Sunday Notes

Maybe if I start a Sunday Notes section I will be better at posting more consistently. Sometimes I am not sure you really want to hear all my boring ramblings!! I did realize that I never shared about Pigapalooza!

Ransomville Free Methodist Church, hereafter referred to as RFMC, had it's 3rd annual community event called Pigapalooza a couple of weeks ago. It is an event sponsored by the church primarily as a means of outreach. From what we have heard, each year has grown a little bit and they have added new features. This year we had a petting zoo, pony rides, a bounce house, an archery station, live bands, hayrides, games for kids, face painting, fireworks and more. We served 330 BBQ chicken dinners. Yes, I know, it is called PIGapalooza and we served CHICKEN dinners. Here's the story...3 years ago the event started with someone donating a whole pig that they roasted. Last year they did shredded pork on buns. Pork apparently is more pricey so they went with BBQ chicken instead. In all fairness, we did have a pig holding a sign that read "Eat more Chicken" so pig was represented!!

The weather was not great that day and I think our numbers could have been higher had it not been so cold and windy. But despite the weather we had 3X's the number of people we get on a Sunday morning so it was a success.

I spent my time behind the camera taking photos of the event. Here are just a few....

This is Pastor Bill....

This is not!!!!

This llama was one of the animals at the petting zoo. He had major attitude that animal, I thought I might get spit upon!





This was the line of people getting their dinners. If you click on the picture you can see Greg serving folks; he's wearing a green jacket.


It was a fun event and we already have ideas for doing more next year.

Yesterday our friends the Bala's came from Rochester to have dinner with us. Today is Teressa's birthday so we set the china and crystal out to make it a special meal. I cooked another batch of spaghetti sauce and meatballs. Rajiv baked an apple cake that was soooo delish! It was good to be with friends again.

I started working in the church office on a part time basis but last week filled in full time while the lady I job share with was needed at home. I will normally work full days Tuesdays and Thursdays. I think I am holding my own learning all the new stuff and trying not to bombard them with all of my ideas at once.

The boys are getting into the school routine now and doing well. Kaleb is into all things football these days. Josh is slowly making new friends but please continue to pray for that. He is on the reserved side so it is taking him a bit to open up and talk to other kids. It is so hard to sit back and let him wade through this on his own. I can't go into school and force kids to talk to him. I can pack cool things in his lunch box that may spur someone to want to trade! Just kidding, that isn't allowed. I have traumatic memories of my mom packing me German bread (read:VERY dark, dense rye bread) sandwiches, carrots and apples for my lunch while my friends got Fluffer Nutters, chips and Twinkies. No one wanted to ever trade with me at lunch time, LOL!! We try to go healthy and cool in the lunch arena.

Thanks for checkin' in with us!

Jumping Beans!

Before we moved Melanie Roorda offered her trampoline to our boys. At first we said "no thank you" but quickly realized that was a mistake. We figured since they were giving up their swimming pool, it only seemed fair. Well, life at the Roorda house is busier than here so we just got around to getting the trampoline out to our house this week. The boys are so thrilled. They jump on it before school in the morning and at night after the sun has gone down they are still bouncing away. Of course there is school and homework in between, much to their dismay. Check out Josh in the picture holding a cup. They can't even stop long enough to quench their thirst!!

Thanks Mel, it was a generous gift and they LOVE it!!!

Funny

So, several weeks ago a woman at church cut this out of the local newspaper. I just had to have a copy for myself.

You know you live in small town, USA when this makes the police blotter in the paper.

I wonder if officer training school prepared him for this scenario?!

Bless that woman!

I have pictures to share later so check back in.

Camping!

Well, I said I would post some pictures of the weekend. That is much easier to do if you actually take some pictures!! Greg did take a handful but I know Dad took a bunch. I guess we must have been too busy to think about it. He did manage to get this one with Jon and Erin one morning.
We had the most amazing weather! Sunny and mildly warm by day and crisp and cool by night. We had lots of time to sit, relax, catch up and play around. Dad brought the boat so on Saturday and Sunday we went out on the lake. Chautauqua is one busy lake!! There were so many water craft on the lake that it stirred up a wavy soup that made it impossible to ski. It was good for tubing though. We each took responsibility for a meal or two so the work was spread out well. This is the gang salivating around the grill waiting for breakfast one morning. Dad is even in the background taking one of his many pictures of the grand kids. In this case baby Sara. Gail and Jon were on duty that morning and we enjoyed bacon, potatoes and eggs...yummers! We roasted lots of marshmallows and played several games of corn hole (or as mom called it, "corn dog"). Overall it was just good to be together.