Trip to Library turned car emergency.

Or not. Bear with me. Let me try to make a long story short.

I drive a car that has seen its better days. It probably should have been dead over a decade ago, but it was relatively babied by the mother of one of Jon's co-workers.

I should mention that I have driven it for 13 months and never had an issue. Before today.

We have dvd's due back to the library in the town that is 5 miles from me. So I am just going to take the two younger boys to town with me to return the dvds; should be back in no time. Matthew shouldn't even notice that we've been gone. He's still trying to sleep off/catch up from 3 days of being at Grandmas.

The car stalls when I back it out of the driveway, but no worries, it did that earlier this week and started just fine after.

We make it the five miles into town and I hear a loud "POP"; all of the sudden, I'm without steering and most of the braking power and every light is on on the dashboard!

So in my quick but panicked thinking, I pull into the nearest driveway, which happens to be A&W, and try to keep from hitting the lovely landscaping retaining wall in the parking lot.

Thank goodness I had my cell phone; I have a terrible habit of leaving without it.

Now, not knowing a soul in that town I have to call Jon; who of course, is in Appleton, working.

Here's our conversation:

Jon : {upon picking up his cell} "Dear, can I call you back?" usually I say, "Sure!"

Me:{starting to panic and talking really fast} "Um, no; I have no steering and no brakes and I'm in the parking lot of A&W in ____, and I have both boys and ........"

Jon: {too calmly} "Okay, don't panic; I'll leave as soon as I can."

Okay, it's pretty much too late for the "don't panic" thing.

I tell the boys to roll down the windows and hang tight; it'll be about 40 minutes for Jon to get to us.

They entertain themselves with a colored pencil of Caleb's that they find; and then they just start using their extremities as swords. Boys.

Jon arrives and I have to tell you that I can't really think of a time in recent days when I was happier to see him.

He looks under the hood and asked me to start the car. Of course, it started right away. Duh. So I'm pretty much feeling like the world's biggest idiot for having him come all the way from Appleton for a stall. When I say as much to him, all he does is shake his head. Nice.

We leave my car at A&W and get in his car to go to the library and return the dvds. Then back to get my car; and he decides that he will drive it and I will follow him in the Honda.

No argument from me.

And of course, Murphy's Law never fails to occur at moments like this; all the way back from town to home the car doesn't stall once.

Figures. Made me want to kick him.

In an interesting twist of irony, our mechanic lives where we were stranded. But he works in Appleton. Ha.ha. Jon's just gonna have Roger look at the car once we get home from Michigan since it is now safely in its own driveway.

Nothing like a little car trouble to make a trip to the library last forever.

So little time, so much to do!

So, Jon is officially on vacation starting tonight. We're gonna have a bonfire, since Matthew is back home.

I love going on vacation, but I hate getting ready for vacation. The laundry, the lists, the packing. And this year it seems that Jon has more to do than ever so that we are NOT the creepy house on the street when we get home next week. Aka- he wants the lawn mowed.

And why does it seem that it's going to be harder to get out of the house "on time" with an extra child? Maybe not, but 6am comes early!

Now, I have a question for you....Whitefish Point in Paradise, MI OR Tahquamenon Falls in Paradise, MI?!?!

Or BOTH?

You see, Jon has finally worked at his job for long enough to get another week of vacation; so he's up to three weeks. He's already taken one day of those five extra days, but still has the others intact. (And technically the whole other week is intact as well, since Christmas is still a ways off.)

Anyway.

It was his idea to still leave my parents' on Sunday next week and then come home through the UP; taking till Monday afternoon to get home rather than Sunday evening. And maybe make stops at some of the places we have driven past/through over the years and always said, "you know, it'd be nice to stop there".

So his idea was to go to Tahquamenon Falls on Sunday and then Whitefish Point on Monday. It'll take about 6 hours of driving time to get to TF from my parents and WP is about 40 minutes north of that.

Now, we've been to each of these places, but not since Matthew was under four years old. So, it'd be nice to go again; we just can't decide which to do.....

Whadda ya think?

Oh, and on a side note; we started putting our coins in a jar when we got home from MI last summer. And little by little, the jar got heavier. When we counted it by hand a couple of months ago, it had just over $40 in it.

Jon took it to the credit union on Tuesday and cashed it out for sixty-five dollars and seventy cents! That'll go towards something on Sunday or Monday next week; park fees, ice cream, something. Just think how much it would have been if we'd have been hard-core about it!!

Three's a crowd

First of all, I give props to all women who have more than two offspring. And that goes double if they are each less than 3 years apart.


I seriously don't know how you do it. I'd have to be heavily medicated to manage something like that full time. Or drunk. No wonder my sister acts like a loon half the time; she had 3 babies in four years.


We've had a lot of fun with Sean here. And I think at this point that it's an experience that we will definitely most likely probably maybe repeat next summer. Thank goodness summer comes only once a year. And by the way, in case you didn't know; the same goes for Christmas too. Only once. That's all.


Anywho.


Caleb was born the day after Sean's first birthday. My mom was planning on being at the hospital for Caleb's birth, but first she had to stay home to bake Sean a cake. Whatever. That was fine. Around noon the next day, I hear a familiar voice say "I'm looking for my daughter", and I immediately turn to Jon and say, "That's Mom, go get her!"


For the record, Caleb isn't actually born until I get a kickass epidural and they vaccuum extract him by his ginormous head at 6:56pm. (For a little guy of 5 pounds 10 ounces, he had a HUGE head! Thanks, son!)


So she didn't miss a thing. She actually was the one who cut the cord.


I'm getting so off track here.



Caleb and Sean are so close in age that they have always played well together. That is, once they got past that little problem of "who are you and why are you here?" (I'll tell ya that one another day.) And it has always helped that they don't get much chance to play together due to the 450+ miles that they live apart.


But I have to tell ya, the "three's a crowd" thing even applies when it's me and the boys headed to the store. I take two boys to the store all the time, but the older one is twelve, not eight. Seven year olds get much more easily distracted by 8-year olds than their pesky, bossy older brother. Much. more. easily.


So much so that I told Jon that the first thing I plan to do on Saturday when he is home is to go to the store alone. And I have to tell ya, I haven't been this excited for an outing alone in ages. Say since the first day of school last September.


Two can play together till the cows come home and rarely fight. (When will the cows come home? Where have they been?) But I even took steps to ban the 7-year old neighbor boy from the yard this week. K and Caleb don't get along the best anyway and if you were to add Sean to the mix, it could get ugly.


I almost felt bad for K yesterday when he was standing at the edge of his yard watching the boys in the sprinkler. Almost. But it's just an invitation for trouble. And as I told Caleb, Sean as a finite number of days to play and K will still be here when we get home. He seemed okay with that.




No sense inviting trouble.

(Almost!) Wordless Wednesday- Summer fun

****I was going to give you a few pics that I have taken since Sean arrived; but for some reason, I can't get my camera and my computer to cooperate. So these will just have to do.****

The rest of the story...for now

In just a quick phone call from Mom, since there was another call from the doctor on the home cell, the news is the best that we could have hoped for.

Here's what I know she said for sure.


Dad's CT scan and bone scan came back just fine. While there is no way to be 100% certain, chances are fairly good that the cancer is just contained to the prostate.

Here's where it gets fuzzy for me.

He has an appointment on the 15th of July with a radiation oncologist and then an appointment on the 20th of July to set his course of treatment. I think that Mom said radiation or surgery, but she may have said radiation and surgery.

Again, she was talking fairly fast and my brain obviously did not absorb everything in two minutes.

She also said that the doctor said that to wait a month to begin treatment will, in her words, "not matter a hill of beans".

I like beans. Black beans especially. In soup with tomatoes, shredded chicken.....oops. That's not what we're talking about.

Anyway, we certainly praise our faithful God for the best outcome to some rotten news.

He wasn't surprised in the slightest.

The waiting is the hardest part

We have several things that we are, in one way or another, all waiting on in this house.

Jon is anxiously counting down the days till vacation. He's pretty burned out, so it's affecting everyone and everything around him. He'll nearly change personalities as soon as we pull in the driveway at my Mom and Dad's on Sunday.

I am anxiously awaiting getting to see the rest of my family. Seven months between visits is a long time. Now, to be fair, I have seen my parents this year, but I haven't seen my brother. And I only saw my sister long enough on Saturday to pick up her son and eat lunch together. I always look forward to getting to spend time with family and eat Mom's cooking!

And then there's that little impending matter of the birth of my brother's son. You know, not that I have been counting the weeks since I learned that his girlfriend (she's his wife now!) was expecting. Last I heard, baby dude was determined to stay put; my sister-in-law had even gone on a walk last night to try and trigger labor- no dice on that one. Huh. Maybe little man is waiting for Auntie Jen to arrive?! Hey- a girl can dream, can't she?

Caleb waited for days for Sean to arrive. The wait nearly killed him, I have to tell you. Now that we're on the third full day of Sean being here, they are still having a good time; but the honeymoon is definitely over. I've spent time documenting everything that we have done on film so that Sean can have a scrapbook of his visit to show my sister next week. The list of things so far is long and exhausting. Well, maybe only exhausting for me, LOL.

And the biggest wait of all for me is the news of my Dad's test results today. When I talked to him on Sunday, he said that his appointment was at 3:30 EST and that he and Mom had made a list of people to call from the car leaving the office. He said that he's pretty sure that I'm on that list. Haha. To which I responded "well, if I'm not, I know where you live!"

God, grant me patience, but HURRY!

Flashback Friday- Father's Day!

***********
By the way, this is your warning that there won't be as many posts over the next couple of weeks. No, I'm not taking a break; well, I am sorta- we're just gonna be busy. We're driving to Indiana tomorrow to meet my sister to bring my nephew home and then next Saturday leaving for Michigan until July 5.

Don't worry-not that you would; I'll still leave an update on my Dad when I get one. And once we get home, hopefully I can show you pics of my new nephew (to be born any day, but for sure on July 1- as I type this!).

Have a great weekend, everybody!

He will carry you

The Christmas after my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, I received a card from my Aunt.

Aunt Beth is my mom's only sister. They were five and a half years apart, so they weren't always close. But when I was in high school, we had the chance for my Dad to take a church that was about two hours from a Lutheran church that Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark pastored.

For the short time that the sisters lived geographically so close, they got closer as sisters. And it was nice to see how an adult sibling relationship was supposed to be. You know, since I was 15 and my little sister drove me NUTS! (love you!)

Anyway, in the Christmas card that year was a silver key ring. It is in the shape of footprints and contains the well-known inscription:

"When you saw only one set of footprints,

That was when I carried you."

Timing is everything, isn't it? I've carried those footprints on my key ring since that day in 2004. They are just a touch smaller than my house key and just a bit smaller than my niece Laina's feet when she was born.

I wasn't in a place to trust God to carry me when on January 3, 2000, Laina was born too soon and went to be with Jesus that same night. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite was true. I tried to maintain my "strength" for my little sister, but I'm sure that I failed miserably.

Since I thought I knew better.

And for almost 5 years, I was more than a little mad at God.

Why would he take a baby that he knew that my sister wanted so much?

Why would I never get to hold my niece, or see her beautiful face?

Why am I having to stand at the grave of my niece with my sister?

What in the world does God think He's doing?

And terrified. Terrified of losing someone else that I loved. I literally went around the apartment spraying things with Lysol for years. Thinking that I had the control over whether my family lived or died.

I was gonna get control, dang it.

And the entire time, I'm sure that God was looking down on me thinking "Just give it to me. Let me handle it. I can, you know."

And I'm shaking my fist yelling, "Oh yeah?!? Well, you've really not proven yourself to be very loving! I can do better on my own!"

But can I tell you how exhausting that is? Man, there isn't a more emotionally draining thing in the world to do than resist God and His love.

And I'd probably still be in that place if it weren't for my pastor and my church family. When Mom was diagnosed, they rallied around us and prayed. And helped me to see that I didn't need to carry the fear and burden on my own.

God is bigger. He can do it.

And He has. She's been cancer free for almost 4 years. And she and I are closer as mother and daughter. And little by little our entire family is closer as well.

And can I tell you how freeing it is to have peace concerning the outcome for my Dad? Because no matter what, God can do good.

And I've surrendered to being carried.

Wordless Wednesday- Matthew

Denial

ain't just a river in Egypt, you know.

Today, Dad has a bone scan and tomorrow a CT scan (or may be the other way around, I forget) to find out exactly what extent of cancer we're looking at.

I called Mom yesterday; as it was her birthday, and even though I set out not to talk about it at all, the conversation eventually turned to Dad's diagnosis.

She said that Dad's always been pretty good about getting a yearly physical, with some nagging gentle prodding from her. She said that this year, she didn't even get around to reminding him that it was time; he just told her that he'd made an appointment.

She found out yesterday that the reason that he made the appointment was that "something didn't feel right".

Before I could ask if she knew what that meant, she added that even though he is her husband, there are just some things that she doesn't want to know.

Turns out that the test that they use to determine prostate cancer- those numbers have been on the steady increase for Dad. I guess that he had a biopsy a couple of years ago, just to check things. And at that point, things were in an okay range.

Six of the twelve samples at last weeks biopsy came back with cancer.

Mom told Heather, my sister, that she thinks that Dad was in complete denial when he made the phone calls on Friday. Living in a state of "I'll be fine; no one dies from this"- and then, by Monday, coming to the realization that it is cancer and the success rate for cure is not 100%.

So some men-who are husbands, fathers, grandfathers- still die.

And here's the pervading thought that is keeping me awake at night.

If, next week when Mom and Dad are in the urologists office, they find out that indeed, the cancer is beyond the prostate- if it got in to the lymph node system or bones- the odds that he will die have just skyrocketed.

We hope and pray that will not be the case, but the possibility exists. And there's no sense in denying that.

But I have hope. And the good news is, I'm not in control. I could do nothing- or I could let the worry and fear continue to keep me awake at night- and that won't change one second of the path my Dad has to walk.

Because God sees, and He knows.

And He loves Dad more that I could possibly ever. He loves Dad more that Mom does. He has everyone's best interest at heart, cancer or no cancer.

There's no denying that.

And I know He watches me.

There's nothing and I mean *nothing* about my life that God does not see. Occasionally, I get a reminder of that. And sometimes I get a slap-you-upside-the-head reminder, like over the weekend.

I have briefly shared here that my Mom is a breast cancer survivor. Before her diagnosis just after her 50th birthday in 2004, the only other member of my family to have cancer died after 14 months of "there's nothing we can do". So I have to admit, when I got the call from my dad about my Mom, that's where my brain took me.

And there wasn't much logic in my brain for several weeks. I had gotten myself convinced that she was going to die- *I* was going to have to live the rest of my days without her. You know, cuz it's all about me. Oh wait.

She said something to me on Easter Sunday of 2005 that I will never forget. She had just had her last chemo appointment and didn't deal with that one very well in particular. I don't remember what we were talking about, honestly; but the part that I remember is her saying, "Don't you know your God better than that?"

I'm ashamed to admit to you that at that time, no, I didn't.

At the same time, I can say to you that now I do. I have come to the place (I think) that should God decide that he wants one of my family members in eternity with Him, I'd be okay. I'm sure that I'd be sad, but I have wonderful Godly support through my church family.

And He watches me.

He knew that she was going to fight cancer from the minute she was born. And He knew that cancer and fear of losing her was what it was going to take for me to lean on HIM.

And, of course, I'm thrilled to report that Mom is cancer free, by God's grace. And I did more growing in Christ in that year that I had done in all my years growing up as a PK. (that's preacher's kid, in case you don't know.)

So, I'm proud to say that I took it a bit better Friday evening when I got a phone call from my Dad. It's a call that I *knew* would probably come; but I had hoped that it'd sail right on by.

Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday. He's 55.

For a minute, I went back to my place of fear. Okay, maybe it was for more than a minute. Even "easily treatable and highly surviveable" cancer isn't fun. And for the next minute, I felt some good 'ol "gloom and doom" for myself and both of my younger siblings.

A kind of "if cancer killed grandpa....and Mom has had it...and Grandpa G had it...and now DAD, where in the world does that leave us?!? That's it, give up hope; some form of cancer is in our future!"

But wait a second. That's the old me.

The more deeply rooted me can lean on Christ, can cry on Jon's shoulder and fight the good fight. No matter what.

Because as much of a surprise as both diagnosis's have been to me; they weren't a surprise to my Heavenly Father. Not for a minute.

Not that any one of us has all the answers. Cuz believe me, we don't. And not that I'm not scared, because I am. But in a place of sheer panic and terror? No.

Trusting that God has good planned for my Dad and for every single person who loves him? Absolutely.

No matter what.

Flashback Friday! Fishin'

Risky Business

This week has been loaded for me. I've reached a realization that a certain friendship of mine is over. They just run their course sometimes, don't they?

I'm just tired of being the one to initiate the contact. And we haven't talked in almost 2 months. And we've reached the point where maybe she is feeling the same as I am, and it's over. Part of me is sad- we had a lot of fun for 6 years- and part of me is relieved to not have to deal with it anymore. It just got too hard. Friendships aren't supposed to be a burden, are they?

And then through the "wonder" that is Facebook, I've found my best friend from high school. Except that we had a falling-out during my junior year (over MY boyfriend) and really haven't spoken since. We didn't go to the same school or even live in the same town, so the break wasn't that hard. Until I ended up at the same college as she did and I'd catch a glimpse of her across campus from time to time.

I messaged her on FB back a few months ago, just to see if she'd reach out. She replied with a very generic message and so I thought that was it. And frankly, I was okay with it.

We have something like 20 friends in common, so occasionally she and I will end up in the same place with a comment for a mutual friend.

Then this week, it happened. She sent me a "friend request" with the message 'I thought we were 'friends' but I get this message that you only share info with certain people. LOL' For the record, she has almost 400 friends, so I'm surprised that she noticed my absence at all.

I hesitate to accept her request. And frankly, the reason why is kind of silly; shouldn't we have moved past this "boyfriend thing" by now? I mean, it was 1992, for God's sake! And I haven't seen her since 1994, but the whole thing just makes me sick to my stomach.

I have me some fabulous friends. (Yes, I know that was terrible grammar, and I don't care! LOL) IRL (in real life) and online, through blogging and message boards, there are people who I really treasure and feel blessed to know.

Why do the others make it so difficult? I *think* that starting new friendships is worth it; no one goes into something thinking 'Man, this could end really badly.' And on one hand, things like friendships end for a reason. Mostly when they no longer meet the needs of the parties involved. On the other hand, friendship is necessary and important and I guess, ultimately, worth the risk.

Wordless Wednesday! It's in here somewhere....

That's a first....*

*alternately titled "if tomorrow the bus never comes."

Oh, I have a love/hate relationship with small towns. Okay, right now, mostly hate. Ugh. Everybody knows everyone and you're expected to know everything about every aspect of town. *sigh* Being new to town is not an excuse. You can never ask enough questions and they are never the right questions anyway......

So the bus normally comes at 7:12. By 7:20, the boys were still waiting for Ms. Tami and Matthew was a bit nervous. I told him to wait, and that if she hadn't come soon, we'd get in the car and I'd get them there.

At 7:30, still no bus. One of the neighbor kids who lives up the cross street comes to the corner to look down our road, and Matthew yells "She hasn't come yet and I don't see her!" Great, and now the rest of the village knows that too; thanks, kid.

So, I tell the boys to get in the car and I grab my shoes and purse and head out the door. Granted, I am unshowered, dressed in sweats with my hair in a ponytail, but I promise Matthew that I won't exit the car and he's okay with that. Well, it's either that or being late for school without a good excuse...you pick.

Thank goodness that there are other parents in that town who drive their kids to school. There was what seemed to be no parking at the elementary school the whole two times that I had to pick up my kid during the day. The secretary mentioned some obscure access road when we took the building tour in December, but she didn't offer any more details.

Let's just say I found it today. Take a left just before the building and it takes you to the back parking lot with playground access. I just followed the other cars in front of me and at least now I know.

There's some discrepancy as to whether Ms. Tami is driving their bus tonight or if anyone is, for that matter.

When we were in Appleton, we lived so close to the school that on the rare occasion that there wasn't a bus, I just sent them walking. I miss that.

Thank goodness for track season; otherwise I'd not have had a clue as to how to drop off Matthew at the middle school either.

How lame.

Stormy weather

Not much new on the homefront here. Thanks to now a third day of rain, I can hardly bring myself to get out of bed. blech. And thanks to some amazingly loud thunder in the middle of the night, I had Caleb in my side of the bed for a time. I sorta went back to sleep, so I'm not sure for how long, but he didn't need much convincing to go back to his own bed.

Thank goodness that Caleb has a battery powered alarm clock or this morning would have been a disaster. (For the record, I have one too; it just wasn't set.) When I heard the alarm from down the hall and realized that Jon's alarm clock was *Blinking* 4:53, everyone was out of bed in a flash. Thankfully no one was late.

I don't know what's with me. I thought that spring would make it better, and it's almost summer and that isn't the case. Blech. But I've gotten really good at faking it; have myself dressed and *some* housework done before 4pm when the boys arrive home. But really, all I want to do is stay in bed. It's raining, the house is cold, I'm tired.

School's finally finished on Thursday this week. Maybe that'll help. And my 8yo nephew, Sean is coming for a visit on the 20th. Actually, we're meeting my sister in Indiana to pick him up (they're in MI) and then we are going to visit my family in MI from the 28th till July 5th. So there are good reasons for me to get myself together, I just wish I felt like it.

Flashback Friday! Messy, Messy

Marriage

You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming. -- Alan, age 10

No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with... -- Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?
Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then. -- Camille, age 10

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?
You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids. -- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?
Both don't want any more kids. -- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?
Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough...-- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure?)
On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date. -- Martin, age 10 (isn't he ready for the world of dating?)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?
I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns. -- Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?
When they're rich. -- Pam, age 7
The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that. -- Curt, age 7
The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them... It's the right thing to do.. -- Howard, age 8

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?
It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. -- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN'T GET MARRIED?
There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn't there? -- Kelvin, age 8 (I like this kid)

And the #1 Favorite is .....

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?
Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck. -- Ricky, age 10 (He'll be married forever)

Wordless Wednesday- play ball!

Have no fear

A little girl walked to and from school daily.

Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning.

The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school. She also feared the electrical storm might harm her child.

Full of concern, the mother got into her car and quickly drove along the route to her child's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along. At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile.

More lighting followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.

When the mother drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called, "What are you doing?"

The child answered, "I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture."

Weekend Wear

Anyone else feel that the closer we get to summer, the faster the weekends go?!? Hopefully it isn't just OUR house that this is happening to, LOL.

This last weekend was NO exception. I was awaken at 3am on Friday.....Jon had a little issue with getting out of bed. He hit the wall. Well, in his defense, on his side of the room, there's a section of wall that juts out because it used to be the chimney path. I have to say that I wasn't as sympathetic as I could have been when I hear him grumbling, then I ask if he's okay and I start to giggle. I couldn't help myself.

He's so frustrated, and maybe in a teensy bit of pain, that he slams the bedroom door, stomps down to the bathroom and 2 minutes later, slams the door again. Ugh. By this time I'm awake and so when he gets back into bed and is asleep literally 45 SECONDS later, I lay and let him snore in my ear for about an hour and a half. Then I just gave up and came downstairs.

Busy finding myself things to do, the next thing I know it's 2:30pm. Which ordinarily wouldn't be a big deal except that I had volunteered to help at the teen lock-in at my church from 7pm-7am. So there's suddenly no going to bed at 8pm when I had already been awake for 17 hours.

So by 5pm, the boys and I are headed to Appleton to switch cars with Jon and leave Caleb with him. Matthew and I arrive at the church in Green Bay by just after 6:30, pull into the parking lot and there are kids EVERYWHERE. I immediately start to panic that I don't have enough games for the slot of 12:30am-6:30am. (I wasn't the one who had made the "schedule".)

We gather the kids (the number was up for debate even yesterday morning....was it 32 or 35 teens?!?!) have some music and a devotion and then leave for the bowling alley while participating in a "road rally". I didn't drive for this, since I just had the Honda, but I read clues from shotgun for our "team". Can I say, that two things can really put your rally in a jam....having the business for clue #4 CLOSED, as in OUT OF BUSINESS and having the "shortcut" under construction! haha.

We arrive at the bowling alley for some cosmic bowling, pop and pizza. The group is made up of mostly girls, who decide that they are sick of bowling around 11pm, so we pack up and head back to church. From there we play mummy wrap relay, sardines, cell phone scavenger hunt and gross food game...to name just a few. And there were no pukers this year for the gross game...thank goodness!

By 5:15am, Pastor showed up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and we handed the group to him. After a run to the store for juice and milk, we ate donuts and headed home. Matthew and I sang and talked all the way home, but I have to say, I was still feeling pretty good by that point. Once I got to sleep around 9am, I was awaken twice; once by the recycling pickup and once by the neighbor boy telling Caleb, "You're not the boss of me. Shut up!"

We ate out for dinner, since I was too tired to cook. Then Matthew and I sorta vegged in front of a House MD marathon till 10pm. (I'd let him sleep till 2:30, I'm so nice!)

Yesterday involved Sunday school and morning service, of course, and then I had forgotten that there was evening service too. I had a roast in the oven so we drove home to eat (arrived around 1:30) and then at 3pm headed back to Green Bay. Caleb played the drums in the evening service and he did a great job!

And so here we are, at Monday morning again, and I missed my weekend. I'm gonna go take a nap. Yeah, right.