What a weekend

This past weekend was no different than most of our weekends, plenty of things to keep us occupied. It began Friday afternoon with Noah's ball practice at 5 (for which he only stayed 40 minutes or so because of our regular Fri-night CR engagement that starts around 6), and ended with falling asleep to HGTV around 10:30 last night.

We had AWANA pinewood derby on Saturday (saw some very cool and original designs... Halle is already thinking of hers for next year), followed by a quick lunch at Wendy's. We got home around 3 and around 30 minutes later were reminded by neighbors of their daughter's birthday party at 4 at one of the local "jump houses" (for those not familiar with the term, they are large rooms filled with inflatable bounce houses/slides/mazes). Thankfully, we did already have a present and wrapping paper, so we were able to get ready to go and were on time for the festivities. All the families on our street with children under 13 were there, plus a few extra. I was able to get in a little visiting with the other moms, something I really don't do very often. We got home in time to put dinner in the oven.... Paula Deen's Baked French Toast. Joel said he gave it an "A." Guess that means I'll need to make it again. Watched Mr. Bean's Holiday with the kids and Brian before bedtime (it was as much torture for me the second time as the first) and ended the evening falling asleep while watching Two Weeks with Brian. The fact that I fell asleep had *nothing* to do with the movie; I was just too tired by that time to stay awake. I was up early enough yesterday morning to finish watching it before getting out of bed.

I cannot say enough about Two Weeks. I can not imagine a person who could watch it and not be affected by it. It is amazing the range of emotions one movie can provoke. The basic storyline surrounds four adult siblings whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer and what happens when they come together in her home for what they believe will be her last few days (turning into two weeks... thus the title). There are moments that will make you laugh, cry, feel like slapping someone... and make you think. Watch it. Let me know how it affected you.

Yesterday we went to church and then out for lunch at Tahoe Joe's. Brian and I split a ribeye (really, should anyone eat a 14 oz. steak?). Halle and Noah both ordered the kids' steak, which has always been very good in the past. Unfortunately, the same could not be said yesterday. Apparently they changed the cut of meat they use for it and instead of a small sirloin, it was a big thick unidentifiable chunk of meat. Halle's was so tough I couldn't cut it, and Noah's was so tasteless, he barely ate 1/4 of it. Our server disappeared on us after serving the food so that we couldn't even tell her to take it back.... we had to ask the hostess to tell our server about it. Saw her do that, but the server never came back to the table (she even walked right past us to start chatting up a new table full of guys). Everyone else finished eating, and we finally asked to talk to the manager. We politely and calmly explained our dissatisfaction with the food and service (Brian's glass sat empty for 20 minutes). The manager wound up comping us the entire meal, plus gave us a card good for 3 free kids' meals on our next visit. We *will* go back, mostly because yesterday was quite atypical for that restaurant, and also because of the way the manager responded. There have been times we have had issues or questions in a restaurant and the managerial staff has responded defensively or made excuses; he did neither of those, but just apologized and asked for a chance to make it right. I appreciated that.

Came home and finished making this week's menu/shopping list, then headed to the commissary. Came home, put away groceries, then folded a couple of loads of laundry while watching the Oscars. There will be MUCH more laundry to do today. Brian helped the boys clean their room while I was shopping (and after I got back... and they still aren't done) and discovered a huge amount of clothing that hadn't been making its way to the laundry.

On the agenda this week in the evenings:

• a ball practice every evening from 5-6ish Mon-Fri, plus at least one on Saturday morning.
• Easter choir rehearsal for me tonight
  
• play rehearsals for Emily after school a couple days (not sure which)
• Tuesday night AWANA for Halle, growth group meeting for me and Brian
• Brian's regular Wed. evening group meeting
• Fri. night CR
  

Thursdays are happy nights; only Joel's ball practice to worry about (unless I have praise choir rehearsal...)