Big Easter Weekend 2009

What a weekend!

It actually started on Thursday, when unexpectedly (to me, anyway) my boss was no longer my boss. I'm still in the same position, but my immediate supervisor moved into a part-time/consultant status, and I was going to have a new manager. So THAT was a crazy day! Friday was Good Friday and the office was closed, so we mostly vegged out at home, but SATURDAY was Cathy's birthday! Mikey had a soccer game at 8am (41 degrees... in April?!?... BRR! ...but they won it 1 to 0) and then he went to Lowe's and built a birdhouse, and then he and I stopped at the store to pick up Mama's birthday present from him.

Mikey got her a beautiful pair of earrings (she wore them that evening to dinner and then again on Easter morning!). My gift to her was a shopping trip! I gave her a little bit of cash, enough for an outfit or maybe two if you got something on a good sale, and we went to a couple of fluffy lady clothing stores with her. Having the family along was supposed to be part of the gift, but Mikey was a little bit disruptive at first (he calmed down later). And we had a really happy surprise when we ran into Cathy's brother's wife Theresa at one of the stores! She's been really sick and we haven't gotten to see her much, so that was quite a treat. She was with two of her daughters, too, and we love them and were glad to see them. Theresa kissed Hannah on the cheeks so much I wasn't sure if she was going to raise a bruise! That evening we went out to eat at Charleston's, and got full until we were ready to pop.

Easter was great! Cathy got up early so she wouldn't have to rush so much getting ready, and we were at sound check on time (!), and the service was AWESOME from start to finish. I think that was the most fun I've had in praise & worship since Brian and Nancy came on board at Grace (which is not to minimize other services, but this one was TOTALLY maximized! I was SWEATING when we were done!) Pastor Bob preached one of the most awesome Easter messages I ever remember hearing him preach, and we had a great lesson in Sunday School as well.

(I touched on how cold it was Saturday morning... chilly but not windy, and very sunny which counteracted the cold a bit. And by noon it had gone up like 25 degrees and was in the 60s! Sunday morning was almost the opposite, though... rainy to the point of big puddles of standing water on the sidewalks at Grace, chilly again, but breezy as well. Have I mentioned, Welcome to Oklahoma? And Monday it was chilly to mild again, and dry. WHATEVER.)

After church we met Mom and Dad at the little church they're attending; they were having lunch together as a church and we got invited. Unfortunately for us we got there at the tail end of the meal; there was lots of food left but the people were trickling out and heading home. We did get to monopolize the pastor for a while, though, which was cool for us. Everybody is really nice there. They even gave Mikey and Hannah each an Easter basket! (Monday night I put the Easter basket they gave Hannah, which is plush like a stuffed animal and has a head like a purple hippo, to good use... Hannah and I played "put the plastic eggs in the basket" while Mikey worked on homework.)

That reminds me... I forgot one of the big parts of Saturday afternoon! It was the annual Grace "Egg-stravaganza", which I guess you could call an "Easter egg hunt" but in practice it's more of an "Easter candy foot race." You may remember it from last year. Anyway, Cathy chose to go with Mikey and I stayed with Hannah in the "walkers to twos" area. He did the run-and-collect thing, and Hannah, who is walking just barely, did the "get carried and sit and put the candy I can reach in the basket even though I've got no idea what's going on" thing. Next year she'll be totally into it; this year it was a bit much for her to take in, but she had fun anyway, as did Mikey. The whole thing was a hiccup in Cathy's birthday, but after having that birthday her whole life, having it intruded on by Easter is no surprise. The surprise is when Easter happens in March like last year or something, and it doesn't step on her birthday!

So how were things with the new boss Monday? He seems like a really great guy, and I think I'm going to enjoy working with him. His name is Travis and he knows about this blog, so I'll tell you the REAL story when he turns his head. Hi Travis! Wow it was great working with you Monday! Don't forget to give me a good performance review at the end of the year!!

More Wishes And Love For Elizabeth

About a month ago I told you about our family friend and former worship leader, Elizabeth Sheehan, and how she has left that position and is pursuing other interests. This week we found out that her appendix had ruptured and she had been taken to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy! The operation was Wednesday, and last night (Thursday) we went over to the hospital and visited with her for a bit. It was funny... we went into SouthCrest Hospital where she is, and Cathy said her name to the receptionist, and she knew the room number off the top of her head. Apparently it had been non-stop partying in Elizabeth's room that day! Anyway, she was her usual sweet self, and I think she really was glad to see Mikey and Hannah. Her friend Jen picked up Hannah and didn't give her back until we had to leave.

So we just want to extend our good wishes to Elizabeth again. We know that tons of prayer has gone up for her quick recovery, and we also know she's strong and depends on the Lord and she'll be back on her feet before you know it. To update the previous post a bit, Elizabeth has now completely left her duties at Grace, including volunteer duties in the Worship Arts Ministry; we'd like to say again that we have nothing but confidence that her future is brighter than ever, and we are so excited to see what God is going to use her for next!

Elizabeth - we love you!

I almost didn't blog this because it's not technically a "family" thing, but Elizabeth is so close to being part of our family that I think it's important to document what we found out last night.

Elizabeth Sheehan, who has been the Worship Arts Department director and has led worship at Grace Church for 4 years is stepping down from the position. There's nothing scandalous going on; in fact, Elizabeth is actually staying around as a volunteer. We don't know all of the "why"s, and I wouldn't post them publicly even if we did, but I know in my heart that it's a decision that was made with a lot of prayer and not made lightly.

Elizabeth was almost singlehandedly the reason that Cathy and I got back into the choir at Grace when we came back from a year at another church. Cathy saw things in Elizabeth... particularly her kind heart and open attitude... that made Cathy feel comfortable with the idea of joining back up. I would not have joined without Cathy. And boy, are we glad we did! Our lives would be so different now if we hadn't come back into the choir; I can't even hope to be able to enumerate all the ways. Most of our closest friends now are from WAM. My renewed interest in songwriting happened because of our involvement, and one of my songs has actually been used in an actual service! Elizabeth rejoiced with us when Hannah was born, and cried and prayed with and for us when we miscarried before Hannah and when we lost Cathy's mother a few years ago. Mikey almost treats her like a favorite aunt, and although Hannah is kind of little to say what she's thinking, I think she loves Elizabeth too. Cathy and I both see her almost like a sister; definitely as a treasured friend. We have such respect for her as a Believer and as a musician, and if she does ever eventually leave Grace for good, we will sorely miss her. I think Cathy is already steeling herself for not hearing Elizabeth's voice leading worship every Sunday.

Elizabeth, we love you very much. We know you have GREAT things in store for you!

(Below is the bio of Elizabeth from the church Web site before it disappears to make way for the new directors' information. I just thought we'd like to preserve it for posterity!)

Elizabeth Sheehan likes to call herself a “product” of Grace Church. She has been a member of Grace Church all but the first 8 months of her life.  After graduating from Grace Christian School in 1999, she acquired a bachelor degree in international business from Oklahoma State University and a diploma from School of the Local Church (now GSM) with an emphasis in music ministry.  She began her volunteer ministry in the fine arts areas of the children’s ministry.  From there, she became actively involved in music in Edge Youth (formerly Frontline) in secondary school and stayed involved as a youth leader throughout college.  During this decade of her life, her love to see the world won to Jesus grew as did her “addiction” to short-term mission trips, particularly to Spanish-speaking countries.  She continued volunteering until God called her into leadership in the Worship Arts Department in the main service.

brains

This afternoon, our friend Jimmy had brain surgery.

You heard me right! Last week, his wife Christy, who is one of Cathy's best friends, found him unconscious at home. She finally got him in to see the doctor, and they found out that he was bleeding slowly inside his skull and he had a brain aneurysm. This was at the start of Labor Day weekend, so since he was in no immediate danger as long as he was under observation at the hospital, they scheduled an exploratory procedure for Tuesday. They discovered the aneurysm during this procedure, and scheduled a surgery to clamp it off for today, Wednesday. Usually we go to church on Wednesday with choir practice after, and we were hoping for the surgery to be over by that time, but as it turned out it took longer than that and we missed the whole service and the rehearsal! BUT: the important thing is that Jimmy came through the surgery with flying colors; the doctor told Christy that things couldn't have gone better. It was pretty close to ten p.m. when we finally got to see Jimmy; he was still seriously drugged up but we spoke to him in case he could hear us, and then we went to pick up the kids from Meme's house.

It was great that Cathy was able to be there for most of the day; there were a couple of times that Christy really needed someone for support, and Cathy was able to be that friend for her.

Thank you, God, for taking care of Jimmy today!

Cathy's first day on team

Last Wednesday and Sunday were Cathy's first turn as an official member of one of the praise and worship teams at Grace. The picture above is her at sound check. (I would have loved to have actually taken a picture during the service, but I was kind of tied up doing my own part in the service! Even we paparazzi have "real" jobs to do!

So after the service most everyone in the Grace Worship Arts department went out to Applebees for some lunch. There are a couple of pictures here!