Pastor Appreciation - Photos in the Park

I forgot to mention in an earlier post that we also held a Photos in the Park Fundraiser, where I held 20-minute photo sessions for $20.  I was hoping for more participation, but was happy with the turn out we did have.  Angie brought Allesha and Alexandra out for pictures, however it started raining right before their session.  I was able to get a few pictures of them as we were seeking shelter on the porch of the museum out at Audubon State Park in Henderson, but will have to finish up their session at another time.  Others that participated were Cheryl and Dewey, Mistie and her boys, and Jennifer and Chris.  I also set up my tripod before the sessions started and took a few pictures of Shawn and I.

12 Weeks of Pastor Appreciation - Weeks 3 and 4

Week 3 was their favorite snacks.  They got lots of potato chips, mixed nuts, cookies, etc.  They are leaving today for vacation to Florida, so they have LOTS of road trip snacks.  And since they will be gone next week, we presented them with the Week 4 gift as well.  In the blue bag was their Week 4 gift.  I had made these little coupons and passed them out to everyone in the church and asked them to fill them out and then include their name on the coupon so that Brother and Sister Heard could redeem the coupon with them.  They got coupons for meals out and home cooked meals in, gift cards, photography sessions, golfing, motorcycle detailing, car detailing, etc.

12 Weeks of Pastor Appreciation - Week 2

Week 2 was their favorite drinks.  Sister Heard didn't have anything down, but we knew she liked Diet Coke. Brother Heard listed 5 Hour Energy Drinks and Lemon Water, so he got lots of those!

12 Weeks of Pastor Appreciation - Week 1

Week 1 was their favorite candy bar.  They both got lots of yummy chocolates! 

Too bad they haven't shared them with us yet :( 

Pastor Appreciation Celebration

This year is our Pastor's 30th year at East Side Church of God.  Not many people can say they have had the same pastor for that long or the same pastor being at the same church for that long.  We love Bro. and Sis. Heard are trying to make this year extra special for them.  Sis. Heard gave us a goal of what she wanted to raise and get Bro. Heard for this year and divided us into three teams:  Team Smith, Team Jacobs, and Team Glenn.  Then we drew names for the members on each team.  We've really all worked together as one, so it's been great!  We've had sno cone fundraisers, puppy chow fundraisers, we are planning a food booth at the Fiddler Fest this weekend, we are having a fundraiser yard sale next weekend.  We also have a weenie roast/scavenger hunt planned and then a roast for Bro. Heard with special speakers.  And then on November 20, which is when our Pastor Appreciation Day is scheduled, we are presenting Bro. and Sis. Heard with gifts, a meal, and lots of fellowship!  We are also doing a 12 Weeks of Pastor Appreciation (kind of like the 12 days of Christmas).  I made up a Favorites questionnaire and asked Bro. and Sis. Heard to fill out their "faves".  Then this list was given to each church member to use to surprise them during the celebration.  Each week we are having a different them and people are bringing in goodies to go along with that week.  One week it was their fave candy bars, their fave drinks, their fave snacks, etc.  They have really enjoyed all their goodies so far and that makes me smile :)

Below are a few pictures from our sno cone and puppy chow fundraisers.  I've helped with both and LOVE making sno cones!

Crazy Bee Sting!!

On Monday when Shawn and I were at Spring Mill State Park, I got stung by a bee under my arm.  We had pulled over to read the map of the park and a bee got in the car.  We shewed it out and I went on about reading the map.  The next thing I knew I felt something sting me in my underarm and looked down and the bee was stuck in my sweater.  I finally got it out of the car and took my sweater off and saw where it had stung me.  I thought I would be ok, but went ahead and took a Benedryl anyways. 

This is my arm just shortly after I got stung (ignore the fatness of the arm!)...

And this is my arm Tuesday morning on my way to the allergist...

It was crazy!  It was red, swollen, itchy, had fever and ached!  The allergist gave me a steriod to take and it immediately started feeling better.  I so do not want to be stung by a bee ever again!!

Day trip to Spring Mill State Park

On Monday, Shawn and I took a little day trip to Mitchell, Indiana to Spring Mill State Park. I had heard it was a nice park to visit and they have an Inn there that has a yummy lunch buffet.  It was about two hours away to the north west.  We left the house at 10:00 a.m., which would of put us there right at noon, just in time for the lunch buffet.  We went the longer way and took the two lane roads through some little towns I had never been through before.  We stopped at the Gasthof Village in Montgomery along the way cause I had never been there, and I wanted to see some Amish people.  For some reason, I am intrigued by Amish people.  We weren't eating there, but stopped to go to the flea market and look through their bakery.  When we were in the bakery, I noticed the time on the clock and realized that they were an hour ahead of us, which, because of us looking through the flea market and the one hour time change, put us getting to the Spring Mill Inn after the lunch buffet.  We decided to eat lunch at the Gasthof Village then and it was yummy!  Of course I ate too much and was stuffed!  We left there and headed to the park.  We drove around the park a few times cause we seemed to be getting lost.  :(  We stopped at a few of the different stops inside the park and finally found our way to the Pioneer Village.  We parked the car and got out and walked around to look at all the old buildings and take pictures.  We got there late, so alot of the buildings were already closed and the mill wasn't running.  We did walk a little trail in the woods up to a cave, but it was closed.  After that we headed back to the car and I assumed we were going home.  However we ended up going to the Inn for the dinner buffet.  Neither one of us was really hungry, but we had driven all that way and eating their buffet was one of our main reasons for going.  The food was good, but I couldn't finish my meal because I was still miserable for lunch.  Plus I got stung by a bee earlier in the day and my arm was killing me.  (The bee sting incident will have it's own post!)  After supper, we drove home, both sleepy and miserably full!  We had a good time on our trip, despite the bee sting, and I can't wait for more little day trips again!  Below are quite a few pictures from our day's journey.

One of the main roads inside the park. 

 I know this would be a beautiful fall picture in about a month or so!.

Me before we started our trot through the park.



The old mill, however it wasn't running when we were there.



There was a couple trails in the park and this is one of the smaller ones that goes up to Donaldson Cave.  They said it was a small hike, so we decided to check it out...

...only to get to the top and see this sign...

...so back down the trail we go.  There was beautiful scenery though!

The Inn at Spring Mill

And me stuffed and wore out from the day!

Labor Day Cookout at the Robinson's

On Sunday after church we went to the Robinson's house in Richland for a Labor Day Cookout.  There were lots of friends there and some new friends.  We had lots of yummy food to eat and just had a good day of fun and fellowship!  These are just some random snapshots throughout the day.