Halloween Part Two

Smither and Mabel . ..those are not their real names but what my husband calls these two. Long funny story to be told another day! They were our first trick or treaters in the church office.

She was having a red sucker before 9:00 in the morning . . .and she had on a white coat . . .and she sure was enjoying it!!

This is another friend's little boy - he is such a cute cowboy, isn't he??  Our daycare has a great Halloween parade.  I didn't go down to the parade this year but handed my camera to Kristi and said, "please take some pictures!!"

Isn't she the sweetest bride?

We also have a special class at Trinity.  This class provides such a wonderful start for these children.  Here is the blurb from our webpage: "A Special Place is a Kindergarten class for 3 and 4 year olds with special needs. The class meets Monday-Thursday, from 8:30AM to 1:00PM. Special Place staff includes a teacher, assistants, speech therapist and an occupational therapist. The class participates with other kindergarten classes for chapel, playtime, story time and special events. Limited enrollment. A Special Place has been an important mission of the church for decades."  The Special Place children paraded through the office and did a little "trick or treating."

I love Halloween and I loved seeing all the cute costumes!! We only had four trick or treaters at our house so I was so glad that I got to see lots of cute costumes at work!!

Prayer

The photos in this post are not good . . .but this post is about much more than photos. This post is about prayer. I am so thankful that I believe in the power of prayer. I am so thankful that I believe in God who answers prayers. I do know that sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes the answer is no and sometimes the answer is wait a while. I also know that sometimes when I pray, God weeps with me. That is so comforting. I've mentioned before that I love my job. I have a love/hate relationship with part of my job . . .the prayer ministry for our church. I love it because God hears and answers prayer. I hate it (only sometimes) because I hear about all the sick people and little kids who have cancer and people who are getting a divorce and all of those things that make up our messy lives. . . .yet I also love that I have the awesome privilege to pray for these needs.  See, it really is a love/hate relationship.


On this day back at the end of October, I was able to see prayer in action. October is our stewardship month and early in the morning on the day before our big "Celebration Sunday" about forty of us gathered in our sanctuary. Rev. Suzanne talked to us for a minute and shared some ways that we could pray and then she opened our time with prayer. We then spread out over the sanctuary and through the building to Wesley Hall (where our contemporary service is held). We "laid hands" on each pew and we prayed for those who would be sitting there on Sunday morning. Then we wrote something like, "I prayed for you" on a sticky note and stuck it to the pew. We prayed that those sitting there on Sunday would experience God's blessings. We prayed for their families and their spouses. We prayed for our church and that we would indeed be about God's business. There were enough of us that people were able to pray up in the choir loft and people prayed over the "preacher's chair." Oh my goodness . . .when you have 40 or 50 people praying in a room . . .God's spirit is present. As I moved through the balcony, I prayed for my mother-in-law and for Mark's Uncle John who sit in the same pew each week. I prayed for others by name as I pictured them in my mind. You know that most of us are such creatures of habit that we sit in the same general area of the sanctuary each week.


God is at work at Trinity UMC. Yes, HE is. Our pledge campaign is successful . . . commitment cards are still trickling in (if you are reading this and haven't turned in your card, please do so!! haha! I couldn't resist that "commercial") We are in ministry here at Trinity - along with many of you in your home churches - we are doing God's work.


Here is a picture of our senior minister and his wife kneeling at the altar praying for the congregation. I think that is important for folks to know - in a church of over 3,000 members, the senior minister takes the time from his busy schedule to get on his knees. (I apologize for the picture - I was trying to be discreet - no flash, etc.)  (and yes, Dawn has on orange and blue - War Eagle)

Here is a picture of the sanctuary as folks are praying.

On days like that Saturday . . .I am so thankful to be a part of the prayer ministry at Trinity. I am so thankful to be a part of a church family who believes in the power of prayer. I am so thankful to be a part of Trinity UMC!!

Happy Halloween!!

One thing this middle-aged mom has really missed is being able to truly "celebrate" some of the different holidays. When our kids went away to college, I didn't decorate if they weren't coming home. As a matter of fact, I remember the first Halloween that they were away . . .I was sad.


Well, this year I was able to decorate to my heart's content because Laura wanted to have a Halloween party. She was in charge of the food and I was in charge of the decorations.


Here is the banner that I made using my Silhouette machine. I tried to post this picture to pinterest and I cannot make my computer do it!!!  I think it turned out well.  There are three people who live in our house -- Laura and I are two of them . . .the other person placed all the pumpkins in the fireplace for me - didn't that person do a great job arranging them? 

Funny story about the food - Laura decided to make Oreo balls. Now I've never made them but several friends told us how easy they were to make. Laura and her friend, Taylor spent two whole nights making those things. Laura said they were truly a labor of love . . and that she wasn't so sure about entertaining if it was so much work!! I, on the other hand, love having them in the kitchen. I loved their chatter and their laughter - those are two other things that I missed much while they were away at college!!!

I had planned to make some ghosts to use on the dining room table and I went to JoAnn's Fabrics to buy dowels and round Styrofoam balls and white muslin.  They had these yard ghosts on sale for about 75% off - I think I paid $6 for each one.  I couldn't buy the materials to make them for that.  So for the table, I removed the big bamboo pole and crammed the small pole down into a block of Styrofoam.

I made these bats on my silhouette machine.  The girls used fishing line and hung them for me and I loved how they fluttered around.

I had to work on the night of Laura's party but everyone was still there when I got home.  I was so excited to see all of the costumes.  Let me introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Scarecrow . . .actually Gabe and Allison.  Gabe has now moved to Denver and we sure are going to miss him!!!  These scarecrow costumes are some of the cutest and most creative I have ever seen. 

Laura's costume was also cute.  She was a bumble bee.  She wanted to be something else and she bought the material and the pattern and the zipper and I cut out the fabric . . .and sat down at my trusty, very old Elna . . .and my  machine would not sew.  Actually, that is not the truth - you can't get it to stop sewing.  From the moment you turn it on, the pressure foot is moving up and down.  I can't decide whether to try to get it fixed or ask for a new one.  I already can't get bobbins for it anymore . . .not even on E-bay.  They don't make them so I've known for quite some time that as soon as I use the last one . . .anyway, I love that machine.  I have sewed soooo many things on that machine!!  The point of all that is that we ran to party city and bought the last wings, etc. a few nights before Halloween.

This is a funny picture . . .Amy's eyes are closed.  She was a flapper.  Nathan was a gypsy and so was his girlfriend, Kendall.  We kept asking them if we needed to count the china and silver . . . .I'm still finding red feathers all over my house.

Lamar brought his girlfriend, Marianne, whom we had never met.  She seems very sweet.  Lamar was a gangster/mob guy and she was a flapper.  I loved her dress and it looked so cute on her.

This picture makes me laugh.  Christie was "the pregnant woman who recently ran a marathon."  In this picture, you can see a corner of her pillow . . but she actually looked pregnant.  Dustin is sitting on the couch . . .he was the young man who rides his bike around and goes door to door.

I guess Evan was a doctor??? and Kendall was our other gypsy.  She looked cute!!

Here is Taylor . . .she was sous chef (helped Laura make Oreo balls) and decorator's assistant (helped me hang things that I couldn't reach!!) and movie provider - we watched old movies while they worked - Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins.  On this night, she was a classic old movie star.  She looked great!!!!  Her "cigarette" is a dry erase board marker.  I laughed and laughed when I realized that!!

You can see Claire in this picture - she has on her mother's wedding dress . .. which was made of polyester . . .and she was the bride of Frankenstein or a zombie bride???  In the corner on the right. . .can you see Austin Powers?  He belongs to Glenn and he is voice activated.  We haven't had Austin out in a while and he was quite funny!!  He can actually scare the living daylights out of me!! 

Mark was "allowed" to stay at the party and he enjoyed himself immensely!  Here he is with Ed.  Ed is Amy's boyfriend and I think he was a boot-legger.

Halloween was a good time for this middle-aged mom. I enjoyed it immensely even though we only had four trick-or-treaters. Two of the four were soooo cute - one was dressed as a hamburger and the other was a princess. All in all, it was a GREAT Halloween!!