Hyundai Happiness!

Saying goodbye to Betty.

Bought her on September 11, 2001.

She's been amazingly good to me.
(until her transmission died in late June)

Hyundai Santa Fe! Which one did I choose?

Red or Blue? Blue or Red? Well???

BOOYA BLUE!

Happy Brenda!

See the bright yellow X-tera?

See the car that allowed me keep my life going?

See the Chance-mobile, being returned home?

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Hastings!

Oh, yeah! Soooo excited!

Push here for CAT.

Um, how does this work?

My 'trunk' is bigger than Betty!

Okay, so I'm having some trouble parking the Santa Fe...

Whoa...the numbers can stop increasing anytime now!

I think the dashboard is smiling.

Welcome home!

Siyahamba

You KNOW I love anything and everything church, and today was AWESOME!

• Cantored at two services (love love love singing with the congregation)
• Lectored at two services (Scripture was Galatians 5, the Fruits of the Spirit! Love, Joy, Peace...)
• Communion at all three services (love love love serving Communion)
• Lead the sending song at all three services (Siyahamba - We are Marching w/ Kevin beating away on drums!)
• Two visiting choirs of children (you know singing children make me smile)
• We handed out our 127 canning jars (to collect cash) for Hunger Relief Day: 10.10.10 and received a few more pledges, too. AWESOME DAY!

Caitlin the Intern's last day at Bethany. She's off to seminary

in Fall. Here's Pastor Ruth Ann, CT, and Pastor Ron.

"We are Marching in the light of God..."

Singing children behind me! Oh, happy Brenda!

Dead Caterpillars and a Gnome Named George

We did it! The Faithful Soles have walked again! We completed the Slacker Half-Marathon! 13.1 miles, baby! In a row! In the elevation of Colorado! BOOYA! We were blessed with amazing weather, great company along the route, and the strength to complete the race! AMEN to that!

Haven't I said before that the day should never begin with the number 4!?!? Yeah, well THAT wasn't happening! I actually LEFT my home at 4:30 am, drove over to Lakewood (45 mins away) to pick up my pedometer (grrr for leaving it behind the night before) and met the team at o'dark thirty (5:30 am). At least the heavens were beautiful!

Happy crew on the bus ride to the start line!

Sue Ann, Ron, Mark, and the Palm Cross!

Booya, Faithful Soles! We need to figure out a way to

photoshop our teammate Traci into this pic...

Views like this make you forget the day began at 4:00 am.

Sort of.

Sue Ann and Sherrie, ready to go.

Such coordination of outfits.

Ready, set, GO!

Okay, quick review: this was called the SLACKER half-marathon, because it advertised it was downhill. Let us all take a moment to look at the teeeeeny tiny highway faaaaar below and the incline of the HILL we just climbed. SLACKER!?? I think not.

RTG and Mark, leading the pack! Note the funny little dead caterpillars along the side of the road. I'm sure they served a good purpose (something for run-off, rocks, etc.) but they still look like little caterpillars with their legs sticking up in the air. They do.

Have I mentioned how wonderful

it is to live in COLORADO!?

HA! I am actually OFF the ground in this picture! This was right around mile 6.6, when we realized we were halfway through the race! I was leaping and singing with JOY!

This may have been the most picturesque

13.1 miles I've ever walked in one day.

Do you see what I see? Love it.

Not exactly what you want to see at mile ELEVEN.

Yes, 11, not 1. Rather confusing. We trekked onward.

Do you see what I see? Love it.

Ah, the beautiful side of the road, with its cascading......HOLY COW! Check out the miniature human on the left side of this picture, and you'll see why Sarah reminded me that perhaps now was NOT the best time to skip along the trail! YIKES!

Not all that often you can see and hear a TRAIN below you!

BOOYA! Georgetown mile marker! Almost there! This was about the time we chatted with Ruth Ann who helped sing us through the last mile or so. "Just put one foot in front of the other..." We finished in 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 8 seconds! Glad I picked up that pedometer: over 33,000 steps!

Anyone surprised he's STILL texting when

he's 50 feet from the finish line? Nope.

Super cool end, right in the middle of town. Sweet.

The Glusenkamps, post-race.

We are one happy, relieved and sore bunch!

The Palm Cross has finished another race!

SLACKERS!

(Again, just picture Traci between Mark and Sherrie)

Smooth-talking Sue Ann traded her raffle prize (a magazine subscription) for this lovely garden gnome she named George. He uses solar energy to light up, and made the bus ride back to our car a hoot! Hys-ter-i-cal.

Quick stop in Idaho Springs to eat lunch and take a quick pic with the waterfall. Pretty sure I fell asleep at the table multiple times. Thankfully, I wasn't the one driving back to Denver!

The Faithful Soles! Walk on!

VBS: Joseph's Journey

Vacation Bible School 2010! "Joseph's Journey: From Prison to Palace" was our theme this year. The church was turned into EGPYT for the children by the amazing vision and dedication of our Faith Formation Minister of Children's Education, Rit Vogel. She is so awesome at bringing an idea to fruition and making it meaningful, purposeful, and Biblical!

Welcome to Egypt!

Shiny gold paint is awesome!

The custodians loved us...sand on the floor!

"Hip, Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus...

Hip, hip, hooray, God Loves VBS!"

Rit found the design, traced it onto a mural,

and a bunch of us painted it. See what I mean

about bringing an idea to life!? Too cool.

Yet another amazingly colorful mural!

DUCK! (where?) In the photo! Apparently, dead ducks were common in Egypt. Didn't know that. Do you like my grapes? Too bad you can't see the tri-color depth I added. Yum.

The kiddos got to walk under this upon entering the Great Hall!

Welcome to Egypt!

Two of the many Egyptian gods. We taught the kids lots about how Egyptians believed in many gods, yet Joseph believed in the ONE true God!

Cellophane + fan + light = FIRE!

Only because we all adore Rit is a photo

of a sn*** on this blog. She worked so hard to bring

this multi-layered, slithering beast to life!

Being the Celebration Leader certainly

had its perks: check out my bling!

...and my headpiece...

...and the eye make-up!

Ta-da! Brenda-patra in Egypt!

The Marketplace: PVC pipe holding up all these colorful pieces of fabric to create an open-marketplace feel. Different stations, including basket-weaving, jewelry, hieroglyphics, etc. VBS rocks.

All the adults and teen leaders were dressed up, too!

Check out the urns! A water bottle fits inside!

One of our blankets for the Operation Kid to Kid, where

blankets were tied and will be sent to children in Africa.

The Music Room was a vineyard this year.

Minus the wine, of course.

Hanging grapes and all!

"...there will never be another..."

"You are the One True God..."

"...You raise me high and lift me up..."

So sad this is blurry, but so happy

to be dancing with Brooke!

Each day, four characters explained what we were learning about for the day. Bible verses, lessons, and the main point. The 5 days included: hope, special abilities, wisdom, forgiveness, and family.

You can also see our pyramid of God Sightings, where the kids used bricks to list places where they had seen God throughout their day.

The kids were divided into Egyptian families this year, mixing up the age levels. It was great to see the leadership of the older kids - lots of little ones naturally paired with their older 'brothers and sisters' for the week. A God Sighting, for sure!

The picture is perfectly creepy.

Here's Joseph, still in the prison.

Yeah! Joseph made it to the Palace!

Huge celebration on Friday, with parents encircling the room, blankets being blessed, and 140+ children happily singing and dancing those wonderful VBS songs that stay in your head all year long! An energizing, exhausting and completely exhilarating Egyptian adventure! I can't wait for next year!