Because I've only got a little bit of Internet time left! We're at a Motel 6 in Albuquerque and they don't offer Internet service (in this day and age--can you imagine! Ha!), so James subscribed to 24 hours of T-Moble or some such thing. That was last night, but I don't remember what TIME last night. So I'm going to post quickly, just in case!

Ladies' Retreat reports will have to wait. Actually, I've done that really bad thing where I've waited too long to write about it and now I'll never be able to recall all of the grand and glorious things I would have written about had I taken the time to write right away. ~whew~ That was a mouthful! Ha! So we'll just say that we had a FANTASTIC Retreat in every realm! Emilee did a terrific job directing again and we all sooooo enjoyed having Sister Bishop and the crew she brought with her. And of course, my Mom. ;-) Although my Mom and Sister Bishop remind me of a couple of bickering preschoolers most of the time! Ha! They have fun, that's for sure. As did the rest of us! The pajama contest was great. The winners included, "Most Layered Hobo Gypsy Look" (Tayde), "Most Completely Worthless Slippers That Are So Cute They Somehow Manage To Make Up For It" (Jamey and her cushy flip-flop slippers), and "Most Time, Thought And Effort Put Into The Dog Ugliest Pajamas Anybody As Ever Seen." You can guess who won that one. ;-)

After Retreat we took the Bishop (as she's affectionately called! Ha!) and company on Skyline Drive (THOUGHT SHE WAS GOING TO DIE!!! -- The road rides the ridge of a "mountain" with steep drop-offs on both sides), then to Royal Gorge. Or vise versa. Anyway, it was fun! Then we ate at a 50's diner kind of place before splitting up. Mom and Emilee and I got back to Em's house at 7:00 or 8:00 that night and heard lots of great stories about Dad & Jon's weekend with 8 children ages 1 to 8. Ha! I'm so glad we were at Retreat!!! :-)

James flew into Denver the next day (he had been in Albuquerque for the weekend and it was cheaper to fly to Denver than back to Texas--perfect!) We had a birthday party for Caleb that night--his 7th birthday was the next morning. Sam got a late gift or two, as well. The best part of the night was the spider cupcakes!!! I'll have to post a couple of pictures of that when I get back to my computer at home. It was fun!

Jon & Em and Mom and James and I played Quizzard that night. Sooooo fun!!! That's a game we used to play back when we were teenagers. We laughed a lot. Especially at Emilee and her silo full of pigs!!! I would explain, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those things you just had to be there for.

The plan was to leave at 8:00 the next morning. It was a good plan. We didn't pull it off, but it was a good plan! You see, as we were loading the van, we realized that my car keys were missing. Hhmmm... We looked and looked and couldn't find them ANYWHERE. Then we realized that the dog was missing, too. Ah yes--I left that part out! We left 8 children AND a dog with Dad and Jon for the weekend! Ha! Anyway, the gate had been left open the night before by a kid who, naturally, isn't used to having a dog around and Hershey had been gone for probably an hour or more before we'd realized it. I ran up and down the neighborhood, hollering and whistling, but to no avail. I finally went back to the house and called Dad (they had left early that morning to head back to Tennessee) to ask if he might know where my keys were. (He had them at some point, I remember.) Nope. But Mom did! In her purse, of course! ~whew~ What a relief!!! I asked if there was any chance the dog was with them, too! James had his keys (thank the Lord!!!), so he and I got in the van and drove all over the place looking for that dumb dog and I was beginning to lose hope. It's a terrible, miserable feeling to lose your dog in a place like Denver. We went back to the house and I called the vet's office in Andrews JUST IN CASE somebody might have found him and called the number on his license. And they HAD!!! Whoa!!!!! I was sooooooooo relieved!!! I called the lady up and it sounds like Hershey had been having quite a little party. She found him in her front yard, took him inside and gave him some water, pet him and loved on him while she was making the calls to Andrews, took him for a ride in the car (had to take a daughter to school), and then Hershey was sitting on the top of the couch looking out the window. Not exactly proper punishment for running away from home, but what can you do?! Ha! I was just so, so, so, so, so happy to have him back.

Finally got the luggage, children and DOG loaded up and got on the road at about 9:30, I think. We made it home at about 11:00 that night, I think.

Wednesday we got everybody all duded up like cowboys and headed to Sears to have their annual pictures taken. We've had pictures taken at Sears for years now and have ALWAYS been thrilled with the result. Until now! We had a TERRIBLE photographer and the pictures prove it. She wasn't the least bit interested in what I had in mind and she seemed to think the pictures she got were actually good. ~sigh~ Oh well. You can't win 'em all, I guess.

Thursday was spent doing all of the laundry and ironing again, vacuuming the house, mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms--getting everything ready for the Open House the realtor was planning for this Sunday. Actually, that carried over to Friday. We did lots of trip-prep stuff, too.

We left for Albuquerque early Saturday morning, got here, grabbed a bite to eat and made it to the church building by about 1:00, I think. We got right to work painting over the old church signs to get them fresh and white, then stuck on the vinyl letters that James had cut out. We needed to update the signs since this is now The Church of God! How exciting!!!

We had an interesting encounter while we were working. A bulldog was walking it's lady (for real--that's the way it was!!!) and came plowing into me just as I was sticking some of the letters on the sign. Miraculously, they went on straight! The lady was very friendly and assured me that the dog was "nice." We had Hershey chained up outside the church and the bulldog took a definite interest. The lady inquired as to whether Hersh was "nice" too--as her dog was dragging her toward him to investigate for himself. I was still smoothing the letters on the sign and things started out nice enough, but it was only a few seconds before I heard the sounds of angry, fighting dogs followed by painful yelping. Poodle yelping. ~Aaaaaauuuuuuggggghhhh~ It's such a helpless and panicky feeling to know that your dog is getting chewed up by another dog that weighs 4 times as much and who has a jaw powerful enough to snap bones. When I got over to them the bulldog had a serious hold on Hershey's left ear (I'm sooooo thankful it was only his ear!!! At first I thought he had him by the back of the neck!!!) and the lady was pulling hard on the dog's leash--not that she had the strength to do anything. I watched helplessly for a few seconds before I had finally determined to go do the one thing they say never to do when dogs are fighting--kick them! I just didn't know what else to do, you know?! That bulldog needed a swift kick in the ribs and he'd let go, right?! The lady wouldn't have minded, I'm sure--she was panicked, too. But just as I got close the dog let go, poodle fur went flying into the wind, and Hershey finally stopped crying. I grabbed the leash from the lady and pulled the "nice dog" (GGGRRRRRRR!) away. I figured that Hershey would be fine since the dog only had him by the ear, so I just assured the lady that everything was okay and that Hershey would be alright. She felt terrible. We talked for another minute or two and were able to invite her to church, but I couldn't wait for her and her "nice dog" to leave so I could calm my rattled nerves and go really check on Hershey!!! Upon further investigation I discovered that Hershey had a chunck of skin about the size of a dime missing from his ear, several layers deep. It wasn't pierced clean through, thank the Lord. There wasn't really anything I could do at the time, so we just finished up the rest of our work, then picked up some Neosporin to put on the wound before bed. I noticed a little bit of blood on his pillow this morning, but it looks as if it has scabbed over nicely at this point. ~sigh~ That dog has had a rough week! And me too--because of him!!!

ANYWAY... (Did I say this was going to be a "quick post"?! Ha! Not when there's so much to catch up on!) I spent most of the evening looking at houses online and mapping them out so we can go take a look at some of them tomorrow. This morning we got to church and were surprised to find Joe & Julie Steele there! Julie is a sister to Connie Werkheiser and Missy Hawkins. James knew them from when he attended Lee University and they were pastoring the CoGoP in Fields of the Wood. (Which reminds me--I was asking Sam yesterday if he remembered where he was last time he got bit by ants. It was at Fields of the Wood. He said, "Yeah, it was that place where Sam Houston climbed the mountain and found the Church!" Ha! I laughed heartily. Texas history, Church history--it's all pretty blurry to a 4 year old!) Anyway, the Steeles are with Wade Phillip's group now. They didn't know that James and I were going to be here or that the CoGoP here had come with The Church of God until they talked to one of the members yesterday. I'm sure they were here to "scope things out," if you know what I mean. ;-) It was great of them to come on to service and we really enjoyed having them with us. I'd never met them before, but I really liked them--they're very, very nice. (Not in a bulldog kind of way! Ha! I mean they really ARE nice!) We went to Furr's with them for lunch and had a really good visit. I hope we can see them again some time. They were at service again tonight and we had a really good service. We had communion and feetwashing service tonight and the Lord really, really blessed. We're anxious to get MOVED to Albuquerque and really make this our home!

Anyway, we're back in the motel now and I'm blogging away until I run out of time. :-) I need to make sure I've got my list of potential houses all in order and mapped out in the most direct route so we'll be all set and ready to go in the morning. We plan on looking for houses tomorrow, then going home on Tuesday. There was an Open House at our house today and we're hoping there was a better turn out than last time! Ha! God knows. The right buyer, at the right time, with the right offer. :-) It'll all work out.

Well, I'm gonna go. Sorry I've been slacking again on the blogging thing! I'm TRYING to be better, it's just not working out so well! This will be the last time until I get home because I'm pretty sure James won't be paying another $10 for another 24 hours of Internet! Ha! So until next time...

~Rebekah~