Hotel Patenaude

I am dying to spend at least 24 hours straight blogging. Life is moving way too fast right now, and I want to record all of it! Since I don't know where to start, I will start with the most recent and hopefully move backwards to catch up.

Part of the reason life moves fast is because our revolving door moves fast. No, we don't really have a revolving door, but we sure can move a lot of people through in a short amount of time!

Last Sunday, Mom Patenaude headed home only to call a few hours later to make her reservations for Wednesday night. She and Aunt Bev were heading to Phoenix to see Uncle Dan who is in his last days of life. So, we actually booted two other sets of company for that night and penciled in Mom and Bev. Here they are on Thursday morning ready to go to the airport.

Thursday afternoon. Our next arrival was Eric's aunt Sue and her daughter Ronia. They were in town for college visits, as Ronia is considering St. Thomas University and the UofM, among others. They surprised us (and themselves) with an unusually early departure...11:30 pm, they knock on our bedroom door. Sorry! We're leaving! There was a small crisis at home that just couldn't wait, so they drove two hours straight home in the middle of the night. Don't worry, everything turned out OK. Here they are, right before departure. Friday night's reservations belonged to Mom Spears and Eric's brother, Ryan. Mom arrived after a conference she was attending in St.Paul. She came in time for omelets and waffles for dinner, then got to read some stories to the girls and hang around talking. We had the privilege of praying for Mom about the conference before she went to bed that night, something we will try to do more often in the future. Our little B & B is soon to become a prayer hostel too :). I neglected to get a picture of her. Oops!

Ryan arrived from Ohio around 11:30 pm, after a loooooong day of driving. He was our cheerful servant though, delivering our new-to-us mini van! His wife was also our cheerful servant, allowing Ryan to leave her at home while 37 weeks pregnant! Truly, we were happier to see Ryan than the van, but we did run straight out to the road to check it out. Here is the car courier, shortly after arrival.

Saturday night we had a full house! Ryan was still in town attending a church related meeting, so he returned to sleep. He brought his brother-in-law Charles. Sue and Ronia returned also, bringing with them Sue's next daughter Della and Ronia's boyfriend Colby and Della's NON-boyfriend Dan (they are just friends, got it?). They showed up after spending the evening at Valley Scare, so we ordered pizza and played video games until 1 am. I felt like I was at a high school sleepover, and it was fun! Eleven people slept under our tiny roof that night. Imagine my relief when I discovered we have exactly 11 pillows in this house.
Aunt Sue examines her directions to church...

The boys (yes, there are boys under those blankets) sleep late.

The girls (I know they're under there somewhere) also enjoy sleeping in.

We however, are brutally awakened from the high school sleepover dream when Eric has to take Ryan and Charles to the airport at 6am the next morning. I manage to sleep a little longer, getting up with the girls around 8am. Still, my sleepover days are numbered!

Last but not least, another servant of the Patenaude family arrives Sunday, after church. My Dad came to help Eric install a new service door in our garage. The project went well, the door looks good, everyone is pooped. Mom returned from her conference one last time to hang out while the door was going in, fall into an unshakable slumber on our couch, and roast a few hot dogs for dinner. Eva took this picture while running through the living room.

Although this post might give you the impression that we are just too busy, don't believe it! If you're ever in the Twin Cities, make sure to look us up. Advance reservations are recommended, but we always leave the light on. As you can tell, we live in close proximity to almost anything you would want to see. Thanks for all the fun visits this weekend, everyone!