The Wonderful Weekend--Days 105-106

Another wonderful weekend. Thank you, Lord. Saturday finally got here. I'd been looking forward to it for quite some time. Saturday was the day of our fantasy football draft we had been planning for about 8 months. It also turned out to be the day we had the Oakwood Community Church fair. I had really started looking forward to that after we had all signed up to help out. Colton decided he wanted to go with me to work Saturday, so his day would be as long as mine. I got him up at 6:30 and asked if he still wanted to go. "Can we go to McDonald's for breakfast?", he responds, barely awake. I'm not sure how I responded, but we ended up going.

I showed him some of my responsibilities at work and he joined in helping me getting some work done. He messed around on the computer a bit, played with my hoist and pushed himself around the lab on my chair like he does every time I take him to work. Time went fairly fast and soon it was time to go to the fair.

I looked for something I could do and I was eventually introduced to Chip. I had seen him several times, but did not know his name. I ended up helping put the moon walk up. That was put up fairly quickly and soon I was looking for something else I could do. Everything was pretty much done so I got something to drink. Colton came back from the rock wall and wanted a snow cone. He noticed how fun it looked and I told him he could probably help if he wanted to. He liked the sound of that so he washed up, grabbed a hat and gloves and joined in. He had a hard time getting the hang of putting the flavoring on the cones, so he switched places with his cousin and did the ice machine. He loved it, especially the part where he got to put the ice in the tube, put the arm down on it, push the motor button and crush the ice into little pieces. He ended up doing it for nearly the next three hours. I was very proud of him. He enjoyed all the compliments he was getting and I told him he was getting them because he was doing the job the best he could and looked like he enjoyed what he was doing. It also helped how polite he was. Gabrielle said later that she would have liked to try it. We'll make sure she gets to do it next year if we have another fair.

It was a most beautiful day. Many of us had seen the possibility of rain that was predicted for today. Many of us had also prayed for it to stay away. I would find out Sunday that it was the first fair they had without rain. That, coupled with the fact that Pastor Don left me a thank you card for being in the prayer vigil saying that every prayer had an impact, left me feeling I had had an impact on the weather. In a way, that's ridiculous. God is the reason for everything. Still, it warms my heart that he let us have such a great day for a fair.

Gabrielle worked with Kim at the craft area. She, and many other children, made all sorts of crafts. She wore the flower necklace she had made for the next day and a half. During this time, the Stand Strength team were busy displaying their feats of strength. One of which included carrying Colton, two of his cousins and another girl around on a large, metal apparatus. It was all quite impressive. What was all the more impressive was the message they had before every feat of strength. I know it has to orchestrated beforehand and they had to practice it and then repeat it wherever they went, but it didn't sound orchestrated. They meant everything they said and the crowd reacted as such. Soon after their show was over, we left for Rick's house. If the day or even weekend had ended here, I would've been more than happy. Fortunately it didn't. Thank you, Jesus.

The kids had both worked very hard and were immediately ready for a dip in Rick's pool as soon as they got there. It was well deserved and I barely saw them for the next few hours as they swam and played with the other children. The guys that were there on time (5:00) waited pretty much patiently for the others to show up. At around 5:30, we started our draft with one guy still missing, but we were able to contact him over the phone. I didn't know how this draft would turn out for me, but I ended up just getting a couple new running backs on my team as well as the best defensive player possible. I could've spread my money around a little better, but I was pretty happy with the outcome.

Tom was new to the league and had been voted in by a 6-5 margin. I was the one who went to him to see if he wanted to take the place of an owner that had to leave and it was between him and two others. Now that he's in, I'd like to see him do well. He had a plan at the draft and he has a pretty good team--much better than the team he was left with.

Kim would later remark that our draft was quieter than in previous years. We had lots of fun as usual, and did not notice it being any quieter. I can't even imagine twelve men being described as "quiet". Maybe we were thinking more, now that we had so many more people to choose from since the start of the league. The draft lasted four hours, and Jason and I played some head-to-head hold 'em till almost 11:30. As we left he rain was coming down pretty good, but it felt good after this long, hot day. If the weekend would've ended here, I would've been tremendously happy, but it did not. Thank you, Jesus.

Church was the next morning. I took Noah to the nursery as normal and Kim took Colton and Gabrielle to get their name tags for SONlight park. On the way to the nursery and then back to Kim and the kids to take a seat, I was barraged with more "Hi"s, "Good Morning"s, "How ya' doin'?"s and handshakes than normal. It really is a great church. The more I go, the more I like it. Pastor Bob's message, accompanied by a praying mantis, to the kids was hopefully eye-opening to many of them. While we pray with our heads bowed and our hands together much of the time we pray, it is not absolutely necessary. We can pray with our eyes open and with our hands at work if we want. Pastor Don's message on trusting the Lord and doing work for the Lord was great as well. He is a very passionate speaker.

As we left, I thanked him for the card he had left me concerning the prayer vigil and inquired about the Awana's program. The leaders meeting is very soon and I was wondering if I should attend since I had volunteered a couple of weeks ago, but had not been contacted. I was introduced to Awana's leader (I am so bad with names) and she asked if I had a preference of what age group I wanted to work with. I told that I'd like to either work with the 2nd graders with Gabrielle or the 5th graders with Colton. She said she could really use some male help with the second graders. She said my job is part crowd control, part helping the leader with certain tasks. I'm really looking forward to it. I asked if I would teaching any messages, and she said that while too few people can do that right now, it would not be necessary. I would love to get to that point in the future. Kim and I had also signed up for the Thursday class on studying the bible. I'm looking forward to that as well. If my weekend would've ended right then, I would've been ecstatic, but it did not. Praise the Lord!

After that was the Bierbusse family reunion. I gave Mom B. a hug, Dad B. a handshake and at least a hello to everyone else that I knew. We played some catch, a little baseball and ate some of the pot luck food. We sat around and talked for a bit, but I can usually never do that for long. I'm not much of a conversationalist yet. I'm not sure I ever will be. We ended with the kids playing some games and having a water balloon fight. That's always fun and seemingly out of control. Water and balloons start coming from everywhere. If someone is in the vicinity, they are fair game to me. This means I also need to plan on getting pretty wet myself. I did, as usual, but I really enjoyed it. My kids enjoyed themselves and my nieces are still at the age where they still enjoy it too. I love them all. Including Drew, they are all really great kids. Soon after, we packed up and headed home. When we got home, we ordered a pizza and a movie. I tried to read "The Shack" that I had gotten from Jennifer on the way home, but couldn't really do it with the movie playing and I was very tired anyway, so I went to bed. Finally, the end to a wonderful weekend. Thank you, Jesus.