painting, parking, and pizza

It was a full day.  And so the question is - one long post or a couple of shorter ones??  And the winner is.... one long one!

I noticed when I began this post that I have 200 entries.  (I guess that makes this #201.)  Anyway, I saw on another blog that for the 100th post, you are supposed to list 100 things about yourself.   Never knew.  So do you think I need to tell you 200 things about myself? I'll spare you for now!

First of all...the parking lot.  We were there at 7 a.m. to try to (a) beat the heat and (b) finish in time to have a break before it was time to eat pizza.  A picture of our guys before they got things underway this morning.

 

Here they are imitating government workers...standing around and watching those who are working: 

But it got done in record time.  We were almost done by 9 a.m., when it really started to feel like a sauna outside.  And things wouldn't be complete without a "before" picture somewhere in the vicinity of an "after" picture.  I would put them side by side, but who knows where they will land with blogger?

Given the name of this blog, I must include this picture::

Following our morning in the parking lot, the scouts joined the altar servers for our "annual trek" to a local pizza place that also has all kind of games, bumper cars, go-carts, etc.  It's like a casino for kids.  Almost.  Here's our obligatory picture of our group with Father and my "partners in crime" who not only help paint parking lots, but also help pay for pizza.  I love that our pastor takes time out of his day and joins the kids for this event.  He doesn't stay to play, but he sits down at the table with them and joins them for lunch. 

If you would, please say a prayer for the dad of the kid in the New York t-shirt.  He has been hospitalized the past week+ with a collapsed lung.  Apparently it's something that can just sometimes happen to perfectly healthy people.  What should not have been a huge deal has resulted in a misplaced chest tube, surgery, pneumonia, and a staph infection.  But God has had a hand in it, because the dad of the kid standing behind him (in plaid) is a critical care pulmonologist, and even though dad #1 is in another city an hour away, dad #2 has been very helpful in getting him the right care. 

My boys were serving at Mass this evening, and we went straight from pizza to Mass, with about 5 minutes to spare.  That means that my oldest was wearing shorts for Mass (which I never allow), so the ladies across the way might have been scandalized by his hairy legs sticking out under his alb.  (I thought we would have time to go home and change first, but we didn't...) 

I loved the readings tonight.  The music went right along with the theme of mercy and reconciliation.  And the homily, I'm sorry that I'm only going to hear it once.  He said that what tied the three readings together was that each of the "characters" (that's not the word he used) experienced God.  For some reason, I can so relate to the woman in the Gospel.  The one who has been forgiven much, and so loves much.  And that even though we might want to believe that there isn't really sin in the world (just look around, he says), we experience God through forgiveness and mercy.  God is God, and we aren't.  No matter what or who we think we are, we are sinners.  When we open ourselves to that forgiveness, we open ourselves to God's love and when we have received that extravagant love, we can give it to others.

Ant that, boys and girls, was our day.  Not bad at all!