BUSY, BUSY BUSY!

It seems that I always busy doing one thing or the other but this is the time of the year that things are usually cranked up another notch or two - and this year is no exception! With school well underway, things hopping at church and the ever ongoing renovation at the house - I have a full plate.

FAITH UMC - With Fall in full swing, we're going great guns, it seems. Our church is currently in our "pumpkin patch season" which means that the exterior of the place has been transformed into a sea of pumpkins. This is a really neat thing where we, of course, sell the pumpkins for a fundraiser, but also have a venue for elementary schools and preschools to come in and participate in Fall activities during the week through October. It really gets you into the spirit of Fall! We had a "Re-Focus Retreat" this past weekend on Friday and Saturday. Re-Focus is an initiative by the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church that is geared toward revitalizing and re-energizing churches as we move into the 21st century. It was a great retreat even though I had to leave a little early. This will actually be a process that we'll be working through with other retreats to come. Next weekend, I will be attending a UM Men's retreat in another part of the state. In addition to all that, we are diligently working on our Christmas musical - "One Small Child" and the praise team and children's ensemble are singing in different venues over the next couple of months too!

THE HOUSE - Things are still going pretty slowly here although we're still aiming at goal of having things done by Thanksgiving. Since the past post, the air conditioning is now running which has made a world of positive difference! We emptied the big Pod that had been sitting in our front yard for the past several months - so now all of that is in the house. There's still the drywall that has to be completed in a couple areas of the place - then another inspection - then the texturing and paint - with the installation of the kitchen cabinets and appliances to follow. So we're still quite a ways away.

BUCS - Well, my last report was not too rosy, but since then, they have won most of their games, which has been awesome! They just need to keep it up despite having lost several key players due to injuries. They beat the Tennessee Titans today albeit by a slim margin.

BULLS - The University of South Florida Bulls - my school - have experienced a very fast rise to number 2 in the country as of today. These standings are always changing - I just hope they can get past all of the current hype that's going on and stay focused for the rest of the season - but what a year it's been so far!