Sam met a mean caterpillar! He came inside whining about his finger hurting "real bad." Said he'd picked up a caterpillar and it bit him. I've never known of caterpillars to bite, so I pretty much brushed him off. Sam is our toughest kid by far and not prone to complaining of pains like the others, so when he kept on insisting (for several minutes) that his finger was still hurting I told him to show me the caterpillar. He took me outside and I dicovered that judgment had already been served on the unfriendly little thing. Judging from the small portion of what remained of him, he was bright green and very spiney. I came inside and looked on the Internet for the longest time, but never found a perfect match. Picked up the complementary issue of Birds & Blooms we'd received the day before and *viola* there it was! It's the Lo Something-or-Another Moth caterpillar and it actually turns into a very beautiful and colorful moth. But if you see one, don't touch--they emit a poisonous venom that feels much like a bee sting. Who knew?!

Second strange occurance... James' favorite fish from the pond died. It was nice and plump and seemingly healthy one day, the floating on top the next. James can't figure out what on earth happened to him. Since that time I have found three of those crazy green caterpillars dead in the pond (I think they're falling out of the tree above) and two or three others nearby. Is it possible the fish ate a caterpillar and got poisoned?! I don't have any other explanation and this one is at least a little bizarre, so I'm sticking with it for now.

Saturday night was a doozy. Joe came into our room at 3:00AM soooooo scared because he'd had a bad dream. I had a good prayer with him and sent him back to bed, but it wasn't long before he was right back at my bedside. I was sooooooo tired, so I told him to just go get his pillow and blanket and sleep on the floor in our room. That would last a minute or two, but then he'd jump up and look at me with those great big scared eyes. He did that a few times. Said he couldn't hear me and James breathing and just wanted to check and make sure we were still there. I was dozing off in between each time, only to be awakened over and over again. He asked if we could turn a light on somewhere so it wouldn't be so dark. I pointed out the nightlight that was already in the room and reminded him that he's right next to his Mom and Dad and that God is with us and watching over us--that there's nothing to be afraid of. That helped for a minute, but then he asked if it would be alright if he crawled up on the foot of our bed to sleep. I said absolutely not! (We have enough problems--we are NOT starting that nonsense!) I never know what to do in these situations. On the one hand, I dont want to baby the kids and end up raising a bunch of sissies. (That's what I have right now--I'm hoping to raise them OUT of that mode! Ha!) On the other hand, I remember what it's like to be a kid and be scard at night. I don't want to be totally insensitive either. (Any suggestions would be most appreciated!) I finally took Joe to his room and I laid down in his bed with him for a little while. I never would have considered such a thing except that he was really and truly terrified. It was much, much worse than most of the other times he's been scared at night. We can usually pray and send him back to bed and he'll be fine, but this time he was almost trembling and seemed to be fighting off a fit of true panic--I mean really, truly, deeply scared. I was waiting until he fell asleep to return to my own bed, but I ended up falling asleep before him. I dreamt the whole time about him being scared and waking me up every few minutes to make sure I was still there. So when I woke up at 5:30 I felt like I hadn't slept at all! I HATE nights like that!

I asked Joe to tell me about his dream the next day. (He didn't want to talk about it the night before--thought it might make him even more scared.) He dreamt that the Wicked Witch of the West saw him and started chasing him. He tried to get away and was calling for help, but he tripped and fell. The witch grabbed his foot... and that's when he woke up. I said, "Well, Joe, if that's as far as your dream got you didn't have anything to be afraid of--maybe she just wanted to take you home and give you a cookie or something!" He looked at me in utter disbelief. "MOM... she's wicked!!! Why do you think they call her the WICKED Witch?!" Ha! Good point. I was only trying to help. By the way, my kids have never seen the Wizard of Oz, but they've seen pictures of the witch. --Mom, it was that same picture that induced the screaming fits last year! CRAZY!!! Anyway, Joe and Sam slept together last night and did great. Tonight they're back in their own beds. I don't anticipate any more problems. Only time will tell!

Let's see, what else... We had our services yesterday at a meeting room in a motel. We had pretty good attendance in the morning and a good time, in spite of the lack of music! We're pretty spoiled on a piano, so doing everything Acapulco (I know--it's just what we like to call it!) is quite a change. Last night was my WMB service. I showed that video that Brother Rob had prepared for his part on the Assemby program with scenes of mission trips in Africa, Asia, and Europe. IT IS SUCH A BLESSING!!! My favorite part, hands down, is the footage from Uganda where the dudes are playing their homemade instruments and singing, "Alleluia, Your name be praised..." It is so BEAUTIFUL--and THEY are so beautiful! It always overwhelms me with what a privilege it is to be ONE with them. We are PART of them and they are PART of us!!! It's just so amazing. The footage from Swaziland was a great blessing to our folks here. I shared how those people had just come out of the CoGoP and lost their church building, just like us. The video shows them walking from one place to another, singing as they go, then congregating in the open air and worshiping the Lord and singing, "Never give up! In times of sorrow--never give up! In times of trouble--Never, never, never, never, never--NEVER, never give up!"

I've been having some really good discussions with the kids during our morning devotions since we've been home from our trip. They've been asking lots of questions and really getting involved. I love it! Today I was reading Acts 7 to them, about Stephen preaching and then being stoned for what he preached. Joe was EXTREMELY upset by it. Why didn't somebody stop them? Why didn't Stephen run and try to get away? Why did God let it happen--God can do anything, so why didn't He save Stephen?! He was ANGRY with the stoners (ha!) and if only HE had been there he would have done something. That led us into a discussion about Peter and Jesus and how Peter had a hard time accepting the idea of Jesus being beaten and crucified--wanted to rise up and fight and not let anything bad happen. We talked about God miraculously saving people in some instances (3 Hebrew Children), but allowing others to suffer and die--like Jesus Himself, and Stephen. We talked about the reasons why He allows things like that and what we can learn through it. He and Katie both just pepper me with questions and I'm amazed at some of the thoughts they have about things. Our devotions are developing more into Bible studies--and I'm loving it! :-)

Big event for the day was grocery shopping. When we got home from the trip we had nothing in the fridge but Cokes and tortillas. Picked up some milk and bread the first day, so we've been living on cereal and sandwhiches since then! I made BBQ sausage and mac-n-cheese the other day, but that's about it. Been working on some house cleaning--and laundry, mostly. 10 loads, I believe. We brought home several bags of garage sale clothes from Pennsylvania (can't pass up jeans for .25 cents, you know!), so that increased the laundry a whole lot! I DREAD getting into the ironing. There's a TON of it. ~sigh~ Got to get started on it soon.

Way too long of a post. I hate it when I do that. Oh well. I'll get busy on the next picture post now! That'll make it all better. :-)