Thanks!

Posted by cokelady

For starters, thank all of you who offered advice on my last post--I've read and re-read it and I'm sure I'll use it for a reference when things get tough with my little flunkie. ;-) Today I drew a great big "A" on a piece of paper, surrounded by lots of little A's, B's, and C's. I had Sam trace the big A, then color it in, then circle all of the little A's in red, then the B's in green and the C's in some other color. He did it all without a hitch. Matching shapes isn't a problem for him, just remembering what they're called! And despite how it might sound, I'm really not freaked out about him not knowing all of the stuff Katie and Joe learned early on. It's so true that kids are different and they all learn at different times, different rates, and in different ways. He's just the first kid around here who hasn't been interested in this stuff and I was wondering if there was something I could do to get him interested. And you've given me lots of terrific ideas--thank you!!! And if they don't work, I'm perfectly prepared to let him play with his miniature cowboys and indians on the floor during school time for a while longer. It actually makes "school" much easier on me when he does! Joe still needs pretty constant direction with his school and Katie (although she could do most all of it on her own) seems to need the attention and praise over her accomplishments. More than anything, she just wants company! Throw Sam into the mix and it's just about more than one Mama can handle! Makes you wonder how kids in school ever learn anything at all, 30 of them in a room with one teacher. Crazy.

My day started out rather slow today. I wasn't feeling well at all, so my wonderful husband agreed to keep an eye on the kid-o's so I could soak in a hot bath for about an hour. ~Aaaahhhhh~ It was so nice and I felt sooooooo much better afterward. Did some school, then had some pretty heafty chores to tend to in the afternoon. Went to the nursing home for service tonight, came home, had a late dinner, got the kids to bed, then went back to the nursing home to pick up Sister Elizabeth and take her back to her house for the night. Aunt Sue is picking her up in the mornings and taking her up there to be with Brother Ellis during the day, and I'll be picking her up and taking her back home each night. Up until this week, Tammy has been doing it all pretty much by herself. Well, she and Sam--he does so much for them, too. Tammy left today to go to her nephew's graduation and will be gone until next Tuesday. I'm sooooooo happy for her! She needs the time away--God arranged the timing of all of this just right! :-)

The nursing home service tonight... HA! It was a riot! First of all, Tammy is usually our fearless leader and this was our first time without her. We usually sing three or four songs, Katie and sometimes Joe will sing a special, Tammy will do a little devotional, then we'll sing a few more songs and Brother Sam will dismiss in prayer. Pretty easy, really. Except nobody was prepared with a devotional tonight. Tammy had asked me to pick the songs and said that Sam would do the devotion. So after the third or forth song I asked Sam if he had a devotional ready. Nope. I said, "You don't?! Tammy said you would!" "She did? Oh, okay--" and he took off. He said something like, "We're going to do a little devotional now--I've got a few scriptures I wanted to share...!" Ha! As if he was fully prepared and just waiting for his chance! The good thing about Sam Kaufman is that he's always reading his Bible and praying--in tune with God--and always has something really and truly on his heart that God has been speaking to him about. He never just pulls something out of a hat--he truly feels the things that he's sharing.

So the devotional was actually pretty good tonight! And the singing went pretty well, I thought. But there were lots of... distractions, shall we say?! First of all, there are these two really sweet simple-minded sisters in the home who always give packs of crackers to the kids and draw pictures for them and things like that. Well, today was Hippie Day at the nursing home and everbody had been stringing beaded necklaces and doing all sorts of hippie crafts, and these ladies had made enough necklaces for me and Aunt Sue and Katie and Tammy--and were quite disappointed to find that Tammy wouldn't be there. I was able to get to Katie ahead of time and give her some time to prepare herself before the girls gave her a necklace and she freaked out. "Katie, these ladies don't know anything about what the Bible says about jewelry and we do not want to hurt their feelings, so just take it and tell them thank you--and we'll get rid of it later." She did great. We took our strings of beads and put them over by our stuff on the chair. But the girls (Mary Jane and Carol are their names, I think) just kept asking about the necklaces and wanted to make sure we weren't going to lose them and that we were going to get that extra one to Tammy and on and on. They were dying for us to put them on and Sue was trying to figure out what to do since we weren't going to wear them, so she decided to just hold hers and twirl it as we sang! HA! You would have to know Sue Fox to appreciate this, but she started bopping and slinging one hip out to the side and twirling her beads round and round--it was hilarious!!! (Don't worry--we got her calmed down and stuffed the beads in her purse before we actually started singing!) AND... there's another lady there who always has a little something for each of the kids that she's picked up at the dollar store for them. This week it was goggles. I'm wishing I would have had my camera with me because there's no way to explain the atmosphere there tonight. We've got 25 or 30 old people in wheelchairs loaded down with beady necklaces and other hippie paraphernalia (one old lady in the back had a crazy looking headband wrapped around her head--you know, Karate Kid stlye--with curly white hair sticking out above and below it! -- I was DYING!!!) and Sue slinging her beads around and my kids looking like this most of the night...

I took these pictures when we got home, but this is really what they looked like through most of the service--except Katie kept hers on the top of her head most of the time. They did have the decency to take them off when they stood out front to sing their special. Without even being told, now that I think of it. Anyway, it was a crazy night! I can't wait for Tammy to get home--everything just seems to go nuts around here without her! Ha! I guess that's not true. Everything has been totally nuts for the past week or two before she left.

Okay, I'm outta here. Got a big day tomorrow--lots more heafty work to be done. I think I'm going to let Katie go "work" with Aunt Sue at the store for the day. She'll LOVE that and it'll free me up a little bit to be more productive. We don't do it very often and Aunt Sue never seems to mind, so tomorrow will be a good day. James works Mardel tomorrow so I'll have both boys to myself, but they're usually better when Katie is gone. Actually, any time you take any one kid out of the mix the two remaining ones seem to get along better. Weird. Okay, I gotta get going. G'night!

~Bec~

6 comments

School, School, School

Posted by cokelady

We've actually been doing it! Ha! I shouldn't say it that way. We've always done it, just not as faithfully as I would have liked. We have spurts where we are really good at doing it regularly, and then we really struggle for a while and it gets kind of sporadic. Truthfully, I've not been concerned about it up until this point. Katie loves anything scholastic and could probably give the majority of 3rd graders a run for their money. (Nathan excluded, of course!) Joe is doing great too and, for a five year old, is reading quite well and seems to have a real flair for math. So I haven't been concerned about the school regimen all that much. Their little brains seem to be thriving and they're learning things so quickly that I've hardly seen the need to push the issue. But of late I've been praying for God to help us to get back in whack with a regular school schedule. Honestly, it's more for the discipline aspect of it than the actual bookwork--although I don't mean to belittle the latter. We just need to get into a regular daily routine that will lend more security and orderliness to our lives, you know? Anyway, God's been helping us and the past week or two have been great. Katie and Joe are each doing 5 subjects a day, I believe, and are doing great at them. Katie just started adding double digit numbers today and is loving it. Joe is learning his nouns and verbs and seems to be liking it pretty well.

Then there's Sam. He is probably the real reason I'm writing all of this. I need help!!! Sam is our class flunkie. Ha! I know, I know--he's far too young to be accused of such a thing, but for real! And don't start rebuking me, Mom--I haven't been calling him that, thus placing the thought in his head. ;-) But the kid is three and a half years old and doesn't have a clue what any of his letters are--except "S" (for "Sam"), he can usually recognize that one. He's got his colors down, but shapes and numbers are still a mystery to him. I've been wanting to start him into a preschool book (we have toyed around with a few of them), but there's really very, very little bookwork that can be done until the kid knows his letters! He can sing the alphabet song, but doesn't know what any of the letters look like. Weird!!! By the time Katie was 18 months old I could say any letter in the alphabet and she'd trot off to the kitchen and retrieve the proper magnet--correctly at least 95% of the time. Joe knew all of his colors, shapes, letters, and numbers by age 2 as well. And I don't recall ever really teaching them. I suppose I did, but it just happened so easily I couldn't really take the credit for anything. They just got it! I've never had to try to teach a kid these things before and I don't know how! Yesterday I took just three magnets from the fridge, the A, the B and the C. I worked with Sam for 15 minutes or more rehearsing which letter was which over and over and over again. I would think he had it and we'd move on to the next letter. A few seconds later when I asked him what the first letter was he would look at it, then me, and say, "What was it???" This happened dozens upon dozens of times. I had James try for a while tonight and he came up with basically the same results. What is this kid's problem?!?!? I know for a fact he's not dumb. He's as clever as can be--and learning some things is no problem for him. We've been doing memory verses with him for a year or more now and he does fine with them. He's currently memorizing a passage from James, chapter 1, and he's got verses 19-24 down pretty good--even the part about "laying apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness"! Ha! (It is soooooooo cute!!!) So how is it that a kid can master large passages of Scripture, but he can't seem to remember 3 little letters by sight??? James said he doesn't seem to have the desire or the attention span for it right now. He knows the verses because he listens to Katie and Joe rehearse them night after night, so I know that repetition gets through to him... but not visual repetition?! Why can't he figure out what letter is what?! I'm not panicked about the issue--he's still so young and I never want to put pressure on him to do things that he's just not ready to do. He's just much older than my other two were when they learned the basics. I would like to find a way to pique his interest in learning without cramming it down his throat and making him hate the whole "school" thing before he even gets started. I know one thing--I'm going to have to make it FUN if he's going to have anything to do with it. Any ideas would be helpful!!! Especially from anybody who's actually been through this before and has found a successful solution. Well...???

That's about it from here. School, school, school. Play, play, play. Clean, clean, clean. I spent a couple of hours with Mr. Clean earlier, working on the kitchen floor, table and chairs. I don't know how I ever made it before those nifty little Magic Erasers came along! I did the big scrub job on the floor, so that feels good. Sammy came to help me. It's not exactly a help, but it's always fun. Until he spills the bowl of sudsy water all over the floor. That kid. But he likes to help and rid the world of germs. He was telling Joe the other day, "I eat germs. I don't like germs, so I just eat 'em." I was too scared to ask him what the "germs" looked like that he had been eating. There's no telling. Weird-o. And the last three times the kid has had a bath he's forgotten to take off an article of clothing! The first time he worked and worked and worked to get his socks off and once he finally did he just slung his leg over into the tub, blue jeans and all. He'd spent so much time on the socks he forgot about all the rest, I guess. The next time he took off everything but the socks. Then tonight he was so excited about getting to the toys in the tub that he forgot to take his shirt off. Hey... maybe there is something wrong with his brain! Ha!

Well, I'm off. Got a few things I'd like to do before turning in. Until next time...

~Bec~

7 comments

What to Say...

Posted by cokelady

Seems like there are so many things to blog about I don't know where to start. Actually, there's nothing all that monumental--just a bunch of little stuff I've been forgetting. Like the kids' bike ride the other day. I decided that it was time we go "out" for a bike ride so they can experience more than riding around the little triangle of sidewalk in our backyard where they have to make a sharp turn every 8'. So a few days ago we got the bikes out and headed toward the highschool where I knew there was lots of sidewalk space and parking lot to make use of. (I also knew classes were out for the day.) Sam asked for help right away--was just having a hard time getting his bike to move as fast as he wanted it to. So I was pushing him as Katie and Joe sped off in front of us. After about a block it suddenly occurred to me that it was a lot harder to push that little bike than it should be. I looked down and noticed that the back tire was completely flat. Great. Can't turn around now--the kids are sooooooo excited to be on their very first real bike ride. So I just kept on pushing. We made it to the highschool and Katie took off full speed across the parking lot. She was just flying... aimed straight for the curb! I didn't have time to respond, so all I got out was, "Katie, don't...!!!" just as she rammed into it. Her bike kind of hopped, made her lunge forward, then jumped the curb and kept going--she never missed a lick! I couldn't believe it. Unfortunatly Joe was following her and didn't have the speed she had. He hit the curb head on and came to a dead stop, immediately jumped off and commenced crying while holding his backside. I called them over to me and went over some biking basics (that I don't recall ever having to be told, personally) such as not hitting curbs and light poles and open manholes. So Katie chose to simply ram into Joe's bike instead. Not really. They've both got training wheels on their bikes (I know, I know, I'm a bad Mom--I'm just letting them get used to the new bikes for a few weeks before we start trying to teach them to really ride!) and she tried to pass him (at warp speed--the only one she knows) and their training wheels caught. Nobody got hurt, but from that time on Katie's bike would sometimes refuse to let her pedal. I finally discovered that the chain guard had been knocked out of whack (by the now out-of-line training wheel) and was pushing against the back wheel. We worked around that, but decided to head home pretty quick. Things weren't turning out as well as I had hoped, you know?! And while all of Katie and Joe's action was taking place I was still stuck pushing the kid with the flat tire. When we got home Katie tried to ride her bike up the walk and suddenly found herself pedaling for all she was worth, but to no avail. Her chain had come off! Good grief! How many problems can a kid encounter on one bike ride?! The very first one on a brand new bike, no less! But that's not all. The next day when she went to ride around the back yard we discovered that her front tire was flat! I know because I went out to work on it in my bright pink pajamas Saturday morning before the Sno-Cone sale. (I didn't want to take a chance of getting grease on me after I was dressed and ready to go. I did, however, serve Sno-Cones all day with that can't-get-the-grease-out-from-under-your-fingernails-no-matter-how-hard-you-try thing going on. Gross.) Anyway, I got the pump, but it wouldn't pump up at all. All I can figure is that she must've blown the thing when she slammed into the curb. So now her brand new bike is sitting out back with one wheel on and miscellaneous parts scattered nearby, waiting for Dad to find the right size tube to replace the one she busted. He worked on it for a while today, but she'll have to wait until the next Odessa trip for the new tire. Nothing like the joy of a new bike, let me tell you!

James found a turtle in the front yard the other day, so we took it out back, introduced everybody, tried to make friends, offered it some dog food (that's what my cousin feeds her turtles!), then kept an eye on it for as long as we could. As soon as we got distracted it made a run for it. It either found a very, very good hiding place, or it found a way out of the backyard--which is precisely what I would have done if I, as a turtle, found myself locked in a yard with three lively kids and a dog. Anyway, here are some pictures we took before we lost him.

"Anybody in there???"

"Hello in there...anybody home???"

"Just wait, Mr. Turtle--you only think you're scared now. Wait 'til you get to know me a little better...Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Hershey was thoroughly impressed, as you can see. He wasn't nearly as calm when I was offering his food to the new little guy, I assure you!

We had a good Mother's Day service yesterday complete with four adult visitors and the two little ones. :-) One of these adults was brand new--a daughter of one of the other ladies. It is sooooooo exciting!!! They seem to really enjoy the services and talk and act like they intend to be around for a while. I trust and pray that they will! Tammy (with some assistance from James and Emilee--on different projects) had arranged some very, very nice gifts for all of the Moms (more on that later) and it was just a really nice service.

Afterwards James asked Sam & Tammy if they wanted to go to Odessa with us for a nice "Mother's Day" dinner. Tammy, although having no children of her own, has been an amazing mother to Brother Ellis and Sister Elizabeth--for months now, but especially this past week!!! She's been killing herself trying to take care of their every need and beyond. It's been a very, very long and stressful week for her and she needed a break so bad! (Not that she would ever complain or ask for a break, but she sure deserved one!) We had planned on setting up the Sno-Cone sale again, but Tammy said the trip to Odessa sounded wonderful so we loaded up and went to Johnny Carino's for dinner. Way too rich for our blood (any of us!) usually, but hey, it was a holiday! And if you order a family platter it all evens out pretty well. It was soooooooooo good and just so nice to have some time to relax and visit with Sam and Tammy. It hasn't been all that long, but after the past week it seems like ages! It was a great time. And I got the best cherry cream Italian soda I've ever had. Then another one. And one more to go. ;-) Hey, you get unlimited refills and when you pay $2.25 for a drink it's only right that you try to get your money's worth, right?! :-)

We drove back to Andrews and everybody changed clothes and headed to Thriftway to set up the sale for another hour or two. James even joined us this time and had a blast. He loves the whole selling thing. It's in his blood or something and he gets a real rush out of it. It was great to have him there with us. Of course, he and Sam probably ate more Sno-Cones than we sold (no kidding!), but we still made some extra dough and after the two days we ended up with about $65, I think--which is enough to pay for two kids or one adult tuition to Camp. Every little bit helps! Here's a picture of James hamming it up, Tammy cheerily awaiting another customer, and Sam doing what he does best: talking! Ha! That guy knows everybody in town. It helps a lot at fund raisers like this!

And here's a picture of that last minute sign we scribbled up on Saturday morning. You know, the one that is so offensive to Church of God (elders) ministers. ;-) Only some of them, I'm sure! Tammy said he probably didn't like the way we looked and didn't want people to think we were part of his church. After meeting him, I don't want people to make that mistake either! Ha! That's not a very charitable thing to say, is it? Hhmmm. I don't mean it in an ugly way--really! I'm just all the more thankful to be in God's Church after meeting him. :-)

Okay, I'd best get going. I intend to relax with my Country magazine and Reader's Digest for a while tonight. ~Aaaaaaahhhhhh~ I feel relaxed already, just thinking about it! But just a few more pictures before I skedaddle. These are the flowers James got for me for Mother's Day. Actually all of the church Mom's got one rose, two carnations, and three or four lillies in a small vase with pretty ribbon and a bookmark attached. I got that and this because I'm married to James. :-)

And here's the gift that Tammy had Emilee prepare for us church Mom's. (She gave them to us after church once the visitors were gone.) Aren't they fantastic?! THANK YOU TAMMY AND EMILEE!!! (Sorry I forgot to mention it on the phone today, Em--I love it!!!) The verse is one of my favorites: "Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it." It goes on to say, "Except the Lord keep the city the watchman waketh but in vain." I always think of the things we're doing to try to raise our kids right and bring them up to fear God and serve Him wholeheartedly. I love the reminder that even all of our heartfelt efforts and good intentions are doomed to fail unless God is the one doing the work and guarding their souls. I can't do it; He has to do it. I needed that reminder just last night and it spurred me to a wonderful time with the Lord in prayer and much needed surrender once more. So double thanks, Tammy and Em--I needed that verse right now! :-)

Okay, I've kept you all far too long. Me too. I have reading to do, you know. ;-) Have a great night, all!

~Rebekah~

7 comments

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Posted by cokelady

That's what I just heard--very enthusiastically, I might add--from a little bouncy girl in a green nightgown. She woke up and came darting from her bedroom and flung her arms around my neck, squeezing with all of her might. That kid is so excitable. It's a great way to start the day! Then there's Sam. He just came stumbling into the room with a blanket over his head and most of his face, wearing that "don't mess with me" scowl. Not a morning person. Actually, Katie usually isn't either, unless she wakes up to a happy day of some sort--such as a holiday of any kind. Joe always wakes up happy, ready to start moseying through the day. Steady Joe, that's him.

Let's see... what's been going on. Right now the only thing I can remember is the Sno-Cone Sale yesterday. We're trying to raise funds to pay for everybody's tuition to Camp this year (our Andrews members, that is), and it's wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ay too hot for bake sales, so we've switched over to sno-cones for the summer months. It's a lot less work than a bake sale, but it's also less money. It cost us $42, I think, to have the sale ($30 to rent the machine, then about $12 on ice and syrup) and in the end we had only gained about $37 above that. But it's a start! And we're planning on going out again today after church (the machine has to be back tomorrow) and everything we make today will be profit.

We met a very interesting guy at the sale yesterday. I had made a sign that said "The Church of God" real small at the top, then "SNO-CONES" real big, along with the prices. Sometime in the first hour, this man approached our table and said, "The Church of God?" Tammy and I smiled and said yes. He said, "How can you get by putting that on your sign?" I said, "Because... we're The Church of God." The man said, "I'm the pastor of the Church of God here." Tammy smiled and said, "My husband is the pastor of The Church of God here." The man said, "I pastor the Church of God." The man was being so bizarre that I never thought for a moment that he might actually be serious--I thought he was just teasing and giving us a hard time. So I said, "Oh! Well, if you're the pastor then you'll want to support us--how many do you want?!" At that, the man's voice was suddenly a little louder than he was before as he said, "No, I'm serious! I'm the pastor of the Church of God in this town and I want to know how you get by putting that on your sign!" Whoa! This guy's for real--he really means it! "Well... because we are The Church of God." Then he went into the whole, "No, I pastor the Church of God" thing again and Tammy says he said something about it being illegal for us to use that name on our sign. I said, no, that's who we really are. I explained that "The" was actually a part of our legal name--that they are legally known as "Church of God" and we, "The Church of God." He wasn't too happy about that and seemed to indicate that we were making it up or something. He said--none too kindly, I assure you--"You must be a splinter off of somebody--what did you guys come out of?" Knowing that he was the pastor of the "elders" church, I said, "Actually, you and I have the same roots--back to A.J. Tomlinson in 1903." That made him good and mad, too. "No," he said, "You're a splinter off of somebody--who were you with a couple of years ago?" I told him that several years ago we were part of the Church of God of Prophecy. Ha! You should have seen his reaction! He suddenly turned from fiesty and cantankerous to downright mean and ugly. "Ohhhhhhh!!!! Right! So you're 'exclusive' then" he said, with extra mockery on the word "exclusive." "That's right," I said. "You're 'the only true Church,' right?!" "Yes, sir!" I replied. I don't remember what he said after that, but within moments he had stomped off and there was a girl looking rather shaken muttering, "Um... I'll have a small blue coconut." Ha! Can you imagine a person--a Christian--a pastor!!!--acting like that?! It was crazy!!! I only wish I could choose a font that would help portray the tone and spirit he was in. I told Tammy once he was gone that now I get it. Every time we run into somebody in town and tell them what Church we're members of they always ask the same thing: "Are you associated with that Church of God out on Big Spring Highway?" (That's the elders church where this guy apparently pastors.) We say no and then the person gives a big sigh of relief and tells some story of how he used to attend out there but he'll never go back, blah, blah, blah. How sad. It made me all the more thankful to be a member of God's Church. And after it was all said and done, I realized how natural all of my responses had been--how fully convinced I am that I am in God's Church and not the least bit intimidated by the mockery we received. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free!!! Aren't you sooooooo thankful for that?!

Well, I'd best get going. It would be so nice to be able to get the kitchen floor scrubbed before church today--it's so nasty. Just so you know, I've already kind of had Mother's Day, so it wouldn't bother me at all to scrub the floor--the bathroom, too, if I have time. A day or two ago James got up early and kept all of the kids away from the bedroom so I could sleep in! WOW!!! What could a mom possibly ask for beyond that?! It was sooooooooo nice. And he brought a whole bunch of beautiful roses and carnations and lilies of some kind--a huge arrangement--home the other day. And I already got my Mother's Day greeting from my cheery little girl, so what more could I ask for?! Where's my mop... :-)

Oh, and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM!!! Think of that crazy guy at Sam's Club all those years ago and say this with the proper emphasis: "Mother, I lo-o-o-o-ove you!!!" ;-)

~Becki~

Oh yeah--here are some pictures of what the kids were doing while I was helping Tammy for 5 hours or so at the sale. I pitched a tent for them because I knew we were going to be out in the hot, hot, hot sun for way too long--it worked out pretty well, I think!

This is the we've-been-too-wild-and-sent-back-to-confinement look

Play Time

Nap Time!

6 comments

Can't Help but Smile, Hu???

Posted by cokelady

And it's all thanks to Jenna. She is sooooooo amazing! I love the happy, happy, happy template--soooooo bright and cheery. It just makes you smile, doesn't it?! Wow! Can't get much more fun than this. :-)

Hhmmm. There's not really much to blog about tonight other than the fun new template. Things are still kind of up in the air for Ellis & Elizabeth Poole and probably will be for a few more weeks. And my cousin didn't have surgury today after all--it's been rescheduled for tomorrow. They say there is a 50/50 chance she will be paralized after the surgery, so please pray. Most of all for her soul--she needs to be saved.

James hasn't been feeling very good today and even spent part of the day in bed. That was the good part of the day. The bad part was when he got up and went to his office. He tried to turn his computer on and it refused to boot. Yesterday the weather started getting nasty and he went to shut his system down, but it was doing an automatic Windows update and we lost power. Oopsie. I talked to Jon about it and then called a computer tech here in town and they agree: corrupted Windows. So I loaded the thing up and hauled it over to the local guy's house. He lives in the ritzy neighborhood. Kind of makes me wonder how much this is going to run us! Ha! No, he gave me a very modest estimate and he seems to be super nice. I'm hoping that carries over into being trustworthy as well. Anyway, James should have his computer back and fully functional on Sunday. It can't come soon enough for me. His whole life seems to be stored on that computer and he's lost without it. Can't work on his seminary stuff, his Regional Convention stuff, his other Church stuff... even eBay. ;-) He's actually handled this whole situation amazingly well, I think.

And did I say there wasn't much to blog about?! I was sooooooo wrong! We had 5 real, live grown up visitors in church tonight and 2 little ones! Wow!!! The neighbor lady was there again and the three "holiness" ladies, plus one of the lady's daughter and her two foster children. Is that exciting or what?! God is sooooooo good and it's just so exciting to see so many visitors coming our way. One of the ladies testified tonight that she's just so thankful that they've found a church they can come to and feel welcome and worship and feel the Lord and on and on. We're hoping and praying there will be a day when they'll testify to how thankful they are to have found God's Church! :-)

Well, I'd best call it a night. Didn't get as much done today as I would have liked, so that makes more for tomorrow.

~Bec~

AH YES!!! I just rememered that a few of you asked for the cinnamon roll recipe. I figured I would just post it here instead of e-mail it separately. Then you can look at the pictures in the last post to help you out, too. ;-) I'll just copy and paste some of the stuff I had sent to Emilee so I don't have to type it all up again. Here goes:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs, beaten
2 pkg. yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water (whatever the temp is that you're supposed to mix yeast into--I forget)
3 cups flour
2 cups flour
1/2 cup flour on table
(Isn't that dumb?! -- 3 separate measurements of flour!)

Heat milk and pour over salt and sugar; stir until dissolved. Let cool. Just a little. ;-) Pour in oil and eggs. In cup, add yeast to water and mix; add to first mixture. Stir in 3 cups flour, then 2 cups. Dumb, hu? Oh, for goodness' sake--just dump it all in at once! That's what I do. Now that I look at it, this recipe is written up really dumb, so I'm re-writing it from here. Dump all 5 cups of flour into the bowl with everything else and crank up the KitchenAid (just on stir, actually) and let 'er rip for 7 minutes. (If you don't have a KitchenAid, don't sweat it--we mixed it up by hand for years.) Put flour on the table and then plop the dough on top and knead it, adding more flour as necessary until it's not sticky anymore. Grease a large mixing bowl with oil. Toss the dough in it and get one side slimy in the oil, then turn it over so the other side will get slimed up, too. Cover and let rise for 2 hours, preferably someplace warm. Sometimes I'll turn the oven to "warm" ahead of time, then turn it off before I put the dough in. Just be sure it's covered with a heavier towel or it will get crusty and dry. Anyway, after the two hours you knead the dough. If you're doing hot rolls, separate into three parts, then roll each one out into a circle, slice like a pizza, and roll into cresents. If doing cinnamon rolls, separate into two parts and roll into large rectangles.

This is the don't-ask-for-any-measurements part. Just wing it! I will, however, give you a list of ingredients...

Butter
Brown sugar
Butterscotch pudding
Cinnamon
Raisins

Melt or soften some butter (one stick for both rectangles is good) and spread over top. Then crumble brown sugar over the top. Don't be stingy--I don't think you can have too much, but you'll miss it if you don't have enough. Just make sure the dough is well covered with a generous amount. Sprinkle on one box of Butterscotch pudding (one box for both rectangles), then cinnamon and raisins. Roll up the rectangles starting at a long side.

Get two cake pans and spread or pour some more butter in each one--be sure to get the sides, too. Then sprinkle some brown sugar in there -- not as generously as you did on the dough. :-) Put the rolls in pans and cover for about 30 minutes. Pour whipping cream over the top -- don't be scared to use it, but don't totally drench them or your rolls will be soggy. (I think I used about 3/4 pint on both pans--not EACH pan!) Cover and leave for another 15 minutes or so.

Bake at 375 degrees for.... hhmmm. I can't remember. I think it usually takes about 20 minutes, but you might want to start checking it after about 15, just in case. I use a toothpick to check them, but you have to be sure not to poke it through a bunch of the gooey stuff or it's hard to tell anything about the dough itself.

Let them cool for about 5 minutes, then turn upside down onto a sheet of foil. Scrape all the great gooey stuff out of the pan and spread it over the rolls--and be sure to lick the spatula! It's the rule. ;-) Wash your pans up, then pick up the rolls and put them back in the pan (still on the foil). Gather the fam and dig in! And be sure to post lots of pictures on your blog of how everything turned out and how much your family adores you for going through all of this for them. :-) --And you have to come comment here on THIS blog to let us all know who has taken a stab at it and if you think it was worth it all. Those are all of the requirements I can think of at the moment, but I'll be sure to post more later if they come to me. Good luck!!!

14 comments

Catching Up

Posted by cokelady

It hasn't been all that long since I last posted, but WOW, a lot has happened! Before I get into all of the little stuff our family has been up to, let me throw out a couple of urgent prayer requests.

Ellis Poole (our 95 year old church member) was taken to the nursing home two days ago, kind of against his will. It's a loooooooong story and pretty complicated, but tomorrow it all goes to "court" of some kind to determine whether he'll stay in the nursing home or be able to go back home. Please for him and his wife, Elizabeth, that God would work all of these things out according to His will. And pray for Sam & Tammy, too. They have been pouring everything into the care, shall we say, of these people and they are bearing an extremely heavy load right now, emotionally along with everything else.

The second request is for a distant cousin of mine, Renee. She was in an automobile accident yesterday and is in pretty bad shape. If I understand correctly, her neck is broken but her spinal cord is still intact. They are planning on doing a pretty dangerous surgury on her tomorrow, so please pray.

With all of the "heavy" things going on around us, God has been good to provide our family with some relief from the burdens and a couple of really nice days. Yesterday was terrific!!! We woke up to great big thunderstoms and dark gray skies. It was hard to believe it was even morning, as dark as it was! James worked at Mardel, so he was gone from about 8:00am until about 6:00pm. The kids and I had breakfast and devotions, then did some light housework and then school. By noon it was time to start the rainy day fun. So we grabbed the Totinoes and spread a tablecloth on the floor of the den for our pizza party!

I had decided that I was going to have the kids watch Night at the Musuem. James had bought a DVD player with TV Guardian in it for $27 a few weeks ago, so that's the one we used to watch this movie on, just in case. It "bleeped" (went silent, actually) in two or three different places in the movie and we don't know what was said there (sometimes the Guardian is way too sensitive and cuts out stuff that is perfectly clean and innocent), so I would be scared to recommend this movie to anybody not using the Guardian simply because it might have one or two bad words -- I don't know. I can say that with the Guardian it is perfectly clean and a whole lot of fun!

Anyway, James and I have been discussing what sissies oure kids are and how every tiny little thing freaks them out--they are soooooooo over-sensitive to lots of things. Anything remotely scary or even mildly suspenseful ("Why did they put Dumbo's Mom in jail?!?!?!? What's going to happen to her???? Mom!!!!!"), along with other things. I am all for "sheltering" my kids from everything evil and questionable, but sometimes I wonder if maybe we've gone too far--they're such wimps! Ha! So we decided it was time for them to learn to "get over" their wimpiness and realize that sometimes suspense can be fun--it's not always bad and something to freak out over. Night at the Museum was the answer. It's just a fun little show about a guy who gets a job as the night watchman at the Museum of Natural History, not knowing that everything in the museum comes to life at night. Without giving too much away, I thought my kids were going to die when he walked past where the t-rex skeleton had been and it was gone, and the guy went looking for him. That whole scene was more than they've ever been exposed to their whole lives put together! Ha! I was sure to sit with them and keep them close, and speak some reassurances to them every now and then. It would've been great to have a picture of it. A Mom, three kids and a poodle all cuddled up tightly under a blanket together on the couch, the children's little bodies getting stiffer by the moment as they're watching the dinosaur... Like I said, I wouldn't want to ruin anything for anybody who hasn't seen the movie and might be interested, but I will say that it's a "happy" movie and nothing truly bad happens. The kids toughed out the few suspenseful parts and at the end of the movie they were begging to watch it again! They loved it and I was soooooooo happy! I even lete the watch the second half of it again. They talk about "Rexy" (the t-rex) and wish they had their very own... It was so fun to watch it with them--and hopefully they can start to enjoy life a little more and not be such weenies about everything!

ANYWAY... (I spent way too long on that!) I intended to make corn chowder for dinner. Then backed off to potato soup because it's much faster and easier. By the time James got home I had decided on a can of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches! That didn't sound too good to James, so he loaded us up and took us out to dinner. Then we went by the nursing home to visit with Brother Ellis for a few minutes and have a prayer with him. We came home, put the kids to bed, and James and I had a nice relaxing evening, just loafing.

Oh, I forgot! The flowers! I've been meaning to give an update. Here's a purty little pink one that bloomed a few days ago.

And here's what the flower bed was looking like yesterday morning. Getting nice and colorful out there!

And this is that very same flower bed 10 minutes later once the downpour started!

So much for not over watering, hu, Kasey?! Ha! Oh well. Not much you can do about it when God decides it's time for water!

I went to check on them one time after that, but have since given up. It's been raining off and on for days and I've decided to just not worry about the flowers or even look at them anymore until the rain passes and they have a day or two to dry out. Then we'll assess the damage!

Emilee called yesterday and said that she and Haley were going to be making cinnamon rolls today and needed the recipe, so I e-mailed it to her. I mentioned it to James and he said, "Why don't you make some, too?" So we picked up the stuff and after lunch today (which was Grilled Steak ala James--Wow, what a guy!) I started them. Emilee called after a little while with a question about the recipe and, as it turns out, my rolls were about 30 minutes ahead of hers. So I started taking pictures along the way and e-mailing them to her real quick! You see, once you mix up the dough the recipe gets real vague--there are no actual measurements for how much of anything, you just do it "til it looks right!" But since Emilee and Haley had never made them before and had nobody there to show them, the pictures seemed like the only way to go. I sent her some different ones, but these are the Cook Katie version of the same thing. I told Emilee to be sure and use her best Julia Child voice while reading the commentary that goes along with the pictures and Haley actually made her do it because she had no idea who Julia Child was! Ha!

After buttering the dough, spread a generous amount of brown sugar evenly over the top, all the way to the edges...

Sprinkle on one box of butterscotch pudding mix, then cinnamon, but not too much...

Add as many raisins as your family would prefer...

Then roll the dough from the long edge...

Slice evenly (Emilee and Haley actually used a ruler! Ha! What a couple of nerds!!! Ha! Ha! Ha!), not to thick, but definitely not too thin...

Place them in the prepared pans, let rise for about 20 minues, pour whipping cream over the top, let rise another 20 minutes or so, and bake. Viola! When they're done, they look like this...

Until you flip them over, that is. You have to flip them upside down onto foil so all the great gooey stuff with be on "top." Then you sit your family down and tell them go at it...

"Oh, Faye! This is sooooooo scrumptious!!!" Is this dough hand rolled?!

"Thanks, Mom! You're the best!!!"

Ah yes, after all of that time and work, it is always worth it! :-) Of course, if you want a reaction like this from your family you also have to make them homemade ziti and pepperoni pinwheels. "Homemade" in this case means that I opened the bag of noodles and popped the lid off the jar of sauce all by myself, as opposed to having Fazoli's do it for me. Whatever works!

This post has gotten way out of hand, but just one more picture before I go. Joe came to me today looking like this and said, "Mom, I'm going to wear this rubberband to hold my head better so it won't flop around when I walk." Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! That kid is such a nerd!!! I don't think I could possibly love him any more than I do right now, today--he's such a goofball!!!

Okay, I'll let you go. I hope you've all had as much fun the past couple of days as we have! Be sure to check out Emilee's blog, too--I know she'll have some great pictures over there. She e-mailed some to me tonight, but said she was too tired to stay up and blog them. They should be up and ready for viewing sometime tomorrow--you'll be glad you went! ;-)

Later!
~Bec~

9 comments

Storms a Brewin'

Posted by cokelady

Nobody yell at me, but I might not be blogging much in the next few days. There are more thunderstorms on the way and we're shutting everything down in the next few minutes. It's supposed to storm for a day or two, so I guess we'll see what happens. In any case, it's not my fault if I'm not around. Just so you know. :-)

It's been a good and bad day today. The kids act like we just got back from a three week trip and they're all wiped out from it. In other words, tired and crabby. It must be all of that spontaneity I was talking about before! So today we stayed home (except for the quick trip to Aunt Sue's store to settle our account and return stolen goods) and tried to get things back to normal. We've had a terrible time really getting into the groove of school lately and I finally figured out one of our big obstacles: my office. My office seems to be the catch-all for the whole house and is continuously trashed. I, personally, have never been able to concentrate on anything in a messy room. When I was a teenager I used to go somewhere else in the house to do my devotions when my own room was a mess 'cause I just couldn't read and pray in there. I menioned that to Mom today and she said (in a rather unfriendly tone, I might add) "Yeah, you'd go to some room your mother had cleaned up." Well, I'm sure it will please her to know that my time has come. Now I'm the Mom and paying for all of my old messes... 3 times over. Anyway, I think the messy office adds to the stress of school and I spent some time today getting it nice and sparkly clean. Again. I just did it last week, but it seems to pile up so fast! I had the kids clean out their desks, too. You wouldn't believe what all they cram in there! I was helping Sam empty his and out drops a frog (only plastic, thank goodness), several miniature army guys, a pistol... No wonder we can't get anything done at school time! Anyway, we did school this afternoon once everything was cleaned up and it seemed to go better. Or maybe I just felt better about it! That was the good part of the day.

The bad part was this morning. Like I said, the kids were just sooooo crabby! Joe had been sent back to bed by 10:00! I never do that, but he was bursting into tears over every tiny little thing ("Joe, go clean up your room" -- "Bwaaaaaaaaahh!!" Weird!!!) so I didn't know what else to do with him! Everybody was just whiny and bickering all morning. So after lunch I sent them all to bed--no books like they usually get--and told them to GO TO SLEEP. Katie never did drop off, but the boys got a good, long nap in and it seemed to help quite a bit with the rest of the day.

James brought home that elusive yellow rose bush, so I went out and planted it a little while ago. It's going to be so nice once they all grow and fill in a little bit. Most of the flowers are still hanging in there, so that makes me happy. :-)

I had a crazy dream last night about the General Assembly and Dad making some weird appointments. I called him this morning to make sure he didn't have any funny ideas (ha!) and was telling him about who he appointed where in my dream. I was listing them off and he said, "Slow down, I'm trying to write this down--who goes to Colorado?!" Ha! He's such a nerd!!! He just laughed. If only it were that easy to find God's answer for such things. Wouldn't that be nice?! Ha!

Well, I'd best get going. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my evening. It was going to be laundry, but we're having some drain problems and things are backing up and flooding the utility room floor every time the washer tries to drain. We'll probably have to call good old Plummer Mike in the next couple of days. We try to see him at least a few times a year so we can do our part in helping a nice guy with a business of his own stay afloat. It's only right, don't you think? ~sigh~ Like it or not, that seems to be the way it goes. Anyway... Maybe I'll just loaf around and catch up on some reading tonight. That would be nice. I've got 8 or 10 magazines that have been piling up on me and I haven't had a chance to read through yet. Maybe I'll make some hot tea or cocoa and enjoy a nice, quite evening curled up on the couch. Yeah... Bless that wonderful clogged pipe of mine! :-) G'night!

~Rebekah~

8 comments

You Know What's Dumb???

Posted by cokelady

Sitting down at midnight to write up a post for your blog. You know what's even more dumb than that? The reason for being up at midnight is Monopoly. You know what's even more dumb than that??? Playing Monopoly with James Horne. Good grief. I had forgotten. When we first got married and I was actually able to coax him into an occasional game (it's a major rarity anymore) I declared that I would never again play Monopoly with him. I hate playing Monopoly with him because he won't play the game. All of the property gets bought up and it's time to start making deals so everybody can get some monopolies going and put up houses and all that, but James refuses to deal. So unless you just get mad and quit, you end up spending the next 18 hours swapping petty cash back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, and then quitting. It's better to just quit right off the bad. Better yet, just don't start the dumb game! I kept wondering tonight why I used to love Monopoly so much. Played it all the time--even by myself (with myself?), if necessary. Crazy. I suppose it might be mildly fun if you were with the right crowd, but they didn't show up tonight. Sam and Tammy were here, but they aren't good Monopoly company either. Tammy hates Monopoly, so no matter what happens you feel somewhat guilty that you're even making her take part in the first place. And Sam is the absolute opposite of James--he'll give you anything for anything. "Hey, Sam--would you sell me your Pacific Avenue for $200 and this Get Out of Jail Free card? Thanks!!! Oh, consequently, that gives me a monopoly on the green properties that I am now going to put hotels on and will cost everybody $1400 a whack every time they take a stroll down the lane..." You know what's even more dumb than everything I just mentioned? We spent three hours being miserable doing it!!! And dumber still??? We could have spent those precious minutes playing a game that we truly enjoy, having fun!!! After all, isn't the the whole point of a game??????? Well, we blew it tonight. The only good thing that has come of it is a lesson well learned. Tomorrow morning our family is gathering in the backyard for a sacred Torching of the Monopoly Board ceremony. Maybe I'll keep the ashes in a little urn in the game cabinet to remind me to never again buy that stupid game. Ggrrrr. What a waste.

In other news (thank goodness!), several of our "regulars" were gone today, but we had two visitors in church! Praise the Lord!!! Two of the women who were at Bible Study on Wednesday came, and the only reason the other friend wasn't with them is because she was out of town. We had a really good service and they seemed to really, really, enjoy it. It's soooooooo exciting!!! God is just so very, very good to us and I can't thank Him enough for all He's doing in my life, my family, and our church here in little old Andrews, Texas. :-)

Yesterday was another spontanious day. I've had about as many of those as I can handle--I'm ready to find some rhyme and rhythm in my life so I can start making sense of things again! James wanted to take us out to Main Street Deli for lunch. It's the new Mom & Pop joint here in town and he hadn't had a chance to try it yet. It was mediocre at best, but in a small town it's just nice to have something different. It's just across the street from Aunt Sue's store, so we strolled on over there. Aunt Sue was out of town so the relief girl was working, but I was wanting to find a large sign for my wall to replace the "Sit Long, Talk Much" one that I've had for years and years and years--I had a different place for that one anyway. Well, one thing led to another and we walked out of there with the large sign I wanted, two shadowboxes, a tin star, and a bag bulging with miscellanious stuff. (I told the relief girl that she had a lot of holes to fill--she'd better get busy! Ha!) James just kept telling me to grab everything that I liked and thought I might have a place for and that we'd take it home, play around with it and see what I liked, then return the rest. (The privilege of being the niece of the owner!) Well, you know how that goes. I only picked things that I like, so naturally I found places for most of it! (I have a not-exactly-bulging bag of stuff to return to the store tomorrow.) I was feeling sooooooooooooo guilty over it all because house decor doesn't exactly fall into the category of "necessities" and there's no reason I had to buy all of it right now. (My plan had been to purchase one small thing at a time over the next year or so.) I was ready to start ripping it off the walls and shoving it back in the bag until James reminded my of my stash. Before we got married James received some amazing counsel from a very wise man (thanks, Dad!) to always give his wife a certain amount, no matter how tiny, from his paycheck. It gives her "her own" money and cuts down on fighting over finances. So I've had a continuous stash that we usually use to draw from in tight situations, then James will replace it when he can and add a little extra when possible. Anyway, we use it for our "reserve," but it's really supposed to be my play money to spend on anything I want. I got to thinking about it and I can't even remember the last time I used it to buy anything for me!!! So suddenly most of the guilt lifted (not all; I always feel guilty when spending money--it's part of my personality make-up, I guess!) and I dug out the stash and found enough to cover all of the stuff we got and I still have a little bit left over. --Thanks entirely to the sweet little "family discount" Aunt Sue allows me. None of this would ever be possible without that, I assure you! Ha! So anyway...

When we left Aunt Sue's store we drove down the street and stumbled upon a... Hhhhmmmm, how should I say? A parking lot with a whole slew of cardboard boxes full of "stuff" (each box had a price scribbled on the outside, from $1 to $3--or maybe up to $5) and a trailer with a dude sitting in it collecting money. You know, a moving junk sale. One box was full of baby plates, the next had tiny screwdriver sets, the next had packs of socks... You get the idea. Junk. The kids went nuts. They were diving head first into every box they passed like a bunch of scavengers--vultures swooping down on the prey. James was almost just as bad and I even found a thing or two amid the heaps. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all. We just came from Aunt Sue's very, very nice, classy anything-but-junk store... drove a few blocks and landed in junk sale city! Ha! I guess our family just doesn't fit into a category. Nothing is above or beneath us! Ha!

Good grief. I would pick a night when it's way past bedtime to ramble. Oh yeah--after church today I got the living room and bedrooms cleaned up, the bathroom scrubbed down, the kitchen floor mopped, and the whole house (minus my office and the kids' play room--they're kind of separated and will have to be worked on tomorrow, hopefully) vacuumed. It felt great!!! Still does! And James went out back and started to work on a miniature fence that's going to surround our soon-to-be-planted garden. What a productive day! Then Sam and Tammy came over and we had a nice visit... until somebody whipped out the Monopoly board, that is. It all went downhill from there. Ggrrr. What a waste. I could've spent those three hours playing Rummy!!! We have to fight to get James to play a game with us. Well, he sure showed us tonight. He is NOT invited next time. (He's the dope who chose the game and you can rest assured he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he'd be off the hook and not asked to play again for months. Jerk.) Okay, I gotta get some sleep. Look Mom, I blogged!!! Aren't you proud?! No hands! (Well...)

G'Night!
~ Bec ~

17 comments

~whew~ What a Day

Posted by cokelady

Yesterday, that is. It started out normal enough. Eggs and toast for breakfast, then devotions with the kids. We were just getting ready to head to the office for school when James came strolling through the front door with a whole bunch of little flowers to plant in the backyard! Wow! That's great! That's terrible! What do I do?! We've been doing some work on the yard here and there trying to get it looking nice and we've been discussing these flowers for some time, but it's scary that we're actually doing it. I keep telling James not to yell at me when they die. I've never grown anything before and I'm completely panicked about going to all of this time and work only to have a pile of deadness a week from now. He says it's easy, just keep them watered. I say sure, right, no problem--I do well to remember to feed my children. You can ask Mom how good I am about tending to plants. Every time she and Dad would take a trip without me she'd come home to several brown, crunchy looking leaves where once there was plush, green foliage.

Anyway, we headed out back and got to work. This is the long row we planted. There's also a shorter row on the other side of the office, but truthfully they looked too bad to take a picture of! Even some of these are hurting.

All of the big floppy flowers are doing just that--flopping big. Like...laying down and settling in for a nice, long nap. I didn't take any close-ups of them, but here are a few of the others. (I figured I should take pictures quick, before it's too late!) I call this the Happy Yellow Flower.

And this is the Look Like the Happy Yellow Flower, But Have a Nifty Two-Tone Thing Going On Flower.

(Marigolds, right?)

This is a cute little Look Like a Squatty, Little Gold Daisy Kind of Thing Flower.

After we planted everything we got cleaned up (kind of) and headed to Odessa in search of the rose bushes we were needing to line the other back wall of the house. We also bought a 5 gallon bucket of paint to be used next week out back. Ugh. Oh, how I dread that job! Anyway, here are the hanging flowers we got for out front. This one is sooooo cool! You can't really tell in the picture, but those blue flowers look incandescent--almost like the color you'd see on a brilliant saltwater fish.

These are some big, floppy flowers that were already planted and therefore didn't feel the need for a nap. :-)

We headed back to Andrews and went to pick up our rose bushes. We decided on a purplish kind of one, a traditional red one, a really pretty funky yellow and orange blended one, and a plain yellow one. But they didn't have any yellow ones, so we'll have to pick one of those up somewhere else. Gotta have yellow. It's the whole "yellow rose of Texas" thing--it would be wrong not to have yellow.

Anyway, the bushes we got only have one tiny little bloom apiece right now, but here are a couple of them. The purply one...

And the really funky yellow-orange blend thingie.

Neat, hu? When we finally got back from all of our running around we went out back to plant the rose bushes. It was more fun than planting the flowers because I made James buy me some bright green gingham garden gloves. It's a lot more fun to do such things if you've got fun gloves. :-)

Then we went out front and cleaned some nastiness out of the flower bed up there. The kids got to play with waterguns and a bucket and such the whole time, so they were good and muddied up by the time we were all done at 7:00. I took them in the house and showered them down before they got into their PJ's, then they had cereal for dinner. Isn't that great??? I talked to another mom yesterday and she asked what we were having for dinner. I told her we were having pork chops and she laughed and said, "You are such a better Mom and me--we're having hot dogs and macaroni and cheese!" Then it was my turn to laugh. You think we have pork chops every night?! Probably the only reason we did is because of all of the pitiful dinners we've been having--the guilt finally took over and forced me to cook a decent meal for my family. Anyway, after the long day we had there was no chance for a homecooked meal--even taking the time to make sandwiches--so cereal it was. After the kids were in bed and we were all showered up ourselves, James went and picked up a Frito Wrap and Cherry-limeade for me and some Chinese for himself. :-)

Anyway, it was quite a day! I'm loving the flowers--it's such an improvement over the dirt and rocks that were there before. I'm still nervous, however, and hoping beyond hope that they'll live. I'm not getting too attached to the lazy, like-to-lay down kind, though. Don't want to set myself up for heartache. ;-)

Oh yeah, here's the skirt that I made for Katie a few days ago--and her new bike. Not the greatest picture of Katie or the skirt, but the bike looks good!

Okay, I'd best get going. Lots to do today. I just figured I'd blog before I hear any more about being the bad blogger daughter and all that. If I had a new blog and a new camera I'm sure I'd be blog happy too, you know! ;-) Love you all--talk to you soon!

~Becki~

11 comments

Today

Posted by cokelady

Uummm... Nothing just real thrilling, I'm afraid. (Until the very end, that is!) I got all of the laundry and ironing caught up again. I just wish I could enjoy that for a whole day before the hampers start to fill up once more. Got some cleaning done around the house, cooked a really great pork chop dinner, and spent some serious time with the kids and their schoolwork today. Actually, I only spent about 10 minutes with Sam (it's as much as either of us can handle), then just a little bit with Joe as he whipped through about 20 pages, then about two and a half hours fighting with Katie over her school! That kid. She came and begged to do school about 20 minutes before I was planning on starting it. I was wanting to get a little bit more cleaning done first, but since she was so excited I just dropped it and headed to the office with her. She started on her first page, but she is sooooooooo easily distracted and finds the boys' school books to be much more fun than her own, so she just kept looking at their stuff and talking to them about what they were doing. I tried to get her to focus on her own work several times, but she just got frustrated, then the bad attitude kicked in. By that time Sam was already outside playing and Katie wanted to go out and play with him. --And she still was only about a fifth of the way through her first page! I told her she was going to finish 10 pages before she got up and she went to tears. I hate it when she does that. She is soooooooo emotional! (I'm shipping her off to a better mother when she's a teenager--I don't even know what to do with her now!) She ended up with several spankin's and found herself in one of those sulking this-is-going-to-take-all-day-oh-woe-is-me-I'm-never-going-to-be-able-to-finish moods. Oooooooh, I hate those too. Lunchtime came around and I fed the boys, but she couldn't join us because she was still on page one!!! After over an hour!!! Naturally, she fell apart again and was just sure she was going to waste away to nothing and blow away in the wind because of missing lunch. I told her that lunchtime was from 12:00 to 1:00 and that if she finished her 10 pages before 1:00 I would get her lunch ready, otherwise she would just have to wait until dinner. That may seem cruel...except that I know she could have been done with those 10 pages in about 20 minutes if she really wanted to! She worked her way through more moping, sulking, crying, and "training sessions," until it was right down to the wire. In fact, I was watching the second hand on the clock and just as the last second of "lunchtime" ticked by she scribbled down her final number. ~whew~ Kid wears me out!!! I must say though, her attitude has been much improved since that time and I think school will be much easier tomorrow! (It had better be!)

James worked Mardel today, but I didn't have time to really enjoy my "home alone" day. That's okay though--it was still a good day. When we finished dinner I hurried to get Katie and myself ready for Church. It was Ladies' Bible Study tonight, so Joe and Sam stayed home with James. (He took them to Sonic for banana splits, the dirty dogs!) We had three visitors tonight! No--four!!! Three ladies that are all friends came together, then the lady who lives across the street from the church came walking in a few minutes later. They are all older ladies and are such a hoot! Two of the ladies are old fashioned, holiness looking folk all the way... almost! They have long hair pulled up and pinned in the back (the UPC look, you know?!), no make-up and long, flowing skirts. But one of them had a great big honkin' ring on each hand! Weird!!! Anyway, they had talked about seeing Tammy and me around town a lot and have always wondered where we went to church and are so excited to have finally "found" us. (Tammy bought a dryer from one of the ladies last week, thus the "discovery" of each other!) They just fell easily into conversation with us and took part in the Bible study and seemed to really, really enjoy themselves. Tammy--the Bible study leader--could hardly get a word in edgewise! Ha! We sang a couple of old choruses and they really sang and worshipped--it was just sooooooo neat to have them there. And to listen to them talk, they plan on being back. Again and again! How exciting!!! I was trying to tell James about them when I came home and it's just really, really hard to discribe them. They are so... crazy! They all just talk and cackle and tease and, now that I think of it, act like a bunch of teenagers! They're all between the ages of about 50 and 75, but they're just nuts! My, oh my, how it will change the face of the Andrews church if they continue to come and worship with us! We took in two new members last year. Wouldn't it be exciting if we were to take in these four crazy old ladies this year?! Ha! And their famies, and... !!! God is moving and it's just soooooo exciting.

That's about all our news from around here. Sam still has warts. I don't think James is going to go for the duct tape thing. Wants to try rubbing some vitamin A on them instead. That's no fun!!! I asked him if I could try the duct tape if it doesn't work, but he wouldn't give me a definitive answer. He's just no fun, you know?! Ha!

I'd best call it a night.

~Becki~

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It's Not My Fail!

Posted by cokelady

I had a German friend who used to say that. He spoke fluent English, but never could figure out when to use "fail" and when to use "fault." He also brushed his teeth with a tooshbruff. Ha!

Anyway, it's really and truly not my fault that I haven't blogged in several days. It's God's. Really!!! We have had killer thunderstorms off and on all week and any time I've had a chance to go to the computer we seemed to be right in the middle of one. James won't let me anywhere near the power button when there's thunder and lightening outside, or even if it's raining mildly. Or a cloud appears way off in the distance. (Okay, so he's not that bad, but close!) So I've been unable to blog because I've been unable to turn the computer on. Now you know. It's not that I'm afraid of more typos. I happen to like them. They humanize your writings and make them feel more personable. Or something like that. So apparently there are a whole bunch of oopsies in the regional paper this month, hu? I had no idea and now I'm scared to look. And I'm certainly not going to mention it to James! Really, I'm just glad to know that somebody is reading enough of it to find that there are mistakes--that's a good thing! Thanks, Em! What a pal!!! I can always count on you... to find and point out my mistakes, to make better cards than me, to become the Blog Queen and make me look like a total loser... All of which make me mostly really happy that you're my friend and sister-in-law; only slightly jealous. ;-)

Ooooooohhh. Looks like I'm in a rambling mood tonight. Maybe it's 'cause I have to make up for lost time. Or mabye it's because we've had such a great day today. We woke up this morning to huge thunder and lightening and severe storm warnings for all of west Texas. There was golf ball sized hail just south and flooding all around us. When no tragedy actually strikes, I love days like that! We immediately cancelled whatever other plans we might have had and declared it Family Day! I went to the kitchen and made some brownies right off the bat. You know you're in for a good day when you have fresh brownies first thing in the morning! I pitched a tent in the living room for the kids to play in and did some mild cleaning. Made some pepperoni pinwheels (these terrific little appetizer thingies) and homemade pizza for lunch. Believe it or not, it's the first time I've ever made homemade pizza (unless Totinoes count--ha!) and it was great! I let the kids watch Little House on the Prairie while I took a nap in the afternoon. It just doesn't get any better than that! We had nursing home service tonight, then went to Tortas y Mas to pick up some dinner. Put the kid-o's to bed, then I whipped out a new skirt for Katie. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho! Ho! Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee! Ha! Ha! Ha! That's hilarious! I've never "whipped out" anything in my life if it involved a sewing machine. I'd probably spend a full hour just trying to make a hankie. Pitiful. I actually started Kate's skirt right after my nap, but--as always--I hit a few unexpected kinks and just finished it up a few minutes ago. And now I've had my sewing fix and probably won't do it again for at least 6 months. Katie was REALLY needing a new play skirt though--a big, full one that she can run and be wild in. Now she has one! That almost makes it worth all the hassle. Maybe by tomorrow it will feel worth it, but tonight the frustration of sewing is still draining off.

Let's see, what else is going on around here... Joe has another weapons ban in effect until next Monday. ~sigh~ That kid. Shot Sam just under the eye with a pencil. (Using a hanger as a bow.) James totally freaks out about such things and is just sure that he's going to cost somebody an eye. After his spankin' we blindfolded him and made him find his way to the table and eat the first half of his dinner "blind" so he'd know what it would be like if somebody lost their eyesight. I don't think it did any good as far as teaching him to be careful not to shoot people's eyes out, but it certainly made for some interesting dinner conversation.

We rounded up all of the kids' birthday money and headed to Odessa yesterday in search of new bikes for Katie and Joe. The old ones were just too small, so Sam has inherited Joe's old one and Kate and Joe have brand new ones. They are sooooooo excited! Except that they haven't been able to get much use out of them due to the crazy weather. They were able to ride for a little while when we got home yesterday while James and I were out back working on the yard. I cleaned out the storage area on the side of the house (it was a WRECK) and James ripped out the old, nasty shrubs and bushes and relocated some stepping stones and things like that. It felt sooooooo good to get that done! The kids helped quite a bit, too. Especially Joe. James gave him a shovel and told him to move dirt from this spot to that spot (truly necessary, not just a meaningless job) and he just worked and worked and worked. Did a great job! He'll probably be spending more time with tools this week since he's not able to have weapons.

Sam has warts. That's nothing new, but I don't think I've ever announced it before. He's got these tiny little bumps just under his nose that we are assuming are little warts. There used to be just two or three of them and now there are 6 or 7. He also has 2 on his right hand. I haven't had a chance to really research it yet, but I did glance at a website earlier today about treating warts and one of the popular methods is called duct tape occlusion treatment. I just read the name and thought, "Perfect!!!" What could be better for a kid like Sam?! Apparently you keep the wart covered with duct tape for 6 or 7 days, then remove the tape, soak the area and gently scrub it with a pumice stone. You keep on repeating this for up to 2 months until the wart disappears. Some of the people said it took just a few days, some said a few weeks or more. Some said it didn't work at all, but for every person who said that, there were at least 10 or 12 who said it worked great for them. Sounds just ducky...except for the location of Sam's warts! I think it would be fitting, but I just don't know if James would let me duct tape our kid's face for 2 months! Ha! He'd go to Camp looking like that, Regional Convention... Apparently the tape suffocates the wart (warts are a virus and require oxygen to continue living) and something in the glue on duct tape also irritates the skin and prompts your immune system to send extra assistence to that particular area, thus fighting the virus more than it had been doing previously. Amazing. I'm dying to try it, but I'll have to talk James into it first.

Well, it's late. I should get going. I have a big mess to clean up in the morning due to my sewing project. That's another thing about sewing. Things always go wrong and without fail I end up having to undo something I thought was completed (I spend more time with the seam ripper than the actual machine), it takes 2 to 10 times longer to complete whatever project I've chosen, and then the room is totally trashed when I'm done and there's all kinds of time consuming recovery cleaning to be done. If I could find decent clothes for the kid, there is no way I'd mess with this! I just didn't inherit Mom's knack for sewing. Or singing. Or playing the piano. But I'm pretty good with a roll of duct tape! :-) G'night all!

~Becki~

P.S. -- Large font is just for you, Raymone!

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