Ready for an update?

So it's been a while. Here is an update. Where to begin though.....

1. St. Peter has a new senior pastor now! YEA! Pastor John Kah accepted the call to St. Peter and will arrive in October. We are all way ready for this!

2. Sleep, eat, work, gym, sleep, eat work gym.... thats kinda been my life. I have really been wanting to see results so I hired a personal trainer. He is kicking my rear and I am so tired all the time but it will balance out eventually and it will all be very well worth it!

3. Ice Cream Man. So ok, shortly after I moved out here there was this whole terrorist issue here in Lodi. The man was released this weekend and came back to Lodi. I do believe he is selling ice cream again. So now on the news tonight we are being told that two Lodi men are not allowed back into the country because of their alleged involvement in a terrorist camp. They are related to the ice cream man. Now these men are mad and they won't talk to the FBI unless they have a lawyer. I am thinking making people mad who are possibly involved with a terrorist camp is not a good thing. Maybe I should start buying ice cream. Why can't we all just get along..... at least tolerate each other?

4. I'm sick. Not like really really sick but sick enough to be irritated and not get a good nights sleep sick. Isn't that annoying? I've got a sore throat, sinus, blah thing going on. It's really fantastic! Morris, my trainer, didn't make me do weights tonight just cardio so that my body recovers.

5. I'M GOING TO THE AMERICAN IDOL concert tomorrow night!!!!!!!! A dear family at the church got a bunch of tickets to the concert and Katy and Grace and I are all going to the concert! Fun huh? Well I know some of you will make fun of it, but I can handle it, I think its cool!

6. I am going to the last game of the season for the Sacramento RiverCats on Thursday! I'm pretty stinking excited about this as well!

7. I am tired and coughing and going to bed... Good night!

happy one year anniversary

So it's official.... I have been at St. Peter as a "Called DCE" for exactly 1 year today! So much has happened in the past year both ups and downs. I can see so much growth in myself in the past year. I don't really have the foundest memories of my installation service... honestly it just made me and my family upset and many others but I do remember that night. I was given tickets to go to a Rivercats game (which by now we all know is not an unusual thing in my life) and my mom and dad and I along with Grace and her mom and sister all went to the game. We had some awesome seats and had fun hanging out. After the game there was a Lincoln Brewster Concert.

That concert felt more like an installation than the service did. There was one song that played that Grace and I just looked at each other, hugged each other and put our arms around each other and re-installed each other. It has become a theme for ministry and how we should be living our lives! I would like to the song with you today.

LOVE THE LORD
Love the Lord your God

With all your heart

With all your soul

With all your mind

And with all your strength (2x)

With all your heart

With all your soul

With all your mind

And with all your strength

Love the Lord your God

With all your heart

With all your soul

With all your mind

And with all your strength

I will serve the Lord

With all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

And with all my strength (2x)

With all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

And with all my strength

I will serve the Lord

With all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

And with all my strength

I will love You

I will praise You

I will serve You, Lord

I will trust You, Lord

And with all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

And with all my strength

With all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

With all my strength

I will love You Lord

With all my heart

With all my soul

With all my mind

And with all my strength

God bless your day, your ministry whether in a church, an office, a camp, a home...wherever... and may you Love the Lord with your all!

Santa Cruz, Friends and a Baptism

Hello! On Friday I headed to Santa Cruz to go to Noah Ryan's baptism. He is the son of my friends Mindi and Tyler! I was able to get to SC a little early which was awesome. I headed to the pier and to the boardwalk. I just walked around, people watched, got my toes in the nice warm sand, and of course went to a couple (acutally 3) surf shops so I could get a new pair of Reefs....

The whole time there was just a little interesting to me. I was enjoying being out of my element and being around absolutely no one that knew me. I love the water and I was loving just watching the water. On one side of the pier were kids in "lifeguard school" paddling surf boards from the beach to the booey and back. On the other side the rides from the boardwalk were going, you could hear people screaming and laughing and having an awesome time. I looked out into the water and saw huge sail boats and people kayaking. The sidewalks were filled with tourists and townies, families, couples, and people walking dogs. The sidewalks made me a little sad out by the main street. Every single bench had a homeless person on it and they were singing or doing magic tricks or simply just sitting there asking for money. Some of them I felt sorry for, one got in my face a little and for all of them as I walked by I just wondered... how did their life get to be the way it is, what has their life been like and why couldn't they help that? Did something happen to them, what was their family like, are they pretending like some people do?

I got to SC and had an amazing time. Noah was baptized at Mt. Cross were Mindi and Tyler work and where they live as a family. The baptism was moving. I get goose bumps just thinking about. There is a creek in the back of camp. The baptismal crew was all down in the creek and we were up on a bridge and the landing area above the creek. They did this awesome thing where the baby was handing off to the Godparents from the Mom and dad showing that they are entrusting spiritual care to them. Then they crouched down over the water and the pastor baptized Noah with the flowing water. I think it is such an amazing symbolism on how Christ is our living water, it doesn't stop. It was so powerful to witness.

After the baptism a group of us went to a brewery for dinner, then we headed back to the Wagner's for a good time on the back porch. It was just so fun to be away, to be enjoying time with old friends and new and to just enjoy life through and through... sometimes I think we get to serious and we don't stop enough to just enjoy life, to just take it all in. Try it more often.

I took a couple of pictures.... they aren't the greatest but if you look close enough you can figure it out.

Take some time to enjoy your friends and family, to remember who Christ has made you to be, to thank God for paving a path for your life and to just soak up what is around you.

Baptismal Birthday!

Hello in bloggerland!
So I am sitting here writing my lesson plan for confirmation tomorrow night and I remembered that it is my baptismal birthday. WOW. I think we so easily forget about this very special day! Twenty-four years ago this morning my parents did something very special, they brought me in front of the congregation and in front of God and spoke for me in the faith. They along with my Godparents Cathy and Wayne promised to help raise me in the faith and teach me about Christ.

I just want to thank mom and dad and Cathy and Wayne and my Grandma's and brother for loving me and for all the people at our church back home that said they would help with that.

I have had the privledge since to be the Godmother to two amazing children, Jessie and Luke. What a special job God gives us as other Christians to help teach, disciple, mentor and guide other Christians and visa versa.

May you take some time to remember your baptism today, whether its when you wash your hands, take a shower or just see water, remember how you have been washed clean and the eternal life you have with the Father!

Above is a picture of me and my Goddaughter Jessie and then My Godson Luke.

the view from where I was house sitting

 

the year o'24!

 

a few more things

Smokey chilling while his dad fills the truck up with gas











Scout and Moose... Moose is the dog, Smokey's new friend
Brandon and Carole's New Deck!
















The View from Brandon and Carole's Place!  

Brother and sister bonding time...

I didn't just crash I actually boarded! Below is Brandon boarding and then helping me with some life jacket/board "issues"...
 

jumping in to swim the boat in

 

brandon getting some air!

 

carole the amazing boat driver

 

the sibs

 

brandon and carole on the ferry

 

the sisters

I think carole is making a funny face at the camera man... aka her husband 

brandon and I are the ferry with out starbucks... mmm

 

bonding with the bro and sis

So I was in washington a couple of weeks ago. I don't have a ton of time to write right now, but there were a few bonding moments the three of us had that I want to share. So we had a good time hanging out at camp, i had a blast taking my nephdog for several walks a day...but we had many adventures with boats. I believe Friday night after camp was over is when we decided to go out on the boat the first time. Brandon got out there and wakeboarded and was having a good time. I wasn't convinced that I was ready to do the wakeboarding thing yet... but I wanted to tube. So I get on the tube and we are heading around the lake, I wasn't feeling the best so Carole was going easy on me... I was just about ready to tell her to try to get me off the tube (do circles or whatever) and the boat just stops....

WE RAN OUT OF GAS IN THE BOAT 400 YARDS AWAY FROM THE DOCK!

SO BRANDON AND I JUMP IN THE WATER WITH ROPES ATTACHED TO THE BOAT AND START TO SWIM IT IN!

That's right we swam the boat it, it took quite a while... the boat is big and heavy, the water was cold and I found all of this to be stinking hilarious so even hundred feet or so I stopped to laugh. We finally got it in to the dock. A moment that I don't think I will ever forget.

So we went on a Ferry the next day to the San Juan Islands and took the Ferry to Friday Harbor. We had a great time getting out of town and just walking around the town. The water was beautiful and the town reminded me a lot of a place I have been in British Columbia. There was an outside art fair and a farmers market and the peace of the water.

When we got back into town we decided to bar b q and I decided this was the night that Mel would wakeboard. I have tried a few times in the past and it hasn't worked out. We got out on the water and I finally got situated and my brother gave me some instructions, Carole promised to be a nice boat driver and I was up on the 2nd try. On the 3rd try I actually stayed up. It was SO MUCH FUN! The three of us has a blast on the water and leraning new things and seeing how fantastic of wipe outs Brandon and I could have. It was so exciting for me! We went out on the boat one more time before I left and I actually started going in and out of the wake (because of a "wadrobe malfunction"). My brother just coached me along the way and the three of us bonded over falls or how much water I took up the nose. I always seemed to start talking to them right as the waves were coming at me and I drank a lot of lake Samish. Brandon worked on jumping the wakes and we decided Carole is the best boat driver. Smokey my dear nephdog didn't care if I was in the water, its when I was out of the water on the wake board that he would go nuts in the boat and I thought we were going to loose him to the lake as well.

I am posting a couple of pictures of the experiences.
The picture in this one is one of the wipeouts that I find comical.