Okay, today was a mixed bag. We just returned last night from a long weekend in Missoula (remember?), so there's laundry to do and a lawn to mow and flower beds to weed and water and tasks at the office to go tend to . . . but that's all on hold for one annoying reason and one delightful one.
First, the annoying reason: vacation Bible school. Susan, as the director of Sunday school at our church, is in charge of summertime Bible school, too. She got as much ready as she could before we left for the weekend and even brought along to Missoula some Bible school preparation projects to complete in order to minimize her "to do" list for when we returned. Still, she was at church by 5:45 this morning to tend to several last-minute tasks in order to be ready for the children's arrival.
The stress of not feeling ready for the deadline was compounded by other factors. The kids enjoy Bible school, and parents enjoy sending their kids to it . . . they just don't enjoy volunteering to help out. Despite Susan's best recruiting efforts, she could not rustle up the desired number of volunteers and knew coming into this week that she would be short-handed. So she was not amused to come home last night to voicemail messages from people saying, "Yeah, I realize that I committed to help during Bible school, but I won't be there tomorrow morning after all." But even that was better than those volunteers who didn't show up today without having contacted Susan.
It gets better (well, worse, actually). As the kids began to arrive today, Susan was mentally scrambling to rethink room assignments and groupings to accommodate the lack of teachers and volunteers who were supposed to be there but weren't. She struggled to keep her head from exploding as several parents who had ignored the deadline for registering their kids for Bible school instead dropped them off the morning of the first day, leaving Susan to figure out on-the-spot where to put them (with fewer helpers than expected) and how to make them feel included when, of course, she hadn't ordered T-shirts or prepared materials for them since they weren't registered to be there.
It wasn't pretty.
On a brighter note, the delightful reason for delaying our home and yard tasks was the arrival of Susan's family: her dad Roger, her brother Jerrett, her sister Cassie, and Cassie's son Davis. Cassie and Davis are here from SC to visit for a few days (Cassie's husband Nick will join them at his parents' home in MN at the end of the week); Jerrett is here from Mandan, ND for an overnight stay; and Roger lives in Dickinson. We got to eat dinner and supper together, play with Davis (who is so danged cute), and celebrate Hillary's birthday together. We also fired up the Wii for some extended family tournaments in tennis and bowling.
First, the annoying reason: vacation Bible school. Susan, as the director of Sunday school at our church, is in charge of summertime Bible school, too. She got as much ready as she could before we left for the weekend and even brought along to Missoula some Bible school preparation projects to complete in order to minimize her "to do" list for when we returned. Still, she was at church by 5:45 this morning to tend to several last-minute tasks in order to be ready for the children's arrival.
The stress of not feeling ready for the deadline was compounded by other factors. The kids enjoy Bible school, and parents enjoy sending their kids to it . . . they just don't enjoy volunteering to help out. Despite Susan's best recruiting efforts, she could not rustle up the desired number of volunteers and knew coming into this week that she would be short-handed. So she was not amused to come home last night to voicemail messages from people saying, "Yeah, I realize that I committed to help during Bible school, but I won't be there tomorrow morning after all." But even that was better than those volunteers who didn't show up today without having contacted Susan.
It gets better (well, worse, actually). As the kids began to arrive today, Susan was mentally scrambling to rethink room assignments and groupings to accommodate the lack of teachers and volunteers who were supposed to be there but weren't. She struggled to keep her head from exploding as several parents who had ignored the deadline for registering their kids for Bible school instead dropped them off the morning of the first day, leaving Susan to figure out on-the-spot where to put them (with fewer helpers than expected) and how to make them feel included when, of course, she hadn't ordered T-shirts or prepared materials for them since they weren't registered to be there.
It wasn't pretty.
On a brighter note, the delightful reason for delaying our home and yard tasks was the arrival of Susan's family: her dad Roger, her brother Jerrett, her sister Cassie, and Cassie's son Davis. Cassie and Davis are here from SC to visit for a few days (Cassie's husband Nick will join them at his parents' home in MN at the end of the week); Jerrett is here from Mandan, ND for an overnight stay; and Roger lives in Dickinson. We got to eat dinner and supper together, play with Davis (who is so danged cute), and celebrate Hillary's birthday together. We also fired up the Wii for some extended family tournaments in tennis and bowling.
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See what I mean? The kid is cute!
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Hillary didn't get a birthday cake on her actual birthday, but Susan baked one for her today: a chocolate layer cake with cream cheese frosting (colored pink, Hillary's favorite color).
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This little kid is looking fine and sassy at nine years old!
He's definitely a "Cassie Minnie-Me"! But I do see his Daddy in his face as well. So cute!
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