Interesting Weekend

[liralen]

We had a pretty good weekend on the most part, mostly dealing with the fact that both John and I needed to catch up on rest and sleep and just recuperate.



Friday night was his elementary school's Talent Show. I don't remember having talent shows in elementary school, but I'm old. *laughs* I decided to try and stay home and paint while the boys went to watch and socialize with all the neighbors that were in it. I sucked pretty badly, but it's been a while. And I'm breaking in two new brushes that I utterly love. The control I can get with them is astonishing; but it also means that every single mistake I make is my fault, too. *laughs* I need to figure out how to control them before I show anything again. The problem with getting better is realizing what's bad, now.

But I got a call at 8:30 that they were all going to go to Dairy Queen with everyone and if they should come pick me up, so I said sure. We arrived at a DQ that was just stuffed to the gills and there was a long line of folks waiting to order and to get their food. That was okay, as we got to sit around and talk with everyone, and Jet and John had fun telling me exactly who did what. That was fun.

But Jet didn't get to bed until 9:30. He was also up at 6:30 a.m. complaining about his stomach. John got up with him and fed him baked pancake which seemed to settle it well enough. When I finally got downstairs, Jet watched a little Mythbusters while I ate breakfast; and then he and I played with Legos for a while, building cars to race down the wooden track that he had built at Home Depot. We managed to do that for three hours. *laughs* I also took apart one or two Lego models that he'd built and had just stood on shelves for a while, and they were 3 in 1 Creator sets so there should have been other things that could be built from them.

So we had lunch, and the boys went off to get Jet's hair cut on their bikes. When they got home, though, Jet was cold, had a headache and was really tired and not feeling very good. He and I went down into the basement and he cuddled up in a blanket while I played some original Crash. He cheered me on happily, drank hot chocolate, and cuddled up and played one or two of the easier levels for more lives. That was comfortable. Dinner was steak and French Fries with asparagus. And he ate a pretty good amount, did his homework; but then really just wanted to curl up in front of the TV with his blanket as he was cold. That was when John realized Jet had a pretty intense fever and was coughing.

So I gave him ibuprofen when he went to sleep and he dropped off very quickly and John and I pow-wowed about this morning because I had to do both coffee and liturgist while John was the shepherd for all the kids' classes for both Sunday School and the Children's Worship. We figured someone would fill in for us if Jet was really sick. But in the morning, he was cool and active and ate four waffle squares along with his bacon and we figured he was just fine.

And he was more active than either of us. *laughs*

So I dressed up for this morning, as one of members of our congregation used to be a buyer for Neiman Marcus and the last time I wore my J. Peterman's Banker's Suit he complimented me on it, saying he hasn't seen much that was that well cut for a woman's figure. So it's fun to wear it and tell him that it's because of what he said about it, as he likes seeing me in it every time. I wore it with my purple silk tie and my gleaming black and gray Stacy Adams Daytons and when I went down to breakfast, Jet's eyes got very, very big indeed.

It's fun to dress up, really dress up once in a while, especially after everyone is used to me being in nothing but jeans or shorts and Hawaiian shirts or t-shirts. Dress up enough to make people exclaim, "Who are you? You must be new!" *laughs* One person demanded to see my knitting to know that I really as me. Though mostly it was on the order of compliments or even one or two quiet comments of wow I wish I had something to dress up that well in. The one or two "beautiful"s had me blushing. *laughs*

So I did my thing up front. And followed the flow better this time, and helped folks out with their part of things as well, including one lady that had to hang a felt banner that kept getting caught on the bricks. Then I read Psalm 19 and messed up "bridegroom" as I could have sworn it said "bridgeroom". Gah. But when I sat down the pastor said, "Thank you." That stuck with me, but then, after, I had seven different people compliment me on my voice and my scripture reading; and part of my brain is going, what didn't you hear me mess up??!?

But maybe they didn't. I did the old trick of not stumbling after the fuck up and just kept going, steadily and still doing the best I could to render meaning into what was read. Afterward, the pastor said, "You know, with your voice, you could read about the Apocalypse and I'd feel like I was in good hands..."

I had to laugh, but then he said, "It made me think... it's a ministry. Not The Ministry, I wouldn't afflict that on anyone, but... I can tell that you're a writer, you know that there is meaning in words, and you bring it out with how you read them.

"Wow. Thank you, that's... a really amazing compliment."

A writer. Huh.

After, I ran around making sure the coffee was enough, and helped load up the dishwasher with used dishes, and I have to say that wearing a tie while doing that is a PAIN. Ahem. But when it was all done, we went home, with someone following us that wanted to borrow a Vista machine to make a recovery disk. We then went to Noodles and met more than a dozen other church folks there and all ate a boisterous lunch together with Jet hiding next to me. He didn't want to talk to anyone, so he just stayed by me and I said that was fine. Admittedly, I was good with hiding there myself.

But it was fun and a good lunch and when we went home, Jet went and found Chris and the two boys played at our house all afternoon. Chris even stayed for dinner, which was potstickers. I'd run to the grocery store to get eggs for my chocolate chip/sour cherry banana bread and picked up a flat cut corned beef as well; but there wasn't nearly enough time to cook it. I'll do it tomorrow. On St. Patrick's Day there is going to be a Mom's Day Out, so the Boys will be fending for themselves, and the ladies are going to Wild Buffalo Wings. *laughs* So I'll get my corned beef fix tomorrow.

Tired. I'm tired. While the boys were playing, I went out and dug down a whole other bed; and then planted carrots, onions, spinach, salad mix, garlic, and thyme in my thyme box. Then soaked everything down and admired the sugar snap peas that the birds are no longer munching down to nothing. They're thumb-height now, and spreading leaves. The first batch of spinach is up, and getting bigger fast. My lower back aches from the planting. I have to do more of that kind of thing, I think. It'll get me back into gardening shape.

It's nice to see spring in the plants. The green onions are funny, though, as they're frozen through in the morning when I cut them for my eggs; but by afternoon they're pliable and growing.

We hot tubbed tonight so that I could loosen up sore muscles, and Jet ended up lying on me, half asleep. It was comforting. And he went to sleep easily when he got to bed. That was very useful. Now it's time for me to do the same...