After we got married, we lived in a one bedroom apartment in Rohnert Park. We were both commuting: Heidi to Novato (25-45 minutes), David to Petaluma (20-35 minutes). Our pastor expressed desire for the youth groups (high school and junior high) to get back to their roots of meeting in homes since our church building is not really set up for a youth hangout; we expressed desire to move since we commute and our place wasn't exactly a home.
Then, this crazy mom of one of the former junior highers from our church told us she had this house she wanted to rent. We looked at it and two days later we were signing the contract. We moved in late in February and have been there two whole months now. Heidi has cutified (cutify- to make cute) it and we now have a home.
The house was built in 1908 and has a lot of original stuff: wood floors and wall paneling, light fixtures, parlor doors, and single-pane glass, plus some other random things. We have the junior highers over every friday night for about 3 hours and so far there has been no damage, although we do get mildly frightened (to replace one of the windows it would cost a few hundred dollars). The no shoes, no food rule seems to handle the majority of junior high issues. Although, we still have kids packed in here, and some just don't have control of their bodily functions. Take Jeff for example:
(Heidi edit: I am sorry to those of you with weak stomachs- just avert your eyes)
That is Hot Tamale oozing from his mouth. Classic junior high move- during a game of "chubby bunny" with Hot Tamales, Jeff decides he can fit more in his mouth by sticking his fingers in and pushing the Tamales to his cheeks, chipmunks style. This was the result. Nasty. This is a pic from last Friday night's study in the living room:
This Friday night we are hosting the "Cuatro de Mayo Fiesta," complete with Mexican accents and pinata bashing. If you want to see more pics from our events check out the "Our Church" link on the right and click "youth ministries" then "junior high group." Also, if you want to listen to my one attempt at preaching to the main congregation, click "recent teachings" and stream or download(it'll probably come down in a few days since it's not so recent anymore) or you can order it from the church on CD (just ask for the teaching by David Ower- there's only one). Enough plugs for our church... here's one more pic of the back of the house, with complementary row of junior highers:
