Hhmmm. I worked so hard remembering everything that happened during our Dustin & Jamey week that I seem to have forgotten everything that has happened in the week since then! I know that we finally got back into the school groove, which was nice. The kids actually seemed to have missed it and were anxious to get going again--even Joe. We made our Tuesday trip to the library after having missed the week before. (Although we failed to go TODAY... never even thought of it!) They were thrilled about that. They each brought home an armful of books and I'm pretty sure they've read them all. Katie read Bunnicula, which is a book I remember reading and writing a report on when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Something about a bunny that sucks the juice out of unsuspecting vegetables--and all of the other family pets are sure it's a vampire and they're all goners. She seemed to enjoy it and is asking for the sequel. We also checked out James and the Giant Peach. I've heard of it my whole life, but had never read it or known much about it. I read it to the kids over the course of a few days and they thought it was great. "Read some more, Mom! Nooooo-don't stop now!" I love it when they're like that. :-) It's been many moons since I've read a book to them, so it was really nice. For all of us.
We've been working some more around the house. We found some fantastic flowers the other day so we brought them home and James planted them down by the pond. My favorites are the Foxtails. At least that's what James told me they are called. (He knows much more about such things than I do. Weird.) They are sooooo neat--and look PERFECT there by our little pond! James also bought three more goldfish--big ones this time--to add to the pond and they seem to be very happy. The little guys have made friends with them and they all school together, which makes me happy. I was worried about a gang of three big bully goldfish beating up on the scrawny little guys. Next comes the graffiti and it all goes downhill from there. But instead they made friends. :-)
Things are happening inside the house, too. I've had this plan for the kitchen for some time now and James executed it this week. I wanted a "box" built around the upper cabinets that go above the stove and island. This first picture of the kids tea party KIND of shows it--look to the far right. What is currently red on the top--it came down lower over on the side where the oven hood was. And underneath it was just plain white sheetrock.
James bought the beadboard that I wanted (and quickly discovered that he HATES working with) and did THIS...
Then I whipped out the paint and did THIS...
Doesn't it look GREAT?! I LOVE it! Wa-Hoo!!! One more purtifying-of-the-house job done! The only bad thing about it is that each time you do something pretty in a room it makes all of the things that are still undone look sooooo much worse! Ha! I'm anxious to get to the next couple of projects we've got planned, but this one makes me very, very happy. I just LOVE how everything is tying together in the kitchen--the colors in the cabinets and my new beadboard and how PERFECTLY they go with the wallpaper. And to think--we started with the paint! That's so backwards. You usually have to find wallpaper you like, then go get paint to match. All I can say is that this just was just meant to be. :-)
And I'll post a couple more pictures of the same thing (!) so you can see some of Brother Dustin's handiwork. This first one shows the light that he installed to go above the chuckwagon table. Of course, you have to open the table (!), but even without the table it's GREAT to have light in that corner!
And if you look closely in this picture you can see the lovely glow of yet more lights where once there were none! Above the sink and the window off to the right and above the island--all hidden up underneath the shelves and beadboard (all of which James did)--there are these glorious little "puck lights" that actually make it possible for me to see what I'm doing after dark! Wow!!! What a novel idea! This entire area of the house used to have just one bulb above the sink. Can you believe that?! It was a dark, dirty, dreary kitchen. But now it's beautiful and well lit, too! I keep thinking of Cavis from The Star of Christmas. Lights! Lots of electric lights... on the scenery!!! ;-)
These are the reasons why we still allow Brother Dustin to be called a friend. Even after he dropped a boulder on my son. ;-) I just love, love, love all of my new lights! And my new beadboard! And how GREEN it is! Now, now, NOW I'm happy!!! ;-)You can also see the fabulous wood slat blinds that James installed this week. Wowzers! I've never had anything like them before, but they are wonderful!!! I've only ever had those cheap-o little mini-blinds before. They get bent up and filthy and there's no way to really clean them. But these things are fantastic! James bought these two sets and one for the front window. :-) I still need to remove the extra slats from the set in the window on the right. Soon as I find the time!
As for the bathroom, I'll have to wait to post pictures of that. I don't have the energy to go clean it up nice and purty so I can take pictures. After our Texas trip, if I remember.
Ah, yes! Did I mention that we're going to Texas?! We're going to Texas!!! Brother Sam asked if James would come and preach a weekend revival, so off we go! We'll be leaving in the morning. The revival doesn't actually start until Thursday night, so we'll have tomorrow to just dink around. We'll stay tomorrow and the next night with Aunt Sue & Uncle Jerry, then move over to Sam & Tammy's house for the rest of the time. I'm sooooo excited! I'm excited to go and see everybody, I'm excited about the Revival there and all the good things God has in store, I'm excited about going to Sue & Stacey's stores and doing some shopping, I'm excited about playing GAMES, GAMES, GAMES... ~sigh~ So many things to look forward to. :-) Oooooh, I'm excited about having a hot club sandwhich at Cassidy's. Gotta make sure we don't miss that. ;-) The only thing I'm not excited about is doing the Regional Paper while we're away! I'll take the laptop with me and have to do all of the formatting on the trip. Whenever I get it finished we'll print 'em (we're taking our giant Oki Data printer with us! Ha!) and have Sam & Tammy help us fold them and get them ready to mail--just like old times! ;-)
So if you don't hear from me before (you never know!), we plan to be back home on Monday night. Please be in prayer for this Revival. I know that a lot of prayer and fasting has gone into it and there are needs that only God knows about and can meet. Until next time...
~Bec~
--Oh, wait! James would KILL me if I forgot this! It's the most exciting news of all!!! Last week a lady sent an e-mail to the Church website inquiring if we had a church in Albuquerque. Brother Dupre forwarded the e-mail to James and he started corresponding with her. To make a long story short, she is a member of the church back east and has been living here for quite some time, but never knew that we had a church here--and we never knew anything about her. She was thrilled to find that we do, indeed, have a church in the area and she was at service Sunday and again tonight. :-) I think she's almost as excited as we are. What a blessing! I'd tell you her name, but I'm pretty sure I can't spell it. In any case, God is sooooo good and we are just sooooo thankful to have found her--or that she found us, or whatever! :-)
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