a little more decor for work.

I recently made a couple of flower decorations for work that were inspired by schools starting back. We have gotten a lot of compliments on them, which of course makes e feel great, but the "pod" (our section of rooms and nurses station" just seemed like it needed a little something...well more. So, this week, after work on Wednesday, I made these little brown sandwich bags to hang from the ceiling in our pod. I had discussed my "vision" with Dr. D about a week before, and she had gotten some large paper lunch sacks for us to use. I took these home and stuffed them with some wal-mart bags that I had laying around at home to give them volume, but not a whole lot of weight. I then attached some green raffia and hot glues some cute little apples to each of the bags. Thursday, I brought the little bags to work and we hung them from the drop ceiling with fishing line. I didn't get any pictures of them actually hanging at work, but I think that they look very cute for back to school! :)

dinner at the puddle.

This past week has been crazy...I have been working pretty late hours at work. I also worked a slightly different schedule than I normally do, which kinda threw the week off. Zack and I have been surviving off of leftovers from last weekend for most of the week, but Thursday, I decided that I was going to cook dinner. I found a recipe for Apple Pork Chops. They looked like they might be really tasty. Zack and I had Apple Pork Chops, Corn on the cob, and salad for dinner. I was a little disappointed with the pork. While the meat was tender, it lacked the flavor that we have had in other pork/apple recipes. It was a good home cooked meal, but I probably would opt for a different recipe for apple pork chops in the future. Zack was just happy to have a home cooked meal...

Problem Solved...

Zack and I love to play board games...and so, over the last few years, we have collected quite a few games of our own. These games have been stored in our entryway "coat" closet. It has become very difficult to get games in and out of the closet and we were just running out of space to store things. SO, Zack and I spent some time discussing this problem and ended up settling on a solution for our problem....we needed more shelf space. So, after a trip or 2 to Home Depot, Zack bought some shelving materials and he installed the shelves last week. I forgot to take a before picture, but I was so proud of Zack for doing this little home improvement project that I thought that I would post about it here!! Zack put in the four smaller shelves on the left side of the closet. It should be much easier for us to get to our favorite games now!

It's a little bit sad...

In a few weeks, our church will be restructuring the way that we do small groups. we are not really sure how this is going to affect our small group. Right now we are all signed up to attend the same small group, but the dynamics of the group might change drastically. This makes me a little sad. Our small group has come to feel a little like family to me over the last 5 years and needless to say this has been a very hard transition for me ...and I wish that I could say that I handled it with grace, but...well, lets just say...that didn't exactly happen.

Anyway, the girls in our small group have been doing Beth Moore's Stepping Up Bible study. We were doing a lesson a month, but had to speed things up a little to ensure that we finished the study before the small group changes took affect.

Tonight was our last night of the Bible study and I wanted to give the girls something that they could have to remember the study by and as a little good bye to small group gift. I didn't have as much time as I initially thought due to our altered schedule. So, I wasn't able to accomplish all that I had wanted to, but I made each of them a Bible Study Tote with their initial on it. In each of the totes, I placed a Bible Study Journal in which I had written a little message about how much I loved and cherished each of them and a bottle of water. I had wanted to get one of those cute metal water bottles, a candle and make a luggage tag for each girl as well, but just didn't have time to get all of that together. The items would have had significance from our study. The main premise of the study was talking about a pilgrimage. The Jews made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and would recite the Psalms of ascent that our lessons were surrounding. Beth compared their journey to our journey/ growing in our relationship with Christ. So, I thought that a luggage tag would have been a fun way to represent that. Beth also talked about the 3 feasts that the Jews were returning to Jerusalem for and the significance of light and water in them...that is where the thought for the water bottle and the candle came from...

Although I couldn't get all of that done in time, I think that the girls liked their little bags and journals. I am going to miss our time together as girls, but I am looking forward to continuing on this crazy journey of life with them...come what may....

Snacks for small group

Tonight was my night to bring snacks for small group. A couple of weeks ago, I had stumbled across a magazine with some AMAZING looking desserts in it. So, I decided that it would be fun to try one of these for our small group tonight. It has been SO hot here recently. So, I decided that it would be nice to have something cool and refreshing, and with me having to work all day, I needed something I could prepare ahead of time. As I flipped through the pages of the magazine a recipe for Frozen Key lime Cheesecake caught my eye. So, yesterday while I was fielding calls for work, I made this cheesecake. I served the cheesecake with homemade raspberry sauce and fresh raspberries. I think that the final consensus from everyone at small group was that it was good and was a keeper recipe. I liked it and it wasn't too hard....and, bonus, it was really pretty.

Lawn Olympics 2010 (LO10)

In 2009 a tradition was born. Skye and I dreamed up...and amazingly enough organized AND pulled off a day devoted to the spirit of battling fierce and worthy opponents in lawn games. We had an awesome time of fun, laughter, and fellowship with friends last year, and we decided that it was just too much fun not to have a 2nd annual games. Here's a link to the post about LO09

This year Skye and I were both a lot busier throughout the summer and it was difficult to plan the games. Finally Skye and I were able to sit down for a serious planning session and we settled on a date and some of the particulars were nailed down.

Invitations were sent. Sadly the attendance was down from last year. Last year's first and second place finishers were not able to attend the festivities.

Despite numerous set back, the games persevered. The games were to take place on August 13-15 in the North GA mountains.

We left for our destination at about 5:50pm Friday night. The weather was awful. It was pouring down rain. Chico was following Zack and I and we were trying to brave the down pour. We were about 5-10 minutes from our house when the lightning started. We were amazed and startled when we saw a streak of lightning hit a tree about 100 yards from us and light it up like it was on fire. I don't think that I have ever been that close to a lightning bolt before. Chico immediately called us just to make sure that we had seen it!

We were supposed to be making it up to the mountains in time for dinner and our traditional opening ceremonies. However, Skye and her enterage did not leave our little home town until around 7:30. As they were supposed to be supplying the meat for our cookout, we decided to change dinner plans. I had made some 4 cheese mac n cheese to go with our dinner and I had some potato soup that I had made just in case we needed it. So, we decided to eat potato soup and mac n cheese for dinner Friday night.

After dinner, Chico, Embo, Patrick, Zack and I played Quelf as we waited for Skye and her carful of Olympiads to make it to our mountain retreat.

During our game, we were attacked by a large stinging insect. I'm no sure what it was, but it had a really big stinger...thankfully, the guys took care of, not one, but 2 of these enormous creatures.





They did not arrive until about midnight....Skye was having cell phone issues...something about it being run over by a car....LONG story, and she was not exactly sure how to get to the cabin...although Patrick and I had both given her directions....So, needless to say, our nomadic Olympic athletes had taken a few wrong turns. By the time they made it to the cabin we had time for a few stories a couple laughs and then we all went and fell into bed to prepare for the next days activities.

Saturday, we had our traditional blueberry pancakes, which were made by our singing and dancing chef Skye. I had made some hash brown casserole to pair with this, and there were several types of juice to go along with them. Breakfast was a success.





Once Breakfast had been put away, we started our opening ceremony. Opening Ceremony consisted of the Lawn Gnome, hostess of the games, running around the cabin with the eternal flame of the games....usually she would have lit the grill, but with the rain and the fact that we didn't plan on using the grill Saturday, we opted on just a symbolic run around the cabin.

Skye had sold most of the gnomes outfit at a garage sale. So, we had to improvise.
Skye and Chico had made what Skye lovingly refers to as mock skirtlets. This was a brain child of Embo and Skye. While on a long run one day, Skye and Embo were joking about how big Skye's calves were and how she should cover them. The name that they came up with for what this covering would be called was "Mock Skirtlet". So, we all got a big kick out of them...look out here is the next big fashion Craze!
We had a little bit of trouble lighting the torch due to ran, but eventually it was a short-lived success.

With the eternal flame "lit", we had the team t-shirt unveiling. This is probably one of my favorite parts of lawn Olympics. I was so proud of everyone's creativity last year, and I was not dissapointed this year. Every team is required to make a t-shirt representing something that you might find in a yard. Here are this years teams:

Skye and Chicho
Team Tacky Christmas Lawn Decorations

Embo and Patrick

Team Bug Zapper

Vicky and Jenny

Team Gargoyle

Zack and Paula
Team Koi Pond

As each team unveiled their team t-shirts, their team National Anthem was played and they were supposed to take a dance lap around the cabin. This year with the rain, we opted for a dance around the picnic table. I cannot remember everyone's anthems this year, but they were all great. Embo and Patrick had an actual song about bug zappers.



After opening ceremony, we started the games.

AM games included Bocce Ball and Sack Race

Bocce Ball
1st Team Koi Pond
2nd Team Bug Zapper
3rd Team Gargoyle
4th Team Christmas Decor

Sack Race
1st Team Bug Zapper
2nd Team Christmas Decor
3rd Team Koi Pond
4th Team gargoyle

After sack races, we decided to take a quick break for lunch. Embo and Patrick brought lunch items....those were some awesome sandwiches and chips.



After lunch, we played badminton and corn hole. Competition was fierce and there were several amazingly intense and close matches. Zack and I were in an intense battle with the undefeated Bug Zappers in corn hole. It was looking like they were assured victory when through some weird twist of fate, I was able to throw a bean bag and get a double ringer that seemed impossible. Zack and I eked out a 1 point victory....

Badminton
1st Team Koi Pond
2nd Team Christmas Decor (with some amazing diving saves)
3rd Team Bug Zapper
4th Team Gargoyle

Corn Hole
1st Team Koi Pond
2nd Team Bug Zapper
3rd Team Gargoyle
4th Team Christmas Decor

The over all standings of LO10 were:

1st place: Team Koi Pond
2nd place: Team Bug Zapper
3rd place: Team Christmas Decor
4th place: Team Gargoyle

This year Skye and I were not quite able to get everything together and so there were no medals or trophies awarded....only IOU's


Once the games had some to a close, we headed out to a small town near the cabin and got some fudge. We went in separate cars so that Embo, Patrick, Chico and I could return to the cabin after getting fudge, while Vicky, Skye and Jenny stayed and walked around for a while.



We decided that we should probably get a start on dinner. So, Chico made some of his famous homemade pizza. While we were waiting for the pizza's to be ready, we snacked on some spinach and artichoke dip and fruit salad that I had brought along for all of us to eat. We were pretty hungry. So, we were digging into the fruit and dip...by the time the pizza was ready, I had pretty much gorged myself on snacks and had little to no room for pizza.



After dinner, we played another game of Quelf. which as always was interesting. The group playingwas full of creative people. So that made the game even funnier.

Sunday morning, pretty much everyone left to make it to their respective churches on time. Chico stayed and helped tidy up the cabin and challenged Zack to a rematch of badminton. Once everything was put back in it's original places, we headed home. Zack was trying to make it home for Frisbee practice at 3...he was a little late, but not too bad.

we had such a great time...We really wish that our rivals from last year would have been able to attend this year's games, but sadly they had other obligations....maybe next year.