Santa!!!

We just got back from taking our pictures with Santa...and I just have to show them all to you!! They are (in order), Tasha, Monique, Joey, Eliza, Raheem and Jared. We had a blast! Stay tuned for more pictures later...tonight I'm having a slumber party! :)

My Friends...the Drug Dealers

I had a very interesting experience today. First, let me give you a little background. In the last few months a few new people have moved onto my block, and frankly they scared me a little. Its not easy to scare me, but they succeeded. The spend almost all day every day standing on the corner...so I'm pretty sure I know what they are doing. They also own dogs...a lot of dogs. I have had my suspicion that they are involved with dog fighting. They always seemed distant and somewhat ominous...and basically a little scary.

In the last few weeks I have started saying hello and trying to develop a rep or with them. I started praying that God would give me wisdom about how to handle them...whether I should try and become friends, or keep an eye out for them or even possibly call the cops. I felt Him leading me in the friend direction. Of course, I didn't want to do anything to lead them on or make them think anything more than friendship, so I just stuck with hellos. The slowly responded and I even started to get smiles and laughs. I started to feel less and less afraid of them and found myself enjoying them and praying for them more and more.

Tonight as I was leaving my house I ran into one of the guys and of course said hello. Then, for the first time, he took the conversation farther. He asked me about my work (he sees me with kids all the time), asked about my house remodel (he saw all the people doing the work on my kitchen). Then he proceeded to tell me that he was Alan's cousin (I'm changing the names). Alan lived on my block a few years ago, when he was a teen, and we always got along really well. He was on the block when the kids lived with me and had fun with all of us. Anyway, Alan apparently told this cousin all about me and how nice and fun I was and that I really loved kids. So, John just wanted me to know that he has my back. He lives 2 doors down (the house in between us is abandoned) and said that he will be keeping an eye out for me, and that he was there for anything I need. Then his friend, the other "scary" guy came by and said hello to me and told me that he has my back as well. He lives on the other side of me...

They both told me that they really appreciated how nice I am and how I take care of kids and they wanted to let me know that they are here if I need anything.

What an answer to prayer!!! They are absolutely the most influential people on my block, and they think I'm great! :) I'm excited to continue to talk to them...stay tuned for the say they come to church!!!! :)

That whole conversation brightened my day and got me ready for my evening. Tonight was the church adult Christmas Party and I was in charge of helping with the kids. I had 3 other babysitters, and I was kind of overseeing everything. There were only 7 kids signed up, but with 130 adults coming, we were pretty sure we would have more than 7 kids. We were right...there were 30. Thankfully, they were 30 of my favorite kids in the church and we had a lot of fun!! We had almost 0 discipline problems, which is pretty much a miracle. We had a blast and kept the kids pretty much under control for the first 3 hours. Unfortunately, the party went on for 4 hours. Had the evening ended after the first 3 hours, I would be raving about all the fun I had tonight. However, right now all I can think is, I am not going to do that again. 4 babysitters with 30 kids for 4 hours. That's a lot. Thankfully, I have a year before the next Christmas party, so there is plenty of time to come up with a new game plan for the kids...one that will likely not include much of me; at least as long as the party lasts 4 hours and we only serve them grilled cheese sandwiches to eat. :)

Now I must get to bed. I am going to see Santa tomorrow. :)

Another Fun Day

Today was a pretty fun day. I ended up staying up pretty late last night, so I had a hard time waking up this morning. I was pretty busy with AIM, which is kind of nice...I didn't get bored. :) After the kids got home from school I took Bonita and Miguel shopping for school uniforms. Both of their Prayer Pals sent me money to take them shopping, so off we went! Our first stop, though was the Rite Aid, where we found out that they are doing FREE pictures with Santa on Saturday! Bonita and Miguel weren't too excited about it, but I called Natasha and she said she wants to go. So, we're going to see Santa on Saturday!

It took us close to 2 hours to find uniforms for Bonita and Miguel. Forman Mills only had boys uniforms (well, they had skirts and dresses for girls, but Bonita would not wear either). Unfortunately, Miguel is very hard to size, and their uniform section was extremely disorganized, so it took us a while. Linda had come with us, though she didn't get anything, and was extremely helpful. Bonita was as well and they were actually the ones that tracked down pants that would fit Miguel. Apparently Miguel only likes the dress shirts (he is a funny kid) and the only ones we found came with ties. The ties are removable so he can still wear the shirts to school. He can also wear them with the ties, "when I want to be fancy" (his words!).
Since Forman Mills didn't have anything for Bonita, we headed to Target for her. Unfortunately, we only had about 30 minutes before I needed to get to Teen Club, so we had to rush a bit for her. We found some really cute pants though and a shirt she loved, so in all it was a successful trip. I had hoped we might be able to find something for Linda, but we ran out of time. Maybe next week.
I am finding that even though Kids Club has only been down for a week (other than the Christmas party), I already have more time to spend with the kids...and I am loving it. Its not even just that I have more time, but I'm not so tired on the weekends, so instead of just wanting to sleep, I want to be with them!! In addition to taking Tasha to see Santa on Saturday morning, I am having Bonita, Linda, Monique, Tasha and Mercedes spend the night on Saturday. We are going to make our own pizzas!! I also have to pick the Kids Club movie...or should I say, the girls have to watch 3 movies and pick which one I should show. :)

Most of Sunday and Monday will be taken up with Christmas party preparations. I have most of the "administrative" stuff finished...name tags, the schedule, etc. Sunday and Monday will be shopping and setting up. I will probably take Bonita and Linda with me when I go on Sunday, they are very helpful, and can carry things. :)

Let it Snow!!!

I finally did it!!! I have been trying for weeks to get a picture of me with all my god children, and tonight we finally took it!! I want the picture to be my Christmas card this year, so you will be getting one in the mail soon! (I have some non-crazy faced pictures to choose from as well). :) We had fun taking the picture though, and I even got Dario to pose with me!!

Can you believe how tall he is?!? He just turned 17 and I still can't believe how grown up he looks!!!

I had originally want to take the picture outside, but I couldn't get everyone together until 5:00, and by then it was too dark.

Today was also our first snow of the year! Yay!! It was just enough snow to put a beautiful white coat over things, but not enough to get black and yucky. It was so nice! The kids enjoyed throwing snowballs at each other, so not only was it beautiful but it provided a lot of laughter. I'm not usually a big fan of snow, but this was a great snow day!!

I also meant to write last night...that I love Family Night!!! We had huge Family Night at church last night and it was wonderful! Last month we had a big Family Night, but we were giving away free food, so we kind of expected it. Last night was just as big as last month, but no free food giveaway. I spend Family Night with the kids, and I had a blast last night. There were a few kids that felt it necessary to run and show me every individual ticket they earned while playing games. It made me smile every time. :)

Wednesday is my early night, so I am looking forward to eating oranges (my mom sent me a huge box full of oranges!!), drinking tea, watching Criminal Minds and getting ready for the Kids Club Christmas party. That's pretty close to a perfect night for me. :)

Is it nap time?

I am exhausted!! Its almost like I didn't just get back from a break!! I find myself taking naps during the day, and always ready to sleep. I have been able to get things done fine and feel fine once I'm doing things. But, the minute I have any down time, I'm out! I actually decided today that I am ready for a snow day. I would love a day where I didn't have to leave my house and I could just curl up with Gizmo and watch movies, eat grilled cheese and tomato soup and drink hot chai. Its so ridiculous for me to feel this way, I just got back from Thanksgiving break!!

I think the last few months are catching up to me. It has been an incredibly busy time, coupled with stress that I don't think I realized until recently. I took on a lot of new responsibilities this fall and while I didn't feel really overwhelmed by it all, the pressure that was suddenly on me has taken its toll. That and months of uncertainty as I tried all these new things. I feel like I have been feeling my way through the dark both with AIM and with Kids Club...and that is tiring. I'm excited for our winter break from clubs, which will be here soon!!

In the meantime, I am also excited about everything else that is going on. We found out today that we will get gift cards for the Kids Club gifts next Sunday, giving us 2 days to shop for 200 kids. We actually went out today and bought a few things that were on sale (the sale ends this weekend) and we are hoping for some great sales to start on Sunday. Its going to be a busy few days, but I had fun shopping today so next weekend should be cool too. There are so many details that I am just now figuring out...so this party is going to be interesting. :)

The Kids Club Christmas party and the Prayer Pals Christmas party are 2 of my favorite days of the year, so the work ahead of time will be totally worth it. I have to pick a movie for the kids to watch at the Kids Club Christmas party, and I have 3 options. So, I am going to have Bonita and Linda spend the night on Saturday and will make them watch all 3 and pick the one I should show. :)

Tonight was the God Squad Christmas party and it was a lot of fun. We don't do gifts or anything, but we do decorate the church and spend a lot of time in worship. Sometimes the teens can be so challenging, but that's really because they constantly make me look at myself and see my own sinfulness. Its easy to forget sometimes, but I really do think we have some of the most amazing teens in our ministry.

Tomorrow night is family night, which I always enjoy. This Friday is the Adult Christmas party, which should be really fun and apparently huge this year (I heard we have over 100 adults signed up). I think I will be spending most of my time helping babysit the kids, but its guaranteed to be a fun night for everyone. I did make it to the grocery store this past Saturday, so I will hopefully not have too many errands to run this weekend and can sleep in on Saturday morning. I am loving the sleep!!

And on a completely random note, the man I have always known as my father is in fact my father!! :) I had a blood test done on Friday to find out what my blood type was. My mom and dad are both A positive, so if the blood test came back as anything other than A positive, my mom was going to have some explaining to do, hehe (forget the fact that I look EXACTLY like my dad). :) I got the results today, and I am A positive!!! Whew! :)

I have Lost My mind

There are SO many reasons for the title of this blog. :) I will go through some of them, haha.

I got back to Philly on Tuesday around 2:30. Denise, my Kids Club co-leader called me around 10 (while we were on the road) to tell me that she had been called into work and wasn't going to be able to do the lesson for Kids Club that night. Not a problem, we have several movies we can show, and I have no problem doing that. However, I suddenly had the idea of playing a game to review things from the last semester with the kids. So, I spent a good part of the rest of the ride preparing the game...which included needing a wheel (kinda like wheel of fortune). Thankfully, we had one at the church that just needed some modifications!! But, the prep for Kids Club took me from the time I got home until right as Kids Club started. The game went well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and it was a really good review for the kids. In fact, I think I will do it again at the end of next semester. Still...the movie would have been much easier. :)

When I finally got home on Tuesday night I checked my email to discover that I was WAY behind on my AIM work (like 57 emails and many phone calls behind). Now, because of my personality, waiting until Wednesday to do my work would have been very difficult. So, I proceeded to respond to all the emails I could and saved only the phone calls until Wednesday. That took me until about 7 a.m. I got completely caught up though!!! I took a quick nap and then headed to staff prayer at 9.

Thankfully, because I got caught on Tuesday night, I didn't have to work extra on Wednesday and when my AIM hours were over a 2 p.m., I immediately took a 3 hour nap. That had me rested and ready to go for Prayer Pals. I also pretty much went straight to bed after Prayer Pals, so now I am caught up on my work and my sleep!!

I know the staying up until 7 wasn't the best idea I have ever had...which means it continues with my theme of losing my mind. :)

I am really glad that I got caught up though because the rest of this week and on through about the middle of December will be extremely busy. Here is the quick run down:

Doctor's appt. tmw
Grocery shopping and house cleaning this weekend

Next week will be a "normal" week (which is still pretty busy).
Next Friday is the Cornerstone Adult Christmas Party

The following Monday is the Kids Club Christmas Party (which I will be planning for most of next week).

*** Something to pray for with that...the church that usually donates the presents for the party is talking about giving us gift cards to shop with...they will have the gift cards to us on Dec. 10th. The Christmas party is Dec. 10th. PRAY THEY SEND US MONEY INSTEAD!! Either way, we have to shop for about 200 Christmas gifts OURSELVES this year!! (Hopefully we don't have to do it the day of the party!)

Tuesday is the Pre-Teen Christmas Party (which I normally don't attend, but this year 5 of the kids that I drive to kids club are all in pre-teens! So, I will be going this year).

Wednesday is "normal"

Thursday is the Teen Club Christmas party.

My friend Catherine comes to visit on Friday. We will be driving to see her family in CT on Sunday, coming back on Monday.

That Wednesday is the Prayer Pals Christmas party (which also requires planning and probably shopping).

That should be the end of the chaos. I will head home to visit my parents in the 23rd or 24th, coming back to Philly on the 27th or 28th, depending on ticket prices.

Somewhere in there I also have to fit in a movie date with Paxton, a skating date with several kids, a shopping trip with Miguel and Bonita, a separate one with Tasha as well as my own Christmas shopping. Oh, and I am trying to keep going to the gym regularly and I work 9-2 everyday. Whew!!

I hope it doesn't sound like I am complaining, cause I'm not. This is always a busy time of year, so I am prepared for it. We don't start clubs back up until the end of January, so I will get some good rest time as well as prep time in there.

Still, the next few weeks are going to be interesting...especially if my mind stays gone. :)