But I'm going to take the time to blog anyway! What about that?! :-)
I thought I'd stop by to give you a little update and hopefully post some pictures of our Albuquerque trip. Actually, I was packing away when I suddenly ran out of boxes and I didn't want to go out to the shed in the cold and dark of the night to get more, so I figured it was a good time to stop. I'm sure I'll have some late packing nights in the next week, but this ain't one of them. :-)
Yesterday the plan was to get up bright and early, unload the van from the trip and get everything put away, then start packing like a mad woman. Nope. We all slept in until 9:00, for starters! By the time I got everybody fed and dressed and had done devotions with them, there was a knock at the door. The inspector. (Insert "doom" sound effects there.) This is the guy who looks at every tiny little thing in and out of our house and decides what all we need to fix before selling. He actually turned out to be a very, very nice guy--with a terrific Texas accent, so I kept him talking all I could. :-) The kids have a hard time staying out of folks' way, so we thought it best to load up and go get lunch so the inspector could finish his job without so much distraction. We were gone for 30 or 40 minutes and the guy was still here when we got back! He was VERY, VERY thorough. Made me VERY, VERY nervous! Ha! He told us that there weren't any major problems, just a few little "easy" things here and there. We'll find out what that means later, I guess!
By the time he finally left it was after 1:00 and I had accomplished NOTHING. So I went to the toy room and dove in. Game closet first. I got it all sorted out and boxed up, then all the boxes stuffed back into the closet. Except three. I kept out I Buy, Catch Phrase and Balderdash. Just in case we have nothing to do this next week and decide to sit and play a game. HA! Things were going much, much slower than I had anticipated, but that's probably because the toy room is the one and only room of the house that I intend to "sort through" and GET RID OF stuff from. We have way, way, way too many toys and right now is a really great time to donate them, with Christmas coming up. Tammy came over and helped me for a couple of hours. WOW. That girl is a packing machine!!! She accomplished more in the two hours she worked than I had done all day! Ha! I finished up in the toy room while she started in my office. She got most everything packed out of my closet (you can't possibly know what a feat that was) and everything out of that huge desk of mine, too. WOW.
At about 10:00 I decided that I was totally burned out and was DONE working for the night. James ran to Sonic for dinner (I had fed the kids sandwhiches earlier, but didn't want to stop to eat) and Tammy called Sam and asked him to come over and play games for an hour. Can you believe that?! Ha! I'm SOOOOO glad I took the time for that, though. I needed the break (already--that can't be a good sign! Ha!) and the fellowship with Sam & Tammy. I am going to miss them soooooo much. I've tried not to think about it too much, but when they left Sam came back to the door and told me that they're really going to miss me. Oooooh. That did me in. I closed the door and just cried and cried. ~sigh~ I HATE this part of moving. But I have no right to complain. God has blessed me sooooo much by allowing me to live near my very dear friend and her great husband (who has become a very dear friend, too) for TWO WHOLE YEARS! We never expected that and it's been sooooo great. But now we've gotten spoiled on it and it's so hard to think of not being with them! But God knows. He'll help us all, I'm sure.
I got to bed at about midnight last night, then we all slept until 9:00 again! WHOA! That week in Albuquerque really did us in, I guess! We had devotions right away, then I got to work out in the office. And that's where I remained throughout the rest of the day! James took Joe to Odessa to do some running around (he got me a HUGE end roll of blank newsprint from the newspaper down there for only $5--I don't know how anybody moves without it!), so that left Katie and Sam here. They watched some Christmas shows and played some video games since they were going to receive no attention from their mother whatsoever. They seemed okay with that. ;-) I was able to get the office TOTALLY finished, packed, emptied, and cleaned from the ceiling fan down to the baseboards. :-) That feels sooooo good! The only things still in the room are my computer and stereo (on the floor now, but staying until the very end, I assure you!), the desk James is making me sell (I know it's huge and clunky, but I love it!) and the hide-away sofa that we can't decide if we're going to sell or not. Oh, and the changing table/dresser that we're going to sell, too. So here are a couple of pictures of The Move: Part One... :-)
I thought I'd stop by to give you a little update and hopefully post some pictures of our Albuquerque trip. Actually, I was packing away when I suddenly ran out of boxes and I didn't want to go out to the shed in the cold and dark of the night to get more, so I figured it was a good time to stop. I'm sure I'll have some late packing nights in the next week, but this ain't one of them. :-)
Yesterday the plan was to get up bright and early, unload the van from the trip and get everything put away, then start packing like a mad woman. Nope. We all slept in until 9:00, for starters! By the time I got everybody fed and dressed and had done devotions with them, there was a knock at the door. The inspector. (Insert "doom" sound effects there.) This is the guy who looks at every tiny little thing in and out of our house and decides what all we need to fix before selling. He actually turned out to be a very, very nice guy--with a terrific Texas accent, so I kept him talking all I could. :-) The kids have a hard time staying out of folks' way, so we thought it best to load up and go get lunch so the inspector could finish his job without so much distraction. We were gone for 30 or 40 minutes and the guy was still here when we got back! He was VERY, VERY thorough. Made me VERY, VERY nervous! Ha! He told us that there weren't any major problems, just a few little "easy" things here and there. We'll find out what that means later, I guess!
By the time he finally left it was after 1:00 and I had accomplished NOTHING. So I went to the toy room and dove in. Game closet first. I got it all sorted out and boxed up, then all the boxes stuffed back into the closet. Except three. I kept out I Buy, Catch Phrase and Balderdash. Just in case we have nothing to do this next week and decide to sit and play a game. HA! Things were going much, much slower than I had anticipated, but that's probably because the toy room is the one and only room of the house that I intend to "sort through" and GET RID OF stuff from. We have way, way, way too many toys and right now is a really great time to donate them, with Christmas coming up. Tammy came over and helped me for a couple of hours. WOW. That girl is a packing machine!!! She accomplished more in the two hours she worked than I had done all day! Ha! I finished up in the toy room while she started in my office. She got most everything packed out of my closet (you can't possibly know what a feat that was) and everything out of that huge desk of mine, too. WOW.
At about 10:00 I decided that I was totally burned out and was DONE working for the night. James ran to Sonic for dinner (I had fed the kids sandwhiches earlier, but didn't want to stop to eat) and Tammy called Sam and asked him to come over and play games for an hour. Can you believe that?! Ha! I'm SOOOOO glad I took the time for that, though. I needed the break (already--that can't be a good sign! Ha!) and the fellowship with Sam & Tammy. I am going to miss them soooooo much. I've tried not to think about it too much, but when they left Sam came back to the door and told me that they're really going to miss me. Oooooh. That did me in. I closed the door and just cried and cried. ~sigh~ I HATE this part of moving. But I have no right to complain. God has blessed me sooooo much by allowing me to live near my very dear friend and her great husband (who has become a very dear friend, too) for TWO WHOLE YEARS! We never expected that and it's been sooooo great. But now we've gotten spoiled on it and it's so hard to think of not being with them! But God knows. He'll help us all, I'm sure.
I got to bed at about midnight last night, then we all slept until 9:00 again! WHOA! That week in Albuquerque really did us in, I guess! We had devotions right away, then I got to work out in the office. And that's where I remained throughout the rest of the day! James took Joe to Odessa to do some running around (he got me a HUGE end roll of blank newsprint from the newspaper down there for only $5--I don't know how anybody moves without it!), so that left Katie and Sam here. They watched some Christmas shows and played some video games since they were going to receive no attention from their mother whatsoever. They seemed okay with that. ;-) I was able to get the office TOTALLY finished, packed, emptied, and cleaned from the ceiling fan down to the baseboards. :-) That feels sooooo good! The only things still in the room are my computer and stereo (on the floor now, but staying until the very end, I assure you!), the desk James is making me sell (I know it's huge and clunky, but I love it!) and the hide-away sofa that we can't decide if we're going to sell or not. Oh, and the changing table/dresser that we're going to sell, too. So here are a couple of pictures of The Move: Part One... :-)
This is the toy-room-turned-storage-room..
Our goal is to be done packing and have the house emptied (we rented a couple of storage units today) and shining by the 20th. If we can do that, then on the 21st we'll load up and head back east for Christmas. It's really our only chance of HAVING anything that feels like "Christmas" this year! I don't know how likely it is that we'll accomplish this goal, but we've got to try. :-) My current speed seems to be one room a day. I still have the kitchen/dining room, the den, the living room, the bathroom, Katie's room, the boys' room, our room, and the other bathroom. I'm scared to add 'em up--I don't think it would add up too well for our "leaving on the 21st goal." Actually, I have NO IDEA what the date is today. That's probably a good thing. I'm not going to look either. At least for a few more days. JERK! That creep was reading over my shoulder and just blurted out, "It's the 12th." Ggrrrr. I SOOOOO did not want to know that!!! I'm still not going to add up the rooms, though. :-)Tomorrow morning after devotions I'm going to start packing up our bedroom, then the boys', then Katie's. I really have no idea what to anticipate. I'm hoping (or maybe it's just positive thinking?!) that the office is going to end up being one of the harder rooms to pack. Surely bedrooms can't be that bad. Right?! I guess I'll find out tomorrow!
Then tomorrow night we're going to be having the Christmas ABM Service/Party here. Yes, you heard right--I said HERE. I had forfeited that idea until James mentioned it today and indicated that he thought we could go ahead and do it. Wow! I'm soooo excited! I love having things at my house and this will give me one last chance to "host" before we leave. :-) That makes me sooooo happy! The living room, den, kitchen and bathroom are still intact (and decorated for Christmas, of course!), so it should be PERFECT since those are the only rooms we'll need for a "party." Wa-Hoo! ~sigh~ Life is grand. Makes me a very happy girl. :-)
Well, I told myself I wouldn't stay up too late (especially since I'm only blogging instead of working!), so I should probably post my pictures and call it a night. So here we go...
Brother Dustin preaching
Some of the Hatch folks who came and were SUCH a blessing to us!
When we got to the zoo, this was the first thing inside the gate. It's a, um..., a..., I think's it's an... Hhmmm. I don't have any idea what to call it. It's the most souped up nickelodian I've ever seen! Ha! It had a TON of instruments and James was in heaven. He LOVES stuff like that. We had to listen to three or four songs before we could even start looking for animals! Ha! It was pretty cool. We listened to a couple more songs before we left that day, too.
This is the other part of it--I've never seen one that would play a guitar and banjo! James had it play the Beverly Hillbillies theme and it was great!
Okay! Looking at some animals!!! Aleah was SO excited when she saw the orangutans (James spelled that, if it's wrong! Ha!), but by the time I got the camera ready it was just everybody else who was enjoying the moment!
Koalas! Very cool.
This is amazing--ALL of the kids are actually looking at the same time! And smiling!!!
Sam making faces at a monkey. Oh wait--or is it a monkey making faces at Sam?! So hard to tell! :-)
I never could get a good picture of this baby zebra, but he was awfully cute. ;-)
Ha! This ended up being the best part of the whole zoo--the playground! We had the place all to ourselves for 20 or 30 minutes and we made the best of it, even the big people. :-)
There was a terrific slide--a FAST one--but Joe was too gutless to go face first like all the other kids, so this was his alternative approach...
I missed the actual SLIDING, but from the looks of it I think it must've been fun!
Aleah enjoyed it as much as all the other kids!
Joe finally got it figured out!
I didn't get a picture of James coming down, but I think Jamey did. I guess we'll have to wait for her to post some pictures on her blog. HINT, HINT, HINT. ;-) I did get this one of Dustin though...
Halfway through the zoo we got on the train and rode over to the aquarium. Checking out the stingrays...
Neat tank, hu?!
Jellyfish...
This shark had the gnarliest teeth I've ever seen in my life!!!
Outside the aquarium there is a terrific botanical garden area. We didn't have time to go through all of it, but we did take the kids to the Fantasy something-or-another. Everything is HUGE. The kids love it. So do the adults. :-)Here's Sam measuring himself...
Jamey checking out the giant bee hovering over her. It makes a buzzing sound when you walk under it. Creepy!
Inside the giant pumpkin. Gross, hu?!
In the giant vegetable garden...
Gingerbread kids...
Gingerbread... (ahem)... men???
James taking a nap on the train ride back to the zoo.
I LOVE the baby giraffes. So cute!
And this was one of the very, very cool parts of the zoo. This lion was roaring, ever so "softly." It wasn't exactly soft, but you could tell it was just a little roar compared to what he was capable of! I kept wishing he would just let a great big, mighty roar rip through the zoo, but he never did. No matter--it was still very cool!
Back to church--had to take a picture of Brother Dustin and Joe in their... stripes. I have a particular name for this type of suit, known to a select few people who will see this blog, so they'll enjoy it extra. :-)
Ah yes--this is a page in a notebook that I found a week or two ago. I thought you might enjoy it. I know Mom and Dad will! Ha!
Ha! What a rotten kid!
Well, now it's very late. But I got the pictures posted!!! If I didn't do it tonight they never would have made it to the blog.
Keep praying for us! The guy rejected the offer we made on house #1 and we don't feel like we can go much higher on it, so we're praying about Plan B. We're just wanting to be patient and take this one step at a time and make sure we're following God and using wisdom, not just rushing into a huge decision because we feel pressure, you know? I still feel totally at peace, although we have no idea where we're going to end up. God already knows and if He's got it covered then there's really nothing to fret over, right?! Besides, who has time to fret?! We're MOVING!!! :-)
I'll try to post again before 2008. :-)
~Rebekah~
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