Teenagers

I have a couple of things to say about some recent experiences with teenagers...

First- Sunday at church a lady asked me if one of the boys from youth group was my son. Now I need to tell of you that this boy looks to be 17 or 18. Now I realize that I am aging and no longer can pass for a college kid. At times, yes, I no longer get carded when I go out, but honestly do I look like I have a teenage son?? Please be truthful with me...I can take it!!!

Secondly- We have great kids in our youth group at church. We call it Floodgate!! I pray that God will open the Floodgates of Heaven on us. We meet every other Sunday night and I love it. We have such a blast with them. Just like other areas of church planting I must be patient. I want to have this awesome, huge, amazing youth group now. I pray that I will be patient and purposeful in my waiting. I pray that I will enjoy the part of the journey we are on. We just started Floodgate in December. I love the relationships I am building with the teens. We are going to a concert and hockey game together on Saturday. I am so looking forward to it. We have so much fun together.

I work with teens all week and then hang out with a bunch more on Sundays. I am thankful I am no longer a teenager, though I don't wish to be a teenager’s mom yet either!! Teens face a tough world out there and life can get messy for them. They make me want to bang my head against a wall one minute and hug them the next minute. The teenage years can be tough and I am so thankful I know a group of teens that is letting this "old" lady walk part of their journey with them! Floodgate Rocks!!!

A Family Favorite!

I wish to dedicate this post to my brother-in-law, Sam!!

The Italian Sandwich- Yummy!! Some of you may read this and be greatly confused. I must clear some things up though. I feel it my civic duty to try to educate some on this wonderful sandwich. The true Maine Italian Sandwich consists of a ham or salami(mostly ham for us St. Johns), provolone cheese, tomatoes, pickles, onions, green peppers, salt, pepper, and oil(Some of us delete the onions and peppers). Many of you may be thinking "Yeah Am, been there ,done that, had a ham and cheese sub a million times." I must correct you though that this sandwich I speak of is not a sub. Yes you may have had all the above named ingredients on some sort of bread before, but you may not have had an Italian Sandwich. The ingredient I left out on the list above that truly makes an Italian an Italian is the roll. It is soft and light yet at the same time not too airy and has just the right level of doughy goodness to it. The perfect Italian Sandwich cannot have too much bread to it. The ingredients cannot be overpowered by a tough, thick sub roll. They must be gently wrapped in a soft, subtle Italian Sandwich roll. This roll I speak of is almost like a hug for the ham, cheese, and veggies. Now some(I will not name names, but I did dedicate this post to him) have called it a "glorified hot dog bun". I can only say that I am outraged by this injustice. To this person I say, you may be from the "Live Free or Die" State but buddy you might die never being free to eat another delicious Italian Sandwich again! I am deeply sorry for your lack of taste and can only hope that as you spend more and more years in our family you can gain the superior level of taste in food that we have. I hope this clears up any misconceptions about The Oh So Delicious Maine Italian Sandwich!!

Oh Deer!!!!

So last night I was driving home after giving Miss Sophie Wells her first haircut, which was so fun by the way. I was on Rt 1 in Bath and was talking to my mom on the phone when out of no where a deer runs into the side of my car. It scared me so much. I yelled out, "Oh My Word A Deer Just Hit Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I think it was a little scary for my mom on the other end of the phone. She talked me through it and helped me calm down. I made it home and thought there wasn't any damage to my car from what I could see though it was dark out. Well, this morning in the light of day you can see a good size dent in my passenger side door. Thanks Mr. Deer! I am thankful that it is nothing more serious, but for real did he need to run into my car? So I am putting out there to all other deer...Please stay away from my car!!!!

Celebrating Life

I am reading a great book called "Cold Tangerines-celebrating extraordinary nature of everyday life" by shauna niequist. It is a great book and I am pretty sure I will have more posts in the future about it, but last night I was reading and fell in love with a line from her book. After how I have been feeling about the passing of my friend's dad, the words spoke deep into my heart.

So here it is..."We can't stand in the way of death, but when it comes, we can stand in its face together, and celebrate life and celebrate family and celebrate having loved fiercely and expressively."

I want to love fiercely and expressively so that when death comes this quote can be true for those left behind!!

Loss

We've all had people in our lives that we are so close to and then as time goes on we loose touch. Life moves on and we move on with it. You can go years with out thinking about a person and then something happens and they are thrown back into your world for a moment. This just happened to me with a friend of mine from my childhood. We were really close in elementary and middle school and then through high school and after are lives took us different paths. We have run into each other a few times over the years, but haven't kept in touch at all. Well, this week his dad passed away and now this person, that I hardly know anymore, I can't get out of my mind. I hurt for him. I hurt for his family. I knew his family well and I my heart aches for their loss. I have lots of fun memories of my friend's dad and times I spent with their family. It is in moments like this that we take a look at life. So today I look at life as a whole. The good and the bad and I say thank you. I say thank you to a good God for life. I say thank you for all the fun times I had with the Gregoire Family. I say thank you for my family. I know that my friend's dad loved this good God that I say thank you to and I know Paul is now dancing with the angels in Heaven!!

Today

It is rainy and I feel yucky. I refuse to say that I am sick and passionately deny the existence of a cold. I have a headache and a runny nose, but I am NOT sick. I will fight!!! Water is my friend today. I am drinking lots and running to the potty every 5 minutes. I am at work and it is quiet here. I rejoice in that yet I fell like taking a nap, so I blog instead since I am pretty sure my program director frowns on naps unless he is taking one! I chatted with my sis in SC today. Always a joy!! I am going to see my friends kids play basketball this afternoon. How can the Garland children be in HS? I am getting old! That's OK though I am enjoying life and that is to be celebrated. Life is to be celebrated and I am trying to do that more!

I am out of water so I will go get more now!!

Peace!

1st try!!

I thought I might give this a try!!!! Hopefully it works.