10/1/06
5:10 PM: We've had a quite a whirlwind week. My mom came into town on Wednesday to help us get ready for the churchwide yard sale (more on that below), and we really enjoyed having her. She not only helped with pricing (all of it!), she was a great help with the girls, and Randall and I got to go to a party with some of the folks from the South Africa trip on Friday night. It was great to get to know them better, and we had a wonderful time.
The yard sale went quite well. We got rid of a bunch of stuff (but not enough--there was quite a lot that came back home with us) and contributed $138 to the building fund. The church has made over $3000 so far on this sale, between the yard sale, the bake sale, and all the mums, pumpkins, and pine straw we're selling. We're that much closer to our goal.
We had church this morning, and then immediately after the service (instead of staying for Sunday school), the girls and I drove Randall to the airport. He'll be in New Mexico for the week for a retreat and will get a chance to meet with people from the conference about our plans for next year. Elisabeth cried and cried when he said goodbye. Sophie was pretty sad too. But eventually, we got distracted by figuring out where we wanted to eat lunch and felt better. We've had a relaxed afternoon, and I'm going to pull dinner together soon while the girls are playing outside. The weather has been beautiful this weekend.
While Randall is gone (until 10/9), I'll just work at home. Worrying abut how bad traffic might be and whether I might be late picking up the girls isn't worth it. I've decided to head up to my mom's Friday afternoon and stay until Sunday morning (since I don't have to be back for church--a rare opportunity), and we'll get to spend some more time with her.