Saturday, January 14, 2006

Backaches, headaches, and other adventures in moving!

Hey you, how are ya?
Alrighty then, I guess it's past time for an entry.
What to write and do I have time... While the "what" remains to be seen, the time question is easy... No, I don't.

Let's start off with the obvious from the last time I blogged... time.
This last week has been fun, crazy and a little scary.
No, my children have not colored their hair magenta or cyan blue. This actually describes what it's like to move a fairly large church into a new building.

As you may or may not know, our last facility was a cool old synagoge. It sat next to a nursing home which owns the land. They decided it would be more prudent to tear it down and add more assisted living facilities. This is where our adventure begins...

Over the last few years God had led us to this really awesome property that is less than a mile from our house! Woo Hoo! (OK, we're happy so far about the distance thing. I'll update whether we're still thrilled in a few months.) But I digress...

The church was built in three disconnected sections. Sounds strange, but really cool.
The offices were done awhile ago, the kid's building just got its permit, and the auditorium will not be done until the beginning of February. I didn't get to tell you the fun part yet - We had to be out of the old place by last Monday at 12:00 PM.

To say the least, this has presented a few problems.
In times like this, even some of our skeptics can't help but see the facts that not only does God exist, it also proves He has a sense of humor.

At 2:00 PM last Sunday the madness began. The remaining loose ends were packed up and transfered to the new place. We've rented an extremely large climate controlled tent that will hold (I believe) up to 700 people. Great the adults are taken care of... now for the kids (needless to say, we are keeping four services for now).

All I can really tell you so far is that it's coming along. It will be incredible in a few weeks. For now... it will hold people and be... appropriate.

Sadly, this is the best entry I can give you. Right now we are living, eating, and breathing the move. It's now roughly 9:15 PM on Friday and still so much to do.

Call me crazy, but... I think it's only fitting that we won't have everything perfect for our first service (at least in the kid's building). We can get so caught up in what "we" did, that we forget who is really doing it and why we are there in the first place.

Movin' on up...

Hey you, how are ya?
Alrighty then, I guess it's past time for an entry.
What to write and do I have time... While the "what" remains to be seen, the time question is easy... No, I don't.

Let's start off with the obvious from above... time.
This last week has been fun, crazy and a little scary.
No, my children have not colored their hair magenta or cyan blue. This actually describes what it's like to move a fairly large church into a new building.

As you may or may not know, our last facility was a cool old synagoge. It sat next to a nursing home which owns the land. They decided it would be more prudent to tear it down and add more assisted living facilities. This is where our adventure begins...

Over the last few years God had led us to this really awesome property that is less than a mile from our house! Woo Hoo! (OK, we're happy so far about the distance thing. I'll update whether we're still thrilled in a few months.) But I digress...

The church was built in three disconnected sections. Sounds strange, but really cool.
The offices were done awhile ago, the kid's building just got its permit, and the auditorium will not be done until the beginning of February. I didn't get to tell you the fun part yet - We had to be out of the old place by last Monday at 12:00 PM.

To say the least, this has presented a few problems.
In times like this, even some of our skeptics can't help but see the facts that not only does God exist, it also proves He has a sense of humor.

At 2:00 PM last Sunday the madness began. The remaining loose ends were packed up and transfered to the new place. We've rented an extremely large climate controlled tent that will hold (I believe) up to 700 people. Great the adults are taken care of... now for the kids (needless to say, we are keeping four services for now).

All I can really tell you so far is that it's coming along. It will be incredible in a few weeks. For now... it will hold people and be... appropriate.

Sadly, this is the best entry I can give you. Right now we are living, eating, and breathing the move. It's now roughly 9:15 PM on Friday and still so much to do.

Call me crazy, but... I think it's only fitting that we won't have everything perfect for our first service (at least in the kid's building). We can get so caught up in what "we" did, that we forget who is really doing it and why we are there in the first place.

In Him,
Tammy

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!

Wow! I must be getting old.
Yesterday I had another reality check that my kids are growing up. First, there was not one single kid's toy on the Christmas list this year. Now, they didn't want to hang with us on New Year's Eve. Why not? I'm still cool! I'm young... ok, I'm not twenty, but I'm not like... really old. I mean, I still even used the word "like" in that last sentence!

So today starts out with the plan that two of my boys are going to a Youth group High School party. Ben, my baby... I don't care if he is thirteen, he'll be bringing grandkids over at 35 and still be my baby!
He decided he wanted to spend the night with a friend. They didn't want to be with us?!? Alright, I finally got over it and was looking forward to going to a friend's house to hang out, play some games, watch a movie, etc.
Matthew leaves to drop off the boys and suddenly a change of plans is in the works. It seems their party was canceled. Bummer for them... believe it or not, now bummer for us. As upset as I was that this would be the first year they would not be with us, I found that I was actually disappointed our date was off.
I finally had the reality check that life goes on. Obviously not for us yet, as our children sat in the living room watching the NY ball drop, but it will soon.

All in all it ended with Ben (our youngest) at his friend's house; Brandon and Alex at our home with two of their very good friends playing video games and being goofy (like all teenage boys); Matthew playing on his computer upstairs and I playing on mine in the kitchen. Still not how I envisioned it, but we were "together"... minus one.

Disclaimer:
We did all end up in the living room at midnight to see the ball re-drop from the east coast. Matthew and I even gave our yearly midnight kiss to the dismay and yucks of all the children present.

I realize that we did not spend every moment of this night in the same room with the boys like we used to. Since they had friends over, we gave them free reign in most of the house, including the living room. As much as I wish I could; I have to say that I cannot pull up the same excitment and enthusiasm they have about the latest edition of Star Wars Battlefront. Therefore, they can have the TV.

What did I learn?Even though my kids are growing up, I will survive and yes, maybe even thrive. I love my children so much, but they are also becoming cool adults. I've learned that while they may be on the fast track to adulthood, they are still not afraid to hug me in front of their friends and ask my opinion from time to time.

I've also learned that coolness is over rated. At this point though, I'd like to note that I used the words "bummer" and "hang out" in the second paragraph.

Happy New Year... you!

In His care, Tammy