Sunday Evening Post

I should be at church right now voting in our choice for an interim pastor but I have been horribly nauseated since waking from my nap earlier. I knew better than to let myself fall asleep.

The weekend was busy but not as much as last weekend. Friday night we took the stray pup that found his way to our business last week to the vet for shots and a check up.

Saturday I slept in and worked on laundry through out the day while I just kicked back and did some much needed scrapbooking. Saturday evening I met up with friends to go play putt-putt golf but since it was just 3 of us and it was extremely chilly outside we decided to forego an outdoor activity. Instead we went to a Chinese joint and Diana and I watched Sheila eat. Diana and I had already eaten so were not hungry. Then it was probably our last trip to Bobby's Frozen Custard for a Turtle Sundae and back to Sheila's to eat it where it was warm. I pooped out at 10 pm and decided to go home since I wanted to make the 8a.m. service the next morning.

I have done alot of scrapping this week & weekend. Considering I have not done much the past few weeks it felt very good to get some pages completed. I will leave you with my accomplishments since I am ready to go get a shower now! I may have posted some of these already but not sure so I am sorry if I am repeating myself!!

This was a Scrap Orchard challenge to scrap without using a photograph. I used 2 great kits to make this layout. Java Mama by Faith True & Cafe Date by Irene Alexeeva. Click on the image to be taken to my gallery post where you can read the journaling.

Another LO I did for the same challenge. I used the kit, Urban Dreamer, by Amy Stoffel. You can click in the image to go to my gallery post that has the journaling typed out.

I have had this photo of Trevor and I since June of this year and it was underexposed so it just sat on my hard drive. I read a tutorial this weekend for another Scrap Orchard challenge that showed me how to correct the exposure. I am still not thrilled with the photo because of the glare on my glasses but I love the photo of me & Trev so much I let it go! I used 2 kits by Amy Stoffel to create this layout....August & Autumn Garden. The word art is from TaylorMade Designs "Outside The Lines" kit.

This was done for the October Scrap Orchard RAK (random act of kindness) where you take someone else's photo and design a LO using it. I used the kit, Sand Pile, by Lorilei Murphy to do this one.

I posted this photo in my last blog post and here it is in a layout. I used the kit, Everyday, by Lorilei Murphy.

I love this photo of Trevor sitting in the rocks, especially after I did some photo editing to it. I used several kits to create this one and right now I cannot remember them (sorry)

Here is a series of photos of Trevor and his bubble mower. I think I used the kit The Bees Knees by Amy Stoffel but not quite sure at the moment.

I did this one some time ago but can't remember if I posted it. These are photos from an Autumn drive/hike in 2008. I used the kit Hanabi Hart to create this one.

Singles Conference Huge Success!

We said goodbye to Kent Bottenfield a little over an hour ago while outside of Farmer's Restaurant in Highland. It was such a let down to see him go. After the months and months of planning the FIRST Singles conference at FBC Maryville was an incredible success. Some might be inclined to follow that comment with the question, "So then, you had a large number turn out for the event?". To that I would reply "No, not a large number but the perfect number showed up." It was a success not because of numbers but because we honored God in every aspect of this event.

The preparation began Friday morning about 10:00 a.m. when my friend, Sheila, and I went to buy bottled water, soda, and various items for Kent's welcome bags. We arrived at the church at 12:30 p.m. and met up with others on the team to begin setting up tables & chairs in the gym. We decorated tables, arranged plates/napkins/utensils, stuffed carry-out bags, sorted through prize give-aways, etc etc. We left the church around 4:30 exhausted. We went to eat at Applebee's where we were entertained by Tyler and his impressions of Stuart & Lorraine. Okay, I was entertained and I entertained everyone with my hysterical laughter.

Saturday morning many of us arrived at the church by 10:45 a.m. to take care of the final details of getting registration tables in order, sorting t-shirts to sell, making copies of ice-breaker questions. The anticipation was mounting as 1:00 p.m. rolled around. We looked as though we would pounce on the first person to walk through the doors. It really was quite comical to look at. People began to arrive and the buzz started. My feet were insanely sore already. Soon it was nearing 2:00 p.m. and it was about to begin. Years of praying and a year of planning was about to unfold before us. I felt like a kid on Christmas morning eagerly ready to see the gift beneath the wrapping paper.

The worship band opened with 4 songs to bring us into an attitude of worship led by Brian Carr and the college band. Next was the human video by our very talented Steve Moutria. His ability to minister through these human videos just amazes me. I kid you not, you do not take your eyes off him the entire time he performs. We were so glad he had the forethought to ask us to move the video to the beginning of the conference vs. beginning of the concert.

Then it was on to the break-out sessions....1, 2 & 3. I was only able to listen in on 2 of the 3 due to a few glitches that came up. What I heard on the subjects of Flexibility, Unity and Purity was the heart of God and nothing short of that.

Now we are coming the really good part of this event. Yep, you guessed it, the food. Come on, we are Baptists and we love our food fellowships. Cuz let's face it, is there such a thing as a fellowship without good eats??? Oh no, no such thing! LOL We had purchased extra food just in case and there was SO much left over it was sickening! Farmer's restaurant out of Highland prepared it and we had Fried Chicken, Italian Roast Beef, Mostaccoli, Green Beans, Corn, Mash Tators, 2 Gravies, Salad, and bread. PLUS, delicious Boston Creme Torte Cake donated by our Sunday school teacher from his business. Seriously....insanely.....out of this world good eats!

We opened the concert at 6:45 with prize drawings and then Kent Bottenfield took the stage for his first set. Sitting in the very front row was bittersweet. While one moment I could sense Pastor Fred's presence and could easily picture him in my mind with that big grin on his face, lifting those eyebrows and doing that quick little head bob and giving us a thumbs up.....the next moment I was seeing the events of March 8th. Both visions would bring me to tears. And of course, I did not have my kleenex! Hello? I thought it was church policy to have boxes of kleenex in the front pews. If not, it should be!!!

The remainder of the concert was super and the presentation by African Vision of Hope was so informative but done in a way that did not bore you or turn you off. I pray their ministry was hugely blessed by the platform given through this event. Kent ended the night by grabbing the mike from Pastor John to make this announcement "I have NEVER, EVER done this in my performing career but I am asking you to please go out and buy my CD's. Every dime from those sales will go to AVOH." I just could have cried when I heard that. Humble, gentle, kind, compassionate, selfless man of God = Kent Bottenfield.

Afterwards we took Kent to......Applebee's! I don't eat there for 6 months and then I am there 2 days in a row. It was nice and relaxing to just sit and enjoy Kent's company.

Sunday Kent did the sermons of all 3 services. Wow!!! I could have listened to him speak all afternoon. He is a visual speaker and I LOVE visuals! He spoke on the subject of 'Intentional Pursuit of Godly Passion'. Purpose-Attitude-Satisfying-Sacrifice-Invest in Others-Non Negotiable was the acronym he used in his sermon. As always God gave yet another confirmation this was all HIS plan when Kent touched on several key notes of our class lesson from the previous hour.

After church our class & the speakers of the event took Kent to, no not Applebees, Farmer's in Highland. It seems most restaurants follow this code of architecture that states "Always design the dining rooms with high, open ceilings & tile floors so every sound echoes and when there is a room full of diners it is so loud no one can hear what the person sitting next to them is saying.....thus, your table turn around will be much faster and you will make more money" SERIOUSLY! Still, it was a delicious lunch and a great 1 1/2 hours of fellowship with Kent.

And then it was time to let Kent go so he could get back to his family and rest. This was an amazing weekend filled with great purpose....an attitude of worship....satisfaction of jobs abundantly well done....sacrificing of time and sleep....investing in others in our church and surrounding community....and the bringing forth of the non-negotiable Word of God. All this combined made for changed lives and what an incredible honor that God allowed me to be a part of it all.

Here I am with Kent outside the restaurant.

Miracles In The Midst of Agony

I promised you (7 days ago) a story about how miracles can be happening even while the world around us is in chaos. Read this story from my cousin's blog

"K was born on February 21, 2001 in Galveston, TX. Sadly, she was born very sick and it took a while to find out what was wrong. The doctors figured out there was something wrong with her liver when she was six weeks old. They tried every thing to make her better but nothing worked. In the end they said only a liver transplant could save her life.

When she was six months old she was severely ill, sick in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant. One bright September morning K's parents and doctors learned that a donor liver was available 800 miles away (in Nashville). However this was no ordinary morning, it was September 11, 2001. America was under attack, and as a result all airplanes were grounded. K's liver could not be flown to her in time. But nobody wanted to give up on K's liver. Many phone calls too place between Houston, Nashville, and Washington D.C. The Pentagon gave permission for the Air National Guard to fly the liver to Houston on a giant C130 military plane.

As a result K's life was saved. This heroic act saved one life on a day when thousands of others died. On the 8th anniversary of 9/11, K is a 3rd grader.

Such an amazing life story. As someone once phrased 'it gives me chicken skin' when I read it. You might know the phrase as 'goosebumps'.

I have been scrapping but just not posting, sorry. I will put a few on here before I leave. Dont' expect to see much from me until after 9/27 sometime. The Singles Conference & Concert that has been in the works for this whole year is now just 6 days away. All the loose ends must be tied up this week. I am taking off work Friday to allow for all the church prep work. Hopefully that will all me to rest up Friday night & Saturday morning before the event starts. Basically I will be living at FBCM from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. Hoping Grandma & Grandpa will take Molly for the weekend so she does not feel like an orphan doggie.

This was for a journaling challenge at Scrap Orchard. Since the 6 month anniversary of Pastor Fred's death and the 9/11 attacks fell in the same week AND I had failed to take my meds for depression for over a week......well, let's just say I was not in a happy place. I was terribly weepy that week. When I get weepy like that, I find writing is a great outlet. That was the inspiration for this LO.....my weepiness & love of writing!

This was for another SO template challenge. I used a new kit from LCC Amy Stoffel called Hanabi's Heart. The colors lend themselves to gorgeous fall pages.

Here is a LO I did last Saturday while sitting up at the church waiting for potential ticket purchasers. I was trying to decide what I wanted to scrap and came across this photo of me and my precious doggie, Little Bit aka Itty Bit. So, I did a Christmas page.

And you know my post would not be complete without a layout of at least ONE of the boys. These were some photos I stole from Andrea's camera while I had her SD card in my possession last week. I loved this series of pics with Trevor and his bubble lawn mower. My favorite photo is the one on the bottom to the left of the 2 smaller photos with his hat off. I think it looks like he is would be saying "I give UPPPPP....I have HAD it!!!!"

And here is another yesteryear layout using a photo of me from 17 years ago, yikes! Yes, this is a Glamour Shot photo and yes, I know, I had very big hair. No need to post comments about the hair, LOL!

A very fine weekend!!!

Well, this was a full weekend. Saturday I walked out the door at 7:30 a.m. and drove to my "2nd home"....WalMart. I had a list of things to pick up for sorting/organizing the t-shirts we are selling to raise funds for our singles conference in September. That list consisted of large rubbermaid containers, sharpie markers, large rubber bands, box tape & 2 school folders for the paperwork we need to keep track of. Finished at WM....check!

I cannot be that close to Starbucks and not get a mocha & blueberry scone. So, I drove through and got my caffeine fix....check!

I drove on up to Edwardsville to the printers to pick up the shirts and as usual, I was far too early. [I have a horrible sense of foretelling time]. So, I parked and liesurely sipped my mocha & nibbled my scone. A Venti size SB's drink usually lasts me up to 2 hours but this morning it was gone in 40 minutes. Hello? There had to be an invisible caffeine addict in the car with me stealing gulps of my mocha...no way did I down that in 40 minutes. Atleast that is the story I am sticking with.

The printer's opened at 9 a.m.....actually 8:59 a.m. according to my vehicle's clock. I walked in, handed over a check for $1000+ and walked out with 2 heavy boxes. I could not believe there was over a thousand dollars sitting in my trunk.....100% cotton shirts at that! I reached the church at about 9:30ish and started to lovely task of making 5 trips to/from my vehicle to unload the WalMart purchases & the $1000+ boxes of shirts into the church foyer.

The next 3 hours was spent making stenciled posters & sorting out the tshirts. Then I filled up the large rubbermaid containers and proceeded to load them on a flatbed cart and haul them up the elevator to the 2nd floor & unload them in our Sunday school room for the next morning. It was now 12:30 and I was very hungry & very tired.

I drove through Taco Bell and grabbed a bite to take home and I tried to nap before leaving at 3:30 to go to a Premier Jewelry show at 4:30. I did not get home from that until nearing 8 p.m.

Sheila & Ashlee came by to pick up Chandler-Bing [I dog-sitted for them while they were on vacation the past week] about 9:15 p.m.

Now, that was all just Saturday! Today I left the house at 7:50 a.m., went to McD's to pick up breakfast for class because I thought it was my day for it (it wasn't). I arrived at the church about 8:15 a.m. and started carrying chairs to our classroom while I waited for Ursula to arrive and help me prepare the t-shirt table. Then we lugged those containers filled with the $1000+ 100% cotton tshirts to the table and set it all up. I was sweating before 9 a.m.....at church.....in church clothes....how gross! We had several people come by & pick up their pre-ordered tshirts and even sold 7 or 8 of the extra shirts we bought just to have on hand to sell.

Church service was great....Reggie Joyner from Northpointe Church in Atlanta, GA did our services today. I was so excited when he said where he was from and that he works with Andy Stanley. I have talked about Andy before and how our singles group spent over a year with Andy as our Sunday school teacher on DVD. Can't say enough great stuff about Andy and his way of bringing God's truth to light through his awesome visualizations & wonderful speaking voice. Reggie was much the same in that respect....very much grabs your attention and keeps it. At times I found myself not breathing while he carried on several sentences without taking a breath. I am serious....I had to make myself breathe, lol. He, too, used some visuals and he kept out cameramen busy as he rarely stood in one place for more than a few seconds. He spoke about how if we have a spiritual goal we want to reach (or any goal for that matter) we need to strategize what needs to be done to reach that goal and then do it....keeping that end goal in our focus at all times. It is similar to how I learned to drive a car at age 15. I got behind the wheel and started slowly down the road with my eyes focused intently on.......the very front of the car. Looking up briefly to the road ahead but most of the time just directly at the front of the car's hood. It was very awkward and I remember asking my parent (probably my dad) how you keep from veering all over the place? He could tell what I was doing and explained I needed to look further down the road.....toward my goal. It seemed so very odd to hear that but sure enough, when I kept my eyes looking forward, that is when I was better able to "keep it in the middle of the road". Same with out Heavenly Maker....when we keep out eyes focused on Him, we will find ourselves on the path of His perfect will and not tripping & falling because we took our eyes off. Wow! What a great God-bit to take in to the new week.

After church we lugged all those containers of shirts out to my car and lugged myself home to rest. After all, isn't that what Sunday is supposed to be....a day of REST? Hello? Can I get an amen???

My weekend of course is not complete without some kind of scrapbooking layout. Below you will find something out of the ordinary for me to do in sb'ing. This style of sb'ing is called Fantasy. This is far from my style of doing layouts but I have to admit, I was drawn to this piece of artwork I found on Feed Your Soul....a place where artists can place their artwork for people to download for free. The hot air balloon in the layout below is from this website and was designed by Ellen Hozyra Currier and the moment I saw it I knew I had to use it in a layout. The balloon my my LO is a bit different as the flowers trailing off the basket did not extract well so I removed them. I added Trevor's little head popping up from the basket and then began the task of laying in papers & different effects to create the sky, ocean & beach scenes. I extracted another photo of Trevor to sit on the beach. Like I said, this is not my style but could not pass up the chance to use the balloon.

That was my weekend. It has been raining for a little while now and I decided rather than take a nap I would blog. Thanks for stopping by today.


CREDITS:
You Don't Know Me by Shawna Clingerman of Sweet Shoppe Designs
Summer Oasis by Cara Mia Designz at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking
Summer Sampler Week 5 from Sweet Shoppe Designs
Sand Pile by Lorilei Murphy of Rosey Posey Studio
Digital Compilations,Ocean Breezes, by Cinda at Faith Sisters
Rainbow's Touch by Laitha

Link to Feed Your Soul and the artist's original piece.....
http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/downloads/EllenKozyraCurrierl_fys.pdf

Singles Conference & Concert Coming Soon....

What? Singles Conference & Concert

When? Saturday, Sept 26, 2009 @ 2:00 pm

Where? First Baptist Church Maryville, 7110 State Route 162, Maryville, IL

Who? All single adults welcome....widowed, never married, divorced!!!

**Tickets Required--Advanced purchases $20.00 includes dinner; Day of concert $15.00 does NOT include dinner** Call 618-667-8221 for tickets.

Highlights....

Guest speakers include Kent Bottenfield, former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher turned singer/songwriter. John Harris, Adult Sunday School Minister at First Baptist Church Maryville. Angie Moutria, member of First Baptist Church Maryville. Three break out sessions being offered on the topics of flexibility, unity & purity.

Human Video - performed by First Baptist Church Maryville's very own Steve Moutria.

Dinner being catered by a local restaurant yet to be determined. ADVANCED TICKET PURCHASE required for the dinner.

Concert by Kent Bottenfield following dinner

Prize giveaways!!!!

If you are in need of an event that is designed to uplift, encourage & strengthen you in your singleness we sincerely hope you will come out and enjoy an afternoon & evening of fellowship.

Do you live a few hours away?? Fear not....we have several hotels within minutes of the conference venue and the event does not begin until 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. No excuses!!