The Third Place

I am very blessed to be part of a vibrant church that worships in an amazing facility that was built just a few years ago. We have benefited so much from the church leadership and their desire to create a "third place" for families and individuals to go. We spend tons of time there, and not just in worship services and meetings. Take today for example:

• We get to church at 7:30am and hang out in the Gathering while Kaylie gets her picture taken with her youth basketball team - yes, it is early, but there is a nice open area with tables and couches and room for the kids, so we can hang out and chat and forget it is early. Plus, soon Lori Julian, coffee queen extraordinaire, shows up and opens the Eagle Creek Coffee Company shop that is right there in the Gathering and you can get coffee and bagel and cinnamon roll and big chocolate chip cookie and muffins and on and on.
• Then Kaylie has a basketball game (which I have to admit, I pretty much missed, because I did not make it past the social phase of the morning and was still in the Gathering catching up with a very dear friend who I have not had the opportunity to see very often lately) - right there in the gym at church with the Traders Point youth basketball league.
• Then we have a brief layover, so we go to the Park, a huge indoor playland - STILL inside the church and the girls play for about 30 minutes.
• Then back to the Gathering for Jim and Hannah for her photos and then her game in the gym.
• Kaylie and I head to another area of the church for a "Fiber Arts" class on quiltmaking hosted, by the way, by Jean Abbott who has known me since forever - scary the things she probably knows.
• Then we did actually go off campus just for a smidge (well Jim did - yay Jim!) to get lunch. Alot of the time we bring it and eat in the Gathering, but we decided to go wild today and eat fast food, being the wacky folks we are.
• Finally, still at church, it was movie time with the special needs ministry where the kids watched a movie on the big screen and got to spread out on the floor with blankets and sleeping bags and pillows and eat popcorn and everything.

And then we had to go because we had been at church for almost 7 hours and the dogs were probably getting yellow eyes. But I LOVE that we have so much we can do there and the above is just part of what was happening there today. Yes, we need to be out being salt and light, too, but I still feel so blessed to have such a wonderful place to do so many things with my family!

Be a Hero

Oi! Been many moons since have blogged. Logging way too much time on Facebook. Anyway, local music duo Connersvine (Chris Wilson and Colts punter Hunter Smith) are getting ready to release their next single, Hero, and need grass roots help getting it promoted on the airways. It is a good song with a good message. I give it two thumbs up!

Go to their website, www.connersvine.com (creative, eh?), and check their blog for the message asking for support (post: "The Christian Radio") and a vdeo clip of Hunter talking about the song (post: "Hero"). Go to the post "AFC ProBowler 2009" and click the link to download the song and give it a listen (if you haven't heard it).

Sorry for not giving you multiple links for all this, but it is really easy to find it all in their blog - they are not frequent bloggers right now, so there is not alot to wade through.

Rock on!

Martin Luther King, Reader's Digest version

I hope no one finds this offensive, I thought it was cute.

Kaylie came home from school today and told me they watched a "thing" at school on Dr. Martin Luther King. All excited to hear about the lessons she learned from Dr. King, with great enthusiasm I asked, "What did you learn about Dr. Martin Luther King?!" She responded, "He had a hard time livin'," and walked out of the room.

And I guess that is all she had to say about that.

Daffodil Days

Today, on one of the coldest days in years, I went to the Daffodil Days Kickoff for the American Cancer Society. How fun to think about sunny spring flowers on such a chilly day! I love this fundraiser. If you haven't participated before, how it works is that you order a bunch of daffodils or a bunch with a vase, or a "Gift of Hope" where your donation purchases daffodils to be delivered to a local cancer patient. (Proceeds from all orders help fund vital ACS programs like Road to Recovery that provides rides to treatment for cancer patients.)

The fun part is that you get the daffodils and they are just these green stalks, and then BOOM!, next thing you know they are glorious yellow daffodils. It is so cool.

Last year, I felt bad because I encouraged a number of co-workers to order and told them about the lovely vases from previous years - and then the 2008 vases were green, a very spring-y green. Me, I love green, but I don't think it is what they were expecting. This year's vase (at least in our area) is purple (see below), what do you think of it? (I will have to put up a photo of some past years so you can see what I mean - although I think I broke one of the ones I really liked...)

Surely this is not...

Was going to add my two cents to the blogosphere, internet, and written history in general and wax philosophical about Tony Dungy, but I get all sappy and tear up just looking at today's paper.

I have always been cold and have been a human oven the past few days at work, wearing ever lighter and lighter fabrics and am running out of reasonable options. Still cannot keep from burning up at work - was fanning myself today. It was maybe 10 degrees outside.

Just started to tear up watching to opening for American Idol. American Idol.

This is just the beginning of the emotional and funky stuff that has been going on. Without giving away my age, let me just say I am way too young for any, shall we say "Changes" - so don't even mention that. Let's just hope it is one of my meds (um, that I need to get refilled) and maybe leave it at that. (But can somebody turn down the heat?)

Sam's Club

I love going to Sam's Club - well usually. Went today and don't know where all those people came from. We were having a lovely "wintery mix" outside and everyone is at Sam's. Don't they know they are supposed to be at the grocery store buying milk and bread?

Anyway, go into Sam's and wander around - always something new and different and ginormous to see (Unless you are a restaurant, can you ever in a lifetime use that big of a jar of mayo?). Walk past the sample lady grab a bite, eat it and pretend to look at a gallon jar of teryaki sauce, so I can go to the next lady and see what she has to eat. Yes, I go have a little something-something when I am there, but at least I don't hover around the little cart, waiting for the food to cook. Whatsupwiththat??? Instead, I pretend to be engrossed in the pomengranate juice label - pomengranate and blueberry, quite the combo - and then casually walk by once the goods are laid out.

One of my more recent Sam's appreciations is that they have caffeine-free Diet Coke - yes, I should not be drinking diet soda and yadda, yadda - but it is a treat I often get at the checkout (thirsty from all the food I ate, usually :) ). So today, get my big ole diet coke and direct my wobbly cart to the car in the snow. Am putting the cart into the cart corral, pushing cart with one mittened hand, holding precious diet coke with the other, and the soda slips out of my hand to the ground, the cup falls apart and the diet coke is no more. Devestation in the Sam's parking lot.

So I go home and tell the family my sad story - how first, all the recycling bins in the parking lot were filled and I couldn't drop off our stuff and then to make matters worse I-was-pushing-the-cart-into-the-cart-corral-and-was-holding-my-soda-with-the-other-hand-and-it-fell-to-the-ground-and-spilled-everywhere! (told in my most pitiful, woe is me voice) Both girls come over and give me big hugs; Kaylie says, "that story almost is going to make me cry too". Having a loving, sympathetic family is bliss. :)

Members of the Jury...

Hurrah! Elizabeth White, Clerk of the Marion Circuit Court, has mailed me a summons for Jury Service. For years I have waited for the good people of the Marion County Courts to realize my obvious worth as a potential juror and call me into duty, but they always ignore me and call up Jim instead. I was beginning to feel unloved. I even always vote and have been registered to vote since we moved from Boone County (where I never got called for Jury Duty either) - I have cars registered here - regularly frequent all kinds of local establishments - even forgot to pay my electric bill once and got the electricity cut off - all kinds of things to draw attention to myself.

My time has finally come. Now watch them not even call my group, or disqualify me. Silly bureaucrats and attorneys - don't they know I am in the .0000009% that want to serve? Actually, the way my life works, my jury pool will get called and I will have to get excused because I will need life saving surgery that day or something unavoidable like that...