Two weeks since Mimi and Pops; one week till M and P = super behind!

Two weeks ago Saturday November 2, Katelyn had a benefit garage sale in the morning for a friend of ours with a kid with down's and another kid with cystic fibrosis.  It was at our old church and she went by there in the morning to help price and sell stuff.  She said it was interesting having different people price items because two identical things would have a different price on them based on each person's opinion.  I stayed home with the girls and attempted to clean before Mimi came.  After Katelyn got home, we finished the cleaning and the girls napped.  Then we headed to Tyler to watch a LeTourneau soccer game.  It was their last game of the season before play offs and they HAD to win.  We got there shortly after the second half began.  Apparently they were evenly matched the first half.  We must have been bad luck because they lost like 5-1 or something crazy.  One of the guys on UT Tyler's team was definitely having a good day as goal after goal without assists attested to.  After the game we headed to the airport to pick up Mimi.  She arrived on time and we headed to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner.  We had gone to one in Wichita but this one was supremely terrible.  The waiter started out by saying "I think I need to be fair to y'all and let you know the kitchen is behind tonight and it's a 30 minute wait time." That should have been enough for us to go to Taco Bell, but we chose to wait it out.  A couple pieces of cold chicken and a ketchup-less burger later, we were on our way to Longview!  To his credit he did give us some free fries for the kids while we waited.

Sunday Mimi helped get the girls ready for church.  She combed and fashioned Haley's hair.  We should have taken a picture as this is the very first meeting between her hair and a comb.  Then, after church, she grandbabysat the girls while we went to a nesting shower which basically means a work day.  I scraped paint off some old cupboards.  I think they may have chosen to get pregnant simply because they needed help at their house.  When we got back, the Feenstra's minus one, had arrived.  They had left Jay with her parents in west Texas.  Mimi and Katelyn went to Bodacious and brought back some food for us for dinner.  I think we played dutch blitz after the girls went to bed.

Monday Katelyn felt super sick.  I had to go to Trinity School, where a couple ladies from our church teach Spanish.  This month they were studying Honduras, so they asked me to come speak to the school.  It went pretty well.  All the kids were attentive.  Katelyn, Mimi, and the girls came to watch me present the middle and high schools.  Mimi had gotten the girls ready single handedly as Katelyn felt sick.  So sick, in fact, that after the presentation, as we were walking to the car, she just threw up in the parking lot.  Aint no thang because she just hopped in the civic with Mimi and they were off shopping while I took the girls home and gave them lunch.  I was supposed to fly in the afternoon but that got cancelled.  Katelyn and Mimi went to chic fil a for lunch.  While the girls slept, Katelyn and Mimi went shopping again and found many stores to be closed on Mondays.  Then Katelyn came home and fell asleep feeling sick and Mimi went shopping alone.  At night we had Bible Study while Mimi watched the girls again and said they did pretty well.

Tuesday Katelyn took Mimi to MOPs with her and it became GMOPs.  Right from there, they met Pops, who had arrived that morning, at his hotel.  They brought him back to the Canche casa and Katelyn made BLT's for everyone.  Then Pops and I watched the girls while Katelyn and Mimi went to all the stores that had been closed on Monday. Pops showed Haley how to build color coded hollow towers, something she had never been exposed to before.  At night we went to Cowboy Chicken for dinner.  I cant believe how many times we went out to eat chicken.  Now that I write it out, it seems a bit excessive.  After dinner, we went to the yogurt bar for dessert.  Then Katelyn ran to a baby shower for Eli Freeman for an hour while the rest of us played with the girls and put them to bed.  Then the four adults played dutch blitz.  Katelyn wants the record to show that she won both nights.  I was about to and then chose to forfeit so she could feel good.

Wednesday Katelyn had BSF and right after picked up her mom to hang out.  Pops' golf outing got cancelled due to rain, so he came with me to Jobs for Life and got to meet some of the men we are working with.  After that, Pop's and I figured we should eat chicken again and headed to chic fil a for lunch.  When we got home K and M went shopping AGAIN (it is so much more annoying writing about it than actually living it) while Pops and I waited for the kids to wake up.  Mimi came with us to the pot luck at church while Merle went to his meetings.  Katelyn dropped her off after an hour for her meetings. At Missio Dei, we packed up boxes to send for Operation Christmas Child.  I had gone out in the afternoon to buy the toys and stuff we were sticking in there.  The girls had fun coloring a picture for the child who will receive our package.  I used to think OCC was an irresponsible, damaging, way for people to feel good about themselves by giving something that is easy to give, but Rin can tell you otherwise and enlightened me to care with which those material gifts are shared directly alongside the gospel.  After Missio Dei, we came home and went to bed.

Mimi looking at babies on backs and babies in papooses

Haley showing Pops pictures of herself (Belle) and Emily (Cinderella)

Emily cooking up a veritable feast for pops while Haley gets her backpack ready for the 2016 School year