U is for . . .#AtoZChallenge

U is for . . .

Unicycle

When our son was about 11 years old, he received a unicycle for Christmas.  It was his "big" gift that year and UPS finally delivered it around 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve - whew!  I was holding my breath!  On New Year's weekend, we had a death in the family and we were all home getting ready to go to the funeral.  It was cold and yucky outside so Glenn was attempting to ride the unicycle in the basement and had a crash.  Mark was piddling at his work bench (or weight bench) in the basement so he was immediately available to help Glenn.  I was getting ready to go downstairs to assist when Mark yelled up to tell me to stay upstairs . . .Glenn had thrown up . . .and I DO NOT DO WELL with throw up.  (thank God for Mark!)  We called the pediatrician (good old Greenvale Pediatrics!) and they said bring him in - sounds like a concussion.  I frantically drove to the pediatrician, they checked Glenn out and said "keep an eye on him" and we all rushed to the funeral.  The end.  (addendum - I don't know if he ever learned to ride the unicycle - I can't remember!!)  I should totally make up a new ending to this story . . .so after, the funeral . . .Glenn learned to ride the unicycle and juggle (he really can juggle) while riding . . .and became a FAMOUS circus performer!!

Uniform

I think I have blogged about these horrible P.E. uniforms before.  Back when I was in middle school, we had to "dress out" for P.E. everyday.  Everyone HATED these uniforms.  I can still remember having to tumble, play basketball, tetherball, and volleyball wearing this uniform!!

United Methodist Church

I blogged yesterday about Trinity - our church.  We are a part of the United Methodist Church and we are a connectional church.  I found this on a website and thought it was pretty good:

Distinguishing Methodism from other denominations is the structure of the United Methodist Church (UMC). It is organized for ministry at several levels that maintain “connectional” links with one another. Both clergy and laity are elected to serve on governing bodies of the church, locally and across our conference.

United Methodists think of the local church as the visible extension of Christ in the world today. Ordained and lay ministers lead the local congregation, although every United Methodist is called to minister to others.

All people are welcome in the UMC – with open hearts, open minds and open doors. United Methodists speak many languages and live in many different countries with many different cultures, ethnic traditions, national histories and understandings of Christian faith and practice. Each congregation is linked in a covenant community of faith across the connected congregations.

I was trying to think of it in a more simple way -- our church is part of the North Alabama Conference.  I feel like I can go just about anywhere in the state and run into people that I know from other churches in our conference because we are so connected.  Our pastors are appointed each year - think of it as a large corral of pastors (sorry friends!!) -- all of those pastors are a part of our North Alabama conference.  Our Bishop and District Superintendents, along with a cabinet, appoint our pastors each year to serve in a church.  We have been BLESSED at Trinity -- our last senior pastor was with us for 22 years and we are hoping that our current senior minister will be with us that long, too.  Each church has a Staff Parish Committee and they are allowed input to the bishop regarding appointments.  You  have to remember that I grew up Southern Baptist where we issued a call (each individual church) to a pastor.  My explanation is probably not very good . . .but that is how I see it.

I'm worried about our denomination.  Right now, we don't agree on some issues.  If you are a praying sort, please say a prayer for the United Methodist Church.  We are good people and we all want to do God's will . . .we just seem to be looking at it in opposite ways.

Unicorn

I thought I had a picture of a pink unicorn on my phone but I guess I erased it.  I was in a store right after Valentine's Day and the stuffed animals were marked down 95% or something equally as ridiculous.  I bought a couple of unicorns and gave them to the daughters of two co-workers.  One unicorn as made its home in my office for when she visits . . .and it makes me smile.  It looks sort of like this - but cuter!!

I've been working on the remaining letters of the alphabet -- any suggestions for V, W, X, Y, and Z?