Just an update...

I'm just going to write a quick update before I head up to Siena College with Katie (our program director) and Joanne to speak at a volunteer fair!
This past weekend we were blessed to have Emily's friend, Anne, visiting us from Rhode Island. Saturday was a great day filled with personal prayer for me, along with some fun times with Emily, Annie, Joanne and I in Center City. We had a nice dinner at a pub and then watched the city come alive at night! We stopped at another pub and had a beer before heading home. It was such a normal night with some incredible people!!!
After the meal on Sunday, Annie left us and Emily and I spent the afternoon napping and then making dinner and doing Pilates! Aaaahhhh, the normal life! We picked Maureen up at the airport (she went home for the weekend) and we spent some time catching up before all heading to bed.
I coordinated the meal last night with few problems. Emily and I planned mass and we had our weekly community meal! After all the insanity, we're all so tired, but we come back to our house and have our community meeting to review our schedule for the upcoming week and plan our community fun night, our community dinner, and our prayer. Well, this week is kind of overloaded with about a billion different things, sending us all in different directions, but we're managing to find some time to spend together, a necessary component to developing and maintaining our community here!
This morning I worked with Barbara on the breakfast shift and got to give out tickets. Our breakfast is a take-out meal so everyone gets the same ticket and it's only an hour long (it's a lot less stressful/confusing). But that did not stop it from being a crazy morning! I had to pacify Hector, a man who has recently become disabled because of his diabetes and is now wheel-chair bound and will soon be a double-amputee, who was riled up from another guest, Harry. Harry isn't allowed in the yard primarily for his own safety. He's very particular about what he wants, yellow cake with white frosting, cinnamon buns with pecans and raisins, pumpkin Tasty-kakes, and juice. I've come to know Harry's likings and do my best to accomodate him, but today he was egging Hector on and I did my best to diffuse a situation that could've been pretty dangerous. Hector carries a knife on him for his own protection, as he is in a wheel-chair, and I just am not quite sure of what Hector is capable so I prevented anything from getting to that point and asked Harry to ride away on his bike.
Right around this time, Darlene, a special-needs woman who is also an alcoholic arrived on the scene drunk and beer in hand. We obviously do not allow alcohol or drugs on our property (to the best of our ability) so I asked Darlene to leave our property until she finished the beer. She put up quite the fight and I had to ask for backup from Karen, another team member. Karen ended up kicking her off our property and Darlene didn't return to get a bagged breakfast.
I also had the blessing of talking to Rambo today... I find that so many people don't take the time to listen to him, which can be really hard, especially if there are a million other things going on, but when you really listen to him and allow yourself to engage in conversation with him, he's actually really funny! We were talking about the tv show Hogan Knows Best, of which I know nothing about, and then I got to catch a glimpse into his past. He used to be a truck driver/mover. I still haven't pinned down the reason for his disability, but I think the more Rambo and I talk, the more I'll be able to find out!
Thank you for your continued prayers! I couldn't do what I do here without them!!!
Much love and peace are sent your way!!!