You Can Keep Your Leap Day

Today was...different. Maybe it was the new mattress (more on that later), but I had a terrible time dragging my body out of bed. I had plenty of reasons to get going too!

My extra minutes of loafing got me off to a late start. I had to skip breakfast and exercise to sew a "simple" Zarephath costume for Emma. As I rolled the last hem of the dress, Shelby wretched on the fabric that was to be a sort of sash around Emma's waist. I tossed the spoiled material in the trash and decided to use rope for a belt instead. Problem averted.

The sewing took longer than expected, making me late for a jeans shopping date with friends. I took a speed shower, slapped on some clothes and makeup, and raced to meet the girls at Buckle. I found a great pair of jeans right off the bat. Unfortunately, the price tag told me to put those thigh-slimming, butt-lifting miracle workers right back on the rack. Instead I focused on comforting my girlfriend as she searched for her magic pants. Jeans shopping is almost as bad as swimsuit shopping! Ugh!

My brief window of "fun time" ended all too fast. By 12:00 I was stuffing down a PBJ and driving the half hour down to Bowling Green to set up for a special program at church. Each year about this time, the young women have an event called New Beginnings to emphasize goal setting for the year. Our New Beginnings had been moved to the 29th because half our girls couldn't attend the evening we were originally scheduled to have the meeting. The new date came all too fast (hence the early morning costume sewing).

When I arrived (late again), the other youth leaders had started decorating for our "Light Keepers" theme. We begged, borrowed, and stole all sorts of lanterns from families at church and arranged them around the gym and chapel. We had little white light strands and battery operated candles to complete the effect. It turned out pretty cute in the end, but there was a lot of work to get there.

By the time I started the long drive home, I was feeling a bit stressed because I had several changes to make in the printed program and not a lot of time to do it. I also learned that Emma's costume didn't fit. Oh! And did I mention that Jake and the young men were holding an activity in our basement that evening and I still hadn't straightened up the house?

Rick came to my rescue. Though he had just wrapped up a long day of testing, he volunteered to make Emma a second costume for New Beginnings. He also cleaned up the mess in the basement since we had been sleeping there ever since returning from Florida (more on that later). And, because there was no time to make and clean up dinner, he treated Emma and me to soup and salad at Panera. My hero!

Once nourished, I set to work on adjusting and printing the program. That's when the rain really started to pour. The changes just kept rolling in and girls started bailing on their speaking parts. So and so needed me to give them a ride. The color printer wouldn't work. Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da...

45 minutes before New Beginnings was to start I ended up sending my print job to the Bowling Green Kinko's via e-mail so that another leader could pick them up. Kinko's made 25 copies for $25. Ouch! I broke speed records driving back to the church. So many pieces of the puzzle had yet to come together, but people were arriving and I had to start playing prelude music at the piano. Thank goodness we have such a great presidency so we can give and take on all the odd jobs that pop up on a night like this!

Several minutes after 7:00, someone dimmed the lights to the chapel. There was so little light in fact, that I could not read the music to play for the young women as they floated in carrying mini lanterns. I stumbled over the piano keys and "set the mood" for the comedy of errors that was to be our program. It seemed like we had one glitch after another, but we soldiered on. At least the girls were great!  They looked cute in their value colored costumes and they sang beautifully. It came together in the end despite my best efforts to flub it up.

At the end of the night, one of the other leaders sent me home with a dozen left over cupcakes. Well, I allowed myself to have one once I got home. Then, I chased that down with 2 left over brownies from Jake's activity. Can you say "stress eater"?

I can honestly say that I am happy this day is over. Just a few more minutes until March is here!!!