Check, please!

Check.  Cheesy potatoes made.
Check.  Pound cake done.
Check.  Got a cute pair of earrings for Christine.
Check.  Got ink for the computer.
Check.  Picked up the frame Natalie needed.
Check.  Showered and went to the Stake Baptism.
We had 5 children baptized this evening.  If I'm honest, I look forward to these, but at that moment in the mid-afternoon on a Saturday when it's time to change clothes and go it takes a bit to switch 'gears'. I leave around 3:15 and get home about 7pm.  There is a LOT to do to put on a baptism.  As soon as I arrive though and our board begins the preparations and the font is filling there is no other place I'd rather be.  The atmosphere and feeling is not something I'm able to describe.  I am usually the lobby greeter.  We have music playing softly, the tables are draped and set in white and all things baptism.  I take their pictures and develop them in our staging room off of the foyer.  I get them mounted and framed and set on a small easel in front of their name and guest book sign in.  What I love and is so new each time is their faces.  Their countenance.  I love meeting and greeting each of them and sending them down the hall to Julia to get their white clothing.  She directs them to their next station, and so on.  Sitting on the stand used to make me very nervous.  Now I look out at the candidates and their family and friends and a peaceful feeling comes over me.  It is like heaven is smiling down and all is right with the world.  Kind of like time has stopped ever so briefly inside while the hustle and bustle right outside us on Santa Margarita Parkway keeps moving at it's fast pace.  When it is all over and cleaned up and the building secure, I like to drive home slowly and savor those last few hours.

Check.  Stopped at the Courtyard.  Leigh and Kenney hosted an open house with the In-N-Out truck for everyone.  I met the whole family there and we got some burgers and had a good time visiting with friends and neighbors.