tiny little pieces

This last weekend, unlike other recent ones, was an almost complete disaster.

Let me back up.  Bryan’s parents came into town to visit – an event that we always look forward to, because Bryan comes by his always up for a party personality honestly.  These people are fun.  They actually came into town for two weekends in a row; kind of a long story but it had to do with wanting to be here when Bryan wasn’t at an all-weekend training at work (weekend #1) and wanting to see Will play soccer (weekend #2).  Since they live about 12 hours from here, they decided to spend the week in between traveling The Natural State and relaxing.  Arkansas in the springtime.  Sounds like a great plan, right?

So they were here, and it was Easter, and then they traveled – and honestly, I would have just taken the kids out of school for a couple of days (especially when the plan included going to dig for diamonds) but it was testing week here and you know what that means.  The universe will collapse upon itself if your child misses school.  At least the universe of the North Little Rock School District. So we tested, and waited for them to return.  With just a little bit of anxiety.

The anxiety was because of the fact that storms – Heavy Storms – were predicted to happen on Saturday of Weekend #2.  The Saturday of the fated soccer game.  All week long I checked the weather.  All week long it said the same thing.  I began praying, very specifically, that God would hold the rain off until after the game.  Just til about 2:00 pm on Saturday would be great.

Meanwhile, Bryan went to Los Angeles from Wednesday to Friday.  It really is just like him to leave me alone with all the worrying.  On the way out, American canceled his flight.  He switched to Southwest – easy enough to do here in Little Rock.  We’re a one airport town.  Still, this was all on my mind on Friday when he was coming back.  Would he really make it back into town Friday afternoon?  In time for a birthday dinner with his parents before he had to work on Saturday and Sunday? [I really want some of that organ music from the old radio suspense serials to be playing right now.]

Friday morning, everything was looking good.  Bryan had no problems with American out in Los Angeles and was slated to be in Little Rock at 4:35.  His parents were on their way in from northern Arkansas and would be here and settled in by then.  The sun was shining – no signs of impending rain in sight.

And then…

American delayed, and then canceled, Bryan’s flight.  They offered to get him home on Saturday at noon.  He declined and switched to Southwest, which was complicated by the fact that he was in Dallas and had to travel across town to Love Field. He did, and got home that night…at 10:00 pm.  A little too late for a birthday dinner.

About 15 minutes after he texted me the cancellation news, I got an email from our soccer coach rescheduling our Saturday game.  Not because of impending rain, but because of a scheduling conflict.  That apparently the other coach hadn’t noticed until 5:00 pm the night before the game.

So basically, both big reasons that Bryan’s parents had stayed in town for a week?  Had just vanished into thin air.  Time for a deep breath.  A really, really deep breath.  And some reorganization.  Bryan’s parents arrived, we decided on birthday lunch the next day, and went out for pizza.  Grandparents and grandkids hung out; grandparents went to bed.  Bryan got home, slept, and got up early to go to work.

Saturday at noon, we waited, bright and shiny, for him to meet us at Juanita’s before his parents started home.  It was going to be a happy! birthday! lunch!  Here comes Daddy! exclaimed Will.  And indeed, here he came, walking to the table and sitting down and saying – I’m so sorry.  I can only stay for 10 minutes.  My presentation got rescheduled for 12:30.

It was going to be a SHORT happy birthday lunch.

Also, for the record, it didn’t start raining until 2:30 that afternoon.  I’m thinking God had a little smile on his face as he pushed the ‘rain’ button – you said, hold it off til after 2:00, right? He just loves it when I try so hard to order the universe to my convenience.

And – now that I’ve recorded the part of the trip that totally went not according to plan – I’m going to focus on the part that did.  Weekend #!.  Welcome to Easter Weekend With The Texas Grandparents 2009.  It was great. When I look at these pictures I forget all about the disaster that followed…