Enchiladas and Faux Leather

I had a lovely dinner tonight with Cathy (senior pastor) and Michael her husband. It was a little taste of home. We had enchiladas made by the neighbors and walked the two big black labs. When Michael found out how my brother is employed, he immediately asked me what his favorite TV show was. I laughed so hard and said "TWENTY FOUR" What with Kelsi, my dad, and recently finding out Nathan (the actor) loves it, it's hard not to think the whole world is obsessed with 24.

Michael and Cathy together are so funny. Michael made terrible puns the whole walk (I thought fondly of you, Brandon) and during dinner he had to ask me about guys. When Cathy (who was taking a call in a back room) overheard him say "Wait for a good one" she said, "Oh is he giving you the Christian guy talk? I'd better get back out there!" Michale looks in some small way like an older version of Michael from The Office. which is rather endearing. He runs marathons. Before he got on the guy track he said, "I see you have a good appetite (which is good) but you're also thin" I laughed over that one too... and we got to talk about running. He was also the first person to commend me straight up for not drinking which won me over entirely. His story is proof that my theory is not totally bunk.

I had a very productive and mostly happy day (aside from yelling at the dog this morning when she snuck through the baby gate for the THIRD time and woke me up even earlier then I had planned...and I planned early). Upon trying to make challah bread, I discovered we had no yeast. Now there are some things you can substitute for in cooking. Yeast in bread is not one of them. So I took an early morning run to Dillons (the local grocery store... it's like Meijers in MI). Then I made bread. I took another ATI test (my last before the final predictor!) and briefly talked to my friend in Germany.

Then we went to the new Three Trees building (the old one burned down last October) and helped with all sorts of crazy jobs. I got entrusted with a staple gun... and nearly strained my hand to death. I was creating faux leather benches. Here's a picture of the end results. Pretty nifty. I also sneezed my way through wiping down dusty walls. Unfortunately I'm the about the shortest candidate possible so I couldn't reach the ceiling even on a chair. But everyone else was avoiding the nasty, frustersome job, so I figure they're happy I tackled it at all. It's really hard to wipe down something when you can't tell where you've wiped before... I'll vouch for it!




Here are some other pictures from various rooms. It's going to be delightful when it's done!

The gorgeous mosaic which is remains of the old portrayal of the Three Trees.



This is the famous Three Trees story being put on panels. It's going to be so artistic and lovely



One of the children's rooms. Like the wallpaper? Yeah... that's wall paper. Amazing.



This one is more than wall paper... it's a painting! Notice the cute little chairs!