3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF!

The Elementary Sunday School Program needs a space ship to count down their "blast off to Christmas." Because of things I will not mention, I am your space ship maker! It's amazing what a night off, a couple of boxes, hot glue and a few bucks and walmart can get you!

So here it is Ladies and Gents.... "Nativity One"

Our Tree, Drakes new bed and Christmas Ramblings by Mel

Oh so many exciting things happening here on Ham Ln. Drake got a new King Sized bed today... and since he believes he's the king of this house..its fitting. We also got our Christmas tree today. We went to the Tree farm and cut our own down. I love it! It fills up our house with such an amazing smell. I walk out of my room or into the house and it fills me up with the smell of Christmas. The smell of hope. The smell of peace. The smell of traditions. The smell of good company. The smell of memories. I love Christmas time. I don't love the greed, I don't love the stores and parking lots, I don't love Santa in the mall... I do love people coming together. I do love to see decorating the tree and remember the reasons I have all the ornamentsI have, what was happening in my life. As much as it stresses me out, I love the christmas programs with the innocence of children dressed as sheep and Mary and Jospeph in costumes that have been used for years and probably not washed in years as they eagerly share the story of Christ. I love singing silent night with a church full of people holding candles. I love finding something special for a person and buying it for them not because I feel like I have to, but because I want to. I love that my mom and dad sent me miseltoe in the mail. I love smelling fresh christmas trees and all the memories my grandpa Warren and I had at the churches Christmas tree lot. The bell ringers can drive me nuts I will admit, but they have this certain joy about them that I enjoy. I love packing my bags and going home to celebrate Christmas with those so close to me. I know christmas is about Christ, but I think we often forget that it is also what Christ gives to us. Peace, Hope, Love, Assurance, Comfort, Joy.... it goes on and on. I hope you can celebrate these things this Christmas season!

a fun picture

a picture for a certain someone

cooking princess

This is 39 Forever from today... we were cooking princesses since we cook for them every month... well today I didn't, we bought food from DeVinci's.

Morris

So many of you have asked who this Morris guy is (my trainer). So here he is... well actually, he isn't my trainer anymore which is a long story but its all good. But this is who was training me.

martha

I have always wanted to post a picture of Martha... the 86 year old woman that I often refer to. Well folks, here she is. This was taken at 39 forever this past month. I think this says it all.

Grace and Mel go to Wendy's

Grace and I went to lunch on Sunday... at good ole Wendy's and here is a little bit of fun for you!

We are the champions!

The boys celebrating after winning!
The huge crowd...and all those stinking Thunder Sticks!

Joel and His tri-tip sandwhich!

So we all know, at least I think we do, that I am a big baseball fan! I especially love going to baseball games. I was able to go to a baseball game on Friday night with my friend Joel... this was "for the ship!" The Rivercats WON and they are now Pacific Coast League Chapions! It's pretty amazing on how well they are doing considering they are constantly losing players to move up to the Oakland A's.

It was such a beautiful night, there were over 14,000 fans in attendance and we sat out on the grass. The weather was beautiful and the game had its exciting moments. Earlier in the day Joel and I had painted his office since he had come to Lodi and helped me paint mine... now all of a sudden Grace thinks I am going to clean her office and paint it... where would she get such an idea? :)

The day in the life of Drake

So Heather got a new chair. I came into the house one day after Drake thought I had left for the day (dogs have a strange sense about these things!) and this is how I found him!

I found him like this another time...this dogs life is just so rough! ... good thing He isn't a lady.... this is so not flattering for him!

ok ok .... I'm back already!

Hello readers! I apologize for my lack of information being given to you... I have no excuse. Since my last post lots of things have happened. I went to Chicago for a wonderful leadership summit at Willow Creek Community Church. This church was huge and amazing and I had a very difficult time fathoming how you make a church that size work in the way you make it work. The event was great but of course it came with an adventure. When does something in my life not have an adventure in it really?

The day before all four of us in the church office were suppose to go to Chicago, two people had to back out. Our pastor's son was in a bad football accident. God is good and fortunately after an emergency trip from Lodi's hospital to Sacramento's and a major reconstructive surgery of his nose, he is recovering. So Grace and I were off to Chicago after a crazy trip. We were up the entire night before we left doing laundry and changing rental car and hotel reservations. After a very long day of traveling and switching terminals and airlines too many times we made it to our hotel and into our beds around 1AM. Crazy. On Saturday Grace left for Cali and I flew down to St. Louis.

St. Louis was non-stop visiting. I love St. Louis and the people there, I just need to find a way to not feel like I need a vacation after my vacation. I was so happy to be able to spend time with people I haven't seen in over 8 months and sad that I couldn't spend even more quality time with them. While I was there I threw an 8th grade class reunion. It's amazing how some people don't change and how some people completely change. To all my St. Louis readers, don't take this the wrong way, but I am glad that I went away to college and moved away right after. If I come back to St. Louis I would be so happy, but I feel so blessed in the ways the Lord has taken me and allowed me to live a life I never thought I would have.

School started out here between July 30 and August 1!!! So that means the office has been back in the swing of things for quite a while. We have 2 new teachers and a new principal. It's a great year and I am so thankful for the changes happening at church. Our church is really trying to change, become a "Turn-a-round" church so to say. We are trying to make the changes necessary to grow and bring Pre-christians into our church. It's been great, its going to be a ton of hard work and lots of growth changes that need to happen. It looks like my job will be focusing more and more on Children's ministry and this next year I will be going to conferences and churches across to country to beg, steal, borrow and learn.

The beginning of September I went to junior high camp with the school kids. I spoke on transforming the body, meaning our actions. I did not have to give my purple-ing (sex) talk which made the 7th and 8th graders upset because they wanted the 6th graders to have to endure it so they could be scarred for the rest of their lives ha ha ha! I did my job well last year I guess.

OK so this is a long entry so here it ends with a promise. I, Melissa Scheer, promise to do a better job at updating my blog in a more timely fashion!

Have a very wonderful day!

rivercats game!

Hey there, Here are a few pictures from last week. My friends Katy, Marc and Joel and I all headed up to a Rivercats game in Sacramento. We had a great time, yea for free tickets, fireworks after the game, the Rivercats winning and wonderful friends!

Oh yeah and Marc caught one of those flying hotdogs from a machine down on the field... it cost him a stubbed toe and some evil looks from other people, but he did and we were very proud of him!

clean sweep in the office....

Dani.... my bulliten board creator (along with Whitney) and Potato Head Maker...
Dani's potato head clan

Dani bored after she helped redo my bulliten board and decided to get all my Mr. Potato head stuff out.... She has a story for every potato head!

The shelving unit completed... well I still need some rubbermaid for the stuff on top...

Grace, asking when someone is going to do this to her office...

Mom.... you should put this on your fridge... I don't think I have ever seen my office so clean!

First after picture

before

before

So my office drives me fruity! Like... absolutly insane! It's been disasterous and unable to organize because of my space constraints. So I decided to be bold and just start redoing things... so I sweet talked our retired woodworker, bought $100 dollars in rubbermaid, enlisted a higherschoolers help, bought a gallon of sea sparkle paint and told my friend Joel to bring paint clothes on his relaxing day down in Lodi and major progress has finally been made. I still have to go through a LOT of stuff but Major, MAJOR progress is happening... so here are some before, during and after shots!

Quarter of a Century

Well, it happened... I turned 25 this past Monday (June 11). I have really decided that 25 is going to be an amazing year... why not? People asked me if I felt old, but I think this is the prime time. I am excited about it... ok for like 30 seconds at the restaurant on Monday I freaked out... but that's it.

I feel so blessed. I have the best friends ever! Ten of us went out to Mikuni's Monday night for sushi and Japanese food. We had fun talking and having delicious food and some drinks and then we went to "Someplace Fun." Yes that's the name of it. It's a family entertainment center. It's 40,000 sq feet of fun with DDR, huge blow up slides and obstacle courses and video games and even a carousal. That's right I got to ride on a horse and in a spinning tea cup for my bday!!

Before all of that happened I was in Santa Cruz for the weekend. My dear friends Mindi and Tyler live there at a Lutheran Camp and that's where I had family camp for the church be this year. I had been there since Thursday hanging out with people from the church. I also had Mindi and Tyler's youngest Noah aka Baby McDreamy all weekend as well. We went to the Boardwalk and played games, did the campfire thing, went swimming and all kinds of good stuff. A lady from the church and I even competed in a chicken fight in the pool (you will be happy to know that I won). After everyone from church left, I stayed around. Originally I was going to help with staff training, but that plan changed so I got to have some quality Melissa time all day Sunday. I hope to get a picture of what I did next, but I helped Tyler prepare for guys night at the camp.

The plan was to have a bull riding contest... only they didn't have a bull. So we drilled holes into a Rubbermaid trash can and put old ropes course ropes through it and anchored them to trees by the four corners of the pool. One guy would have to get in the pool to help lower the trash can while the other got on it and held on... then the rest of the guys grabbed on to the four ropes and shook it... some guys were going about 10 feet in the air. I was also thrown in the pool while setting up... but then had to go to girls night.

Joel came down to see Mindi and Tyler and celebrate with us so we talked out on the back porch for a while that night then woke up the next morning to go to birthday breakfast and coffee. I took care of Noah some more that day then headed towards home. On the way I was able to stop in Dublin and go to lunch with Susie. I hadn't seen her in forever! We had a great time and I got back to Lodi just in time to change and head up to Mikuni's in Elk Grove. The rest is kind of history.

This past week I have just been insanely busy getting ready for VBS. Welcome to massive work days. On Friday I took some junior highers to the water park for a fun day and last night my friend Cheri and I went and saw Blades of Glory... oh the fun! It was back to work today and I am still finishing up some vbs... then going to try to get some stuff done at my house because we are throwing a 75th birthday party!!! We are having a party for Grace, Katy and myself and we are all celebrating our 25th! Yeah!!!

Whew... what a couple of weeks!

What a week or two!
So the past few weeks have been crazy... lots of ups and downs and very much non stop. I have learned a lot about myself and others through it, I have learned to trust God through the ups and downs even more, but I have also learned to just let go and enjoy life. Ok so maybe I have been learning all of those lessons for a while now but thats ok.

So, I should be writing sunday school curriculum for the summer right now, but first I want to tell about my last couple of weeks. My 80 year old Grandma and 85 year old Great Aunt came out for a visit starting on the 18th. I didn't know how that was going to go but it was very nice and relaxing. We had a great time. We played cards, spent time with people close to me and just had some quality time together. Gma and Aunt Eva did a lot of cleaning and a lot of ironing... my closet has never been so full. I did a lot of yard work and they told me what bushes to trim.. good times. They left a week ago wednesday, on Thursday....

I picked my dear dear friend Rachel up from the Bart station in Dublin. She flew in from MO and watch out... when the two of us are together it gets loud and out of control. We had a blast together. Poker night/bar b q on thursday night with about 10 others, Friday we got our toes done... oh pedicures... a girls best friend. Oh we went to Sushi with Grace in Elk Grove... Ben was our Sushi Chef and it was amazing. I can truly say I like sushi now... words I never thought would come out of my mouth... I want to go back for my birthday!

SATURDAY! We loaded up our bikes and drove to good ole San Francisco! We parked all the way down at Pier 29 where we unloaded and proceeded to bike up again... UP to the Golden gate Bridge and back... on our way back we stopped for lunch where we locked up our bikes... as I was locking them up Rachel says "you have the key for the lock right?" "of course I do, I put it in the front pocket of my water bag.... sure 'nough the key was not there. I proceeded to walk about a mile to my car to get the key and back. In spandex. suck. I carried my bike helmet with me so people would be overly aware that I don't just walk around in spandex... because that would be a bad life choice!

Rachel's family got into town and we spend the rest of the day in San Fran. I must admit I got out of the city by myself with out making a single wrong turn. :)

Sun. I was sick. I slept.

Monday. I slept a lot of sickness off so I decided to see how my immune system was doing and I went tubing and wakeboarding! I LOVE THE WATER! Great company, great times... my body hurts but thats ok. I think I took a ton of air on the tube and wakeboarding... well the first time up for the season could have been way better but thats ok. oh and I am getting tan.

Tuesday. Took off. Drove to Napa to meet up with my dear friends. Wine tasting all day.. fabulous! Went to some great places, got some great deals loved it loved it!

Wednesday. Back to the grind.

Pictures to come when I get them from rachel... remember... my camera=ice tea'd! :(

He knows me and I thank God for that!

You know.... this week has been a whirlwind. It's been full of highs and lows. I am not really going to go into it. Some people may think they know what they have been, its just seriously been one of those weeks where no matter what you are thanking God. Thank Him for the good, the bad and the ugly. Just when I think something is going great it goes right back down, and thats fine, its doable. As I was telling my mom, sometimes we have to pick up broken pieces in order to not step on them and get hurt even worse by them.

The Highs and Lows have really been in faith and in work. I was on such a high yesterday in our Staff meeting, talking about how amazing the Spirit was moving in and through people this weekend, the place was amazing. Today was ugly and I just can not even go there. I am seeing right where I fit in and what I can do to help our church and people reach new levels, and then things blind side you.

I am taking huge comfort in this oh so familiar verse right now. Jeremiah 29:11-13
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

I think we take this verse too lightly sometimes... GOD HAS PLANS FOR US PEOPLE! He has huge plans and we have to be willing to let Him lead us. We have to put our stubbornness aside and just be willing to let go and let God.

I just sat back today and was in disbelief of some of the weeks adventures here. I guess when you know God is working so hard in you and your church, you have to know that the Devil is working double time.... will we let him win or will we be fighting back with the sword of the spirit?

have a great day!

Godchildren are such a BLESSING!!!

My Girls! Taylor, Jessie, Kara, Jodie and Casey.... Hello Beautiful girls!!
Luke the Duke and His Chocolate Cake... mmmm mmm goood.


Luke Sporting the Card's Gear... that's my boy!

My Beautiful Jessie!!

The Godparents! Andy, Mom (Karen) and Rick

The Fam!! Jim and Sheryl

Faith, Luke and Brooke

Beautiful Baby Brooke

I love my Godchildren dearly. I love them so much, they are so innocent, so fun, and I can share in the beauty of life with Christ with them. I miss them SO much. My Godchildren are cousins and yesterday Luke's little sister was baptized. The awesome thing that just happened is that my mom became his little sister, Brooke's, Godmother. I want to share in pictures from it all with you. I wasn't there, but my amazing parents sent me pictures right afterwards.

Washington

My friend Mindi and I along with her 3 kids and my dog went to Washington the week after Easter. We had a great time visiting Brandon and Carole and seeing friends as well. Here are some pics from the week. :)

A quote from Irene

Well it was 39 forever again today. We haven't been doing costumes lately, mainly because I am only so much woman and can't get it all done. This is me admitting that though I am a multi-tasking, get 'er done kinda girl that I can't do it all.

So Irene comes to me today asking if they can start meeting another time a month to get together and play games and visit with one another. Great idea Irene! So I have her come up front to talk about it today these are the first words that come out of her mouth:

"Well I'm 81 and when I go to bed I don't have a man to cuddle up with at night so I just think...."

She goes on to tell people how she wants to get a seniors ministry together and stuff... oh but hearing that come out of her mouth was so funny....

Well... Have your best day ever!

back in the saddle

....or shall I say.... bike seat!

Yeah! Wednesday my friend Jennifer got back out in the glorious fresh air at put our rears back on our bikes! It's been so long! I've never felt as good as I did Wednesday on the bike. My legs have been worked hard core at the gym in the past 5 months and my goodness did their strength help me. Hills (little ones) that would have hurt real bad before and I would be standing on my pedals pumping away, weren't too shabby and I pretty much took them all sitting. We did 25 miles on Wednesday and I felt like I could have done at least 10 more.

We only had 2 hours on the trail so that's why we stopped but Jennifer has Friday's off again and so we will be biking 1-2 times a month hopefully! We aren't doing the 65 mile ride this year in Dublin. We just didn't have time to train for it and last years was so rough neither one of us have been thinking very fondly of it.

While we were riding along the beautiful river we saw all sorts of wild life. The best part was by far the flock (is that the right word for it) of Turkey's. They were really having such a great time that they didn't even see us coming and took their time and blocked the road for us, we just sat there on our bikes laughing and their lack of embarrassment.

I took pictures of our first day back, let's be real its like the first day of school... you have to have a picture, plus really who doesn't want to have a picture of themselves in spandex for someone to surely use against you later in life?

OK the pictures will go up when I find the right cords for the camera....speaking of, I am going to be on the hunt for a new digital. Mine got iced tea'ed. It's a bitter subject for at least 4 reasons. 1. I had no idea the bottle broke in my bag.
B. I love taking pictures and my camera drowned
Tres. It was diet peach Snapple ice tea and stinking good
4. it broke in the bag that was a replacement for the one that was stolen from me
5. cameras are stinking expensive

sweet dreams.

She's in Heaven

She's in Heaven, what a blessing! Samantha died on Thursday night at 6:34PM. She is in heaven now worshipping her Jesus face to face and I can only imagine that she is standing in awe of him and just smiling in adoration, respect and absolute joy that she is with her Savior!

I saw Samantha about 30 minutes before she died. I wanted to say good-bye, I wanted to tell her thank you but her mommy and aunt were in the room and I just didn't feel right. I thanked God for her and who she has been in so many people's lives.

Samantha,

Thank you for showing me how to put Jesus first, others second and to think about myself last.

Thank you for smiling even when it was tough!

Thank you for teaching me how to witness.

Thank you for shining your light so bright.

Thank you for always respecting me, for telling me thank you all the time.

Thank you for telling me jokes, even when I was crying because of what you were going through

Thank you for focusing on Jesus when you could have been focusing on not being able to see or your tumor or your unique situation.

Thank you for teaching me that the best thing to be is yourself.

Thank you for leting everyone know that they are are child of God.

Thank you for your tight hugs that you gave until your body wouldn't let you.

Thank you Jesus for letting us know Samantha, even if it was only for almost 14 years... We are so blessed Jesus to know her or know of her. Thank you Jesus for blessings thousands of people's lives with this amazing child. Thank you Jesus for the peace you give us by promising eternal life to those who put their faith in you. Jesus, thank you for your arms of love.

Life

Wow. I am just in awe of this past week and it's happenings. The past 3 weeks have been very difficult. The last week and half of them the toughest. Sometimes I sit confused as to what all is happening and sometimes I wonder what on earth God's plans are for everyone. I will never comprehend this side of Heaven.

As you know on of my junior highers is just awaiting her time to go see Jesus. All signs lead to this happening today but Samantha just keeps fighting so I do not know.

Last week my mom called me and told me about a girl that my brother and I went to gradeschool with. Lauara Laughlin. She was 27 years old when the Lord took her. Laura was a newlywed when she was on her way to work one morning and a dump truck hit her. I watch videos and looking at pictures and stories online from her life, her wedding, from who she had become and my heart just hurts for those surrounding her.

Late last night I got a phone call from a guy I went to school with. He told me that he was sorry to leave a voicemail like the one he was leaving but that our friend Bobby from college had died that evening. Bobby was such a geniune guy. He found good in everyone and in everything and loved the Lord with his all. Bobby was playing basketball and on his way down from making a shot collapsed and went to Heaven. I know Bobby is in heaven, but here on earth our hearts hurt, we wonder why now, we will miss him!

On top of all of this there are some other big things floating into my office, that I know I can't take care of or take on on my own but that people I care dearly for are dealing with.

In Junior high I was presented with a plaque in chapel less than a year after my brother died. It was dedicating our school gymnasium in memory of my oldest brother Brian. Our principal picked out a verse for Brian that he found very fitting and I later choose it for my confirmation verse, I see it as a life verse.

Phil 3:13-14 "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize by which I have been called heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Our life is temporary here on earth.... we should constantly be looking at the finish line and know that the finish line is the start of life in heaven. We don't know when that line comes because we are just looking forward to Jesus, he knows us better than anyone and he coaches us up until that time until we are in his arms.

Keep looking ahead! The past is full of memories and those are fun, but if we look back we aren't focusing on what God is giving us for today, we aren't living this gift of life to the fullest. I am bad at doing this so many times, but thankful that my Coach leads me to the right path.

May you live each day in joy and happiness, taking set backs in strife and focusing on heaven.

You are all so special to me, and I am thankful you are a part of my life.

Love,

Mel

Samantha

Well, Many of you have been asked to pray for this junior higher of mine in the past. Now I ask you to continue to pray, but pray for peace for her, her family and her friends. I was called out to Stanford again on Monday night and spent almost 36 hours there. Samantha wasn't suppose to make it through the night. She did and she is still alive but it is just a matter of days now. She is at her home in Lodi now and she is just resting and enjoying visits from her family and friends that she requests to come over. She is on morphine and her brain is swelling. Her daddy took her to the coffee shop yesterday like they do every Saturday morning. She can no longer see and has been having a hard time with that but we just explain things to her and remind her a lot about who is in the room.

This week has been challenging. I took a tape recorder over to the junior high classrooms and let them record a message since she can't see cards. Some of them broke down after they recorded the messages. They had some tough questions or just didn't understand what was going on. I just hugged and cried with them and prayed with them. Some of these children have an amazing outlook, some of them have no idea what the magnitude of all of this is.

Samantha will be going to heaven soon, but there will be a lot of other people going to heaven as well because of her focus on putting others first and witnessing to anyone and everyone she could. The Holy Spirit is doing amazing things in the Lucille Packard Children's Hospital in Stanford. I pray that we can help to continue that. She has left books full of bible passages in waiting rooms, told doctors, nurses, orderly's, children, parents and so many others about how amazing Jesus is and that if you believe in him you have eternal life.

Samantha is a modern day hero in my books, she is an inspiration, she is a living example on how we should be living.

Samantha, I love you! I am excited for you that you will be made whole again soon in Jesus' arms. Thank you Samantha for sharing your life with me!