Busy Busy Week

We are completely wrapping up everything we have to get done for foster this week. Here's a picture of what this week looks like for us....

Monday: Breakfast on the Go Event (for Apt. Life)
Fire Inspection (Foster process)
Work a full day
CR

Tuesday: Fingerprints appt. for background check (Foster process)
Work a full day
Session 3 Class (Foster process)
Put up flyer's (Apt. Life)

Wednesday: Health Inspection (Foster process)
Work a full day
Welcome visits (Apt. Life)

Thursday: Fire Inspection part 2 (Foster process)
Work a full day
Take pictures of our apt (Foster process)
Relax???

Friday: Work a full day
Clean like crazy for Home Study! (Foster process)
Flyer (Apt. Life)

Saturday: Home Study (THE LAST THING FOR FOSTER! YAY)
Help a co-worker move
Prep for event (Apt. Life)
Sunday: Church
Sammie Event (Apt. Life)

After all of this, next week will be a breeze! It's all the stuff we have to do really early in the morning before work that's going to get to me. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now so we are motivated to finish strong.

We did some garage saling on Saturday. It was really cold but well worth it. We now have a car seat, a crib, and bottles! I LOVE garage sales! I think if we had a baby tomorrow we'd at least be able to make it a few days before needing to buy things.

Thanks for all your comments you left on the previous post. They all mean a lot to us!

Thanksgiving for 60

Yep, 60 adults. We had a Thanksgiving feast at our apartment complex this weekend and planned on feeding 60. We had about 50 residents come so we have a little bit left over, but not much. I went to 3 different grocery stores on Saturday morning in order to keep the cost as low as possible. We get a monthly budget for apartment life so it didn't come out of our pocket but we still had to keep cost low.

We got the cost down to $2.50 per person which is pretty incredible for all the food we had. Below is the menu and then the shopping list...just in case you ever have to do Thanksgiving for 60.

Menu:
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Rolls (mom brought them so they are not on the shopping list)
Pumpkin Pie
Devil Food Cheese Cake
Lemonade
Coffee

Shopping List:
2, 18lb Turkeys (...I got a few funny looks at Sprouts when I was purchasing 2 huge turkeys)
12 sticks of butter
6 boxes of Stove Top Stuffing
15 lbs of potatoes
6 large bags of frozen green beans
6 cans of cream of mushroom soup
5 onions
1 large tub of mushrooms
12 garlic cloves
2 large tubs of fried onions
8 cups of grated cheese
12 lbs of sweet potatoes
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
3 cups of chopped pecans
Marshmallows
5 cans of cranberry sauce
2 cans of pumpkin puree
2 cans evaporated milk
Ground ginger
2 pie crusts
1 Devil Food Cake box
3 packages of cream cheese
Dutch cocoa
Bittersweet chocolate
Melting Chocolate

Event #3: Lumber Jack Breakfast

We had a GREAT breakfast event this past weekend! We were a little worried about it since hurricane Ike was scheduled to hit Dallas that afternoon, but it turned out we had nothing to worry about. We served pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit, bagels, juice, milk, and coffee. Chase and I were able to talk to many of the residents since we had such an awesome team help us. A big thanks to Chrys and Mike for taking some great pictures!

What do you do when...

...you have a TON of banana's left over from one of your events??? Make banana bread of course!!!

I learned a new trick while making the bread. If you have bananas that aren't ridiculously ripe, place them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven (about 350 degrees) for 10 minutes. The outside will turn completely black but don't worry. This process ripens the banana by bringing out all the natural sugars. Let the bananas cool for a couple minutes and then mash them before incorporating them into the mixture. You will have the best banana bread ever!

Event #2: Breakfast-On-The-Go

This morning we had our second event as a Cares team. This one required a lot of prep work but very little work during the event. We stood at the gate and handed out bags with breakfast and later-in-the-day snacks. We also served freshly brewed Starbucks coffee in to-go cups. We prepared 50 bags but only had about 25 cars come through. It was an early morning but was well worth it. With an event like this there is very little relationship building but it gives us a chance to serve our residents in a way that makes them say 'wow, thanks.' I took some pic's for future reference purposes but thought I'd post them here.

Apartment Pic's

We have taken a grand total of 3 pictures of our apartment. We are still far from settled and buried in boxes. Chase managed to get one picture of me while I was walking into our apartment for the first time. The other two are the pool and hot tub. I'm posting these pics to entice everyone to come visit us! The pool and hot tub are amazing!

Apartment Life Interview

Chase and I officially have an interview set up with a property called 15777 Quorum...yes, its the address AND the name! Check out their website, its pretty nice. Our interview is Tuesday at noon. We would LOVE to get this property because of it's location (Addison circle) and it's so new they haven't finished construction yet. I think they have started moving residents in but not very many. It would be amazing to be at a property from the beginning. We would be able to meet everyone as they arrive and introduce them to our events. Please pray that the Lord will direct our steps during this time.

If you're clueless about what I just wrote, check out www.caresteam.org. It's an amazing ministry that places teams in apartment complexes to ultimately build relationships and bring people to Christ. We go in as event coordinators to build community within the apt. complex. The property takes care of our rent and we in turn put in 70 hours per team per month and create community. The property gains an average of $139,000 PROFIT each year from this service due to resident and employee retention.

We started the interview process in March and that took about 8 weeks to get the 'approval'. Since then, we have been in the 'placement process' (about 10 weeks). We have been waiting for something to open up within a reasonable distance from our work. I didn't think it would take this much time to find something but the Lord had us exactly where He wanted us. I'll update you after Tuesday's interview.