It's A Wonderful Life

 Linking up with Rebecca Jo

I've been acutely aware lately of just how amazing my life has been. Have there been difficult times? Absolutely. But overall I've had a solid foundation on which to build my life and things have been peaceful. I credit that to the Lord. My life wasn't that way before I met Him! 

So, things I'm thankful for this week:

A church that focuses on prayer
The presence of the Lord
The family of God

Peace of mind
My faith
Finding joy in the simple things

God's creation - it's stunningly beautiful!

I hope you're having a blessed week too!

This And That

We hosted a large graduation at work last month. I worked a 12 hour day and walked over 18,000 steps. But everything went well and the graduates had a great time!

 We saw Toy Story 4. Without giving away any spoilers, I will say I didn't like it. Well, I didn't like the way it ended. Honestly. Toy Story 3 will always be the final movie for me.

 

I had a meeting for all the custodians. 

 The laundry piled up.

We're doing more construction at work.

And one night I came home, lit a fire and sat outside until after 10pm. It was quiet and peaceful and just what I needed!

Have you seen Toy Story 3?

What did you think of it?

Fourth of July Photo

I hope you all have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

The Variety Show

It went so well! Beth was very nervous, even sitting in the car she pulled out an ornament that had a sticker with the verse from Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I had printed up some song sheets for two reasons actually. First so people could follow along but also so they could see how her 'costume' sort of matched Colm Wilkinson's when he played Jean Valjean on Broadway. 

She walked onto the stage with her fists clenched and everyone began shouting out her name and encouraging her. By the time she walked across the floor and got to the microphone, everyone was clapping and cheering for her.

 (I didn't get any photographs during the song so I took a screen shot of the video.)

Right before she started singing she looked over at our table and took a deep breath, she was so brave! This week she held onto the microphone and sang loud enough at times that you could hear her over the music! Such a big difference from last week!

There were songs and skits and magicians, lots of laughter and fun! Then at the end, everyone came on stage and danced to We Got The Beat!

 

 

 

This is Cheryl, Beth's Bestie

 

Sharaya and Allie

 

Me and Beth

It was such a fun night!

A Little More Prepared

Tonight's the night! It's the second performance of the Way Off Broadway Vaudeville Show.

I really hadn't heard too much about it. A few months ago Beth brought home a paper saying they were going to have show and if you wanted to perform, let the leaders know what you wanted to do and they would have a auditions.

So Beth said she wanted to sing Bring Him Home from Les Miserables. I filled out all the appropriate boxes on the form and she took it back the following week. After the auditions we found out she had made it and so she began practicing her song.

A few weeks later she brought home a flyer with all the information on it so we made some copies and she handed them out to people at church. 

It's a low-budget show, everyone in the show has special needs and those that choose to sing really can't sing and those who are doing skits can't really act.

But that's not the point. 

The reason they do it is because the kids absolutely love performing! They have smiles as wide as the grand canyon, everyone cheers and every act results in massive applause!! It's fun and happy and a great way to spend an evening!

As last weeks show begins, I'm realizing each act has props or small sets that they've painted or created and there's audience participation with waving American flags during a patriotic song...

And then Beth gets up to sing. She's just wearing the brown outfit she wore that day. No costume. No props. Nothing. 

Now it may be that the volunteers have asked her during the last few weeks if she wanted to make something or wear something and she said no. I'm fully aware that's probably what happened. But my heart sunk! Even in the world of special needs Beth is often the odd-man-out.

BUT!!

I asked her about getting a costume and she said yes. This week we've been to Target, The Party Store, Dollar Tree... trying to find something she could wear (even just a hat!) that would represent Jean Valjean when he sings this song. We finally found something at Goodwill, a blue shirt and red vest that will slightly resemble the costume worn in the Broadway production.

I printed up some song sheets that we'll put on each table and I asked her about waving a giant red flag as she enters but she said no to that. 😀

So this week we're a little more prepared than we were last week. I'm writing this at about 3:00 on Wednesday and the show starts in 3 hours. She's downstairs practicing right now! I'll let you know how it goes!

Smoke But No Fire

Many times a week I pray the Lord would protect our house, the property it's on and the neighborhood it's in. Today we saw a direct answer to that prayer.

Chuck and I sat down for lunch and it smelled like something was burning. You know how you sit there for a second, sniffing with your nose in the air wondering if you really could be smelling fire? 

Beth was upstairs emptying the trash and I got up and was sniffing down the hallway when Beth said, "That smell? That my microwave."

I flew down the stairs and noticed the stairwell was very smoky. Beth's room was smoky. I saw her microwave was open and this was smoldering inside.

It's a homemade cooling / heating pack that's supposed to be microwaved for 15 seconds at a time, until it's at the desired temperature. Beth said she put it in for 3 minutes! And she had been upstairs for a few minutes just casually emptying the trash, who knows how bad it was when she first opened that door!

The first thing I did was unplug the microwave. My eyes were burning and I kept coughing. Chuck called down, "Is everything okay down there?"

"No!"

There was still some smoke coming from the pack so I grabbed Beth's water pitcher and began pouring small amounts of cool water on it and boy did that thing sizzle!! We opened windows and put fans in front of them to draw all the smoke out. The pack was SO hot but I was able to put it in a bucket of water and took it outside.

It's after 8pm and we still have the windows open and the fans going. And it still smells like smoke in here. But I'm so thankful it wasn't worse!

You know I just realized, she has a smoke alarm downstairs. I wonder why it didn't go off?? I'm going to go check the batteries...

Blacktop

 

Linking up with Rebecca Jo

So many things to be thankful for:

 

I had a good meeting today with my boss and a co-worker

The sunshine is coming back after days of rain

We finally got our driveway paved!

I'm looking forward to lunch out with long time friends

Beth did well at the Variety Show last night

We finally got our driveway paved!

My crazy work schedule is slowing down a little

We're going on vacation in 7 weeks!

We finally got our driveway paved! 😁

I hope you're having a week filled with good things!

Not A Single Pound

Friday, June 7

 

 Sunday, June 9

 Monday, June 10

 

 Friday, June 14

And after all this, I haven't lost one single pound! And I'm eating normally, nothing out of the ordinary. Well bummer.

We had a big Pentecost Sunday service last weekend where we had everyone who was born outside of the U.S. carry a flag representing their birth country. We have 60 nations represented at our church!

Our choir sang a song in Swahili.

Celebrating the Lord of the nations every Pentecost is one of my favorite Sundays of the year!

 

 I took Beth and Nick to the movies last week. They sure do love hanging out together!

 

Do you go to the movies very often? 

What's the last move you saw at the theater?

The Library Roof To The Rescue!

After a 13 hour day on Friday I pulled out of work and saw the gorgeous sunset! I drove around trying to get a good view when I drove right up to the library.

That's when I remembered our library has a roof that overlooks the water! It was so pretty.

Have a blessed week!

Just Family Stuff

I called Christine and invited her to come see Beth at work. She's been Beth's job coach for about 8 years and we think of her as one of the family. We're no longer using her company but we know she loves Beth and only wants the best for her. She was so excited to see Beth and is so thankful we found a job for her.

Nick came to church with us on Sunday and then we all went out to eat The Hook. We'd never been there before, they specialize in seafood but they also have burgers, breakfasts, a good variety of stuff. Unfortunately the fish was dry, the potatoes were kind of bland and the prices were high. Oh well, now we know!

Sharaya and Allie headed home and the rest of us stopped at a little overlook. It's a tiny space between a couple of houses but they've put in a bench and 4 parking spaces so it's nice to just stop for a few minutes and enjoy the view!