Yay! It is Monday! I feel like we had a 3-day weekend, but we didn't. Maybe it feels that way because so much happened. Overall, when I weigh it out I would have to put it down as a good weekend.
Friday night we got to spend the evening with good friends. We love these guys and it was nice to just have a few hours to hang, eat pizza, drink wine and talk. Sadly we aren't able to do this enough.
Saturday Dean had to work his shift. Can I write how much it annoys me that he has to work every 4th Saturday? For a long time he didn't schedule himself, mainly because he was so burned out and there were plenty of people who wanted to work. Then his boss told him that he HAD to work his turn of Saturdays. Really?? Does it matter that much? No one was complaining, his employees liked to get the time in because then they would often 'swap' it for other hours off during the week. The system worked and frankly he is often extremely burned out by Friday nights. He works a job where he has 14 people demanding his attention constantly. Seriously, every time he even attempts to close his office door, PEOPLE FREAK OUT. They start collecting outside his glass door staring in at him as if he was a caged animal at the zoo. While it may sound like I am exaggerating, I assure you I am not. By the time he gets to the weekend, he needs to be able to check out of there.
Not so this weekend. On Friday he was given instruction to 'let go' an employee. He was dreading this, but he knew there were sound reasons for all of this and he agreed it was well past time. The employee had repeatedly told him that they did not want to do what he needed them to do in their daily job. PERIOD. So he let them go on Saturday and proverbial hell broke lose. This employee called everyone and anyone that worked there and complained, cried, rampaged. The BEST part of all of it was they called one of Dean's bosses, who promptly penned an e-mail to Dean questioning how he handled it. GOOD.FRIGGIN.GRIEF. Poor Dean. He spent the rest of the weekend second guessing himself and feeling like he had to justify himself to someone who wasn't even there, someone who was taking the word of a disgruntled former employee (giving them an audience) over Dean's. This is an issue that drives me nuts. Dean is dedicated to that company as if it was his own. He is VERY good at handling HR matters. He understands well what you say and don't say to an employee when you have to let them go. I also know that he had spoken repeatedly over the years with this employee about attitude, work ethic, responsibilities, etc. MANY, MANY, MANY times. This boss wasn't even there...how can he give an audience to a known troublemaker former employee and not stand up for Dean?? How does he come back and question how Dean handled it when he wasn't there. Later the boss e-mailed back saying he wasn't questioning him, but the damage was done. I read the e-mails, he WAS questioning Dean and inferring that Dean had handle it incorrectly.
After that morning, we went to a wedding. The young couple are very sweet and young and in love. They were blessed to have many people there with them to share their day. We were reminded that innocence still exists in this world. Afterwards I had an allergy attack, so we had to leave the reception early. That evening I spent with the kids watching 'Say Yes to the Dress'. HILLARIOUS and disgusting at the same time. After witnessing the wedding we had earlier in the day, I was blown away by these women that spend THOUSANDS of dollars on wedding dressses. To hear a father tell the consultant 'oh don't worry about price tag, I will cover it all'...and then subsequently the bride choose a $12k dress...whoa. No wonder developing nations hate us.
Later that night we ended up in the middle of more drama. I honestly wish I could write about it, but I fear of the backlash. Suffice it to say that Dean and I are in a very unique position in how we view certain mental health issues and the different 'what to do in case of [blank]' scenarios. We have the experience of 7 years of therapy dealing with a child that has severe panic/anxiety disorder. We have been coached over the years about how you do and do not handle situations. We have sat thru more sessions about maintaining personal health and boundaries in difficult situations. So when this situation came up on Saturday, we felt confident that we knew how it should be handled. Proudly we stuck by our guns, but we faced anger and resentment in the process. We know there will be more to come. At the end of the day, we were faced with the realization that a relationship we had hoped to have and nurture and build is not possible. You can only have an open honest and sharing relationship with individuals who are interested. Sadly, we realized that those that we hoped to have open honesty with are either: a) not interested or b) not capable of having that. It was again made very clear to us that some will choose to lie and cover up and deceive. It was at the same time devastating and liberating. Today is Monday, a new day and so we go forward.
Yesterday was a relaxing day. We were privileged to have the opportunity to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of a new church. You can check out http://www.thetablebellingham.org/. Until a month ago we have been blessed to be on the leadership team for The Table. We have enjoyed building a foundation of a new church with some other pretty amazing people. We continue to pray that God will lead and provide clear direction for Aaron and Kate and the other leaders as they chart out the next steps for the Table. The rest of Sunday was relaxing. We were able to spend the evening at home (we opted to skip Bethel's--our other church--evening service). Dean and I were actually able to sit down and have both dinner and play a game with Annika. Whew...something new in our therapy routine for Annika is that we have to sit down 3 nights a week for a 2-3 hour block with Annika--dinner, game, movie, other activity?. We readily admit that this direction is one we are struggling with. Our current schedules have not allowed this and we are trying to figure out how we will be able to fulfill this obligation, but LAST NIGHT WE DID IT. That is one night down 2 nights to go.
So, it is Monday and I am exhausted. I can't tell yet if it is a good exhausted or a crawl in the bed and pull the covers over your head exhausted. I wonder what this week will bring.
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