Micah 6:8 Laundromat Outreach | Somber Loss

Today was a bittersweet day. Emotions are all over the board in my church family as the day closes with a ministry success shadowed by a tragedy.

caitlin

We've met so many fantastic people so far as part of the Towerview family. Jarod and his daughter Lyla are just two of them. Late last night,  Lyla's mother Caitlin was involved in an ATV accident that cost her her life. I personally didn't know her, but what I do understand is the effect that losing a parent can have on a child, and even on the other parent, regardless of whether or not they are still together.

My heart breaks for the Thompsons, and for Caitlin's family. The gravity of this, the freshness, proved to be a dark shadow not easily cast from our minds over the course of our morning on ministry. It's going to be a long road for Jarod and for Lyla; My continued prayers for peace, comfort, and strength are theirs.

It's hard to transition from that. If there is one thing I have discovered about my church family, it is that they are able to emanate their own sense of mercy and grace while simultaneously displaying perseverance and strength unlike any other. Today's example of being faced with news of this tragedy yet still completing the ministry we had planned, with genuine smiles on our faces and in our hearts for its purpose, not only encouraged me, but made me proud to be a part of it all.

towerview bus!

Back during our 40 DITW study, my study group had developed a plan for our Micah 6:8 project. It started with a church-wide yardsale [remember that??], the profits of which would fund a community outreach. We collectively decided that we would break into teams and hit a few of the local laundromats, armed with coffee, donuts, laundry detergent and quarters, and just pay for people's laundry. No catch, no fee, no sermon. Just free laundry and breakfast. 


 << Oh, btw, our Towerview bus is now complete! Just in time for the youth group missions trip, which heads out tomorrow. It looks great! :)

We arrived at the church this morning and divided up into three teams, quick to plan our routes and off we were. I joined Diana, Olivia, and three of the youth group at the Maytag in Fairview Heights. Our very first offer was met with flat-out denial. I was amazed over the course of the morning at the wide range of response elicited by our desire to load quarters into washers and dryers and provide the detergent to go along with it. While it was slightly discouraging to be turned down, what mattered more was the handful of people who accepted, perhaps questioningly, but accepted nonetheless, and were so deeply moved by it that some of them even began crying. I met a woman today whose husband is in the hospital for a medical condition that has almost taken his life twice. Her two children's lives with their father consisted more of hospital visits and stays than it did of him being home. The trips to the laundromat are a family outing for them. I sat and listened to her story after we'd loaded quarters into the washers and dryers, and realized that this was more than just gratitude for her laundry being covered for today. She poured out her heart to us, and I would be willing to guess we'll see her soon, at the Tower. I was moved by this, in a sincere way. I was reminded today just how powerful God's love is on a simple Saturday morning, in a laundromat, over coffee and a donut :). I was blessed to be a part of this.

look at this little guy!! adorable friends at the laundromat

these things are expensive!

yummm summer salads!

The other two groups had very similar stories: rejection by some, whether by pride or fear that a 'church group' would demand an ear for preaching if they ceded to them paying for their laundry. Others were more than receptive, appreciating our efforts, and even delving into conversation over life in general. We all ended up at the Page house, where the kids had spent the morning along with Lara and Cathie. We ate lunch there before we all headed home. 

It's going to be a very difficult remainder of the weekend for the Thompsons and Caitlin's family. I hate that tragedies like this are what it takes sometimes to put life in perspective. Our very deepest condolences go to their families, and our love and support will be among the flood of such for which our church family is so well-versed.

xo | cmd  

Office Fridays & Breakfast for Dinner [Koinonia]

TGIF!

Phew. What a day! It's been a busy one :)

First things first, I'm amazed I hung on through the entire day after the metrolink fiasco from last night. I showed up to work a little groggy still, but nothing compared to poor Courtney. This is what found its way to my desk before we even got the day started:

kicks! 

nobody puts baby in the corner!!
... except express.
express will put you in the corner. 

^ Poor Courtney was at the Cards game last night, too, but had to do a little more walking than we did, in uncomfortable shoes. [It's a tough pitch being a girl sometimes] She ended up sporting these bad boys to the office today. Haha. Classicly done!

Oh, yeah, and speaking of office folk, there was some minor rearranging done today in lieu of our office expansion project. Someone stuffed one of our chairs in a crevice between a file cabinet and Marc's office; we decided that would be the best place to park Christine for the afternoon. She clearly loved it ;)

This buildout thing has been fairly taxing on all of us over the past couple weeks. Between the frame building, wiring, drilling, dry walling, sanding, and prepping, the wall completing Marc's new office space is now fully in tact, walling Nancy and I for the time being in a big cubby hole. Courtney's been shoved just about out the front door, and Christine... well Christine's temporarily nomadic as her desk sits on the open range of still-usable space in the office. Needless to say, we're ready for this phase to be done. Amen.

*****

breakfast!! | quiche. cinnamon rolls | y-u-m.

Once work was behind me, I made straight for the house to get started on breakfast. [Yeah, breakfast!] The Harris family joined us for the evening, and even Dawne stopped by for a bit! It was, as always, an absolutely amazing night with our small group.

Most of the regular crowd was in attendance: 1/4 of the Gobles [Tom! Jackie & the boys, praying for safe travels as they're out of town!], the Prescotts, Julie, Becky, the Sandvens, and now the Harriss clan, too. Sleemans, Babots, Jarod & Lyla - we missed you, and can't wait to see you guys next time! :)

In the absence of Evan, we were able to focus double the baby love on the little munchkin in our group who is certainly lovable. Check him out in his pink Bumbo [it was Sydni's.. haha]. Handsome Liam!

the cutest little chunk everrrrrrr... love him!

Our Micah 6:8 group is heading out in full force tomorrow for our laundromat outreach. Praying that it goes well and we have some response!

Time to gear up [aka, sleep. Chyeah!]

xo | cmd 

Towerview at the Ballpark!!

Due to the continuous construction that comes inevitably as part of our office build-out, we were granted two consecutive casual days; we all took full advantage of it and geared up in our jeans and t-shirts for the day. Mine was almost thwarted by an early morning client visit; luckily for me, this particular client happens to be within earshot of my house, so if you think I went home after my client meeting to ditch the business garb, you would be totally correct. Haha. Perfect timing on the casual day, too; I was headed straight from work to the Cards game.

baseball time!

Before I get into this one, let me first clarify that in my heart, I'm still Cincinnati, through and through. That being said, I also believe that if you're gonna live somewhere, be there. I'm leading up to the fact that I was pretty excited to get down to Busch Stadium tonight for what was my first Cardinals game this season.

* I never thought I'd hear myself say that. What can I say, I love baseball games. Period. :)

with dawne! :)

Anyway, what made tonight's game that much cooler was the fact that each seat purchased by a Towerview member was from a fundraiser we'd done a few months back as one of our Relay for Life fundraisers. Originally, it was planned that Joe would be accompanying me to this one, but with him in Atlanta this week, that clearly wasn't going to happen. I contemplated just passing our tickets off to someone, but then I remembered that I do in fact know people outside of our church [because everyone there was already going, hah]. I asked Dawne is she wanted to come along, and long story short, we partnered up and made a night of it. I saw some other familiar faces tonight; I'll tell ya what, this St. Louis place sure is starting to grow on me. Yeah, baseball :)

Dawne and I linked up and took the metrolink with Syd [who ended up overnight back at Dawne's because she is just that awesome] into St. Louis and rendezvoused there with the rest of the Towerviewers to enjoy the night. I definitely had no complaints for my first season run at the park. Speaking of which, Courtney from work was down there somewhere too, we just never found each other. Oh well. Next time.

cori. mo. lara

*Note to self, also. The MetroLink is not a force with which you should reckon if you're not entirely prepared. Haha. That is all I have to say about that. Be careful where you stop, and pay attention to where you load, otherwise you could very well find yourself traversing back and forth on that sucker for hours. I'm just sayin'. :p

Anywho, it has been some sort of night.. baseball and all. I loved every second of it, but I think it's about time I grab some sleep before I try to tackle Friday. TGI[backdatedthursdayentrymadesuperearly]F!

xo | cmd

Amazing Armadillidiidae

Roly Poly Bugs!

I've been giving chronologies for a a couple of weeks now on the build-out that's happening at my office. It's been quite the production on all scales; walls have been constructed, desks have been moved, dust has blanketed everything, and all kinds of little crawly critters have

their way into the office.

I spotted one of these little ones scuttling across the floor today and I stopped to carry it back outside. Of course I've seen these a thousand times over, but never really looked into them - what they are or why or how they roll up when they're threatened. I immediately called it a Roly Poly Bug, but wondered aloud if that's what they were really called. Everyone in my office also calls them that.

I'm a person easily intrigued, so naturally I made a note to research this once I got home.
I'm home.
Here's what I found:

armadillidiidae, aka roly polies, aka pill bugs, aka woodlice.
photog | drew mackie

A lot of people have speculated on these things for a long time. I'm new to the party.

Guess I'll start with facts I found*: 

rollers vs. hikers
photog | calev

1. Roly polies, also commonly known as pill bugs, are not actually bugs [insects]. They are terrestrial crustaceans more closely related to lobsters and crabs than insects. 

2. They came from Europe, originally. The alias Roly Poly was originally a European coining. Erego, we are being quite the accidentally cultured folk when we call them that ;). Hehe. 

3. They don't bite - not people at least. They're harmless to humans and animals but play a very substantial role in the biological decomp process of dead plants & wood, earning their other alias, Woodlice, which I don't prefer due to the stigma associated with the word lice. Be nice, they're not gonna eat you :). 

4. They grow by a 2-part molting process. Rolies have an exoskeleton, so during molting, they crawl out of the back half of the exoskeleton first, then the front half. Imagine if we grew that way? Whoa. 

5. Not all roly polies actually roll when threatened. Some choose to run instead of roll, separating them into the category of hikers. There are rolling pill bugs and hiking pill bugs. Hrmm...

* I consulted quite a few sources for this info: 
- Case study via Harvard University, developed by Harry Dilner of Christiana HS, Delaware
- Wikipedia
- Drew Mackie, New Zealand [fellow blogbot!]
- Macro credit: Calev Photography

smile :) | photog: calev

So anyway, thanks for the prompting, little guy [or girl]. < Oh, and on that gender thing, apparently pill bugs can be determined male or female by their bellies: females are pale underneath, males are dark. On this particular occasion today, I really didn't think to check. Not important anyway. I named the little thing Axel, and Axel went outside into the grass. My apologies, if I'd mis-gendered you, little pill bug. :) 

See? It's basic info, practical and easily-available knowledge, but not commonly known, nonetheless. :) Yay, for research!

xo | cmd

Team Italy: Relay For Life [Update]!

Hey friends!

Ohhh yeah, Towerview! We are well on our way to kickin' butt and takin' names on the road to raising money to fight cancer. Tonight was the monthly team meeting for our upcoming relay here in Belleville; I along with Jimmy and Mo were there for the next step in the process, which was choosing our "campsite" for the event.

Well let me back up. Before we got down to picking our site, we went over all the current standings, teams, etc. Between the last meeting and now, there are 6 or 7 brand new teams [wooo!]. Towerview is still holding down the #1 spot on the fundraising chart; while I understand this is not that type of competition, I am so very proud at the collective effort our team so often and clearly exerts for noteworthy causes like this!!

keep it up towerview!! 

We still have quite a ways to go, and our next stop on the agenda is to nail down some decorating ideas [our team is Italy], and develop some on-site fundraising ideas. We are on our way!! :)

that's us! site #11.. watch out now ;)

Remember: July 20 & 21 is the event!! If you need details, please don't hesitate to find either myself or Lara. We've got plenty of info and ways you can get involved if you haven't yet and would like to. :) [||end PSA. Ha.]

*Dawne was absolutely amazing tonight in that she asked to keep Sydni overnight. I'm not quite sure what exactly it is about this week, but I've not yet managed to get past 4 hours of sleeping yet. It's only Tuesday though, so maybe I'll catch up tomorrow. The extra 30 minutes in the morning will definitely be a nice buffer, though.

Time to try my hand at this sleeping thing.

xo | cmd

Oy. Monday.

I'm feeling much better today.
 -- Physically, that is. The day itself was a bit more of an actual struggle. I found this little guy [actually, it was passed along to me by Courtney this afternoon] that summarizes the bulk of my day in one little slap:

monday can be a meanie....

Chaa - ha! That's a true story, folks. 

I'm so pleased that the excruciating throbbing of that sinus headache - or whatever it was - that plagued my weekend has subsided. I was almost nervous waking up this morning that this would be day 3 in a row of feeling like my heart had been transplanted directly between my brain and my eyeballs. Hooooray! 

Towerview softball was canceled tonight; the opposing team had their version of VBS this week, so no go on the game. Just as well I suppose since it's still a little soggy out there. It was damp last week, too, so hopefully next week we'll have both a game and well, a dry game. Yeah? 

Oy. It's only Monday. Deep breaths :) 

Let's try this week thing again tomorrow. 

xo | cmd

The Cunicos Join the Tower!

I felt like I navigated the bulk of today from inside a pressurized bubble. This whole sinus thing isn't one of those annual things for me, not by a long shot, so I'm not well-seasoned in preparation or coping with this. I knew I was in for a long day yesterday when even the Neti provided very little relief from this cloud of ick that seems to have certainly settled in for the weekend.

The GOOD news - I made it to church this morning! Well, that's not the good news [albeit it is definitely a start!] - The BEST news of the morning: Mike & Marlene became official members of the Towerview family!!

mike & marlene! [hack mode xxo -facebook ;) ]
welcome to the towerview family!! ♥  

*I can't say that the majority of the morning really stuck with me the first go-round [I dedicated myself to copious note-taking during the service; I earnestly value our pastor's messages, but my sinuses had other plans], but I have every intention on enjoying it again via notes. Oh well, though; I am so excited for the Cunicos to be a part of the Towerview family now!

With all the excitement of the morning service under our belts, it was enough to exhaust both Sydni and me [she's still not 100%, either], so we found ourselves straight home for a light lunch and a very contrasting and heavy nap. That brings us to now, during which time Sydni is propped up in a tshirt and pj pants with her blankie & stuffed animal watching The Little Mermaid, and I'm here, blogging away next to her as I hum along with Ariel in her cavern o' human treasures.

It's gonna be an early night.... Haha.

Dear Sinuses,
Please knock.it.off.soon.Thanks-a-million.
Love, Me.

xo | cmd