It goes without saying that our time of praise and worship was unparalleled, and it is exciting and humbling to see visitors come forward week after week, seeking to be identified with the body of believers at Woodland West. Apparently the commercials that Randy and I shot back in February are even getting some notice in the community, and we just keep praying that God will not only open that door but prop it open with something and keep it that way for a while!
I attended my first "Parents Meeting" with the youth minister after services yesterday. All the parents of the teens ate lunch together with Jonathan and his wife Sherri, and then we went over the summer calendar and volunteered to sponsor various events. I spoke with Jonathan afterwards--for some reason I still have some residual quirky feelings about whether or not Tyler will truly be accepted into the Youth Group since he's only going into the 6th grade in the fall--and Jonathan laid my fears to rest. He said that everyone on the youth staff discussed the matter and because Tyler is about to turn 12 (the age that most kids are when they enter 7th grade) everybody essentially said, "Bring him on!" I am so gratified because Tyler has looked forward to this moment since we set foot on Texas soil. And I can see big things happening for him over the next months and years.
The girls had stayed at the building with their friends Kirsten and Grace while the parents met, so I collected them after the meeting and we made it home by about 2:30. I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post, but not only did Kirsten spend the night with us on Friday night before we went to the zoo on Saturday, but after the zoo trip she came back home with us so that her parents could have a night out (Kirsten's older sister went to the same youth event that Tyler went to that evening) and they came and picked her up around 9:00 p.m. But remember the picture of Darcy playing the Nintendo DS of Kirsten's? Well, over the course of Friday and Saturday Darcy mounted a major Buy-Darcy-a-DS campaign, and as proud as I am of her burgeoning economic prowess, figuring and refiguring how much and how long she needs to save in order to buy a DS with her own money (she knows better than to expect me to lay down cold, hard cash for one of those things), I was desperate to "redirect her energies," so to speak. So by Sunday afternoon, in an effort to meet her halfway, I agreed to look on eBay and just see how much a used DS was going for.
Naturally I am suspicious of the widely varying prices, not to mention the honesty of people whom I've never met who are hawking electronics on the Internet, so I was thankful when Tyler wandered in and, as if on cue, told the story of a friend of his who bought a used DS off eBay and got burned. It was broken and scratched but then, you get what you pay for, I guess. Anyway, as is so often the case, what we started out looking for on the Internet was NOT what we ended up looking for. After I looked on eBay, I cruised over to BestBuy and then Wal-mart, at which point I totally lost interest in the DS and thought, "Hmmm, I wonder how much the Ripsticks are selling for now?" Wal-mart is still selling them for $77 and some change, and places like Amazon and ToysRUs are a few bucks higher. But friends, do you have any idea what Target has done? Do you? DO YOU??? They have cut the price of the Ripstick down to $67.99!!! Oh, happy day! You would have thought Tyler had just been told he could have unlimited access to the XBox, so enthusiastic was his response to my news! So the three of us loaded up and went over to Target where we snatched up a couple before they evaporated before our eyes, and T & D spent the rest of the afternoon
After evening services we had plans to go to dinner with one of our shepherds and his wife, and we were really looking forward to our outing. And then the unthinkable happened. First, Tyler came up and said the youth group was going to go to Fabulous Fifties to get a bite to eat, and could he go? Well, sure, here's ten bucks. One down. After I had talked and visited in the auditorium for a while, I discovered that Phil and Terri had already taken off and I realized I'd better round up the rest of the kids and light a fire under Randy. But on my way out through the lobby, I ran into Kirsten's mom so naturally I stopped to talk to her. After a few minutes I started blustering about how we were late to meet Phil and Terri and she said, "You want me to take your kids home with me?" Seriously, are you kidding me? How can I be so lucky? Harriet is one of those people, too, who doesn't just offer because she wants to help you out. She really likes kids (or at least she really likes mine!) and I knew she wouldn't offer if it wasn't really okay with her. (Of course, you all know by now that it is hard for me to accept offers of this magnitude--I mean, three extra kids, come on!--but it was easier for me to accept last night since Kirsten had spent so much time with us over the weekend. See, I'm learning to do my part!)
We had made arrangements with Tyler to go to his buddy Hunter's house if he got finished before us, and Harriet's kids finished up with school last week so they didn't have to be up early today; consequently, Harriet told us to take our time. So we did! We had a fantastic meal and visit with Phil and Terri who have got to be, hands down, two of my favorite people on earth. (And I'm not just saying that because you might be reading this, Terri!) I don't think we left the restaurant until after 10:00 p.m., and we still had to go pick up kids! Of course, Tyler would have loved it if we'd stayed out half the night tripping the lights fantastic, and I do believe Sawyer and the girls would second that emotion! When we got to Kirsten's house, several of the lights were out and her sister, Olivia, was playing Hide 'n Seek with Sawyer, who was wearing one of those miner's lights around his forehead. He looked so cute!
We finally got home and got everybody into bed around 11:00 p.m., at which point I fell into bed exhausted but so, so content--and it wasn't just the pot roast I'd had for dinner talking!
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