All Aboard!!!!!!!

Just a little something to get us ready for next week!

Prayer for next week....

Next week I will be hosting a week of prayer for our VBS on here. I know the week is always stressful but my desire is to remind us daily of individuals or different needs that need to be addressed in prayer.

I have one that I want to start with today though. Begin praying for Mrs. Ann as she completes all the details. What a HUGE job she has on her hands. Remember everyone who will be helping Saturday with the final details and decorating. Pray for good attitudes and that everything will turn out well.

I'm excited to see what the week will bring and I can't wait to see lives of young children changed!

I will post a reminder each day of the different prayers but here is the outline we will be following:

Monday: Teachers. It's always hard for teachers. They have a very tough job. Pray that they will possess and show the students all of the fruits of the Spirit. We want the children to enjoy their week with us and to feel like we are happy they are there. More than anything we want to show them the love of Christ through our actions and words.
Tuesday: Mission teacher, Kitchen workers, Outside activity planners and Music Teachers. Remember that although these people do not teach a class, they do come in contact with the children each night. Their attitude is very important. Pray that they also exhibit the fruits of the Spirit to all the children they work with.
Wednesday: Students. Wednesday is the night we teach ABCs of becoming a Christian. Pray that students arrive with an open heart, no interruptions or distractions during the lesson and for lives to be changed!!
Thursday: Missionaries. We always have two summer missionaries helping out. Remember that we are not the only church they help. We need to pray for their renewed strength so they are able to face the next group of children at the next church.
Friday: Parents. Friday night is parent night and we need to pray that something we say or do can reach parent's who are in darkness.


We have such an awesome responsibility. God has blessed us each year with many many children during this week. Each year we are blessed to see lives changed through this ministry. My desire is that not one child walks away with a bad taste in his or her mouth for Christians. All it takes is one bad experience to turn some people away for good.

A Letter

Dear Cordova Mall,

I would like to say that I have been patient and understanding during the last what seems like 2 years of your remodeling the food court. I have walked around your construction and not complained. I have simply found other places to eat and never said a word. I always like to think of the fact that on the other side of construction and upgrades is a land of something better.

On Saturday, I visited the mall and thought I would venture to the "new and improved" food court. Fear and uncertainty best describe the feelings I had as I walked down what seemed like a mile long isle to the food court where I was harassed by cheap cell phone holder people and other various scary characters. I was unsure if I was still in the mall or in some trap corridor to a black market in some unknown location.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally arrived in the food court. I am not sure if you are aware of this fact, but downsizing from approximately 10-15 food options to only 5, is not better. In fact, it is what I would call a downsizing. Especially when 3 out of 5 were some type of Asian cuisine and one was a bad pizza place. The only redeeming eatery in the whole place was Chick-fil-A. Please don't take this the wrong way. I love Chinese food as much as the next person, but sometimes you just aren't in the mood for that or chicken. Come on Cordova Mall. What were you thinking?

I also noticed the seating area was smaller. If you've ever visited this mall, you will remember that it was practically impossible to find a seat before. Good luck now. Although, I can't imagine it will be as much of an issue with the fewer eating choices and all.

I also visited your new restrooms found in the same area. I must say that for new restrooms, they were filthy. In fact I stood there with a hard decision to make. Should I waddle to the bathrooms on the other end of the mall with this 6 gallons of diet coke on my bladder or risk catching something from using those restrooms. I chose risking the walk to the other side of the mall. I then trekked back to the food court to eat some Chinese food. This time I carried my pepper spray through the scary, never ending corridor leading to the food court.

In conclusion, basically I just wanted you to know that I don't feel my patience payed off in this situation. I don't feel like any improvements were made. Your "new and improved" food court is actually "slightly upgraded decor and disappointing".

Thank you,
A disgruntled shopper

The longest update ever and yet I have absolutely nothing interesting to say.

A long weekend. A long update.

So Saturday started with a fun day scheduled for the kids at church. It was raining so hard we had animals lining up two by two in the parking lot. Ok, not really, but it was totally raining so hard that I really thought no one would show up.

Wrong.

Three young children showed up and one of the youth. We let the small ones watch a movie and the big one went over to the youth center and hung out. At lunch we decided that we couldn't disappoint. That's right we broke out the old church van and decided to take them out for pizza. To paint the full picture of the "old church van" I will tell you a couple of things about it. I'm pretty sure it's at least 30 years old. It's so old school it has separate keys for the door and ignition. I'm also pretty sure it is a color blue that has never existed in nature.

Somehow, I was voted as driver. I've never driven this van before.....or anything even comparable in size. After finally getting the thing to crank, I pulled around back to pick the crew up. They had to load up extremely fast because the fumes would have killed them if they hadn't. My seat belt refused to tighten and so I slung it over my shoulder after many failed attempts at making it stay up.

I feel like this would be a good time to say "I'm sorry" to anyone who was behind us during our trip and I may or may not have done something offensive. Please forgive me as I had no way of knowing anyone was behind me. You see, there is no rear view mirror in our van. I also would like to say "I'm sorry" to anyone in front of me that I may or may not have done something offensive to. Please forgive me as our windshield wipers did not work very well and it was raining cats and dogs, causing great difficulty in my viewing the road properly.

So, yeah, we "rewarded" our kids with a ride in the death trap.

Even though only three showed up I really think they had a great time together.

I also acquired a nice little injury on my leg. While trying to quickly exit my car, grab my cell phone, my large diet coke and my keys all while running to escape the rain, I hit my leg on the car door and did this.

Note to self: You are not coordinated to do more than one thing at a time. Please do not try such fancy footwork in the future.

Since Old Navy was having a sale on flip-flops this Saturday, I decided to take a little trip and stock up. Of course, by the time I made it there, the walls were bare. It looked as if people thought these would be the last flip flops ever to be produced. Since I was already there, I figured I shouldn't waste the trip and I totally enjoyed my alone time. I'm also very proud to say that I kept the spending to a bare minimum. Yay me!

I did spend a huge amount of time looking around town for a new stroller for the little monster. His big bro's old stroller finally bit the dust and we are in desperate need of a new one. I don't want some huge awkward stroller, but I HATE umbrella strollers WITH A PASSION. I'm looking for something in between that won't break the bank. Mission still not accomplished. I'll be doing some online research today and hopefully we'll have a new one soon.

In between the kid day at church and my trip to Pensacola, I went grocery shopping at the store I hate with a passion. Wal-Mart. While I was in there I thought I'd grab a couple of preschool books to encourage Luke to fine tune his skills, which he has no interest in doing. Whatsoever. At. All.

I told him he could either do preschool at home like Madyson did or I would drop him off at preschool every morning. With absolutely no fear in his voice he looked up at me and said, "I double dog dare you."

Sunday was a very typical day at church and I'm very excited that we will be seeing three ministries combined next Sunday. We are combining choir, children's choir and VBS next Sunday morning. Our choir will be singing a VBS song while the children's choir does motions and sings as well. I'm SO excited!

Yesterday was without a doubt the most wasted day....EVER.


I planned on having a productive day. Back in February when mom broke her foot, all pool maintenance ceased. We now have a green mess on our hands. Every couple of years, we drain it and do a nice scrub down anyway, so I thought I would do that yesterday.


I woke up bright and early ready to take the big project on and accomplish as much as possible. (Thanks Julian Michaels for the extra energy!) It actually just turned out to be the day that wouldn't end.


The pump, which had not been turned on in a while, needed some repairs so we decided to just manually drain the pool. Thanks to my brother we had it draining at great speed. I began crawling around the deck and scrubbing the sides as far as I could reach. This left my knees feeling much like they did on day 1 of the shred if Julian had required us to crawl around on a scorching deck with nothing between the deck and our knees. Why didn't I just get in the pool? Green water=I can't see my feet=I'm not getting in=It's just gross and it's green and I'm not getting IN that water.

The pump was finally fixed which led to The Great Debate 2009. Should we allow it to continue draining manually or use the pump, which would make it faster. Using the pump also meant filling it back up enough to a certain point in order to prime the pump. So we had basically drained it to fill it back up only to find it was still not as fixed as they thought.

In a nutshell....it was a wasted day.

Nothing accomplished.

At all.

Except those sides cleaned which will probably be gross again today.

Ugh.

We'll start the draining process all over again this afternoon.

You know, if it doesn't rain for the 40th day in a row.

In the middle of the annoying event of draining the pool we had my grandmother there instructing us on our every. single. move.

To give you some insight on what type of person my grandmother is, think of Marie from Everybody Loves Raymond. Got it? Good.

Now I want you to imagine Marie as an overbearing, over emotional hypochondriac. On Steroids. Times twelve and a half.

Yeah. And unfortunately it's not as funny as a sitcom either.

Anyway, we had all had our fill and were about to lose our cool when there was a wasp attack. Now this wasp couldn't just sting anyone out there. OH NO! He HAD to sting her. Great.

In the middle of the great wasp sting 2009....Madyson kind of freaked out and said she was going inside since she was allergic to wasps. This was followed by a reaction from a grown-up that was similar to reactions I've heard from a 3 year old.

Madyson: I'm going inside. I'm allergic to wasps.

G-ma: No you are not.

Madyson: Yes, I am.

G-ma: Are not.

Me: Yes, she is.

G-ma: (Feeling as if a little of the spotlight had shifted from her for 3.45 seconds) Well, I'm allergic to children.

Me: Thinking, Oh please have a good comeback Madyson.

Madyson: Well, I'm allergic to English. (Which is my grandmother's last name.)

Me: Well done. Well done. Not bad for a 6 year old.

Now, please don't take all of that the wrong way. I love my grandmother. She's my grandmother. But we ALL have those relatives that really know how to get under our skin. I just like to keep things open and honest here.

I hope you all had a great weekend filled with pleasant little old lady grandmas, no rain and algae free pools. Oh yeah, and vans that are in working order.

Last night ended on a beautiful note at our house. I can't imagine Noah experiencing a more beautiful rainbow. And we had 2 rainbows! Awesome!

Hair Makeover

So, I had a little hair makeover. I wanted a more dramatic cut but I chickened out and altered it quite a bit.

Here is the before and after.

(Please excuse the blurry photos. I took these with my phone.)

VBS - 2 Weeks

It's that time again. Our church will be starting VBS two weeks from tonight. It's always a lot of work and we're usually dragging by the end of the week. This will be my fourth VBS at Zion Hill. My second working with the music. I taught a class the first two. No matter how much work or how tiring it has been, I can honestly say that God has blessed me each year. I'm trying not to focus on the negative. I'm looking forward to what God is going to do this year. I'm going to look for ways to minister and ways that God is going to bless me through the children we will be working with.

This is the post I wrote last year after VBS. It's amazing to see how God can use a child to teach us great lessons. I'm still working on that boldness I saw in Holly.

She's like Santa Claus....only meaner....

Yeah, so this morning my boss brought doughnuts. I was strong. I held off. I refused to eat one because I'm on a mission to shred myself.

But I ate one anyway.

Oh it was good.

The problem is that I've seen this banner on every site I've visited this morning since I ate that stinking doughnut.


It's like she knows or something.

I have to tell you that I really don't like Jillian or her "best girls." That workout stinks. I would MUCH rather be sitting in the recliner watching Lifetime.

I am excited to say though that my endurance is much better than it was in the beginning. I'm not dreading it like I was in the beginning. That was probably because I couldn't walk without saying "Ow, ow, ow, ow...."

I spent 10 minutes in the sanctuary last Sunday practicing walking up and down the steps so I didn't fall or cry out and double over in pain after I finished singing.

I'm thinking of rotating the workout though so I don't become bored with it. I think I'll rotate it with my steps and power walking or even jogging.

Here's to a healthier me! - You know, except for that doughnut.

I would put a title here, but it would make me cry....

This morning we sent off our little Kindergartener as we have every other day this year.

No, this picture has not been altered in any way. This is how she looks every morning when she leaves. She loves the school. HA. Actually, I'm still trying to figure out if this is the same child who wakes up at 5 a.m. on Saturdays but can't seem to find the motivation to make it to school during the week by 7:15. Odd.

She may have left like every other morning, but it wasn't at all a day like every other morning. Today our little princess graduated from Kindergarten.

Yes, it was emotional. Yes, I cried. I think the tears actually started when I could see the little hats marching by the side door. What can I say? Hats make me cry.

I actually had the same Kindergarten teacher that Madyson had this year. Before school started I sang some songs to her and told her that she would learn those same songs in Kindergarten. She rolled her eyes and told me I had NO idea what I was talking about.

I'm not the type to say "I told you so," but here is a picture of them singing one of those very same songs. The only difference is we sang the songs with a record player and now they have CDs. I like to pretend that my teacher was just WAY behind and that I'm not old enough that records were still a common way of playing music when I was that age.


Then it was time for the big moment.




As they left, "The World is a Rainbow" played.

And I cried.

Again.

Because songs make me cry.

Here is a pic of the two of us together after graduation.

Nineteen years ago this was my teacher. Madyson was blessed to have her this year. She is one of the best teachers ever! It was so much easier leaving her at school each day for the first year knowing she was with such a great person!

I was somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that almost every child in Kindergarten had parents I either graduated with or were within a couple years of my age. All of these former classmates surrounded me to see their child graduate with other smaller children sitting in their laps. I have to admit it made me wonder if I was going to have that chance and when. I'll probably be the "old mother" when it is finally my chance. It all almost made me sad that there were no more babies in the house.


And then I remembered these two guys.





Madyson:

I hope you know that I can't imagine loving another child more than I love you. You've brought our whole family so much joy. Even if I never have a child of my own, I consider myself blessed to be such a large part of your life. I know God has great things lined up for your future. I'm so proud of you! Way to go...You did it!

Love,

Nunni

Random

So, this lady just walked into our office trying to sell cleaner. To prove it is non-toxic, she literally opened the bottom and tasted it.

Weird.

____________________________________________________________

My nephew Luke has some slight speech issues. I try to correct certain things and help him sound them out.

This was a conversation from Saturday:

Luke: You need to turn weft. (left)

Me: Say La-la-left.

Luke: Wook. I'm not speaking to you wight now.

When Night Falls

Don't you just love a good prom theme?

I received a call on Friday night from my aunt asking me to drive my youngest cousin to a high school prom. She is part of the television production crew at her high school and was asked to film the prom. Since I'm such a HUGE sucker, I agreed.

On our ride to Pensacola, I asked T where she wanted to eat. In typical teenager fashion, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I dunno." I then began quizzing her on places she would or would not like to eat, which led to one of the funniest things I have heard in a while.

Me: "Have you ever been to a hibachi?"

T: "No....I don't like seafood."

Me: "Um, ok. How do you feel about Japanese though?"

Her first choice was Taco Bell. Because teenagers have such sophisticated palates. We, and by we I mean I, finally decided on Red Robin....which turned out to be a fatal decision. A prom party of 15 decided to eat there as well. When they paged us in we stood there and told three people we were M*** party of 2. However, it seemed the manager was more wrapped up in thinking she had somehow book 2 parties of 15 and was screaming all of this in my ear. In the meantime, they managed to give our table to another party. That may not have upset me half as bad if she hadn't said to me "We couldn't find you."

REALLY?

For those of you who have seen me in person, you know it would be impossible NOT to see me. I'm a pretty good sized girl along with some pretty wild hair and a loud mouth. I'm impossible NOT to see.

After Dining Disaster 2009, we finally made it to prom.

I was completely underwhelmed by the decorations. I find it extremely hard to believe that in 100s of students and several teacher sponsors, that not one single person has the slightest amount of creativity. I guess good decorating skills to high school kids equals a lot of cardboard stars with your name spelled out in glitter and lots of balloons.

Classy.

I'm not sure I've ever been in a room with so much polyester and tulle in my life. If one spark had gotten out from the candles, we would have all gone up in flames. I'm sure of it.

I'm also sure that approximately 90% of those in attendance do not own a mirror or they would NOT have left the house. Seriously.

Prom trends this year included a lot of dresses that reminded me of the inside of a coffin and splits up to the hoo hah.

Yes, I hear myself. Yes, I realize how old I'm suddenly starting to sound. (shudder)

I also noticed a certain little faux pas that inspired this week's Fashion Friday, so the trip wasn't a total loss. I know you'll be on your seats for the rest of the week in anticipation. I'm sure of it. I'll give you a hint.....footwear.

I also realized that some of those dance moves are the reason about 25% of those girls were either pregnant or had a child at the lead out. I honestly didn't know the human body could move in some of those ways. Seriously.

Anyway....

I had thought of doing a best and worst dressed list, but they're high school kids. I'll cut them some slack.

I did find myself standing there amused by the fact that they were all so sure this was "THE" most important event EVER. Ahh....high school. I can sum up my feelings on not being there anymore in one word........grateful.

How now brown cow.....

I have always had a thing for black. If there was an article of clothing I wanted and there were 10 colors to choose from....I was choosing black. In fact, I have an entire closet of nothing but black clothes. What's not to love? It's slimming. It goes with everything. It always looks classic.



I must admit my new obsession though. I'm starting to buy A LOT more brown. Brown is not a color I was very fond of in the past, but now I can't seem to get enough of it. I love it when it's paired with turquoise or pink.



I also happen to love brown when it's paired with black. Yes, black. This has been the topic of conversation for me on two occasions recently and I feel like it needs to be addressed. Both times, the other person was in complete shock that I was dare suggest black and brown could be worn together. Yes, my friend, they CAN be worn together.



I know that for years we were told NOT to pair these two....but times have changed and we know better now. I'll bet you've also been told not to wear white after Labor Day and we all know that's an outdated rule as well. I also recommend that you look at nature and animals to find cool color combinations. After all, those things are God's creations. Who are we to tell God he messed up on the cheetah and leopard?



Here are a few examples of black and brown working together.




Although, I HATE the bag in the last pic. But you get the idea right?

I also LOVE this belt.

The trick is keeping the brown a dark, rich shade like a chocolate brown. And don't forget khaki. Honestly, I know I joked about the leopard before, but it IS a really good place to look for your shades of brown that work well.

Now, before ending this post I feel like I MUST address this horrible thing that keeps popping up. The jumpsuit. WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHY? Haven't we ALREADY experienced the bubble romper thing once? Why would we do this to ourselves.......AGAIN? I already have enough pictures from my past of me in the one piece yuckiness and I refuse to go through that again.

Now, if you'll excuse me. I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.