Yes, today is our -1 Mother’s Day, as Amanda will be a mother by next Mother’s Day and was pretty close to being one this Mother’s Day. When the mothers were recognized at the 8:30 service today Amanda didn’t stand up. However, we were there for the 10:30 service, and the lady who had checked kids into my Grow Zone room who happened to be sitting behind us encouraged her to stand, so she did.
What were we doing at the 10:30 service if we’d just gone to the 8:30? Well I’ll tell you. Amanda and I were both doing Grow Zone today, but Christy Sikes, from our small group, was getting baptized at the 10:30, and to make it even more special, someone else from our small group, who is also on staff, was the one baptizing her. Amanda’s not in a room for Grow Zone- she just checks the kids in then helps get crafts and things ready for the next service, so it wasn’t hard for her to excuse herself early. I made sure it would be okay to slip out of my room for a few minutes, and of course, given the circumstance, everybody was cool with that.
After the baptism, Amanda left and I went back to the Grow Zone room. The plan was for either Michael or Amanda to pick me up then head over to Wrightsville Beach, where we were going to celebrate Mother’s Day. Amanda’s mom ended up locking herself out of the house so she wasn’t able to fix the fried chicken when she wanted and Michael ended up picking me up.
Barry Frazelle, just back last night from his trip to Africa to perform dental services, was there. We talked to him for a bit then my brother-in-law and I headed on out to catch some waves. It wasn’t great at first but it picked up and got pretty fun. There were a lot of kids in the water, so I had to watch out against running into them. Michael kept falling off his board and was irritated but not, he assured me, negged out.
I think the next time I go out it’ll be with a rash guard or possibly bareback. I got a bit hot and unzipped the front of my neoprene top (it’s a retro style) and I felt just fine.
We did forget to put on sunscreen and my face, I noticed tonight, got a little red, but I don’t think it’s anything too bad.
While we were out surfing, Michael and I contemplated whether or not we’d be sent for when the food was ready. When we came in we found Amanda, Karen, Phil, Anna, Barry, Hannah, Kirsten, Peggy and Earl finishing up their lunch on the back patio. So the answer then was no, they weren’t sending anyone to let us know when lunch was ready.
We sat, ate, talked and opened birthday (Amanda and Phil) and Mother’s Day presents. Afterwards we all went upstairs to check out pictures from Barry’s trip. I hate to admit my ineptitude, but we couldn’t have done it without Michael. He’s the one who suggested using the Wii to view the pictures and he’s the one who discovered that something else was plugged into the place where the Wii should have been.
Back home a little while later, Amanda and I were exhausted. I wanted to nap, but we had to run to Lowe’s to pick up some spray paint for the changing table Earl had made and dropped off as well as some handles for the drawer for it. The spray paint we got was crappy, by the way. There wasn’t enough in it to even cover the changing table once and you had to hold it really close to cover anything at all.
Everyone but Karen had left before we went to Lowe’s, but she stuck around to clean the dishes she’d used in making the fried chicken earlier. Before we headed out she also showed me a bunch of stuff she’d gotten to make some grass grow in our yard. I hope it works.
Finally able to rest, Amanda and I watched last night’s Justin Timberlake appearance on Saturday Night Live. Honestly, I never cared one way or the other about Justin Timberlake before seeing him on SNL, but the dude’s funny. His episodes are definitely good ones.
We watched an episode of Scrubs and Amanda went to bed after that. Refreshed a little, I watched all the episodes of Parks and Recreation on the DVR. It’s not a bad show. People don’t like it for being too similar to The Office, but The Office wasn’t very popular at first either. We’ll see whether this catches on or not after a while.
Zach Dotsey