Wild Weekend...nearly done

Ahhhh... God is so good! Don't you know it?

Finally! This afternoon after church, I had the blissful opportunity to nap. After sleeping for a few hours, I feel refreshed and ready to meet the coming week.

A bit of an update: Friday night's "Hot! Hot! Hot!" event was a smashing success. We had a capacity crowd (near 100) and everything went off without a hitch! We did have to add an extra table for overflow...but two sweet men came down and took care of that in short order!

For food, we had all the fixin's for taco's, burrito's and any other Mexican O's you can think of! We had beef, chicken, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, olives, cheese, guacamole, onions, and probably a lot I can't remember. Several ladies brought home-made desserts that were absolutely sin waiting to happen! Before I even fixed my taco plate, I hit the dessert table. I had some wonderful stuff that I think was called some sort of fruit trifle. It was in layers and absolutely Yummy!

Just an editorial note here:

I truly believe that you should eat dessert first. Let's say you save it for last...like a normal person. What if the Lord takes you home in the next minute? -- You'll never regret missing the meal part...but you'll surely wish you'd gone ahead and had that dessert! Also, what if the meal fills you up? What a terrible waste of good dessert by saving it for last!

[That little helpful hint is a freebie for all my loyal readers!]

One of my friends led the singing. After a few praise songs, she made those ladies get up and do the Mexican Hat dance around the tables. It was hysterically funny!!!

Our pastor's wife was our featured speaker and she did a fabulous job, too! Remember the scripture from Ezekial? She talked about how even with all our blessings piled in, we can feel like that empty pot. Then God has to heat things up, refine us--teach us, until we're cleaned out enough to appreciate our blessings again. Well, that's not really a good paraphrase...but that's what I heard and it meant a lot to me!!!

So, after all the food and decorations were cleaned up, lights turned out, etc...I dragged my exhausted body to the car to head home. As I was pulling out of the church parking lot about 10:15pm, I noticed the 'voice mail' notice was on my cellphone. I knew that it would be my girl leaving a message for her lonesome mom! Sure enough, it was!!! Wow! It's amazing how energizing it was just to hear her voice.

Then, I dialed her number and got to hear that sweet girl say "Hi, Mom!" Ahhh...relief. As we talked, she told me a bit about her fantastic week and that she was sooo tired she really wanted me to come pick her up that night. Ohhhhh, how I wanted to do that! I was just a pinch away from doing it, too! If it hadn't been so late, and if it wouldn't have been about 25 miles one way to pick her up, and if I hadn't been so absolutely exhausted, and if Mr. Fix-It wouldn't have fussed about wasting gas and that I would see her the next morning anyway...I would have turned that car right then and there towards Havana!

Instead, I hiked up my big-girl britches and just talked to her on the phone as I drove towards Lonesome Pine. I arrived at home shortly before 11pm, kicked my shoes off and fell into bed. My legs were so tired and sore from walking in the dreaded heels, I had to get up about 2am and take some Tylenol so that I could sleep.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Fix-It declared that he had some tire services to perform on my van before we could drive it all the way to Marianna for the Volleyball party. Since we would have to leave the house by 10am, he headed outside in the already hot sun to work on my car.

I had to get up and make something to take for the picnic and decided on Potato Salad. Our gas was out on the stove (from the day before) but I had had the propane bottle filled Friday in town so I knew that would be no problem. I set to peeling potatoes. As I got close to having them all peeled and ready to go on the burner, Mr. Fix-It set about hooking the propane up. He came in to light the pilots on the stove...and the burners wouldn't hardly light up. What??? After fiddling around with things, he decided the 'regulator' wasn't working right. So how am I going to cook this big pan of potatoes?

If you know me, you KNOW I am the Queen of Plan B, C, D, E, etc. So, on to Plan B--Use the extra burner on the grill outside. So I take my nice, pretty, stainless steel dutch oven out and set it on the grill's gas burner. Yes, it cooked, but the whole outside of my pan is now covered with soot! Yuck!!! Anybody have any ideas on cleaning that mess up? I know I'll probably have to buy some Kilz...another day.

So we head to town to pick up our sweet dd. It was sooo wonderful wrapping my arms around that sweet, tanned girl with the swollen right eye covered with poison ivy! We headed towards Marianna, slowly, because Mr. Fix-It realized when he was changing the tires, that the right front wheel bearing was flopping and needed to be replaced ASAP.

[At this point, please note that "I" being the sweet, wonderful, submissive wife that I am...did NOT mention to him that said submissive wife had been 'advising' him that wheel had a problem for months and months and months...which is WHY we had already purchased the appropriate part to fix it and it had been riding around in the back seat for months and months and months, etc. and that NOW, was not really a great time to have said wheel fall off the car! Rant over...]

So! We decide to drive Hwy. 90 all the way to Marianna, so we wouldn't be pushed to drive fast on the Interstate...thus adding nearly an hour to our drive. However, I must say, the drive was beautiful through the rolling hills and farms between Tallytown and Marianna. It would have been immensely relaxing had we not been a bit tense from listening to the roar and whining of the wheel bearing!

We made it to the picnic. Blue Springs Recreation Area is absolutely beautiful. We had a great time...except for one slight incident that my darling dd will NEVER forget...but will go unreported here lest she never speak to me again!!! She'll definitely remember...heh,heh,heh!

Our return trip was equally relaxing and tense, but we enjoyed the beauty of God's creation, listened to dd snore in the back seat and made it home safe and sound. After arriving home, dd and I washed clothes, Mr. Fix-It worked on the car. I'm happy to report the job has been completed and the van is now back in working order...with the slight exception of a bad tire that needs to be replaced fairly soon.

I'm glad to report that my Sunday School lesson based on Revelation 13 (The Anti-Christ) also went well this morning. Guess what?! It doesn't matter what the Anti-Christ does...JESUS IS THE VICTOR!!!! As long as we know Jesus as our personal Savior and trust him with our heart and life...we'll win too! The Anti-Christ can affect us physically -- but NOT spiritually!!!! AMEN!

After church, dd and I headed over to the nursing home to check on a friend, then to Mrs. Becky's to let her get her Jr. Becky-Fix (since dd missed her day with her last week and will miss the coming week). I'll tell you about our sweet friend, Mrs. Becky, one day soon. Then, we headed home for lunch and a nice, long nap!

It's now 10:30pm local time and we're busy packing for our trip tomorrow. That means in about 5 1/2 hours, we'll be heading towards town to catch the team van. Last I heard, the a/c might not be working. At 4 o'clock in the morning, that won't be much of a problem...but during the day in downtown Atlanta...oh, my goodness. I don't do well without a/c! (Yes, I'm a wimp!) PLEASE pray for me AND the van!

Oh, by the way. Our Illinois trip has been postponed again. Praise the Lord! I'm sorry we won't get to see our southern Illinois relatives, but trying to prepare for camp with the thought of not being able to come home and decompress a day or two was starting to weigh on my mind a bit. My sweet Daddy is too busy this week...so we'll re-schedule when we get home.

One more thing before I go. If you haven't checked out my friend's blog here...I respectfully request that you do so. After reading it you will know what to pray for. If you will lift her and her family up to the Lord this week, I'd be soooo grateful! She's doing the foreign mission thing that I'm so THANKFUL God hasn't required of me. My job --and yours-- is to hold these folks up before the Lord in prayer. Thanks in advance for helping me here!

Sooo, dear reader (or readers, as the case may be?)... you have your marching orders. Pray for me and dd, pray that the team van will continue to work properly, pray for my friend in Brazil, and if you have a bit more time you might want to pray for Mr. Fix-It ...here all alone with all the animals to feed...[do you hear me snickering???]....



Stay tuned.