My Pen Mates,
Can't say I wasn't prepared for it because all that kept me busy this weekend have been in the schedule for weeks, but it was a flurry as it got rolling that I found myself winded!
Grace was off Friday so I was relieved knowing that we can play tag team in the shop and in the kids' school. After drop-off however, we got stuck helping out at the gym for a last minute trunk-or-treat Halloween activity for the kids. After we extricated ourselves from that, we open the store and quickly got busy (that we actually had to push out the last customer), before we needed to double back to school to pick the girls up from a shortened school day. Knowing that we needed to be back in time for Lica's recital practice, we headed south to Santa Clara right away to meet friends for lunch. Shirley and Michael are visiting their children and first grandchild (!) but were nice enough to meet with us and the girls had a fun (if abbreviated) visit with two of the dearest family friends we have.
After lunch, we decided that since we drove this far down anyway, we might as well visit Grandma (my mother-in-law) to say hello. We go directly to her backyard where we find her cleaning up and looking up her fruit-heavy persimmon tree. We decided it was harvest time so we get the trimmer and set out to pick the hardest to reach fruits from the tallest branches. There were hundreds under the tree by the time we got done, with perhaps more left in the tree for next weekend. I was pleased with the harvest and the joy on Mamang's face said that she felt the same. We volunteered to drop off some of the produce with some relatives and friends on the way home, picking up a basket from the dollar store, and snagged a couple of witch hats for trick-or-treating.
But before that, we had to go to practice and pick Lucas up from school; he's coming back from a week-long class trip to Yosemite and the girls missed him sorely. Tired as we all were, the girls still managed to go around the neighborhood afterwards to collect their treats.
Saturday was supposed to be a short day for me at the shop. Tiffany was working the whole day so I planned on leaving early afternoon to spend more time with the family. Of course, there were urgent orders I needed to fill so I ran more errands, dropped them off, and went home. Turns out Lucas was picked by some classmates to work on some Science project, and Lica had another recital meeting late afternoon. By the time I picked Lucas up after dinner, it was late and my "family home time" all but evaporated.
Sunday was recital day and Lucas' first league game. We picked up Mamang to watch Lica play the violin which turned out to be such a nice program! It's heart rending to hear the instrument played skillfully. It wiped away all frustrations I felt from getting lost in downtown San Jose on our way to the recital hall.
After dropping Mamang off, we went back home to change and get ready for Lucas' game. I missed it as I had a late night work I had to get ready for but it turned out to be a whopper. After his team came back from a fifteen point deficit, Lucas missed free throws which would have won the game with four seconds left in regulation! Pep talks from the coaches, his cousin JR, Grace, and people in the bleachers helped him get his head back after those disheartening misses. The game went into double overtime and he got a chance to redeem himself; he scored the team's final four points, made a crucial steal with half a minute left in the second overtime period, and his team won by two! He tells me the story afterwards and I saw the extreme relief in his face not to have a loss on his head. I assured him that doing his best to recover from it was all he could do and I believe he learned a big lesson in moving forward and staying focused.
What a whirlwind of a Halloween weekend!
Mon
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