Busy, busy, busy and an explanation.

Crazy-busy weekend.  Friday night was our usual card game/night out with our friends.  Except that usually the women win and this time the guys kicked our butts.  But, we gotta let them win sometime or they wouldn't play with us, right?  There's always next week.  Or maybe tonite, actually.

Saturday morning Sam and Meg worked at our Helping Hands project, painting and sort of renovating a Southern Baptist church in Seaside.  I wasn't really up to it yet, but I went to see what was going on.  We know these guys from when we did a joint gospel choir with them.  That was a blast, although a totally different way for us to learn music.  When our highcouncilman, Doug, called to ask for names of people to sing in that choir, he said that we needed people who are cool, who won't try to proselytize, and if they could sing, it would be nice.  It was for a Monterey Bay area gospel music festival that ultimately got cancelled, but it was a great experience and we really had a good time.  Apparently Doug is buddies with the pastor there, so when they were looking for a helping hands project, he asked the pastor if there was anything they could use help with.  I think they were expecting a couple of dozen people, but this was a Stake (a group of congregations, for those of you not familiar with LDS lingo) project.  We had probably 150 people show up.  The Baptists had offered to feed us, but Doug was pretty sure they had no idea what was coming, so he showed up with a boatload of meat for the BBQ they were doing.  They painted inside and out, moved all the pews to clean and oil them while they cleaned the carpet underneath, fixed the steeple, put in some handrails, fixed a broken sliding door, washed all the windows, detailed the chapel, swept and repainted the parking lot and I don't even know what all else. Sam took a ton of pictures, but who knows when I'll see them.

This video was released today, for Calfornia Helping Hands.  This was filmed in San Jose where we used to live and several of our Alum Rock friends are in it.  They asked for people from down here, but I was still recuperating from surgery, so we didn't get to go.

On the way home from Helping Hands, we drove through Pacific Grove because I heard the ice plant on the coast had bloomed.  It was spectacular.  This is just an iphone pic, Sams will be better, I'm sure.

Last night, a photographer friend called and needed help doing portraits for a black-tie Navy Ball at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey.  That place is amazing.  It was originally a really posh hotel, built in the 30's I think.  It's really beautiful.  It was interesting to see how the photographer was set up for that....something we've comtemplated...and see what we would do differently and what we thought worked well.  She has some nice equipment, but Sam's camera is one step up from her Canon and he spent a good amount of time trying to sell her his so that he can buy the new one that's out.  It's $3600, which we don't have, and I told him to figure out where it's coming from and he can order it.  The event itself was lovely, everyone all dressed to the nines.  Although there were a few women that we wondered if they'd actually looked in the mirror before they left home.  The dance play list was cracking me up, though, I'm sure all of those songs were out when I was in high school!

A few years ago, our good friends, the Filceks, had to stay with us while Dan transitioned from Air Force to a civilian employee of the Defense Language Institute.  Lysa and I did a great job of tag-teaming dinners etc.  It was nice to have another cook/chauffer/dishwasher around.  When they finally got their apartment, Sam commented that he was gonna miss his other wife.  Me too!  Then, down the road a year or so, with Habitat for Humanity, they built a house next to our friends, the Sawyers.  Really close, like in their front yard.  Then, the family that was living in the other half of Sawyers duplex moved out and Habitat was looking for another family.  Our friend, Salah, ended up getting it.  They have a common parking area, etc, there's a fence around most of it, so we call it The Compound.  We are honorary compound members cuz we're so cool and all.  Heather and Lysa, who both have several special-needs kids, found out that they had kids with the same problems.  They all go to the same charter school, are on the same swim team as Meg, etc.  Salah's Erin, whose kids are just tiny still,  has a degree in child development or psychology or something like that.  ANYWAY....I tell this story, because Heather, Lysa and I joke about being sisterwives.  We parent each others kids, correlate rides to swim team, youth church activities, they make sure all the kids get to whatever specialist, therapist, whatever appointment they need and my job is to take up the slack when they get over scheduled.  I get to hang out with Normie and Zerin, (ages 6 and 4) mostly, which is fun.  Bonus: Meghan gets 10 siblings!

So, in the future, should I mention Sisterwives and Compounds, don't be thinking there's something weird going on.  Well, there's plenty of weird stuff, but nothing immoral, illegal or habit-forming.  Except for Salah's cooking, which is REALLY habit forming.