Excitement and ramblings

We had some excitement at our AWANA club last night - one of our T&T boys accepted Jesus!! Woooohooooo! It sure puts all of the complaining into perspective. It was almost like God was telling me "just keep going and doing what you're doing, I'll take care of the rest!"

In other news - I think I have a sinus infection. I suppose I should call the doctor but I'm too lazy to go in. Maybe if I call them they'll give me a prescription without having to be seen.

I'm eagerly awaiting parent/teacher conferences - I'm meeting with both of the kids teachers next Thursday. Should be interesting.

DD (5) got to bring Franklin home last night - she was beyond excited about that. Poor Franklin had a busy day going to 4th grade to do art, ballet, out to dinner, and to AWANA. Hopefully he gets to relax tonight! ;-) DD finished her start zone last night at AWANA - finally! YEA!!! She's known that crazy pledge and song for a month but finally last night managed to sing the song for them. Of course now we're out of books and vests so she doesn't get to get one until they come in. Hopefully they get here soon!! I ordered them last Friday.

I'm home all by myself for an hour today. It's been a while since that happened. I don't work on Thursdays but I go to dd's class to help out in there and usually I end up being there most of the morning.

Harvest Festival is coming together - YEA!! I'll be happy when it's over though! Only a few more days. Then it'll be time to start thinking about Christmas.

As the world turns . . .

Or at least how my world is turning right now . . .

I found out today that there's a little boy who refuses to go to children's church because it is so boring. He came once and even the Mom said that she was so horrified with how it was being run, that she hasn't made him go back. That made me really sad that one of my teachers is managing to make it so horrible that a 6 year old wants nothing to do with it. It's looking like I'm going to have to be in there every Sunday for the next few weeks to observe everybody and see what's going on. Then we're going to have a meeting to change the way things are done!! I'm really not happy about having to be out of church that long but I don't see any choice for changing things. I'm going to have to make sure I get a tape of the pastor's sermon each week I guess.

Then one of my Sunday School teacher's who isn't happy that I restructured things is going behind my back trying to get things changed and complaining left and right to his co-teacher. He and this other teacher came up with a plan of what they were going to do and then kind of informed me this morning they were going to do it. Actually I overheard the conversation - thankfully! Umm, no, I don't think so. You have not addressed any of the reasons of why I restructured it in the first place. I'm sorry if you are actually having to work now. If you don't want to actually "shepherd" the children, then please go find something else to do. We're going to have a teacher's meeting in two weeks and we're going to have a serious talk about attitude and chain of command.

I'm praying that all the people who work with the children will work with them becaues they have a passion for children and want to teach them about the Word. I want all of the ones who are doing it because they think that they "should" or just because they "always have" or who are going into it with the "just going to fill the time" attitude to either quit or change their attitudes and have a fire lit under them.

It's really discouraging. I went to a leadership conference yesterday that was helpful. I'll definitely be putting some of it into place at our meeting (that they are already complaining about! *sigh*).

Tuesday stuff

Got our permit for harvest festival. Found out that a lady at church takes care of all the food - buys it, gets herself reimbursed for it, etc. I don't have to budget it for it at all! YEA! Now I can buy more paint, etc for the maze, and buy stuff for crafts and prizes for games, etc. Things are looking up for sure!!

Let's see what else - got the kids school pictures back. DD's isn't very good - she's not really smiling and has a weird look on her face. I'm debating doing retakes. She doesn't like them either so that might make her not freak out if she has to do it again.

Tonight is piano lessons - I'm really enjoying playing again. I hope I can stick with it. I think I'm paying way too much though. I should check around and see if I can get a lesson for cheaper. On the way home I need to pick up cardboard boxes from my sister, go to the office supply store and get overhead sheets, and go to Target and get dd new ballet tights and a outlet strip for the children's stuff at church. I think I'll have to write myself a note about that stuff.

Last night was the first coaches meeting for basketball - I'm excited. Should be lots of fun.

Saturday is going to be crazy - my assistant for harvest festival and I are going to go entirely through the closet and find out exactly what we need to finish planning; then the women are having a leadership conference and the pastor's wife wants me to go. She said I have a lot of "leadership stuff" going on in my life and it would be helpful. DH wants to go to the paintball tournament at the fairgrounds.

Friday night dh and I are going on a date! YEA!!

Sunday handbells starts again plus there's a business meeting. Crazy days ahead!

It's over!

The long 3 weeks is over - everyone's back from their cruise and I am not in charge anymore! This week it's going to be all about the kids - I need to really start concentrating on the children's ministry stuff and just forget all the rest of it. I can't do it all. I hate to tell them that I'm not going to do the finance stuff but it's really cutting into my ability to really get the children's ministry up and running where I want it to be. DH thinks I should wait a week or two to decide since I didn't really have any time at the job before running the entire place was thrust at me. We'll see - I need to set up a teacher's meeting, a children's church workers meeting, go through the children's church curriculum, gut my office and reorganize everything for filing, clean out and stock a cupboard for children's church and for one sunday school class, and finish planning harvest festival. Never mind the weekly stuff that needs to get done too - lesson for awana, planning ss games, songs, etc. *sigh*

I've started to get my office set up so that's exciting - at least I've got my picture hung on the wall. I still need something else on the other wall but at least it's a start.

Tomorrow will be the first day in dd's class for art. I'm looking forward to it - it should be lots of fun!! DS's teacher is going to be out again tomorrow - bummer. He really doesn't like this sub. DS was dealing with a bully again - thankfully we seem to have gotten it taken care of. In the process I learned that I'm not doing as bad of a job as a Mom as I thought I was. The principal called me and told me what a nice, polite, kind child he was - we as parents have a tendency to see the things we don't like and wish we could change about our kids, it was a good lesson for me to look at the positive and see that he really is a good kid.

I've been sleeping horribly and I'd love to take a nap. But dh just went up and went to bed - which isn't really fair since he's been staying up until all hours of the night playing video games - so if you CHOOSE to not sleep then I don't have any sympathy for you. I on the other hand physically have been UNABLE to sleep - I think that warrants a nap for ME! *sigh* Maybe I'll try resting in the recliner - I can't go get in bed too since the kids are still up, and besides dh snores horribly and I wouldn't get any rest anyway. I can hear him right now and I'm downstairs and he's upstairs.

Only 16 days until Harvest Festival - I'll be soooooooooooooooooooooooo happy when it's over!!

Raccoon!

A conversation between myself and dd last week in my office:

dd: Mom, I have a pet raccoon.

Me: really?

dd: yep, it's a girl

me: what's her name?

dd: luvee

A conversation in the car after we had left the office:

dd: oh no, Mom, we left raccoon in your office

me: um no, she came with us

dd: (looks out the car window) there she is, she's running beside the car

me: well, if I roll the window down will she get in the car?

dd: yes

me: ok (roll down the window)

dd: (yells out the window) raccoon, get in the car! raccoon, get in the car! raccoon, get in the car!

me: we're coming up to a stop sign, I'll stop long enough for her to get in ok.

dd: ok (we stop) alright mom, she's in the car, roll up the window so she doesn't get back out

me: yes, dd

Oh the joys of an imaginative 5 year old!!

Two weeks again!

Too much time between blogging!! I hate that.

The administrator and his assistant went on a 3 week cruise to Panama leaving me in charge of the office stuff. UGH!! It's NOT been a fun week and a half. This week was better than last. I still have a bit of work to do tonight but that's ok. At least I'm not feeling totally stressed out like I was last week.

The women's retreat was good. I had a great time getting to know the other ladies - we all were in the same cabin so that was great. The speaker wasn't very good - very disorganized in her thinking and presenting. I still felt like I grew closer to the Lord so it wasn't in vain.

I've started helping in both kids classes. Today was the first day in ds's class. I already know his teacher so it's just a matter of getting to know this new group of kids. There are some characters in that class!! Last week was the first day in dd's class - it was a lot of fun to see how things work in there, having never had this teacher before, and actually hearing mostly bad stuff about her in passing. I was actually impressed with how she interacted with the kids. And it seems like she's got a really good mellow group - several people told me that when she's got a mellow group she's excellent.

Today is our crazy day - school, band, ballet, dinner, and awana. DS could be out of the house from 8-8 if we don't come back here during ballet. It's crazy!! I'd rather have crazy then boring I guess.

Everything is all set for coaching dd's basketball team - a friend from church is going to coach with me. Her son will be on our team too, so we're excited. I was worried about who would be my assistant so having her will be so much fun. DD is excited that L will be on her team and that his mommy will be the coach too. Should be a fun season!!

Off to pack up everything we need for our crazy afternoon. Where did I put those ballet clothes? hmmm!