Day 357: Portraits waiting room

Jamin, Zaria and I got our portraits taken this morning for the church directory. They used the nursery for one of the waiting areas, which worked well since a few of the kids were able to enjoy some toys while they waited. Sadly, Zaria only started smiling by the last picture, which was one that can't be in the directory. Not that I expect many smiling toddlers in the book.

Tomorrow will be the last Sunday for Zaria in this nursery-- next week she'll be out of town with Mom and Dave while we move, and the week after that she moves up to the next older group. Jamin will be moving up with her to teach the 18-36 month-olds.

Day 356: Mini golf outing

Yup, that's Jamin trying to get his golf ball out of the tunnel. There were 12 of us that went golfing tonight, and the vast majority ended up with scores a bit over par. Some were quite glad of the 6-stroke limit, in fact. We broke up into groups of threes-- you can see Jamin's group members Mike and Aaron being quite amused.
Mandy, one of my group members, actually scored a hole in one! Just in time as this was the 18th and last hole. I was hoping to do the same, but it didn't pan out. (=

Day 337: Community dinner birthday

First Baptist had our monthly community dinner (lunch) after the service today with barbecued burgers and potluck items, and somebody brought a birthday cake. So we all got to sing for Susan, who had a birthday today. She's one of the church members that has been there since she was in nursery. It's really fun to be at a church that has people like that.

Day 328: Robert's bday and FBC dinner

We went to Robby's 1st birthday party this afternoon-- today's the actual day! I was very impressed that he likes to eat lettuce (Zaria will pull it out of her mouth). He's apparently a very good eater.

Then we headed downtown to FBC to join with the Community at Calhoun gathering. We missed the lake time, but joined everyone at church for the dinner. It was a tropical theme, so it was very fun and a great time of fellowship. Mandy was walking around taking lots of pictures, so I caught her in the act. I was sad to hear we'd missed three baptisms at the lake. My own baptism was in a lake-- I liked the idea of being in God's creation while taking that step.

Day 308: Sound practice

This morning I got to church early to do sound. Wow, I'm a whole lot slower than I was 4 weeks ago getting around, but I had a whole lot of help with set up and tear down this time. There can often be a lot of running up and down the stairs to tweak things on the stage, so I was very grateful for the help. This will likely be the last week I do it for a long while, and I'll miss it.

Day 305: Small group bocce

Here is our Thursday night small group, minus Barry and Angela (who took Abram home for bed) and myself (I had to sit down in between) playing bocce ball. It came out a little blurry, but this was a fun action shot. Instead of our usual small group time, we did a barbecue and hang out time since tomorrow's a holiday. Since our small group is so, uh, small this year, it wasn't too bad having everyone over at our place, especially with a lot of stuff outside. The guys hung out by the grill while the girls were inside, that sort of thing.

Day 191: Sound check

Last week I went in to relearn how things are done, this week I got to practice on my own. I'm still a little confused as to where I'm supposed to plug everyone in, but it's getting better. These cords gave me a bit of trouble-- I didn't find out until Sunday that the cord to Nicole's djembe drum was faulty, and that was after trying 3 different microphones. *sigh*

Day 188: Bug walking

Zaria is really gaining confidence with her walk. She was able to have lots of quality dad-time today, especially since he was volunteering in the nursery. I think all the kids, including the bigger ones that don't usually take morning naps, took naps today in the nursery. All their little time clocks were messed up with the daylight savings time today. We also got to visit my Dad and Dawn today. Zaria hasn't seen them much lately, so she was a little shy, but she really got to laughing when her grandpa acted surprised whenever she hit spoons together. I don't know if I've ever seen her laugh so hard.

Day 174: Dedication Sunday

I just love dedication Sundays! I always have, ever since I was a little kid. Except for when I actually was dedicated. Apparently, I always slept through church or was very quiet, but the day I was dedicated I cried through the whole thing. Don't really remember that, but I believe my parents' word on it.

Below is Jamin walking with Zaria. She walked all the way from the nursery to the stairs and was so proud of herself. It was so cute to see her walking with those pink silk pantaloons and patent leather shoes.

Day 160: Sunny Sunday at FBC

It was beautifully sunny, but bitterly cold today. I stayed in bed a little long, still fighting a cold, so we only made it to the regular church service at First Baptist today. It's interesting going to church downtown and parking in a lot that usually charges. Today we were in a "contract parking only" spot.

Day 146: Cousins and Car wash games

This evening Zaria met her cousin Gwendolyn for the first time, and the two enjoyed sipping from straws together. Zaria's a little more likely to dump her drink over or throw it on the floor still, but she enjoyed watching and mimicking her older cousin. But the day didn't start out with her so happy. . .

It was one of those really bad Sunday mornings where nothing seems to get done in time for church. Jamin was too sick to do anything but stay in bed, and try as I might, Zaria and I weren't able to leave until close to 10 AM, so I figured we could just skip Sunday school altogether and go get some gas and a car wash. But it was also a long line at the gas station. The first pump I tried turned out to be out of order, then each time I tried to get to one of the closer pumps (so I could pay inside and use my coupon) someone else would get in the spot, so it took a while just to get the gas. And then there were only 3 cars in front of me, but it took a full 1/2 hour waiting for the car wash. So not only did I miss Mars Hill class Sunday school, but I was late for the 10:50 service. Anyway, I had my camera with me, and Zaria and I tried to while away the car wash waiting time by blowing raspberries at each other and whining.

Day 90: Christmas picture outtake

"Zaria! Look at the camera!"
I dressed up a bit for the Women's Tea at FBC this morning, so I convinced Jamin and Zaria to dress up for a picture with me before I left. This was one of our outtakes, as the title would suggest. And by the way, we did have lots of snow today as predicted.

Day 84: Jamin plays his horn again

Jamin played his french horn at church today, the first time he's performed for some years. I didn't catch him during the performance because I was up working the soundboard today. I found out that's a terrible place to take pictures from for lighting, and Zaria didn't help much by trying to grab the camera from me. I'm lucky I got this shot while they were practicing for the Christmas show.

Day 70: Vikings vs. Packers game

This is the beginning of Zaria's reaction when she heard how bad the Vikings were losing to the Packers. Ha! She actually did put on a pretty good pout/cry after this, but it was time for a nap. She's on the lap of Deserae, who used to be the youngest Vikings fan at my Mom and Dave's football get-togethers.

Zaria wasn't the only baby in authentic purple in the FBC nursery this morning, although her friend Joshua ended up soiling his Vikings jersey with a major poopage. I knew that couldn't bode well for the Vikings game today, and sure enough, they lost 27-0 at Lambeau Field.

Day 24: Wednesday night at FBC

This was the first time Jamin and I have gone to First Baptist on a Wednesday night. We decided to try it out, so we went for the family dinner and then I went to worship practice to see if I could be trained in on the soundboard. I was able to do some observations by looking things over, but there ended up being no sound person to ask questions. I was really glad I didn't end up busing to church for that result. I walked a lot today-- Zaria and I started out late for the library reading, so I had to walk/run there and arrived a couple of minutes late, and I had started to walk to the bus stop to go to church when Jamin called to say he'd be home in time for us to ride there together. We checked out the nursery to find out how the timing works, but Zaria went with her Grandma so we didn't have to bring her tonight.

So two days in a row of soundboard training that ended up being a little awkward. And at church, I'll probably need to wait until Zaria's weaned before I really take up a regular role helping with sound.