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Kids Must Be Accompanied By An Adult

February 4, 2012 in Family, Fun, My Life with 1 Comment

A story of accompanying four thirteen year-old boys to the hotel pool at Jonas’ overnight birthday party, told thru tweets:

 

And finally, this afternoon:

Confession: I Watched “Never Say Never”

February 1, 2012 in Family, Friends, Fun, Music, My Life with 0 Comments

I never thought I’d have a reason to watch Justin Bieber’s documentary (Rockumentary? Hairumentary?)…

Katie (My little sister through Big Brothers Big Sisters) and I usually hang out on Tuesday afternoons. We usually plan a week ahead. Last week was her birthday, so we skipped our outing. She asked if this week, I could pick her up from school, take her to our house and watch “Never Say Never” with her. So we did. Katie and I watched the first half of the movie together and then were joined by an almost thirteen year-old guy when he got home from school (name withheld intentionally).

Katie is a true Belieber. She loves everything about Justin Bieber. You should have seen her birthday party last week–Biebertastic to the max! It was fun to watch the movie with her.

Two things I didn’t know:

Justin Bieber plays instruments. Drums, guitar, piano (I think). That always kind of gives a singer a little more credibility for me.

He also is a really good dancer.

One things I guessed correctly about:

There are a lot of scenes with teen and tween girls screaming loudly.

Oy.

Would I recommend the movie?

It depends. If you are 10 years-old (or maybe a bit older or younger…), yes, watch it. If you like Snoop Dogg or Usher or Miley Cyrus, yes watch it. If you are related to or mentor a 10 year-old or Snoop or Usher or Miley, yes watch it with them. If your favorite color is purple, yes watch it. If you’re looking for a way to help your kid sell out Madison Square Garden by the time he/she is 17 years-old, yes watch it.

Otherwise? Well, maybe you don’t have a reason to watch it. But never say never!

 

Mentoring Matters

January 26, 2012 in Children's Ministry, Friends, Fun, My Life, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

My little sister Katie and I at the Evansville Icemen Game on Friday night

Just for a moment, close your eyes and picture yourself as a ten year-old. Think of all the adults who helped you be a kid every day.

I think of my mother. My father. My Godparents. My Sunday School Teacher Mrs. Graves. My church choir director Mrs. Barber-Pederson. My school music teacher Mrs. Birk.  My fifth grade teacher Mr. Stone. There were others along the way who took time to love me.

I was blessed with a lot of adults who took time to nurture me, encourage me, develop my talents and help me find my way. I realize now how important those relationships were and still are in my life.  I can picture people who came alongside me at all stages in my life and mentored me and helped me be a better version of myself. I’m grateful.

I am a Youth and Children’s Minister, a Big Sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters Henderson, a Girl Scout volunteer,  and a Boy Scout parent because I realize the importance of adults taking time to build relationships with children and teenagers.

Today is National “Thank Your Mentor Day” and January is National Mentoring Month. Mentoring has always made a difference in my life–in official and unofficial capacities.

We can all mentor and nurture and encourage and love the kids in our lives.

If you’re a parent, be the best parent you can be to your children and look for ways to help them develop other meaningful relationships with their teachers, leaders and family members.

If you’re an adult with time to give (and really–we can always find time if it’s important enough), lead a Scout troop, become a Big, volunteer in a children’s or youth ministry at church, coach a little league team, give lessons, raise money to support organizations related to any of the above.

And guess what? If you mentor, you become a better version of yourself too! It’s really a win-win.

 

If The Internet Disappeared

January 18, 2012 in Fun, My Life, Random with 2 Comments

I’ve read the Hunger Games series, and one of the thing that intrigues me about the post-apocalyptic world described in the story is the lack of mention of the conveniences we’ve come to enjoy so easily (at least in the districts of Panem).

One of the things that is missing is the Internet.

Now, the internet has only been in the general public’s consumption for about two decades (hey, geeks–don’t argue. Most of us came in with AOL’s pay by the hour service, not BitNET). I was first introduced to it on my second day at UE in 1996. That’s where I got my first email address (mb48! UE had no use for our full names, just our initials) and learned how to chat. I even made a super-fly webpage that I could actually now provide a link to so you can marvel at my use of font graphics, html code and cheesy stock photos–we were far from the days of me being able to upload pictures of the actual people involved.

Yes–I could provide a link because currently in another window in my browser I’m looking at it. I think they promised me when I signed up that if I didn’t make any changes to it for a year, it would get deleted. I kind of wish they would delete it since it’s been TWELVE years. I was an interesting college sophomore…I won’t provide a link because I feel like that would be pretty embarrassing and the basic idea of the page is that I love Jesus and html code.

Anyway–what if all of a sudden the internet disappeared?

I would never be able to take long trips again because I would have no idea how to get there or how long it would take. In my adult life, I’ve never had to plan a trip without Rand Mcnally’s software or Mapquest or Google Maps.

Also, how would I find and book hotels? How do you do that without the internet? I mean, I could manage going to a hotel and asking if they have rooms, but how would I book a room for a trip? SERIOUSLY–I’m asking you.

Without the internet, I would never know who was in a movie until the credits roll. Or how long it will be until the credits roll. (Yes, I’m guilty of googling a movie mid-way through just to see how much longer I’ll have to sit through it.)

How would I communicate with all my BFF’s and keep up with their lives? Phone calls and mail, I guess. I’m pretty bad at both though. It’s only because I excel at Facebook and email that I still have friends.

Where would I buy my books? The bookstores keep closing! Wait…

I would miss my blog and writing in an online format. I’ve never been great at pen and paper writing or journaling.

I would also miss Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Pinterest and Netflix. But not Myspace or Google+ or my college webpage–I kind of want out of those!

What about you? If the internet disappeared, what would you have to learn to do without it?

 

Tuesday Ten: Favorite Scenes from Christmas Movies

December 20, 2011 in Fun, Tuesday Tens with 3 Comments

1. Buddy the Elf hears that Santa is coming to the department store in “Elf.” (SANTA? Santa’s coming? I know him!”)

2. Ralphie gets the boot from Santa Claus in “A Christmas Story”

3. The Charleston scene over the opening pool in “It’s A Wonderful Life”

4. Aunt Bethany says grace in “Christmas Vacation.”

5. Linus tells us the real story of Christmas in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

6. Reindeer flying lessons and Rudolph hiding his nose in “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”

7. Hot chocolate is served on the “Polar Express”

8. The ‘light the lamp, not the rat’ scene between Rizzo and Gonzo in “A Muppet Christmas Carol”

9. The Grinch is caught stealing Christmas by Cindy Lou Who in “The Grinch”

10. The scene at the church in “Home Alone”

Pinteresting

December 16, 2011 in Fun, My Life with 0 Comments

I’ve found Pinterest.

And it’s turning me into a crafty person.

Just like at one point in my life, I never imagined that I’d be someone who exercised for an hour at a time…or I never imagined I’d start running for fun…I never imagined that I would be someone who creates crafts. But then I met Pinterest and I started pinning craft projects that I thought I could do. Then I found myself at Michael’s (the craft store) buying things like bricks of glycerine and tiny black buttons.

Here’s what happened:

I turned bottles of GermX into snowmen…and my kind friends actually gushed over them and plan to use them. I found the idea for it on a Pinterest pin attached to this page.

 

One night, after we completed our Christmas shopping I was goofing around in Pinterest and found a paper wreath–it was so cute! Jason looked at it and said, “Oh, we could make that.” He found a piece of paper and we did. I hung it on our bedroom door and it makes me feel happy when I see it. I found this idea here.

I made these for the kids at church. They are bars of soap with toys inside. Above are bracelets, dinosaurs and spikey balls.

These have rings in them. This was a bit tougher than using a glue gun to attach buttons to a plastic bottle. They are a little rough and not as neat as the ones on the site where I got the idea–but they’re cute and I think the kids will like them.

Not since kindergarten have I been so excited about making gifts for Christmas! It’s fun…and thrifty!

I’ve found some yummy looking recipes I think I can manage, some photos that I think are great, and some other kid-friendly crafts and activities I might try soon.

I’m a little timid about pinning, and I’m still figuring the site out. Overall, Pinterest gets 5 stars! It’s a fun way to connect with friends and share and find ideas.

Little Sister

December 15, 2011 in Fun, My Life with 4 Comments

For the last 13 months, I’ve been waiting. Ever since I made up my mind for certain to join a team of people who would work and plan to bring Big Brothers Big Sisters to Henderson County I’ve known that eventually I’d have a little sister.

Today, I met her family and we went on our first outing.

She’s amazing. Her name is Katie and she’s in the fourth grade.  She has an older brother and a younger brother who also met their Bigs today.

We went to the library and she’s read almost every book in the middle reader section–well, it seemed that way, anyway! She loves drama and dancing and art and spelling. She’s not really into outdoorsy stuff. She gave me homework (two middle reader books that she really enjoyed reading and I have never read).

It’s a perfect match!

We made a list of all kinds of things we’d like to eventually do together, starting with making crafts for Christmas presents after school one day next week.

Mentoring is so important. If you have an hour a week to give to a child who needs another positive adult role model in his or her life, see if volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters is an option. If you’re in Henderson, KY, call the BBBS office at (270) 631-0738!

This Is Only A Drill

November 19, 2011 in Fun, My Life with 1 Comment

BJ has her severed arm treated during the second round of the drill

When I was in college, one of my friends arranged for a group of us to take part in a casualty drill at a hospital in Evansville, IN.

Long story short: I was impaled by a pole (through my chest) and wheeled to the morgue to die. Apparently, in that particular drill, I got a good deal. Several of my friends had such bad experiences, they declared that if they should ever be injured, under no circumstances were the rest of us to allow them to be taken to that hospital.

Today, I participated in a casualty drill for our local Community Emergency Response Team. Henderson’s Emergency Management allows civilians to take a class to learn how to serve as responders in the event of any kind of emergency situation. Today highlighted the importance of having people in our community who are skilled and able to handle crisis situations.

The scene for today’s drill was a tornado at school. A lot of the volunteer victims were JROTC students from the high school, so that was fitting.  Two families from our church/youth group and I also attended as volunteer victims.

The CERT class was so big that they divided them into four groups and each group took a turn at search, rescue and triage (while the other groups worked on other exercises).

The first two rounds, I played victims with minor injuries. In the first round, I was positioned next to a girl who had a pole through her arm, so I played hysterical, freaked out friend as loud and obnoxiously as I could.

Me: There’s a pole through her arm. She has a POLE.Through.Her.ARM!

Rescuer: Well, it’s going to be all right.

Me: I doubt it. She has a POLE.Through.Her.ARM!

Rescuer: We’re going to fix her right up. You just calm down.

Me: How am I going to calm down? She has a POLEThroughherARM!!

During the third and fourth rounds, I played a parent arriving at the school after the incident, worried about my child and determined to find him. There were four of us assigned this role. We hid behind the row of ambulances and waited for a chance to run toward the building and attempt entry.

The first attempt, I made it all the way into the building and halfway through the sea of victims and rescuers, yelling and screaming for Andrew (my fictional son), before a rescuer caught me and dragged me out. I attempted to sneak back in after a rescuer left me unattended, but I was quickly caught and pulled over to triage to wait (and be watched by the rescuers working there).

The second attempt, I had renamed my child “Hector” and walked to the door of the building as calmly and nonchalantly as possible. A rescuer heard there were “parents” on the scene this time, so she was waiting for me and stepped in front of me. As soon as we made eye contact, I started screaming for Hector as loudly and hysterically as I could manage without laughing.

The high school kids got a little more dramatic each round. By the third round, a group of boys, having been rescued with minor injuries were waiting outside the door, keeping two rescuers busy with their sobbing and concern for a friend trapped inside. “Why, God, why Joe?” one boy wailed at the sky. About three minutes later, Joe wandered out of the building on his own two feet, possibly forgotten about by rescuers, and was immediately surrounded and celebrated.

If you get a chance to volunteer at a casualty drill, you should do it for two reasons: 1. You’ll have an exciting time and 2. You’ll be helping a team of people who might rescue you one day practice and prepare for the worst possible scenarios.

Retreating

November 10, 2011 in Fun, Ministry, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

I do love my job. And I really love my job in November. There are so many great events in the life of our church during November. The Fall Retreat at Camp Loucon in Lietchfield, KY is one of the best things our youth group does each year. It’s great because it’s the whole group together and a lot of our students can make it or do make it a priority to attend.

We have 13 students and 3 adults (and an adult and student from First Presbyterian Church Sturgis, KY riding with us) leaving late this afternoon (Friday) to make our way to camp. 100 other students and adults from 9 other churches will meet us there.

My hope is that it would be a restful weekend for our students and that they would allow themselves to disconnect from their stressful worlds and spend time with the community and God.

I’m going into this weekend at not quite 100%…but I’m going to do my best to rest in the knowledge that God’s really the one leading our retreat and the other youth directors and I have done our parts to prepare.

It’s going to be a beautiful, cool weekend at Loucon! I hope you enjoy yours, wherever you are!

Every Thing On It

October 19, 2011 in Fun, My Life, Pictures with 2 Comments

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I have loved Shel Silverstein ever since elementary school when our school librarian would sit us down in the reading area and read poem after poem from “Where the Sidewalk Ends” and “A Light In the Attic.” I was delighted when I stumbled upon “Uncle Shelby’s ABZs” at a friend’s house (“Q is for quarter. Here is a quarter for you because Uncle Shelby loves you so much! ….it’s not here? Hmm.. Mommy and Daddy must have stolen it.”). And who doesn’t love “The Giving Tree?” Jonas adored “Runny Babbit” when he was small and I loved reading him the gibberish words over and over and thinking of new ways to say things.

Here is a new book!

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