Lauren

Lloyd and I drove out to Colorado to spend Easter with my Dad. All the stars aligned for this trip, and I couldn’t be more grateful. We left Thursday after school and got to the west side of Denver around 10:30, then on to Eckert in the morning. The weather was wonderful – sunny skies and no snow!

On Saturday, we went to breakfast with Dad’s group of buddies, then up to the top of Grand Mesa to see the infamous snow. Like much of the country, Colorado has had significant drought the past few years. Hopefully, this winter’s 645 inches of snowfall will help with that! Did you get that number? That’s over 50 feet, and though it gets smashed down, it is still pretty impressive in the places where it remains. The roads are still incredibly narrow, because they couldn’t push it all out of the way.

We just had to have our photo taken at the rest stop. So funny!

It is not that snowy at my Dad’s. In fact, there is so much moisture, this dry area has really greened up. Lloyd and took a walk to the creek behind Dad’s neighbor’s house. Can you spot the Lloyd?

One of the goals while we were here was to help my Dad donate some books to future pastors. He’s already gone through many, but this was the last bit. We wound up with seven boxes – 250 pounds of books!

Todd (pastor/professor) already called dibs on three of the boxes. The rest are headed to the seminary in St. Louis.

We head back on Monday. Everybody cheer that little Prius on as it hauls its load of books, and Happy Easter!

The Peperkorns were here last weekend. As always, it was wonderful to see them! They had quite the adventure coming out here – they drove through tornado weather and lived to tell the tale!

Their main reason for coming was to attend Renata’s senior recital. (Their kids are all no-joke amazing.) Kathryn brought heaps of delicious goodies for the reception afterward and I took photos, as is my way. I’ll post a quick video I made.

We also got to hang out with other Concordia people – Deborah and Kevin. It is just so good for their kids to see that these friendships actually do last a lifetime. (That is, if your friends are extroverted and they contact you. Otherwise, I would never see anyone.)

Not much happened this past week. School was school. I have a couple of children who are trying my patience and eroding my soul a little bit, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Lloyd seems to be doing fine, too.

Lloyd’s school had their gala on Friday, so on Wednesday I tried to leave school a little ‘early’ and get to our local thrift store for something nice to wear, but they close at 4:30. I did manage to get there before close on Friday and picked up a purse. I know – a purse! My outfit didn’t have a way to carry my phone, and the actual bidding for the silent auction is done via phones instead of pen and paper. I did bid on a couple of things (didn’t win) and Lloyd bid on some items and won. It was a nice evening with people I like, so that was a plus.

Saturday was fire, a bit of cleaning (the Peperkorns are coming next weekend) and some errands in Lincoln. The weather got up to the 50s and was sunny and delightful! People were walking around in shorts and tank tops. Later, we went over to the Pesters for a Pantry Party (everyone brought stuff they had in their cupboards/refrigerators) and some basketball watching.

This morning I set up for late service, so I got up early for a fire…..in the snow. Yep. We have about an inch of snow on the ground.

I’m off to do a self-inflicted haircut before church. Wish me luck!

I remembered! 😀

Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday. I’m writing this down so I remember to say it to her tomorrow. I am rather forgetful like that. 🙂

Not much has been going on around here. It’s work, home, eat, t.v. and sleep for the most part. This weekend was ok. I got up to have my fire on Saturday and thought it was kind of cold. I went in to get the giant roll of Reflectix that Lloyd bought at an auction a while ago. I made a little surround and kept putting my hand outside and inside the circle to prove to myself that it was warmer in there.

Back inside, I dorked around on the computer and saw what the windchill had been. -3! No wonder I was chilly!

Lloyd and I went to Omaha because there was a ‘mid-century modern’ flea market that I wanted to visit. It was just a smallish room filled with things from our childhood, so that was a good laugh. “You want what for this Tupperware pitcher?” He did get a piece for his gravel art collection – I’ll have to show that to you sometime.

The big adventure was that we were very, very low on gas when we got there. We were on I-80, about to turn on to 680 (4-lanes) and I started to freak out. We pulled over and Lloyd stood in the freezing wind to gas up the car. The gas tank in the Prius is strange, so we usually just put 9 gallons in and call it good. This time? He put as much gas in as he could, because he wanted to see how low we were. He thought the tank held 12 gallons, and he put in 11.8. When he got back in the car he checked the manual. It’s an 11.9 gallon tank. I was right to freak out.

Ok, remind me to tell my sister Happy Birthday tomorrow. 🙂

I stayed up late watching a movie (like an idiot), and when I woke up it was seven instead of six. I have lots of things that set the clock automatically, but I was grateful that I went around last night and physically set the other clocks. I forgot the bathroom clock, though, so I was very confused when I got out of the shower.

It’s been a bit of a rough week. In addition to the college staff that were out for Spring Break, we had several lead staff that were either sick or had some pressing issues and had to be gone. To say we were stretched thin would be an understatement, but at least that’s over now.

My sister visited my dad this past week and was supposed to fly home yesterday, but weather and mechanical issues delayed her in Denver until today. It reminds me that everybody is dealing with something.

I pray that your Sunday is peaceful and nice! Squeeze a nap in there somewhere if you can. 😉