Plodding Right Along

I keep telling myself--and truly intending--to blog every day or two, but I just don't seem to be capable of it anymore. It's been nearly a week again. Sad.

I last blogged on Friday night. I tried to write a happy blog because I desperately needed it. Ha! Last week was a long, long week for me. I cried all... week... long. Sure, there were lots of things going on that I was really troubled about (don't you just hate that phrase--it sounds so dismal and pitiful!) and plenty of things to take to the Lord in prayer, but I usually handle things with a little more emotional stability and a whole lot less tears than I did last week! It was horrible. Some jerk told me yesterday (and no, it wasn't James--ha!) that I seem to be getting more emotional. I would love to tell him he's wrong. That can't possibly be the case. I LIKE being even and steady and level emotionally. Over-emotional people wear me out. They're simply exhausting and you always feel like telling them to CHILL OUT, calm down, stop over-reacting, get a grip, RELAX... What kind of a creep would say something like that to me anyway?! He'll be hearing a few things from me about it, rest assured! Just as soon as I dry it up. Now, where are my Kleenexes??? ;-)

Yeah, it was a long week, working up to it's climax on Sunday. Sunday was a rough, rough day for me. I finally had a bit of a breakdown and cried to James for a little while that afternoon (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know--EMOTIONAL! Where is the jerk who said that anyway...) and before too long I was feeling much, much better. ~whew~ THAT'S a relief. I've been much more normal since then and I'm so glad. :-)

We did indeed spray all of the upstairs ceilings with ceiling paint AND got all of the doors and trim sprayed with Bleached Linen. It felt sooooooooooooo good to get it done! Now we're ready to start going room by room and make things beautiful up there. :-) The only things that didn't get sprayed were the two bathrooms. We'll paint everything in those rooms the old fashioned way.

As for Mother's Day, I have a very thoughtful family. James had brought roses and a card and the kids all picked out some of my favorite snacks and a card. It was all very sweet. I think I cried. Of course I did. Now that I'm a complete emotional wreck in my old age. (Jerk...)

We struggled to get a good picture (!), so this is what we ended up with.
I also wanted to get a picture of Katie in her Easter dress since the only pictures I posted of her wearing it on Easter were at Charlie's funeral. :-/ You can actually see the colors a little better in the picture above though. I love it. It makes me want to cry. (Hahahahahaha! Just kidding!)

Sunday night on our way home from church James told me that he was thinking of making a quick trip to Pennsylvania, "maybe leave on Monday..." I thought he meant NEXT Monday, but he was speaking of the Monday that was about 2 hours away at the time! He used to be so... sheduled. Now he just up and makes BIG decisions on a whim. Weird. Anyway, we decided it would be best if he took the boys with him and I kept Katie with me--so we're having an impromptu girls week! Not that we're able to do much celebrating. There's too much work to be done around here!

I spent most of the day on Monday just trying to get the guys gone--doing laundry and getting them all packed up. They finally left sometime mid-afternoon. Katie and I gathered all of the books that were nearly due and made a trip to the library, then to do some grocery shopping. By the time we made it home it was nearly 6:00. We had dinner, then set up the ironing board and a make-shift ironing board (desk + cardboard + towel) in James' office and spent the evening working through the baskets of clothes while watching a couple of old Jimmy Stewart movies we'd picked up. They were both true stories and very interesting. The first was about Monty Stratton, a nobody who became a big time pitcher then was in an accident and had to learn to cope with his new handicap. It's really a very good movie, much better than it sounds by my description. Ha! The other was The Spirit of St. Louis, the story of Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, of course. I'd never seen it before and I really, really enjoyed it. It was fascinating.

Yesterday morning we got up and headed for Lowes to pick up some paint: red, white, and black. :-) The red has me scared to death. I LOVE red. But I HATE picking a red paint! It has the potential to be completely catastrophic. I know from experience. I'm just hoping that the end result will be a color that will go well with Katie's Coca-Cola room instead of a Barbi doll room. Ha!

We got home and got straight to work. Katie helped out and primed the ceiling and walls in the boys' bathroom, which was GREAT. :-) At the end of the day, both bathrooms had been primed and I had faux painted the three walls in the guest room and three in the boys' bathroom--each of those rooms will have an accent color on the remaining walls. It felt like a pretty good accomplishment for having started much later than I'd hoped!

Madison came to spend the night with Katie last night, so I played a few games with them before sitting down to proof the Evening Light. Madison had brought Life with her. I used to love that game when I was a kid and I hadn't played it in years. It was a different version than I had, but still fun. Of course, when you play with young girls you spend half of the game giving names to everybody's husband and children. Ha! It was fun. I finally stopped and tried to proof read at about 11:00, but my brain was sooooo not in gear! At 1:00 I still had three pages left (!!!) and told the girls I was going to go finish reading and go to bed. I'd been listening to their games and reading instructions and helping them off and on the whole time. Who knows how many mistakes the paper will have next month due to my mental weariness and game distractions! And emotional instability, no doubt. Jerk. ;-)

I had to DRAG myself out of bed this morning, even though I slept in. My body was all achy from the painting yesterday (pitiful) and I didn't feel like doing anything today! I got the corrections to Mom, then headed upstairs to do some more painting. I didn't get to do anything fun up there today. I got out the dark primer and primed the walls in the guest room, Katie's room, and the boys' bathroom--all of the walls up there that will be receiving dark, bold, dangerous colors. :-) I thought of Brother Ridlespurge when I typed that sentence. He's such a color sissy. HA! Anyway, It was about 4:00 when I finished priming the last wall and I didn't want to get into another color before church, so I called it quits. Katie and Madison were playing Life again when I came down. I'm sorry I missed it. :-) I think I'll lay down for a few minutes before we have to get ready for church. I'd love to get an early start upstairs tomorrow. It's getting better up there all the time. It's soooooo wonderful to get past the ~BLEAGH~ stage when everything is all torn up and filthy and finally make it to the happy stage when the walls start to show color and personality--and they are fresh and clean. ~sigh~ It makes me so happy!!!!

I think it makes me want to cry.

(JERK!)

;-)

A Happy New Post

That's what I need about now. Something happy to read or write. It seems like there are a lot of things going on right now and this whole week has been really heavy. It feels like I have cried and prayed most of my time away in between chores and sometimes during chores. I've felt so concerned and burdened and just plain heavy. It's a miserable thing, but a wonderful thing because it makes you really bare your heart to the Lord and it enables you to pray with depth and earnestness. For that I am thankful.

But as for the blog, who wants to get on the Internet and read something ELSE that's sad, troubling, or depressing?! Blogs should be happy places where you talk about the crazy things your kids did or the embarrassing thing that happened to you the other day. A place to come and breathe a sigh of relief and see some good in the world, experience something light and amusing and happy. I would love to read a blog like that but nobody blogs anymore (bunch of losers--ha!) so I guess it's up to me to write one.

Don't count on it. Lengthy I can promise. Amusing... well, you never can tell.

Let's catch up.

Tuesday was a red letter day around here because it was the first day in many moons that I actually WORKED upstairs--all day long! It was miserable. ~Bleagh~ I hate upstairs. It's such a nasty place. But I made myself stay and at the end of the day I had successfully swept all of the sheetrock dust off the walls and onto my person, thus revealing once more what I will look like one day once my hair turns completely white. I think white will do me well. It doesn't bother me in the least that I am well on my way. :-) I also taped plastic over all of the windows and outlets and switch covers, then wiped everything down, making the upstairs READY TO PAINT!!! Whoa! How did THAT happen, you may ask. (You may ask...???) There are two answers:

1. I already spent a LOT of time working up there BEFORE we decided to stop going there several months ago.

2. My standards are much, much lower than they used to be!!!

It's true. Even if I work myself the death over it, it's never going to be perfect. We just aren't the kind of people who can pull off perfect. So why kill myself?! Let's just knock off the loose edges and call it good!

We'll see how that works out for us.

I finally called it quits up there and came down to enjoy a super wonderful hot shower. ~Aaaaahhhhhh~ It's soooooo nice to get all clean after you've been soooooo filthy. I was in my silky pj's by 6:30. :-) That's about what time James got home from running some errands. He had picked up a new game so I decided to play it with the kids. A word to the wise: If you ever see a $30 game called Monopoly City on sale for $5, DON'T FALL FOR IT!!! I should have known that any variation of Monopoly would be just as catastrophic as the original, but I'm such a game person that I thought it only right to give it the benefit of the doubt. I knew I had to play with the kids the first time so I could read the rules and teach them to them--so they didn't make 'em up as they went along and therefore fight even more than usual. But it didn't much matter. It ended up the way Monopoly ALWAYS ends around here--a near brawl followed by a severe Monopoly ban (a year or two???), effective immediately. Ha!

Wednesday we couldn't paint--though the upstairs was ready!--because James had other obligations. Though I can't recall now what they were. Since we were at a stand-still upstairs I spent my day helping children with school and installing handles on the kitchen cabinets, at long last. It's sooooo nice to finally have handles! They are all a little crooked and uneven, but I'm good with it. Let's call it "rustic charm" and be satisfied. (See what happens to your standards after 6 months?!)

That night after service we went to grab a bite to eat with the Coxes--and Michael and Zack who were spending the night with us. We enjoyed fellowshipping with them there for a while, then we took advantage of Brother Will's trailer expertize. Brother Powell had brought his truck and trailer to us that night so James could use them to haul off the mountain of bush parts that were hacked down a while back, leaving our poor plants out front very naked and no doubt embarrassed, but ready to grow back into proper sizes and shapes. (We hope.) Anyway, Brother Will managed to back that great big trailer up the driveway and to the carport for us, then they all came inside to check out the changes to the house. We ended up visiting... and visiting... and visiting... ! It was sometime after 2:00am when they left (can you believe James stayed up that late?!) and the kids were soooooo wiped out--ha! We were soooooo glad they came over and we had a great time visiting with them. We need to do that more often.

Joe, Sam, Michael & Zack were up at 6:00 (after being up until nearly 3:00am!) to go squirrel hunting. Weird-o's. They didn't get anything, thank goodness. If they DO kill a squirrel, THEN what?! Bring it to Mom to cook, no doubt. I'm not interested in that AT ALL. I pray for the squirrels around here to live long and healthy lives and to supernaturally evade all oncoming pellets and bb's. May God guard and protect them all. ;-)

James worked the boys off and on all day, loading up trash and scrap from the shed, then later on they started on the mountain of bush remains. He'd work them for an hour or two, then let them play for an hour or two. It worked out well for all parties involved except for me. Do you have any idea what my house smelled like every time the troop of hot, sweaty boys came marching through?! Ha! In the meantime, I was inside putting on the last cabinet door handle (how did I miss one?!) and then magnet closures on each and every door. Some of the doors didn't close all the way and needed magnets but I put them on every door in hopes that the satisfying *click* would inspire my children to start closing them. So far I can only conclude that they must be deathly afraid of the *click* because I'm fairly confident that they haven't closed a single door since then. Gggrrrrrrr. I'm going to have to hurt them.

The ORIGINAL plan was for all of the boys to camp out on Wednesday night, but it had been so rainy that it was too wet to set up the tent. It cleared up and dried out yesterday so we decided to let Michael and Zack stay one more night so they all do the manly camp-out thing they'd been so excited about. I went to Ladies' Prayer Meeting (and was sooooo blessed there!) and when I got home James had set the tent up for the boys out back. It's a COOL tent (we got it last year on clearance 70% off) and had never used it before. The guys were sooooo excited. But then it got dark. HA! All four of them showed up in the house saying that Zack didn't want to stay out there (he's the youngest) because he was scared--he wanted to stay in the house. Then Sam said he didn't want Zack to have to stay in the house alone--he'd stay in here with him, which was his easy and noble way of avoiding the confession that he, too, was scared. But then Michael didn't want to stay out in the tent with just the TWO of them, which no doubt let Joe breath a sigh of relief that Mike was the one to say aloud what he was feeling, too! Hahahahaha! I tried to encourage the older guys to go ahead and stay out there. I told them it was perfectly safe--if we thought there was any danger we wouldn't have allowed them out there to begin with. "And just think how proud you'll be of yourselves and how cool you'll feel in the morning if you make it all night!" I told them to go out there and TRY to stay, but if they just couldn't handle it they could come on in.

They were in the house watching a movie after about 10 minutes.

Hahahahahaha! It just cracks me up. I have to appreciate their honesty though. :-) They had heard voices and somebody walking around and all sorts of things in those 10 minutes. James said he could see the tent through his window in the office and he kept seeing flashlights scanning every which way from inside the tent. Ha! They were in there saying, "Did you hear that???" "You're kidding, right? -- Did you really hear something!" "YES--GET YOUR GUN!!! I'm SERIOUS--GET YOUR GUN!!!" Hahahahaha! (To be clear, they only had bb guns, but it's still a miracle that the tent doesn't have a dozen holes in it from the overabundance of guns, hatchets and pocket knives wielded by wide-eyed, terror-stricken boys.)

Due to their sleep deprivation from the night before, nobody made it through the movie--they started dropping like flies within the first few minutes. :-)

Today James got some more work out of the Farr boys before delivering them back to their family (!) and I worked on cleaning up all of the kitchen mess--sawdust and such from drilling and installing handles and magnets. This afternoon...

(Insert drum roll, please...)

WE SPRAYED PRIMER UPSTAIRS!!!!!!

WA-HOOOOO!!!!! Actually, I'm writing it with great enthusiasm, trying to convince myself to feel it. But I don't. I had HOPED to prime all of the walls, then spray ceiling paint on all of the ceilings (what else) and Bleached Linen (our "white" paint) on all of the doors, mouldings, and trim. But alas, the primer wasn't drying fast enough for us to be able to follow up with the rest. ~sigh~ You know what that means, right? ~BIG SIGH~ It means we have to do the whole thing again tomorrow. ~BLEAGH~ It is sooooooooooooooo horrible to have to spray paint! I mean, it's WONDERFUL for all of the time it saves you in the long run, especially doors--which we have a TON of up there.

"Would you say we have a plethora of doors?"

"Oh, yes. You have a plethora."

:-)

BUT it's horrible because it is SUCH a mess and the clean-up (both of yourself and the gun!) takes forever. Anyway, at least we got everything primed. I already saw some runs and streaks up there. Oh well "From a galloping horse..." ;-) I'll sand down what I can before we paint tomorrow and hope for the best. Maybe TOMORROW I can sit down at the end of the day with the satisfaction of knowing that we are DONE spraying up there. I wanted it today, but I'll settle for it tomorrow.

After I FINALLY got all of the paint mess taken care of and the sprayer all cleaned up (which always feels like it takes as long as the actual spraying!) I took another nice, hot shower and got immediately into my pj's. ~Aaaaahhh~ I came out of the bedroom and James said, "Oh... I guess you're done for the day, hu?" I'm glad he noticed. :-) He had to run some errands and somehow I ended up home ALL ALONE and he took all three kids! Whoa!!! Oh, happy day. :-) So I'm sitting in my pj's, blogging, in a nice, still, quiet house. It's marvellous. It would get old REAL quick if it was the norm, but since it's not--it's sooooo nice when it happens on occasion. :-)

Uh-oh. Looks like it's all over. He just called and said they're on their way home. "Could you start the onions, bell peppers and hot sausage for dinner, Bec, so it'll be ready when we get there?" :-)

~Happy Sigh~

Today has been wonderful. Laundry, house cleaning, changing of sheets, schooling children—about the usual, but it was just a NICE day. Then this afternoon it started smelling just like a holiday in my house. It was almost magical—though I hate that word. ;-) I made a big ham dinner tonight (hams were $5 off at Aldi last week) with mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, green beans & bacon, buttered carrots, crescent rolls, and pineapple upside-down cake—all homemade except for the rolls. I walked through the house this afternoon and the smell of the ham baking along with the apple scented candle I was burning made the house feel like a holiday. ~Aaaahhhh~ It was soooooo nice! I LOVE FEELING SO AT HOME HERE!!! I’m so, so, so, so, so thankful for the home God gave to us and so, so, so, so, so thankful that we have the whole first floor finished and conducive to normal life. And I’m so, so, so, so, so thankful for the year+ that we spent NOT having a home of our own because I know I could never be appreciating all of it this much if I hadn’t been without it for a little while. I’m just amazed at how HAPPY it makes me to LIVE here now. It’s silly, really. I had every possible comfort living at the Powell’s house last year. But somehow it’s still sooooo exciting! I notice it most of all when I bake. I LOVE my kitchen. It gets crowded when there are two or three people in there at a time, but I just love how I’ve been able to arrange the storage spaces in there so that ALL of my baking supplies (flour, sugar, spices, cake pans, measuring cups, etc.) are all RIGHT THERE within reach—without having to go GET anything. It just makes me happy every time I bake. Which I’ve been doing lately. And loving. I’M SO HAPPY!!! I made a strawberry bundt cake with strawberry glaze and a mandarin orange cake for lunch at Convention this past weekend. It made me so happy to be able to do that! :-) Katie’s been making brownies and cookies and all manner of goodness, too.

Life is good aside from food, too. ;-) We had a good Youth Convention and I truly felt the Lord working in my life there. We really enjoyed having the Lamberts from North Carolina as our guest speakers. They were a great blessed and I’m so glad they were able to come. I was also very blessed by Brother Brandon Keel’s message—but don’t tell him I said so, Kimmi! Ha! I so appreciated his spirit and the good, solid things he had to share. It was our first time hearing him preach, but I’m sure not the last. When Convention ended and the guys FINALLY got out of their "45 minute meeting" (ha!) we went with the Zaxby's crowd: Jeremy & Emilee Wallace, Will & Kristal Cox, Butch & Stephanie Booth (who managed a surprise visit from Mississippi that day), and Brandon & Kimmi Keel. We had a good time and even got a few impersonations out of the evening. :-) Afterward Brandon & Kimmi came to the house for a little while. They'd taken the tour when they were in town last December (is that when it was?) and NOTHING was anywhere near livable, so we wanted to show them the improvements. It's fun to show the house to people who saw it when it was truly horrid. Ha! We had a great time with them and they ended up staying way later than they should have, considering the drive they had ahead of them that night... but I'm so glad! I can't wait for their next visit, whenever it may be. :-)

Let's see... in other news, Joe found a turtle out back today. He was so excited! (Don't judge his enthusiasm by the picture--he really was excited! Ha!) He named him Raymond, as he does with most of the reptiles he catches. He says that it was his great-granddad's name (he never met him) and he just thinks it's a great name. I never know whether to feel touched or disturbed by the fact that he uses it for all of his creepy creatures. ;-) Anyway, "Raymond" was cute, but I think he was a girl. From what I could find today, when box turtles have a very round domed shell like that (instead of being shorter and flatter) they are usually girls. Anyway, the kids had a great time tormenting the poor thing off and on all day long (at one point poor Raymond was riding around the yard in the bed of one of Sam's remote controlled trucks--Ha!), then turned him loose late this afternoon. It makes me so happy that there are great critters in our very own yard for the boys to find--just like at the Powell's house! We had a little green frog sticking to our bedroom window a few weeks ago. The boys were thrilled to hear that, but haven't seen any for themselves yet. They have, however, been catching lizards (of course), shooting at squirrels and collecting fireflies. How blessed they are. I wonder if they really realize it. :-) Too much rambling. Here's Raymond.

Joe wanted to help peel potatoes tonight. He's a huge help. HA!

And James wanted to make a stained glass window for his office tonight. :-) Brother Brandon said something about a stained glass window the other day and it must've reminded James that he wanted one.

And that's it from here. Oh, wait! I DID go upstairs today, Mom! I didn't spend much time there (!), but I did go and do a quick sand job on all of the doors with that horrible slick paint. (I think there are 42 doors up there. At least. Ha!) I hope to accomplish more up there tomorrow, but at least I WENT today! Baby steps, you know. ;-) It's just so tempting to stay busy on THIS floor with things like laundry and ham dinners...

What's With Me, Anyhow?

I just can't seem to make myself wanna blog. Sometimes I don't have time to blog. Other times I sit down to do it and... eh, not right now. I haven't even been taking notes. Seems like when my life is jam packed with business I make/take time to blog, but when I get a breather it's all over.

And that does seem to be what's been going on around here--a breather. Not really, but sort of. By that I mean that it feels like all progress on the house has come to a screeching halt. It hasn't; it just feels like it. We've still been plugging away, working on things here and there, but not with the same tenacity we used to work with. Or should be working with. Truthfully, I've just enjoyed living here. In the past couple of weeks we've gotten all of the odd jobs taken care of on this floor (except for some touch-up with the white paint), but mostly I've just been schooling children, doing laundry, getting ALL CAUGHT UP on the ironing (first time since moving in two months ago!), and cooking dinners and desserts--which is by far the best thing. I’m just LOVING being able to LIVE in a house that’s FINISHED and that’s my very own! It’s amazing how exciting it is to pull out a cookie sheet or a spatula or a potato masher (ha! –Had to throw that one in there because Sister Powell doesn’t own one!) and be able to cook dinner for my family. I am just soooooo happy to have a kitchen that is not only beautifully finished, but also fully equipped, functional, and efficient. I love it. And I love having a laundry room all to itself--and such a cute one. I love having my very own adorable little half-bath. I love it that James has an office to go to or be sent to (ha!) when necessary. I love having a real BED to sleep in again after so long on the floor--and in a cute and clean woodsy room. I love-love-love having a finished, furnished, warm and cozy living room to enjoy. In fact, I love it all so much that I just can't seem to make myself climb the stairs to the unfinished half of the house! It's pretty ugly up there... dirty, nasty bedrooms in need of a total re-do, as well as two bathrooms that are going to need soooooo much time and attention. Who wants to go up there and see all of the mess and have to think about all of that work when you could just stay in the nice and cozy downstairs that's all finished and livable?! It's just so nice. But alas, I'm going to HAVE to make myself get over it and go upstairs again one of these days. I've been saying that for two or three weeks now. Hasn't happened yet. I really need a kick in the pants to get me moving. But since I don't wear pants, oh well. I'll just keep enjoying this half of the house. Ha!

In other news, today has been a winner. I've been putting off for wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too long the daunting task of changing the address on my driver's license. I'm used to walking up to the desk or perhaps waiting in a very short line to have such a simple thing done, but I've heard enough horror stories about the incredible lack of efficiency in Jefferson County (the line backing up out the door, down the sidewalk, and around the corner?!) that I had been fairly DREADING a trip to the courthouse. For whatever reason, I impulsively decided that today would be the day. It was a gloomy, rainy morning here. I like rain and enjoy being out and about on days like this. I think that worked to my advantage, along with the realization that apparently other people DON'T enjoy being out on days like this! The line was way longer than I've ever stood in for a driver's license before, but nothing like I had prepared myself for. I had to drive back home because I had forgotten to take cash and they don't accept cards (!), but once I got back I was in and out in one hour. My Mom says it's CRAZY that I was excited and happy to have stood in line for an hour to do such a simple thing, but after expecting to be there for the majority of my day I was thrilled with only an hour! In fact, when I got home I felt like I had the day off (I had expected to be gone and accomplishing nothing at the house all day anyway, right?!) so I sat and played games with the kids for a while. :-) What a great day.

This afternoon we went to the church to look at the new piano. That's been something that has been in the works for the past week or two. We are sooooo thankful to no longer have the electric piano that had begun flurbing out on us (we're not fond of electric anyway and were secretly excited when it started spontaneously jumping keys or switching to "organ" and things like that--ha!) so the church decided to get a real piano. I usually hate grand pianos (they look and feel way too stuffy and hoity-toity for my taste--like you're trying to show off or something--and I've never played one that felt right to me), but this one has a wood finish instead of the usual slick black and it's very pretty, but much less pretentious than the others. And it plays sooooo nice. When James played it just filled the building and sounded so rich and full and beautiful. ~sigh~ A real piano. We're blessed. :-)

In much more sobering news, Brother Powell called yesterday to tell us that Brady died. He got under a truck and was injured badly--they really had no choice but to have him put down. I just cried and cried when he told me--both because we loved Brady and because Brother Powell was crying (if that won't break your heart, nothing will!). We know all too well how much it hurts to lose a dog that you love. I feel so bad for the Powells. It's just no fun to have to go through this. Of course we all loved Brady, too. The kids all cried when I told them. We're thankful that we had a chance to know him for a year, anyway. He was such a good, happy, friendly dog.

It's strange. There were several other things I was going to write about but I suddenly don't feel like it. I scanned through my pictures to find a good one of Brady to add and ended up crying over him AND Charlie again! ~sigh~ For some reason God molded me to be a dog lover. It's a blessing and a curse! ;-) In any case, I'll call it a night.

Youth Convention this weekend. We're looking forward to it and expecting great things.

Half-Bath

I'm too tired to actually blog tonight, but since I've been such a horrible failure at this lately I thought I'd at least throw a couple of pictures up here before falling into bed tonight. I haven't been taking any notes and therefore have no idea what we've been up to in the past week anyway. So I'll just post pictures. :-)

As of tonight we finally have a second bathroom! WA-HOOOOO!!!! I can't begin to express how excited I am about this, for multiple reasons. First of all, it will obviously be sooooo much easier for five people to share two bathrooms than just one, especially when getting ready for church. It will also be wonderful that the kids no longer need to come bursting through our bedroom in the middle of the night to get to the bathroom--they can use the new one instead. (If they're coherent enough to remember there's a second bathroom, that is.) It's also very exciting because, while this is the "public" bathroom on the main floor that will be used by folks when we have people over for dinner and such, it will be better known as MY bathroom. I love my husband dearly. But I don't like to share my bathroom with him. Ha! We got real spoiled at the Powell's house because they had a full master bath with another sink, mirror and vanity just outside--sort of in between the bedroom and bathroom. My half-bath is just a few steps from our bedroom and I've already moved all of my stuff in there. I'm soooooo excited!!!

Our master bath is really nice and I like it, but MY bathroom has some things going for it that the other is entirely without. First of all, it's blue and yellow. Can you say happy?! Blue and yellow just makes me happy. It's fresh, clean, bright, and cheery! Besides the color combination that I LOVE for a bathroom, it also has three other things I think are terrific just about anywhere:

* Plaid * Denim * Wood

Oh, and one last thing that makes it better yet...

It's MINE.

Does that sound selfish?! You're welcome to use it if you come visit--I promise! ;-)

P.S. -- The new Blogger is WAY wonky and it's going to take me some time to figure out how to format things here! Why do they have to go and change stuff that was fine before? I don't handle change well. Unless it comes by way of a nasty bathroom with African animals on a wallpaper boarder transforming into a fantastically fun and happy blue and yellow bathroom. I like THAT kind of change. :-)

My Mantel!

And better yet--my mantel clock! They both belonged to my Grandmother and are among a small number of possessions that I actually treasure, right D.T.? ;-)

(By the way, I just looked it up and "mantel" really is the proper spelling--regardless of how weird it looks to me and perhaps you!)

The Monstrosity has no fireplace, so it created quite a little dilemma for Grandmother's mantel. James insisted it would look stupid in the living room since there is no fireplace, but I couldn't get used to the thought of it sitting in the corner of the garage for the next ??? years that we live in this house. So I did some thinking and Googling (what else!) and found that mantels can be used to make really neat and unusual headboards for twin beds and also can be converted into shelf/display pieces. Since we weren't planning on a bed in the living room ;-) we worked out the following:



I think it's terrific! I have plans for that big blank space above the houses on the lower shelf and I'm sure there will be some adjusting of things on top of the mantel (the clock stays put, but everything else is subject to change), but for now this is what we've got. We painted an extra panel of bead board black as well as a couple of shelves, but we were able to piece everything together quickly and easily and without any actual changes or alterations to the mantel itself. A little while ago I wound up the clock and prayed that it would work (!) and ~voila~ I'm listening to it tic right now and every quarter hour it chimes beautifully. :-) I sooooo love this clock. I find most chiming clocks annoying (they sound tinny and sharp instead of having round, rich tones like Grandmother's does), but this is the one I used to listen to all night long on Christmas Eve, sleeping on the floor in the living room at the Cabin, anxiously awaiting 5:00 (or sometimes earlier) when we were allowed to get up. So many great memories of Grandmother and Granddad and all the time I spent there with them. The clock brings it all back and I'm so thankful to have it. It's a beautiful reminder of two of the most important people God placed in my life. How blessed I am to have known them.

That was the most exciting accomplishment of the day by far, but not the only one. We finally trimmed our bedroom and the bathroom and James got some more done around the floor in the kitchen, too. Wa-Hoo! Progress. I like progress. I have lots of touch-up painting to do on this floor, but not has much as I used to think. Now there's lots of furniture covering up places that should be touched-up, so I don't have to do those spots--they're already covered. HA! There was a day when I would have died before leaving things undone because they're "hidden" at present, but we are learning better all the time that we've just got to choose our battles in this Monstrosity! Maybe some day, when the house is all finished and we're fully settled upstairs and down, and I'm doing some deep cleaning and pulling everything away from the walls... maybe I'll do some touch-up painting then. But for now, I'll only worry about what I can see. :-)

Katie and Sam have been getting along great for the past few days. With Joe gone they've got nobody but each other so they've been finding ways to just make it work, I guess! Somehow it seems like it's really good for everybody involved when one kid is able to take a little vacation. I'm sooooo happy that Joe has been able to have some all-alone time with my folks. It sounds like he's been able to spend lots of time and have lots of adventures with his Granddad this week and it makes me so happy! (Though Grandma is the one who pulled out the pearl handled Colt .45 and shot the turtle out of the water--doesn't that create a great mental image for you?! HA!) And it's good for Katie and Sam to have some special time with just each other. It's good for James and me because it makes us miss and appreciate Joe more. And it's good for the Grandparents for all of the obvious reasons. Katie had her week up there, now it's Joe's turn. I would say that Sam is next if he would actually consider going, but for now he still refers to it as Alcatraz and insists he has no desire at all to make a solo trip there. HA! One of these days he'll change his mind and give it a try--and love it, no doubt.

Sam has been building some amazing forts in the basement. Stores and motels and who-knows what all. Katie has opened and closed several businesses in the past week but managed to bring in a little profit for herself before each one crashed. I found a story tonight that Joe wrote last week entitled "The Wok Mess Monster." Ha! The title cracks me up--he is so clever. :-) The storyline is very much like The Blob, except it takes place mostly in (as you may have guessed) a Chinese restaurant. :-)

And that's all the news from around here. Oh wait--we had another home cooked meal by Katie tonight! Tuna noodle casserole, peas, and corn. :-) I'm sure I'll enjoy cooking one of these days, too, but Katie was all excited and wrote out a menu and list of ingredients for three meals a few days ago. She's got one more to go, then maybe I'll get a turn. Though I must say it's been a wonderful blessing that my daughter is old enough to be able to handle some things in the kitchen all by herself. It means James and I can keep working on the house and yet our family still ends up with a good, hot, home cooked meal! How blessed we are. Katie is a good girl and a big, big help to her mama. I love her tons. :-)

Kitchen Pictures!

It's been a good and productive day around here today. I like that kind. :-)

Today was the day that I FINALLY got the dining room all cleaned up. It had become the catch-all (along with the foyer and utility room!) for all of the boxes and STUFF while we've been unpacking and moving in on the main floor. The kitchen counter had suffered horribly too, collecting all manner of odds and ends. But today I finally got it all sorted through and cleaned up and, along with Katie and Sam's help, I got all of the trash hauled out, the boxes flatted and moved out to the carport, and the things we didn't end up needing or using boxed up and taken back to the garage. Once all of that was done I was able to CLEAN the dining room and kitchen, floor and all. ~Aaaaahhhhh~ What a great feeling!!! It just looks so, so, so good! It looks like MY HOUSE. I have loved the past year+ and all of the great memories that we will always carry with us from it, but I can't tell you how good it feels to start feeling AT HOME--my very own home--again.

AND...

Today was a monumental day. Over the past few days we've enjoyed a few Totino's pizzas, a pot pie, some soup, some Ramen... but now that the kitchen is all cleaned up and put back together we were able to enjoy our VERY FIRST HOMECOOKED MEAL in our very own house, from our very own WORKING oven!!! Wa-Hooooo!!!!!

Katie had asked if SHE could please cook the first meal. :-) So today she made a tasty lasagna and a delicious homemade apple pie. It was all sooooo good! And it just felt soooooo good to be eating REAL food. From my very own kitchen. ~Aaahhh~ Life is grand! We are all so, so, sooooo thankful! The only really sad thing is that Joe wasn't here to enjoy it! Of the whole family, HE is the one who's been DYING for us to get set up with a functional kitchen and working stove so we could start having home cooked meals again... and he missed it! Poor Joe. At least we know he's eating nice home cooked meals at Grandma Vicki's house this week.

Anyway, the first home cooked meal had to be properly documented:


Notice the big blank walls in there?! Ha! I have NOTHING to go on them and they just look so bare. Someday we'll fix that. I would LOVE to go with the idea that Sister Krystal showed me a picture of a while back--an old paned window with shutters on either side of it. We'll just have to keep our eyes peeled to see what we come across.

Here is the hutch--with DISHES in it, for the first time ever! (Or at least since we bought it from the dude in Albuquerque.)

And for Mom. She's been dying for kitchen pictures, but I never can remember why. I know I've posted some pictures and I can't think of what's different since the last time, though she has told me time and again. The only thing I know of for sure is that the beautiful white double oven actually WORKS now, but it looks just the same in the picture. ;-) Anyway, here you go, Mom. --Oh, I still haven't had a chance to make more hooks yet. That's why there are only three pots hanging from the pot rack. HA! There will be lots more one of these days, I assure you. :-)

I did find a few things to hang on the other wall in the kitchen and it feels so good to have SOMETHING up there.

And my little desk nook. I love it. :-) I love to keep my oatmeal and beans and spaghetti and macaroni noodles in glass jars on a shelf where I can see them.
After our scrumptious dinner we got the kitchen all cleaned up, then split up into our respective rooms. James went to spend the evening in his office doing... I don't know--office stuff, I guess! Katie came to the utility room with me to help me iron. We put on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (I hadn't seen it in many years and Katie LOVED it--I knew she would) and got lots done, though I still can't tell that the pile has gone down much. Maybe if we do this every night this week we'll finally get caught up! Pitiful. Anyway, Sam wasn't much interested in cramming into the utility room with us to watch a girl movie (!), so we let him watch Courageous in the other room. A good night for all, I'd say.

And then I even blogged. :-)

What a great day this has been. The house is looking better all the time and feeling more and more like home. Though it's still rather lonely without a little furball growling at us like intruders every time we come home and a thousand other things that we miss about Charlie. Still, we're doing well overall. Staying busy helps us all to stay happier. We're so blessed and we know it. God is good to us. :-)

The Stove Story

I've long wanted a double oven, but they are soooooo expensive. If you find one on a super-duper sale for anywhere under $1,000 you're doing really, really good. But that is sooooo much money! I just mentioned it to the Lord, but knew it wasn't important enough to really agonize over. ;-) We found one on Craigslist for $300--and it was even white. WOWZERS. When we went to look at it, it was in a storage unit so there was no way to test anything, but it looked to be in really good shape with only a few minor dings. The inside of the ovens looks practically brand new. Dude told us it was about 3 years old. I had already spoken with an appliance repair guy and he told me WORST CASE scenario to get it fixed if it had big, bad, ugly problems would be $450, putting our total at $750. Still a lot of money, but a good price for a double oven.

We bought it, in hopes that we wouldn't encounter worst case scenario. :-)

When we got it home and plugged it in it started speaking French and beeping continuously--wouldn't respond to any of the buttons at all. This was worst case scenario. :-/ The computer was just fried. No fixing it; it needed replaced. The piece alone cost $300+ dollars. ~sigh~

We called an appliance repair man who shall hereafter be referred to as Stove Guy simply because Dirty Rotten Crook doesn't sound very gracious. ;-) He came and looked at the stove, told us we needed a new touchpad and computer board (it's one piece), took $150 (half of the price of the part he needed to order)... and disappeared. About the day he had told us the parts would arrive is when he stopped calling us and stopped answering any of our phone calls--until I would call from a different phone number. THEN he'd answer and be full of excuses:

"Sorry I didn't come this morning like I said--I lost my keys and..."

"Yes, Ma'am--I should have called and told you--I stepped on a nail last night and spent a few hours in the Emergency Room..."

I was already thinking that this guy is either a liar, or he's got really, really bad luck. The clincher though:

"I can't come tonight because I've got to drive to Hunstville and pick up my fiance from the airport."

To which I replied, "Wait a minute... didn't you tell me you drove to Hunstville yesterday to pick her up???"

He then told me that the weather was really bad in Oregon and her flight had been cancelled the day before, so he was driving up again to get her when her new flight arrived... completely forgetting that he hadn't just told me he was going to pick her up, his actual words the previous day had been, "Yeah, I just picked her up and we're headed back to Birmingham now..." Hahahahahaha! It wasn't worth arguing with him--he was obviously a chronic liar.

It was THEN that we got wise and started trying to look up reviews on the Internet. You guessed it--there were SEVERAL of them, all saying the same thing. "The jerk took my money and ran--he won't answer or return my calls. I'm calling the cops!" Of course there were two posted that were just praising how honest and efficient the guy was... but of which had been posted that very week, obviously by Dirty Rotten Cr--I mean Stove Guy himself. ;-) I KNOW how he'd been treating his customers that week, so there's no doubt about the fact that it wasn't a true customer writing anything complimentary. ~sigh~ Live and learn. We obviously got burned.

I was going to call him and tell him that I was going to call the cops on him... but before I made the call I had a change of heart. I certainly wanted to have a working stove and I certainly did want my money back, but he has a SOUL and that is sooooo much more important than my stove or money. I finally decided that I was going to call and talk to him about his soul and how God loves him and wants to save him. I knew he wouldn't answer my call because I was out of new phone numbers to use (!), so I was all prepared to leave a message on his voice mail telling him everything I thought I should tell him about how to get saved and why he needed to.

I called him up... and got a message saying his voice mailbox was full. Hahahahahaha! OF COURSE it's full--of complaints, no doubt!!! So I took that as my answer from God to just let it go.

A few minutes later, Stove Guy CALLED ME BACK. Whoa!!! That hadn't happened in a couple of weeks! He called and told me that he was going to send my money back. I was SO unprepared for him to actually call me and it totally threw me off my game. I completely forgot about my little salvation speech, just stammered a "thank you" and managed to think to tell him that I was praying for him before he hung up.

I didn't actually believe that he'd send the money back, it it's always good to hope, right? :-)

He didn't.

It's been nearly two weeks since then. James and I decided that it was only right to call the police and report the dude. But I also felt it was only right that I inform the guy that I was going to have to do that. Talk about an awkward phone call! He didn't answer when I called this morning, of course, but he did call me back a few minutes later. He had some great excuses this time about an ex-girlfriend who's in a coma and whose kidneys are failing because she took too many children's Tylonol after having cancer, etc. I then thought how very sad it would be if it really was a true story. Sad because of the situation itself, but also sad because I had no reason to believe that such a person even exists and couldn't even muster a sincere prayer. How sad to be a liar and have everything you say doubted, even if you're telling the truth! ANYWAY, he insisted that he will put a check for $150 in the mail today and I told him that I would really like to believe that, but...! I told him I wouldn't call the police until after I'd checked the mail on Wednesday. I kept praying for God to give me wisdom and an opportunity to talk to the guy about his sould, but he rarely gives you a chance to say ANYTHING and I never did get to address the subject. I have prayed for him several times though, asking God to send somebody who can make him shush and listen (!) or somehow prick his heart and help him to search out the truth and find God.

ANYWAY...

In the meantime...

I called Maytag about two weeks ago, when I finally gave up on Stove Guy ever showing up to fix my oven or give my money back. Upon doing some investigation we discovered that this stove is 10 years old, not 3 years old. I'm good at finding liars, it seems. ;-) I couldn't believe it--this stove looks soooooo nice and like the ovens have just barely been used at all. I was disappointed and a little embarrassed to fine out it was so old. But then I also found out that it had a recall on it. Good news? Bad news? We received the parts in the mail last week and opened the box to discover some pieces of venting that needed replaced AND the entire computer/touchpad that was shot! PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!! The repair guy (a real one, not a crook) showed up the next day and fixed the oven for us--all free of charge--meaning all we had to do was hook it up to gas and we'd be rarin' to go. God is soooooo good and soooooo merciful!

Having never had a gas oven before and having never done anything with gas lines we were a little bit nervous, but didn't want to pay a plumber $100 to do a 15 minute job. We bought the kit, shut the gas off, hooked it all up, checked for leaks... but kept thinking we were smelling gas. James and the boys left for Cleveland immediately afterward (I had really pushed to get the stove hooked up so we could have a pizza party while they were gone--ha!), leaving him to worry if we'd all be gassed to death while he was away. :-/ Even worse, Katie had arranged for Katie Farr to spend the night, so we were putting her life in peril, too. (Not really--if I REALLY THOUGHT anyone was in peril I never would have brought another girl into the house; I just couldn't help but be NERVOUS about it, just in case, you know?!) When we picked Katie up I got to talking to the Ridlespurges about hooking the gas up to the stove... and after an hour or two they couldn't take it any longer and came over to see if they could detect any gas leaks. After all, their granddaughter's life was hanging in the balance. ;-) I didn't THINK I was smelling gas any more, but my smeller has never been the greatest and I did feel much better when they brought their noses over and assured us that they weren't smelling any gas at all either. So since we checked for leaks and didn't find any and we had several noses not detecting any smell, we decided we must be alright. That's when we headed to the office and took those great pictures of Brother Ridlespurge. :-)

And we cooked pizzas that night. And brownies. And have used the range to heat up soup and make some Ramen. Nothing actually homemade yet, but it's just soooooo great to actually be able to do stuff like that! It was so exciting to get a refrigerator, then twice as exciting to finally get a microwave. Now that we have a working stove we're just ecstatic!!! And it cost us $450. If Stove Crook sends our money back it will have cost only $300 and I wouldn't even know what to do with myself. :-)

So there you have it. I've thanked God soooooo many times for how he worked all of this out. I'm just so excited and so, so grateful. I have a double oven! And it WORKS! Oh, happy day!!!

In other news, the Katie & Katie party was fun. I played Quelf with them, then they wanted to watch Fiddler on the Roof... at 10:00 at night! Do you have any idea how long that movie is?! Crazy. They roller skated downstairs lots the next day, turning the whole basement into an obstacle course. They had to jump over some things, skate around others, then squat down real low and skate through a big box that was laying on it's side, open at both ends. FUN. Made me wish I had some skates!

The girls also helped me built my bed. I've been DYING to get it done all week, but it just never happened. Between the three of us, all three volumes of Upon This Rock and a History of the Old Testament book (!) we got it together pretty quickly and painlessly. And that meant I could unpack and decorate my bedroom. WA-HOO!!! I got all of that done and cleaned up Saturday afternoon. Keep in mind that we haven't yet installed the trim between the paint and wallpaper--that's still to come. But I figured my decorations wouldn't be in the way. Too much. :-)



It's strange... I like my house in person, but when I put pictures on the blog it just doesn't seem to look all that great. HA! Mostly I keep seeing all of the naked windows in need of curtains, I think. Oh well. Some day. :-)

Today I got all of James' grandmother's dishes put away. We brought them back from Pennsylvania at Thanksgiving time last year. She had servings for TWENTY-FOUR PEOPLE of blue and white Currier and Ives dishes. Can you imagine? 24 plates, 24 bowls, 24 dessert plates, 24 saucers, 24 coffee cups... Amazing. I built (I use the term "built" very loosely) two racks with hooks for the cups to hang from and got everything all put away and arranged in the hutch this morning. Unfortunately, that's about all of the house accomplishements for the day. I helped children with school quite a bit, then this evening we went to Hoover to do some running around. Picked up a dress for Katie and a suit for Joe at the thrift store, went to Christmas Tree Shops in search of something to put on the dining room walls (I've never had a dining room before and therefore have nothing to hang in there--and didn't have any luck in our search today) and accidentally found a few other things instead, stopped for pizza, then went to the library so I could pick up some girl movies in hopes that if I have something new (meaning I haven't seen them in years) to watch I'll make myself iron... and iron... and iron. I haven't gotten the ironing caught up since we moved out of the Powell's house. I'm really, really hoping this will be the week I make it happen. Of course, I think I've hoped that every week for the past two months. ;-) It's been a nice day, but we're missing Joe already. He's staying at Mom & Dad's house for the week. I'm so happy for him. He's soooooo excited and it sounds like he's having a terrific time. I'm still wondering if he'll enjoy it the whole way through, or start to get lonely for siblings to play (and fight) with after a few days. Time will tell. :-)

Pictures!

Don't get excited--there really aren't that many house pictures to share yet. But I was finally able to upload the pictures that wouldn't upload with my post last night.

I had to laugh at how different Ken Ham looked from when I first saw him... 21 YEARS AGO. I'm sure I probably look a little different, too.

The church he was speaking at was AMAZING. Look at all of those pipes! My kids are pretty sure this is where the Assembly should be held. :-)
Okay, Mom -- LIVING ROOM! My VERY OWN living room! ~Aaaaahhhhhh~ It feels like HOME. :-)
It's strange... I don't notice so much in person, but in this picture all I can see is that great big, ugly window that needs curtains of some kind. Ha!
That's it, Mom. I took a picture of the mantle wall, too, but it looks so silly with the mantle just leaning against the wall so I figured I'd wait until we enact my mantle plan and get it attached to the wall. Besides, the walls are mostly naked over there and I need to come up with something to fill them with. Some day. :-)

But HERE! Here is my kitchen sink. I LOVE IT. :-) It's just soooooooo nice to have a kitchen sink after all this time! And I really, really like the faucet we found at that salvage place in Chattanooga. I think it's perfect.
And then there are these pictures... I just couldn't NOT post these pictures. Hahahahahaha! James is in Cleveland right now and the Ridlespurges had to come over last night because our lives depended on it (no, really--I'll explain next time!) and I took them to see James' nearly finished office. They've been so excited to see it and we've all given James such a hard time about the great big, hoity-toity "overseer's desk" that he got real cheap recently. Brother Ridlespurge couldn't help himself--he just at to try it out...


Hahahahaha! I love it. We laughed a LOT. :-)

Progress

Slowly, slowly, slowly... but surely. And I'm thankful for every bit of it. But first, a short (no, really--I'll try to keep it short) recap of what all I've failed to blog.

We had a very good District Convention in Moulton, then visited the churches in Russelville and West Lawrence the next day. Things didn't go as we had planned and we got to the church in West Lawrence much earlier than we expected--and right on time for James to go in and help Brother Dustin and several of the other ministers pray for a young man who was devil possessed. In the end, the young man was delivered and saved and sanctified. Praise the Lord!

We got home late that night, but got up early the next day so the kids and I could drive to Vestavia Hills to attend one session of a Ken Ham seminar. He's always been my favorite Creation Science speaker and I've always thoroughly enjoyed hearing him. In fact, I remember hearing him speak at a Creation Seminar in Colorado Springs when I was about 13 years old. TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO?! That is sooooo crazy! My kids really enjoyed hearing him, too, but since we've already exposed them to lots of Creation books and DVD's it wasn't really anything new and enlightening to them. Once it was too late (!) I REALLY wished that I would have tried to get some of the other church kids there. It would've been great for them to hear and (if they're anything like me) they would have thought it was the coolest thing ever.

The next day we bought our kitchen sink. Actually, we returned the one that we'd bought previously (took it out of the box and found it chipped) and bought a different one. One that I love, but that cost way too much money. :-/ But when you're already paying a crazy amount for a sink (has anybody priced cast iron sinks lately?!) I figured I'd go ahead and pay $13 more for the one I really wanted. Though we scarred up the countertop a little bit getting it in (those things weigh sooooo much!), we got it installed that night and--miracle of miracles--there were NO leaks. I mean, on the very first try! NOTHING leaked; not the sink, the dishwasher, the ice maker--nothing! Wa-hoooo! I didn't even know that was possible. :-)

Let's see, what else... I did my VLB service this month on the 7 Motivational Gifts found in Romans 12. I've always LOVED that study, but was a little nervous about presenting it here. In the end it seemed like everybody enjoyed it, though they were fighting over who was what after service. Ha! The "Prophets" and the "Mercy's" are always the easiest to spot. :-)

Last Friday the kids and I drove to Fort Payne to meet Mom & Dad for lunch. It's so cool that we live close enough to do that now! Mom had made a DARLING Easter dress for Katie, so we needed to pick it up. (Unfortunately Easter wasn't very nice for us this year, what with losing Charlie, and I didn't get a good picture of her in it! Next time she puts it on I will.) Anyway, we had a nice lunch at Western Sizzlin', then we all went to a few stores before parting ways.

Yesterday Brother & Sister Powell called and asked if they could bring Brady up for the kids to play with for a little while. I cried at the when James told me! They are so sweet and thoughtful. They came and we all walked all over the property (they've never been here in the daylight) while Brady drug Katie all over tarnation. :-) It was great to see them. And Brady.

As for the house, I was able to get some work done in the half bath. Painting and polying the vanity, finishing the countertop, and laying the wood floor. Aside from that, we've been working on unpacking and finding places for all of the stuff we got moved in this past Saturday. I found places for everything in the kitchen (I was worried when I saw how many boxes said KITCHEN on them!), I've gotten the living room all unpacked and decorated (except for a few things that will have to be done later), and James has his office all set up and moved into. Those three rooms are looking great, but everything else is TRASHED! I keep thinking "tomorrow" I'll get the rest of the house under control, but so far "tomorrow" has been very evasive.

There is other grand and glorious news, but I'll save it for another time because it deserves attention all to itself instead of just being tacked on to the end of an already long post. :-) For now, I'll just put on a few pictures of the house.

Actually, I won't. HA! I'm so sorry, Mom--I've tried and tried and tried again, but Blogger just keeps getting STUCK. I will try again tomorrow. :-)