Riley's Dance Recital 2013 - SUPERGIRL

Today Riley had her Hip Hop Dance Recital.  Super Hero Theme

Leigh's Graduation - Roosevelt University 2013

 I am so proud of my baby sister! Being able to take part in her day just made me the happiest big sister ever!!! Afterward she told me that she still has some of her school supplies from the day we went school supply shopping at Big Lots before she started her Freshman year at NIU. It was a long road for her starting at NIU and ending at Roosevelt University. There were even some stops along the way - one being a month away in Germany over last summer. Leigh Ehlert - you make us all so proud. I couldn't ask for a better sister than you.

CLICK HERE to watch Leigh walk over the stage and hear her name being called!

Salami - Not just a sandwich food.

Last night dinner was not just dinner, it was also a fashion show.  That is correct - you read right - a fashion show.  As I was talking on the phone I had to ask the person to hold on for a minute so that I could say, "Take the salami off your face.  No salami glasses!"  I also had to say out loud - to real people - in a serious manner, "Take the salami off your sister's head.  Salami is not a hat!"  Then to top it all off I had to tell the bigs, "We do not have food fights in this house!  Wyatt, put the sandwich down before I take it and beat you with it!"  Of course they know I'm not serious and just start giggling.  "hahaha.  beat you with a sandwich..."  is what I heard as I walked away.

Now anyone who knows our family knows that what I just told my kids is a total lie.  We did have a food fight here and it was the adults who prompted it.  Actually reminiscing about the food fight we had here (cake flying everywhere) is what started this last night.  Riley and Wyatt were plotting how "next time" there is a food fight at our house they are going to get right in the mix of it all instead of watching from the sidelines.  Oh - No.  We are not making a tradition out of that.

Oh the great ideas they have...

Yesterday morning I came into the kitchen to find cheese and peaches all over the floor.  Ben and Collin were sitting at the table just laughing and laughing.  I stopped - stared - and then asked very loudly "what are you doing in here?!?!?!". Ben looks at me totally straight faced and answered, "playing the game of eww.". They were picking up a piece of food and yelling EWW and then throwing it on the floor.  I made Ben pinky swear that he would never play the game of eww again. 

Then in the evening I was making dinner and Collin wanted a string cheese.  That was fine with me until I found out that he stuffed it down the sink in the basement, filled the sink until it was over flowing on the floor, and Collin and Ben were driving their boats in the water.  

Orange Paint

While trying to get my second cup of coffee (thank God it was my second) Wyatt comes into the kitchen and says, "Mom - Collin has the orange paint!"  I reply, "So go and take it away from him."  "No mom, I can't.  Look in the bathroom."  "HOLY CRAP!" was my response.  Orange paint was everywhere.  The sink, the toilet, the floor, the bathtub, and COLLIN!!!.

(Pictures taken after clean
up had started.)

Then I start putting him in the bathtub.  I take his shirt and shorts off, turn to go and check the water temp, and he's climbing into the tub.  Not so bad except that he took his diaper off which was filled with poop and was getting it all over the tub.  I pin him to the spot that he was in, half in and half out of the tub.  I'm screaming at Jason to bring me wipes, Collin is screaming, "I Stuck! I Stuck!" because I have him stuck in one spot, and Riley and Wyatt are quietly chuckling and watching the whole scene from the stairs.  I clean up the poop, get Collin in the tub and then start laughing myself.  I tried to convince Jason that it was just funny, but he wasn't buying it.  He just looked at me, shook his head, and said, "you would think this is funny".  I could see the steam from his ears slowing down at that point and a small smile creep on his face.  

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE!

Kenosha's Open House

Last October Pr. Tamm came to our congregation.  We hadn't had anyone in charge of our congregation in almost a year at that point.  We were taking care of the day to day operations of the congregation, but no growth was happening.  One of the first ideas Pr. Tamm came with was to host an open house to bring awareness to our church in the community.  He started having Worker's Meetings the first Monday night of each month and designated different people to handle the different activities.  Food, Children's Activities, Marketing, Media Planning, and a Choir Concert to finish off the day.  We worked within our own activities and also helped out in the other areas as well.


Pr. Tamm was in charge of making the sausages that we grilled.  He hosted a "Sausage Fest" afternoon where anyone was welcome to go and make the sausages.  Literally grind the meat, mix in the seasonings, and then put them into their casings.  Kristin Elmore and Joyce Tamm worked on the rest of the menu.

Zandre and Mercedes worked on marketing.  They designed our flyers and organized areas for us to go out and canvas.  They organized radio adds and newspaper adds.  Put out boxes for collecting donations for the Shalom Center out of Kenosha, WI.  (They are a non-for-profit organization that helps those in need.)

Maxine and I signed up to canvas with the kids one afternoon.  We walked (and drove) all around our neighbors subdivisions and put flyers in their mailboxes.  (Well not in because that's illegal, but stuck in the flag or in their advertiser boxes where possible.)

Robin, Maxine, Judy and I worked on the kids activities and crafts.  We rented a bounce house, came up with 2 crafts (bookmarkers and hats that also are horns), and Maxine hired a balloon artist to come to  the open house.  She was the best balloon artist I have ever seen - and the coolest thing was that she taught herself how to do this from watching YouTube videos.  Amazing!

Pr. Upmann was in charge of media.  He brought in 2 computers and a tv.  He made a slide show of pictures from the past 10 years, had a short movie of our church's history overt the past 150 years, and then in the other room had different movies from our past events (mostly Christmas programs) running a the tv.  We also made 2 different collages on the walls of our past pictures and poster collages so we could share our past memories.

Ernie (Pr. Tamm's son) came up with this really cool looking logo for us to use.  Janet and Cheryl took on the task of having shirts made for all of us.  Then from there the idea also came to have a photo booth set up.  Jean drew the background and Maxine painted it.  We took everyone's picture that came, printed pictures for them, and made them into magnets so they can always remember what a great day we had.

Jerry worked out all the details for our concert.  The choir sang 4 songs and the orchestra (I say loosely because it was a tuba, flute and cello) played 3 songs.

On top of all this Mercedes has signed up to host a Dave Ramsey seminar at our church in August.  She was also promoting this event at our open house.

We were prepared for all of Kenosha, Racine, and Northern Lake County, IL to come to this.  We rented a port-potty.  Worried about parking.  Planned on running to the store because we ran out of food.  All of this and we didn't need the porta-potty, didn't run out of parking spots, and never had to run out to the store for more food.

Now you may think that we failed.  We even had some of those same thoughts throughout the day.  Sad that more people didn't come.  We thought that all of our efforts were for nothing.  We even went out to the road and started waving at the cars going by with our crazy balloon hats on.  (Not sure if that helped or hurt us. lol)  But then we got over ourselves and saw what God had done for us.  We realized that sometimes you have your own thoughts and ideas, but they are not God's ideas for you.  After we had our "Come to Jesus" moment we started to really see all that has come out of this.  We had 15-20 guests that came to our event.  Other members from other congregations came to support us.  Our congregation grew by leaps and bounds through the planning of this event.  We got to know each other so much better and were given the opportunity to see each other's gifts and talents that may have gone unnoticed otherwise.  We finally have a sign on our church to let the community know we are there.  And we brought awareness to our neighbors of our presence.

Rome wasn't built in a day and our little Kenosha congregation isn't busting at the seams after our first big event, but we aren't going to let this get us down or stop us.  It's only the beginning.  Our congregation is full of love and life.  We have ideas bursting out of us.  I am so excited to be a part of something so big.  We may be small, but we are mighty!