Went to a new church today. Hadn’t heard too much about it, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Joshua’s family has been going there for the past couple of weeks, so Stephanie (his mom) had given me the bulletin from last week and told me a little bit about it. They seemed to like it a lot, so I figured it’d be good to try out.
It’s a pretty new church, just started in 2001. They are now meeting in their new church building – it’s huge! Not ginormous like a huge mega-church but pretty big and they are still in the process of building some more. The sanctuary is filled with rows of chairs – not pews – and 3 big screens. They have free coffee that you’re allowed to drink during church. It’s very contemporary. The pastor seemed nice, although I didn’t talk to him, and the sermon was interesting and funny.
After the sermon we looked for Michael and Stephanie and talked to them for a minute. They advised us to go upstairs and look at the childrens’ Sunday School rooms because they were cool and each had a different theme. So we went exploring, and sure enough, they weren’t kidding! Every single childrens room is themed, but not just themed…it’s like crazy insanely awesome! One of the rooms has a BOAT inside it, one room which is themed like a space ship has really neat little spaceship-like chairs with neon lights that go around them…I don’t even know how to explain it, it’s more than rooms with murals painted on the walls, it has an actual themed atmosphere…it’s crazy! And they had the rooms labeled and they had different rooms for the different services. Like “3 year olds first service” and “3 year olds second service”…I wasn’t sure why they couldn’t use the same room, but whatever. Anyway, it was just crazy to me because I had never seen sunday school rooms like that before! But I guess they are targeting young couples with young kids (which there were a ton of!), so they have to make sure the parents feel comfortable with where their kids stay during church.
After seeing the awesome kids rooms we wondered what the adult study rooms were like, but we couldn’t find them. I know that the youth and college groups meet in “the barn,” which we saw driving in, on Wednesdays, but we didn’t go in there.
But anyway, it was different…it was good…and I was amazed at how big and nice everything was for such a new church. I took that as a good sign. I think I’d like to visit it again, anyway. However, next weekend I’ll probably be home and the next weekend I’ll be out of town…but we’ll see…
Last night Beth and I went downtown for “Fabulous Friday” – I think thats what it was called. Anyway, apparently on the last Friday of every month the art galleries downtown stay open late, have live music, and offer free coffee and desserts. So we decided to check it out. I’m all about some free coffee and dessert although I wasn’t much for it right then because we had just eaten at Red Robin.
First we went to an Episcopalian church that was hosting some of the free coffee and desserts. They were supposed to have live music too, but they didn’t. It was mostly just a bunch of old people. In other words, kind of awkward. So we decided to leave and come back later for some cake after our food had settled a bit.
We went to a few of the art galleries. It’s ridiculous how much they sell some of that stuff for though. Some of it was like $18,000 and it wasn’t that cool. One of the galleries was awesome though. Not so much the art in it but the building itself. I loved it! It was like something you’d see in New York City or something. Some of the inside walls were made of brick, one of the doorways was kind of slanted (in a cool artsy way), and you could see the outline of the stairs going up in the ceiling. Probably doesn’t sound all that cool from my descriptions, but it was. It was just one of those really neat old buildings. It would make for a great apartment! In one of the other galleries, the floor was splattered with paint which was pretty cool too. I love art! It makes me happy.
So after we checked out some of the art galleries we went back to the church to get some cake and see if the live music had shown up yet. It was still mostly old people but we got some cake and listened to the live music – a college aged guy with a guitar. He didn’t have a mic so it was hard to even hear what he was singing. But the church was old too, so we went exploring. A random, kind of weird church member with purple glasses asked us if we wanted to see the chapel, which we actually did we just didn’t know where it was, so he showed it to us and it was pretty neat.
Didn’t buy anything, but it was good cheap free entertainment. Kept us occupied for 2 hours and it was something different.
I uploaded the pictures of the turtles!!! I only added 36, I thought 60 might be a bit obsessive..
Click here for more!
Well, apparently I was wrong…. they are MUCH easier to photograph in their new aquarium!!! I just took about 60 pictures of them (!!! lol) and most of them are really good! I will upload them and post them tomorrow for everyone who’s been wanting to see them! 
well…my website is officially on the internt now! lol
www.lynnie-d.com
The tables were lined up perfectly, but it seems they have gotten a little misaligned again…maybe it is just the computer or something. So, disregard that…I’ll try to fix it eventually. I know it’s not the best but hey, at least it is up lol
Basically it is just a creative outlet I guess… kind of like this journal, only not. I dunno. We’ll see how long I keep up with it. Continue reading here for actual updates on my oh-so-exciting life though.
And if you don’t care about the website, you can always skip straight to the pictures! However, I realized that there are pictures of lots of people on there, so I made it to where you have to register in order to view the pictures in full size to protect peoples’ privacy. but don’t worry it is completely free and takes like 2 seconds so it shouldn’t be a big deal. I just figured that might be a good idea.
Anyway… I think that’s it.. enjoy or something! 
I really love my baby turtles!! It’s fun to just watch them… they have such different personalities, and it’s so funny to think that little bitty baby turtles actually have a personality, but they do. They are so cute! And they better be glad they are so cute, because they are slightly expensive! They upgraded to a bigger house the other day…they are now living in a 10gal aquarium instead of their 5gal one. They seem to like it I think. I also went out and got them a heater so their water can stay around 78 degrees. I need to get them a basking light, a new log, another filter and maybe some more decorations, but I’m not going to go out and get it all at once. The heater was $25, but I knew it would be good for them, so I went ahead and bought it. I guess pet stores charge so much for pet stuff because they know people love their pets and will pay it.
I also got a bedside table for myself yesterday. It’s the matching one to my dresser. It was originally $60.00, but it had gone on sale for $35. I’ve been trying to get it for the past few weeks, but every time I went in there and asked about it, they never had any in boxes, they just had the display one. One guy told me they were supposed to be getting some in so I came back the day he told me to and they still didn’t have any. I came back a week later, same guy, same story. I finally went in yesterday and talked to a different lady. She was much more helpful. The display one WAS the last one they had, and it just so happened to be marked down to $25. So, I got my $60 table for $25! and I didnt even have to put it together!
I’m still having fun watching Joshua. he’s my buddy. In a month or so, I’m going to be watching a couple other babies. I don’t know if I wrote about them or not… but I’m going to be watching a 1 year old and her newborn baby sister (who isn’t actually born yet) 3 days a week in the mornings, along with watching Joshua every afternoon. I also randomly watch some other kids. Saturday my whole day consisted of babysitting…I watched 2 kids from 8:00-2:00, then two other kids from 6:00-10:30. But it was fun! I always knew I loved kids, but I really do love watching them! I almost dont feel like I’m not passionate about anything else…I just want to have a lot of kids! I’m either going to need a job that is all about kids, or just be a stay at home mom and have a bunch of my own – which would be great! Not that thats what I want to do right now in life… but someday.
Anywho…that’s two long updates in two days…don’t get too used to it 
So… life is going pretty good!! For the first time in awhile, I can actually say I am pretty happy with life minus a couple situations, but nothing too major.
I had a pretty good weekend last weekend. Actually, it was 4 days of a good weekend. It started on Thursday when Beth and I went to Memphis for the American Idol concert! We spent the day shopping and I discovered my new favorite store, Gordman’s. It’s pretty much awesome. I got a ring that I’d been wanting for awhile, and some sunglasses, and some home decor. The store has everything, but most importantly, it has a ton of way discounted home decor. I found a really cute french memo board that’s a magnet for the fridge. It matches my kitchen theme perfectly! I also got a penguin shower curtain for my bathroom!!! I can’t use it until we move into our new apartment though 
We also went to the Bibles for China Thrift Store where I found an iced tea maker for $4.00! The exact same one I was going to end up getting from Target for $25.00 when we move. It works too! Then we were going to eat Japanese but it was closed, so we ate at Olive Garden instead. For some reason we had two waitors who kept hitting on us. Shane and Justin. It was funny. They were just joking around with eachother, but it was funny. Finally, it was time for the concert! It was really good! They were all really good, but of course they’ve had a lot of practice doing the same show over and over. Sanjaya is actually a pretty good dancer. Melinda is still my favorite but Jordin is good. Blake and Chris are funny, it would be fun to hang out with them. I still don’t really like LaKisha though. And Haley wears really revealing clothes. But the concert was super fun and we had really good seats! We thought about sneaking into the meet and greet but we didn’t.
Friday morning we got up and drove back home to Indiana. Little did we know that after driving for 5 hours, we would have to spend another 5 hours moving. But we did. Me, Beth, Spencer, Moses and Dan helped my mom move her entire house. (well, not the house, but all the stuff in it). Then on Saturday we met Moses and Shelly (and Emma!) for lunch at a new bakery downtown. It was pretty good. Then we spent the entire afternoon with Moses for our “photo shoot” for our new picture frame for the new apartment. It’s a big collage frame and we wanted some cool pictures to put in it. It was fun! Plus Moses is an amazing photographer, so the pictures should turn out well.
And finally on Sunday, before hitting the road, we stopped by Emma’s 1st birthday party! They had to have her party a couple weeks early because Shelly should be having the second baby on around Emma’s birthday. I can’t believe Emma is already a year old and Shelly is going to have another baby! I may be coming home again the weekend of October 6th to go to my aunt’s surprise birthday party and see Shelly’s new baby, Abigail (who should be born by then). Then…going to SAN FRANCISCO on the 10th!
So Thursday is MEMPHIS DAY!!!!!!! Beth and I are going to spend the day shopping around Memphis, then going to the American Idol concert that night!!! Should be fun I think. Then Friday we’re going home (to my house) to help my mom move and possibly celebrate her birthday. We might also take a trip to the Newport Aquarium to play with the penguins, although we may save that for another excursion. AND….today we booked tickets to San Francisco!!!! We leave in a month!
I’m trying to finish my website/blog thing but I can’t get the tables to line up correctly. It’s kind of frustrating me.. but it’s kind of fun to have a website again. I havent really had one in like probably 6 or 7 years….it’s fun… it’s my way of being creative I think. Especially since I don’t scrapbook anymore. I’ll post a link to it once it’s done.
Anyway…I’m going to sleep now.
my mom got that house
but she says its really nice so i guess i have to trust her… i just wanted something different than we’ve had the past 15 years… ya know?
on a brighter note, it finally rained!!!
i only have a few minutes because i’m going to pick joshua up in a little bit. life is actually going pretty good right now - i can actually say i am pretty happy with the current state of things. sometimes it feels weird not being in school… i never wanted to take a semester/year off, and i probably wouldn’t have had to if i had come to union when i originally wanted to, but oh well… as it is i can’t change that and the break is nice. i’ve been babysitting a lot – so much in fact that i am thinking of starting up a business. not really, but it’s fun. i watch joshua every day for a few hours, and yesterday i watched him and his little sister alisha (she’s 2 months old) for a little bit. then i took some other kids to soccer practice…that was fun. my whole day consisted of kids and babies, laundry, bills, and housekeeping. i felt like a mom. today i’m meeting with another lady about possibly watching her two kids 3 days a week starting in october. i think she said she has a one year old girl and is about to have another baby. so that could be fun. we’ll see how that goes.
i can’t wait for next week! beth and i are going to memphis on thursday for the american idol concert!!! haha i’ve never watched the show the whole season before this year, and it was strangely addicting. i think the concert will be fun… i’ll get to see melinda (my favorite!) and sanjaya will be there. haha plus we are spending the whole day in memphis before the concert. we’re going to go shopping for things for our new apartment! should be fun!
my mom ended up not buying the house in golfview estates. after the inspection she found out it needed a lot more work done than she originally thought. it was also completely aluminum-wired which means it was a huge fire hazard. obviously a huge negative. they were going to give her a big check to fix it all up herself, but she doesnt have time for all that nor did she want to mess with it, so she is back on the hunt for a new house. she’s found one she likes but i don’t like it so i hope she doesn’t get it!!! we seem to have somewhat different tastes in houses, and i know its obviously more her’s than mine but i will be moving back next year, so it’d be nice to have one i like too.
hmm…i think that’s about it. i need to go grab a bite to eat and then go pick up joshua, so i will talk to you kids later!
