I know what you're thinking...wow, 2 posts in 2 days!  It's true!  Not a whole lot goin on today.  Last night we ended up going to Tomato Head.  Halfway through the meal I looked out the window after I saw a huge flash, followed by several more.  We tried looking out the front window from where we were sitting and it just looked like someone was taking lots of pictures.  About 2 minutes later the rain started coming down in sheets, just in time for us to leave!  We headed out and one of the servers offered us a free umbrella, which was awesome, and we huddled close and walked as fast as we could through Market Square.  We turned the corner to the parking garage and the wind and rain multiplied by about a thousand.  We got to the garage and were absolutely soaked from the waste down and 4 other couples were there and we all just laughed at how wet we all were and headed home for the night.  So it was a short night out after all, but it was fun and the food was great.

You should all check out the new "green" shows on TLC.  One is "Wasted" and the hosts go to different homes each week and help the people learn how to live more earth friendly lives and reduce their ecological footprint.  It's amazing how much money they save...it's quite a lie that being green costs you more in the long run.  They've been doing a lot more earth friendly advertising and doing specials on building green homes.  They're interesting to watch!  They'll be starting a completely green network very soon!

This Friday, May 16th, New Kids on the Block make their first live performance on the Today Show.  Don't miss it!

I know you're all dying to hear how the Mary Kay party went!  I think it was a fun and unique party.  Anyssa brought Adie and Molly and between Adie and Harley things were a little crazy.  Adie found a way to remove everything from the table and I think Harley tried to eat everything on the table.  Even so, I'm pretty positive that I wouldn't want it any other way.  It was good to see an old volleyball friend and good to be able to do something to help her.  Thanks to Dani for coming too! 

After the party, I got to share Lars and the Real Girl with Heather.  It was my second time to watch it last week, and I still love it.  It's just a sweet movie!

I had big plans on Saturday to get some things done in town with my sister and then spend the evening figuring out my sewing machine.  Bill was supposed to fly in Saturday night and drive home from Atlanta, but you can read about how all of that went down here.  So, I didn't get to see Bill Saturday night and I ended up doing the Easy Worship presentation for Sunday morning and getting all of the typical things we haul with us together.  I was too bummed to do much of anything else so Harley and I hit the sack early.  I think we took turns waking each other up all night between my tossing and turning and her moving from one side of the bed to the other.

Sunday I was just not in high spirits (have I mentioned that I hate it when Bill goes out of town) but I am thankful for a community of friends at Crossings that just keeps going and working together.  I know I don't have to be "on" all the time and it's ok and everything will get done.  It seemed like we were under attack, with Bill being gone and Mark having only a few hours to come up with a message (it was great though), and then the computer deleted the easy worship presentation when we were doing a reboot because for some reason the powerpoint wasn't importing.  It was a five minute fix in the end and a minor glitch with the powerpoint, but it all got fixed in time for the service to start.  The hospitality leaders were certainly my best friends because they hooked me up with a sweet decaf iced mocha that did the trick to calm the nerves.  All went well, we had 15 people at the Skinny after church (the Skinny is a little lunch at the Nelson's that we invite new people to so they can learn about the beliefs, values and dreams of Crossings) and I finally got to see Bill.

Sunday nap time was goooood yesterday.

Hey!

It's been another long while.  I can't seem to get my blogging momentum back.  That very statement is cringe-worthy, as so many abandoned blogs start their final post with those words.  I don't plan on this being the case for me, nonetheless, it's becoming harder to stay consistent.

Last week was good.  Bill and I went to an exit about 50 miles outside of Knoxville to pick up 2 of our friends, Joe and Melissa.  They are hiking the Appalachian Trail and we hosted them for a "zero day", or a day of resting, laundry, and normal food.  We picked them up underneath an I-40 overpass and drove them back to K-town.  We ate at the Downtown Grill and Brewery before stopping to refill their food supply and they crashed in our guest bedroom on the cloud bed (our air mattress is referred to this way).  They said they slept better then they had since they started their journey, which always makes a hostess feel good.  I think they enjoyed Harley too, since every time I walked into the room she was asleep on one of their laps.  We had some great BBQ pork chops and fruit salad (thanks to Sue Wolf and her awesome family recipe scrapbook) and chowed down on some no-bake cookies and strawberry milkshake Oreos (YES they are being sold right now!).  We dropped them back off underneath the interstate on Wednesday and they are off again.  They should be finished with their hike in September.  It was very cool hearing their stories and learning about "roughing it". 

Tomorrow my small group is teaching it's final green class.  My other small group made up of college girls is actually going to be teaching this one.  The research has been really interesting and we are making small changes in our house, with the plan of gradually working these "green" steps into our daily lives.  We started a long time ago with changing our light bulbs to CFLs, which made an immediate positive impact on our electric bill.  Our next electric step will be plugging our appliances that aren't in use except for certain parts of the day to power strips with on and off switches.  Another step was switching all of our soap (after we'd already run out of what we were using) to bar soap.  The advantage here is less packaging and more earth friendly ingredients (less chemicals washed into fresh water).  These are small steps, but each one is moving in the right direction.  I've also been taking note as I do my grocery shopping.  Everything with packaging beyond a number 2 is pretty much out of the question.  It can be hard and a little more time consuming, but you only have to take that time once before you know which products to look for.  It's a good time. 

My girl's small group had a fun outing to Nama to celebrate Rachel Yager's birthday.  I would like to share a funny story but I have to call and get Heather's permission first....calling....ok, it's approved.

Ok, so Heather did some really good sushi research before our outing at Nama.  She chose a roll and thought she'd have a complete meal by ordering the calamari.  The calamari arrived at our table in the typical likeness of onion rings.  To decorate the dish they placed squid legs that had not been fried and breaded on top, spread out and cascading down the pile of calamari rings.  I quickly saw this going bad so I snatched the unbreaded tentacles from the pile and slid them under the plate where she wouldn't have to look at them.  I love calamari, but I can barely stand looking a the suckers on the legs of those things myself.  Anyway, Heather looked puzzled, but she took the first bite.  Conversation continued around the table, everybody tried the calamari and oohd and aahhd over each other's beautifully presented sushi.  Out of nowhere, I hear Heather say to herself, "Wait a minute.  I think squid are the scariest animal in the ocean."  Then she looked around, perplexed as the realization hit her.  "What is calamari?  Isn't it clams?  Wait.  Is this squid?  Oh no."  This was the day that Heather discovered that she didn't like calamari. 
 
We started the weekend with some Balderdash and Shout Out Loud Music trivia dvds.  I inevitably laugh till I cry playing Balderdash, and this was no exception.  You are probably familiar with the game, and several of you readers were there, but in Balderdash you are given a term, a name, an acronym or a movie title.  Everyone has to write down what they thing the terms mean, or what an acronym stands for, or a description of what they think the movie title is about.  The final round was the movie "Sally of the Sawdust".  Bill's answer was "Sally lost three limbs in the saw mill that day.  Luckily she only needed the one to get home.  Sometimes home is closer than you think."  Maybe we were just giddy, but I laughed at that one for a long time.  That Bill. 

That's about all for this game of catch up.  In the words of Tony Cornheiser, "I'll do better next time".  Have a great week!