the weekend

i've had a pretty busy/hectic weekend, but it has been mostly in a good way. a friend of mine from my long lost ysa days was visiting nanaimo. tania (was iwaasa but now is) armstrong. her brother was my district leader in my first area and my japanese companion had a crush on him, so he was soon transferred away. anyways, she married bob armstrong--marlene armstrong's son and they were in town for a visit. it was really nice seeing her and being updated on all my old friends. i found out about junko and herb. junko married derrick mc...... and lives in richmond. laura could you please please pleeeeassse get me her phone number? tania has 3 kids and the oldest one is just one month younger than nat so we met up at the park one day and on friday i picked mic up from school and met tania at the pool. (turns out that mic's ballet teacher that she has had for the last 3 years is bob's sister and an inactive member. i was so surprised! she knew i was a member and she never let on.) we stayed at the pool for over 3 hours. then we rushed home and got there just before brent got there. after brent had cleaned up--and by cleaned up i mean cleaned himself--we dropped the girls off at the meades to watch narnia and have a "half sleepover." we had a brief stopover at quizno's and then rushed off to port alberni. we were supposed to be there by 6 and brent didn't even get home until 5 so we had to hustle. brent had packed up the laptop for me to play with and watch a movie but i couldn't. the roads were just to windy: i felt sick. about half way there i confirmed to brent "you know how to get there right?" "no. i haven't been there since i was 16" (this actually wasn't true--he had gone there on a high counsel assignment) "well, i've never been there. how are we supposed to get there?" he handed me the phone and said call someone. i didn't know really who to call because jord and tracy had already left so i called dad. needless to say we didn't get very good directions and brent drove aimlessly around alberni. maybe he was hoping he would remember something--i don't know. it was frustrating because it started at 7 and i was worried we would miss it and we weren't getting anywhere. so then brent makes me call the chapel and ask for audrey to get directions. well i'm waiting for someone to find audrey, brent finds it and tells me to hang up. the alberni ward was hosting a festival of choirs and had invited a bunch of choirs from other churches. it was quite interesting. the catholic choir consisted of about 7 very elderly people. and another choir was 6 old ladies. in one choir the song kept repeating thank God i'm not....not what i used to be and the people would close their eyes and raise one hand up in the air. brent says that they do that to share the feeling they have with everyone else--sort of like an antenna. i know that i could be a little biassed but i think our choir had the best songs. audrey is really good at that sort of thing. we were the only other lds choir besides alberni ward's. the building was packed and probably 10 or more choirs sang. last of all, all the choirs sang together a song called the alleluia fugue. it was quite a powerful thing to be a part of. at the end there was a presenation for all the choir directors. someone in the back stood up and yelled "give God thanks" i heard a couple amens but after asking him to repeat himself the people conducting the meeting just continued on. afterall, we were just about to have a closing prayer and all the songs were also about praising and thanking the Lord. i just thought it was very presumptuous and rude of him to think he needed to correct the church in which he was a guest and to tell them how to do things. but who knows, maybe that is how things are done in his church. afterwards we snagged a few refreshments and then went home. i don't think it was the most fun date night especially for brent and actually, i'm surprised he went for it. the next morning mom phoned and invited us over for a pancake breakfast. as most of you know this is rather uncharacteristic of mom but eugene and kathy were visiting and she wanted some kids to come over to help them have fun. we stayed there for a few hours. it has been a long time since i have seen them, but they looked pretty much the same. they have a girl the same age as mic and an 11 year old that wasn't much taller than mic (they actually have the same name) that loves to play with little kids so she kept nat happy. they wanted to go to the pool. i was not really for this activity seeing as i spent all afternoon there the day before, but we ended up going. we didn't stay for as long, but the girls and i had fun. brent refused to swim with us. he slept in the van most of the time. too bad for him. he missed out and it bugs me that he can be so stubborn about such things. the girls aren't going to be like this for long. after swimming we were soo exhausted and hungry. we got pizza and put the girls to bed and then brent went to bed. i stayed up watching gilmore girls. i laughed outloud when they were arguing about who had bigger boobs. andrea was just like lauralei in this one: in denial. this morning brent got up before me. i can't remember the last time that has happened--especially on a sunday. but he got up and made the dough for the buns we're supposed to bring for potluck. we had to make a lot of buns. it isn't the normal sunday for potluck but mom did it because of eugene and kathy. we are having one again next week just for the twins birthday. talk about spoiled. laura, you should tell mom you are coming home 2 weeks after that for your birthday and see if she does a potluck for you. so it has been busy and now i'm at home thinking about the week ahead and i feel a weight. responsibilities can be so heavy.