A Memorable Memorial

Ahh, Memorial weekend, the kick-off to summer. Many Americans celebrate Memorial weekend with trips to the lake, family, friends and mounds of barbequed red meat.

Check, check, and check.

We had a blast this past weekend visiting with family and friends. While our trip to the lake was technically the Watson’s house, it still counts. And we barbequed! Mounds of yummy sausages were grilled over an open flame, as they should be.

My sister, Brittany, her husband, and their four dogs (two of which were someone else’s) came to visit. It was a crazy house! But I enjoyed it. I love cooking for people other than Sheldon and me. I cooked breakfast each morning and dinner twice. It was some good eatin’.

On the agenda, Saturday was sister time. Brittany and I went shopping at Hobby Lobby and went to get our nails done. Starbucks, of course, is a mandatory pit stop while shopping. The boys went to boy stores and got ready for the paintball game planned for Sunday.

The Life Group girls, Brittany and I had plans to go to Practically Picasso while the guys enjoyed a relaxing afternoon of paintball warfare on Sunday. It was so much fun!

Monday we had planned to spend the day barbequing at Lake Whitney; however, chances of rain loomed over our lake venture, so we decided to stay at the Watson’s house to grill and play games.

Our Memorial Day menu consisted of sausage, chips, salsa, guacamole, fresh fruit, potato salad, and beans. After chowing down, we got into some games.

Boy, are we a competitive group. We can never decide on a game to play because at one point or another someone has lost at said game and doesn’t want to play it. (I’m not just picking on Karen; you all know who you are.)

After intense gaming, Sheldon and I said our farewells to our friends and Brittany and David in Whitney and went our separate ways to start the work week. Sheldon and I finished our Monday evening out by relaxing on the couch and reminiscing about the memories made over the weekend.

Tweet Widdle Twos

When I signed up to volunteer at the church “nursery” I thought I would be babysitting infants for an hour and a half every other Sunday. Cute little babies to goo-goo and ga-ga with danced in my head.

Little did I know I would be following a curriculum to teach two-year-olds about the Bible by telling Bible stories, creating a craft for the child to take home, trying to organize snack time for 15 toddlers, changing dirty underwear, and chasing kids around the indoor play-ground. Whew! I’m exhausted just talking about it.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, the first Sunday came for my teaching partner (Karen D) and I to observe the class and get a feel for what we’d be dealing with. By the time the class was over, I was thinking it was too bad I’d already signed a commitment to serve through the summer. It was craziness!

There were probably thousands of thoughts that ran through my head during that hour. One of which was, “Oh my gosh…two-year-olds know how to talk?” I know, it sounds stupid, but really, I didn’t know they could do so much. I thought they were still in the crawling stages. Little did I know… they are far from crawling.

They talk, they eat, they throw, they scream, they poop on their own (for the most part), they have little imaginations, they build, they listen, they argue, they tattle, they color, they glue (and don’t eat it!), they cuddle, and they love.

After three weeks of teaching little twos, I’ve learned that I love it. I really thought I’d be pulling my hair out, but I’m not. Even after cleaning up pee that didn’t quite make it in the pot, or wiping snotty noses, or holding crying girls, or getting up early on Sunday to make the craft for the class, or telling little boys not to throw things at people’s heads a ba-gillian times, I thought I’d be running out the door screaming. But I still love it.

Next week is my first Sunday off in three weeks. While it’ll be nice, I’ll still miss the little guys until it’s my turn again.

Am I really?

These are my results from the personality test on Lindsey and Margie's blogs. So, am I like this?

Stability results were moderately low which suggests you are worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were high which suggests you are overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense too often of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

Trait Snapshot: self revealing, neat, craves attention, prefers organized to unpredictable, needs things to be extremely clean, worrying, perfectionist, emotionally sensitive, respects authority, social, vain, does not like to be alone, likes large parties, controlling, social chameleon, not a thrill seeker, enjoys leadership, takes precautions, puts the needs of others ahead of their own, assertive, rule conscious, makes friends easily, always busy, heart over mind, phobic, aggressive, clingy, compassionate, dominant, outgoing, suspicious, hard working, strong