Yo! What's up with all the unity???

I think I've mentioned a couple (or 456) times that me and my roommate/best friend host what we call a community group on Wednesday nights. It has been going on a little over a year now. It's called a Community Group because our church is fairly large and we don't have Sunday School (thank the good Lord!!) and so it's a way to branch out and meet people and "do life together". It's a fairly new idea (or at least the idea set in motion is fairly new) having started a little over a year ago. The preacher was challenging the "congregation" (i hate that word) to start a small group where people can come over or meet at a central location and just do life together. When all this occurred, me and Jules had only lived here for about 8-9 months and we didn't have a lot of friends. Actually, we had 2 friends. TWO. So, Jules said, "why don't we do it!?" which is totally out of character for her! She's usually a little bit introverted and holds back when it comes to meeting new people. I'm usually the one who's like, "Yeah!! Let's put ourselves out there!!" But the roles were completely reversed at that moment. She said we should do it...I said Heck no!! But, in the end she talked me into it--basically by saying that if we wanted to make friends and have a life here then we needed to do SOMETHING. So, we signed up...took the "class" and started our group.
The first Wednesday we had a couple come. They were super nice. We hung out and had a little finger food tray. I think I remember thinking that they'd never come back. I figured that people have enough "crazy" in their lives without adding us to the mix. The next Wednesday night that first couple did not come. (I knew it!) but a new couple came. They were really nice and seemed pretty normal, too. I figured they wouldn't come back either, but they did. And guess what!? The first couple came back too. I think the next time we met was for a Christmas Party. There were 6 of us there. It was the first time the two couples had ever even been in the same room with one another. Me and Jules were both going out of town for the next week or so for Christmas and then there was New Year's so we didn't meet for 2 Wednesdays. I figured we would never see these people again--that they wouldn't come back after the holidays.
So, January 2008 comes along and the church hosts this thing where all the groups set up a table and a sign and you stand there and you advertise your group and people can sign up to get emails and info about your group. We had people come. About 8 signed up. Maybe not even that many. I can't remember. So I emailed the group list and the next Wednesday we packed like 10 people in our house. I remember thinking...Oh, these people will get a taste of my crazy and they'll never come back. But they did. They kept coming back. And they brought friends. (I have no idea why). At some point we were packing 25 people in our house. TWENTY-FIVE. I still couldn't figure out why 25 people wanted to hang out with us, and I kept saying, "They'll never be back.
In the beginning me and Jules sat down and really discussed in what direction we wanted the group to go. We knew that neither of us felt we wanted a very serious, straight-laced Bible Study of sorts, because neither of us are straight-laced or very serious. We knew we wanted to provide a fun atmosphere, and we knew that we wanted to create a comfortable environment where people could come and make good friends that they could count on and build relationships with. So, that became our main focus. We started out with a schedule of doing Dinner nights, Game nights, Themed-snack night, and Bible study night. That went on for months, and was pretty successful. We had a couple "members" who were coming every week, but sort of putting pressure on us to create a more strict "Bible study" program rather than a "fun" program. We weren't sure what to do, and we really didn't want cause anyone to leave, so we started trying to please everyone. There were some who wanted a little bible study but still fun, some wanted only bible study and some said they got enough bible study elsewhere (i.e. church, other groups, etc). We weren't sure how to please everyone and we started to dread having the group. We tried to assign volunteers to particular weeks to do a Bible study, but then people wouldn't show up and we'd be left scrambling. We refer to that time period as "the wonder years" because it's a WONDER anyone stuck around. It was terrible. The group felt strained because we were strained. It was a very rough patch. Finally we had to sit down with the people who were causing a rift and tell them that we had gone astray from our original focus. It was a very uncomfortable thing for us to tell someone, "hey, if this is not the group you're looking for THAT'S OKAY....but we're not changing. Let me tell you about some other groups you might enjoy." I was constantly worried that we had stepped on some toes and that those people would gossip or whatever about us. But, eventually we felt we had done the right thing. It wasn't immediate, but those people who were unhappy with our group, they left and last I heard they found a group and were very happy. And we were happy too.
So, fast forward a few months. We no longer have 25 people coming...lots of those must have figured out how crazy we really are ;-) . We do have a core group of about 12 that come almost every week. We have new people email me almost every week who want to try the group out. Sometimes they stay and sometimes they don't but either way, it doesn't matter. I really feel like we are doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing.
So, now we don't have a set schedule of what "activities" we do each week. But we are trying really hard to come up with some fun things to do. During the summer we did a great job, with things such as Kickball games and swimming nights. We had Thanksgiving dinner last week, and in December we have all kinds of things planned. Including a Christmas party--where there should be more than 6 people, and almost everyone will know one another.
In the beginning if you would have told me that we'd still be going strong after a year, and that the original 4 "members" are still there, I would have laughed in your face. I would have said that you were insane, because people have enough Crazy in their lives without adding us to the mix. I would have said that we don't have much to offer and that people won't come over just to be bored. And I would have been wrong. As it turns out, we love these people who come over on Wednesday nights. They have supported us in every way possible, showing that they really care about us too. There have been times when Jules was out of work when we weren't sure how the bills were going to get paid. Without anyone else knowing one of the "members" gave us 1,000 dollars. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Another person gave us 300 dollars. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS!! People sacrificed what they had to help us out. And they haven't just supported us. They've supported each other. They've been there for one another. They've built the relationships that count and that they can count ON. They have friends they can call at 2:00 AM if something goes terribly wrong. And THAT'S what we were aiming for. We love our friends--and can pretty securely say that they love us too.
That's what CommUNITY is all about.

Thank you, God, for Turkey Day!

So, this Thanksgiving I couldn't afford to fly home, and let's face it...I wasn't making it on Standby, so Jules and I decided that we would just stay here and cook for our other out-of-town friends. Jules had to work most of the day, so we prepared almost everything ahead of time and just popped it in the freezer or fridge. It all went off pretty smoothly--I didn't even burn anything. I did have to peel the skin off the turkey because when I unwrapped the turkey it had this slimy snotty stuff all over it and I couldn't get it to wash off. So, i just pulled all the skin off. GROSS!! nobody wants snotty turkey. Later I got a little panicky because I felt like our turkey wasn't going to cook on time. It only took us a little while to realize the reason it didn't look like it was cooking was because it was naked. I took off it's (snotty) skin and so that made it a little more light pinkish than golden brown. Sounds appetizing, eh?

Well, anyway, we ended up with 6 people at our little intimate Thanksgiving Feast! I tell you, there's STILL some of that food left! Someone PLEASE come eat it!!!

And the best news of all, I didn't over eat. I ate slowly until I was full, and got up from the table. And seriously, I think that's the first thanksgiving in my life that I've done that!

Ok...now I have to go and gouge my eyes out until it's time to leave!!!

Gourd-jus fun!

We did pumpkin carving last night at our CommUNITY group. It was pretty stinkin fun...even though very few people showed up. I was suprised by the fact that not many showed, because they show for things like a mediocre dinner served by yours truly, but not pumpkin carving. Oh well, to each his own. Anyway, it was pretty fun. I painted instead of carving, mostly because I wasn't digging the pumpkin guts this year. yuck! And this is how mine turned out:

Ignore the mess surrounding the pumpkin...Everyone was still working. :)

Oooh! Scary!! He's frankenstein. And you know where I got the idea? I went into Microsoft Word and looked at the halloween clip art. They make all kinds of smileys that are halloween-related and since they're round it's easy to paint a pumpkin like one of the smileys. So that's what i did. I like his hair. It sort of looks like Eli Mattson, from America's Got Talent:
Photo taken from Eli Mattson's MySpace Page.

Doesn't the hair of my pumpkin kinda look like that, except Eli's is lighter? And might I add, Eli is just a beautiful man, isn't he? OK...moving on.

In other news...my feet really stink today. I am wearing these

OLD ballet type shoes and they stink to high heaven. If i arch my feet a certain way, or flip my foot out of my shoe even a little...a stench takes over! YUCK!!

Ok...that's all I have. I hope you're still awake after all this mediocre news! :)

Ok...I'll steal too. Random Things That Make Me Happy

In no particular order:

1. Flatirons Community Church
2. Chili or Taco Soup on a Cold Day.
3. My sister and her beautiful kids
4. the way your hair smells after a good shower.
5. a good meal
6. free things
7. Laughing
8. Movies and television
9. Crafts
10. the snow (as long as I don't have to drive in it).
11. the feeling of a full tank of gas
12. getting my hair done (cut or colored)
13. traveling
14. getting in my warm bed at the end of the day
15. our Community Group
16. wedding pictures
17. fall
18. Alabama Football
19. land-line phones
20. Westin Puppy
21. Sunsets
22. swimming
23. Sharpie Markers
24. Coffee with 2 sweet-n-lows and cream over ice
25. the way new white out works so GOOD.
26. flowers
27. learning new things
28. payday
29. a good joke
30. grilled cheese and tomato soup
31. Plays
32. the smell of a new car
33. Gulf Shores/Orange Beach
34. music
35. clic-stic pens, by BIC
36. Pushing Daisies, Grey's Anatomy, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance.
37. ice cream
38. feeling pretty (when it does happen)
39. Cooking
40. Water Slides/water roller coasters

Hallelujah!

So, last night Jules and I went to this Chorale thing. *why do they call it a chorale? Is that different than a Choir? or a Chorus? Hmmm..* anyway. It's a whole collection of about 19,875 songs that make up "The Messiah" or something. It's by some guy named Handel or Mendel or something. (don't ask me, I'm no musical expert). We went with Mike and Erin because they kept talking about it last year and how fun it was and how much they enjoy it. So, we thought it would be fun for us to take part in too. Basically, you go, you learn the songs, and there's a concert towards Christmas. One of the songs is the Hallelujah Chorus...you know? "haaaaa-leeeeh--looooo-yuhhhhhh" you know? Angels singing and such? OK...well, last night, since it was the first night of the "season" they traditionally went through all 19,875 songs. Quickly. Without teaching anything. You were just supposed to either 1. Already know the music. 2. Be able to sightread music. If you did not fit into either of those situations then you were pretty much going to sit and listen. Guess what me and Jules did?

Did you guess Sit and listen?? Yeah.

It was pretty overwhelming. Intense. I messed up loudly once. Jules just moved her mouth to look like she was saying the words, but no sound was coming out. I leaned a little too close to the woman beside me in order to hear her angelic sounds...which turned out to be not-so-angelic. I sat when I was supposed to stand *hey did anyone else know you are supposed to stand when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung? I had NO IDEA!* I stood when I was supposed to sit. I giggled and grinned, if only to cover my embarrassment. It was all-in-all a below-par experience except for the fact that next week they start breaking down the songs, part by part, song by song. That will be better. But let's just say that if the performance had been last night....I would have been front-and-center in the middle of a very excruciatingly embarrassing experience.

It might have been ALMOST as bad as when Buzz puts the candle-lights behind Kevin's ears and such in Home Alone 2.

Almost.

Who dunn it???

So, last night we had a mystery dinner party with my roommate's parents and some of our friends. It was very fun and very funny! Everyone played their parts so well that by the end of the night we were calling each other by the character's names instead of our real ones. It was super-fun. Not to mention that Julie ended up being the murderer! hahahah!

And...I wore a dress.

*GASP* I KNOW!! And shut up, Heather, because when i was younger and wore dresses a lot...i was also a lot skinner and minus a few of my favorite attributes: cankles....hippo-hips...buffalo-butt, and gushy-gut. :) Thankyouverymuch.

So...I wore a dress last night.

And I'm wearing it right now. at work. in front of people I don't know who could say horrible things about me to their families and giggle and I wouldn't even know. And you know what? I actually feel kind of pretty today. So, nah.

Here are some pictures:

That's me. In the back wearing a blue/green/brown dress and green sweater. Also, pearls...because...well, why not?

The little dog...that's westin. I LOVE HIM.

Anyway...it was such a fun night. We laughed and laughed and laughed some more! Mike brought fake mustaches for Jules to borrow. She was playing an 80ish year old italian man and needed a gray mustache. We had fun with the others:

:)

There are more, but I'll have to upload them later. I'm having a little trouble with Blogger. Anyway...you get the idea. Lots and lots of laughing. :)

Next week is 4th of July! yay! I guess if I'm going to get Baseball tickets I should do that NOW, dontcha think?? oh well.

Lastly, my sister spelled her own name wrong in her post today and it made me laugh so hard I almost fell out of my chair. My boss even peeked his head out of his office to see what I was laughing about. Seeing as I said something very vague like "my sister spelled her name wrong on this thing about stuff" he didn't think it was NEARLY as funny as i did. Oh well. (love you, heather!)

Okay...I guess I'll post more later!!

P.S. I LOVE blogger so much better than Livejournal! wooo stinkin hooo!