Just the Usual...  

Posted by cokelady

Plus snowman sales, that is. :-) Aunt Sue is baffled that she's received three separate orders for snowmen ranging from Arizona to Alaska... and all because of this mysterious thing called a blog. It is pretty amazing, really.

The biggest excitement this week is when we discovered that Joe was rich. When the kids earn money (a quarter here, a nickle there) we have a special place for each of them to stash it. Well, we haven't really done that in several months, so a few days ago when Joe got a quarter and I went to put it away in his cup up on the shelf I was shocked to find $12.64, give or take a few cents. Can you imagine?! A four year old with 12 bucks!!! We were all shocked (including Joe) and have no idea when or where the money came from, only that it's really and truly his. I'm the only one who could have put it there, but I have no recollection of it whatsoever. Anyway, he was thrilled to discover that he was rich and the next day we went to Alco (our Wal-Mart wanna-be) for the big shopping spree. He was sooooooooo excited. He's been eyeballing this certain gun there for weeks now. It shoots foam darts with a suction cup at the end of them. So after MUCH debating (the kid wanted to buy everything he touched) he finally settled on that. That took up about half of his money. (Yes, he already paid tithes. :-) Just in case you were wondering!)

Then, being the kindhearted kid that he is, he spent the rest of his money on a rifle for Sam "since his broke," Joe said. Actually, Sam's rifle has been broken dozens of times, beginning the day after he got it. In fact, it's been made up of mostly super glue, duct tape, and packing tape for at least 6 months now. I used up a whole tube of super glue on that thing. I must say though, it never broke in the same place twice. Maybe they should construct the things out of super glue to begin with. ANYWAY, this picture shows the most recent break. Joe felt bad for him and decided to buy him a new rifle. What a guy!
Katie felt a little left out, naturally, but she handled herself amazingly well and didn't cry or whine or complain at all. So when we got home I sat down with her (while the boys were playing with their new guns) and we painted some sun catchers. She took them to the library the next day and promptly forgot them there. Oh well!
Kate's had a rough day today as well. Seems like she's spent half the day sprawled out on the floor groaning and grabbing whatever was injured in the fall. She's tripped or fallen off of furniture or just gone splat for seemingly no reason at all -- oh, I don't even know how many times today. The last time she finally broke down and started crying. "I don't want to be me anymore!!! I hate being a klutz! Mom, I just don't want to be me anymore..." What can you say?! "Sorry, honey, you're always going to be you and that means you'll probably always be a klutz and you'll go through the rest of your life broken and bleeding--unless you want to wear protective rubber pads all over your body. Even then, there's no guarantee for somebody like you..." I didn't actually say all that, but it's true. The child is doomed. She can crash for no reason at all on a consistant basis like nobody I've ever known. Except maybe Aunt Sue. Nonetheless, it's bound to be a long, black-and-blue life for that girl.

 I thought I'd put this on here, although I'm not sure you'll be able to read it. It's pretty sloppy for Katie's usual penmanship, but she wrote this during church the other day. I had to laugh.
Let's see... That's about it from here. I talked to Mom on the phone yesterday. They're at Ladies' Retreat in England this weekend and I'm sure they're having a great time. There was something I was supposed to "tell" on Mom about, but I can't think of what it was. I just remember telling her, "I'm going to blog about you!" Hhmmm. Bummer.
Great. Katie's bad day continues. I put the kids to bed a few minutes ago and then heard some rustling around. Being a Mom, I knew exactly what it was: six little bare feet walking gingerly through the kitchen. I did the sneak-up-on-'em-and-scare-the-bejeebers-out-of-them thing (one of the best parts of being a Mom, mind you, except that it's hard to follow through and spank them when you're laughing that hard), then sent them back to bed. A few moments ago I heard the sound of little size 11 girl feet in the kitchen again, then a *bump* of some sort. "What was that?" I hollered, already knowing Katie was in the kitchen. "I don't know!!!" came her quick and trembling reply. I went to get her and the child had the nerve to hide from me! This is something entirely new. She began explaining and I caught a whiff of something fruity in the air. Her breath. That girl had snuck out of bed a second time and went to the kitchen to steal candy!!! Can you imagine?! What kind of kids am I raising, anyway?!? Katie, naturally, showed great remorse and prayed fervently begging both me and God to forgive her for being soooooooo bad. It was "taken care of," but I'll spare the details for the sake of any tenderhearted grandma's who may be out there blogging instead of crocheting tonight. :-) Let's just say I don't think it will be happening again. Not unless Katie is a lot more stubborn than I give her credit for! (And I do give her plenty of credit for that...)
Okay, that's all. It's past 9:00 now and I've got a meeting scheduled with the ironing board tonight. Have a great night!
~The Mean (and Failing???) Mom~

8 comments

A Sea of Snowmen!  

Posted by cokelady

Okay, folks! Here we go!!! I made it down to Aunt Sue's store today to get some shots of her now famous snowmen. ;-) I am posting this simply because I was asked to do so and I want it plainly understood that nobody is under any obligation to buy anything! (And Mom, your store credit is rather low so take it easy!) If Sue doesn't get any sales out of this post, that's okay. But I knew there were several of you who would enjoy ooh-ing and aah-ing over these guys anyway, so here you go! (If anyone does decide to buy, be sure to figure in the shipping and handling costs--we could add it up for you once we know what you'd like to purchace.) Oh, and I've kind of put these in order of size and consequentially price. They get smaller and cheaper as you scroll down. Have fun!

Large: $27.99
Medium: $14.99
Small: $9.99


These are $10.99 each


"The Best Present is Love" set of five: $14.99

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9 comments

Some More...  

Posted by cokelady

Crowded Snowman: $12.99 & Camping Snowman: $9.99

 Mother / Daughter & Father / Son Snowmen: $8.99 each

 Snow Much Sign: $8.99

 Tree & Quintuplets: $8.99 each
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And Yet More...  

Posted by cokelady

Sledding snowman & the happy couple: $6.99 each

 Some more $6.99-ers

And the last of the $6.99 crowd

 Snowman family: $5.99
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Getting Smaller...  

Posted by cokelady

Snowmen heavily laden: $5.99 each

Piling up: $5.99, $4.99 & $4.99

 Mugs-o-Men: $5.49 each

 Just some really cute guys: $3.99 each
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Little Guys  

Posted by cokelady

Snowmen bearing gifts: $2.99 each

 Latte snowmen: 2.49 each

 Mini snowmen: $2.99 each

 Mini-mini snowmen: $1.99 each
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3 comments

Last Ones!  

Posted by cokelady

Faith, Hope, and Love ornaments: $4.29 each

 Peace, Joy, Jingle & Noel ornaments with tiny snowmen: $2.99 each

 Snowmen ornaments: $2.49 each

 And I know these aren't snowmen, but I thought you might like to see them anyway! The large set is $8.99 and the small is $4.99

The End!!!
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I Have Bested the Frog!!!  

Posted by cokelady

For all of you parents out there who think that Leapfrog toys are the greatest, you'd just better hope yours never break. I've spent the past hour+ working on the bank Katie got for Christmas last year. All of the coins had been jammed up inside and wouldn't drop. To make a short story long (you know me!), I tried 14 different screwdrivers before I found one skinny enough to fit into the holes, but still fat enough at the end to grab the screws. And there were, of course, 16 screws to be removed... just to get inside the thing. Once I finally cracked it open (40 minutes after I began, mind you) I staggered backward, gasping, and grabbing my heart. You would not believe what the inside of a Leapfrog toy looks like. No wonder they're so expensive. There were at least 80 more screws (even tinier than the outside ones) and wires and computer looking stuff strewn everywhere! But, HEY, I'd come this far, right? Besides, the thing was already broken. It was already on it's way to the dumpster, so why not give it a shot??? I did and *ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom* we have a fixed bank!!! The money drops the way it's supposed to and the thing still talks and sings and counts your money properly. And only one mini screw left over!!! I'm not a mechanically minded person, so this is quite a feat for me and I must say that I'm a bit proud of me. This week Leapfrog, next week Microsoft. You just wait. HA.
That's about the most adventuresome thing to take place around here today, which is GREAT. The kids and I spent most of the day doing BIG cleaning in the play room. Again. Seems like we just did that not too long ago. Oh well, it's looking great again... until morning anyway.
Yesterday was a good day. Good church again, although we did have a long-winded preacher and then a long-winded conference moderator. (I won't say any names, but you two know who you are. Ha!) We were under a tornado watch most of the afternoon until midnight last night. So what were we to do? Load up and meet Sam and Tammy at Tortas y Mas, of course! Tortas y Mas, the only restaurant in town that doesn't have any indoor seating, just two plastic picnic tables sitting under a plywood covered porch. I'm not sure what the plan was if a tornado did come. Huddle under the picnic table??? Never saw the monster storm, although we got some terrific rain. The kids played in it for a while and had a blast!
Katie came running out of the bathroom this morning saying, "MOM!!! You'll never believe this! There is the biggest spider in the bathroom right now, I mean it's just HUGE!!! You've got to come!" Katie takes everything to the extreme, so I just sort of brushed it off. "Well, kill it then," I said. The boys ran to help, naturally. They got one of James' shoes to do the job, but the spider was behind the back of the toilet where the big shoe wouldn't fit. I hollered for them to get a smaller shoe. They did, but then they were hollering about that shoe being too little, blah, blah, blah. While all of this is going on James is telling me that I really ought to be careful about telling them to kill the spiders themselves--there are some pretty dangerous ones around and Sam might just go and pick it up, etc. I finally went to see how the battle was going and when I walked into the bathroom I immediately lost my breath and found myself atop the ledge of the bathtub. IT WAS THE BIGGEST SPIDER I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! Aside from a tarantula, that is. I actually thought it might be a tarantula, but James (who answered the call: "JAMES!!!!!! GET IN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!") said it wasn't. Whatever it was, it was a gigantic, hairy, scary looking thing and quite speedy, too. It makes me proud to think that my kids were actually in the bathroom trying to kill the thing. Wow. My heroes. I understand, too, why they were jabbering about the second shoe being "too small" for this spider. ~yeeeeeeeggghhhh~ Gives me the willies just thinking about it again. Creepy-crawlies don't usually bother me that bad, but this was one ugly spider--and big enough to carry away a small child or poodle.
We've had a lot of bug news lately, actually. Katie (believe it or not!) was playing with a beetle in the back yard -- a live one, no less. Joe has been fascinated with the little snails and worms everywhere since the big rain last night. And Sam was excited because he found a bug of some kind in the bathtub with Joe and himself the other day. "Katie!!! A bug is taking a bath with us!"
Hershey has been good to provide us some laughs as well. Earlier today he went to jump up into his favorite chair, but just before he leapt he noticed that something was different. He went bazerk and started barking like crazy at the chair. It was the blanket. There was a different blanket than the one he's used to seeing there and it totally freaked him out. I remember when he was a puppy out in the back yard one day barking at a brick as if it was a rattlesnake or something. I don't mean just a few barks, either--I mean going absolutely nuts for several minutes. I thought it was a little strange, but figured he'd grow out of it. I guess not.
Well, I guess that's it for now. When you resort to talking about the dog, you know you've run out of things to say. :-) Hope you all have a great night... wherever you are!!! What's going on out there in Blogland, anyway?! Where is everybody??? Where did everybody go??? This blogging thing isn't nearly as fun as it used to be back when everybody did it a little more regularly! I mean, if I had somebody else's life to read about maybe I wouldn't ramble on about my own so much! Think about it... ;-)
~Bec~
P.S. -- I never made it down to Aunt Sue's store today to take snowman pictures. Sorry!!! I'll try again tomorrow. ;-)

6 comments

Attention Shoppers!  

Posted by cokelady

I really don't know how much interest there will be in this, but we figured it was worth a shot. :-)
We set up a blog for my Aunt Sue's store, Willow Creek, this past weekend. She's going to be posting the address on flyers and such, just to see how much interest there may be online. It is: willowcreekstore.blogspot.com --Go take a look! Like I said, we just sort of threw it together (it may only be a temporary thing, you know!), but it's got several pictures of the store if you'd like to see a glimpse of what she's got.
And for Sister Bly, I'll try to get down to the store today and take some more close-up pictures of the snowmen and get actual prices and shipping costs.

0 comments

Willow Creek  

Posted by cokelady

Here, Mom! I thought you might like to see a few pictures of the Christmas stuff Sue has at the store this year. (James took a bunch of pictures for her today--for a flyer or something, I think.) I hope they enlarge well so you can see something!

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The Perfect Day?!  

Posted by cokelady

It all started last night. We had a good church service, and then afterward we all stayed and enjoyed some stew and cornbread that Tammy had made. What a great pastor's wife! ;-) A little later, Sam and Tammy came over to the house so I could whip up on them in Rummy. Thanks, Sam!!! You're so thoughtful. :-) It made it a great night. Besides that, it was beginning to get chilly outside. Wa-Hoo!

This morning the house was nice and cold, so I donned my Broncos sweatshirt and big wooly socks for the first time this year. Is there any better way to start the day than that?! I worked on my quilt for about an hour (a great chilly day activity, mind you!), then got to work in the kitchen. I made corn chowder and hot rolls and pineapple upside-down cake for desert. And James made oatmeal raisin cookies and Rice Krispy treats! Anyone care to come help us eat all of this?! James built a fire in the fireplace and I have a puzzle set up in my office that I worked on here and there throughout the day. I was going to make some hot spiced cider tonight but I'm so stuffed I wouldn't be able to enjoy it as much as I should, so I've decided to hold off. It did warm up quite a bit this afternoon and I finally made a mad dash from the hot kitchen to the bedroom to lose the sweatshirt and throw on a t-shirt. But it was nice while it lasted! The sweatshirt is still laying across my bed, covered with little (and big) smudges of flour; a sort of momento to this fantastic day. Maybe I should tack it to the wall. :-)

Joe helped me make the hot rolls and Katie helped me with the pile of dishes. Sam just helped eat everything. Otherwise, the kids spent their day much like they have the past two or three days: playing with a cardboard box. What could be better?! The box started out as a house, then a toy box, then it was a boat, then an Alter Ego Machine (thank you, LarryBoy), then a castle, and who knows what else. They got out some markers and decorated it, too. Fun, fun, fun! Admit it--it makes you wish you were a kid again, hu?!

Here's Katie Rue, little Ms. Artist

Cowboy Joe winkin' "Howdy, Ma'am"


And good ole' Destruct-o Sam
(Remind me to post pictures of his rifle sometime soon)

And this is the King (Joe), Queen (Kate), and Prince (Sammy) enjoying some wedding cake. (This portion of play was obviously run by Miss Rue.)

That's about it from around here. Tammy will be here at 6:30 in the morning (what kind of a friend shows up at that hour?!) to help set up for the Church Yard Sale here at our house. We're raising funds to send to Brother Mbogo for some of the needs over in Africa. It's supposed to be cold and possibly rainy tomorrow, so pray for some smart people who recognize the glory of such weather (!) to be in the shopping mood!

I hope your day has been as terrific as mine!!! Until next time...

~Bec~

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DISCLAIMER  

Posted by cokelady

Before you read the following post, let me explain that James made the promise to the kids before we realized that today is fast day, but we didn't feel like we could take it back after they had their hopes up. We'll be making up for the lost fasting on another day. We're not heathens, just forgetful! ;-)

(Make you feel better, Mom??? By the way, since the day was already blown, the boys and I just enjoyed homemade brownies smothered in whipped cream and chocolate syrup--with two cherries on top. ~aaahhhhhh~ This is what mother/son days are all about!)

2 comments

Donut Day???  

Posted by cokelady

Last night James informed the kids, "When we get up tomorrow, we're all going to load up and go to the Donut Palace for breakfast!" This, naturally, was followed by much squealing and laughter and jumping and dancing and little arms being slung around James' neck... "THANK YOU, DADDY!!!" Well, we overslept just a bit (it was sooooooo nice!) and by the time we had everybody up, dressed and hair fixed it was nearly 9:00. That means a very slim selection of donuts. (I always thought it was spelled "doughnuts," but apparently it's not. In Texas, anyway.) We drove on down to the Donut Palace (don't be fooled by the name--it's just your regular old Mom and Pop donut joint) and they were CLOSED. I even got out and checked the door, just in case. The kids tried to take the news as best they could, but the back of the van was filled with lots of quivering lips and red, teary eyes. We haven't been out for donuts in nearly a year (they were wearing reindeer antlers and Santa hats last time, as I recall) and they were soooooooooo excited. So, what were we to do?! We drove down to the other donut place in town. I think the word "DONUT" is painted on the outside of the building, but I don't know if they actually have a name. Unless it's simply DONUT. "Hey, kids! Do you want to go to DONUT this morning???" The DONUT is run by a Chinese family here in town. Chinese donuts. Hhmmm. We walked in and found an empty display case. Empty all except for about 6 apple fritters. I wish I could figure out how to write "apple fritter" to emphasize the Chinese accent on the words. The very friendly owner pert near attacked us when we came in the door. "Oh no! No donut--all gone! You too rate! We have appole freetor--you want appole freetor???" So we bought three appole freetors and some chocolate milk and sat down to enjoy. It's quite a place, really. I don't think they've done any remodeling or repairs for at least 30 years. In the next few minutes they sold out of the remaining 3 fritters and pulled out a box of yesterday's donuts to start hawking them as well. They were kind enough to tell the people that they were a day old, though. I guess that's good. The wife works the register and the husband and grown son keep the customers company. At least that's apparently what they do once all the donuts are gone. The two of them came and stood by our table and talked up a storm. They are quite possibly the friendliest Chinese people I've ever chanced to meet. They asked a dozen questions about our family and the kids and their ages and if the boys are twins or not... Eventually they asked why the kids weren't in school and I told them that I teach them at home. That's when a Jewish man at another table (the only other customer) piped up: "You Mennonite???" "No," I said, "just Christian!" "Oh... You Amish?????" Ha! I had to laugh. I've been asked a lot of things, but never that! I don't think I qualify to be Amish and they'd probably be greatly offended if they knew someone thought I was one of them. I have bangs and was wearing a purple skirt and no apron or kapp. Nonetheless, it was an interesting conversation to go along with the rest of our interesting morning. The "appole freetors" were very good, just so you know.

Now we're home and resuming life after the DONUT. Sam was pretending to be Paladin while Katie and Joe were playing Uno on the floor. Joe won the first two games and Katie was getting rather edgy. (She's a terrible loser. I can't imagine where she gets that from.) Joe, being the sympathetic one of the bunch, kept telling her, "It's okay, Katie. I prayed for you to win the next game, so I'm sure you will! Watch, you'll see!" He can be a creep, but he's got more natural niceness that either of the other kids. He can be so thoughtful. Anyway, Katie lost again, but managed to keep her emotions in check. Kind of. Anyway, James just left for Odessa and took a very excited Katie girl with him. "Is it my turn to go with you, Daddy?! Is it? Pleeeeeeease?!" She loves a good father/daughter day. So that leaves me here with the boys today. It'll be fun! They're such a mess. I need to finish up on my WMB service for tonight, so I'm hoping they'll have one of those really great get-along-and-keep-each-other-entertained kind of days!

We had a service at the nursing home here in town last night. It was great! We just sang a few songs, Tammy read a Psalm, and we had a prayer with them, then just visited for a little while. I think I counted 28 residents at one point. Oh, and Katie sang a song, so that made all of the old people happy. They were so sweet -- and there was this adorable 100 year old man who played "How Great Thou Art" on the harmonica! We're looking forward to going back again sometime soon.

That's it for now. I'd best get something accomplished!

~Becki~

3 comments

Relax -- Only One Post!  

Posted by cokelady

That's right, you can all breath a big sigh of relief -- I'm not in the writing mood tonight. That means only one lengthy post instead of 6 or 7 of them. ;-)

Things have been great here, just busy. Aunt Sue called me on Thursday morning and said, "We need help!!! Can you come?!" James had taken Joe with him to Odessa for the day, so I loaded up Katie and Sam and a few toys and headed to the store. She has gotten most of her Christmas freight in and was needing to clear out a section in the front of the store to be able to put it out there. If that doesn't seem like a big deal to you it's because you've never seen her store! It is PACKED front to back, top to bottom, and everywhere in between -- in a cute-not-cluttered sort of way, believe it or not. Anyway, Stacey was working the store that day, too, so that made things doubly fun. She's sooooooo picky. But she's probaby the reason the store always looks so great! Anyway, it was a really fun day and Katie and Sam were both sooooooo good. I think we were there for about 5 hours. It was great!!!

The next day I did lots of cleaning -- got both bathrooms sparkling as well as the kitchen floor. ~aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh~ That's one thing that always makes me feel soooooo good! Sam had to work late that night, so we had Tammy over for grilled burgers and chicken. Then a birthday brownie (she's not a big cake fan) and presents! It was great!!! (By the way, this is the bowl you bought her, Mom! It has a blue flower design on the other side. And you can almost see the cocoa creamer stuff behind the gift bag... that same tired old gift bag Tammy and I have been exchanging on our birthdays for the past 10 or 12 years! Ha!)


After we put the kids to bed Tammy and I got right to work on some serious business: picking up where we left off on our Eternal Rummy game! She passed the 100,000 mark, leaving me back at 96,000 or something like that. It really means that her total is 200,000 and mine is 196,000 because we start over at zero (only figuring the difference in score to keep track) when we reach 100,000 points. ~sigh~ Yep, she's up 4,000+ points on me right now. But what's that in a game of scores like we're dealing with?! :-)

Saturday we threw the kids and some clothes in the car and took off for New Mexico. Got a motel in Alamogordo, spent the night, and went to church there the next morning. It's always so good to be with the Coyazos and the others there. They're always such a blessing to us! After service Brother Tanny insisted on taking us out to the Golden Corral (naturally--it's his favorite!), then we drove over to Hatch for service that night. I miss some of what goes on there because I know so little Spanish, but it never feels like I missed anything. The spirit is always just soooooooo sweet there and there's always such freedom in prayer. I love it there! The people are so wonderful. I just love all of those Banueloses and Sotos! (By the way--where did you go, Tayde?! I didn't get to say goodbye to you after church!) We went over to Brother Banuelos' house after church along with Luis and Kaila (sp?) and Hector and Erika. It was great. It's always such a blessing to visit with them -- and always so fun! They crack me up!!!

Oh, I got ahead of myself! Here are a couple of pictures I on the drive from Alamogordo to Hatch. Can't compare to those Canada shots on some other site, I know (!), but when you live where I do, this looks pretty nice!!! :-)



And here is Luis and Kaila. Or is it Kayla? Or something totally different?! (Help, Tayde?!) She's sooooooo sweet. Katie just jabbered up a storm with her and never realized that she speaks very little English! No matter. If you listen (or even just don't leave), Katie will keep on talking regardless of comprehension.


The kids enjoyed the trip, as always. The boys are learning to be more friendly with the Spanish folks, so that's good. I don't know why, but they've been kind of weird about them in the past! Joe did get a little freaked out when I made him go to Sister Coyazo's Sunday School class in Alamogordo. He was on the verge of tears before we finally figured it out: he thought she was going to teach the kids in Spanish! Ha! I guess for a kid who has tendencies toward being shy anyway it's even more disarming to not be able to understand the other guy. Anyway, they did great and ended up having a lot of fun -- even with Job (Luis' little boy) who doesn't speak any English at all!

Oh, brother. The kids are in bed right now, but Sam just called me. I went to see what the problem was. "Mom, there's a germ on me," he says quite calmly. ??? I told him to brush it off and go to sleep. Looks like Joe is beginning to rub off on him. He's our resident weird-o and is always in a panic about getting germs and such--he washes his hands a dozen times a day. He's obsessed. He even drew a picture of germs for me on this trip and put a sign next to them, then asked, "Hey, Mom... How do you spell The Germ Factory?" Sam kept us entertained on the trip by singing "Happy Twails to zoo, untiw we meet again..." The "z" is pronouced like the z's in Zsa Zsa Gabor though. SOOOOOOOO cute! Got to get the camcorder out and tape that kid for a while before he grows up any more!!!

Okay, it's nearly 10:00 and I'm going to go work on Ladies' Retreat stuff for a while. Until next time...

G'night!!!
~ Becki ~

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3 comments

A Plethora of Posts  

Posted by cokelady

Get ready, people—I’m in the writing mood. I’ve been told (over and over and over and over again) that I tend to write “books” for posts. That’s when I don’t even really feel like writing. Tonight I do. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You only thought I was long-winded before! But, for those of you who like to complain, I’m going to be kind enough to separate all of my ramblings into several different posts. That way you can read a little bit here, a little bit there, take a day off if you’d like, come back and pick up where you left off. Whatever suits you. Or, of course, you could just assume that I really don’t have anything interesting to say and skip the whole thing. But you’ll never really know, will you? You’ll never be completely sure that you didn’t miss something grand and all of your friends will be in the know and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering, “Hhmmm… what if Becki wrote something fascinating this time? What if it was truly grand?! Or…oh, or!!! What if she wrote something about me?! Was it good?! Was it bad??? How many people read about it and what do they think of me now?!?!?” So it’s up to you. Continue to read, or don’t. That’s your privilege. And now I’ll take my privilege—saying whatever I want to say on my own blog. ;-)

4 comments

Post #1  

Posted by cokelady

Let’s see. Now that I’ve committed myself to “several posts,” I should try to think of something to say. Last time I wrote was on Sunday, right? Since then, it’s been a nice week. Monday was fantastic. It was my first day since “the bad week” last week and I had the bake sale behind me and could get back to normal life a little bit. So I did a few loads of laundry. Good start, hu? I spent a lot of time with the kids, which was much needed. I had checked out Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the library last week, so we watched it on Monday. Actually, we watched it in 20-30 minute segments throughout the day! That has got to be the longest movie in the whole world!!! It had been years since I’d seen it, so I didn’t want to just set the kids down in front of it. We’re pretty particular about what we allow them to watch and due to our extremely strict censorship, they’re extremely…sensitive, shall we say? Or maybe they’re just wimps. Either way, do you remember that crazy looking “children catcher” toward the end of the movie? The guy dressed in black with a big tall top hat and stringy black hair hanging down from it, a pasty white face and that great big honkin’ nose? Freaky. I’m 29 and I’m still a little scared of him. Besides the scary appearance, his entire purpose is to kidnap all of the children and he succeeds in doing so, locking them in a big cage and carrying them off. A little much for my tender little threesome, I think. So I skipped a little bit here and there and I talked real loud through the parts they did watch, just to keep them a little distracted. Actually, the boys did fine. Katie, however, was a wreck. “MOM!!!! He took the children!!!! And they stole the car! What’s going to happen?!? WHY DID YOU LET US WATCH THIS MOVIE, MOM?!?!?” ~sigh~ That kid is so dramatic. Anyway, I made her sit through the rest of the movie and she was much relieved when they rescued the kids and reclaimed the car.

7 comments

Monday, Part 2  

Posted by cokelady

In between all of our movie segments, we did other grand things. Like a pizza party! Complete with Totino’s and Black Cherry Vanilla Coke, and kettle corn to finish it off. All on a tablecloth on the floor of the den, while we watched part 3 of 6 of the movie. It had been a long time since our last pizza party, so it was extra fun.

After that, the kids helped me make a batch of hot rolls/cinnamon rolls. That’s always fun, if a bit messy. The kids love it. I made potato soup for dinner, too. It really isn’t cold enough here to be making soup and rolls for dinner. But it should be, so we went with it. (You just have to pretend autumn in Texas, not to mention winter.) James was a bit disappointed to see only one pan of cinnamon rolls instead of the usual two. His response: “We are not inviting Sam and Tammy over tonight!!!” Ha! That’s my husband. Always thinking of the other guy. ;-) Anyway, we even had punch, so it was kind of like our own little family party! The cinnamon rolls were sooooooooo good. Wow. I was a little disappointed, myself, that I hadn’t made more of them!

I had to call Tammy in the afternoon because I started the rolls, then realized that we’d used all of my eggs for the bake sale and breakfast the next morning. So she immediately hopped in the car and brought me three eggs. What service! Well, that night at about 9:00 she called me for the same favor! She knew James had been shopping that day (what a guy!) and now she was out of eggs (I used her last three) and needed some to make noodles for her Tammy’s Almost World Famous Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. (How’s that for a plug, Tam?!) So I took eggs over to her house and ended up staying and playing games over there until almost midnight. It was terrible. Worst game of my life. I’m not going over to play with them ever again. I’m taking my toys and going home!!!

4 comments

Tuesday  

Posted by cokelady

Tuesday was a good day. Was that just yesterday? Wow. Time flies. Or maybe it doesn’t. I’m confused. Whichever way it works that it seems like it was a lot longer ago than one day! Anyway, James said we were all loading up and going to town, so that’s what we did. I’m sure you all remember the tragedy of August 31st, right? You know, the Great Purse Nabbing of ’06. ~sigh~ I’d shopped a whole year for a purse, finally found one that I fell in love with (is this idolatry???), spent $16 on it ($18.37 with tax) which is twice as much as I’ve ever spent on a purse in my whole life, enjoyed it thoroughly for a whole two weeks, and then *WHAM-O* it gets nabbed. At the General Assembly, of all places!!! It was the janitor, I’m sure. Either him or Connie Werkheiser. She’s the last person I was with when I still had the purse. Hhmmm… I wonder. ;-) James was greatly concerned about the threat of identity theft. I told him not to worry. I saw the janitor. I don’t mean to be a stereotypical type of person, but this was a short, bony black man with 6 or 8 teeth, total. He just wasn’t the identity theft kind of guy, you know? He was the nab-a-lady’s-purse-hawk-the-digital-camera-pocket-the-cash-and-toss-the-purse-in-the-dumpster-‘cuz-hey-I’m-a-janitor-and-it’s-handy kind of guy. And even if it was Sister Connie, I don't think she'd go so far as to steal my identity. Do you??? Am I off the subject? I’m off the subject. Anyway, James doesn’t have a history of being very understanding of brainless people who periodically (even regularly) do absentminded or even just plain stupid things. (Like leaving a purse with $60 cash, $50 clip-on sunglasses, a digital camera, etc. at Memorial Auditorium when you leave for the night. He just doesn’t get it when you do things like that, you know. He’s had a total maybe 4 brain lapses his entire life. Freak.) Anyway, after failing to find the purse that night I went to bed in total agony. To my great surprise, I woke up alive the next morning and still married! (To his credit, I must admit that James has become more and more patient with me and my "oopsie’s" over the years and he handled this particular event remarkably well. I stood astonished and amazed!) ANYWAY, although he was kind through this ordeal, I’ve been a little leery of asking him to buy me another purse. I mean, the one I had was only two weeks old, you know? But my new driver’s license came in the mail a few days ago (I had to get a new one because, of course, my old one was in the purse that squatty little janitor snatched) and…what…was I to…do with it? So he actually brought the subject up. “We’re going to buy you a new purse today so you'll have someplace to put that driver's license.” “Okay,” I said. (On the inside I was saying, “Wa-Hooooooo!!! It’s about time!!! This is GREAT!”)

We went to Penney’s, where I had found that perfect purse before. I knew, after having searched for a whole year, that there was nothing out there that I was going to like as well as the purse we already bought once (!), so we headed right back to square one. We got there and I found the purse… kind of. The red…just wasn’t right. In fact, it was just downright wrong!!! They had changed the red of the leather from that fabulous dark red color (still quite red, not burgundy) to a much brighter, almost orangy-red kind of color! OH NO!!! What do I do?!?!? They had the same purse in black or brown, but for goodness’ sake, who wants to pay $18 for a purse that looks like every other purse in the world?! That’s another thing—the purses were now $2 more than they were a month and a half ago! That shouldn’t even be legal!!! Anyway, you’ll never believe this, but we left the mall in Odessa and drove over to Midland to look at the Penney’s over there! This is sounding more and more like idolatry, isn’t it?! I tried and tried, but I just couldn’t make myself spend $18 (plus tax) on a purse that I wasn’t going to be happy with anyway, you know?! That’s just wrong!!! Well, it turned out to be a great decision. They had ONE purse remaining that was the right color and it was the original $16 instead of $18! So what we spent in gas driving over there we saved on the purse—and got the right one! ~long, satisfied sigh~ My only problem now is that I’m scared to death to take the thing out of the house. There are janitors almost everywhere you go, you know! And I’ve still got all of that Smith blood coursing through my veins, enhancing the possibility of another slip-up enormously. You’ll never know the extra stress we have trying to consciously think of things that just come naturally to most of the rest of you. It’s a cross our family has been called to bear for generations and I’m already seeing signs of it being passed on to the next crop of kids. (I have one child who strolls into the living room with no pants on and isn’t aware that he forgot to don that item of clothing until you point it out to him. Even then, he’ll start to argue with you. “Joe, you need to put some pants on.” “I did put my pa-…,” glancing down at his bare, white legs, “—oh. ~giggle~giggle~ I’ll be right back!”) ANYWAY… This should have been separated into at least two posts, hu? I’ll do better next time. ;-)

6 comments

Tuesday, Part 2  

Posted by cokelady

On our drive to Odessa, James and I were discussing Brother Ray Jones and his marriage situation. He’s one of our members here in Andrews, but he lives in the country of Turkey now because he wanted to reconcile with his wife who lives over there. He had been stationed there in the military as a young man and married a Turkish girl and they’d been separated for years. Anyway, James made the statement, “He got married in Turkey…” and the backseat burst into hysterical laughter. The kids—especially Joe—thought it was hilarious. Joe repeated, “he got married in Turkey!” Then, after more laughter, “And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!!!” I don’t know what kind of picture they had in their heads of somebody getting married “in Turkey,” but it must’ve been something grand! Ha!

Then there’s Katie. She was yodeling “I Will Enter His Gates” all day long. Very interesting. You should try it some time!

How’s this for a short post?!

2 comments

Then There's Today  

Posted by cokelady

Not much to report about today, really. Wednesday is library day for us, so that usually takes up most of our morning. After the library we went over to Aunt Sue’s store to say hello. She’d been gone to the Smith Family Reunion for the past week or so. (Talk about a big conglomeration of thinking-impaired people! It’s amazing they all find the place and don’t lose their keys or lock themselves out of their cars on the way or… You get the point.) Anyway, she said it was a great reunion. It’s been several years since I’ve been to it. It’s always a barrel of laughs, for sure! You’ll never find more fun or crazy people than the Smith side of the family!!!

I’ve spent the afternoon cleaning my desk off. I started that days and days ago, remember? It’s always a lot bigger job than it should be. Cleaning it off always leads to cleaning it out which always leads to the closet and the junk drawer and numerous other places that need cleaned out as well. Anyway, the desk is done now, so that’s good!

I worked on my quilt for a little while the other day, too! WOW! It’s still sitting in the sewing machine, waiting for me to pick up where I left off. Maybe I’ll do that for a while tonight. That would be great.

2 comments

Best For Last!  

Posted by cokelady

Guess what?!?!? I not only have a purse (which currently contains my driver's license, a tube of chap stick, and a pack of Kleenex--hey, you've got to start somewhere, right?!), but as of a few hours ago I have a CAMERA, too!!! Wa-Hooooo! James has been looking at this Canon S2 camera for months and--thank the Lord--He just hadn't bought it yet. (If he would have, the losing-the-purse-with-the-camera-inside ordeal would have been a thousand times worse.) Well, he got online and found a great deal on it and it finally came today!!! I AM SOOOOOOO EXCITED! This camera, while not as impressive as some of you true-blue picture freaks' cameras, is amazing. I'm so intimidated already! We're going to have this fantastic thing and never move it from auto mode. There are functions that I've read about several times but still don't understand and I'm sure I'll never use. But it takes great pictures on auto, so it's all good! I'm thrilled with this thing. But just as I'm scared to take my purse beyond the front door, I'm scared to death to even pick this thing up. What if I drop it??? The very thought gives me a severe case of the galloping shudders, makes my lips numb, and induces sweaty palms--the last affliction compounding my fear of touching it. So as excited as I am to be the proud owner of (another) new purse and a fantastic camera, I am now a total basektcase. I did manage to work up the nerve to hold the camera long enough to take a few shots of our fall decor, so as the big grand finale of the historic Plethora of Posts (that's right folks, it has come to an end--please be kind enough to pick up your popcorn containers and left-over Coke before you leave the building), I'll try to post a couple of PICTURES! That's right, Raymone--I'm in the picture business again! Wa-Hoo! ~sigh~ Life is good. Better, once I finally shut up, hu?! And just think, all of you sorry people actually took the time to read all of this (unless you're smart enough to skim), just in case I might have said something about YOU! And I didn't talk about any of you! All I talked about was me, me, me! That'll teach you. (I really don't know why I even have a blog audience... Or if I will anymore after tonight...) Okay, here are the pictures!!!


Here is the piano display

And here is the fireplace display

The next-to-the-front-door display


And the dumb dog with his ridiculous new haircut...display

That's it folks! You're all free to resume your lives at this point. Be sure to stop by again sometime. I'll be sure to go easier (and shorter) on you. ;-)

~The Mad Blogger~
~~Becki~~

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10 comments

Bake Sale Total: $218  

Posted by cokelady

That's $5 more than we made on the sale we had back in March. Aunt Sue was gone to a family reunion in Arkansas and Stacey doesn't even attempt to bake, so that left it up to Tammy and me. We worked long and hard on Friday (until about 2:00am, I think) to get ready, loaded up in the morning and headed down to Thriftway to set up. OH, how I wish I could post pictures! The table was soooooo cute. I took down a few scarecrows from my mantle and some fake pumpkins and a string of fall leaves to help decorate the table. I'd gone to Sue's store and stolen a bunch of cute baskets and such to display the baked goods in, so everything looked just perfect. And Tammy had found a bunch of ribbon on sale last week and bought lots of Autumn colors, so everything had ribbons and/or bows on them, too. I'm telling you, appearance is everything. I really don't think we would sell half as much as we do if we didn't make everything look so nice and neat and clean...and cute. :-) It was fun. We're thinking about having a Christmas bake sale down in Odessa. We'd have 4 times the traffic and could make a lot more money, I'm sure. Of course, we'd have to bake a lot more stuff, too! For now, I'm just feeling fulfilled over what we've accomplished this time. And somehow, as much work as it is, it was an awful lot of fun, too.
We had good service today. Ellis wasn't feeling well today and didn't make it to church. I guess I can forgive a 94 year old man for not feeling chipper all the time. His wife came anyway though, so that's good. We got a nap this afternoon, then returned some stolen goods to Sue's house (we raided that for bake sale props, as well as her store!), then ate at Tortas y Mas with Sam and Tammy for dinner. Then they came over and I beat Sam at our usual game (~satisfied sigh~), then we spent an hour or more playing James' new Wheel of Fortune game. It's one of those video games that you plug into the front of your TV, you know? It was fun! Sam is such a riot. It was great to have something new to play, too!
That's about it from here, really. It's been a long hard week, followed by a long hard weekend, but it's been successful, too--so there's nothing to complain about. All is well. I'm hoping to get back to some kind of normal life here this week. Maybe even do some school with the kids. Seems like it's been forever since we've done that! They've had more free time that they're used to and it's easy to get bored. And when you're bored, it's easy to be bad! So I'm going to try to keep them a little more busy in the coming days. It'll be good for all of us.
Okay, I know when I've failed. There's nothing even remotely entertaining about this post, so I'll spare you anymore drab rambling. I'll try to pick up the pace and be a little more inspiring next time! For now, I'm going to clean up my office so I can get a good start on my day tomorrow. It's always best to start the day with a clean desk, you know. ;-)

G'night!
~Bec~

3 comments

Horne Home Entertainment  

Posted by cokelady

So the other day I was sitting at my desk while James was working in the back yard and the kids were out playing. Suddenly I heard Katie screaming and screeching and squeeling, but it was so excited that I couldn't tell if it was her "fun" tone or her "panic" tone. So I rushed to the back door, just in case. Katie was sitting on the toy tractor, holding on for dear life, legs kicking and flailing everywhere, long hair flapping wildly behind her, screaming at the top of her lungs. Let me clarify something: the tractor was not moving. James was standing about 3' in front of the tractor aiming the leaf blower at her, full force. She was having a BLAST. "Do it some more, Daddy! Do it some more!!!" The boys, naturally, were too chicken to get within 10 feet of their Dad. Manly men that they are.
Yesterday Sam got real excited and started yelling at me, "Fruit loops, Mom! I have fruit loops on my pants!" I looked to see what mess he had made now and found him grinning, with his thumps hooked through his belt loops. Hey, a loop is a loop, right?! Fruit loop, belt loop--same difference.
Just a few minutes ago, Katie and Joe came into my office. Kate was on all fours with a tamborine around her waist and a belt clenched in her teeth. Joe was holding the other end of the belt and "Ho, Ho, Ho-ing" for all he was worth. You guessed it. Christmas has arrived in the Horne household...AGAIN. I'm supposing the tamborine was serving as a "jingle bell" harness of some type for the reindeer. And the kids have been forbidden from putting things around their necks due to their brainless and occasionally violent tendencies (sometimes intentional, sometimes not), so I guess they thought it would be safer to put the belt in Katie's mouth. Well, sure. That way she won't be strangled if Joe yanks on the other end, she'll just lose 6 or 8 teeth instead. Good thinkin', kids! They make me proud.
That's about all the excitement from around here lately. Not really, but it's all I care to share and all you'd want to hear, I'm sure! God's so good to us and I'm thankful for the "lesson" He's teaching me right now. I fear failing Him and am genuinely trying to discover what the right thing to do is. I know that my heart cries out to do God's will. I want the rest of me to follow through! Say a prayer for me, please. Thanks a bundle!
In other news, the 94 year old man and his wife have been to our last two church services and I think they're planning on being with us whenever we meet. They seem sooooooo sweet and they just LOVE the services--especially him. He just weeps and weeps and worships the Lord. Tammy is already SO attached to him! Keep praying for them--God is doing great things!
Well, I'd best get busy. There is a nasty floor in the kitchen and some soapy water and a sponge that all need to get together. I'm the mediator. ~sigh~ Later!

~Rebekah~

8 comments

What Life is All About  

Posted by cokelady

I just walked past Katie's room and she's laying in bed reading the Bible. She asked me to look up a few of her favorite passages for her to be able to read (former memory verses and such), then I had her read John 1:1-14 to me. I've always loved that passage and it's a good "starter" section. She read right thought it with no trouble at all (and people say the King James Version is just too difficult!) and, best of all, she was soooooooo excited. Not about the fact that she was reading, but what she was reading. Reading about Jesus being the Word and being the Light and that he was "made flesh, and dwelt among us...that men, through him, might be saved." She was loving it. It makes a Mom's heart burst with joy to see her kids taking such joy in the things of God. There's just nothing better in all the world!
Been a good day around here, over all. I haven't been feeling well for a few days now and it's really slowed down my progress. But God's been helping me and I was more productive today than the previous few days, so that's good. I finally started chipping away at that mountain in my den. I figured if I moved the ironing mess into the den it would motivate me to get it taken care of more than if it's all hidden away in the utility room. I'm smart like that. HA. It just means the den has been trashed since last night.
Katie just came to me. She had instructions to read until 9:30 (she had a long and late nap this afternoon, thus the extended bedtime), then turn her lamp off and go to sleep. She just appeared next to me and said, "It's 9:30, Mom. Have you prayed with me yet?" OOPS. Forgot that part. :-/ It's taken care of now though!
Let's see... Sam got real excited the other day while we were driving and started hollering, "Mountains! I see mountains, Mom!" I looked to see what he could possibly be referring to. Big mounds of fill dirt piled on a construction site. Made my heart break for my poor Texan children! That's the closest thing there is to a "mountain" in hundreds of miles!
Then there's Joe. He was looking at the sky as we were driving that day and finally said, "Mom, if I could get in a hot aiw bawwoon I'd go up so high I could touch the cwouds. Then I'd eat 'em wike mashed potatoes. That's what they wook wike, you know." Leave it to Joe. Other kids see dinosaurs or ducks in the clouds or the Starship Enterprise, or alligators... Joe sees mashed potatoes. That kid loves to eat. Especially since that month long training session on learning to appreciate foods other than chicken and peanut butter!
Okay, so to be totally honest, I didn't put a very big dent in Mount Ironing. I should go start chipping away again. ~sigh~ I'm going to beat this thing yet, you just wait! But it's not going to happen in Blogland, so I'm leaving now. More later!

~Bec~

7 comments

Colossal Kudos to JENNA!!!  

Posted by cokelady

Is she a wonder worker, or what?! Is this not the coolest blog you've ever seen?!?!? I LOVE IT!!! Kasey was so kind as to help me out with the last template and I didn't want to bother her again (especially since her Internet access is quite limited nowadays!), so I went to the other Blogging Diva and *WHAM-O!* we have a fantastically fun blog. THANK YOU, JENNA!!!!!!!!! You're my hero. ;-)

Tell me truly, now. It makes you happy just to come to my site now, doesn't it? Come on -- you know it just makes your day! You can't come to a great site like this without a smile creeping across your face, even if you were in a foul mood to start with. Now if only I could get the "I'd Like to Give the World a Coke" song on here. Hhmmm... :-)

There's really nothing else exciting to report at the moment. So HEY, just enjoy the great looking page!!! Let's see... Oh! This is exciting! The 94 year old man and his wife were at church tonight and seemed to love it. He wept through the entire song service and testified to the wonderful spirit he felt tonight -- like the good old days, I think he said, then made some reference to A.J. Tomlinson. WOW. We're trusting that God is rekindling that old Church of God feeling in his heart and drawing him back home. I don't know if I shared this last time I mentioned this man (I may not have known at that time), but he used to be a minister in the Church of God of Prophecy years and years ago. Not sure how he got away from it, but I think it's been a very long while since he's been around God's Church. He's definitely enjoying it! Sam and Tammy are spending lots of time with them, showing them tons of love and attention, giving them rides to church, taking them to get groceries, etc. What a great pastor and pastor's wife! This is such a blessing to us all. Please keep this couple in your prayers. They're names are Ellis and Elizabeth Poole. His family was in the Church "in the A. J. Tomlinson days" in Mississippi. Brother Dewberry actually said that he knows the guy -- and his sister who still lives in Mississippi and is still in the CoGoP, although she's not happy there. Small world. No. Big God! Help us pray!!!

Well, that's probably enough for tonight. I've GOT to at least start on that mountain of ironing before it grows legs and starts following me around the house. Ugh. There's no chance of completing it tonight, but I should at least ensure that the man has some pants to wear tomorrow. I know he'd appreciate it. The rest of the world, too. ;-)

So you can all leave your praises of Jenna's handywork now! You know, honor to whom honor is due... Hey, wait a minute. Don't I get any credit for this page?! It was my idea, you know! Just 'cuz I didn't have brains enough to even know where to begin--so what?! THANKS AGAIN, JENNA! You're the bestest!

G'night All!
~ Becki ~

13 comments

To Blog or Not to Blog...  

Posted by cokelady

That is the question. Actually, the question I'm faced with at this particular moment is: To blog...or to iron? Hhmmm. Tough one. Especially since I'd have to get a step ladder to reach the top of the ironing pile at this point. Who wants to get involved with a project like that?! I might even get hurt. So what was I do to? BLOG.

As usual, I have nothing much to blog about, but hey, has that ever stopped me before? Of course not!

James loaded us all up and hauled us to Hobby Lobby last night. You guessed it: Christmas stuff. ~sigh~ Bought 8 snowmen. The worst part is that he makes me pick them out. Call me weird, but I just can't get excited about this. It's September, for goodness' sake. Not December, November, or even October -- September. But this is only the beginning. We're going to have to go Christmas shopping once a week from here on out because the sales change that frequently. This week the snowmen were on sale 50% off. And the argument was obvious: "But Bec, they're never going go on a better sale than this until after Christmas-- and right now is when you'll have the biggest selection!" What hope do I have? When we have so much Christmas stuff that it won't fit in the shed anymore, I'm going to try to draw the line. I don't want to get involved in the "I shall build me bigger barns" thing! Ha!

I've been nicking away at some household chores the last few days, but just can't seem to work up the motivation to stick to any of them. It took me three days to get my desk cleaned off. It's not that it was piled that high, just that my oomph was that low. I cooked three chickens yesterday and finally got around to chopping them up and freezing them in small packs today. Made a chicken & stuffing casserole tonight. Must've been a hit because there's very little left. James had been craving stuffing. After dinner he took Sammy with him to the store and they came back with ice cream (Blue Bell, of course, Mom!), bananas, cherries, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream. WOW! It was great!!!

I made my first peach pie the other day. It was okay, but not nearly as glorious as I was hoping for. I used some peaches that we bought from an Amish farmer while we were in Pennsylvania and just expected the pie to be out-of-this-world. Do you know how disappointing it is to expect out-of-this-world and end up with "eeehh, pretty good." ~ugh~ The peaches (and the apples and the corn on the cob) had a long trip from that Amish farm to west Texas, so maybe that made a difference. In any case, there's half of a mediocre peach pie in the other room if any of you have a hankerin'.

I guess I should go. Does this qualify as a book, Mandie, or should I continue? I would add some pictures for those of you who like the story book thing (you know who you are), but alas, I can't add pictures. Why, you may ask. Because I don't have any pictures. Why, you may ask. Because I no longer own a camera. Why, you may ask. Because it was in my brand new purse that was stolen at the General Assembly!!! That's right, I searched for a whole year for a purse that I liked, finally found one I loved, spent twice as much for it as I've ever spent on a purse before ($18 to be exact--I know, I know, I'm cheap), had it for a whole two weeks and *wham-o* it gets nabbed. It's a long story and hardly worth the telling, so I'll spare you all the gory details. On the bright side, my husband doesn't trust me with any credit cards (not that I ever spend money; I just, on occassion, seem to misplace important things...like purses), so there was no danger there. I did have a debit card, but it was a new one and I'd been too lazy to activate it. I told James, "See, I do my part!" I'm a good wife. :-) The biggest loss was the $50 cash that I had, the digital camera, my drivers license, and the clip-on sunglasses that came with my current glasses. And, of course, the "I finally found the perfect one!" purse itself. ~ugh~ I was sick over it. But it could have been soooooo much worse, so I'm thankful. In the big scheme of things, it's really not that important. But don't tell James I said that--he'll think I'm not taking this seriously enough and he'll never even let me own another purse! Ha!

Okay, I guess I'll spare you any more. For now anyway. Hope you all have a great night!


~Becki~

10 comments

I'm Doing the Work! I'm Not a Slacker!!!  

Posted by cokelady

Okay, people, it's like this. We were gone for 18 days on that Assembly trip -- had to go a day early for the Presbytery meeting, then stay a day late for another one. Day after that was spent driving to Pennsylvania, then three days were spent visiting with James' folks there. Then another day to drive back to Cleveland (it's about 10 hours away), then we were supposed to head home the next day, but my wonderful and thoughtful husband decided we'd spend an extra day in Cleveland for the sole purpose of being able to spend a little extra time with my folks. WOW!!! ~gushing with love and appreciation~ We visited with them for a little while in the morning, then just dinked around town until Dad was able to leave HQ that evening and meet us for dinner. Afterwards we went and looked at a house for sale (the folks are in the market, you know!), then went back to HQ and sat down and watched Veggie Tales with the kids in the lobby. (Shhhhhh! Don't tell! -- It's so difficult to visit Mom and Dad right now with no place to go to relax, you know?!) Anyway, it was getting a little late so we put Dad to bed :-) then Mom came back to our motel room with us so she and I could play a game once we put the kids down for the night. I won, of course. ~ahem~ Anyway, the NEXT day we finally headed for home. Made it all the way to Terrel, TX, just east of Dallas before stopping for the night. That gave us about 7 hours to drive to make it home the next day, so that was a breeze. Finally made it home this past Wednesday, threw myself into unpacking and tackling the entire mountain range of laundry (Peak Bleachables is always HUGE after the Assembly), then spent the next few days putting our Regional paper together, as it was already about 3 weeks late. Finished that up on Saturday, then put together Sunday School and song service for Sunday. After service yesterday Sam & Tammy came over to help James "build" the Regional papers and stuff envelopes, etc. They stayed until 1:30am (!!!!) watching Assembly DVD's with us -- after I beat Sam REALLY, REALLY, REALLY bad at a game. ~satisfied sigh~ Life is good. So ANYWAY, that's where I've been and what I've been up to. I really don't think I deserve all of the nagging that has come my way for being a "slacker" and not posting in so long. Especially from people who should be struck by lightning from the sheer hypocracy of such an accusation. I won't mention any names, but I do suddening feel the irresistable urge to burst into song... BLUE MOON!!!! You saw me standing alone!!!.........

By the way, as we were leaving church after service yesterday a 94 year old man and his wife came walking through the door, hoping they weren't too late to join us. He began inquiring as to which church we were (we meet in the First Christian church building) and Brother Sam told him that we were The Church of God--but not the "elders" Church of God from down the road. The man says, "Yeah, that church way back in the 20's came out of Brother A.J. Tomlinson's church." !!! You should have seen Sam's face!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! It was priceless!!! I had to go (James was already outside in the van with the kids), but I guess Sam and Tammy had a real good visit with the man and his wife. He used to be a minister in the Church, but has been away from it for years and years now and has some kind of goofy ideas, but nothing Brother Sam thinks that can't be overcome with a little effort and love on our part. The man has a sister in Mississippi who is still in the Church of God of Prophecy and none of them had ever heard about the split in '93, but they're not happy at all with the course that church is going. Anyway, it's a tremendous open door and we're so excited about the possibilities--they're planning on joining us for service this Thursday. Help us pray for them! His name is Ellis Poole -- mention him to the Lord, if you will. Thanks!

Okay, I've got to get about my day. I was really just stopping by to put an end to the griping. So here's the part where you all tell me how wonderful it is to have be back and you heap on the praises and compliments because I have taken time from my busy life (it's 9:20am, nobody has been dressed OR eaten breakfast at this point) and written to all of my dear friends and associates. HA! The kids are starving and I'm ready to get some real clothes on. Until later...
Love You All!,
~ Becki ~

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