Well, lots to report. I’ll just run the whole trip down here.
We got on the plane bright and early, after fighting until midnight and getting up at 3 am. I was stoked. We slept a lot on the plane, and I read some of power healing. I like that book a lot, I read it and think “Hey, that is something that bothers me too,” or “Wow, that is a good answer to how I feel about that thing.”
Arrived at the airport, got picked up, explained that it was indeed our fault that we weren’t on the plane, not Lauries. She didn’t care much, that was good, she was a little relieved it wasn’t all her fault which is what she thought when we last talked on the phone. I didn’t want to referee any kind of finger pointing…I was too tired, so I’m really glad she was cool about that.
Ate breakfast, drove home, talked some, got to the new GIA-MONGOUS house that the Martinez live in now. I’m thinking 1.5mil minimum. They moved to San Jaun Capistrano, they have a pool, a hot tub, with flowing fountain things into them, a bunch of big-ass common rooms, and each of the three bedrooms has their own bathroom, and there is a fourth bathroom by the kitchen / family room. Also has two garage areas, for a total of four cars.
Then we went to the harbor, which was good, until I got kinda sick feeling. I drove home, we took a nap until it was time to leave.
Christmas eve at mission hills was eh. To much of lights spinning around and stuff. The message was funny. You know how I talk about how I think Piper’s preaching is annoying and unecessarily inserting calvinism where it isn’t. Well, the guy who preached was the same way about free will. He used the word no less than 25 times in a Christmas eve service. I wish Jeff could have been there just to get annoyed and uncomfortable like I was at Pipers church. The preaching made good sense and was well thought out, but it was funny how unnecessary the random inserting of the “free will is absolutely necessary for …” phrase. His alter call was great at the end though. I liked the guys enthusiasm and his alter call was top notch, so I gave it a B+ since christmas eve services don’t have to be heavy on the theology.
Then, on to dinner w/ my Sister-in-laws fiance’s parents. They are richer than Laurens parents and awesome hosts as well as great cooks. The were shoving alcohol down my throat from the time I walked in, I thought to myself that these are my kind of people. Then appetizers, followed by lamb and a bunch of other greek dishes….it was amazing. There was some drama surrounding Amanda in all this, but I think I won’t bother talking about that just yet. Let’s just say she was very very rude and self-centered. Lauen politely excused herself after some small talk to spend time with her, which I thought was nice, but ill-advised.
Christmas morning was fun. Presents, some food, then to a movie. All good times. Different than my family, not in a bad way, but odd to be apart from them. Then we saw Spanglish. Decent movie. I’ve seen better, but it wasn’t bad. Did a lot of things right that most movies do wrong in the same situation. I liked that.
Christmas afternoon Ralph’s mother came over w/ her husband and Ralphs brother, Randy. That was fun for a while, but grandma was being kinda difficult, well maybe very difficult. Then instead of just dealing with it and deciding to be happy, Lauren’s Mom and Sister were in the corner like talking trash and being generally disagreeable, which helped nothing. Lauren, Ralph and I were feeling the tension and getting worried that we were running out of small talk. The negativity in that house sometimes….I swear.
Then, we decided to go visit Lauren’s oldest sister to talk about them having kids. Laurens sister is pretty severly bi-polar, and bi-polars have a very high rate of post-partum(sp?) depression realated suicides. So we volunteered to send Lauren out to stay for a month or two around the birth, to take care of things while Chris (her fiance…it was his house I was at earlier) kept working. Also, if anything ever got to an extreme we could adopt their kids so that they could; 1, stay in the family, and 2, have a chance of getting them back when things got better.
Well, we talked to them for a while about this, and they seemed excited that we would want to help them. That is great because we didn’t want to convey anything other than concern and an eagerness to help. We in no way want to take their kids or step in and take over their lives, we just want to make sure things go smoothly. I was excited because we talked about a lot of stuff, and we shared Lauren’s story with Jeanne and Chris, and Jeanne said she felt the same way about their Mother as Lauren did. It was odd, but in a few short hours a lot of bonding happened. Lauren feels better about her reservations she has had about the wedding. She feels much more confident in Chris, and that is good. Lauren is actually pretty protective of her older sister…it is kinda funny. I wonder if Aaron does that for me when I’m not around.
Besides that we prayed for them. For their marriage, and for Jeanne and her past with her Mother. It was a really great prayer time. We prayed for probably 2 hours, we used a lot of theophostic training, and it reminded me of praying for Lauren. Jeanne has a lot of the same spiritual gifts Lauren does I think. I’m going to let Lauren write more about this part since this is long and she wants to write about it when she feels better.
It is weird but, I actually feel more like I have a sister and brother-in-law. I kinda decided this week-end that I would treat her family more like my family. I don’t really hold back. Like I basically said I don’t really like their youngest daughter and have little use for her prescence when I visit since it mostly detracts from the general mirth and happiness of the room when she is in it. I don’t know if that is smart, but hell, they’re stuck with me.
Well Lauren ended up being up most the night coughing and being generally sick, so I also stayed up half the night. So we got up early and she slept in the easy-chair which helped. I planned some stereo stuff w/ Ralph since he has this bad-ass pre-wired multi-zone audio system built into the house, but all he needed was a switch-box / distribution device, and a surround sound reciever (and a few more speakers for the surround). So we went out and spent a few hours looking at stuff and listening to high-end speakers. If you were wondering, a company called Monitor (at least I think that is what it was) in my opinion made stuff slightly better than klipsch. Bose, didn’t even hit the map, their speakers are a joke in a head-to head comparison while driven from a non-bose source in a not accoustically perfect room. Don’t let the amazing Bose demo rooms fool you.
And on the way home we decided to hold off with getting In and Out until I was driving to the Airport. But Laurie ended up driving to the airport and I fell asleep, and subsequently ended up w/ no In and Out on this whole trip. I’m still a little pissed about this.
The flight was OK. There was a screaming kid in the row in front of us who was only screaming about the game’s and toys he was playing with. I wish his Dad would have said a little more to him…that is what annoyed me. It wasn’t that he couldn’t control him, it is that he didn’t try. Well, I read more power healing and enjoyed that, and Lauren slept. When we arrived, the car’s battery was dead, it was the BMW of course, since the Saturn was in the shop. That car is getting older and older by the moment. I finally flagged someone down to jump us, and we made it home by midnight.
Well, that was the trip, and we get to do it all again in two weeks. Glad I get a day off for New-years eve, that will help get me ready for the next trip.