Celebrate

Today, I will celebrate that this is the last time I will write about the word celebrate.

I will celebrate that there is one week left of Lent. We will celebrate Easter next week.

We had our Palm Sunday Brunch and Youth Auction this morning. People were excited to celebrate winning baked goodies and lots of other fun items.

We are watching Formula 1 racing again, which for us is reason to celebrate. 

MSU is in the Final Four, if you're a fan, that's a good reason to celebrate.

The weather is still cold, so we're having a fire in the fireplace to celebrate.

Wait, that's not right. We're not celebrating the cold weather. We are ready for it to warm back up to average temperatures. Then we can celebrate.

See

See what I've been making in the kitchen?

First, I nuked some Peeps in the microwave. Then I used them to make krispy treats which I'm calling...

...Krispy Peep Treats. I layered them in a pan. You can see the layers in the photo above. Once they had cooled, I cut them into bars and put them in baskets with dyed coconut and not nuked Peeps.

I also baked Emily's Best-Ever Oatmeal cookies. I'm known for them. By five people.

I also made my Famous Brownies, aka Amazing Brownies. The same five people call them by their proper names.

I also made seven layer bars. Which, if I count, are really only six layers. I guess they're technically seven layers because you melt the butter and pour the graham crackers over that. See how that works?

These are all things for the Youth Auction being held at our church tomorrow. I also made a coupon book, but I forgot to take a picture.

Tomorrow is also the Palm Sunday Brunch. There will be pancakes, sausage, and eggs. Yum! I hope to see you there.

Pictures from Hell

Upon our arrival in Hell, we started exploring and taking pictures. Not that there aren't any good photo ops.

Here's one.

 Here's another one.

 And another one.

 This is inside the restaurant. Yet another photo op.

 The boys learned a lesson in Hell. Let the ladies go first when ordering ice cream. If you don't, then you have to open the door for them and bow as they leave. hehe

 And the last photo op, Pure Hell.

What a trip!

What happens when you give the youth your camera

You get lots of selfies. And shadow photos. And really, really good pictures.

I'm impressed.

I'm also surprised that there are so few selfies. I expected more.

These pictures are from our trip to Meijer Gardens on Thursday.

Now I have to chose which ones to share since they took 97 really good pictures!

Shadow pictures with the plants.

 Everybody around the Marshall Fredericks fountain.

 Drew, Brian, Caleb, Jasmin and Taylor with Fred and Lena Meijer.

Drew and "Mad Mom"

 Pippa, Jasmin, and Francine.

 Can you guess which three took the shadow picture?

 Checking out the sculpture from all angles (this is from the ground, they all went and laid under it for a new perspective).

 Anyssa and Francine.

Checking out the koi in the pond

 Can we roll down the hill?

All together! Three, two, one… roll!

I really did enjoy seeing the gardens from their perspective. I wish they had taken more pictures! 

drumming

Our Mission Week of Giving is at the same time as the Arts Alive Camp which is our church's version of Vacation Bible School. There is art, music and of course Bible lessons.

Last year, the Jr. High youth saw the younger kids learning African drumming. They asked why they didn't get to do that. I didn't realize they would want to, so I didn't ask.

I asked this year.

Yesterday we ended the day with drumming and dancing. The youth didn't realize we'd be dancing.

It was so much fun.

I love African drumming/music. I feel it deep within. Like it's in my core. Like we all came from a place where drumming and music wasn't taught, it was known.

I cannot drum.

I played the flute in marching band, pep band and concert band.

I can march to the beat of any drum.

Today we just had drumming lessons. It was a different director and he took care to give us clear instructions. We actually sounded good today. Yesterday we were just loud.

We will not drum tomorrow. We will watch a group drum instead. I think it will be most impressive.

let's volunteer

It's our Jr. High Mission Week of Giving.

I picked a short title. It's easier for everyone to remember.

We worked with various local non-profit groups last year. I don't want/like to repeat activities for a number of reasons. One of which is that, at this age specifically, they will remember what they did and how they felt last time. If it's different, which we all know it will be, and they don't like it there is no coming back from that. So if I just do something different, I don't have to deal with obstinance.

I've learned a lot over the years.

The other main reason we do different things is because it shows them how many different agencies there are just in our city.

This week we are working with the tutoring program that is at one of the local GRPS elementary schools. The tutoring program is run through our church. We staff it, we send the majority of the volunteers, we support it financially. When I asked Jer (the woman in charge) what we the Jr. High could do to help, I think she almost cried.

Today, before lunch, nine youth unpacked, counted, and "stuffed" 135 pencil boxes. Each box has two pencils (which two girls spent time sharpening), two pencil top erasers, a pencil sharpener, scissors and a box of crayons.

It took them less than two hours.

Our next task is wrapping book covers for the tutoring program's book writing activity. Fortunately, there is no specific number. They also need to be neat. It should take up tomorrow and Wednesday's time.

I can't brag about these kids enough. It gives me great encouragement to know that our future is in their hands. They will go far and do well. For that, I am very thankful.

What I missed, Thursday

Okay, I missed some days blogging.

Here's what happened Thursday:

After dinner, Bill and I went and watched Forest Hills Northern play Forest Hills Eastern in girls volleyball. It's a huge rivalry. They play best of five.

Northern came out and won the first match. It had been close, passing the points back and forth.

After that, Eastern dominated. They played the back of the court and the net. Even though their girls were shorter, they could get the ball over the net.

We were there to watch/support Sarah, one of the high school youth from our church. She played very well. Considering I have seen her play since she was in 7th grade, I sort of got a lump in my throat watching her again Thursday night. She's a senior. She used to be the tallest girl on the team, now she's just one of the tall girls on the team.

It's fun to watch them grow up. It's also fun to support them and watch their sport/music/theater events.

graduates and Hoosiers

For all of our out-of-state [Indiana] friends, this is for you.

Valparaiso, Indiana is home to the university of the same name. One of our (now former) youth will be attending there this fall. While I am wrong about the city being home to Orville Redenbacher (that title belongs to Brazil, Indiana), he and his partner bought a corn farm near there. Hence my confusion. 

Back to Valparaiso. As I listen to my dear friends of Michigan origin pronounce it, "Valpriso" I can't help but teach them how to say it the right way. Ready? It's Val-pa-raise-o. See that? It has the word "raise" in it, minus the "o". Say it with me, "Val-pa-raise-o". Got it?

I knew you could do it. Now you can remember how to say it! 

I drove to my parents house today. Along the way I passed right by Valparaiso. I'm here for the week to help out Cyndi, while she works, with Spencer. It just so happens that the young boy who was our ring bearer in our wedding had the nerve to grow up. Not only did he graduate from the same high school I did, just last night, but he was also the Salutatorian of his class. Congratulations Zach! We are proud of you.

Bill stayed in Grand Rapids to work. You remember, he's the one with the job. He was the family representative at an open house for Lexie.

I have to go now, it's time for popcorn. 

high school musicals

We enjoy supporting our youth by attending their high school musicals.

Last night was no exception as we saw Sean (in his last production) and sister Jenna in "Legally Blonde" the musical. Last year we saw them in "Once on This Island" (don't worry, we had never heard of it either). We've also seen their school plays; most recently "A Christmas Story".

Last night's production highlight was seeing Jenna shine in the spotlight. She played Brooke, a widow in jail for supposedly murdering her late husband. Brooke is an exercise star, so while the legal team is "watching" her video there was Jenna; jump-roping and singing.

Jump-roping, doing dance moves, and singing.

I can't even lip-sync while I jump-rope.

Jenna sang. And she jumped rope. It was super impressive. It was easily the best part of the musical.

We've also seen Abbie in her school's production of "High School Musical 2".

We saw Molly and Tim in their high school production of "Our Town" and I saw the same school's performance of "State Fair" in which Molly played in the pit. I probably blogged about that somewhere... or maybe that was before I was blogging everyday...?

Anyway, we've seen a lot of plays and musicals and we look forward to seeing many more.

Of course that made Bill and I reminisce of our school musicals. I was in "The Wizard of Oz" in 5th grade (I was a munchkin, my one and only line was, "How are we going to find out?"), and in high school I played in the pit for three musicals; "Mame", "Music Man" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Bill was in "42nd Street", "Bye-Bye Birdie" and "The Pajama Game". He was in more, but can't remember. He was also in their school play, "Auntie Mame" which I find amusing since our school did the musical production!

Music, performance art and the visual arts are important.

I just thought I'd share that last statement.

Also, on a performance note: Skylar's orchestra won the highest ranking at their contest (this was a few weeks ago, but I never mentioned it, this seems like a good time and place to do that)!! Woo hoo!!!

She'll be here for Spring Break next weekend. I can't wait!

Now that this post has gone absolutely in a random direction, I'll leave you. Hopefully you can find your way.

the preacher's daughter

Lexie came into my life when we moved back to Grand Rapids. Our first Sunday in church was the Sunday Jennie (her mom) was given the "United Methodist" gifts. It was Jennie's first "official" Sunday. They too had just moved here. I met Lexie in January of 2007, when I volunteered with Heather and the Jr. High youth group. Lexie was outgoing, had a great laugh and an even better sense of humor (she still has all of those qualities, spoiler alert: she's not dead, she just moving. Hang on, I'll get there).

I continued to volunteer with Heather (read about her by clicking her name or here) and the Jr. High youth group and took my first U.P. trip with them in the summer of 2007. Photos from that trip are all on our Mac hard drive and thus are currently inaccessible.

However, I can access photos from fall of 2007, when I began volunteering full time with the Jr. High.

Heather held a youth group "HO-down" (because her initials are H.O. and we didn't let opportunities to use them pass). We were encouraged to wear our cowboy best. Bandanas were passed out and there is even a video of line dancing. The story was the Prodigal Son, and we broke it down into many parts. This was the week the son was forced to eat with the pigs. Hence the Ho-down. Or something. It was fun, as you can see.

Lexie came riding in on her horse...

Fun times!



Then in the summer or '08, we took what would be our last trip to the U.P. with Heather.

Here are some crazy photos (of Lexie) from that trip:

Lindsay and Lexie, I think they'd just had a romantic moment running down the beach. This was the shore of Lake Superior on our way back.

This is Lexie on our bike ride around Mackinac Island.

They move today to their new home in East Lansing. Jennie will be the Senior Pastor at University Church and Lexie will finish high school in a new school there (the new school mascot is the Trojan, pretty exciting for a double P.K. = preacher's kid).

Thanks Lexie, for the memories. I've laughed harder knowing you. And just because you move doesn't mean we love you any less, or that you can't keep in touch. It's not good-bye, it's see you soon.

And yes. You can come back and watch "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

If all your friends jumped off a bridge...

I was going to write a post about our belated Valentine's Dinner that we has last night. I will still write about it, but today I want to share how amazing the youth in our church and this world.

The Sr. High youth led the worship service at FUMC, Grand Rapids today. They do all of it. From the prayers, to the announcements, and the Children's Message, to the sermon. They sang, the Sacred Steps danced and they showered us with their amazing talents and wisdom. They are funny and straight to the point. They taught/reminded us not to conform; either in our hearts, or on the outside, in our spirit or our services. They also reminded us to listen to where God is sending us and what He wants for us.

It was simple. The words were written by them, from their hearts. You can hear the encouragement in each of their voices as they spoke to the congregation. I wish that everyone everywhere could see how wise and smart the youth are.