VBS Day 4 and 5

Yesterday, didn't go so well. It was the gospel presentation day, and that meant that pretty much any stumbling block that could be thrown our way would be. First thing in the morning, my neighbor texted to say she'd been up vomiting, and her two youngest were vomiting, but she thought it was food poisoning, and the oldest was okay. She's also teaching VBS this week, so I stopped by for her bag and sort of made arrangements to bring the oldest home if parents were not feeling up to leaving the house. If you know me, vomit is like my ultimate foe. Stomach flu for us is misery upon misery--everyone tossing their cookies at once, the constant laundry, ughh. So even agreeing to be in the vicinity of such illness was enough to make me queasy :) Anyway, we were running a bit late, but arrived ahead of my crowd of kiddos.

It was our Compassion Experience day, so our schedule was a little off. My group tends to wander, so keeping them altogether to get to the experience, to go through the experience, and then to return from the experience was a bit daunting, but we got it done :) Of course there was restlessness and noise during the gospel portion, but I pray those words of truth touched their hearts in some way!

After closing, my girls asked if they could go through the Compassion Experience with the other skit crew/helpers/music team that hadn't been able to go during the day. I agreed, collected the boys, and we drove from the far parking lot to the near parking lot to wait for the girls to come out. They didn't know I'd moved the van, so I parked in one of the few not blocked off spaces where they could see me. Pretty much everyone had left by the time the girls were done. They hopped in the van, I started backing out of the space, and the van would not move, at all.

So I put the van in drive and tried to move forward a bit. There was a curb on the driver's side, so I figured our wheels were just hitting against that in a weird way, so that no reverse motion could occur. I tried again. Still couldn't really move, so tried pulling forward again a little, readjusting the wheel. I had been checking my little backing up camera and doing the glance around . . . apparently until the third try :( I thought, maybe the parking break somehow got on? New van, not 100% sure of its quirks--but no that was good. So I reversed again--this time we moved a bit, then stopped AGAIN. But when I looked in the rearview mirror, it was because we were backed into a truck. Ugh!!

I guess there was still a vehicle in the lot, they happened to drive by on my third attempt to reverse, and boom-smashy. I still haven't heard if they are going to repair the damage or if they think it's enough to get insurance involved? It's a teen driver, but she was very responsible. Our van is scratched and the far-passenger-side sensor got knocked inside the bumper (so it goes off plenty now, although it wasn't very helpful yesterday). However, I don't know if our damage is enough to do anything repair-wise, so I'm just waiting to hear from the other girls' parents to see what they want to do. Ahh, VBS week--so many unexpected moments.

And then top it all off, I totally lost track of which day it was. I got a message from the kids' karate instructor, "We're ready whenever!" meaning--"Okay, Gabby already dressed as a turtle and ready for your appearance that we've been hinting at all week on fb while our 50 plus Tiny Tigers eagerly awaiting a photo with you between testings, come on out!"

We were still at  home.

AT HOME!!!

If a scratched up mini van could fly, ours just about did. Ugh!! I left the other three kids at home, eating dinner, and we arrived as quickly as we could at the gym. For the first time in the history of ALL karate events--they got done early. Go figure! We held up the class that finished graduating and the class that was about to test next. I felt terrible!! I don't forget things like this; I'm a very dependable person. If I say I'll be there, I will . . . I guess unless I'm worried about vomit, trying to help children find Jesus, backing into teenagers, and forgetting what day of the week it is for turtle appearances. Sigh :(

But all the kids loved getting their picture with Michelangelo. And the kids' instructor (and especially his college-aged son, who was about to get called into back-up turtle duty) were thankful that Gabby was able to make it just in the nick of time.

When we arrived home, Buck was here--but no deck delivery. That was originally scheduled for Thursday (maybe another reason I thought it was Wednesday?). So, the kids and I continued pulling pictures off the walls, taking apart furniture, moving tubs of books to the garage, all in prep for paint and carpet. Buck asked the kids for help outside, so they all went out to tear apart the old deck until the sun went down. They are out there again right now!



This morning, for the last day of VBS, Buck came along to see the kids do their skits and songs and crafts and games. All together, the children brought nearly $3,000 in coins and bills to give to Compassion International!! This will buy playground equipment, bicycles, provide education, farm animals, and seeds . . . lots of goodness planted in foreign soil :) As their reward, the VBS organizers and the youth pastor got slimed on stage--bright green, all kinds of gooey. That was fun to see and the kids loved it!!

Next, we grabbed burritos at Qdoba and came home to rest a few minutes before jumping back into our renovations. And now I'm writing this, so I should go and help my family tear apart our house, because the lumber has arrived and we are ready to rebuild . . . soon :)

Please pray I hear from this other family about the vehicle soon!