Family Visiting

It is so exciting to have family here! My parents, my brother SC and my sister L attended a wedding in Kentucky near Cincinnati, OH on Saturday. Since they were already about 2/3's of the way to Virginia, they decided to drive on out and spend a few days with me!

They took off from Cincinnati at 4AM on Sunday, so that they could get in before I took off for the evening. They arrived about 2PM. Mark & Megan, my neighbors and landlords, are very gracious about providing a place for my parents to stay when they visit.

Through the afternoon, my parents got somewhat settled in, visited with Mark & Megan for awhile, took a stroll through Round Hill with me, then attacked the mess in my house. My dad washed the dishes while my mom helped me sort through the stacks and piles of papers that had collected in my living room. The end result? My living room may be neater than it has ever been in my time.

By 5:30, I was headed off to Awana and took L with me. Awana was a bit more chaotic than normal, as we were filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child as teams. Kids and leaders had each brought 5 items of a kind (5 toothbrushes, 5 washclothes, 5 small toys, ect), then they combined the items to fill 5 shoeboxes. I hadn't wrapped the shoeboxes in wrapping paper (some of the leaders had), so I brought 3 rolls of wrapping paper and let the kids wrap the boxes as well. I think that went over very well and there were leaders from other teams borrowing the paper to wrap boxes as well. By the end of the night, 139 boxes had been filled for Operation Christmas Child.

After Awana, JM came over with his mother and sister and everyone got to meet and visit.

Monday morning was pretty lazy, for most of us. We spent the morning discussing what we should do. Mother ran a few loads of laundry. Dad checked out my vacuum--which had quit working on Sunday--and decided it needed new brushes for the motor. Dad also checked out my car--which had experienced a couple of "brown-outs" over the course of about 3-4 weeks--and found one of the battery posts corroded, so cleaned that up.

For lunch, we packed and picnic and went up to Bear's Den. A quick lunch by the hostel, then some time scrambling around on the rocks and just enjoying the view.

For the afternoon, we headed to Winchester to get the wedding pictures developed and see what we could do for my vacuum. After encountering various problems, we finally dropped off the pictures at Target just after 5:00. In the meantime, we had located a vacuum store that also services the machines. We were told that they wouldn't just replace the brushes--it would have to be the whole motor and it will take 10-14 days. I don't have a vacuum for a couple of weeks.

We made it back to Purcellville just in time for a 7:00 meeting I needed to attend at BRBC's new building(!). Still won't be moving into the building for services until mid-December, but it was exciting to see the building and to be talking about how things will work!

I'm back at work this morning, while my parents take my car to Winchester to get some recall work done by the dealer.