Two More Down

Two more pounds down this morning.  Either exercise is underrated or the day I weighed in, I was retaining major water.  But whatever, the scale is going in the right direction, which is good as my entire body hurts.  Getting back into the swing of the gym is tough on the muscles.

Today was pure bliss with the kids away. I worked, went to the gym, went grocery shopping and had sushi with The Brit for dinner, followed by a trip to The Christmas Tree Shop, where I could actually look at stuff I wanted to look at instead of "Mom, mom, mom, look at this!  Mom, look at this!"  Then to the Christian bookstore to pick up my VBS craft order and they gave me a free display of the VBS we are doing.  I love to get something unexpected and free.

My youth kids are looking at next year's trip and it seems to currently be going in the direction of coastal Carolina.  The 2010 registration has already opened and good sites go fast, so it is not too early to start thinking about it.  YouthWorks is a fantastic organization.  Basically, we spend a week helping a community, establishing new relationships and watching God work through each and every one of us.  It is the perfect blend of work, worship and fun.  We worked on the homes of some people, painting decks for the elderly and doing gardening.  We also spent two days running a kid's club for the children of the community, many of whom were Spanish speaking children.  Group activities including crabbing, exploring the town, a talent show, amongst other things. 

When the churches arrive (There were four churches our week.  Us, a group from Minnesota, a group from Tennessee and a group from Pennsylvania) we are mixed up in work crews.  Those crews not only go to housing projects and kid's club together, but we also take a turn at meal prep or clean up (cooking or cleaning up for 70+ people is plenty of work!).  By the end of the week, we are all exhausted but happy.

Aaron did fairly well but he had one really bad day.  He was not in my group, but in the group of a very good friend who was a male leader this trip.  Wednesday, Aaron simply decided he was too tired to work and poor Kirk had to ride him all day long.  I actually had to have a talk with him about the privilege to serve this community for a week.

The same day, two of our teens and one of our male leaders kidnapped a huge stuffed mascot from Minnesota.  They then wrote ransom notes, requesting that if MN ever wanted to see their dummy "alive" again, they needed to do dinner cleanup or something along those lines.  All the leader were amused and the MN leaders said this had happened before and everyone had fun with it.

Well, that night, MN teens retaliated and kidnapped air mattresses out of the Maryland guy's room and the Tennessee guy's room.  Without a doubt, the kids had no idea whose mattresses they took, but one was Aaron's and he FREAKED OUT.  I didn't witness it as the leaders were in a meeting but apparently he flew outside, yelling about how he was going to kill someone and running around the church like a crazy person.  It was about nine at night, so his meds were pretty well worn off and my own opinion is that he has been picked on enough in school that he took this personally.  One of our older teens got him settled down and then we returned the mascot as Aaron was so flipped out.  One of the MN leaders, who did not know about Aaron's freak out session told me she couldn't believe we had caved son fast.  I told her had any other air mattress been stolen but Aaron's, the game would still be on.  

So, he and I talked about it and how it was not personal and it was just church kids having a good time.  Hopefully Aaron will live and learn.