The One with the Third Place Trophy

A great, busy weekend.

Friday evening the youth group had committed to serving dinner for the MonARC banquet.

(MonARC: Advocacy. Rights. Community. Serves the developmentally disabled of our county.

The DD population is more dense in our area than in most.

This is a great service.)

But before that could happen, FriDAY had to be reckoned with.

That morning, Kevin and I went to our optometrist appointments.

Our insurance will be changing soon.

And it had been years and years since either of us had been re-examined.

Whoops.

The doctor was not at all what I normally picture when I think of eye doctors.

Typically, images of old somewhat malodorous men fill my mind.

But this doctor was just reaching 30.

She was gorgeous. And trendy.

The not the least bit awkward or smelly.

That was nice.

Turns out, Kevin's prescription hasn't changed in 7 years.

Lucky for him.

So he ordered new contacts and can keep using the same glasses.

(We have to pick one or the other for our insurance to cover. Lame.)

My eyes, on the other had, had been over corrected for the past three years.

How uncool is that?!

I'm hoping this is the cause of the recent onslaught of headaches.

We go back this Friday to make sure all is well.

And I need to decide if I want new lenses put in my current frames or not.

I wear contacts 80% of the time.

But I really love having glasses as an alternative.

Whether it's just because I feel like it.

Or because my eyes are tired.

Or allergies.

Or ripped contacts.

Or whatever.

And they match Magan's, so you can't go wrong there. ;)

After that appointment, I immediately set to work on a batch of cookies.

I had one already prepared for the Sunday bake sale, but Friday afternoon was my last opportunity to make a second.

Halfway through a new recipe for Mocha Cookies, I realized it was a potluck on Sunday.

Which means no cookies necessary.

Boo, forgetfulness. Boo, overpreparedness.

Right at that moment the phone rang.

It was a lady I hadn't heard from since April.

The one who called every day for months and would talk and talk and talk and talk and talk.

Like you've never heard anyone talk.

I was just fine not having heard from her.

But I picked up the phone without knowing the caller id number.

I freaked out for a moment when I heard who it was.

I knew she was calling for a favor.

Her friend's dad was in a life threatening condition in the hospital.

I was dreading to hear her request: most likely babysitting her little adorable faced demon child.

Turns out she wanted me to bake something to send to them.

I agreed.

Within the hour I had 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies packaged and ready to go.

I spent another 3 hours at the desk working on filing.

Paying bills.

Filing.

Online banking.

Checkbook balancing.

THREE hours.

Uggg.

I proceeded to change into my "uniform" for the dinner.

White shirt.

Black pants.

I waited for the Pastor to pick me up (since Kevin was getting home late.)

I stood in the living room for 20 minutes before I heard from him.

He had left late.

And forgotten he needed to pick me up.

I arrived at the hall 25 minutes later than I had instructed the students to be there.

I simply do not appreciate tardiness.

The rest of the night was quite eventful.

Extremely fun.

And very tiring.

Some photos:

::we're professionals::

The catered meal was open to us servers but I never ate.

It was either "illegal" (filled with flour) or it was just not my picture of culinary deliciousness.

Box mashed potatoes. Ummm, no thank you.

"Salad"--naked ice berg topped with thick ranch or french. Not so much.

So when we got home, I had a leftover stuffed green pepper.

It was my third try at stuffed green peppers, and I finally nailed it.

The first time was too hard.

The second was too mushy.

This was juuuuust right.

Saturday came all too early.

We left the house at 6:30am to pick up the three Bible quizzers.

We drove north an hour or so and arrived right on time to our first ever Bible quiz.

The teens were nervous.

Not knowing what to expect.

But they rocked it.

I was so ridiculously proud of them.

They had never quizzed before and on their second round they were tied up to the last question!

They ended up snatching a trophy.

For third place!

But you don't have to know there were 3 teams in our division.

We all had a blast.

It's fun to meet new friends.

See old ones.

Hang out with my awesome brother.

Throw a frisbee around.

And keep score for the quiz master of the top room.

Yeah, that's my husband.

He rocks.

All three student were out cold on the ride home.

It was adorable.

Though I felt a little bad for them being cooped up in our tiny Civic's back seat.

Kevin and I enjoyed delving into The Hobbit.

He's read it before and brought it along for down time.

I had never read it and he really encouraged me to get into it.

So I read out loud.

And I think we'll keep reading it that way. Together.

I like being all animated and laughing together at the British humor of esteemed J.R. Tolkein.

Sunday brought sword drills for Sunday School.

Revelation Song for worship.

Our friends, Josh & Amanda, visited the service.

And a potluck afterwards.

Can't beat that.

Youth group hour rolled around quickly (after my hour long nap, that is).

We played ultimate frisbee.

Perfect weather for that.

Ate popcorn.

Had some good discussions about what wisdom and foolishness have to do with our friendships.

(As our 3rd week on the topic of wisdom, they are finally getting it.

How it applies to them.

Not just answering my questions.)

And that brings us to today.

I'm waiting for Kevin to pull in the driveway so I can jump in the car with him.

We're heading to Goodwill.

Per my rather forceful request.

After we realized he had left his coat,

his only coat,

more than an hour from home.

At the Bible quiz host church.

It'll be a month before he sees that again.

And it's October.

It's cold.

And it won't hurt to have two jackets.

I am totally loving this excuse for a Goodwill run.