Take 7 disclaimer. Sorry my take 7's are so lengthy pretty much every week. I usually recap at the end of each day, if I didn't and waited until the end, I'd 1. forget what I did and 2. lose interest in writing what I did really fast. By the time I get to the end of the week, I usually try to go back and edit out the really boring things I first wrote about and leave only the riveting, drama filled parts...ok, kind of but not really. Not gonna lie...there are some good stories in this week... Disclaimer over. Sunday - Sunday School, Work, Anna's house
Monday - Meeting at ACS, Chinese for mom's bday, printer shopping Grandma
Tuesday - BSF
Wednesday - Art Prize
Thursday - lunch at ACS, dinner with Cogswell and computer troubleshooting
Friday - Not fun bonfire. haha
Saturday - baby shower and dinner with the Strayhorn family and guests (haha) 1. Busy Sunday! Anna and I taught...babysat 1st graders during S.S....I've always said it takes a special person to teach (especially younger ages). It honestly makes me want to write a thank you card to my elementary teachers and thank them for putting up with us. If I did that everyday, I'd probably need a mental hospital and a straight jacket. It went well for the first week and a visual lesson was 10 times more productive, I think. After church we had mom's bday dinner and then I headed to work for 3 hours...on a Sunday, not the most thrilling thing to be doing and it was pretty nice outside. I would have rather been reading outside instead of sitting alone in the office. Oh well. A dent was made. Sunday night was communion service. I genuinely appreciate the different angles Pastor takes on communion. This month he really focused on the cross and how we view it. Do we look at it seeing our sinfulness or do we see God's grace? A little of both. But in the end, we should be magnifying our Savior who made it possible for us to be washed by His blood. Anyway, just another week that I am thankful for a church like WCBC. After church we headed to Anna's house which has become the new Sunday night norm. No complaints from me. It's genuinely just a good time hanging out with her and her parents. 2. Monday was another pretty busy day. Work has still been crazy and worked through lunch so I could jet from work to Algoma. It was weird to go back but it's going to become a regular thing come November for a couple months. 5 years later, I'm thankful for what I established myself as when I was in HS because I'm still pretty well known within the school even with kids I'll be coaching. I don't regret my time at Algoma at all. I know quite a few people that went through there do but not for a second would I take back the relationships I made while in those doors (teachers, students, administration), the lessons I learned in the books but more importantly out of them. I thought that when I graduated, despite some of the crappy situations we went through and I think it even more 5 years out. It's not a perfect school by any means but when you find one that is, let me know. After the meeting, I rushed out to dinner and then went printer shopping for grandma...her printer was ancient and other than her lack of computer know-how, it was a dying printer. I got home around 8:30...leaving a little down time. 3. Tuesday. Got home, scarfed dinner, went to Grandma's house and set up her printer. 2 good Grandma having high hopes for me. Grandpa had some tests at the hospital and she just loved the doctor. Naturally, she starts telling him about her granddaughter and he tells her he's married...he doesn't wear his ring at work because it gets stuck and what not. Grandma was doubly disappointed because he was also Indian. Yup 2 married guys in 2 weeks that Grandma has tried to set me up with...awesome. The second, not as bad...I told her I was going to Bible Study afterwards. BSF. She said she had heard of it and her only question was, "Are there guys there?" Yes Grandma. "Oh good, that's just the kind of thing you need to get involved in." BSF is kind of a 3 part night. 1. Discussion (10-15 ppl with a leader) 2. Lecture and 3. Fellowship with the masses (There is the before part where you sing a couple songs as a whole group...but that's pretty go with the flow.) This week was more on the real schedule side of things, which was nice. We got more girls in our discussion group and will again next week as it was an intro night on Tuesday. Discussion group was good - we've got a couple chatty Kathy type girls who will jump the gun on every question. We'll see if that subsides at all in the upcoming week but Heather does a good job at muzzling when necessary. My initial reaction in almost any situation is to listen, not to talk. It isn't that I don't have things to say but I'd rather just take in what others are saying. I know my thoughts/opinons and don't feel it necessary to impart my "knowledge" on others. It's the fellowship afterwards that is one crazy filled room. Due to the lecture and switching up where we sat, I was sitting next to a girl in my group that just joined this week. Perfect. I can totally strike up conversation after lecture was my thought. Kae was sitting in front of me, so afterwards I struck up conversation and Kae flipped it around to join which is fine. We're all in the same groupie. Chatted with her awhile and headed down the hall to the bigger fellowship area where the mass of people were. We continued to chat with her (Yvonne and I did)...not sure where Kae went, then I was pulled way when the other Indian in the room spotted me and struck up a hearty conversation about our lives (he's married...just as an FYI to the world). Met someone else and his wife who I promise I won't recognize come Tuesday. After that conversation wrapped up, I headed over to Betsy, Anna, Kae, Yvonne little circle with Tatiana and Jon. Struck up a slight conversation with Tatiana who I had semi-heard about...and somehow was in the last group to peace out of the building. haha, on week 3. Then Betsy and I chatted it up in the parking lot for awhile...to say the least, I was talked out by the end of the night. I can see the overwhelming aspect getting better with time once relationships are established but until then it's a mass room of people I don't know. I literally see them on Tuesday night (although writing this on Wed 10/5/11 knowing I will be hanging out with some people on Friday...because of Anna and her connections, otherwise I'm sure that wouldn't happen, at least yet) and during discussion it's focused discussion, not getting to know other people -- so it's in that after fellowship for however long people wish to stay that you build little by little. So much happens in so little time. Week 3. Check. 4. ArtPrize was good. We saw 7 or 8 out of the top 10. The top 10 were ok but I think there were some that really should have been up there. In all, it makes me wish I had some creative skill and a lot of PATIENCE to do some of the things other people put their minds to but the reality is I don't have the skill or the patience. Oh well. Aside from the art, it was better just hanging out with Anna. After a night where it's mostly "interview" type conversation (where are you from? what do you do? how old are you?) it's nice to just chill with someone who knows you deeper than the surface questions. Despite the fact that I didn't head home after work like the previous night, it was a relaxing night. Got home around 8:30, did some devotions, read a little and lights off by 9:30. haha, I know I'm an old fart but I loved it. And for whatever reason, I feel like also stating Steve Jobs died...probably something that will make history books later on in life. 5. Thursday I was off to ACS to have lunch with the prospective basketball team. As lame as this is going to sound, it almost brings me to tears to be there. Happy tears. When I was there Monday, it was just a building in which I had many memories in and it was still that but much more. I knew it would be hard to get in and out of there because of seeing people like Mrs. Schoen, Mrs. Russell, Mrs. Hammerstrom, Mrs. Acker, Mr. Moulden, Mr. T, Mrs. Miller...all people who I have relationships with from going through the school and people I have high respect for as they are still faithful to Algoma despite what their paycheck looks like. It even genuinely shocked me to walk the halls and have kids I don't recognize stopping in their tracks to say hi to me or we road the bus together. haha. Incredible. Having lunch went well. I didn't actually get to eat but that's not the point. Some of the girls are girls I know and some are girls who know me and I have zero idea who they are because they don't look the same. It's easy to remember the asian and black girls...cause well, they are asian and black. Many girls haven't played basketball before but that's the nice thing about Algoma. You don't have to be an all-star to give it a shot. We will definitely be starting at the base. After work, I headed to dinner with the Cogswell family. I've had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Cogswell and grandparents before (without Lisa, Jason or Laura) so this wasn't out there without Lisa. It was definitely not the same without her though but it really makes me feel loved by them that they'd still want to see me even if Lisa isn't around. I think that says a lot about the Cogswell family and mine and Lisa's friendship. Quality folks right there and I sure miss the frequency in which I saw them when Lisa was around. Aunt Patti was having issues with her computer and asked for help during work, so I headed there after dinner. I'm beginning to think I should start charging...yeah, that won't happen because it's family but it's a good thought to entertain. Random other facts about Thursday. Beka is having boy number 4. 4 kids 4 and under. Also. Dad randomly came up to me and shared his opinion about my license plate. I was actually genuinely shocked as I was leaning towards keeping it and he's pretty set on getting a normal one. A part of me thinks he needed to have that talk with me because he's the one that got it for me, so I may have just kept it to not hurt his feelings. 6. Friday work. Good. Uncle Rob came into the cubicle area and announced we need to leave by 3 and enjoy the weather. Ha, you don't have to tell a bunch of people that twice especially on a Friday. I hit up the post office and went to help grandma with her printer again. Nothing was wrong, we just went over the same thing I usually do with her. I went home and mom was being a bit snappy, so I hit up Rockford, walked around and grabbed some dinner then headed to Anna's house to head out to hang out. Originally it was only going to be 4 of us but things got swapped around. To say the least it wasn't exactly fun nor was it our kind of people. I can't say we had the best attitudes going into it but honestly I don't care...even if we had good attitudes, it still wouldn't have been our kind of people. It will be a fun night to reminisce the awkwardness of it all. Despite it not being what we thought it was, I'm still thankful for the invite and how Anna is willing to share her BSF connections. She obviously doesn't have to but the beauty of it is she doesn't think twice about it. 7. I had a baby shower to go to, mid day...ugh...on one of the nicest days you'll ever see for a MI October. Oh well, it was good that I went. It was for a girl that was engaged to Mike many many moons ago. It was genuinely hard to look her in the face back in the day and tell her she didn't have to marry Mike, knowing that meant she wouldn't be my sister. It was definitely a bittersweet thing but she's much better off and I'm thankful that I'm able to be a part of her life in a small way. After that, I headed to Anna's house to plan some Sunday school and have dinner. SUCH a good story. Here is the email I received from Anna when I was in Iowa for Victoria's wedding...you'll quickly see how great the Strayhorn family is... "So tonight my parents and I were having dinner and they were talking about making plans for when this couple they know comes into town for Art Prize in October. They figured it would be a good idea to have dinner at our house and then the four of them would leave and hit up the town and see some art. And then my dad make this comment: "Yeah that would work out best, cause when we're finished with dinner, we could just leave and Anna and BB can clean up the kitchen and do the dishes." My first question: "Who the heck is BB?" "Uh, Brown Bethany." Ohh! Obviously. How did I not instantly figure that out? Mom rolled her eyes, shot him some weird look, and said "She's not brown, she's just Bethany to me." Haha...and that's when I said, "Well she is brown." And then she said, "No she's just really tan." Haha...moral of the story: You're now referred to as BB, you're really tan, and you'll be a slave laborer in our kitchen in October." Funny right? Soooo we've joked about this with her parents since it was "planned" ...totally thinking it was a joke. haha, nope. Yeah, I'll come to dinner. Here we are in the kitchen getting introduced to this couple...Mrs. Strayhorn intros me as their adopted daughter...soo funny because the couple was obviously unsure if it was true or not. The whole situation if you really think about it was kind of strange but made for an absolutely great night. They took off to ArtPrize as planned and Anna and I cleaned it up. I know it sounds stupid but I can't put words to how great that was...if nothing more than just comments that "you're part of the family"...love it and love them. Truly and absolutely wonderful people. | 
