More Adventure than We Planned For

Our "relaxing 4-day weekend" turned out to be, um, not so relaxing as we had hoped. I think that's pretty typical for life after baby unless you are super-intentional about taking down time, because there is always something more that "needs" to be done. Even for our usual hectic pace though, this weekend was unusual.

Saturday was supposed to be the adventurous day of our long weekend (or at least of David's). David went on a men's canoe trip and got to tackle some small rapids in a canoe for the first time. I had a few of the women whose husbands were also out canoeing over for lunch and we had a great time catching up. David got home just in time to put the wee one to bed.

We love doing things together, so it's rare we spend an entire day apart voluntarily. However, I know it refreshed David to tackle something challenging like this and I certainly enjoyed my time with Susan and Maureen. Although we've been back for 3 months now, I feel like I'm still catching up with everyone after our 6 month stay in Florida.

Sunday began so typically. Our son awoke at the crack of dawn. We lingered over iced coffee and warm egg sandwiches before taking turns getting ready. We got out on time for church (ok so, not so typical...)

When we arrived, David and I split up so I could put Caleb down to sleep in the nursery, which is pretty empty during Sunday school. Today, we were the only ones. As I was listening to him cry, debating if he needed consolation or to be left alone I looked out the window and saw a few clusters of people running from the hotel next door. I barely had time to think, "maybe there's a fire" when a blue caught my eye.

A man with a sniper rifle ducked down behind the shed just outside the nursery window. A surge of involuntary fear ran through me before I could register that he was a police officer. My fear subsided momentarily, but I knew something must be very very wrong. Just as I scooped Caleb up and opened the door to go find David, another officer came in the back door and told us all to get out of the church because a man at the hotel had a machine gun.

They sent us into the field next to the church and we eventually made our way to a gas station outside the police blockade where friends with a car-seat were able to come pick us up. We ended up having a wonderful afternoon of fellowship as we waited for the stand off to end so we could retrieve our car. The gun ended up being a toy, and all ended well.

I wish I could say I handled the situation with confidence, trusting in the goodness and sovereignty of God no matter what the outcome. In reality, I struggled to push down an icy fear that made my thoughts numb and my movements mechanical as we walked away from the church.

It wasn't until one of the evacuees from the hotel, a girl about my age with some type of mental disability, organized us in prayer that I felt the fear recede. Oh how humbling, oh how I shouldn't be surprised. This is one reason I choose the field of special education in the first place: my students show me time and time again the things I am blind to, especially when it comes to what really matters.

So that was Sunday's big adventure and certainly something I've been reflecting on often this week. We ended the day by stopping by Target for a 1/2 gallon of ice cream that was *gasp* not on sale. Talk about a celebration of life ; )

The next two days were much less eventful, but definitely busy! We've been saving up for a few items around the house including an area rug for the living room and patio furniture. We found a table that seats six, half-off at Target (chairs will have to wait until next year, as the color I wanted was sold out) and got the carpet we've had our eye on for about a year now. I am loving having a soft place to sit while I play on the floor with Caleb! We also got some cube storage that doubles as a window seat. Hopefully the livingroom will soon look less like a play room after bed time and we will have more space for company too : )

We did take a break from working around the house to go watch the fireworks. With Caleb safely locked in the house, we stood at the top of the hill and watched both the Chambersburg and Letterkenny firework displays simultaneously. It doesn't get much more awesome than that. Caleb even slept through our neighbors extremely loud mortars (they'd already talked to us before hand, because we have the best neighbors EVER) but I figured if he didn't he could just come watch too. What's one night of interrupted sleep?

I'll be posting photos of our updates along with our big project: Decluttering and Cleaning the Master Bedroom. However, as personal motivation, blogging will be on hold until that clean up is complete! It's the last room in our home that hasn't received some serious TLC since we've been back and it's definitely making David and I's evenings less peaceful just looking at all that clutter before bed each night.

It's great to have our house feeling more like home! Hopefully the master bedroom project will be complete after this weekend...