3BC

That's my church. Third Baptist Church. I can't  begin to tell you how blessed I am by this place of worship! Of all the things I am most thankful for in Tennessee, this wonderful church family I've been given is at the top of the list.

Today I was blessed to spend a lot of my time at church within our children's ministry. I helped as an extra pair of hands during extended session (a rotation of mostly parents that serve about 1 Sunday a quarter during service) and then I filled in to help teach the 3's for life group. We have such an AWESOME group of kids at my church! I wish more people realized it. I know that's a normal wish amongst places of worship, but its true! I wish people knew how great these kids were. I wish people were knocking down doors to be able to spend time teaching the kids about Jesus. Just hearing them answer questions about what they learned about the Bible. Today we learned about Paul and Barnabas. About how they were missionaries and excited to tell others about Jesus. I love that these kids got that! And I hope its truth they keep with them forever =o)

Tonight I was expecting to spend the two hours I was there with 'Trail Mix Jr.", teaching but was instead blessed during the first hour to be able to go to a class instead =o) We have a Titus 2 ministry at 3BC. Women mentoring women. And since I'm normally spending time with the awesome kiddos, I haven't had a chance to go. But tonight, one of the awesome ladies in our church came in to my class and said I'm here to help! It was SO exciting to hear!!! And I was SO blessed to be able to start this 6 week session with ladies of all different age groups and stages of life. I can't wait to see what God is going to do =o) I already got to meet a new 'single' and invite her to our life group on Sunday mornings... God is good.

Second hour, I went back to my kids and took them upstairs where we spent time with the older group. I can't tell you how happy it made my heart to hear my 4 and 5 year olds answering questions before their older counterparts. It's a reassurance that they're listening... if you've worked with kids, you know it's nice to get that kind of a confirmation =o)

I can't wait to see what the future holds for at least these next 6 weeks... I *heart* my church, my church family, and my church 'kids'!!!

Appropriate for Children of All Ages...

or is it?

On Sunday I was helping with the 1's during extended session (which is a fancy way of saying it was my turn to help watch the kids during church), when I was looking at the books we had in the room. I noticed a book called 365 Read-Aloud Bedtime Bible Stories and decided to take a look.


Would you read these stories to your kids at night??




David's lookin' pretty... happy... there isn't he?

But here he is cutting the head off of Goliath... fierce





I thought I'd add the story of Stephen Stoned to Death for your reading pleasure...




Stephen gave to council a meaningful speech. Beginning from Abraham, he traced the history of the Jewish people. But the council became enraged. "Your ancestors persecuted every prophet," Stephen said. "These prophets predicted that Christ would come. And now you're his murderers." With a shout they rushed him. "Look," Stephen said, "the heavens are opened. There's Jesus standing next to God." They covered their ears and dragged him from Jerusalem. There Stephen was stoned to death. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, " he prayed. Then he knelt saying, "Don't hold this sin against them." And then Stephen died.
Questions: What did Stephen see in heaven? What did he pray about the people who stoned him to death?

Would your one-year old understand??

Back to the Eighties

I went to the coolest party ever on Saturday night!! It was totally awesome!! All of the biggest stars showed up!! We wanted to show our support for Hair Aid. It’s this gnarly fund raising concert event sponsored by Maqua Net Hairspray to raise some cash for research and development to totally design innovative ways to create bodaciously large hairstyles!! Fabulous, I know!

The party was held at the quaint home of our hostess Samantha Pinkman and her husband Peter Pinkman, scientist and famed ghost eliminator. We had some delicious cocktails (Shirley Temples) and got to mingle with all of the other famous people in attendance. Let’s see… there was the chairman of Hair Aid and Maqua Net CEO Biff Ewing; the Reverend James Cooker and his wife Glammy Ray; My best friend and pop singer, Gladonna. Break dancer Shaggy-Goo Oxide and his protégé Talex Towens (she’s narcoleptic); Atari Champion Buffy Bueller; Bobby Sue Petton the Olympic gold medalist who is a kleptomaniac and recently (as in that afternoon) stole my boyfriend, Moe Jontanna; which left me wide open to the annoying advances of Jeven Rearcie egotistical front man of a glam rock band; And of course, Mr. P (well known assassin) who we would fear to leave off the list of guests!

We realized early on in the night that everyone seemingly hated Moe. Which I loved, obviously; I mean he dumped me!! ME!!! Patty Plane!! He dumped Patty Plane!!! But even I was stunned when halfway through the evening Moe was murdered!! He was literally gagged with a spoon! It was horrible! And we had no idea who did it! I mean, like, even though I hated him, I didn’t kill him! And I know Gladonna has some assassins on her staff, but when she was saying that someone was terminated it was a member of her staff that made a mistake. But everyone had reasons of their own and just wanted Moe gone!! The one person no one expected is that it would be Samantha that killed him! I guess it’s always the quiet ones that you don’t expect. All she did was play with that annoying Rubik’s Cube all the time… it was really weird… Anyway, she did it, and accidentally left her freaky cube right next to his body!!

And poor Talex, with her narcolepsy problem, she didn’t even know if she did it or not! I mean, they were in the other room and she dropped in the middle of her break dancing and then he was killed! It’s a good thing Samantha admitted to the murder… people already blamed Talex as it was!

I bet I could use this party (and my heartbreak) to write a totally awesome song for me and my band the Brown Livers!!

Enjoy some photos from the paparazzi:

Destin '07

I went to Destin, FL over Labor day weekend on a retreat with my singles group from my church...

It was so much fun = ) We had a GREAT view from the girls condo...

The beach was amazing...

We made up some random volleyball/basketball/ultimate frisbee gmae in the pool that kept us and the people around the pool (and on balconies) very entertained... hahaha!!! (Yes, that is a Wal-Mart volleyball we were using!)

We went to McGuire's Irish pub for dinner one night. It was a blast!

I highly reccomend it to anyone going to Destin. But I don't really reccomend the Garbage Burger. Ricky got it and about 5 other people tried it (I would have if it wasn't for the whole vegetarian thing... really!!) Basically the people in the kitchen go around to the different stations and put whatever they want on it. This one had (from what I remember) saurekraut, peanut butter, banana peppers, jalepenos, olives, maranara sauce, guacamloe, and cheese... there was probably more, but that's what I remmeber hearing... Props to those who ate this disgusting thing!!

I had to put this picture in because I took it, and it looks like something the condo's should use in a brochure!!

The guys at times seemed uninterested in it all, but it could have been that we were waiting to get seated for dinner at The Back porch (also fabulous!) I wasn't there for this pic because I had stupidly left my purse on the beach (thankfully nothing was taken!!)

I think it was The Angels that kept it safe(aren't they cute!)

Here's a fun picture of me Andrea and Rachel...

We were trying to reproduce a picture from when we... decorated?... Ali's house =0) Although we're obviously not as tan!!!

We loved the sun... some more than others! Here are some varying shades of tan... hahaha

Overall, Destin '07 was a blast! I'm looking forward forward to Destin '08!!