Merry Marketplace Prep

Posted by cokelady

That's what today was all about. Merry Marketplace is a show they have down in the colosseum in Odessa. Vendors come from hundreds of miles around to set up booths there. Sue always has a double booth there for Willow Creek and it's AMAZING how much business you can do in just a few short days! Of course, she has the best looking booth in the building, so that helps. :-)

I left the house just before 8:00 this morning, stopped by Sue's store to pick up some merchandise to take down to Odessa, then followed Tammy on into town where she left her car at the dealership to be worked on. The two of us made it to the colosseum at 9:00, right on schedule. It was a full day of hauling in display pieces and merchandise, stringing garlands and Christmas lights, decorating trees, stacking snowen, piling up wooden block signs... You name it. Sue and Stacey and Tammy and I worked fast and furious all day long and you wouldn't believe how much still remains to be done! Ha! We are off to a real good start though and they've got until 2:00 tomorrow to get it all finished. I won't be going to help tomorrow, but I'll be working the booth all day on Friday. Wa-Hoo!!! That's one of my favorite days of the whole year--the day I get to work Merry Marketplace. It's just sooooo much fun! And I must admit... toying around with all of the Christmas stuff today sucked me into the Christmas spirit a little more than I usually allow myself this early in the year. I even caught myself humming Jingle Bells while driving back to Andrews tonight. For shame!!! (And DON'T TELL JAMES!!! Ha!)

I got home at about 6:00 tonight, just as James and the kids were getting home from Dairy Queen. They'd been to Pizza Hut for lunch. Hey, that's what days with Dad are all about, right?! He'd also taken them to the park and done school with them and watched King George and the Ducky with them--all sorts of great stuff. They all jabbered incessantly for the first hour I was home, telling me all about it. Sounds like they all had a GREAT day! I'm so glad. I hope they have another great Dad Day while I'm working MM on Friday! AND...

James said there was another showing today! Whoa!!! This is the third time the house has been shown in the past 4 or 5 days, I think. That's fantastic! Even if it doesn't sell, at least somebody is LOOKING at it! And James said the lady who looked at it today was here for quite a while. (He and the kids had cleared out, but they kept driving past the house to see if she was still around!) 20 minutes or more, I think he said. That's a good thing! I know that when WE look through a house that we would seriously consider, we stay there for a long, long time, walking through it over and over again, checking EVERYTHING out and thinking and planning and contemplating the possibilities and adding up the costs of what we would want to change, and, and, and... :-) So it's a GOOD SIGN for somebody to not be here and gone in 5 minutes like so many of the other lookers we've had. James said even after the realtor left, the lady sat out front in her car looking at the house and studying the flyer for another 10 minutes or so. :-) Makes me happy. I've just been praying for God to work it all out in His time. He knows best and it feels good to trust that. I start feeling the anxiety again every now and then, but God is so good to calm my nerves and help me to rest in Him again. That's what I want to do.

Speaking of resting in Him, I think I'm going to go work on my Ladies' Retreat lesson a little bit before bed. Please say a prayer for me! I've been totally unable to find any direction for this class and I need God to help me and guide me into what He wants for us there. I'm trying to rest in Him for this class, too! ;-) G'night, all!

~Rebekah~

Oh! Oh! Oh! And it looks like The Blog Lady has got my new template up and going! Wa-Hoo!!! THANK YOU, JENNA!!!! You're the bestest!!! :-) I appreciate it sooooo much! What a nice change this is... ~sigh~ Just feels nice and restful, doesn't it?! I love it. ;-)

15 comments

Zip-Zip-Zip

Posted by cokelady

Seems to be the story of our lives anymore. We just made a flyin' trip to Colorado and back this weekend and--although the trip was great--we are sooooo glad to be back home!

We left on Saturday morning and drove the 11 hours or so up to Colorado Springs. Checked into our motel on south Nevada Avenue (isn't that the bad, bad, BAD part of town, Mom?!), then grabbed a bite at Denny's before calling it a night.

We got up on Sunday morning and headed to Memorial Hospital to visit Brother Kelly, who had been admitted there on Saturday. It was soooo good to see him! He actually looked quite well, I thought, and we had a nice visit and a good prayer before leaving to meet the Hays family for lunch at the Mason Jar--James' favorite restaurant in the 'Springs.

We had a good time visiting with Dustin & Jamey and the kids, as always. I'm going to go ahead and say this here, in hopes that Dustin won't catch wind of it. (It would be humiliating to actually say something kind about him publicly and him know of it!) Every time we are with Dustin and Jamey we have the same conversation afterwards. "They are just the neatest couple. They are soooooo amazingly mature--spiritually--and their actions and reactions to people and situations are just so... mature!!! They don't at all act like the 25 year old punk kids that we know they really are deep down! (Had to throw that in there!)" And on and on we go. And it's so true. They are just so sincere and dedicated--and so faithful to ALL of the church functions, "manditory" or not. Their heart is to serve the Lord, work for the Lord, be a part of everything they can possibly be a part of, and be a blessing in every way they can. And they do--all of it! Oh, to have 10 more young couples just like them! Maybe WE'LL be one some day! Ha!

ANYWAY, after having lunch with them we headed over to church to be in the first half of their service with them. Weird, hu?! They held off on Sunday School and went right into their worship service, then James preached. Afterwards we took a break, of sorts, and said goodbye to everybody before they had their Sunday School. We had to skip out on that part in order to drive down to Pueblo and make it in time for the second half of their service! We made it just in time--they were just dismissing from Sunday School when we walked through the door. So we were there for their song service and then James preached there. We were only able to visit with Keven & Michele for a few minutes because of our next appointment (!), but we thoroughly enjoyed it, as always. They are some of my very favorite people in the whole world, too. And I'm always sooooo blessed by their LOVE for souls--especially young people--and the way the invest their lives into ministering to them. In fact, they had 10 kids with them in church yesterday: their own four, their current four foster kids, and two kids who used to be their foster kids. Amazing. What a rich reward they'll have in heaven--and who knows the souls that will be there because of them! They are just... amazing!!!

We stopped in Canon City to get gas and run threw the Wendy's drive through, then stopped to get our room at the Broken Arrow motel in Howard before heading on to Salida for their 40th Anniversary Service. The Church of God in Salida was organized on October 29th, 1967, so we had a special service to celebrate! It was really neat. Several people drove two or three hours to be there, all of whom had connections to the Salida Church in one way or another--except faithful ole' Dustin & Jamey Hays. They have no personal connection, they just wanted to be there because they like being in church, especially with other people--and can't bear to miss out on a chance to fellowship, either! It was great. Brother Clarkson shared some history of the Salida church, James gave special recognition (and some gifts) to Brother & Sister Clarkson, and to Sister Flora Porco who has been a faithful member of the Church in Salida for ALL of it's 40 years. She even sang a special for us. :-)

We shared some memories, some tears, and a few laughs about our time in Salida and some of the wonderful things that have taken place in that church and through it's ministry. It was a really special night. We ended it by Brother Dustin reading a letter from Chris Clarkson (who, of course, was unable to be there due to their recent move to Arizona!) and Jon reading a letter from my Dad that made us all cry. I hate it when he does that. And I love it. It was just a really neat and special time. More than anything, it was just special that everybody cared enough to BE there for it.

Afterward we all headed over to a souped up garage (really!) for some refreshments. It was so much fun!!! We had a total of 12 kids and they all ran around screaming like a bunch of banshees, wrestling and shooting each other with cap guns and otherwise being unorderly and out of control. But every one of them had been sitting in church services and strapped into a car all day long and they needed the break! So we just let 'em go. Either that or we figured we couldn't stop it anyway! Ha! I kept hoping that somebody would thump Sam real good, but it never happened. That kid plays way too rough and never knows when to stop. I figure if he gets beat up real good a time or two he might start figuring out how to play within the limits. Maybe it'll happen while he's staying with his Smith cousins during Ladies' Retreat since it didn't happen in Salida. Although--Ha! This is so great!!! Sam came running up to me whining and pulling at the back of his pants in the middle of all of the commotion. I couldn't figure out what he was saying, but Levi (Sister Flora's 16 year old grandson who showed up) was following close behind him and explaining nervously (as if HE would be in trouble) that Sam wouldn't quit hitting him so he finally gave him a wedgie to make him stop! Ha! Little twerp deserved it, but I don't think it slowed him down much.

Anyway, the kids had a blast playing together and I can't speak for the rest of the adults, but I had a blast, too! It was so great just sitting and talking with everybody. What fun! I think we should do it once a month. ;-)

We got back to our motel room and in bed by 10:30 or 11:00, I think. We had the worst mattress I've been on in years, but we slept straight through the night until 8:00 the next morning! WHOA! The long drive to Colorado the day before, then the hospital/church in 'Springs/drive to Pueblo for Church/drive to Salida for church thing just wiped us out!!! The drive home yesterday was good, but forever long. The last 3 hours felt like an eternity. It's hard to take such a long trip in such a short period of time! We'd done nothing but sit in the van (or on church pews) for three days straight and we we bored out of our gourds! But we finally made it in at about 10:00 last night, I think.

We had a nice day around here today. Got unpacked and settled in at home... again. I cooked a nice dinner tonight: smothered steaks, potatoes, mushroom gravy and corn--with cherry cheesecake for desert. Yum! Everything turned out PERFECT. It was all still on the table when the realtor called and asked if she could show the house in about 30 minutes. So we did another high speed cleaning and hopped in the van. Took it down to the car wash and by the time we were done there and drove back by here the people were leaving our house, so we just drove around the block and waited for them to pull away (isn't that weird?! It's OUR HOUSE! Why should we feel weird about going home when other people are there?!) and went on home. I spent some time reading with the kids tonight. Some of their old favorite books that we haven't read in ages: The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes (always makes me think twice!), Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type (lots of fun, but Kate and Joe are about to outgrow it), and Arnie the Doughnut (which none of us will EVER outgrow! It's terrific!). Then Joe read us a page or two out of his Calvin and Hobbes book. It BLOWS MY MIND how well he reads--all due to that crazy comic book! NO KIDDING--this is the page that my 5 year old Joe was reading, "Ow! What am I doing on the ceiling? Hmm... Nothing else fell up. Just me. This is very strange. Even if I try to jump to the floor, I land back on the ceiling! My personal gravity must have reversed polarity! You'd think this would be the type of thing we'd learn about in science class, but no, we learn about cirrus clouds. Having my personal gravity polarity reversed is a real nuisance..." Can you believe that?! He stumbled over the word "polarity," but only the first time. As much as Joe hates school, I count it a real blessing that he has found such joy in Calvin and Hobbes--it is the reason he can read anything at all, and the ONLY reason he can read so well for his age. And it's pretty fun for Mom, too. ;-)

Well, Katie just came to me and said, "Mom, it's 11:20 and I just can't fall asleep!!! What should I do?!" She ended up taking a nap this afternoon and I guess she was still zapped from the trip because she slept for two or three hours--we had to wake her up for dinner! So I'll go lay down and talk to her for a little while. Poor kid--I know the misery of laying in bed WIDE AWAKE for hours on end!

I'd best get in there. Talk to you later!!!

~Bec~

P.S. -- I don't want to take the time to arrange these pictures with the text since I've got a little girl waiting on me in the other room, so I'll just slap 'em up here at the end.

James had a tie made for Brother Clarkson that had pictures of the Church Flag all over it, and gave him a Fields of the Wood paperweight as well. Sister Clarkson got a tote with a scripture on it, and a bunch of lotions and such inside.

Sister Flora got some lotions, too, and a framed picture of a little country church with the sheet music to Amazing Grace (one of her favorites) at the bottom.

This is the crowd that was there. Minus me. Somebody had to work the camera, you know. ;-)

The cake, of course!

Some miscellaneous shots from our fellowship time

In pursuit of a GOOD picture of Abigail... No...

No...

No, again... Ha! What a goofball!!!

Thought posing with a cousin might help...

Not really! Ha! Anyway, here's a picture of ALL of the kids before the true mayhem began. It's just a big pile of trouble waiting to happen, really!

Okay! That's it!!! Have a great night, y'all! Or day. Or whatever!!!

4 comments

3 Days in a Row!!!

Posted by cokelady

Where's my ribbon??? I can't even remember the last time I blogged 3 days in a row. I'm doin' the work! I'm not a slacker!!! ;-)

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? We saw it in affect here at our house today. James I were talking just yesterday about not having house showings in the past week or so. I told him it's because I've been keeping things too clean. "If we trash the house, they'll want to come look at it--wait and see." I didn't really intend to trash the house for the sake of tricking buyers through the front door (you know, if you want it to rain go wash your car--that kind of thing), but somehow it happened. This morning I was struck by one of those urges to root through and clean things out. It happened to strike in the toy room where the train set has been creeping out from under the bed a little more each day. I really only intended to deal with the train set, but once we got started we ended up digging everything out from under the bed and emptying and sorting through the dresser and the toy bins and the shelves... We were half buried in the mountain of toys, trains, and notebooks when the phone rang. I chuckled to myself and thought, "Surely not..." HA! It really and truly was the realtor--hadn't heard from her in over a week!--asking if they could show the house in about 45 minutes. I couldn't help but chortle. It wasn't just the toy room--somehow the whole house had fallen apart. I hadn't made any of the beds yet, the boys' room was trashed, Katie had clothes out, all of the ironing mess was still scattered all over the den, there were dishes in the sink...

The next 45 minutes looked just like one of those shows on HGTV where they show everybody zipping around in fast motion, emptying a room out or painting or something. We even had strained, high-pitched chipmunk voices to match. "Didyoushovethetrainbackunderthebed??? GoodnowtakecareofallthosedippyLightBrightpegsalloverthefloor. Where'sthebroom???" It was a little nuts. We had about 20 minutes left when James said, "It's not going to happen. There's no way we're going to get it all done." I started to argue with him and nag about his continuous pessimistic spirit, but I paused long enough to realize that he was right. So I began praying. "God, he's right. There's no way we can get this all done. Could You please either turn us into super-human speed cleaners, or slow down time, or something???" And wouldn't you know it--He did! We managed to get every bit of it done just in the nick of time. We ran full speed every second and were a little sweaty and a whole lot out of breath, but just as we finished everything up and headed out the door the realtor pulled up! WOW!

The realtor called back later on to tell us that the people who looked at the house really liked it. In fact, they looked at several houses today, but ours was their favorite. That's great! Don't know if it means anything or not, but it's exciting to hear! :-) We're still just praying for God to send the right people at the right time with the right offer. I feel pretty relaxed about the whole thing. Now that the house is clean again. ;-)

Actually, we didn't have time to vacuum or mop the floors before the showing today (we just ran around and picked up the big pieces of junk and threw them away!), so I took care of that tonight. We'll be leaving in the morning for 3 days and James told the realtor to feel free to show the house while we're gone, so we want it looking as good as possible!

That's about all the excitement around here for today. We'll be leaving as soon as we can get everything ready in the morning. The kids and I are packed, just need to load up. James will pack in the morning. Then we'll do some last minute cleaning and we'll be off! I don't know if I'll have a chance to blog this weekend or not, so I expect you all to be kind and forgiving if you don't hear from me for a few days. Besides, after three days in a row I've earned a few days off, right?! :-)

Have a great weekend!!!

~Bec~

4 comments

Look, Mom!!!

Posted by cokelady

Two days in a row!!! Whatdya' know about that?! I'm trying hard to be a good blogger. Maybe when I grow up. Sam always has grand ambitions for when he grows up. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a cowboy and shoot bad guys." That's one of his more reasonable goals. He also says things like, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a mouse and scare Sister Tammy!" Today he informed me that when he grows up he's going to be a fly and spread germs. I told him he does a good enough job of that as it is. Goofy kid.

Okay. Well, I'm here. Blogging. That's what counts, right? Even if I have nothing to say??? I'm so blank. What did I do today... ? Hhmmm. Laundry. Did the laundry. Actually, I'm still doing the laundry. Our dryer has become very tempermental. Sometimes it's in the mood to work, sometimes not. So the clothes just tumble around in there for hours on end. They'd dry faster on the line in the backyard. If only my husband would have allowed me to put a line in the backyard! Ha! Oh well. I was able to get all of the laundry and ironing done tonight, except for the one wet load that is still tumbling around in the moody dryer. I'll get to that one in the morning, I guess.

I actually watched the World Series tonight, Em! Ha! I had grabbed a video to put in while I was ironing, but when I turned the TV on, there were the Rockies. So I figured I should at least give it a chance. Baseball has always been too slow-moving for me, but it's actually just about perfect for when you're ironing. I was actually starting to enjoy things and get my hopes up until that dork strayed too far from the base and got picked off. He probably won't be sleeping very well tonight.

Tomorrow I need to call the Ladies' Retreat campground and confirm how many will be attending. It's two weeks away still, but they need to start planning meals now. (I wish I knew how to plan that far in advance! Ha!) That's the most important thing on my agenda. And packing. We'll be driving to Colorado on Saturday, then James will preach at the Colorado Springs church on Sunday, then the Pueblo church, then we'll drive over to Salida for their 40th Anniversary service. --Don't ask. I'm still not sure how we're going to pull it all off! Three church visits in one day. Wowzers. Then we'll be driving home on Monday. Next week I'll be helping out with Merry Marketplace, the show in Odessa that Sue sets a booth up at. I'll be working on Wednesday and Friday, so that'll be fun.

Wow, what a boring post. Isn't it better to just wait until I have something to say?! I'd rather read no post at all than a dreadfully boring one. I'm even bored writing it! So, I quit. I'm going to try real hard to be in bed by midnight. Wish me luck!

Recovering Blogger, Stage 1,

~Rebekah "I-Used-To-Blog" Horne~

3 comments

Who Am I???

Posted by cokelady

And what has happened to the GOOD blogger who once was??? I just can't seem to get back into the groove of this blogging thing, no matter how hard I try. It feels like I just post something and then I look up and *poof* it's been a week! Is there therapy available for this sort of mental disturbance??? Can we start a special group of some kind to help support the feebleminded as the Bible instructs us to??? Will somebody out there volunteer to head up such a thing? I'd do it myself, but I'd probably forget it by tomorrow. ;-)

The Bake Sale. Well, we started off with a bang. Literally. The morning began with Katie helping me load all of the goods into the back of the van. I was in the kitchen gathering more stuff when she suddenly appeared, sobbing hysterically. "Oh, Mom!!! I'm soooooooo sorry!!! Do you think you could ever forgive me?!?!?!" ~sigh~ "What did you do, Kate?" "I dropped the pumpkin pie!!! Oh, I'm sooooooooooo sorry!!!!" Oh, well. Easy come, easy go. James made her go get her stash ($4) and donate it to the Bake Sale because she wasn't supposed to be carrying the pies to begin with and since she cost us that sale, the least she could do was pay it back. Some of it, anyway. The other pie was still perfect and sold for $8. And we had a terrific, however unsightly, pumpkin pie to enjoy for the next few days. :-)

It was a lot tougher sale day than usual--felt like we had to fight for every penny this time. Actually, that wasn't nearly as bad as all of the flies and bees that we had to fight! We have never had this problem before. There were just swarms of bees all over the place! And they are the most persistant things in the world! They'd land on a Rice Krispy treat, walk over to the corner and start unwrapping the plastic wrap and wedging their bodies inside!!! We sacrificed several treats for the sheer pleasure of throwing them on the ground and stomping them to kill the pesky bees. The rest we just swatted left and right with a fly swatter that Tammy had gone into the store to buy within the first 30 minutes! Come to think of it... there's probably a direct connection between our slow sales and the merchants slinging a fly swatter madly at their baked goods and throwing half of them on the ground and stomping wildly, then throwing their heads back and laughing maniacally, "HA! Die, hymenopterous sugar fiend!!! DIE!!!!!" Ya' think?! ;-)

The other problem was the weather. It was (brace yourself) 90 degrees that day. Can you imagine?!?!? That's just wrong. It's October, for goodness' sake! I wonder what it is God is punishing all of west Texas for. One thing is for sure, it's making it a lot easier to think of parting with this terrible, sweaty place! Ha! I even wore my new leafy turtleneck. And my fall sweater. And my new boots. I was aware that it would be too warm for such nonsense, but it's OCTOBER and I just can't help but rebel against such ludicrous weather. I, of course, had shed the sweater by the time we were done setting up the table. But at least I started out with the proper attire for a fall Bake Sale! Ha! Anyway, that's the other reason we had a hard time selling. Who wants to buy fudge that is turning into glop on a sunny table--while they themselves are wearing shorts and tank tops, no less?! Just a bad day for it. But God still blessed us and we were able to make $310. And have plenty of left-overs to split between us all! We were happy to have sold all of the banana bread and the large poppyseed loaf (can't remember how many small ones), the surviving pumpkin pie and both pumkin rolls, all but two of the popcorn balls and even most of the fudge by the end of the day. Here are a few pictures to show you how purty everything looked in the first few minutes, before the bees started attacking us and our bread and cookies had flyswatter indentions all over them. ;-)

We had a really, really good service on Sunday. Sara led our song service and we had good worship, then Brother Sam preached a really, really good message, then I did my WMB boost. I felt like the Lord really helped me with that, so it was a great day! Then we all decided to drive to Odessa to eat at the Olive Garden. Bad, bad, bad idea. Actually, the idea sounded good, but it panned out bad. I had only eaten at the Olive Garden one time in my life (when Jeremiah took a couple of us girls there for his 13th birthday or something weird like that), so I thought it would be great. We waited for 15 or 20 minutes to be seated and thought our waiting was over. Ha. We had one of the all time worst waitresses in the history of the world. She was incredible. We really liked her--she was very nice--and we just assumed that she must be new. Like, brand new. Like, just got hired about 10 minutes ago new. So we tried to be patient. (As if we had a choice.) We all acted like good, mannerly Christians until she mentioned that we were her only table and that she aims to please--indicating that that's why she was able to give us such exceptional service. ?!?!? You'll all be happy to know that we still acted like good, mannerly Christians after that. It just took a lot more effort. ;-) All in all, we were there for about 2 and a half hours.

We stopped by the bookstore to look around, just for fun, then James asked if I would drive back to Andrews because he wasn't feeling very well. I was tired, but figured I was in better shape to drive than he was. I was wrong. By the time we had made it half way home I was in bad, bad, bad shape! I was in absolutely no condition to be driving at all. I can safely say that I have never, ever struggled to stay awake at the wheel like that, even in all of our big trips. It was WEIRD. I was singing and swaying and jiggling my legs and doing all sorts of things, and then I'd jerk like I had started to nod off--in the midst of all of that! Honesly, it wasn't a normal tired thing. To me it seemed like how someone might feel if they were drunk--we're talking seriously impared. (I even wondered if perhaps that wacky waitress had slipped something into my cherry cream soda--it wasn't very good! Hhmmm... maybe THAT'S what was taking so long--she was back there spiking all of our drinks!!!) I could not stay alert, I could not focus, I could not think. We got into town and I was still going 70+ even though the speed limit had dropped to 45. I wouldn't have realized it even then if James hadn't woke up and informed me of it! I was going to turn left onto "K" Street, but couldn't remember if I was supposed to stay in my lane or move into the middle lane before turning... I just couldn't THINK at all. It was soooooooo scary!!! The scariest part of it all is that I was endangering all of our lives and countless others who were on the road!!! Looking back on it, I CAN'T BELIEVE I DIDN'T JUST PULL OVER!!! How dumb can you be?! I get such a sick feeling when I think about it--and I'm sooooooo thankful that God was merciful to see us home safely. It must have been Him because I had nothing to do with it that day! WHOA. I just pray that if I ever feel such a wacky sensation again I'll have the presense of mind to recognize it and address it instead of try to fight through it!

Needless to say, I took a good nap when we got home that afternoon!!! ~whew~ What a weird sensation. James let the kids watch Night at the Museum and we had Sam & Tammy over to play games. James even played the first two with us! Wow! Scrabble, Grace--we played Scrabble! I hate Scrabble. And get this... Tammy almost won! I mean, big time!!! I had to fight long and hard to barely squeeze past her and win by two points. That girl knows how to place 3 and 4 letter words on a Scrabble board like nobody I've ever seen! 20 or 30+ points for words like DOG and MOP! Ha! She was amazing. Anyway, then we played I Buy. I won that one, too. Then James threw in the towel and the rest of us played Rummy. Me, again. :-) What a night!!!

Monday was COLD! Wa-Hoo!!! It was the first day of cold that we've had this year and I was soooooooooooo excited!!! It wasn't really cold, but cold enough to celebrate. So I whipped out my beloved Bronco's sweatshirt (I just realized that the thing is 10 years old!) and the kids insisted on getting all bundled up to go play in the back yard. I do mean all bundled up, too. Coats, stocking caps, scarfs, gloves... It was at least 50 or 60 degrees, but you would have thought they'd just landed on Antarctica! Ha! In fact, Joe was back in the house in about 30 seconds declaring it was just too cold out there. I told him that I worked way too hard to get him all bundled up for him to come back inside that soon and that he was going to have to stay out for at least 5 minutes! I shooed him back out the door and they all got distracted playing.

Next thing I knew Sam had come inside and was running back out the back door--wearing his boots and jeans, and nothing but a vest up top. He and Joe have decided they like to dress up like Indians from time to time and they'll wear one of their vests with no shirt under it. (Blows my mind that I allow such a thing--but they're just so cute! Ha! And they're only allowed to do it when it's just us here.) So he went from full winter garb to his half-naked Indian costume. I tried to talk some sense into him, but he insisted that he would be warm enough. Of course, it wasn't long before all three kids were back inside and this is how I found them...

Yup, James built the first fire of the season! Wa-Hoo!!! It was terrific. The kids and I played some games and I made corn chowder for dinner. Sam & Tammy came over again to join us and then we played a couple more games. What a great day!!!

Yesterday we headed back over to Odessa. Our cold day on Monday made us realize that the boys are in desperate need of some cold weather shirts, so we went in search of them. We were able to find some good deals and get them a few things--and some for Katie and me as well. We found a few more things at Bealls here in Andrews today, too. We haven't been in that store for months and months, but they've got a big sale going right now and as it turns out it was a good thing we went and checked it out! I got a couple of long sleeved Henley's pretty cheap--and a cute springy button-up shirt for $4! Makes me happy. :-)

We had nursing home service tonight. It went without incident this time, I think. I did turn around once to find Joe and Sam huddled up together holding a plastic grenade and whispering to one another. I confiscated it before there was any chance of it being hurled into the gathering of old folks. Thus, the service went without incident this time. Oh, that that sixth sense would kick in every time and I could spare us all from the antics of conniving little children! Ha!

Okay, that is MORE than enough for one night. That's what happens when you're a bad blogger and you take several days off. You just have so much to catch up on!!! There's actually more than that, but I know how tired I am of this post, so I can only imagine how tired the rest of you must be of it! Ha! If there's anybody still reading, that is. You probably gave up 6 paragraphs ago. Wimps. Ha! I'll let you go. Right after a couple more pictures. ;-)

This is Sam in his pirate garb and Joe after having fixed his hair by himself. Nerd.

Goodnight, all! Talk to you later!!!

~Becki~

P.S. -- There seems to be little to no interest in our house by any prospective buyers. Please help us pray for God to bring the right buyer at the right time. And for us to be patient and rest in Him for His perfect will. :-)

9 comments

A MIRACLE!!!

Posted by cokelady

In my very own kitchen!!! Tomorrow is the bake sale. That means that Tammy and I were supposed to get to work by 9:00 this morning and we should be working non-stop until 1:00 or 2:00 tomorrow morning. But instead we didn't get started until after 11:00 this morning. And we were done--clean up included--by 10:00 tonight!!! That means our usual 16 hour long pre-Bake Sale day was transformed into a very happy 9 hour day instead! WOW! I'm sure God must have been helping quite a bit because this is just amazing. We made the same amount of food as always, we just managed to do it in half the time. We have had 4 or 5 (or 6?) Bake Sales together and I think we're just now starting to get the hang of it. Just before I up and move to Albuquerque! Ha! We have learned to plan better and even pull of the execution in record time. It makes me so happy!

So for the sale tomorrow we have: 2 batches of Popcorn Balls (about 35), 5 batches of Rice Krispy Treats (too many to count), 4 batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies, 2 batches of Peanut Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies (say that three times fast!), 2 Pumpkin Rolls, 2 Pumpkin Pies, 7 large loaves of Banana/Banana Nut Bread, 1 large loaf of Poppyseed Bread and 8 small ones, and 1 batch of Scotcheroo's. Wa-Hoo! Aunt Sue made 10 pans of fudge (chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, and just plain peanut butter) and Sister Virginia said she'd make some cupcakes. So we're all set! Everything is all prettied up with the great fall ribbon I picked up at Hobby Lobby the other day, so all there is to do is throw it all in the van along with a table, a couple of chairs, a fall tablecloth and a couple of scarecrows to decorate the table with. :-)

Tammy and I are getting better at this Bake Sale thing, but we're also getting older. We've both so achy tonight! She went hobbling out to her car a little while ago with one hand on her lower back and the other on rubbing her knee, moaning and groaning the whole way. Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration. But both of us were readjusting ourselves in our chairs quite a bit while we were tying ribbons on everything toward the end! In fact, I think I'm going to go soak in a hot bath. Ha! Imagine that! After Pre-Bake Sale day I have enough time to consider taking a bath before bed! How great is that?! ~sigh~ I'm so happy. :-)

Pray for good success for the sake of Missions tomorrow!

~Becki the Baker~

8 comments

How is this Possible???

Posted by cokelady

It seems like I just blogged but, lo and behold, it's been four days! How did that happen?! I used to be such a good blogger. Can't figure out what happened to me. I really have no business blogging tonight, but I know I won't get a chance tomorrow and possibly (probably) not Saturday either. So here I am.

Monday. Hhmmm. The only thing I remember about Monday is staying up until 2:00am (I guess that would technically make it Tuesday) doing all of the laundry and ironing. In a weird kind of a way, I almost enjoy those nights.

Tuesday we loaded up the fam and headed to Odessa to see the kids' hair stylist. Aunt Stacey, that is. Got all three of them fixed up and looking good, then had a nice lunch with Stacey before having the biggest shopping day we've had in a long, long time. We went to Christopher & Banks for the first time in ages. I loved everything in the store, but am not willing to pay the prices. I always wait until stuff hits the clearance rack and even then I'll wait until they drop the price some more. By that time they're all sold out of my size. James did talk me into one denim skirt. Love it. A girl can't have too much denim.

We stopped by Kohl's and I oohed and aahed over some stuff there, too. I don't think I've ever bought clothes for myself at Kohl's--except for a few years ago when they used to carry those amazingly cute sweaters with snowmen all over them and stuff like that. Anyway, I fell in love with a brown plaid skirt and took the "buy one get one free" bait. Coupled it with a shirt for Katie. I took that same bait on my pj's for Ladies' Retreat. Our theme this year is "Rest in the Lord" and we'll be having a pajama party to go along with it. Is that great, or what?! I have been looking for some really great pj's (it's so great to have an excuse to buy new ones! Ha!) and I finally found the perfect thing. I'm so excited!!! I wore them that night, folded them, and will now make myself wait until Retreat to wear them again. I was just too excited to not wear them that first night. I'm convinced that a girl sleeps better when she looks cute. :-)

We also stopped by Barnes & Noble and James decided to splurge and let each kid pick a book from the bargain table. Joe is now the proud new owner of a hardback edition of The Invincible Calvin & Hobbes collection. I don't think he was aware that there were any more Calvin books in existance beyond the one he already had and he is in hog heaven. The book has been glued to his lap for the past two days. Every time I walk past him he's giggling and saying, "Hey, Mom--come read this one!" Ha! I love it! Katie, following Joe's comic strip fetish, picked out a Garfield book. I tried desperately to persuade him otherwise, but Sam insisted on a great big, heavily illustrated book entitled Creepy Creatures. ~sigh~ All about spiders and snakes and lizards. Sooooo Sam!

We've been doing much better with school this week and it feels so good. Joe has now completed two subjects and now has only Reading Comprehension, Spelling and Math left in his book. He's pretty excited about that. Well, as excited as is possible when school is involved!

Stacey took me out to dinner for my birthday yesterday. My birthday was in July, but this is the first chance we've had to pull it off! It was so nice to be able to spend some time with her--I enjoy that so much and it happens so very rarely--but she's having a really, really hard time right now. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray for her 15 year old daughter Brianna. There's not enough space in Blogland to tell the story, but that girl is in such desperate need of God. It's hard to imagine things getting any worse, yet they're doomed to somehow unless God intervenes with a whole slew of miracles. Bri just needs GOD.

The best part about my dinner with Stacey is that I got to go to town. All by myself!!! ~gasp!~ It was sooooooooo wonderful!!! I left home at about 4:00 and drove to Midland so I could go to Mardel. Got what I needed there, then did a little shopping around town before heading over to Odessa. Went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some fall-ish ribbon for the bake sale (50% off this week--perfect!) and a set of clear stamps ($13.99 marked down to $3.01--even if I never use 'em, how can you pass that up?! Ha!). Then it was to Red Lobster with Stacey. Fiesta lobster rolls. Yum. I think we were there for about an hour and a half, then I headed to Sears to pick up my boots. I had spent some time online earlier in the day shopping around and searching for which stores had which boots and which prices, etc. I've been wanting new boots for years now. I bought a pair for $12 or something about 6 years ago and have really been wanting a new pair for at least a year or two. I finally decided it was time. So I pulled out my "stash" and headed to Sears. I can't believe the boots I bought. They're tall and brown (what I was wanting)... but the heel is the biggest I've worn in years!!! EVERYTHING this year is sooooo tall! You know what I don't get? They've got all of these casual/dress boots this year with super, super high (like 6" high!) SPIKE heels! Like anybody can even walk in that?! And why would you WANT to?! What's the point of a BOOT if it's so completely impractical as to have a pointy 6" spike heel on it?! They're just stupid. Anyway, I found a non-spikey heel, so I was willing to settle for a higher one than I would have liked--though no where near 6", thank goodness. It might actually be kind of fun to "dress it up" a bit. In a non-spikey kind of a way. ;-)

Had a good day with the kids today and school was relatively painless. That's a plus. One of the ladies at the nursing home we sing at (she's the one who brings some little gift for the kids every time we come) just lost her husband a couple of days ago, so the kids made cards for her and we went down to see her this afternoon. Then we had Quarterly Conferance and Communion and Feetwashing service tonight. That was nice. Sam & Tammy and Sara came over for dinner afterwards. Weird. This is the second time we've done this late-dinner-after-church thing. It seems to work well! We had a good time, but it took away from our real work time! We've got a Bake Sale coming up on Saturday and I was going to make popcorn balls and Rice Krispy treats tonight here at my house and Tammy was going to make macadamia nut cookies at hers. Oh well. Guess we'll do it tomorrow with all the other stuff! She got her banana bread made today and I made my poppyseed bread--and Aunt Sue made all the fudge. At least that gives us a little bit of a headstart for tomorrow.

Ah, yes. Tomorrow. We've got a house showing at 9:00. Of all days! They could come ANY day, but they wait until the day we're going to have the kitchen all torn up to come! Ha! Oh well, we'll take whatever we can get. So in the morning I need to finish vacuuming, mop the floor real quick, wipe down the bathrooms, and get the kids together and out the door by 9:00. No problem. We'll just wait and start our Bake Sale projects afterwards.

Okay, I'd best get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long, exhausting day! But it'll be fun, too. Always is. :-)

~Rebekah~

2 comments

Gone and Back

Posted by cokelady

...again! We left yesterday afternoon and drove the 4 or 5 hours over to Alamogordo, New Mexico. Did a little shopping, but didn't find very much. (Mr. Choleric is wanting to get as much Christmas shopping done as possible so we won't have to worry about it later on while we're--hopefully--busy moving.) We did get some Spiderman ghandi's for Sam. Good thing, too. I forgot to bring any underwear for Katie, so... ~sigh~ I'm so ashamed, but my little girl had to wear (is still wearing, come to think of it) little boy ghandi's!!! I can pack for the big trips--Camp, Conventions, Assembly, month long treks across the country... but give me a one-nighter and I'm doomed to forget something important. Did it last time, too. Anyway, after our shopping and a nice kids-eat-free meal at Denny's we headed back to the motel and I gave all the kids showers. That's the problem with Motel 6--no bathtubs, just a shower. But we had to do the Motel 6 thing because we took Hershey Dog with us this time because the realtor was having an Open House here today and James didn't want the dog around and... Wow, this is the most jumbled up and mooshed together post I've written in a long, long time!

Anyway, at shower time I realized Katie's lack of underwear. Sam was a bit stingy with his new prized possessions (it was a 3 pack) for a few minutes, but then had a change of heart and allowed his sister the use of one pair. Sad. So sad. We watched a few home improvement shows before turning in for the night, one of them that fixed up a couple of rooms at a white water rafting place we used to pass all the time in Canon City, Colorado. Cool!

We got up this morning and headed to Burger King for breakfast. Dumb. Really dumb. We had forgotten how Sunday School is done in Alamogordo or we would have just gone straight to church! Ha! They set out grapes and strawberries and bananas and tomatoes and all sorts of juices and... Seems like there's a little more than last time, every time we go! We had a really good service there and, as always, were so blessed. The Coyazo's are such amazing, wonderful people and they always seem to have new people coming out to church and others they've been working with.

After service we went out to Golden Corral, Brother Tanny's favorite. (We were hardly hungry after our double breakfast, but you know!) We had so much fun visiting with the Coyazos and Sister Pauline and Sister Angie. We just laughed and laughed--funny, crazy people they are! Afterwards we went out to see the Coyazo's new house. Brother Tanny runs a construction company (his sons each manage different aspects of construction) and they've been working on a huge house that will have room enough for their massive family to get together for holidays--and also host meals for our church folks when we have Conventions there. I was amazed at what I saw. The house is very, very large, but the craftsmanship is what was so incredible. It's as good as I've ever seen. It was just beautiful!!! They are such generous and selfless people, and God has truly blessed them. It's always wonderful to see God's good blessings on people who are sure to share it with others!

We got home at about 8:30 tonight. Had a nice drive, for the most part. James was quizzing Katie and Joe and giving them lots of math problems to solve. "Katie, what's 2 plus 8 plus 4 minus 3?" Both kids just amazed me at how well they do at stuff like that--and how quickly. Sam was feeling left out though. "Give me one, Dad! Give me one!" "Okay, Sam... what's 1 plus 1?" With complete confidence he blurted out, "38!" Ha! Okay, so we've got some work to do with Sambo... The math soon turned to word problems. "Joe, if the speed limit is 55mph, but Mom is driving 61, how many miles over the limit is she going?" I've always hated word problems.

Got home and put the kids to bed, then just sort of loafed around the rest of the night. Oh, the Open House! HA! What a joke!!! Tammy told me that she was going to come check it out so she could let us know how it went. Well, it was scheduled from 4:00-6:00 and Sam & Tammy came at about 4:30. They stayed for about half an hour... and never saw a soul but the realtor! Ha! When we got home tonight the "list" was on the table. It had the name Sam Kaufman on it and one other lady. HA! Is that hilarious, or what?! The realtor told Sam & Tammy that she just planned it at a really, really bad time. The Cowboys were playing the Patriots during that time--both teams undefeated--and we're in TEXAS, for goodness' sake! Like anybody is going to be out looking at houses when there's a Dallas game on. Ha! Anyway, the house goes "open market" tomorrow, meaning that any realtor from any company can show it. We're hoping that helps. Actually, I've been doing better at praying and putting it in God's hands and trying not to care what any of the realtors do. Realtors are kind of like doctors. Once you put things in their hands you find yourself trusting them to do things... and then you get frustrated with them when they can't! Ha! God is the one who is going to sell this house, in His own good time, so there's no sense fretting over what a bunch of dopey realtors do or don't do. Right?! :-)

Well, I'm going to call it a night. I'm hoping to do something NORMAL and REGULAR tomorrow. Like, perhaps some school with the kids! That would be nice!!! Ha! Talk to you later...

~Becki~

3 comments

Company...3 Times!!!

Posted by cokelady

That's right! We've had company over the last 3 nights in a row!!! WHOA!!! Anybody who knows James at all is surely shocked. I know I am! He's not the most sociable person in the world, you know?! He enjoys people when he's with them... he'd just rather not be! Ha! He prefers to just be here at home, with just us. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to talk him into having people over. Once they GET here he usually has a great time visiting with them, but getting the initial "okay" from him is almost always a chore. So I don't know how on earth I managed three days in a row! It must be because we're moving and he knows I'll be desperately lonely for friends in Albuquerque. I'll take it however I can get it! Ha!

We had nursing home service on Wednesday night. Joe just got some new cowboy boots (his old ones were sooooooo worn out--he was only allowed to play in the back yard with them, not wear them in public!) so we let him and Sam go in all of their cowboy garb. They take their guitars to play while we sing there and the old folks just love it. We had a good service and everything seemed to go without a hitch this time, which is quite rare anymore. After Brother Sam dismissed us in prayer I looked over and noticed that Joe was wearing not only his cowboy shirt, jeans, boots, and hat, but also a big bushy mustache! (It came in a pirate set of Sam's, but the handlebar look definitely goes cowboy, too!) HA! James would have died if he would have known, but I'm kind of glad we were oblivious to it. I'm sure the folks all enjoyed it greatly!

We had eaten a big lunch that day and weren't at all hungry at dinner time, so I made a casserole and just set it aside until after service. Then Sam & Tammy came over to eat with us! We had a nice (howbeit late!) dinner, then put the kids to bed and played some games. James even played with us. Who Want to Be a Millionaire. TAMMY WON!!! Whoa!!! Then James left (just couldn't take losing to Tammy, I guess! Ha!) and the rest of us played our usual Rummy game. I won that one.

Thursday was a good day around here I guess. I'm assuming it was good since I can't recall anything bad about it. I really don't remember anything at all up until the phone call at 5:00 from our realtor asking if she could show the house at 7:00. I had lost all hope that she was ever going to show it to anybody, so I'd been letting things slip a little bit the past few days. So we spent the next hour and a half vacuuming and putting junk away and all that. We left for church and never heard anything about the showing. No matter. It's in God's hands, where it belongs. :-) We had a good CPMA service, although I missed a bit of it. Joe went to the bathroom at some point and then came RUNNING back into the sanctuary and sat down next to me very quickly. He was sporting his great big scared eyes. A bug. A bi-i-i-i-i-i-ig bug. In the bathroom. I asked if he had the presence of mind to flush before he came darting back into church. Nope. ~sigh~ I figured I should go take care of that before I forgot about it, so out I went. Two little boys followed me, naturally. He was right--it was a bi-i-i-i-i-ig bug. A nasty roach, to be exact. Sam was very excited and it was everything I could do to keep him from picking the thing up and taking it back into the sanctuary to show everybody. Sick-o. Anyway, we took care of the flushing and the bug and had a little talk with Joe about men and their duty to the rest of the world concerning bugs. Running to mom is NOT the thing to do when threatened by a nasty little creepy-crawly. Squashing it and doing away with the remains is the job of the men in the world. I told Joe it's time he start pulling his weight around here. We'll see.

Sam & Tammy came over after service and the three of us played Rummy again. Tammy was in the lead throughout the duration of the game, with Sam hot on her tail. I was way behind but came from the back of the pack to snatch the win away in the very last round! HA! It was great. Mostly because I beat Sam again. Such a sweet, sweet thing. Tammy and I can win and lose to each other and still have fun. Sam never has learned to lose gracefully and I consider it my lot in life to help him learn. ;-)

Today James decided to take us to Main Street Deli for lunch. The kids like it for some reason. It's pitiful, I think. No matter--we had a good time. It's just a couple doors down from Aunt Sue's store, so we walked over to say hello, then remembered we had a couple of wedding gifts to purchase. Perfect! So we did some shopping--I got some wedding gifts I hope will be enjoyed (it's really tough to get gifts when you know the guy but NOT the girl--I mean, it's a lot more important what the GIRL likes, you know?!) and also a little something to send to a friend. :-) Makes me happy.

While we were there the UPS guy came and dumped off tons of freight that Aunt Sue wasn't expecting. Wa-Hoo! I sent the kids home with James and I stayed to help out for a while. It was so much fun!!! Even though we were working with a bunch of dopey, trendy purses instead of the usual cute stuff she carries at the store. (These purses are terrible, but they're $50 apiece and these crazy ladies in town buy 'em up like hotcakes!!! People are soooo dumb!!!) It was great to have a chance to work for a few hours, anyway--even paid off some of the stuff I bought there today! Ha! It made me really, really, really sad to think about moving. In fact, today was the first time I've really had a hard time with the idea. I'm still excited about Albuquerque, but it really will be hard to move away from Aunt Sue and Stacey and Sam & Tammy... And I will really miss the store, too! What will I do when I need a fast gift?! Ha!

Aunt Sue & Uncle Jerry came over for dinner tonight (that makes it 3 nights in a row!) and we had bar-b-que sandwiches. They were great!!! Seems like we don't spend as much time with them as we used to and I want to get as much visiting in as I can before we move, so I figured we should start cramming it all in now! We had a nice visit tonight, James got Aunt Sue set up on some computer stuff, and Uncle Jerry helped Joe work on his form while swinging a baseball bat. It was a nice night.

After thy left James and I sat down and watched a movie. It had been a while since we'd done that, so it was fun. Now it's 1:00 in the morning and here I sit, blogging. Dumb. D-U-M, dumb. It's all over though. I'm calling it quits.

We leave for Alamogordo, New Mexico tomorrow. It's a 4 or 5 hours drive, I think. We'll get a room for the night, then join the folks there for church Sunday morning. We'll be home that night. Ah, yes! The realtor is planning an Open House here on Sunday! Wa-Hoo! Maybe people will actually COME! That would be terrific!!! I'm really not in any hurry to sell or not sell... I just hate being in limbo. And having to keep the house "show" worthy all the time is a nightmare. You can't really LIVE like this, you know?! It's nuts. Anyway, I'm outta here!!!

~Rebekah~

2 comments

Hhmmmm...

Posted by cokelady

I guess we'll have to go titleless tonight.

It's been a great weekend (plus some) since I last wrote. We left at about noon on Thursday for Ministers Retreat in Mountainair, New Mexico. It took us a full 6 hours, which is a little longer than we remember it taking before. Weird. We were able to get moved into our room and get some necessary "setting up" done before the crowd arrived. "Crowd" is a relative term, you know. This was a very, very small Retreat for us--23 or 24 people total. Including 5 kids!!! We had several who just weren't able to attend this year for one reason or another. We really, really missed them there. But in a weird kind of a way, it was really, really neat having such a small group! It was just sooooo nice and relaxed and... I don't know, more intimate or something. It was great.

We had a good devotional the first night--Karen always does such a wonderful job. Then we had good fellowship for a while before going to bed. Actually, some of us fellowshipped a little too much. I finally threw in the towel and went to bed at 2:00 or so, but I heard that some of the guys stayed up until 3:30 or some such insane hour. Talking about sports, of all things. I hung in there for as long as I could, but it's definitely not worth it to go sleepless when the conversation moves beyond my limited knowledge in any given catergory. In sports, you've got to be discussing football alone and it's got to be about the Broncos and it has to be in that fantastic era from the mid-80's up until John Elway's retirement in 1999. After that, I'm pretty clueless!

We started off with breakfast the next day. Lots and lots of breakfast! You wouldn't believe how much food we had at this Retreat. We were all expecting more people to be there and of course it's always better to have too much than too little... or so we thought! Ha! TONS of cinnamon rolls and breakfast burritos. Lunch time rolled around and we had TONS of spaghetti (Karen's homemade meatballs and sauce made from Alan's home grown tomatoes and herbs! Wow!) and a whole slew of giant loaves of French bread and salad and corn on the cob... Enough that we ate it all again for dinner and still had left-overs! There was tons of fresh fruit and cereal the next day, and muffins and who knows what all. The bestest thing of all was the sweetened raspberries that Sister VanDeventer brought! WOW!!! I ate way, way, way too many of them. And I'd be happy to eat some more if I could get my hands on some! And these dainty little cookies that she made--they were very thin and had some sort of icing drizzled over the top, then three or four pieces of thinly sliced almonds arranged on top of that. The sort of thing you'd expect to have at a fancy tea party. I'm not a fancy tea party kind of a gal myself, but I'm forever a great cookie kind of a gal! ;-)

Let's see... I started this post some time ago and was in quite the mood to write. Since then, James has had me wrestling with this dippy scanner of ours, trying to get it to hand over some forms so that I could e-mail them to Jon. Ooooh, I really dislike that contraption. Anyway, now it's midnight and I'm going to have to quit all of the unnecessary rambling. Or at least some of it. ;-)

We tried something different at Retreat this year. We usually have lots of classes and such, but this time we had several "discussion groups" instead. For the most part they went very, very well and everybody really seemed to enjoy them. The only class we had was the one on the Advice to Members and appropriate dress, me teaching the ladies and Sam Kaufman teaching the men. My class was... Oh, I don't know! I guess it went well, but it just felt like there were so many things--important things--left unsaid and maybe some loose ends hanging at the end of it. Actually, the end of it came way, way too soon and I was only half way through my notes! Whoa! We had started a little bit late and the time just seemed to fly by. I asked if I could take an extra 3 minutes to fly through the last portion of my notes so as to give us some hope now that I had thoroughly convinced them of all of our problems! Ha! It's a subject that has sooooo many aspects to it and it's just so hard to know which ones to hone in on and which ones to set aside and save for another time. I know I was blessed in studying it and I hope that the ladies were blessed by something that was shared at Retreat!

Our service that night was a little different since we had no preacher. The guy who was scheduled to preach had to cancel, so James had found a replacement. The night before Retreat the replacement called and said that they would be unable to come due to some serious family emergencies! So James handed out one or two verses on the subject of holiness to 6 different guys the first night and told them to put together a 5 minute sermonette for the next night and they could just sort of tag-team it. It was great!!! All of them had such good, good things to say and the Lord really blessed. And lo and behold, my pastor just happened to be the fieryest (it really should be a word) preacher in the whole place! Ha! It just amazes me to listen to Brother Sam. I'm beginning wonder if he'll be able to just teach ever again! :-) It doesn't matter to me whether a guy is teaching or preaching--I like both--but the Lord is just really blessing Brother Sam and his ministry and it's a regular thing to see the anointing to preach on him while he's ministering. Neat!!!

Uummm... aside from the spiritual stuff, the highlight of the second night of Retreat was the presence of a mouse. For any who may not know Tammy Kaufman very well, she is deathly afraid of mice. There happened to be one in the building and she was none to happy about it. Keven and Dustin were chasing the thing down, trying to catch it or run it out the door. It ran behind some boxes by the wall where a cardboard tube was laying. Dustin thought perhaps the mouse and run into the tube, so he kicked it to scare it out. Nothing happened, so he picked the tube up. Tammy was sitting next to Jamey and asked if Dustin would try to scare her or not. (Tammy was already beet red and shakey at the very thought of a mouse in the vicinity.) Jamey was just teasing and saying "You know he would!" or something like that. At about that time, Dustin slung the tube toward us girls. Of course, the mouse was in the tube and it came flying out the end of it...--right toward Tammy! The thing landed right next to her and there went up a mighty scream from several chairs. (Even mine! I'm not scared of mice, but everybody else was screaming and that sort of thing is just so catchy, you know?!) Even after all of our talking earlier in the day about modesty, Tammy didn't seem concerned with the issue at all there for a few moments. Her denim skirt went flapping wildly as her legs were slung up over the table and then onto Jamey's lap, or at least I think that's what Tammy said happened. I was too busy trying to figure out why I was screaming like a sissy girl. And, of course, laughing at the whole show! I do feel bad for Tammy--this is a deep and genuine fear in her and she can find no humor in it whatsoever. But it's still funny to re-enact the scene in my head! You should have seen Dustin's face. He really didn't think the mouse was in the tube (he never would have done that, if he had!) and his face was almost as great at Tammy's when the thing came flying across the room! Ha! Funny stuff. :-)

James handed out all of his info the next day and took everybody through all of the necessary information. That guy is so organized it's almost scary. He takes care of sooooo many details--little tiny things that nobody else would think of. And you should have seen the binders he gave out! They had a cover page on the front all prettied up with an index, then a map of our Region on the inside with all of our churches and missions indicated by a star or a circle. He had appointments in there and stats from this past year and who knows what all. He puts so much time and work into those kinds of things. It was really, really nice and we heard lots of comments about it afterwards. James does things in a different way than a lot of folks (like me! Ha!), but you can definitely tell that he CARES by all of those things he pours himself into for the Region.

This is getting rather long, isn't it? Time for some pictures! Here's brother Van. I've always loved him and his wife, but over the past year or two I have just felt that love and admiration growing and growing! I was sooooo thankful to be able to spend some time with them after the Retreat. What a blessing they are. And so much fun to be with!!!

As you can see, the kids got a lot out of the Retreat... ~ahem~ (This is Joe reading a comic book and Sam... just being Sam!)

Actually, the kids were soooooooo good throughout the Retreat! I dare say it's the best they've EVER been at ANY function! The only kids there were our three and Dustin and Jamey's two--and they were all just so, so, so good! Aleah is hilarious--that girl has got some of the greatest expressions I've ever seen in a kid. I think she's going to be a lot like her Mom! And Isaac sat and shared toys with my kids and they all got along sooooo well. It was great!!!

After Retreat we went to eat in Moriarty with the VanDeventers and the Clarksons. Brother Clarkson wasn't feeling very well, but they felt like they needed to make it back to Salida so they left after dinner. The Vans and us stayed at a motel there in town, then drove in to Albuquerque the next morning for church. We caught the tail end of the hot air balloons (they start flying them pretty early and it was pretty windy, so that made their flights really quick!) so the sky wasn't covered with them, but we saw several. This was taken through our buggy windshield. There's a silver balloon hiding behind that tree.

We had a really, really good service that morning--Brother V's ABM boost was excellent. Afterward we enjoyed a nice visit with them at Furr's before they headed north to Colorado and we headed south to Hatch. This is Katie enjoying the drive down there...

We had a good service in Hatch and, as always, I was sooooooo blessed by the people there and their wonderful spirit of worship. I've never been to Hatch but that I've been deeply moved by what I feel there. After the service James had a meeting with the people there and the Lord really blessed and helped in that, too. Some of the folks had brought their grills to the church and we had a cook out afterwards! That was great, too. It was so fun to be able to visit with Erika & Hector and Tayde and Luis & Keila--oh, Luis and Keila's baby is TO DIE FOR. I'm not a "baby" kind of a person and I very rarely ask to hold other people's children, but this kid sucked me right in! He's three months old and SUCH a doll. He's gorgeous. And just so happy! His whole face breaks into a glowing smile when you talk to him. Joel is his name. ~sigh~ Too, too cute.

We stayed at a great motel in Las Cruces that night, then headed home the next day. We made it to Odessa in time to meet Sam & Tammy and Sister Marcia at Johnny Carino's for Tammy's birthday dinner!

It was fun. And I did, indeed, have my three cream sodas, but I decided to go with raspberry instead of cherry. It was a good choice. Tammy said that she had had a fun birthday already, and after dinner they were headed over to Christopher & Banks for her to use her gift certificate. I went to her house today to deliver her presents from me and Mom (Mom, you got her a cute little pumpkin with "We Give Him Thanks" etched into it and a little word sign that says "Be Thankful." Just so you know. :-) She loved them both.) and I saw what she picked out from C&B. Cute, cute, cute. I'm glad she had such a good birthday.

Okay, that's enough for one night. Way more than enough, actually. Maybe I'm trying to make up for all of the blogging that I haven't been doing lately! I should get back into the routine of doing this frequently, then I won't have so much to catch up on! Oh, I didn't even tell you about today! Today I got everything unpacked and the house looking good enough to "show" if ever we need to (ha), then James brought home the new Veggie Tales, "The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's" and we had a pizza party with the kids for dinner! (This is the most unimpressive Veggie Tales they've put out in a long, long time but the kids don't know the difference, so it was all good!) James even went to Sonic and brought home Whoppers milkshakes for desert! Wow! It was great fun. We put the kids to bed and I went and soaked in a hot bath for a while in hopes that it would help my retarded neck--oh yeah, my neck! That's a whole other story!!! But I'm going to spare us all and go to bed. Just one more picture...

Spiderman, of course. Don't ask me about the pants on his head--I didn't know and I was afraid to inquire!

G'night all!

~Becki~

16 comments

Tis' a Grand & Glorious Thing

Posted by cokelady

...to be sitting in a perfectly clean, quiet, delicious smelling home. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ Yup, James and the kids are gone. :-) Tammy & Sister Marcia spent most of the day here so we could all cook (40 breakfast burritos and 8 PANS of cinnamon rolls--for 20 adults and 5 kids!!! I think we got a little carried away! Ha!), then they left and I crashed for about 20 minutes. That 3:00am night last night was hitting me hard! I forced myself to get up and get clickin' again because we had a house showing at 6:00. So we spent an hour or two in high gear, mopping and vacuuming and having the kids put toys away and such. Then James took the kids over to Tammy's house so they wouldn't follow the realtor and lookers around the house (like I do--ha!) and he headed some place himself. That left just me and Hershey Dog. All alone!!! WOW!!! That never happens! It's FANTASTIC!!! (Only on occasion--please don't think that I take my family for granted! I love them all dearly and am SO THANKFUL for the life God has given to me. But it's so nice to have some alone time every now and again!)

So the showing was at 6:00. It's now 6:08 and it's all over with. Crazy how you can knock yourself out for hours over an event that's over in just a few short minutes. It was the realtor and one lady looker. And I say looker because that's exactly what she is. As opposed to a buyer. The lady liked the house, but you can tell that she's not serious about buying anything right now. Has to sell her house first and all that jazz. And the only reason she's even considering moving at all is because she has "big furniture." Weird. Wouldn't it be cheaper and less hassle to replace the furniture instead of the house?! People are strange. Anyway... I've been praying for God to bring the buyer for this house. This lady wasn't it! Ha! That's okay. It forced me into high gear cleaning mode, so now I can spend the rest of the evening in a perfectly clean and great smelling house! With my lesson all prepared for Minister's Retreat, I hardly have anything else to do. Wow!!! It feels terrific!!! Now what do I do with myself?!

Speaking of my lesson... I was amazed at the interest generated by a lesson that I have yet to teach. I could flatter myself that I'm just such a phenominal teacher that everybody wants my notes because no matter what I teach it's bound to be terrific. I could do that... but I've been to some of my classes and I know that's not the case! Ha! So the only other reason I can come up with is that our people are genuinely interested in this subject of "appropriate dress." That is sooooo exciting! I'm so thrilled to know that so many people--particularly young people--are wanting to invest their time and interest in this topic. I must be honest and tell you that I can't possibly send my lesson out "as is." It will need some serious tweeking before I can make it available to the masses. (Ha!) It was prepared for a particular group of ladies, most of whom are older and don't personally have any struggle in this area. It's directed toward trying to help them encourage our young people in this area of modest apparel. I would love the opportunity to address this subject with younger girls who are currently facing decisions along these lines. Oh, that we would all continue to walk (progress) in this path of holiness--in ways that truly affect (or is that effect?!) our lives. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God means that we're not there yet, therefore we must change and change again and change some more (ha! change... your clothes!) until we finally get it "perfect." What an exciting journey! "He leadeth me--oh, blessed thought!"

Okay, I'm rambling. Besides that, my alone time is all gone. It was nice while it lasted! Ha! James and the kids are home, the ham and beans are on the stove, the cornbread is in the oven, the boys are in the bathtub, Katie is on the floor tracing her foot, the dog is on the couch barking that the neighbors' pesky cat... All is well with the world. But it's time to go scrub up those smelly boys of mine. They were GROSS.

I will try to rework some of my lesson info and develop something out of it that can be sent abroad. Only time will tell what it will be like when it's all said and done! Ha! Take care and have a great night!

Oh--and if you don't hear from me before, I think I'll be back home on Monday night. We'll be at Minister's Retreat from Thursday through Saturday, then we (and the VanDeventers) are staying in a motel in Moriarty, NM Saturday night and driving up for service in Albuquerque Sunday morning. Brother V is going to do his ABM boost there. How exciting! We couldn't find motel rooms in Albuquerque because this weekend is the great big hot air balloon festival and everything is booked. The kids are going to LOVE seeing all of the balloons on Sunday! Fun! Anyway, we'll be driving down to Hatch to be in service with them on Sunday night, then we'll probably get a room in Las Cruces and come home on Monday. I think I heard that we're going to take Tammy to Johnny Carino's for her birthday dinner that night since we'll be gone on her real birthday (Sunday). I think that's a terrific idea. I'm going to have three cherry cream italian sodas for Tammy's birthday! :-) Rambling again--gotta check on the cornbread and the boys to see if any of them are done yet. Later!

~Bec~

6 comments

YES!!!!

Posted by cokelady

I did it! I did it! I did it! Nooooo, I'm not excited because I'm finally blogging. (Although that's great, too!) I got my lesson all put together for Minister's Retreat and I am soooooo excited! It's almost 2:30 in the morning right now, but I'm still a day ahead of usual since we don't leave until Thursday. Nothing ever seems to come together for me until the wee hours of the morning the night before we leave--this time I have a whole extra day! Which is a good thing because Tammy and Sister Marcia are coming over tomorrow so we can whip up 6 pans of cinnamon rolls and some breakfast burritos for our church's meal at Retreat. Then at 6:00 tomorrow night the realtor will be bringing somebody to look at the house. Wa-Hoo! I hope it's a WOMAN. :-)

Back to my class... I'm sooooo excited about this one! This is a subject that I've done sooooo much thinking and praying about, even before I knew anything about teaching it. It's just so on my heart, you know? And I've been sooooo blessed by digging into it a little bit. The Word of God is so good and powerful and wise. And I love the STATUTES that He's given to His Church in the form of "Advice." Those things that give us practical direction on how to fulfill the law of His Word. It's sooooo comforting to know that He loves us enough to give us some specifics so we don't have to grope around in the darkness trying to figure out where the line is. I pray that the ladies will really be blessed by our time together. I was thinking about who will be in this class and got to feeling rather silly about teaching this particular subject. I mean, how would YOU like to try to teach Mary VanDeventer about dressing properly?! Ha! But since these ladies will be at Minister's Retreat, that means they are either ministers themselves or they are married to ministers. Either way, they have great influence (probably more than they know) on others--daughters, granddaughters, and other girls in the Church. Maybe we can all go home with a renewed vision for holiness in our clothing choices--and pass it along to others! :-)

And get this... I put together a whole bunch of pictures, graphics, and scriptures to show in a Power Point presentation while I teach. Ha! It's sooooo great! I think I've got 40 different images. It took a lot longer to prepare because of that (it's my first time!), but I think it will be soooooo worth it! It will be sooooo helpful to have the visuals there while we're discussing the lesson. I think I'm hooked. I don't know if I'll ever be able to teach without a computer again! Ha!

Hhmmm. I know there's more to tell, but at 2:30 in the morning you just can't expect a body remember a whole lot. I really wanted to just spread the joyous news that I'm ready and excited about my class. Pray for God to continue to help me. I need His direction and anointing. I hope He doesn't pull a fast one on me and change my class at the last minute. Ha!

Okay, I'm off to bed. That creepy little Sam of mine will be up bright and early and I'm going to be regretting the lack of sleep! Later!

~Becki~

4 comments