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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Friday, October 29, 2010

A few quick lines

I should be sleeping or trying to, but I am so wound up yet from the School of Worship Enrichment event I attended today and will attend tomorrow. So many good things, great subject matter, and a lovely closing service. One of the best parts of the day was seeing some former members of First German who are now living in New Port Ritchey, the Laurin's. They sang for Lisa's wedding 10 years ago, as did I, and today we sang together again, in the congregation. My friend, Jennifer, from Merritt Island was taking part in the SoWE event so I got to see her again, plus Bonnie formerly from Victory, and later her hubby, Tim. I already knew the pastor at the host church ("You know everybody!" Suzanne complained...) but the best of all was seeing and talking with Aunt Mary, part of the team presenting the program. She is the auntie of 'our' friend, Pete Prange, and is leading the choir and offering her expertise regarding music and orchestration, etc. We had a great visit---Carol, Suzanne, Judy C., and me, plus Bonnie---during our supper.
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It was a bit awkward when we arrived this morning, as it seemed no one from the SoWE knew we were coming. Now how did THAT happen? When it was break-out session time, the leaders moved folks around and found a group for us to meld with, but this was after we had to complete congregational surveys and then quickly tabulate the data. My job was to record the comments and sort them, which took longer so I was the last to the group. But, at least we got them done! Since Brian came a bit later, we ended up having six people from our congregation, a decent representation, in my opinion. It really would have been nice to have fully participated in the program, but that's the way it goes....
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During breaks in the presentation, I had a chance to catch up the Laurin's on Lisa's news with the baby (they didn't know about Angelo yet) and showed them pictures. Mike went outside and called his son about this, and Brandon knew all about the baby and such, but just had not told his dad and mom. Funny! That's what happens when you do not have Facebook access....Jody used to be in the choir with Lynn and Linda before moving to Florida and Mike's parents and siblings remain at FG, so they keep up with things back home. Except about Lisa and the baby!
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Inside the church and narthex area it was so terribly cold that many of us (not only me) were shivering. Now I know for tomorrow to dress more warmly and have a heavier wrap along. One of the presenters is from a church in OH and had a mop towel with him to wipe his face and neck. Right off the bat he explained that it is about 30 degrees warmer here than where he came from so we must overlook his sweating. Even as we sat and enjoyed our supper, we were shaking from the cold, but that did not prevent Mary from having a couple 'cold ones' with her pizza. None of us enjoyed a brewsky but if there had been some rum or something, I might have indulged. Carol was the driver so she could not have had anything.
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Now I will make an attempt at going to sleep so I can wake up early enough for our departure time of 7:00 a.m. The Morning Praise service begins at 8:30 so we want to make sure we are on time and not lost, like we were this a.m. My mapquest directions took us to the pastor's house instead of church....guess that is not up to date. Now that we know where we are going, it should be a breeze!