Funeral...

Apparently a local Sheriff or someone of great value in the police force recently died in our area. I'm sitting here right now, and as I pen this, there is a loud roar outside our house. Of all the streets they could have picked, they decided to block ours of and allow the procession down our street. We got cop cars from all over the area -- like a mini parade -- rolling down our street mixed with a few civilian cars and one random firetruck. The roar, however, comes from the air. I grew up hearing those things every-now-and-then, but today there are two hovering over our street. Helicopters. I saw one close-up once as a child, but this is my first time to hear the roar until I've a headache and see them just hover for so long...

Ah, the procession has just finished and now the helicopters are flying away. What an event. Feel sorry for the family, but it's still pretty cool to watch. On our street, too, no less, not the main street!

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Oh, and for anyone wondering about the rest of my day. It's been great thus far. Got up and went to Wal-mart to get the professional photos I had taken there, and to order my mother the one she wanted as her birthday present -- don't worry, it's no surprise to her, so I'm not ruining anything by blogging about it...

Also, I met Dorcas Thursday and then we went for a movie night at the church with Marie-Louise; had a great time. Fred & Deb took both girls out to OH to drop Marie-Louise off for her missions trip with the Ingole-family-group and then they took Dorcas shopping at Gabe's on the way back to pick up another pair of jeans (and to figure out her size better, maybe). She's more like a 1x (not the 2x we'd previously guessed) and her paints are about a 16; supposedly she's a little taller then my friend Emily, too, she had to stoop to hug her! How cool is that? But they are about the same build. Anyway, everyone got back from that event at about 2am this morning...

Oh, and Marie-Louise called this morning during their layover in TX to say she's doing great and having fun with the team...!

Oh, and my Nichols Grandparents are on their way here for a short weekend; they want to meet Dorcas, and tomorrow attend the church diner we're having that will both welcome her and shower her with gifts (Dorcas doesn't know about that last part; she's already in shock about how many options Gabe's has, wait till she owns a loot of clothing and other such items herself!)

Marie-Louise...craziness of youth

Marie-Louise put on her bathrobe, saying how warm it was. When the time came for our usual Wednesday-night Prayer Meeting at the church, she said she wanted to go in her bathrobe. Deb told her it would look goofy and we were certain when the time came, she would be too embarrassed and take it off before entering the church. So we let her travel in it.

She, of course, insisted she wasn't embarrassed and would wear it just fine! So we decided to put her to the test; so how hard it would be for her to appear in it.

First we tried McDonald's--Debby said she wanted a carbonated beverage (soda, or Pop, or whatever y'all call it). She insisted she would run in and meet us at the other side, but when we started to pull by drive-through (we were certain we would be waiting forever for her to actually do it & we were already cutting it close to get to church on time) she didn't jump out. Didn't even budge...We picked on her for it, of course, and she finally insisted she could do it. Then Debby pulled into one of her favorite gas station companies. M-L looked nervous and said "what are we doing here?"

Debby smiled and responded, "Your going in to get me something!"

Of course, Debby had her carbonated drink, so what else could it be? As it turned out, after Debby parked, she pulled out a dollars worth of change and told M-L to go in and get her something she would like for a dollar. By then we had egged M-L on enough, she didn't take long before budging this time and darted in.
While she was in, we pulled out of our parking spot and went to the other side of the lot. Just to scare her a bit. Then we honked when she came out and looked worried. She hadn't wasted any time in finding Debby a candy bar!

Marie-Louise told us in the van that she would have to put this "bright idea" in a book called "Not the Brightest Ideas Marie-Louise Ever Had!" As you can guess, her stubborn ways not only creates a lot of humor for us all, but it is also occurs often enough she probably could write a short book!

If any of you know Marie-Louise (or any other thirteen-year-old like her), you know the humor in the story. If you don't, it probably sounds like a plain story...we thought it was so funny, that I gave my friends, who know M-L, a play-by-play txt of the whole thing...It is also good to note that shortly after arriving at church, M-L took her robe off (she insisted she was hot). She did not put it back on till we were leaving, as it was her "coat" for the night!