My cell-phone morning alert (set for 6:30 am) jolted me from pleasant sleep, and I opened my eyes to a beautiful Tennessee spring morning. The Campbell's red mini-van (driven by Mr. Campbell), was heard going down the drive, and you could hear Mrs. Campbell stirring about in the kitchen. Hannah Arentson (age 19) and Brittnie Miller (age 19 too!) were groaning in their bunks and attempting to wake up. I gingerly crept down the ladder of the bunk bed and ran to the window, pulling the curtains back to get a peek outside. Since it was quite dark when I had arrived, I reallyhad no idea what my surroundings looked like. It still seemed unreal that I was actually in a different state, and at the home of Colin and Nancy Campbell! In fact, to this day, those two months shine like a bright golden dream and it seems as if I just imagined it all. Except for the fact that I keep in touch with everyone. Okay, enough of this rambling! Back to the original story...
Hannah informed me that I really needn't get up that early, and that Mr. and Mrs. Campbell didn't really care if we came to breakfast on time or ate in our room. (I found out after the girls left that that was not true, and yes, Mr. and Mrs. C are very strict about meal times and 'sitting up to table.' Oops!)
After I was ready for the day, I walked through the french doors into the main part of the house, and Mrs. Campbell greeted me with a strong hug. My first impression of her was a kind, cheerful, on task / duty driven person who steers a straight course throughout her day. Mr. Campbell came in a bit later, and he was very different from what I had expected. Tall, kind, with a commanding prescence, yet a bit of hillarity, he was the exact complement to Mrs. Campbell. During my stay, it was so neat to see how well they complemented one another.
Hannah, Brittnie and I had a hurried breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and then went downstairs to the office promptly at 9:00 am. There, they showed me the 'ropes' of office work. I learned how to locate and ship items, enter magazine subscriptions into the database (aka "Squirrel Mail"), take credit card orders over the telephone, do donation / money orders, and run credit card orders through the machine. This last task held a bit of difficulty, as one of the girls had been improparly running transactions through as authorizations instead of sales. In other words, Above Rubies was making no profit on items sold for the past 3 1/2 months. Hannah showed me how to run everything back through (force transactions) the machine, and what to do if anything went wrong. It was a long, un-eventful, yet rewarding day. I was beginning to worry about how I was going to manage without the two girls.
We climbed back up the stairs and began to help with dinner. Hannah and Brittnie showed me where all the dishes and food were, and disclosed the secret food stash in our clothes closet. They solemnly bequeathed all their food to me, since they were leaving tomorrow.
That night at the dinner table, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell and the liberian children went around and gave 'eulogies' to Hannah and Brittnie. Devotions were completed, we said our good - nights, and went off to bed. [Here I must note that Brittnie left after dinner to go stay with Rocky and Monique - the Campbell's son and daughter - in -law. She was to be their nannie for the next year.]
Bed time came and I wearily laid my head upon my pillow. It had been a busy day, and I was eagerly looking forward to tomorrow. Little did I know that on the morrow, I was to experience my first tornado warning!!
To Be Continued...Stay Tuned!
