Thursday, April 9, 2009

Holy Holy Holy

Holy week is a crazy time in a Catholic school. Friday my students led the school in Good Friday stations and veneration of the cross, so it was a little stressful. Thursday the entire school of 326 students was involved in a bagged lunch service project where we made close to 700 bagged lunches for the homeless and working poor of Yakima. It was kind of cool, because this was an idea that my students had in the fall and did on a smaller scale back then, and now the whole school did it. We even made the local news! The next day my class brought some of the lunches over to the mission, where the other seventh grade had gone for a service project earlier. (You may recall that was the trip where we had no coats and it was raining and there was a student on crutches...this trip was much much smoother.)

I spent Easter with Kristin and her family in the Portland area, and it was a weekend full of crazy family happenings. While I definitely missed being in New Jersey for the week, spending it with Kristin's family was the next best thing. The Easter bunny didn't forget me either, although his handwriting looks a lot like Kristin's mom's. A funny moment at Easter mass...it was a Portland experience. The priest made the following three announcements at the end of the mass: 1. he had found an interesting article about Obama that he had printed out to share with the parish. Copies were on blue sheets in the back. 2. Parishioners training for the 40 mile hike led by the priest were doing a 7 mile training hike next week. 3. For the parish's celebration of Earth Day, everyone needed to find a way to get to church without driving. He wanted a full church with an empty parking lot. On green slips in the back he had information about biking and walking routes, as well as busing information.

I'm pretty sure those are announcements I would only hear in a church in the Northwest.

Last funny story here, then I'll sign off. So this afternoon, after Kristin and I roll back into Yakima, we decide to go for a run. I haven't been running because of the ankle, but this is about when Meg said it would be ok to start again, so I agreed to the running idea. About 2 1/2 miles in, I did need to walk for a bit, so at mile 3 we slowed to a walk. We had about a mile to go. As we we turn the corner into the last 3/4 mile, it starts to hail. And not wimpy, going away soon kind of hail. This was big and freezing and painful. We ran to a nearby bank to wait it out. After about ten minutes, we decide it's lightened up enough to try running again. By the time we got to the house, we were freezing, tired, miserable and in pain. But we made it, and the ankle isn't too bad. Time to get marathon ready!

If you have a minute today, make sure to wish Nicholas a happy birthday!

2 comments:

Ruthann said...

It was hailing here today too. Weird. I'm glad your ankle is better, though!

Anonymous said...

(insert music) Bliiiinded by the ligt...shot up like a duce, another runner in the night!! (stop music)

heh, there is nothing to motivate one to run faster than hailstones that could crack the windshield of a car...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICHOLAS!!