Adjustments, Changes, Stuff

I just had to ask Bill if today is Wednesday!  It's been that kind of a day today.  All day long!

 

I do miss Otter and seeing her on a daily basis, so does Bill.  But it's actually easier than I expected it to be.  I was really dreading her moving out, but it was time and she was ready.  Mom wasn't ready, but then are Moms ever ready?  Otter went in to work at 5:30 this morning, which is her usual time on Wednesday mornings.  She texted me about 5 minutes before her shift started, to remind me about the lunar eclipse.  We went out on the back deck and looked but the moon was hidden behind various trees so we went to the front yard and could see it very well.

 

Anyway, back to Otter!  I told her I'd bring her a frozen lasagna and garlic toast, I decided to do that today.  She worked a few hours longer than she was scheduled for, I told her I could bring the lasagna tomorrow but it's one of her favorite foods so she said today was fine.  She was tired when I got there after work, but she was happy to see me and to see the food!  She also asked me to stop and get her some Gatorade so I did that on the way to her apartment.  She and Roomie were attempting to hang some stuff on the walls.  Otter's been using adhesive hooks, I can't remember the name but they are supposed to not leave any marks or adhesive on the wall.  Roomie was trying to keep a couple of framed posters on the wall with stickytac, but it didn't hold.  She said she would get more hooks tomorrow.  They have gotten a lot more stuff unpacked.  They might have the lasagna for dinner Friday.  I couldn't get the smallest size in the variety I wanted, so I had to get them a larger one than I wanted.  They'll have a few meals off of it.

 

We've been discussing switching churches.  For many years, we belonged to the United Methodist church and were very happy with it.  Then the minister was reassigned, he is the type of pastor that everyone needs and he was sent to a church that was having problems because he could probably solve them.  After that happened, we tried a couple of other UM churches in the Tulsa area and then went back to the original UM church in Tulsa.  After we moved to our small town, we found a UM church and attended there but we were never as happy with it.  The minister just wasn't that good, although he did try.  Otter was pretty active with the youth group.  But then we discovered that the youth leader was literally telling them that the Bible was not true in many areas and that's when we decided it was time to leave.  We didn't find another UM church we liked and it also really looked like the UM church organization was going to become "politically correct" and we were very uncomfortable with what we thought was about to happen.  At this point, Otter had a lot of friends at school that were going to a specific Southern Baptist church so we started attending there.  We joined that church, although we never really felt like it was the right one for us.  Otter wasn't enjoying the youth activities, even though she had a lot of friends there.  We stayed there for quite a while, Otter went to summer camp with that church one year.  We decided to look around and see what we could find.  We looked at a couple of SB churches in the area and found the one we ultimately joined by accident - we were heading to another one but I was confused about what street it was on and we wound up at a different SB church entirely.  We liked it, the people were nice and the minister was very literal as far as interpretation of the Bible.  Otter was baptized as a baby in the UM church and then again (by choice, the one that counts) in the UM church at Conformation when she was 12.   The SB church only recognized baptism by immersion, so Otter decided to be baptized at the first SB church we were attending.  Bill hadn't been baptized by immersion so when we joined the 2nd SB church, he was baptized there.  The church was fine, we enjoyed it, it was active and did a lot of outreach.  But over the last few years, something changed.  Pretty much ALL outreach and activities has simply stopped, with no explanation - and it's not because of lack of funds or people who are willing.  Sunday School still happens, but I haven't attended it a long while.  Otter didn't really enjoy the youth programs, she might have if they'd continued but they seemed to stop along with everything else.  I think we've had communion/Lord's supper a grand total of THREE times in 7 or 8 years (I'm not sure exactly how long we've attended there).  The pastor, who seemed to be so good and his job and so correct, obviously does not want to be there and I don't think he cares who knows it.  He did have a major health issue, he had cancer shortly after we started attending there but he's fine now and we don't think that it is a problem for him.  We think he's either having marriage issues or there is a problem with his (grown) son - or possibly both, one may well be caused by the other.  The music minister was one of those people who thinks that everyone is there just to see him and that he could do no wrong, and the pastor was letting him act that way.  The music minister moved out of state a few months back and things improved almost immediately.  The music leader's daughter is Otter's age and Otter knew her from high school - and she's exactly like her father in attitude and actions, everyone is supposed to worship her (Otter didn't, by the way).  But although it was better, it didn't last, and now the early service has been cancelled due to lack of attendance.  He's had a substitute a few times, pastors are allowed vacation time so that's not a problem - but the sub that he seems to always use is awful.  As in profanity from the pulpit and he's insulting as well as rude.  Also, we seem to be getting the same few sermons over and over and over and over ...  Major holidays, such as Christmas and Easter - the big ones - the sermons don't even sound like they are about the day.  I make notes in my Bible including the date and sermon title and it seems like the same sermon the last three Christmas services.  Easter?  Well, the last couple of years you wouldn't have even known that it was anything other than a "regular" Sunday and not a good one at that.  We're thinking that it's time to change.  And we are seriously considering returning to the UM church.  I've been doing some research, our fears about the UM church becoming politically correct (I'm being polite here) did not come true by the way.  Because Otter has moved out, and she's an adult now anyway, the need for a good youth group is no longer a consideration for us.  So, we are going to visit a local UM church this Sunday or possibly next Sunday.  Then we'll see what happens.  We have been discussing this for a while, but we wanted to wait until Otter moved and all that was done.  Froggy, I told you a little about this when I visited you last June but it's been a problem for a very long time.

 

IF it doesn't rain too much, or if there are enough breaks in the rain, Bill's going to work on his/Otter's impala Sunday afternoon.  The part he has to replace is near the engine, so it needs to be cold for him to work on it.  Otter has the car today and will have it until Saturday.  She's going to bring it back when she gets off work, then she and I are going to see about going through some of her craft stuff.  We'll probably repack most of it, but it will be a little more organized.  She might have a lot to donate and there is probably stuff that will be thrown out.  The closet will be the next thing we attempt, she's not looking forward to it and neither an I, but it has to be done and it needs to be done fairly soon.  I have painting to do in there!