Today was, well, chaos. Complete and utter hysteria mixed with non-stop moving and a dash of attitude. My bad on the attitude. We started the morning off bright and early! Michael had to spend the morning at Chad's working on some projects. I was lucky to spend the morning with my parents. We went out to breakfast and then headed over to any parents/grandpa's worst nightmare...Toys R Us. We all grabbed a few things that we needed and probably a few things we didn't. Isn't that how it always goes? Jake was extremely good. Actually, going back a little, at breakfast and elderly couple stopped us as we were leaving. The man said that he had been watching Jake the whole time he was eating. He was very surprised at how well behaved he was. I will have to admit, Jake is an extremely well behaved child. We have been very blessed. It was just nice to hear it from an outsider! Anyways, after the Toys R Us run, my parents came over to see the new floor! We got a stamp of approval! We always take my parents approval rating very seriously! They usually know what they are talking about!
Michael got home about 5 minutes after my parents left. Jake had a slight meltdown because he wanted his Easter goodies today instead of tomorrow. It was decided it was nap time, so Michael put him down. 20 minutes later, the kid was singing and talking and counting and just being himself. I went in and told him he at least needed to lay down. 10 minutes later he was back to talking and singing, 20 minutes after that he was jumping on his bed and running back and fourth on it. At this point, I knew a nap was not in the cards today. We spent a good half hour playing outside and then it was time for us to leave.
We had decided to go to church tonight instead of tomorrow. Yes, it is Easter Sunday, but I believe what I believe, it shouldn't matter on the day. Last year we went to the 11am service on Sunday. Can you say insane? I miss the days of having it at the Well. Yes it was a huge arena but 14,000 people could fit in there. We agreed to go to the 4pm service. Now, you would think, 4 pm, people are still out and about, running errands, enjoying the weather right? W R O N G. We were on JC Parkway and the traffic was chaotic. There were traffic signs and cops everywhere. It took us about 2 minutes to register the fact, it was church. We got there at 3:45 and wow. There was no where to park. People were parking blocks away. We thought we would give it a try. Turns out, there were a few spots right up front! Score one for the little people! The Bridge was completely full so we didn't have much hope for finding a seat in the main sanctuary. Again, 2 seats available in the noise bleed section! Ha! Church, as usual, was amazing. It was sort of fun being the first service of the 7 for Easter. We got the reactions by the Pastor and others when they first saw what was going on and the glitches! Just added to the environment. As they do almost every year, it started with the scene from "The Passion of the Christ" when He awakes and He walks from the tomb. I get goosebumps and tears everytime. The music, fantastic. The sermon, always takes my breath away. Pastor Housholder just has a gift. I have heard many Pastors in my life, and he is by far, my favorite. You never want it to end. You are always so into everything he says. Your mind never once wonders off and the passion in his voice, it just starts you on fire all over again. We are truly blessed to have people like him that share their gifts to all of us. I love that he just reads the Word. He doesn't have to fill in gaps or make things up. He tells you how it is straight from the bible and if you don't believe it, he wants you to challenge it. Of course there is always a dash of humor! At the end of the sermon came the climax tear moment. He had about 25 people fill out a poster board with how they felt before the had Christ in their life. The song they picked, suited the purpose. The selected "Fix You" by Coldplay. Even though they aren't a "Christian" band, it just added even more to the moment. They each walked up to the middle of the stage and shared it with you. One lady had divorce, another man had money, a high school girl had body image and a few others had feelings like loneliness, scared, self righteous, and greedy. It was heartbreaking to see how these people felt about themselves. After all 25 went through their boards, they all lined up into a line across the stage. The climax of the song hit, and one by one, they flipped over the poster board and it had how they felt after knowing Christ. That of course, just made the tears flow over! And it's making my eyes water now. It was so powerful and a wonderful experience for all of us to share. Pastor Mike then had the congregation text the word that described them before and the word that described them after. As the final song played, all of our texts were broadcast on the jumbo trons! It made you, in a way, realize, you are not alone in this battle. It is a battle. Everyday. No one is perfect. After an emotional service we then had to run a few errands.
You would think after a service like that, I would be cool, calm and collected. Do you not know me?! I panic. If things don't go the way I planned out, especially when it causes what tonight caused, I tend to freak out. I apologize Michael. We headed to Walmart. Esssssh. Not my most favorite of places. After carting all over the store, we left with about only 75% of our list completed. They were sold out of everything. We had a high school girl checking is us out. Usually they are the quickest. This one kept texting, yes, texting while she was checking us out. What in the world? We spent 10 minutes checking out. We only had 25 things! Craziness. We then headed over to Super Target. We had about 15 things left on our list. We got 2 of them knocked off. 2. Really?! Not to mention high schoolers and Target. I don't know what it is but honestly, mature. Please. We were in a hurry and these three Best Friends Forever and Ever X 3 were perfectly spread apart in the main isle. You couldn't pass them without running over and breaking their frappuccino filled bodies. Of course they had to walk the whole way in the direction we needed to go. The giggled and laughed and talked about some guy named Ben. I was about to give this Ben a call and tell him to tell them to move! I have never seen a traffic jam in Target before, but these BFF's caused one! Can I request a horn on my cart? We then headed to HyVee. We knocked another 4 things off our list. Again, with the people that leave their carts in the middle of the isle or block the isle completely. Michael just kept laughing. It was literally down every isle. There were no helpful smiles today! We had about 9 things that were sold out every where. We stopped by Dahls and they were our saving grace. We found everything we needed and were out of there in a jiffy. 2 hours later, we had everything we needed. What a fiasco. We finally got home at 8:30. Long day.
I then spent the rest of my evening making Easter baskets and filling up all the eggs. If you don't know this already, I gave up candy for Lent. I think stuffing these eggs tonight was my true test. All the Swedish Fish, M&M's, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Cadbury Eggs and Jelly Beans were staring at me intensely. Every time I dropped a piece on the table, I want to eat it. This was honestly my big test. I passed. I didn't nibble once. I did sniff the peanut butter egg package and drooled at the sight of the Swedish Fish. I made it this long, I can't break with only a few hours to go. I was thinking about staying up till 12:01 and celebrating the resurrection with a Cadbury Egg. Then I thought about it. Easter is not at all about candy or gifts. It's about celebrating the ultimate gift. One that no one else can give. No amount of candy can ever fulfill that!
Now as I listen to Hawkeye snore, Zoey chase Kinnick (this has been going on for 45 minutes), Michael playing his game with David aka yelling and not using their inside voice, while Jake is sleeping sideways with his feet hanging off, I can say, I wouldn't ever change a thing! Janzens = chaos and zoo like tendencies. We are always welcoming new members! =)
