God Be With You: Weekend Recap

I've done a terrible job of taking pictures the past few days. In fact, I stole all but one picture on this post from friends. I've had quite the case of laziness, as evidenced by the charts on my fitness tracker. Oh well, I'll start fresh tomorrow.  Here are highlights from the past few days:

Thursday morning

I began the process for getting the trio evaluated for speech over a month ago. Things are finally moving, and an Early Intervention team spent 2.5 hours evaluating the trio in our living room. This was one of three days to determine their eligibility and the details of receiving services. The team returns tomorrow, so I'll update then.

Thursday afternoon: the onset of laziness

I wanted to go to Zumba, then meet friends for Thursdays on Main (picnic with live music). The evaluation took longer than I expected and we were all a bit over stimulated. We had a low-key afternoon at home.

Thursday evening

Teachers had free admission at the local minor league baseball game. We debated going together as a whole family, but the game didn't start 'til 7 and the trio would not have been able to stay for long. Jesse took Jackson, and they met Jesse's mom at the game.

Friday

This was Jesse's first day home for summer break. We spent six hours watching our nine month old nephew. This is probably my favorite baby stage. They're playful, interactive, curious, and moving around a good bit without getting into too much trouble. The trio supervised him the entire time.

Saturday afternoon

I spent the afternoon with some of my favorite former colleagues at a retirement party. I'm always amazed at how connected that particular staff still is. Our school closed four years ago, but we still get together often. On an unrelated note: I cut and served this gorgeous cake without any overwhelming urge to eat it. Whole30 victory!

Saturday evening
Jesse's parents came over with pizza to take care of the kids. I can't even remember when Jesse and I last went on a date. We enjoyed dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (not Whole30 approved!) and a movie. Again, I didn't take any pictures which is so unlike me. The closest movie theater to us has recently been renovated. Every theater has large, fully reclining seats. When you buy a ticket you get an assigned seat. Unfortunately, the only two seats together were in the very front row. It's a good thing the seats reclined, because we literally had to lie down to see the screen.

Melissa McCarthy is SO funny!

Sunday morning

After 14 years at our church, today was our pastor's last Sunday. As the Christian Ed chair, I was asked to find non-church members to work in the nursery so that no member would have to miss the service. I've had anxiety about this all week and been unable to find anyone to volunteer in the nursery. Jesse already said he would rather stay in the nursery than in the sanctuary. At the very last minute (i.e. 20 minutes before the service) a friend of a member showed up in the nursery. 

The service was thoughtful, memorable, and tear-inducing. Oh, how I cried! Even though I was one of the first people to know about the pastor leaving and I've been meeting weekly trying to find an interim pastor, it still felt surreal saying goodbye This is the same man that held all four of my newborn infants in the hospital and prayed for them. He baptized each of them. He encouraged me to lead small groups, work with the youth, and serve as an elder. I'm not sure where I would be in my journey of faith without his leadership. 

One of the church members volunteered to create a photo book for our pastor. She's spent the last several months compiling pictures and letters from all the members. Here is our family's page:

  

We tried to take a picture of the younger children of the church at the goodbye reception. This photo is missing three kids, including Amelia. 

He reminded us that the term "goodbye" originated from the phrase "God be with you." God was indeed with me this weekend through support teams, family members, date nights, and a rich church family.