SmithlutzleetherJESUSblog?

Youth Drama - Tyler as Jesus. Standing ovation for our youth! They have performed it twice in public for our two churches that have teamed up on this; they hit the road in November for a by request performance from another church.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuAexOBQgCM

Julie and Joe's latest achievements

Julie is proving to be a star in her French course getting lots of 100's on her tests. She has also been assigned to advanced seminar which gives her time during school to work on whatever she wants due to her outstanding performance.
Class President Joe was presented an award today for his outstanding achievement on his summer job and was also given a hat by the women at the University of MD college here on the base.

Don't Be Afraid...

to be brutally honest...

Having dipped a tentative toe into the water by contacting our district rep, who wants to talk me out of applying for seminary?

By all means, bring up the time and the expense (so not cheap), and anything else you can
think of on the negative side.

Just the application process can take up to a year, before you even get to think about
an actual class... and then it's a five year process after that, and then a three year probationary period after that, so almost a ten year process before you actually get to do anything with it.
Plus working full-time...

Mondays

Having Mondays off somehow seems like playing hooky - no matter how many hours I've put in in a week. Today has been a 'puttering' kind of day which is really doublespeak for 'not getting anything completely done'

Enjoying the beautiful day. I keep wandering out to the deck in my puttering mode to soak up some sun.

Happy Monday to everyone!

Working Hard...

We are in fix up the house mode! We have done a ton of stuff this past year - redone the upstairs bathroom (painted, repaired the ceiling, put in a new vanity top, new light fixture & new decor), redone the guest room (painted & new decor), painted the laundry room and now...the screen porch! We enclosed it (and by "we" I really mean the guy we hired), turning it into a mudroom/sunroom (Donny and I disagree on exactly what we turned it into...anyway...). It's completely enclosed now, with 4 windows instead of screens. We painted it a nice bright yellow which looks very pretty with the white windows and white doors. Got some new furnishings and the carpet will be installed this week, a nice warm brown. I will post a picture when it's all done. I wish I had a "Before" picture but the porch always looked so awful I swear I don't think we ever took one picture of it.

I don't like spiders and snakes

Now the snakes are not a problem. They are all hanging out by rivers and woods and places I don't wander around that often. The spiders on the other hand, consider September to be the month they move indoors. Some would say it's them moving into a warmer place for the winter, but it is 70 - 80 here these past two weeks, and the spiders are trooping in like they own the place. Get them a collar and a leash and these guys could be your second dog - they are big!

Oh I know they're harmless - these are second cousins of the daddy longlegs. But I don't like them. In fact, I am afraid of them on some deep, visceral level that leads me to scream whenever I see them scurrying across the floor. At least the rest of the family is accommodating. They immediately leap into spider killing mode. (No lectures please - I really don't care about all the good stuff they do. If they would stay out of my house, I would let them live a long and happy life. I do not bother them in their house, they shouldn't bother me in mine!)

Happily, it's pretty much all over by October, November at the latest. They disappear. I don't trouble myself wondering where they're camping because they don't venture into sight. As it should be.

What critters are heading your way these days?