A Real Easter Dinner

Found a pleasant surprise when I checked my e-mail this morning. Carrie, the bishop's wife, and one of our friends from four years ago, had sent me an e-mail inviting me over for Easter dinner. Well, that sure beats ground chicken spaghetti, so I called her right back and said yes. She said it would be pretty quiet, just us and another family of three who we could get a ride with.

They live up the mountain in an actual house with a yard, and a swimming pool. I wouldn't even be able to guess how much they have to pay in rent for it. But, I'm very happy for them. They have six kids and have worked extremely hard to get to the point they're at now. Their last apartment only had three bedrooms if I remember correctly, and their kitchen was the size of a large bathroom. I'm sure they're even happier.

Michael decided to take the elevator at church alone today. It was going down to the parking levels, so I told him to wait as we wanted to go up to Primary. He ignored me and right before the doors closed, slipped in. Luckily, he just stayed in the elevator and didn't get out in the parking lot. I retrieved him on the way back up with an elevator full of people asking him, "Where's your mommy?"

Then he decided that he didn't want to go to opening exercises in Primary, so I just left him sitting alone in his Sunbeam class while I went to Relief Society. After church, Carrie (who's also the Primary president), said to Michael, "We missed you in Primary today." I said, "What? He wasn't there?" I couldn't believe that he would have just wandered around the building alone for almost two hours. She quickly assured me that she wasn't there for sharing time, so he probably was with his class the whole time.

We had a nice Easter program. It always seems that the people are all more talented and outgoing in English wards overseas. We had a string quartet playing the Alleluia chorus, a ward choir that was small, but in perfect harmony, a family quartet, a female soloist who sang a really difficult piece and a piano solo. What I heard of the Easter message was good too. Potty time strikes again.

Afterwards, the people giving us a ride told us we would have to wait a little as they had to stay for a seminary choir practice. So, I let Michael run around outside with all the other little kids. He had a blast. Once they all left, I went back in to find that she was visiting teaching, so we had to wait another forty minutes or so. Well, waiting is definitely better than taking the bus, but Michael was getting whiny. He fell asleep in the car on the way up.

Dinner was delicious. Nothing doused in oil. A fresh salad, a glazed ham, rolls, beans, and funeral potatoes of course. It was really nice to have a proper sit-down dinner. There were a lot more people than expected as five Rotary exchange students were there as well. They were all teenage girls. The members take turns hosting them on Sundays, and Carrie had completely forgotten it was her week. Michael enjoyed being spoiled by them when they weren't too busy flirting with the two boys there. He also had fun trying to find all the Easter candy that the kids had left lying around from that morning. He got quite a bit, too.

By seven, I had to request a ride to the MRT as Michael was tired and we had school the next day. Carrie took the opportunity to tell all the students to pack up and she drove us all back to the MRT. Some of the girls were talking about how they were going to take Bus 285, which connects to the 15, which goes straight to our house. I decided to do that with them as it would be a lot more direct than taking the MRT, then walking a ways to the bus stop. I had forgotten how little brain power is spent by teenage girls on thinking about the best way to do something though. They knew the bus could only be caught along a specific street near the station. It happened to be a half a block away, back the way Carrie had driven us. But did they go that way? No. They walked a full three and a half blocks around the long way. Poor Michael was so tired, and I was getting pretty annoyed walking so far in my church shoes, and then when I realized we had just walked twenty minutes for nothing... Let's just say, I didn't say much on the bus ride home. Next time, I'll know.

Got a phone call from Annie while on the bus. The bed that we had been sleeping on belonged to our landlord's cousin and he needed it back, so Joseph (Annie's father), had gotten us another one and they needed to switch them that night. So, he came and picked us up where we normally would have transferred onto Bus 15, and took us home. On the way, I asked Annie where he found the new bed and she told me someone had thrown it out. "But it's clean!" she was quick to assure me. Well, it may have been clean, but it doesn't smell so great. Oh well. Only another two months to go. At least my water has warmed up a little. My showers are now warm instead of lukewarm and I don't need to boil water for Michael's baths anymore.