Well, the weekend went by too quickly. I always look forward to it so much because Tim and I so rarely see each other during the week. His one and a half hour commute each way and having an hour for lunch mean at least 12 hours away from us each day. I figure he needs 8 hours of sleep, so we are lucky if we get to see him for 4 brief hours.
Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up really early. It was still dark. I could not get my bearings. I thought, "Now what day is it?" I was just praying it was Saturday. I was so happy when my brain caught up with my body and informed me it was indeed Saturday. I rolled over and snuggled back in under my two quilts.
Tim woke me and announced that we should sneak out of the house. That meant, we should leave Sam a note (Micah was at a sleepover) and tell him that we were gone to breakfast should he wake up, and we would come back soon, unless of course, we decided to go to the Bahamas or something. We showered and dressed quickly and crept out before anyone woke up. We made it nearly the whole time without being found out, but Hannah woke up, went looking for us, and went crying to Sam that Mommy was gone!
We had a most excellent breakfast and then picked up Mr. Micah, who had been to a sleepover with Will, his friend who was turning 13. We ran a few errands, and then the boys went off with their dad. That was pretty much it for Saturday. We always start saving up our energy for Sunday, because our day is so long that we need all the energy we can muster to get through it. We are getting old, you know.
Sunday started the typical way. We dressed and left home and traveled the hour to church without incident. We had really good services, including a very interesting Bible class that morning. We were studying the eleventh chapter of I Corinthians, and trying to determine whether the apostle Paul was saying that women needed to cover their heads when worshipping God. Have you ever read or thought about that before? Our preacher presented a point of view that I don't think I have ever heard presented quite that way. It was highly interesting. Another man in our congregation has a different viewpoint. He is going to be given time to present his viewpoint this next Saturday night. I would like to go and hear it.
At any rate, when services were over, we kind of scurried out, because we were due at a dinner for my parents' 45th Wedding Anniversary down where they live. It was supposed to take us about 30 minutes to get there.
Well, when we pulled out onto the highway that takes us there, our instrument panel on the S.U.V. just bottomed out. The car was still running, but everything showed up as if the engine were off. I told Tim that I thought maybe the computer did not reset when we started the car, so maybe he should pull off and turn off the engine and re-start it. So, he did, and when we restarted, nothing happened. The car was dead, and we were due for dinner.
Thanks be for cell phones. We called back to the church, and the preacher's grown son answered. Tim explained our plight, and they said they would be there shortly. Now our preacher and his sons are big car enthusiasts. They rebuilt a beautiful 1970 Stingray Corvette. So, they know a thing or two about cars. What they did next wowed us!
Not only did the fellows jump us and follow us down to a safe place, but they told us to take it down to the preacher's house and they would take a look at it. Once there, the preacher came driving out his van, and he told us to take it and go on to the dinner! Tim protested that we should stay there and allow Tim to fix the car, but they sent us onward. It turned out that the problem was the alternator. By the time we finished our dinner, they had fixed the car! We returned the van and picked up our wheels in time to go on for the evening service! They would not take any compensation except the cost of the alternator. The only thing they required of us was that we take the metallic sign advertising the church's Virtual Bible Study and put it on our car for a week!
We made it to services a little early, before the hard-working mechanics did, and Tim was able to tell one of our elders about the good deed the preacher and his family had done for us that day. We have our general announcements after the service is concluded, and this particular elder was making announcements that night. After he had made the announcements, he told the story to the congregation of our modern day "Good Samaritans!" As he did, he got really choked up. It is always a touching thing to see a grown man cry. At any rate, the song leader jumped up to sing the final song, and he had pre-selected "No Tears in Heaven." I had to get a little tickled over that one. As my mother says, "You couldn't write this stuff."
After church, we were really tired and decided to just pick up some fast food and head on home--another hour's drive. We stopped in McDonald's drive-thru, and after ordering the young lady (about 16) asked Tim what kind of toys we would like. She was referring to boys' toys vs. girls' toys. Now my husband can never resist the opportunity to be "witty" and cheesy(even though it is an unspoken law that humor is not appropriate in the fast-food lines.) He replied that we would love some expensive toys, like maybe a doll house or a really neat remote control car or something. Well, this poor girl did not know what to do. She stood there for about 10 seconds with this utterly blank look on her face. She seemed as if she did not know whether she should run to the back and look for the doll house/remote control car Happy Meal toys or not! Seeing that his attempts at humor were lost on this seemingly brain-dead little gal, Tim eventually clarified that girls' toys would be just fine. The poor little teen looked like she was going to cry! I'm really glad she did not have to figure out on her own how much change to give back! We could have been there a while!
Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up really early. It was still dark. I could not get my bearings. I thought, "Now what day is it?" I was just praying it was Saturday. I was so happy when my brain caught up with my body and informed me it was indeed Saturday. I rolled over and snuggled back in under my two quilts.
Tim woke me and announced that we should sneak out of the house. That meant, we should leave Sam a note (Micah was at a sleepover) and tell him that we were gone to breakfast should he wake up, and we would come back soon, unless of course, we decided to go to the Bahamas or something. We showered and dressed quickly and crept out before anyone woke up. We made it nearly the whole time without being found out, but Hannah woke up, went looking for us, and went crying to Sam that Mommy was gone!
We had a most excellent breakfast and then picked up Mr. Micah, who had been to a sleepover with Will, his friend who was turning 13. We ran a few errands, and then the boys went off with their dad. That was pretty much it for Saturday. We always start saving up our energy for Sunday, because our day is so long that we need all the energy we can muster to get through it. We are getting old, you know.
Sunday started the typical way. We dressed and left home and traveled the hour to church without incident. We had really good services, including a very interesting Bible class that morning. We were studying the eleventh chapter of I Corinthians, and trying to determine whether the apostle Paul was saying that women needed to cover their heads when worshipping God. Have you ever read or thought about that before? Our preacher presented a point of view that I don't think I have ever heard presented quite that way. It was highly interesting. Another man in our congregation has a different viewpoint. He is going to be given time to present his viewpoint this next Saturday night. I would like to go and hear it.
At any rate, when services were over, we kind of scurried out, because we were due at a dinner for my parents' 45th Wedding Anniversary down where they live. It was supposed to take us about 30 minutes to get there.
Well, when we pulled out onto the highway that takes us there, our instrument panel on the S.U.V. just bottomed out. The car was still running, but everything showed up as if the engine were off. I told Tim that I thought maybe the computer did not reset when we started the car, so maybe he should pull off and turn off the engine and re-start it. So, he did, and when we restarted, nothing happened. The car was dead, and we were due for dinner.
Thanks be for cell phones. We called back to the church, and the preacher's grown son answered. Tim explained our plight, and they said they would be there shortly. Now our preacher and his sons are big car enthusiasts. They rebuilt a beautiful 1970 Stingray Corvette. So, they know a thing or two about cars. What they did next wowed us!
Not only did the fellows jump us and follow us down to a safe place, but they told us to take it down to the preacher's house and they would take a look at it. Once there, the preacher came driving out his van, and he told us to take it and go on to the dinner! Tim protested that we should stay there and allow Tim to fix the car, but they sent us onward. It turned out that the problem was the alternator. By the time we finished our dinner, they had fixed the car! We returned the van and picked up our wheels in time to go on for the evening service! They would not take any compensation except the cost of the alternator. The only thing they required of us was that we take the metallic sign advertising the church's Virtual Bible Study and put it on our car for a week!
We made it to services a little early, before the hard-working mechanics did, and Tim was able to tell one of our elders about the good deed the preacher and his family had done for us that day. We have our general announcements after the service is concluded, and this particular elder was making announcements that night. After he had made the announcements, he told the story to the congregation of our modern day "Good Samaritans!" As he did, he got really choked up. It is always a touching thing to see a grown man cry. At any rate, the song leader jumped up to sing the final song, and he had pre-selected "No Tears in Heaven." I had to get a little tickled over that one. As my mother says, "You couldn't write this stuff."
After church, we were really tired and decided to just pick up some fast food and head on home--another hour's drive. We stopped in McDonald's drive-thru, and after ordering the young lady (about 16) asked Tim what kind of toys we would like. She was referring to boys' toys vs. girls' toys. Now my husband can never resist the opportunity to be "witty" and cheesy(even though it is an unspoken law that humor is not appropriate in the fast-food lines.) He replied that we would love some expensive toys, like maybe a doll house or a really neat remote control car or something. Well, this poor girl did not know what to do. She stood there for about 10 seconds with this utterly blank look on her face. She seemed as if she did not know whether she should run to the back and look for the doll house/remote control car Happy Meal toys or not! Seeing that his attempts at humor were lost on this seemingly brain-dead little gal, Tim eventually clarified that girls' toys would be just fine. The poor little teen looked like she was going to cry! I'm really glad she did not have to figure out on her own how much change to give back! We could have been there a while!
Can you spot the totally blonde USC cheerleader?
Cheerleader by day, fast-food worker by night, blonde all the time...
I will post some pictures from Mom and Dad's dinner when I have the energy to retrieve them from the camera. It was nice to all get together, and I just wish I had not had the worry of the state of the S.U.V. hanging over us to distract us. We managed to get a few pictures though. I hope they turned out o.k. I have not even had a chance to review them.
We still have not had any measurable snowfall here at our house. We are thinking about just planting the whole 2 1/2 acres in orange trees and growing them year round, since Tennessee now has Florida's old climate. Just kidding! It is irritating that we can't have any snow this year. Everyone needs one good snowy event to vegetate with the whole family, discard all regular daily duties, and sip hot cocoa and play board games! We'll keep you posted on whether we get that day or not this year.
I have a busy week on tap. I need to get organized around here. All the old clothes need to go. Toys need to be sorted and put back together. That is a job! And then, there is the ever-present laundry! It never seems to get all done at the same time! That's the update today! See you when I get a little done around the house!
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