Wednesday was the longest day of my life. Probably not, but it felt like it at the time. We had our usual morning: breakfast, devotions, school. In the meantime, James took the van to the shop. We can contemplated trading it in for a 4x4 (which we do need now), but have since decided it would be best to keep the van as our primary family vehicle and whatever James gets as his vehicle will be 4x4—and large enough to fit all 5 of us if necessary. So since we’re keeping the van, we decided to do some of those necessary things that have to be done every so often. New tires, new water pump (the old one was corroded and about to go out), new break pads on the front and something done to the rotors on the back (or vise versa?) and… I think that was it. No—the rattle. We’ve had a terrible rattle for a few months now. A bolt had broken somewhere and wasn’t holding something in place tightly, so they fixed that, too. As you can imagine, all of this work took all day.

In the meantime, the kids and I were back at the motel room going nuts!!! Ha! It was after 5:00 by the time James finally made it back with the van and we were all crawling up the walls. Breakfast, devotions and school only takes us until about noon. After that I let the kids watch a few episodes of Wanted. Four, to be exact! Then we got books and sat around and read for a while. Then we went for another run around the motel. (We’d all gone running once earlier in the day, too.) When James got back it was utter chaos. One kid in gladiator garb stabbing another in cowboy duds and a girl in a puffy pink robe giving orders to both of them. A mother sitting on the bed with that “next time YOU’RE staying in the room with 3 kids and a dog while I spend all day sitting in a nice, peaceful waiting room with magazines all day” look. ;-) We loaded up and went out to eat. Don’t ask where. I’m so tired of eating out. Everything tastes the same anymore. I can’t wait to have an oven again!!!

After our meal we went to the Wal-Mart for milk and a few odds and ends. Then it was back to the motel room. All of the kids were actually asleep by 9:00 that night. Amazing! This motel life has gotten us all screwed up. Everybody is wide awake until 11:00 or midnight most nights (!), then they sleep in until 9:00 the next morning! It’s terrible. So it was nice to have a regular asleep-by-9:00-and-up-again-at-7:30 experience. It was a glimmer of normal life. ;-)

Yesterday was almost as cabin feverish as Wednesday. Breakfast, devotions and school while James was out taking care of some business… but for some reason we got a really late start on school. In fact, I don’t think we even started school until after lunch! So it drug on through the afternoon and (due to some attitude issues concerning the math work and some additional assignments because of it!) we didn’t finish up and get out of the room until about 4:00. ~sigh~ The days spent entirely at the motel are rough.

We went and looked at some more vehicles that night, trying to figure out what James needs for his running around, but what will work for all of us if necessary—that’s a 4x4. We’ll find something in time, but it’s just not something you rush into, you know?! At least we don’t!

Today we got up and had breakfast and devotions, then we all hopped in the van and headed down to the DMV to finish registering the van. We now have a bright yellow license plate with a hot air balloon on it. Weird! After that we headed to Sears to check out the appliances. We sold our washer, dryer and freezer when we moved, and of course the stove stayed with the house. I’ve been fantasizing about one of those awesome front loading washing machines for some time now, but it’s been only a fun dream. Do you know how much those things cost?! We’ve been really good about being frugal with the furniture we’ve been buying and even while looking at vehicles. So… James decided we could splurge on the washer and dryer! Wa-Hoo! We went middle of the road, actually. Did you know you can spend $1300 or more—for just a washer?! Whoa!!! There is NO WAY. Not even when it’s fantastically red and beautiful. (I would have loved to have had a bright red washer and dryer—it would actually be fun to do laundry! Ha!) I guess when I look at that price you could say that we went lower-middle of the road. ;-) Still, it’s a big step up from anything I’ve ever had before and I’m so excited! Wa-Hoo! I think I’ll be able to stack the washer and dryer, leaving extra room for a pantry! Double Wa-Hoo! Life is good. :-)

We went back to the room and took a nap because we’ll have a pretty late night tonight. We’re driving down to Hatch right now to be with them in Revival. It’s a weekend revival and this is the only night we could make it.

Tomorrow we have a small truck reserved so we can go pick up our new washer and dryer, then go pick up the table, chairs, hutch and wine rack (ha!) we bought from that guy last week, then drive up to Cedar Crest and pick up the chuckwagon table and take them all up and dump them off at the house. We don’t close on the house until Thursday (if all goes as planned, of course!), but Mike (the seller) has been soooooo great about everything and he said it would be fine for us to go ahead and move some this stuff in a few days early. :-) How exciting!!!

James just accused me of writing an encyclopedia blog. “That’s just way too long—who wants to read that?!” Hey, you don’t have to read it, you know! I’m doing this as much for my own sake as anybody else’s! Besides, I’m bored. The kids are asleep in the back seat and James is deep in thought. That leaves me alone with the laptop. But I think I’ll bring this to a close and make that man of mine be sociable. :-)

Later!

~Becki~

--Me again. It’s nearly midnight now and we’re nearing Albuquerque. We had a wonderful service in Hatch and Brother Olivarez preached a great message. Oh, how I love going to that church! I’ve never been there but I’ve been deeply blessed. James says there were probably over 50 people there tonight. Praise the Lord! The people there are so very precious and we love them dearly. We are just soooooo blessed to be a part of the Church of God, in this region in particular! :-)

--Oh! Emilee! You should see Sophia! She is soooooooo cute! She’s nearly 7 months along now and she’s got this perfect (however still tiny) bulge—she’s just adorable! I thought of you and wished I would have thought to take my camera with me tonight. She’s feeling great (praise the Lord!) and is thankful for all of the prayers. :-)