Camping, Young Geoff, Illegal Lane Change, and President

I had to write that title to remind me of all of the things I want to talk about!

First of all, camping this weekend was excellent! Instead of the coast we went to a local state park (due to the forecast of severe wind and 3 - 6 inches of snow). That of course was added to our list of things that make us prematurely old. But we had a grand time nonetheless. We ate delicious food, had some wine, chatted a lot, and watched A LOT of movies. I love our camping talks, we talk about all sorts of ridiculous things that we wouldn't normally discuss. And then after we get back to real life I think "gosh, I probably shouldn't have said that, or talked about that, or mentioned that, or asked that (or all of the above)". And then feel bad for a week. And then I usually get over that and get excited for the next trip.

I know, I just began 3 sentences with the word "And". I remember learning at a young age you couldn't do that, and pointing it out to my teacher that I saw it in a book. She then taught me about "writer's prerogative". So I'm using that now!

Here are a few cute stories that came up while camping (I asked if Momlie remembered exactly when Geoff became a Christian, or realized what growing up as a Christian meant, or his faith became his own, or whatever happened for him):
- Geoff went to a Lutheran church growing up, and the church had a "First Communion" (which I normally associate with being a very Catholic tradition, but what do I know?), where you go through a time of learning about what communion is, etc. Normally people went through this in 3rd grade (actually I think that's what the Catholic kids where I grew up did, but it seems like Momlie might have 2nd grade for their church). Anyway, the year before that, Geoff started asking a lot of questions about communion and saying he wanted to start taking it. Momlie and David (Geoff's dad, who has passed away) told him that if he worked it out with the pastor, he could do it. So one day when they were at bell choir practice, Geoff left for a little while (it was a very small church, so it was okay), and he came back in with a piece of paper. When David asked what it was, Geoff said that it was his appointment with the pastor. She came to their house and told Geoff what he needed to understand and study, and he did everything he needed to do, and got his First Communion a year early! Yay for Geoff. (Interestingly, to this day, communion is something that is still extremely important to Geoff, and it happens to be important to me too. During "The Great Church Search" we have both been keeping an eye for churches that have weekly communion, rather than monthly which tends to be more common in Protestant and non-denominational churches).
- Even before that time, when he was very young, Geoff would serve communion at home. Whenever they had popcorn (or any small food like that), Geoff would go around and around and around passing it out to whoever was there, saying "The Body of Christ" each time to whoever was receiving. So cute.
- When they were greeting people at church, instead of saying "The peace of the Lord", Geoff would give people "A piece of the Lord" greeting. Which may be just as fitting, when you think about it!

Did you know you can get a ticket for illegal lane change for changing lanes too fast? Like if you realize you need an exit at the last minute and change quickly across several lanes of traffic, you get a ticket. Apparently you're supposed to be in each lane for 5 or 10 seconds before changing. Crazy. (and no, I was not the receiver of said ticket, although I deserve approximately 23689698 of those tickets. Hey, I grew up in Chicago!)

And here is a short snippit of a conversation from today:
Patrick: mccain is a career politician
you should run for president
i would vote for you
Kelly: WHY?
You and I totally disagree on issues.
Patrick: youre organized
you like to stockpile and save money
you enjoy the outdoors
youre prematurely old.
Kelly: LOL.
Those are not reasons to be president.
Patrick: you like calculating wealth, so i feel like national debt would annoy you
Kelly: I would be a disaster.
When is the last time you voted for someone because they enjoyed the outdoors? What about issues like climate change and foreign affairs?
Patrick: the enjoying the outdoors would mean you are about conservation and stuff like that
you would probably end up calling the british prime minister a freak or psycho or something
Kelly: See. EXACTLY why I cannot be president