It's Finally Friday

It is Friday once again.  We had a catering event yesterday for 30 people.  It was for the St. Francois County Mental Health Board.  They had a meeting to talk about the crisis intervention program with local law enforcement.  I may be a little partial, but it looked great.  The people that attended the meeting said that the food was pretty good too.  We have 26 people signed up for today.  That is a pretty big day at the clubhouse for Friday.  Hopefully we can continue that trend and people will start attending more on Fridays.   Today is everyone's favorite event at the clubhouse......Yard Sales!!!!!!!  I think that we are going to the big yard sale at the fair grounds this morning and then maybe hit a thrift store or two.  That is the plan anyway, but as we all know plans tend to change here at the ole clubhouse.  We have coping skills this afternoon with Andrea.  She is going to teach us about how to "not sweat the small stuff".  Shannon and the kitchen crew are making us soft tacos for lunch.  She said that they are going to be good and I am sure that they will be.  Shannon's lunches are always delicious.  We will have our leisure time at the end of the day.  Then it is time for the weekend.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us for some outdoor activities.  But until next week, I hope all is well and remember that you have a friend. 

Tuesday 6-4

Another week is upon us.  Please forgive me, as I did not have a chance to update you all on the happenings at the clubhouse for the last few days of last week.  It went pretty well though.  We had the mothers and fathers day celebration on Thursday. We had quite a few mothers and fathers join us for the party.  We played some games and had a lunch that everyone seemed to enjoy. On Friday some of us went personal shopping in the morning and arrived back at the clubhouse just in time for a giant chef salad.  I was not at the clubhouse yesterday, but as far as I know everything went well.  Donna said that they had the IL class and a coping skills class in the afternoon about coping with boredom.  I joined the members at the Potosi clubhouse today.  Dawn and Donna are holding down the fort back at Park Hills.  This morning at Potosi we played would you rather and tossed the question ball.  Everyone shared something.  We had some breakfast casserole, yogurt with strawberries and bagels for lunch.  Yum Yum.  This afternoon we had a coping skills group.  We learned about letting go of things that have happened in the past.  There was leisure time after the group.  Members talked and listened to music.  After clubhouse Tina and I went shopping for a big catering event that is happening on Thursday.  We will prep tomorrow and finish up on Thursday morning.  I will keep you updated later this week, but for now I hope all is well and remember that you have a friend. 

Mike

Tuesday May 28

I hope that everyone had a safe and fun holiday weekend.  The weather was perfect for spending time outside with friends and family.  We had a short day yesterday so that the staff could go to a meeting in the afternoon.  Mr. Rothery and Ms. Gladstone came for a visit to the clubhouse yesterday.  The members had brunch and attended a focus group and shared their stories about how the clubhouse has helped them. Tina and Carol attended the staff meeting in the afternoon and delivered the RESPECT speeches.  They did a great job.    This morning all of the members arrived and dove right into the morning meeting and the member meeting.  Most everyone volunteered for a job duty today.  The member meeting went smoothly as well.  We shared our condolences for two of our members that recently lost a family member.  We reviewed the calendar for upcoming events and discussed the work units.  Members had some suggestions for things that they would like to see sold in the snack shack.  After the meeting some of the members went shopping for personal items and for the gifts for tomorrow's mothers and fathers day celebration.  Several members volunteered to assist Miss Shannon in the kitchen today.  They made chicken alfredo that everyone seemed to enjoy.  We had a visitor from the independence center today.  He helped make lunch this morning and then talked with Donna and Anna about the clubhouse training that they are going to be attending later this summer.  He spent time talking with the members as well.  Coping skills group this afternoon was about communication skills.  Everyone enjoyed some leisure time at the end of the day.  Most members talked with one another, a few chose to play pool or scrabble.  We should have a big crowd tomorrow for the mothers and fathers day party.  I will let you all know how it goes.  I hope all is well and remember that you have a friend. 

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