After finding the phone card we settled into devotions and then about a half day of school. James ran some errands, so the kids and I enjoyed another party: Totino’s, Coke, popcorn, and Lucy. :-) James was back by the time we finished, so we loaded up for our afternoon outing. We decided to try the Museum of Natural History and Science. HA. First and last time for that one. We had hoped that there would be something in the museum that wasn’t centered around evolutionary lies. There may have been, but it was a real struggle to find it. There were some very cool things there (they’ve got some truly terrific replicas of dinosaur skeletons—some HUGE ones!) that we really enjoyed, but it took us next to no time to zip through the whole place. I mean, you can’t stop and read anything ‘cuz it’s all lies! The biggest problem is keeping the kids from reading them, then saying loudly in their most skeptical and disgusted voices, “Nu-uh!!! That’s not true—that’s a lie!!!” Adds some color to the visit, but you know… ! The only other thing worth mentioning about the museum is my breaking of the rules. They had a plastic model of the leg bones of a brachiosaurus—the great big GIANT dinosaur. Standing tall, I came about half way up to the thing’s knee joint. So I stepped up next to it and happened to reach out and touch it as I was displaying for the kids just how HUGE that animal (behemoth, from the Bible, perhaps?!) was. A lady employee just about came unglued. “Ma’am!!! Please don’t touch the bones!!!” It startled me and I quickly apologized and we moved on. We had only made it a few feet before I realized how absurd it was. I mean, these folks no doubt believe that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and their skeletal remains are extremely fragile. But… this was a giant plastic replica of bones—not the bones themselves! We laughed heartily about how distraught the poor woman was by my handling of that giant hunk of plastic. Ha! People are nuts!

We left that museum and decided to try the one next door, the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! What a joke! We are soooooo not cultured. ;-) They had a temporary exhibit containing lots of things from Egypt and some of that was a little interesting. There were lots of great hieroglyphics and little things that used to be buried with somebody or another, or probably worshipped by somebody or another (!), but it was a little interesting anyway. That’s where it all ended. It then turned into a regular art gallery, full of strange and senseless paintings. Some of them I could see took real talent, but others could have been created with greater effect by my poodle. The things that some people call art! It’s insulting to those of us who have working brains and appreciate things that actually look like something. A picture that makes sense, you know? I’m sure there are people in the world who would be disgusted by my outlook on the subject… but I’m glad I’m one of me and not one of them! Needless to say, we whizzed through that museum even faster than the first one. Both only cost us a total of $24 for all 5 of us, so that’s not bad. I figure it was worth the $24 to find two places that we don’t want to go again. I mean, I’d hate to have company sometime and pay to take a whole lot of extra people to read a bunch of lies, get yelled at by a mean museum lady, and be frustrated by paintings that shouldn’t even make the bulletin board in kindergarten… Right?! Of course right!

We finished up at the museums and had at least an hour or two before we could go back to the room (otherwise we go nuts, remember?), so we hit several antique stores. We’re still trying to find a dinning table and chairs and we did find a couple of possibilities today so that’s good. Table possibilities, that is. We found two we really like at pretty good prices. But then they want $125 per chair! Can you imagine?! Can you imagine paying $750 just for CHAIRS?! Well, I can’t!!! I think I’m going to be hitting some garage sales or thrift stores or something. That’s just crazy.

We went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. It’s the only place in this whole town where James can get sweet tea. He sure missed that about Texas, let me tell you! We had a nice dinner and made it out for just $20 (easy to do when you eat off the kids’ menu!), then wandered through the store out front. I was thrilled to find the 2008 Barn Calendar from Lang on sale 80% off. It kept ringing up at the 70% off price, but I held my ground until they figured out how to price me correctly. No way was I going to pay a whole $4.49 for it! Ha! I realize it’s February, but I would so much rather pay $3 for 11 months than to pay $15 for 12. Actually, it was $3.21 with tax. Happy day!

That’s about all the news from here. (More than enough, right?!) We missed most of Jeopardy, but made sure to get in Wheel of Fortune. Sam fell asleep as soon as he hit the pillow, which is a very, very good thing. He was a real crab tonight. I know he’s not feeling good, but that’s no excuse. Ah yes—please say a prayer for all three of our kids. They’re all coughing and hacking and really congested, especially the boys. Joe is snoring away as I type. They’ve even been sleeping in late in the mornings. Now if only the dog would do the same!

~Becki~