VBS Explosion

By explosion I mean, we were shocked by the number of people who showed up for the last night of VBS. The kids got extra points for their side if they brought adults along with them. 141 people showed up for the program and the cookout!! Shoo!! God is good to us. We had enough food to go around thank goodness.

A real Goliath for the Bible story. My father in law on stilts.

As you can see, pretty full house!

Jay told the kids if they could get more than 103 people he would let them get him with water balloons. Needless to say he was soaked!

Getting ready for VBS 2009

Me and Jay - waiting for our Italian pie to arrive.

Here it is! Pizza ingredients in pie form...very thick. I can only eat one piece! I can eat several pieces of pizza, but this is a whole different story.

I spent some time rolling pennies tonight at the church and thought I would test out my camera. This is unedited and the focus and blurring are all done by the lens and camera.

The set up for VBS 2009 - God's Army - notice the helicopter on the platform. The rotor on top does go around!

Another picture using my new camera. He almost seems fake huh? I assure you he is real.

Lots of work this coming week, both at my regular job, second job and VBS :o) But thankfully, I have Friday off at the jail and VBS is over on Thursday night.

Happy Mother's Day

This morning we were excited to have the highest Sunday attendance since we came in August. God has really blessed our church. We have a new Christian family in our church and they have been a real blessing to us. They have stepped right in and really started getting involved.

We picked up 23 kids on our bus this morning!

Jay talking about Proverbs 31.

Jamie and I handed out the small pink flowers.

Jay and I headed out to pick up the kids at about 8:50 this morning.

Some of the gals we pick up.

Earliena stole my camera again and had some fun taking pics of herself.

I just wanted to thank two gals in particular, Kris W. and Tara M. Kris and Tim met us last night and we had dinner together. Kris handed me a green envelope last night and I totally forgot about it until this morning when I was headed out the door to church. I opened it up and it was a sparkly green card that said Happy Mother's Day. She had written a small note inside that brought tears to my eyes. Thanks also to Tara who sent me an e-card. How sweet of them to think of me.

Baptism Sunday

The not-so-clean green and brown water. Jay tried to get it cleaned out and even ran water through it and everything. The heater doesn't work so the water was Frigid!
Here are the three of us. Bradley was saved in January and we are so happy at how he is growing as a Christian. Jamie and I were having a tough time with our hair :o) I tried to have someone video the baptism, but my mistake was giving it to a teenager and she filmed Jay's torso (no head) and you can tell he is dunking someone, but that person is off the screen. Sigh! Oh well!

Orange Library

They will probably kill me for putting this on here, but everytime I see it, I smile. So I put it in a collage frame and it is now hanging in this room.

Some of my all time favorite books by authors Henderson, Wick, Kraus, Hunt and Kingsbury.

I tried to pick 'humorous' pics for this frame. The far left one isn't really humorous except to maybe those in the actual picture. The middle one is Ally on her horse, Dan. The one on the right is Ally in a plastic blow-up raft rowing away on the porch.

The orange corner with a 5 shelf bookcase (yes, I put it together all by myself). I actually had a third picture hanging below these two, but I dropped it and yes, it broke. Sigh!

A smaller bookcase (I put them all together) and the collage frame.

This corner is orange and yellow - I haven't done anything with the yellow wall yet. Someday I might get inspired but no one really sees this room since it is upstairs off the master bedroom.

This is looking into the orange room from the master bedroom. Yes, I realize the ancient trim around the window is dark brown and the bookcases and frames are black. Since the parsonage belongs to the church and the trim appears original I didn't want to ask about taking it down. Not to mention, it would cost money and take time to put new trim up. It has been varnished so many times it would take hours and hours to sand. So I made the decision to still buy black stuff in case I ever get my own house, because I know that is what I would want.

Okay you decorators out there, what do I put under the window? I thought about a little bench with a brightly colored pillow...or maybe some stenciled words trailing from one bookcase to the other??

These are not all my books, but a lot of them. I think I counted about 150. I haven't located the other boxes yet. Jay has 3 or 4 huge bookcases at the church and they are full of his books as well as some from the church, so I don't think I will be putting any of his books in here.

Oranges, Oranges and Grapefruit

As promised...part of my free purchases via Amazon.com, two dark brown leather ottomans. As you can see they are being used.

The smiling faces of two preachers, my honey and Mark Mander, a friend of ours from Northern Ireland. ANNOUNCEMENT: Due to an invitation from Mark, Jay and I are scheduled to go to Ireland next summer. As of now, our plans are to be there for two weeks and Jay is on the program to speak at two youth camps.

Oranges, oranges, oranges and grapefruits. One thing our church can do: fundraisers. We sold lots and lots of boxes of oranges and grapefruits.


Earliena decided to pose with the boxes of oranges.

First Week

Everything else in the house might be a wreck with boxes everywhere, but Jay was sure to get my quilts out and make sure they were "properly" displayed :o) (lol, he didn't quite get them on there evenly, but it was the thought that counted)

Well, my first week as the official "pastor's wife" has been interesting. I am having a hard time staying awake for a whole day. So far everyday this week (except tonight) I have come home and crashed for a couple hours of sleep. I have had mono in the past and I don't know if it is something like that or what.

Last night I came home and fell asleep on the couch. Jay called me at 6:19 and told me it's time to get up, "church starts in a few minutes." AAGGGHHH! I jumped up but my contacts were seemingly glued to the back of my eyelids. I kept blinking, blinking, blinking, but they weren't clearing up. I found my shoes, grabbed my keys and went to the back door to find someone mowing our lawn and another couple (no clue who they were) standing in our driveway beside a blue car, blocking my car from getting out of the garage. All the while blinking, trying to wake up, I am fumbling with the keys to the door and finally head towards the garage and I hear the lady say something about moving the car so I could get out. I got to the church and I think I was the last person to walk in. Nice!

Today I worked over 12 hours since our visitation clerk called off sick. I figured I could use the extra money for Hawaii. Thankfully Jay was able to do some moving of boxes today while I was at work. Mandy will be our first house guest. She leaves next week for Cayman so it will be neat to catch up with her.

Photos for the Curious

Pictures of the church.




This is the living room at the old apartment. Dozens and dozens of boxes!

The brilliantly painted bathroom at the house.

The kitchen


Living room (yes, I am still quilting away. I am nearly done with the first of the 4 borders around the quilt. I found the quilt sitting on the couch this afternoon with the binding sitting on top of it. My hubby must have found it in a box and thought I might need it. How sweet! Although it will be dozens of hours down the road before I am ready to put it on the quilt.)

Aaron, this is the chandelier I was talking about. Not at all my style. I am thinking of painting this room a pretty green, not really olive, but not really sage either. I will let you know the official color name when I find the right shade.

Upstairs master bed (yes, those are my shoes on the dresser...I know Dad, I don't need 4 inch heels but they are kinda fun to wear!)

Our small and cluttered master bath

Jasper, Jake and their new home. They both get a room!

One of my favorite things about the house: it has TWO porches :o) (Is it just me, or do my legs look abnormally long in this pic??)