Friday

Well we have made it it through yet another week and this is a long weekend.  Clubhouse will be closed on Monday 5-27 in observance of memorial day.  So everyone enjoy some time with loved ones.  I don't know about the rest of you but BBQ is on the top of my list of Memorial Day weekend activities.  Get out and enjoy the weather, if it doesn't rain.  Friday at the clubhouse!!  Most of the usual crew came in today.  Most of us went shopping in the morning.  Gotta get the groceries for next week and everybody had time to get some stuff for themselves.  The rest of us stayed at the clubhouse and spent this time socializing and working in the work units.  Members and staff have been busying themselves cleaning today. We are getting the clubhouse clean and decorated for our special guest on Tuesday.  Dan, BJC group president, will be coming for a visit.  We have group this afternoon.  We're going to learn about how to deal with suicidal thoughts.  Members will spend the last hour or so at the clubhouse today getting things set up for Dan's visit or having some leisure time.  Then it will be time to load back up on the vans and head to the house.  Everyone be safe out there this weekend and have a good time.  I hope all is well and remember that you have a friend. 

Potosi Day

Good old Potosi clubhouse.  Today was our once monthly Thursday at the Potosi Clubhouse.  We had six members join us today. A new member, Arlena, came in today.  The sun was shining, everyone was in a good mood and glad to see one another.  The conversation this morning was all about the annual Procovery fish fry at Lester's house last week.  It was said that a good time was had by all.  They said that the fishing was good and Lester showed off his 47 Jeep Willies.  Taylor caught the biggest fish of the day.  I hear that the food was excellent.  Maybe more of us can attend next year.  This morning Jack came by for the mental health education group.  He taught us about bi polar disorder.  Everyone soaked up all of the good info that Jack had for us and then we had time to ask questions. Everyone thanked Jack for coming today. Jack said that he would be back next month to teach us about Summer Safety.  Wanda and Judy made us a delicious lunch of cheeseburgers and tater tots with fudgesicles for dessert.  After we all ate and the mess was cleaned up Harry called bingo for a while.  Arlena, Paul, Judy and Wanda all won at least one game apiece.  As for the rest of us, we had fun anyway.  This afternoon we enjoyed the Procovery Circle.  For those that may not be familiar with Procovery it is a support group for people who have mental illness.  Rather than focusing on the past they focus on moving forward.  Barb and Karen R. joined us to lead the Procovery Circle this afternoon.  Unfortunately Ms. Miller did not get to come and see us today, but she did send her regards.   Everyone enjoyed the group and of course the snacks and social time at the end.  We wrapped up the day at the Potosi clubhouse with some leisure and social time.   I wonder if they had a good time at the Park Hills clubhouse today.  We will have to see and I will let you know if anything exciting happened.  But I guess that is all for today.  Hope all is well and remember you have a friend. 

Were Back

We are back and hopefully going to be updating our blog regularly.  It has been a normal day at the clubhouse today.  Everybody has been staying busy with art and playing cards.  Dawn and some of the members went to the library while Donna decided to go for a walk.  Everyone was encouraged to participate in something.  We will be having lunch in a little while and everyone is looking forward to Shannon's french dip sandwhiches.  Group is this afternoon.  We will be learning about the importance of being able to agree to disagree with others.  Then it is leisure time before we go home.  There have been a lot of things going on at the Friends in Action lately.  We organized a mental health walk and rasied $2800 for NAMI of St Francois county.  When I say we in really mean Dawn, becuase she did most of the work.  The members have been busying themselves wiht art work for next years fundrasing calendar.  Speaking of art, the annual Art show was back in April and it went pretty well. There are many upcoming events this summer.  We will be going to camp Penuel oin June for a BBQ, swimming, fishing. games and of course for visit our old buddy Ron.  We are hoping gto go to the art musuem and the history museum this summer at spome point.  Members have been fundrasing for the annuall trip to the Real Voices Rreal Choices Conference at Tan Tar A in August.  Well thats about all for now, but we will be keeping you all updated on the goings on at the clubhouse.  Hope all is well and remember that you have a friend.


Mike

Oh what a fun day at FIA !!!!!

    Next to last Tuesday of the month in July. Its hot outside but the fun - o - meter inside is getting ready to raise. Its our annual Birthday party and awesome Auction Day. All month long we played games and participated in groups that assisted us in obtaining awesome bucks. This past month we also had a whole day dedicated to "bucks" where some members had the opportunity to walk  away with over three to four thousand bucks. No matter how many "bucks" you had this was the place to be.
  The Birthday Party was first. We honored all our members and one staff member (Donna ) who had birthdays in July with birthday treat bags and crowns. We also served root beer or strawberry floats w/vanilla ice cream,  YUM. Then came the cupcake wars!!!! Everyone was given a vanilla cupcake with white icing. A variety of decorating options were provided from gummy bears to sprinkles to icing tubes to licorice. The contest was to decorate the best cupcake using only what was provided (icing). To much surprise we have a many decorators in our midst that were hiding their talents. the overall ending result was so difficult.  I sure am glad I was not a judge, however this was a contest and as with any contest there must be a winner. Our winner in First place who's cupcake had the FIA emblem on it, was Lisa C. Tommy came in second with flowers made out of licorice and spice drops and Christine came in third with her traditional red, white, and blue cupcake.
Other Birthday games followed such as pin the cherry on the ice cream cone, and ice cream bingo all of course with nothing else but awesome bucks for prizes.
So now is the time to spend those bucks.  The table is full . Items range from toilet paper to perfume, soap to notebook paper the list goes on ad on....... Ron our trusted auctioneer and Chris our trusted banker is ready and the bidding begins. Five Hundred dollars for mountain Dew, no wait six hundred the bid goes higher, the final cost seven hundred fifty for a two liter of mountain dew now that really needing that caffeine. But the fun don't stop there items continue to go all afternoon higher and higher. One thousand for body spray, two thousand, two hundred for a notebook with ink pens.The main idea here is though we had fun together, we learned to work together as a team we learned we had to strive for something and not give up if we wanted it. So even what seems trivial is beneficial to us. Laughter is the best medicine and here at FIA we do lots of that.                                                                                                                                   cw

New groups planned

We want to get clubhouse moving and fun.  We have a lot of new ideas floating around and we hope some of them can be started so we can liven this place up a little bit.  Older groups we used to have fun doing have sorta been forgotten and we need to bring them back. Chris W. offered to do a safety first class.  Maggie P. want to do more crafts and baking for a craft and yard sale and maybe sell some of our pictures that didn't get sold at the art show.  Betty W. offered to do a meditation class so we can learn how to relax.  A group class for friends to take the time to discuss their problem like a group therapy class.  A class to help friends learn how to support friends when they are in crisis or having a real bad day will be offered.
We used to bake cupcakes on the birthday party day and we would decorate them and have a contest to sees whoes was the best, and you get awesome bucks for winning. July is also national ice cream month and they have days set aside for hot dog day, fried chicken day, ice cream social day.  It seemed like everyday in July is set aside even a day for the day the liberty bell cracked,, national joke day,cheesecake day, Princess Diana's birthday.  Just lots of stuff that we can encorporate into a group or class.
It's to hot to do to much outside so we want a lot of good stuff we can do inside and keep cool and have fun too.  If you have a idea for a group or class come to calander planning and help us plan stuff for August. Betty W.

Biggest Loser follow up

The first round of the competition is over. Some people shed pounds as others shed tears.Twenty five members, including staff, competed over the last eight weeks to see who could lose the most body fat percentage. The results are in : Our combined starting weight was 5,946.5 pds WOW!!! within the eight weeks we lost a combined total of 303pds leaving us with a weight of 5,643.5. All the participants were winners. Even if you only lost one pound your headed in the right direction, Our top four competitors were
 Valerie, Maggie, Kelly, And in second place Tommy. Our Top loser was Christine with a total of 37.5 pds lost calculating out to be 12 %  body fat total loss.Christine won a gift basket full of low calorie snacks and a exercise tape along with diet soda, flavored water, and a pedometer to measure her future losses. If Christine can keep the pounds off within a 2 pd radius for the next 2 month time period she will receive an aditional prize of a gift certificate for clothing of which she must model so stay tuned for future pictures and updates. August 2010 competition resumes......... Who will be the next Biggest loser ???????                         CW

Night on the Town

On June 6th Clubhouse members went with Donna (staff member) for an outing to Farmington.
We started off with lunch at McDonald's and then headed over to the Factory to walk it off. The Ministial Alliance Thrift Store was having a great sale. So we stopped in and did some shopping. Sue found treasure for her Grandchildren and I found some new necklaces. Several other people found like new clothes. From there we headed for the Movie Theatre to see Shriek, Forever After. For the kids in all of us we enjoyed the movie. Tired and happy we headed home for the day.
Coming Events:
    Country Days
    Elephant Rock
    Father's Day Dinner (women cook)
    4th of July picnic
Maggie