Crazy Busy With 64 Days To Go...

I am staring down the barrel of what looks to be the second busiest weekend of my year! I am a little beyond busy right now, so this will probably be my only post this week and I won't be posting next week (more on that in a sec.) so bear with me if it's kinda long....

First, let me start with a little Easter re-cap...

We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend for the most part. Allie and I went to TJ Maxx on Saturday in a last minute dash to see if we could find her something new to wear for Easter... Ever since they were little the girlies have always had something new for Easter, even if it was just "new to them", but in all the craziness of wedding and shower planning we had forgotten that Allison did not have her "new" thing to wear yet...

She found this dress for a mere $14.99 and although black was not the color we were looking for, the price and fit were perfect. You can't really tell from this picture, but it has some beautiful, intricate bead work on the "belt" and she likes it so much she plans to wear it to the rehearsal too. The best part of this dress? The shopping trip to buy it. Allison has changed so much in the past year, matured so much that she is not my little girl anymore. She does most of her shopping with her sister or friends these days so it was nice to go shopping just the two of us. We do get to run errands a lot and have spent a lot of time browsing shops and thrift stores for wedding/shower stuff, but this was just her and I and not about her sister at all... It was nice. We had fun and she even liked a few of the things I picked out and insisted I go with her into the dressing room. This is a departure from past clothing shopping trips. We even bought a top I selected and wore it to school today!

As for Katy's "new" thing, It's that sassy green coat. Allison and I actually found it at our local Goodwill. It is from Old Navy and was new with the original tags and half off their normal $4.99 coat price so it was $2.50!! I took a chance for that price. Any of you who have teenage/adult daughters (or moms who shop for you) know what a gamble that can be, but I was willing to eat $2.50 and find another home for this sassy coat if necessary. It has a navy blue satin lining so she paired it up with a navy blue knit dress she had and some ultra-sassy wedges and looked pretty cute too... If you ask me!

I know that Easter bunnies and eggs have nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ, but I think the whole tradition of Easter baskets and such is fun... It is a fun tradition that the girlies seem to still enjoy very much... This year we included the guys in the loot... I did up a bunch of junk for each of them in some cute cupcake boxes we had around the house, and I got each of them a huge bunny. I don't remember ever buying the girls one of the huge ones when they were young, because what child needs that much candy? Then as they got older, the opposite seemed true, like they were too old. This year is the last year that both of my daughters have the same last name as I do and I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic so big bunnies all around! I am so glad I did too, it turns out the guys families don't do much in the way of Easter baskets. Jed said he doesn't remember his last one, but it was probably first or second grade... Dakota said his mom used to do them, but stopped as they got older... I don't think I'll ever stop doing baskets for them... It's too much fun. I can see them coming home at 35 and having Easter baskets... I just love the child like fun of it! (By the way, the little pails on the side are the ones I did for my parents, Paul and I... We don't need a huge basket! Not that anyone ever needs a huge basket!)

Now why is this weekend so busy you ask... Well, here is my itinerary:

Thursday Night: Youth Worship Team Practice

Friday Night: Youth Talent Show Fundraiser

Saturday 11 AM: Katy's shower (I'm hosting it at our church)

Sunday: Youth lead worship, we have a guest speaker who is aimed at the youth and we are staying after church for lunch with him. After lunch we leave for my family's cabin on the island of Islesboro until Friday. Oh, and Sunday is our 21st Anniversary too!

Wowzers... Why am I blogging right now... My to do list for the next four days is incredibly long! I will start at the top and let you know why each of these in and of themselves are stressful. The pastor asked us three weeks ago to lead worship this Sunday because of two reasons... First the guest speaker, and second about 2/3 of our worship team will be out of town. Our youth worship team had a major upheaval in membership after the last time we lead worship. Quite a few of the kids left because of spring sports at school. They just couldn't commit to practicing. A few others left because they realised their hearts were not in leading worship and they found other areas to serve in... This left us with three guys on guitar (one electric, one bass, & one acoustic) one of who can sing semi-consistently, a drummer borrowed from our sister youth group, and two female vocalists who are not overly confident, but are good singers when they breathe right. (We also have a keyboard player, but he leaves Sat morning on a mission trip.) We told the pastor we were not going to be ready, even songs we did before would have to be re-tooled, but he seemed to think we were being pessimistic and encouraged us to just encourage them. We did that, but we also upped our practices to whenever we could get the church and most of the kids there. This past Saturday we practiced for over four hours and the pastor happened to be there and hear us... He is currently leading worship at our church filling in while we search for a worship leader, and in fact started out at our church as worship leader. He is also a semi-professional singer/songwriter who opens for a lot of big name Christian singers here in New England.

Here he is opening for John Waller last fall:

If you watch this, it says it's 8 minutes, but it is actually more then one song... It was the final song he did in the set, so it is several songs strung together at the end. If you notice him primarily looking to his right it is because that is where we were (the youth group) and some people from our church and we were the only ones standing and worshiping with him at this point... I don't know why people in New England insist on driving for hours to get to a worship filled concert then sit there passively... It a mystery...But if you watch the whole thing you will see him get nearly everyone worshiping!

Anyhow, music is important to him and he finally heard how much they were struggling. He actually stopped working on what he was doing for Easter to work with us. We improved quite a bit, but we need ALL of you to lift us up in prayer for this Sunday! We are hoping that tomorrow night after pratice they will be ready and he won't feel the need to call in the remainder of the worship team who is in town to fill in with the kids. (They would feel so defeated after working so hard.) So, pray for tomorrow night's pratice too... (or since I am typing this so late, tonight's pratice!)

Friday's fundraiser is supposed to be our biggest one of the season... We have big plans for a mission trip, a retreat/camp-out and some service projects. To say we are unprepared would be such an understatement it seems like there should be a new word to describe how I feel. I could blame myself and Paul for having divided attention, or I could blame the kids for not putting in the effort needed to make it a success, but really, it is nobody's fault. We did the best we could, and we will live with whatever we earn. I learned a lot about fundraising for the youth group and will plan to do more in the less crazy winter months of January and February next year. We do have another fundraiser planned for late July, so we'll see how that one goes. This is the last big youth event before the wedding so successful or not, I will be glad to have this one behind me.

Saturday's shower is rapidly approaching. It looks like we will have between 30-50 people there. It is really hard to get people to RSVP to anything. I have been busy working on details for it all week and predict I will get very little sleep over the next few days. Oh, and Katy injured her shoulder at work (technically yesterday...Wednesday.) and needs to go get it looked at and x-rayed. Since there is no urgent-care clinic here, we will be headed to the ER... That should only take like six hours out of my day tomorrow (today)... I hope she is alright, but I have to admit the timing is bad. Her shoulders have been touchy since cheerleading for a few years in Jr High and High School, but this is the first actual injury she has had since she stopped.

Here are some random cheering photos...

I know they don't go with the story, but I am feeling nostalgic here at 2 AM...

NCA Cheer Camp eons ago... (or so it feels!)

Yep, That's Katy on the rear left, she was (is) tall so she was a "back" in stunts... It means she was responsible to do the catching if someone came down. She was very good... No flier ever hit the ground when she was backing... She did injure herself numerous times to save a flier, hence the shoulder trouble today...

Here she is with her three closest friends from those days. She is only still in close touch with the girl her arm is around... That little cutie pie got married last spring and just had a baby 12 days ago! Where did the time go? (Yes, she is a head taller... I told you she is tall!)

Oh, and recognize this little peanut?

Yes, Allison cheered too...

This was her at at cheer camp in 6th grade!

We are headed to our family's cabin (or "camp" if you are from this part of the country) on Islesboro after church Sunday. I told you guys about it here... It is on a little island that is a 20 minute drive and 20 minute ferry ride away. We have no TV or Internet (hence me not posting next week unless I sneak away to the little cafe there with internet service, which I might....) and it will be a much needed rest. Katy and Jed are unable to go so there looks to be little to no wedding talk for a full five days... I need this. Dakota is able to go for most of the week so he and Allison will have some much needed time together too. They are working through one of several devotions they lined up for the next year right now, but are always competing with school, work, church and family responsibilities to find any time alone to work on it. There they will be able to walk to the beach or hike in the woods or even just hang in the yard together. And Paul and I will have the same freedom... We are all needing this, but as all of you know... Prepping for a trip is a ton of work for moms! My sweet husband insisted we leave right after church/lunch on Sunday so we could spend part of our anniversary there... That means after the shower Sat. I will have to run to the store to shop for the week for us and for Katy and my parents who will be back here. Then I will have to come home and pack for the week... I am pretty sure I may sleep the first two to three days there!

Welcome to my ultra busy life... By the way, I do LOVE my life! Even the crazy weekends like this one!

See you after my weekend of crazy and my rest... I am sure I will have lots to tell you!

Thanks for listening,