Tape Ball Adventures

I'm not sure at what age a girl stops going to her mom's house to iron dress pants, but it's not 23. Yes, I made a valiant attempt at looking like an adult last night for the auction, but I "hemmed" my nicely ironed pants with safety pins, and my heels lasted less than an hour before I changed back into my Birkenstocks. Oh well. The auction itself was a huge success with overwhelming numbers of volunteers, attendees, and items to bid on.

In the hour leading up to the event, youth volunteers trickled in and moved to their designated posts. I spent some time with the lovely Dodson sisters in the crib nursery while they waited for children to arrive. Emily and I told Maggie about middle school youth group last week-- how everyone was out of control and my response to the chaos (yes, it was chaos) was the closest Emily had seen me to losing my temper. She impersonated me to give Maggie a better picture: "You guys. Seriously. STOP. Talking. I'm not even kidding. You are driving me crazy." This became an element in my dream, which I will share shortly.

After the auction lots of people stayed to help clean up. As the task was winding down Forrest asked me to walk around the building and make sure all the doors were locked... and to take a few middle school boys with me. Josh quickly volunteered, followed by Judah. Josh then recruited Garrett by saying, "Tudor can make ANYTHING an adventure!" :) And off we went. As we walked around the outside of the building, the boys DID try to create adventure; every so often one of them would say, "What's that??" or scream. Josh carried a giant tape ball--I don't think I have ever seen Josh without some kind of ball... the first time I met him I had to confiscate a tennis ball. When we reached the stairs leading down to Eaton Hall, the boys were afraid to walk down and check the door (it's creepy at night... I'm not gonna lie) so Josh threw the tape ball down the stairs at the door. Clearly this could not tell us if the door was locked, so I walked down and checked it myself, then Josh followed to reclaim his tape ball. This is also became an element in my dream...

In the dream I was on a mission trip. Everyone slept in an open room, and my bed was positioned close to the door. I woke up and all the middle schoolers were running around outside. Oops. Then, Josh, Judah, and Garrett appeared in the doorway, each holding a giant tape ball and each with a playful grin on their face, ready to attack me. I sat up and said, "You guys. Seriously. Do. Not. Throw those at me. I'm not even kidding. Stop." And they ran out the door, laughing. At some point I did gain possession of the tape balls, and I took them to a secret underground hallway to place them in a freezer so they would lose their bounce. Uh, tape doesn't bounce anyway, but had it been a rubber band ball my logic would have held up... I like that I knew that even in my dream.

I am becoming slightly troubled by the fact that I dream about my youth EVERY night...