Dear Brain,

I get the message...I need to exercise more.
Can you please, now, help me remember everything I'm supposed to take with me to the copy room upstairs?
Because time is running out and I keep having to run up and down the stairs after I've forgotten yet ANOTHER thing that needed to be copied, signed, placed in someones box, given to the Office Admin or done in the general vicinity of the upstairs of the church. Requiring a quick dash back to my office or back upstairs. And we both know what happens when I dash back to my office...I get distracted by the myriad of things that need to be filed, recycled, dealt with, email/phone that needs to be checked and things that need to be put away.
Please, please, please can I just remember everything and make one trip? Please?

Sincerely,
Brittany

What I did today

Today the local schools were out for Veteran's Day. I made the decision in August to do something fun with the High School Youth Group during the day and have the night off. So today we went to the Zoo. One of my chaperone's was a former Youth Group member. 10 years ago, when I started, he was in High School and he was that teenager. The one who lacked a mute button or an edit button. The one who would pull whatever stunt he could to make others laugh. The one who started the trouble and the one who was always getting "the eye" from me. I will admit to being very, very glad when he graduated high school.

The last year former YG member has moved back home and has become a regular volunteer with the High School group. He's grown up but still lacks an edit button at times and likes to pull stunts. Age has mellowed him a little, though, and the stunts are now projected onto the High School youth themselves. His favorite target is the current YG member who, I realized today, is kinda like him. Current YG member lacks a mute or edit button and likes to pull pranks, though his aren't as ingenious as former YG member's were. No kidding. As they punched each other, shared verbal jabs and bonded in the way that boys do, it occurred to me that they are much more like each other than they realize. It made me smile.

But beyond making me smile I felt grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to have been in ministry for 10 years, for the ability to see some of the youth grow into pretty awesome young adults and for the ability to spend a Wednesday in November at the Zoo.

It was a fun day at the Zoo...and a fun reminder that the faces of the youth may change over the years, but there will always be that one guy...what would we do without them?

Friday Five--What's New?

Songbird over at RevGalBlogPals says:

There's a new baby on my street, a double PK whose Mom and Dad are Methodist pastors and church planters. I'm hoping to go over and meet her today. I love new babies, the way they smell and their sweet little fingers and toes. Little K has me thinking about all the new things that please us with their shiny freshness.

Please share with us five things you like *especially* when they are new.

1. Sweatshirts. Yo Momma and Papa Bear went to France this fall and brought me home a zip-up sweatshirt from Paris. I love the soft, fuzzy feel of the lining. Hmmm...might have to wear it today.

2. Planning Calenders. It's silly but looking at a blank, clean calendar is refreshing. Then adding in all the things that I get to do during a month (in pencil, no pens allowed!), reminds me that I'm blessed to have a job that allows me to have so much fun!

3. Highlighters. I can't explain it. I just like new highlighters, which is why every time I take a class, I go out and buy new highlighters. It's the little things in life that make me happy.

4. Paint on walls. The paint fumes, not so much, but the clean look of new paint is refreshing. Especially when I like the color :)

5. Babies. Their fresh scent, their peacefulness when they are sleeping and the snuggling. I think I like the snuggling the best.

Dots of things I forgot...

• Payten came to visit (brought her parents along too) last month. We had some good Auntie B and Baby P bonding time (still working on a blog name for her) and took our self-portraits again. She got to meet cousin Anthony and they bonded at the beach. Aren't they cute? We also went pumpkin huntin'...Payten was not impressed.

• Adventure Boy turned 3 (three!) at the beginning of October. I couldn't help myself and made him a cake. Word on the street is that he liked his airplane cake.
• K, Meg and I went to a Vince Gill concert in October...that man can sing! But has terrible taste in shirts. No kidding, it was painful to look at. Anyway we took a pact, at that concert, that there were certain things we would never do. #1. Have perfect hair. #2. Overload on perfume or powder (the fumes just about did us in!). #3. No Aqua Net (see #2). #4. Will not wear clothes that have been bedazzled. #5. No side-shaved haircuts. My #6. would be never to let the men in our lives wear shirts that were obnoxious...wish I could find a picture of it!
  
• Last week at High School group our sole 9th grade boy came early to youth group. Another young lady came in soon after and both were enjoying their dinner of Nachos from Taq V (the place to eat in town) and talking about life. I can't remember the conversation but at one point 9th grade boy clapped his hands three times. His next comment was "but that word only has three syllables." It took me a moment and then I burst out laughing. I love that he had to say the word in his head and clap his hands to figure out how many syllables were in the word. To all you teachers out there, students are paying attention!
• This one happened tonight so it's not really something that I forgot to tell you but something I had forgotten just the same...middle school boys squeal just as much as middle school girls. The game of tag tonight was pierced with squealing/screaming and I was getting after the girls to be quieter when Pastor's Son ran past me, wait for it, wait for it...squealing. :)
  

Visitors

A fireman and a dinosaur just stopped by my house...thought y'all would like to see! They've been taking a lot of pictures and weren't excited about taking more...but they are having fun!
Edited to add: No sooner had I hit publish and the following picture showed up in my e-mail inbox. Jailbird Payten...hee-hee!

Laugh of the day

Today was a tense day. G.G. went in for a lumpectomy today, after being diagnosed with breast cancer a month ago. In the process of all the doctors visits, she also found out that she had gallstones as well, so it was a double whammy of a surgery day. She came through the surgery well and there is no sign of cancer so far in the lymph nodes, though there are still some tests to be done. We all breathed a sigh of relief after that news.

I didn't relax fully, though, until Meg and I exchanged the following text messages:

Meg: I just passed a guy on the corner with a sign that said "bet you can't hit me with a quarter." getting more creative out here!

Me: So did you try?

Meg: Nope, I was too busy texting

Me: Texting and driving! Naughty, naughty!

Meg: Yep, guess he should be glad that I didn't hit him with more than a quarter, eh?

I love my friends.

BTW--I do not condone texting and driving or talking on your cell and driving, or shopping in Safeway and talking on your bluetooth...but I needed that laugh.

This is scary

I got this video in an email today. Do we really think that kids don't watch EVERYTHING we do? (And to self-disclose, I like country music, that's not the part that freaks me out!)