May 9

Happy Majajaja's Day!

Aren't mothers awesome? Mine is, and if you don't know her, well... if you did, you'd agree. I am truly blessed to have the family I have, with their full support in all I do... and my mom is the glue of it all. She holds everything together, but can be completely transparent. That's a good thing for being a parent at this stage of our family... with all 3 kids that are college age, early 20's, and are finding out about true love. I guess it's a good thing for it to be so approachable as a mother, and my mom has done this exquisitely well. Is it a coincidence that the word "parent" is found in "transparent"? ...I think not. Mom, I love you, and thank you again for all you do for me. I am truly blessed, and I pray that I you are blessed and proud of what Alex, Laura, and I do. Thank you mom. This day is for you. Wish I could be there, and you know that I would if I could... but know my heart is there. :)

OK! Today. Wow. The first Sunday on the job... and it was a little crazy. I got up to the church right at 8:50am. The first service starts at 9:30am, so I'm there plenty early, and ready to help whoever I can. I had all the materials, handouts, printouts, videos and all ready to go. Not nervous, just wondering if people know that I'm in charge, kind of.

Volunteers start showing up at about 9:10am, setting up things for both the 9:30 and 11:00 services. The first volunteer I noticed was someone who was walking around with the 11:00am materials. Well, that can't be... because I have them in my hand. Oh no. I asked her what she had in her hands, and she replied, "Fear Knot handouts. I need to go make more copies." I introduced myself, and presented her the 80 copies for the 4/5th graders, and the 80 copies for the 2/3 graders. Cut, folded, ready.

She was so happy that it was done. She, her name Vicki, had looked where the normal spot for the materials were, and they weren't there... mainly because I didn't know that spot existed. Vicki showed me another workroom full of paper, games, toys, markers, and various items essential to children's ministry. "Oh," I thought, "THIS is where all this stuff is!" Vicki also showed me where to normally put the Sunday morning materials that I've prepared over the week... now she won't have to worry about not having them. Vicki was about to freak out, because it takes a while to prep for Sunday mornings!

After I met Vicki, everything began to pick up speed. Teachers were coming in, looking for the things that should be there, but weren't... because I didn't know exactly where the materials were supposed to go! Ahhh! I eventually got everything to everyone, and they thanked me that I had taken the effort to organize everything so well that even if things weren't normal, everything could still be managed and fixed quickly. That's me... organized. Haha... never thought that would be the first impression on volunteers. Not saying I don't like it. I do... just unexpected.

I got to meet all the volunteers, and put a face to the names on the list I'd been looking at all morning. After getting everything sorted out and all the materials in the right locations, things went pretty smooth. I answered questions I knew nothing about until asked the question (if that makes sense). I took money for church camp. I found substitutes... in all, 5, yes FIVE teachers were absent today, but I found subs for all of them, and made it work... and got to know just a few kids. It wasn't a day where I could get to know the kids. That'll come later.

I was greeted by a lot of teachers, who were very supportive and helpful for my first real day. They were impressed with how well I took all the missing teachers, how well everything was organized, and the overall hard work I put into the morning. I was back and forth between groups, rooms, songs, conversations, and questions all day, and I think I did fairly well. I give me a solid B for the day... and it would've been an A if I knew where everything was supposed to be at first.

All the kids began filing out after the 11:00 service ended at noon, and I stuck around, picked up, checked up, and walked around to make sure everything wasn't left a mess. I talk to a couple teachers, found out some information for some parents about Camp Timberlake, and almost went to lunch.

Yeah, lunch with Ben, a volunteer that's my age, and his family. He invited me to come eat a Valentino's. We drove over there in separate cars... and saw that there was about 70-100 people standing outside, waiting to be seated. Holy moly. I've never seen so many people lined up to eat sub-par food. Valentino's in Manhattan, KS was nasty, and there wouldn't be 10 people in there at once... let alone a packed house with 100 people waiting in line! Wow... So, I didn't want to wait for 3 hours to eat, so I thanked Ben for the invite (they had decided to stay and wait, I don't know why), and went to a local taco hut stand place with burritos and nachos

Went "home" to the Blythe's, let the dogs out, then ate my nachos. The nachos were way bigger than expected, so I stuck the burritos in the fridge. I hope they're there on Tuesday. Leftovers! I watched a little TV for about 30 minutes, packed up, and took off to Kansas.

I went straight to Holly's folks' house in Maple Hill. Besides Ally, Trav, and the boys, everyone was there. The Travis Morgan family had to go to Ally's mom's, and left before I got there. But it's ok... because I got to see Dana and Kyle's baby... my nephew, Zach! He's a really cute baby. We ate, talked, joked, and I got to hold baby Zach for like an hour! We did a baby rap, I taught him to high-5 and pound it, as well as how to be a gangsta. Everyone thought it was funny, though admittedly cheesy, and the began to pull the video cameras out. After some goofy filming and picture taking, I had to hand him off to other family members. I let Holly get the wanting-a-baby-thing out of her system, and we headed home.

Yes, I never thought I'd miss this apartment. But when you really don't have a place, you miss having your own place. It wouldn't have been so bad if Holly was with me in Lincoln... but walking in the door to your crappy little apartment was satisfying, because I was HOME. WITH MY WIFE. It's great. Only 6 days, but still, time away is still time away, no matter how long. I'm happy to be home, happy to be with Holly, and happy overall. It's been a long day, but I'll get to sleep in tomorrow. I'm thankful for everyone in my life, and thankful for everything God has blessed me with... yes, even the crappy little apartment I can't wait to get out of... I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful for you reading this blog. Thanks for your support and willingness to care about my life.

God Bless, especially you,

clint

DAY 6 COMPLETE