Mondaymail Start of School! August 25, 2008

Good morning everybody!

Life has been good the past few weeks—I got the chance to go visit the folks and see two of my childhood friends get married, and it was very refreshing! Now I’m back and ready for action, and I hear rumors that Betsy is in Dallas and gearing up as well! Her technical first day is on Wednesday, at which point all the fun will begin!

On the list of upcoming wonderfulness is first and foremost RALLY DAY!!!! It will be a two-pronged adventure, starting in the morning with traditional Rally Day fair, a little jazzed up to welcome in our new rector, and following up with our own fabulous youth rally event. The youth event has been organized by our very own wonderful Claire Upham, Melinda Draper and Ellen Welch, and they have all manner of goodies and activities lined up for youth and parents alike. We will even have a dunking booth and awesome inflatable games, not to mention the Hamburger Man and Harry’s yogurt. Really guys, you have to come!

Betsy’s first day is WEDNESDAY!!! I’m sure she can’t wait to meet and visit with all of you, and I intend to claim a little Betsy time myselfJ.

The new rector has also arrived, and I have been quite delighted by our short interactions. His wife and children are also very endearing, and Caroline will be joining in the fun of Chi Rho this year!

I’ll be keeping all the youth in my prayers today as they suck it up and brave the hallways for another great year at school!

In His Grip,

Bev

August 4, 2008

I sit here on the other side of the summer because I can hardly stand! What a good one too! We had a number of good chi rho and EYC meetings with new and old faces, two great mission trips and a Summer Splash that left parents calling to thank me (and all of your youth) for running a great camp for their kids! So I sit happily:-). A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who made those things possible. If it weren’t for you, I’d not be sitting, I’d be catatonic and there would have been no summer.

The weekend included a variety of entertaining moments, not the least of which was my discovery that the “summer at a glance” sheet had included the wrong date for our end of summer party! Many, many apologies to Susan and Ernest Beecherl for this mix up as well as much, much gratitude for your flexibility. As it is, we had a good turnout at both the Saturday function as well as a dinner we held on Sunday for those expecting that day to be our evening of insanity. Thank you to Scottie Clarke and Kristen Arnold for the at-table entertainment on Sunday. We made the other tables laugh too.

This does mean, however, that our summer events are keying down as we approach the new year. We have plans afoot for a GREAT kick-off, showcasing the upcoming events like favorites the Great Pumpkin Chase at the SKI TRIP! We will be flying to Colorado this year, for your information. No more 23-hour bus rides for us! Plus there will be food from the Hamburger Man, a dunking booth (might we persuade Fr. Matthew to hop in???), and a plethora of information! It’ll be a great time to meet Betsy as well as Bishop Tony and his family, including Caroline and Peter, who hopefully will be joining the ranks of the youth group. The event of fabulousness will take place Sunday, September 7, 5-7:30 pm. You snooze, you lose BIG TIME on this one!

As I said last week, Peter Overland will be championing the sprucing of our youth room on the upcoming church-wide workday. This is something I highly encourage you guys to get involved in. It’s a great way to spend time working with your youth on something that’s important to them, to meet and mingle with other church members, and to put ourselves physically into this space that we have dedicated to our youth. We want to come away with it looking like a place we’d want to hang out in, and we want it to more clearly say “hey! We love you, youth!” Come and join us. It’ll be a great time. And, of course, I’ll sign all the school service forms. The work days are August 22 and 23, 9am-4 pm.

I am also still keen on getting a few more Sunday school teachers into the mix!!! We’re a fun group!! And we want to make this year’s Sunday school engaging and interesting for our youth.

I do believe that concludes this edition of the Mondaymail. Let me know if there are any other issues you’d like me to talk about or ponder on!

In His Grip,

Bev

CHANGE OF PLANS August 3, 2008

Dear All,

Due to a calendar mistake, there was some confusion over the date of the end of summer party.  My sincere apologies especially to Susan and Ernest Beecherl, the hosts of the party, as well as to any and all of you who were inconvenienced or confused.  Due to the mix-up, we are having an end-of-the-summer dinner tomorrow night at On the Border Mexican Grill, located at 3130 Knox, at 5:30 pm.  Please let me know if you and/or your youth will be attending so I can be sure we have an appropriate number of tables.  The cost of the dinner will be $10 per person.

Thank you all and I hope you have a lovely evening!