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~