new england weekend

I'm paying the price for gloating about sitting on the beach on Sunday morning. I look like a tomato. But it was worth it... I wish I could go again today!

Had a great time visiting Alison and Taure out in Boston for the weekend. After getting up at 3AM, driving to Detroit, and flying out, Alison talked me into getting a pedicure... something I have never done... but I think I'm hooked! We shopped like madwomen (here is Alison waiting for the T to take us into the city) at the original Filene's Basement and other downtown bargain locales. Such a deal! We literally almost dropped at the end of the day, especially since I had been up since 3. It was definitely worth it, and Alison and I even found matching dresses. We were going to wear them to the shower but I chickened out at the last minute. I decided to save mine for the rehearsal dinner. I also went "shopping" in Alison's closet and came back with two full suitcases. I'm not going to need new pants for a LONG time!

Alison's shower was Saturday, and went really well. It was great to see so many friends and family, and to meet my new family-in-law. I have lots of pictures of the shower and the rest of the weekend up here. We hung out at Taure's mom's house in Providence on Saturday evening, had dinner with Dad, Lynne, and Auntie D on Saturday night, and hit the beach at Nantasket on Sunday, where I fried to crisp. I got to have a lot of my favorite New England foods... lobster, steamers, a half-sour pickle, a real hot pastrami sandwich, Polar birch beer, Cabot cheddar cheese, Portuguese chourico sausage, Richard's garlic olives, and even Carvel ice cream cake! Not all at once of course! I missed out on smoked bluefish and fresh tuna this time, but I don't think I would have had any place to put them! We're going back at the end of the month, so Del's frozen lemonade and a D'Angelo's #9 will have to wait till then as well. Ahh, the tastes of home. :-)

VBS expolsion...

Monday night we had 4 kids in our class of K-3, Tuesday we had 8, and Wednesday we had 18. It's like our entire neighborhood converged on the church all at once. It was fantastic. I think we had over 80 people on Wednesday night. Justin informs me that last night 20 of the kids came to evening service as well. We need to keep these kids... we need to step up. Shame on us if we let this opportunity go by. Please pray that we can figure out how we need to adjust for the sudden influx.. and soon!

VBS Day 2

I think my favorite thing about little kids is their honesty. Last night two of our adorable first grade cousins were sitting quietly during the Bible story when Kevin started talking about prayer. "But McKenzie and me don't know how to pray!" Dylan said, with eyes as big as saucers. I wish we would ALL admit that when it's true! Kevin made the most of the teaching opportunity and I hope these little ones will start talking to Jesus now.

Tonight we get to give away the electric scooter to the kid who brings the most friends. The competition is pretty fierce right now... both for the scooter and the boys vs. girls mission offering. Ray rigged up a pulley system with two buckets - one for the boys and one for the girls. Whichever one is heavier with change sinks lower. Right now the girls are kicking booty! The losers have to serve the winners cake at the end of the week, and there has been so much smack talk going on (mostly between Kadee and Andy the Arctic Ranger) that it will be a really fun time no matter who wins. Of course girls RULE!

countdown of craziness

3 more days until I hop a plane to Boston, Jeanette flies in, and everything needs to be done! Combine that with VBS every night this week and you get extreme busy-ness. VBS was great last night, Kadee and I get the fun of having the 1st-3rd graders as our charges. That is such a great age... they're in prime learning format and not "too cool" for VBS yet. We only had four in that age range but they all got lots of attention. We have large preschool and youth contingents this year.

Anyhow back to work. It's going to be a whirlwind week. I'm really excited for Alison's shower on Saturday, and for hitting the beach on Sunday! ;-) Although I hear that there are some major jellyfish this season... maybe they haven't made it up to Massachusetts yet.

irish? oh wait....

So I was working at AOP this morning and saw a guy wearing a kilt. It wasn't your normal tartan kilt and he wasn't dressed up in any Scottish regalia. In fact it looked like it was made of Carhartt material and even had cargo pockets into which he was stuffing all his AOP tchotchkes. I was fascinated so I asked him about it. He was very excited about his kilt and proceeded to tell me about utilikilts.com (photo from their website... check out some of their photo galleries, they are a hoot!) for the next 10 minutes. Apparently it is all the rage for dudes to wear these. It was surprisingly manly looking too. I wonder how much one would have to pay certain guys I know to actually sport one. I think it would be worth the reaction on some of the folks' faces if all the guys walked in weaking kilts with a jacket and tie on Sunday morning!

where adventure meets courage???

I never thought I would say this but I think someone at LifeWay actually has a sense of humor... or else they are so clueless that no one thought there was anything weird about putting the blow-up moose's inflation tube in such a strategic location. When it comes time to deflate him I think we need to put the flapping end of a whoopee cushion over the tube for the full, lifelike effect. Ray is demonstraing VBS values here by summoning all of his courage to put that air hose where the sun don't shine. By the way, we won the moose as a decoration for our "Arctic Edge" VBS theme at out training retreat this year... I'm thinking now no one else wanted the job of inflating it!

pear season

Chelsea is in full pear-hunter mode now that they are starting to ripen on the tree. Full pear-hunter mode entails acting like she has to go out to do her business, but as soon as she gets out she runs to the tree, grabs a pear off the ground, and lies down in the grass so you can't drag her back inside. It also entails jumping and biting every low hanging-tree branch that she encounters thinking it might have pears on it. Yesterday I was taking her for a walk around the neighborhood when I noticed that she had something in her mouth. Now I hadn't even seen a pear tree anywhere on the route, but she had managed to find one and pick it up nonetheless. Never doubt a dog with OCD!

Justin and I took a mini-road trip on Friday night to a small lake southeast of Lansing. We've decided to search in a 30-minute travel time radius of Lansing for a spot that one day we might be able to have a house. Out first jaunt was to Pleasant Lake, near Leslie. It reminded Justin a lot of Oklahoma. It was fun to explore and find a place near here that we've never been. Michigan is quite pretty once you get out of the city.

a vomitious notion...

Apparently an airline wants to put ads on their barf bags. For what, air freshener? Read the story here...

a year in the blogosphere

Wow, I just realized that my first post was a year ago today. Oy vey, that's a lot of blogging! Thanks to all of you for hanging in there with me and I hope I haven't bored y'all TOO much. :-)

YOU'RE HIRED!

Yes, it is official... I wrote my first ever letter of acceptance this morning in response to the official job offer from the MSU Libraries! Praise the Lord! This means so much for Justin and me both... primarily as an answer to prayer for whether to stay here in Lansing and continue to invest in ministry on campus, plus it is going to help us out tremendously with finances. I really feel like God has put me here strategically - right in the heart of things at MSU - both for opportunity with students and my friends and coworkers here at the library. This whole past nine months I've had a peace about my work and being in the right place at the right time. It's been obvious to me that God has been helping me with everything from providing opportunities for projects to doing my everyday tasks and giving me an extra push of confidence when I'm speaking. I've really felt His presence and peace at work unlike ever before. I'm so excited for what that could mean for ministry opportunities for us. If you remember, please pray for me that I won't miss out on what He's doing... that I would recognize it instantly in whatever situation I'm in and take the opportunites that He provides. You know me... only able to focus on one thing at a time. Pray that I'll never be so focused on work as to be unaware of His working.

youth camp

Praise God for an awesome week at camp. I'm sad I missed out. It's been so great to see the changes in the faces and the hearts of the youth that came back. We had two of our youth, Jolee and Andrew, accept Christ this week, and last night, after hearing their testimonies, one of our other girls did as well! I'm so excited for them and to see many people's prayers being answered. Please pray for them as they all will have bumpy roads ahead. I'm asking God to show them that He is bigger than both them and their situations.

For you that will pray, please know as well that the youth of this state have very serious issues that they are facing, from porn to STDs to rape to pregnancy to drugs and gangs and everything in between. We see them face temptations and hardships daily. My hope is that they will know Christ's power to heal and overcome. We caught a glimpse of that last night as we saw Him break through into the hearts of our youth.

I'm sure Matt and Kadee will be posting about camp on their blogs soon. They should have many more details since they were actually THERE and I am only reporting secondhand.

I did get to meet the camp speaker though and his wife and son, which was a treat. We went to Grand Rapids on Saturday night to meet up with them at Famous Dave's BBQ (of course!) Scott and Jamie were a lot of fun and just as "irreverent" as the rest of us. When Andrew was giving his testimony last night, he said something that made us laugh... that camp was "like church with fun." I think our lives are like "church with fun" all the time, especially when we get to meet such cool people.

alas, there is a photo!

IMG_5246
Originally uploaded by CaptainJBuilder.

Richard got a photo of the lady riding the cow at the parade! I'm glad, I really wanted a pic of that. Only in small-town America...
Speaking of cow, had a nice big rare slab of it for my early birthday present on Sunday. And yes, "it moos within my gut..." but no botulism to impart as of yet, thank goodness.

happy belated fourth!

Justin and the "boys" have been gone up to youth camp since Monday, so Chelsea and I are spending some quality time together. Her idea of quality is rolling in some nice fresh poop just as I was about to go back to work after lunch yesterday. I had to hose her off quite thoroughly and got drenched in the process. It was nasty.

Last Satuday we started a quilting class at church. Sally and Carolyn are organizing it and have about 17 people signed up, most from outside the church which is great. As I am a librarian, preachawife, and the purveyor of old-lady hobbies, of course I joined in. It was a dangerous move... I have a new addiction! Who knew that quilting was so much fun. I spent the morning of the Fourth cutting out a new one from all the scraps of blue cloth that I have left over from making curtains, pillowcases, etc. It's like putting together a giant puzzle... so satisfying!

I also went swimming at Lynn's and to the fireworks in Mason with Denise, Bambi, and Emily on the 4th as well. Here they are at the parade. I could shoot myself for forgetting my camera. Denise has an annual bet going with her parents as to how many tractors will be in the parade. There were 59 this year... her mom won! The parade also featured something I have never seen before - a lady riding a cow. Yes, a big old cow, strolling right down the street behind the mounted cops. She had a saddle and everything.

The fireworks were gorgeous and right above our heads. They were so close it was almost scary. I WISH I'd had my camera... but that would mean that all of you would have to be subjected to lots of boring fireworks photos, so it's probably a good thing.