Mandi is in town!

i love it when my friend mandi is in town. she has lived in new york for the past 2 1/2 years...and it's so fun to have her in MN again. A bunch of us went out to celebrate her 30th bithday (it on the 11th) at the pizza factoy in friendly fridley last night. we had a great time catching up and laughing at each other. As you can tell our group is a bit crazy....Sunil is the dude in the back row not looking at the camera and of course being silly! Mary Jo is Mandi's mom who for sure was the life of the party and Jake added a whole new twist to the group... non of us had meet Jake before, except for Mary Jo! After we had pizza, with saurekraut on it (it is actually really good), we headed to a near by bar that had karaoke. nicki (she is in the black and white shirt) busted out a song for us. if you have never heard nicki sing before than by-golly you are missing out big time. she rocks my world! mandi got crazy and needed to sing 'islands in the streams' (with jake)...she is a dolly parton wanna be! it was a great time and i really miss seeing mandi on a regular basis. she is a good friend and i have come to love her very much! i just wish she could stay in MN longer than just a week. but i guess new york life is just to much fun for her.

on a complete different note, i finally got to go to church this morning. i have not been to MY church (Open Door in Maple Grove) since june 11th - too many vacations, to much running around like a crazy lady! i have missed church very much and realized it today as i worshiped with my community of believers and soaked in the message. I walked away feeling very happy and very energized! Today the message was about relationships and how we live life. The pastor used a line and a circle to illistrate how we live life! The line being a life in which we do a lot of comparing, competeing, judging others. the line has no center - no focus point. the circle being a life in which we can see others, relate to others, forgive others and are thankful for the place we are at in life; a place we can be real and be accepted. there is a center in a cirlce - a focal point; that center being Jesus. i was (am)challenged at how i live life...am i in a line or in a cicle? do i see other people or do i do a whole lot of judging? do i relate or compete? it was good. i missed church alot.