Busy January!

Okay, okay, I know... it's been quite a while. Sorry!

But seriously, I have legit excuses!

The day I last wrote, I was listening to the youth band rehearse for a gig. They played the next day on the 11th in the morning for a church. The weekend after that we went out of town for 5 days to play at a camp up in Paisley, FL - aka Freezing Country. In the 30's and all! AH! Now I know all you northerners will mock me for that but seriously, that was quite unpleasant.

The next weekend I was supposed to be a part of a mission festival at a local church up in Broward County. I was able to do some of it, but here was my weekend schedule:

Friday at 230 - leave and drive South to Homestead to pick up one band member. Drive North up HWY 1 to pick up 3 more along the way, finishing about 5pm - perfect to hit the beginning of I-95 right at rush hour time!

Then, soon after I get on the turnpike (about 6pm by this point) I get a flat tire. God loving, I manage to pull over in the parking lot of a Hwy Trooper Post. Tow guy comes, helps me put on the spare, we drive N up the turn pike to the next service station to get a new tire or get this one patched/plugged etc. Well, no quick fix so can we buy a new tire? Wouldn't matter cause some people drove up in a fancy car and immediately the garage man ignored me. Finally I grabbed my own tire out of the garage, got back in the car, drove south on the turnpike to switch cars with someone but there was construction and the sign for the exit was down so I went 8 miles out of my way. Eventually we met, switched cars, etc. We stopped for food. We tried to connect the iPod and it didn't work. Called my boss, who's car it was, and when we realized we had messed up the iPod connector, got yelled at hard core for ruining something important.

Kids all fell asleep, I drove through the night in pitch black and silence. Lots of time to think, a long phone call and a very angry, angry me.

Arrived at the camp the gig that weekend would be (this is three weekends in a row now) run and grab food, get up at 6am the next morning and drive home after dropping the girls off at the camp. I get back, do music school registration, race north for a talking session about the YAV program at this mission festival and then finally have a break.

Whew! Luckily, the guy I'm seeing was very sweet and we went on a 50's night date - pizza and a drive-in movie. :)

Then Sunday morning it was back up north to the church for the rest of the mission fest (just so happened to be the guy's church too) and then all was well.

Twas busy! Then immediately on Tuesday I left in the morning for San Antonio, where I finished out the month. I was there for APCE - Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. I went to promote and recruit for DOOR and also to spend time with my mother and father. My mother was installed as president of this multi-thousand member organization and it was a moment of happiness for me. She's such an inspiration!

Lots of fun, networking, hard work and long hours finished up my month and I arrived safely home in Miami again earlier this week. Now it's back to the grind immediately, as life so often is.

Well, I hope all of you are well and staying safe and warm/cool enough wherever you may be. God's blessings on your time! I'll update again soon. I promise. :)

Cheers,
Em