Friday Night Concert

Friday night Mission Peoria had a Concert with a Cause.  All ticket proceeds went to backpack Peoria.  This year they brought in Colton Dixon.  For those American Idol fans, he was a finalist, but I'm not sure what year (because I am not a fan).  The concert was LOUD.  But it is fun to see the kids having so much fun.  And I had been at the services all week so loud became relative. :)

The guy in the green shirt?  That would be my brother.  He got on one of his friend's shoulders.

Thursday and Day 4 of Mission Peoria

Thursday morning started off good.  After being extremely tired Wednesday, I woke up refreshed on Thursday.  I got to work early to try and get some paperwork done before I started seeing clients.  I had two messages on my phone from a former client.  I was a little leery to call her back because I wasn't sure what she wanted to tell me, and I honestly assumed it was bad news.  It turned out to be the most edifying conversation.  She called to tell me a couple of success stories.  Not only was she crying, but I almost started crying as she shared with me skills she is using to maintain her family.  She also shared some things she continues to work on that she wasn't quite ready to work on when I was working with her.  She stated that if it wasn't for the work she did with me, her family would have fallen apart over something that happened recently.  I was on a client-success-story high!  :)  Which was a good thing because all of my clients were no shows for the day and I would have been really frustrated otherwise.

So I was able to get off work early and meet up with Dad to follow him around as he ran errands and drove to the different MetroKids sights.  This was fun because it was a new experience--normally I'm not off early enough to do this.

Then Thursday night Andy spoke at the worship service.  He talked about the dead bones passage from Ezekiel.  He illustrated, with a balloon, how God breathes life into us.  A balloon without air cannot function as a balloon should, just like we cannot function as God wants us to unless we allow Him to breath life into us.

He then had everyone come down and write on a piece of paper what they wanted God to breathe into them.

After the service, they headed into the sanctuary where they received a balloon to attach their card to.  And then they went outside.

When they rounded the corner, there was a hot air balloon in the parking lot.  The band led everyone in a worship song.

And then Andy led them in a prayer and when he said Amen, everyone released their balloons into the air.  It represented releasing those things to God and letting Him breathe them into our lives.

It was a good illustration that I think the kids will remember for a long time.

19 years and counting...

 I can't believe I'm posting this picture!  Ignore the very stylish Pebbles Flinstone earrings that I am wearing and focus on the cute baby in my arms.  This was Daynah when she was about a month old probably.  Isn't she so cute! :)  I'm sure I have better pictures of the two of us, but this one was in a frame and it's kind of late at night, so this is what I came up with.  19 years later...

And I can't so much hold her in my arms any more.  But I love her just as much now as I did then!

Mission Peoria, Night 2

Dad, Amy, Daynah, Josh, and 8 kids from the Acres are here this week for Mission Peoria. This is the third year they have been here and I have fallen into a kind of pattern with the week. I work during the day and spend the evenings at the church with the kids and Dad and Amy.

This first picture is from the first song the praise band did tonight. It's really cool because Andy, Ethan, and Clay King are all playing the drums.  Andy on the left, Ethan in the center, and Clay on the right. 

This banner says "Mission Peoria." The kids have the opportunity to come up and write prayer requests on it during worship.

The speaker presented the gospel in "words with friends" style.  Through Adam and Eve, all mankind was cursed.

But God provided Jesus as the cure for our sin problem.

Jesus rescued us by dying on the cross for our sins.

And through Jesus we can have security.

A very cool word picture that is easy to remember.

What movie does this make you think of?

I have been trying for weeks to get a picture of this little chipmunk!  He must live close to our back door because he is constantly darting back and forth.  And I mean darting.  He doesn't often sit still, which makes getting a picture very hard!  But every time I see him I think of the movie Enchanted and I smile.  The chipmunk might be my favorite character in the movie.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Birthday Mini Golf

For my birthday this year, I went mini golfing with some friends and had dessert at my house. I always forget how much I enjoy mini golf. I think it is because it is something that doesn't take any talent. I am such an inconsistent mini golfer. One hole I can get 10 on (except the most you can score is usually a 6) and the next I might get a hole in one. I didn't take very good pictures because I was too busy beating everyone! I actually was surprised that I won, and I didn't win by much. And they didn't even let me win, I did it all on my own.

My ball was nice and clean by the end of the game.  It spent a lot of time in the water.  If there was a hole with a water hazard, my ball found the water!

Like this one above.  My ball actually made it onto the green which was an island, but I hit it too hard and it went off the island on the other side into the water.  But remember, I still won...

Kinsey was a trooper because she doesn't really enjoy mini golf, but she likes me and wanted to celebrate my birthday with me.

Just before we left, I asked a lady to take our picture with the gorilla.  She was less than thrilled, as evidenced by how far away she is from us and that the gorilla was not facing the camera.  We had to turn to face her.  I wish I had some photo shop capabilities on my camera because when you zoom in, this picture is actually a really good one.

Birthday Baking

I love making my dessert for my birthday (something I have to argue with a lot of people). But as much as I love a day about me, I also enjoy doing for others on my birthday. This isn't the first time I made this dessert, but I enjoyed it the last time and have been craving chocolate chip cookie cake.

I kind of make a mess when I bake!  But I clean up my messes pretty well too.

The recipe was nothing but healthy!  You just think you see butter and brown sugar! :)

Ready for the oven.

And the finished product.  Pretty good.  The recipe called for almond extract, which I bought and added, but it was a little overpowering.  I might leave it out next time.

Speaking of traditions...

Here's a random one: pictures with my friends' little boy, Hudson. I mean, super random. They have two kids, but the picture is only with him (Sorry Taylor!). It started because when he was two weeks old I took a picture with him on my birthday at a softball game and then the next year I thought it would be fun to show how different he looked in one year. And it kind of morphed from there. Click here for the other three pictures. This year was the easiest year to get a picture (well, besides when he was two weeks old because he was sleeping). I love Hudson's expressions and I wish I could have an audio tape so you could hear him during this short photo shoot. At first he didn't want to take a picture but his parents said, "I bet you can't make Miss Teresa smile." And then it turned into trying to smoosh my face and a tickle fight!

This one might be my favorite:

In this one it looks like he is thumping me, but he is still tickling me:

And now it's my turn to tickle him!

 

The problem with this annual photo shoot is that I forget how old he is.  I know how many pictures we've taken, so I age him by a year.  Because we took the first one when he was an infant, I think he is 4 but he really just turned 3.  I just have to reason it out a little bit before I say his age out loud.

Fireworks!

It turns out my camera doesn't take very good firework pictures. I know it's because it is night time and I need a tripod, but it has a special fireworks setting, so I was hoping it would take good pictures. Needless to say, it wasn't what I expected, but they were still fun pictures because of the delay. So I decided share them anyway. :)

Here is the group waiting for the evening to start:

I thought this one looked a little like a flower, even if it didn't look that way in real life:

And a palm tree:

I love the fizzy ones:

And the ones that fade to gold:

Beginning of the finale:

End of the finale where it is nothing but booms that you can feel through your whole body and bright lights: