Is anything perfect?

Hi! Hope you have made it through another week of time. I just thought I would say time since my last post I talked about time. It was another busy/crazy week, but we did what we could in the time that we had to get payroll prepped for payday today. As one of my Bible study group leaders told me on Tuesday night, she prays and asks God to multiply her time to get things done. I don't think I had ever thought of that, or at least it's been a while since I have done so. I'll have to keep that in mind for future. All four of us in payroll were given the order to have this weekend off (after having worked so many hours the last couple weeks), so I am up to my ears in free time. Okay, maybe not that much. I'll find things to do, I'm sure.
Oh, today was payday and this morning went by SO FAST! We were all busy getting phone calls and emails from people who were saying their checks were not right, missing hours, charged for something they don't have (blackberries...not the ones you eat), the location of their check, and so on and so forth. It is good to have an evening at home, and I am looking forward to having a good weekend.
I had mentioned in my last post, last Saturday I went to a good sister-in-Christ's house and had breakfast with her and about four other sisters-in-Christ from our Bible study group last year. It was nice to chat and catch up somewhat, and she had made a casserole that she was testing on us she'd never made before. Then after leaving there, I went to my niece's v-ball tourney closeby and got to see her team play two rounds worth. They had lost the first round in the morning but won the second round. In the afternoon, they won their first round, and played the second round right away (after some warm-up). They lost the second round but played well.
One last thing to share before I blog off. I was listening to KLOVE on my way home last night from work. They have been having their fall pledge drive. One caller called in with a matching gift of up to $10K and for everyone that called in, they would match it for the whole year. Usually on things like that, it's just for the first month. One song had played (I think it was MercyMe, God with us) and they said that they had reached that mark. In just ONE song, enough callers had called in with pledges to reach the $10K!! WOW! OH! They were going to end the drive at 6:00 but they had decided with the number of calls coming in, they would go into OT for 24 hours. God is amazing and to think that He called upon people to pledge to a good radio station that changes lives for Him. Just thought I would share that encouraging word.
Oh, about my title, I thought I would have that, as this was the first payroll and it was not perfect. Of course, many things on the first try are not perfect. There is one and only one thing that I can think of that IS perfect...
"Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." 1 Jn 4:17-18

Gone Military!

Hello ladies and gents. Boy it has been a long week! Being in this process of merging, one of the changes is keeping track of time. Goodbye civilian time...hello military time. Yes, you heard right...we now are going by military time on our hours. That makes us think even more, for those that may not know the transfer (for lack of brainpower of the 'right' word) of hours. For instance, right now I am blogging in civilian time at 10:40pm (at least that's what it says on the computer now). That would transfer to being 2240 in military time.
We have had a couple of temps in helping us get payroll gone through and validated and checked and verified and changed. I could go on and on...There is so MUCH information that has to be entered and downloaded and not everything is getting loaded as it should so we are having to go person by person. I guess that's what we get for merging three companies into one. We have to get done as much as we can by Tuesday as we transmit our first payroll on Tuesday.
Speaking of Tuesday (the one this week) it was nice to get off of work at 1830 and go to Bible study to finish up the first chapter of Romans and to see the ladies again in the group. Every week we are getting to know each other more and get more acquainted. It was good that we started off in prayer in mini small groups to pray for each other. I am looking forward to tomorrow...going to a friend's house to chat among sisters in Christ, next to my niece's v-ball tourney, and then later to church. It will be nice to have a break from work.

At ease...

(Insert here a verse from Scripture on time...I'm thinking of Ecclesiastes)

As the craziness continues...

Howdy! Thank goodness that I, along with my coworkers, have gotten through these last couple weeks. It will continue to be busy and crazy for a while yet, I'm sure. Lots went on last week with payroll, and in other parts of the company. It is so weird, thinking myself as a employee of this 'new' company. I think though that I will try to continue being a 'old' company employee. Although, that could be still true considering that we still have two branches up in WA that are 'old' company. If I am confusing any of you, I understand. Anyway, I decided not to work this weekend, albeit I'm sure my supervisor would have liked me to come in.
Yesterday, I went with my sister to the Christian bookstore to look around as they were having a sale. We each got a couple of things there, including birthday gifts for someone in the family. I went to service last night, which was a good message and met up with my friends of Mosaic for the first time this fall. We decided on where we want this group to go this year...okay, at least until Thanksgiving. I'm sure the Lord will direct our group in the right direction. Afterwards, we went out to Applebees (Sean and Amy..where were you? :) ) to eat some supper and some good fellowship. Today I spent at home watching the Bears/Falcons game (I so thought the Bears were going to win, but the Falcons got a field goal right at the very end to win), doing laundry, took the dog for a walk, and studied Romans chapter one.

Is this the 24-hour payroll dept?

Hello! My oh my what craziness at work!!! Thank you to those who have been praying for my work situation! Final checks went out later than expected on Friday because of errors found in the payroll, which had to be completely voided and re-ran. The second batch came mid-afternoon and found more errors (the one previous had been fixed). After some verification, only two employees were going to need corrections. It was a mighty fine crazy day on Friday...people had kept coming up to ask us about their checks. We wanted to put up the yellow caution tape by our desks and say, 'enter at your own risk'.
My mom's sister came up from the coast last Thursday and went back home yesterday. This was the first 'official' time spent here since we have moved here. I think she enjoyed her time, even though I was working a lot of the time but did some things with my mom. She and I did get to watch the last part of the Nebraska / Mizzou football game Sat. night and us girls played a game of Scrabble that night, too. She went to church with us Sunday morning, so she got a taste of this branch of His church. It was nice to have her here with us for a few days.
Hope you all have a good rest of the week. Tomorrow I get to go to the first pre-season game of the Blazers; it should be exciting to see what's become from training camp and summer league. Oh, I have also watched bits of the Red Sox/Angels series.
OH! I cannot forget to mention that Alyssa and her v-ball team participated in a v-ball tourney last Saturday and I got to see her play in a couple games. She was tired by the afternoon as she had played ALL three games in the morning. It was great to see them make it to the finals, though, and see other teams play. We also celebrated my dad's birthday last weekend and had my brother and sister-in-law over.

PS: After my last post, I was getting ready for bed and I heard, 'Mighty to Save' play on the radio. Go figure! It was really nice to hear again and I really focused on the words of the song.

Let the whole world see...

Greetings! On Sept. 20, I attended a conference called the Next Mile at my church. It was an all-day conference filled with worship, messages, Scripture, and seminars (oh, and lunch). It was for those people who have gone on STMs, team leaders, and for team organizers wanting to know what the 'next mile' is to be. After starting out with worship and a message, we went to our first seminar (choice of five, and yes, I did make a decision). The morning one I went to was called 'The Next Mile: STM for the Long Haul'. The main theme in that was about follow-through, not just after you've gone on a team but even before you go and while you are gone. It was very interesting and the guy that was speaking started it out with a couple funny video clips, and he seemed like he had a passion for people who go on STMs and seeing the Gospel spread throughout the world.
After the morning seminar, they served us lunch which was a choice of sandwiches plus other lunch fixins. Once the food was all digested, we went to the next seminar (again, I had to make a choice and after a couple minutes, decided). I went to the seminar called 'Gift-based ministry: serving in your SHAPE'. It was the only one of the four that I thought really applied to me. The guy that spoke in this one I think goes to GSCC and wanted us to know more about how to find our individual shape and how to go about doing so. He gave us handouts of certain tests that we can do ourselves to help us figure out who we are and what gifts we have. (Feel free to inquire me of them if you are interested). I myself am very much going to do at least one of those tests, if not more. That was also very interesting.
Then we had a focus group time and I went to one about 'post ministry-real life'. We talked about being home after gone on a STM and how we were going to keep the fire for Jesus alive. I even spoke up at least once and shared. We ended the day with more worship and message. During our last song, Here I am to Worship, we had a chance to go up and write down on pieces of fabric something we learned or that changed us during that day and sign it. Then a lady is going to make a quilt of all of them. It was very neat to do that. All in all, it was a very COOL day! I am glad that I went, and I also got to see two good brothers in Christ that I hadn't seen in a while and went out to dinner with them afterward at La Caretta.
I did go to church Sunday morning, and one of the songs we sang spoke to me and it was in my head ALL day long. I would like to share it with you now:

Mighty to Save

Everyone needs compassion
Love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The Hope of nations.

Savior, He can move the mountains.
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave.

So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender...

Savior, He can move the mountains,
My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see...
we're singing for the glory for the risen King...

I must mention this...on my way home from work on Monday, I was listening to the Fish and Dave said that he loves this one song that he was going to play and that he had sung it at his church yesterday. The song was...Mighty to save! I'm like...we sung it too and it was in my head all day long. I almost wanted to email him and let him know that! Oh, and if you want to know, it has been in my head off and on all this last week, and then I went to church this morning and guess what...we sang it again!!

I leave you this day with a verse from the second seminar that was said (and I knew it right away):
'But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.' 1 Cor 12:18

PS STM stands for Short Term Mission.

Time to catch up

Greetings! Sorry it's been two weeks since my last post. Things have been pretty busy around here. Let me start with the family. Dad started back into school the last week of August, teaching at WPC. He is also teaching at where Alyssa is going to school and just started a jazz band there this week on Monday mornings @7:30am. Alyssa is playing trumpet and I think that may be one of her favorite classes this year, considering she loves jazz. She likes to listen to 89.1 (the jazz station) in the car. Speaking of Alyssa, she has come down with a cold or something. Please pray that she will get over this soon. She is a good player on the volleyball team at school. They lost the first game (she played most of the time), lost the second game on Tuesday, but won their match today. She is getting a lot of playing time, which is good and helps her improve more in her skills.
Mom started teaching her piano students again after school started and my sister is doing pretty well.
Work has been busy...last week was month-end, then this week was payroll. I have done all the branches this week as my coworker has been busy getting final checks done for those that resign or leave early, incentives, etc. It seems like almost every time we turn around, someone else is leaving. Next week will only be busier as we start calculating those checks who are not continuing on to the new company. We will have a little bit of help, though from the HR recruiter which will come in very handy.
As far as my standings in the company, I was finally offered a position. I had been awaiting to hear something and on Friday the 12th, I heard. Temporary. Temporary?? Okay, at least it will be until the end of the year, helping out with the transition. See, there are only two spots for payroll employees under the p/r supervisor and I am not one of them. My supervisor did tell me that after it slows down (Nov/Dec) that she would try to convince them that she needs another person to help. I am going to keep my options open and look for any positions that I could apply for in the next few months. I did have an interview at the church for an open accounting position this week. The Lord didn't want me there, and I am okay with that. As long as He knows where I am to be, I will follow wherever He leads me.
Oh, and Women's Bible study started this week. I was a bit undecided as where to sit down, but then I started headed towards the front and noticed the numbers on the tables. (A light just came on) I was supposed to sit with the number of my small group's table. It's cool that it's starting up again and I am already looking forward to doing my beloved word studies again. Care and I got to see each other after three weeks and went to Fred's afterwards to catch up on life.
Have a great weekend!

Operatic Notes

Hi. Just thought I would do a quick post. Thursday night, I went with my family to go see Phantom of the Opera. My sister wanted Alyssa to see it and thought she would like it, and.....she did. She knew two songs of it and was singing one on the way home and one at school the next day. It was quite well done production...my second time seeing it and my sister's third time (she likes it a lot). I am glad that Alyssa did like it.
This weekend was low-key but somewhat nice as this week will be busy for me at work as it is month-end and there is a good chance I may get a job offer. I went to church with my sister and Alyssa last night and listened to an awesome message on worship and church. Afterwards, I signed up for Women's Bible Study then we went to and ordered pizza for dinner from Papa Murphy's and took it home to eat. Today was spent cleaning house for most of the day.
Alyssa made it through her first two and a half days of 7th grade. Pray that she gets through her first full week of it as I don't know if you can fathom this but she is now in a group of 7-12 graders instead of k-6 graders. That's a whole new group of students and school stuff.
I am trying not to anticipate this merger/job offer thing too much. I remember in our last dept meeting that we were told to just continue work as normal. That was about two months ago, but it is getting harder to do this as the date is getting closer and sooner or later you are going to have to start prepping for what's to come. In fact, in some cases, some of us have already started that preparation. Considering the size of the new company, there are plenty positions to be filled and I really shouldn't be that worried about it. I guess it's just a matter of knowing if He still wants me there or not. I know that God has things in control and under His control...it's a matter of trusting Him that He will have me where He wants me to be doing what He wants me to do. Please pray that things will go according to His will and that I will continue to trust in Him on this.
Hope you have a good week.
"Therefore, do now worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34