Mime4Jesus - Surrogate Mom

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. I Timothy 4:12

Sep. 20, 2009

Surrogate Mom

Mom and Dad left Friday morning for their 22nd anniversary weekend, and they'll be back this afternoon. A lot has happened in their absence and I have been the "parent" as it were for these two-ish days.

Spent a lot of Friday on the phone with Jorge trying to figure out details for Saturday's presentation, and calling people to give them info. Then that evening at six Jorge came over for dinner (Kristi and the kids are in CA). The boys helped me straighten up the first floor (one of them under protest) and we had Creamy Italian Chicken and salad. I learned something new - Jorge really likes Italian food. Score one for the good guys. Andrew and John had made brownies that afternoon and we had them for dessert, plus more later. We had a great dinner full of interesting conversation and Jorge was always laughing. It felt good to see him laugh 'cause I know he's always under a lot of stress.

I've tried explaining the evening we had but there really isn't any way to accurately paint the great time we had. We played Frisbee Golf - Jorge says he's never played but he was almost as good as Dad. He won almost every "hole." Andrew threw some into the highway. I tried to learn how to jump and throw to give it more "oomph" but just succeeded in making Jorge laugh at me.

We went inside to the playroom, opened the garage door (immediately drawing a huge swarm of those little bugs that hang around the lights), and commenced a hearty game of pool. With ice cream. I'd told Jorge he didn't need to bring anything, but he brought two tubs of ice cream - mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip - so we enjoyed that while we played. Jorge and Andrew were on one team (Jo and I figured this would be good for Andrew, and Andrew just ADORES Jorge) and Jo and I on the other. We won once and Jorge's team won once, although neither games were strictly fair on Jorge's interference. If someone shot at a ball and almost got it in the pocket, he'd reach out and push it in. Exclamations of "Jorge!" never did anything; he'd just respond with, "wha-a-at?" and we'd all laugh and keep playing.

By this time it was only eight-ish, so we decided to play Wizard, a trump-type card game. It took Jorge a little while to catch on but he did and we all had a LOT of fun. We were always teasing each other for taking tricks we wanted. By this time Andrew was getting really hyper. Jorge was still laughing.

After Wizard I sent Andrew up to bed while we showed Jorge the cellar ("wow! This is so cool!") and the attic ("you guys have an awesome house") and everything in between (he's never seen our whole house. He admired our baby pictures in the hallway and after bequeathing us the ice cream, left. He told me several times that it had been a LONG time since he'd had that much fun and he was so glad we had him over. I smiled. :)

The cool thing about Jorge is that you don't have to be "adult" to him. We didn't have to talk about anything deep, important, or personal. We could just play and goof off and be ourselves and Jorge loved it. And we did too. He is such an amazing guy.

So Saturday morning we got all prepped for the presentation and headed out in the rain to pick up John and Moriah, who were waiting at their door. Thanks to their promptness we arrived at the Salvation Army in time to wait five minutes for Jorge to show up with Melissa and unlock the door.

We practiced for an hour and a half - well, an hour and fifteen - with Emily D and Jorge trying to make sure the sound was ready and Melissa critiquing all the songs. We did the following:

This Land
God Bless
Redeemed
Devil is Bad
Jesus Real Loud
Strings
End

I'm glad we bumped back the practice time because even with the extra half hour we still didn't have enough time to run the entire lineup, which is what I was hoping for. Nonetheless, after Jorge, Melissa and I figured out the aforementioned lineup, and then taught/put together all the songs, we were fairly well-prepared. It was pouring, drenching rain outside. Keep this in mind.

Melissa graciously gathered up all the props while we were running through End at the end, but we both forgot vests. Oh well. Jorge said it wasn't that big a deal. So we tore out to our respective cars through the downpour and Melissa and I talked about what she would say (she wasn't in makeup). She ended up transitioning between every song, plus teaching the sign language for God Bless and the technique for Strings. She also gave a pretty solid salvation message after Redeemed. I think she did a great job.

The presentation went really well except for the music dying in the middle of God Bless. Ben W was there from piano, so that was pretty cool. We had milk and cookies afterwards and stood at the window and laughed while Charleton wandered aimlessly through the pouring rain looking for Jorge's car. You just had to be there.

So when we got home I had a full day's schoolwork to do, plus Jo did, and Andrew had half, and they were both quite depressed about the whole thing. I tried to motivate them but it was a constant struggle ALL afternoon, plus trying to get all my school done. Jo was depressed cause he didn't understand his algebra and had way too much to do and Andrew was depressed just because he didn't want to do the half hour of schoolwork he had left. Needless to say, the latter got no sympathy.

The rough afternoon was followed by a rough evening. Typically when Mom and Dad go out, we watch a movie together, but we can never decide on one, and the one we watch usually ends up being one Andrew didn't choose (he may like it, but it wasn't his idea). This history led to some serious altercations last night in which it was the grace of God alone that prevented me from slapping Andrew across the face. I've wanted to do that a lot this weekend. We finally decided on something mutually acceptable - Gospel Bill.

This morning Andrew was grumpy again and I so did not have the grace for him. Not sure how I got through the morning. Almost fell asleep driving to church - I usually sleep - and again on the way back. I was with 2's and 3's with Cassandra. We had five - more than last time. Dropped by Wally World on the way home 'cause we're almost out of fruit, then came home for lunch and I'd forgotten to make bread so we just had to eat whatever. Just realized I forgot to make bread this afternoon too so we won't have any for dinner. *sigh*

Disciplining... telling siblings what to do... cleaning up... locking up... trying to get the boys to hurry up... waking up... trying not to yell... cooking... it's been a LONG three days. I'll be glad to have Mom and Dad home.

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