SHOEBOXES!

This week has been all about shoeboxes.  It's nation collection week for Operation Christmas Child.  Our church, Hope Community, in Brownsburg has been selected as a relay center for the Brownsburg area and I am blessed to be able to serve as the coordinator this year.  We are receiving boxes and packing them into shipping boxes to head off into Indianapolis and then to North Carolina, and then to the far reaches of the globe.  What a priviledge and joy to be part of such a great ministry.  Samaritan's purse delivered over 8,000,000 boxes all over the world last year.  Some of the children receiving boxes had never received a gift of any kind before.  Most important, every child received the message that God loves them!  It's still not too late to pack a box - visit http://www.samaritanspurse.org/  for more info.

The pathetic blogger...

...and that would be me.  My blogging has been slim to none lately.  Not that there hasn't been stuff going on, just haven't gotten around to posting anything.  So for my 2 readers - here you go.   This year I'm serving as a volunteer for Operation Christmas Child.  I'm the coordinater for the relay center our church is hosting.  Last Tuesday I was asked to photograph a OCC packing party for 40 St. Vincent's NICU graduates that was also sponsored by the Indianapolis Colts.  Mom and Dad were here for the week, so I tossed Mom a volunteer t-shirt and off we went.  Had a lot of fun and got to meet a lot of great people including some Colts players - Donald Brown, Dan Orlovsky, and Drake Nevis.

With Colts running back Donald Brown #31

At work - on the left is a crew from Boone, NC filming footage for next year's Operation Christmas Child promotions

OCC volunteers and Colts Donald Brown & Dan Orlovsky

Dad tackled a list of home repair projects while he was here.  I may have to have him and his tools back soon! :)  And since yesterday was 11/11/11 we had to have some fun.  Found a clock online with the local time and caught it at exactly 11:11:11 PM on 11/11/11.  Silly?  That's how we roll!

So I'll try to be a better blogger in the future....I know all 2 of you are on the edge of your seats! :)

Happy Halloween

.....and the rest of the weekend's activities.  Be prepared we were busy this past weekend.  Lots of pics.

Halloween 2011 - Rapunzel and Minecraft Creeper (it's a video game thing)

Saturday, the youth praise band, Reality 3:16 participated in "Battle of the Bands" to benefit Sheltering Wings.  The kids rocked it out and took 2nd place

Sunday evening was a costume party at the Bohrer's with EVERYONE participating.  Dusty was a little more than excited to go as one of his heroes....Walker, Texas Ranger!  Meanwhile, I tried to channel a bit of my inner rock star.  Complete with some blue hair.

We also squeezed in some pumpkin carving

Then today it was off for our yearly run through the subdivision.  Fueled by Papa Murphy's pizza the kids were ready to go.  We sent the big kids off and then trailed the little kids as they set out to get to as many houses in the shortest amount of time possible.

This year's motley crew included:  Darth Vader, Goth Girl, a whoopie cushion, a pioneer girl, firefighter, ninja, witch, minecraft creeper, Rapunzel, and a musketeer.

There was plenty of candy for all....and to all a good night!

Fall Break in St. Louis

We spent part of our fall break from school in St. Louis with friends.  We made a return visit to City Museum.  The kids had a blast climbing, sliding, and in general running wild. :)  The whole gang (although I just realized that Josiah was hiding behind someone)

Saturday morning was spent running around the St. Louis zoo

Superhero!

What to do when it's superhero night at Awana and your costume stash skews along the princess and ballerina lines?  Make your own costumes!

In this corner is Super Sparky!  She's a bible verse learning wonder.  Equipped with red super cape and matching mask she racks up Awana bucks with blazing speed!

And in this corner, Captain Colts!  Even if the team isn't faring too well, Captain Colts will continue to cheer on the boys in blue!  Down to her blue nail polish she's a fan - True Blue! :)

Buddy Walkin', drummin', and the "Best Day Ever!"

Saturday was a gorgeous day here in Indy.  We started off our day with the Indianapolis Buddy Walk.  This is our 3rd year at the walk with the Alli's Pals team.  We had a great time walking to support Down Syndrome Indiana and our #1 Pal, Allison Schmidt.

After the walk and lunch in the park we headed back up the canal to look at the newly dedicated Sept. 11th Memorial.  The memorial is a new addition to the canal walk with the centerpiece being 2 steel beams from the World Trade Center.

Next stop:  the NCAA Hall of Champions.  It's not a huge place, but it was a fun stop.  There was a small gym are where we shot some hoops.

They had displays and exhibits about all of the collegiate sports.  Aaron took on the machine that simulated skiing.

Then we headed downtown to the Rhythm Discovery Center.  This was right up Aaron's alley.  There were displays of drums and rhythm instruments from around the world.  Then there were a ton of instruments to play on.  We beat on all kinds of drums and played xylophones.  Aaron loved the drum set in the sound dampening room...and so did I!  We got there about an hour before closing and had the place to ourselves.

After that, we headed back to the parking garage through Circle Center Mall.  The 1st thing that hit us was the smell of Cinnabon and Auntie Anne's pretzels.  We split a pretzel 4 ways and made a pit stop at the Colts Pro shop where we found this.

Bonus!  Pressed penny machine. If you know our family, then you know that we never pass on of these machines without adding to our collection.  We finished up the day some Chick-fil-a.

Rachel declared it the "Best Day Ever!"  She has the tendency to do that with any fun family day, but at any rate it was a fun day! :)

Weekend in Review

Tons of stuff going on this weekend:  parade, relatives, parties, church, photos, cake, fun!  We started off the weekend by going to the Brownsburg homecoming parade.  Rachel and I check out the candy haul.

A meager stash, but a lot of fun.  We didn't go to the game, but B'burg crushed the opponents 61-6!  Instead we thought a pizza sounded great.  We headed to So Italian....no seating.  Off to Sal's....a 30 min. wait.  Over to Pizza Hut...no seats and 3 people waiting for a worker to tell them how long of a wait!!!  Off to Avon;  ended up at Randelli's finally with a pizza!

Mom and Dad got here Friday evening.  Put Dad to work putting up a new ceiling fan in Aaron's room.  Took Mom to the kitchen and started working on angel food cake!  Saturday was Aaron's 14th birthday.  More relatives were headed in.  Lots of fun with cousins ensued.

 

Aaron with one of his more fitting gifts! :)

Then there was some of this type of silliness

...and this man is a school superintendent!!  Around here he's just silly Uncle Joel!

Sunday morning was a great time at church and then off to the park in the afternoon for some family photos.  Can't get too many of Carson, my little cutie of a nephew.

Finally ready for some relaxation this evening, when this was discovered...

Which led to this...

Have a great week....I'm off to Big O Tire in the morning! :(