The Ornament Party

Our pastor's wife holds an annual "ornament exchange" for the ladies of all ages from our church. We each bring an ornament and exchange them white-elephant style, except that, unlike the usual white elephant party, everybody gets to go home with something nice!

I got this pretty little ball. It has a Christmas tree inside and lights up with changing colors. It got stolen from me once, but I was able to reclaim it later when another ornament got stolen from me too.

My sister-in-law Melissa wasn't able to come, so I brought my three nieces (it's a milestone that they're old enough that I'm not afraid to try to bring all three of them!). My niece Grace won the second place prize for "most stolen from." She was a pretty good sport while 5 or 6 ornaments got taken away from her throughout the evening, and she played right along, stealing from others, including me!

Here's Hannah. She seemed pretty happy with the snowman ornament she ended up with.My niece Abbie shed a few silent tears at the end because hers didn't get stolen. I consoled her, reminding her that her mom and dad would love her ornament, and she got over it quickly.
Afterward, all 3 girls sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" in the back seat of the car all the way home! It wouldn't have been so bad, except they only knew one verse, so they sang it over and over. I'm pretty sure I'd be fine if I never heard that song again.

All in all, it was a fun evening -- fun to spend time with the ladies of my church and with my nieces, to laugh and eat and see all the pretty ornaments people had brought. It has become an event I look forward to every year.

Skipping Sunday School

They should have been in Sunday School. But selfishly, I wanted their company, so I didn’t bother to mention it. One was home on leave from military school. The other we had had some conflict with in the past, and I occasionally need reassurance that it has been completely mended.

Don and I were assigned to nursery duty yesterday at church. We had two baby girls to care for, easy enough, but for some reason, two high school boys, both seniors, decided to come join us there. The hour flew by as we all just hung out and chatted. Don and I worked with the youth a few years ago, so I still have an attachment to the kids.

They told us about their girlfriends, their future plans and their experiences at school and work. They played with the babies and helped us keep them entertained. I saw that they were growing into men, men who are responsible and who have a heart for God. And it brought me joy.

If anyone gets after us for not sending them to Sunday School, I’ll take the blame. Some things can be more important than Sunday School.

4th of July Activities

I had a fun 4th of July today. My band played our outdoor concert. It was HOT, but otherwise it went well, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Then we went to our church picnic. Click below to see pictures I took there.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Nothing Much

I haven't blogged for a couple of days because there isn't much going on.

My band started a new season Monday night. We are practicing patriotic music for a Fourth of July concert. I'm playing piccolo on a couple of things, which is more challenging than flute. I really like patriotic music, though, so I'm enjoying it all.

My church is having a baby shower on Saturday for one of our members. I am in charge of games. I spent most of the day yesterday making bingo cards. They are all different and have potential gifts on them with pictures (diaper bag, bottles, etc.), so if she opens a particular gift, anyone who has that on their card can cover it. I didn't realize how long it was going to take me until I got myself into it.

Weight Watchers keeps cutting my hours. They e-mailed me yesterday and told me they didn't need me to work a group that I was scheduled to work on Saturday, which kind of made me mad. The number of people attending has been so low, they just don't need as many staff. I understand they're trying to keep their business afloat in a tough economy, and the staff cuts are across the board, but I need to work. I've been looking for something else but haven't had any luck yet. I may just need to lower my standards and wait tables or something.

So, that's about all that's new with me. I'll blog more when I have something new to say.

Mother's Day Brunch

My church had a brunch yesterday for Mother’s Day. They asked my brother Andy to be in charge. At the time he agreed to do it, he didn’t know that this would be the week they would be moving to The Jungle, that their house would need to be cleaned out for the renters to move in on Saturday.

But he pulled it off. All of it. And he did it with style!
The men (including my dad and Don) did the cooking, and the youth waited tables.

The food was delicious. The appetizer was "layers of seasonal fruit with vanilla yogurt and crunchy homemade granola." We had a menu with a choice of entrees. I chose "Peaches and Cream French Toast" with "Maple Glazed Bacon" and "Roasted Red and Yukon Gold Potatoes." For dessert there were chocolate-dipped strawberries. Yum!

My mom, who doesn’t usually attend our church, came for this affair. My sister-in-law and nieces and nephew were, of course, there too. Everyone went away with a very full stomach and lots of happy memories. Rumor has it that my brother went home afterward and took a long nap!

Joining the Church

Click below to view a slideshow of pictures from when I joined my church a couple of weeks ago. You will probably need to slow it down to read the captions.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Top Ten Things That I Appreciate About My Pastor

Our church celebrated our pastor’s 7th anniversary there this week. A number of people in the church got up in the service to tell what he has meant to them during this time. I’m more of a writer than a speaker, and I’ve never been one to do things the traditional way anyway, so I am choosing to communicate my thoughts to him this way. Here are some of the things I appreciate about him:

1. He found me a good deal on a new computer.
2. He tries to be on Weight Watchers (trust me, I understand!).
3. He has a great sense of humor.
4. He puts up with me even though I don’t agree with him on a lot of things (and don’t keep them a secret).
5. He’s not afraid to think big and pursue what may seem impossible to practical people like me.
6. He is humble and willing to admit his imperfections.
7. He cares about each member of the congregation.
8. Being the pastor of a small congregation, he has to wear many hats. He handles this very well.
9. He has reached out to my family and, with much thanks to him most (and sometimes all) of us are worshipping under one roof on Sundays, something I never expected to have happen again.
10. He has a servant’s heart and allows God to use him in ways big and small.

Thanks, Pastor Mike, for all you do!