On a more positive note...

Last week was intense in every way--very busy and emotional with the loss of our friend, Dan. It's still hard to believe he is gone.

Tonight we had a cookout with the teens (actually, we decided to just invite everybody who wanted to come--those of you who know me well, know that's how I tend to do things--the more the merrier as far as I am concerned.

Anyway, we only had ten in our class on Tuesday night and they all seemed to have prior engagements for this evening. We ended up with 11 on the bus plus several who came with their parents or visited from area churches. (There are several tiny churches close by with 1-4 teens. We are trying to include them in our activities when we can.) All told, I think we had about 25 kids ages 11 and up. Plus there were 20 or so adults and little ones.

It was a nice evening playing kickball, volleyball, rhythm (campfire game), singing songs and just hanging out. I was very proud of the kids for behaving. I like having informal times when the adults can intereact with the kids and get to see them sometime besides church. The same for the kids getting to see the adults as real people. No, we don't all live and work at the church! (I said something about my job as a nurse and one of the kids couldn't believe I had "two" jobs--Kids Club AND being a nurse!!)

We sang the songs the kids wanted around the fire--Shout to the Lord, As the Deer, Sanctuary. Several of the adults hadn't heard the songs and really liked them. I told Bob I think we came home with more food than we took! People brought in food then when we cleaned up it all got piled in my car! Oh well. I stash it away for our next activity.

I am TIRED tonight. Bob and I were both off today but I didn't relax much--I worried that we wouldn't have enough food, that no one would come, that someone would get hurt, that the kids would pair off and hide in the corners somewhere...anyway, it's all over and none of those things happened, thankfully.

I had better go and get some rest now. I tried to post pictures of my Fiestaware dishes earlier today but it doesn't want to work. I'll keep trying. Special thanks to Leo for tweaking my blog for me and for setting up the new look. She has put a lot of time and energy into it and I really like what she has done. Thanks, sis!