Year 2, Day 293: Celebration

Well, that was a rushed weekend.  I'm sure that my brother in law and sister in law feel like it was a really quick trip.  But we got it all done.  The Creek did a great job putting incredible elements together for the services, the banquet for those who have been ordained and/or sent out from the church, the extra worship service that the high school team put together, the balloons and pictures, etc.  We even had long streamers from confetti cannons!  Lots of talk about past, present and future, including having 3 people, (including 1 teenager), specifically pray over those three things.  I'm glad we could celebrate together.

But, I'm going to be totally honest as I usually am, I'm still processing some other personal things, so please be patient with me as I try to tell these stories from the weekend.  Sometimes it's very hard to write things from a positive perspective for me.  So, I'm going to put on some "rose colored glasses" and try to see the weekend through the eyes of the children.  Thanks.

For starters, I did actually dress up and put on make up both days, which is a new record for me, lol.  I got lots of compliments, too.  And unless someone took a picture of us while we were on stage, I have no photo evidence of this.  Whoops!  I focus so much on the kids that I totally neglect myself.  I'm pretty sure the outfit I put together was probably all wrong in some fashionistas eyes, but hey, I liked it, so I went with it.  Anyway, moving on.

Yeah! We had family in town again for a whirlwind weekend!  I had to be careful not to tell Abishai that the girls were coming so he wouldn't be upset because he doesn't quite understand time frames yet.  They came over for a little bit Saturday morning before they headed off to the pumpkin patch with Shauna's side of the family.

The way Abishai says, "Aunt Shauna, Noree, Evie, Uncle Aaron," is so adorable!  He showed off his cool swinging skills!  It was still early morning, like 9:30, and the grass was wet.  We had some very dirty feet when we finally went inside.

Nora didn't want her picture taken, so I took the picture anyway and said I would put it on the blog.  So I have!

It's October 20th.  Our plants started to regrow because it's been so warm.  Oh my goodness, when will winter come??????  I'm glad we have enjoyed some great weather though.  Next week is supposed to be in the 50's and rainy.  And the peak of the fall colors has come!  But I didn't get a chance to go out and enjoy them because of our activities this weekend.  Bittersweet.

Yes, that's a green tomato that will turn red we hope.  The kids planted these plants as seeds back in April in their homeschool co op botany class.  Crazy!

These two are getting so tall!

Just two men and a mostly grown man cub.

Abishai getting swung by his favorite person: Nora!!!

Let's show the girls our newly minted dirt pile!

"Planting" pinecones!  They also dug a trench.

Nora and Abishai gathered the pinecones.

Everybody has a job to do.  Pretty little cones all in a row.

The watch dog, literally.  Gotta be with the people, but still on alert.

Somebody is giving the big "J" a little TLC before getting ready for church.

Most of the family went to church by 3:30 so that they could participate in the service during a "family moment" where we got up on stage as an example of sorts to represent the homegrown missionaries, people that have been ordained or sent out from Indian Creek over the years.  There were several families that drove or even flew in to be a part of it, so it wasn't just us.  But I'm sure there was a joy and maybe a little pride to have the Johnson boys and their families up there with their dad.  Speaking off Dad, the sermon was more like a sermonette because there shared a video about how the Creek got started, as well presented two founding couples with 40 roses each.  Oh, I didn't go until the second service at 5:30 because Abishai needed his nap.  Same thing the next day when we went to the Shelby St. campus.  I only went to one service so that the kids and I didn't have to wake up as early or be as rushed.  Let's just say it was a long two days.

If you weren't at the Franklin Rd campus this past weekend, you missed out on the streamer cannons they shot from the stage!  As you will be able to tell, they were a big hit with the kids.  I still have pieces of them all over the house.  Amazingly, my children did sit still through the whole service.  We took Abishai to his class after the standing up on stage part.  And we knew when that was going to be because Benaiah always knows the minute by minute details of each service because he's on tech team.  "Hey, Benaiah, when do we go up on stage again?"  Lol.  He didn't go up on stage because he was running the camera, but Grandpa pointed him out during our "church family moment."

Shauna taking a selfie with the girls' cousin Audrinna, who is almost taller than her!

Streamers make great scarves!

Run fast and you can make the streamers fly again1

Cheesin' for Shauna's camera!

This makes me laugh out loud.  The fact that his pants are too big and falling down, that he's leaning up against the glass trying to "hide" and yet everyone can see him, never mind that the streamers are a dead getaway, or the fact that he insists on carrying his own water cup tucked under his arm.

They had a little photo booth area at both campuses to commemorate the event.

No, he didn't let go of the streamers for most of the night.  He would scrunch them back up into his arms and start over.  He even carried them to the van all by himself!

Goofs!

The banners made a great back drop for the services, but played a bigger role in the service the following evening.

Just like this.  This kid.  I think the streamers fit his personality perfectly.

After the service they had a banquet for the same group of people, including us, and the staff members and elders that wanted to come.  Surprisingly, it was fairly gluten free and dairy free, beef roast, mashed potatoes (which were on the drier side which was good because it meant they didn't use a lot of cream or butter), green beans with some onions, rolls, and a nice salad of different greens with a couple of creamy dressings.  It was delicious!  They also had each family do a quick "past, present, future" speech about how they had been related to the Creek family, what they are currently doing, and what those in the audience could pray for.  There were some funny stories about Gary, especially about the candy dish in the office that kids are supposed to identify the animals on it before they can have a piece of candy.  Apparently, someone wasn't offered a piece of candy.  And of course, Jared called Gary's bluff because no, the grandkids don't always say the animals, especially when they are older.

Speaking of Grandkids, Mr. Matt M. handed the keys off to Benaiah to MC for the night and then put away the equipment when we were done.  First of all, not every 15 yr old can handle that responsibility, but Benaiah has proven that he can be trusted.  Second, like father, like son.  There were several years that Jared was the boy behind the knobs in this very same room during his high school years.  It's kind of thrilling to realize what could happen in the next 20 and 40 years.  Multi generational for sure.

The charmer.  He did sit well at the kids table eating his specially ordered Chick Fil A dinner (we were asked ahead of time if we wanted kids' meals.) But when he was done, he started moving back and forth around our table and the kids' table.

Now that's a perfect shot of Abishai interacting with Nora.  He wouldn't leave her alone!  I don't know if it's because she's the next oldest grandchild, so she's closest in age to him, or what, but he clings to and adores her and was getting all up in her face!

Definitely starting to go stir crazy.

It isn't an Indian Creek event without Heather Bruce's famous cheesecake bites and oreo truffles.  In fact, she and two of her daughters were serving tonight.  This is the mocha one and it was delcious!  Yes it has dairy but no I didn't eat the crust nor the coffee bean.  There were pumpkin ones and raspberry ones, too.  This is what they usually serve at the dessert nights where the church shares updates on major projects and issues with the congregation.

Time to bring out the toys, including a new one I found that morning at the dollar store!  Oh yeah, in between the craziness, I took Benaiah and Keturah to the dollar store to various things including things to put in the Operation Christmas Child boxes.  Anyway, I found an excavator!  Abishai almost shouted in the middle of someone's speech he was so happy.  Then he used the front bucket to push the other cars around.  Cars are the only toys we regularly pack in the diaper bag.

I seem to remember that a certain 15 yr old used to fit in that coveted position in Grandpa's arms.  Now he runs tech for his Grandpa to do his thing.

There ya go, I do have a picture of myself and the rest of us!

The man behind the cam! This was before the second service.  And I'm a bit lazy on coordinating my iPhone pictures with my DSLR pictures in a perfect timeline.  That's ok.  It still works to tell the story.

We saw Miss Betsy before service started and she asked if Abishai wanted to come and play with her in class and eat gold fish.  Well, he couldn't yet, but now that the word "goldfish" had been thrown around, he as upset.  So Daddy went and got him some.  It definitely helped keep him quiet.

Psalm 100 shows the past (we were created by God), the present (worshiping God) and the future (worshiping forever).

Streamer cannons!  I can only imagine what the 35 founding members of the church would think of all this.  That their little small group became this 1,000's of people following God with hundreds and hundreds baptized here.  Lots and lots of numbers were thrown out all weekend, and I'm still a bit tired, so I don't remember them all, but it's pretty awesome!  And worth celebrating all the time!