Quirey Life

(a.k.a. 7 Quick Takes)

1. We have been internet-less for a week. Several calls to our provider, a new cable, a new modem and a visit from a technician all led to the discovery today that 1. The fancy new modem didn’t work and 2. There was no apparent problem. But there was, we swear it. Either way, we’re thankful to be back online and hope that we can return the new modem for store credit at least.

2. Things are really crazy with the church right now. Or they should be but we all have a great deal of peace about it all. It’s time to renew our building contract and our owner decided that we should be paying much much more for it. That just wasn’t going to happen. We pleaded and pleaded, sent testimonies from our neighbors about how wonderful we are, and prayed hard. Now she’s offering a price that we can almost afford but it’s still not what we can pay. So as a church body we’re trying to discern what to do. We know that our time in this location is limited regardless of what we decide right now. There are many possibilities, all of which require great faith. Last night some of us got together for a special prayer meeting about it and it was just a beautiful time. I ask you to join us in prayer. We are doing our best to not just try to “think our way” through this one and also include our members in the process. (I would have asked for your prayers sooner but I needed to wait until the church was included in the conversation to blog about it.)

3. Other than the potential chaos of having to move sometime in the next ten days to twelve months, things are going well. We had a Sunday School teacher training afternoon on Sunday. Fourteen women came; 5 or 6 of them were from other congregations. Heather taught about helping kids with special needs in your classroom and I did a quick lesson on the importance of story-telling. We’re hoping to have training times every quarter or so. My other hope is that next time we’ll be able to get some of the men to participate, too!

4. This Sunday is our annual “Two Tunics” day (the name is based on John 3:11). It’s like a garage sale without the sale, a swap meet without the swap. Everyone brings up their extra stuff to share with their church family. We have two rooms full of household goods and clothes. After church on Sunday, our members will be given the opportunity to go up and take what they need. It’s a little way that those of us with more can help those with less.

5. My hubby is super-awesome. He’s been running off and on for a while but since we just got back from furlough he was mostly in an “off” time. But he found out there was a 5k last Saturday night and he decided to register. He did it with less than a week prep and finished very well. He’s now going to go on to do a 10k and on and on.

6. My son is super-awesome. He is a little chatterbox and constantly amazes us with his vocabulary. He’s going to start school soon so his English learning may take a backseat for a little while. I think what I’m enjoying most now that he can talk is that he’s picked up manners (a few, anyway, he is just two!). He says, “Thank you VERY much, momma!” and excuses himself if he burps (and says, “Excuse you!” if you do!). That little bit of sweetness makes up for the crayon on the wall and the REALLY HARD headbutt to my mouth this afternoon (an accident).

7. Russ got a Kindle for Christmas and one of my favorite things about it has been how many free Christian fiction books there are on it. I’ve been reading and reading lately and it feels so good!

I think that to get caught up on blogging about furlough, I’m going to work backwards. The end is fresh in my mind and the beginning isn’t so I figure I might as well take advantage of the fact that I actually remember part of it and write about that first.

Even if it kills me.

And it would be a death from embarrassment.

In the past few weeks, every time that people asked when we were going home, I said, “May 4″. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were flying home on May 4. I get a little anxious when travel plans are involved and I check our plans obsessively.

So that’s why it was so weird that I missed this one.

We went to Mayfair on Sunday night and said our goodbyes. We headed over to my brother’s house and said goodbye to my two sweet nieces. We said goodbye to Tom and Gina and their boys.

And we got up in the morning and started the chaos of packing. It takes a while to get all the bags sorted and we weigh and re-weigh all of them with our luggage scale to make sure we are taking as much stuff possible back. I also had a long list of errands to run so once the bags were 95% done, we headed out.

We did a flying trip through Target to pick up a new carryon that we had decided we needed. (It felt like Supermarket Sweep.) I ran through Mardel while Russ went to the bank. Jackson fell asleep in the car at some point. We went to the post office so I could mail some last minute cards and a package for my mom. It took almost 30 minutes so I was feeling really frazzled by the time I got out of there.

We were scheduled to meet Russ’ mom at the airport around 2:30, so we needed to leave by 2:00. Todd, their youth minister, and his wife were driving her down to Oklahoma City so she could pick up Russ’ Nana’s van that we’d been using and to say her goodbyes.

It was about 1:00 when I got out of the post office and I was feeling frazzled. We still had to get lunch and finish packing. Not the way I like to head out of town.

I pulled out my receipt from the post office to tell Russ about something and as I looked it over, I noticed that the date said, “05/03/2010″. Now, if you don’t know me very well, you may be a little surprised by my arrogance in the next moment. I literally thought, Wow, the post office has the date wrong.

Seriously.

I pointed it out to Russ, how weird it was that the post office thought it was the 3rd when it was actually the 4th and he looked at his watch and said, “No, it is the 3rd.”

His watch is often wrong, I thought.

But then I started thinking about it.

And I realized that I could very well be wrong.

My first thought, though, was that I must be wrong about the date we were leaving and not the day of the week.

We quickly drove back to Tom and Gina’s house so I could check our itinerary. It very clearly said: Tuesday, May 4.

Oops.

We called Russ’ mom who was already well on her way to OKC. We decided that she could go ahead and take the van back that night and that we would find another ride to the airport the next day. Then we had to find a ride to the airport (though we weren’t too worried that Brennonwould say no!) Then I had to call Gina and tell her she was stuck with us another night. Things were a little busy at work that day so I think she was a little confused but she wasn’t complaining that we would be around another night.

Russ’ mom, Debbie, didn’t have anywhere else to be so we got to spend some extra time with her. I actually used the time to go to the eye doctor (which I had wanted to do but ran out of time for), get new glasses and get a quick neck massage at the mall. My neck had been killing me for a couple of days and I was really worried about spending the night on the plane. We had a fun dinner with Tom and the boys and just got to spend some time hanging out.

The next morning we got up and had a pretty relaxing morning. We didn’t have a car so we walked over to Panera for coffee. (Pedestrians in Edmond!) Brennon picked us up after lunch and we had the most hassle-free trip back. All our flights were on time, Jackson once again did well on the airplane and our bags were some of the first ones off the plane.

But I am traumatized by it all. I think of myself as a person who is very good with details. I am usually pretty precise with times and dates, and I had checked our leave time over and over again. And I knew we were leaving on the 4th, just somehow in my mind, the 4th turned into Monday.

So that’s a day for all of us to mark in our calendars: Monday, May 3–the day Val made a big mistake and admitted it publicly.

For better or worse, we’re home. I know I haven’t updated in several weeks. Just know that yes, Jackson did get better and we had a great furlough. I’ve got all kinds of pictures and stories to share with you but I need to get a little sleep first!