Bean-Powered Everything

Beans. They power our cars and our hoedowns.

Wes let me tag along for his afternoon car shopping...and it was great. I've been Honda shopping before, but when we moved on to a Toyota Venza (one I've never heard of before) as well as a Jetta diesel with a gear head salesperson in the back seat, it was worth it. Oh ya, and the conversations with Wes were good too.

Last night was the lowdown hoedown hosted by the old folks married couples in the Living Stones Sunday School class.


They can really cut a rug, but I think you'll agree from the videos below that the career folks would have taken them easily in a hoedown showdown! :-) Before the exercise, we needed some fuel, which several folks prepared in a chili cook-off! I ended up voting for the sissy sweet stuff (because I am one...aw) but I enjoyed every one of them. Nan's first try at chili was awesome!

There aren't a whole lot of pictures of people on my camera. I feel bad these days taking too many surprise pics...but not of Mike. Hi Mike!


And Joanne is just asking for it.


Plus the video kinda makes up for it.




Our mature hosts didn't let up on the comments when the single young bucks ran to the coolness and rest outside during our seven minute breaks. Hey, maybe we weren't resting, perhaps it was just venting....


What's not surprising is that he's not embarrassed at all by this. What IS surprising is that she's not.

Less Talking, More Caulking!!!

We had a great time with the Sunday School class service project this week. A great bunch of help showed up to clean prep and caulk the new church's parking lot. It's a huge job taking several months of Saturday morning crews. But Career Impact made it look easy.

Here's most of the crew.

Then another 21%

And the remaining whiny 7% along with Mr. Pinky

First you blow out the cracks with compressed air.

Then you fill the cracks with a foam backer.

Then you call your chiropractor to set up an appointment before bending over for two hours with a caulking gun.

Don't forget to caulk the cracks on your face. It's easy to miss, but not for Alyssa! :-)

You're Fat!

You need to be told about the cool people I work with in the middle school office some time. That can be saved until I snag a picture of them. One of the things theses crazy people do is have a biggest loser competition. Today was initial weigh-in day and I jumped aboard. I felt a little weird leaving my five pounds of gear on for first weight in, but hey, everyone else does it right?

Redundant Yet?

One reason (but not the biggest) why it's harder to blog these days is that after a year of doing so, you're pretty aware of any activities going on around me and know what it's like to see them through my eyes. For instance, it was another great Love Feast at church yesterday. About the only difference I can note besides some new faces would be Joey's permission to start eating dessert early. I'm likin' this table.


We also started a new semester of EE last night, and it's just as exciting as ever. The great part about EE is that it's a different group every time. Different people to learn about and talk to, and different stories of what God's doing every week! Side-bonus is that it opens up my Tuesday nights, but that's a long story.

And let me just say that not only would Madison make any would-be attacker run away and cry with her clavicle crusher move, she is also really good at advice!! Thank you Mads!

Another Workday

Real quick. You've all felt the intense urge to bang on a drum or other percussion instrument as you walk by right? Me too. So if Mr. Walker isn't around to hear his instruments...did I really hit them?

What's new that could be said about another Saturday morning at the new church building? Well, we just installed a skating rink.

"Yup." "Mmmmm Hmm." "Eeeeeeeeyup."

There are still some great pieces of scripture graffiti showing on the bare beams. I'm glad for what they chose. I love that they didn't need to sign their name, since it's not about who but what. Makes me wonder if I did...probably.


The other day, Huckleberry Hobbs pointed out that our friend Nan blew past him on the trail. I was still stupid enough to jog with him today. The man is a blur!! It was great though, being pushed harder than ever before. We all need that.

Later was Dinner with the boys. I came a little early though and caught Wes sharing Nan's dialysis machine. Poor guy.


Okay, MAYBE it was actually electro-acupuncture. Pretty cool considering how much better they've felt after a short time of treatments. Pretty not cool after you see how long some of the needles are.



How long has it been since we had the food tag on here? Too long. Red Lobster with Jeffrey and Lisa from a while back. Mmmm Mmmmmm.

Words

So anyway, about me...

Today let me do a few things worth reflecting on. Work was busy because we had to prep for alot of stuff. I was grateful for the motivation (aka my boss being around for half the day). I got to clean an area with a kid from my church who talked my ear off and cracked me up doing so. I've never heard such confident deep thoughts and advice from a 7th grader before. Then there was a good conversation about dating and intentions with a dude at Bible study.

But the favorite words today had to be Ryan and Wes' short answer to Peter's question, "What did you guys gain during Men's Bible study this summer?" - Weight!

Ditto

I'm just going to claim "same here" on this one and go to bed.

Except that I don't live with anyone named Bill or Gabby

haven't been to a parade

nor do I find them especially exciting.

Chicagowen

Don't waste a good post title (you know it is) I always say, even when it's not true anymore. Josh and I were supposed to head to Chicago today. However, the lack of people to share it with and the prospect of doing productive things around the house instead lead us to change plans. But the part about Owen was totally true. He took me on a 4-mile jog to start the day off right. Thanks for letting us go jogging Storm! Sorry that this was the best picture I got.

You might be getting tired of seeing pictures of the new church, but I'm not!

Another big work day at Bethany's new building. It's looking fantastic. I stayed outside with the parking lot sealing team, which is pretty much on fire with their steamlined process now. The rest of the crew was working on either landscaping or cleaning up.
I was asked to take this in order to demonstrate to you who's doing the real work. Joey's shovel cleary shows he meant business.

This is my first time really checking out the new sanctuary. I think I'll sit somewhere around the S-60 sunbelt lift area.


Work at the site was promplty followed by absolutely nothing. Ya, I wasted the rest of the day...won't deny it, not proud of it.

Fast forward to Sunday. Brooke took a second shot at hosting a bonfire at her place, and she did suceed. I'm glad to have gotten to know someone new and spend some needed quality time with some guys I haven't talked with much. It's great when people get together to do more than just be entertained.

Choir, Cats And....Some Other 'C' Word.

Still pretending like the blog isn't running slower than molasses.

Christmas choir finally started up again! It wasn't a big deal until the first big practice when a sanctuary full (figuratively...) of members brought back all the excitement and enjoyment we spent together last year, especially the final week when choir gave me the opportunity to sing of God's glory rather than dwell on getting laid off. What was Ryan thinking about? "I wanna be a bass like those guys".

Next, a moment of silence please for a dearly loved kitty named Vicki...

Sunday gave me a chance to enjoy my usual time at Bethany, but also a special chance to worship with a totally different set of great folks. Mike has been harassing me for weeks to visit and a friend wanted to go to see a baptism there. The baptisms were awesome. Great testimonies of God's faithfulness in enormous struggle which God intended for good, not just to be gotten through with a smile.

So my job changed enormously since last semester. Not only did it change from summer project mode to mostly daily routine mode, but most of my routine is different from last time. I now handle all of the IT needs and most of the maintenance needs for PCS's Middle School. I had very little experience there and knew none of the staff, so I had no reason to get excited about it at first. But it turns out that the smaller building and staff make my job less complex, even though it's just as busy. I'm in charge of a large project and challenged to get certain things done before being asked (that's tough for me). The staff and teachers are at least as helpful and friendly as the other campus, and I'm always appreciated. How many people can say that of their job?

Aaaaaaanyway. Thanks for sticking with me!