Weekend antics

This weekend I was meant to be staying with the lady I met at the Christmas cantata. Did I talk about that already? Basically, I got chatting to the lady sitting next to me as we were both there pretty early (blest was singing and the lady's husband was playing in the orchestra). She was a lovely German lady who had married an American and consequently moved out here a long time ago (I can't remember how long exactly, but her children are all grown up now, so it's a fair while!). We had a lovely time talking and afterwards she told me that she would like to invite me to stay with them for a weekend and go to their church with them. She briefly introduced me to her husband and we exchanged addresses and phone numbers.

I remember now that I must have talked about her a little bit because I posted the photo of the big bag of presents she gave me for Christmas.

We've talked on the phone a couple of times and they were going to be picking me up yesterday at 1pm and then we'd have been going to Las Cruces, which is actually in New Mexico, so I was excited about the chance to visit another state, even if it was only an hours drive away. Unfortunately she rang yesterday morning around 9am to say that she'd come down with a nasty cold, and it didn't seem a good idea for me to go to stay with them, especially since blest is having surgery next week, and we didn't really want either me or her coming down with anything with that coming up.

The German lady is off to California for a couple of weeks, but once she's back she'll get in touch and see if we can manage to fit anything in to my last couple of weeks here. Talking of time, I can't believe how quickly it's gone. In one months time I'll be on a plane heading home. Part of me can't wait to see my family and friends there, but I also know I'll be heartbroken to leave this new part of my family here behind. But I don't want to think about that at the moment!

So, anyway, there I was left with no plans for the day, and no chance to visit New Mexico, when blest suggested that I could come with her to Las Cruces. Yep, by strange coincidence she would be spending the day there with a friend of hers who had to clear stuff out of her mother's house (her mother passed away a little while before I got here).

At this point I also have to tell you that as we tried to leave drum lessons on Friday the van wouldn't start. This is at least the third time something like this has happened. The van is back at the garage, hopefully having whatever they thought was already fixed, re-fixed, and we're back to only having one vehicle in action.

The plan had been that I would watch the boys in the morning while Danny dropped blest off at the church, which was the rendezvous point with her friend. However, blest persuaded Danny that instead we would take the truck and that he would stay at home all day with the boys. (He'd have been at home with the boys anyway, but in the original plan he'd have had the truck to go out and about if he'd wanted to).

We set off and met blest's friend at the church, and after waiting for a while for someone else to arrive we set off for Las Cruces. I would have taken photos as we drove, but somehow forgot, but at some point I will put up some 'look, we're driving through desert' pictures! We arrived and spent several hours packing up obscene amounts of china and books in a former smoker's house. It wasn't the best place I've ever been, but that's all I have to say about that.

Once we were finished and had packed much of the china into the van (we left the truck at the church and all went together in the friend's van) we headed back to her house for a chance of clothes, and then went back to church. There is a Saturday evening service with the praise band leading the worship time. Blest's friend often sings for it, and blest was hoping that she'd be able to sing too, as her operation will put her out of action for several weeks.

However when we arrived the parking lot seemed remarkably empty, and that's when they realised that this week the youth are running all of the services, including the Saturday evening one, so neither blest or friend would be singing on the stage. At which point we decided to head to Starbucks for a coffee (I had a 'grande non-fat steamer with sugar-free cinnamon dolce' which is the alternative we've figured out, considering I don't like coffee or tea) and then went into Goodwill for a wander. We spent probably an hour or more in there (it's a lot bigger than the charity shops back home, and blest tried on lots of stuff!). And then we were hungry so we went to Chilli's for dinner. YUM!

Today I am staying home and the rest of the family have gone to church. Yes, I know that's the same thing as happened last Sunday, but there were a number of considerations and factors which were considered before that decision was made. So here I am, blogging, running the dishwasher and washing the clothes we wore yesterday, because what with the dust and smoke there was no way we'd be wearing them again before washing them. Not to mention trying to catch up on emails and blog reading, and having the chance to sleep in a bit longer.