Double Date Delights

Last Friday night Andy and I were able to go on a 'double date' with his lifetime friend Adam Pedersen (aka Pedes) and his girlfriend Sarah. It was so much fun! The guys took us out to a Japanese restaurant where they cooked the food right in front of us and actually made quite an entertaining show of the whole thing. The food was delicious and we were in great company.

Sarah's roommate let us borrow her convertible for the night so we were cruising in style on the way to the restaurant. It was a beautiful early fall evening in the high 60's I'd guess. Convertibles make driving so much more fun, especially on country roads where you actually have scenery to look at and the big sky to look straight up at and see the stars everywhere.

After eating the guys took us to the one and only Rustic Gardens. This is the best mini golfing place I have ever been to in my life. It really is mini golfing and not just put-put golf. The majority of the holes are a par 4 or 5 and you actually tee off at every green. Unlike any other 'mini golfing' experience, you actually have to take a pretty full swing to get the ball anywhere near the hole. Sarah was by far the best golfer for the night and she was on a streak of getting 2 for about 5 holes in a row! You go girl! :) Somehow I managed to tie with Sarah with a 58, Andy and Pedes finished behind us wtih scores of 69 and 70 respectively. Sarah and I agreed the girls killed the guys but Andy said we were playing couple vs. couple and therefore we won by 1 stroke. Either way, it was a blast and this is now officially one of my favorite places in Indy to go for fun! Can't wait to take more people and go again!

The way home was quite a bit more cold as the temperatues dropped while we were having so much fun mini golfing. The guys were nice and rode together in the back so we girls could stay up front by the heaters (getting the top back up was a process none of us knew how to do). Overall it was a great night, thanks Adam and Sarah for a great double date! :)

Bible Study Fellowship

The women of Southside Indianapolis were blessed this morning as BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) met for the first time this year in our study of Romans. God really used BSF last year in the study of Genesis to teach me so much more than I have learned in any other Bible study to date. BSF incorporates personal study time, small group discussion, the leader's teaching time and BSF notes (like commentary notes) to thoroughly study the Bible. I am very excited to once again be able to take part in this group and have joyful anticipation of what truths will be revealed to me during the course of the year through the study of Romans. The outline for the year explained to us today will entail the following:

2 weeks studying the intro of Paul's letter

3 weeks studying our sin

5 weeks studying salvation

6 weeks studying santification

7 weeks studying the sovereignty of God

7 weeks studying application of serving and living as a Christian

2 weeks studying the closing of Paul's letter

BSF is an international organization and meets all over the world so wherever you are there might be one meeting very near to you. Please visit their website (www.bsfinternational.org) if you're interested in joining, they have both male and female groups and also provide an awesome ministry to the children with their own lessons to go along with what their parents are learning. Not sure how much more I can say without becoming an official BSF cheerleader so I'm done! Hopefully whether you're in BSF or not you're able to study the Bible and enjoy learning more about the God that created us, loves us and lavishes abundant grace upon us every day!

Children and Parents

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother' - which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Ephesians 6:1-3

Andy and Nancy Pitsch, Brad and Patti Starr, Jerry and Robin Nickel...with parents like this how can you NOT honor them. It is common knowledge no child obeys their parents all the time. Ethan, myself, Jennifer, Whitney, Daryl, Christi, Kyle and Darci have all found themselves in an act of disobedience while growing up but despite perhaps the junior high years I believe we all can confidently say we love and honor our parents. These three parental units pictured above are great and make it easy to honor them as their children. Our families became blessed the day our praents met and became friends and remain blessed the longer they keep their friendships intact. I honor my parents immensely not only because they are very respectable people but because they honor me so much it makes it easy to honor them. Working with youth sports for the past 3 years has really shown me that there are a lot of parents out there who in my mind don't deserve to be obeyed and/or honored but I can say I was blessed in a family where obeying and honoring my parents came easy because of the love and respect they gave me. Labor Day weekend, with my family visiting, reminded me once again how blessed I am to not only have an awesome brother and two loving sisters but also very honorable parents. Icing on the cake is that I've got parental units I honor less than an hour away that love me like their own daughter and I respect like my own parents and have extended an open invitation for future visits. Hope they were serious because I'm probably going to take them up on that offer!

Pitsch-Nuetzel-Lienau Group

Saturday night of Labor Day weekend brought this group downtown to watch the Indy SkyConcert and also a great night of fellowship. The guys invented the frisbee can't touch the football game and the girls enjoyed sitting and relaxing on a gorgeous Saturday night atop the Reiley Hospital Parking Garage. It was fun to be with family and also to be with friends that met us up there (Jamie, Ben, Kelli, JT, Anya). Alez Nuetzel donated 4 sweatshirts to the cause and Nancy brought Smarty's to keep everyone's sweet tooth happy. If you were there, thanks for being a part of a great memory and if not...you missed out!

Labor Day Weekend 2006

What a weekend! Friday night reminded me that real friends dress alike as Andy and Dan went to the Colts game together and wanted to dress alike so people would know they were true friends. They have been friends since elementary school and continue to aggravate each other to this day.

Friday night I spent the night getting the house cleaned up and ready for the big Pitsch family visit. Andy and his parents have been helping me for the past couple of weeks complete my home improvement projects such as painting the kitchen, living room and the guest bedroom. They have been a HUGE help, thank you so much! It was fun to show my family all the new touches to my home as they haven't seen it (besides Jen and Whit) since last Labor Day weekend.