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 348: Drive-In with Small Group

Most of the nighttime pics I took were pretty fuzzy, but these give you a little idea of our drive-in movie experience. Our small group hung out at the back of Mark's pick-up truck with a portable radio and some snacks. Jamin and I sat back in the cab for the first movie while the others sat in camping chairs in front of us. It ended up being a really late night, so Zaria stayed overnight at Mom and Dave's house while we enjoyed the triple feature. We saw Kung Fu Panda, Dark Knight, and Hancock, all really good movies.

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 178: Good ol' air popper

No need for oil-- I just love this thing, ancient as it is. It probably sucks up way more electricity than it should, but I enjoy doing popcorn from it. I did a little popcorn and nuts treat for small group that I'd learned about from Jen. You pop some popcorn, add nuts, and then drizzle honey and butter on the whole thing and bake it. Sadly, Jamin didn't get home in time to come to small group with me tonight.

Day 150: Fruits of the Spirit

We were praying about some of these today. I like having this old hanging as a reminder by the door. It's an oulde English version that this hanging was taken from, so a few of these are different from the verse I have in my head: "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

Day 124: Christmas for ACTS group

It's January 5th, and we just had our small group Christmas party. I grabbed a couple of nice action shots. The one above has a couple of individuals that weren't around last Christmas party, and one that missed this Christmas, but is due soon. Standing are Angela and Barry (the expecting parents), grabbing a present is Scott, with Gia-Hue holding their little Claire, then we have Pat holding our youngest groupie present, Violet, little Grace enjoying some food, Emily, and just a bit of our hostess with the mostest, Mandy.

Below is Asher, who is just a week older than Zaria and very cute in his pajamas, his mom Chloe, and Janet and Rick. Last year I didn't make it to the small group Christmas party because I had just given birth to Zaria and was still recovering in the hospital. I had visits from a few of these folks, though, some on their way to the party.

Day 88: Rental car and cherry pie

I did a little editing on this one so there wouldn't be any phone numbers, but this was my rental car yesterday and today. It took a little extra time for them to finish the maintenance stuff on our Hyundai. We're almost at the 60k mile mark, which is when our warranty expires, so we thought it best to get that ol' timing belt and accessory belt replaced. When Jamin and I moved out to Oregon, it was the timing belt that broke on both of our cars on our way out there, so I hope to never have that happen again.

Below is the cherry pie I made to bring to small group. It turned out really well for my first try. Of course, I used canned filling and refrigerated crust, but it still looked really pretty. I heard it's supposed to snow a lot this weekend, so I decided to have fun with the snowflake cookie cutter.