Busy Busy!

CHICAGO TRIP
Greg has been in Chicago the last couple days at a communication conference, and he gets back home late tonight. Woohoo! I have missed having my sweet husband by my side for a few days. I would have loved to have gone to Chicago again with him like we did 2 years ago. Thankfully this time the weather has cooperated. It is a high of 63 there today!

GIRL TIME
While he was gone, I decided it would be fun to invite some new friends over to our home to play games, share snacks, and have a chance to get to know each other more. Jess, Ashley, and Jolene all stopped by for a little bit. Ashley and Jolene play Settlers of Catan!! :-) Apparently that is a pretty popular game around here. We played a game of Settlers and then we played the game Imaginiff, which I had never played before. We decided that game is better when you have more people playing, but it was still fun to learn how to play. I was so blessed to have some girl time and to get to know these 3 ladies a little better. It is harder to develop relationships through this church because we only meet in our study groups every other week and we don't meet together on Sundays (just go to church and the sunday school classes are different people every few weeks). Slowly but surely I am finding my place here.

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP & ACTIVITIES
Our new "sunday school" class starts up tomorrow, and it is a marriage class! It will probably only be a few weeks long, because the topical classes seem to turn over every 4-6 weeks, but maybe we will meet some more couples there. We won't be able to make it to class tomorrow (or at least not the whole time) because we had already scheduled our interview with an elder for that time tomorrow! We are going through the membership process and should become "Associate Members" by the end of this month. At Newsong they divide membership into 2 levels. The first is Associate Membership. You can be an AM if you are a believer, have been baptized as a believer, you meet with an elder for an interview, and if you attend a Discover Newsong membership class. As an AM you can serve in certain ministry positions and you have the availability of the staff and church building resources. The second level is "Participating Membership". This happens after you attend 4 other discovery classes (Discover Evangelism, Ministry, W.i.s.d.o.m., and Community), you have faithfully been in a small group for at least 6 months, and you are in agreement with the entire doctrine of the church. As a PM you may serve in leadership positions and you may be a voting member of the congregation. We look forward to our interview with an elder tomorrow. Please be in prayer over this if you read this blog today (Saturday). We have just a couple doctrinal questions. We really desire to be participating members if possible, but we want to make sure we understand what the church teaches and believes about a couple things. Thanks!

WORK SUCCESS
Work was busy this week! Every six weeks I start new students in classes at CSB. They are then in class for either 9 months or 18 months depending on which program they select. Each six week "start date" has an enrollment goal. The goal for the November 11th start was 14 students. I enrolled 14 students, and they all showed up!! Woohoo! I also re-enrolled 6 students who had dropped out earlier in the year and now wanted to come back to complete their degrees. For my first enrollment I was pleased that I at least met the goal set before me. I am very excited that I appear to be way ahead of the goal for the January 4th start. The goal for that one is also 14. As of right now, I think I have 24 applications on file and 5 re-enrollments (which don't count toward my enrollment goal but are still good to have.) I still have 5 weeks to get more people!! So secretly my goal is to double it and have 28 start. Just because I have 24 apps, that by no means that all of those people will actually come. But it is a great list so far and that has excited the staff.

Other than that, I am enjoying my warm winter coat on these cold days and I am doing my best to keep my skin intact every day. I see the dermatologist in a week and a half. And then Greg's mom, Liz, is coming that week for Thanksgiving!! I can't wait to see her. :-) This will be her first visit up here. We've been so blessed to have family visiting us along the way this fall.