I don't think I've mentioned the fact that our parish is in the midst of renovating our church. In the last five years, we've added a new building to our school complex, updated our rectory and this year it's time for the Church to get an "old" new look. This is all due to the generosity of our parish members who have donated both time, effort and money and to the wills and bequests of deceased members. God bless them all!
Since I began working in the parish office six years ago, I've had the pleasure of learning a lot about construction, change, moving furniture and taking pictures. The picture taking is the best part, I love seeing things in time lapse, what it looked like before and what it looks like now.
And that fascination has me browsing through our archives and finding old pictures taken inside the church. Wow, this is not the only renovation our 146 year old church has undergone. So rest assured, we are just keeping with our history of changing things. Kind of like I am at home. Dining room? Hmm...we don't have one of those, let's make the living room into a dining room now...
Anyway, the picture taking, furniture moving etc is not without it's pitfalls. Earlier this week Father and I were taking things down from the church attic, yes we have one of those, actually three of them if you count all the different spaces that exist in different parts of the church. He was standing up in the attic handing down some of our Christmas trees, I was standing on a cabinet taking things from him and dropping them to the floor,stood up and banged my head on the ceiling, not once but twice, then set down what I was carrying, stood up and did it again.
By this time our wonderful Pastor was in stitches laughing, although he did say God bless you afterwards, so I had that going for me. But it still hurt!
The next day we were moving cabinet drawers in the sacristy and I stepped back right onto a piece of molding with nails in it. Yep, you guessed it, I felt the slight pinch and my trusty tennis shoe was impaled with a nail. Luckily it didn't really pierce the skin on my foot, but I went directly to the Health Center for a tetanus shot!
It wouldn't be so funny, but this is like the third injury I've incurred while "helping" in Church since we've started renovating. It began when I tripped over the stairs in the choir loft when they were redoing the flooring there. It's never anything big, I just twisted my back and wore a heating pad for a week, but I'm beginning to get looks from the parish staff every time I go back and forth to Church. Lots of "be careful, Lisa!" follow me out the door.
While I am a self proclaimed klutz, after 30 years of teaching martial arts, I at least know how to fall correctly. But that training has yet help me avoid bumping my head, or watching what I step on.
My husband has threatened to send me to work in a hard hat, overalls and now heavy work boots to keep me safe.
I personally think my Guardian Angel is taking some much needed time off, but I do wish he'd get back from vacation, or quit taking a moment for himself! I mean I am working on God's work here, in His house. But I guess anytime you try to do something for the Lord, the devil is right there trying to trip you up, with me it's literal!
But I am getting some great pictures in the process! I have even received a nickname from the construction crew, and no it's not Klutz. I open the church door and walk and I hear, "Look out, it's the Picture Lady again!"
See, at least they haven't witnessed my embarrassing moments so far. I've luckily kept that only in front of Father and my family members. Which is why I tell my husband I cannot possibly wear the hard hat and overalls in front of guys working inside church. It will be a dead give away that I'm a klutz in need of watching out for and get banned from taking more pictures.
I mean, there is scaffolding to scale, ladders to climb to get some really awesome shots of church, and the sanctuary...I can't ruin that!
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