Real Snow

Real Snow in Columbus, GA!!!! about 3 inches or so. My house only got about 1.5 inches....this snow on my car came from when I was at church this morning. Above is my Sunday School class this morning. Had a good crowd despite the weather...

Work Work Work

Here is a picture of me and some of my toddlers in our sunday school class. Will doesn't look really happy....

Work has been extremely busy (which is a good thing...) but makes for long days. Lots of daily meetings mean extra time spent at work to get all my other work done.

I usually work extra during the week so I won't have to come in on the weekends.

I moved up to the toddler class this year due to the number of babies that were moving up from the baby room. I am thinking about continuing through the next year as well. There won't be as many to teach but perhaps more toddlers will come.

I start a new box of circulum this week. I really like the "hands on Bible" lessons for the toddlers. They hear the same story for 4 weeks as their attention span is rather short. We ususally do a craft of some kind each week that goes with the lesson.

Have a great week.

Merry after Christmas

My brother and me with my great nephew Evan

My neice Cassy in her apt

Christmas Eve Supper

I went to my Brother's house in Chesapeake, VA for Christmas this year. I spent the night at Dad's in SC on Saturday night and then drove on to VA on Sunday. I met my great nephew and my neice's husband for the first time and visited with my Brother's in-laws as well as Dad and Geri. I have attached some pictures of our holiday. It took 13 hours of traveling back on Friday to return home. Overall a very nice Christmas. Hope your's was as well.

Advance Voting

Today I took advantage of advance voting at the main Library branch. Apparently half of the town had the same thought... I arrived @ 8:55 and when I left after voting it was 11:15. That was a very long wait, winding up the stairs around the rotunda 1 1/2 times, down this aisle, and up another one. By the time I actually voted, I felt like I knew your line neighbors quite well because you had just talked together for 2 hours.

There was a camera man from Channel 10 news there trying rather unsuccessfully to get anyone on camera. The girl next to me was addressing some cards while she waited and he thought that would be a great thing to put on the news. She did not agree.

I really wish they could have had a way of assisting those elderly people in line. They were having to follow in line just like everyone else. One man fainted, not sure how old he was, but by the time I got to that same point in the never-ending line, I felt like I could have done the same thing. I didn't eat much before I went, so I made a beeline to lunch as soon as I finished.

God has control of our leaders, I pray that the right person would be elected. Amen

Gaither Concert

I was able to attend the Bill Gaither Concert at the civic center last Thursday evening. It was fantastic to say the least. They sang for 4 hours. Guy Penrod is taking a break from the group for awhile, it was the first time I had seen one of their concerts without him there. Ernie Haase and Signature Sound did a great job too.

Mark Lowry surprised us all by appearing on stage about 2 hours into the program.
My favorite song was at the end when they sang "Because He Lives". I also enjoyed Mark's song about going home.

I messed up Holly's picture of her and Mark (sorry, but there were SOOOO many flashes to keep track of...) but she did get to snap a picture of him right before he ran back to the stage.

The concert was meant to be a "memorial" to Jake Hess. For the past 10 or so years of his life he lived here. He passed away a few years ago and the funeral was at my church. I was unable to attend the funeral but heard it was a musical tribute. The volunteers that were helping in the infant nursery this past Sunday were relatives of Jake Hess. Jake's grandaughter Emily and her husband were there with their 5 month old son. They have 2 older boys and they were helping with the infants this time. Emily talked about touring with her papa Jake while she was in high school. Bill Gaither had the Hess family on stage with them during the last hour of the program. Jake's 2 sons and 11 year old grandson (Jake the 3rd) can sing very well, too.

Rain Rain

Today was the first day in a very long time that it rained steadily for about 17 hours straight. I had been eyeing a part of my roof where one of the little "chimneys" are and was wondering how it would do if it rained. Well apparently I wasn't concerned about the right "chimney" because the one above my laundry room is the one that is leaking. The floor had water on it and the ceiling has a stain.

I have had a horrible time locating a honest roofer to work on my other house, I am not sure there is one in my town. Wish my cousin was nearby...

Great Auntie Karen

Here is my grand nephew, Evan Joseph Lofay...

My oldest niece had a baby boy on Wednesday 9-10-08 @ 10:32 am via an emergency C-section in Norfolk, VA. Other than being very tired, Cassy is doing well considering what she went through with the surgery.

I am not sure why the camera's date says 10-9-08 because he was born on 9-10-08...

Full day of babysitting at church

Saturday there was an all day financial seminar at church. I was in the nursery with Miss Ellen and the "under 4 yr olds". There were 4 of them. Three of them took long naps (even the 3 yr old....!). The problem we did have was one of the little ones didn't want to nap so we spent most of that time keeping him quiet...

No one got hurt and our little ones played very well together throughout the rest of the day. I was very thankful for that.

A Fire Truck goes to Church

After an awful and stressful day at work, it was very nice to get to church and visit with my friends and catch up on the past week's news, etc. The babies in the nursery on Wednesday nights keep us hopping, they are very busy. Most of them are in my Sunday School class. Speaking of Sunday...let me tell you what happened this past Sunday morning....

Approx. 10 minutes before the 11 am church service, the fire alarm went off. Well there was one other adult in my class with me and 9 little ones at the time. I am not sure how, but all of a sudden there were people coming to assist with getting the little ones out of the building. There was no way toddlers could walk behind someone leading them on a regular day, let alone a time when a very loud alarm is blaring. Some of them didn't have shoes, some were screaming and the other ones were wide eyed and scared.

All we could think about was getting them out of the building. We all gathered outside next to the playground with all the other kids (up to 3 yrs old) and I made a comment "well, at least it is not raining", just then, it started pouring rain (it really did!), it was amazing. Everyone grabbed the kids again and ran to the choir suite that is in the main church building with the sanctuary. No one in the sanctuary knew anything about the fire alarm. The building really could have been on fire and no one in the church service would know a thing.

It ended up being a false alarm, one of the teens "leaned up against the alarm" and it started. Of course we had to wait for the fire truck to come and reset the alarm--still blaring loudly. The kids did get to see the fire truck, that was fun I guess. By the time we got back in the building again, there were other kids arriving. It was so chaotic that I ended up staying in my classroom for the 2nd service--there were now 11 toddlers in my class. The volunteers in the first service stayed on thru the 2nd service in the infant room, so they were covered.

The fire station is very close to us, about a minute away. They have been at our church 2 times in the past months. They are probably going to get tired of false alarms. The last time about a month or so ago one of the younger kids pulled the alarm, that time it was on a Wednesday night.

Re-thinking 4 day work week

Apparently there is more to the proposed 4 day work week schedule than I had originally thought. Information regarding the work schedule arrived via email.

An hour for lunch will be a requirement (I know lots of folks that will not like that). A signed form is required stating that if your job performance goes down, you have to return to the regular 8 hrs a day schedule within 2 weeks. Because of the required hour for lunch, there is not going to be any time in which to make up time during the week unless you stay even later. For holidays, we still only get 8 hrs, not 10. So to make up those 2 hours, you would have to take vacation time, work even longer during the day, or come in on your day off to make them up. I would have to come in even earlier on Wednesdays because I don't want to miss out on Wednesday Church activities.

So it looks like I will probably say no to the 4 day work week. My current hours seem ok to me.