The last days...

This post isn't about anything apocalyptic, just a recounting of how I've spent the last few days.

Since I posted last time about the guy's weekend, I guess I'll just bring you up to speed with other events since then:

August 9th: MFT Banquet honoring the class of 2007. While some thought having the banquet on campus at the Teague center was a step down from having it at the country club, I think it was great. The food was fantastic and plentiful and my only real complaint was that the lighting was really challenging for picture taking (Click HERE to see the pics). I really need to invest in a decent flash unit for the ol' camera. Follow the link above to see some pictures from the event.


August 12: This was Amelia's birthday. I wish I could tell you that I'd done something spectacular for her, but I was a bit of a chump. She even told me what she wanted: a set of Fresh Vanilla scented lotions from Bath and Body Works. I don't know why I didn't try harder, but all of a sudden, the day was upon me and I hadn't done diddly squat. I didn't even get a card. The night before, we'd enjoyed a nice dinner at home with some friends, Matt and Heather Dodd. On Sunday, I had MH help me make a card for mommy... but that was it. I'd like to point out, in my defense, the past two big "dates" - Mother's Day and our Anniversary, I really knocked myself out doing nice things for Am... but no matter how much you do for other events, not even scraping up a card for a birthday is let-down. Amelia gave me a hard time on Sunday, but generally let me off the hook. However, realizing my bad form, I decided that I would do something for her each day of her birthday "week", culminating in a Date Night with Matt & Heather on Saturday.

August 13: On Monday, I knuckled down and went searching Bath & Bodyworks's website to find the elusive scent. Turns out, not only is it not available in stores anymore, but it has been discontinued and they don't even sell it. I chatted w/ Am in Google chat and she told me, "Well, you wouldn't have been able to get it anyhow." Knowing that she enjoys the fashions at Christopher & Banks, I zoomed there after work and bought a gift card. I stopped in Books-a-million and got a helpful book on learning Adobe Dreamweaver, which she'd gotten earlier to be able to help her work on AES's website. On my way home, I witnessed a bad car accident and stopped to help (more later, I hope). Anyhow, when I finally made it home Monday night, I wrote out a little limerick and cut it into individual words, made Amelia sort out the puzzle and presented her with the gift card. I arranged for her to go shopping for new clothes to wear on our date on Saturday on Tuesday. Late Monday night, while Amelia was sleeping and I was surfing the net, it occurred to me that I might be able to find Fresh Vanilla on Ebay... sure enough, there are several people selling the B&B lotions on Ebay... so I ordered some stuff and prayed that it would arrive that week.

Aug 14th: Tuesday dawned with the realization that in about two weeks, I would be out of work and going back to Grad School full time. They'd finally hired a person to replace me at MFI and I could rest assured that I wouldn't have to pull double duty as a student and a clinic coordinator. However, that left me with scads of things to do before my last day (Friday, Aug 17th). Anyhow, I presented Am with her Dreamweaver book and spent a busy day at work. When I got home that afternoon, I arranged to keep the kids and do dinner so Am could hit the mall and do some shopping. She got some money from her mom for her birthday as well, so she had a nice time and even took Mary Hannah with her for some Mother-daughter time.

Aug 15th: Halfway through the week and I was only 1/100th of the way through my list of things to get ready at the clinic. The other administrative assistants in the Bible department at ACU took me out to eat and say, "How can we miss you if you won't go away?" Seriously, they are a great group of ladies and it has been great working with them. Our paths don't cross very often, being that MFT is tucked away and a bit isolated from the other departments due to our function as a counseling clinic, but I've gotten to know most of them pretty well over the past two years and it was nice of them to celebrate my transition to full-time studenthood. Amelia was able to sneak away and join us for lunch, so I counted that lunch time together as one of my "birthday week" events.

Aug 16th: Thursday promised to be a long day, not just because I work from 9am to 11pm on Thursdays, but because I realized that I wasn't going to accomplish everything I hoped to accomplish at the clinic before I left. On a positive note, however, the lotions I ordered from Ebay arrived that afternoon and I was able to leave them on Amelia's pillow before I went to work at Hendrick. It was a pleasant surprise to her (remember, as of Monday, she thought that they couldn't be found) to find them on her pillow. Hendrick was fun that evening as I was able to fill in for a Catholic priest and let a lady unload on me because her priest didn't wake her when he visited earlier. She was having surgery the next day and really wanted to do confession. I told her I couldn't offer her absolution, but I was willing to listen... two hours later, I left to visit with the next patient... where I learned from the nurses that Abilene was under a "Boil Water Alert" due to unsafe chlorine levels in the public water supply. Fun fun.

August 17th: My last day at work (not really). In truth, the newly hired clinic coordinator can't start until the 27th, so I'm really grateful that the director and the other students stepped up to fill the desk coverage for the week between my leaving and her arriving. I offered to help out and will probably pick up a few hours at the desk this next week. Seeing as there isn't anyone to train her, I'll also come in that Monday and show her everything I can cram into one day, working around the class I'll have that day (First day of Grad School!)

August 18th: I think I forgot to mention that Abilene has received more than it's annual rainfall already this year and this weekend we got about another 8 inches or so. It was date night and I was afraid that the sneaky plans that Matt and I made to try and surprise our wives were going to fall through. They knew we were going out to eat and hang out, but the location was unannounced and, Matt and I had worked out a plan to have flowers and birthday cards for our wives (Heather's b-day was the 18th) at the coffee shop downtown, where we planned to end our evening. Well, Amelia worked most of the afternoon, so I was on Daddy duty and took the kids out running errands and took them to McDonald's. I scrubbed the kitchen floor that morning (Did I mention that my in-laws, who are graciously housing and feeding my family for the duration of my schooling, have also invited a young lady from the Ukraine to come stay with us while she works on her Master's at ACU?) in anticipation of our soon to arrive house guest. Anyhow, the plan for the evening was to go to eat at Copper Creek, then go downtown (weather permitting) and take photos of each other and then end up at Monk's for coffee and conversation. Well, the weather did cooperate and we did have a great time and took some great photos. Follow the link to check them out.


August 19th: Well, that brings us to today. Due to flooded streets in NW Abilene, our church services were canceled (we couldn't guarantee that people would be able to get to and from the building safely). So we went to University church of Christ for worship and had a nice, relaxing day. Anyhow, I just posted a bunch of the pictures from our photo shoot on Saturday, including some of me and Amelia that Matt and Heather took. I'll post more later, so check out the album now and check back later to see the rest!

Have a great week. I've got 7 days to catch up on everything and start reading my texts for the classes I'll start next week!

-jeff