Winding Down  

Posted by cokelady

It feels kinda good!

The past two weeks have been GREAT. A crazy, chaotic, hard-working kind of great, but great nonetheless. I was sure to have the house all cleaned up and all of the laundry and ironing done before Mom came and it's a good thing! There was very little time for such things once she arrived!

We spent the first two days (yes, that's correct--TWO DAYS) wallpapering the great room. Who could've known it would take so long?! It is much, much more difficult to hang horizontal wallpaper than vertical, that's for sure! We worked the whole first day on ONE WALL. The good part of our slow progress is that it gave James a reality check and I know that he mentally chopped down the list of things he was hoping to see accomplished while Mom was here! Ha!

Friday and Saturday were spent working on the kitchen cabinets--cleaning, painting, taping, painting some more, polyurethaning (3 coats)--and all of the same to the front door to match. (I LOVE IT!!!) There is lots and lots of work when you decide to go with a three color combo job on bevelled edged doors. But in the end, it's worth it! :-) Mom spent a total of probably 8 hours working just on the front door!!! She's not sure THAT was worth it, but I am. After all, she did all the work and I get to keep the door! Ha!

Sunday was our "day of rest" and we REALLY needed it by then! --Oh, I forgot to mention that I also whipped up 6 batches of strawberry jam one afternoon. YUM! There is just nothing better in the whole world! Anyway, we enjoyed a good Sunday morning service (Sunday School went quite well--even with ages 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, and 17 present!) James was sure to work Mom in all of our church services, playing and singing LOTS. It was SUCH a blessing to have her here! That afternoon we went out to eat somewhere (???), then came home and had time for a much needed nap before our evening service.

Monday was more work on the cabinets. Tuesday was our "day off." We did some running around to antique stores and such, then into Albuquerque to eat at Casa de Fiesta for lunch. Yum! Oh! HA! I almost forgot! It was soooooo great! There was this Spanish guy there with a guitar going around to all of the tables, playing and singing. He seemed to especially like singing to Mom and we laughed sooooo hard! James was "interpreting" his Spanish songs. "The hair so white, so white it glows; the wrinkles so deep... Oh, the many colors of her jumper... Oh, holy bun lady..." and so on. HA! Mom was so embarrassed and it was just way too funny. I really wish I would've had my camera so we could remember our little singing friend forever. :-)

After lunch James dropped Mom and me off at Lowes while he took the kids home for a nap and got ready for Church. About three hours later he picked us up (enough time for us to find the PERFECT wallpaper for the kitchen and find several other things to remember--hopefully--for other parts of the house as we go along) and we went to CPMA service. Another good one!

That night Mom and I stayed up late, thinking it was our last night together. We had managed to sneak in a few short games here and there throughout all of the working, so that was nice, and we had fun on our "last" night. The next day, of course, we discovered Mom wouldn't be leaving! We came home and were able to finish up on the kitchen cabinets (at long last!) and get them HUNG that night! Wa-Hoo!!! After a week of mess and chaos all over the house it felt TERRIFIC to finally have that done!

Thursday was the day James left for his big trip. He wanted to take us out for lunch before he left, so we drove to Albuquerque in separate cars. We had lunch, said our goodbyes ("Goodbye, Bec--be good while I'm gone!" Ha!), then he headed for Hatch and the rest of us went to pick Hershey up from the groomers. I won't go into all of the gory details, but that crazy lady charged me $50!!!! I was sooooooo upset. The price she quoted me on the phone was much lower than what she actually charged, plus the EXTRA she charged because "he bites." ?!?!? HERSHEY?! He's NEVER bitten a groomer before. The meanest he ever gets is nipping at the kids--the little I-want-you-to-know-I-don't-like-what-you're-doing thing. He's never actually BITTEN anyone, just given those little "warnings." I almost refused to pay, but I didn't want to cause any more friction than was already there, so I just coughed it up. I couldn't help but tell the lady though that I'm used to paying $22 and was just stunned by the price. (I still am!!!) THAT'S JUST WRONG!!!

Anyway, we took our dog with the $50 dumb-looking haircut and ran to Hobby Lobby--AGAIN! I don't know if we were there 3 or 4 different times, but I'm getting to know the place real well! Ha! We had to go to Wal-Mart for a few things, so we didn't get home until about 5:00, I think. That's the night we watched Pride and Prejudice on the projector. Fun!

Yesterday was a total waste. I mean, it was a nice, relaxing day, but we accomplished absolutely nothing! That's not totally true, I guess. I did get all of the laundry done (I was trying to hold off until Mom left, but the "extra" days with her pushed it over the edge! Ha!) and vacuumed the whole house. But that's it! Still... even though we felt lazy, it was kind of nice to not work ourselves to death like we had been before! We played a few games with the kids before putting them to bed last night, then Mom and I played one last game before turning in.

This morning we got up at 3:00 (I laid in bed 'til 3:30) to take Mom to the airport. Katie was already up and dressed--all ready to go!!! Weird kid! I don't know how or why or when she woke up (she said she thinks it was 2-something!), but she was rarin' to go! The boys woke up rather well when the time came, too, so that was great! I was fully anticipating crabby kids, but they were all fine. We drove Mom to the airport and said our goodbyes AGAIN, then came home and promptly sent everybody back to bed (it was 5:30) and slept soundly until James called and woke us up at 9:00!

James is having a GREAT time in Hatch. The Revival is going great and there have been lots of people and some brand new visitors. And, of course, he's really been enjoying the time with the folks there. Today James baptized one girl in a very, very cold Rio Grande (!), went back to the motel to change clothes, and was headed back to their bon fire/outside service where the same girl will be joining the Church tonight! How exciting!!! Praise the Lord!!!

Today the kids and I tried to get back to normal a little bit. School, housework and Sunday School prep until the crazy night/morning caught up with me at about 3:15 and I promptly declared nap time. I was out in no time, only to be awakened a second time today by a phone call from James! (He said he's going to try again late tonight and see if he can make it an even three! Ha! Jerk.) I got up and took a shower, loaded up the kids and headed to Wal-Mart out in Edgewood. We had some serious grocery shopping to do, as well as pick up a few supplies for Sunday School tomorrow.

We came home, I threw the boys in one tub and Katie in the other, got all the groceries put away, whipped up a nutritious meal of fish sticks, mac-n-cheese, and french fries, and let the kids watch Larry Boy "on the wall." Put 'em to bed and here I am! But I'm 5 minutes past my "limit." I was going to quit at 9:00 to get working on my WMB service for tomorrow night, so I'd best be going! But there you have it--the run-down of my life these past two weeks or so! I'll back way up now and post just a couple of pictures I failed to post before...

Easter picture! (Notice Joe's tie--and Sam's lack of one. Not to mention Sam's shirt being buttoned CROOKED. For some reason unbeknownst to their mother (so don't ask!) they made it through the WHOLE DAY like that without ever being fixed! Ha!)

But for all of the boys tackiness, Katie had purty curls! (Her hair used to be naturally kinky-curly like this, but it takes a lot of work to pull it off nowadays!)

School at the Horne house...

And finally... well, what's to say?! Sam is actually wearing a furry mustache (upside down) that came with a pirate set of his some time ago. But he needed a mask at the time instead of a mustache, so...

And in case you're wondering about Sam's hair, he took some scissors to it a few weeks back, so I buzzed him. Ggrrr. I also gave Joe my first "little boy" haircut. Ha! I need soooooo much practice! A few lessons wouldn't hurt either!!! Still, it could have been worse I think... :-)

Okay, that's it. Gotta get to work. Have a great weekend!!!

~Becki~

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3 comments

I told your dad about the little mexican cowboy singer this morning. He was amused, but I'm sure he'd be MUCH MORE amused to hear your, or James', account. :-)
I had such a good time and we made a lot of great memories. Thanks for everything. For now, I'm happy to be home. Working on your house gave me some needed inspiration to work on my own home. Now, if only I can find the time?!
I LOVE the picture of your cowboy students. That's WAY cute!

Yeah, Dad would have LOVED to have seen the little singer guy. But it wouldn't have been the same if Dad was there. As it was, the guy probably thought you were a widow! HA! (Don't throw anything!)

I'm glad you've found some inspiration for your own house--and I'm glad my house benefitted from it! :-) It was soooooo great having you here. I'm already looking forward to next time!

Your boys' cowboy gear...cracks me up.