Whirling....

Life has just been a blur that past couple of weeks.... Actually most of July was just a fleeting memory.  Toward the end it just kicked into hyper-speed...
We have been without a full-time preacher for going on 2 years.  We have had a guy that is doing the preaching on Sunday most of the time and some others who come from time to time and some people from the church board who have been covering other duties.

Here is our church!!

 I lifted this picture off of Facebook, from our church page.  I usually sit on the left, 4 rows back or so.  I can't hear out of my right ear (just ringing) so I try to find a place I can hear and concentrate best....
 We are coming off a bad preacher experience and a lot more time and thought are going into the next one.  The last weekend in July we had a couple come to candidate for our church.  The committee was looking for something for them to do on Saturday night, so a few couples were getting together, including the preachers couple.  They are a couple with a small child and they decided they needed a chill night, so we were canceled, but we already had the meal fixings bought and knew we were headed out for several days, so we cooked and got together with friends anyway, and then when they left, we hit a birthday party we were supposed to go to for a while. 

Sunday morning we got up and went to church to hear the preaching, followed by a question and answer time in the fellowship hall.  Home to load up kid #4 for a week at Miracle Mountain Ranch and Marker Madness - yes a church camp that offers a week of paintball and wilderness camp!  He was grinning from ear to ear.

   On Monday, we packed up and headed to Lancaster with our Table of 8 group - men in one car, women in another.  About 6 hours plus stops.  We were headed to a bed and breakfast on Monday, maybe a little shopping, breakfast on Tuesday morning and then off to see Jonah at the Sight & Sound Theatre!  We were there 2 summers ago to see Joseph and it was so good!  They played Joseph again last year, so we didn't go...next year is Noah!!  Breakfast on Wednesday and then we were on our way home.  Work Thursday & Friday, then back up the hill to pick up my camper and bring all his dirty, stinky stuff home to wash up for the next adventure.
  Saturday was spent gathering stuff together for our first-ever trip to Kingdom Bound at Darien Lake.  If you have never been to one of these, don't wait to be a youth leader to go.  The speakers were great...the music was AWESOME!!  Third Day, Tenth Avenue North, Casting Crowns, Toby Mac, I even liked Switchfoot, but I was too cold and damp to stay for it all.  I've been God-washed!!  When I am in a quiet place, it's never quiet, because that music just keeps playing in my head and inspiring me!!  And Nick V, Justin Lookadoo, and Jill Kelly, among so many other speakers and performers!!  How can you go wrong???  The hardest thing is deciding who to go to when 2 are on at once!!  Kari Jobe was in there, missed Matt Mahr...great Irish group...name slips me just now, but it will come back...  Already thinking about next year.  Our youth group only goes every other year, but it happens every year, so we could just do it ourselves next year - maybe a smaller group.  We'll work out the details...
  Toby Mac was over and we headed back to camp for snack time and devotions and then we headed home, because we needed to work on Thursday.  Next year I'll know better!!  Rolled into bed at 2:15am and back out at 6:30.  Work Th& Fri and then off on another camping excursion with 10 other friends.  Laid back weekend, but still on the go.  Home yesterday and just ready to stay put for a bit.  Laundry galore today, along with a trip into Erie for the mouthgard we should have gotten before practice starts this afternoon...some school shoes...a new phone for me since one side won't type...it works if you don't mind flipping it around when you need to use those letters!! and can someone help my new fridge to start making ice again....hoping that the advice to unplug and replug it in resets it and we are good to go!!  Ain't technology grand!?!?!?  I just need some ice in my water, please!!  I think the washer has spun out again, so time to change it and load it back up again!  Oh, yeah and there are those 4 bushels of tomatoes that my mom is getting tomorrow for us to can after I'm done work... Better not hang up those running shoes yet.  Have a great day!