs or misplaced antennas or something--all the while saying, "TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER!" Ha! It was great!!! I got my mess cleaned up and found my old rainbow striped bloomers (thanks, Mom!) and joined James in the pool. It felt soooooooo good!!! My Mom (and others, I'm sure) will freak out about this, but we even grabbed the dog and pulled him in with us! I generally wouldn't do such a thing, but we're going to be emptying the pool out tomorrow anyway, so why not?! It was hilarious!!! It had been driving Hershey nuts that we were outside, but he couldn't get to us. I finally pulled him into the pool and let him go. It was his first time in water (aside from a bath) and he wasn't too crazy about it. I thought I read somewhere that the name "poodle" actually came from the word "puddle" because they used to be used as bird dogs and they loved the water. Not Hershey Dog. He literally moaned the whole time he was swimming laps! I grabbed some shampoo and scrubbed him up real good (remember--we're getting fresh water tomorrow!) and he wasn't too crazy about that either, but he really needed it.

Came inside, showered up, and now I think I'm going to go finish cleaning that half-cleaned bathroom that I started on this morning. I didn't get anything done that I planned on doing today, but I got a whole lot done that I never would've expected! And it feels sooooooo good. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow night if I get everything finished out there. Everything is looking so nice and fresh and clean! I love it. :-) Especially the red shed. It looks so happy! And I have a feeling we'll be calling it the barn instead of the shed from here on out. ;-)

AND--this should have been the first thing I wrote about, it's so exciting!!! My cousin Stacey's husband, Albert, came to church yesterday!!! WOW!!! Those of you who know the situation know what a huge miracle that is. We were soooooooooo thrilled. We all went out to eat together after service and he seemed to enjoy both the service and the fellowship. We're praying that he'll be back again and again! He's even talking about going to Family Camp, so pleeeeeeeeeeease pray that God will work it out and put it in Albert's heart to follow through. His salvation would be the most transforming thing imaginable in our local church--it would be an unbelievable blessing!!!

Also, we are looking into changing our service location and are really needing God's wisdom to know what to do. We've got a couple of possibilites, but we want to be sure and find the one that God has for us. I'll keep you posted.

Guess that's it from here. I've got another half of a bathroom to clean, so I'd best get going. I hope I'm as energetic tomorrow as I was today! I'd love to have a few really crazily productive, hard working days, then reward myself with a nice relaxing do-nothing-but-enjoy-the-fruit-of-my-labors kind of day. ;-) G'night!!!

~Becki~

4 comments

Quite a Day

Posted by cokelady

Yes, indeed. Actually, yesterday was a pretty good one, too. The kids and I spent the morning doing the same ole, same ole, but then Tammy came over in the afternoon. James works just one day a week at Mardel now, so that's always our Girl Day. Tammy comes over and brings me a Frito Wrap for lunch, or we'll have Totino's pizzas, or tuna fish sandwiches. Yesterday was tuna day. Yum. The only time I ever eat it is when Tammy's around, so it makes it extra good! I let the kids watch a movie and eat popcorn in the den and Tammy and I played games for a while.

James called and asked if the kids and I wanted to meet him for dinner in Odessa when he got off work. That cut Girl Day a little short, but it was still fun. I love having Tammy around to hang out with. I don't know how I made it here for 3 years without her! Anyway, she helped me get the kids looking good (what a pal!), then she went her way and the kids and I headed down to The Barn Door to meet James. It's a really great restaurant that looks like--you guessed it--a barn. They cook all of the steaks in the middle of the restaurant and it's decorated real nice. They bring you fresh baked loaves of bread and a huge block of cheese to start with. Of course, the kids and I end up ordering the same thing we would at a fast food joint (burger for Katie and me and chicken strips for the boys), but it feels like we're doing something different in the great atmosphere. And I don't know about the chicken, but the burger is soooooooooo much better than fast food. ;-)

Sam finally filled up his chart, so we went to Big Lots and let him pick out his "special thing" for being a good boy. He found a Thomas the Train book for his Leap Pad for $4, so it worked out well. We went to Target and bought 3 cases (yes, you read that right: three) of Vanilla Coke and one case of regular. It was only $2.75 per case--what were we to do?! :-) We also bought Pride and Prejudice. I had read the book a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I thought we'd give the movie a try. We watched it last night and, although it was too girly for James, I thought it was very good. All except for the scene with all of the naked sculptures. Eew!!! It could have been worse, but it was still too much for me! (I'll be skipping that scene next time!)

Today was Sno-Cone day again, so I took Katie down to Thriftway with me to meet Tammy. After an hour or two James came down with the boys and picked up Katie and left Joe. Another hour or two later we switched out and I had Sam. It worked soooooooo good! The kids all had fun and got to enjoy the sale (and several sno-cones, of course), but weren't there long enough to get too worn out or bored. Tammy and I, on the other hand, were there long enough to get some pretty impressive sunburns. I don't burn very easily, but the west Texas sun was beating down hard through most of the day today and I could almost hear my skin sizzling. Actually, I don't feel burnt, but I think I look it. In fact, James said about an hour ago, "You are really red." The he paused and said, "You look like your Dad," followed promptly with, "Don't expect me to kiss you!" Ha! Anyway, the sale went okay, but it's always really hard on the first day because you're trying to recupe the money you spent to rent the machine. In fact, when it was all said and done I think we'd profitted all of $10 or $15 today!!! Add that to what we had from the last sales and we have enough money to pay Camp tuition for 2 and 1/2 kids. It will be interesting to decide which half a kid can't go. I'm guessing it will be Sam's top half--we'll need the bottom half since I'm sure it will be needing spanked periodically. ;-) Seriously, it will all turn out okay. We'll set up again tomorrow and everything we make will be complete profit, so that helps. Then we'll have another two-day sale in a couple of weeks, so we should be able to pay for two or three adult tuitions along with 3 kid ones. That will help sooooooooo much.

Then there was the rest of the evening. There's good news and bad news. The good news is: we have a swimming pool. The bad knews is: it has a hernia. James has been looking at pools for the kids and pricing them for a few weeks now. We finally decided on a 10' round pool (only about 2 and 1/2' deep) with an inflatable ring around the top--it was a great price and the sale ended today. So we came home and the whole family went to work in the back yard clearing an area to set it up. There is this one section of the yard that had tons of white rocks in it--right where we thought we wanted the pool. So we spent quite some time filling the wagon and wheelbarrow with rocks to clear the area. We did a good job and got most of the rocks out of the way. We noticed that the ground sloped slightly downward in that area (where the rocks USED to be), but thought, "Ah, no big deal." Okay, so it was me. I thought, "Ah, no big deal." We spread the pool out on the tarp we'd bought and started to fill 'er up. The fuller it got, the more deformed it got! Now, I'm well aware of the fact that water, as any other liquid, takes on the shape of it's container, but somehow it didn't occur to me as a problem when considering the "dip" where those white rocks used to be. Until the pool was about half full, that is. Suddenly we began detecting a problem. Our round pool is really more egg-shaped and--get this--we have a deep end! HA! And, of course, due to the slope, the "shallow end" of the pool can't be filled all the way up, so it kid of sags over there and bulges out below the inflatable ring like a giant pot-bellied stove. I actually got in the pool tonight and I almost slipped and fell when I got over to the "deep end" because the slope was so steep! I told James that we're going to have to get one of those dividers with the little floaty devices on it to rope off the deep end of the pool so the kids don't get hurt! HA! We've got a 10' pool and I can just see us out there screaming, "Joe!!! Get away from the deep end!!!" Ha! It's going to be so great!!! I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow afternoon. And I will do my wifely duty here. James wants everybody to know that it was my idea to put the pool in it's present location, not his. If we would have put it where he wanted it, it would've been on level ground and would be perfectly circular and not look as if it has a tumor on one side. It's all my doing. Now you know. But really, anybody could have a plain ole' round pool. Only a family with lots of personality would have an oblong one that looks like it's trying to crawl across the yard. I kind of like it the way it is. It's more fun! Yeah, that's it! What a fun, crazy pool we have! It's GREAT! I'm liking it better all the time!!! (I wish James could learn to find the silver lining. Cholerics have no idea what they're missing out on.)

Okay, that's it from here. It's getting late and I need to get some things together for Sunday School tomorrow. Hope you all have wonderful services!!!

~Bec~

3 comments