The POD

Josiah went to a sleepover on Monday.  It was the OG sleepover - the original four kids from CC that have been together since kindergarten.  Josiah said they played Monopoly for seven hours as well as some video games.  They even braved the heat and went outside for a time.  Josiah called me at midnight to get more time on his phone.  Then he (wisely) called his father at 4:30 a.m. (central time) to get even more time.  His friends stayed awake to see the sun come up, but Josiah hit the hay at 5.  He got a good four hours of sleep in him before starting his day.  Josiah caught a ride home with a friend.  They were not expected until after 5 p.m.  I knew he would be tired, but I really needed him to not go to sleep.  A surprise was coming.  At 6:30 p.m., there was a knock on our door.  Josiah opened it to find one of his church friends say, Oh, I didn't know you lived here.  I'm going door-to-door selling ping pong balls (while holding a golf ball).  As he was doing his pitch, a bunch of other friends jumped out with a Surprise!  They let Josiah get some shoes and then whisked him off.  They went to the same house where they do LifeGroups.  They ate some snacks and then they had Josiah share a favorite memory of each of the guys.  The guys also shared a favorite memory of Josiah.  They even had sad music playing in the background.  The mom there said she was trying not to cry.  It was such a sweet thing for them to plan.  

The middle of the week was filled with all things moving.  We had a POD delivered Tuesday evening.  The idea was to get as many boxes as we could out of the house.  We started to pack the POD on Wednesday.  It felt so big and I expected everything to fit no problem.  The first day went very well because we loaded up the boxes that were already packed.  The remaining days were filled first with packing, then loading.  The novelty quickly wore off.  I only gave us a week to pack it thinking that would be plenty of time, but we could have used a second week.  This week has confirmed that we clearly have too much stuff, I have no more time to go through it, and the boxes are being haphazardly labeled because I just don't care anymore.  The POD itself has been great, but packing is just an exhausting process.  

The kids, however, have been great helpers with packing it up.  Henry prefers we pack all the boxes at once and then bring them all out to the POD.  Once we step outside, we step into the sauna that is Houston, so we try to minimize our time in it.  

Josiah had friends over this weekend to make videos and just spend time together before they go on their vacations.  They created a video of a contest in which whoever stayed in the POD the longest won a billion dollars.  They 'stayed' a week and neither contestant gave up.  Because neither gave up, neither won.  Josiah can edit some video.  He's quick and really good at it.  

We celebrated the 4th of July with some strawberries and pound cake, and just a little whip cream.  For the first time since we've been in this house, no one around us shot off fireworks.  We still heard them all night long, but they were safely in the distance.  Benson did not seem disturbed at all.  

This Sunday morning, Josiah woke me up at 1:53 a.m. dressed and ready to go for his mission trip.  I (not so kindly?) told him I had set my alarm for 2:30 and it was my plan to stay in bed until then.  We had to get him to the airport by 4:00.  His group of 9th graders went to Chicago to serve in different capacities.  Today, Sunday, was more of a fun day.  Our student pastor is from Chicago, so he always brings the kids to get deep dish pizza as well as his favorite chocolate cake milkshake.  Josiah sent me two pictures today and there was one posted by our church.  

Henry's group of 7th graders went to Austin for the week.  They will have service projects all week as well and they also get a tour of the capital one evening.  He'll be the only one of us to make it to the capital of Texas.  They took vans from the church and left just before the torrential downpours hit our area. 

When Caroline and I left church we walked by all the people waiting to be picked up under the overhang.  We smiled and walked to the car and proceeded to get soaked to the bone.  It was crazy rain.  And there is more coming.  Tonight shall be an interesting one.  Tropical Storm Beryl is headed directly at us.  It is supposed to hit during the overnight hours which is always a favorite time to deal with wind and rain.  The little lady and I are just hunkering down, praying our roof handles the wind well.  

We'll spend the week getting the house cleaned up and packing the remaining items to go in the car with us.  It'll be quite the vanload.