Little Kid Life, Busy Weekends, and Chaos in the Sanctuary

My goodness, it's been a while since I last posted! A real post, that is.  And for me, it seems as if two days is forever... Two days seems extraordinarily long in summer.  Anyways.  This past weekend was quite busy!
Saturday was spent mostly with J, as I helped put together CD's in preparation for his older brother's CD giveaway at a gig.  J's older brother is super musical, (and super talented!) and definitely has a career ahead of him in his singing endeavors.**  He's a hard worker and will grab any gig that comes along just to put himself out there.  One day, when he's famous, I'll be able to say things like
"I hung out in the same house as him!"
"I dated his brother!"
"I helped him with his final cafe gig/show-thing before college!"
"I sang in an acapella group with him!"

Yeah.  Stuff like that. ^_^  So that was most of Saturday... OH and I forgot to mention-- the boys are back home now! Yay! Boy Scout camp is over for them and they got back on Saturday morning around 1pm, (so I'm told-- I wasn't around for their homecoming :/ )

Sunday consisted of finishing helping J with the stuff that needed to be done for his brother's gig... We finished before noon-ish and then we got to hang out for a while.  J also invited me to go with him to a barbecue at around 3pm ish (mostly because the barbecue was being put on by a friend of his dad's, and he wouldn't know anyone there... XD) Then 3pm rolled around, and J, his little brother (we call him Baby D), his dad and I all headed over to the barbecue.  It was a fun time-- the hosting family was two parents and once child, and you could see wedding pictures all over the house.  Their child, about maybe 10 years old had a tan that would make any girl jealous and a bearded dragon in his bedroom.  *Coughcoughalittlespoiledcoughcough* He was a cute little kid, and was very nice in showing us around his house once we introduced ourselves.  It was like "newly starting out family" central, and all these couples were there and had brought their kids, so J and I were basically the only kids over 10 there.  It was interesting, but we hung out with the kids in the basement and ate along to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which happened to be showing on TV, and then played video games after everyone was done eating.  It was a hectic mess of kids, food, and noise, but it was all very entertaining.  Especially that part where I was reaching for a blanket, pulled it up and found a buffalo wing or something in between the couch and where the blanket had been...  Yeah.  Ew.  XD
Looking at J a couple times, I could see his annoyance with the littler kids, and I had to rein him in when we were playing video games (he's got a tendency to swear sometimes, haha).  It's weird... J's only littler sibling is Baby D, and he's like two and a half years old.  At that age, things are mostly "Awww that's so cute! Look what Baby D said/did/coloured for you!"  But once you hit 4 and 5 years old, (maybe even 3) you get to the annoying little kid stages.  This age is prime time for copy-catting, (a form of flattery, I'm told) defiance, (because they have mastered the word "No!") and hyper-ness.  I've got four kids younger than me... Boo is almost (note the almost) topping out of her annoying stages... *hopefully*.  She's five.  But I can tell I'm more used to kids and chaos in a single space than J is.  Poor guy.  XD  (I could feel his relief once it was just me him and Baby D in the car again.)  And, speaking of chaos, how's this for you?

A sanctuary filled with maybe 250+ kids all running around in pews and jumping up and down and talking like, five notches higher than the standard "inside voice".  Yeah.  That was this morning for me, from 9am to noon.  VBS has officially kicked off at the church, and I'm volunteering.  *That reminds me of this magnet that's on J's fridge-- (no doubt bought by or for his mom):*

But yeah.  That's me.  Basically, in the program, the kids are supposed to enjoy a fun, spiritually educational, God-filled camp for one week.  The theme of the camp is like a medieval-King Arthur-knights-in-shining-armor kind of thing, and all of the kids that attend are divided into groups, or "crews" as we call them.  A group of about 10 kids has a "crew leader" and some aides to help the adult in charge.  I'm not a crew leader, (thank goodness) I'm an aide, and I have to make sure we don't lose the kids when going from one activity to another, Purell their hands before they eat their snack, take them on those joyous little potty runs, etc.  All that lovely stuff that comes with the job....

I kid, I kid, though.   More often than not, it's a rewarding experience because you're faced with these kids who are totally new and innocent and cute and learning, and they say the darndest things.  They'll say exactly what's on their mind, tactful or not, and it's funny 85% of the time.  Sometimes I'll feel sad because I know they won't be young and innocent forever.  I remember when I was little, and I used to attend Vacation Bible School... The games they'd play that involved pretending were fun, and the station with story time-- where an adult would tell a story from the bible from behind a fake fire set up to mimic the one mentioned in the story of Moses and the burning bush, was still magical.  Back to a time where we didn't know what it meant to be gay or lesbian.  Back to a time when Santa Claus had the power to get us to go to bed early and stay asleep, for we knew that if we weren't asleep he would skip our house.  Back to a time where colouring and recess were a part of the school day, boys had cooties, and money was a "boring grown-up" problem.  Life was simpler then.  Sometimes I miss it.  

But anyways.  We sang songs, had a snack, watched a brief movie clip, made a craft, played a water game outside, and regathered in the sanctuary to sing over the span of three hours.  This morning I had wanted to go running, but I found myself to be exhausted and in the middle of too good a dream to answer my alarm that I had set late the night before.  I felt drained returning home from VBS, but guilty that I hadn't run that morning.  So I found myself putting on my shoes and athletic shorts and going for a run.  I ran further than usual, kept my jog, and even increased my pace a little.  I'm going to be able to do a mile in a heartbeat before I know it.  (:  I always have music on when I run, and it helps if I have upbeat songs and/or motivational lyrics (or even just songs I like) playing moderately loudly in my ears as I'm breaking a sweat. I've even got an "Exercise Tunes" playlist just for working out.  I returned home after an hour or so, and then busied myself with German work, tending to errands, and obsessing over songs by Andy Grammer, Train, and Coldplay.  I should probably get some sleep, considering the fact that I have to get up somewhat early so I can be showered and dressed by 8:30am.  (It should be a sin to get up that early on a week day.  A summer week day, that is.  8:30 isn't really even that early, but it felt so early today because I was so tired) :P 

Anyways.  Goodnight, my lovelies!

xoxo

**P.S.  You should totally google the first 3 words in the title of this post

And then.  You shall fall in love... with an awesome musician.