Another Weekend in Altoona

With John not having worked in almost three months now, I can imagine that it's with a bit of relief that he headed back to Altoona to pull call this past weekend.  Him not working is like leaving a Lamborghini sitting in the garage for years, or a violin being stored in a closet not played.  He IS a doctor through and through, and having his skills laying dormant is certainly hard on him.

And sure enough, in true fashion, he was at the hospital at just the right time in two different instances, and the nurses were praising him name up and down.  These call weekends are definitely blessings in disguise.

Lucky for us, Ethan, Rebecca, Baby and Brother came up to visit us (I need to get them to name themselves as a group at some point, because it's getting tedious typing out all those names every time!)  One of my favorite parts about ever seeing them is the initial greeting, because Baby is full-out, unadulterated happy to see our faces and just throws herself into our arms.  I love it.

I do believe Baby (and the subsequent siblings) will always associate us with eating out.  Goodness, it is a study in Lollie manners basically the entire weekend, and I'm not surprised that she's a little ornery by the end of it, especially considering Lollie doesn't let her sit by her mom when we're eating ;-)

Cracker Barrel.
Panera (and Chipotle).
Chili's.
Sweet Frog.

At Panera, the workers had set up chairs to block off a section of the restaurant.  It looked like a train, so we hopped on board!

Then, when we went to Sweet Frog, smartie pants Baby used the baby chairs to make her own train.

Look at the organization and spacing of those chairs!  That's my kind of girl!

After our initial lunch at Cracker Barrel, Rebecca took Brother back to the hotel for a nap, and John, Ethan and I took Baby to see the reptiles at the reptile expo at the Jaffa Shrine.  We did as much possible positive reinforcement as we could, seeing that Baby has a definite prejudice against such creatures ;-). I was kind of excited to see a breeder of ball pythons, the exact snake that Hannah is talking about buying.  Ethan kind of fell in love with them as well.

I will admit--they are super soft, and crazy interesting, curling up into a ball when they get scared or are cold, and stretching out when they feel comfortable.  As it turns out, they can be bred to be all different kind of combinations of colors.  Seeing them made me wonder if the snake in the book Verdi is a ball python.

We also went swimming in the hotel pool. For all the weekends we have stayed at the Wingate by Wyndham, and for all the times I've packed my swim suit, I've never jumped in the pool.  But Baby was excited, and due to her fear of swimming, we take advantage of any moment when she's willing to jump in the water.  She did so well this time though, actually swimming and kicking her legs!


Brother, on the other hand, loves being in the water.

It's really crazy to see how much Brother is like his namesake, Uncle Mark.  He's chubby and smiley (I know most people wouldn't believe Mark was ever chubby, but he was).  He loves water, but screams when his mother tries to put shoes on him.  He's a slow developer, but he's nice to everyone.  And he poops a lot. Enough said ;-)

I was glad Ethan came through with games.  He and I had a good hour playing Boggle (I won best 2/3), and that night, he and Rebecca taught us Pandemic.

 

 I had been asked by Edrie Cross (the wife of John's running buddy) to substitute for her on organ on Sunday morning.  I always love being asked to play the organ, and I love playing it.  The congregation is very small, and very old, and very conservative, and very humble, and obesity reigns supreme.  In my mind, they are just a huge ward of misfits.  However, they love John, and he is literally swarmed when he walks in the door.  I probably had ten people come up to me and tell me how much they appreciated my organ playing, but I also had one very large, very ugly woman come up to me and tell me that I play too loud.  And she was serious.  I told her "Well, you don't need to worry about it, because I probably won't play ever again."  When she continued to berate me for playing too loudly, I got a little more serious and said, "People generally like loud playing because it makes them feel more comfortable singing.  C'mon Annie, let's go to Primary."  And I walked away.

Primary has two children, a 2-year-old, and a 3-year-old.  There are no youth in the ward.  I won't lie--the idea of moving back to the area, and living in that ward depresses me.  In fact, it's difficult for me to even process the thought.

So, we said goodbye to everyone.  Ethan and Rebecca needed to head home, and I had a plane to catch.  I cried the entire plane flight home, and I cried the entire drive home from the airport.