It's Our Blog-a-versary!

One year ago today the LPM Blog was born! On that first day I posted a welcome message and some pictures from our staff Christmas party. It was fascinating material. Were any of you reading during those early days? It has been a blast getting to fellowship with you in blogworld since then.

I mistakenly told my mom and sister that it is a tradition to post 100 things about yourself on your blog's birthday. I think it's actually something you do on your 100th post. Oops! I'm blaming it on my cold medicine. We had already made the list when I realized my mistake (and thank goodness we couldn't come up with more than 30 things), so here it is!

30 Things About LPM and the Moore Family

LPM

*It was founded in 1994 with a one thousand dollar donation that Beth didn’t know what to do with.

*One donation check several years ago was made out to “Living Fruits Ministry.” We never cashed it because we loved it so much.

*A core group of the staff has been together since the days of monthly prayer breakfasts at Beth’s house twenty years ago. They have been through untold hair seasons with one another and are likely still married today because of one another’s encouragement to press on.

*Beth had to give up teaching a Christian aerobics class in order to write Bible studies, a sacrifice she often recounts and sometimes while doing a grapevine left then right, step forward, leap back. She says she’s never kicked the habit of writing aerobic routines in her head when she hears a cool Christian contemporary song.

*Beth’s personal assistant and our senior statesman, Susan Kirby, used to be a caterer, a gift she now utilizes to pick up good to-go food. Sadly, we only have about five restaurants near the ministry but, thankfully, four of them are Mexican food.

*The entire staff also considers Susan Kirby to be our resident authority on everything from recipes to home repairs to Christmas decorations to marriage restorations. Hers is the most sought-after advice in the ministry.

*Everyone on the staff is kind and sweet to each other until we play Bunko (no, we don’t bet) then everyone’s sin nature surfaces alarmingly. We had to give up playing “Spoons” because a utensil shortage once caused us to have to also use knives, to which many nearly lost appendages.

*One of us who will remain unnamed has the strangest sneezes in the free world and they always come in rapid succession of a minimum of eight. Every staff member within ear-shot observes a moment of smiling silence until they pass.

*Diane, our resource department manager, cut off all her eye lashes with an eyelash curler several years ago. As she helplessly watched them fall in the sink, she reports to having said aloud only one word: “Y’all.” Diane says that she does not know whether she was talking to all her eyelashes or to all of her good friends at Living Proof that would care that she lost them.

*Kimberly Meyer, one of our most beloved staff members, did not fully grasp the concept of preferring others when she served at Beth’s product table for the first time at Women of Faith several years ago. The irony of her shameful bias toward Beth was that it was untested. She’d not yet heard a single other speaker on the program. The first woman who walked up to the product table got the full brunt of it. With the enthusiasm of an entire cheerleading squad, Kimberly pointed both fingers at her and blurted out, “Who’s your favorite?” The unsuspecting woman, wide-eyed with surprise, blurted out with equal exuberance, “Patsy Clairmont!” A fact we still celebrate to this day.

*Every single one of the staff members who has gotten pregnant after coming to work here has had a boy. We now have five of them. Not a pink ruffle in the mix. Something suspicious is lurking in the office drinking water.

*Beth and ministry director, Sabrina, ride to Bible study together every Tuesday and worship so loud to Kirk Franklin songs that the whole car shakes.

*The whole ministry staff loves nothing better than a big, corporate praise dance. Uh, come to think of it, we haven’t let loose like that since Melissa came on board. She needs time to grow into it. A lot of time.

The Moore Family

*Most nights that we are all together, we sit on the edge of the bath-tub, fully clothed, and soak our feet in hot bath water.

*On special occasions, we put bath confetti in the water. And afterwards if there was good conversation, we talk about what a great “soaking” it was.

*While we soak our feet in the hot bath water, we drink our “comforts,” which is short for “comfort drink,” which is short for homemade hot cocoa (with real whipped cream).

*Mom and Dad have authored about fifty “sweet-Beanie” songs and can manipulate any song ever written into a “sweet-Beanie” song.

*We eat Jimmy Dean sausage almost every morning for breakfast. It is a small, dainty meal.

*Jackson’s feet often smell just like the feet of a grown man, and he thinks it is downright hilarious for anyone to smell them and gag.

*Beanie (the dog) is fed her medication in a mound of Easy Cheese (which Mom and Dad inexplicably call “cheese-meats”).

*Beth has a phobia of non-fried foods. The revelation recently came to full disclosure last week when she was shocked and awed that the fish in her fish tacos was grilled rather than fried. She even eats fried pickles. Disgusting.

*We love petit fours more than almost any other dessert creation. Wedding cake is a very close second.

*Amanda was the resident evangelist to the pets in our family, leading them to the Lord by holding their paws together in prayer.

*Melissa has the uncanny ability to order the worst and most random thing on any menu. If there is one bad entrée on an otherwise wonderful menu, she will pick it out.

*When Mom goes to work out, she says that she is going to “pump some iron” in order to "meet her fitness goals."

*Keith has been known to entertain Beth, Amanda, and Melissa on a bad day by doing ballet across the hard-wood floor in his cowboy boots. His pirouette is fascinating.

*Melissa's first car was a much-desired 1969 Z28 Camaro in midnight blue with white racing stripes. She got it for her 16th birthday from her daddy. He took her out on the road to teach her how to drive it, gave her a little while to practice the four-speed, then said, "Now, try again and quit driving like a girl." They still share a great love for muscle cars.

*Melissa's proudest moment for Amanda was the day she got a report card with a "needs improvement" in conduct.

*All Moore's look to Melissa for fashion advice. There is still distant hope that her advice for Keith will one day be taken. She likes to remind her mother that if her father were indeed both handsome and cool, he'd be dangerous. Better for him to just be handsome.

*Dad brought a live armadillo to mom’s window the night before he proposed. We’re not sure why. Perhaps to test her commitment.

Happy blog-a-versary, Siestas!