Sunday ~ A pretty lazy day for us

Hello on this chilly Sunday night.  We had a busy morning but truly a lazy afternoon.  First off this morning my phone alarm went off at 7:30 - it was supposed to go off at 8:30.  So we started our day an hour earlier then we had planned.

Brandon got up and out the door about 8:00.  He was off to meet Jamie and check out their trailer before heading back to Lewiston.  I asked him if he wanted breakfast before heading down the road.  Sure!  So we made plans to meet at Big Al's Diner in Blaine.  Big Al's is just two blocks from our church.  We have eaten there way too many times over the years.  The food is good, the service great and it is always fun to meet up with folks that we don't get to see very often.  So Ron and I got up and moving when Brandon headed over to Jamie's.  We were going to meet about 8:30 but Brandon didn't get there till almost 9:00.  It was fun to have a little more time with Brandon and have a prayer together before he got on the road.

While sitting at Big Al's I had this thought "oh, no.  I put the pictures of us from our time with the carnival in the overheads for today's service.  They are supposed to be in there next week."  So I quickly gave Charles, our pastor, a call.  He saw those yesterday and deleted them.  He wondered if I was playing a joke on him or something.  Ron asked if I was eager to share.  I don't know what I was thinking...we are sharing our testimony next Sunday, November 14th at Northwood.  

More about that later, back to breakfast with Brandon.  While eating we saw Kristen & Coral.  Coral is one of our adopted granddaughters.  Coral had the cutest outfit on and the wig she wore for Halloween.  I wished I had my camera but alas it was in the suburban.  Kristen and Coral were having breakfast before picking up Jade, Coral's sister, from a sleepover.  We said we would catch up at church.  We were almost done with breakfast when a school friends of Brandon's came in with his two children.  It was good to see Aaron, Ian and Ana.  They were out for breakfast while Mommy, Kelly, was working.  Aaron graduated with Brandon and they played soccer and basketball together in high school.  Aaron and Kelly own Blackberry House.  It is a cute little coffee and sandwich shop on the corner of H Street and 3rd.  If you get a chance stop in and see them.  Aaron makes all his own bread, delicious soup and all types of coffee's.  After breakfast we shared hugs and "safe travels" with Brandon and he got on the road.  We then headed to church.  And that leads me to what i am thankful for.

Today I am thankful for our church family.  We attend Northwood Alliance Church which is part of the Christian & Missionary Alliance.  We have been attending there since November 2001.  It is a small church of about 42 members with a regular attendance between 60 & 75.  It is so good to be back in our home church.  Today was only our second Sunday back and it felt like we had not been gone at all.  The guy who was to do the overheads was not there so Ron did the overheads for the service.  As we were praising God in song I had another thought "oh no, I put in the script (the written out plan of who is doing what and when) that after community prayer time Glenn was going to call on Charles to call us forward to share about our time in carnival and how God was working in our life (remember the thought while at the restaurant earlier).  So I got up, went to where Ron was doing the overheads, checked the script.  Yep, I had put us in there.  So then I had to walk up to Glenn, trying not to be to obvious (hard to do in a small church) and whispered in his ear, as he is playing the guitar and singing (he is in the worship band) to just skip over that part.  Okay, back to worshiping God and being in fellowship with our church family.  

After the sermon, Charles remembered that we were sharing communion together as a congregation.  Now remember, I did the bulletin, script and overheads on Friday for the service today.  And I had already remembered two things that I messed up on for the service today.  Really there was three but I remembered that about 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning while waiting for Ron & Brandon to get home from Seattle.  I had missed one of the things that needed to be tweaked on the handout.  And I had emailed Charles about that then.  He had emailed me back not to worry about it!  I so like having an understanding boss/pastor/friend.  The last I had heard on Friday was that serving communion today would be some of the young people from youth group.  Just about then, I hear Charles say "he would like to ask Ron & Alice come up and help serve communion."  Wait, Ron hates surprises.  But being the trooper he is, he came forward and we walked up front together to join John & Barb who were also walking up front to help serve.  While waiting to begin serving communion, Ron leans over to me and said "you put in the bulletin that we are having communion next Sunday."  I chuckled to myself and thought "with all these mistakes I have made in the last three days, maybe they (Northwood congregation & Charles) would be happy to see me gone again).  But mistakes on my part were not done yet.  After we served everyone, Charles served Ron & I and I whispered to Charles "it looks like Bud & Kay Dee got skipped."  Well Charles turned, walked over to them and they had :)  I then leaned over and whispered to Ron "well it looked like they hadn't been served."  So four mistakes later (at least the four I knew about), we returned to our seats to take communion together.  I gave thanks to the Lord for allowing us to be part of a very gracious and loving church family.  They accept each attender for who they are even with all their imperfections.  I am glad to know that I am one who is loved by many.


After church we visited for a little while before heading out for lunch.  We met our friends Stacey and Sean at Paso Del Norte for great food and even better fellowship.  We ate and chatted for over two hours.  It was so good to get caught up, laugh together, share stories about our kids and just being together with other believers.


After lunch we came back to the condo and have just rested, vegged, watched the Seahawks get creamed in football, did a load of laundry and just relaxed.  While I have been writing, Ron went into the kitchen and what did he find ~ the goodies we bought for the grand boys yesterday at the C Shop.  Guess I will be getting a package ready to go in the mail.  Do you notice a theme here ~ I have been very forgetful lately.  Hmmm...THEY say the mind is the first to go.  Hope I am not in too much trouble.  I think I am too young to be losing my mind ~ okay, some of you would say I already have :)


To answer a couple of questions/comments.  As of right now we don't know where we will be selling Christmas trees except somewhere between Federal Way and Everett.  Once we know we will definitely let everyone know.  Maybe some of you can take a road trip to come and see us.

Someone commented "19 people ~ that's a big family."  In attendance last night was Ron's 4 siblings:  Judy, Kathy with her daughter, hubby and three boys, John and his daughter Miriam, Lynn and her fiance, Brian, Ron's Uncle Ike and Aunt Joey, us and our son's, Brandon and Jamie and Suzanne (Jamie's girlfriend) and Opal (Jamie & Suzanne's daughter).

Hope I have covered the questions that have been asked.  Take care and check back tomorrow to see what I am thankful for.  Wishing each of you a blessed day.