Memories

Sitting here tonight reminiscing a bit... I just sent off a note to a friend from our old church in Ohio. The note started out as one thing and turned into another, and now has morphed into this blog post.

As I was writing her and telling her about all the changes that are coming up in our life here, I thanked her for the example she and her husband were to Brian and me when we lived there. Her husband was one of the elders at our church, and both of them were awesome models of a Christian marriage, as well as of what it was to be a follower of Christ. The entire congregation as a whole was one of the most loving congregations we had ever been a part of up to that time. What I told Diane (and what I tell others when I talk about our time at this church) was that it was during our time there that I learned what it was to feel loved and served. In the 3 years or so that we attended there, I gave birth to a baby, had a medical scare with said baby, and lived through Brian being deployed for 3 months. I never had to ask for help; it came running up to me every time I needed it without me saying a word. I still am in awe of it. I don't know if I ever adequately expressed my appreciation to the jr. high and high school girls who would ask to go home with me after church during the time Brian was deployed.... and then proceed to send me off to the grocery store while they cleaned my house or folded the laundry. Or the folks that invited us to lunch with them (whether it was Dutch treat at a restaurant or at their home) and made us feel like we were really a part of their family... For a young couple whose biological families weren't nearby, those experiences were invaluable to us. Leaving that church family behind was the first move we ever made that left us in tears.

Thankfully, it wasn't the last.....

To be continued......

Spring break

We're all on spring break here in the Pass the Prozac house (well, everyone except Brian...). Emily is getting plenty of driving practice. She drove a bit over the weekend (to church and back, to the BX, the shoppette) and has taken every chance she can get to get behind the wheel this week. I think she will be a fine driver once she has a few more miles under her belt. She hasn't been out on the highway yet ... I think I'll let her dad handle that!

Sunday was a rather long day... it began with me waking up a bit later than I had intended. I didn't set an alarm, and my usually reliable internal alarm didn't wake me up until 6:22. Wouldn't have been too bad if I wasn't supposed to be at church at 6:45 for rehearsal before the 8am worship. BUT... I managed to shower, dry my hair (mostly), throw on foundation and clothes, and be driving out the main gate of the base as the clock read 6:45. I hit every light on green except for 1, never exceeded the speed limit, and made it to church by 6:55 (I even put on my blush and lip color while I drove. Anyone know the new term for that?? You can see it here.). There were others not there yet (although most were) and they hadn't started. Can you say "lucky?" Anyhow, sang for 3 services and left church a little after 12:45. Brian was busy at work grilling steaks for our Easter dinner. My legs were killing me from standing so much at church... counting rehearsal time, probably 3 hours or so. I'm still working out the soreness.

Had fun tonight chatting with John Dobbs tonight while he was doing a live u-stream during American Idol. I was able to get a little preview of what I would get to see out here on the left coast by listening/watching the broadcast on his tv when he turned his webcam to show me. I'm hoping more of his regular readers will come and chat with us next week. (Hey Terri, Donna... I'm talking to you! And anyone else who comes here that also reads John.)

And about AI, I know I haven't said much about it this year. I'm not as thrilled with the top 10 as I was last year's.... can't see myself going to the tour concert with Emily this year unless she is just dying to go, but even she isn't as into it this year as she was last year. My favorites are David Archuleta, Brooke White, Michael Johns, and David Cook. For some reason, I don't want to like David Cook... but I can't deny he has talent.

In other news.... who has/hasn't heard Chris Sligh's new single??? (Remember Chris?? AI top 10 from last year?) Go. Get. It. Now. It is titled Empty Me, and is great. Ask John... he took my advice. If you want to hear it first, I found what I think is the entire song in streaming media here.

No big plans for the week... just keeping up with the house and laundry and watching the kids enjoy their free time. They've been having a blast playing with their friends who are also on break this week. Friday night is a big 6-month celebration for Celebrate Recovery at church; we're having a barbecue dinner before the usual start time. I'm on worship team and will have to arrive an hour earlier to get in a little rehearsal time. Of course, I don't mind, since I like singing.

I'm ready to kick back with a little HGTV before turning out the lights... hopefully I'll have more to tell soon.

Good stuff

Maybe I am one of the last people to hear about this guy, but I have to mention Dr. Randy Pausch and his "Last Lecture". Randy is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in his last weeks of life; he has been fighting pancreatic cancer since Sept. 2006 and was told late last summer that he had about 3-6 months of good health left. Amazingly enough, the latest update at his website 2 days ago shows him still enjoying good health. At any rate, you owe it to yourself to watch the video of his lecture (also available with closed captioning), or at least read the transcript. Personally, I preferred watching him. He has a remarkable outlook on life, and I guarantee you that what you will hear is not what you'd expect from a man who is dying and is the father of three young children. It is a little over an hour long, but worth it. He did do a very condensed version (around 10 minutes) on Oprah, which can be found at YouTube if you search for his name and Oprah.

Newest favorite song: In Your Presence, by Charity Von. Actually, until I looked for it at iTunes, I had no idea who sang it. It is one we've done a couple of times at church. Simple song, simple melody, easy to harmonize with. Check out the lyrics (and then get yourself a copy):

In your presence
I find comfort
In your presence I find peace.
In your presence
I surrender
Lord, I give you all of me.

And in your presence
I fall on my knees.
For you are worthy
In your presence
I hear angels sing,
"Holy! Holy! Is the Lamb of God!"

Forgot to mention that last weekend was our ladies' retreat/conference at church. We were blessed to hear from Renee Swope, from Proverbs 31 Ministries. Can't say enough nice things about her. She was so transparent with us about her life and what God has brought her through. The weekend left us all renewed and refreshed.

The mother of all bulleted lists

My infrequency of posting has left many to wonder if I am still alive. The answer is unequivocally yes.... although with the schedule we'll be keeping this spring, that may not hold true for long! There is much I haven't mentioned here, but not for lack of wanting to; I just haven't found the time. But here I sit, hubby out of town, oldest daughter spending the night away, and the other three happily entertaining themselves a few steps away. This may just be the perfect time to get everything all out in the open. What better way to do it than with bullets???

• We joined the ranks of Wii owners this Christmas. It was the surprise hit of the day. As a testimony to its appeal, I saw more of Emily in the 3 days following Christmas Day than I did in the 3 weeks prior! Favorite games are Wii Sports (Joel has actually bowled a perfect 300!), Wii Play, and Carnival Games. Emily is lobbying to get Guitar Hero III after playing it on a friend's PlayStation; she says she RULES it. That probably means I would *not* rule it. I would like to wait and see if Rock Band is going to be made for Wii; my sister says it is a lot of fun. According to Wikipedia, EA announced plans for a Wii version on Jan. 31, so we'll have to wait and see if that plays out.
  
• I think I mentioned that the boys will be playing baseball this spring. Noah started practice this week. He had practice Monday and Wednesday from 5-6, Friday for about 1/2 of that, but only because we had to leave early for Celebrate Recovery, and today from 9-11. So far, it looks like the same schedule for next week, but it may change. Got the call from Joel's coach today, and his first practice is this Thursday from 5-6, with a 15-min parent meeting before that. This will be very interesting, having 2 in sports at the same time; it's a first for us. No word yet on what days the actual games will be. To complicate matters, Noah's team will have to travel to some surrounding towns 30 minutes or so away to play, and possibly even to one about 2 hours away. And then there is coordinating all this with Emily's play rehearsals, which for now are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays after school until around 4. Thankfully, many of Noah's team members live here in our neighborhood, less than a block away, even.
  
• During the sports physicals the boys had to prepare for Little League, we found out Noah needed a more thorough vision exam. So now he is sporting glasses. Overall, his vision isn't too bad, but it seems that his right eye had been doing most of the work.
• 
• Halle finished up her first AWANA book this past week. She is starting on the second one now. She probably won't be able to finish it this year, but should get far enough along in it so that she will be able to get through both it and book 3 next year, which will put her right on track with where she should be.
• Still making it to the movies on occasion. Emily and I went to see 27 Dresses a few weeks ago. Just goes to show I cannot listen to any professional movie reviewers. I loved it. Don't want to give anything away for those who haven't seen it, but for those who have, I totally was in tears in the bridal shop scene with the sister. I was feeling Jane's pain.
  
• Halle and I went to see the Hannah Montana 3D movie. I actually missed the Super Bowl to take her. We got home just moments after the last play. Ah well, I think it was worth it.
  
• Tonight, the kids and I went to the base theater to catch The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Halle hadn't been all that keen on seeing it, but even she said it was better than she thought it would be. I appreciated the message of the story: Heroes don't have to be the biggest, bravest, or strongest. They just have to do what's right, even when it isn't easy. Good lesson for our kids to learn, and I can think of a lot of us adults who would do well to learn it as well.
• The dog training is going well. What I find almost inconceivable is how much the dogs actually like wearing their training collars/leashes. This training is not the typical food reward kind of training, so they aren't acting all happy because they know they're getting treats, that's for sure. But when they see me go get the leashes from the leash rack, they both get very excited. One thing we are working on right now is the down stay. They're both pretty good with it; one funny thing is that when I am working with Rory, Campbell will often put himself in a down stay at the same time. Then when he hears me give her the "clear" signal, he'll get up as well. What I really like doing is seeing how softly I can give the command and get a response. I can really almost whisper it. What we really need to work on now is practicing in places away from home (the park, stores... there are a few around here that are dog-friendly, like Home Depot/Lowes). I took Rory to the duck pond park here on base a few days ago and she was quite distracted by the sea gulls! the ducks! the geese! She actually pulled on the leash for the first time in literally months. She was acting more like a Pointer (not June, Anita, or Ruth) than a Great Dane.
• We have a family outing planned for Monday to go to Sacramento to see the Bodies Revealed exhibit. Unfortunately, no picture-taking is allowed. Bummer. I think it is going to be very cool. Halle really doesn't want to see it ("Mom, I'm a girl... I don't want to see dead bodies!"), but she is still coming along; Emily just plain doesn't want to go anywhere with her family unless it is to buy stuff for her, so we'll see if she goes or not.
  
• I never wrote a wrap-up post for the fall reading challenge. Suffice it to say that I did manage to read all that was on my list with the exception of one book that I traded in early on, plus several more. Since the end of the challenge, I haven't had as much opportunity to read; I'm missing it.
• To that end, I am looking forward to the unified study we are starting at church this week. As a church, we will be reading a book by Bill Hybels, Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith. This will continue through to Easter; the sermons will relate to the book, as will our small group meetings. I've read the first chapter so far and liked what I read.
• Speaking of Easter, rehearsals for Easter choir started this past Monday night. Oops, one more thing to juggle on baseball practice night.
  

There... that's about it, I think. Hopefully you are still awake after all that. If I've left anything of importance out, it will probably come to me around 2am.

Playing catchup

So last Sunday I was ready for the weekend to be over, and tonight I am actually ready for it to start. (Although I dare say this weekend will be full of all kinds of work around the house again...)

It's been a jam-packed week of activities, none of which included moving furniture. Of course there was the usual running to and from Emily's school, with occasional stops for Starbuck's on the way. I don't think I ever told about the morning I drove through Starbuck's after dropping Emily off. Rory was in the front passenger's seat and wanted to share my hot chocolate with me. The barista volunteered a cup of whipped cream to entertain her. She *loved* it. And I was able to drink my hot chocolate in peace.

On Wednesday, the kids and I attended KUDOS (Kids Understanding Deployment OperationS) with our neighbors. The kids got were issued "uniforms" (desert-colored t-shirts with the KUDOS logo on them), got some camo face paint, and went through "out-processing", where they received dog tags, "passports," and some other gear (including a pocket Bible). They got to see chem gear, satellite equipment, and walk through a C-5 airplane (these are huge cargo planes that are large enough to carry 6 Greyhound buses, plus passengers upstairs). They learned a little bit about some military customs (coin checks), saw examples of ordnance (land mines, mortars, etc.), tried on protective gear, and manned a fire hose. All that, then they received a "homecoming" complete with flag-waving and music. Our neighbor and her children were decked out in some of her husband's flight suits, so they definitely looked the part. They were actually interviewed by an NBC station (one that we don't get here, for some reason).... I am waiting to see if there is ever anything put up at the website to see from that. One of the local papers also interviewed my friend and published a picture of our group walking across the tarmac after deplaning the C-5; one of her kids and Halle are very easy to see in it. Unfortunately, this newspaper only allows subscribers online access, so I couldn't even see the article online.

Today the kids were treated to some fire safety lessons. They got to go through the base fire department's "fire trailer," which offers a simulation of the kind of smoke you could have if your house were on fire. The kids were able to see (or not see, as the case may be) how difficult it was to see anything through the smoke (the fireman explained that "real" smoke would be even harder to see through) and practice getting down under the smoke and evacuating the trailer by exiting a window and using a fire escape ladder. In addition, the older kids were able to operate some simple liquid fire extinguishers.

And while we're on the subject of fire safety: A friend sent an article to our homeschool list about a news story about the usefulness of smoke alarms. It appears so many children sleep through them, that they really don't do the job they are intended for. If you or someone you love has children, please read this news story.

I wound up not attending our homeschool group meeting last night... I opted for praise choir rehearsal instead. This weekend, the church is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a large outdoor service and I will be helping out by adding my voice to the praise choir. We'll have to take 2 cars on Sunday, because I will need to be there at 8:30 (service starts at 10).

I was able to serve at Celebrate Recovery tonight by being part of the 3-person worship team for it. I really love using my voice like this... a few people were talking to me afterwards tonight about it and I said that I felt about singing the way Eric Liddell (the Christian runner in Chariots of Fire) felt about running. He said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure." When I sing, I feel God's pleasure. Is there anything you do that causes you to feel His pleasure?

I guess I've gone on long enough... you know this week will be more of the same, plus getting ready for a birthday sleepover next Friday night for Halle's 9th birthday. Hopefully we will get a lot done as far as cleaning and rearranging furniture before then!

Mac mama

I know... where have I been? It has been crazier than usual around here. The end of last week was fairly busy, what with Emily gone to her school retreat from Wednesday till Friday. Then Brian and I had the Celebrate Recovery kickoff at church on Friday night. We got there early to help set up, so we were basically there about 4 1/2- 5 hours.

Saturday was Joel's 7th birthday. We had a great time at the base bowling alley with a few of the neighbor kids, a couple of friends from church, and a couple of kids from our "backyard neighbor" family from the first house we lived in out here. Joel said it was the "best birthday ever." He even rated it higher than the one he spent at Disney World!

In news almost as big as Joel's birthday.... my IMac arrived yesterday! It is up and running with no trouble at all and I've managed to get my bookmarks and email addresses all transferred quite easily (thank goodness for Plaxo). I kinda miss my "right-click," but have begun learning the Mac way of doing things. I have so much more space on my desk now. Hopefully I can keep it uncluttered.

Monday night, Halle and I both went up to the church for rehearsals for the Christmas program for church. She is going to be part of the kids' musical and I will be singing in the adult Christmas choir. I missed the first rehearsal last week, but it won't be difficult to catch up. Thankfully, I don't have to learn it all by ear; we all have songbooks with musical notation. That certainly makes it easier for me, especially since I sing alto.

Tonight, Halle attended her first AWANA meeting while Brian and I attended a "growth group" from church. Our group is made up of about 6 couples... not too big and not too small. I'm looking forward to getting to know people better. Halle had a blast at AWANA and is busy working on learning her memory verses so she can get her first book and t-shirt. She has several "checkpoints" to complete, each with 2 verses to learn.

Tomorrow is hump day and means we will be on the downswing.... Brian has a meeting tomorrow night, though. Thursday will be Emily's early-out day at school (1:45), I may be attending worship team rehearsal that night, and then it will be Friday and time for Celebrate Recovery again. Oh yeah... no shortage of things to do here. Hopefully I won't put off blogging for another week!

Oh, I just remembered more news... Emily was chosen for Daybreak, the select choir at her school! Yay, Emily!

Just stuff

Lots of random things bumping around in the old grey matter today. I figure why fight it? So hang on: this is going to be a mish-mash of topics.

Spring Reading Challenge update: Still working on those last few non-fiction selections on my list. I'm about 1/2-way through Yancey's Prayer book (replacement for Where God Was Born), and more than 1/2-way through Lucado's Facing Your Giants. Same with How to Read the Bible... and Not a Tame Lion. The non-fiction is kicking my rear, I guess. But I did finish the fiction list and have added about a dozen more titles to the read column (since my last update, where I added 9 titles)... unfortunately, I returned many of them to the library without recording the titles; ones I can remember off the top of my head are Gardenias for Breakfast, and Private Justice & Shadow of Doubt (2 Teri Blackstock novels). Books I have here at the house that I've finished are 2 more Blackstock books, Line of Duty and Trial by Fire, Lisa Samson's Club Sandwich (I think my favorite of hers so far), Judy Baer's The Whitney Chronicles, and Confessions of a Super Mom (Melanie Hauser).

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The free concert last Saturday night was pretty good. We didn't bring lawn chairs to sit on the ball field and didn't want to stand up in front of the stage, so we made ourselves comfortable in the stands for the show. Lincoln Brewster was definitely better than Todd Agnew, but I enjoyed listening to the things Todd had to say in between songs. (I really think Todd's music is best enjoyed by listening to a studio version rather than live... there were lots of times he just didn't sound like he was quite where he should have been vocally.) Things got started later than they were supposed to and the kids got restless, so we ended up leaving before Todd finished.

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Joel has now moved up to the next level in his gymnastics class. I had promised him a uniform once he moved up, so we got that yesterday afternoon. Maybe I can get a picture of him in it today. Because he moved up, I had to switch days for gymnastics; He and Halle's classes run concurrently now so that we are at the gym for 1 hour on Tuesdays instead of 1 1/2 hours on Mondays.

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So now I've been to two different ladies' functions for church, the breakfast a week or so ago and a "Ladies' Afternoon Out" this past Sunday afternoon. There were a few more at the breakfast than at the last function, but a few of the same people were at each. Plus Brian and I attended a newcomer's class Sunday afternoon/evening, where we were able to meet some more couples, one of which is another homeschooling military family. It really looks like we will be able to be involved as much as we want/need to here.

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More book stuff: I've been lucky to be on the receiving end of some giveaways on other blogs lately. Lara just sent me one of the few Francine Rivers books I haven't read yet, Unshaken. And I was the lucky winner of one of Camy's weekly giveaways, Too Good to Be True, by Trish Perry. And then a few days ago, Carrie drew my name for a giveaway she was sponsoring and I'm looking forward to receiving The List, by Robert Whitlow, from her. I guess I will stop whining that I never win anything now!

Friday night recap

The kids had fun today at the park with the base homeschool group. They made t-shirts with spray-on fabric paint and stencils (the paint was in small pump bottles). Then they had a scavenger hunt around the park. Some of the kids, my boys included, enjoyed watching a couple of moms fishing in the pond with their children. Things got exciting when a snapping turtle decided it wanted a taste of their bait. It was a nice sized one, too. We worked for several minutes trying to get the hook out of his jaw. Finally, one of our moms ran back to her house and got the tackle box with some good pliers in it and we were able to get the hook out. I set the turtle down and he high-tailed it straight back into the water. The kids were concerned he was going to bleed to death, but we reassured them that he would probably heal pretty quickly.

After we got home from picking Emily up from school, I played some Old Maid with the kids and then went in the back yard to play catch with Noah. He really threw some heat at me a few times. Even with a ball glove, my hand stung. Halle was trying to figure out how to use the pogo stick, and I tried to show her.... tried being the operative word. I was able to hop on it maybe 2 times before I fell backward and landed flat on my keister. It was HILARIOUS. Thankfully, it didn't hurt ... I guess my extra padding worked.

Brian went to a meeting at church tonight. They are working on developing a Celebrate Recovery program and he is interested in helping out with it. While he was gone, Joel had me working on trying to figure out how to put together a wooden treasure chest kit we've had for several years. It was actually a gift from someone to Emily back when we lived in Ohio. She never was all that interested in putting it together, though. The box had been opened at some point and the instructions were gone. I was able to get most of it done before Brian got home. We left off the false bottom, but I got the chest itself done and the frame for the lid. Tomorrow, Brian will glue and clamp the strips that make up the lid. Then Joel will be able to paint it.

Tomorrow, I'm going to my first women's ministry activity at our new church. The ladies are having a prayer breakfast in the morning. I'm hoping to get to meet and know some new people.

The church of today

Have you ever heard anyone say that today's youth are the church of tomorrow? There was a time I bought into that idea, but I've come to realize it just isn't true. They are the church of today. I think of what Paul told Timothy: "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." I don't know how old Timothy was when he wrote those words to him, but I dare say any child who is putting his faith in Jesus could accept that statement as a mission statement for his/her life. I have truly come to believe our kids don't need to wait until they are in high school to take their places alongside adults in kingdom work.

I experienced a great example of this principle this morning. Today was "Youth Sunday" and the worship team was composed of 4 adults and 6 or 7 6th-8th graders. 6th-8th graders! 2 young girls led most vocals with minimal backup from our regular worship leader and another adult male, while the rest of the kids were on guitars (electric, bass, electric acoustic...). The other 2 adults were on keyboard and drums. These kids were nothing short of awesome. If I had been blindfolded, I would not have known it wasn't one of the regular worship teams up there. I was definitely encouraged by those kids today.

In which I get all serious for a change

I know I spend a lot of time writing about everyday and trivial things (books, movies, memes, what the kids ate for dinner...). Those of you who know me only through my blog don't know that there is actually a deeper side to me (and those of you that know me in real life might be singing "Deep and Wide" about now... at least that's what came to my twisted mind as I typed that last sentence). This week there was some strange convergence in the blogosphere that led several folks to write about some similar issues involving God, grace, and "doing church." These posts led to great comments, which led to new posts on other blogs.... I don't even remember where I started or where I ended up, I just know that I saved these places to share with my readers who are also concerned about these things.

So here goes... in no particular order:

Oldest post first: This is actually from last fall; someone today referred to it and I was just blown away. Brian Mashburn spoke of his "Secret Life of Discipleship" and so eloquently expressed the feelings of many folks I know from my church background (the Church of Christ).

Somewhere along the same lines, my dear friend Jim wrote about selective grace (or the absence of it).

Shaun Groves talked about "The Church I Want." I think it sounds like a place many people would opt for. I'm following the many comments there (Please do read the comments... especially Shaun's response at 8:51 pm.) and ran across Todd's blog (he is the one who led me to Brian Mashburn's post, above). Todd has 2 recent posts that I found very relevant: "Confessions of a lifetime coC'er" and "Church Clutter".

And finally, a post from Patrick Mead about the Palm Sunday service at his church this past weekend. Perhaps this is a concrete example of what some of these other folks have been thinking and dreaming of.

Hope you got something out of those. I'll be back with my usual mundane posts soon. (I'll try to post my review of Firehouse Dog by tomorrow.)

Potpourri

Naw, not the kind you smell.... I just have several things running through my head that I want to talk about and don't know where to start first. Lessee... how about books? The Spring Reading Thing started 4 days ago (is that all?), and I have knocked out 6 books from my list. I cannot say enough good things about Karen Kingsbury's Firstborn series. "Life-Changing Fiction" is her tag line and I have to wholeheartedly agree. I am still processing much of what was revealed to me through the characters and situations in the stories. And I want/need to go back and read the earlier Redemption series, as well!

The last book I read this weekend reminded me of why I stopped reading Stephen King in the first place. There was a time I liked his writing, but it seems like the last 10-15 years, his works just haven't appealed to me. But I heard so many people say that Lisey's Story was so awesome that when I saw it on the shelf at the library, I thought I'd give it a try. It did nothing for me. I didn't feel a connection to the characters at all. It was.... stupid. Give me a good Dean Koontz novel any day. Next on my list: The Westing Game. Once I get through the fiction books I have on hand, I'm sure the rest of the list will go a bit slower.

And then there was much rejoicing. Tonight was the finale of Grease: You're the One That I Want. I don't think I've ever followed any competition as closely as I did this one, at least not since the first year or two of Star Search (I guess I can say I remember Rosie O'Donnell and Brad Garrett back when...). I definitely had my favorites and was quite thrilled when they both made it into the top 4. And even more pleased to see that in a rare if not unheard-of occurrence (that being that America and I actually agreed upon something), they won! Congratulations to Broadway's new Danny and Sandy, Max Crumm and Laura Osnes. Now, who wants to bankroll my trip to NYC to see the show???

Great day with the kids today. Everyone was up and ready to go to church on time with no fuss. It was a good time of worship and we got to hear a singing group from William Jessup University. I also found out that one of the coaches from Halle and Joel's gymnastics gym attends there. She and her husband came in a little late and sat by me today. I was sitting behind someone I thought looked familiar and then afterwards Emily pointed out that it was her PE teacher. I think I could get used to worshiping with folks I might get to see more than once a week.

Sunday smiles

Today was a beautiful sunny day, the kind of day that can make a gal appreciate living in California even though her heart is in the Midwest. Spring has already arrived here, and we were able to spend some time outside with the kids this afternoon. We took a walk to the neighborhood park and back, staying long enough for the kids to use up some energy on the playground before the uphill walk back.

But even better than having wonderful spring weather to enjoy today, we had a great time of worship this morning as well. The past two Sundays we had visited Valley Church, but today we decided to try Crossroads Christian Church, less than 15 minutes from the house. Of all the churches we have been to near our home, this one was by far the friendliest one. We had several people go out of their way to talk to us, and by that I mean carry on a conversation, not just exchange names. I don't like to "rate" worship experiences, so I will just say that we weren't disappointed. I probably felt more at home/comfortable in this place than the other churches we've visited in the last couple of months. The kids loved their classes, as well. That's always a plus. Emily knows several teens that attend this congregation; I believe several teachers from her school are there also, including her principal. I'm not sure if that's a plus for her, but I consider it one! I am really looking forward to going back next week. Thanks to those of you who have been praying about this situation for us. I am hoping that this may be an answer to those prayers, but don't stop just yet!