May 29 – “Addendums …”

We had a huge crowd at church for Memorial Day Weekend.  Totals varied depending on who was doing the counting, but they all came in right around 98, so we are going with that as an average.  Almost 100.  Wow. 

Playground addendum … We found out that the pancake breakfast brought us just over $500 short of our goal for the playground equipment.  $213 came into the offering without asking for more.  And before we even got home from church, two different people had told me that they wanted to make up the difference, whatever it was.  Playground equipment, here we come.

Chris had a crockpot roast going all night, so by the time we got home, it was stinking up the joint.  Well, that sounds a bit negative, I suppose.  What I meant to say was that the aroma was wafting most pleasantly over the confines of our entire abode.  Yep.  That was it.  Kind of like the lingering smell of bacon greeted us when we arrived at church (Bacon addendum).  In other words, the house smelled good.  Chris started a big pan of rice and before you know it we were well-fed and watching the Astros game on TV (Astros addendum: they won again).  Some people even took naps.  Imagine that.  A nap on Sunday afternoon?  Novel idea.  I may try it some time.

Cailyn got home from her softball tournament in Beaumont (Softball tournament addendum … they didn’t win any games, but they are experienced in road trips now).  They came over to say hi to Josh and Christi, and Cailyn ended up joining us for our fishing trip and even spending the night.  Cousins sleepover … addendum.  Said fishing trip was fun.  Zak and I braved the traffic to pick up some bait.  Surprisingly, once we made our way through the traffic and the short cut, they bait shop had plenty of live shrimp.  Getting back to the house and out to our fishing hole in Jamaica Beach was pretty easy, traffic-wise.  We got all set up and Cailyn pulled in the first catch, a tiny little speckled trout.  Great start to the day, even though we had to throw it back.  Zak continued his run by catching another dogfish.  He caught one of those ugly critters last time we fished there.  We caught five or six croakers and even a slot red fish.  Josh ended the day by hauling in an evil-looking mud eel. 

I felt like I was the star of some TV chef show when we got home.  The kids all hovered over me as I filleted the fish.  Yes, there were numerous choruses of “Eww,” and “That’s gross.”  The comments intensified when they asked me to poke the redfish’s eye out.  That was really, really gross.  But really, really fun, too.  Ah, making memories …

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

Father, thank you for the generous Seasiders.  And thank you for the memories.  May the kids hold them for a long time.  Amen.