The weekend and back

Well, I guess the weekend is over now. At least that one. It was a nice one, but for some reason I am kinda beat this morning.

Jane's brother was here from Friday evening until yesterday afternoon. We always have nice visits with him. It seems our discussions usually center on matters of faith and church, and even though we maybe don't agree on all those matters, I still enjoy talking with him and he's an easy guest to entertain.

He arrived Friday with a truckload of stuff we'd had stored back home. When he got here we unloaded it in our garage, and then headed into town for some supper. We took him to Henry's, because we like it there, and we thought it was a unique place that he isn't going to find where he lives. We had to wait almost an hour for a table - seems like we hardly ever have to wait on a table anymore - but we didn't mind. We stood and talked. When we finally got one I had the burger and fries, and it was gooooood. Afterward we came home and chatted some more and I think we may have watched some Pierce Brosnan 'James Bond' on the tv.

Saturday I worked a bit in the early morning, then we loaded brother Mark's truck back up with the stuff that went to Drew Carrie's house and we delivered it there. We took them the dining room table that my great grandfather built, as well as the baby crib that we bought when Carrie was born, another desk and chair, a garbage can, some shovels, a fan, and it seems like some other random stuff (btw, I forgot to tell them I put the shovels and garbage can out back). We also played with Lady for a bit while Jane cleaned the table off. Then we headed back home for lunch.

After lunch we looked at a couple more houses with Ryan (and Mark went along). They were both on Indiana. We wanted to go look at the one we like a second time, but weren't able to. We will look at it again this Saturday. Anyway, the two we looked at were interesting. The first one was kind of a dump. And the people hadn't cleaned it up AT ALL. I don't understand why you would not at least clean your house up if you knew a potential buyer was coming to look at it. The second one was nicer, but it was like walking through an antique store. Man, these people had some nice, nice antiques. They also had stuff occupying every single square inch of the walls and floor space. It was weird. And the people were home when we got there! That was weird. We were about 10 minutes early, but still.... I thought they'd have been gone already. Anyway, I don't think we're interested in either one of those houses. Well, in fact, I know we're not.

Later on we went to the mall and Mark did some Christmas shopping. I ran into the hair person that Jane, Carrie and Isaac go to. She's always a trip to talk to. She is super nice, but she always sounds like she's stoned. I like her, and was impressed that she actually recognized me - and I had a hat on and everything.

In the evening Carrie came over for supper. Her and Drew had had baby class all day. She left after we ate and the three of us watched the movie 'UP.' Geez, it's like sad right from the beginning. But it was a really good movie. And I don't even like animated movies. I liked this one though. When the movie was over we switched back and forth between the Illini basketball game and whatever other show we were watching. I knew I was the only one that wanted to watch basketball, so we just watched it during the commercials of the other show. I was glad to see the new Illini do well.

Sunday was an odd sort of day in a good way. I knew there were some guests coming to our worship gathering, and there were even more guests besides the ones I knew about. And it's good when we have visitors but, to be honest, I sometimes have to make myself try to not be overly aware of it - which usually just makes me even more aware. So I was trying not to freak out, and after an extended prayer time early on I think it went ok. The singing seemed to go well - and that always seems to make a difference in the morning. The sermon was so-so. That's where I often struggle, because when I know we're going to have visitors I try not to put too much effort into the sermon because I don't want it to look like I'm trying to impress anyone, even though I really do want to impress them, and when you try too hard not too, but you really want to... well... you know.... Man, why do I have to have a mind that thinks this way? Anyway, it went alright, and there was a fairly good sized crowd, and then we went out for lunch with Mark, Drew Carrie, and a girl Jane works with and her guy (who were 2 of the visitors). It went well.

Mark left after lunch, and forgot to take the Christmas presents he bought, so we met him down the road. I took a brief nap, then headed over and tried to get to work on this weeks stuff. Then at 6 we had our Foundations meeting and watched the next to last video from Reggie McNeal's Present Future dvd series. I thought we had some really good discussion last night. I think some things are starting to come together. It's still difficult for people to see that church isn't solely about Sunday morning, but we're getting there. I think after 1 or 2 more sessions - and after the first of the year - we will move from "Foundations" to more of a "Core Group" thing. It's interesting how this fits right into what I've been doing with the Missional Leadership Initiative. So I think I will be moving the group into what I've been doing with that. Hmm... it's almost like this whole thing was orchestrated by some higher power or something. Or maybe it was just dumb luck.

Anyway, that was the weekend. Now it's into another week. This week I have an MLI cohort meeting (at least I think we still do. I know of 2 who can't be there - and it always seems to be the same one's; which is a real drag that people just can't take it seriously, and actually irritates me quite a bit, but... whatever); we are going to see John Mellencamp in a quaint little venue; and we have the community Thanksgiving worship service at our church Sunday night. So it should be an interesting week.

Well, time to push off. Peace out, my friends; and in.