Busy Bee

It's the beginning of a very busy week in my part of the world. We had awesome church on Sunday night, our last service before we move into our new building, Yah!

I am so excited! Change is always good, sometimes scary, but in this case exciting. I am ecstatic about what God has planned for my church.

Our first service in the new building was supposed to be the weekend before Christmas but things fell through. Our first service *fingers crossed* will be this Thursday. I will take some pictures to share.

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Onto the weather... It has poured buckets the last couple of days. We don't normally get rain like this in Orange County. It rained so bad on Saturday night that we went out to eat and came right home and sat by the fire, no point in getting soaked. Sunday was coooooooold! I am sure my cold is warm for everyone that has snow on their ground right now.

Since we don't usually have oodles of rain, the drivers do not seem to know how to maneuver a vehicle. Lots of accidents and spin outs. Oh yes, and slow pokes. It takes forever to get somewhere

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Funny kid antics happened again this past weekend. Since we are still in the middle of the move, we blocked in the kids again and did a lesson on How Important Your Brothers & Sisters Are. We split them into groups of two and had them join together to come up with a talent such as singing, acting, making a joke, ect.

The little boy known here as the Robot Kid sang a song that I did not expect him to know... Also in this video montage, one group decided to do a catwalk. I believe the Robot Kid did not get the fact that girls and boys walk differently... My pastors son did not show by example. lol!

Live Long & Prosper

Are you interested in finding out how long you will live? Well now is the chance! =)

Click here and see what your life expectancy is.

I am virtually 13.9 years old and will live to be 84! Woohoo!

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How Old Are You?

A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch.

"I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?"

"I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise."

"That's amazing," the woman said. "How old are you?'

"Twenty-six," he said.

The Robot Kid

This past Sunday morning my sister and I had the kids. All the kids. Ranging in age from 3 years old to 11 years old. Our church is in the middle of a move so things were everywhere. We enclosed the kids in a circle of chairs and played Bible Trivia Hot Potato towards the end.

Some of the answers were as follows:

Cathy: What were the names of Noah's sons?
Dillon (11): Hmmm...
Cathy: I'll give you a hint, one is a meat.
Dillon (11): Steak!

It landed on Dillon again and we heard another funny answer.

Cathy: Who was the richest man in the Bible?
Dillon (11): Ohhh! Esau!
Cathy: No...
Dillon (11): No No, I meant Lysol!
*lots of laughter*
Cathy: No, that was the cleanest man in the Bible!

In the middle of the trivia hot potato the kids started getting antsy, so we had a dance break. One little boy was breaking some moves...

The Screamer, The Song Writer, & The Nose Picker

I came across this picture of my nephew and had to share... He's actually my cousins baby, but she is like a sister rather than a cousin, so he is my nephew =). He was a screamer when he was a baby. Not just a normal baby scream, this was a "I'm mad and I won't give in" scream. I don't know anyone that has a pair of lungs like him. He would go for hours and not give in even though you could tell he was exhausting himself. Now he's 1 1/2 and gives his lungs a little rest.

Let me start this next section with a disclaimer: I am not responsible for any offense taken from this point on *cough* Peter *cough*. Your actions were caught on camera, my camera, therefore they can be shown on my blog, *cough* Peter *cough*.

Here is another screamer. Okay, maybe not a screamer, but he can be loud. He plays his music LOUDLY in the house. He sings LOUD. He does not like to be shushed, I learned this the hard way. He got a gift card for Christmas and went shopping at Guitar Center, what does he buy? and amp! So he can be even louder if that's possible. I can say though that his voice is very soothing, at times. He writes great music and can play anything he puts his mind to. He has no professional training. This talent was self taught.

Ladies and Gentleman I bring you *drum roll* - My brother Peter

(note: in his defense, he was in the wrong key but just went with it. He actually does sing good.)

Okay, here's another one...

My sister is a type of screamer too. Maybe my nephew got his lungs from her... She has never needed a mic, she can belt out and people can hear her in the back of the building. We both sing in a trio at our church, I sing soprano, she sings alto. My mic is pushed up as high is it can go on the sound board, while her mic is not so high. I hear it all the time "Your so quite and your sisters so loud", drives us both crazy.

She writes music too and is in the process of making her first CD. Here she is, messing around with Peter on the guitar.

Are you done with videos? Well, since it's MY blog, here's one more... lol, =)

My sister thought that I was taking a picture and not recording. My brother got caught semi picking his nose, he wasn't too happy. You can tell this by what he says to me...

Married to Your Twin?!?

Can you imagine, finding the love of your life, building a relationship, planning your wedding, getting married, going on your honeymoon only to find out that the resemblance you found in each other wasn't a coincidence?

This is a sad strange story of twins separated at birth, meeting later in life and falling in love! They found out that they were twins after they were married! So sad and of course I know your thinking icky, right? Me too. I can only imagine what was going through their heads when someone said, "Your wife/husband is your twin, sorry your parents didn't mention this before." I think it's a good idea for adopted kids to search out their biological parents. There is valuable information to be found. This is not just an opinion, I know this as a fact. One of the important thing to know is what your families health issues, if any, are. Also, do you have a twin out there?

Just a thought, if you look too much like your fiance, don't marry them! lol!

"God You're The Best Ever"

This post hits on a mix of things that happened last night in Kidz Praize Zone...

Last night we had a joint session for Kidz Praize Zone. Each teacher took one of the ten commandments and came up with their own visualizations and creative ways to bring this to the kids in a new way.

I was the last one with the tenth commandment, "thou shall not covet". I wrapped a gift for each kid before hand and numbered them. Some were in bags, some were in bright tissues, some were in construction paper, one was wrapped in brown paper with scribbles and one was in a really bright bag with a squiggly eyed elephant on the front.

I first taught about King Ahab and Jezebel and how King Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard and how Jezebel made up a scheme that had Naboth killed. I then passed a jar around with numbers for the kids to pull. After the jar was passed we called the numbers and the kids came up for their gift.

I asked a few kids if they got what they wanted, some were happy some weren't. They wanted the elephant bag. I let them open their different sized gifts to find the exact same thing, a lollipop and a kit-kat. I explained that sometimes in life someone may have something that looks better than what we have. They may sing better, have better toys, ride a horse better (we've got some cowboys), have better looking clothes, but we can't be covetous. God's got the same prize for all of us, Heaven.

As we were praying for dismissal, I stood next to the resident rascal, my pastor's son, Colton. He is our little cowboy. I heard him fiercely whispering something. I leaned down to hear a little better and heard him saying, "I love you God, God you're the best ever!"

I can only imagine what that meant to him - Better than horses, better than candy, better than hot Cheetos, better than everything in Nana's office (my mom's office. she spoils him rotten)... God your the best ever!

Book & Movie Rolled Into One

I am a huge fan of movies made from Jane Austen books. My all time favorite movie is Pride & Prejudice, the A&E version. I have seen this movie so many times, I can tell you phrases, scenes, characters names... I haven't seen a movie in this time period that I liked even half as much until this week.

I rented Wives & Daughters, a BBC movie, this week after a blogging friend mentioned a while back that they saw it and it was worth sitting through.

4 hours later, well more like 20 hours later, I finished this movie. I loved it. The characters, the story line. Everything about it was wonderful! Some parts reminded me of Pride & Prejudice.
If you like a good movie like I do, I would suggest you rent this. I love movies where it feels like you just read a really good book and you think about the plot and characters long after it has finished. Weird I know, but it's true. I don't know if all avid readers feel this way, but I would rather be reading than watching a movie or tv. So when I find a movie that has it all rolled up in one... it's wonderful. I think I've said the word wonderful one too many times by now. Rent it or buy it, just see it. It's worth the 4 hours.

Nothing much to say...

I haven't written in a few days, I don't seem to have anything interesting to say or it could be that I am so busy, I feel like a chicken running around with it's head cut off.

Oh yes! I do want to wish my Grandmother a Happy Birthday. We celebrated at a restaurant that she likes in Mission Viejo on Saturday. Our family rarely gets a chance to get together even though we generally live close to one another. Life is just way to busy. So this was a nice treat.

My mom, myself, Gramms

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Do you know those days when things are so laid back, there's nothing that has to be done? No need to rush off anywhere, no obligations? That day for me was Saturday. After coming home from lunch with my family, I snuggled up next to the fire pulled out Kissing Adrien and just read. I haven't had a day like that in... well, I can't remember, it was wonderful! You could hear the rain pattering away on the roof and the smell of gumbo cooking on the stove. Heaven on earth. At least to me.

I think God was giving me some peace between the storm. I had the worst day on Friday and then coming into work on Monday... ugh! I am so swamped, my office is covered, again, in paperwork. That is one reason why I haven't been blogging. Hopefully it will die down soon. **fingers crossed**

Happy Birthday, Grandma

Today is my Grandma's 81st birthday. She was in her early twenties in the picture on the left.
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The past few weeks have been pretty tough. Not having her at Christmas was hard.
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We celebrated her 8oth birthday last year in the clubhouse at her condo. Everyone knew better than to surprise her, she wanted to know every detail and exactly who was going to be there before she agreed to let a party be thrown.
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The last time I went for a visit her was a couple of weeks before she was hospitalized. Peter, Sonia, and I took her In-N-Out Cheeseburgers for dinner to celebrate Mothers Day. She loved cheeseburgers.
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She was the type of women who liked to be in small groups, mainly her family. She was shy at times but very feisty. Always well put together, her hair had to be perfect. The day after she was admitted I went to the store to get her a gift and immediately went to the aisle withe the brushes and hair accessories. I bought some combs and clips and did her hair that morning. She wasn't too happy with the job. I had to tweak it and then hand her a mirror so she could fix it herself, the right way.
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Happy Birthday Grandma, I am sure you're happy to be out of an 80 year old body and into a new "body" that will last for eternity with no arthritis! I miss you terribly and at times it seems like the "missing" is getting worse. I can't wait until I can see you again - Deba

My New Years

My normal New Years plans were changed at the last minute. I was bummed but still ended having a fun time... sort of.


Normally on New Years we have a watch night service at my church. We start around 9:00 and end sometimes after midnight. We then very carefully go to Denny's (yuck, not a Denny's girl) and eat breakfast at 2:something. This year we couldn't get a space since we are waiting for escrow to close on our new building. Everyone decided to get together at the church for potluck and games. I mainly sat on the computer in my mom's office and read blogs, exciting way to ring in the New Year. Around 11PM I headed out to join the party. About 15 minutes to midnight someone gave the kids horns. My head is still hurting. They blew their horns for 15 straight minutes. Once the countdown was done, everyone kissed and hugged and confetti was everywhere. My sister should have a video up soon, hopefully I was edited out. I will just warn you now that I was the grump, for no clear reason, saying "Why are you taking video? Why? Turn it off!"




I watched Dick Clarks Rockin' Eve when I got home knowing that I could sleep in the next morning. I started baking after I dragged myself out of bed on New Years. These Devil's Food Cupcakes were so good! They came out perfect! I also baked a Godiva cake for our neighbor as a "Happy New Year" gift.

For dinner we had crabbed stuffed salmon, steak with blue cheese, scalloped potatoes, bread with herb butter, baked beans with crispy bacon and garden salad with homemade buttermilk ranch. The last calorie binge before the whole "let's lose weight" idea tries to kick in. This picture is an absolute mess, I was too concerned about digging in to make it look pretty.

I spent the rest of the evening lounging on the couch talking about how I was going to do some scrapbooking and read... until I found a good show on HGTV about the Dream House (should have been called "In Your Dreams") and decided to continue being lazy.

Introducing... Been There, Done That

My mom has been blogging for about one year now on a private blog that only a selected few can read. I finally got her to do another blog that everyone can read. My mom is an excellent writer, she loves to talk about the Bible, especially the Old Testament. She has great advice for SAHM. She's the corporate secretary for our church and ABN network. This is just a volunteer thing that she does and absolutely loves it. She has a whole lot to say and share so stop on over and check her out she'd love to hear from you!

www.ybngy.blogspot.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2008 IS HERE!!