Our busy weekend

Here’s an overview of my busy weekend in Cincinnati…

We left Wilmore on Friday morning at 7 a.m. and headed to Cincinnati…it takes about 1.5 hours drive time.  We found the convention center and our group we were working with and jumped right in to help wherever we were needed.  My time was spent doing data entry on both Friday and Saturday.  I also helped around the booth by talking to people about this work and selling a few sweatshirt, hats, etc…there were thousands of people there.  That was about it until later that night when the first group of kids arrived to “build a wall” that would be going to one of the mission points…Mexico, New Orleans, eastern Kentucky, and Chicago.  You never heard so much banging!  Most of the kids didn’t even know how to hammer a nail but they were determined to give it their best.  This “build a wall” consisted of about fifty walls, maybe more, being built, then labeled for correct location, and then loaded onto a truck.  The wall was to be built in about 90 minutes but several groups took over two hours to build one.  It was pure joy watching them work so hard and with such love in knowing they were helping someone get into a new home.  There was one group that had a little boy about 4 and his sister about 5 banging away and it was so sweet.  Their dad was one of the ones working on that wall and you could tell he works in construction.  They finished their wall quickly and the children were so proud of their efforts.  The parents have planted the seed of helping others and this is something they will always remember doing. 

We finally left the convention center around midnight…it was suppose to end by 11 a.m. but there were some still finishing up their wall even then…and headed to the home of Marjorie and Phil Compton…a host family for our mission group.  They were a very gracious and loving couple and have a beautiful home.  We got to bed after 1 a.m. and had to be back at the center by 7:30 a.m. so we had a short night. 

On Saturday it was more of the same…data entry, sell sweatshirts, etc. and three groups would be building walls throughout that day.  George and I left Cincinnati at 3 p.m. and headed for Louisville to help Exie and Gilbert Dadisman celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary.  They had a wonderful party with hundreds of people attending.  They had the immediate family gather at 1 p.m. and then the friends came between 5-7 p.m.  It was great seeing so many friends again!  Then we were back in the car by 6:30 p.m. headed back to Cincinnati for the final part of the day.  We missed the dinner they had, but we had filled up on all sort of great stuff at the party so we didn’t care.  We didn’t hang around too long before we headed back to our host family’s home.  We visited until about 10:30 p.m. then hit the sack…we had another 8 a.m. staff meeting on Sunday morning, so it was another short night.  We were finished by 10 a.m. 

We called some friends from Louisville that were in Cincinnati to celebrate a birthday and went to church with them.  We left for Wilmore around noon.

We got home around 3 p.m….after a good lunch at a Olive Garden somewhere between Cincinnati and Lexington.  We were invited to attend a new house church that night so by 4:30 p.m. we were headed back to Lexington.  The ones attending have a strong desire to know God more and serve him each and every day after many struggles in their lives…this is like a small group for those never attending a house church.  We’ll go back but not sure we will join because we’ll be gone all of January and February and that will keep us out of the loop.

We finally leave there around 8 p.m. and head for Kroger’s …what’s a Sunday without a trip to Krogers?  I didn’t want to wait until today to do my Thanksgiving shopping.  While there I started getting a sore throat.  It continued to get worse…woke me up several times throughout the night…so I went to the doctor this morning to make sure I didn’t have streph throat.  Thankfully it’s just a viral thing and should go away in a couple of day.   Just what I need with the gang coming in!  Oh well, that about sums up my weekend.

I did find Sean…our grandson…on the instant messanger this evening and called him on the Skype…a little camera that let’s you see and talk to each other.  I forgot there’s a six hour time difference so I woke him up…it was midnight there.  We talked for quite a while and he seems to be doing good and looked great!  He’s liking what he’s doing so that helps.  Of course, he’d rather be in Louisville but that won’t happen for over a year.

Today I just did the usual things after a trip…wash, iron, exercise, cook, etc.  George has worked, and is still working, on painting the kitchen trim.  He’s had to scrape it good before he could paint it.  Our kitchen has two windows and five doors so it’s not been a easy day for him.  This will be the hardest of all the rooms to do because of all the doors.  All the rooms need painting but they won’t all get done before we head to Florida, I’m sure.

Like I mentioned earlier, we’re having the gang here for Thanksgiving…25 total… and then we leave for New Orleans at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning and are to return to Louisville by 5 p.m. on Thursday the 29th.  We should be home until the 28th of December when we head to Nashville for a wedding and from there we’ll head for Florida…we’ll be having our family Christmas on the 22nd and that’s always a fun time.  I think I’ll love basking on the beach after these hectic weeks.

I guess I’ve talked long enough but I just had to get all my 25,000 words in for today!  Have a great night and enjoy your Thankgiving doing what we all know how to do best…EAT!!!

Blessings…….