Definitely NOT the Weekend We Had Planned!

This past weekend was the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering, our all-time favorite festival. Our plan (as is our plan every year) was to buy the weekend passes in advance, and spend pretty much the entire weekend out at Battle Ground. But thennnnnn.....

In the middle of last week my mother-in-law had a minor surgery that turned into a major surgery when they jabbed her with their camera scope thingy and perforated her esophagus! So on Saturday we decided we'd try to just go to the evening Fiddlers show and go see her down in Indy during the day. But then we thought (at the last minute) if we went down in the morning (which when we were thinking it was "right now") we could get back in time for the afternoon show. So we left home, which always takes three hours longer than it should, now that we have two children, and went down to see her. Except I never got to because since we timed it about twenty minutes wrong, Anja was SO tired and in SUCH a bad mood. Martin and I tried going up together while the girls were with my sister-in-law, but we could hear Anja screaming all the way through the hospital. We were then going to take turns going up, but it just wasn't going to happen. But Martin got to visit, and that is obviously the important part. So then we started home but we kind of took a wrong turn that didn't make us LOST, but put us on a longer (but better) route. And while we were on a longer route anyway, we thought we might as well stop for lunch since we were so hungry. So we didn't end up getting home until after 3:00, so we decided to skip the afternoon show but still try for the evening show. Of course, with the evening show starting at 8:00 and the girls' bedtime being between 8:00 and 9:00, that was probably an unrealistic thing to think....

Now you might feel sorry for us for missing out on all that good music, but don't worry! We had no shortage of entertainment here on Alabama Street. Our friendly church neighbors down the street at the Greater Church of Macedonia (or something like that) were having a full-blown revival that started on Thursday night and went all the way to Sunday afternoon! Let me tell you, this place was on fire with love for the Lord. Most of the lyrics to their songs were "Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Glory! Jesus!" It was completely awesome. Lots of preaching about the goodness of the Lord, about keeping out the Devil, and about how the Good Lord will always forgive you. You might think, "wow, Martin and Annie skipped the Fiddlers Gathering for a prodestant revival?" Well, not exactly... we heard it all from the comfort of our front porch swing!

On Sunday morning we made it to the 7:30 mass and were able to visit with all sorts of good friends afterward! I loved the visiting missionary priest who gave a very Jesus homily and terrified me into not going to Communion, which I always view as a good thing. And since we evidently hadn't had enough old-fashioned religion yet that weekend, we headed out to Battle Ground for the 10:00 Gospel Sing!! Martin warned me that it was a little bit cheesy, and it wasn't quite what I'd expected, but I was still happy to be there. And it was free! We ate biscuits and gravy with Uncle Kim, saw good musical friends, then headed home for naptime with the intent to return later in the day.

Martin and I fell asleep while the girls slept and we all woke up a little after 2:00. We packed up some lunch for Anja and headed out there... we didn't get there TOO late, but late enough to get in for free! So that was good and it was a gorgeous day. Anja had SUCH a good time running around and she looked so adorable in her very Fiddlers-ish dress! Unfortunately, I'm a dummy and didn't take any pictures.

So it wasn't the All-Fiddlers-All-Weekend time we'd planned on, but all in all, it wasn't a bad weekend either!

Today Laura and I are going to visit our friend Mary who just had a baby boy yesterday! She came to visit us when we had our baby girls, so we've been looking forward to repaying the visit to her. But my mom is coming to watch my girlies and I HAVE to get the dishes done before she gets here or she'll try to do them for me!!!

By the way, my mother-in-law is doing very well!