No... FAILURE!!!

Posted by cokelady

You knew, didn't you? You knew that my hitchless day of sewing couldn't really be true, hu? I don't know how I failed to expect it to all come crashing down. I was actually duped. I--who know better!--really thought everything was great with the sewing project. ~sigh~ Once James got home with the rods and I started working on the curtains again I realized that they had several problems. More than I care to elaborate on. Let's just say I hit "mad" and quit at about 9:00 last night.

This morning I was ready to hit it hard again. If, for nothing else, just to get it all over with. But I took care of some other business first, including calling around and making an appointment for Hershey Dog to have his rabies shot. It expired this month. We never have gotten Hersh licensed in New Mexico and they won't do it without proof of current shots, so it was time to just do it. The lady at the vet clinic in Edgewood said they could take care of him today, so we all loaded up and headed east. I was amazed at this place! I fully expected some dumpy little trailer-turned-vet joint. Not hardly! I would say that it was nicer than any doctor's office that I've ever been in... but I can only recall being in one office, one time, so I really don't have much to judge by! There were "doctors" buzzing all over the place in colorful scrubs and white, squeaky tennis shoes. We signed in and were escorted to our own room to wait. I don't know how many rooms they have, but I expect several. There was an examining table complete with neatly labeled jars of gauze and tongue depressors (!) and who knows what all. The vets finally showed up (had to wait a while first--just like a real doctor, so I hear!), took Hershey's picture (?), then gave him his shots. He growled fiercely, but had fully forgiven the girls by the time it was over. It's great to have a Sanguine dog. ;-)

James has had a hankerin' for Pizza Hut for weeks now, so we drove out to Moriarty. They have a Pizza Hut Express (the closest thing we've got!) and we were able to get some Personal Pans. We came back home and I started to work again on the curtains. Seems like I did something else today, but I can't think of what. All I know is that I worked on curtains and re-did all three of them (long story--I don't want to talk about it) and finally finished everything up at about dinner time. Ah yes. Dinner. I was too absorbed in my sewing (actually, obsessed with getting it OVER WITH is more like it), so James took some chicken out to the grill. Unfortunately, when he brought it in thinking it was done it was still a bit bloody. I covered it and threw it in the oven and we all just made sandwiches instead. Afterwards James and the kids ate the chicken, too! It was very juicy and tasted great once it finally cooked through.

We got all of the curtains hung and I dove right back into sewing. Katie has been in desperate need of some new bloomers for quite some time now. I was sooooo DONE sewing for the day, but I knew if I didn't make them now it would just mean dragging the agony out into another day. So I made myself just DO it. She now has two really crazy pairs of bloomers and I am FINISHED. Not just with these projects--I mean I am DONE SEWING!!! For a very, very long time. I just really, really don't like to sew. Sorry, Mom! I know that's got to be terribly disappointing to you and I've sort of lived in denial of the fact for a long time myself... but we've got to face it. I find sewing extremely frustrating and maddening. I can help thinking that people who actually enjoy it are sick and weird. I always thought I'd like sewing. I always wanted to like sewing. And over and over again I've tried to like sewing. But as of today I quit. I will never again try to trick myself into believing that sewing can be an enjoyable experience. I will, of necessity, sew. But only of necessity. And I certainly won't look forward to it. Rather, I think I'll spend a week planning a celebratory party for whenever I complete the next dreaded sewing project. It may be the only way I can convince myself to get involved in another sewing project at all!

The good news is: We have curtains!!! Just don't look close. And Mom, you're not allowed to inspect them AT ALL when you're here next week. James uttered the dreaded phrase today. "From a galloping horse, nobody would ever know..." I told him that we're going to have to make a law that nobody is allowed IN this house unless they're on a galloping horse! We've made that statement often enough it makes me wonder if we ever do anything RIGHT around here! Ha! Anyway, back to the good news. We have curtains. Katie has two new skirts and two new pairs of bloomers. The GREAT news is that the sewing machines and anything that would remind me of the sewing experience have been hauled out to the garage. THAT makes me very, very happy. :-)

The other really great news is...

He grew a brain!!! Just last night it started! Hershey is actually STARTING to catch on to the dog door thing. I was sooooo worried. He still doesn't have it down great (still goes to the front door half of the time), but he will go out the dog door without prompting at this point--and he's even found it and come in without instruction a few times! Wa-Hoo!!! It must be God. He's got 6 days to practice and let it really sink in before we leave. Unless he has a brain lapse (I wouldn't put it past him), I think he'll be okay. :-)

Alright, that's it. I'll try to post some pictures sometime in the next day or two. I'm sure Katie will LOVE to model her skirts for a picture, Bekah! ;-)

~Rebekah~

7 comments

Success!!!

Posted by cokelady

First of all, I want to thank you all for your wonderful input and the clever suggestions that came pouring in to try to help me out with the dog door thing. No, really. THANKS A LOT. ~sigh~ Bunch of goons! ;-)

It's 3:30 in the afternoon and I'm sitting down to BLOG! Is that great, or what?! Actually, it would usually be considered terrible but I've been a very good girl today. And I'm tired of being good, so I'm taking a break. That works, right?!

Yesterday we loaded up the fam and headed out to Edgewood to do some grocery and t-shirt shopping. We HAD to find some shirts for the kids. They've been growing like weeds and I was tired of seeing their belly buttons poking out from under their shirts. We were able to find t-shirts anywhere from $1 to $3.50, so that works! Everybody has at least a few decent things to wear now.

After our shopping we headed back to the library to actually return our books from two weeks ago and get new ones. Everybody always picks out 6 or 8 books (or more!) and they burn through them in the first two days. Kate is on chapter 5 of her newest book and Joe has read through 2 new Davy Crockett books since yesterday. They're not kiddy story books either. We made a grave mistake, however. We allowed Joe to get a book from the library about robots. He's been driving us NUTS ever since yesterday afternoon, wanting to build a robot. Not with paper bags and sticks and cups and such--a real, working robot. Our conversations go something like this:

"Mom--I'm going to build a real robot! Can you help me?"

"Nope. We don't have the electronic equipment and wiring--or the know-how--or the time right now to be able to do that."

"But, Mom! Can't we take something apart and use it??? Wouldn't it be cool to have a robot that could do anything you want for you?!"

"Why do you think we had kids?"

"Mo-o-o-o-om!!! Then us kids! We need a robot to do things for US!"

And so on. I told him that perhaps one day we could look into tackling a project such as building a robot, but it would certainly not be before Convention and Camp. He's very hard to discourage once he sets his mind to something though and he really, really wants a robot. We'll see what he comes up with.

I did another really dumb thing at the library yesterday. While we were there something suddenly popped into my mind and I looked it up and *voila* I came home with a book of my own. ~sigh~ I don't have time to be reading a book!!! I read Pride & Prejudice a few years ago and I recently learned that there is a book entiled Mr. Darcy's Diary, kind of chronicling his side of the story. Yeppers, that's what I came home with. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if I possessed that certain virtue known as temperance. I started off well enough. The book is in diary form, of course, so it's split up into tiny (usually) little "entries." I would read one or two, then go do the dishes. Read another, then start a load of laundry and so on. In the evening I sat down and read for about an hour. I let the kids stay up 30 minutes later than usual reading their own books, just to be fair. :-) When I put them to bed I spent an hour or two working on curtains. We need curtains at the living room window and the two kitchen windows, so I started on them last night. I hit a roadblock though and didn't have the perseverance to push through it. So I picked up Darcy again. And finished it. ~sigh~ All 330 pages. I have a list a mile long (okay, not a whole mile--but it does fill up an entire notebook page) of things to do in the next week before Convention and Camp, and I sit down and read a book! Bad, bad, bad!!! Still... it was so great!!! Oh, I thoroughly enjoyed it and only felt a small twinge of guilt over shirking my responsibilities. There's always tomorrow, right?! Ha! I'll be all out of tomorrows real soon. Anyway, I still made it to bed by 1:00am, so that's pretty good.

Got up this morning and hit it hard! Had good devotions with the kid-o's, then dove right back into the curtains. I've gone as far as I can go, however, until James gets home with the curtain rods. I'm scared to do the "pocket" part until I have the rod and can check and make sure I'm sewing in just the right place.

So in the meantime, I whipped out two skirts for Katie! Wa-Hoo!!! Yes, that's right--I whipped them out! You know, just like Mom does!!! Okay, so they're probably not JUST like Mom does 'em, but for me it was phenomenal! It's not the kind of thing I would give to somebody else... or want anybody else to inspect closely... but they will cover my little girl and that's the point, so I'm thrilled! She REALLY, REALLY needed some new skirts. They're not the kind of thing that requires a pattern (although it would've been helpful--especially for the A-line one), but I was amazed that I didn't have to rip out seams over and over again and fight with the machine and all of the things that usually make sewing so miserable for me. I had bought this fabric (stretch denim--the best!--for $2 a yard at Hobby Lobby recently) the same time I bought fabric for some new bloomers for Kate. I'd love to get them done tonight, too, but I fear I'm about sewed out, at least for today. I'm glad I'm finally learning to stop sewing before I get all nutty and mad. It's so much better when I just start fresh the next day. :-) I will, however, finish up the curtains tonight. That'll make my husband happy. I do aim to please. ;-)

Well, I need to go get some of my sewing mess cleaned up and figure out something to make for dinner tonight. I'm finishing up on the laundry and I would LOVE to find the oomph to do the ironing tonight, too. I have my doubts about that one, but you never know! In any case, I'd better get busy. Later!

~Becki~

3 comments

Doggie Door Training

Posted by cokelady

Okay, so we've got real problems. Our dog is dumb. Really, really dumb. We are leaving for Convention and Camp in 10 days and Hershey will have to stay home alone while we're away. It's always sad to do that--he's such a sociable little guy--but it's still better than boarding him and having him locked up in a little cage surrounded by other dogs that he can see and hear and smell but not get close to and play with. That seems more like torture to me than help. Besides the fact that these wacko's want $17 a night! Can you imagine?! People are NUTS. Far better to have your very own house and a great big yard to roam around in at your own free will.

The house that we bought in Texas had a dog door already installed. We moved there when Hershey was still a puppy, about 5 months old, I think. It took him a year (did you catch that--a year) to learn how to go out the dog door. He was scared of it and would have nothing to do with it. I just kept shoving him through it and pointing at it and yelling. For months and months until he finally got it. That's not the bad part. It took him another year to learn to come back in. I'm not making this up. He finally decided he was okay with going out, but once he got there he would be stuck. We'd watch him through the window. He'd go back to the dog door and push on it with his nose, making it swing back and forth and back and forth and back and forth *fwap*fwap*fwap* but just couldn't make himself push all the way through it. DUMB DOG. He finally caught on and could easily let himself in and out and we lived there for another two and a half years with a dog well accustomed to using a dog door.

We moved out in December. He's been 5 months without a dog door and it's as if he's never seen one before. Brother Dustin installed one for us when he was here a few weeks ago (don't ask why HE was the one to do it--I don't know... And I wouldn't recommend him for the job. It's one of the very many misplaced holes that happened while he was here. Ha!) and we've been trying to teach the dog to use it ever since then. It's not going so well and I'm beginning to get worried. If you point at it and tell him to go out he acts like he's being punished. Hunkers over and tucks his tail and goes to hide under a chair or something. He'll eventually go but once he's out, he's out. I've stood inside the house and ordered him out, then called him back in, then ordered him out, then called him back in over and over and over again. I've tried it from the outside of the house, too. He'll go out and he'll come in, but only when ordered to do so. Somehow he's forgotten the entire purpose of a dog door: so the dog can come and go at will and without any effort or direction on the part of his humans. He just doesn't GET it anymore!

Take Sunday, for instance. We left the house at 9:00 that morning and didn't get home until after 8:00 that night. That's 11 hours, right? He was curled up on the couch when we got home, he went nuts greeting everybody like he always does, then was just DYING to go outside. He'll been "stuck" in the house all day long--just 'cause he's not smart enough to go to the dog door and let himself out!

On three other occasions he's been out in the yard when we left. And in the yard when we came home a few hours later, all hot and panting. !!! Why doesn't the dumb dog use the dog door?!?!? The other night he was outside for 2 or 3 hours. I kept thinking if I waited long enough maybe it would occur to him that he can get back inside if he'll just use his own door. At 11:30 that night I finally gave up and went to fetch him. ME, fetching. Not the dog; me.

This would all be nothing more than a minor frustration except that we're getting ready to leave town for a week. What's he going to do while we're gone?! If he stays inside all week he's going to be in bi-i-i-i-i-ig trouble when we get home. (He never has issues like that inside the house, but no dog could last a whole week!) Or he's going to lock himself outside and either starve to death or die of the heat. So I've been beefing up the training the past several days. Nobody is allowed to let the dog in or out. If he tells you he needs out, you are to lead him to the dog door and make him use it. If he's ready to come back in, same thing. Of course, this is much more difficult than I thought it would be when I initiated the plan. The dumb dog ALWAYS goes to the front door when he's ready to come back inside. The dog door is by the back door. So I have to go out the front door, walk the dog around to the back of the house, yell at him ("Use your own door, you dummy!!!"), then walk back around to the front of the house because the back door is locked. (I am married to James Horne, you know. Things are ALWAYS locked. Even if I just unlocked it, by the time I make it around the house--it's locked. He'll deny it, but it's so.) Or I have the option of just going out the back door and hollering for Hershey to come to me. This, of course, just adds to the frustration because Hershey is a dumb dog. I can yell for a full 10 minutes (believe me, I know), but he won't budge from the porch. I'm supposing it's because my voice is carrying around both sides of the house and over the top of it and he doesn't know where I am. I have to walk around to the side of the house before he'll come rushing to see me, all giddy-like. Then I lead him to his door and yell some more. ~sigh~ I'm so worn out. This is almost as frustrating as potty training a kid. WHAT DO I DO?! I've done everything I can think of, but it doesn't seem like we're gaining any ground here. We have a dog who used to use a dog door all the time. Now he is totally clueless. How can a dog be that dumb??? And then it has occurred to me... maybe he's not that dumb. Maybe it's all an act. After all, he's got 5 humans well trained to let him in and out when he wants, feed him when he scratches at the cabinet that contains his food, give him water when he stands with his paws up at the sink, throw a stuffed duck for him when he drops it at their feet, and now they even "fetch" him from the front of the house, personally escort him around to his own private entrance and, in essence, hold the door open for him. Then they go through the servant's entrance and praise the dog for being pampered. "Oh, good boy, Hershey! What a good dog you are! You used your very own door--good, good, good Hershey dog!!!" Kind of sickening when you think about it. Perhaps he knows perfectly well how to use the dog door, he's just grown accustomed to the special treatment. Maybe he does come and go while we're gone, but acts as if he's been stuck in or out the whole time just to keep us from catching on to his little scheme. How can you know?! He's either really, really dumb or way too smart.

Either way, he's been consuming a whole lot of my life and attention this past week. As is evidenced by the fact that he got a whole post on my blog, all to himself! Ha! There really hasn't been anything else exciting going on anyway. Today I did school with the kids and spent the rest of the day either working on Snack Shack plans with Cathy or preparing for my WMB service tonight--which went very, very well, by the way. I was blessed, anyway! Hope everybody else was! Ha! And, of course, I've been leading my dog to the door all day. Over and over and over again. Mom even had the idea to make the front door off limits to everybody for a while. If he follows us to the BACK door all the time, maybe he'll see his own door there and--since we won't let him through ours--think to use it. It hasn't worked yet, but it has made for a lot more inconvenience for the rest of us! Ha! Anyway, I've even taken to praying that God will help the dumb dog learn to use his door. Convention starts 10 days from now. He's got that long to figure it out. Let's see, now... it took him a year to learn to go out his door in Andrews and another year to learn to come back in, so... !!! ~sigh~ Does anybody have any suggestions?! If so, bring 'em on! If not... well, at least help me pray!!! Ha!

7 comments

Trying to Keep Up...

Posted by cokelady

I'm going to try to blog real quick before I find myself a week behind and have to try to catch up on all of the happenings again. Right now I'm only 3 days behind. I'd hate for it to get any worse!

Saturday was a nice family day for us. We loaded up the fam and hit a few garage sales, just for the fun of it. James got a few boxes of screws and nails for 50 cents each, I got a huge basket (a cute one, no less) chock full of craft supplies (colored pipe cleaners and such) that I can use for Sunday School for $3, Katie got a little book of animal stencils for 25 cents, Joe got a word search book for free, and Sam got one of those sling-out light sabers for 25 cents. $5 even, I believe. It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed just driving around and stopping here and there at the different sales. I'm surprised at how MANY yard sales there are for a rural area. (I can WRITE the word just fine, Ma--just can't SAY it! Ha!)

We stopped by the library because I had heard that it was sign-up time for the summer reading program. It's for all ages here, so I ended up with a card, too. The kids are all wound up and came home and dove right into their books. It's rated by the hours spent reading rather than the number of books read, so this is new for the kids--and a little more challenging. And that's good. :-) They've been reading up a storm lately, and loving it.

Seems like we did something else that day, but I can't think of what. I know I came home and spent most of the afternoon preparing for Sunday School class the next day. It was one of those spend-3-hours-getting-the-crafts-ready-but-they'll-only-take-20-minutes-to-do-in-class things. I hate those! Ha! They were really great, though. We've been learning about the days of Creation and we were on Day 5 this week: birds and fish. We made a robin out of construction paper (nothing special really--especially the ones who's legs I accidentally wripped off!), and we had fish sun catchers (those are ALWAYS a hit here--oh, I had gotten them at the yard sale on Saturday, too!), and then we made little portholes with small paper plates. The kids painted one plate blue, then took the edge of a second plate and colored it brown and stapled it (upside down) to the first plate... but first we glued sand and strips of blue and green and yellow yarn (coral) and little fish cut-outs and stickers on the blue "water." They turned out great! Anyway... I think I was so well prepared that I was able to just take the night off and relax on Saturday evening. That NEVER happens!

Yesterday was a good day, but long. We woke up a bit later than usual, so we did the rush-to-get-ready thing that I try to avoid on Sundays. It all worked out okay and we were in the van right on time, though completely out of breath. ;-) We had a good service that morning; good Sunday School and good worship that just kind of lingered on and turned into a prayer time. I was able to visit with a lady after service who's been having some really difficult family problems. They attend church regularly on Sunday mornings, but really don't understand what true SALVATION is. I've been praying for an open door to talk to them and I was thankful for the opportunity to hopefully plant some "beginner" seeds in her heart and mind. Pray that God will touch her and let them really take root and begin to grow! I look forward to some more opportunities to talk to this lady.

One of our members has been sick and hasn't made it to church for three weeks now, so after church Sunday morning we grabbed a bite to eat then drove the 40 minutes south to go visit her. She's doing much better and we hope to see her at church this coming week.

We made it back into town just in time for service that night. James preached the message that he didn't get to preach that morning, then we had a good season of prayer. Until my cell phone rang (~ahem~) and interrupted the whole thing. (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.) Actually, I can't really blam Mom. ;-) I should've had the thing turned off. I'm new to the whole cell phone thing and it just never occurred to me! Anyway, we had a couple of extra fella's at church that night, so that was exciting.

James took the fam out for dessert after service, so the kids were thrilled. Don't know if we've ever replaced dinner with just dessert! Came home and threw the kids into the bed.

This morning we did the usual stuff, then scarfed down our lunch and the kids and I headed into town to go to Sam's Club to check on prices for our grocery shopping for Family Camp. It only took a little over 2 hours at the store (!), but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. Sam crawled onto the rack underneath the cart and slept for at least an hour of it, so that cut down on the violence substantially. :-) I found just about everything on the list and was pleasantly surprised to see that most things were actually a little cheaper than what was available online.

I came home and reworked the numbers, e-mailed them to Cathy (the real mastermind behind all of this camp food stuff--thank goodness!), then called and hashed it all over with her. I can't believe how much work all of this is. I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing. Just not my cup of tea. But Cathy is TERRIFIC at it and seems to just thrive doing it. PRAISE THE LORD! Ha! She is a God-send. :-)

We had left-overs for dinner tonight, then James loaded everybody up and we went down to Charlie's and let everybody pick out an ice cream bar, then drove a couple of miles up the mountain to a picnic area to eat them. The kids were soooooo excited to be "in the forest" and had a wonderful time running and climbing all over the mountain side. It was beautiful. After a little while we piled back into the van and decided to drive a little further. We ended up driving the whole 12 miles or so up to Sandia Crest on a tight, windy, switch-back road that was very, very steep. It's much more intense than Monarch Pass in Colorado, although not as long. We saw 5 deer, lots of pretty irises on the side of the road, and the fantastic view back over the valley to the east. When we finally arrived at the Crest (felt like it took forever!) you could look over the other side of the mountain range, down on the city of Albuquerque. Soooooo cool. And for all of this--I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA! ~sigh~ I also didn't grab my camera when the kids were having a picnic under the trampoline today or when Sam was sleeping so adorably under the shopping cart. I hate that! I'll try to do better.

But for now, I'm going to go. I've got WMB service tomorrow night and I've got to go work on it. Say a prayer for me, please! I just had a service 2 weeks ago and it's usually hard enough for me to get inspired for another service after a whole month, let alone just two weeks! Ha! I'll try to be back soon. But you know me. Time will tell. :-)

~Becki~

2 comments

Random Ramblings

Posted by cokelady

That’s what you’re about to get. You see, I started writing up this great big post a few days ago, detailing all of the happenings of our trip to Andrews and whatnot. Before I knew it, it was already way too long and I still had a day or two to write about and—worst yet—it was… boring. Yipes! A post both forever long AND boring! That’s the lethal combination in the blog world. So I decided to chunk everything up by topics rather than the usual timeline approach and divide it into a whole plethora of categorized posts. Pretty clever, hu? Now you’ll only be bored throughout several small sections of writing instead of through one endlessly long one. :-) Actually, I’m fairly certain that very few of you will make it through all of the posts (hi, Mom!), but I’m gonna write ‘em up anyway. Here we go!

7 comments

Traveling to Texas... and Back

Posted by cokelady

There’s really not much to say, but it seemed like the place to start. I spent most of the 6 hours while we were traveling to Texas with laptop in hand (on lap, actually), working on the Western Skies. I hate having to do that, but we had no choice. I made some headway, but had to finish things up over the next few days at Aunt Sue’s house and Sam & Tammy’s house.

The drive home was equally thrilling. I took one small nap (after all, Tammy and I had stayed up until 3:00 the night before!), but most of the drive was spent reading—aloud—some Sunday School literature that was needing “reviewed.” James is on whatever committee does that sort of thing, so I read it out loud and make all of the grammatical corrections (although my spell check just had to correct the word “grammatical” for me! Ha! –There are surely people out there who are better qualified for such things!) while James listens to the content and checks for any doctrinal problems. We only had to take out four lessons this time. Kidding—I’m just kidding! It was actually very good. We finished up just as we got back to our little mountain town, so James pulled into the parking lot of the Post Office and I finished reading the last page, we stuffed it into the envelop and dumped it off. ~sigh~ Feels so good to get that done! (We were a week late already!)

5 comments

The Revival

Posted by cokelady

…was great! We were so excited to have several visitors—four brand new ones the first night who had never been to service before. A few of them came back the next night and I hear they were at church again just last night. Praise the Lord!!! Andrews is a small church, but God is really moving and blessing there and it just feels like they’re on the brink of something truly grand. They’ve got some ladies who’ve been attending regularly for nearly a year now (over a year now???) and we’re praying that they’ll be ready to join the Church very soon. And now they’ve got some brand new folks to work with! Wa-Hoo!

All of the services were very, very good. James preached some really good salvation messages, the first on the infallible Word of God, the second on light and darkness and the third… hhmmm… well, two out of three—that’s not bad, right?! Oh—the third one was on “This Same Jesus” and was about all of the people who claim to be Christians, but who have really never known the real Jesus who changes your life. Anyway, they were very good. We had really good worship services, too, and I felt very refreshed by the revival, personally, and I think everybody else did as well. :-)

2 comments

Aunt Sue's House

Posted by cokelady

We stayed there the first two nights and had a great time, as always. Staying there is kind of like staying at a Bed & Breakfast or something. The bedrooms are so… cozy and homey-like. And she pampers you like crazy. Which drives me crazy because of the kids—they get wa-a-a-a-ay too much junk there! I guess that’s what aunts are for. Her home is so comfortable and relaxing and we enjoy the time with her. And I even enjoy getting beat at pool by Uncle Jerry. I would enjoy it more if I won, but I’ll just be happy to be able to play. :-) And the kids, of course, love watching endless episodes of I Love Lucy and Wanted: Dead or Alive.

The first night we were there we didn’t have church, so we just ate tacos and spent the night talking. It was great! The next day we went down to Stacey’s store in Odessa to have a dedication service there. James did a really good job with it and it was very neat. Stacey’s been wanting to dedicate the store ever since she opened, but this was the first chance we had.

After the dedication service we walked next door (handy, hu?) to the hair shop and Stacey worked her magic on all three kids and me. :-) Everybody’s hair looks and feels sooooo much better now! We went out to eat a Fazoli’s, then went back to Stacey’s store to do some serious shopping. We've been needing to get some things for the house and this was our chance! Stacey gives us the same fantastic family discount that Aunt Sue does (at least I think she does! Ha!), but still--things add up! I can't bear to spend even small amounts of money, so I wouldn't let James tell me how much it all cost. I can't handle knowing. But I did get a lot of really great stuff, so that makes me happy! Ignorance is bliss, you know. ;-)

The next day we went to Aunt Sue’s store to do yet more shopping. Sue and Stacey carry a lot of the same things, but each store has it’s own “feel,” you know? They’re both terrific and I don’t think I could pick a favorite. Even if I did I couldn’t blog it because what if one of them read it?! Ha! Anyway, we got a whole bunch of stuff at Aunt Sue’s store, too. James made me do it. For real. Most husbands say, "Don't spent too much money!" James tells me, "Now when we get to Sue's store, don't just pick out one or two things--really shop and get everything you think you might need!" He's well familiar with my money spending phobia. With his prompting and encouragement, we walked out with quite a bit. :-)

3 comments

Sam & Tammy's House

Posted by cokelady

It was so great to spend some time with them this trip. And I’ve got to say right off the bat… I am sooooo impressed with Tammy’s guest room! Wow! She’s worked so hard to make it nice and neat and pretty and homey and comfortable… She’s getting it decorated little by little and she was sure to have the dresser drawers and closet empty so we could really “move in” while we were there. She even had a little “guest basket” thing made up (a cute little tin bag actually--which I FORGOT and left in your bathroom, Tammy!) with little containers of shampoo and conditioner and toothpaste and brushes and q-tips… Wow! She’s become so very hospitable!!! She’s always been that way at heart, but now that I’ve stayed with her I can testify that she’s a follower-througher. A doer of the work, and not a hearer only. :-)

We were able to play I Buy, Pictionary, and Balderdash while we were there, one time each, so that was fun. We didn’t have a whole lot of time for such things because of the tight schedule, but we were sure to work them in. :-) We also watched a movie we’d been wanting to see for a while. It was great!

On Saturday Sam delivers papers to all of the businesses around town (don’t most editors double as the paper boy?! Ha!), and Tammy had to run the regular route on the southwest side of town. The kids helped her fold and band all of the papers, then I drove the van all over that side of town while Tammy and the kids took turns chucking them out the windows. It was fun! Reminded me of the mail route I used to carry. I loved that job! Stuff like that is fun.

That afternoon we zoomed down to Odessa so we could go to Johnny Carino’s, for old times’ sake. :-) I broke my own record and had four Italian sodas! I wouldn’t have been so greedy except that there is no place in Albuquerque (that I’ve discovered anyway) to get a good Italian soda without paying a fortune—for just a little tiny one. So I haven't had one in months. And they give free refills at Carino’s. :-) I started with cherry cream, then raspberry cream (oooooh, so good!), blackberry cream, and finally orange cream—although I couldn’t finish the last one. I ate very little chicken parmesan (imagine!), but I sure enjoyed the sodas and bread and salad! :-) And I enjoyed the waitress trying to figure Brother Sam out, as they all do. He’s such a nerd! Ha!

6 comments

Busy Sunday

Posted by cokelady

Tammy fixed us a great breakfast of pancakes and bacon, then we all got ready and headed to church. We had a good service that morning and I really, really enjoyed the Sunday School class (Tammy taught the kids so I could be with the big people) and Brother Sam’s message. Good stuff.

After service we zoomed to Sonic to grab a Frito wrap (the best!), then headed off to Merkel. It didn’t take quite as long to get there this time—less than two and a half hours. We had a really good service there, too, and enjoyed our visit with the Lunas, as always. Sister Luna cooked the usual feast: monstrous pots of rice, beans, and brisket, then individual plates for each of us with 4 or 5 enchiladas on each one! Crazy!!! We did our best not to offend her (which requires clearing your plate—at least once! Ha!), and then headed off to our next traditional stop: K-Mart in Sweetwater. We have to go walk off some of the feast or we’d be miserable the whole way home. Sam & James both found a couple of shirts and some odds and ends at great prices, as we always do at this store—and Tammy got a corduroy skirt for $1, if you can believe that! We picked up a raspberry lemonade at Schlotzky’s (our final tradition) and headed back to Andrews.

Tammy and I tried to doze a little bit on the way home in hopes it would give us some extra energy upon our arrival so we could stay up and play games or something. But by the time we made it home at nearly midnight we were all zapped and just crashed immediately! ~sigh~ So much for acting 18, hu, Tammy?! Ha! Although...

Tammy had me take this online "test" while I was there to determine my "real" age based on my health and eating and exercise habits and all that. Tammy tests right at her actual age, but I tested 2.7 years younger than my actual age. Ha! Gotta love that! I told her that I KNOW James would test much older than his actual age, so I really kind of did marry an older guy. It was always my plan to marry a guy 4 years older than me, you know. I wonder if God chuckles at such things, knowing all the while he had me scheduled to marry a guy two years younger--I missed it by six whole years! Anyway, despite my graying hair, the rest of me is only 27 years old. :-)

4 comments

The Extra Day

Posted by cokelady

We were supposed to head back to Texas on Monday, but James decided we could take one day to just “vacation.” It was great! In the morning we all sat down and watched the bonus material from the movie we’d watched a few nights earlier. I know, I know—we’re nerds! But it was cool! It makes you mad though. Some of the deleted scenes are so good and you feel like yelling, “Hey!!! Why did they take that one out—it’s so cool!!!” I guess it’s fun to see what almost made it into the movie. ;-)

That afternoon Tammy and I watched a girl movie (talk about a worthless day! Ha!) that we hadn’t had a chance to watch yet. Fun! It’s so much fun to watch a good girl movie with someone you know will really enjoy it! James took a nap and Sam played outside with the kids and the horny toad that my Sammy had caught earlier in the day, so Tammy and I were almost “alone” for our chick flick. We’ll take what we can get!

That afternoon we went over to Aunt Sue’s house for a cookout. What originated as a simple burger and weenie roast somehow evolved into barbequed chicken and ribs, shrimp shish kabobs, and New York strip! Whoa!!! It was great. The kids enjoyed taking turns driving the golf cart with Uncle Jerry while the other guys did the cooking.

We stayed and visited for a while, but I was just counting the minutes until we could go put the kids to bed—Sam was driving me nuts! He was WIRED that night and needed to be tied up. Actually, he was tied up for a little while, but not nearly long enough! And he wasn’t tied to anything, just had the rope around his ankle and got drug across the room any time he tried to move. That part was fun, I must admit. :-)

We went back to Sam & Tammy’s house, put the kids to bed and played some more games. There was lots of excitement involving the cops and the neighbors (read Tammy’s blog for the full account! Ha!), but we still had a good night. James went to bed and Sam & Tammy and I played Rummy 5,000. I won. :-) Tammy and I played a little Eternal Rummy that day, too. Just enough for me to take a pretty good lead. ~sigh~ Life is Grand. :-)

4 comments

Home at Last!

Posted by cokelady

We made it home Tuesday afternoon and had enough time to unload the van, get settled in a little bit, and get ready for church.

We had a good BTI service that night with lots of good input and discussion. Afterwards we headed to the other side of town to look at a table and chairs that were for sale. We had taken separate vehicles to church in case we decided to buy the stuff so we'd have room to haul it all. James stayed behind to help Sister Bailey with some paperwork while I headed on over. Sam was in the very back seat of the van and started asking questions about whether that seat "laid down" (reclined) or not. Immediately following the question there was a big "whump" and an "Ooof!" and then some, "Uh, Mom? Hey, Mom???" I looked in the rearview mirror and all I could see were some little black cowboy boots sticking up in the air, kicking! Ha! He had pulled some lever and the seat had fallen completely backwards so he was laying on his back—still strapped in—with his feet straight up! Ha! I laughed so hard!!! I pulled over and got Sam and the seat fixed and instituted some new rules (I do that sooooo much with Sam—rules that none of the other kids ever need) and we were off again.

We got to the girl’s house and the kids played with some kittens while I looked over the table and waited for James to arrive. We decided to get it (that's another story entirely), so we loaded everything into the van and headed to Wendy's to grab a bite to eat before heading home. Katie mentioned that her eye was hurting and she just kept rubbing it. By the time we got there it was all red and bloodshot and swollen half closed--and she had all of these little tiny bumps all around her eye. Weird! I figured it had something to do with the kittens. I don't think she's allergic to cats necessarily, but maybe one of them was sick or something—the room was beyond filthy, so who knows what it was. We prayed and got her hands and faced scrubbed down and everything seemed to clear up after a little while.

We made it home that night and crashed again. We had a great trip, but it’s always sooooo good to be home!

6 comments

The Decorating...

Posted by cokelady

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but it took me a whole day to decorate my house with all the loot I got from Sue & Stacey. Not that there was THAT much stuff, but I arranged and rearranged and re-rearranged it all so many times I was dizzy. There are still a few groupings that I’m not real crazy about, but this is how things are looking so far…

I got a whole slew of these stitch prints. I just thought they'd be sooooo perfect in this particular house. :-) And I love the sayings I picked out, too...

I got these terrific beady things for above the windows in the kitchen. I always hated beady stuff, but again--it's just so great in this house! I also got the wire basket (hard to see from this angle) and the pitcher on the right with the flowery stuff. James brought the crocks home from an antique store yesterday.

These walls were formerly blank, but I found some more great pictures. :-) The one on the left has the Lord's Prayer (KJV, even!).

And this is the picture on the right. I LOVE IT!!! Ha! And I'm just noticing that I still haven't taken the price tags off yet. James will love that! Ha! Just keep in mind that we don't pay anything close to the retail prices you see--but still, don't add 'em up and tell me what they come to because my brain would compute the percentage and then I'd know how much we spent! ;-)

A beady willow tree! Who would've thought I'd ever have such a thing in my house?! But I love it! :-) And a few other odds and ends in this shot are new, too.

LOVE the lantern and the great balls that I found to fill the great basket we bought when Mom was here. :-)

One of those groupings I'm still working on...

Some new stuff here and there, too. The print on that wall says "REPUTATION is what man and woman think of us; CHARACTER is what God and angels know of us." :-)

5 comments

A Screaming Meemie of Snakes

Posted by cokelady

(Only those of you who read Pat McManus, or whose husbands read Pat McManus, can appreciate that title.)

We’ve had lots of exciting things going on since we got home, not the least of which is our snakes. Yes, snakes. In the plural. The day we got home the kids came running madly into the house declaring there was a snake in the pond. I went to investigate and, sure enough, there was a snake in the pond. A dead snake. A little snake tale was hanging out from underneath a rock, floating in the water. I jabbed it a few times with a stick and determined that it was, indeed, lifeless. What kind of a dopey snake crawls into a pond and drowns itself?! I mean, was it suicidal??? Just couldn’t cope with this cruel world anymore, or what? Weird. Anyway, nobody else was willing to touch the thing, so Sam reached in and yanked it out of the pond for me. We disposed of it and thought that was that.

In the past two or three days since then there have been two or three additional snake sightings, all in or around the pond. They’ve all been 12-18” long; just little guys. I’m not sure what kind they are, but I’m fairly certain they’re harmless. They don’t have any rattles, anyway. ;-) And they apparently like to swim, however, they’re not all very adept at it. At least that first one wasn’t. James killed another one yesterday then went out and bought some snake repellant. Can you imagine?! Who ever heard of such a thing?! Ha! Makes me think of the Batman movie (the only one we’ve ever seen is the old Batman—you know, with Adam West—“Blam!” “Ka-Pow!” “Zap!”) where a shark latches on to Batman’s leg and Robin spends the next several minutes sorting through their defensive sprays (octopus repellant, stingray repellant, jellyfish repellant) until he finally locates the trusty shark repellant, sprays the beast, and watches it drop back into the ocean and then explode. (They just don’t make movies like that anymore. Ha!) Anyway, we have had one unverified snake sighting (they are classified as unverified unless an adult gets there in time to see it, too) since the repellant was used, so we’ll see how the next few days go. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I actually feel kind of sorry for the little guys. If I knew them to be dangerous I wouldn’t, but as far as I know they’re perfectly harmless. I couldn’t say they’re cute, but I think it’s kind of neat to have a little, tiny snake swim across our little, tiny pond every now and then. (I saw one do that yesterday—it was cool!) If I knew that we had just one little snake I would try to make James leave him alone, but the thought of a whole crop of them out there doesn’t set well with me. Anyway, I’ll keep you updated. The kids think it’s all a great adventure and we hear screams of “SNAKE!” several times throughout the day. Often it’s nothing more than a caterpillar that caught them off guard, but they’re definitely on the look out!

6 comments

And Finally...

Posted by cokelady

Yesterday morning James asked if I wanted to make “a lighting fast trip into Albuquerque.” I managed not to laugh out loud. As I suspected, we made it home at about 2:30 instead of before noon like we had hoped. All trips to town turn out like that. Yet another reason to avoid them altogether. No, we really did need a few things and we had a good time. Went to Hobby Lobby for some supplies, then to Souper Salad for lunch. I like Souper Salad, but going there at lunch time is like going to the mall on a Friday night. I’m a people person for sure, but I get no pleasure out of being crammed into a room with twice as many people as the legal allotment, all strangers no less, and having to scream to talk to the 4 people I brought with me. Not fun. Anyway, then we went to the other Hobby Lobby to get what we couldn’t get at the first one.

I did some housework once we got back, got totally unpacked from the trip and got all of the laundry done. I made enchilada casserole and nacho dip for dinner last night, then pretty much crashed.

Today was some more serious housework along with school with the kids and some other chores. I spent the afternoon today making auxiliary banners for the Regional Convention. They’re actually mini-banners, but I think they’re cute! They’ll look good all hanging on the wall there. I had bought some great fabric for some new bloomers for Katie and some denim for a new skirt for her, but after working on the banners for a couple of hours I was already reaching that getting-mad stage that I always get to when I sew, so I decided to put the machine away for the night. Maybe I’ll start fresh tomorrow. Or maybe not. Anyway, this is how the banners turned out…

Neat, hu? I like ‘em. And I’m happy to have them completed so early. My goal was to rush ahead and get them done before James would have a chance to nag me about them. For the first time in 8 years of marriage, I succeeded! Wa-Hoo!!! Where’s my prize??? ;-)

And that’s about it from here. I have lots of ironing to do… But I don’t think I will. I’ve been zonking out (just mentally—not actually going to bed) by about 9:00 the past few nights and can’t seem to work up any motivation to accomplish anything. Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day, completely empty and ready to be filled up with all of the things I don’t feel like doing tonight.

And believe it or not, this is really and truly…

THE END!

9 comments

NEW BLOGGER!!!

Posted by cokelady

That's right, folks! We have a new blogger among us! She's just getting started and will need lots of encouragement (in the form of comments, of course), so go on over and welcome her!

coughhome.blogspot.com

:-)

8 comments

A-Blogging I Shall Go

Posted by cokelady

So here I am. Although it may be the last time for a while. Again. You guessed it--I'm going to be with real, live PEOPLE again for a little while! Wa-Hoo!

Hhmmm. I worked so hard remembering everything that happened during our Dustin & Jamey week that I seem to have forgotten everything that has happened in the week since then! I know that we finally got back into the school groove, which was nice. The kids actually seemed to have missed it and were anxious to get going again--even Joe. We made our Tuesday trip to the library after having missed the week before. (Although we failed to go TODAY... never even thought of it!) They were thrilled about that. They each brought home an armful of books and I'm pretty sure they've read them all. Katie read Bunnicula, which is a book I remember reading and writing a report on when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. Something about a bunny that sucks the juice out of unsuspecting vegetables--and all of the other family pets are sure it's a vampire and they're all goners. She seemed to enjoy it and is asking for the sequel. We also checked out James and the Giant Peach. I've heard of it my whole life, but had never read it or known much about it. I read it to the kids over the course of a few days and they thought it was great. "Read some more, Mom! Nooooo-don't stop now!" I love it when they're like that. :-) It's been many moons since I've read a book to them, so it was really nice. For all of us.

We've been working some more around the house. We found some fantastic flowers the other day so we brought them home and James planted them down by the pond. My favorites are the Foxtails. At least that's what James told me they are called. (He knows much more about such things than I do. Weird.) They are sooooo neat--and look PERFECT there by our little pond! James also bought three more goldfish--big ones this time--to add to the pond and they seem to be very happy. The little guys have made friends with them and they all school together, which makes me happy. I was worried about a gang of three big bully goldfish beating up on the scrawny little guys. Next comes the graffiti and it all goes downhill from there. But instead they made friends. :-)

Things are happening inside the house, too. I've had this plan for the kitchen for some time now and James executed it this week. I wanted a "box" built around the upper cabinets that go above the stove and island. This first picture of the kids tea party KIND of shows it--look to the far right. What is currently red on the top--it came down lower over on the side where the oven hood was. And underneath it was just plain white sheetrock.

James bought the beadboard that I wanted (and quickly discovered that he HATES working with) and did THIS...
Then I whipped out the paint and did THIS...
Doesn't it look GREAT?! I LOVE it! Wa-Hoo!!! One more purtifying-of-the-house job done! The only bad thing about it is that each time you do something pretty in a room it makes all of the things that are still undone look sooooo much worse! Ha! I'm anxious to get to the next couple of projects we've got planned, but this one makes me very, very happy. I just LOVE how everything is tying together in the kitchen--the colors in the cabinets and my new beadboard and how PERFECTLY they go with the wallpaper. And to think--we started with the paint! That's so backwards. You usually have to find wallpaper you like, then go get paint to match. All I can say is that this just was just meant to be. :-)

And I'll post a couple more pictures of the same thing (!) so you can see some of Brother Dustin's handiwork. This first one shows the light that he installed to go above the chuckwagon table. Of course, you have to open the table (!), but even without the table it's GREAT to have light in that corner!

And if you look closely in this picture you can see the lovely glow of yet more lights where once there were none! Above the sink and the window off to the right and above the island--all hidden up underneath the shelves and beadboard (all of which James did)--there are these glorious little "puck lights" that actually make it possible for me to see what I'm doing after dark! Wow!!! What a novel idea! This entire area of the house used to have just one bulb above the sink. Can you believe that?! It was a dark, dirty, dreary kitchen. But now it's beautiful and well lit, too! I keep thinking of Cavis from The Star of Christmas. Lights! Lots of electric lights... on the scenery!!! ;-)

These are the reasons why we still allow Brother Dustin to be called a friend. Even after he dropped a boulder on my son. ;-) I just love, love, love all of my new lights! And my new beadboard! And how GREEN it is! Now, now, NOW I'm happy!!! ;-)

You can also see the fabulous wood slat blinds that James installed this week. Wowzers! I've never had anything like them before, but they are wonderful!!! I've only ever had those cheap-o little mini-blinds before. They get bent up and filthy and there's no way to really clean them. But these things are fantastic! James bought these two sets and one for the front window. :-) I still need to remove the extra slats from the set in the window on the right. Soon as I find the time!

As for the bathroom, I'll have to wait to post pictures of that. I don't have the energy to go clean it up nice and purty so I can take pictures. After our Texas trip, if I remember.

Ah, yes! Did I mention that we're going to Texas?! We're going to Texas!!! Brother Sam asked if James would come and preach a weekend revival, so off we go! We'll be leaving in the morning. The revival doesn't actually start until Thursday night, so we'll have tomorrow to just dink around. We'll stay tomorrow and the next night with Aunt Sue & Uncle Jerry, then move over to Sam & Tammy's house for the rest of the time. I'm sooooo excited! I'm excited to go and see everybody, I'm excited about the Revival there and all the good things God has in store, I'm excited about going to Sue & Stacey's stores and doing some shopping, I'm excited about playing GAMES, GAMES, GAMES... ~sigh~ So many things to look forward to. :-) Oooooh, I'm excited about having a hot club sandwhich at Cassidy's. Gotta make sure we don't miss that. ;-) The only thing I'm not excited about is doing the Regional Paper while we're away! I'll take the laptop with me and have to do all of the formatting on the trip. Whenever I get it finished we'll print 'em (we're taking our giant Oki Data printer with us! Ha!) and have Sam & Tammy help us fold them and get them ready to mail--just like old times! ;-)

So if you don't hear from me before (you never know!), we plan to be back home on Monday night. Please be in prayer for this Revival. I know that a lot of prayer and fasting has gone into it and there are needs that only God knows about and can meet. Until next time...

~Bec~

--Oh, wait! James would KILL me if I forgot this! It's the most exciting news of all!!! Last week a lady sent an e-mail to the Church website inquiring if we had a church in Albuquerque. Brother Dupre forwarded the e-mail to James and he started corresponding with her. To make a long story short, she is a member of the church back east and has been living here for quite some time, but never knew that we had a church here--and we never knew anything about her. She was thrilled to find that we do, indeed, have a church in the area and she was at service Sunday and again tonight. :-) I think she's almost as excited as we are. What a blessing! I'd tell you her name, but I'm pretty sure I can't spell it. In any case, God is sooooo good and we are just sooooo thankful to have found her--or that she found us, or whatever! :-)

7 comments

The Rest of the Story!

Posted by cokelady

To start off with, here are a couple of pictures that I failed to include last time. :-) Zeke is sooooo cute. Even though he appears to be holding up Isaac. Ha! Not sure what Nathan and Katie are doing...

I'm falling farther and farther behind! I hate this!!! ~sigh~ It's been a full week since the Hays family left and I know I've already forgotten a whole lot of things that would have been GREAT to write about if only I would've gotten to it right away. ~sigh~ I'll just have to do my best. Where was I?

Tuesday. That's the day that Brother Dustin called in sick. He wasn't feeling well at all and kept trying to blame it on the waffles I made that morning. Everybody else ate waffles, too, but he and Joe were the only ones who got sick. Coincidentally, he and Joe were also the only two in a competition to see who could out-eat who. Hhmmm... very interesting. Anyway, even though he wasn't feeling quite up to par, Brother Dustin managed to accomplish the first of the grand and glorious things that took place while they were here: a LIGHT over the chuckwagon table! Wa-Hoo!!! That entire corner of the room had NO light whatsoever and it was sooooo dark over there. But no more! Of course, he needed the assistance of my long skinny arms (the only part of me that has ever been truly skinny, I'm afraid) to stretch up a small hole in the wall and do half of the wiring for him. (Speaking of a stretching things... HA!) He did a few other odds and ends that day, too, but everything runs together now and I can't remember what took place when.

I made cinnamon rolls that afternoon and got dinner prepared, although--at Brother Dustin's suggestion--we decided to wait until after church to eat it. (We have to leave at about 5:00--who wants to scarf something down before then so you can be ready to go?!) The cinnamon rolls came out of the oven just as I was finishing up on a cherry cheesecake and had the enchilada casserole and nacho dip all ready to heat up when we got back home. A day slightly more productive than the day before--for me, anyway!

We had prayer meeting at church that night and, while it was good, the most enjoyable thing by far happened after service. Actually, it started before service. Brother Dustin came to me with a somewhat evil gleam in his eye and confided that Sister Grimes had found James' keys in the door to the church when she arrived and she, for some reason, had given them to Dustin. He said he was just going to keep them until James noticed they were missing. It's a rare thing for me to ever be found on Dustin's side about anything, but this was just too good!

Somehow, James made it all the way through church without ever missing his keys. Weird!!! I was afraid he'd realize they were gone and start panicking about it while the ladies were still there... and Sister Grimes would no doubt tell him that she gave the keys to Brother Dustin. (She's too no-nonsense to be caught in any devious plot such as this, I'm sure! Ha!) Just as the ladies were pulling out James went to digging in his pockets so he could lock everything up. HA! The next 15 or 20 minutes were almost unbearably funny, as Brother Dustin and Sister Jamey and I watched James--and "helped" him--look all over the church building several times, growing more anxious by the moment. He looked in the door a few times, but of course, the keys were in Brother Dustin's pocket at the time. :-) Finally, when we had secretly laughed ourselves silly (it's very difficult to have so much fun while keeping it all under wraps so the victim isn't AWARE that you're having fun, thus ending the game), Dustin put James' keys back in the doorknob where Sister Grimes had first found them. We spent the next 5 minutes or so waiting for James (and subtily encouraging him to) re-trace his steps AGAIN, beginning with the front door. When he finally looked in the door--oh, you should have seen his face! Ha! I don't know about Dustin & Jamey, but I was really expecting him to swing around and start making accusations. "Alright! Who had my keys all this time?!" But he didn't! We had already started laughing, but James just kept on looking totally and completely confused. "How in the world...?" he kept saying. HA! It never crossed his mind that there was anything sinister going on. He really thought that he had left his keys in the door, they'd been there the whole time, and he had somehow overlooked them when he had checked the door, oh, 4 or 5 times before. !!! Can you imagine?! Ha! That made it even more funny, so I had to play off it of a while longer. I said, "James, are you okay???" He paused for a moment, looked even more befuddled, and finally said, "I guess I'm not..." Ha! Ha! I took the keys and informed him that I was driving home. After all, how could I trust a guy behind the wheel who was experiencing such strange mental activity?! ;-) We waited until just before bedtime that night before finally confessing what we had done. Just as suspected, we'd already gotten all of the fun out of it that there was to be had. James seemed only slightly relieved that he wasn't losing his mind, but he never did enjoy the deep and splendid humor of it all that the rest of us had basked in. ~sigh~ What a great night. We were so tired that night that we didn't even play a game. Unless you count Hide the Keys, of course. :-)

Wednesday. Ah, yes, Wednesday...

That was the day that Dustin Hays dropped a boulder on my son!

Did you get that? I couldn't not write it big and bold like that. But more about that later... :-)

Wednesday was actually a very productive day... up until the boulder incident. :-) Like I said, I don't know what electrical projects were done when, but I know that lots of great new things were taking place around here by that time. I'm pretty sure that was the day that Brother Dustin installed the light above my cabinet in the bathroom. Wa-Hoo!!! That is one of the very, very most wonderful things that he did while he was here. (Far better than the boulder thing...) I LOVE IT!!! I have somehow failed to take a picture of it (or post pictures of the bathroom at all since we got it finished! Weird. I'll try to get to that soon...), but it is sooooooo great! Oh, I LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT. ~sigh~ Makes me so very happy. :-)

As for me, that was the one and only day of the week that I was productive at all, aside from cooking dinner each night. I got out of bed and immediately threw the dog in the tub and scrubbed him down. He'd been needing that for a week or two already! I got all of the laundry done and the whole house vacuumed (I think?), the kitchen floor mopped, and the guest bathroom cleaned up again. I think we had meatloaf for dinner that night.

And here's the part you've all been waiting for. I know Brother Dustin has. :-) He informed me while they were here that he doesn't read my blog all the time. I wouldn't have expected him to, but I replied, "You will after this week!" Ha! Or maybe he never will again. Either way, here's the story...

James had been working on the pond all week long. He had the hole dug ahead of time, but had been working on the liner and the pump and filters and building up rocks around the edges and things like that. On this particular day (I think it was this particular day) he actually filled it up and ~voila~ we had a running stream going under the bridge and into a cute, little pond! Wow! It is sooooo neat!

Anyway, everybody else was still outside when I came in to take a bath and get all cleaned up for the night. The kids had been helping collect rocks from all over the property to "edge" the pond with. That's all I knew. I had just gotten my pjs on when I heard Sam come running through the front door screaming and wailing, "My brother! O-o-o-o-o-oh!!! My brother!!!" No kidding--he was sobbing. Sam does NOT get upset like that, so all I could imagine is that something truly terrible had happened to Joe--perhaps even life threatening. I threw my robe on and rushed to find Sam in the living room and tried to figure out what was going on. All I could get out of Sam was something about a big rock falling on Joe. My first thought is that Sam must've thrown a rock and hit Joe--and that would explain why he would be so upset, just imagining the trouble he would be in. Moments later the rest of my family and the Hays family came through the door as well, all looking a little shaken. James was leading Joe, but Joe was walking on his own and I didn't see any blood, so that was a relief. He was, however, crying pretty hard and holding his back. I lifted his shirt and saw scratches all over his body, but nothing more. I went and got him cleaned up and bandaged (there was one spot down low that was more than just a scratch and ended up turning rather nasty, but it's healing nicely now) before I heard the story of what had happened.

Apparently, James found a rather large rock (we refer to it as a "boulder" because it makes the story so much more colorful) that he thought would look neat up next to the pond. Brother Dustin managed to lift it up on end and Joe and Sam both crawled under it to collect beetles and such. Nobody is quite sure what happened next, but suddenly Brother Dustin realized that the rock was coming down--and there was no way he could stop it! So he starting yelling at the boys to GET OUT from under it. Sam made it. Mosey Joe, well... In the end, Joe was buried under the boulder from the shoulderblades down, nothing but his head and shoulders visible. Brother Dustin's leg was buried as well. Somehow I think Dustin managed to lift the rock enough for Joe to crawl out, but his own leg was still wedged underneath and he couldn't get the leverage to free himself. James was almost up to the house with Joe before he turned around and realized that Dustin was still sitting there with the rock. "Are you stuck?!" Ha! Yup. I'm not sure what followed. Did James go back to help him, or did he manage to wriggle out by himself???

Anyway, in case you are one of those people who doesn't take the time to read great big, long posts, I want to be sure you get the point of the whole story...

Dustin Hays dropped a boulder on my son!!!

Can you believe that?! I must admit... when I knew that Joe was okay and finally heard what had happened, I was elated. I mean, what could be better?! As if I didn't have enough ammo to use against dear old Dustin already, now I have THIS!

The guy dropped a boulder on my son!!!

Ha! Gotta love it. It's only wonderful, of course, because nobody was seriously injured. Joe's bruises are about gone and all of the scabs except the big one are as well. Haven't heard how Brother Dustin is doing. Later on that night he said something like, "I realize this probably sounds rather whiny and trivial since I dropped the rock on him... but my leg is killing me!" Ha!

So there you have it. The biggest event of the whole week... that will no doubt last a lifetime. I'll be sure of it. Ha!

While I'm at it, I'd might as well go ahead and tell you that that's not the ONLY damage Brother Dustin inflicted here. I can't tell you the number of holes--several misplaced--that he put all over my house. Granted, he was able to cover most of them nicely, but not before hearing several remarks from me about living in swiss cheese throughout the week. Actually, I can't remember all of the good gripe material he provided me while they were here. Of all the things he's bad at, he's extremely proficient at that. :-)

~sigh~ I wish I had it in me to just stop right there. But I can't. I must confess that it was a true joy having the Hays with us all week long. (MOSTLY because of Jamey and the kids, mind you! Ha!) We had sooooooo much fun with them and in spite of the few little mishaps (the BOULDER incident, for one), Brother Dustin did enough marvellous things here to make me want to dance with joy. (Don't worry--I refrained.) I'm sure this isn't everything, but he installed an additional circuit box next to the first one (misplaced hole #1... in his defense, I must confess that he only did what he was told--that was JAMES' mistake! Ha!); he got electricity up and going out in the shed for us, ran wiring over to the garage so it'll be there when we're ready to transform it into more living space, he re-installed the smoke detector I'd wallpapered over, I already mentioned the light in my bathroom (he also got us some new switches--and even installed the switch for my new light and an outlet for me at "dwarf height" right where I wanted it. Not without having to listen to a lot of gripes from him and James about the crazy positioning, but it makes me happy right where it is!) and the light over the chuckwagon table, he also installed what he calls puck lights over all of my counter tops and sink in the kitchen (WA-HOO!) and new lights all over the porch for us, some flood lights, and an outside outlet for James to run all of the pumps and everything for the pond. Is that it??? Who knows. Brother Dustin also did a few non-electrician jobs for us such as cutting and installing bed slats, capping a gas line (took him 5 minutes--now I don't have to pay a plumber $160 to do it! Ha!) and installing a dog door. Yet another misplaced hole, but I'm not one to mention such things. ;-)

Sister Jamey did her fair share of work, as well. It seems like she did a great many of the dishes throughout the week and helped stay on top of the kids' mess as much as possible. It's really NOT possible with 5 kids and a 2 bedroom house. Mostly, she just made herself at home and did whatever needed done! I sooooo enjoyed being able to spend some time with her and get to know her better. It's hard to really get to know people when you only see them at church functions... where you're visiting with everybody else, too! So it was great to have some time with just Jamey. I espcially love to hear her speak those tender words to her husband, "I'm gonna punch you in the nose!!!" HA! I haven't tried it out on my husband yet. Maybe one of these days. :-)

The kids all got along great for the most part. Isaac and Aleah crack me up--they are some crazy kids! And my kids LOVE them. And Aleah loves James. Ha! It's so great! Ever since that time about 6 months ago that he gave her a tiny little swat on the leg. She worked herself into a crying frenzy you wouldn't believe--like she was absolutely going to die. And after that, she's crazy about him! Calls him "Dede," which is what she calls her Uncle Derek, I believe. Too funny. Sometimes she even calls him "My Dede"! Ha!

Ah yes, one day we drug three boxes of old Katie clothes out of the shed (the three you just brought to me, Em!) and Jamey was able to find some things that will work for Aleah. This nightgown and cap are some of them. :-)

Let's see... I seem to have left my time-line. I think I was on Wednesday. Ah yes,

The day Dustin Hays dropped a boulder on my son!!!

Once we had bandaged the victims and got everybody put to bed, we whipped out the games again. Pictionary one more time. This time James chose to be on Jamey's team, which left me with Dustin. You're welcome, Dustin, for the win. ;-) We then moved on to Balderdash. It was fun, but not thrilling.

Thursday was a great day. James actually got the pond fully funcional that day.

The day after the boulder incident we decided to give it another go. James just knew that rock would look great by the pond! After experimenting with various approaches (and totally destroying one wheelbarrow along the way) we finally managed to wrestle the thing into place. Mostly Brother Dustin, but of course we can't give him ALL the credit for doing anything. Except dropping the thing on my son. ;-)

This is what the pond is looking like NOW. James even has a couple of goldfish who seem to be living there quite happily so far. Time will tell. We don't have the greatest track record with keeping fish alive, but we're hoping!

Jamey and I made a batch of strawberry jam for her to take home on Thursday. (Have you tried it, Jamey???) Then we put the kids down for naps and locked ourselves in the other room so we could watch a girl movie. :-) How great is that?! It was fun. Brother Dustin finished up on all of his electrical work that night, so that was great, too. We had poppyseed chicken casserole for dinner that night and it seemed to be a hit. We played I Buy and Balderdash again before bed.

Friday was our fun day. All of the work was over and we had a day to just play! We sat around for a little while in the morning wondering what to do (!), then headed to Albuquerque so we could go to Casa de Fiesta for lunch. Guess who showed up?! That little Spanish guy that was serenading my mother last time!!! This time Brother Dustin interpreted for him: "Oh, where is your mother? Would you give her my phone number?" Ha! It was terrific.

We stopped by the church so Brother Dustin could work his electrical magic on the outlet for the stove in the kitchen. It hasn't worked in years, but he had it up and going in a matter of minutes.

We drove back up into the mountains and to the Tinkertown Museum. It's... hhmmm. It's hard to describe! It's mostly little miniature "model" type scenes of all sorts of things. I didn't have my camera, so I can't even post any pictures that would help. It was kind of neat, but there were some really weird things there, too.

After that we headed back to the house and kind of crashed for a little while. We were sooooo tired. James took a nap and after a while Jamey did, too. We had this problem every night. Brother Dustin and I are the Sanguines of the group (there's one of those big words again! Ha!), and we never want to miss out on any fun. We went through the same routine every night: James would go to bed first. Before too long Jamey would call it quits. That meant that Dustin and I HAD to go to bed. I kept saying, "Man! Dustin, it would be so much better if you were a girl--then we could stay up!" Not sure he agreed with the logic, but no matter. :-) Anyway, we finally pulled ourselves together and started showing signs of life again.

The big excitement of the evening is when I heard frantic screaming in the other room. It was Katie. "No! Don't, Dad! OW! Noooooo!" James was saying, "Hold still, Katie--it'll just take a second! I've almost got it!" By the time I made it into the room Katie's first tooth was in my husband's hand and Katie was smiling through her tears and blood. This crazy tooth first started feeling loose back in November. Can you believe that?! It took 5 or 6 months to finally come out!!! I was beginning to think that the child was never going to lose her first tooth. It had been sticking out and up a little more each day it seemed (I kept telling her it was going to be poking her in the nose any day now!), but just wouldn't turn loose. Brother Dustin had told her that that tooth was going to be gone before he left to go back to Colorado and that he had the tools to do it if he needed to. :-) Sister Jamey kept telling her to push on the tooth real hard with her tongue when she went to bed at night--and Kate did. She was working hard at it! Anyway, here are some before and after pictures...

We witnessed a very interesting visit from the "Tooth Fairy" that night and even have the video to prove it. Just ask the Hays. ;-)

James grilled burgers, hot dogs and chicken strips that night--and he made the homemade ice cream, too! What a guy!!! (What was I doing during all that time?!) Everything was sooooo good. Of course, how can you go wrong with a meal like that?! Especially when you throw the ice cream in at the end?!

We knew this was our last night to party, so we whipped out the other batch of punch and decided to play as many games as we could before James dropped off on us. ;-) We started with Pictionary again, I think. Back to Hays vs. Hornes again. We won, meaning that I have yet to lose that game! Which is amazing, because I'm really not very good at it! Next was I Buy. Can't remember who won that one. James was just about to sneak off into the bedroom when we managed to rope him into one last game of Balderdash. I'm sooooo glad! We'd played it a few times during the week, but it had never been truly hilarious up to that point like the last time we'd all played together. But from the very first round on Friday it was terrific! We laughed sooooo hard! Wish I could tell you what was so funny, but I can't. I know that at some point I was laughing so hard I choked on my coke and went running into the other room. When I regained my composure and returned to the table Jamey was gone--she'd apparently gone running the other direction! It's gotta be funny when half of the room clears out, holding their mouths and running for all they're worth! Ha!

The next morning was rather uneventful. We all watched sadly as the Hays loaded up and left. Ha! It really was sad to see them go. I HATE that part about having company! They always have to leave at some point. Of course, the house had been driving me batty, too, so I must admit I was anxious to get things back to normal. It was so gross! Not because of the Hays, mind you, just because of the two bedroom issue. And the fact that I have a very strong aversion to housework when we have company. Who wants to clean house?! There are people to be with, visiting to be done, games to be played, mockery to be unleashed... :-)

A few parting shots before I call it quits...

Here's Brother Dustin cutting one last hole in my house... in the wrong place, of course. :-)

And this! HA! Sam borrowed Isaac's cowboy hat and managed to poke a hole in it. I tried to discipline him, but it wasn't easy when Isaac's parents were cracking up over the arrow through the hat! Ha! I must admit, it was pretty great!

~sigh~ I'd better go. That's way more than enough for one night anyway. I just knew I needed to write it down NOW or it would be lost forever. I'll try to stay on top of things better next time. Ha! Yeah, right! Anyway, have a great weekend and fantastic Sunday services!!!

~Becki~

P.S. -- Did you hear that Dustin Hays dropped a boulder on my son?! :-)