Those Are the Breaks

Tulips outside the Stafford First United Methodist Church

Nothing could dampen the joy of Easter ... not even a flat tire and a broken toilet.

It's inevitable. There is always some calamity to deal with when 20 people are expected for dinner.

Randy, me Jill & Eric after church on Easter Sunday

I remember a heating element going out of my Mom's oven on a long-ago Thanksgiving. At a Turkey Day at our house, we lit our fireplace for a little ambiance to entertain about 30 of the extended Fritzemeier clan. Instead, we had every door and window open, trying to air out the place.

So I should have expected some sort of curve ball. It arrived Saturday night in the form of a broken toilet. And, of course, the home improvement store was closed. (And, as it turns out, we are still waiting on parts.)

It reminded me of a Memorial Day weekend when we were first married. I invited one of Randy's great aunts to dinner after the annual cemetery tour. She declined because she was sure we didn't have indoor plumbing. What century did she think we were in?

Thankfully, we didn't have to resort to an outhouse for Easter 2011 either.

The other wrinkle in Easter plans came for my niece Abby and her boyfriend Derek. I was pretty impressed that they were planning to make a 3-hour drive from his family's home in Yates Center and arrive in time for a 9 AM Easter worship service at our church.

A flat tire poked a hole in that plan. The upside? They arrived in plenty of time for dinner - minus the church clothes - but safe and sound.

My sister Lisa, niece Abby, Derek & brother-in-law Kyle

It was a day filled with family, food and fellowship.

The guests included my Dad and Mom.

Brian, Madi, Suzanne & Kent

I made my brother's family sing for their supper (or dinner, as the case may be). Madison and Kent joined our choir for the morning's two anthems. (I missed getting photos of Suzanne's folks. I also didn't take one photo during our early morning brunch at church. So much for including that in the church newsletter. Oh well.)

Dave, Amanda, Emily, Kathy, and our dog Ralph, who had to be in the photo

Randy's sister Kathy and family were debating about whether to attend their Wichita church or get to Stafford by 9 AM. Amanda gave the deciding vote, telling her mom that she wanted to go to Kim & Randy's church so she could "get hugged by a bunch of old people I don't know." We guess we are a friendly church.

It was great to have Jill and Eric home for a three-day weekend. We missed Brent who couldn't make the trip from South Carolina since he had three big projects due last week and two this week.

But there was a great church service celebrating our risen Savior.

There was plenty of spiral ham, cheesy potatoes, homemade rolls, salads and dessert to go around.

And the guys had a Sunday afternoon drive to ponder farm life.

Take that Murphy's Law: You couldn't get us down, despite a flat tire and a broken toilet.