Labor Day Weekend

There are a couple more chapters in the Shoptaw Family Vacation saga, but we'll get to those later. Wanted to catch up some of the current stuff before it got past me.

The biggest thing from this past weekend was the chance to catch up with some old friends. I had started planning some big mini-reunion type thing for those that graduated with me back in 1993, but so many people couldn't come or didn't respond that those plans got scrapped. Instead, those that could got together for dinner at a local Mexican place on Saturday.

Joining us were Robert and Wendy Arnwine, David and Danyelle Fletcher, Andy Stroud and his daughter Meredith, and Matt and Julie Scott and their boys Harrison and Heath. While I see most of these guys on occasion, it'd been a long time since we had a big get-together like that. Robert and Wendy broke the news that they are expecting, due end of March/beginning of April, most likely. David and Danyelle are both going back to school for higher degrees. Sarah got passed around as many wanted to have a chance to hold her (well, many of the women, at least. Guys, not so much.)

It was an enjoyable evening. Robert and Wendy came back to the house afterwards, and Bob and I broke out the Playstation and put in NCAA Football '08. Bob is a big Tennessee fan and wanted to see how the UT/California game would turn out with us at the helm. Turned out about the same as the real game. I built a good lead that Robert chipped away at and was within one score late in the fourth. However, I ran the ball to cut some clock, got around the outside, and broke a 60-yard run for a score that put it out of reach.

I hope we'll be able to get some people together again later in the year. It's always good to keep the connections active!

That really was the largest part of our holiday weekend. My parents had company this weekend and the company had a boy a couple of months younger than Benjamin, so he went out there to play Sunday and we went out there for dinner Monday evening.

Not much on the schedule for the rest of the week. We've got a softball game tomorrow night, and our starting catcher won't be there (due to work) so it's possible I'll have to get behind the plate. However, looking at the weather forecast, we may not have to worry about it. Poker is this weekend, and I think it's a possibility I'll make it, but we also have a birthday party for Tyson, the son of a co-worker and a friend of Benjamin's, to go to that afternoon, so I've not worked out the logistics of getting everything done before I head out for cards. So that is still up in the air.

Then, we start two services at church this weekend. The whole two services/small groups thing has taken off, which I really didn't expect. Everyone seems to be gung-ho about it, so hopefully it'll work out well. But it means we have to get to church 30-45 minutes earlier on Sunday, which cuts into our (especially Meron's!) sleep. So that's a hurdle we'll have to overcome.

Speaking of the wife, she plans to update her blog soon with Benjamin's first day at TLC (which was yesterday), so check that out (and leave a message--she likes the feedback). I'll leave that to her to talk about, but he did well.

Sarah is still growing and she and I get along better, though we still have our moments. Like yesterday morning, when she started fussing and I picked her up before I went to work. She hadn't eaten in an hour and a half, but somehow she still was able to spit up on me and make me change shirts. I told my wife, "See, you can't say this isn't personal!"

Amazingly enough, this is my 200th post, according to my Blogger dashboard. It's been fun, and here's hoping for a quick 200 more!