Photo Friday

Happy Easter! This is from last year's Egg-stravaganza at church. It was so cold that morning. Something like 30 degrees when we were hiding the eggs. You see I'm all bundled up with gloves and scarf (and coffee!) I sent these out as Easter cards to some folks around.

And, yes, I know I'm late for Photo Friday, but I babysat Catherine yesterday and we went shopping. We went to Walgreens, Hobby Lobby, and Barnes & Noble - all places of her choosing. Then Seth met us at Buffalo Wild Wings for a dinner that took an hour and a half! They are so slow. I'm not going back there again. No matter how much Catherine wants to. We had a fun evening, though.

Final

Clemson 81
UNC 86

Bummer

Halftime

Clemson 39
UNC 38

Never in My Lifetime

Clemson Stuns No. 7 Duke, 78-74 Clemson is not known for its basketball team. Never has been. Clemson is the only original member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to have never won the ACC Tournament. They are closer now than they have ever been in my lifetime. Not since 1962 have they even been in the finals. They lost to Wake Forest that year. Tomorrow they get another chance. This time against the University of North Carolina. Today they beat the #7 ranked Duke. Tomorrow they play the #1 Tarheels. It's a mighty challenge. I hope the guys are up to it. I'm so proud of what they accomplished today. I almost came to tears at the final buzzer. I couldn't get PMF on the phone, so I called my friend Arnold who went to UNC. His son Adam answered the phone. I asked Adam if his dad was watching basketball. He said, "Duke and Clemson? Yeah." "You know Clemson just won that game." "Really?" "Do you know what that means, Adam?" "What?" "Clemson plays UNC tomorrow for the tournament championship." He says loudly "They're going down!!!" Then I got to talk to Arnold, and of course, Catherine. The game's at 12:30. I guess there's no going out for lunch after church tomorrow. Go Tigers!

Photo Friday

This is a Beluga Whale from the Georgia Aquarium. They were so beautiful and friendly. If you put your hands on the glass, they would come by and rub up against it. I could stand there and watch them for hours.

Friends and their blogs

Tonight at church, the last two kids were the youth minister's son and younger daughter. Lee-R, the three-year-old son, tells us that his dad's in Peru. We knew about this, but Miss Karen asked him anyway "What's your daddy doing in Peru?" He answered "Praying and telling people about God." I said, "That's awesome, Lee-R!" When his mom came to pick them up, I told her what he said and she was so proud. She gave him a high five and said she can't wait to tell his dad. To learn more about the trip to Peru, check out Samantha's blog. Sam's husband Charles is on the trip to Peru, too.

Work is crazy busy and next week will be worse. Yippy.

Fear

Have you ever done something scary? Stepped out of your comfort zone? It's so hard. It's just so. . . well, comfortable in your comfort zone. There comes a time when you have to step out. Maybe it's not that you're supposed to stay out, but just to set a foot outside and, oh, check the temperature. See if it's raining. Maybe you get to go back to the comfort zone after stepping out. But maybe, just maybe, there's a great adventure out there and you'll miss it if you don't step out. I'm going to do something that's going to let me see what the temperature is outside of my comfort zone. I'll let you know how that goes.

Belated Photo Friday

This is a sunset pictures I took about a year ago from the mail box at my apartment complex. It's always amazing when you're going about your life and up pops something like this.

I Miss My Kids

I had to work tonight.
I missed church.
I miss the kids.
I wonder if Jenna was there tonight?


I wonder what Emma got into.

I wonder if MaryWallace talked.

I wonder if AmberLee sang herself to sleep again.

I

wonder
how

many

graham

crackers

Belle

ate.

I wonder if Will was the only boy again with a whole bunch of baby girls to keep him company.

I got to go to church today for a bithday party at lunchtime. (It's employee appreciation week at MBC; and since I work in the nursary, I got invited.) It was backward. I had cake, then I had a chicken roll-up thing from KFC on my way back to work. Tomorrow the personnel committee is feeding us a full lunch. The fact that I had to work late tonight, means I have some overtime to burn off this week, so I'm going to the lunch -- a luxury I usually don't have. It's going to be a nice little break in my day. It still won't make up for missing my babies.

Episode IV: A New Hope

Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing)Written by: Brenton Brown & Brian Doerksen

Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging
Your love is a mountain, firm beneath my feet
Your love is a mystery, how you gently lift me
When I am surrounded, your love carries me

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, your love makes me sing
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, your love makes me sing

Your love is surprising, I can feel it rising
All the joy that's growing deep inside of me
Every time I see you, all your goodness shines through
And I can feel this God song, rising up in me

© 2000 Vinyard Music
CCLI# 3091812

We have a senior pastor. Hallelujah! I just can't describe the sense of peace. That feeling of "it's all going to be okay now." You know how sometimes when things in your life are topsy-turvy, you think "once this is over, I can get on with my life." That's kinda how I feel about church now. We have a pastor, let's get on with things.

Today he preached on Jesus calming the storm. He asked "When life gets unpredictable, do you fall apart or do you show great stability?" I've done both. He broke it down like this: Just as the wind moves the waves, God uses the Holy Spirit to move us, to direct our paths. Even in the best of times, our faith can waiver. Does it matter how hight the waves get if Jesus is in the boat with us? When life gets unpredictable, do you look at the limitations or at the possibilities? God knows no limitations. To the disciples credit, at least they called on Jesus when times got rough.

This picture is from the reception this afternoon. Left to right is Tamma (the wife), Addison, (the daughter), and Thad (the pastor), Cary and Jennifer from the search committee. The bag Jennifer is holding has gift cards that the folks in the church got them as part of an anonymous and secret gift card shower. (I got one from Bath & Body Works - a girl's gotta have her body wash.)

Thad likes motorcycles, so the folks organizing the reception had some of the guys in the church with bikes bring them. Here they are over in the corner of the fellowship hall. Doesn't that beautiful arrangement of flowers look pretty behind them? At one point they fired them all up. It was really loud!

There was a yummy cake. Some of the icing was black. Here's what happens when a three-year-old eats it.I wasn't the only one taking pictures.

Silver, Shopping, Knitting, Silver, Church

Today is March 1st. Did you know it's Big Bonanza Silver Day? You do if you watch QVC.They call it Big Bonanza Silver Day because it was March 1st however many years ago that silver was first discovered in Nevada. I love sterling silver jewelry. If I didn't live paycheck to paycheck, I would have bought a lot of silver today. It's so pretty, and they have so much of it. I've been watching all day and looking at all the pretty jewelry. I haven't ordered anything, but it isn't midnight yet.

I had lunch with PMF today. Subway. Then I went to Bath & Body Works to use coupons. I had four coupons so I had to make four transactions to use them all. I got all this for about $35. I calculated the actual price if I didn't have the coupons and it was around $105 (that doesn't include the Fekkai sample). That always makes me feel better about spending, when I save so much! If you haven't tried the Dr. Patricia Wexler skin care, you should. It's amazing. Then I went to AC Moore and got this:

That's a size three circular needle. I need to get one more (once I have another coupon), so I can do socks on two circular needles. I'm just a little tired of dealing with the dpns.

Okay, it's midnight. It's now or never. I went to qvc.com and ordered these: Item number J14149. There are Guardian Angels on the earrings. Cute. Leverbacks. (I love a leverback earring!) On waitlist. Well, if it's meant to be, it'll happen. If not, then I know it wasn't meant to be.

Our new senior pastor starts tomorrow. I'm so excited. This is the most optimistic time I remember at church in a long time - more than 6 years ago IMHO. There's also a reception for his family tomorrow afternoon. I'll report on the day tomorrow night.