Easter!

Ah, yes, the day we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, and some bunny who wants our souls...

But... I was almost tempted not to venture out to church today. It was RAINING out. RAINING on Easter Sunday! And pretty hard, too. I usually walk to church Sunday morning. I tried calling some family to get a ride, but didn't get through, so I threw on my coat and started walking. Didn't get further than a block when some friends of mine picked me up, an offer I was very glad of.

My mom and my younger siblings were in town, and came to church also. Audrey was also there, and we planned to go over to my brother Aaron's place afterward to celebrate Easter and his birthday, which had been a few days before.

The service, not too bad. The youth group opened with a drama and did a nice performance. My only problem with it was that I'd seen it twice before. In between worship and the sermon, the pastor excused the children for Children's church, and stressed that they would be showing clips from The Passion of the Christ, and it might be rather graphic. Well, it was not graphic, nor was the video they made edited together very well. They would have done better to contact me or Audrey, as both she and I edit lots of videos. The nice effect to it was that they had done a music video, but the music was performed live. My only problem there was that Jodi Felton, great person as she is, was not the best person to sing the song they chose. (Codutti, where are you when we need you?) The dance team also did a dance/drama/human video, which was well-done. The sermon itself was a bit more of your standard type, as Easter is a day when we expect a lot of guests, including people who don't normally attend church.

Now, AFTER the service and big altar call, we gathered together to decide who was riding with who. Arthur (my second youngest brother) asked if his friend Luke could come, and Mom said it was all right with her.

First element of disaster. Luke is the most annoying, obnoxious, and loud kid we know who is over the age of thirteen. Mom was not hosting this get-together, but rather Jessica, Aaron's wife, who does not exactly care for Luke's manner.

So, Luke and Arthur disappeared somewhere. I assumed they went out to Mom's van to ride with them. I went with Audrey, my other younger sister Genevieve, and their friend Sacha to the truck Audrey was borrowing from Aaron for the day, and Audrey says, "Mom doesn't know that they likely won't be home from visiting Jessica's parents until about 2." (At this time, it was about 12:30.)

Audrey then finds two index cards in her jacket from Mom, trying to convince Audrey to leave her fiance Shaun for a life free of "sexual immorality" and full of "chastity." (A bit late for that, now...) Audrey decided that we'd go visit Shaun at his work (manager at a gas station) and she'd let him look these over.

Shaun is so cool, he hooked us up with free fountain drinks! Of course, we all laughed over Mom's latest attempt to get Audrey and Shaun apart.

The reason is that Mom's not exactly one to talk about sexual purity before marriage. Aaron was born four months after my parents had been married, and she'd also divorced before then, so it's not like she picked my dad correctly right off.

Well, after we leave Shaun to get back to work, Audrey sees that she has two missed calls from Aaron and Jessica. She calls them back to discover that the burglar alarm in their house had gone off, and while Aaron was hurrying over to see what was going on (and of course, the police were on their way, as the alarm made their insurance company call a list of people to discover if it's a false alarm, then call the police), and if Audrey could get there first, if she could discover what was going on.

We'd thought maybe Mom, Dad, and the kids were already over and tried to get in (not realizing that they didn't have a key, and with no vehicles in the driveway, no one was obviously home) and had set off the alarm.

We got there the same time as the first police car. They told Audrey that as she was not the home owner, to not go near the house. Very shortly, Aaron arrived, and they went around to the back yard, where they discovered the culprits: Arthur and Luke.

Apparently, Arthur and Luke had gotten a ride from Luke's parents who had just dropped them off, despite the fact that no one was obviously home.

As Aaron identified them as his brother and a friend, no one was arrested, but we put up with over an hour of Luke at Audrey and Shaun's place before Luke's father arrived to pick him up. (Aaron and Jessica did not want him over, period.) Jessica came over to wait for Luke's father with us, and had some words with him.

... Good times.

We had some scanty leftovers for dinner, and a little after three o'clock, Shaun arrived from work. We had cake and ice cream (and a singing of "Happy Birthday," where just about everyone sang a different version, so it was a very odd sounding song, but then, it was a belated celebration), then Dad had to leave for work, and Shaun offered to take him. Almost immediately after, Mom decided to take her leave.

That left Aaron, Jessica, Drew, Audrey, Sacha, Amber, and myself, and Shaun returned eventually.

The rest of the night was spent playing Monopoly and pizza, before Audrey and Shaun took Drew, Sacha, and myself home.

Happy holiday!

And it's raining again...