Subject: Weekend Update: June 8-12
Date:    Mon 6/14/99  9:40am

Last Tuesday, Rich and Wendy Gonzalez had their second baby girl, just
a day short of Richard's birthday (the old man!).  Thalia's sister is
Katia-Lee Arvella Gonzalez.  Wendy "broke" the news to Richard at
about midnight that she needed to go to the hospital so they were in
for a long night. My favorite comment that Wendy made was that she
thought "screaming really helped" during labor.  We hope to see them
all soon.  That brings the number of pregnant ladies in our church
down to about four, now.

All week, time permitting, we primped and pruned the place preparing
for a pair of picnics.  On Thursday, we hosted a picnic for my
colleagues in the publications department.  We dined by the pool on
teryaki chicken, chinese pork, mother's bean pot, carrot cassarole,
and other delicacies.  ---

Oh, but on my way home to the picnic, I stopped in at the church for a
quick rehearsal with the preschool kids at the Merrimack Valley
Christian Day School.  Their teacher, Carol Linton, has been telling
them that Psalty the Singing Songbook was going to sing with them next
Tuesday night (tomorrow).  The Psalty costume I had has long since
been disposed of so I told the kids a fib about my pages being out to
the cleaners so I'd have to sing in my street clothes.  We fired up
Psalty's rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" and at the end, one
little girl in the front dashed out of her seat and hugged me around
the knees.  Then three other children broke ranks and followed suit.
The entire choir loft was about to empty out when Mrs. Linton stopped
them and promised that they'd all get hugs *after* the MVCDS ceremony.
For a moment, I was a celebrity to these four-year olds and it was
GREAT fun!

--- Now, the pubs picnic went well, so all we needed to do was get
ready for the Sunday School picnic.  Our Saturday was full so we
finished up most of our work on Friday night.

We held another rehearsal of the children's musical Saturday morning.
There was a 100% improvement in the kid's behavior and attentiveness,
with about 50% more effort needed for the extra rehearsal Joy
scheduled for next Saturday.  After the previous week's debacle, the
call went out and pastoral and parental pressure helped the kids get
back on track.  Yours truly plays a cameo spot as Judge Hategood and
Mark Hamlin (our illustrious song leader) reprises his role as the
Giant of Despair (having played this part when Dave Scalera was
11-years old!).  The play has two performances; one in each of the
morning services, this Sunday (Father's Day!).

Our next stop was to the Scotts in Windham, NH, where we celebrated
Jeremy's graduation.  We also were reunited with many of the folks
from the Windham Church with whom we shared a ministry for two years.
Jeremy is one of the shining products of the Windham church being the
church pianist for the past five years.  It was trial by fire for a
13-year old to play new songs each week and he steadily improved to
the point of being a well-accomplished pianist - and that just to add
to his other accolades.

We went home for a couple of hours before Joy and two of the girls
went to the wedding shower for Dave and Heather at the church.

Sunday we held "Sunday School by the Pool" for 21 of us; we went to
the early service, then traveled to Pepperell.  Afterward we were
joined by other families for a picnic and pool fun.  We had fifty
people frolicking until a couple of thunderclaps chased people out of
the pool at around 4PM.  Pepperell didn't get rained on, but the
rumble to the east was enough to call it a day.

This is long already so I'll cut the rest of it off the end.  We are
giving away perrenials and other plants that can be split (while
supplies last - that is for Joy's benefit) so come to visit us before
you visit any garden nurseries.  

Looking forward to a full and wonderful summer,

Mark
                         __________________________
Cadence Design Systems  /_________________________/\   Mark Metcalfe
270 Billerica Road MS04 |  \_______,_____________|__\  metcalfe@cadence.com
Chelmsford, MA 02184    |  /       \_O__,        |  /
(978) 446-6451          | /          M           | /   Score a goal in life.
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