Our Weekend in Brief

Saturday was the Parish Volunteer Appreciation/Kick off Picnic. It was a lot of fun. Krista was signed up to help with all the kids’ games, but had her wisdom teeth pulled on Thursday and so was not able to attend. Breanne and Jared went early to help set up with Mike and the rest of us followed. We had a rough start on this, Stacia’s first family outing. We ended up having to drive to our storage unit and pay for a month because they are near impossible to reach. When we got out to the lake I realized I’d packed the bottle, water, formula, Stacia’s diapers, a spare outfit…but I’d forgotten diapers for Zander. I dropped the kids off with Mike and headed back home to pick up diapers. I’d kept Stacia with me and she decided it was time to eat. I pulled up to the picnic a full hour late. They were into the “preaching” as Nolan calls it but they were really just talking about all the various volunteers from the services and the Crossroads Student Center. There was still a lot of good food left.

Stacia was a hit and made the rounds from woman to woman. The kids enjoyed the face painting and games…complete with a water fight that left no one suffering from hyperthermia….there are certainly some nice benefits to living in TX.

Sundays are always full. This one was especially full as it was the kick off of the Religious Education year. Military chapels almost always (I’ve never seen it differently) take off the summer from Sunday School. It’s always exciting to begin up again. Our program is fairly small as this isn’t a family centered base/mission….this worked out nice for our kids, who are the new kids on the block. There were two of them in each class. I’m not sure Zander is really ready for Sunday School but they take him anyway.

Mike and the kids had discovered Golden Coral during my bed rest and took me there after church. Wow. That place does a brisk business. Bre has been scoping out a set of elderly twins that come each week…..matching clothes, hair and make up…she’s very impressed.

The girls have been busy packing and organizing for their upcoming trip to Spokane. It’s been strange to watch them prepare to leave….they’ve never even been to camp (though they have gone on quite a few youth retreats) . I already shared about our shopping trip under “Ariellisms”. Today we plan to go to the storage unit and pull out the boxes that they had planned to take to Spokane. Now that they can see the size of the trunk they have to work with, they’ll have to make a few more cut backs.

Mike and I are keeping busy and trying not to think too much about the upcoming goodbyes….knowing that it is good thing but finding it to be our least favorite part of parenting to date.