lots of friends

The last couple of weeks have been busy, but good busy. Lots of time spent with friends and doing fun things. Wow, that was such a well constructed sentence, wasn't it?

On Sunday I helped Ashley (on the right) host a baby shower for our friend Mandy. Both Ashley and Mandy are pregnant with boys. Mandy is due in February and Ashley in March, but since Ashley is having twins, she will probably deliver in February too.

It was a fun afternoon spent with friends and cute little blue baby clothes. I was in charge of the centerpieces and I filled baby bottles with Sweetarts and tied balloons to them. Except I didn't want all the colors of the Sweetarts, so I separated out all the pink and orange ones. Now, I have a pink and orange bag full of tarty goodness.

Below is my friend Alison in the best pic we got using the automatic timer. Of course, my head is cut off, but seriously people, this was the best one of about eight that we took. Alison will verify this, I'm sure. We met up on Black Friday and it was so good to see her. We are high school buddies and haven't seen each other in about seven years. Sooo good to catch up.

This pic below is from my night out to see New Moon. Emily's husband nicely took several pictures of us. You can't tell, but Emily's son ran over to be in the picture and is actually standing there smiling, but was cropped out of the picture. I know one day he will grow up and ask his mommy where the picture is, but sadly I will not have one. Sigh.

You can't really tell from the picture, but my sweater was gray and sparkly. I wore it in honor of Edward and his sparkly skin. I know it's silly, but it seemed appropriate. Emily and Mandy loved it, and I'm sure they rolled their eyes later. And yes, I know I look like a giant. I can't help it. I really am a tall girl, and it always shows in pictures with friends. I'm five foot ten, and in most shoes I'm almost six foot. That's tall for a girl, right? In fact, I know it's tall. There's something like less than three percent of woman over five foot eight. Discovery told me so one day.

Friday night will bring a date with my man. An overnight date with my man. At a bed and breakfast with a bathtub. Don't blush. I'm very excited about my man and the bathtub. And the breakfast that someone else will cook. Date night. Date night. Date night. So glad to get a few hours alone with my man before all the Christmas plays and holiday stuff take over.

Love him.

Talk to you all later. This girl is off to a wonderful weekend.

wedding dress white

A story of several wedding dresses and my random sewing skills. Several years ago in June I went to the church early for a wedding with my husband, who was doing the sound for the wedding of our Pastor's middle daughter, Lauren. I ended up helping out as the wedding director was running around and when the bride's mom went to practice bustling up the dress, there was no loop.

We looked and looked and looked for the loop. There was lots of lace and beading on the skirt and we thought maybe we were missing something, but it just wasn't there. The hook was there, but there was nothing to hook the hook onto. Problem.

So that's how I ended up like this, ten minutes before Lauren walked down the aisle.

I said to someone, "if you have a needle and white thread, I could probably make a loop. It wouldn't be hard." So we ran around, looking for a needle. Turned out the reception decorator had a needle, but only had black thread. We looked around some more and I noticed that some she was using some cheesecloth, which is basically thread. We tore some thread off the edge and I ran down the hallway to the holding room and had Lauren lean against this cubby thing while I swore I wouldn't poke her and sewed on a loop of thread. In the picture she is meeting one of her fiancee's relatives while I am sewing.

It was one of the most random instances of my life, when my sewing skills came in handy and I was able to help. And I love that someone captured it on camera.

Two, I have gotten addicted to the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress where brides come to Kleinfeld's bridal salon and look a wedding dresses. I love it. I liked picking out my own wedding dress and find it fun to watch others figure out what they like. It's fun when they get all emotional and cry choosing their gowns. But the interesting point about the one I watched today, was that one of the customers on this rerun was Kate Gosselin, who was picking out the dress for her vow renewal. I found it sad to watch, as she was so excited to find a dress and was thinking about what Jon would like her in and what made her feel pretty. The whole situation with Jon and Kate is so sad and slightly disturbing. There is so much trash out there about them, and I just feel bad that their kids will be able to dig it up someday. Everything lives out there on the internet.

Remember that wisdom, folks. Everything lives forever on the internet. It takes a court order when you die to have someone shut your blog or Facebook account down, I read recently. They are looking into changing that, but it will live on long past you. And that may not be a good thing.

Okay, that was a sidebar, but those are my thoughts on wedding dresses. Did you love yours? I liked mine a lot. I think I looked really good in it and felt pretty that day. It's what I could hope for on my day. Tell me about yours.

a strapless dress, the shade and a wedding

Saturday evening, at 6 o'clock, I drove to the suburbs and attended the wedding of Ashley and Sam. I love weddings. And I love unique weddings. This cute couple chose to have their wedding at a little inn outside town, and even though rain threatened all day, it was a lovely evening. Hot, but lovely. Yes, VERY hot. I got there early to secure a seat in the shade. In fact, while they could, many people chose seats in the back to sit in the shade.

This is Ashley. Isn't she lovely?

They had a very simple ceremony, and Ashley washed Sam's hands as a gesture of her faith in her vows. During her vows, she broke down and cried. It was beautiful. After communion, our pastor placed his hands on them and prayed for their new family.

Here I am with my cute honey. He was HOT, and was carrying a rag with him to dab his brow. Luckily, girls can wear cute little dresses and enjoy the temperature. This dress was a last minute purchase from Marshall's, and I would normally not have even tried on a strapless dress that was marked "one size fits all." That never bodes well for a plus size woman, but I was pleasantly surprised when I went in the dressing room and liked it. It was a deal too, which always makes it fun.

You can't tell from the pic, but it was navy blue and was tea-length with white embroidered flowers all over it. The top was a little scratchy, but I hot-glued a piece of ribbon along the seam inside and then it was fine. I know, hot-glue is a little commando for wedding finery, but it worked and I was not itchy at all.

We had a wonderful evening, and the cake was delicious. Cause it's all about the cake, right?

sunday afternoons

I don't know what your Sundays are like, but I tend to get some alone time on Sundays. You see, Sunday is a workday for my husband, as he is the Media Director for our church. That means he's at church for both morning services, and the evening one. I usually get lunch and an hour or two with him in the afternoon, but I tend to use the extra time for me.

What do I like to do? I like to grocery shop, see friends or hang out by myself and catch up on alone time. Yes, I love to grocery shop. I love to cook and the two go hand in hand. And I like shopping by myself usually. Once in awhile it's fun to have the husband along, but most of the time, I like going alone. The aisles are a world of possibilities staring me in the face, ingredients asking me to take them home. I know, I'm a freak.

This past Sunday, I had lunch at my mom's house with two friends from college. Beth (on the left) was in from Miami and Kristen (on the right) lives in town. Beth hasn't been back to see us in awhile and so we filled our bellies with mom's famous turkey meatloaf, potatoes and cranberry sauce and caught up. Beth is a chaplain at the University of Miami and Kristen is thinking of buying a condo. Lots to talk about.

Girls afternoons are so not stressful and so full of memories. We sipped Cheerwine (a local Carolina cherry soda) and caught up before I had to take Beth to the airport. It was a fun afternoon, and when I went home, I still managed some time on my own before my husband came home.

What do you do with Sundays?

unwrapping old friends

Today I am welcoming an old friend into my house and am writing about it as part of Tuesday's Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky. A friend from college. The one friend who taught me what it is to stick by someone, even when you don't know what to say. The friend who was my Maid of Honor when I stood up in a white dress and told my man he would be my man forever.

The friend who hasn't lived here since I got a digital camera, so I have no pictures to show you. I will edit this post later, once I have one of Beth.

Our plans include: hitting Cookout, the Juice Shop, Friendly Center and watching copious amounts of Gilmore Girls DVDs.

Make new friends, but keep the old, right?

also: I don't know what the photobucket problem is...any ideas as to what might be wrong?

a blank canvas

I know I have been posting a lot about Phil and Bethany's wedding, but it really was a big event for us. After the adoption fell through, working on this project was a way for me to cope. This is the great room at our church, and it is used for many, many different functions. On Wednesdays it is used for Youth, thus the sound system and fancy lights in the ceiling. The corner painted black is a section of arcade games, and that lovely gray partition hides it from view the rest of the week. It is pretty much a blank canvas.

Now, after several hours of work, the room looked like this. I was pretty proud of the way it turned out and it looked even better when we turned off the ugly overhead lights and used halogen lamps all over the room and candles on each table. The room had a nice glow and was very intimate. The bride loved it.

One of the most unique things that the newlyweds did at the reception was rent a photobooth. It was a cloth room with a camera, and it printed out two sets of the pictures. One the guest got to keep and one was pasted into an album for the bride and groom and the guest could write a message. Everyone enjoyed it and many people took multiple turns, even after the bride and groom left, people were still lined up to get in there!

Friday is the last day of school and then I will be free for the summer. I am so completely and totally ready for this break. I need the renewal and the rest. I am ready.

weekend fun

On Friday night my friend Kenda brought her kids over to entertain us and keep our minds off the fact that we are still waiting for the baby to arrive.  Her boys, Ben and Jon Thomas played Wii with Charlie, while she and I and baby Macy played with toys in our nursery and sorted baby clothes.  

Aren't they cute?  I promise, Kenda is the mother of these blonde children.  The genes from this daddy are strong, huh?  Charlie took the boys for pizza and us girls went to McAlisters and got some prissy food.  Macy was a hit with the counter staff who giggled at everything she did.  And who can blame them, look at this girl!  She is a doll!

Can you resist that face?  I don't think so.

Anyway, we played and talked and it took our minds off of things for awhile.  It was nice to be focused on other things, and not waiting for the phone to ring.  But now that I have typed that, my stomach is in butterflies again.  

Oh well.  I was calm while it lasted.

a recycled Christmas

This weekend my friend Kristen and I hosted a Re-Gift Christmas Party. We traditionally hold an All-Girls Christmas party, but this year we decided to wait and have the party after the holidays since everyone was so busy. And we decided on a twist: trading re-gifts.

The invitation said "Did you get something for Christmas that wasn't your style, was the wrong size, or was just plain ugly? Well, bring it to the party and your trash could become someone else's treasure!" So all through the holidays I had been collecting gifts to go into my gift bag. And as a teacher, I have lots of things that aren't quite me, given to me by kids with the best of intentions.

It was a hit. We have never laughed so hard!



Here is our entire group with all our lovely gifts. And they were lovely. To someone. At some point. Whoever picked them out must have thought they were right for someone.



Here is our friend Kristy with her first bag of gifts (it eventually got stolen from her.) The bag had a Holy Family Nativity Statue and one wall sconce. ONE. WALL. SCONCE. This re-gift came courtesy of one of the teachers in our group who received both of them from the same student. Odd combination.



Here is Jen pulling out a necklace from her bag. The bag also contained a sparkly green sweater, some gold nail stickers, and a Santa oven mitt. We cracked up over this one, and I was so proud, since that bag was from me. Charlie bought me a green turtleneck sweater with sparkly green threads running through it, and it was so sweet. He knows I like sparkly things, but this sweater was really itchy, and since it was a turtleneck I couldn't really wear anything underneath it. And I couldn't return it since the store went out of business...prime candidate for a re-gift.



Julie opened a bag with a lamp shade in it. The lamp shade was courtesy of Kristy, whose Mother-in-law gave her this lamp shade, NO LAMP, and told her it only goes on candle lamps. Which Kristy does not have. Thus, the re-gift.



Here I am with Meredith and her wreath. Meredith is a teacher at my school and is new to our madness this year. She is holding this lovely wreath that she won as a door prize. It came from my house and it isn't that I don't like it, but that we don't have a good place for it. And I don't want to keep storing it just to look at it every year and be frustrated that I can't hang it up. So I brought it as a prize and asked for everyone to count how much jewelry they had on. The person with the most jewelry won...poor Meredith was wearing bangle bracelets. Four of them along with a necklace, a watch and earrings. She was thrilled to win, needless to say.

I ended up with a pair of slippers that I stole from Kristy. I think she wins the award for the most gifts stolen from her and she ended up with the sparkly green sweater and oven mitt. Originally I opened up a little plaque from Julie that had a teddy bear on it and the saying "Southern Bears love Grits and Honey." It had been a gift from a student for Julie's baby, but didn't go with the nursery. It did get stolen from me, so sad, and I was able to take the slippers from Kristy.

We had such a fun time and ate really great food. We always eat great food. MMMM.

I'm already plotting my gift for next year. Look out!