What a weekend

I'm exhausted. And after the schedule I've been keeping lately, I have every right to be.

Lets see, the most recent spate began this past Thursday. I remember it like it was only, well, last Thursday . . .

I rush home after work to pick up Mrs. Euphrony, Little Euphrony, Lil' E's best friend (here to be referred to as BF), and BF's mom (BFM). We hope in the minivan, pop in a movie, and start driving to College Station. We've got an appointment with the VeggieTales "A Very Veggie Christmas ... Live!". Let me tell you, nothing says Christmas like a bunch of talking produce. After 90 minutes in the car with a 3-year old and 4-year old, plus stops for dinner and potty, we arrive at the venue. This is where the real adventure began because, you see, I'm a goof up. I'm sure you quickly counted the above listed names and correctly surmised that there were to be five in our party. Then why, for the love of Pete, did I only purchase four tickets? Why? My first attempt at correction, since they would not allow refunds or exchanges, was to purchase one extra seat directly behind the others. Great plan, right? Never good enough, though. Kat, when you worked KSBJ events, I was probably the person you hated. I'm calling, trying to get these rearranged to be all together (I mean, there was a ton of open seats. What's the big deal????) but had to wait until we got there to do anything. So, I personally hold up the Will Call line to get things worked out. We all go in, sit down, and enjoy a show the two girls loved.

By the way, Lil' E and BF never actually sat in a chair. Only in laps so they could see better. Why did I jump through all the hoops? To be legit and because, if I didn't, it would have come back and bit me in the rear.

After getting home late, and getting Little Euphrony in bed at around midnight, I get up to be in a work at my normal 7-7:30 time. I then head out for a optometrist appointment at 9:30, for both myself and for Lil' E (her first). She still firmly believes that having her eyes checked will hurt, despite her experience. (We have a good optometrist, by the way, and he worked well with Lil' E.) After work on Friday, I pick up the girls and we head up to the church building. It was "Neighbor Helping Neighbor" weekend - this is an annual "free" church-wide garage sale where we take whatever donations people are willing to give and offer it all, completely free, to people in the community. It gives us a chance to help out people who need clothes, household items, even large furniture (we had several beds, two washers and a dryer, desks, and other large items) and to interact with them and see where, beyond the physical, we can help. Friday night was the organization of it all, having donations dropped off, sorting and laying out things, and bringing up a couple of guys from an inner-city Houston church to get first choice of what their needy could use. Then, for most of the day on Saturday, we had people coming through - we specifically invited several area apartment complexes and put out flyers to let people know - and then what was left was collected and taken to Northwest Assistance Ministries and to Salvation Army.

After a nice lunch at Jason's Deli (unbelievably crowded), we head home to change clothes and work our way across town to a friend's house for a Christmas party. This party was centered around the good ol' practice of walking the neighborhood and caroling. It was cold out (translate: Mrs. Euphrony, at 6-months pregnant, was quite comfortable) but everyone had a good time. Little Euphrony ended up disappointed because we did not sing "Joy to the World" right - that is, how she sings it at pre-school for their upcoming Christmas program, with a little chant and fist-pumping at the beginning followed by singing the song at the top of your lungs. Again, another late night and long day, but a lot of good.

Sunday morning, I was up at the church building early to help cook a huge meal to be taken down to the above-mentioned inner-city church for Sunday lunch. Around 20 gallons of mashed potatoes, 10 gallons of green bean casserole, and 105 pounds of sausage later, the food was ready to go and I was even able to make it in to worship on time. We treated ourselves to a good lunch at a hibachi grill (Mrs. Euphrony craves good fried rice right now), did a little shopping for some new sweaters for me, a little food shopping, and then headed home. After play time we had dinner at CiCi's Pizza (what, so we eat out regularly - you gotta problem with that?) where Little Euphrony induced a deep belly laugh out of me and made Mrs. Euphrony choke while trying to laugh. (She got a kid's toy with her free meal, a small dragon figurine in a plastic egg. While sitting at the table, she asked me to open the top of the egg so she could "pop it out", which I did and then handed it to her. She then reiterated that she was going to "pop it out" and proceeded to spread her legs, place the toy in her crotch, and "pop it out"! I think she is really getting a grasp on what is coming with baby brother.) After we got home, Mrs. Euphrony put Lil' E in bed while I cooked around three gallons of stew and cornbread (for ourselves and to take to two other families that just had babies). I love to cook, but we still seem to eat out often just for convenience.

After an action-packed weekend like that, a normal week is welcome. But, since it the holiday season that will have to wait. Besides normal Christmas activities, I am preparing for a business trip to Norway the whole week before Christmas. I hear it's cold there (thus the aforementioned sweaters).

Tags: Euphrony, Aid, Giving, VeggieTales, Christmas, Family