WOW

This was sent to me in an email because of the well, because of the power the message has. Enjoy!

Fun you say.......

So last Sunday Adventureland had their Open House for parents to see how the kids worship on Sundays. Was this a big deal you ask? You bet your sweet bippy it was! It meant that not only did we need to be there on time (not a prob for me) but we also had to pay extra attention to our details that we'd do every week. Read - I wore more glitter. :D I was snagged to be in Cosmic Blast the 2/3 grade room - with awesome music. So I knew that there would be parents who know me outside of church in that room as many of my kids friends from school attend our church. After everything was said and done first service one mom approached me and said that her daughter, who is firends with my middle child in 2nd grade, said she was so proud of me on stage. The mom went on to say how good I was and that she could never have done something like that. I do have to say it takes a little bit of talent, a lot of drama and flair and confidence. I'm working on the confidence part but I've got the other stuff in spades. I just LOVE being on the stage for the kids and the songs are fun to sing along with. I have another little girl in Discovery Planet the K/1 grade room that knows me outside the church as well. She is sooooo cute - she calls me the glitter lady. :) I'm not Becca's mom (my 1st grader) or the Half Mile Club lady (my job at the school) but the glitter lady from my Sunday mornings in Discovery Planet. But after the first week or so on stage I was treated to the "I know you! You go to my church and I saw you on stage last week." Type of 'celebrity' spottings from the kids at the school.

So today I find myself with a message from Celeste the wworship leader in Discovery Planet. I'm in both quite often depending on how many people know the songs and who needs more people. The message on my machine was to ask if I'd be willing to lead the songs in Discovery Planet this Sunday. YIKES! Remember what I said about confidence? Right, working on it. So why not dive right in here, sure why not. She asked me to do this because she is in Florida at the moment and if I am understanding right will not be back by Sunday morning. Thankfully they are songs that I already know and are really easy. One of the nicer things about Discovery Planet - the songs teach themselves, meaning they explain the movements in the song. Easy right? My main problem is that with the nice weather we are having in Michigan - nice meaning NO snow yet- my allergies are still acting up. Despite having frost twice already the darn weather keeps warming back up and I am a frog literally most mornings. So we will see how well I am talking let alone singing come Saturday night in preparation for Sunday morning. I'll keep you posted on how Sunday goes.

Oh and my kitten Jack is back to his healthy obnoxious self once again. Oops forgot to give him his meds last night.....better get on that soon.

When it rains it pours.........

So things were going great for a while. Then one of my good friends tells me "I'm fighting with our mutual friend and I'm ending the friendship with her." To sum up her words that is. The mutual friend was one she dragged me into a friendship with in the first place. Who I hadn't heard from in almost a month. Unusual for her as she used to call me every day when bored to talk. So I am trying to go to bed early on that Saturday evening to get up early on Sunday for worship team in Adventureland. And she calls me - the mutual friend - again and again until I simply pray for her to leave me alone so I can sleep. It worked then I am on my way to the church and I get a call from her again....and again once I am at the church and again roughly 10 minutes before we are set to start. What she tells me upsets me so much that there is no way I could be the bubbly happy person I normally am onstage. So I found one of my fellow worship team members and asked her to pray for me. We did - it worked in 5 minutes it was off my mind and I was smiling. I still haven't talked to the friend since but she is doing worse than she was then. Sadly I think she has hit rock bottom - something I prayed that she would do because I think it is the only thing that will snap her out of her problems - or so I hope.

But the worse part all happened this week and then my kitten got sick. :( He was fine Wednesday night and playing like normal. He seemed a little sluggish on Thursday morning. Then we noticed he was throwing up, not eating and having problems going potty. I watched him all day long to see if he'd get better. He was pitiful. We ended up taking him to the animal ER in my area and they wanted $500 to do tests and x-rays on him as well as meds and their normal $75 fee just for being there. EEK! Yeah there was no way I could do that as much as I wanted to find out what was wrong with him I don't have that much money set aside for anything. So the next estimate came back at $196. Closer to my price range. However, no testing or x-rays done. Just fluids and antibiotics and the feline leukemia testing. He was negative for that. So bye-bye Christmas money to save my kitten who still isn't eating today. But he isn't vomiting either. So we have improvement! I'm praying for him to get better as he is only 3.5 months old. He's sleeping right now and not liking being cooped up in my room -but its easier to clean one room than to have him have the run of the house.

I'm trying to kill myself......

So I have finally started working at the school on Mondays and Fridays - yay!!! But that s not what is going to kill me. So I've been on every weekend since the fall kickoff in the kids area for worship team. With the exception of one weekend that I ran away for the annual womens retreat with SLCC. This past weekend I was in the K-1 room because I got my pick of rooms this week. And well tuth be told I was unsure of the motions for the main song in the 2-3 room. Didn't matter - they were short frist service. So I was in there with a quick run through before starting and in the wrong shirt (lol). I only messed up once - not too bad. But man that song.....Click here"Everyday" by Hillsong Kids is the version we use but I can't find it on youtube.com. The difference is the kids version is faster and TONS of jumping and other handmotions. So after doign this and sitting on the stage singing "Shout to the Lord", I then had to quick run to the K-1 room and do "We're all singing". Which of course was even MORE jumping!!!! Don't get me wrong I LOVE being on the worship team but man am I out of shape for this kind of stuff.

Then I am walking with a friend in the mornings to get exercise. 4 miles to be exact. Tuesday after walking in the morning my other friend came and got me (read kidnapped me) for lunch and shopping at Walmart. SO guess how many miles I ended up walking that day?!?! 5, wait 6, no 4.5. Wrong a total of 8.5 miles. My shins were/are still killing me.

On to other things. My kitten now has worms. And I am now seeing how paying $100 to adopt a kitten is worth it because I'll pay at least that to get his shots, flea and deworming meds soon. >.<

New family member......

So a while back I was watching my friends cats while she was looking for a place to live. Loved the kitties. The grey tiger striped one is Zelda and the white and black is Otis. She got a place finally and her kitties went home *cries*. But she told me that she would pay me back for watching them and that she really appreciated it. So I got the call from her two days ago - she had a kitten for me. Mind you I've never had a cat of my own let alone a kitten. I have a cat now. But he is my sister-in-laws cat, who fell on some hard times and could not afford to feed the cats, dog and herself at the time. All the animals went to family/friends. We still have hers simply because I don't know why at this point any more. So last night I got to bring home my new little orange fluffy bundle. Its 6 almost 7 weeks old, all orange - just different shades, and is playing and bouncing all over the place in the room its staying in right now. I keep saying it - we were told it was a girl, my friend said she looked and thinks its a boy. One of my other friends sent me very helpful links to be able to tell and I am now thinking that it is a boy. And again I'm still calling it 'it'. We have no name for him. The family is fighting over the name ideas at this time. But I thought pumpkin this morning would work well - all the girls agree. But my hubby says 'no'. Come on its and orange cat! My brother suggested Garfield or Orange Cat. Hubby suggested bass, sub and I jokingly threw in woofer. How did we come up with these ones you ask. Well the dog (Birdy) scared the crap outta the kitty when we brought him home. So with him scared of Birdy then my other cat and he had a hissy fit - literally. So he hid under my hubby's computer desk on the -you guessed it - subwoofer. So at this point I'm calling it pumpkin.

Still waiting to hear about the job at the school. Which stinks as I was to sub next week once I was processed. Not happening now. However I have a twice a month job at the church watching the staff members kids during their meetings. The non-school age ones that is. I don't know how that will work. And its a paid position! So I get gas money and some spending money -yay.

Things that make you go EEEKKKKK!

So this past week was interesting. Wednesday kicked off the Women's small group (for those meeting Wednesday that is). I stuck with the same group because we were continuing our study. We did the Neighborhood Bible Study book on Mark last time and this time we are doing Acts (book 1 s.g.). I stuck with it because even though I have read the Bible I have never really studied it for any given purpose. So I thought I'll start at the basic sort of "Bible for Dummies" class - not that it was mind you. It was more the easier class of them all for those who had never studied the Bible before - ie. me the dummy. Well this time around we have a new leader (one of the old ones is still there) becauset they combined the Acts class with the Discovering the Bible class. I like this even though we are basically doing 2 studies at the same time. Why? you may ask. Well at our home church there is one Sunday School class that not only goes over the books in the Bible but goes over the History of Christianity. This other study is along those lines. I loved being in the class and learning about how things were decided and when people were persecuted in our timeline. It made it that much more real to me. But as I noticed - the only two from the Mark session were me and our leader. So this will be interesting to meet new women if they stay with us this time.

Thursday came and I was at the school that morning to make copies of our school newsletter and do some lamenating for teachers that needed it as we haven't gotten the schedule done for those volunteers yet. But that was my big thing until that evening when I had my very first Worship team practice. We got our copies of the songs and shirts for all areas that we may be working in. Then we did some practice songs. For me it was a workout, but I LOVED it. So I took home my cd to practice to and realized I knew maybe 2 songs on it and had no words for the others. So I sat and transcribed the ones I could and looked up the others online.

Friday was the volunteer meeting at the school. I roped a new kindergarten mom into working with me in the Motor Moms & Dads program. Didn't mean to put her on the spot but its so easy to do this one program. You just go when you kid is in school and you set your own schedule of volunteer time. We train you - how hard could it be. It really isn't all that hard. Really.

Saturday was family time and Sunday was the kids kickoff of the new year. It was my first morning as worship leader. By worship leader I mean I was more of an extra on the stage. I had my own little stage actually and I sang, sans mic, and danced/did the motions to the songs for both services. I was complimented by both teachers on who well I did and how good I looked. Yay because I was scared even though I wasn't going to show it. I just put on a smile and got up there and had fun. Besides when can I get to spend time playing with legos with a bunch of kids and then get up and dance and sing?

Its school time again.....

So we are finishing up the first week of school today ........ok so my caffene has kicked in! hehe Anyways as I'm a PTO board member we had our first official board meeting yesterday. And I have gotten involved in even more things this year again (*mental note - start getting there as the meeting starts so they ask someone else...LOL) But this is the first morning that I have not been at the girls school for any reason. The last two mornings I was there for the kindergarten bus kids. But really this isn't a big deal as I don't have to work around my youngest being home this year - she is in first grade now. Man they grow fast. So I have tons of free time. But I now have a potentiol job at the school and am just waiting to hear back from the mom in charge - literally - our principals kids go there too. But she is cool. Its only part-time but its better than nothing at this point in time.

And then when I went to post this it made me log back in and I lost the rest of this blog.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So lets see how much I remember of what I wrote here....

Our big project of the last few weeks has been getting our oldest into her own room in our house. This entailed moving the computers out of that room and into the living room; finding a new home for our loveseat couch; and me sorting through lots of crap that I had in the computer room, living room and my bedroom to make room for it all in my bedroom. So it also meant rearranging my room too. But I was happy about that part of it. But we got a free frame and box springs for her and just had to buy a mattress. Gotta love freecycle.org! Its the sorting of my stuff and getting rid of things that is the hard part for me. I've heard a lot about Pack Rats Anonymous lately......

Tonight I have new volunteer meeting for our church. I will be a worship leader in the 2/3 grade room. Which means I get to sing and jump around for the kids, run games, etc. I'm excited, my voice isn't that great but the other mom who is the only worship leader at this time said neither is hers - so I feel so much better about this than I did before. We won't start the new year until the 16th but again I'm excited. I chuckled because we also got a call about sheparding in the K/1 room where my youngest is. I can't do both and my hubby says he doesn't think he could handle it. Something along the lines of "my parents made too many commitments when we were kids and were always stretched thin." Doesn't matter that you set your availability schedule - he still says no. Oh well, what to do. I feel like this is the best place for us and that I am as at home here as I am in Lansing at South. But he is reluctant to commit to even being a member of the church because of the above reason. One to better and brighter things.....

My women's small group (Bible study) kicks off this week Wednesday so I am happy to see my friends from last years group again. I have always noticed that I glean more from the Bible through Bible studies. So I am looking forward to that and the Women's retreat at the end of this month throught SLCC. Well better get back to cleaning.....