...came at 8:07 yesterday morning. James hadn't emerged from the bedroom yet, Katie was still fast asleep, Joe was sitting on the couch reading a book, I was reading some smart remark about the way I spell "hu" (more on that later), and Sam was just playing with some toys on the floor. Or so I thought. Next thing I knew, Sam was screaming, holding his face and running full speed through the house. I had seen him out of the corner of my eye and knew that he had been by my sewing table. I glanced at the table and saw a pair of scissors lying there, but they were still neatly closed and there was no blood in sight. My brain was going a thousand miles a minute trying to figure out what had happened. Joe was now screaming and crying from the couch and saying something like, "The can--Sam had the can!!!" I glanced back at the table and saw a can of white spray paint at the same moment that my brain registered hearing a short "fsst" sound just before Sam took off. All of the above took place in the space of about 2 seconds, while I was already chasing after Sam. I immediately began praying fervently and scooped Sam up to check him out. He was still screaming and holding his eye, of all things, so I rushed him to the kitchen sink and began flushing his eye out with water. Joe was still screaming and James and Katie were now standing wide-eyed in the kitchen asking what had happened. I sat Sam up and examined his eyes as best I could (like I really know what I'm looking for!) and he said he could see me good with both eyes, so we just thanked Jesus and sat down to get our heartrates back to normal. As short as the "fsst" was--and from a can that hadn't been shaken at all--I really think very little, if any, paint reached him. I think he got a blast of air and it probably hurt, but mostly scared him really bad. And the rest of us, too! This is the same eye that was injured by a chunk of flying wood last month. ~sigh~ That kid wears me out!!! (And yes, the spray paint has been removed from his reach. Although I honestly don't think he'll ever touch another can of it of his own free will!)
What a way to start the day! The rest of the day ended up being rather dull, really. But that was fine. We had enough excitement right off the bat to last us all day. I do remember the kids playing "church" yesterday afternoon. It was hilarious. Katie and Sam were both perched up on pillows on the couch with their Bibles open in front of them. There were five chairs lined up in a row facing them. Joe was the only occupant and he explained that he was the only one who came to church today, so they were just pretending the other chairs were filled. The best part was the dueling preachers. Katie was preaching in "Spanish" and she really does have the ability to sound like she's saying Spanish words--she can do the accent pretty well for a 6 year old. And Sam... HA! Sam said he was preaching in French. It was soooooooooo great! He would get his best preacher's face on (all scrunched up and mean looking), then start hollering for all he was worth in some rather violent sounding lingo--he really sounded more like Atilla the Hun than a Frenchman, but I didn't want to give him any ideas so I didn't mention it. Either way, it was great! Joe, of course, preferred the French sermon. :-)
I sat down to play Memory with the kids last night. Katie is soooooooooo good at that game. She remembers exactly where the fish was that somebody turned over 8 minutes ago and can pick it out any time she needs it. It's great! The part that's not great is her attitude. She's such a snob! She brags and rubs it in and is otherwise just a terrible person to have to lose to. So I figured it was my duty to teach her a lesson. I ended up wiping her out pretty good and it humbled her, but only slightly. Joe is so opposite from Katie. When the game was over and we counted up the cards to see who won, he was thrilled for me. "Wow, Mom! You won the game! You did great!!!" And there were no sideways glances at Katie, so I know it to be sincere instead of a jab at her losing, too. We played another game and Katie was cleaning up! She is soooooooo good! Joe had some good luck, too, though and I do mean luck. Just plain, simple, dumb luck. I can't tell you how many matches he stumbled into. He was always so shocked and that made it all the more exciting. I worked my very hardest and finally managed to take the lead from Katie just before the game ended. She has got to learn to lose gracefully! (I know what you're thinking! Don't even start--I know how to lose gracefully, there are just certain people I refuse to lose gracefully to! Ha!)
Ah yes, as for my spelling of the word "hu," let it be known that this is my blog and I can spell "hu" however I want to. Hu? Actually, it's a word that I have always chosen to spell that way because "huh" always looks so stupid to me. When I see it I end up pronouncing the "h" at both ends of the word and it sounds like a snide "heh" (you know, like the devious laugh you do when you're about to scare somebody really good or something equally grand) and it colors the sentence entirely different than intended. Besides, there are so many rules of the English language that whoever wrote the language choose to break over and over again. I figure if the people who made it up can't even play by the rules, I should be able to pick one little rule to break for myself. Makes sense, hu, Rachel???? :-)
Hhmmm. Today, today, today. What did I do today? I spent most of the morning with the boys in their room, cleaning like crazy. I made the little pigs crawl under their beds and pull out all of the toys and trash and clothes and whatever else had been crammed under there. Boys are so gross. Joe cleaned out the closet while I sorted through clothes and such and Sam hauled toys to the play room at the other end of the house. Yuck. It felt great to get it done, but you'd never know we did any cleaning at all in there now. When I went to put them to bed the place was trashed. How do they do that so quickly?! The little creeps! It will be clean again before either of them get any breakfast tomorrow, I can tell you that much. And I am not helping this time! I've got enough of my own messes to try to stay on top of without having to take care of theirs over and over again.
James took Katie to Odessa with him for the afternoon, so that left me with the boys. We did a few things together, then I put them down for nap time and had a chance to work on my WMB service for tonight. God really blessed me and it all seemed to fall into place in record time--it was great! About that time I realized that I was really, really tired, so I crashed on the couch. I let the boys get up after a while, on the condition that they stay semi-quiet and leave me alone so I could continue my nap! I slept long and hard, like I hadn't had any sleep in a month! It was GREAT, but I still feel tired. In fact, I sat down to teach my lesson in church tonight! We were in the back room (a more informal setting) anyway, so it was nice to have that luxury.
For those of you who've been wondering what Mom's been up to the last couple of days... Let's see, I've been taking notes so I'd not forget anything important. :-) The biggest thing yesterday is that she had the Zimmermans over for dinner. Smothered elk steaks (although she never lets the company in on that little secret until after they've eaten it--so many people are scared to try anything "exotic" like elk! Ha!) and hot rolls and really great pineapple upside-down cake. Wish I could've been there!
Tonight Dad drove down to Atlanta to have dinner with Aunt Sue and Stacey. They're at market right now buying merchandise to stock the store with. Oh! Megan asked about Aunt Sue's store. It's a country gift shop kind of a place filled with great signs and pictures and candles and tablecloths and knick-knacks and non-essentials of all sorts. :-) She's got a really simple website with some pictures, although none of them are very recent, I'm afraid: willowcreekstore.blogspot.com. Oh, and... Megan, I hereby officially challenge you to a game of Ricky Ticky Bear at your earliest convenience. I take great offense to your statement: "no one beats me at RTB :) okay, maybe a few, but they are all safe down south." We westerners can hold our own and I would love the opportunity to dethrone you. Perhaps during the Annual Address at the Assembly we can find a nice little place in the hallway to duke it out. KIDDING, I'M JUST KIDDING!!!
Mom had Shanna Weekes (is that spelled right?!) over for dinner tonight and it sounds like the two of them had a really nice visit. I'm glad. I don't really know Shanna, but I really, really like her. And she's got to be the best phone-answerer at Headquarters! Ha! She's always so friendly and so efficient. Mom went out and bought some red food coloring so she could make a red velvet cake for dessert tonight, but I forgot to ask how it turned out.
The most exciting news in Mom's life is that she was almost attacked and mauled by a couple of pit bulls. Is that cool, or what?! Mom kept telling me they were bulldogs, but I told James that she probably doesn't know the difference between a bulldog and a pit bull. I was right. Mom had gone out to get the mail and it sounds like her mailbox is out away from the house a decent space. When she turned around to come back these two dogs were just going bazerk and they actually charged her! She knew that she'd never be able to outrun them and make it back to the house so--get this!--she charged them! Ha! Okay, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration. She started yelling and screaming at them and she did take a few steps toward them and was stomping and doing everything she could to scare them off. I don't know if you're getting the same picture in your mind that I got in mind, but if it hadn't been for the real, true danger this would've been just hysterical!!! Mom out there in a denim jumper and her tennis shoes, white hair tied up in a bun, screaming and stomping her foot at a couple of charging pit bulls! HA! All she had with her was the mail, so when they got up to her she started swinging and whopped one of them in the nose with our regional paper (The Western Skies, a thousand and one uses!) and the things actually left!!! Crazy, hu?!
Later on once Dad was home (she'd already told him about the first encounter) she was outside and the dogs showed up and started after her again! This time she went running into the garage screaming "Here they come again!" Dad grabbed a 2x4 and went yelling and swinging after them. He came back inside and asked Mom to give him her meanest scare-the-dogs-away scream. He must not have been too impressed because he took her out back and taught her how to shoot the shotgun! Ha! Now THIS is even better than the previous picture. Bun-n-Jumper Lady marching out to the mailbox every day with a shotgun under her arm! Ha! Ha! Ha! I'm dying!!!
The good news is that the owners of the dogs have been given notice to vacate the property (they were renters and somebody just bought the land) in the next 30 days. That makes Mama a pistol packin' woman for the next month, then she won't have to worry about it anymore. Crazy, hu?!
Well, that's about it from here. And there. :-) Until next time!
~Rebekah~
P.S. -- Oh, I almost forgot two things. For your information, Jay, James was NOT sick of Ramen noodles. That was, indeed, the only thing I had cooked since our trip, but I only cooked 'em once so there's no way could get tired of them! :-) And I'll have you know that I made a ham and cheese stromboli with garlic-cheddar-pepperoni bisquits for dinner last night. So there.
AND... I almost forgot to post this picture of Archie! Yes, it's Archie, not Molly. They finally solved that mystery. (Weird-o's!)
Is he to-die-for cute, or what?! I went over to meet him tonight. He is really, really sweet. The vet said he's only about 4 months old and you can tell that he's been severely neglected. He's very, very skinny and seems to have some kind of nerve problem that the vet thinks will clear up now that he'll have a good home, good food, and lots of love. I know Sam will be praying fervently for him and God usually answers Sam's prayers, so this cute little pooch should be in tip-top shape before you know it! And for the record, Tammy seems to be handling the adjustment very well so far. :-) She "likes" Archie. If she can ever get to the point where she can state "I love that dog," then there are a whole host of us who would just keel over! But I hope for Sam's sake (and Archie's!) that the day arrives! He's a sweet dog. :-)
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