Amanda was let off work an hour early today, but I ended up working an hour later.  Go figure.

Every second Thursday, Port City Community Church has a meeting of all the small group leaders.  Usually it’s a group of group leaders under a mentor or mentoring couple, called a pod.  You discuss how the groups are going and then get updated about things the church wants to make sure people know about.  Tonight was different though.  Mike Ashcraft, the preacher, was doing a special service.

Last night Amanda asked me to check the time.  I saw an e-mail that was addressed to the volunteers of the church for a similar service that was going to be held at 7:30 in a couple weeks, but I thought it was for the one tonight.  Tonight’s started at 6:30, as I discovered by finding a different e-mail, and it was about 6:45 by the time I realized that.  Since it would be a little after 7:00 by the time we could have gotten to church, we ended up missing it.

We did go to Nick and Amy Warkentien’s at about 7:30.  Amy’s sister Andrea Bernard and her husband Jerry Bernard were there, having come down from Michigan for a visit.  When we got there Nick and Jerry were outside on the back patio, so I went to hang out with them while Amanda went inside with the ladies.  We mostly talked about getting tickets.

We finally went inside I think about an hour later.  It was enough time that we were able to watch The Office, the new show Parks and Recreation, then another new episode of The Office all without having to watch any commercials.  On The Office Michael Scott was trying to get Michael Scott Paper Company going with Pam and Ryan.  Parks and Recreation has some promise.  The first episode wasn’t something that made you think it was going to be an instant success with everybody, but it could be good.

After sll the TV watching was done we talked about leaving for about an hour but instead ended up talking with everyone for a while.  Eli was asleep pretty much the whole time we were there, though Amy did go to feed him.  When she brought him back out I held him for a bit.  Nick and I talked about how different he looks already.

Andrea looks just like her mother, which I commented on.  I’m sure she’s never heard that before.  I liked her and Jerry.  We’ve now met all of Amy’s family.  Yes, we’ve collected all the pieces of the Cuthbert family, but we’ve yet to meet a single Michiganian Warkentien.

Zach Dotsey