Sundays With Sweet People

I'm ashamed to admit that this was my first Sunday back in Sunday School in about 4 weeks. I have no admissible excuse; my only explanation consists of failed attempts to heed the alarm clock, hiccups with coordinating the entire family, and on one occasion, a migraine. I know, I know.... far from valid. I was reminded this morning how much I love my Sunday school class, my church, and especially the people.

Speaking of people, there's a lot going on with any given person or people at the Tower, and today was no exception.

First....

Happy 4th Birthday, Landon!! 

We love this kid. The Babots were one of the first families with whom we connected here at Towerview, and we're blessed to have them as friends. We've had a few awesome play dates with Landon, they're in our small group extension, and naturally we see them at all the church functions and outings. Syd even referred to Landon as her "little brother" [although yes, he's older] for a bit until she decided he was better as a friend :). Happy birthday, to our little buddy - Hope it was an excellent day!! 

shot from mother's day 2012 | landon!
happy birthday!!

Also, 

Happy FORTIETH Anniversary to the Bests!!!

Ironically, by Bests, I mean THE Bests, literally! John & Ellen Best, that is. Ms. Ellen is our nursery director at church, but she's sooo much more than that. She's an amazing person, and John is nothing less than just as awesome. I'm so inspired by their generosity, and by the example they set as a married couple for those of us far less seasoned in the art of being married. This is the kind of example more of us need to follow!

40 years ago today :) 

As if it weren't enough that Jimmy brought and sported a stick mustache [originally for the skit, but it worked throughout the entire service this morning], the funny times with our friends carried out over the course of the day, and eventually into the evening, even after choir practice. The Woods invited us to Arby's for some last minute munchies, and we had some fun with Sydni's kiddie meal "toy." It was a cowboy, but totally resembled someone else we know, if that someone had a boxy head and a permanent plastic-esque glow. :p In my defense, I wasn't the first or only one to notice.... 

cowboy? ... or... joe? haha ;) 

Ahhh, I'm such a sucker for fun times with fun people :).

It's about time to call it a day; I'm due for an early start tomorrow.
Oh, and The Voice starts tomorrow. [*squeaaaaaaal!]
Here we go, work week!

xo | cmd

Towerview Fundraising Breakfast: Relay2012

Hey Sunday! Thanks for stopping by :)

Today started off a couple hours earlier than the average Sunday; I was out of the house with little monster and en route to the Tower an hour or so before the usual departure time. With two cases of homemade muffins in hand, I unloaded toddler, Bible, camera, and eventually muffins into the most appropriate resting spots downstairs in the fellowship hall [well, aside from the toddler; those things don't ever rest...]. I spent a few moments snapping pictures of the helping hands and attendees of what was purposed to be a fundraising breakfast for the church's Relay for Life.

greg. ron. margaret
our trusted cooks! :)

my mini muffin monster!

breakfast

It was a huge success! Not only did we have a sturdy set of helping hands on board to flip pancakes, serve drinks and clean up, but the crowd elicited so easily by food didn't disappoint! I'm not one to regularly emphasize the strengths of individual denominations, but for what it's worth as it's relevent here: Southern Baptists have absolutely no qualms with cooking up good food, and we'll show that same lack of dissent when it comes to eating it. We love food, we love hanging out with each other, and we love coming together for a common and important cause. That being said, hosting a pre-Sunday school breakfast was guaranteed to be the hit it was.

When it was all said and done, we had $230 to put towards our [revised!!] team goal of $3,000. Our original goal was set at $1,500, but after just a month or so of We are getting closer!!! :)

pancake patrollers | lara & cori

on our way home.. cakehead ;)

After another home run sermon from our pastor [sorry for the inside joke; you'll understand if you were there], our 40 Days in the Word group [remember us? Yardsale?] rallied together at Lonestar to discuss the allocation of our yardsale proceeds.... and of course eat... again :). We nailed down some details on our next step in our plan to service our community, and did it with the usual flair of hilarious moments and musical-chair children.

I don't remember the next three hours following lunch at Lonestar; I'm going to attribute that to the fact that I spent that time napping :). I rolled back out of bed just in time to make it back to church for choir practice before coming back home again and wrapping up the day.

Oh, and I almost forgot about the grill Joe brought home yesterday. He spent a large part of the afternoon cleaning and configuring his new toy, and we wasted very little time giving it some exercise. Jarod, Jason, Alex, Jimmy & Mo stopped by after choir practice for some late evening grilling: burgers and chicken. I'm pretty proud of Joe: He didn't do half bad! :)

*Yawn.. Something about today indicated to me that this is going to be a great week. If the week's got other plans, too bad; I'm bent on making this a good one - and I've got God on my side :).

G'Nite!

xo | cmd

Sweet Days, Sweet People

With Joe still abroad on his ventures in Spain, Sydni and I made another go at flying solo to church. It was a pretty contained morning, since I was on nursery rotation and thus spent the morning downstairs and outside with Mo and the kids. Good stuff. I love love love those munchkins!


[borrowed]
... but it's so true!



After church, it was off to McAllisters with the Gobles, Prescotts, Babots, and Lara's parents. I wish I'd captured the scene that was Jacob and Sydni sharing their very own table for two, complete with food, drink, and crayons. Quite the grown up time for the two of them as they sat and babbled over games they were playing on individual smart phones. It was so cute... and totally worth it if nothing else than to observe the reactions of passersby as they did the double-take at two toddlers seemingly dining alone. It really doesn't take much to entertain me these days.

We managed to squeeze in a mini nap in the afternoon before it was right back to church for the evening service and choir practice. It's been a good night :)

Actually, it's been a pretty good day, immersed with good people, and of course good food. Life's good. :)

Oh! And Joe gets home tomorrow! It'll be late, yeah, but he'll be here. Praying for travel mercies....

[Meanwhile, it's back to the workhorse tomorrow!]

xo | cmd

Oh, What a Beautiful D A Y

1. LIFE IS GOOD.
B. LIFE IS GOOD.
3. LIFE. IS. GOOOOOOOOD!

What a truly beautiful little day this turned out to be!



hello, tiny toms!

  We started off the day with breakfast together before Joe had to go in to work. I was fairly bummed that he had to work this morning, especially since my parents were here and we were gearing up for a loaded church service. Sydni insisted on donning her purple sparkly shoes, so the TOMS made their first public appearance this morning, as well. Loved it...

she dressed herself this morning - not too bad!



becky & tom's baptisms | children's choir!

We didn't quite make it in time for Sunday school, but we were definitely there with plenty of time to get settled in before choir and the baptisms started. Nick & Rebecca, the new couple we met at the Sandvens, made it for their first Sunday. It was a whirlwind of a morning; the children's choir debuted for the year, and not one, but two of our small group members were baptized!

Congratulationsssssssss!!!! Tom & Becky, it was a blessing watching you be baptized. [Our small group rocks!] Major kudos, too, to the children's choir. It was definitely a great morning.

Once church was over, our entire small group rallied together at Bdubs to celebrate the two baptisms.

Back at home, Sydni and I resigned ourselves to a long afternoon nap. This is perfect example of the conversation Joe and I had regarding the fact that whenever we are around my parents, be it here or back in Ohio, we always want to sleep. It's absolutely not that we're that bored or disenchanted by the company; I think rather it's such a super sense of relaxation and peace that makes us want to just kick back and snooze for a bit. Today was no different, except that when I finally woke up, I felt like crap. [Boo. On. THAT.]

My parents leave tomorrow morning, and we go back to the week. Here's hoping I feel .. much.. better... tomorrow.

xo | cmd

PIE!

Towerview Pie Social

Again, I surround myself with common company: food lovers.



one for you, one for us ...

In the spirit of the approaching holidays, Towerview organized a pie social to act as our Sunday evening fellowship for today. Not a bad decision. I decided on the ever habitual blueberry-cherry recipe I inherited from my mom.

Long story short, there was enough sugar to sustain us all for an hour of Trivial Pursuit questions, fellowship, and then choir practice. No qualms there.

We are about to cram five days worth of work into three work days in efforts to be outta there a couple hours before closing time. I know Wednesday evening will be here before I know it and we'll be headin' back to Ohio to see our families. I can't wait :)

All right, Monday, I'm ready for you!

xo | cmd