"Up" movie night

"Up" is amazing!!!

For the semi-annual Calvary movie night we watched Up Saturday night.  First and foremost this movie is incredible.  I don't care how old you are, this animated film is brilliant!

The Calvary crowd of course had a blast, not only with the movie but with the chili dogs and fixin's before the movie and of course the rec and fellowship clean up crew which disolved into Robin, Donnie, Paul and Donna singing songs from Hee Haw and Oh Brother Where Art Thou. 

Here are a few photos of the fun and frivolity :)

The grillmaster dethroned!

Brenda told Robin to move over and she showed him how to clean a grill when you leave the brush at home.

Hysterical!

The food line!!

Me with my church "daughter" Brittany.

I love her!

Oh, Nikki....

I loves her too :)

That's about it for the pictures because Donna and Tammy threatened to take my camera away...

I didn't find myself annoying at all.

Nikki, Cynthia, Donna and Jessica in Wonderland (and Alice too!)

Well here it is the Alice and Wonderland redo.  Finally saw it last weekend with my girls on our mommy daughter date and had a great time.  Monterrey's first followed by the film!
Ok, well a little goofing off and then the film...
3D glasses are cool, just ask me and Nikki.  We had great fun with them...although I think it would be hilarious to be a theater employee to look up and see a gaggle of folk with their funky black glasses on.

And yes I am a super geek who is blind without her glasses so she must wear 3D glasses over the normal glasses and end up looking like some sort of bizzarre 6 eyed alien :)

While we had this incredible photo shoot the mommies were getting their Raisinette and Coca Cola what nots...then the film started!

And down the rabbit hole we fell!!

Seriously, after I saw it the first time I was like "huh? that was it?"

then I saw it the second time and was like "yep that was it."

But then I kept finding quotes and images floating up in my mind and it has quite grown on me.  I think in time this will become a favorite.  That being said this is the first movie of Tim Burton's with his company of Death Eaters that I have felt this way about.  Everytime they put out a flick I get really excited and then I am disapointed, ala the Sweeney Todd Christmas Day excustion of 2007.  This time, by golly I think they might have actually done it!  Ok, so Helena Bonham Carter still scares the poo out of me, but I think that is all apart of her charm.

All in all an amazingly wonderful experience but it seriously might have had a whole lot more to do with the company of the Mrs. Edge and Paxton and the Miss Paxton than the sound of Alan Rickman's incredible voice coming out of a drugged up caterpillar ;)

Calvary Valentine's Banquet 2010

By noon on Saturday the snow had given up it's hold on the roads and the Calvary Valntine's planners got in gear!
The food was spectacular, the entertainment superb, and the fellowship as always, was the best to be had anywhere.
I can't put it all in words so thankfully I had my camera on my wrist for most of the evening and have some great pictures to share!

We went with chocolate and pink decor and after much debate on best shade of pink I think we definitely made the right choice!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, and more Cupcakes!!!

This was the most beautiful dessert buffet ever!  Not to mention the yummiest!

In addition the chocoalte and red velvet cupcakes we had chocolate covered strawberries, dark chocolate mint petifores, heart shaped cookies, red velvet white chocolate balls and chocolate strawberry tarts! YUM!

Sir Robin Grillmaster putting the birds on.  The chicken breasts were huge and after he marinated them over night they were wonderful!!

Paul "buttering" the steaks.  A much better way than last years pouring butter on an open flame and trying to set his whiskers (and the church) on fire!

Robin teaching the master class on how to properly place the steaks on the grill.

Greg and Donnie look like such attentive students! Hahahahaha!

Anybody wanna play HOT POTATO?!?

Beth and Brenda on salad assembly duty...yummy salads, but this is my least favorite job...which is why I was behind the camera ;)

Donna filling up our tea pitchers...which went WAY better than Robin and I trying to put the tea up afterwards!  Can we say spillage?

The Edge, Waters, Mickey, Gilbert table....except I lost Donnie somewhere!

The coolest girls at the whole shindig!

Nikki, Abby and of course me!

Mrs. Sylvia with her friends, Linda, Darlene and Tammy

The "White Head Club"

:)

They came up with that themselves!

Weather's and Edge's

And of course "The Edge's" :)

Mimi with her babie's and me with her babies...they made me the SWEETEST valentine ever!

Scott and his baby :)

(This should totally make up for the Super Bowl picture, Scott)

The Robin, who loved his chocolate fish :)

This of course after his run home wardrobe change...dork.

Papa and Mrs. Higginbotham.  Two of my favorite Valentines!

Favorite conversation of the night:

Cynthia: Go get Robin, I can't make this work.

a few moments later

Cynthia: How'd you get it to work?

Robin: I plugged it in.

CLASSIC!!!!!!!!

A Mint Chocolate Coffee House

When you get lemons you are supposed to make lemonade, right?  Well when you get a room painted in bright eye assaulting minty green you make a mint chocolate chip room.  At least that is what we are doing in our current church building.  Yes, we are trying to sell it, but a new building is still at least a year to 2 years out, so we are doing what we can to live well where we are while we are there. 
The church had an old library with the most current books being circa 1960, and everything had a few inches of dust.  The room is situated on the corner as you start to the Sunday School classes so Cynthia, Donna, Robin and I are turning into a coffee and donut greeting area for everyone.  Due to a miscommunication the room was painted a funky green color and from there we go.
Here are a couple of pics from last night.

Here is the bookcase Donna and I painted chocolatey.  The paint looked like chocolate cake batter when you stirred it us.  So yummy.  The green looks so much more muted and sagey in this picture, but in reality is it more like this:

Cynthia is doing a faux stone wall in part of the room.  It is going to be beautiful! 

She and Donna were none to pleased that I took pictures of them, and they said they wanted royalties...I'll give them 10% of what I make off this blog.  Boy they are going to get real rich!

Here is Donna.  I halfway helped with this window, but it was a beast.  You have to understand that our building is OLD, and nothing is exactly smooth or even and every surface has 18 layers of paint.  This window frame also has the most wonky chaulking ever, so painting it is disgusting and no matter how hard you try it looks buggery.  We had fun though :)

Cynthia is going to shoot me for putting this up because she will say it's a picture of her butt :P  It's not.  Those pipes she is holding onto are HOT!  and she hit her head on them and said special words :)  Bad pipes!  Very bad pipes!

Missing of course is Robin and the bar he hasn't built for us yet :P

He did replace a toilet seat and mess with door locks while we were painting, so I suppose he is off the hook for a second or two, but he better get us some boards cut for our faux window or we may have severe punishment in mind....

Skittles and Pop...and an appetizer platter

Skittles and Pop...I seriously want a shirt that says that, or a tote bag or something. 
Donna and I sold concessions for the basketball crowd Saturday morning.  One of the kids asked why we didn't seel to them the previous week.  They never miss a beat.  Totally cracks me up!  Didn't seel so much popcorn this time, but geez people were feeling the Skittles vibe...of course I ate a bag too. :)

We met up with Cynthia that evening at the funeral home.  One of our choir members father had passed away, and we went to visit and pay our respects.  Funeral homes are like a meeting of the herd to me.  Everyone I know from all sorts of places show up and it's a little overwhelming.  Note to all:  Cremate me and don't have a receiving line.  I'm thinking a simple church service and big old pot luck dinner would do just fine.

Then we were Applebee's bound (ok, so it's like the only thing in that part of Boiling Springs that isn't fast food, so yeah we went there.)  I love the big round top tall tables in the bar area!  They make me feel tall while sitting down.  Seriously I don't ever feel tall even on my tip toes.  This is an accomplishment!
The Appetizer Sampler was wonderful and the conversation and friends were way better!  I didn't get home until 11:30 which for those who know me well know this is WAY past my pumpkin hour, but it was totally worth the bags under the eyes in church Sunday for a few hours with the girls.
A lovely Saturday for sure...oh and I bought some four cheese ravioli, cooked it and tossed it with some basil pesto for lunch.  I was feeling super smart and it really was YUMMY! (Of course I have no pictures of that because I can't photograph food and I jacked the pictures I have off of the internet)  Thank you Applebee's and the people of Skittles :)

The Tale of Pop Corn and Radiators

Well whew, what a weekend.

First of all, Saturday morning was awesome as it involved going to Bob Burnett's and having a cup of coffee with Paul and CJ and then selling concessions for the Christian Fellowship League basketball games with Donna. 

Little kids are sooo fun to watch and we actually got to make some money for the youth's mission trip to Salkehatchie.  6 rounds of popcorn and we sold out of absolutely everything we had in stock.  Note to all those who sell concessions: blue poweraide/gatoraid is seriously popular with boys ages 5-15.  Also, popcorn machines are very strange creatures.  First of all the stupid thing is that even after you turnthe kettle off and the pop corn has been dumped the thing still cooks and smokes until you wipe it out with a paper towel.  Well now it's not the greatest angle and sticking my hand in a hot kettle with smoking popping grease is not remotely a pleasant thought.  Anyhoo I ain't in love with that thing but we made our peace and made a whole lotta popcorn.
I'm looking forward to next Saturday and making some more money with our restocked pantry!

Then begins the other part of my weekend....
When I was leaving the gym I noticed a river of antifreeze flowing from beneath the front passenger side bumper of my Maxie Lou.  She has been having some anti freeze related issues but I thought we had them fixed.  My mistake.  I got home and then kept an eye on the car for the rest of the day and didn't get out much as I had a killer headache.  The headache progressed until I spent my Sunday morning in bed instead of in a church pew (if you know me, you know I don't do this.)

I got up in the afternoon and took a jaunt down to the O'Reilly Auto Parts in Chesnee and got a recommendation on someone who could look at my radiator in a Sunday afternoon.  I went down there and Todd Greene pumped up my radiator and decided it was linking down the entirety of the crimp line (I didn't know what a crimp line was until yesterday.)  We were able to get a new radiator from O'Reilly and take it back to the shop.  Here's where things got interesting.  Once the radiator was out it was obvious that it was bent  and wharped from a car frame that was busted...not only busted but the engine cradle had come loose from the frame and was hanging down a couple inches.  So...Todd jacked up the cradle, C-clamped it to the frame and welded it back into place...then installed my new radiator.  Todd was great and let me watch everything thing he did and explained the function of every part he had to remove and install.  I really enjoyed having someone educate me.

So lessons learned:
1.  If you live in Chesnee, Todd Greene is a great mechanic and builder of all things machine related.
2.  You are supposed to have your radiator flushed every 30 to 40 thousand miles.  I didn't know this cause nobody ever told me.
3.  I have an awesome brother in law who called to check on me when he found out I was having car problems.  I love him!
4.  I dont' do well on a Sunday of no church.  After Todd got me up and running I went to church, it was late and only the Rec and Fellowship Committee was still there (i was supposed to be in the meeting so I can crash.)  When I sat down between Cynthia and Robin and looked across the table at Tammy, Donnie, Nikki and Donna it was like the world lifted and I had touched home plate and was home free.  At the end of the day my friends buoy me up and I can't function without them, even for one Sunday.


So it's Monday, and I still don't feel great, but I am glad to be back at work and happy that God took care of everything I needed this weekend.

A few more Christmas pictures...

 I couldn't fit all of my pictures in the last entry so here are few more. :) 

Kacie and Nikki

Pretty Pink poinsettias at Calvary

The most beautiful Sanctuary ever

The Advent wreath all lit up

Robin lighting candles

Happy Donna

Silly Nikki and Abby

Me with my cousins, Amy and Ashley

A Blue Christmas Cantata

The church is decorated absolutely beautiful for the Christmas season this year and last Sunday night was our annual choir program.  Some of you have known me for quite some time and you know that I love to sing, love my choir, but I can not and have never been able to sing any form of harmony.  The Lord did not wire my ears for hearing harmonies.  However I sucked it up and through many tears worked on learning a second soprano part for the program.  It was HARD, but I had a blast doing it!

After much debate we decided to leave the robes hanging in the closet this year and wear shades of blue and silver, and it looked gorgeous.  However due to Paul's sadness about not getting to wear his robe, Nikki and I will be wrapping up one for him to open on Christmas Eve.  I love my P-daddy, but those robes should sit in that closet til the world returns to dust!   My biggest surprise of the night had very little to do with the music at all, but in lots of hugs from my big sister Kelly, her husband Artie and their kids who are the greatest kids in the whole world.  They all came to see the musical and I felt like the coolest aunt in the world having my own section of smiling neices and nephews.  Kelly's youngest daughter Emily made me the sweetest card that I tucked inside my folder so I could see it next to my music while I was singing.  I am so grateful for God bringing Kelly and Artie back into my life after many years apart and for their amazing children who bring such joy to my heart.

After the cantate Ms. Debbie and Ms. Linda put on the most elaborate fabulous dessert buffet ever and the social hall was transformed into a North Pole tasting room full of goodies Mrs. Claus herself would have been impressed with.  It was a good time to kick back and enjoy time with friends after working so hard on the musical for the last months.

Cynthia, Donna and I should never be allowed to take pictures of ourselves.  We are very bad at it.  Cynthia says she doesn't like her neck in this picture but I'm not sure who can see it with the blinding light of my glasses.  Of course there is the annual cheese ball picture of me and Robin.  I smacked him in the head and told him not to look stupid right before we snapped it...we see how well that worked out :)

I'm glad we are finished with the music, but grateful for the memories it leaves us!  Now looking forward to to the choir Christmas party on Saturday.  It should prove equally memorable!