Too Busy to Blog

Posted by cokelady

That's my story and I'm stickin' with it. :-) It's actually a combination of being busy and then not being able to figure out what to blog about--there's just too much! I would walk you through each day of the past week, but it's all a blur.

I know that Sara Clifton has been staying with us since Monday. Tammy took a trip to Kentucky to surprise her mom for her birthday, so Sara's been staying with us while Sam is home alone. (Don't tell Tammy, but Sam is breaking all of the rules with Archie while she's gone! He shared the bar-b-qued rib that I took to him the other day and I have a sneakin' suspicion Archie is probably getting to sleep in the bed at night, too! Ha!) Anyway, it's been great having Sara with us! That girl is no hassle at all to have around. Probably because she never is around! Ha! She spends most of her time at college and then studying by the hour. But I've thoroughly enjoyed the times she's actually been here and not locked in her bedroom with her books. We had a really good visit for a couple of hours the first night and last night she actually took the night off and we watched a movie together. Fun! I'm sure she needed the break. That girl is going to burn out so fast if she doesn't start getting her mind off of all of that crazy school work every now and then!

I know that I've stayed up until 3:00 twice this week. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The first time was the night James got home from his Colorado trip. There was a lot to catch up on, you know?! Then after nursing home service on Wednesday night I came home and put the kids to bed, then stayed up until nearly 3:00 watching the DVD and typing up the Assembly Minutes for the Wednesday afternoon session. Took me 5 hours straight, but it was a grand and glorious thing to get it done in one night! It wouldn't have taken that long, but I have a terrible time deciding what to leave out, so I usually put in way more information than would really be necessary. And that was such a terrific session--Jon's message on being filled with the Spirit instead of drunk with wine, Sister Maudie's Sunday School boost, and Sister Prince's great message on sanctification--there was just so much good, meaty stuff in there that I kept typing and typing and typing... :-)

I've also been working on our Regional Planner this week. I'm making some good headway on it, so that feels great. I've made tons of phone calls today trying to make sure I've got all the information that I need. I'm waiting to hear back from three people to get their contact info, and I need to get ahold of one of our Spanish girls from Hatch to check on info for all of the people there. Otherwise, I'm getting close to being done! Which is great because...

I really need to get busy on my lesson for the Minister's Retreat this next weekend. Our theme is "Holiness Becometh Thine House" and I'm on to teach a class to the women entitled "The Advice to Members and Modest Apparel." In a weird kind of a way, I'm sort of looking forward to it! This is a subject that has been on my heart a lot lately as I've been noticing that some of the clothing in the Church is... Well, I'm just not sure we're headed in the right direction! I want to be sooooo careful about this class, so please pray for God to give me wisdom. It would be so easy to get up there and just spout off my opinions about the issue and what I feel is appropriate or not appropriate, but I know that it would be foolish and non-beneficial (probably quite detrimental!) to do so. I've been praying for God to get all of my thoughts and feelings out of the way and help me to really find direction from Him on what He would desire for all of us to hear on the subject. I've been praying for God to search my heart, to search my life, and to search my closet (!) and show me if there is anything in any of those places that is not pleasing to Him. It's so easy to make little compromises without even noticing it. I don't want to do that! Anyway, pray for me and for the Retreat next weekend.

In other news, our house is officially on the market! Wa-Hoo!!! I guess. Ha! This is all so weird and I have sooooo many mixed feelings about it. Not about selling the house or about going to Albuquerque, but about having to work with a bunch of dopey realtors! We had market analyses done by each of the real estate companies here in town because it just seemed wise to get a second opinion on what price to list the house at. I'm glad we did, because the second price was about $7500 higher than the first one! (The market has inched up in the past few weeks since the first estimate.) But it was also a very bad thing to have the other company come give us an analysis because it meant that both companies wanted to carry the house. They each did their best to talk us into using their company and told us several reasons why we shouldn't use the other girl, blah, blah, blah. I finally told James to just lock the two of them up in a room and let 'em at each other, then we could just go with whoever won. Ha! No, they weren't ugly about anything--just really, really wanted our business! In the end I guess it worked to our advantage because each girl kept lowering their commission rate in an attempt to secure the listing, so we ended up with a rate that was almost half of the original rate we would have been paying. :-)

We finally decided to go with the first girl, so yesterday we filled out all the paperwork and officially listed the house! Kind of. It's actually listed for 2 weeks with this particular company and they are the only ones who can show the house. After the two weeks, the commission rate goes up by half a percent and any company can show the house. Weird. Anyway, the agent we actually listed with (who is the head of the company) is in Alaska right now. Great timing. So her assistant is handling everything right now. Sort of. I'm not impressed. I've been in contact with two different girls from the company and I don't get the impression that either of them have any idea what they're doing. They're very nice and that's great. But I really go for competence in situations like this!

I had sent a disc with pictures of the house over to the realtor so they could make up a flier. We listed the house at 2:00 yesterday. At 4:00 I got a call from the assistant and she said that somebody had come into the office, saw the pictures on the computer and said, "I want to see that house." (Yes!!!) She wanted to know if they could come at 4:15. Sure! I've got two naked little boys in the bathtub--come right over! I told her the "sure" and "come on over" parts, but skipped the part about the naked children. James took Katie and headed to the bank. I yanked the boys out of the tub and threw them into their bedroom with some fresh clothes and told them to dry off and get dressed. I then cleaned the mirrors (so important!) and ran around the house turning on a lamp in each room and lighting candles all over the place, then turned on some nice, quiet praise and worship music. (You've got to set a nice, homey, cozy, relaxing tone for people to walk into--it's all about the presentation, you know?! Ha! This is the part that's soooooo fun!) I had just finished everything up and my house was well lit and smelling great when the doorbell rang. I opened the door and there stood the realtor...with two men!!! Can you imagine?! After all that work to light candles and turn on nice music and lamps all over the house?! What a waste!!! (They weren't "weird" guys, in case you're wondering--they were father and son, I think!) They seemed to like the house okay, but couldn't possibly appreciate it like a woman would. In fact, they walked past my bathroom--my completely remodeled, fresh, clean, bright and cheery, smelling like "sunbathed lemon" wondrous bathroom--flipped the light on, glanced inside, then kept walking. Never even set foot inside!!! I just about lunged for their throats. "You get in there and look at that room, you goons!!! It's the best room in the whole house--don't you know that your wife or mother is going to want to know how great the bathroom is?!?!? Dorks!!!" Ha!

The guys were actually very nice and I enjoyed visiting with them. Once I decided that it was actually my right to visit. This is the part I hate about realtors. The realtor girl who brought them was nice enough, but she knows nothing about my house!!! How on earth is she supposed to "show" the house when she knows nothing about it?! And typically, the realtors like for you to be gone when they show the house. I draw the line there. This is my house and I refuse to clear out so I won't be in the way of strangers. But I did my best to stay out of the way and let the realtor to the showing. Which is so dumb!!! This is my house! Why am I not showing it?! This girl had never stepped foot in the house before. She walked in and said, "We'll just sort of wander around, if that's okay." I said sure and took that as a hint that she didn't want me to give them the grand tour. So I stayed back. For as long as I could! Ha! They asked questions. She had no answers. She pointed at the door in the "bonus room" (currently the toy room) and said, "I think that door leads back to the kitchen." The kitchen that she had just come through--the one that couldn't possibly be through that door! One of the guys said, "No, I think it goes into the den." He was closer, at least. The realtor seemed to have no interest in opening the mystery door to see where it led so I finally blurted out, "There's a utility room in there--washer, dryer, freezer--then another door into the den." A nice chorus of, "O-o-o-o-o-oh," came from the three of them. She then had the guts to open the door and peek inside. What a surprise!!! "Oh! Look in here, guys!" ~sigh~ Sooooo frustrating. She's a very nice lady, but she knows nothing about my house! So explain to me why I feel like I have to stay out of the way so she can "show" my house to potential buyers?! That's so dumb!

Then today we stopped by the office to look at the flier they had made up for the house. I'm hoping they weren't finished with it yet because what I saw left a whole lot to be desired! Ha! It was just four pictures (three of the outside of the house, one of the fireplace--but the print job was so poor you could barely even make it out) and the address. No information at all, except a number scribbled at the top of the page. A number that is the old square footage of this house, not the current square footage since we finished out my office and the toy room! This girl was very nice too. But didn't seem to have any idea what she was doing!!! So I'm having some real Choleric moments here. I want to be in control!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! I have discovered that I have a very strong aversion to paying other people big money (in this case, thousands of dollars!!!) to do very poorly something that I know I could do much better by myself!!! I could make up a great flier with tons of pictures of the house and lots of information (even correct information--imagine!!!), put it in a tube out front that says "Take One" next to a "For Sale By Owner" sign, put an add in the paper, then take people through my own home and truly show it to them--tell them how recently the bathroom was remodled and how old the kitchen flooring is and all about the sprinkler system... WHY AM I PAYING OTHER PEOPLE TO FUMBLE THROUGH SOMETHING I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF DOING MYSELF?! Because I'm a ninny, that's why!!! Gggrrrrrr. We've signed a 3 month contract with these realtors, so it looks like we're stuck with it. And honestly, I'm okay with that. Live and learn. I'm just anxious for it to be over. And I really think that when the realtor herself gets back from Alaska (Wednesday) things will start going much better. She's got very nice girls working for her, but not very well informed. Surely the top gun will be able to display a little more competence. Right?!

I think they're supposed to show the house to several different people tomorrow, beginning at 9:00. So we're planning on taking the kids out for donuts in the morning. I hate the idea of letting a sweet but clueless realtor "show" my house, but I think James feels it best that I be gone this time. Scared I might accidentally verbalize some of the frustration that I'm not coping with very well! Ha! I do hope to be here for some of the showings--particularly ones when a woman will be doing the looking! I just think it would be so fun to hear what they think, either way. It's always fun to hear, "Wow! This is soooo great--I love how this house has been done!" But it would be interesting to hear, "Whoa, this is just way too much for me--I couldn't live here!" too. I'm not intimidated by other people's disapproval of my home. I figure it's my house and I love it; and I probably wouldn't like the way they decorated their home either, so it's all cool! Ha! Really, I want to hear the person who says, "This is the house I want--get me the paperwork!" :-)

Weird. A whole post without even mentioning the kids! They're doing great. I just turned around a little while ago and saw a litle Pile-O-Sam curled up on the kitchen floor, asleep with his blanket. That kid. He's developed this habit of sneeking out of bed and getting close to wherever the people are, then snuggling up and falling asleep. In the past month I've gathered him up off the stairs at my Mom's house, the hallway last week, the kitchen floor tonight... Weird-o! Katie has been doing very, very good and is really working on trying to be a good girl. Makes a very happy mama! Joe is doing much better for the most part, as well. Thank the Lord! We've had a good, happy week, in spite of the "pressure" of having the house on the market. And there is such pressure! But that'll have to wait for next time. Let's just say that my favorite sound is the front door clicking closed! Ha! I'll explain later. ;-) Have a great night!!! Or day!!!

~Becki~

7 comments

Another Great Day!

Posted by cokelady

I got a good night's sleep, in spite of Katie's flailing around and the dog laying on or against me all night long. (Hershey will be so sad when James comes home and he's no longer welcome to sleep in the bed! Ha!) Made oatmeal for breakfast, then baked a cake. Wasn't feeling the greatest, so I went and took a hot bath. Well, kind of hot. Every time we leave town James turns the water heater off, then when we get home he turns it back on... but never high enough to where you get truly hot water! It usually takes several days before we get it back where it belongs. Anyway, the bath didn't help much, but it still turned out to be a pretty productive morning. I had myself and all the kids ready for church in plenty of time to go shopping before service. We needed some Oreo's for Sunday School today (I love lessons like that, don't you?!), so I went ahead and picked up a few things we were getting low on. We finished shopping early enough that I had time to go back home and put all of the groceries away before heading on to church.

We had a good service today, although Sister Patsy wasn't there today and Stacey was at home with kidney stones. Albert showed up--first time in quite a while. Sara led songs and did a good job, in spite the struggling pianist. ;-) Brother Sam preached a great message on holiness and on hearing--truly hearing--the Word of God when it is presented to us. Good stuff.

Sam & Tammy came over for lunch. "Lunch," we call it. It was 4:00, I think! James doesn't like taco salad, but the rest of us love it, so we figured today was our opportunity! It was great. :-) I made that terrific orange cake for desert. It's my favorite spring/summer desert and I hadn't made it a single time this year! It was sooooo good and we've got plenty of leftovers. :-)

I went ahead and laid the kids down with some books for a little while and Sam & Tammy and I played games. Tammy was the big winner today, which is great. She's often the big loser when the three of us play. Sam took that position today, so that made me happy. :-) I went to tell the boys they could get up after a little while, but the little rats had fallen asleep! Late afternoon naps are the pits. Anyway, Sam picked out the next game: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I won that one--no thanks to my phone a friend choice! (Why did you think "mohair" came from a rabbit, Em?! By the way, I looked it up and it is the coat or fleece of an Angora goat. Now we know, right?! That little bit of information will come in handy at some point I'm sure...) I think I was going for $16,000 at the time. No matter. In the next game I made it all the way to $250,000 and then had enough smarts left to walk away before I blew it. Sam had a chance to beat me and then lost it all on the $500,000 question, making me the big winner. ~ah, yes~ It was a great game day. :-)

Sam & Tammy left and I finally went and woke the boys up a little after 7:00. It was a gorgeous evening, so we all threw our shoes on and went for a walk. With the dog. This will enrage all of the dog enthusiasts out there (oh wait... I don't think any of those read this blog!), but I think this was the first time ever that I had taken Hershey for a walk. I usually only leash him when we're traveling and he needs to go outside for a few moments. That dog gets enough exercise on his own without my help--and who has time, with three kids, to devote a slot in your day to walking the dog?! Anyway, we did it tonight and now I know why there isn't a slot for it! Good grief--the dog pulls on the chain with all his might and near 'bout strangles himself. He coughs and hacks and wheezes, but won't even consider easing up a bit. The kids and Hershey managed to find big patches of stickers to trudge through, necessitating some unscheduled pit stops for me to dig in their socks and paws. Dummies. In spite of it all, it was really nice to get out and walk a bit. And there was a gorgeous West Texas sunset. I really wished I had my camera with me. It would have made a great backdrop for some kid shots--especially of Sam. He was wearing all of his cowboy garb and would have looked great silhouetted against the bright orange sky. :-)

Hhmmm. I'm just now realizing that I didn't feed anybody dinner. Well, I guess we really had more of a dinner than lunch since we didn't eat until 4:00! Nobody ever mentioned being hungry again, so I guess it doesn't matter. We came home and cleaned the house up a bit, then played some games for a little while. I told the kids they could all stay up a little bit later tonight (what choice did I have--the boys didn't even get up from their nap until after 7:00!), so we just had a nice, fun evening together.

I put them to bed, threw in a Ken Davis DVD and set to work on my quilt. And... (insert drum roll, please) I GOT IT DONE!!! The whole thing!!! Wa-Hoooooo!!! ~long, satisfied sigh~ That feels soooooo good. It only took me a little over two years, you know. ;-) It's in the washing machine right now. That's always the real test. If it comes out in once piece instead of hundreds of shreds and scraps then I will know I have indeed succeeded. Time will tell!

Now it's 1:00 again and here I sit blogging. I don't know why I do this thing. This late night thing, that is. I failed to mention that the other night when Tammy was here until nearly 1:00am... I actually stayed up after she left--reading the Reader's Digest until 2:00!!! I never do those things and with James being gone it just sort of seemed like the thing to do. And... it was great!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I remember when I was a teenager, how much I LOVED being home alone and I wished I could send Mom & Dad away for just one weekend a month. Now I'm wishing I could do the same thing with my husband and kids! Ha! That's terrible!!! I love them all dearly, but the all-alone-in-the-house-and-can-do-whatever-seems-like-the-thing-to-do thing is just sooooo much fun and happens far too rarely around here! Ha! Anyway, it has been a truly great weekend and I'm thankful for God's help with the kids--they've really been very, very good and we've had a whole lot of fun together--and I'm so glad I was able to spend some time with Sam and Tammy, and I'm happy about being able to do those fun things like read a magazine and quilt (finish a quilt, even!)... and now it's time for it all to come to an end and my husband to get back home where he belongs. :-) Kind of like when I'm the one traveling. I love to go, then I love to come home. Apparently I love for James to leave and I love for him to come home! Both are grand and glorious events, somehow! Ha!

Tomorrow I hope to get some school done with the kids, then do some more fun stuff. I'll need to make sure the house is in good shape 'cause I've got a hunch that it may be on the market in less than 24 hours after James' arrival! Ha! We'll see. Pray for us!!!

~Becki~

6 comments

Life is Grand!

Posted by cokelady

It's been a great couple of days around here. It always seems terrible to couple such statements with, "James is gone!," but... ! Ha! Just so there's no confusion: I DEARLY LOVE MY HUSBAND. Nonetheless (!), it's always so nice to be home alone for a couple of days. (If having three kids and a dog can even qualify as being "alone!" Ha!) It happens very, very rarely (the whole family usually goes wherever he goes) and it just seems so nice and relaxing. I feel like kicking back and vacationing or something. We've just been on a 3 week vacation, but it was the exhausting kind! Anyway...

James left yesterday morning and the kids and I spent the first part of the day getting the house in tiptop condition before realtor #2 came to take a look at it. We had a market analysis done a month or two ago, but it just seemed smart to get a second opinion before settling on what price to list the house at. The lady that came yesterday is the realtor who sold us this house when we moved here 4 years ago. She seemed pleasantly surprised--to put it mildly--at the changes we've made around here. I don't think of it much until we actually take somebody room to room and show them everything we've done... it's a LOT!!! This entire house has been made over except the den--because it was already perfect with the nice brick fireplace and cedar walls that Uncle Jerry put in back when this was his house. Anyway, the lady just seemed to be more "wowed" the farther we went. I'm hoping that potential buyers will be as impressed with this place as the realtors have been! This lady will be calling on Monday to let us know what she thinks the house will sell for. It will be interesting to see how close it is to the first number we got.

Once the realtor left all of the pressure was off and we just had a nice, relaxing day. So relaxing, in fact, that I can't recall anything that we did! Ha! Tammy cancelled her other plans for the evening so she could come and hang out with me. What a pal! With us moving away from Texas we won't have the opportunity to be together very much--and once James gets home things are going to go into warp speed and I'm afraid I won't have much "hanging out" time in what's left of our time in Andrews. So we didn't want to miss a chance to have a girl night! She ended up staying until nearly 1:00am, I think! Sam was going to pick her up after he finished up at the newspaper, but he was encountering some technical difficulties that made for a very late night--for us all! That's okay, though. It was fun. Tammy made brownies while I put the kids to bed. It was Joe's night to sleep with me, so I let him crash on the couch for a while and even let him have a brownie. Lucky dog. ;-)

Today we got up and had breakfast and devotions, then headed to the back yard to get to work on the garden. Everything was dead or very nearly dead due to being left unwatered in the West Texas sun for three weeks. It was looking pretty rough and James said it would be best if we just got the whole area cleaned out before we start showing the house. So the kids and I spent and hour or two pulling carrots and and digging up the other plants and weeds and such. Everybody pitched in and helped, but Sam just ran circles around the others. That kid is by far the best little worker we've got. IF he's in the mood, that is! And today he was. I was working with the hoe and he was following behind me with the rake and gathering up everything and putting it into a nice, neat pile. Katie and Joe were hot and tired and thirsty and needing a popcicle (pitiful!) for an hour before Sam even thought about taking a break. When I finally stopped working to look at him I found that he was soaked with sweat!

What a great little worker! :-)

We finished up in the garden and came in for lunch. Left-overs. We played games for a while, then sat down and built with Lego's together before nap time. It was so fun! It's been a long, long time since I've done that. Maybe that's why these couple of days have seemed so enjoyable--I'm living in denial of all the things that need to be done and I'm just hanging out and enjoying myself! It feels so good to just spend time with the kids outside of school time and the "have to do" stuff. I went out and tossed the football with Joe for a little while, then "played baseball" for a few minutes, too. It's been so great!!!

While they were down for their nap (not that anybody actually fell asleep!) I got all of my stuff together for teaching them Sunday School tomorrow. I got my supplies collected and the chocolate pudding made--I just need to swing by the store to pick up some Oreo's in the morning. Who wants to join us--it's going to be a great lesson! :-)

I got the meat/bean mixture all cooked up and ready for lunch tomorrow. (Sam & Tammy are coming over for taco salad after lunch--yum!) The kids have been sooooo good the past couple of days (GOD HAS BEEN ANSWERING MY PRAYERS and we've had such good, sweet fellowship with one another--I couldn't be happier! Or more thankful!!!) and had been earning lots of stickers, so we had a pizza party tonight to celebrate! Watched a really great Gunsmoke episode, so that made the boys happy. They were highly concerned throughout most of it though. Festus got shot in the very beginning and the gunslinger who did it was waiting around the whole show for Matt Dillon to get back into town so he could kill him. Matt finally got back and the guy did outdraw him (at which point the boys were about ready to die!), but while he was laying on the ground with a bullet in his shoulder he got the drop on the guy and made for a happy ending just in the nick of time. ~sigh~ They just don't make shows like that anymore! Ha!

Saturday night is always bath night around here and tonight was no exception--especially with how sweaty everybody has been today! Afterward we played one more round of Uno, then had devotions. I put everybody to bed and went to take my shower. Then I went and got Katie out of bed (it's her special night to hang out and sleep with Mom) and we watched a movie together while I worked on my quilt. Ah yes, my quilt. This would be the quilt that is supposed to go on Sam's bed. The one that matches the one I made for Joe's bed. Two years ago!!! The quilt that has only had a few hours of work left on it for months and months now!!! Isn't that pitiful?! All it needs is the binding--that's it!!! How can you keep putting something off for so long when you're sooooo close to finishing it?! Well, I finally got the inspiration. Probably because I figure my opportunities to work on such things are over once James gets home and we get into "moving" mode! Ha! I finished half of it tonight and intend to have the rest of it done in the next day or two. That will make me very happy. :-)

And now it's midnight and I'm blogging. No more, though. Got to get some sleep. Before I go, let me post this picture of Katie's handywork. That kid is the best Etch-a-Sketcher I know! Ha! Honestly, this picture isn't nearly as amazing as some of the others she's done the past few days, it's just the only one I took a picture of.

And one more shot of Sam. That kid has been in full costume since the moment we got home from the big trip. For real--within 30 seconds of walking in the door he had made it to his closet and pulled his cowboy boots on. He switches from his cowboy garb to his fireman stuff to his army guy paraphernalia to the gladiator get-up to the cop uniform to the pirate attire... and then starts all over again. And sometimes he wears multiple costumes at one time, in layers or all mixed up together. Goof ball!

Okay, well, I'm going to call it a night. Hope you all have wonderful church services tomorrow!!!

~Rebekah~

8 comments

Bad, Bad Blogger

Posted by cokelady

That's me. I don't know what happened to me, I tell ya'. I just can't seem to get back on track since all of our travels. We spent Monday and most of Tuesday roaming the areas surrounding Albuquerque in search of the perfect house. At least the one God has picked out for us. That will make it perfect. ;-) We found one that we're really praying about making an offer on, but we really need to get our current home on the market first. Especially since we intend to make an offer way below the asking price of the other one! It seems like two strikes against you to make an offer way, way below the asking price and then follow that up with, "Oh, and we can't buy this anyway until we sell our own and we don't even have it on the market yet, but I'm sure..." Ha! Anyway, I could talk HOUSES for page after page, but I'm so tired of talking houses. It's such a huge decision when you're planning on selling your house and purchasing another. There are so many things to be considered and it just sort of consumes all of your thoughts. In fact, the other night James sat up in the bed and started talking about the lot the house sits on and the zoning and, and, and... It didn't make any sense at all and I finally stopped him and said, "JAMES. I am interested in what you have to say. But do we have to discuss it at 4:30 in the morning?!" "Oh, sorry--I thought you were awake," he says. Trouble was, he wasn't! Ggrrrr.

Anyway, no more house talk. There will be way more of that in the future, I'm sure.

We got home sometime after midnight Tuesday night. Yesterday was spent unpacking... again. And getting the house all cleaned up. This morning Stacey brought Hershey Dog back to us. It's good to have him home. It's so weird to be here when he's not! I wonder if that's how he feels when we leave him home alone?!

James left this morning for Colorado. Our church in Craig has paid off their building and they are having a mortgage burning ceremony this weekend. I feel really, really bad about not going--we've tried to make it to Craig two or three times and have always gotten snowed out! I would have enjoyed being there and part of me feels guilty for staying home... but not guilty enough to make me go! We just got back from a 3 week trip, were home a few days, took off to Albuquerque, just got home from that, then there's the service in Craig, then right after that is our Minister's Retreat. Our family is on the go all the time and the kids are good travelers, but it's still really hard on them to have everything so "unsettled" all the time. It helps so much to have something NORMAL for them in between trips. We just need a little bit of time to get into the groove and be at our very own home and do some school and just add a bit or normalicy to their lives, you know?! Not to mention mine! With all of the trips AND an upcoming move, I just had to grab some home time while I could.

The kids have been cracking me up, but as usual I can't remember anything because I haven't been taking notes. We've been having some real attitude issues to them, too--which has not been cracking me up. In fact, I've been in tears a few times! That's another thing--they are always sooooooo out of whack when we do a bunch of traveling! I've had some real issues with Katie, but she seems to have leveled out the last day or two and has been being such a good girl. Sweet and cheerful and helpful. That's my Katie girl! Sam, too, seems to be doing pretty good right now and has been much more compliant and agreeable than he had been, so that's good. Joe, on the other hand, has been pushing every limit he can find and then some. I don't know what's gotten in to that kid, but he's been soooooooooo bad. Just a bad attitude, mean and stubborn--and talking back and arguing about everything, big and little. We've tried all of the usual forms of training we usually employ, but we were getting absolutely nowhere with him. We thought maybe he just needed some special JOE TIME--like he's just gotten lost in the crowd and in all of the busyness and such and maybe he just needs some good ole' one on one. So James took him to Odessa yesterday to run errands with him. They did the necessary things, then James took him to the store and bought him a hard case for his guitar and a strap for it. He took him to Denny's for lunch (Joe loves Denny's) and ordered him a hot chocolate to drink. A great day! Got home and Joe lapsed right back into the same attitude problems. He had had a big fun day with his dad and got lots of great stuff with his guitar... and then was upset because Katie and Sam each got a new guitar pick, too, instead of Joe getting all three. Can you imagine?! James calmly told him to put his guitar away and informed him that he was done with his guitar and stuff for the rest of the day. He was also done with his weapons and cowboy stuff. And no comic books the rest of the day and nothing to draw on. No toys at all. He was being selfish and completely ungrateful for everything, so therefore he would have nothing. I was thinking it was all pretty extreme (what's the kid going to DO for the next five hours until bedtime?!), but as it turns out it seemed to do the trick. He couldn't touch any of the toys, even in the bathtub, so he just watched Sam play. And he got innovative and found himself playing with a pillow or some such thing. And... for the first time in a long, long time, he was happy and content and agreeable... My old pleasant, easy-going Joe! ~sigh~ What a relief. I've been praying and praying and praying since we've been home from the Assembly trip--it seems like all of the kids had just fallen apart and were having such huge attitude problems! I was at the end of my rope and just desperate for things to get better. So I've been praying and praying and praying for God to give us wisdom in how to deal with them and mostly that He would do in their hearts what I can't do--no matter how hard I try! We've still got plenty of work to do, but God has been so good to give us help these past few days and I'm just soooooo thankful. I've got such great kids, but it's going to require constant effort and attention to see that they grow in the right direction. I'm grateful for the hope God has given me this past week. I know He'll keep helping us if we keep trying our best and crying out to Him for guidance.

Ramble, ramble, ramble. Nothing much fun to share tonight, so I'll slap a few pictures up here. I'm wa-a-a-a-a-ay behind on pictures! Here are some from the Pennsylvania leg of the trip...

Katie & Joe shooting the .22 with their Dad

Sam riding on the tractor with Grandpa Norman

With the Grandparents just before we said goodbye--you can tell by Grandma's eyes! ~sigh~ It's always so hard to leave there!!!

That's it for now. It's only 10:00, but I think I'm going to bed. I've had a headache most of the night--very, very rare for me. I told the kids I'd let one of them sleep with me each night their Dad is away. I don't know what I was thinking. Tonight is Sam's night. I may need to go to bed early--I'll be kicked and shoved and flopped on a lot throughout the night!

~Bec~

4 comments

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO...

Posted by cokelady

...is now home to The Church of God once again! Praise the Lord!!! We had a good service here this morning with about 20 people in attendance, I think. There were 11 there tonight and we had another good service. After much prayer and counselling with a few ladies, James felt led to set the Church in order tonight and take in three members to start with:

Sister Grimes

Sister Martinez

Sister Bailey

Praise the Lord!!! We are just sooooooo excited! And they seem a wee bit excited as well. ;-) Especially Sister Grimes--she is just beside herself! I think she said she is 78 or 79 years old and joined the Church way back in the 40's. She has just been sick over everything going on the the CoGoP and is sooooooo thrilled to have "found" God's Church again. We had a wonderful time and are anticipating great growth in this area. Pray, pray, pray!

And as you're praying, send up a few for our family as well. We told the folks tonight that we are planning to move to Albuquerque and James will pastor the Church here for the duration of this Church year. Sooooo, this means putting our house on the market and finding one here asap! We've been praying about this and anticipating it for several weeks now and have gone so far as to have a market analysis done on our house just before the Assembly. God has blessed us and the market in Andrews has gone way up since we purchased our home there 4 years ago. So we trust we'll be able to make an excellent profit on our home and have a good start on a home in this area. God is just sooooo good to us! We're so excited about all of the doors He has opened and how He's worked to see the Church up and going here, so we're trusting that He'll also open doors for us to find the house of His choosing for us here in this area.

We will be looking at homes tomorrow in the Cedar Crest and Sandia Park areas. Those are both little itty-bitty towns just on the other side of the mountain range (10-15 minutes from Albuquerque) and we LOVE the area. It's very Colorado-ish and makes me very happy. :-) I would just lo-o-o-o-o-ove it if God would open a door for us up there! We would love to be out of a regular "neighborhood" and let the kids have a little room to roam. God knows the desires of our heart, but ultimately His choice is always the best, so we're just praying for Him to guide us and open up what He has planned for us. We'd appreciate your prayers.

In closing... "A female turtle will travel far--many of miles each day--to lay her eggs on the same old beach, where she had her first birthday!!!" If only you knew how to sing it, it would be so much better. Sam is playing with the Leappad right now and for some reason that song is his favorite thing in the entire book. So we have to hear it over, and over, and over, and over... So I thought I'd share it will you. :-)

Thank all of you who have been praying for us and for the work in Albuquerque--God has heard and answered. Keep it up! :-)

Love You All!,

~ Rebekah ~

--Ah, yes! James just reminded me to add a few pictures of the church building here in Albuquerque. This is the same building where my Dad pastored 28 years ago--and two of the same members! Isn't that amazing?! Very cool. God is just so, so, so, so, so good!!! :-)

16 comments

HOME!!!

Posted by cokelady

Home! Home! Home! My very own home!!! We made it!!! Wa-Hoo!!! We've been gone for... let me add it up... 23 days. We initially thought it would be 25, so somehow we cut out a couple of days somewhere. That's fine with me! I had a wonderful time in Pennsylvania and a wonderful time at the Assembly and a wonderful time at my folks house... and now I'm HOME, at long last! ~sigh~ I couldn't be happier. Yes, I could. Do you know how depressing it is to get home and walk through the door and enter a room of perfect calm and silence??? No poodle jumping and yipping and wagging and welcoming you with all his might?! We get Hershey back tomorrow. :-)

You'll never believe this. I'm still in amazement myself. We got home at about 6:00 tonight. We promptly unloaded the van (took quite some time to gather up all the junk and trash and toys--oooooh, I hate this part of a trip!), then I vacuumed the whole thing out. ~sigh~ That feels better.

Of course, that meant that all of the contents of a three and a half week trip fell into various piles throughout my used-to-be-perfectly-clean living room. You'd be amazed at how well organized I am at the onset of a trip. And at how completely chaotic everything has become by the end! Besides all of the crazy stuff you accumulate along the journey. Good grief! Anyway...

We ordered a pizza and got the kid-o's fed while we kept working away, me on the house and James on the mail. He's been going nuts thinking about all of the bills that have been piling up and he's been unable to pay. (I kid you not--he usually gets a bill in the mail, immediately goes to the office, writes the check and plops it right back in the mailbox--or sometimes even gets in the car and drives to a drop box so it will be picked up that very night! Is that insane or what?! Ha!) The kids played outside for a while, but finally gave up due to the huge bees and wasps that have suddenly overtaken our back yard. Ah yes, and our flowers are looking pretty rough! Three weeks in west Texas without constant nurturing is just too much! They look far better than the garden, though. We lost everything in the garden except maybe a few small carrots. Everything else looks completely dead with no hope of recovery. ~sigh~ So sad.

As I was saying, I got everything sorted through tonight. Everything!!! That can't possibly mean anything to you since you didn't see what I was dealing with, but I assure you it is nothing short of miraculous. I got all of the suitcases unpacked, the hanging clothes sorted through and put away, found all of the dirty clothes as well as the clothes that will just need to be ironed, sorted through all of the toys and junk to go to the office and to the toy room, got all the bathroom stuff unpacked and put away, and sorted through a mountain of clothes from Ashely Werkheiser for Katie. (What a blessing!!!) I picked out everything I thought we will be able to use and pulled aside the other stuff to pass along to some other church girl who might be able to get some use out of them. I also got all of James' and my stuff completely unpacked and put away, and took the piles of everything else to the rooms where they rightly belong.

So now my living room is perfectly clean again!!! Of course, that really just means that every other room in the house now has it's own individual mountain of stuff to be put away, but at least it all made it to the proper room! That's a great start for me!!! (It usually takes me a day or two to make it that far after a trip like this! Ha!) I did all that and even lived to blog about it. ;-) I also downloaded all 577 pictures from my camera and sorted through 378 e-mails. And now it's midnight and I am totally wiped out!!! But it feels great to have accomplished so much on our very first night home. I'm sure I'll sleep GREAT in my very own bed in my very own room in my very own house tonight. ~sigh~ Life is Grand. :-)

I'm outta here. Lots more to be done in the next few days. Whenever I get a chance (???) I'll start posting some pictures from the trip. Hope all is well out there--I intened to start visiting the blogs again one of these days, too!

~Becki~

11 comments

Headin' West!

Posted by cokelady

First thing in the morning, that is. Actually, "first thing" is yet to be seen (I know how we are!), but sometime tomorrow morning we will indeed head west. And, of course, it will be a bittersweet thing. It's never a fun thing to say goodbye to Mom and Dad and I'm sure we'll have some teary eyed kids (Joe was crying tonight just thinking about it!) and possibly grandparents, too. But on the other hand, we've been gone for three full weeks at this point and I am soooooooo ready to be home!!! It's the same as it always is. I love to go places. And then I love to get back home!

We've had a really great time here, but there's no denying that it's a really hard time to have a "family visit." We, as I mentioned, have already been gone a long, long time. We were already at the other Grandparents' house for a week, then the Assembly. As is true with all grandparents, the kids have a blast but any and all child training goes down the tubes. Then you have a long, tiring week of Assembly (no matter how fantastic it is, it's still exhausting!), so the kids are shot! And the rest of us, too! And then there's Dad and his responsibilities. It's still sooooo weird to me that Dad has to get up in the morning and "go to work." He's one of the most diligent, hard working people I've ever known and he's always busy doing something... but in all my life he never worked a regular "job" where he had to get up and "go to the office!" It's just really weird. He's been coming home a little early each day so he could have some time with the kids, so that's been nice. And he was actually able to take the whole day off today, so that was great! We loaded up and went to Mayfield Dairy to take the tour and see how they do everything that they do there. Neat stuff. Then we thought it only right to try some of their ice cream. Not bad! :-)

We drove around for a while and found a cornfield maze, but it wasn't open. Bummer! I have always wanted to do that and have never had the opportunity. Oh well. It was a beautiful drive and we saw lots of really, really neat houses. I love the houses out this direction and up toward Pennsylvania. There are so many really pretty and unique houses. We've got some out west too, but you see a whole lot more "cookie cutter" houses that are crammed in a tight neighborhood next to 50 other houses that are identical in layout and color. I hate those! Anyway, it was a nice drive today and we saw lots of pretty houses and scenery. We ate at some BBQ place and it was excellent. Headed home and got naps for everybody while I started collecting our family's belongings which have been scattered far and near throughout the house. Got lots done and a big head-start on packing, which was nice.

At 6:30 we walked over the the neighbors' house for dinner. They are the greatest people! Thomas & Stephanie are their names. They are the ones who Mom & Dad bought this house from and they've bent over backwards to help Mom & Dad with all kinds of stuff. Of course, Mom takes homemade goodies over to them frequently and they all seem to do lots of little favors for one another. You know, like neighbors would do back in Leave it to Beaver days! :-) It's great! Anyway, these people are sooooooooo nice and thoughtful and generous. (They actually embroidered all of those "Overseer" cloths that were used on the pews at the Assembly. And they had a huge basket of candy and fun wash cloths and crackers and crazy animan pens and cute little notepads and all sorts of other great stuff for "The Smith Grandchildren" when we first arrived here! I meant to send a bunch of it home with Jon for the larger portion of grandchildren to enjoy!!!) We had a nice time and the kids enjoyed romping around outside.

Tonight we let the kids stay up late to have some extra time with Grandma & Granddad before we leave. I have spent most of my evening scouring the house for Katie's missing sandal. She was wearing them today (even wore them to the neighbors house tonight), but we can only find one of them. Oooooooh, that makes me mad. I finally went out to the van and dug through the big suitcase (that I had already packed and loaded) and got her tennis shoes out, just in case we still can't find the sandal in the morning. I really ought to be in bed right now. But I've got a load of clothes in the dryer that I'm waiting on. I'll fold them and pack them, then hit the hay.

Yesterday. I'd tell you what we did yesterday if I could remember. I think we just stayed around the house until church time. It was Mom's WMB service and James preached for her. I missed a large portion of the service due to some... hhhmmmm... How shall I say??? Katie needed some serious attitude adjustments!!! It's been a long, long trip and it's definitely showing. I think we got it all worked out though and things have been much better today.

Found another frog tonight. I want to let the boys hold 'em, but I'm so scared they're going to just squeeze the guts right out of the litte guys! So I snatch the poor things back after just a second or two and take them to a safe place to reclaim their freedom. Oh, Mom & I did a 1,000 piece puzzle yesterday. It was great! Uummm... Dad and Joe and I shot the .22 for a while tonight. That was fun. Sam plays with the bb-gun and pretends to shoot, but the .22 is just too loud for him so he won't actually follow through. Mom & Katie had a fancy tea party tonight, but I got distracted outside with the guns and forgot to come back in to take pictures of them! Ha! Guns are a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how much, until this trip!

Hhmmm. Guess that's about it. I think my clothes are probably about dry now anyway. I should go check. We'll be leaving tomorrow and heading home. We're hoping to make it to someplace in Mississippi tomorrow, maybe even Louisiana. I'm guessing it will be Mississippi though! We're tired and we have to run by HQ in the morning before we leave, so that will set us back a little bit, too. Anyway, we plan to be home Saturday night and will have our dog returned to us on Sunday. I talked to Stacey today and told her she could just leave Hershey at our house now if she wanted to because we'd be home in two days. Nope. "You'll have to wait until Sunday!," she said. I'm sooooooooo glad she's actually enjoyed that crazy dog! What a blessing! To us AND to Hershey! :-) I'm anxious to get home to my local church, my house, my dog--just everything. Even my own chores! Well... some of them! ;-) It's been great to be on this trip. And it will be great to be at my very own home again!!!

~The Weary Traveler~

2 comments

I've Fallen a Little Behind...

Posted by cokelady

That happens when I'm at Mom & Dad's house! But for the sake of those of you who missed it and haven't already heard about it, I'll try to remember what I can from the last two days of the Assembly.

I did, indeed, live through our early morning Mission Breakfast. (Although I'm still opposed to the hour!) Brother Jerry Anders preached a message and Brother Don Branscum had his ABM program that morning. (I'm having to refer back to the Assembly program to recall as much as I am! Ha!) I really, really like Brother Branscum--I appreciate his spirit, of course, but he's just so enjoyable to listen to. He has such clarity of thought and perception and a clever and pointed way of articulating himself. It makes him very interesting to listen to.

The afternoon session was our VLB service, which was kind of weird to have in the afternoon. In fact, in the building with no windows it was easy to forget it wasn't 9:00 at night--we're just so used to that! Anyway, the number of VLB's marching was way down this year, although I can't recall what the final count was. Nonetheless, we had a good march and a terrific VLB service. Sister Sharon had three young people "racing" up and down the aisles and she talked about this spiritual race that we're in. One of the young people got distracted and needed help from another to keep her eyes on the finish line and remember what she was racing for. Another encountered and injury and required assistance to keep her on track until she recovered. Sister Sharon likened this to becoming distracted with the things of the world and such. The third runner was reaching out and grabbing other people to join in the race. At the end they all ran up onto the stage and under through the finish line to receive their reward. It was all done very well and seemed to be a great blessing to our young people. Of course it's only my personal opinion, but I really think this was the best VLB session I've ever been in at the Assembly. Brother Bobby Sutton preached a good message and there was a wonderful season of prayer at the altar. We were given lots of good things to chew on and everything just felt so sound. I was sooooooooo blessed in the prayer time. The VLB service is usually one of the few times I get during the Assembly to really pray. My kids are with Mom and Aunt Sue and whoever else is too old to march (!), and it frees me to really take time with God without distraction. I love that! I'm so thankful for the chance to poor my heart out to the Lord in the altar. What a blessing!!!

Friday night was the Evangelism and Healing service with Brother Lanny Carter in charge. He's keeping the same Evangelism theme this year: Throw Out the Lifeline. It was a really good service too and I so enjoyed watching those who went through the prayer lines receiving a touch from God. I took the kids and went half way up the side stairs so I could get some good pictures of what was going on below. It is just so neat to see God working and blessing His people!!!

On Saturday morning Brian O'Dell preached a fantastic (and fanatical?! Ha!) message that all should hear. Order the DVD! ;-) He spoke about the Spirit of Truth and how we need to fall on the Rock and be broken, then preached out several different things that need to be "broken" in our lives: pride, worldliness, selfishness, etc. He whipped out an Advice to Members tract and preached out of that for a little while. He spoke of our clothing and addressed our ladies in the Church and the way they dress. He actually asked all of the men in the building who are tired of having to turn their heads away from our Church women because of their immodest attire to stand up and acknowledge as much. It was wonderful to see so many men stand in agreement and I truly hope that it makes each and every woman and girl in the Church re-think what we put on!!! This is a subject that has been so much on my heart lately and I'm so thrilled to know that God is working on others as well. He so desires to have a holy people who will look and speak and act holy, as He is holy!!! Brother Brian stepped on my toes a bit when he kept reading through the tract. I usually think of the Advice to Members and think, "Yeah, I love the Advice--I've got that down." But that's because we usually think of the big "outward" things: the way we dress and the worldly amusements and such. But I must confess I felt the Lord thumping my heart when he read the part that says, "Don't be a critic and look for things to criticize in other people." Ouch! I want to have a heart full of love and goodwill toward other people, always expecting good for them; not pessemistic and critical and always assuming the worst! I pray the Lord will keep this on my heart and truly work some changes in my outlook on life and others through it.

Sister Bishop's WMB program was next, although I can't tell you much about it. I was in the Ladies' Retreat choir (they're not picky, obviously! Ha!) and was seated in the choir loft for most of Sister Bishop's portion of the service. I couldn't hear a thing up there! I'll have to get the DVD. ;-) I know the Lord really blessed while we sang Oh, I Want to See Him and Prayer Bells of Heaven. Sister Janet is an amazing choir director. She has a way of leading you into the depths of what you're singing about and kind of pulling the worship out of you! I really enjoyed it. I was, I must admit, rather distracted through portions of it, though. I was seated dead center in the very top row of the choir. No biggie. Except that I was wearing a hot pink blouse in a sea of women clad in their Missionary white!!! I felt a tad bit conspicuous!!! I was sure to go thank Sister Connie Werkheiser afterwards. She and just a couple others were wearing bright colors as well, so it's not as bad as it would have otherwise been! (I had worn my white for the Parade of Nations on Thursday night and never thought about needing to wear it on Sunday morning!) Anyway...

Sister Bishop had Brother Rob Hawkins preach during the Mission Program and it was soooooo good. Between him and Brian O'Dell there should be plenty of us who have plenty of things to pray about! Ha! He spoke a little bit on the Advice as well, and a bit on divine healing--what I came away with is simply trusting God with every part of your life and letting Him be truly be God. He talked about being willing to up and go wherever God would send you (he has the right to speak plainly to us on such things!) and to do whatever God would have us to do. Such a blessing.

Brother Bock preached our theme message, "Speaking the Truth in Love," in the afternoon and he did a great job!!! I really didn't know what to expect from him, since I don't think I've ever heard the man speak before. I don't mean publicly--I mean at all! Ha! But he preached a really, really good message. He talked about growing up on the farm and how much the pigs loved to eat corn, but only if it was served correctly in the trough. He said that as kids they would sometimes throw the corn at the pigs and the pigs would run and hide and would have nothing to do with the corn, even once it was just laying there on the ground in front of them. The same is true with the gospel. "It's all in the method of delivery," he said. If we present the truth to people without love, they're going to reject it and want nothing to do with it. More good stuff to think on!

Don't ask about the appointments. Once we heard "Alabama: Rob Hawkins," the rest was all a blur! Ha! WOW. Shocker there for everybody, I think. But I have no doubt that God will bless the Hawkins and their labors for Him. I think there were a few changes in the other countries, but not many. The only other chance in the states is that East Texas is now in the MS/LA region instead of Dewayne Smith's AR/MO/OK (and ???) region. I do know that a Brother McMahon (sp?!) will be going to Western Canada. I don't know the man or his family, but I can't tell you how much they've blessed me! It is just such a blessing to see people who are willing to uproot themselves and pay such great sacrifices (leaving behind home and family--especially when there are grandchildren involved--only God knows the sacrifice it truly is!!!) for the sake of working for God wherever He may lead. Wow. May God bless these wonderful people and honor their great sacrifices for Him! I feel certain that they, their family, and the saints in Canada will all be richly blessed because of this.

All in all, it was a fantastic Assembly. I really can't explain it--you'll just have to get the DVD's. ;-) Headquarters should give me some sort of commission on all of these DVD's I'm pluggin'! Ha! Really, I just don't know how to describe it. There was just soooooo much unity and... I don't know--everything just felt so solid and settled and... I can't really put my finger on it! It was just so, so, so good. So sound and sure. What a great Assembly!!! And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the facilities. There is just nooooooooooo comparison--I never, ever want to go back to Chattanooga! Ha! It was soooooooooooo nice and soooooooooooooo clean and sooooooooooooo convenient. It was great to see everybody, too, although it felt like I didn't have a chance to talk to quite as many as usual.

We had a lot of good laughs at the expense of Jimmy Williams (the bad one--Jimmy & Georgia Williams' son) that night, as he was at the house for a few hours. I don't often have the opportunity to be around him outside of a church setting and I was sure to make good on my chance to mock him mercilessly. ~sigh~ What a great night! Ha!

We went to church at Zion Hill on Sunday morning while the guys were at their Presbytery meeting. It was a good service and Paul Horton preached a good message on having fresh oil in our lives. ~sigh~ I'll never be able to remember all of the great things I've heard preached in the past week and be able to pray about them! Of course, James did get our complete set of Assembly DVD's today (have you ordered yours yet?! ;-) Ha!), so I can refresh my memory on most things.

After church we took Aunt Sue and Sara Clifton to the airport in Chattanooga, then went and had a Frisco burger and fries (with extra Frisco sauce to dip them in, of course!) at Steak ~N~ Shake. ~Aaaaaaaaahhhh~ I love that meal!!! Had an orange freeze, to boot. What a great day! :-) Came home and put the kids down for a nap. That night the Adams came over to visit for a little while, which was nice. I don't remember much (we were all sooooo tired!), but I do recall Sam putting on a pretty good show for them--him and all of his guns strapped all over his body. Little goofball. Melissa came over for a few minutes, too, so that was nice. I wish we had more opportunity to be with all of our old friends from "the good old days"! Oh well, I'm thankful for the time we do get.

Monday... hhmmm... That was yesterday, wasn't it? Everything is such a blur?! Mom made brisket for lunch, with corn on the cob that we'd brought from James' aunt up in Pennsylvania, and french fries. Why the fries, you may ask? Because that wonderful Kasey Broyles brought me three bottles of Arctic Circle Fry Sauce!!! Wa-Hoo!!! It was a grand and glorious meal. :-) Thank you, Kasey!!! You're the bestest!!!!!! We made homemade ice cream that night, too.

Today Dad went to HQ and James went putzin' around Cleveland. I don't know where all he went, except that he spent a few hours at Irene Gaddis' house, visiting. Mom and I took the kids to lunch at Jordan's BBQ with sisters Gayle, Jacki, Willystene, and Sandra. It was fun! Then we stopped by HQ to check and see if the camera that was found at the Assembly belonged to Sister Bishop or not. Sure 'nuff. I wonder if she's even missed it yet! Ha! Crazy lady.

Tonight Dad installed a ceiling fan in the den. He took the old one down last night. He had just bought and installed it recently, but it suddenly stopped working--light and the fan. So he returned it and got a new one and we got it put together and installed tonight. Works great! It's nice to actually have some light in there other than the lamps. We are a very well lit family. ;-) We hate sitting around in the dark. There's nothing I hate more than going to a house and sitting in a room full of people with one little lamp on over in the corner! Light! Give me light!!! "Let there be light." God likes it, too. ;-)

The kids have been having a blast here and Grandma & Granddaddy's house, although we're all so worn out from our trip and the Assembly that there's not as much going on as there otherwise would be! They've spent lots of time fishing in the pond, although nobody has had any luck yet. They have managed to throw a frisbee thing and a football into the pond, both of which were finally fished out, the first by their mother, the second by a very determined Joe. (He was so proud of himself!) We've only seen one frog so far. Mom spotted it, so I went out and caught it for the kids to hold. I was scared of letting them catch it themselves--they probably would have squished the little guy! I don't do creepy-crawlies like I used to do, but frogs are actually kind of cute. I think we got some pictures of the kids with him before I mercifully released him from being Sam's pet. (A fate worse than death, I assure you.)

Hhmmm. There's so much more to tell, but it's forever lost. Lost from my memory and unrecorded on my blog. That means lost forever! But I've done what I could and at least jotted down a few things. Okay, so it was a whole lot of things--it's still only the tip of the iceburg as far as what could have been written if only my mind would cooperate. Oh well. We're having a great time and are planning staying another day or two, anyway. We'll probably head home early on Friday morning. We'll see. One of these days (after we get home and get unpacked and get the regional paper done and go to Albuquerque and, and, and...! Aaaaaahhhhh!!!) I'll get all of my pictures downloaded and post some of the highlights. I have 500+ pictures right now (that means I'm only half the photographer Jenna is! Ha!) and I wanted to wait until we got to our home computer to start downloading them. It'll take a while! Okay, I'm outta here! Forgive all of the mistakes, misspelledwords and other typos--there's no way I'm going to mess with proof reading tonight!!! Later, y'all!

~Bec~

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