Showering and Stuff...

No I didn't go away again... In the last two weeks we attended two showers (one baby and one bridal), hosted one baby shower (not one of the aforementioned ones), took the teens on a youth trip and to a concert, and got sick.. got a little better... over did it... and... got sick again... I have been a little crazed...

Let's start with the showers... First the one we (Sparky and I) hosted... It was for one of the sweetest people I know Rachel. She was the assistant to the former youth leaders, she would plan the games and help with worship. Then they suddenly felt called away from our church the spring before we moved here. Rachel has pretty much single handedly kept the youth group going while the church prayed for new youth leaders. (If they knew it was us they were praying for they might have kept quiet! Careful what you pray for folks!) Anyhow, I do not know how she managed to work full time, be a wife, a mom (to a two year old), a member of our worship team, AND lead youth. Paul and I spend a great deal of our week and energy on this ministry and feel like we could double the time we put into it easily... I don't know how she did it...

Anyhow... Sparky and I asked if we could throw her shower. She had baby Makenzie Grace the day after Christmas but wanted to wait for her shower until after she arrived. I, in typical Rebecca style, left my camera at home, so the shower Sparky and I spent the better part of two weeks working on is basically unchronicled... One of the ladies there took candid photos and let me use them so they will have to do...

Here is baby Makenzie Grace and you wouldn't know it by this picture, but her mom tends to not dress her overly girlie. Because of that, Sparky and I felt we had more freedom to be a little non-traditional.

(Isn't she sweet?)

Since we were in a time crunch, since we loved the colors and most importantly since this was a who different circle of friends we decided to use the orange and turquoise color theme we used last summer for this shower. We did mix it up with splashes of other bright colors (note the napkins and flowers)

I designed this little guy to use on the banner (That you can kind of see above... It said "Welcome Mackenzie")  and on the custom water bottle labels...

We searched thrift stores for vases that Sparky and her boyfriend spray painted. (Yes, that's Cate and half of Sparky.)

We tried to mix up the decor and make it "girlier" then the other shower...

We played some less traditional baby games and the lady in this photo with the kleenex on her nose was the unsuspecting "strait man" to my shtick... She has an awesome sense of humor so she didn't mind at all... It was fun to get up in front of a group and keep them laughing... I forgot how much I enjoy this kind of thing.

Here is the new mom, Rachel...

Since I wasn't the one with the camera I didn't get any good pictures of the tutu outfit Sparky and I got for her... I love these little tutus for babies and little girls that are available all over ESTY and the appliqued onesies... Too cute!  I know, we could made these things ourselves, but there is only 24 hours in a day! (That last line was answering my conscience... Sorry about that.)

We did not buy these, but I just wanted to say how cute this trend of putting "stuff" on babies butts is... Hearts, monkeys, duckies... Too cute, but keep in mind this is only cute if you are under three and have diaper butt... (Teenage girls and middle age ladies, we, the general public do NOT want to "read" your butts... I don't care how "juicy" you think it is!)

This shower was a 10 AM brunch last Saturday... We set it up on Friday afternoon since at 4 PM Friday we were leaving for this...

It was about two hours from our church so had to leave early...

to rock out... (rock on??? I don't know which...)

Risk life and limb in the bouncy house... And be home by 12:45 AM...

Then in the morning I had to be up and out by 7 AM to return the van we borrowed for the trip and be back at the church to finish setting up for the shower by 9 AM... Saturday night a local church was hosting this concert...

The guy opening this concert is our pastor, and a bunch of kids from our youth group were going so one of us kinda had to go... Oh wait, did I mention that Paul was sick? No? Oh yeah, to make life that much more fun Paul woke up Thursday with the "crud" I am currently dealing with. He went with us to Waterville and even started the night hanging with us, until during the concert part of the night he lost all perspective when a guy (who later turned out to be a youth leader) repeatedly rubbed the back of his hand on Sparky's chest. He claimed to be "caught up in worship" and unaware of his actions but I think four times is a bit of a stretch... Anyhow, Paul handled it, but then decided to go lay down in the van since his first thought was to "rip the guys thought out throat the back of his neck." (He is not a violent guy and was extremely diplomatic even to this guy, but he did feel like he was loosing perspective, and needed a nap.)

Back to the above concert...

Here is our talented pastor Ray Thombs opening for Mark Harris...

Here he is when he opened for John Waller last fall singing one of my favorite songs of his...

And that was just last weekend... This week I got sick on Thursday and we had a pretty equally full weekend! Ok, not as full... We did head back to Waterville for another baby shower and we had a bridal shower on Sunday afternoon... But these we only had to attend, so it was much less stressful... Oh, and we reached the four months to the wedding mark... We have been very busy in that area, and I'll fill you in very soon... So that's what I've been up to, how about you?

Thanks for listening,