Our weekend home

Last weekend Jane and I were able to go back "home" (Buda, IL). I took a week of vacation to attend our Midwest Region Conference convention and then General Conference sessions in Decatur, Illinois, then on Friday we went to Buda and stayed until Sunday. Some would call me crazy for taking vacation time to attend conferences, because it's part of what I "do," but it was worth it to be able to be gone on the weekend. And it had been entirely too long since we had been home.

We rolled in Friday afternoon. First we stopped out at Jane's mom's old house. We wanted to check on a few things, and just look around. They have planted beans on our 40 acres this year. We also drove around Buda and checked out the storm damage. They had some high winds on Wednesday and there were quite a few trees and limbs and things scattered about. They have also had a LOT of rain this spring. Everything seemed really green and a little overgrown.

We rolled into my parents house and unloaded the car. We sat around for a bit and then headed to 6 & 34 in Sheffield for supper. I saw one of my better friends from years ago in there with his new wife. I hadn't seen Joe in a long time. We chatted for a bit. Also saw several other people we hadn't seen in a long time. I had a 1/4 light chicken basket and Jane had chicken strips. We went back to my parents and we actually went to bed and CRASHED at like 9:45 pm. We never go to bed that early, but we were wiped out. It was also central time.

I woke up once during the night and thought it was a bit hot. We both slept kind of late - probably 8:30 or 9 - and I didn't notice until I went downstairs and there was no coffee that we had lost power during the night. I guess around 3 am. It finally came on again about 10 am.

It just so happened that one of our better friends was home with her 2 daughters from Nepal for a visit, so we went over and saw Teresa for awhile. Unfortunately her husband did not come. She is home for 6 weeks and he is still at work translating the Bible.

In the afternoon we took some wedding pictures to Jane's brothers wife. We had a nice visit with her, and then Jane's brother, Terry, showed up and we talked with him a bit while he was mowing. Then we headed over to her brother Mark's house. We set up supper arrangements with he and his wife and headed back to my parents. That night we went out with Mark and Christine to one of the chicken taverns in Tiskilwa. I had spaghetti. We saw some more people we knew there - including Brett, whom I haven't seen since I worked in the chimney factory.

Sunday morning we decided to attend the worship service at a different church than our home church. I guess quite a few people have left the home church for The People Church in Princeton. We wanted to check it out, as we had heard a lot of good things about it, plus some of our best friends from wayback were now a part of this church and we wanted to see them. So we went to the 9 am service, and we actually saw several people we knew. I was pretty shocked, though, at how small the building was. I guess they have 2 services, and the one we were at was standing room only. That was kind of neat to see so many people crammed in. The music was outstanding too. They have a really good band, and worship leader. And he just sang and played - no chitchat. I only knew 1 song they did, but I liked the style of music, because even the songs I didn't know were easy to pick up on. Superb. I also liked the pastor a lot. And not even because he is full of energy, but mostly because of how he interacted with my friends. He did come up and talk to me before and after - and I was glad that he wasn't at all impressed that I was a pastor. I was just glad that he really cared about my friends that were there. He also had an excellent sermon. I wish I had taken notes. The carrot and reeses cup analogy was great.

After the almost 1 1/2 hour service we got on the road and headed for home home (Yoder). I drove relatively slow for me and we just took our time. We had had a really nice and relaxing week, and I was in no hurry to get back to reality. I don't even know what time we got home, but Isaac was there to pick up the truck (which finally got done Saturday). Shortly after we got home it started to pour down rain. Isaac waited until it let up a little and then he left. We got something to eat and... that was the end of this week of vacation. I have one more week of vacation before August, but Jane is done. I have no idea what to do. I'll probably just spend it at home. Whatever.

Once again, I did not really think too much about work one way or the other on this vacation. It was nice to be home and see old friends. Always leaves me feeling a bit torn inside. At any rate, reality always returns whether you want it to or not.

Peace out; and in.