'Nuther Update...

Posted by cokelady

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Okay! Let's see what I can remember...

This is been a fantastic Assembly, thus far. There is just such a freedom to pray and worship and the sermons have been outstanding. Yesterday morning Brother Ammons preached a wonderful message on Theocracy. Soooooo good. After that we went into the committee reports. The Ways & Means stuff went through without a hitch, but Section 1 of the Q & S stuff (concerning the office of General Overseer and how the office is to be declared vacant and when and by whom and then what next, etc.) inspired lots of discussion and failed to go through. The following two sections (concerning the appointment of Field Secretaries and something that I can't seem to recall!) went through. Section 1 is to be brought back up for more discussion or what have you at 12:00 tomorrow. There seem to be several people strongly opposed to the recommendations and it appears very unlikely that this section will be passed. Of course, God is able to turn the hearts of the people if He so chooses. But unless He does I expect to see the section withdrawn.

The afternoon session was the best up to that point, in my opinion! Jon preached a message familiar to some of us (it's the one he preached at last year's Regional Convention) entitled "Drunk with Wine vs. Filled with the Spirit." It was excellent.

Then we went into Maudie Wood's Sunday School program. Again--it was excellent! She is just soooooooooo good!!! She had a lighthouse brought out to the stage and the lights went down, leaving everything dark except herself and the lighthouse. She talked about the storms raging all around us: the wars and terror going on around the world, the sicknesses and diseases people are facing, the broken homes, and on and on and on. She even had storm sound effects going and spoke of the need for LIGHT to shine to those in the midst of the storms.

Sister Prince had been on to preach in the morning session, but was unable to because the Q & S stuff continued on through her time slot. But when Sister Maudie finished her program we still had 30 minutes until our dismissal time, so Dad asked Sister Prince to come ahead with her message. I'm sooooooooo glad God worked it out for us to hear it! She preached an outstanding message on sanctification. She had an illustration of a heart that had a "root" at the bottom of it and different sins coming up from the root: pride, adultery, lies, etc. She said that the root must be gone if we are to end the struggle with the sins that come from it. The last portion of the message was addressed mostly to our young people and their relationships with one another. It was quite wowing, I think! Ha! She had some tomatoes there and talked about how folks will go into the market and pick up a tomato and "touch it up" and squeeze it and consider it, then put it down and walk away without buying it. The next customer will pick it up and do the same thing, then another costomer, and then another. She said that some of our young people do the same thing with each other. She brought her son and daughter-in-law up front (which I'm sure they loved! Ha!) and spoke of her counsel to them before they got married to "keep it clean." She said soooooooo many good things, but I can't possibly pass them all on to you. So buy the DVD. :-)

Last night was the Annual Address. It always seems so weird to say good things about whatever it is that Dad is doing because he's my DAD and it just... well, I don't know--I guess I don't want people to take it wrong somehow. Hard to explain. Anyway, in my opinion (!), it was a wonderful message. It is the only time I can recall hearing an Annual Address actually preached! Ha! No, he read lots of statistics and such to begin with, but I don't think it's in him to just stick strictly to the notes. Again, I couldn't possibly relate it all. Buy it. :-) We sang and worshipped at the end of the message and the Lord just really blessed. There is such a strong Church spirit here this year--it is so apparent and such a blessing to be a part of!!!

This morning was the BTI program and a great message by Brother Pimentel. (Forgive me for skipping all of the details--there's more to cover and I'm already getting very tired!) This afternoon was Brother Byers' CPMA program. The Lord took over and really blessed again as we sang and waved flags and worshipped. He had the NC/VA choir sing "Let the Church be the Church" and everybody stood and joined in and we just kept on singing and God just kept on blessing! Honestly, everything just feels so Churchy this year!!! That spirit is just so strong right now. And maybe it's just me, but I'm seeing our Church flag waved a lot more than usual. It's been great!!! Anyway, Brother Byers preached a fantastic message, too. All of the preaching has been soooooo good!

Tonight was Brother Ard's World Missions program and the Parade of Nations. I had brought my white clothes just in case they needed an emergency fill-in. They did. I represented Guatemala. :-) The parade was done a little differently this year and I think it was pretty neat. I'll have to watch the video to know for sure! (Buy the DVD! :-) Ha!) At the end, after we had welcomed the new countries into the Church (4 of them this year!), all of us parade people marched around the sanctuary while everybody sang "The Meeting in the Air." It's the first parade I've ever been in where we actually marched! It was good, too. Then Brother Ard had all of the National Overseers come to the front and introduce themselves. He showed a really neat video clip of our Church people in Swaziland (I think!) singing a song called "Never Give Up." It was soooooooooo neat!!! What a blessing! I'm always sooooo blessed to see our brothers and sisters from around the world singing and worshipping God. They are a part of me and I am a part of them. I feel such love for them and I just love being able to see them and feel connected somehow. Brother Ard preached a good message, then we ended the service in the altar praying for lost souls. Another great service.

Melissa and Dave flew in this afternoon and I've been anxious to see them, but haven't been able to yet. As we were leaving tonight we walked across the front of the building and I discovered why I'd been unable to locate Weese before. She was still in the altar, praying and crying!!! It made me sooooo happy for her! It's been 7 years since she's been to an Assembly and I know they don't get a chance to attend very many local functions either. They're so isolated there in Montana and I can only imagine what a blessing it must be for her to actually be in a General Assembly after all these years!!! She's going to eat it up! She'll go home so excited and blessed and refreshed... ~sigh~ Makes me happy. I look forward to getting a chance to talk to her tomorrow!

Ah yes, tomorrow. It's going to come way too early. I've got to go to that dippy Mission Breakfast in the morning. Don't be offended--I think it's great to have a time for this sort of thing. I just personally feel that 7:00 in the morning is the WRONG time!!! I know, I know--they did these things for years and years in the Church. So what?! That doesn't mean it's not dumb! 7:00. It's already been a long, tiring week and there's more to come. So what do we do??? We schedule an event that will get you out of bed super early in the morning and ensure that you'll struggle to maintain your coherency throughout the rest of the day. Somebody should be drug out to the street and shot, but I'm not sure who yet. ;-) In any case, I'm not helping my situation by staying up to blog. But I feel so bad for you people who aren't able to be here!!! It just seems right to stop by every day or two and at least touch on the highlights so you don't feel quite so far away from it all! Next year just get yourselves HERE so I won't have to do this!!! ;-) Love you all! G'night!!!

~Becki~

3 comments

Quick Update!

Posted by cokelady

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I don't have a whole lot of time--I have to go to practice for the Ladies' Retreat choir at 6:00. Ha! Crazy. They apparently don't care if you can sing or not, it's required that we participate.

The Fields of the Wood service yesterday was very, very cool. Actually, it was very, very hot!!! We were all dripping with sweat by the time we left, but it was well worth it. It was just sooooo neat to be there after so many years (7 years for me, I think) and for The Church of God to gather there for an actual service was just soooooo cool! We're guessing there were around 300 people there. We sang some songs and heard some of the historical record, then Dad preached about going back to Bethel (I know I'm biased, but it was excellent!), then the Rockingham choir sang (it's soooo great--the black choir with pale little ole' Karen Hill right in the middle of 'em! Ha!), the Brother Byers spoke for a few minutes. I took lots of pictures, but haven't had a chance to even look at them yet, much less worry about posting them.

The Rally was last night and it was good, too. Lots of singing and the Lord really moved. Brother Carter preached and did his best to get folks excited about the Assembly and letting the Lord have His way.

We had a good prayer session this morning. Michael Jernigan preached a really good message entitled, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." So very, very good. He gave us lots of good things to think about and hopefully incorporate into our daily lives. I love messages like that!

This afternoon Kevin Werkheiser preached on outward adornment. I missed the first half of it due to some unexpected and unavoidable circumstances (oooooh, I hate that!), but the last half was good! Then Jay Doran preached on divorce and remarriage and did a really good job. I'm so glad he was able to make it to the Assembly, even for just a little while. Thanks for lending him to us, Rebekah! By the way, there are a few statements that I think you should be aware of that he made during his message today. You'll want to secure a copy of it, I'm sure! ;-)

Well, I've gotta go put the left-overs away and get ready to go again. Jon flew in today and Aunt Sue is picking him up from the airport tonight. He'll be here tonight and tomorrow, then he flies back to Colorado early on Thursday morning. What is it with these guys flying in one day and out the next?! Weird-o's. ;-)

Okay, that's it for now! I'm going to go grab a whoopie pie to throw in my bag to take to Tammi Adams. Knowing her, she probably won't touch it. But at least she'll have the opportunity to try a genuine Amish made whoopie pie if she wants to! Ha! Later!!!

~Bec~

6 comments

Days 10 & 11 -- Saturday & Sunday

Posted by cokelady

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Oops. Missed a day. Actually, I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be missing most of the other days! I just can't seem to make myself blog when I'm with Mom & Dad. I have so little time with them nowadays that I just have no desire whatsoever to sit in front of a computer when I could be spending time with THEM! In fact, the only reason I'm blogging right now is because everybody else is in bed and I'm not tired enough to sleep yet.

We left Pennsylvania at about 8:30 yesterday morning and had a good, long drive to Cleveland. It took a little longer than usual and we didn't get to Mom & Dad's house until about 8:30 last night. 12 hours. It's usually 10. Oh well, we made it and that's all that matters! Mom was still up at IYC, but Dad was here to greet us. It was soooooooo good to see him! It's been way, way too long. The kids were ecstatic. We got all moved in, once we figured out where our room was. This is the craziest house I've ever been in. For real--it's weird!!! It took me 10 or 15 minutes of wandering around before I felt like I could find any given room. Even now I have to stop and think before I try to go anywhere! The kids were even more lost than I was. "I need to go to the bathroom... um... where is it again???" I can't imagine what it would have been like if Jon & Em and the kids would have been able to come and we would have had ALL of the grandkids wandering around lost! ~sigh~ I'm soooooooo sad they're not going to be able to make it!!! Emilee, I've been wanting to write to you for days and days, but I never could figure out what to say! I'm just so, so, so, so, soooooo sad that you guys won't be able to make it. I wanted to tell you that, but I was afraid I might say some rather unfriendly things about that dopey brother of mine and I didn't want to encourage any more bad feelings toward him! Ha! Anyway, I've been thinking of you guys and praying for you lots and lots. And missing you!!!

Okay, on to happy things. We had a nice visit with Dad, had devotions with the kids, and put them to bed. James then reminded me that it was Dad's birthday (!!!), so I yanked the kids out of bed and sent them downstairs with Dad's birthday present (another neck tie with their picture on it) to sing to him! Not exactly a party, but it was the best we could come up with this year!

Aunt Kay & Sara got here at about 10:00, I think. Mom got home from IYC sometime after 11:00. I helped her unload the Suburban and get settled in and I think we all made it to bed at about midnight.

Today we loaded up and headed to Zion Hill, us ladies & kids for church and Dad & James for the Presbytery meeting. We had a good service, then Aunt Kay took the kids so the rest of us could go to the Presbytery luncheon. James was mentioning how different things felt this year at the meeting and luncheon. As he was sharing these sentiments I was exchanging childish expressions with Ray Adams who was seated at the head table. You know, tongue out, thumbs in your ears, fingers waving. "Why would you say that, James?!" Ha! It does feel so much more relaxed somehow. In fact, this was the first of the three luncheons I've had to attend that I wasn't utterly miserable. We sat at a table with the Dewberrys, the Smiths (from the northeast, not Arkansas) and the VanDeventers and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

Mom & I left the meeting a few minutes early to go pick up Aunt Sue who was waiting at the Chattanooga airport. She had a good flight and the luggage arrived with her, so that's a good thing. *Update* Aunt Sue says Hershey is being soooooo good for Stacey and that Brianna is in love with him. Wa-Hoo! It's Sam & Tammy's dog who is being bad! Ha! There's always gotta be one, you know. I'm just soooooo glad it's not mine!!! :-)

We came back to the house and the guys arrived with the kids a few minutes later. Mom & James headed straight back to Zion Hill for choir practice and Dad & I took naps. I thought the kids were being unusually quiet during this time. I found out later that they had escaped and were throwing rocks and exceptionally large tree limbs into the pond. Aunt Sue happened to find them, so she kept an eye on them to make sure they didn't get too carried away. All of this in their suits, of course. And their mother slept through the whole thing!!! I felt so guilty. I hate finding out that other people had to take care of my kids due to my neglegence! I had told them to go downstairs and play quietly and I truly thought they were doing just that. ~sigh~ Poor Aunt Sue.

We had a real good service at Zion Hill tonight--I especially enjoyed the singing. Brother Carter had a brother from England sing a special, then a sister from there, then Betsy Cox from Florida. I was so blessed! It's always such a blessing to be with our brothers and sisters from all over the place and feel the love and unity and "family" feeling that we have with one another. Just so good to worship the Lord together! And I'm always so blessed being at Zion Hill and thinking back on all of those wonderful years of BTI (8 of them, to be exact!) and what an amazing time of life that was. I don't think I realized at the time what in impact those services and the classes and fellowship would have on my spiritual development and who I am today. God was making me and molding me in so many ways through those times and I'm just soooooo thankful for the memories I have of His working in me and on me!

We went to Taco Bell, of all places, after church tonight. James has had a hankerin' for over a week now and this was our first opportunity. We came home and let the kids run for a little while, but everybody was in bed by 9:30 or so. That's good because we'll be leaving for Fields of the Wood at about 8:30 tomorrow morning. The boys still aren't asleep yet. They're sleeping on the floor in Mom's office, where I'm tying right now. You can hear all of the crazy critters outside and it really freaks them out. You don't hear bugs at night in Texas and this is a new experience for them. A few minutes after we put them to bed Joe started hollering for us in that on-the-verge-of-tears voice of his. "Mom!!!... Come here!... There's... There's... There's a big... Mo-o-o-o-o-o-om!!!!" Sam started screaming and crying, too, and went running through the "tunnel" to try to find me. By the time I made it up the stairs he and Sam both had tears just streaming down their faces. The cause of all of this panic? A ladybug. A ladybug!!! Can you imagine?! It was crawling across the floor a few feet from them and they had completely lost it. I made them come look at it and they were pretty embarrassed that they'd been so scared of such a friendly little bug, but still too nervy to just relax and go to sleep. They told me to listen--there are rattlesnakes outside and what if they come in the house and, and, and... ~sigh~ Bunch of cowards. I assured them that what they were hearing was not rattlesnakes and that they were a perfectly harmless variety of bugs and that they were not going to come in and eat them!!! I was hoping I could blog long enough for the boys to fall asleep while I'm still in the room, but I think Joe's still awake. Weird kid. Anyway...

Like I said, I probably won't be blogging much, especially this week. You know how things are during the Assembly! You're at "your room" so very little and when you are there you only have time to do the very necessary things: shower and sleep! But we'll see how it goes. Usually it's dumb to blog during the Assembly anyway because everybody is HERE and there's nobody left out there to read the blogs! But since so many people are missing this year, it might be nice if somebody had the chance to give an update now and then. But like I said, I'm not making any promises. ;-) G'night, y'all!

~Bec~

4 comments

Day 9 -- Friday

Posted by cokelady

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We're in big trouble tonight. I can't rememer very much! Last night James was sitting next to me while I blogged, reminding me of everything we had done throughout the day. Tonight I'm on my own and nothing much is coming to mind!

I do remember that we let the kids fish for a while this morning. There is a creek that runs across the Hornes' property and you drive across the bridge to get up to their house. So we sat on the bridge to fish since all of the fish like to hide underneath it. Each kid caught a little something--tiny little 4" fish or a crawdad. (They call 'em "cray fish" or something weird like that up here.) It was fun, but nerve-racking since there are no rails on the bridge, it just drops off. Katie and Joe were fine, but Sam has no good sense and no fear of anything. Bad combination. He got yelled at and yanked away from the edge a lot and finally banned from the bridge entirely and told to go play on the swingset or something!

The weather finally cleared up today. We've been hoping for that all week and now that it finally happened we really regretted it! It was soooooo hot and muggy today! ~Bleagh~ Miserable. I had to take a second shower just a little while ago because of it!

We went "up the hill" for Katie to finish her "house" and for Grandpa to give all the kids rides on the tractor. They love that and I think I got some good pictures out of it. We'll have to take a look at them one of these days.

James wanted to go to Tops Diner before we head south, so that's what we did for dinner tonight. He loves to go on Friday night because it's fish night. I was just glad we didn't have to have any more Danny's Pizza! I thought for sure James would want that one last time before we leave, but I lucked out. :-)

I got all of the laundry and ironing done today and got most everything packed up and loaded into the van. We're going to try to get on the road pretty early in the morning (that's about 8:00 for us!), so I got most everything done tonight to make it easier. I just realized that I have no idea where my parents live and how to get there once we get to Cleveland. They won't be home from IYC yet when we get there tomorrow night, so I guess we're on our own. Actually, I don't know that for a fact. I'm hoping I can get ahold of one of them tomorrow and find out some more details about when they're going to be where and all that stuff. We'll get it all figured out, I'm sure.

Well, I guess that's it from here. Tomorrow we head to Cleveland, Sunday begins the Presbytery stuff for the guys, then Monday is Fields of the Wood and the Pre-Assembly Rally. And then we're off! To the Assembly, that is. Pretty exciting!!! I'm hoping my mother is coping okay. She's had sooooooooooooo much to do these past few weeks (that WMB cookbook just about did her in, I think! Ha!) and now she's been gone to IYC and will be getting home after her company arrives (do we classify as company?) and we will be in the midst of everything else in no time. Swamped. She's been swamped. I'm sure she'll pull through okay and be able to enjoy the Assembly and hopefully her company, too. ;-) I know they're looking forward to enjoying her and Granddaddy!

By the way, I'm sorry I haven't been commenting on anybody's blog out there. At home I have all of the blog addresses in my favorites folder, so on the laptop I don't know how to find anybody! This dial-up connection is too slow to be able to do much browsing anyway. Tammy did tell me yesterday that Bekah had the baby (Wow! Who knew?!), so I made a point of going to their blog today. It took forever to load the page because of all of the pictures, but it was worth it! What a beautiful baby girl!!! Congratulations, Rebekah!!!

Okay, I'm outta here.

~Becki~

5 comments

Day 8 -- Thursday

Posted by cokelady

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Thursday again! We left home one week ago today. Wow. The time always goes so fast. And so slow! Ha! I'm already getting a little homesick. This morning I woke up and reached over to pet Hershey dog (who always sneaks into our room in the early hours of the morning) and he wasn't there! ~sigh~ It's pitiful to miss a dog!

Today James and I left the kids with Grandma for a few hours and did some running around. We went to Lewistown to go to Ollie's. It's... hhmmm... kind of like a Big Lots store, I guess. That means it's a big MESS, but if you're willing to wade through it you can find some really good deals. ;-) James loves it. We found a few nice books for the kids and a battery charger. Our batteries or our charger is giving out on us (we encountered big problems at the Creation Museum and had to buy some regular batteries to see us through!), so we bought one at Ollie's today for about half price. Nice.

We went a couple of other places, but I can't recall where. Then we ate at Hoss's for lunch. That drives me batty. Hoss's. If the name is Hoss then the proper possesive spelling would be Hoss'. That's it. It already ends with an "s" so you don't add an extra "s" after the apostrophe. But they do! So I make sure to pronounce it "Hosseses." If they're dumb enough to spell it that way then I should have the liberty to pronounce it just as dumbly. Ha! Dumbly! Anyway, in spite of the poor spelling, it's a nice steakhouse/buffet kind of place and we had a good lunch. :-)

James' Uncle Don came to visit while we were gone, so we missed seeing him. Too bad. He's the cutest of James' uncles, by far, and has one of the thicker accents so it's always entertaining to listen to him. I've been teasing James about the goofy way he talks when we're up here. It doesn't take him long to fall into the old lingo and weird pronunciations. The craziest thing is the way they ask questions up here. It never goes "up" at the end to make it sound like a question, so everything they ask sounds like a statement. It can't be explained, it just has to be demonstrated. Ask me at the Assembly. ;-)

When we got back to the house Duane Booher was here. He's a CoGoP guy that James has known forever. Really nice guy. James was able to have a good visit with him. I decided I'd take the opportunity to call Tammy to see how everything is going out west. Sounds okay, so that's good! Hershey Dog is doing well and behaving himself at Stacey's house. I'm soooooo glad to hear that! And it sounds like Sam & Tammy are doing well and getting excited about the Assembly. It was nice to talk to her and hear about home. Pennsylvania is great and we always have such a good time here, but it's almost like being on Mars. It just feels like a totally different world and I feel so detached from everything else, you know?! I guess that's what a vacation is supposed to be like. Still, as great as it is it's still nice to know that the real world is still out there somehwhere. :-)

Aunt Grace came to visit tonight--she's another one of my favorites. She's a mess. She just sort of bumbles her way through life, so I can relate to her far better than most of the stiffs up here. Aunt Grace is uptight and paranoid like the rest of them, but she can't seem to actually pull it off and she just sort of rolls with the punches when things go wrong (a painfully rare quality in this family!)--and it seems like they often do for her. She can't compare at all to those who "bumble through life" in MY family (like Aunt Sue), but still--it's something I can relate to! It was good to see her today, although her daughter Amy wasn't able to come with her. Amy is my all-time favorite person up here. She TRULY bumbles through life, not quite at Aunt Sue's pace, but close. ;-)

This afternoon we left Katie with Grandma Wanda, and James and I took the boys in for haircuts at Sharon Long's barber shop. Don't know why a barber shop is run by a woman, but it is. I must admit I was a wee bit nervous about this lady touching my boys' hair. Stacey always does it at home and she does such a great job. This was the first time a stranger was to cut them and I was getting more nervous by the minute as I watched her hack up the first guy that came in there! Good grief!!! He was a shaggy mess when he came in and although his hair was much shorter when he left, he really didn't look much better. Bad, bad, bad. I thought we were doomed. She actually did a pretty good job on the boys for the most part, and I must admit it was far better than I anticipated as I watched the hack job on the first fella. The only bad thing is the way she cut them in the front. She gave them straight-across bangs like Moe from the Three Stooges and it's driving me crazy!!! The back of their hair looks terrific, but that straight line going across their foreheads is just absurd. They just look DUMB. Oh well. It's just hair, it'll grow back. I'm hoping it does some serious growing in the next few days before I take them back to the real world where real people will see them! Ha!

Oh yeah! Don't know how I forgot this--it was the best part of the day! James and his Dad grabbed the guns (a .22 pistol and a .22 rifle and a bb-gun) and we went "up the hill" (that means up behind the house on the rest of the property--where the barn is) to do some shooting. It was soooooooo fun!!! I had a hard time remembering that we were doing this for the kids. ;-) Katie shot a few times, but was more interested in "building her house" inside the hay wagon. She started on it a day or two ago and keeps on adding more and more junk--it even has chairs now. Sam found the .22's too noisy and just didn't want to shoot them, so he kept Grandpa Noy-man busy with the bb-gun. As fast as he could get it pumped and ready to go Sam was pulling the trigger. I really think it's best he was scared of the .22's. He is way too dangerous!!! Joe, on the other hand, loved the .22's. The pistol was a little too loud for him, so he stuck mostly to the rifle. We took turns shooting at an old milk jug and Joe hit it twice all by himself! He was resting the rifle on my knee, but he was taking aim without any help. He was pretty proud of himself. Almost as proud as his mother was of her own shooting! Ha! It was sooooo much fun! James and I tore that jug up pretty good. I enjoyed trying out the pistol because it's so much more challenging (until James told me we'd made enough noise and needed to put it away!), but did much better with the rifle. It was lots of fun. Maybe I'll become a pistol packin' woman, too! ;-)

That's about it, I think. It's been a good day. One more to go in this leg of the trip. Tomorrow I'll need to do some laundry and work on getting us packed up and ready to head south. At least a little south. If it doesn't rain we'll let the kids fish in the creek tomorrow, too. They've been dying to do that, but the weather and all of our running around hasn't allowed for that yet. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I'm anxious to hear about how IYC is going. I've been thinking about that a lot and praying for everybody there. Only 4 more days until everything "starts" and I'm so excited!!!

~Becki~

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Day 7 -- Wednesday

Posted by cokelady

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We got up this morning, hopped in the van and ran down to some little cafe somewhere for breakfast. (Don't ask--I haven't a clue where we were. I never do when we're in Pennsylvania!) Then we headed toward Belleville. We stopped somewhere along the way at an Amish homestead to buy some fresh peaches. Very fresh. Half of the family was still picking peaches in the orchard while the others were selling what had already been picked. I haven't tried any of them yet, but they smell delicious! Last year (or was it 2 years ago?) we bought some peaches from some Amish folks up here and they were hands-down the best fruit I had ever had--sooooo sweet and just melted in your mouth. Yum! We'll be able to take some of these ones down to Mom & Dad's house and we're hoping they'll make the trip and still be good.

Belleville was fun, as always. I refer to it as the "Amish market," but that's not exactly accurate. Lots of folks of all sorts go and set up booths there (flee market style), but several of them are, indeed, Amish and there is lots of fresh produce and the like. Then there are the scruffy guys in tie-dye t-shirts puffing on cigarettes--obviously not Amish--selling anything and everything. Joe & Sam made out with some more toy weapons (just what we need!), a cop set for Joe and an Army guy set for Sam. Katie came away with a pink hat, then later on at a country store on top of a grocery store (for real--there's a little grocery store with a "balcony" that is filled with Aunt-Sue-like country decor and such) she found an apron with slots for crayons and a notepad. Naturally, Grandma insisted on buying it for her. James found a belt at the market for $5 and I picked up some fresh honey. We bought a jar there last year that was fantastic and we've just about made it to the end, so I thought we should get another one. Did you know there are different flavors of honey?! I mean, the honey tastes different according to what flowers the bees feed on. Crazy, hu?! They had several different kinds, ranging from Clover (which I have, indeed, heard of before--but that was the only one!) to Blueberry to Goldenrod and all sorts of things. I tasted the Orange Blossom and the Wildflower and was amazed at the difference. We went for the Wildflower. It is a much darker honey and I just liked the flavor better. Believe it or not, the Orange Blossom one actually tasted sort of citrus-y! (Maybe it was just in my head?!) Anyway...

We saw lots of Amish folk and I took several pictures, but you have to be careful about that sort of thing because they're so weird about pictures. Most Amish people won't let you take their picture at all, some of them thinking that you will "steal their soul" if you do. We, of course, know that to be hogwash, so I snapped some pictures anyway! But I don't want to make them uncomfortable or offend them, so I tried to be discreet. I did most of my shooting from the hip. ;-) Unfortunately, the dial-up connection here is way too slow to bother with trying to post pictures. They'll just have to wait.

We got back this afternoon, then James and I ran over to "Aunt Barb's" house for James to try on the suit pants she had hemmed for him. We had a nice visit with her, then came back to the house to find "Aunt Mary" here for a visit. The kids spent most of the day with their Grandpa Norman outside. They played on the plastic "fort" (everything is a fort to my boys--more specifically, everything is the Alamo!) and the swingset and they rode the tricycle and other wheeled toys down the driveway over and over again. We all hopped in the truck and drove "up back" to where the barn is and Grandpa took each of the kids for a ride on the tractor, which they love. They had a picnic outside tonight, too. What a day! They were so filthy and smelly--they had to have showers before bed! They were out in no time. They had a late night last night, an early morning and a very long, full day with no naps. They've been having so much fun.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow. Time will tell. I'm starting to get really excited about the Assembly and am hoping to find some more "alone" time to pray and read and such in preparation. I was able to find some extra time for that today and it was so nice. I want to be ready when I get there, not just walk in distracted from "vacation" time, you know?! Anyway, that's all for tonight!

~Becki~

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Day 6 -- Tuesday

Posted by cokelady

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I am plumb tuckered out. Although if I said that to any of these Yankees up here they wouldn't have a clue what I meant. Been another good day around here, though still rainy. I'd usually much rather have rain than heat, but I feel bad for the kids. They haven't been able to do any of the usual outside things here at Grandpa "Noy-man's" house. (That's how Sam pronounces Norman--it's so great!)

I spent a while this morning trying to figure out what is wrong with our Sony camcorder, then James took a look at it. No matter what we try, it just keeps beeping obnoxiously at us and telling us to "reinsert the tape." After fighting with it for a while James determined that the thing is just shot. ~sigh~ Why do electronics always do that when you need them the most?! It's been a good little camera for us though and we really can't complain since we only paid $60 for it on clearance about a year and a half ago. We've got our money's worth and more, I'm sure!

This afternoon we loaded up the kids and went to see some of the family around here. We visited with James' cousin Pauline for a little while, then drove down to Mifflintown (don't ask--'bout 45 miles from here, I think) to visit with Steve & Lois and their crowd. Some more family (and some of my favorites), Larry & Mary Ann, showed up after a while, so it was nice to see them all. We watched some old videos of when James was about 8 years old, and then when he was preaching somewhere when he was about 18. Those were great!

We just got home a few minutes ago and threw the kids into their pj's and then their beds. I think I'm ready to hit the hay myself. Tomorrow is the Amish market in Bellville--if it doesn't get rained out. It's been raining ever since we got here, so I don't know what to expect. If we go, it will be a pretty early morning. G'night!

~Becki~

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Day 5 -- Monday

Posted by cokelady

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~whew~ What a day. It's been a good one, but I am worn out! Grandma Wanda made her famous pancakes for the kids this morning (they've been talking about them for weeks now!), then we all loaded up for a day on the town. "All" being everyone except for Grandpa Norman. He's not much of a shopper so he decided to sit this one out.

The rest of us headed to Altoona, wherever that is. Don't ask me. There are all sorts of towns around here, most dinky, some more substantial, but I haven't a clue where any of them are. The one thing I do know is that any road will get you there. And it doesn't matter were "there" is. For real! If you want to go, say, to Shirleysburg, you pull up to the highway and somebody will ask, "Which way do you want to go?" You can turn left and go to Shirleysburg or you can turn right to go to Shirleysburg. Take your pick. It's like that with any given location around here. All of the roads twist and turn and weave in and out from one another and it just doesn't matter which way you turn, you'll eventually get "there." Crazy. Anyway, Altoona...

We went in search of a cheap little suit for Sam, but we bombed on that one. We found a nice little vest outfit for him and a cheap tie to go with his purple dress shirt, so it worked out just as well. We did bumble into a suit for Joe, though I'm scared to describe it! Ha! I love pinstripes and have been telling James to buy himself a pinstriped suit for some time now (to no avail), but this suit of Joe's is black with wide, broken pinstripes and three buttons on the jacket. (Let it be known that I dearly love black people--especially ours in the Church--and I mean this in no derogitory way, so please do not be offended by this statement!) It's a black guy suit! I just can't think of how else to describe it! Ha! It's so great. He didn't really need it and I never would have conceded to buying it except that it was only $12. And Grandma Wanda was with us. We end up with lots of extra things in the cart when Grandma Wanda is with us. :-) She loves to shop for the kid-o's.

Joe wasn't the only one who benefitted from our shopping spree today. James bought a brown suit for $29.50 and a gray one for $31.50. Can you believe that?! Entire suits!!! I kept looking for the tag saying "THIS SUIT WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN 10 SECONDS." Ha! The suits look terrific, too. He found a nice tie that goes with both suits, a pair of socks, and some suspenders. The receipt said that he had saved $513.91!!! You can't imagine how happy that made him! Ha! Later on he found a pair of really nice dress shoes marked down to $10. I found a few much needed items, myself--and a Bible cover for my odd shaped Bible, at long last. It's just plain black, so I'll have to get creative and doll it up a little bit one of these days. But for now at least it will keep my Bible from getting torn up.

We got back to the house at about 6:00 tonight, ate dinner, and let the kids play for a while. It rained all day today, so it was a good day to be out and about. The kids are dying to play outside here at Granma's house and it would have been a terrible day for that. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Hhmmm. I think that's all from around here today. Except that we've received lots of phone calls informing us of folks from our Region who won't be attending the Assembly this year! It's terrible! I feel so bad for everybody having to miss--it's just awful! I hate it for them, that they'll be missing out on everything. I hate it for me, that I'll be missing out on seeing them. And I hate it for the region, that we're apparently going to have a very small showing this year! That's so sad. We're still hoping and praying that God will work some miracles for some of these folks to make it there after all.

I'm actually online at the Horne's house right now and the dial-up connection isn't half bad. Who knew?! I posted my blog earlier today from a parking lot near a Holiday Inn in Altoona! Ha! But James got all of the dial-up numbers and passwords and all that into the laptop today, so now I can blog from here. That'll be nice.

Well, I'm going to go. I'm listening to the TV in the other room--James' Dad found a program from Answers in Genesis (the Creation Museum people) and it sounds very cool so I'm going to go check it out. G'night all!

~Becki~

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Day 4 -- Sunday

Posted by cokelady

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Pennsylvania at last! It’s been a long, but enjoyable four days on the road and we finally made it to a very rainy Pennsylvania this evening. The kids were thrilled to finally be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and quickly located all of the toys that are kept stored on the front porch and drug them into the living room. It’s been a whole year since they’ve been here and they were so excited to see their Grandparents—Sam didn’t even have to “warm up” to them this time, so that was great. We look forward to a really great week here with the Horne side of the family.

We got here tonight and James ran into town with his Dad to pick up some Danny’s Pizza for dinner. Danny’s Pizza is nasty stuff—just like the cafeteria pizza they used to have at school when I was a kid with the soy cheese and all—but James grew up on it and thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world. Gross. Anyway, I unloaded the van while he was gone and got it cleaned up, came inside and got us all unpacked, then bathed all of our smelly children before putting them to bed. It feels good to get all of that taken care of. I am so tired!

Hhmmm. I can’t seem to think of anything else to say. That’s strange! Ha! Perhaps it’s because I’m not really blogging right now. I’m actually writing all of the up as a Word document because I can’t get on the Internet tonight. James’ folks have super-duper slow dial-up access, but I don’t know all of the configurations to be able to use our laptop to get on—and it’s not worth it to try to use their computer! Ha! So I figured I’d just type this up tonight and maybe we can pull into a parking lot (somewhere with easy access) tomorrow and be able to copy it onto the blog real quick. We’ll see.

I look forward to all of the Amish stuff around here—I love the little stores they have all over the place. They’ve got the best meats and cheeses in the world, among other things. We’ll go to Bellville on Wednesday—that’s when they have their big “market” set up, so we always do that while we’re here. We’ll have to get some whoopie pies. :-)

Well, I think I’m all out of things to say. Lucky dogs. ;-) Later!

~Becki~

6 comments

Day 3 -- Saturday

Posted by cokelady

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AMAZING!!!

That's our description of the Creation Museum. Absolutely amazing. We were soooooooooooooo impressed. I had extremely high expectations and I was not at all disappointed. In taste, quality, arcitecture, craftmanship and every other possible way this was at least as good as any museum I have ever been to and far superior to most. Top notch, all the way. The only thing we would warn you of is this: don't go on a Saturday in August!!! Wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too many people!!! I'd shoot for a Tuesday in October. ;-) But aside from the crowds (James estimated at least 2,000 people visited today), it was just soooooo cool. I hope you get a chance to go, Rachel--you'll love it!!! There is simply no possible way to describe it all, so I'll start slapping some pictures up.

The first thing you see after waiting in line for ages (!), are these first two shots: a little girl playing in a scene next to some dinosaurs of some sort (I'll tell you now that I won't be naming most of the dinosaurs because I can't remember most of their names and I certainly can't spell them--I'm lucky to get dinosaur right!); and a big dino (brachiosaurous???) eating leaves. These dinosaurs are animated and make quite an impression as the first thing you see in the museum. These little guys just sort of look around and the big one waves his tail and turns his head and "eats" some leaves. Neat. :-)

(This scene has the evolutionists up in arms--"How dare you depict a scene such as this?! Can't you see the teeth on those things--they're obviously carnivors and would have eaten her! And, of course, dinosaurs didn't live at the same time as humans!!! You're teaching our children such hideous lies!!!" Ha! Of all the craziness. Anyway...)

Here we are entering the Garden of Eden...

The kids with some dinosaur of some sort...

Here's another one...

The serpent who beguiled Eve (I decided to leave her and Adam out of the pictures, even though they were "covered"!)

In true Ken Ham fashion, the entire museum is focused on sin being the problem and our need of a Savior. His perspective on Creation is the pure, literal Gospel: God created a perfect and sinless world, but when mankind sinned death and suffering and every form of evil began it's infiltration into the perfect world. Here we have the first sacrifice, that for Adam and Eve's sin in the garden when the Bible says that He gave them "coats of skins." Obviously the skins had to come from a dead animal--those slain to cover their sin.

There was lots of cool stuff about Noah's ark. Here are some models--the first one in the beginning of the flood. If you look closely you can see the tiny little people on the rocks still above the water.

And on Mount Ararat...

They had a portion of a scale model of the ark, too, while it was under construction.

And there were, of course, lots of great dinosaurs--this one being by far the coolest. He was completely animated and you would not believe how realistic it was!!! His movements and especially his eyes were just amazing.

Don't know what this thing was, but he looked cool.

A small portion of the t-xex. (Most of the dino's weren't animated, but they were still very, very cool.)

Sam loved the dinosaurs and asked to have his picture taken with every one of them!

There were lots of other very, very cool things, but I really didn't get as many pictures as I had planned on. (We were experiencing some very frustrating technical difficulties today--of all days!) The "journey" you take in this musuem takes you from God's perfect Creation through the fall of man an sin's enterance into the world and the effect it has had down through the years. You see the flood and it's effects, the Grand Canyon and it's proof that there was, indeed, a massive flood, and you walk through darkened alleys covered in grafitti and trash and newspaper clippings of gay marriage and such sins--this path is all the result of man's rejection of God and has destroyed the perfect world He created. It is sooooo good--it's not just about the fact that God did, indeed, create the world in 6 literal days. It's goes so much deeper than that! That's only the very beginning of the complete Gospel message--which is conveyed beautifully and entirely throughout the museum. (Except, of course, for the message of God's Church! ;-) But we knew that!) There are some video presentations in different locations as you proceed, the final one being entitled The Last Adam. It would take too long to tell you about it, so I'll just say that it was sooooooo good. Powerful is not a word I often use, but I think it would apply here. I was so touched by the Gospel message all over again and the sacrifice that is demanded for sin--for my sin. Wow. I felt truly ministered to day! If anybody ever walks through that museum (even one who had never known a single thing about Jesus Christ or the Bible), he can no longer have any excuse--he has seen and heard a true and powerful presentation of the salvation message. Soooooooo cool! Along with that, I'll say that if any of you are ever within 200 miles of Cincinnati you have no excuse for not going to this museum! Ha! Highly recommended. :-) :-) :-)

They have also created a really neat walking trail and botanical gardens just outside of the museum. It was beautiful (and the perfect day--nice and cool) and great to give the kids a chance to run around a little bit before getting back in the van.

~whew~ It took a while to get all of those pictures up here! After we left the museum (we were there for 4 and 1/2 hours--and we didn't even get a chance to do the planetarium!) we went for lunch at Big Boy. Hit the road for just a little while before we came across some outlet stores. James was hoping to find a cheap suit at Haggar, but no luck. He did come away with a couple of pairs of pants though, so that's good. I took the kids browsing while James was trying on suits, but we didn't have any luck either. We walked in the Old Navy outlet because it was right across "road." All I can say is eewy!!! (Isn't that what Abigail says, Em?!) That store was terrible! The music, the clothes, the whole "feel" in there was just... icky. I can't imagine a church girl ever being able to find anything... suitable (!) in that store! So we went to Bath & Body works. They had terrific prices and I probably would have come away with a bottle of lotion, at least, but even for $3.99 it just wasn't worth it to wait in the line--I'd had all I could take of crowds today!

We didn't make it too far today, but that wasn't our goal so it's okay. Our goal was to have a great time at the museum, which we did. We are in Zanesville, Ohio now, so that means we've got... hhmmm, 6 or 8 hours away from James' folks house. We should make it there tomorrow afternoon. It seems so strange to not be going to church on a Sunday (!!!), but that seems to be the way it all fell this time.

I'm wiped out. Going to bed. It will be much more difficult to blog from James' folks house because they've got super slow dial-up--if they even have the Internet access anymore! I'll see what it's like when we get there. We'll be headed down to Cleveland next Saturday, but I'm sure I won't be blogging a whole lot during the Assembly anyway! We'll just have to see what happens. Until next time, whenever that is...

~Becki~

(Forgive all of the typo's--I'm sure there are a ton and I haven't the energy to proof anything tonight!)

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Day 2 -- Friday

Posted by cokelady

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Good, long day today. The kids are sacked out in various locations here in our room in Florence, Kentucky. We got into town at about 9:30, I think, and tried three motels before we found one that actually had a non-smoking room available--and they had just the one, so we nabbed it. It has a nice king size bed (which means James will get the "get on your own side" kick far less than he's used to! Ha!) and a couch, so that lands the boys on the floor. We have their sleeping bags with us though and they love it. We stopped by Dunkin' Donuts (the kids have been dying to try it for weeks now--ever since they first heard of it) and let them eat pick one out, then came back to the room, ordered a pizza, and now they're out cold. Great way to end the day!

The trip today took us through Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville (ooooh, I dislike that place!), Bowling Green, Elizabethtown, Louisville, and beyond. We are currently just south of Cincinnati (sp?), just about 20 miles away from Ken Ham's Creation Museum--the reason we decided to take this route. We'll be going there in the morning and I am sooooooo excited!!! It sure sounds impressive and I'm hoping I don't have my expectations set too high (!), but I think it's going to be very, very cool. I will finally have something to take pictures of--maybe I can get them posted tomorrow night. No promises though. I know better. ;-)

Today was the beginning of the whining in the van, though we mostly just mocked the children rather than fixing their problems. "Mo-om! Joe's not leavin' me alo-one!" Sam says. We didn't solve the delimma satisfactorily, I suppose, because before we knew it he had grabbed a notebook and drawn pictures of Joe in jail. Joe (the one who started drawing people in jail when he was mad at them) didn't appreciate it very much and suggested that Sam receive a spankin' for drawing "mean pictures." Can you imagine?! We told him we thought that was a very good idea and we would start implementing it immediately... the next time he drew such pictures! Ha! Little hypocrite.

The main entertainment of the day was the traditional Slug Bug game, although our family seems to be developing some "traditions" of our own every time we play. If you call a Slug Bug that somebody else has already called, they get to slug you twice. And if you call Slug Bug on a car that turns out not to be a Slug Bug you get slugged twice. Today Sam began making up his own rules. Any time anybody would holler "Slug Bug!" he would quickly yell, "TAKE!" and slug Joe before the rightful owner of the slug had a chance to make use of it! Ha! He continued "stealing" slugs and we finally told Joe that he could slug Sam. You should have heard the whining and crying and complaining from him. "No, Joe! Don't! No, please, Joe--no, Joe!" *slug* "That didn't hurt!!!" he said defiantly. Ha!

We saw a sign today that said "USED COWS FOR SALE." Can somebody explain that to me?! What on earth is a used cow???? I was so confused, but I thought perhaps some strange person from this part of the world might be able to enlighten me. Yes???

Well, that's it for tonight. I want to get to bed at a decent hour--we've got a musuem to go to in the morning! :-) G'night all!

~Becki~

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Day 1 -- Thursday

Posted by cokelady

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Well, well, well. What's to say?! Been a good day on the road today, for the most part. Everybody is tucked in here at the Days Inn in Benton, Arkansas. The goal was to make it to Little Rock tonight, but we fell short by about 25 miles. Oh well. Close enough. And we had good reason to stop early.

We were able to pull out at about 8:45 this morning, bidding farewell to a very distraught Hershey Dog. He had been keeping a close eye on the suitcases all day yesterday and was getting increasingly nervous. We usually leave him home alone while we're away. He has a dog door so he can go in and out whenever he pleases, and Aunt Sue or somebody will come check on him. Still, it's got to be terribly lonely for a sociable dog such as he is. This time, however, Stacey offered to keep him at her house. Ha! Ha! Ha! That can't possibly be funny to most of you, but it's hilarious to me! If you knew Hershey, you would know half of why it's so funny. The other half is that Stacey has two dogs of her own: Cody, a Shitzu (sp?) with practically no personality whatsoever and Jasmine a Shitzu-mix of some sort that is the meanest, nastiest, moodiest, fiestiest, unfriendliest dog you've ever met. All of her bottom teeth stick out and up from her face and she hates everything and everybody except Stacey. She finally gets along okay with James and me, but it took a long time for that to happen. (Even still, I wouldn't trust her!) Hershey is the polar opposite of that. He loves everything and everybody, he's happy-go-lucky, playful, energetic, friendly (way too friendly, usually--won't leave you alone!) and all things opposite of Jas. Stacey has never been around a dog like Hershey before, I'm sure. But that's not the only reason the situation is hilarious. Stacey has also volunteered to keep her mom's Shitzu, Joey, (a sweet little guy) and Sam & Tammy's Bassett puppy, Archie! Ha! Can you imagine?! She is crazy!!! She is going to have Hershey for the full 25 days (unless he's just too much for her, in which case she'll drop him off at home again!) and ALL 5 DOGS for a whole week during the Assembly!!! She's even talking about taking them all for walks and such! Ha! She is truly a glutton for punishment. I can't wait to hear the stories.

Anyway, I had all of Hershey's stuff together (dog bed, food, leash, etc.), but he didn't know it because I gathered it all when he was outside. But this morning Katie mentioned the word "leash" and then touched it. Hershey heard the word and the jingle of the chain and was suddenly transformed from a pathetic pouting puppy to a hyper and playful dog again! ~sigh~ He thought he was going with us. He was soooooo excited. I kept trying to tell him the truth, but he had already seen the leash and didn't believe me. You should have seen his face when we walked out the door and left him behind. (Stacey was going to pick him up this evening.) It's amazing how expressive dogs can be!!! It was sooooo sad. I'm sure he had a long, miserable, lonely day today. But oh, how exciting when Stacey showed up! I'm happy he won't be home alone for such a long time.

Anyway!!! (I had no intention of talking about the dog for so long!!!) Our first stop was in Abiline for lunch. We had to drive all the way downtown to return a stolen hanger to a motel that we'd stayed at a month or two ago. We got home from our trip there and discovered it in our stuff, so we called to let them know and promised to return it on our next trip through there. Then James remembered when he flew out of Abiline one time and the credit card machine was down and he had very little cash, so when he went to leave the airport he had no way to pay for his parking! The guy just let it slide, but he's thought of it several times since then, so we drove on out to the airport and he ran up to the booth and gave the guy the $2 that he didn't have on him 3 years ago! Ha! So Abiline ended up being a longer stop than it normally would be, but we took care of some necessary restitution so that felt good. ;-)

The only other major occurance of the day was Joe getting sick in the backseat. ~sigh~ I thought we were past that stage of the game! I haven't had to clean up stuff like that in ages!!! We had to stop and strip him down, clean him up (amazingly, I still had a big tub of baby wipes in the van from way back when!), dig around in the suitcase for some fresh clothes, and go into a gas station to rinse out the nasty stuff. Ugh. He said he was feeling fine after that. We stopped for dinner and he stuffed himself, then about 30 minutes later he said, "Uh... Mom... " He didn't actually lose anything this time, just said he felt like it. That's the "good reason" we had for stopping before we made it to Little Rock. What's 25 more miles?! I'd rather stop early and be in a room instead of have the kid mess up all of his clothes and the van all over again just for the sake of a few more miles! Actually, since we've been here he says he's feeling much better. He got in the room and was wanting to play and goof around. We told him he wasn't allowed to feel good--he's "sick," that's why we stopped, and he's going to bed! Ha! Of course, that was an hour and a half ago and everybody is sacked out except him. Still laying there, looking around. Weird-o.

Wish I could remember the funny things had have happened today instead of just the time consuming and gross things! I know that I've laughed heartily at the kids several times. After dinner tonight Sam polished off a whole bowl of chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup on top (James' doing!) and then handed me the bowl and said, "I'm done, Mom. If you eat too much chocolate you'll get sick, so I'm done." Ha! He was still telling me of his marvellous self-control when he spotted some chocolate cookie crumbs by his plate. He started shoving them into his mouth as he continued his speech on the dangers of too much chocolate! Ha! In theory, he's a very healthy kid!

Okay, I'm going to join the rest of the fam and call it a night.

~Bec~

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Meet the New Me!!!

Posted by cokelady

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The one that is actually PACKED and READY TO GO, with a CLEAN HOUSE and even BLOGGING the night before a big trip! Wow!!! I'm usually up until at least 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning the night before we leave, still rushing around trying to get it all done. There are still a few minor things to be done, but I can do them pretty quickly in the morning. ~sigh~ Feels great! Now I should go to bed. But, of course, I'm wired. I was exhausted today and laid down for a "20 minute nap." An hour and 20 minutes later I woke up! Thus begins the great downward spiral of a screwed up schedule. Nap in the afternoon, wide awake at night, up way too late, tired the next day, nap in the afternoon, wide awake at night... and on it goes.

Anyway, it's been a very, very busy couple of days, but there are so many terrific stories to tell! In fact, I may have to skip over the "what we've been up to" stuff and get right to the good stuff.

Katie came to me the other day and said, "A person who collects coins is called a numismatist. I had 83 cents, but I found a penny so now I've got 84..." I'm assuming that she is now considering herself a numismatist. :-)

Sam came and told that he had finished his juice then he said, "I drinked it for a reason. Because I love liquid!" Tonight I gave him a slice of cheese and he said that Hershey wanted some. I said, "Alright, you can give him one bite." The kid held the cheese out and let the dog take a bite out of it!!! I couldn't believe it! Both hands flew up and grabbed my head and I screamed, "Sam!!!!! You tear a piece off and give it to him--you don't let him eat a chunk off of your piece!!! GROSS!!!!!" He, of course, just grinned.

I think James is experiencing some mounting fears concerning Joe. He's showing more evidence of the Smith blood that courses through his veins. Tonight after dinner he went to clear his dishes. He grabbed his dirty plate and fork, walked to the refrigerator, opened the door, and set them on the shelf! When I yelled his name he suddenly came back to us (if you know what I mean!) and said, "Oh!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! I thought that was the sink!" Then left the room chuckling at himself. You should have seen the look on James' face! Ha! Joe is such a nut. I love that kid! He's had such a rough day today. It started out this morning with another weapons ban -- just a one day one this time. A few hours later he was also banned from all of his cowboy stuff. Then his guitar (and he got a brand new "real" one yesterday!). And then at devotion time tonight he walked up to James and said, "You know what I think bedtime is?" Then he help up a notebook on which he had scribbled in his little boy script, "STUPID AND BAD." He gave that "gotcha" grin of his and said, "I can't say it, but I can write it!" (They can't say "stupid"--they way over-use it if we give them the liberty!) Ha! Ha! Ha! I cracked up!!!! James was pretty much teasing, but told Joe that he was now banned from notebooks and pens for the rest of the night, too. He then rehearsed to Joe how in this one day he had had weapons, cowboy stuff, his guitar and notebooks taken away from him. Joe looked rather concerned and said, "Dad, how could I be that bad???" Then the other night...

It was nearing bedtime and the boys' room was trashed. They had taken a bath and I wrapped a towel around them, then instructed, "I want you to go to your room, get your pj's on, and clean up that mess--you've got 10 minutes 'or else'." In a few minutes I went to check on their progress. The room was perfectly clean... and both boys were running around buck naked!!! I couldn't believe it!!! "What are you doing?!?!?" Their sensible reply was, "We wanted to get it clean fast so we wouldn't get in trouble!" So they went in there, dropped their towels, and cleaned there room completely buck!!! Can you believe that?! My children have no decency whatsoever--no shame! NONE! I'm so ashamed!!! I just can't figure out where they came from. ?!?!?

Sam and Tammy have had some terrific stories to tell this week as well. Sam was at a restaraunt the other day and the lady standing next to him grabbed his arm, dropped to the floor and started flopping around--pretending to have a seizure! Ha! Can you believe that?! It was sooooo fake--no chance it was the real thing, and Sam was just mortified! Ha! Ha!

And then (Ha! I LOVE this one!!!) Sam got a call at work from a guy the other day. Somebody had told him to call the newspaper and ask for Sam Kaufman because he is a pastor. Turns out it was a homeless man and he was needing help. So Sam took him to get something to eat, then drove him down to the proper facility and dropped him off. The next day Tammy called down there about an entirely different issue. She was talking to the lady and mentioned her husband's name. She went on and the lady interrupted, "Wait a minute--did you say your husband is Sam Kaufman?" Yes. "Did he come down here yesterday?" Yes. "Was he wearing jeans and a checkered shirt?" Yes. "You be sure and tell him thank you for bringing that guy down here--he was a wanted man and now he's in prison!!!" Tammy was shocked, of course, but still coherent enough to say, "Really??? Is there a reward, 'cuz we could really use it right now!!!" Ha! Unfortunately there wasn't. Then the lady said, "And next time your husband decides to help somebody out, tell him to check his record first!" Ha! Isn't that great?!?!? We have had sooooooo many great laughs from Sam & Tammy's lives and experiences the past week or two--it's been crazy over there!!!

Okay, that should do it for one night. We're hoping to leave by 9:00, at the latest, in the morning. We'll have the laptop with us, so if I can I'll try to post along the way and let you know what we're up to. The first two days isn't going to be much--drive, drive, drive! I'll try to touch base every few days, anyway. Take care!!! I'll see most of you very soon!!! :-)

~Rebekah~

6 comments

The Worldwide Slump

Posted by cokelady

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At least there seems to be quite a slump in the World of Blogs. (If you've actually been a good faithful blogger and been posting things on your site, forgive me!) Seems like several of us have just sort of disappeared this past week. I figured it was time for us to start crawling out of the woodwork and it's always best to lead by example. So now that I've posted, I fully expect Blogland to re-enact that scene from the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first arrives and all of the muchkins start popping up and gathering around and singing and having a merry old time together. But I must insist that we skip the Lollipop Guild part. Ooooooh, I hate that part.

It's been a good week around here, however extremely busy. There is a whole lot going on in our lives right now and we request that you please pray for us. Not bad things going on, just some things we're praying about and need some direction from God on. They have been occupying our thoughts, prayers, and time a great deal this past week, thus my lack of blogging. I detest the whole "secretive" thing. You know, the "there is something SO MAJOR, but you don't know about it and I do, so please pray, but I can't tell you what it is, but it's SO BIG, too bad you can't know about it, but it's HUGE so please pray..." thing. Always been a pet peeve of mine. So I've intentionally stayed away from Blogland because I didn't want to throw out one of those "please pray, but I can't tell you what for" requests! Ha! Anyway, now I've done it. Please love me enough to pray for what you don't know about, just this once! I'll try to not let it happen again. ;-)

You'll never believe this, but I started packing yesterday!!! WHOA!!! Not really packing, but the beginning stages. I found all of the clothes that I will be needing for the trip and hung them together in the front of my closet, then did the same with Katie's clothes. We don't leave until Thursday and this is by far the earliest I've ever started even semi-packing for a trip, but it just seems like there is soooooooo much to be done before we go--I figured I'd better start super early or I won't have a chance to get it all done.

Tonight I typed up two or three letters to the region with info about our Regional Paper and the Assembly and the upcoming Minister's Retreat and stuff like that. It's been a really bad computer night for me and I've made a whole lot of mistakes. Like printing the cover page of the Minister's Retreat program on both the outside and the inside. Then starting over and making only 1 copy instead of 30. James just came inside and made me aware of a significant mistake I had made in the letter itself... but he's already folded and sealed all of them and got them ready to mail. So he printed 30 labels addressing the mistake and slapped them on the back of the envelopes just now. Oopsie! I think he thinks I'm out to sabotage him. As if I sit, chortling away while I'm intentionally composing mistakes to sneak into our correspondance for the sheer pleasure of making things hard on him. "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!! This'll add 20 minutes more work for him once he discovers it--it'll be great!!! Wonder what I can mess up next..." ~sigh~ I do feel bad. He's got sooooooo much to do and I hate to make yet more for him to do 'cause he's got to fix my mistakes! But, you know!!! I did my best--it was just a really bad night for me! (Coincidentally, I can only assume that this post, too, will be chock-full of mistakes, so don't bother trying to point them all out to me--it's just not worth it!) James comes from people who never do those kinds of things because they are so paranoid of messing up that they check and recheck and check again, then still worry that something will go wrong. I come from much more carefree and thus mistake-prone stock. I came from a mother who forgets to put the coffee grounds in the machine when she tries to make coffee. Or sometimes she forgets the water. One time she even forgot the pot. (No lie.) I come from a Grandmother who would put the butter in the dishwasher and then gripe because somebody misplaced it. A dad who would pull up to our house and start to get out of the car... seven years after we had moved away from that particular house. I still wonder at some of the reasons why God arranged for people so opposite as James and I to be married. I know that we balance each other out a great deal and that's a good thing, but it's like there are some particular things that there seems to be no hope of ever understanding about one another. Marriage is a tricky thing. Especially when you've got a conniving wife who's bent on doing stupid things for the sadistic thrill of wrecking your otherwise perfectly ordered and controlled life! Ha! Oh, the frustration of being a Choleric married to a...whatever I am that causes me to be that way! A Smith, I guess!

Anyway... Let's see, what else has been going on around here. We had a good church service here today. At the end of it, we set Sam Kaufman forth as an evangelist! How exciting! When James asked him to come pastor here in Andrews almost two years ago, Brother Sam was a certified teacher. He has maintained that license throughout his tenure here. When James asked him to come he assured Brother Sam that he was not "calling him to preach," only to fulfill the office of a pastor because he believed he had the heart of a pastor and that God was leading that direction, regardless of whether Sam ever "preached" or not. But in the past year and a half there has been a definite... progression (for lack of a better word) in Brother Sam's ministry and there is no denying that he preaches to us far more than he teaches anymore! He is still a great teacher (he did some terrific classes at Camp this year), but it's apparent that God has moved his ministry into a new realm to go along with that and he now feels that God has, indeed, called him to preach. It's pretty exciting to see what God has done in him--and through him. He's a weird-o (I mean that in the best possible way!), but he is such a blessing!!! To the church here and everybody else in town who bumps into him. :-)

Hhmmm. Kids, kids, kids. What have the kids been up to lately? There were several great stories I was going to relate, but I failed to take notes and now I can't remember what they are. I do, however, remember taking Sam out of church today to deal with him for being bad. He's been bad an awful lot lately and seems to be in trouble all the time. We talked about it for a few minutes and his eyes started welling up with tears and he said, "Mom, when I start to be bad I just don't know how to stop!!!" I could hear the frustration in his voice and I even felt a little sorry for him! I told him that I was doing my part to try to help him stop being bad (!!!), but that he needed to try harder to be good--and to pray for Jesus to help him to want to be good!

Bummer. I know that the kids have been saying and doing some very Blogworthy things the past few days, but I can't recall any of them! Hhmmm. I haven't taken very many pictures lately either, but I guess I'll post what I've got.

First of all, here is the first produce from our garden! HA! I just had to pick one to see if there really was a carrot under there! Isn't it cute?! They should be getting to a pretty decent size by the time we get home from the Assembly. If they're not all scorched to death by then! Ha!

Here's a picture of Katie in one of the new nightgowns Grandma Vicki just made for her.

Here is fireman Sam, out to save the day!

And here he is with his new favorite toy: a mini-Spiderman from the dollar store!

And here is Joe on a typical school day.

Ha! I love this picture!!!

Okay, I guess that's it for tonight. James just came and gave me one of those sideways smirks of his. The one that says, "I still can't believe you could do so many dumb things in one night, but I forgive you." He's a pretty good guy. :-)

~Becki~

11 comments

Home Again!

Posted by cokelady

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It's 11:40 according to the clock on my computer. (We have 12 clocks in this house, all proclaiming different times as much as 20 minutes ahead or behind their fellows--and two of them maintain the same time day in and day out. I've never figured out which are the liars and which are the truthbearers, except for the two that are dead of course. Anyway...) We just got home from our trip tonight and there is so much to share!!! I really don't know how much I feel up to writing tonight though. Some things came up and I've been on the phone for much of the past 2 hours since we arrived home and now I'm bushed. Haven't even unloaded the van! But I even got a comment from Jared on that last post, so I know that some of you are anxious to hear about our trip. ;-) So I'll give you the quickie version:

IT WAS GREAT! Tune in next time for the full length version. ;-) We had wonderful services with the folks in Albuquerque on Sunday. The morning service especially was just soooooooooooo good. I feel like God really helped James and he used such wisdom--and there was such power and anointing in the message he preached about "The House of God." One lady said to him after service, "I haven't felt the power of God like that in this building for 30 years!" Ha! The Spirit of God was so strong there and the people just ate it up. There are four ladies who seem ready and anxious to become members of The Church of God, so we plan on organizing the Church there and taking them in as soon as we get back from the Assembly, with hopes that there will be more to follow. Praise the Lord!!! Isn't that exciting?! There's more to tell, of course, but it will have to wait. And then we'll have to hope I can remember it. You know how I am. :-)

We figured since we were "this close" (5 hours away) we'd go ahead and drive up to Salida to see Chris and Shanda Clarkson. (It's an 11 hour drive to Salida from Andrews, so 5 hours seemed "close" to us!) We got to their house at about 6:00 Monday night and visited for a couple of hours, then went in to town to go to Pizza Hut for old times' sake. :-) When we lived in Salida we used to order Pizza Hut with them all the time--James still thinks of Chris every time he eats buffalo wings! So we visited in Pizza Hut for a couple more hours before calling it a night. It was sooooooooo great! I love them sooooooooo much and it was just so nice to be able to spend a little bit of unrushed time with them. And we figured this just might be the very last time we can ever eat Pizza Hut with them in Salida since they'll be moving to Arizona in the near future! I felt blessed and uplifted after our time with them and I'm so very glad we decided to make the trip up there. And the air! Oh, the mountain are was sooooooo wonderful!!! They've had lots of rain lately and I could smell the mountains the moment I opened the car door--oh, how I miss that! And I think the mountains are getting more and more gorgeous over the years. ;-) It was so great to be there again, even for just a few hours.

We had a long, but fun drive home today. I made James drive the trek from Raton to Clayton. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Hee! Hee! Hee! Har! Har! Tee! Hee! Hee! If you've never driven that stretch you can't possibly imagine why it's so thrilling that James drove it today and not me. Raton to Clayton is an 87 mile stretch that takes at least 16 hours to drive, I'm sure. There is NOTHING on it the entire way, just a long, lonely road with absolutely nothing to look at. It's miserable. Usually. But for the past couple of years it has been under construction. This has multiplied the misery four-fold, at least. Now it's a long, lonely stretch of road that takes 47 hours to drive because the speed limit is only 45mph for the majority of the route. But the evil fiends who conceived this road of torture were thoughtful enough to break it up with differing speeds rather than making you stick to 45 the whole way. The other speeds? 35. And 25. For miles and miles and miles and miles... And, of course, nobody is working on the road. You'll drive the entire 87 miles and you might see two men in orange vests (if you're lucky--a bigfoot sighting on the same stretch is probably just as likely), but no matter--we must crawl along the entire 87 miles so as to ensure their safety. It's been like this for years now and somehow I always end up driving that stretch while James sleeps. Every time. Well, not today!!! I informed him that I was driving Colorado and he was driving Raton to Clayton! So I got to zip down my old familiar canyon (although the van doesn't exactly hug the road and accelerate the way that glorious Grand Prix of mine use to in the good old days!), then I handed it over to James and I slept the Raton to Clayton stretch this time. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Hee! Har! Har! Har! Hee! Hee! Ha! Ha! Ha! You should have heard James when I woke up after a lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ong nap. He just went on and on about the terrors of the road and the injustice of the speed limits. I laughed, as I'm sure you've already gathered. Quite heartily. Until today I'm sure he thought I was just overreacting when I would rant and rave after driving it on the past several trips. It was extremly rewarding to know that he has now suffered the same agony that I've been through countless times. He still owes me though. At least 5 more times. :-)

Okay, that's pitiful. I was too tired to tell you any more about Albuquerque, but somehow hit a spurt of energy at the thought of James driving that rotten road this time, not me! Ha!

I'm going to call it a night. It looks to be a really busy couple of days, but I'll try real hard to blog again soon. Time will tell! We leave on our Horne Family/General Assembly/Smith Family trip next week and the very thought of it makes me break out in a cold sweat. There is soooooooo much to do!!! So I'm going to bed in hopes that I'll have the energy to start doing it in the morning. :-)

~Becki~

P.S.-- Hi, Shanna!!! Welcome!!! For those who don't know who she is, she's the best phone answer-er at Headquarters. ;-) Among other things, I'm sure! So glad you've found us. I'll be stopping by your blog in the near future, I'm sure!

16 comments

What Have We Been Up To???

Posted by cokelady

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Your guess is as good as mine. Yesterday was kind of a dud of a day. I've been having a really hard time staying motivated this week. That's a really bad thing. If I'm not careful I'm going to fall behind on all of those things I've been so good to stay on top of lately!

Katie picked up my Every Day a Holiday book on Tuesday and began to flip through it. She informed me with great delight, "Mom!!! July is National Ice Cream Month! Some guy named Ronald Reagan said so! We should eat lots and lots of ice cream all month long!!!" I informed her that she was probably out of luck since her discovery of this national celebration wasn't made until the very last day of the month. Katie decided that, since it was the last day of the month and our only chance to celebrate it, we should eat as much ice cream as possible that very night! Can't fight logic like that, so we took a family trip to Thriftway and picked up a tub of Caramel Turtle Fudge (Bluebell) for me and Neapolitan (cheap-o) for the kids. James also splurged and bought some waffle bowls and some Reese's Shell syrup! We came home and fixed great ice cream bowls all the way around, topped with Hershey's syrup for the kids and Reese's for me--and a cherry on top, of course. What a great night! Oh, that we had known we were supposed to be celebrating the glories of ice cream throughout the entire month! Ha!

Yesterday... I can't even remember yesterday. I know we did school, but that's about it. Oh, I made a great dinner! Smothered steaks (although they were just beef, not elk ~sniffle~) and potatoes and that terrific mushroom gravy and corn and buttered carrots. It must've been the highlight of our day 'cause it's all I can remember!

Today I went to the shed and dug out a bunch of Katie's old clothes to take to Abigail at the Assembly. It's a nasty job (as are all jobs associated with the shed), but I got a nice big bag of stuff for Emilee to root through. There are some to-die-for dresses in there that my Mom made for Katie. They will look sooooooooo cute on Abbie!!!

It was a bittersweet day in school today. Joe just hates school. He has moments of excitement, but for the most part he searches high and low for things to distract himself with and then it takes him sooooooooooo looooooooong to finish a page and the whole thing becomes even more of a drudgery. And he has this little knack for getting me all riled up, too. I told him a dozen times today to finish that page--look at the picture, then write two statements and one question about it. It took him forever to get the two statements completed and then he was off in la-la land again. I reminded him to get back to work and he asked for the umpteenth time, "What am I supposed to do?" "ASK A QUESTION!!!" I screamed. "What's for dinner???" was his immediate and sincere replay. Ggrrrr. That kid.

Then there's Sam. He's going through an alphabet book. Each page will feature one letter of the alphabet surrounded by pictures. He is supposed to color only the pictures that begin with that letter, but he just can't handle it. He, of course, still knows very few of his letters and he still hasn't figured out the sounds that they make, but he has figured out what people do when they're trying to sound them out. He was on the "W" page today and looked at the picture of the ball. "Hey, Mom. Does b-b-ball start with 'w'???" "Nope. B-b-ball starts with 'B' because 'B' says 'buh.'" "But...I wanna color it!!!" He can't stand to leave a picture on the page uncolored, so he always asks if he can go ahead and color it anyway, then just draw an X on it to show that it's wrong. Whatever. It keeps him occupied while I'm trying to do school with the others anyway. Of course, it adds constant racket. "Mom, does c-c-cat start with 'p'??? Mom! Mom!!! Does C-C-CAT start with 'P'?!?!?! MOM!!!" It usually reaches this point before I have realized that he's talking to me and then I find myself screaming back, "NO!!!! Just color the thing and draw an 'X' on it!!!" Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart, I tell you.

Then there's Katie. Today was a red letter day for her. She's been working really hard and decided that today was the day she would finish up the math section in her 2nd grade book. She's learned all of the in's and outs of adding, subtracting, and carrying numbers (although she still gets confused on occasion on what she's carrying where!) and some simple multiplication and fractions, she's getting better at telling time and she's doing really good at counting money. She's doing good with all of it, but at the end of her book it "reviewed" everything she's learned so far. She was determined to finish it all today, but that meant switching from one method of math to another and then another and another... And then on the last page they threw a bunch of word problems at her that were far more complex than anything she's seen yet. (Don't know how they fit into a "review," but no matter.) She tried and tried, but kept adding when she should have been subtracting and had totally forgotten how to multiply altogether, and so on. I could tell by the strained expression on her face that her brain had shut down on her (I know it well--it still happens to me when I do too much math at once!), but she just had to finish the page. When she was all done I checked it and found that she had gotten every single problem wrong. Oh, brother. For the next several minutes I had a heaving, sobbing bundle of girl collapsed into my lap, just shaking and bawling and crying, "I can't do it, Mom! I--just--can't--do--it!!! What is wrong with me?!?!?" ~sigh~ Sanguine-Melancholy. What can be done with them? I'm still trying to figure out the proper way to respond to such a personality, but in the meantime I responded as my own Phlegmatic self. I laughed and laughed and laughed. She, of course, was offended by this and cried even harder which, of course, made me laugh all the more which, of course, made her cry all the more... It's a vicious cycle. I was not trying to be cruel to her, but if you could have seen her you would have laughed, too. I took her to the other room and made her sit and talk to me for a few minutes. I told her that she needs to learn to laugh at herself and to not be offended when others laugh at her--laughter is good for us and if you never learn to laugh at yourself and your mistakes you're in for a long and miserable life. I informed her that, despite what she thought, the scene was absolutely hilarious--a 6 year old girl at her wit's end, sobbing as if it's the end of the world... over a few math problems!!! Things that don't even matter! So what if she doesn't "get" them right now?! There's always tomorrow! She's got the rest of her life to work on it and improve and learn more and more--there's nothing tragic about having one bad day and messing up. She has a hard time accepting such things and would much rather wallow in the depths of despair than be reasonable and say, "You're right, Mom. This is crazy! It's just a few little ole' math problems--what do I care?! I'm 6 years old! I did my best and I'll try again tomorrow, but for now I think I'll go have a tea party!" Nope, not Katie. She did eventually laugh (because I was still laughing at her and she couldn't help it!), but she did so with tears streaming from her puffy eyes and trickling down her red splotchy face. Goofy kid.

Speaking of crying, I told Sam to do something earlier and he was tired and crabby and didn't want to do it. He came to me all choked up and said, "Mom, my face is just... My face is just starting to cry." As if his face works separately from the rest of him! Ha!

James and I had our joint CPMA-WMB service tonight. He talked about Jesus being the Rock, and I spoke on Faith. I think it went well. Now we've got to get our thoughts and prayers turned toward Albuquerque since that's where we'll be this weekend! Some CoGoP folks have been in touch with James and we're going to go have church and visit with them on Sunday. PRAY!!! We're very excited about the open doors and are praying for God's wisdom in all things.

Well, that's enough for one night. Until next time...

~Becki~

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My OLD Blog

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Rebekah

Joe -- Age 6

Katie -- Age 7

Sam -- Age 4

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