Addendum to Thursday

Althought
I don’t like to have two entries on the same day, I just have to tell
you why I’m praising God today.  We had a lovely relaxing day, and
Libby and I went to the store to get milk. When we returned, I tripped
over a scooter in the garage, smashing my knee into the cement
floor.  Ouch!  I’ve had ice on it most of the day. But, I’m
praising God because it’s not broken, it doesn’t hurt that much now,
and it’s my left knee, so I can still drive!

God is very good to me!

It’s time to
continue my narrative adventure.  Monday
morning we all woke up worn out and sore. David’s shoulder and right arm really
hurt, it appeared that his left pointer finger might be broken, and we were all
just tired. We spent the morning unpacking and the afternoon running around to
orchestra, to David’s technology club, and to the orthodontist.  In between all those things, I fit in hemming
Halloween costumes and suit pants and packing up for Tuesday.

Monday night,
James took Nathan to his shooting club and I took everyone else out
trick-or-treating.  It was a pleasant
day, but it turned into a seasonably-chilly night. The children gathered quite
a haul of candy, and we topped the evening off by watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and sorting candy, which we
do every year. We throw away the gross things like peanut butter kisses taffy
and all the Almond Joys and then they barter with one another and give me a cut
of the profits.  It works well. 

All too soon, it
was off to bed for the kids and stay up and work for me.  You see, I had to get up at 5:00 am the next morning to get ready to go to Harrisburg for the day because Nathan and David were
serving as guest pages for the state House of Representatives.  I had decided to pack all the nice clothes
and just get the children up at 5:30 and toss them into the car with blankets
and pillows so they could fall back to sleep. 
The plan worked somewhat well, although it took them a while to actually
get settled back to sleep. When we had reached a Burger King near the Capitol,
I turned on Toby Mac rather loudly.  (For
those who don’t know, Toby Mac is a Christian “rap” guy.)  “TOBY’S BACK! 
Hey now…” was all it took for five sleepy heads to pop up and look at
me. 

We pulled into a
deserted Burger King and changed clothes in the bathroom. I know now why no one
was there. It was the slowest Burger King in the world. We were the only
customers, and it took them ten minutes to take our order (really!).  We ate our cini-minis and I drank hot water with
milk and sugar in it as they were out of tea bags.  Then, we headed to the Capitol to meet up
with friends: the Bastians, the Wilsons, the McCobins, and the Bolichs. 

I had never been
to the state capitol, so I was awed by the absolutely gorgeous building.  The tour guide at 8:30 took us around to most of the rooms,
although we didn’t get to see the Senate since they were in session. We had a
snack and headed off to the House floor for pictures and to meet Lynn Herman,
our congressional rep.  Then, all the
non-pages headed to the gallery to watch the proceedings while the kids got
down to work bringing water bottles, making copies, and fetching papers.  It was quite a show.  After eating lunch as a group during the
recess, Anne Bastian and I took my children and her youngest to the William Penn Museum. It wasn’t exceptional as museums go, but
it was a great visit and enjoyed by all. The children particularly liked it
when the mothers collapsed on a bench and took off our shoes and gave the
children permission to do cartwheels in the wide, empty room.

After our visit,
we went back to the gallery to watch bills being debated and voted upon. It
turns out that a homeschool bill was up for vote that day, and when it passed,
they recognized all the homeschoolers. I wasn’t there for it, though. I was
moving the car and getting lost on the one-way streets in Harrisburg. 
Oh, well. 

We ate a free meal
in the Majority Caucus Room and then headed for home in the rain. The children
were full of stories of what they saw—a representative repeated throwing his
pen in the air as high as the balcony and running to catch it on a piece of
paper, a female rep. playing a Winnie the Pooh game on playhouse Disney, and
more.  My favorite story was one of
David’s.  At the start of the day, the
pages got special tags marking them as pages. They sat in the front of the
floor of the House facing all the representatives.  (Picture a pulpit in a church. They were in
front of the pulpit on the floor facing the crowd.)  The speaker of the house recognized them and
had them stand up to applause.  After he
introduced the pages, he was ready to get down to business and announced, “Turn
to page two.” Well, we all knew it was page two of the order of business that
Nathan had just handed out. But, David, who was wearing a tag reading “Page 2”
had a momentary panic thinking everyone was going to look at him and he didn’t
know what he was supposed to do! 

We made our
obligatory stop at Dairy Queen and got home around 9:30 where the children regaled James with
stories of their day for about thirty minutes. 
We shuffled them all off to bed and collapsed into bed ourselves.  But, I neglected to mention the news James had
waiting for me.  It seems that the
playoff game for David’s football team is this Saturday, the same time James
will be speaking at the CBF retreat that day and is unable to go. It also seems
that the team is taking a bus to New Jersey for the game leaving Friday afternoon at 3:00 and everyone is spending the night at a
Holiday Inn. It seems that I will be packing the car up again.

Gee. I just had it
unloaded, too. 

Did you ever have the occasion to ask for prayer, but you didn’t really
want to because the problem was of your own making, and, if you hadn’t
been so dumb, you wouldn’t have to ask for prayer in the first
place? 

Well, I’m asking for prayer anyhow as it seems as if all we do is
unpack the car, recover from wherever we’ve been and whatever we’ve
done, and then we repack the car to go somewhere else. I specifically
would like prayer for cheerfulness and energy for James and me,
physical healing for David’s “appears to be broken” finger and very
sore shoulder, and the ability to get everything done in time and with
a patient, peaceful spirit.  Also, perhaps that I could change
water into wine.  It seems like less of a miracle right now. 
(har)

But, I have so many fun things to tell and so much to report!  I
shall start where I left off, with the trip to my mom’s on Thursday
night.  We figured out the logistics of having to be four
different places at the same time and all managed to wind up at our
house by about 9:00. We finished cleaning, packing, and the rest of
Rachel’s birthday cake (Look! A zeugma!) before heading out to
Curwensville. After Nathan was successfully deposited at my dad’s for
his hunting weekend, we went to my mom’s.    Friday was
a relaxing day, so much so that I didn’t even have that constant jaw
pain I’ve been having.  We got to visit my mom’s sixth grade
classroom, all bedecked for Halloween. WOW! What an amazing place. I
wish all of you could have seen the wonderful job she did. Saturday,
after a leisurely breakfast of French toast at the Branding Iron in
Curwensville, my mom and I went mattress shopping. I found the mattress
of my dreams, but I didn’t buy it yet. I need to wheel and deal with
the owner. I have a maximum price, and I want to make sure I don’t pay
more than that!  Saturday night was the final Curwensville
football game of the season, which they lost. Still, it was fun to be
there.

We arrived home Saturday night around 10:30 to unload the car, crawl in
bed, and prepare to leave again. My alarm went off at 5:30 am the next
morning so that I could get Libby up and help her to get ready for her
cheerleading competition in Wilkes-Barre, PA. Thankfully, my neighbor
was driving, so after the 6:00 am pick up, I crawled back to bed. 
The alarm went off again at 8:15, and I roused the rest of the troops,
packed the van again, and headed us all off to Eat and Park for a big
breakfast, completely forgetting that Eat and Park at 9:30 on the
Sunday after Penn State’s homecoming would be insanely crowded. We put
our names in and went to Wal-Mart (which is next door) to get a few
last-minute items like ice, ibuprofen, water bottles, and
magnetic-clasped, fingerless, camouflage mittens. 

Our meal was fine, despite the fact that they ran out of muffins at the
breakfast buffet (How can you run out of muffins?), and we were on the
road to Lock Haven with time to spare.  I arrived at the football
field a half-hour earlier than I needed, so I  got the best
parking space at the football stadium.  Of course, immediately
after parking, Michael tearfully announced that he had forgotten to
pack his helmet and shoulder pads.  Thankfully, David had not
forgotten his, and since both boys are essentially the same size, all
was well. 

The day was gorgeous–a really-o, truly-o answer to prayer. 
Rachel, armed with coloring books, crayons, baby dolls, and Skittles
took up residence in the stands with a buddy who was similarly trapped
by her older brothers’ football games.  I was armed with a
double-layer of foam padding in a cushion, a cooler full of drinks, and
a box full of snacks and food. The sun was warm, the atmosphere
exciting, and I was pleased. Meanwhile, James was in Georgia. His math
conference didn’t end until Sunday afternoon, and he wasn’t going to
get back into town until midnight. However, Saturday night, David was
really upset about the game, his injuries, and James being gone. I let
David talk to James, and James decided that he would see if he could
change his ticket and catch an earlier flight and skip the last (and
most interesting to him professionally) day of the conference. 
After a significant fee, the flight was arranged for early the next
morning, delivering him at the airport at 2:30, just perfect timing for
the Wilson family to pick him up as they headed to Lock Haven. 

Michael’s game was amazing.  Although his team lost, it could have
gone either way in the closest-matched game of the season.  This
loss was the team’s first, which left them with a record of 4-1-1, the
best record in the league, making them league champions.  
The next game was a blowout (we won), but as I didn’t have any of my
DNA on the field, I was only moderately interested and walked to
McDonalds to buy Michael a cheeseburger.

James arrived, to the delight and joy of David, the other players, the
coaches, and me.  David’s game began, his first game under the
lights.  It was an incredibly close-matched game with neither team
appearing dominant.  At the end of the game, the score was
19-19.  They decided on a sudden death overtime with the Centre
Bulldogs getting the ball first. We scored, but we missed the extra
point. Then, Central Mountain lined up.  On the second down, they
fumbled the ball and we recovered. We had won!!  Everyone went
nuts. It was quite a sight.   This victory gave David’s team
an undefeated season and an invitation to playoffs. They all got medals
and had many pictures taken. 

But, meanwhile, what of Libby and her cheerleading competition? 
About an hour into the game, the girls arrived, all wearing medals and
toting a huge trophy. It seems that her squad took first place and got
a bid to the national tournament in March!  Although I believe
(and insist) that the March tournament not happen, it was quite a
thrill to see both the Pee Wee football players and cheerleaders
sporting medals. 

After all this fun, to celebrate (and to feed our gnawing bellies), we
went to Ruby Tuesdays with the Wilsons. It was another late night,
another full car to unload, and another day full of wonderful memories.

But, there’s more!  However, I shall save it for another
post.  Even though Kristen likes my long posts, perhaps there are
some who do not!

(Can’t recommend the book wholeheartedly–too heaving bosom!)