things that make you go hmmmm

Customer (calling Wal-Mart bakery): I would like to order a cake that says "Best Wishes Suzanne" underneath that "We will miss you".

backspace

Look at your computer keyboard. Do you have a key that is visibly more worn than the others? One in which the letters are rubbing off? Yeah, me too. Mine is the BACKSPACE key. Obviously I make a lot of mistakes and I have been wearing out that backspace key to erase unwanted words as I type.

Jesus has a backspace key that He uses to erase our sins when we ask for His forgiveness. Our sins are gone forever without a record of their existence. If Jesus does this for us so freely, why are we so hesitant to forgive ourselves?

tnc catalyst

Last night was the kickoff of the TrueNorth Church Catalyst leadership service. Catalyst is a monthly service that includes all leaders in the church who come together for a night of worship, information, support, and fun. It would be awesome to bottle the energy and passion that was in that room and sip on it every day.

For me personally, I enjoyed being able to walk into the room and participate in a service without being involved in the preparation. I love what I do on Sunday mornings, but this service was special for me as I was also able to sit next to my husband for a change!

do what you love

"If you fall in love with your work, you don't have to work any longer."--Truett Cathy, Chick-fil-a founder, during a recent speaking engagement in Augusta.

Have you noticed that the words joy and work used together could be considered an oxymoron? We live in a society that does not typically equate work and happiness. People who are in job positions that they don't enjoy usually have negative attitudes that are contagious and can adversely affect others around them. If one-third of our lives is spent working, who would want to be miserable?

Do what you love. If you can't do what you love, then change your attitude about what you do so that you CAN fall in love with your job.

Then it isn't considered work.

"Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men." -- Ephesians 6:7

mornin'

tickled pink

Tomorrow is the big day. The TrueNorth Church Chicks "Tickled Pink" Retreat is finally here and the fun can begin after a year of preparation by Mama Chick and her chickadees. I have the position of Adminstrative Chick and I want to share some stuff I have experienced over the three years of planning this event:

1. It takes dependable people who catch the vision to pull this thing off. When everyone does their part, this retreat runs like a well-oiled machine. And when something falls through, we always have a Plan B.

2. Having 50 ladies signed up two weeks before the registration deadline doesn't mean anything. Women want to hang on to their money until the very last minute! We went from 50 signups to 130 signups in a very short amount of time.

3. Speaking of money, there are a handful of women who are paying for their BFF to attend. I know some of these generous women personally and they live on a tight budget. But they choose to put their money on something they value....and that is relationships!

4. Some of the guys who work production for us at the retreat say they love the event and wouldn't miss it. I have even heard one say he wished he was a Chick! Doh! We have also seen guys in drag trying to crash the event!

5. When you put a microphone in front of a woman who is bursting to release her inner rock star, sometimes it is not a good thing. We have had to carefully select the song choices this year for the karaoke segment due to previous experiences. And that's all I can say about that.

6. Women are fickle. We always ask them to fill out evaluation cards at the end of the retreat and we seriously want honest feedback. But one person says they love the food and one says Chicks shouldn't eat chicken! One person says it's too long/too cold/too serious and another says it's too short/too hot/not serious enough! So sometimes it is difficult to evaluate when the comments are inconsistent.

7. We can always count on going home with plenty of goodies. There is always a gift for us at our table after every meal and break. And there is about a 50% chance of walking away with a door prize basket before the end of the retreat. This year over 50 baskets and prizes have been donated.

Ok, that's a list of 7 things. I wanted to make 10 because 7 is an odd number, but I'll get over it.

Please pray that this retreat will be a place where women feel loved and that they will develop a deeper desire for a closer relationship with our God.

no reservations

Nine of us went to Miyabi for dinner Saturday night at 5:30 to celebrate my baby girl's 19th birthday. Miyabi seems to be a place for special occasions because of the experience surrounding the dinner. The food preparation at the table and the entertainment that comes along with it usually make it worth the expense and time.

Did I say TIME?

I was not able to make reservations because they were full, but they said we could come in and try to get seated anyway. We are risk-takers, so we embraced the challenge and went for it. We didn't have any reservations about not having reservations.

Hour One: The waiting area was standing room only until some seats became available for us to finish out our wait time. Our group enjoyed each others' company and conversation for the first hour until the kids and husbands started whining about being hungry and wanted to go somewhere else. We decided we had invested an hour of our evening waiting at Miyabi and that we would stick it out. Surely they would call our name soon.

Hour Two: We became best friends with everyone in our waiting area. We even cheered people on when their names were called while we still remained seated. We weren't happy campers anymore, but we were gonna ride it out!

8:30pm...We finally got a table...three hours after our arrival. We were beyond hungry. Our chef commented that we were quiet. We were just worn out and not fun at all.

10:00pm...They give us our take home boxes with 12 pounds of rice per person. We would have leftovers for a week. The food was good, but not THAT good to wait for three hours like we did.

So I have one word for anyone going to Miyabi in the future: RESERVATIONS!!!!!!!

And I have one hyphenated word for the owners of Miyabi: MULTI-SITE!!!!!!

rain on his face

Why is everyone making a big deal about Terrell Owens crying real tears in defense of his teammate, Tony Romo, after the Cowboys' loss to the Giants? It looked authentic to me. Actually, it would be great to know that someone had my back enough to cry about it.

As the Flight of the Conchords sing, maybe he just had rain on his face or dust in his eye. Or maybe inflammation in his tear gland. Check out the vid:

things that make you go hmmmm

Saturday seems to be the day that the product samplers are out in the grocery stores. I was at Walmart this past Saturday and passed by a table with a lady sampling Slim Fast, a table with samples of granola bars, and another table with someone pushing samples of ....gasp!.....TOILET PAPER! This is my question: How would one politely sample a piece of TOILET PAPER in public?

smoking section

I love my church. One reason is because it's not a big deal that some people smoke cigarettes outside in an area just off the beaten path. Hopefully one day they will decide to NOT smoke so that they can possibly live longer. But until then, they smoke on.

I came across this quote on the internet, and it makes me think about our smokers:

"If you want to win this world to Christ, you are going to have to sit in the smoking section. That is where lost people are found, and if you make them put their cigarette out to hear the message they will be thinking about only one thing: 'When can I get another cigarette?'" - Neil Cole, The Organic Church

risky business

I was at Element (youth group) tonight and we started a new series called "Risky Business". Sunday morning services are titled "Lion Chasers", so everyone on campus is learning about taking risks.

I started thinking about risks that I took last year in 2007. There was one opportunity I experienced that was definitely a risk since I didn't know what the outcome would be. It was something I had always wanted to do, but I was too afraid. I worried about what people might think and that I could possibly look foolish...literally. Other people that I knew had done it with great success, but I was afraid of failure. So finally, after 39 years of waiting, I finally took a leap down the road less traveled.

I did it.

I got my eyebrows waxed.

Yes, I was afraid, but my sister-in-law held my hand as I endured the pain. My hairdresser got too much pleasure out of yanking that paper coated with hot wax across my sensitive skin. But I was pleased with the outcome and I didn't look foolish at all.

That was definitely risky business.

$4.00, 3 minutes

Another local business that I can't keep to myself: Put Pro Shine Car Wash on your to-do list next time your car needs washing. It is located in front of the old Wal-mart shopping center on Edgefield Road. For those who like instant gratification, just put $4 in the machine, put your car in neutral, and the car wash does the rest. Your car even gets blow-dried. Three minutes and you're outta there! Unless you want to pull forward and use the vacuum hose, which is a FREE service with your paid wash.

It's cheap. It's good. It's quick. I'm there.

pillow talk

Bedtime conversation with my six year old, Matthew:

Matthew: Mom, what does "taxi" mean? Not the kind that you ride in New York. But the kind like "I'm too taxi for my shirt" or "I'm too taxi for my boots".

Me: Um....(smiling in the dark)....well.....

Matthew: You don't know do you, Mom?

Me: No, not really. Go ask your dad.

i blog what i want

Okay, I really don't want this blog to turn into an advertising format. But sometimes when I find something great, I want to share it with EVERYONE!

If you have been with me awhile, you may remember that I have blogged about Chick-fil-a not once, not twice, not three, but four times! I have endorsed Hallmark Cards, Pizza Joint, the new stores at The Augusta Mall, local Fall events, Goin' Postal, Starbucks, and Starbucks again. I have bragged about Office Depot, Rummikub, No. 1 Chinese, Onion Goggles, Pimento Cheese sandwiches, Herr's chips, and numerous musicians and movies.

Someone asked me once if I would consider a job in sales. My answer was, "Only if I believe in the product." That is how I feel about my church, TrueNorth. I want everyone to have the same awesome experience I have had, so I tell as many people as I can to come check it out, even using my blog as a forum!

herr's potato chips

My new favorite chips. The perfect amount of crunch and very few crumblies at the bottom. You can find them at Wal-Mart if you can stand to go in there again since Christmas is over. I know these are cool chips because I saw them on a rerun of The Office last night. Check out all the different, funky flavors on their website.