Crafts Have Gone Too Far...

I've been online searching for images for an evite that I'm putting together for our next Pipeline All Volunteer meeting.

This is what I found...

A crocheted, hamburger dress.

And if that wasn't enough, you can get the candy corn purse to go with it.

I am such a geek

I am currently sitting at the Embassy Suites hotel in Frisco Texas. I've been here since Thursday morning. We were supposed to fly in Wednesday evening but there was a storm. We got diverted to Houston. I have to say it was pretty amazing seeing the lighting in the clouds as we were flying through them. It was slightly scary, but definitely cool looking. Anyway, we got diverted to Houston and landed in Dallas 4 hours after we were supposed to. Then we get to the rental car agency and they have only one car left on the lot. Amazingly we all fit into it, with luggage. God truly does work miracles. We get to the hotel and they had given away one of our rooms so there was only one room for all 6 of us. They shipped 3 of us off to a difference hotel for the evening. Luckily, or rather, by the grace of God, things calmed down yesterday and have been going smoothly since.

Anyway, the reason I'm at the Embassy Suites in Frisco Texas is for a conference. Not just any conference, but a geek conference. I'm here to learn more about Fellowship Technologies. This is the program that our church uses as much as possible. We are always learning new ways in which we can use the program. So, I'm here to learn how to better implement the program. It has been AMAZING! I've learned so much. I've gotten tons of tips on how to better apply functions and how to troubleshoot current problems. I went to an amazing session by Mark Lindsley on how to better format event registration. Online camp sign-ups are going to go so much smoother next year. I'm really excited about what's being covered and how to apply it when we get home.

We actually have tonight off, so we're going to a minor league baseball game. The field sits right behind the hotel, so we'll veg for an hour or so before the game starts and head over and relax and fellowship together.

It's been great! I'm loving it!

I figured it out...

Today was my uncles funeral. I didn't attend the funeral because it was in Ohio. I've been having a rough week and I couldn't figure out why, until yesterday evening. My mom called me to tell me that they were putting together my uncles memorial board and she was missing my help. After I got off the phone I realized that putting together the memorial board is how I've dealt with the deaths in my family. When my aunt passed away 5 years ago, I put together her memorial board and put together a disc of music to be played at the service. When my grandmother passed away in January, I put together her memorial board and helped pick out the hymns that would be sung at her service. I have not help in any way with my uncles memorial service. I didn't get to put together the memorial board and I didn't help with the music in any way.

My poor students, I've gotten so frustrated with them this week over little things that wouldn't normally bother me. Hopefully I'll do better next week with keeping my personal frustrations from intruding on my work.

Reading

I thought I’d post about what I’m reading. I thought about doing it at the beginning of the New Year, but for some reason never got around to it.

At the start of the New Year I made the decision that I was going to do a daily devotional. I remembered Matt talking about a daily prayer book that he was having the church staff go through, so off I went to the store to see if I could find it. Lo and behold, there is was on the shelf so I picked it up.

However there was also another daily devotional book I saw that looked pretty interesting, so I picked that up as well.

While the first book helps put me in the right frame of mind as far as praying first and foremost in my life, the second book helps me make that connection between a biblical figure and a modern day situation. It’s amazing how often the two devotions overlap to cover the same topic. I think God’s trying to get me to realize something.

About the same time that I decided to start a daily devotion my small group was challenged by our leader to pick one spiritual area to work on and a personal area to work on. Well, my spiritual area was decided upon, daily devotionals to bring me closer to God on a daily basis. My personal area was that I had decided to face my past. I had two books that I had purchased in the past to help me look at how what has happened to me has affected who I am and how I perceive things. So, I decided to start with those two books. The first book I read…

helped me realize the importance of forgiveness. It helped me realize that what I thought was forgiveness really wasn’t and that I still needed to work through some things. The second book I read…

helped me see how I had let my past directly affect who I am today and how I can go about changing that. Not to say that everything is perfectly ok now, but I think I have made quite a bit of progress. I’m still growing and still learning, but the point is that I am growing and learning; I am no longer stagnant in pain.

I finished my second book last week and was at a standstill as to where I needed to go next. Then I was reminded that my goal is to be a Proverbs 31 woman. (For those of you that don’t know, that is my “life verse”.) That brought the question to mind, if my goal is to be a Proverbs 31 woman, shouldn’t I be looking for a Proverbs 31 man? What type of man was the Proverbs 31 woman married to? I had started a “list” years ago but never got around to actually looking at what it all meant. So I decided to find out what a Proverbs 31 man is. I found this book.

This is my third book I will be reading this year. I read the first chapter on Tuesday. My goal with this book is to realize who it is, character-wise, that God would have me marry in the future, and to put into my mind who I should be praying for on a daily basis.

So that is where I am at this point in my life. Prayers for discernment and patience would be appreciated. Yes, I really do want prayer for patience.

Wow, I haven’t written a post this long in quite awhile. For those of you who stuck with it, congrats!