CHURCH UNDER THE BRIDGE, PART 2

Our church helps at Church Under The Bridge once a quarter. A different ministry within the church participates with the missions ministry. In August, our choir helped. Yesterday, it was the youth's turn. Church is held every Sunday afternoon in downtown Houston beneath an interstate bridge. It's noisy, it smells bad and it's depressing. The people who go there go for a free meal and a comfy chair to relax in for a few hours. I can't imagine what they do the other 20 hours of the day. Here's some pics

This is one half of the crowd

J and his friends found the best seats

J doing his part of the cleanup (he doesn't empty trash at home very often)


The bus is about to leave and these girls can't quit singingWe fed about 150 homeless people a full Thanksgiving meal. I could learn a thing or two from them about being thankful. I was serving turkey and didn't get a picture of the tables where they were eating (next time I will) nor did I get a pic of the food.

Last week, our church hosted the Integrity Music Conference. Worship leaders from all over the US came to learn more about leading worship. I served as a greeter a couple of days showing people around. Thursday night was a free concert featuring Joel Auge, Paul Baloche and Lincoln Brewster (LR, you can stop reading here). I was greeting so had to depend on D & a couple of other friends to get us our seats because I couldn't go in early (as I had planned) to get our seats. Imagine my surprise when I got in and they were on the 2nd row! Wow! D. described it the next day as "I thought my buttons were going to pop off my shirt" it was so loud. Joel is an up and coming artist who sings most of his songs in falsetto. It was amazing!!! Jordan said he was his favorite. He only sang four songs and I wish it would've been more. Next up was Paul Baloche. I'm pretty sure he writes most of the songs we sing in church. He lives in a small town in Texas, speaks fluent French and is one of the happiest guys I've ever watched sing. Pure joy in every song singing praises to our Father. He entertained us between songs with stories about his church and how he writes songs. Here he is at the beginning of his set untangling his guitar cords. He used a wonderful example of how God untangles us before we can do our best for him.


Next up was Lincoln Brewster. I had seen him earlier in the day looking somewhat "normal" with unspiked hair, singing in the hallway with his band in perfect harmony. So cool. He has a new CD called "Today is the Day". Highly recommended. I've 'bout worn it out already. I lost count of how many songs he sang and was totally blown away with his guitar playing. The dude is a rock star!!! I took this pic from the big screen because my camera was doing weird stuff with the lighting.

To complelety change the subject, the flooring people won't be able to start our flooring until after Thanksgiving so it will be close to Christmas before everything is finished. I'm not complaining though, there's still peeps with tarps on their roofs in our neighborhood. Every day I hear the sound of progress being made. Lots of roofs are being repaired, fences being put up and trash hauled away.

Are you still reading? Bev, our Rockette is not in the traveling group. She will only perform in NYC. Her parents and sister are there this week for her opening. Her sister is "Arise and be all you can dream" blog on my list.

Have a great week. Probably won't blog until after Thanksgiving.

LOOK AT THE ROCKETTE!

I've bragged about the Rockette before. Go to http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/ and click on Nov. 26th. She's standing there over Rachel's right shoulder holding a gift. She'll be on the show Nov. 26th. How cool is that?

In a couple of days (not today, I'm getting ready to hang Christmas lights) I'll tell you about the fun concert at our church we had Thursday night. It was Paul Baloche and Lincoln Brewster.

I've been trying to think of something interesting all day to chat about. I'll do the factoid Linda mentioned later. We had a pretty quiet weekend....that happens when there are no kids around. Our church hosted a ladies holiday banquet Friday night. I helped decorate our "alto" table Friday. The gal I was helping is a decorator and we had one of the coolest tables there. Btw, this is no small banquet. There were over 700 ladies there! Our table had a '50s theme that you can't really see in this pic

That's a record player in the center. You remember those? You put a record on the turntable, put the arm thingie with the needle on it on the record and music comes out a tiny speaker. We also had pick-up-sticks, jacks, rock candy and all sorts of other '50s things scattered on our table. It was fun. Have I stopped lately to say how thankful I am for my girlfriends here? Very thankful.

Saturday was one of the most relaxing days I've had in a long time. Hubby has had major carp at work lately and he sat in his robe drinking coffee until 11:00 just being quiet and resting. We went to wally world to pick up his rx sunglasses, ate a quick lunch at sweet tomatoes, went to the harley store (it never ends) then tried to watch a little football on tv. There weren't any good games on til late. I'm in a "College Pick'em" game on espn with a couple of friends. I started off the year terrible (the week of the hurricane, I didn't even look at what I chose) but have been doing better the past 6 weeks until Sat. and I missed 5 of the 10 games! At least there's no money involved....only pride.

Sunday was a wonderful day of worship at church. They split our choir into halves and I now stand next to the drum cage (poor guys have to sit in a box). I just reread that sentence and realize it doesn't make any sense. The musicians are between the choir. Does that make sense? Singers on the ends? Music in the middle? Anyhoo, Sunday afternoon D & I drove over to College Station to take C and his new gf out to lunch. Remember all those blogs from the springtime when he and the other girl broke up? He's been dating a new girl (her name is Hillary, his name is Clinton, how funny is that?) that we like pretty well. J. got home around 10:00 pm. He went to Baton Rouge with his gf's family and went to the LSU game. They even bought him a t-shirt. I told him that shirt would probably get lost in the laundry like the socks do.

Which brings me back to Monday afternoon. We had another flooring guy come give us an estimate for our floor. The last guy was supposed to give us a great deal and if that's a great deal, we're not gonna put anything up there. It was outrageous!

Happy Monday everyone.

CHOOSING PICTURES....AGAIN

How I wish I lived in OKC where I know two gals who take awesome photographs. I had J's pics done a couple of weeks ago. I used the same British photograher as I used with C. She's great and back in 2006, was extremely affordable. She posted online so you could take a peek before going to choose the pics. I take this very seriously! It's an investment and a once in a lifetime thing. This time around I decided to have the pics done in the fall (was actually thinking J would still have his lifeguard tan, but she was gone a month then booked until the end of October) so I wouldn't have to deal with it in the spring around graduation time. So we went and had a fun time; I thought it was fun anyway. She took over 100 pictures, with changes of clothes, inside, outside around her country house, by the horses, the pool, etc. Then as we're getting ready to leave, her assistant tells me I need to schedule the viewing appointment. I said "Oh it makes it so easy to look at them online first" to which she replied in her proper English, "Sorreh luv, em not doing that unymore".

I almost choked.

Her.

Seems it was taking too long for folks to chose the pics even with them being available to look at. Aarrrrhhhhh!!! Okay, I'm a responsible, maybe a little flaky mom and can do this. After all, I'm only going to spend hundreds of dollars on these pics, right? So I go back the next week and watch the slide show. I cried. It's the music that does it. I struggled with this like crazy. J didn't go with me 'cause he was sitting home with the construction workers. I finally made my choices; spent way, way too much money; got home with my thumbnail pics only to hear from hubby "this one is a weird color" and from J. "this one looks like a regular pic". I had it with 'em both! Swallowed my tears and decided I'd make ANOTHER appointment to try again. So that's where I'm off to this afternoon.

I'll letcha know how THAT goes. J is going with me this time.

PARKING THE BUS

I have a friend hurting today. She's confused about a situation that seemed pretty clear a couple of days ago but obviously God has other plans for her family. Clint was fortunate to go on a mission trip years ago and his youth pastor posted the following blog while they were away. In my opinion, it's one of the clearest examples of God's vision being perfect while ours is not. Sorry for the repost. Hopefully Rob won't mind I've used his words....

"While driving around the parking lot looking for a place to park the bus, we had to turn down, between two rows of cars. Maneuvering the 57 passenger bus is no easy feat, especially when it's a tight spot. Through the mirror I was watching the side of the bus getting closer and closer to the car on the end of the row. I could tell the bus driver was getting a little nervous about hitting the car. In that moment my father, who was driving the van behind us with a clear look at the car and the bus, came over the radio and said, "you've got plenty of room". He then began to call out how far away we were. "You've got five feet..four feet...three feet...keep going,...you got it". Now from my vantage point I was willing to bet money (well not really bet money) that we were already on top of the car. From the limited vision I had in the mirror I was wincing just waiting for the impact. But my father had a clear, unhampered view. It was tough to go against what my eyes saw and not shout out, "STOP!!" After we got parked and got off the bus I thought about how our Heavenly Father always has the better vantage point. He always has a clear picture of our lives and every obstacle around them. And our vision is always limited. We don't see things the way He sees them. So what we must do is simply trust His voice and respond in obedience, even when we think we see something different with our own eyes. We must overcome our limited vision and learn to hear, trust and obey that voice of the One who sees everything.

We're praying for you, sweet friend.

MIND IF I RANT?

This is what I looked like after grocery shopping Saturday morning. I NEVER shop on Saturday because I'm convinced that's when people shop who have no brains. With the workers here all week, it was the only time I could go. Why do people park their buggies (btw, we call them buggies down here, not carts) on one side of the aisle then go study the salad dressing on the other side of the aisle? Now they're blocking the path of the already crazy store! And why give me a dirty look when I so very sweetly say "excuse me" when I try to get past? Don't the same rules follow as driving? Drive on the right side. And don't even get me started on folks that take their entire family shopping. I'm talking about mom, dad, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers and 14 kids! Holy moly, I felt like I'd been to Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving! And how 'bout the parking lot? My store has an over abundance of cart corrals where you're supposed to take the buggie back after unloading it. There are two on each side...in other words, there's no reason to leave it in the middle of the lot. I saw several able bodied MEN leave them! Whoa, it was all I could do not to whistle at them and tell them to put them where they belong. My store also has an area where they cook for you and hand out samples with the recipes. A lady almost elbowed me in the nose while I was waiting my turn for the sample of "Vera Cruz tamales".

I came home and announced I would NEVER go to the store again on Saturday morning. No one heard me except for the animals though. D. went on a bike ride and J. was still in bed!

Well, I feel better now. I feel a little ashamed for ranting as Alicia's blog about looking for powdered sugar and rice comes to mind.

Happy Monday everyone (and stay away from the crazy lady at the grocery store)

WHAT A WEEK!

Work progresses on the upstairs repair. The floor guy came yesterday and we chose a hardwood laminate. Looks like hardwood but is laminate. I couldn't tell the difference so we went with the cheaper. We ARE dealing with insurance money ya know. BTW, I'm going to write a letter to my insurance company and compliment them on the outstanding customer service we've received. I have NO complaints at all. They paid us quickly and were extremely professional. Then I'm going to write a letter to the mortgage company and compliment them too. They processed the paperwork I sent them a few weeks ago and released the entire amount of the check back to us!

Here's where we stand today


OUTSIDE

NO MORE DROOPY CEILING FAN

THE TRICKY CORNER

HE'S SHOWING ME HOW THE TEXTURE WILL GO ON

I gotta tell ya. These workers are a blessing! Only one of them came on Wed. and he remarked it was going to be pretty quiet upstairs. I told him he could turn on the radio in the bathroom if he wanted. I went up later and heard my Christian station playing and thought how considerate it was that he only turned it on and didn't change the station. Yesterday they had their own radio outside and again, I heard my station. I remarked to J. that they must've liked our music 'cause now they're listening to it. I told him about them using his radio but not changing the station. He said "mom, I had it on country". They DID change it...to MY station!! How cool is that?

We're going to J's girlfriend's football game tonight and are going to sit with her parents (she's on drill team, not football team). We've never met them before! Yikes! I'll let ya know how it goes. Those football games last a long time. And while we're talking about football. Oh my, isn't college football exciting this year? I was so hoping to score A & M/OU tickets for tomorrow's game but none of the Aggies would part with them. They are such passionate fans! Last week we cheered for the Red Raiders. This week we'll cheer for the Cowboys. Bev are you making the drive?

What Friday post would be complete without a picture of you know who? We go walking everyday and she fetches my shoes for me.

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE!

FOLLOW THIS LINK

As usual, she put it in much better words than I ever could....
http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/

DID YOU VOTE???

I started thinking about the first election I voted in. It was 1984 and I proudly cast my ballot for Ronald Reagan and George Bush. I lived in Ada, Oklahoma and I voted at Wintersmith Park. Do you remember where you first voted? I can also remember going with my mom to vote at the girl scout hut in Lindsay. I can still see her use the rubber X to stamp her votes. Then I started thinking about all the other places I've voted....my church in Owasso, my kid's elementary school in Moore, some other kid's school in Bakersfield lol. I took Clint with me in 1988. We had just moved there. He was 8 months old and I didn't know anyone to leave him with, so he went too. We have video of him playing in the floor with the presidential debate going on between Bush and Dukakis. Wonder whatever happened to him? I see Bush at Astros baseball games (on tv, he sits behind home plate...I sit no where near home plate) and even saw Barbara Bush sitting at a stop light one day!! I wanted to knock on her window and wave but thought that might scare her and the security detail would arrest me. Anyway, I also remember voting in Midland at a school. I had BOTH boys in tow that time and J. was awful!!! Now I vote in Tomball at the public works building.

Where ever I live, I'm grateful for the chance to vote.

THE BIRFDAY POST

I had a wonderful day Saturday. Thank you for the greetings btw. My sister and in-laws sent me cash so that was a great way to begin the day. I got my nails done. They were a mess. I stopped at the garden center on the way home to buy some pansies. It's still too warm to plant them here, but I planted them anyway. Will have to water them daily for a couple more weeks. Hubby took J and me for a quick supper. C had to work after the Aggie game so he wasn't going to be home until late. I got some really cool gifts. J gave me this solar powered garden globe

It glows at night. He said they had an orange one but went with the green since orange is a no-no color down here. Not the bright OSU orange, the OTHER orange.

Hubby gave me this giant pop-out card. We started giving each other pop-out cards many years ago. The bigger, the better. I don't think he even reads them but buys them as long as they pop-out. This one popped out AND unfolded! Woo Hoo!!

We aren't serious-mushy card givers in our house.

Hubby also gave me my first Harley clothing item.

Now I'll look cool next time we go riding. He gave me a ride to meet my friends a couple of weeks ago when we went to the scarecrow festival. One of the gals commented on my yellow t-shirt and said it didn't look very tough. I also had on keds which probably wasn't very tough either.

MY SWEETIES!!!

Bailey wasn't ready

We went to lunch after church yesterday to finish off the birthday celebration. Oh and I almost forgot, Hubby & J bought me an enormous cake from a fancy schmancy bakery. It was delicous!

C brought me a new coffee mug and a bag of Starbuck's breakfast blend. He's so funny. He's developed into a coffee mug freak. He buys them all the time. I bet he has 20 that he's picked up at odd places.

Here's a pic of J and his girlfriend. Aren't they cute? She went to lunch with us on Sunday.

The workers are back again today bright and early. I'll spare you a construction pic today.

Happy Monday....one more day of the Beatles Birthday song for ya.