what was said at Party City...

My sister and I were in Party City last night. She was looking for decorations for my nephew's birthday party when we passed an end-cap full of Eclipse party favors on clearance. Since we just happened to be getting ready for our annual Twilight party, Lori stopped to check it out. We weren't planning on going all out with decorations for this party, because we both are on tight budgets. The main purpose of said parties are to laugh, eat, and get together with our friends... we just use Twilight as an excuse to get together. But Lori just couldn't pass up these deals. Everything was 2 dollars or less- table cloths, banners, plates, you name it. Since the theme of this year's party is actually Breaking Dawn, we wondered if Party City had any other stuff in stock. Not that it really mattered... Twilight is Twilight, to us anyway. But we were curious, so when a store employee walked by, we snagged him and had this conversation:

Lori: "Excuse me. Do you guys have any Breaking Dawn party stuff in stock?"

Party City Employee: "Um... I don't know what that is."

Lori (with a shocked expression on her face): "It's the new Twilight movie!"

P.C.E.: "Oh. I thought there were only going to be three of those movies."

Me: Oh, no. There's actually going to be five!"

P.C.E.: "Ugh. I actually think I just threw up a little in my mouth."

Lori: "You really need to know more about the products you're selling. Do you have any?"

P.C.E.(while looking at us as if we're "special" and then glancing down at our buggy, which was overflowing with merchandise stamped with Edward Cullen's image): "Uh. No. No, we don't have any."

And then he gave us another "look" and walked on down the aisle.


Classic!

Generation Praise!

Generation Praise had it's big debut this past Sunday. The kids were fantastic. Months of practicing paid off in a HUGE way! Originally, GP was only going to sing one song. Then last week we were pleasantly surprised with the news that the kids would be singing the whole worship set. Even though this was exciting, it made me nervous. We'd only prepared one song. And the other two songs on the set list were new. And we weren't going to have another practice, just a dress rehearsal on Saturday morning. I was stressing just a bit, but it all worked out just like it always does. The worship team taught our choir the new songs on Saturday morning and sent them home with practice CDs. And the next morning, they nailed it!

I had tears in my eyes as I stood backstage and watched them worship. My friend Karen said it best... "You can't teach kids to worship like that". Yes, it's true. Kids can't fake it; they just do what's in their hearts. And let me tell you- these kids can worship! We were all blown away by the way they forgot about everything around them and just sought after the Father.

Saturday morning dress rehearsal. It lasted over 2 hours and the kids were so patient. They're learning a new song here.


Early Sunday morning sound check! Shaun's on the 3rd row, kind of in the middle. It's hard to tell who's who...iphone photos and bright stage lights don't mix well.


And here's the leadership team, being silly.



Just in case anyone wonders what we really look like!

I'm so blessed to be part of this group. Shaun has had a blast, and Jordan can't wait until next year so he can join, too!

His Harvest House

His Harvest House is the food pantry ministry at our church. I must admit that I didn't know too much about it until yesterday. Shaun's small group, Kid Force, had been given the opportunity to serve here back in August. I had some errands to take care of, so Chris and the boys went by themselves. It was extremely hot, but they had a good time anyway.

Kid Force was able to serve at His Harvest House again yesterday evening, and I came along this time. I didn't have to do much... the kids and other volunteers took charge and everything went smoothly. I mainly had to keep an eye on Jordan. His job was to deliver desserts to the cars, and he didn't want to wait his turn! I was blessed to be able to stand back and watch my boys, along with other people from our church, serve the Lord.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and from August. I found them all on Kidpak's Facebook page.

The long line of cars waiting for their food. This picture really doesn't do it justice. It snaked around the entire parking lot.

Group prayer.

Pastor Jason giving out instructions to the Kid Force volunteers.

I absolutely love this picture.

Shaun picking out a family's dessert.

Chris and Pastor Brock. There's no telling what they were talking about.


The Hubs with our friend, Chuck. We love him and his family!

Jordan tried to carry a cake that was bigger than he was!


Because I was accused of never posting any pictures of myself... here I am with Chuck!

We were treated to pizza afterward. I think this made Jordan happy!

It was a great night! We can't wait to do it again.

mpn

Mom's Night Out was a little different this month. We painted, which made the night Mom's Paint Night instead of the regular old MNO. Despite the facts that I'm not artistic at all and my projects are usually a disaster, (anyone remember this night?)I had a blast. I think we all did.

Our instructor has taught Shaun's art classes for about a year now, and she's fabulous. She has a way of drawing a person's creativity out and she was able to relate each of our paintings to each of our lives. While we were painting, we were supposed to write down scriptures and words as the Lord gave them to us. Except I was too busy concentrating and giggling to do this. Bad, I know. The whole point of this project was to meditate as we painted and allow God to speak to us as He saw fit. I just couldn't do much meditating. I was too worried about messing my painting up. Maybe next time I'll be able to relax and just let what happens, happen. Several of the ladies present were able to meditate and can I just say that the Lord really had some good words for them. I was blessed by what everyone had to say. And of course, I cried. Did you know that I'm a crier?

One thing I like about Mrs. Lynn is the way she presents each completed project to the class and discusses what she sees in each of them. Or rather, what the Lord allows her to see. She's pretty right on most of the time. When it was my turn, she held up my painting, paused a bit, and then said, "I see the shield of faith". Wow. She went on to talk about how maybe bad things happen and they bounce off the shield. I don't know how true that is of me currently, but that's what I strive for. To have complete faith that everything's going to be alright. To completely trust in my Father that he's got this...whatever this is at the moment.


If you can't tell from the photo, our paintings say FAITH, with a mustard seed dotting the "i". I love each woman in this picture. We all have our stories. Times in our lives when our faith was tested. Times we've failed and succeeded. And times when our faith is where it should be. We're all strong but still have moments when we're weak, and we're not afraid to admit that. I'm so blessed to have these ladies in my life. Their testimonies and stories of faith have each had an effect on my life. I think I've written before about how God really new what he was doing when we began to homeschool the boys. He knew I needed friends.

There's just something sweet about a friend who shares your faith.

another little God thing

Our little family got together with our friends the Haag's yesterday to collect cans for His Harvest House, our church's food pantry ministry. We met in their subdivision. The dads pushed a wheel barrel, the kids went door to door asking for food donations, and Kendra and I watched to make sure no one was kidnapped. They did really well. I was proud of them all... even if Jordan had to be reminded constantly to stop peeking in windows. Sigh.

Here are some pictures from our day.




One gentleman didn't have any cans... so he donated cash instead!

This was what we had at the end of the street. Not too shabby!

The whole gang, minus most of the adults.

The best part of the day occurred at the last house we visited. Kendra summed it up beautifully in this email she sent out to our homeschool group:

"Today we had a Can Food Drive Collection Day on the HSC calendar. The Smiths (Chris, Erin, Shaun and Jordan) joined my family this morning to collect cans in my neighborhood. We step out of our driveway and I tell the kids to practice their speech by going to our friends' house across the street. While Brandon, Chris, Erin and I stayed on the road watching them ring the door bell a lady walks by with her dog and recognizes Chris from the hospital. He tells her what we are doing, and she said to be sure to come to her house. Because of this invitation we turned right instead of our preplanned left and worked our way up to the top of the street. We get to the last house, the kids are at the door and the man who answered the door doesn't understand what they are asking. So I walked up to explain to him we were doing a can food drive and then it was like "oh... ok." He then proceeded to tell me that his mind is foggy because his 21 year old son, a police officer, was killed last week in a motorcycle accident on 985. Long story short, Chris and Brandon were able to pray with him and we just stood there and listened to him talk about his son for about 35 minutes. He thanked us and told us that God sent us to him at this time.

Had we not been collecting cans on this day... Had Chris Smith not been with us... for one of my neighbors to recognize... and invite us to her side of the neighborhood... which caused us to change our plan... WOW... I just stand amazed how God carefully orchestrated today for the sake of this one man and his family. Every person mentioned played a part to send God's Love to a broken and grieving man, to hug him, cry with him and pray for him! I'm so honored to have been a witness to Him at work through us, even we least expect it."

Wow. Just... wow. We were trying to teach our kids about compassion, and they wound up learning a lot more. I'm so glad that God worked it out so that this family could be loved on and ministered to, and I'm honored that He used us to do it.

random weekend ramblings

Friday night we stayed out way too late. Chris had to take care of some music stuff, so I took the kids to visit with some friends. Us moms were able to visit too. For six hours. Truly. We arrived at 6:30 and it was after midnight when we left. During our visit, I kept hearing a door slam downstairs where the kids were playing. Something told me it was Jordan, and it was. When I went down to check on him, he was standing in the playroom in his underwear. He looked at me and said, "I just want a suit, too". For the first time, I noticed that all of his little friends were playing dress-up. His friend Jensen was nice enough to loan Jordan his Super Man suit. As I helped him into it, we had a discussion about how it's alright to wear clothing under costumes.

As we were (finally) getting ready to leave, Shaun and his friends threw a surprise at us. A sleepover had been planned at Jon's house. Much to his mother's surprise. Thankfully, they live near us, so I was able to go home and get some stuff together for him before sending Chris to drop him off. He had a great time... except for when he woke up at 6:30 a.m. after only 3 hours of sleep and got kind of homesick. He called me and then went right back to sleep. And Jordan whined the whole night and the next day because he never gets to sleepover anywhere. Poor, deprived child.

On Saturday I watched half of season 4 of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I can't get over that show... is that really the way teenagers live? And their parents- really? It's like watching a train wreck. But it's a guilty pleasure of mine. At least I cleaned and organized the school room while I watched, so some things got accomplished.

Later on that evening I picked up my sister at Mule Camp Market so that we could go to dinner. Our dear friend Kay, who we haven't seen in a long time was able to come with us, and that was a nice surprise. Rebecca and Morgan also joined us at Outback. That was nice, too! After dinner Kay drove us back to my car. I was lucky enough to have found a parking place at the library so that I could walk into the festival. During Mule Camp, the square in Gainesville is blocked off. My sister and I took off for Target and somehow I made a wrong turn into an ally and somehow, someway, I was suddenly driving my Jeep through Mule Camp Market. Thank goodness it was late and things were closed down. There were still people walking around, though. Boy were they surprised to see us. I'm a terrible driver, really I am. I came home to find that somehow Jordan had gotten onto the computer and pulled up our friend's Twitter profile. No, he's not a boy-genius. We're buying this computer from said friend and apparently he forgot to log out of Twitter before we brought the computer home. I could have had so much fun, but I was a good girl and just logged out. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. :)

Sunday was church. Jordan was a little tired and took his bedspread into church, where he had breakfast in bed in the Kidpak office.




















My friends and I were "superstaaaaars" as well as greeters and it was also Communion Sunday. Jordan had an impulsive moment and he blew a raspberry at one of his teachers. This resulted in a long talk about self-control, a punishment, an apology, and a mortified mother. After church was kids choir rehearsal, which went really well. Shaun is really starting to enjoy it. After choir was Shaun's small group. Jordan and I played on the playground with friends while this was going on. At 3:30 we left church, got lunch, and drove to the "other" church where the Hubs and the band lead worship once a month.

After we dropped Chris off the kids and I found a park. A very weird park, complete with strange people. There were baseball fields. My boys didn't have any baseball equipment, so they reenacted The Sandlot and got really dirty. By the time we made it back to church for service, Jordan was beyond tired. I took him out to the front porch, rocked him to sleep, and then brought him back inside. He slept though preaching, and through dinner. I wish I had a picture of him sleeping in his chair at El Maguey.

After dinner I had to go to the grocery store. I'm making dinner for my friend Shaunalynn, who is recovering from surgery, and I needed some ingredients. I'm little nervous. Everyone knows I'm not the best cook. Maybe the chili will be edible.

It's now midnight. I really need to finish re-reading New Moon. I'm reading the entire Twilight Saga again before the new movie comes out... next month! But I'm tired and my book is out in the car. I think I'll settle for another episode of The Secret Life. I think Ricky is about to propose to Amy. More train wreckage. Sigh.

just a little awkward

I wasn't going to blog about this, but then the other party involved asked me if I was going to... so I decided I should. Looking back, now I can laugh about this whole thing, even if I still get embarrassed when I think about it.

I guess it all started with our bathroom door. The top of the door is swollen, and it sticks. In order to open the door from the inside, one has to push it a few times. We usually just leave the door open unless, of course, someone is inside.

One Saturday, the Hubs and his band were rehearsing at our house. They brought a new guy to play keys with them- a guy I'd never met before. When we were introduced, I thought he seemed pretty nice, just a little quiet. And I secretly wanted to set him up with one of my friends. (One of my much-younger friends. The guy's only 22!)

The guys practiced for hours. The boys had made plans to spend the night with my parents that night and I was busy packing their bags. I couldn't find any of Jordan's shoes anywhere. I had just searched his room from top to bottom and decided to look behind the door in the bathroom. Sometimes he puts his shoes there before his bath. I'm not really sure why. Anyway, I walked to the bathroom door and turned the doorknob...which was unlocked. So I pushed the door open. And there was new guy... in the bathroom... doing his thing.

Oh my word. I muttered, "Oh my gosh, I'm SO sorry!" and slammed the door closed again. I came into the room where the rest of the guys were talking. Chris took one look at my face and asked me what was wrong. "I just walked in on B(*) when he was in the bathroom! The door wasn't locked!" Of course, everyone got a big kick out of that. Another guy asked, "Well, was he crappin'?". How thankful I am that my answer to that question was, "NO! Thank God!"

A few minutes later B came back into the room. The only thing he said was, "That was awkward!" Yes. That was just a little awkward!

Before all of this happened, I had sent him a friend request on Facebook. B accepted me as his friend and then posted on my wall: "Hi Erin. Asking to be my friend is the least you can do after the incident at your house..." More awkwardness. To this day we don't really understand each other. I don't understand why he didn't have the door locked and he doesn't understand why I didn't knock. Maybe one day we'll work out our differences. Ha ha!

The band has been in a youth revival this week. The pastor who spoke was selling t-shirts that read "Its Only Awkward If You Make It Awkward". Well... sorry, but there was no way to make this situation not awkward.

* "B" stands for "Bathroom Boy", which is what my sister and I call this individual behind his back. I'm not sure she even knows his real name.

father and sons

I wanted to share these pictures of my boys as they're following in their dad's footsteps. I snapped this one of Jordan the other day at church. He wanted to bring his guitar to the Kids Life service so that he could practice.






















This one of Shaun was taken tonight at a youth revival. Chris called Shaun up on stage to sing with him and the band... and he did! With a microphone and everything. And I must say that he was pretty awesome. I'm a proud mama tonight.

















I wish I could have gotten a better shot, but I was in the audience and only had my phone.

I posted these on Facebook and someone commented that we were raising up the next generation of worshipers. I receive that in Jesus' name!

a new perspective

I did something a little different today. I left the comforts of the Info Desk and became a greeter at church. Yes, that's right. Me. I was a greeter. Being friendly and helpful and stuff early in the morning. This was just a tad out of my comfort zone. Talking to people I don't know and all that. I did it anyway, and I'm glad I did.

I was feeling kind of "blah" this morning. As usual, things were hectic and we were running late. We were all tired, the kids were crabby, and Chris and I were short with each other. Plus, it's that time of the month. I was emotional and just didn't really feel well. On the way upstairs I wished to myself that I could just go home. Instead, I stood at the front door and prepared to be friendly and helpful.

I loved it. I saw an old friend I hadn't seen in years. And then two sweet little old ladies toddled inside. Both were kind of frail looking, but one of them could barely walk. She asked where the restroom was, and I offered to walk her there. Mainly because I was afraid she was going to fall and hurt herself. She took my arm and we made our way to the restroom. On the way she told me that this was her first visit to Free Chapel. She lives in Mississippi but she'd always wanted to hear Pastor Franklin preach, so she and her niece planned a visit. When we arrived at the restroom, she thanked me and said, "I really should have a walker. It's so hard for me to get around, but I really wanted to be here today".

Wow. Talk about humbling. I mean, I was ready to go home because I was tired and this lady (at least in her 80's) was giving it all she had just to visit the church I'm blessed to attend every week. She definitely gave me a new perspective.

Lord, let me never take my church for granted again.