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~

7 comments

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!

11 comments

In Addition to My Earlier Post...

Posted by cokelady

I thought Joe had overcome his fear of cap guns--I know I've seen him shooting them in the past few weeks. Apparently he's not as "over" them as I assumed. He just came and asked if I'd put a new roll of caps in his gun for him. When I got it all loaded for him and tried to give it to him, he told me to go ahead and shoot it first. And he took off running. "I'll be in the pantry if you need me!" he shouted. I shot it a couple of times and then handed it over to Katie. She shot once, then I noticed an eyeball peeking through the pantry door, which was cracked open ever so slightly. "You're doing good, Katie!," said the eyeball. "Shoot it again!" Ha! He's such a coward!!! I finally shoved him out the back door with his gun and have heard a few shots out there, so he must be working up some courage. Still, that's just pitiful!!!

Katie has been doing well lately. Except for that day a couple of weeks ago that she took the scissors to her bangs. I had Stacey even them up about a week ago, but she still looks dumb. They're just to short, you know? Kate is doing great in school (although we haven't done much lately!) and really seems to be enjoying her 2nd Grade book. Still reading up a storm. And writing. Yesterday one of the swings on the swingset had been thrown over the top rail again and again until it was way up high and the chains too short to be able to swing on. There was a sign taped to it that said, "Out Of Order!" Ha! Katie's handywork.

And Sam. He's still straining our childrearing abilities (!), but bringing lots of laughs, as always. We're working hard to do away with tattle-tales around here, but we've got a way to go yet. He came running inside the other day and said, "Mom!!! Katie's not doing good unto others!!!" Goofy kid. He was eating ants again yesterday and my uncle was appalled. I think he was mostly amazed that I wasn't appalled. I told him that I just have to pick my battles with Sam and in the big scheme of things there are lots of things I'm a lot more concerned about than eating ants. Like electricity. Knives. Power tools. Arsenic. Ants just aren't that big a deal to me anymore, you know?! I tell Sam not to eat other people's ants--it's rude--and that he'll be sorry if he eats the red ones. Other than that, I let it go.

Okay, gotta get back to work. I never have done the laundry since Convention last weekend (I finally started it last night!) and we're out of clothes. Not good.

~Becki~

12 comments

My Son Joe

Posted by cokelady

Okay, so I’ve got to tell you about that kid of mine. Joe (although still struggling with some attitude issues here and there) is so great! He’s growing up so fast and has been learning so many things here lately. For starters…

He can read!!! I’ve worked with him off and on for the past few months and he’s been coming along, but it’s just been here lately that I feel confident in saying it that plainly: HE CAN READ. And I owe all the thanks to Jim Davis and Bill Watterson. I’d been having Joe work through little beginner books and read them to me and he was starting to get the hang of it a little bit, but still really struggling. But then Joe discovered an old Calvin and Hobbs comic book of mine and several old Garfield books (the works of Watterson and Davis). He loves them. Spends hours poring over them and now is doing great with his reading! He enjoyed the pictures, but it just wasn’t good enough—he had to know what was being said. He’s come to me several times in the past few weeks, giggling, and saying “Hey, Mom, listen to this…” Then he’ll proceed to read to me whichever strip has caught him as funny. It’s great! Mr. Mardel got him his very own Bible this past week and Joe is sooooooo excited. He asked if he could help read during devotions the other day, so I looked up the chapter we were starting in and he read the first verse for us—almost without a hitch. I had to help him with “Philistines” and one other word, but otherwise he just spit everything out almost as quickly as his eyes hit the words. Wow!!! I’m so proud of him!!!

And then there’s his math. Math is Katie’s weak spot. She can read better than most 10 year olds probably (!) and is great with words and stories, but has a lot harder time with numbers. I quiz them a lot at lunch time, asking what 12 plus 5 equals and stuff like that. Joe almost always beats Katie to the answer and is almost always right. A few days ago I told him about something that was going to happen in three weeks. He was quiet for a few seconds, then said, “Hey, Mom—that’s 21 days!” I don’t know if most 5 year olds can figure such things or not, but I was blown away! (There’s no way Katie could’ve done it.) Again, I was sooooooo excited!!! “Joe!!!” I said. “You just multiplied—did you know that?!” He just got that doofy, awkward grin of his. He always gets it when he’s done something good and is glad—but embarrassed—over the attention. It’s great!

I took him out yesterday with the bow and worked on his form. He’s getting much better at that, too, and I can tell it makes him feel sooooooo good to be able to do something athletic. He’s getting better at throwing and catching the football and hitting the baseball, too.

It’s exciting to see Joe learning and doing so many great things. He’s still sweet and tenderhearted though and I hope he always stays that way—to an extent, anyway. He’s the most naturally kind and thoughtful of my three kids and he’s the one more likely to find pleasure in others having fun instead of being selfish. He’s always asking Kate and Sam if they want to take a turn with his bow and arrow and such. He’s a nice kid. Usually. ;-)

And along with all of that, he’s still goofy. Sometime back he was telling me about a dream he’d had the night before about somebody stealing his ears and he wanted to know if he’d still be able to hear if it really did happen and somebody swiped them one day.

Our whole family has been out of whack ever since Youth Convention last weekend. Our sleep schedules (such as they were!) have been lost entirely and we can’t seem to get back into the groove of things at all! I put the kids to bed at the usual time—8:30—a few nights ago. Sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 I hear, “Mom…Mom…” coming from the boys’ room. I went in to see what was going on and Joe started in, slowly, “Well… Sam’s knees are hurting… and my fingers feel weird… and we’re thirsty… and… well… things are just not going very well in here.” Ha! They were both wide awake two and a half hours after having been sent to bed! I pulled them both into one bed and laid down with them for a few minutes and we just talked and sang a couple of songs, then I told them a story about “Joe and Sam” and put them back to bed. They were asleep in no time after that, but I was still cracking up over “things just not going very well in there.”

Well, that’s enough for one night, don’t you think?! I didn’t have a whole lot to talk about otherwise (except the Brooks being around—that’s been fun!) and I’ve just really been enjoying my Joe lately, so I thought I’d write down (or type up, rather) all of the things I’ll likely forget far too soon. Talk to you all soon!

A Happy Mom

5 comments

Just for Fun

Posted by cokelady

I can't really think of anything grand to blog about, so I thought I'd throw a few old pictures on here just for fun. I had scanned these into the computer months ago for a project Haley was working on--a gift for Emilee. I don't have any recent pictures that are any good, but when you have nothing to blog about you're still considered a great blogger if you post good pictures. So here are a few of my favorites...

The bow tie boys! This is what "our guys" looked like back in the good ole' days. The four J's: Johnny, Jon, Jay, and Jeremiah. I always loved this picture because it captures each of their personalities so perfectly. And it makes me think of the great youth group we had and all the fun and crazy things we did when we were teenagers. And how good God was to us and what I time of growth and learning it was... Ah yes, good times. :-)

Princess Emilee and Princess Rebekah. This was taken at BTI one year.
Fun, fun, fun!

Ha! What a great day! All of us girls (Amanda Newman, Tammy Lewis, Becki Smith, Emilee Brock, Cathy Lewis, Libby Brock, and Mandie Otterbacher--whoa, just listen to all those maiden names that sound so weird now! Ha!) went to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Colorado Springs, East Side Mario's. Manda thought our waiter was cute and commenced flirting. The rest of us were much more reserved, but how could you not be amused by Manda's crazy antics?! Before we left she asked Freddy (the waiter) if we could take our picture with him. So we all filed outside and the manager came along to work the camera. Nothing like a day on the town with the girls!

"We look cool!!!" Unless you're a fan of The Tick, that won't make any sense to you at all, but that's what this picture is all about. Right, Em??? ~sigh~ I wish Libby was a blogger. It would be such fun to have her "around" again with the rest of us!

Uummm... Sister Marcia and Sara and Aaron came to town yesterday. Sara is looking into Midland College and they came to check things out over there. They're staying with Sam & Tammy this time, but they all came over here last night (along with Aunt Sue and Uncle Jerry) for a cookout. James grills a mean burger, so we had lots of those and hot dogs and chips and homemade ice cream and strawberry shortcake. Wow, what a night! It was GREAT. We had a great time visiting with everybody, too. The fellowship was almost as good as the food. ;-)

Well, I'd best get going. Ya'll have a great day! Later.

~Bec~

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How Could I Forget???

Posted by cokelady

The best pictures of all!!! Abbie and Katie in their Easter dresses from Grandma Vicki! Aren't they great???

And isn't this Abbie smile just the greatest! Ha! Ha! Ha! That kid cracks me up!!! She is SUCH a mess!!! I think I took 6 pictures trying to get a smile out of her. I finally asked if she was smiling her best and she said she was. I called her over and showed her the most recent picture of her (with no smile) and asked if she called that a good smile. I told her I wanted a good one, so this is what she came up with! Ha! She's so great!!!

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2007 Youth Convention

Posted by cokelady

It was great! We left on Friday morning, had a nice little drive over to Hatch, New Mexico (about 6 hours from here) and were able to get some rest before Convention started that night. I think we had 93 in attendance this year--which is terrific! Sister Erika did a great job preparing for and moderating the Convention and it was all soooooo good. Brother Jimmie Brooks was our guest speaker and although we didn't seem to get even one picture of him (?!), he did a good job. One of the illustrations he used on Saturday night was especially good, I thought, and really spoke to my heart. There was a good spirit throughout the weekend and, as always, good food and good fellowship--LOTS of it! Here are a few pictures.

This is a picture of part of the VLB's who were present, up front singing the VLB fight song. We have young people in abundance out here and I'm pretty sure we outnumbered those who were left seated!

This is Luis Banuelos who--although he is nothing but trouble outside of church service!--is a wonderful blessing to us in our Region. He preached a very, very good message on Saturday and I was just so touched by his sincerity and deep love for The Church of God. You could feel it in his words and his spirit. He and his wife, Kaila, are always a special blessing to us.

Here's a picture of those Shuler men. Did I just say that?! YES, I DID. I can't believe how grown up they're getting. Is it possible that they've aged that much in the past two months since we saw them last?! It's amazing. I just hope they'll always be as great as they are right now. I love those boys! I'm trusting that Philip doesn't read my blog faithfully and therefore won't be embarrassed by me proclaiming publicly that he is to-die-for cute!!! That kid. Emilee and I were both wanting to take him home, so it was only fair that neither of us get him and he just return home with his family. ;-) And Jacob. He is one in a million. I told him that he'd better always behave himself because he seems to have a lot more influence over a certain young man in my household than I do! Ha!

This, however unspiritual it may be (!), is what Katie was working on during Brother Jimmie's message last night. (At least, I think that's when it was.) It's a picture of Uncle Colin with the words "THIS IS YOU"... all on an Etch-a-Sketch! Can you imagine?! There is no way I could make a picture like that at age 29, much less age 6. CRAZY.

Although Kate didn't seem to get a whole lot out of it (ha!), the service last night was especially good and we had a wonderful prayer service that lasted quite some time. Everybody seemed to come away blessed and I know that I personally felt such a sweetness and freedom in prayer--like I haven't felt in a long, long time. I really needed it and I'm still rejoicing in what God did in my heart through it. I just love those "times of refreshing" that the Bible promises will come!

After service last night we all stayed up way too late doing a whole lot of nothing. There's only one motel in Hatch, New Mexico and we fill it up. You'll never believe this, but James actually invited the crowd to come to our room to hang out last night! WHOA!!! James is not exactly a crowd person and he certainly doesn't want them invading his personal space, so we were all a little shocked at his invitation (me, probably more than most!), but we took him up on it! I think I counted 36 people in there at one point, and that doesn't include however many children were running wild in the other room. (It was a "suite"--ha! If only you could see this motel, you would laugh at the thought of it having a "suite!"--with two bedrooms and the kids were turned loose in one of them...until things got too violent and I had to go break it up and send everybody to their mothers--including one of my own kids!) We just hung out and talked and did, like I said earlier, a whole lot of nothing. Although, I'm sure it was a loud lot of nothing. I was so excited about James being so friendly and welcoming and actually inviting all of the chaos into our room... until I remembered that Jon & Emilee were in the room right next to us and they were already in bed since they were the only ones in the whole group who intended to actually get up and leave early in the morning! (I'm so sorry, Emilee!!!) I think it queited down there toward the end. Until James talked Jake and Phil into doing some of their crazy acts, including "My Little Buttercup" which was new to Hector and Jesus and Sophia. Jesus laughed so hard! He's so cute!!! Ha! I just keep wondering what it's going to be like when the guys are 29 and 30 years old doing their "My Little Buttercup" routine... They've grown up sooooo much since they first did it for us at Camp a couple of years ago. They were just kids then but they're half men now and it just has a whole different look and feel to it. And it's a little disturbing! Ha!

People started dropping off one at a time, beginning with the oldest and working it's way down. I think the last of the party left at 1:45am and we crashed. Slept in until 9:00 this morning (!), then went to Sister Banuelos' restaurant for breakfast. Dustin and Jamey showed up, then Keven and Michele, so we were able to get in some extra fellowship before leaving. Can't have too much of that, you know. ;-) We hit the road and made it home at 6:30 tonight. That made us 30 minutes late for church and we looked pretty rough, but at least we were there! It was good. Then we came home, unloaded, put the kids to bed, and I went out and vacuumed out the van. It needed it sooooooo bad. It felt great to get that done! Of course, I've done nothing with the mountain of luggage and junk we brought in from the van, but that'll give me something to do tomorrow, right? Ha. For now, I'm going to call it a night. It's been a great weekend, but I'm bushed. Zzzzzzzz...

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Adieu!

Posted by cokelady

We'll be leaving tomorrow morning for Youth Convention in Hatch, New Mexico! We're excited about it and will be sure to give you all a great report when we get back. :-)

I think I should find something else to talk about, don't you? Hey, look at this great table James found for the booth!

"For the booth," I say. Last time I saw it it had a little tag on it that said, "For display only." It's an old soda fountain table that somebody had repainted and added the Coke logo to--James found it in an antique mall over in Hobbs, New Mexico last week sometime and just couldn't pass it up. He said it was a great deal and he was going to almost double the price on it when he put it up for sale in his booth. And if it doesn't sale, I think he's okay with that, too! It is a great little table, but those chairs are about the most uncomfortable things I've ever sat in! Who's idea was it to use twisted wire for the back of a chair, anyway?!

We've had some serious work going on in the back yard this week. Here's a picture of the crew...

We've got a bunch of white rocks that used to be part of the landscaping out there that have just got to go, so we set the kids to it. I was amazed at how hard they worked, how long they stuck with it, and how many rocks they picked up. James had to empty the wheelbarrow two or three times within about a half an hour or so! Here's a picture of one of the fine looking young men out on the job...

And here's a picture of our resident goofball, doing his part. He always wears that hat with the elastic coming down instead of up inside the hat where it belongs. The greatest is when he pulls it down real hard so it makes his ears flop down--I love it! Ha! Ha!

James paid each kid 50 cents for their hard work and they were soooooo excited. I'm just waiting for it to occur to Katie that she made 50 cents for an hour or two of hard labor, and she made $11.25 for two and a half hours of sitting behind a table selling lemonade! It's going to hit her one of these days and James is probably going to have a hard time getting her motivated unless he ups her wages considerably! Ha!

The other day I looked in the back yard and saw the boys playing and decided to watch for a few minutes to figure out what they were doing. We have a bale of hay out there for Joe to aim at when we get his bow and arrows out. Well, the bale was laying down on it's side and they had a baseball bat laying across it. There was a belt tied to the small end of the bat and Sam was holding onto it while Joe stood nearby with a ball in his hands. They had lots of crazy discussion, then Joe hollers, "FIRE THE CANNON!!!" Sam yanked on the belt attached to the "cannon" bat, Joe threw the "cannon" ball, and they both started shouting, "BOOM! BOOM! KA-BOOM!!!" It was great. It must be a fun life when you're creative. I don't remember ever being that way. To me a bat was a bat and a ball was a ball. I must've missed out on so much.

It's been an eventful couple of days and I think I'm all ready for our little trip. I've got all of the laundry and ironing caught up, the house vacuumed and the kitchen floor scrubbed. You know what that means, of course. I actually get to come home to a clean house!!! Wa-Hoo! There's no greater feeling in all the world--and it happens so rarely around here! Anyway, it's past midnight now and I need to get some rest. We're going to be proof reading some church stuff while we drive to Hatch tomorrow and it will help greatly if I can manage to be halfway coherent! Until next week...

~Becki~

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