Joe got him a tape measure...and a carton of Whoppers. :-)
And Katie got a set of pliers.
I got him a set of those soft sheets he likes so well. They feel pretty stiff to me--I'm hoping they soften up a lot after being washed a few times! Ha!

James decided he wanted to hit the road and make a day of it, so we loaded up and headed north on Highway 14 toward Santa Fe. There's this cute little former ghost town called Madrid not too far from here and James thought it might have some neat stuff there. Ha! Apparently a bunch of Hippies moved in and took over in the 70's 'cause everything there is creepy! The only thing that looked like it might be neat was the Old Mine Museum & Restaurant... but it was closed. It was nearing lunchtime, so we thought we'd try the soda fountain we'd seen down the road a bit. Now you have to understand, James has a real fixation with soda fountains--would LOVE to own one some day, full of all of the old-time original stuff from back in the 40's or something. Well, we walked in this store and were overwhelmed by the New Aginess of it! Ha! It was nothing but weird rocks and charms and sculptures and who-knows-what-all. They had some of that terrible incense stuff in there that comes in all sorts of differnt offensive aromas, probably used in some sort of "make yourself well" religion. The brand name was Evolve and it had a picture of a sick looking Earth with the motto, "Change is Good." Bleagh!!! The look and smell and feel of everything just sort of gives you the willies. It reminded me of about 15 years ago when the whole "New Age" thing was really going nuts and you could just feel that spirit some places. Our family took a trip to a GORGEOUS little town in Colorado called Teluride... Ha! Never again! The setting was out of this world beautiful, but everything else was... well, out of this world, but... !!! I remember seeing bulletins posted for you to call so-and-so if you wanted to locate your "spirit guide" and such creepiness. Anyway, it was the same kind of feel in this "soda fountain." That's just wrong!!! I did see a little Coca-Cola sign way at the back of the store (apparently where they were hiding anything that didn't fit into the wacky spiritual stuff), but we weren't about to "partake" of anything in a place like that! Ha! We decided to blow that joint (no pun intended--HA!) and kept heading toward Santa Fe.

There is a place just south of town that's called Rancho de something-or-another... it was a great big, long name that I can't pronounce. Anyway, it has lots of buildings that are 100 or 200 years old and they have people posted here and there in period costumes to tell you all about life way back then. They say it's like Williamsburg... but New Mexico style! Some of it was very interesting, but other things were some more of that weird spiritual stuff! The whole Spanish Catholic thing with all of the statues gives me the creeps about like all of the New Age stuff does. You know, the little shrine on the top of the hill where they would go to pray to the patron saint of whatever and ask for a good crop and whatnot. Freaky. It's always so weird to me when people make gods out of anything and anyone but the true and living God! ANYWAY... the coolest thing was the old school house.

It was built in 1880, I believe, and there was a "teacher" there to show the kids what school was all about back then. Did you know they had a whole hour each day devoted to teaching manners and proper etiquette?! Wow. We should do that!!! Ha! (I feel especially strongly about it after our lunch of grilled cheese and ramen noodles today!)

Fitting, isn't it?

Aside from the Catholic stuff, there was one other troubling thing we encountered. There is a mile and half long trail that you walk, from one building to the next, as you tour this place and there's a little bridge with a shallow pond underneath it. Well, there were these people there who had brought a picnic lunch with them. That's cool. They let their kids play in the water. That's cool. The kids were BUCK NAKED. That's not cool!!! I couldn't believe it!!! And there was NO other way to go. You had to walk over the bridge to get anywhere--or back. I was sooooo frustrated. What kind of parents let their children play buck naked--even in the privacy of their own home or backyard--much less on the path of a trail that hundreds of people might be taking on that particular day?!?!?! What is WRONG with people?! These weren't babies either (not that I personally would've thought it was acceptable then either). One of them had to be 3 or 4 years old. Gross!!! Our kids were greatly troubled, too, and nearly fell off the bridge several times because their faces were turned fa-a-a-a-ar away from the eekness below. Worst of all, I forgot to mention it to the lady at the front when we left. I'm sure the people who toured after us didn't appreciate the "period costumes" under the bridge any more than we did. ~sigh~ Hippies.

Fortunately, the creepy statues and eek children were only a small portion of what we saw. :-) Everything else there was pretty cool! This is a house that has been used in numerous movies... the only one I remember by name is Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.

This used to function, but no more. Sad. Still--it was really neat.

This place was arranged, like most attractions we've visited, so that the first half of the tour is all downhill. Meaning that after you're hot and tired, you have to climb back UP the hill in the heat of the day, with your shaky jell-o legs and whiny children. Joe was cracking us up. Sooooooo pitiful. They had jugs of water back up at the entrance/exit, but I told Joe he wasn't allowed to have any until he let me take his picture. Ha! What a crab!!!

The restaurant was right next to a mall, so we decided to check it out. In the end, I came away from Christopher & Banks with two new shirts for $10 (total!) and the kids had a ride on the carousel. Happy Birthday, James! Ha! How sad.

I drove us home after that, but just barely! I was soooooo tired. I even pulled over once and got out and walked around a bit. I prayed hard and GOD HELPED US to make it home safely... at which point I crashed on the couch for about an hour!

I made a fantastic birthday dinner of a grilled roast beef sandwich and ramen for James. (Hey, it's what he asked for!) Then, to satisfy the children, I helped them bake a cake. James doesn't particularly care for cake, but the kids find it extremely disturbing that someone could have a birthday without a cake. Look at that smoke! 29 candles. :-)

Yesterday was supposed to be finish-cleaning-the-house-up-after-Camp day since Wednesday had been birthday-outing day. But instead we loaded up again and went into Albuquerque. James had received a coupon to one of the antique stores there and wanted to check some things out. I need a desk and Katie will need a dresser at some point. We found a couple of things we really liked, but want to think about it a while first. I'd so much rather pay to have an old fashioned piece of real wood funiture than to pay the same amount or more for a new piece of fake wood furniture somewhere! It was fun to look around, even if we don't end up with anything for a while yet. :-) We had to go to Wal-Mart before coming home, but it wasn't as bad as usual. We had a good time, even there!

When we got home last night I went to work on the house again and actually FINISHED! We are finally totally unpacked and the bedrooms are put back together, closets and dressers cleaned out and organized. Mostly. ;-) ~sigh~ It felt so good to get up this morning and not have to play catch-up! Everything was already in order, so we just hopped right into breakfast, devotions and school--just like we're supposed to! It was GREAT! :-)

I managed to the get the Spanish Western Skies formatted last night and James got it printed today, so that means the next big project is putting together a Camp paper. :-) I'm not going to post any Camp pictures on my blog until after I'm finished with that paper and have it mailed out. I don't want everybody to get their paper and just set it back down because they've already seen it all, you know! I'm clever that way. Ha! We'll see!!!

Okay, it's back to work. I need to get the school table cleaned and put away, then start on that Camp paper, Sunday School class, or VLB service. Eenie-meenie-miney-moe... Then, of course, there is the mountain of Camp and Convention ironing awaiting me... Hhmmm. Perhaps a nap. Kidding--I'm just kidding! I'll do something good, I promise. :-) Until next time...

~Bec~

Ah, yes--here are some pictures of my new rugs, Bekah.

Try not to pay too much attention to the chairs that don't exactly match. ;-) They are WORLDS better than the other ones, and I have grand and glorious plans for these chairs... someday! For now, just look at the nifty braided rug--in a rectangle! :-)